Review: Bates Motel ‘Underwater’ – People Are Complicated

Everybody’s drowning in ‘Underwater’, most of all Norma Bates. She’s drowning in debt from the worthless motel she bought, she’s drowning in hippies currently staying at said motel, and she’s drowning in crazy people (screaming to Sheriff Romero “why do crazy people keep gravitating towards me?”). She’s not the only one: as Norman dreams of smothering Bradley underwater, and Dylan drowns himself in Bradley, it feels like Bates Motel might be finding its little niche as a campy, batshit drama.

I’ve ragged pretty hard on the show for the last few weeks, but with many of the Psycho references put aside for an episode, we get a perfectly enjoyable hour of sexual tension, wild melodramatics, and more campy Vera Farmiga – whose performance became a major topic of discussion on last week’s podcast. I don’t think her performance changes much in ‘Underwater’, but her manic tendencies fit the tone of the episode more aptly, as she tries (and fails) to deal with each and every obstacle she’s facing – which now include her son, who is starting to think that Norma’s crazy, what with her constant need to try and ‘start over’ all the time. (I assume this has happened more than once? There’s never been much talk about their lives before the death of Norman’s father, save for  few “Norman is weird” tidbits and vague references.)

There are still lots of implausible things going on in White Pine Bay – but ‘Underwater’ owns that material more than previous episodes, working less towards character beats that they’ve struggled with, and more with the craziness of Norma and the symbiotic relationship between that and the weird situations she ends up in. She tries to hang her hat on vague plans to move to a Hawaii island (one she found searching the internet for ‘safest cities’), not realizing that she’s already on an island of sorts in the town she’s living in.

I’ve got to keep this review short, so make sure you listen to the podcast tomorrow for my full thoughts on the episode. I think ‘Underwater’ works much better than previous episodes for a number of reasons. The biggest of these are pretty obvious: they’re not sparing us necessary details for the sake of dramatic tension anymore, and they aren’t trying to go for complex characterizations or reference-heavy material (a little is welcome, but it’s been overbearing at times), the show’s major flaws. They embrace the camp in a very cool and collected manner (if that’s possible), and instead of trying to over-highlight or harness Farmiga’s performance, they hitch their wagon to it, and ride it through a wild, entertaining (though at times, still a bit silly) episode.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

– the Bradley/Dylan material was about as exciting as we expected. I really hope they don’t ruin Dylan’s character by having them sleep together (not to mention what it would do to Bradley’s already-shaky character).

– The episode ends with Abernathy (or whatever his real name is) putting a gun to Norma’s head as she sits in her car. He’s not being “polite” anymore, and wants the $150,000 Shelby owes him for the last batch of girls. Not a big surprise, but it does appear Norma’s going to return to her stabby ways in the finale.

– Emma eats a pot brownie! That was a nice little bit of fun – and smartly, the show doesn’t lean on it too hard through multiple scenes. Quick, funny, and finished.

– ok, so Norman’s going to bang his teacher right (“being as your a minor and all”, she tries to remind herself at one point)? As he talks to her in the classroom, we see Robert Frost’s Fire and Ice on the blackboard, which discusses the end of the world (in it, fire = hate, ice = desire).

– Bradley’s dad had a ‘B’ on the side? Maybe he was dating Britta – we know she’s a B.

– the high school scenes seem to consist of Norman’s English class, and one hallway we’ve spent numerous scenes in.

– Who’s excited for the Winter Formal?

– Norma: “we’ve got hotel experience now.” Norman: “we’ve been open three days.”

– Norman brings stuffed Judo home: “Welcome to my world.” Dylan’s reaction: “that’s just creepy, dude.”

– Emma has a crush on a pothead named Gunner, if you’re looking for more dramas of the heart in your Bates Motel.