Tag Archive | #BatesMotel

Bates Motel – S4xEp10 – NORMAN

Somehow, most of the thoughts of kindness and commiseration once felt for Norman disappeared over the season’s finale, leaving behind overwhelming feelings of the same for Norma. Her death when happiness could have been within her reach hurts.

Either way, he appeared to be sincere in his inability to remember that he was the reason Mother left him alone. The best example of that was at the funeral, that poor, lonely funeral, when yelled at God that he could have told him what the hell was going on and let him in on the plan, if God had one.

It was Norman’s plan, not God’s, that got him into this particular mess.

The obvious red flag as to where and how BATES will be bleeding into PSYCHO can be found here, as Norman flushed all the pills that keep “Mother” from taking the lead over his mental state. But Norman is not the only one whose cracks are starting to show: Sheriff Romero has become a visibly broken man. Once very stoic and unshakeable, he now wanders the town bleary eyed and lashing out at everyone who crosses his path while pledging to prove Norman’s guilt in Norma’s “accidental death.”

A distraught Norman comes home and hears the piano playing and runs up the stairs excitedly. But there’s no Norma and no piano, just a dark and empty house. Dylan calls from Seattle to offer condolences, telling his brother he’s there if he needs him. And whaddya know, Norman has a heart — he’s actually affected by Dylan’s words. I cannot express enough admiration for Freddie Highmore’s acting in general but in particular his work on these past few episodes. “I doubt she’ll ever reach out to me,” says Dylan about Norma, and I am now going to spend the next few months screaming about how Dylan has NO IDEA his mother is actually dead. (Of the things I can’t wait to see in season 5, that resulting story line and Dylan’s response is one of them.) Norman tells his brother they shouldn’t talk anymore, effectively cutting off their relationship as much as he can.

One thing I particularly loved about the storytelling of this season is that for four years, we’ve seen Dylan and Norma’s relationship grow and change from people who didn’t want to be around each other to people who found their way back to each other as family. Leaving Dylan where he started at the beginning of the series: With Norma “dead” to him, on the outskirts of the family — is a strangely smart bookend, considering Norma is dead for real.

And who would have thought Chick would be the one to force a confrontation with reality? It was first startling, then incredibly moving, to witness Chick’s intervention at the end of the episode. Bringing by a chicken casserole and offering comforting words for Norman, it was his discovery of her body after the funeral that allowed him to say the words Norman both needed to hear and couldn’t bear to face. “You do what you have to do…but you understand she’s dead, right?” That triggered the tears that kept welling up but never quite releasing throughout “Norman,” as it finally hit home just what had happened. Who knows whether Norman fully understood he had killed his mother; that was almost incidental. What he did realize was she was dead, and he couldn’t bear to go on without her. So he runs upstairs, loads the gun, and prepares to kill himself. Which is when he hears the piano being played.

 

Bates Motel – S4xEp09 – FOREVER

Whereas the earlier episode featured a more manic and frightening Norman coming to the determination that the pair had tried to find peace and been unable to do so anywhere, here Norman was more resolute, and in being so tried to get Norma to imagine a place where they could find their solace on this earth, if away from White Pine Bay.

Norman wasn’t trying to scare the hell out of his mother, a woman he really does love, but instead to end her suffering.

While getting ready to move, Emma finds an earring in a coat Norma gave her. She assumes it’s Norma’s, but Dylan recognizes it as belonging to Emma’s mom. Dylan finds Norma at home and confronts her about the earring, which Norma brushes off first by pretending it’s hers and then by ignoring the question of why she kept it in the first place. Her inability to see Norman’s issues and violent nature are the last straw for Dylan, who blows up after pushing her to admit Norman is dangerous. Norma is so far gone she accuses Dylan of inventing his stories because he’s jealous of his brother, and Dylan tells her Romero also thinks Norman should be committed — because when it comes to Norman, Norma can’t see clearly. Norma, you are digging your own damn grave here, and I cringe every week because I don’t want you to have this fate of your own doing.

