Includes spoilers.
Episode 5
Dylan brings Emma home. She feels ashamed of the huge scar below her breasts and at first pretends she is too sore to cuddle, then later admits the truth. Dylan strips and they compare scars. He tells her how he got two of them and when she asks about his appendix scar, he pretends he survived a shark attack and makes her laugh. Dylan must have worked quickly after Emma told him about the Seattle move. In this episode he has an interview for a job in Seattle. Emma's father recommends that Dylan lies about his most recent job and at first he does, but tells the truth in the interview and receives positive feedback from his would be employer.
Chick pretends to be someone who can fix Norma's smashed plate glass window to find out about Caleb. Caleb beat Chick almost to death in the last season. He discovers that Dylan is the product of incest. At first Norma denies this, and Chick says, “Do you want to be out of integrity with yourself, Norma?” Again we see how Norma finds the good in people and suppresses thoughts that they might be bad. He makes her shudder the second time they talk, yet she accepts him into her home the third time anyway.
Norman and Dr Edwards are making progress. Dr Edwards has learned that Norman sees his mother when she isn't there and that when he has his blackouts he becomes his mother. When Dr Edwards asks this manifestation of Norma what she thinks about Norman she/he says, ““I think he’s a very weak, confused boy.”
Alex and Norma's strange romance seems even more beautiful, when he watches her play piano then admits to her that he killed Bob Paris. It's an extraordinary touching scene, as is the scene where Emma and Dylan compare scars. This season is determined to play with our heart strings. Should we be as open as Norma and let it? Or close down so we don't get hurt?
In summary it is an episode about the lies we tell and how we might admit to the truth later. Emma, Dylan, Chick, Alex, Norman and to some extent Norma all tell lies before the truth as if lying is an automatic response, and perhaps it is, not only for these characters but for people generally.
Episode 6
If episode 5 was about the lies we tell then episode 6 is about the power of truth. There are two main story lines and one teaser in this episode.
Chick threatens Norma with exposure if she doesn't tell him where Caleb is. After quizzing Dylan, Norma tracks Caleb down and telephones him. He tells her he misses her and he loves her. She is tormented by these facts and the gravity of her decision to give him to Chick to keep her secrets. She asks Caleb to phone his son. When he does and Dylan learns that Norma phoned him, we are not told if he has figured out that Chick has gone after Norma. If he does he keeps quiet and speaks to neither Norma nor Caleb about his suspicion.
Chick and Norma meet on a bridge and Norma tries to shoot him but can't. She yells at him to do his worst. Caleb turns up again at the end of the episode with the finished plate glass window. Norma insults him in front of Alex. After Chick leaves she admits to Alex that Dylan is her brother's son. She tells him to pack his bags, certain that he must hate her. Once again Alex's desire is only to protect Norma. He asks, “Okay. Where are we going?” then they embrace. Is this the first time that Norma has been accepted completely for who she is and was? I suspect it might be.
Dylan packs for his new life in Seattle and leaves a photo of him and Norman on Norman's bedside table. In doing this he discovers the toy rabbit and letter to Emma from her mother. He checks the motel registrations and makes a note of the woman's address.
Dr Edwards has a diagnosis for Norman, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and that he has a second distinct personality within him, trying to protect him, his mother. Norman asks what she's like. “Charming,” Dr Edwards replies.
In therapy with the good doctor, Norma speaks again through Norman. We find out that one day, when Norman was about seven, his mother tried to leave his father, taking Norman with her. His father found them and forced her to drive back at gunpoint. When they returned home he threatened to kill them all and pointed the gun at Norman. Norma tried to calm him down and told Norman to run to the house. His father's way of calming down was to rape Norma while his son hid under the bed. Norman reached out to hold his mother's hand as she muffled her screams. The Norma aspect of Norman threatened Dr Edwards that if he tried to make Norman remember this she “... will have to do something about it.”.
This is a very dark episode where we are forced to share in Norma and Norman's deep rooted pain. We'd love to think that they can heal now, but this isn't that sort of story. What is fascinating is Norman's insistence, even now, that they are a normal family. It might be a coincidence but the two names Norma and Norman and the word normal echo each other.