Bates Motel: Season 1, Episode 4 "Trust Me"

Bates Motel: Season 1, Episode 4 "Trust Me"

April 08, 2013


The fourth episode of Bates Motel really has me pondering about how I truly think about this episode. On the surface, I think it’s a great hour of television that is creepy, tense, and focuses on the unstableness of Norma. Regardless, Vera Farmiga is fantastic here and her line deliveries remain a thing of beauty. That said, I was perplexed about a few things. 1.) The cliffhanger from last episode was essentially swept under the rug. Norman being trapped in Deputy Shelby’s house with the sex slave as Shelby arrived home was a great way to end the episode. But, Dylan (perhaps too coincidentally) happens to be in the area and saves Norman in time. All of this within the first five minutes. 2.) Bradley and Norman hook up and bond even further after Bradley’s father died. The resulting action is a rather horrid sex scene. That sex scene was the worst thing about the episode, but it was also so memorable. That said, this episode is perfect when it comes to exploring characters relationships. Norman and Dylan grow closer, especially when Norman fills his brother in the details about Keith Summers. Norman and his mother grew further apart as she begins dating Deputy Shelby himself. Finally, there seems to be some satisfyingly odd sexual tension between Dylan and Norma. There is even one point where you would be rooting for them to kiss. That is part of what makes this show so weird.



In this episode, “Trust Me,” Norman is able to escape Shelby’s house after Dylan came to his rescue and created a diversion, but he was not able to rescue the Chinese sex slave. He tells Norma what happened, but she does not believe him. She did decide to check the basement herself but found nothing. Emma is sick with the flu, so she has to miss a week of school. Bradley’s father died, which results in Bradley and Norman bonding with each other. Shelby tries to be a father figure towards Norman and he decides to take Norman fishing. A fisherman found Summer’s hand, which makes Sheriff Romero believe that Norma is the one who killed Summer.



Overall, this is a solid hour of television. There were a few things that I highlighted in the first paragraph that appeared strange to me, but that did not diminish my overall thoughts of the episode. Great acting all around and complex character interactions are what made this episode so watchable. We continue to see Norman’s slow but sure descent into craziness and we even wonder if Norman is actually seeing things. When Norma goes down in Shelby’s basement and sees nothing, we wonder if Norman actually saw the sex slave. We also meet Emma’s father, Will Decody (played by Ian Hart known as Professor Quirrell in the first Harry Potter movie). He is a delightfully weird character. This episode is at its best when exploring character’s relationships and I definitely look forward to see what is in store next.



My Grade: A-


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