That might have been the best episode in the series, for me. Still absolutely don't buy Norman's backstory, but whatevs, it's a compelling watch. Anyone else think he was going to push the Deputy into the river? I keep waiting for him to snap and pop.

Excellent news! So because of this show and the thread I just found out that there was a Psycho 2/3/4 movies. I never knew they existed. So I searched them out and watching Psycho 2, I just found out that Jennifer Tilly had a younger sister Meg Tilly. Meg Tilly is smoking hot in Psycho 2.

I've seen the first two eps and am really into this so far.

Spoke to my tattoo artist on the chair today about the guy who inspired Norman Bates' character. I hadn't known that Bates wasn't just a fictional guy based on a fictional idea or whatever, but I immediately thought of how much potential this show has, now that I know all of the things that this dude did.

Just finished episode 4-- thought it was probably the weakest of the four, but still pretty solid, and I think it's setting everything up for some awesome. Don't particularily think Norman snaps any time soon, but given the way the character/storyline is progressing, I doubt there's any chance that I stop watching for a while.

I am watching the show still but the early going felt more like a chore than something to look forward to.

I think the show is kinda meh when it isnt clear what is real or isnt real, like we agree that Norman totally imagined the basement with the Chinese girl, right? Did he imagine his mother telling him to go to the Deputy's house to get the belt? Does the belt even exist as evidence or did Norman invent that entirely as a reason to hate the Deputy?

I get the vibe the deputy is the good guy after all, Norman merely projects that he is a bad guy because he is dating Norma and most of the negative stuff is invented or he has blocked out the good stuff similar to how he tried to kill his brother then totally forgot it later that day.

Hmm I haven't gotten the sense that it's that much of a mind-****. I was taking at face value that deputy is bad, slave was real, belt is real, mother telling him to get the belt was not real.

What about Bradley?

But the entire basement room with the Chinese sex slave didnt exist.

The fake/real dilemma is becoming a huge issue on the show and threatens to remove viewers.

His mom telling him to get the belt was definitely imaginary. The basement has been shown to be ambiguous. Theoretically, the Deputy could have moved the person after the break in at his house, but the basement room didn't even look remotely the same to me when Norma looked at it (though that was in an earlier episode, so it could have just been shot differently). Let's not forget that Emma thinks there's someone in the building in the woods, and they never went back to that. Another big ambiguous thing is whether Norman really slept with Bradley. I'm going with a no there (people have pointed out that the Norman of the movie is a virgin). This show is from one of the LOST guys, so buyer beware. People tune out at a rapid pace when stupid mysteries, with no apparent purpose to the plot are introduced and forgotten or handled poorly.

Remember Alcatraz? That show had a ton of viewers at first, then it became dangling carrot after dangling carrot, and the audience left in droves. There's already been a moderate drop in viewers from episode 3 to episode 4 (from a 1.2 to a 1.0 in the 18-49 demo), and more might follow next week. The good news for the show is that it's already been renewed for a second season.

I don't get the feeling that the Deputy is a good guy at all. He's blackmailing Norma for sex. Whether he had a sex slave locked in his basement is still up in the air, but I don't think it's ambiguous that he's a menacing figure in the story. The most ambiguous thing at the moment is whether the Sheriff is bad.

My impression was that he moved it all after discovering a break-in and the slave running around the basement trying to escape.

That's definitely a proper impression, but it was left just ambiguous enough that we don't know what's going on for sure.

I dont think the Deputy is blackmailing Norma - I think Norman imagined her telling him that.

A guy blackmailing a woman for sex doesnt then take her son out fishing. Which she encouraged.

How do you explain the very creepy scene in the alley, and the fact that he told her that he had the belt?

I cant.

But this is exactly what I mean about how the "is it real or not?" is a really meh TV concept.

Pretty sure the sex slave is real. Wasn't the end of the 2nd episode a close up of someone injecting someone else? Presumably with a tranquilizer of some sort?

I think that was the end of the first episode. I figured it was heroin. I'm not willing to concede the sex slave is real, but there's plenty of evidence to suggest she is, though maybe not in the Deputy's basement (the woods is where we were led to believe she is being kept). The woman being in the Deputy's basement was possibly projection from Norman, but this what's real/what's not concept is a very bad one, and not a direction they should have gone. There was plenty of stuff for them to mine without going in that kind of dumb direction. This show has very similar errors in writing judgment to The Americans, which kind of inhibit it from being as good of a show as it should be.

You heard it here first, the sex slave is real and will no doubt be Norman's very first victim when he goes bonkers. Also am i the only one here that actually like the fact that the writers have left it a little ambiguous? Of course if they left us a dangling carrot after dangling carrot then indeed it would suck, but we're only 4 episodes in and there's no indication that these plotlines won't get resolved, especially when we know exactly what will happen to Norman's character anyways. I think some of you are missing the entire point of a psychological thriller.

I took it to be real as well, and that's why they made a point of showing Norman's ankle injury. But if I misinterpreted that and they meant to leave it ambiguous for now, I'm ok with that too. It adds to the mystery of this show, which I'm enjoying very much.

Keep in mind that I'm pretty sure Norman fell out that window, which could also explain his ankle injury.

ya I think that pretty much confirms the sex slave is real, it makes for a massive *** up if shes not just because of this one scene

I think there's a good chance she's real. However, I also think there's a good chance she was not in the Deputy's basement. Remember, the book led them to a building in the woods, and Emma was distraught that they didn't get to check it out before they were forced out (they never went back to this...lol). Norman very easily could have projected what he *thought* would be in that building to what he thought he saw in the Deputy's basement.

I think a big issue is that I don't remember there being a sink in the basement that she was shackled to, which is a big part of the book (and what I seem to think was going on at the end of the Pilot or whichever episode they showed the person with the needle marks). His ankle injury does not back up his story, as it appeared to me that he fell out of the window, which could also explain it (if I'm remembering this incorrectly, by all means let me know). I just think it's dumb that we should even have to be thinking about stuff like this (what's real/what's not) in a show like this. It's flawed writing, and completely unnecessary for a show that's been a relatively interesting character study.

I think it is book writing vs TV writing - like my theory is this could be amazing at the end of the season so we look back and realise what was and wasnt real and it is all clear and awesome, you can do a big recall reveal like that in a book or even a film because someone who starts it will basically self obligate themselves to finish. It doesnt work in TV of course because there are hundreds of things to watch at any one time live and another near infinite number to watch delayed on netflix or whatever.

In any case I am really close to dropping the show already cos I consider the current status of the show to be worse than just normal ****ty like flashforward or the alien invasion one or random other junky shows I kept watching. Ugh, Eureka, I watched every ep of that largely godawful show cos it was easy low attention zero thought viewing.

Basically if you try to write smart you better back that up with actually being good.

Wait so she is real and you take her back to the place she was held originally.

I guess we can now put that garbage real/fake thoery by phil to rest so he can stop polluting this thread and besmirching this great show. Please phil drop this show, so we don't have to read any of your terrible posts. Trust me, this guy is a terrible poster.

show needs more bradley.

So he keeps texting/calling Bradley and she doesn't respond? Is she ignoring him due to his mom getting arrested, or does Norman have her tied up somewhere and he doesn't remember doing it? Or perhaps he got a little too clingy after getting some strange for the first time.