Bates Motel recap: Annika Returns. (A&E)“Bates Motel” was back with another shocking episode, in which Norma continued to doubt her son Norman’s mental state, and murderous ways.
Norma is called in to identify Annika’s body after it was found floating in the water, but tells Sheriff Romero that the body wasn’t Annika. When Norma returns home she tells Norman that it wasn’t her, and Norman asks a lot of questions. They argue over where the missing girl could be, and then she confides that she’s nervous about going back to school.
Norma is supposed to be in Business Marketing 101 and realizes that she’s in Psychology after getting on the wrong side of the teacher. She leaves embarrassed.
Meanwhile, Emma is getting all dressed up to impress her new boyfriend Norman, who is watching Annika’s car be towed away. Norman definitely notices Emma’s sexier new look, maybe she should be careful!
Sheriff Romero heads back to the Arcanum Club looking for answers from the leader, Bob Harris. Romero says he’s not passing judgement on his sex parties, but needs to know if any of the women from the party are missing, but only gets confrontation.
Romero heads to see Norman about the girl in the morgue. He tells the sheriff about his conversation with Annika, and Romero observes that women seem to trust Norman and open up to him. Romero shows Norman a photo of the dead woman and he says he’s never seen her before.
Dylan and Caleb are busy building another building at the cabin where they plan to grow their marijuana plants, and Norma still doesn’t know her brother is in town.
Later, a woman comes to the motel looking for Dylan to deliver his pot plants. Emma is then forced to drive all of Dylan’s pot plants to the cabin, all 99 of them. While there Emma sees Caleb, whom is supposed to be laying low. Dylan asks Emma not to tell anyone she saw Caleb.
The next day at school the psych teacher apologizes to Norma for his behavior in class. He asks her if she’s okay, and offers to help her if she’s been under stress. He encourages her to try therapy with a professional and giver her his number. Could he be a new love interest, or friend?
Romero gets an I.D. on the dead woman and finds out she’s been coming to White Pine Bay one weekend every month for the last year. His work is then interrupted by Marcus, the man who is running against him for the upcoming race for sheriff.
Later, Norman tells Emma that Norma doesn’t trust him anymore, and freaks out when he starts to spill the details of their rocky relationship. Norman rushes home and gets into another argument with his mother. He’s furious that she’s treating him like he killed Annika and forced him to lie about Miss Watson. He loses control and begins to get violent.
Norman then sees Norma behind his reflection in the mirror. She asks him if he killed Annika, and he says he can’t remember if he did or not. She reminds him that he remembered everything when he was trapped in that box and starts a bath for him, telling him to get in the water, put his head under, and recreate the feeling of being trapped while she starts to undress him, and it’s revealed that the Norma he sees in the bathroom in all in his imagination.
Norman gets in the bathtub and does what his imaginary mother told him to do. He remembers peeping at Annika, being in the car with her, killing Miss Watson, and more, but goes unconscious in the bath until Norma storms in and saves him. Later she tucks him in to bed and Norman asks “What if I did kill her?” Norma rushes off tearfully and breaks down. She then sees someone pull in to the motel. It’s Annika looking rough, and she collapses bleeding.
She hands Norma a flash drive and tells her it’s important and to use it for her and her son. Norma calls 911 telling them Annika has been shot and is dead.
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Emma Taylor 
Sofia Bassett