Dylan storms out of the house, meeting Norman on the way and shares a genuine hug with his brother, before telling him to get help. Norman is confused, demanding to know what happened, and Norma tells him that Dylan doesn’t think he should be home. “Because everyone thinks they know more about you than I do.” NORMA.

During the hour’s haunting final act, Norman set out to take a forever nap with mom Norma as carbon monoxide filled her bedroom. His murder-suicide plot — which played out against the world’s creepiest version of “Mr. Sandman” — was thwarted when Alex  barged into the quasi gas chamber and dragged both of their lifeless bodies into the oxygenated hallway. His timing proved fortuitous for Norman, who quickly came to. Norma, however, did not respond to his relentless resuscitation efforts. At least she hadn’t by the time the episode concluded, leaving open the slight possibility that next week’s season finale could kick off with a miracle.

The last two episodes so brilliantly encapsulate the co-dependency that led to the inevitable end of “Forever.” Norman needs his mother, but his darker side was formed by her behavior. In many ways, “Unfaithful” and “Forever” are the culmination of four seasons of character development. That’s quite an accomplishment for the series, which has never been better.

Bates Motel – S4xEp08 – UNFAITHFUL

Norma wakes up freezing and unable to sleep and finds the heater broken. Norman, also awake from the cold, comes downstairs as Norma’s trying to figure out if she can fix the issue. He comments on the things that have changed that he’s not very fond of: the large television and the DVDs, Romero’s most recent gifts. After he interrogates her about why she needs such items, Norma gets him to go back to bed…kind of. Norman shows up in her room and asks to sleep with her, and you can almost see the debate happening in Norma’s head as good angel and bad angel make their cases. In the end, of course, Norman ends up with Norma. There’s no creepy cuddling, though, just a sense of awkwardness as they lie awake, which leads Norman to ask what happened to them while he was gone. “I guess we got a little used to being apart,” says Norma.

Speaking of “new daddy,” Alex has gone back to his place until Norman is ready to find out about his love for Norma. She hides in the bathroom to take his call, afraid to reveal the truth to her unstable son. The pained look on Alex’s face when he hears her flush the toilet — thereby revealing her deception — is a fantastically subtle beat in an episode full of them.

Have we ever seen an angry Norman who is only Norman? While I continued to have a very hard time liking the lad (OK, I’ll never like him again), when he finally drove his point about Norma’s overbearing mothering style being the reason their bond is so deep in the first place, I backed off a bit. The kid has a point. If Norma hadn’t been so overbearing, if she had allowed him to make his mistakes, tossed him to therapists earlier and not protected him to the extent she did, he would not have misread everything about his life to read as he does. The way Norman sees it, he wasn’t allowed to live like a normal boy because his mother just wanted him all to herself. Which is not right at all.

After Dylan and Emma leave, Norma finds Norman in his room. She has them go sleep in the motel because it’s still too cold, but Norman elects to sleep in a different room because he’s still angry. Norman tries to sleep but fails and is distracted when he sees Romero arrive and enter Norma’s room. While an upset Norma tells Romero she told him and how hard it was and while Romero comforts her, Norman sneaks into the adjoining room and listens through the walls. Because that’s normal. He goes even further, removing the picture on the wall and using some tools to widen a hole so he can literally be a peeping Tom as they start to have sex. Because, again, this isn’t creepy. I have to hand it to this show — the slow descent of Norman from happy, normal boy to psychotic serial killer has been such a beautiful, nuanced story to watch that it’s only now, almost four full seasons later, that we’re appreciating what Highmore has done with this character. (And what Vera Farmiga has done with Norma. Seriously. Give this girl her Emmy already.)

Poor Rebecca (Jaime Ray Newman) is trying to escape with Bob Paris’s money and fly to Indianapolis to see her sick mother. She’s stopped at the boarding desk by two DEA agents, shortly before the hammer falls. They know that she helped Paris launder money through the bank. They also suspect that Alex was involved. And so, they make her an offer: Sell him out and help save herself. We all saw this coming. It will be interesting to see how the show weaves this story line into the twisted love triangle at the Bates abode.

Bates Motel – S4xEp07 – There’s No Place Like Home

We watched Norma struggle with her relationship with Norman tonight to the point she didn’t follow her gut, her older son’s warnings, the advice of Norman’s doctor nor any other signal telling her Norman wasn’t ready to come home.

