Bates Motel - Season 1 Episode 9 - Recap

Who will be Norman's next kill? This episode of Bates Motel explores a variety of possibilities that will officially set him off.

Read the recap below:

Previously on Bates Motel Episode 8, Norman’s (Freddie Highmore) temper flares carried into school and worried Miss Watson (Keegan Tracy) and the school principal who both asked him to see a psychologist. Norman makes a visit to one but Norma (Vera Farmiga) seems to be doing most of the talking for him. Norman begins to find his own solace in the art of taxidermy as he takes classes from Emma’s dad. Meanwhile, Norma conducts her own investigation on guest and finds out that he is up to no good. She decides to kick him out of the motel, and even though he does oblige, he is hardly done with her. At the end of last episode, she finds the corpse of Deputy Shelby (Mike Vogel) placed in her bed.

Bates Motel - Underwater Credit: A&E

The cops are immediately called to the motel, and Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell) is once again back at the scene. As he interviews Norma, she immediately suspects that its Jake (Jere Burns), proclaiming "Why do crazy people keep gravitating towards me?". As the corpse is being taken away and cleaning procedures are underway, Norma's frustration is aggravated as she witnesses the guests that Dylan (Max Thieriot) brought in collectively smoking weed on the porch of the motel. Asking them to stop smoking, the guests flippantly roll their eyes and ignore her. As Norma asks Dylan about the employment background details of his guests, Dylan is vague and only tells her that they're colleagues. Norma is tired of people telling white lies and being elusive around her, and she instantaneously decides to move. Norman doesn’t seem too pleased with that idea.

That night, Norman has a nightmare of killing Bradley in his sleep, as his inner emotions manifest themselves in his sleep. Emma has gotten herself a part time job at the Bates Motel running errands whilst Norma is busy. Part of her duty is to ensure the pot smokers refrain from their activities. Norma gets a surprise package of flowers, and despite being initially impressed, the card that comes along with it says “See you soon”. As her alarm bells rings in her mind, she calls the Sheriff for help. The Sheriff isn't in the office to pick up the call, and as she leaves a message for him, she struggles to justify that her situation is in need of 911.

Dylan drives into town and Bradley approaches him. Bradley asks if it is possible to visit her dad’s working place as she still seeks closure to her father’s sudden death. Dylan doesn’t seem too keen on the idea. Meanwhile, as Norma is still insistent on moving, she visits her real estate agent to explain her problems. She orders to get her money back and asks the agent to put the motel back on sale. She threatens to sue if he doesn’t follow his orders, so he happily smiles and agrees to appease her for the meantime.

Norman may have not been participating in school as actively as the school board wishes, but his physical work has garnered positive attention from his teacher. Miss Watson commends Norman about his homework and proposes a publishing opportunity for him. Additionally, she reveals to him that he's achieved a straight-A academic grade thus far.

When Norma returns to the motel, she proceeds with her cleaning duties. She gets distracted momentarily when a mysterious black car drives by the road. Looking to identify the driver, she struggles to tell if its Jake. As she begins to get increasingly paranoid about her safety, Norma googles "Safest Places in US" in hopes to decide on the location of her next move. Shortly after, Norman returns home immortalized Juno and surprises Norma with his first work of taxidermy art. As Norma commends him on his achievement, Norman also informs her about his flawless 4.0 GPA grade as a device to change Norma's mind about moving. Norma tells Norman that his academic skills are intrinsic as she believes he can do well in at any school.

Uneasy about his dream the night before, Norman begins to look for dream interpretations online. Dylan comes across him looking at dream interpretation websites and asks him to share about it out of curiosity. Norman tells him that he dreamt of killing Bradley. Realizing it sounded a little jarring, Norman shrugs it off by saying that it was only just a dream. Obviously he knows deep inside there’s more to it. Dylan, likewise, senses this is a sign of his unstable emotional state but can’t find the right words to propose a serious conversation with Norman.

