‘Bates Motel’ Season 2 Spoilers: Murder And More In Season Premiere; What Happened In Episode 1, ‘Gone But Not Forgotten’? [RECAP]

Ready for season 2 of “Bates Motel?" A&E’s hit series returned for its sophomore season on Monday, and brought all the madness with it.

The season premiere, “Gone But Not Forgotten,” picked up the day after Miss Watson’s death. While Norman slept, Norma received a phone call from the school informing parents that Miss Blair Watson was found dead in her home, the victim of a violent crime. Thinking over what Norman told her the night before, Norma questions her son when he wakes up.

“Norman, what happened last night? You said something about Miss Watson was going to give you a ride home?” Norma asks.

“Uh huh,” Norman responds.

“But she didn’t?” Norma continues. “You never got in the car?”

“I don’t remember,” he tells her. “I just remember running home. … I guess she couldn’t have given me a ride if I was running home, right?”

When she breaks the news to Norman, he doesn’t take it well. While at her funeral he proceeds to cry loudly, attracting so much attention that people actually turn around and the priest pauses. And when he refuses to eat, Norma’s forced to address it.

“Sweetheart, you didn’t really know her,” she tells her son. “You only knew one part of her.”

Norman’s bent on figuring out who would hurt his teacher, but as he plays with a pearl necklace, “Bates Motel” viewers can’t help but think he’s the one responsible for Miss Watson’s death.

While Norman mourns the death of Miss Watson, his former flame Bradley has gone off the deep end. Taking a bottle of liquor to the face while driving, the teen nearly drives into an oncoming truck. With the “B” letters of her father’s affair next to her, Bradley parks her car and heads to the White Pine Bay bridge … where she proceeds to jump.

Four months later, it’s tourist time in town, and the Bates Motel is packed. But while Emma’s helping customers check in, Norman’s hiding out in his basement – where he set up his very own taxidermy studio.

“You spend too much time in the basement,” Norma says, confronting her son. “It’s not normal. You need to be out in the world doing normal things.”

And the two manage to compromise – after working at the motel for a few hours, Norma promises to take Norman driving to practice for his test. But before Norman heads out onto the road, Emma gives him some mail – a stack of letters that he sent Bradley at the institution she stayed in for the past four months after her suicide attempt. The letters are all unopened and returned, which upsets Norman. But Emma breaks some good news to him – Bradley’s coming home today. And while Bradley might finally be getting released, she’s still not the same teen that Norman first met.

Norma takes Norman out to practice driving, but she’s shocked when their innocent drive ends up with Norman pulling into the cemetery. “When is this going to end?” Norma asks. But unfortunately Norman’s obsession is the least of her problems. On the drive back, Norma discovers that they have started to work on the bypass that will take all the business away from the motel. With work set to begin on Monday, Norma makes plans to attend the next council meeting and fight the new bypass.

As Norma hatches a plan to stop the bypass, Bradley uses her freedom to find out more about her father’s death. Visiting her dad’s old partner, Gil, she tells him that she finds it hard to believe that he doesn’t know who killed her dad. Gil’s not budging, though.

“Your father was out for himself,” he warns her. “He had no loyalty to anyone, and that’s a bad move in this business … I could tell you more if you want to come inside.”

But fortunately Bradley has enough sense to leave and not question Gil anymore. Back at her house, she continues to dig through her father’s belongings and comes across a loaded gun. Prepared to shoot herself in the head, she’s interrupted when Norman stops by to pay a visit. And while she ignores Norman, her former lover promises that he’ll always be there for her.

While Norman tries to bond with Bradley, Gil is warning Dylan to get rid of the teen if he sees her lurking around. “I don’t want anyone talking to her about anything,” Gil tells him. “I don’t need that s***. I thought I got rid of my Jerry Martin problem.”

When Gil leaves, Dylan does his own digging and discovers that Gil hated Jerry Martin because Jerry was sleeping with his girlfriend – Blair Watson, the daughter of the other weed family.

As Dylan gets close to the truth about how Miss Watson died, Norman ignores his mother and decides to visit her grave. He’s surprised to find a strange man standing in front of it. Snapping some pictures of the mysterious man, Norman takes off – running straight to Sheriff Romero. But Romero doesn’t find the man suspicious. Instead he becomes suspicious of Norman’s actions.

While Norman’s with the sheriff, Norma approaches the White Pine Bay council about halting the construction of the bypass. She fails to make a good argument, and the council shoots her down – harshly. But Norma’s not going to take it sitting down. “You’re a dick,” she tells the head council member, bringing up the drug money that the town runs on.

Upset after the council meeting, Norma becomes even more frazzled when Romero approaches her about Norman. Telling her about Norman’s visits to Miss Watson’s grave, Romero explains that he doesn’t think his obsession is healthy – and Norma agrees.

Arriving home, Norma confronts Norman, telling him that “this has got to stop. Asking why he’s obsessed, Norman finally cracks – “I went to her house that night. The night she was killed.” Norman tells his mom that Miss Watson cleaned up his eye, but that “it was weird.” Explaining how he thought that she was trying to seduce him, he promises his mom that he ran away when he felt uncomfortable.

Meanwhile Bradley meets up with Dylan at a secret location where Norman’s older brother warns her to stop digging around. Revealing that her dad was sleeping with Miss Watson, Dylan continues that Gil was unhappy with her dad when he found out. “I don’t know if that’s what happened to your father,” he tells her. “But it’s more than likely.”

Bradley doesn’t care, though, upset with Dylan for not responding to the emails she sent him while she was locked up at the institution. “That was about my brother,” he explains. ”He likes you. There are lines you don’t cross.”

But Bradley doesn’t care about crossing lines. Bailing on Dylan, she throws on a slinky outfit and drives to Gil’s house. As she's straddling and kissing him, Gil tells her to ask away. Questioning him about Blair Watson, Bradley begins to take off Gil’s pants. But Gil’s too distracted to answer if Miss Watson was sleeping with anyone else, and Bradley pulls out her dad’s gun on him – shooting him right in the head.

The “Bates Motel” season premiere ended with Bradley going to Norman in the middle of the night. “Did you mean what you said that’d you’d always be here for me?” she asks. Nodding his head yes, Bradley tells him good … because she needs his help.

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