Persuasion
(Spoilers)
Last week ended with a semi-naked woman floating dead in the water, and it was assumed it would be the missing motel guest, Annika. Although Norma suspected her son might have had something to do with the call-girl’s disappearance, especially as Norman has a questionable track record whenever he’s alone with pretty women, it did seem a little too convenient and easy. The first sign that all was not as it appeared to be, was when Sheriff Romero asked Norma to come to the morgue and help identify the body, and it wasn’t Annika, but another girl of similar appearance. This starts Romero off on a hunt for the killer, and the first person he speaks to is the owner of The Arcanum Club. It looks like the club, and owner, Bob Paris (Kevin Rahm), will have a part to play in future episodes. It also looks like Norma will get to play detective once again, or Romero’s sidekick, while they try to track down the killer or killers.
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Emma decides to dress up nice for Norman, and when she walks into the motel to start her shift, Norman immediately spots the exposed bra-strap. He gives Emma a look, that was a bit hard to read, but I took it to mean that he wasn’t happy that she looked a bit like the wanton hussies his imaginary mother warns him about. The fact that this part of the story never went anywhere, felt like something was edited out because it was running too long. In fact, a lot of Emma’s scenes feel incomplete, or like tacked on afterthoughts.
Dylan is still struggling with how he really feels about Caleb being there, and he’s clearly uncomfortable that Caleb is always trying to insert himself into whatever Dylan is doing. This week it was about Caled buying expensive wood for the pot farm. The young plants are delivered to the motel, and to save Norma finding out about them, Emma decides to drive them out to Dylan’s bit of land. With her car literally filled with grass plants, Emma arrives to see a surprised Dylan looking awkward about Caleb being there. Emma knows who Caleb is, and Dylan makes her promise not to tell Norma or Norman that she’s seen him.
Romero gets to meet the man who’s after his job, and after Norma accidentally goes into a psychology class, the teacher, James Finnigan (Joshua Leonard), takes an interest in her. James tells Norma that people who have shared experiences such as a bad childhood, can spot others, and he senses that in her. He gives her his card, which she tosses away, only to quickly recover it (never saw that one coming). Of course, James’ timing is perfect because Norman is starting to really act up, by being unusually aggressive towards her. Norman goes into a rage, scaring Norma, and he then sees his imaginary mother who tells Norman to go into the bath and keep his head under the water, so he can recreate the time he was locked up in that box. That experience had enabled Norman to remember exactly what he’d done to Blair Watson, and imaginary Norma reasons that this should work again. Upset at Norman’s behaviour, Norma tries to talk to her son, only to discover him almost drowned in the tub. She thinks he’s attempted suicide.
Badly shaken and sobbing in her office, Norma sees car headlights slowly crawl into the motel, then stop. Out stumbles a bloodsoaked Annika, who dies while handing Norma a flash drive. I’ll wager Bob Paris has something to do with this. What’s on the flash drive, and who did kill Annika if it wasn’t our hero?