Bates Motel episode review — 4.8 — Unfaithful

Original air date: May 2, 2016
Director: Stephen Surjik
Writer: Freddie Highmore

Rating: 8/10

As I mentioned in my most recent previous post on The Magicians, I haven’t watched an episode of this in forever. But it was a lot easier to jump into than The Magicians, as it’s a simpler story to follow, and I think I was more into it than the other one. There are fewer characters, and it’s easier to understand them.

Like here, Norman is finally back home, and he’s upset that Romero is married to his mother. He says that he’ll get a job in order to afford to pay for his own treatment rather than leeching off Romero’s insurance.

And there’s a really intense family dinner scene that for a moment looks like it’ll turn to murder, with Norman proclaiming his hatred for Romero. So Romero’s definitely sticking around, to make sure Norman doesn’t do anything too crazy.

We also see, though, that the DEA is apparently making plans to arrest Romero for all his negligence in letting the drug business thrive under his watch.

This is one of the better episodes of the series. There’s just so much great drama with the Norman character, in his creepy relationship with his mom and his raging jealousy.

He’s more clever than either Norma or Romero give him credit for, and we continue to see him inching towards completely losing it, which is just fascinating.