By: Kh Ishrar
“Ocean View”
It is wrong to set one’s expectations too high. Because it is okay to receive more than you had bargained for and be absolutely blown away. But if the opposite happens, that is, if you do not get as much as you expected, there is massive disappointment. So I hate to exaggerate but this is so far my favorite episode! There is so many surprises in is this episode that it’s almost unbelievable. What happens with Norma after the arrest is unexpected, there is more on the Chinese girl which is great, there is much more of Emma and two deaths, murders I mean. So, proceed with caution, Spoilers ahead!
So we know that Norma is taken away by the police, but Norman doesn’t. After spending quite a night with Bradley, which you call tell me the look on Norman’s face, he learns from his brother that their mother had been taken away. Norman and Dylan go over to the station and find their mother locked, who is very annoyed by the fact that her younger son had been fooling around with a girl while she was getting arrested. Norman is more than keen to help his mother and starts looking around his place for the deed to the motel. Emma comes over at that very moment and the two head off to a bail bonds place as Norman has decided to keep the motel collateral in order to gather the $100,000 for his mother’s bail. While Norman and Emma are waiting for John, the owner of the bail bonds place, Norman starts talking about the Chinese girl he had found. He only mentions that he had found her and a cop was responsible for holding her captive. Emma pushes to know more and do something about it but Norman refuses to do anything until he can get his mother out of trouble. After which Emma asks whether Norma had actually committed the murder and in that case Norma couldn’t be blamed, Keith was a pig, she said. Norman denied it straight. Emma is quite a smart girl and kind of knows when Norman lies, so was this time an exception?
After the night spent well with Bradley, Norman obviously cannot get her out of his mind. At one point of this episode, Emma kisses Norman. Somehow he feels the need of letting Emma know that he had been involved with Bradley, both physically and emotionally I’d say! Emma reacts in a rather unexpected manner. She asks him, has she changed her relationship status or not? Since she hasn’t, this means nothing to her; it was just a hook up. Pretty cool Emma! But Norman doesn’t like the sound of that.
Moving on to mother Bates, she has been going through a little bit of hell for now. Norman and Norma visit a lawyer and it doesn’t go too well with her. Norma end up telling her that she was not going to make the lawyer’s job easier by admitting to shave killed Keith in self-defense and storms out of there. Norman, quite embarrassed by her behavior, tells her that she needs help, as in “go see a shrink, mom!” Norma is so angry with Norman that she kicks him out of the car. It did not end too badly for Norman as he ended up getting a pleasant bike ride with Dylan who found his brother walking on the road.
Norma meets up with Deputy Shelby who makes her peevish first by saying that they cannot see each other for a while but then Norma is pleased to hear that Shelby was inclined to help her and that he was in love with her. Not much later, Norma gets a call from her lawyer and learns that the police had lost the carpet sample from the watch and without that there was no case anymore. What a moment of relief, however, short lived. But we’ll come to that later. So the evidence was actually made to disappear by the cop in shining armor, Zack Shelby. When Norman hears of this, the first thing he said was, “what is he going to make you do now?” Genuine concern, I’d say.
Dylan on the other hand had quite a tough time himself. With all the mess going on, he is making rather grown up decisions. Dylan wants to move out and has his mind set on a place with an ocean view for which he needed 5 grand. He asks Ethan, his work buddy, whether he can get that kind of cash as an advance from their boss. Ethan laughs it off but later provides the $5000 for Dylan and says that he can pay it back to Ethan later. Sadly, while we were about to cherish the moment, a guy comes and shoots Ethan. Dylan drives quickly to a nearby hospital but it’s too late. Later, Dylan spots the same guy on the road, hunts him down and drives him over. An eye for an eye, yet again.
Later, when Norma is out of jail, Emma takes Norman to a boat owned by Keith, on a hunch. They look around and it takes them a while but eventually they find out the Chinese girl! She is both frightened and angry and starts shouting. Norman manages to get her out of there and into Emma’s car. They take her to Bates Motel and keep her in one of the rooms. Norma sees Emma’s car outside the motel and rush to the room they were in, with an expression saying “busted!” But she finds something far from what she expected. She sees the Chinese girl and queries Norman, who tells her that this is the girl he had found in Shelby’s basement. Still is disbelief, Norma brings the girl a photo of Shelby in the newspaper, from the lumberjack competition and the horrified poor girl, confirms that it was indeed the officer who had kept her locked and forced her into performing inhuman acts.
