Review: Bates Motel ‘The Man in Number 9’ – Talking Out Of School

With the snap of Sheriff Romero’s fingers, Shelby, Keith, and the Asian girl are no longer a problem for Norman and Norma on Bates Motel, a convenient bit of magic that appeared to put away the more frustrating parts of the show, at least for the time being. Except it really didn’t – and although the episode is another showcase for the acting talent on the show, it’s still full of so much silliness, making it harder and harder to stay invested in this show.

The most notable bit among ‘The Man in Number 9”s many dramatic scenes is the moment we see Norman channel his mother for the first time… and unfortunately, this comes out of one of the more ridiculous developments to appear this week. For some reason, Bradley – the girl who clung onto Norman the day she met him, and invited him over for sex not two weeks ago – is no longer interested in Norman, telling him she regrets ever sleeping with a person like him (although she’s sorry she regrets it).

What is this, Gossip Girl?

Whatever her motivations may be, she doesn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore – even though Romero’s story, had she heard it somewhere, would’ve absolved the whole family of doing anything wrong. This of course, hurts Norman’s feelings, having invested so much in their relationship that never existed (at one point, he’s hallucinating that he’s under the sheets with her again, in the floaty cotton world of teenage love). As he walks away, he starts repeating the things his mother said to him earlier that evening (having seen Bradley at her yoga studio, and immediately knowing exactly what she was about), a bit of foreshadowing into another part of Norman’s broken psyche that would appear in Psycho fifty something years ago.

As always, Freddie Highmore is terrific (something we say every week on the podcast) – but as always, the material surrounding that performance is laughably ludicrous. The catalyst for Norman and Norma’s conversation about Bradley comes from Emma, who shows up at Norman’s house crying…. because… well, she’s crying for some reason, and the waterworks start to flow when Norma comes back downstairs to feed her some BS about Norman being sick. This leads to Norma and Emma bonding over stalking Bradley – which again, gives us great scenes between Vera Farmiga and Olivia Cooke, but fail to consistently find compelling material to drive their interactions.

There’s a few other things going on in the background as well, to remind us that Pine Bay is a real place where humans do things and make completely illogical, unexplained decisions. This is led by Mr. Abernathe, the titular man staying in room 9. He spends the entire episode creeping Norma (and Dylan) out, but she’s so desperate for reservations she’s willing to rent out her entire hotel for a week to a group of unknown “salesmen” who don’t want to be disturbed? This, coming ONE DAY after a police officer was killed trying to murder her family to keep a secret?

At this point, it’s hard to find logical answers to many of the things going on, leaving us with a lot of silly questions about things that are completely superficial to the point of the show (Norman and Norma’s shared devolution into insanity, presumably finishing with the day Norma dies). Why does Bradley stare at Dylan for so long (more sex, maybe)? Why did Norma go from snarky to Emma to being her best friend – and encouraging Norman to date her? Why is Romero never around to do police work until after the only other cop in the town (that we’ve seen) is dead?

I’m sure the last three episodes will give us some answers to these questions – but I’m not expecting any of them to be satisfying, seeing how often things are set up either to be dismissed abruptly, or folded into another plot line with only the thinnest, most simplistic connections made between them. Does that make for entertaining, campy drama – or does it just make for a completely ridiculous, overly padded melodrama? Taste is subjective, of course – but for what it’s worth, my vote sits firmly in the latter category, cemented further by the rampant inconsistency of ‘The Man in Number 9’.

Grade: C-

Other thoughts/observations:

– name one crime scene in the history of organized police work in America where the shooting of an officer didn’t bring more than ONE cop to the scene. That’s right. ONE.

– Norman: “that’s what you’re supposed to do. It’s normal.”

– let’s talk about the dog. Norman finds a dog that doesn’t like him until two seconds before it gets run over by a car. Let’s not talk about the dog anymore.

– Bradley’s explanation for their sexual encounter: “it was just something that happened.” My brain hurts from all the insight.

– Nobody ever gives Dylan a hug. The guy got shot and still can’t get any damn love!

– Norman confesses his love to Bradley: “I know we have a connection… you feel it, right?”

– the most annoying thing ever: Norma confesses everything to Romero OFF-SCREEN. What a fucking cop out.