What’s really awful is that Norman wanted to go home because of what he learned about Mother. She had been stepping out on him, and he wouldn’t have that. He may not remember what happens when he blacks out or during his sessions, but he knows enough that he doesn’t want Mother happy without him.

Will Norma ever get to eat popcorn and watch an old movie on the brand new 60″ television her husband thoughtfully bought for the two of them?

It’s pretty clear that Norman returning to this new non-home is going to be a huge moment for him and the makeup of the series. I’ve consistently been worried about how he’s going to take the news of his mother “replacing him” (his Oedipus Complex’s words, not mine). The fact that no one even gets to tell him and he learns from some (convenient) newspaper scraps is just devastating. The salt in the wound is that Romero answers the phone when Norman gets a personal call home. Just like that his world is shattered.

Away from Pineview and Norma’s recent nuptials, people begin to clue in that, right, Emma’s mother is missing with somebody finally wanting to do something about it. It’s going to be hard for Emma to achieve that much needed catharsis with her mom since Audrey’s a well-rotted corpse at this point, so something’s got to give here. Dylan and Emma have done a good job at being their own little island of a WB show, but it’s finally time to have these two disparate ends tie together. Dylan’s got a strong hunch that Emma’s mom’s disappearance has something to do with Norman and her trip to Bates Motel, and boy is that going to be a fun conversation between these two brothers.

 

 

Bates Motel – S4xEp06 – THE VAULT

We were just treated to an absolutely fantastic hour of television with the 6th episode of the 4th season of Bates Motel. Norman tried to confide in Dr. Edwards, but worried he may have revealed too much. Also: Norma hired a craftsman to fix a window and Meanwhile, things didn’t go any better for Romero who uncovered a crime that threatened his new life.

Norma might be sinking into trouble here, but a lot of the focus this week still lies on Norman. I’ve spoken a lot about how useful an addition Dr. Edwards has been to the show this season. Every episode brings on some new sort of gem as him and Norman hash something out in their sessions. These scenes are often so fulfilling because they’re getting right into the core of why we’re watching this show in the first place. This far into the season though these scenes have the tendency to become problematic. You can’t be giving too much away in each ensuing installment of Norman’s therapy, but you also can’t feel like a broken record that’s just repeating the same tone poems again and again. Accordingly, “The Vault” pushes this line closer to the edge as Edwards reveals to Norman that he’s suffering from dissociative identity disorder. With how all over the spectrum Norman’s behavior has been this season, it’s almost just as frightening to see him take the news that there are other people “living within” him in a fairly calm fashion. Even more bizarre is Norman asking Edwards what his rendition of Norma is like, with Edwards answering, “charming,” in fact.

What’s also nice is how through his treating, they are giving us a chance to learn about little Norman along the way, helping us understand why his mind fractured and created a second version of Norma to help him cope with all the trauma. There was certainly a lot of trauma in their lives. The situation Faux-Norma described about leaving and being brought back to the house by Norman’s father, Sam, when she was raped on the bed, a position that left her hands on the floor, putting her in direct contact with Norman hiding underneath so his little hand grasped hers during the assault, was atrocious.

“The Vault” is also still full of the typical surreal kind of moments, like Norma admiring Chick’s walking stick and the two of them launching into a discussion over the sort of wood that it’s made from. This show is still a weird walking stick itself, with ugly malformations and pieces jutting off in different directions, but it all forms a cohesive picture in the end. It’s stronger because of those deformities. It’s those little bumps in the road that keep the journey interesting.

As much as Chick tried to be a harrowing bad guy, he had a gentlemanly feel about him as he did it. Calling Norma polite and noticing how she moved rather theatrically weren’t one-off observations. He was very astute

Bates Motel – S4xEp05 – REFRACTION

So Bates Motel just kills me. This episode was so great on so many levels. I mean, FINALLY someone qualified to deal with Norman’s illness has finally figured out, at least on a basic level, what the fuck is going on with him.

