Bates Motel Review: Bad Blood (Season 5 Episode 3)

With three episodes down and seven more to go, Bates Motel Season 5 Episode 3, “Bad Blood,” continues to get more dark and twisty.

As we inch towards the end of the series, the suspense and the angst grows, and the endless thoughts of “Can it get any worse than this?” never cease to cross my mind.

On Bates Motel Season 5 Episode 3, tensions rise as Norman’s severe psychosis diverges into a more complex situation — a situation that includes Caleb in the mix.

Poor Caleb falls to his death when he gets hit by Chick behind the wheel. He’s dead right? I mean, that hit looks pretty brutal.

But what happens before that is what makes this episode so intriguing to watch with Norman and his constant battle with Mother in his mind.

Norman’s mind is conflicted, and it makes it really hard on him to actually stick to something, especially when his other conscience is in the form of his own lovely mother.

Norman is so far gone, his psychosis takes over him on another level, a level that keeps you so fascinated and worried for him at the same time.

Shoutout to Freddie Highmore for his wonderful and talented acting skills. The way that he portrays Norman’s complex character is extremely difficult, and he is doing great at it. Vera Farmiga is absolutely phenomenal as well. They both deserve all of the awards.

While Norman and his split conscience are debating whether to end Caleb’s life for good, we have Romero running for his life on the other side of town.

His escape is faster than I expected, but then again, it is Romero and he always thinks two steps ahead.

Romero is digging an even bigger hole for himself, and I am worried he’ll get stuck somewhere behind the lines. He’s taking every opportunity he gets to come after Norman, even if it means ambushing the police officer that was nice to him.

Oh Romero, I doubt he will be the same as he was before. He still has his wedding ring in his belongings, at least.

The demise of Romero and Norma’s love story will forever break my heart. Sigh.

“Bad Blood” does a great job in bringing in some creepy moments and one in particular is during the dinner table with Norman and Chick.

Hold up, let’s talk about Chick for a second.

I’m guessing Chick definitely has his own agenda in all of this, but my best guess is that he is playing Norman. Two can play the game, right?

Chick decides to play along with Norman as he too pretends that he can actually hear, see, AND talk to Norma. I find it funny that Norman doesn’t suspect a thing about Chick, I would have thought he would have known by now that he can’t be “trusted.”

Chick’s idea of writing a novel about all of this madness makes this man creepier than I thought. But Chick is rather interesting to me, makes me wonder how long he’ll stick around in this final season. Will he be Norman’s next victim?

Or maybe he is actually concerned for Norman’s well-being and wants to help out? That could be it, too.

However, he knows a great deal of info. He knows that Norma is frozen in the basement, he knows that Norman killed her, and he knows that Norman is very, very ill.

But why hasn’t he done anything about it, yet?! Creepy!

Also, where are Dylan and Emma in this episode? Every episode that the writers decide to keep Dylan and Emma out of the loop makes me very anxious.

Dylan has lost both of his parents. He still doesn’t know about Norma’s death, and now, Caleb is presumed to be dead. Why is he set to be utterly heartbroken again?

Other Thoughts:

• Madeline Loomis is totally digging Norman back and he doesn’t know how to take it. Is it because he’s actually afraid of what Sam might do to him if he makes a move, or he might accidentally slip and tell her that he’s cheating on her with some other women?
• I wish they never killed off Norma. The alive version of her was much for compelling and pleasing to watch, I miss her.

• Norman killed Emma’s mom last season. When is Emma going to find out that she’s actually dead AND it was Norman that killed her? That is important information!

What did you think of think of “Bad Blood”? Share your thoughts in the comments below! You can also check out my review of Bates Motel Season 5 Episode 2, “The Convergence of the Twain” right here.

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Bates Motel airs Mondays at 10/9c on A&E.

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