Review: Bates Motel ‘A Boy And His Dog’ – How About I Don’t

After watching ‘A Boy and His Dog’, I had to take an hour to think about what I’d watched.

Then I watched the episode again, and still couldn’t parse out what the point of the whole thing was. There’s more mystery that’s not really mystery, placeholders for characters like Bradley and Remo – and now I fear we’re starting to lose Vera Farmiga, whose performance is becoming too reliant on idiosyncricies to feel natural. In all, it was a cluster fuck of an episode, trying to expand its world while focusing on its character, an imbalance in narrative that leaves the episode disjointed and ineffective – with an empty shock moment at the end to boot!

If there is an actual point to this episode, it’s two-fold: Norman’s into taxidermy, and the man in number 9 is high up on the ladder of whatever organization Dylan is working for (which there are “big fish” bigger than Gill, whose name is a body part on a fish, ironically). That’s really it – the rest of the 40+ minute running time is filled with Norma running around making weird faces and overreacting to everything. Norman mostly sits around and stares at things in this episode (in case we forgot that he’s getting weirder by the minute), but Norma’s all over the place.

She first shows up to visit the sheriff, and they exchange vague threats with each other, once again failing to do anything to make Romero’s character anything but hot air occupying a police uniform, and having Norma fall back on “I seduce people to get what I want”, asking for a ridiculous favor: put a stranger nobody in the town knows on the zoning board to prevent a highway being built through the Bates Motel property (because this show needed MORE plotlines).

Then, it’s off to follow around Mr. Abarnathy, who goes to Keith Summers’s boat in search for something we don’t know about yet. That’s another growing obsession with this show, dropping all these little hints and illusions that are supposed to lead to big reveals in future episodes. Unfortunately, those haven’t really amounted to much yet, just a long string of arbitrary facts and names that haven’t added up to much beyond the abstract, even though there are only two episodes left.

There’s just too much going on in this show that hasn’t been established – Abarnathy’s barely out of the driveway before there are a group of trimmers arriving with Remo and Dylan to stay at the motel for two weeks. On top of that, Norma’s dealing with Norman’s impending school suspension and counseling sessions (which threaten the careful reality she’s constructed for her son, answering all the therapist’s questions for him in the least subtle scene of all-time) – and now she’s got Shelby’s dead body laying in her bed, a clear sign from the man no longer in number 9 that he’s serious business… or something. He drives a Cadillac CTS (thanks, Cadillac!), so he’s obviously important.

If there’s one thing that’s actually established in this episode, it’s Emma’s character. I’ve been a little rougher on her than my podcast co-hosts, but I do think they did a good job with her dialogue to Norman about being lonely, and having a loyal friend. Is it the broadest possible way to define their friendship, and Emma to express her feelings? Sure – but at this point, even narrative baby steps are welcome.

With ‘A Boy and his Dog’ (a topic that isn’t nearly important enough to garner being the title of the episode), I continue to feel my interest waning in whatever they’re trying to accomplish with White Pine Bay and whoever is torturing Norma for killing a man who mercilessly raped her in her own kitchen. It’s even harder to stay invested when everything screams “WE’RE NOT TELLING UNTIL THE SEASON FINALE”, which means an hour full of vague statements thick with the scent of obvious illusion – hardly the unsettling character piece about how a mother and son destroy each other psychologically I initially thought this show might be.

Grade: C-

Other thoughts/observations:

– Bradley like, totally regrets sleeping with Norman. She only did it because she felt bad for him – she’s got a boyfriend, ok? Seriously: fuck this character.

– is Vera Farmiga having a contest with herself to see how many faces she can make in one scene?

– Emma’s dad doesn’t find it weird that anyone would be into taxidermy – only us, knowing that this is on the “list of things Norman has to do so people know it’s Norman” checklist.

– not sure what Jere Burns is going for with his character. Like this show, it’s random and skin-deep.

– Dylan and Remo don’t get along, and they have a fistfight in the bar. Apparently Dylan’s bullet wound only hurts when he’s sober.

– Norma to Mr. Abarnathy: “you have no power over me”, repeating the sentiment she told the psychologist of being powerless. This is as deep as Norma Bates gets.

– Romero: “We don’t owe each other anything… I might have to burn you to the ground.” This is how a sheriff talks to a widow?