Episode 5, “Dreams Die First”, is about learning painful truths.
And Rihanna arrives!
Bates Motel is no longer a prequel to Psycho. We are brought hurtling into the film's story with the introduction of Marion Crane and her arrival at Bates Motel.
At the start of the episode Norman wakes up alone. He runs to the bathroom and vomits then pulls of his t-shirt and notices bruising on his shoulder. What has he done now? Norma isn't in the house and the car isn't in the drive. He finds a book of matches from White Horse bar and looks like he's about to call before he's interrupted by a call from the sheriff asking him to meet her at the station. Why? She has a few questions for him. Oh shit!
She wants to talk about Romero. She knows Norman visited him 24 hours before he broke out. Why didn't he mention that to her when she asked about contact? He looks as guilty as hell as he tries to create a convincing lie. The meeting was unsatisfactory. I didn't think it mattered. Romero looked like a mad man. Stop digging Norman.
In Seattle Emma learns that the earring she found belonged to her mother and that Dylan thinks Norman may have killed or at least hurt her. He believes Norman killed his teacher, although he passed the lie detector test, and Norma told him he killed his father, Sam. Emma is furious that Dylan kept his from her for so long and tells him to leave. She does a little internet digging into Bates Motel and reads about Norma's alleged suicide. Dylan and Emma's grief here is touching. It seems their perfect bubble might have popped at last. Will Dylan return to White Pine Bay and confront Norman?
Also in Seattle, Marion Crane (Rihanna) and Sam Loomis are getting dressed. “Marry me already,” she tells him. He reminds her (of some lie he told) about a debt that makes their marriage impossible. Yeah, coz that isn't going to bite you in the ass sooner or later, Sam. Tut, tut, tut. Marion's late for work. A client has just spent $400,000 in cash on a property deal and she's asked to bank the briefcase of money. Deja vu. I did notice a silly continuity error about 17 minutes into the episode - a jacket on, jacket off, jacket on mishap as Marion and Sam were kissing. How did that slip through these carefully choreographed scenes?
Bates Motel and Psycho collide. Marion is on her way to White Pine Bay with a case full of stolen money. A police officer pulls her over. Her coat is hanging out of the car and hiding her licence plate. He asks her to open the trunk. Expecting to be caught she does so. I'm sure I'm not the only one that felt Marion's fear as a person of colour being pulled over by a white cop, let alone the stolen money. But he sorts out her jacket and sends her on her way to Bates Motel. Out of the frying pan...
Norman needs to collect the car from White Horse Bar where Norma left it the previous night. Madeline phones to check on him after the previous night's shenanigans and offers him a lift. He tells her Sam's been cheating on her, and in a rage similar to Norma's she screams at him to get out of the truck.
The bar manager seems to recognise Norman and gets confused when he asks about the woman who left the car. But things don't really fit together until a chance meeting with Dr Edwards who reminds him what they discovered in therapy - that sometimes he sees his mother when she isn't there and at other times he becomes her. Bam! You can see the pieces fitting together in Norman's mind before he tells Dr Edwards he has to go, and runs away again. I feel sorry for the Dr Edwards character, to know what he knows and be powerless to intervene. How does he sleep at night?
Norman visits White Horse Bar that evening. Everyone seems to know him. “It's a different look for you. I like it.” He rushes to the bathroom. Trying to wake up or snap out of it by splashing his face with cold water is becoming a regular routine. At least when he looks up this time it's his own face in the mirror. A man approaches. A man with a connection to Norman who calls him Norma, who tries to kiss him. “You weren't that drunk last night.” But realises something is wrong when Norman sinks to the floor. He sees flash backs, the man and Norma having sex in the back seat of the Mercedes.
So Norman visits a gay bar, and this is where some people might find it tricky. This is what I figured out, right or wrong. Norman is not a gay man, I don't think he's even likely to be bisexual. Norman is a straight cis guy. But there are two distinct personalities in his head and the other is Norma, a straight (although Norman has played her as bisexual in his imagination before it seemed more a power play with the dancer) cis woman who picked up a hot gay guy for some back seat action.
Norman is not transgender and neither is his mother. I'll continue my recap and thoughts in the next paragraph, but because of the way the media often portrays trans women especially in horror, I'd like to direct you to an interesting article on transmisogyny in horror “Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Trans Woman”, by Mey, which looks at how transwomen suffer from the portrayal of characters like Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill. It will help explain the political and social tightrope Bates Motel is attempting to cross. You may also find this article in Feministing useful.
When Norman gets home he's not in a good place mentally. The walls he has built since childhood are crashing down around him. And it is at this moment Marion Crane arrives. We see her turn off the road and into the Bates Motel car park at the end of the episode.