Norman's inner demons are starting to rise to the surface. He's starting to imagine those sketches of bondage and chained women, and it has gotten so bad that Norman has substituted the Chinese immigrants from the book with his language arts teacher. He was so transfixed with those mental images (fantasies?) that Norman passes out in class while a test was being conducted, cradled in his teacher's lap. Tests in the hospital are run to see why he passed out, but when they return negative, Norma takes him out, not willing to listen to his doctor and allow Norman to stay overnight. The sheriff and his deputies have a search warrant and intrude upon her home while the carpet guys are there. Norman freaks out about this because he actually kept Summers' belt (!), under his bed for whatever reason he can't explain. Dylan has "a new job" guarding a large, illegal marijuana crop, alongside a young man who introduced him to one of the town's major drug distributors. Emma cannot shake the experience of the shed, the knowledge that the sketch book could be an accurate depiction of events that actually transpired, and wants Norman to help her find the buried body so she can be identified. A Chinese symbol, painted on a sink in Room 4, indicates that the sketchbook is legit. Emma wants to go forward to the police with the book, but this sends Norman into a near rage, just wanting her to leave well enough alone. It is soon discovered that the belt was recovered by Deputy Zach Shelby , who kept it himself so that Norma wouldn't be caught. Zach has a romantic interest in Norma (and it seems she might have an interest in him as well) and promises to protect her. After dinner, the two have sex, with Norma returning home late, Norman concerned that the belt will be used as blackmail. Norman cannot explain why he kept the belt, mentioning that it was a "memento". In a conversation with Dylan, Norman is reminded of nearly killing him with the meat tenderizer yet he has no recollection of doing that. To cap it all off, Norman imagines Norma telling him he needs to rectify the situation by going to Zach's home and retrieving the belt. The episode also further advances a possible teen romance between the burdened Bradley and Norman. Bradley needs a friend, but Emma seems to be the monkey wrench. Well, Emma and probably Norma. Norman breaks into Zach's home, fends off his mutt, finds the keys to the cellar and realizes that the deputy has a pleasure den with a rotating disco ball, cameras, and a bed signaling that disturbing events have perhaps taken place there. Another room has a bruised, malnourished, and drugged Chinese girl with a heavy chain shackled to her leg.
The question is whether or not all of this is real or imagined in Norman's warped mind. The episode leaves with the cliffhanger of Zach returning home while Norman was in the cellar. Obviously, the decision to show clips from next week's episode (I'm not a fan of this at all) deters from the suspenseful impact of that cliffhanger, but I am intrigued as to how Norman will escape from this predicament. I think this third episode really defines going forward Norman's psychotic tendencies and how they come and go, most without his remembering anything. This comments on how Norman will often succumb to that dark half that will take hold, leading him to act out in unsettling/unnerving ways. This is the episode, to me, that will perhaps define the longevity of the series because it addresses the fact that Norman is truly not mentally healthy and prone to fall away from his normal frame of mind when swept into the darkness that exists within him.
The question is whether or not all of this is real or imagined in Norman's warped mind. The episode leaves with the cliffhanger of Zach returning home while Norman was in the cellar. Obviously, the decision to show clips from next week's episode (I'm not a fan of this at all) deters from the suspenseful impact of that cliffhanger, but I am intrigued as to how Norman will escape from this predicament. I think this third episode really defines going forward Norman's psychotic tendencies and how they come and go, most without his remembering anything. This comments on how Norman will often succumb to that dark half that will take hold, leading him to act out in unsettling/unnerving ways. This is the episode, to me, that will perhaps define the longevity of the series because it addresses the fact that Norman is truly not mentally healthy and prone to fall away from his normal frame of mind when swept into the darkness that exists within him.