Bates Motel episode review — 4.1 — A Danger to Himself and Others

Original air date: March 7, 2016
Director: Tucker Gates
Writers: Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin

Rating: 6/10

The episode opens up with Sheriff Romero disposing of the body that he killed at the end of last season, so hopefully that’s all with this plotline and it doesn’t come back in any way, but who knows.

Norman is found alone in the wilderness talking to himself, and he’s taken into a hospital for evaluation.

Since he’s 18, they won’t just release him to his mother. Instead they have to make sure he’s got a mental hospital he can go to, but Norma doesn’t have insurance. She halfheartedly offers to marry Sheriff Romero to get his insurance, but he’s having none of it.

Emma’s surgery is apparently successful, and her long lost mother is in town hoping to see her. She stays at the motel, though once Norma finds out who she is, she refuses to help her see her.

So she instead goes up to the house after Norman is released and finds him there, dressed as Norma. He kills her because he thinks she was a bad mother.

Two straight episodes in which Norman has killed someone…this is kind of surprising. I like the desperation of Norma here in this episode, as you can really feel that she’s at her wit’s end over Norman and the private hospital situation.