BWW Recap: Norman Grows Disturbingly Abusive on BATES MOTEL

Norman's violent streak continues on BATES MOTEL, and tonight's episode saw him more mentally and physically abusive than ever before.

Officer Romero finds the dead body of a girl in town and asks Norma to identify the body. By some miracle, the girl is not the missing Anika, and the Bates family is temporarily safe. We soon discover that Norma has enrolled in classes at the local college to expand her business horizons, but unfortunately she has an awkward encounter with one of her professors on her first day.

Meanwhile, Officer Romeo has a meeting with the host of the sex party a few days prior. Romero asks if he has heard anything about Anika's disappearance considering she was supposed to be at his event. But the host is unreceptive, and seems inclined to call out Romero's faults as a sheriff.

Romero continues his investigation by visiting the Bates' home and interrogating Norman. Oozing charisma and humbleness, Norman smoothly answers Romero's questions and seems to dodge some of his suspicions. "I like women," Norman tells him. "Maybe from spending so many years close to my mother."

Later on at Norma's school, her professor apologizes for getting off on the wrong foot. He claims he can sense when people have poor upbringings, and feels this way with Norma. He offers to therapy to her, and assures her that she might benefit from getting her thoughts and feelings out into the open. I'm hoping Norma goes through with the treatment considering her daily life is something out of a horror movie. Insert comedic drum here.

In a pretty frightening scene between Norman and Emma in the motel office, he vents to her about his frustrations with his mother. He is tired of consistently being accused of crimes he believes he didn't commit, and feels his mother's constant prodding his lowering his self esteem, for lack of a better term. He storms out of the motel office leaving Emma calling after him.

Norman marches into the house and demands to know why Norma believes he killed Anika. He grows increasingly violent throughout the scene, from screaming in Norma's face to lifting and slamming his bed frame repeatedly. When his breakdown ceases, he heads into the bathroom to wash up. A hallucination of his mother soon appears and convinces him to get into the bathtub and attempt to drown himself, believing that another near-death experience like his time trapped underground will provoke the truth about Anika's disappearance. Norman complies with his alter ego, and seems to recall some memories whilst nearly drowning. Real-life Norma pulls him from the bath in the knick of time.

To close the episode with a bang, Anika shows up at the Bates Motel alive...but not well. It seems she's been shot. Just before she dies in Norma's arms, she hands Norma an unidentifiable cube-shaped object (at least to my eyes- if anyone knows, drop a comment below!). She instructs Norma to use it with herself and her son. I have zero speculations on what this could be, but it seems Anika's last wishes will play a major role in this season.

Though this is only the third episode of the season, Norman's decline into insanity seems to grow faster with each episode. His treatment of his mother in tonight's installment was cruelly abusive to say the least; he frequently undermined her and spoke harshly, and not in any way a normal son would speak to his mother. At the same time, Norma seems to take the abuse without a hitch. Norma's track record of abuse certainly comes into play here, for she has not yet learned to defend herself from the overbearing men in her life.

Keep tuning in to Bates Motel every Monday night at 9pm EST on A&E!

Photo Credit: Official Site

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