More than the film and book that inspired it, Bates Motel seems mostly influenced by the sorts of shows you’d see on The CW. In fact, the media it most resembles might be Gilmore Girls. This sounds like it shouldn’t work or that these two don’t have anything in common, yet both shows focus on a mother and child relationship trying to thrive in a quaint town, while they both balance budding relationships and concerns over the child’s future. Granted, Lorelai Gilmore was more worried that Rory wouldn’t get into her first pick of colleges instead of whether or not she was spending too much time stuffing dead animals, but there are similarities.
Both shows also have created an environment of this small town and flesh it out with the characters that inhabit it. Bates Motel often is at its best when it plays like a CW show that just so happens to be following a future serial killer. Bates Motel’ strength came in the relationship between Norman and Norma Bates, but now with episodes like “Plunge,” this quality storytelling is starting to greatly seep into the rest of the Bates’ relationships, which often feel plucked out of some soapy teen drama, but nonetheless feels just right.
Most improved this season are the younger characters, now that Bradley is out of Norman’s life, where he can’t drool all over her. With her absence, we’ve seen Norman’s first true relationship with Cody, who is clearly hated by Norma, yet does have her heart in the right place. When Norman blacks out for the second time she’s seen, she warns Emma of Norman’s troubles because she needs someone else to watch over him. With this second occurrence, we see what goes through Norman’s mind when he blacks out, with the reality of what is happening almost transporting him back to past traumas. When Norman and Cody hide from her father, he recalls hidind with his mother from his father. But as we see by the end of the episode, his rage is starting to manifest itself in “normal” Norman, as well.
After Norma stops Norman’s drivers test when Emma tells her of Norman’s blackouts, Norman stomps off to go yell at Cody for telling his secret. While at her house, Cody’s father wakes up, attacks her and an already furious Norman pushes him off, knocking him down the stairs and, from what it looks like, killing the man. The closer his mother tries to hold him close and the more people who betray his trust, the more the monster comes out from out of the shadows.