Bates Motel: episode 9 "Underwear"

***SPOILERS***

Last night's episode was pretty intense, they got a lot going on right now with this show. Every character is in their own world and you've got their personal stories to go through as well as when they interact. Lots of layers of story here. They're building these characters to have rich and full stories.

The episode starts off with Deputy Shelby's body being taken out of Norma's house by the authorities. She tries to reason with the Sheriff about how she knows it's the weird guy that's been hanging around the hotel, but he doesn't listen. I don't think that he was being rude honestly, Norma's been a headache since arriving in town and she complains about a lot of things. He follows procedure and says he'll follow up, nothing more, nothing less.

Norma sees some of Dylan's co-workers smoking reefer on the hotel porch and snaps on them all and makes them put their joints out. In the fit she takes she reveals that she wants to move. Dylan and Norman express "here we go again" glances at each other.

While in town, Dylan bumps into Bradley who mentions to him that her dead father had a desk where he used to work beside the top boss. She and Dylan's chemistry begins to build and you can see in their eyes that they're totally into each other.

At the hotel, Norma receives a beautiful bouquet of flowers. After the excitement passes, she reads the card only to find that it's from Jake, the creep from room 9. The note reads "see you soon" and Norma tells Emma to lock up when no one's around. She also tells Emma to enforce her no smoking pot rule.

Norman sees Bradley in the school hallway and they give each other nice, lighthearted smiles. As Bradley walks further away and Norman passes her, we see his expression change to a hurt and angry look. Making it obvious that he's only pretending to turn the other cheek, he still has feelings for her.

Norman tells Norma that he's not going to move and she brushes it off.

Emma has to tell a boy from Dylan's crew to stop smoking weed while Norma's away and instantly has a connection with him. The first thought that goes through my head is that Norman has really screwed up! The one chick that actually dug him is moving on now while he tortures himself over wanting Bradley. Now he's not going to have any girls but his mother...hmmm...

Norman finds out that his short paper is being entered into a contest and that his grade point average is 4.0. This puts him in good spirits.

Dylan meets with Bradley and agrees to sneak her in to her father's office so she can collect some things. When they arrive, Remo comes out guns blazing, not knowing that it's only Dylan. He agrees to let them go in the office for 10 minutes. It doesn't take even that long though, Bradley sees letters confirming that her dad was cheating on her mom and leaves.

Norman brings home his completed Juno, he's doing good at taxidermy. Norma is creeped out but tries to show support. Dylan has a more open reaction, which I thought was funny. 

Norman has a dream about drowning Bradley and later searches it on the web for dream analysis. Dylan comes into the room and sees the computer screen, and asks who Norman was drowning in his dream. Norman reluctantly reveals that it was Bradley he was drowning and although he plays it off cool, you can see the look of concern on Dylan's face. He's really beginning to see that something is off with Norman. This was a really good bonding scene between them though, which only means that the writers are doing that so they can tear in down in front of our eyes when Norman discovers Dylan and Bradley's relationship. 

Emma gets a weed cupcake from her new friend and eats it, getting completely stoned. She comes up to the house in the middle of a big argument between Norman and Norma, in which Norman called his mother crazy and got hysterical.

Once the realtor tells Norma she can't get her money back or sell the house, he recommends that she walk away from her investment. Norma reacts violently and beats him up with her purse.

Upon getting into her car, she's greeted by Jake in the backseat who holds a gun to her throat. He tells her that he doesn't care what happened between Shelby and Keith and her, he only wants the hundred grand Shelby owed him. He tells Norma to have it tomorrow night by 9 or he'll be visiting her and killing her sons first.

Good episode and I'm really stoked to see what happens next week for the finale. I predict death. If I were to guess I'd say Jake's going to die but at a high cost and it won't be easy.

THIS EPISODE GETS 3 REAPER SKULLS OUT OF 5