On Monday’s episode of Bates Motel, Norma and Norman each suspect the other committed an unsavory deed and Dylan considers a future with Emma.
Norma leaves a message for the doctor from Pine View about expediting Norman’s admittance. She wakes Norman and they discuss his blackout the day before. He remembers being locked in her room, but nothing after. He asks what was so urgent that she needed to lock him up. She claims she went for groceries and asks him to stay in for the day.
As Norman brushes his teeth, he has flashbacks of what he thinks is Norma placing Emma’s mother’s body in the basement freezer. At breakfast, Norman questions Norma further about where she went when he was locked up.
Emma gets the breathing tube taken out. She has trouble getting her lungs to work and Dylan yells at the doctors to help her. After a few seconds, she’s able to breathe on her own.
Norma says she needs to clean a room in the hotel because a woman checked out. Norman goes to the basement while she’s out and finds that his dead animals have been removed from the freezer. There’s no body in it.
Norma comes home and finds Norman in the basement. He accuses her of killing Emma’s mom and says she needs help. Norma realizes that Norman must have killed her, but he’s too confused to know it.
The doorbell rings. It’s Alex. He asks Norma if she’s okay. He apologizes for not helping her out with the insurance situation. He also asks if she’s afraid of being alone with Norman. She says they’re fine and Alex leaves.
Alex returns home and takes money from his secret storage area. He goes to Pine View and bribes them to take Norman for a couple of months until he can marry Norma and put Norman on his insurance.
Norma gets it in her head that Norman may have buried Emma’s mother in the pit out front. She asks him to go take a nap. She investigates the hole, which is full of water, but doesn’t find anything except a work glove. She hears a car pull up and climbs back up the ladder to find a family ready to check into the motel. Norman asks her why she was in the pit. He insists on helping the family while she goes back to the house. He says he needs to protect her.
Norman is very polite with the family checking in. Alex calls Norma at the house and says he’ll marry her. He says he got Norman into Pine View. Norman has to sign the papers or else it will take six weeks and a court hearing to get him in involuntarily. If he’s dangerous, Alex can expedite it, but Norma says he’s not dangerous. Alex tells her that Pine View is sending the papers to the motel fax. She realizes Norman is there and quickly hangs up the phone.
Emma’s father talks to Dylan about his potential and his relationship with Emma. He says if Dylan is serious about Emma, he needs to quit the marijuana business. He says Dylan is too good to be doing that.
Dylan visits Emma to say goodbye. She asks if he’ll be back. He asks if she wants him to come back. She says yes. He gives her a kiss on the cheek and leaves.
Norman gets the papers from the machine and reads them. He starts hearing the voice of his father telling him that Norma, not Norman, killed him. He tells Norman that Norma lied to him and he needs to control her before she destroys him. Norma lies in wait for Norman to leave the office. When he does, she sneaks in looking for the papers, but they’re gone.
Norman is waiting for her when she gets back to the house. She says she was taking out the trash. She offers to take him out for dinner, but he says they shouldn’t go anywhere. She makes dinner instead and asks Norman to take a bath. He won’t leave her alone because he doesn’t trust her.
At dinner, Norman won’t eat. He says there’s only one way to stop the killings and he doesn’t want to do it. He accuses her of killing not only Emma’s mother but also Bradley Martin and Blair Watson out of jealousy. He tells her she killed his father and then blamed all the murders on him.
Norma takes off running to her bedroom. She digs under the mattress for her gun, but it’s not there. Norman appears behind her with the gun. She tries to get him to give it back by kissing him, but he throws her off. She runs and locks herself in a room. She dials Alex and leaves a message asking him to get Norman admitted that night and thanking him for always being there for her.
Later that night, Norma hears an old movie playing and opens the door. She goes downstairs but doesn’t see Norman anywhere. She grabs a knife from a drawer. She discovers Norman sitting in the dark in the basement. She tells him that Pine View is a nice place, not like county. He refuses to leave her to run amok. He threatens her with murder-suicide to find peace together.
Alex pounds on the door upstairs. Norma apologizes to Norman for having to turn him in. Alex and another officer take Norman. Norma says he won’t sign the papers and Alex says he’ll have to bring him to county instead because he isn’t leaving him home. Norma grabs the papers and runs after them. She convinces Norman to sign them so he doesn’t have to go to county.