The next day at work, Dylan decides to ask his boss Gil about Bradley's dad, Jerry and it seems as though Gil did not end on good terms with him. At the motel, Emma notices one of the hotel guests, Gunner,smoking weed again and braves up the courage to stop him. As she knocks his door and asks him to open up, he tries to play coy with him and instead offers her a joint, appearing to fancy her. Emma tells him that she doesn't want to lose her job, and Gunner understands as he stops for the time-being. Later, he decides to drop off a weed cupcake for her as an apology gift. A new relationship may just be in the air.

Miss Watson and Norman meet after school to improve on the essay that Miss Watson wishes to see published. We’re told that the short story Norman submitted was about a man burning up on the inside, a narrative evidently inspired by his own experiences. Mrs Watson applauds him for his maturity, depthful thoughts and compelling imagery, and Norman shys away telling her doesn’t know where the idea came from. Mrs Watson seems personally affected by his writing, and fights to hold back tears on the brink of her eyelids.

After receiving Norma's message, Sherriff Romero drops by at the hotel to investigate the card Norma received, but there’s nothing he can trace from the card. Besides, he informs Norma that all the details he did leave down at the beginning of his stay were fake. He asks if he can retrieve fingerprint samples from the room he stayed in, but Norma tells him everything’s been discarded or cleaned. Romero questions her attitude and decision to go into the service industry when Norma clearly isn’t happy doing her job. Romero claims there’s nothing else he can do and that Norma should contact him when something does happen. Norma is not pleased that she must wait for something horrible to happen before any more action can be taken.

Dylan meets Bradley to discuss the plans of sneaking her in, but he informs her that its better if he brings the boxes to her. Bradley explains that she needs to find ways to remember him, and insists on seeing the room as he left it. Clearly developing a soft spot for her, Dylan spontaneously changes his mind. At the motel, Norma finally asserts a plan to move to Hawaii to Norman, but Norman refuses to. Norman feels like this will be another failed attempt to start over, and he’s sick of traveling from place to place and hiding secrets from the past. As usual, as he starts getting emotional, all his internal feelings start to overwhelm him, leading to an explicit accusation of her mother being insane. Emma, now high after eating the cupcake, accidentally stumbles into the room and relieves the tension.

Sneaking through the window of his workplace, Dylan manages to bring Bradley in, but they are surprised by Remo as he catches them and fires a few rounds. When Bradley reveals herself, Remo cannot believe his eyes. Knowing who she is, Remo tells Dylan how much of a risk it is to bring her as Gil does not want anything to do with Martin, but he decides to let them go. When Bradley looks through the office, she discovers a pile of letters from a secret unnamed woman confessing her love for Jerry. She is disgusted by the thought of her dad having an outside affair and leaves the room. Dylan comforts Bradley and they become more intimate with each other as Bradley finds it somewhat difficult to let him go.

Norma is still frightened by the events that have happened and asks Norman to sleep with her on the same bed. Norman is slightly awkward about the idea. Who wouldn’t be? As they cuddle in bed, they reminisce about the sweet  past.

Norma hasn’t heard much from her real estate broker, and when she returns to the office, he reveals that - after looking into her house, there’s not much value in the house to put it for sale, considering the events that have happened and the construction of the bypass. Norma is advised to walk away from her investment and let the bank have the house, but Norma is infuriated by that idea and attacks him. The day could not get any worse as she finds a parking ticket placed on the front of her car, but to her shock, Jake Abernathy is also  hiding in the car. Jake ambushes her and holds a gun next to her head. Jake reveals that it’s money he’s looking for, and still rather confident that Norma knows about it, he sets an ultimatum for her to bring the money to him in a day’s time or else he will kill her sons. Norma doesn't know what else she can do under these pressurising circumstances and she agrees to retrieve the money.

Bates Motel - Episode 10 - Video Preview - Midnight

Next week, on the finale of Bates Motel (Can it be??!), it's the ultimate showdown as Norma devises a plan to outwit Jake. Utilising Dylan and Norman, Norma hopes to kill him once and for all.