REVIEW: Bates Motel, Season Five Episode Three 'Bad Blood'

 REVIEW: Bates Motel, Season Five Episode Three 'Bad Blood'

Norman (Freddie Highmore) is in a weird stage of his life.  By this point he is essentially fulfilling the identity of two separate individuals in full; himself, and his mother Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga). In previous seasons, we had seen him act as 'Mother' before, but it's by this point that he has fully embraced it, to the point of even sticking on a wig to greater mimic his Mum's appearance. He's a hybrid of two separate personalities, a proper psycho.

It's fitting then that his current target should be Caleb (Kenny Johnson), Norma's brother who raped her as a child. Caleb obviously had such a strong and dark connection to Norman's late Mum, so seeing him chained up in the basement after reaching the motel in the previous episode makes this complete transition of Norman's into 'Mother' feel even more complete. It means he's dealing with her problems rather than simply his own; he's not wanting to kill Caleb because he found out 'Mother' is 'alive', 'she' wants to kill Caleb because of what he did to 'her' all those years back when they were kids. 

Then there's Chick Hogan (Ryan Hurst), a man who claims to be trying to help Norman but whose motives throughout most of the episode remain unclear. The set-up for the eventual reveal is extremely effective, with little teases such as Chick using a recording device to catch what Norman is saying and his insistence at helping to renovate the motel hinting at an ulterior motive. Later into the episode's narrative we find out that Chick is writing a book based on his experiences with Norman, which feels like a neat and deliberate reference to how the original Psycho film was based on the 1959 novel of the same name.

He seems unusually interested in Caleb's life also, when he pays him a visit in the cellar and starts enquiring into his relationship with Norma Bates. Of course, Chick is already aware of some of the details, as he knows that Caleb raped Norma and that through these actions Dylan was born, but Chick really seems to press further into their private lives here. It raises a question of how much of this is for his book; has Caleb become a character within the novel, and does that mean he'll get something of an unfavourable portrayal in the finished piece?

Through the episode's runtime we all expect Caleb to die. First through Norman as 'Mother', then through Norman as himself when 'Mother' tells him she can't face up to killing her brother. It makes it doubly ironic then when his death turns out to be purely an accident, inadvertently caused by Norman's hallucinations of Norma Bates. Caleb happens to run into the road just as Chick is driving up to the motel, and the uneventful nature of his death leads itself to being a nice unexpected surprise. I always like it when shows subvert expectations like this as it keeps the audience guessing, and there's nothing worse than a predictable piece of drama.

Norman's latest crush Madeleine (Isabelle McNally) appears briefly again here. She's baked some cookies for Norman, by way of apology for the dinner date that she considers to have been 'disastrous'. She doesn't get a great deal to do here, which is a shame because I like seeing these two together, but she's sweet, and an interesting new romantic interest for Norman. It will be interesting to see if she learns about Norman's 'Mother' identity at some point, as I think her reaction could create plenty of drama, considering that Norman is likely to imagine his Mum being quite wary of her.

Norman better look out for Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell), however, as he's truly a man on a mission this episode. The former sheriff manages to escape his prison, effectively becoming a wanted fugitive. This is such an exciting direction to take his character, as there's just something undeniably gripping about a man who used to be the face of the law becoming a man now on the run from the law. There's a huge irony to the fact he has become the kind of person he would previously have been trying to track down himself. The episode ends with him being shot by a child in the chest, but I would be shocked if he doesn't make some kind of miraculous recovery in the next episode, as they surely wouldn't have killed off Alex Romero before he gets his final confrontation with Norman Bates.

Overall, 'Bad Blood' is another hugely compelling episode of Bates Motel. Featuring some excellent character work and a curious mystery over Chick's true motives, it's an instalment that provides plenty of drama and tension from start to finish. I just hope that Alex Romero somehow manages to survive his gun shot wound, as it would seem strange to end his story before Norman and Alex's rivalry comes to a proper conclusion. Surely 'Mother' still has plenty to say about Alex yet?

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