Bates Motel: Season 1, Episode 8: 'A Boy and His Dog' Recap

“Bates Motel”, season 1, episode 8, “A Boy and His Dog”

Norman brings the dead dog to Emma’s dad, Will, a taxidermist. Will tells Norman the steps involved, such as skinning the animal, and then making it look as life-like as possible. Norman expresses interest in taxidermy, and Will offers to teach him how to do it. Norman agrees.

At school, Emma escapes into the bathroom, as her illness is acting up. Once she gets it under control, a small group of Bradley’s friends enter the bathroom and begin to gossip about Norman and Bradley, and how Norman is weird and Bradley would never sleep with him. Emma exits her stall and sets the record straight. Norman and Bradley slept together.

Norma is getting increasingly agitated about the proposed freeway bypass project. She tries getting in touch with Sheriff Romero, however he isn’t in his office. She looks out her window and sees the man from room 9, Jake Abernathy, starring at her, smoking a cigarette.

In the pot fields, Dylan and Reno get a call from their boss Gil, saying they need to go down and pick up the new harvest.

At school, Bradley confronts Norma, asking why he told everyone what they did. He says he only told Emma, and apologizes to Bradley. She tells him he needs to forget that it ever happened, and that she has a boyfriend, and the entire school doesn’t need to know about it. Heartbroken, he smiles and nods.

Miss Watson observes Norman from her classroom window. When Norman storms off towards the exit, she chases after him. She tries to stop him from leaving, but he is adamant about going home. She tries to touch his shoulder and he violently lashes out. She’s dumbstruck, and he storms off campus.

At the motel, Norma goes to clean room 9, but finds that Jake Abernathy is still inside it. He insists that she come in and clean it anyway. As she does, he begins to ask about Deputy Shelby and his unfortunate accident at the house. He mentions that he knew Keith Summers and what happened in the motel. Distracted, Norma knocks over a lamp, breaking the bulb. She tries to clean it up, but Abernathy assures her it’s not a problem. He then asks if she knew Deputy Shelby. She lies, and says a little. She gets sufficiently creeped out by the man, and she comes up with an excuse to leave. As she tries to leave, he grabs her and grabs some towels off of her cart. She leaves, scared.

Shortly after, Norma drives into town to pay Sheriff Romero a visit since she couldn’t get ahold of him. She tries to flirt with him, but he sees right through her act. He asks what she wants, and she says that there’s a chair open on the city planning committee, and that she would like him to recommend her for that position so she can fight the bypass from the inside. He laughs, saying that they don’t know each other and that they don’t owe each other anything. She tries the blackmail route, but he says he’d kill her if she said anything to anyone. He tells her to leave.

Norman’s school calls Norma and asks her to come in for a conference. She learns that Norman has been suspended for three days for walking out of school. Norma defends his actions, saying he was sick, but Miss Watson believes that there was something deeper. He was upset about something. The principal says that they are worried about Norman’s emotional health, and Norma is offended by the implications. They suggest he talk to the school psychologist, but Norma says she’ll take him to a private therapist that she picks, and that she’ll keep in touch. She leaves.

On the way to the harvest, Dylan and Reno stop at a bar/motel. Reno picks a fight with Dylan, since he’s got 23 years of experience over Dylan, and there’s no way Dylan should be his boss. Their fight crescendos, and they are both left exhausted. They walk back to their respective rooms. Dylan asks why Reno doesn’t just quit. He laughs and says there’s no quitting, only getting fired.

At home, Norma talks to Norman about his behavior. He doesn’t want to talk about why he’s upset, but he apologizes and says it won’t happen again. He mentions that Emma’s dad is teaching him Taxidermy, and asks for a ride.

At Will’s studio, Norma asks to speak to him privately. She expresses her concerns over Norman learning taxidermy, because he has such a hard time fitting in. Will points out that Norman is good at it and he’s not hurting anything, so why not let him follow his passions.

Dylan and Reno arrive at their destination and find a group of hippies they need to drive to the factory back near town. Reno warns that one of them is a pain in the butt and they should leave him behind, but Dylan says that Gil told him to bring them all, so he will.

When Norma returns to the motel, she sees Abernathy driving away. Curiosity getting the better of her, she decides to follow him. They soon arrive at the shipyard where Keith Summers’ boat is kept. She watches as Abernathy climbs into the boat and digs through the items in a rage. He spots her and she ducks. When she thinks it’s safe to move again, she heads back to her car only to be stopped by Abernathy. He asks her where it is, and she has no idea what he’s looking for. He says that he knows she and Deputy Shelby were an item, and that he’s not an idiot. So if she remembers where it is, she can drop by his room for a little chat.

The next day, Norma brings Norman to the therapist. Every question asked to Norman was answered by Norma.

On their way back to town, Dylan and Reno are increasingly annoyed by the mouthy hippie. Dylan eventually has them pull the van over. He storms to the back and drags the hippie out at gunpoint. He leaves him stranded in the middle of nowhere while the rest of them drive away.

At the end of the therapy session, the therapist suggests to Norma that, next time, he talk to Norman alone. She gets defensive, and the therapist suggests that she may have control issues, which seems to set her off more. She storms out.

They get back to the motel, and Norma decides to drop by Abernathy’s room. When he opens the door, she throws his money back at him and demands that he leave the motel. He isn’t too happy with her, and tells her not to make him angry. She threatens to call the cops if he’s not gone in five minutes. He leaves.

At Will’s shop, Norman works on finishing Juno. Emma comes in, surprised to see him. She tells him why she told the girls about him and Bradley. She says she got upset when the girls were trying to say that Norman wasn’t special, and that he is a very special boy whom she likes very much. He apologizes to her for getting mad, and that it’s okay. They hug when Will walks in.

Later that night, Norma scrubs out Abernathy’s room when Dylan and Reno arrive at the motel. Dylan buys out all of the rooms for his hippies for the next two weeks. Norma is ecstatic and thanks him. She asks if Dylan would like to get some dinner in town, and he agrees.

She rushes to the house to get changed for the night. But when she turns on her bedroom light, she finds Deputy Zack Shelby’s rotting corpse laying in her bed. She screams out for Norman.