‘Bates Motel’ Recap: “The Escape Artist”

Bates Motel may be an origin story for one of the most psychotic and disturbed killers ever featured on film, but even Norman Bates can use a little lovin’ every now and then! This week’s episode, “The Escape Artist,” was heavily focused on young love…and also a gopher and a beat down; but we’ll get to that later. Let’s check in and see what happened this week.

“The Escape Artists” picks up right where the last left off, with Cody retrieving Norman after his blackout ‘I’m think I’m my mother’ fight with Caleb. In other words, totally normal. Norman watches as Emma and Gunner continue to connect, clearly jealous. The boy better hope Norman doesn’t snap again or else it could be curtains for him pretty early on. Emma asks Norma about sex, because she’s definitely the person I’d want sex advice from. Surprisingly, though, Norma offers wise words to her. Soon Emma and Gunner go on a date and he kisses her, which leads them to the bedroom later that night.

Norman and Cody continue to connect, much to his mother’s chagrin. When Cody must stop at her house, Norman spies on her and realizes her dad is an abusive asshole. That seems to be a pattern on Bates Motel, doesn’t it? The pair decide to ditch tech and start drinking, leading Norman to reveal that he’s blacked out numerous times before. Up in a treehouse in the woods, Norman and Cody have sex. After returning home, Norma warns her son about Cody and he agrees to stop seeing her after

Dylan is no longer staying at the Bates Motel after is woken to find out the news about someone setting Romero’s house on fire the previous evening. Because of this, Romero is forced to move into the Bates Motel for the next few months. Later, Romero gets his payback by beating up Zane and informing him he’s shutting down their business. When Zane tells Dylan about this, the pair are caught in a shootout and Dylan is hit by a car in the process. Luckily, Dylan wakes up in the hospital and is greeted by his mysterious boss.

Norma gets in touch with Nick Ford, the man who also opposes the construction of the bypass, and he invites her to his boat (which turns out to be a huge yacht) to discuss the matter. There the two decide they must do whatever possible to stop the bypass’ construction. Nick also gives her the number of a man she must visit. It turns out that this man, Brian, is a biologist who has found a gopher species that is endangered living where the bypass would be. This gives Norma the ammunition she needs to stop the construction. Later, Norma cleans up Romero’s wounds and the two begin to bond, until he warns her about Nick, revealing that he too is in the pot business. No one in White Pine Bay can just own a bakery or knit sweaters, can they?

The episode ends with Norma discovering that Lee Burman, the man in charge of the bypass construction, was in a mysterious car accident that night.