Bates Motel: Season 1, Episode 7: 'The Man in Number 9' Recap

“Bates Motel”, season 1, episode 7, “The Man in Number 9”

Following the last episode, Sheriff Romero arrives at the scene and sees his Deputy lying dead on the steps. He takes the gun from Dylan.

Inside the house, Norma tells him what happened. He pauses for a bit and then comes up with a cover story for them. That Keith Summers and Deputy Shelby were working together, and Sheriff Romero grew suspicious, which drove Shelby and Summers into a violent confrontation, and Shelby killed him and tossed his body. Then Shelby held the Chinese girl hostage as Sheriff Romero tracked him down to the Bates residence, and then he killed Shelby. Norma is off the hook for everything.

That night, Norman dreams he’s with Bradley again, but his mom walks in, waking him up. Disappointed, he tries to hide his morning ‘situation’ as Norma throws clothes at him and tells him to get ready for school. She also asks him to fix the lattice around the house before he leaves.

Outside, Norman chews on his breakfast and tries repairing the broken lattice. As he does, he sees a dog cowering inside. It’s not too happy to see him, but he offers it pieces of his sandwich. It runs out from under the porch before he can pet it.

Inside, Dylan walks into the kitchen, surprised to find Norma cooking him a breakfast. He asks why she’s being so nice, and she says she’s just thankful for what he did for her. He points out that he’s still planning to move. Norma can’t believe him or how selfish he’s being, and she storms out. He grabs the trash to take it out.

Outside the motel, Dylan carries the bag to the dumpster and he notices a car idling in front of the motel. He walks up and asks the man if he needs any help. The man asks him what happened to the Sea Fairer Motel and Keith Summers. He tells him what Summers is dead, and the motel is under new ownership. The man leaves.

At school, Norman sees Bradley, finally, and approaches her. She is with her friends, but greets him. Her friends leave her, and Norman asks if he’ll see her again, and she shrugs him off.

In town, Norma tries to network by having restaurants offer her fliers to potential customers. She speaks to the manager of one restaurant who refuses to promote the Bates Motel because of all the drama and rumors surrounding Norma and Keith Summers’ death and the trouble with Deputy Shelby.

That night, she closes down the office of the motel but notices a man standing outside room 9, trying to get in. She approaches him and asks what’s wrong. He (the same man from earlier that day) says he had a standing reservation for the motel, every other month. She says that they changed the locks and she’ll get him the new key.

Dylan returns home and finds Norma in the motel office. She says they have a guest and Dylan realizes it’s the guy from that morning. He says the guy is weird, and asks Norma if she got his information. She did not. Dylan goes to get it. He asks to see the guy’s ID and a credit card. He asks him what he does for a living, and the man simply says sales, and that he’s paying in cash.

The next morning, Emma comes over. She asks to see Norman, and Norma brings her inside. She goes to tell Norman, but he says he doesn’t want to see her. Norma tells Emma that he’s sick, and she begins to cry. Norma invites Emma out with her to pick up things for the motel.

On the way to town, Emma tells Norma about Norman’s love of Bradley, and that she can show Norma what she looks like. Norma agrees, and Emma takes her to the yoga studio and points her out. Norma is disturbed by Bradley, since she seems so perfect.

As Norman is working on the motel, he spots the dogs again. He breaks up pieces of food that he was eating and gives it to the dog, eventually coaxing it to eat from his hand. He seems happy, until Norma shows up and scares the dog away. She tells Norman he doesn’t need a dog, despite him wanting one.

That night, Norma tries to talk to Norman about sex, saying that it’s not something to mess around with. Norman ultimately says that he really like Bradley, so Norma backs off on the subject. She nonchalantly mentions that she hired Emma to help out at the motel, so Norman will be seeing a lot of her. Norman gets mad that Norma is trying to push Emma onto him, and he storms out of the house, heading for Bradley’s.

Norman shows up outside Bradley’s house, knowing she’s alone. He rings the doorbell, and she answers, not really happy to see him. He says they need to talk about their feelings, and that he really likes her, and that they’re boyfriend and girlfriend. Bradley tells him that she just doesn’t feel that way about him, which breaks his heart. Norman storms off, realizing that Norma was right all along. He begins muttering to himself all the things that Norma said, over and over.

On his way back to the motel, he spots the dog on the other side of the road. He calls it over, but an approaching truck ends up running over the dog. Norman freaks out. The driver stops and checks to make sure everything is fine, but the dog is dead. Norma runs up to them, and Norman scoops up the dog, saying he needs to take it to Emma’s dad (the taxidermist), because he’ll be able to fix the dog. Norma tells him to leave the dog, but he refuses. She finally says she’ll drive him there, and he stops her and tells her he was wrong about everything. They embrace, and then load the dead dog into the car.