REVIEW: Bates Motel, Season 3 Episode Eight 'The Pit'

 REVIEW: Bates Motel, Season 3 Episode Eight 'The Pit'

The location of Bates Motel is, it's fair to say, a dangerous place to live. It seems barely a day goes by without some sort of criminal activity taking place, and you kind of have to wonder why anyone decided to open up a motel there in the first place. On the face of it, it certainly doesn't seem like the ideal place to stay, especially when in past seasons the motel has seen everything from drug addicts to rapists on its premises.

The crime levels are certainly not showing signs of dropping anytime soon. From the very beginning of this episode, there are hints of sinister events afoot, as Norma (Vera Farmiga) discovers Bob Paris (Kevin Rahm) has sent construction workers to build a pool on the motel property that's just a little too deep. There's clearly something a little suspicious about this so-called 'pool', and the episode builds this really intriguing mystery around what its true purpose really is. Is Bob planning to kill Norma and throw her body in the 'pool', perhaps?

He clearly has a plan of some sort, as he forces information about Norma out of therapist James Finnigan (Joshua Leonard), who Bob has discovered Norma has been having a romantic fling with. These scenes are brilliant at establishing how much of a serious threat Bob and his cronies are, as James is left badly beaten, and we get a full sense of the power they hold. You really feel the extent that these people will go to in order to get what they want, and it becomes clearer than ever that Bob really is not somebody to cross. 

In other dangerous ventures, Dylan (Max Thieriot) agrees to Chick Hogan's (Ryan Hurst) gunrunning job - but Caleb (Kenny Johnson), fully aware of how dangerous this line of work is, won't let him do it alone. There's an interesting complexity to Caleb's character, as whilst he has done some truly terrible things, it's undeniable that he cares deeply about his son. He even shoots a man dead to protect him when the gunrunning job goes south, and thereby display his loyalty to Dylan. I always like it when characters aren't simply black and white, as it gives a depth to them that makes them feel more realistic. Everybody has shades of grey (no, not in that sense), after all.  

Sheriff Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell) displays similar levels of complexions this week. He starts with sweet gestures of intent to Norma, by buying her car back after she sold it in a previous episode, and ends with the flash drive in his possession after a talk with Bob Paris makes him question his friendship and romantic feelings towards her. Alex, it becomes clear, is not somebody who likes being used, and Norma has got a little too used to doing just that to get out of sticky situations. It kind of makes you feel a bit sorry for Alex, given that he has been used as a means to cover-up Norma and Norman's (Freddie Highmore) misdeeds, and yet Norma still doesn't trust him enough to tell him the truth regarding the death of Norman's Dad. It's hard to blame him for walking away.

Another thing that comes to an end in this episode is Norman's romance with Emma (Olivia Cooke). This is a real shame, as I liked these two together, and I had hoped it would have continued for longer. They've shown a lot of chemistry together, and seemed very believable as a couple, so it's somewhat surprising that the writers have decided to split them up so soon. 

It seems to throw up an interesting link though between Norman's visions/blackouts and emotional ordeals in his life. It's as soon as Emma splits up with him that he sees visions of both his dog and his mother, which leads to him discovering his other former girlfriend Bradley (Nicola Peltz) is back in town. It appears that Norman's weird moments are triggered by his emotions, and that's a neat demonstration of something else this show does right. It's a series that's shown a real skill for delving deep into the psychology of Norman Bates, and how his mind operates. Bates Motel really seems to understand this character as well as the original Alfred Hitchcock classic.

This is also shown in the scene where Norman confesses to Norma that James's comments have made him question whether he does possess romantic feelings towards her. The series has hit the relationship between Norman and Norma spot on ever since the very first episode, and this instalment continues to display their understanding of the connection between them that goes beyond mother and son. It's very clearly not right, and just another element of Norman's warped mind. 

Overall, 'The Pit' continues Bates Motel's amazing job at capturing the tone of the original movie 'Psycho'. It gives us a deep dive into the inner workings of Norman Bates' mind, as well as furthering the plots regarding the criminal underbelly at the heart of Bates Motel's location. Bates Motel is very clearly not a good place to stay, and this is something that becomes more obvious the further the series progresses. After all, there's a constant vacancy at Bates Motel for a reason... 

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What are your thoughts on the eighth episode of Bates Motel's third season? Let me know in the comments section.