Shadow of a Doubt
It would be fair to say I wasn’t impressed by the season two premiere, which saw Norman unsure if he was responsible for his teacher’s murder, although, it looks like no one else could be responsible, plus the fact Norman took her pearl-necklace, which he keeps with her newspaper picture. This episode was at least an improvement over the last one, and the focus is on Bradley, but also on Dylan’s new boss, who plans on trying to find out who killed Gil. It’s thought Gil was murdered by his business rivals, and because of this Dylan is dragged into murder by the new man in charge, who was played by the whacky, Michael Eklund.
- Bates Motel
- Created by
Anthony Cipriano - Cast
Vera Farmiga, Freddie Highmore, Max Thieriot - Episode Release Date
10 March 2014 - Ed’s Grade: B+
Last episode saw Bradley murder Gil, then she sneaked into Norman’s bedroom and asked for his help. Norman takes Bradley down to the basement, where he stuffs roadkill (so far), and got her to confess what happened. After learning what Bradley has done, Norman agrees to help by keeping her hidden from Norma and her own mother, who phones Norman at one point looking for Bradley. While Norman is hiding her, Dylan’s new boss is trying to find out who he thinks killed Gill, by kidnapping one of their rivals, shooting the guy, then having Dylan and Remo dump the body outside their rivals home to send a message. This may start a small war among the rivals but Dylan may have the matter resolved, as is revealed near the end of the episode.
*****
While Norma is cleaning Norman’s room she finds the teacher’s pearls and her picture, but she puts them back, then later asks her gynecologist if she knows anything about people suffering from blackouts. Last season saw Norman attend a shrink but Norma yanked him from the sessions because he was asking questions Norma didn’t like. They were too close to the truth, but that truth, which she disclosed to Norman, about how her brother molested her when she was only young, is about to come back to haunt her, as we find out at the close of this episode.
Now that Norman’s peadophile uncle is making an appearance by coming back into the Bates’ lives, maybe Norman will get a chance to stuff his first corpse. At one point during the episode, I was sure Bradley was about to become Norman’s second victim, with him snapping out of a blackout unaware of what he’d done. Norma can certainly hold a tune, and perhaps she’ll join the local amature dramatics club they auditioned at, as the woman holding the audition looked stunned at how well Norma could sing. She wasn’t the only one.
TV Review by Ed Blackadder, Lead Entertainment Writer
