REVIEW: Bates Motel, Season 4 Episode Six 'The Vault'

 REVIEW: Bates Motel, Season 4 Episode Six 'The Vault'

The latest major threat to emerge for Norma (Vera Farmiga) over these past episodes has been Chick Hogan (Ryan Hurst). This was a character who featured heavily in the third season, as a neighbour of Dylan (Max Thieriot) and Caleb (Kenny Johnson). Now he's back, wanting to kill Caleb for assaulting him and stealing his money, and he believes Norma is the key to finding out his location. 

God is this guy just truly despicable here. He tells Norma that if she doesn't help him track down Caleb, that he will reveal the truth of her relationship with Caleb to the entire neighbourhood. This is such an extremely cruel threat to make, given how Caleb raped her and made her pregnant in the process, and it really serves to make us truly despise this character. He's one of those villains who you just love to hate, with absolutely no redeeming qualities. 

Norma later calls the inn in Costa Rica where Caleb used to work, and discovers it to be Caleb's current location. Their phone conversation holds some real dramatic weight, as we see the pain in Norma's face, knowing that she's been thrown in an impossible situation where Chick expects her to divulge his location. Caleb may have committed a truly horrendous act all those years ago, but he's still her brother, and that shared family connection is what makes him so hard for Norma to send to his death bed. Vera Farmiga plays this brilliantly, portraying a woman who has a figurative gun placed to her head. If she doesn't give Chick what he wants her traumatic past will be out, but if she does then her brother dies. There's no winners in this scenario, bar Chick. 

Her conversation leads to Caleb calling Dylan to explain his reasons for leaving, which provides a moving and subtly performed exchange between father and son. You really feel the father and son connection here, as both so desperately want to see each other, but both know deep down that it's not safe for Caleb to return. He's simply made too much of a powerful enemy in Chick Hogan, and he's faced with his only option being to lie low until it's safe. It's an awful place for a father and son to be in, although it's hard to feel too bad for Caleb given that he's literally a rapist.

The showdown between Norma and Chick is also brilliantly staged. Norma brandishes a gun, contemplating killing Chick, but she realises she just can't bring herself to pull the trigger. It really reflects the journey the character has gone on; in the first couple of seasons Norma probably would have shot Chick Hogan, but she's developed greater human connections since then, and she's realised that she needs to be better than the corrupt individuals she has encountered in her life in the vicinity of the motel. She's not that murky individual anymore, she has a greater sense of self and responsibility.

This is later reflected when she finally opens up to Sheriff Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell), and tells him of her tragic past with Caleb. It's a really great scene because it shows how she's developed that trust; she's learning to let people in rather than shut them out. Nestor Carbonell gives so much power behind the way he responds to Norma's words too; the way he just quietly utters his acceptance in the face of hearing Norma's back story just contains so much heart and meaning of this man who's accepting Norma for the damaged individual she is, and it really reflects how much of a talented actor he is. 

It's not just Norma's past this episode dives into, but Norman's (Freddie Highmore) too. Here we see the trauma he faced during his own upbringing, as memories regarding his Dad's drunk and abusive behaviour emerge. These scenes are quite shocking to behold, as they paint this really nightmarish vision of this awful period in Norman's life. Suddenly it's very easy to see how he turned out the way he did, and it really gives us a deeper understanding of Norman as a character. Norman, like his mother, has been changed by his past and it's something that he will never, ever escape.

Dylan visits him at the care home, where we're shown that Norman is capable of accepting other people being in relationships with people he has loved. He's fine with Dylan being with Emma, which suggests he may just be alright with Norma and Alex's marriage. Norman and Dylan are a pairing that works really well on this show; they feel like brothers, and the actors have so much chemistry that their scenes are never dull to watch. It's believable that they are related, and it means that I can buy into their relationship as brothers. 

Overall, 'The Vault' is another excellent episode of Bates Motel. It's an episode that dives deep into Norma and Norman's past, whilst giving Norma her own dilemmas regarding her brother Caleb. The Vault is a prime example of what makes a TV Show 'good'. It's not narrative events or plot developments that make a show, it's the relationships and how the characters interact with one another that sells whether a programme is good. The character is and always will be the heart of TV drama. 

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