As for Dylan? He’s finally bringing Emma home to her dad. He shyly (and adorably) asks if she needs help undressing and man, I love their relationship so much. Emma, all confident now without her oxygen tank, tells him he has to wait 4-6 weeks to, you know, do things… but sure, he can see her naked eventually. When Dylan leaves, Emma’s dad offers him an invitation to dinner. He turns it down on the grounds of having an early job interview for an assistant manager position for a hop distributor (I mean, not a bad job…). He’s unsure about his experience, because you can’t really put growing weed on your résumé, and Emma’s dad encourages him to lie. Because, hey. Why not?

Sheriff Alex Romero and his new wife Norma are cleaning up the mess left by the home invaders. They broke a stained-glass window that Norma loved, and she feels personally attacked. I love that a character who has done as much wrong as Norma can say something like, “I have been so good,” with a straight face. (Meanwhile, she probably knows that her son killed Emma’s mother and buried her in the front yard ).

The incredible writing and extremely well planned storylines of this show are so unbelievably astonishing! Nothing in Bates Motel happens by accident and I love that! Ever since season three’s episode, The Arcanum Club I’ve been waiting to see why the only one that Caleb was introduced to as Dylan’s father was Chick. Now thirteen episodes later we observe Chick piece together one of Norma’s darkest secrets. It didn’t take long for him to connect the dots and it’s apparent that Chick having this information is not going to be good for Norma. I can’t wait to see how that unfolds but I’m fearful that things will deteriorate for her. One thing that I’ve become accustommed to with this show is when things appear peaceful and when people are happy, mainly Norma, it isn’t too long before something disastrous is going to happen. As we witness in the last scene, Norma looked unbelievably happy as she sat in the kitchen looking at the newspaper article of her and Romero attending the winter festival. Moments later her world comes crumbling down when Chick confronts her. How will Norma handle this situation I wonder, as we know that this is most likely something she’s not going to be able to turn to Romero for help. I’ve always wanted to see her share that part of her life with him but somehow I feel that she doesn’t want to divulge that secret. Just another reason why I keep coming back for more, I have to see what crazy thing Norma is going to do next!

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""I loved the way Dr. Edwards picked up on Norman’s need for things to be typical or normal, and how easily Edwards moved in and out of Norman’s breaks as Norma with Norman.

It’s really interesting to watch and hard to imagine an environment where doctors have to deal with patients like that all day long. It must be incredibly exhausting.

The way the camera was filming also picked up on the bizarre nature of the conversation, and I felt worried for Dr. Edwards. Norman went from a normal patient to someone who seemed threatening within seconds.

There hasn’t been any talk as of yet whether or not Norman is on any medication, but it doesn’t appear he’s on anything other than the very mildest of sedatives. Maybe they’re holding off until they know best how to treat him.

If I were Edwards, I’m not sure I’d want to be alone with him, especially after learning any potential murders were not committed by Norma.

I loved the way Dr. Edwards picked up on Norman’s need for things to be typical or normal, and how easily Edwards moved in and out of Norman’s breaks as Norma with Norman.

It’s really interesting to watch and hard to imagine an environment where doctors have to deal with patients like that all day long. It must be incredibly exhausting.

The way the camera was filming also picked up on the bizarre nature of the conversation, and I felt worried for Dr. Edwards. Norman went from a normal patient to someone who seemed threatening within seconds.

There hasn’t been any talk as of yet whether or not Norman is on any medication, but it doesn’t appear he’s on anything other than the very mildest of sedatives. Maybe they’re holding off until they know best how to treat him.

If I were Edwards, I’m not sure I’d want to be alone with him, especially after learning any potential murders were not committed by Norma.

I loved the way Dr. Edwards picked up on Norman’s need for things to be typical or normal, and how easily Edwards moved in and out of Norman’s breaks as Norma with Norman.

It’s really interesting to watch and hard to imagine an environment where doctors have to deal with patients like that all day long. It must be incredibly exhausting.

The way the camera was filming also picked up on the bizarre nature of the conversation, and I felt worried for Dr. Edwards. Norman went from a normal patient to someone who seemed threatening within seconds.

There hasn’t been any talk as of yet whether or not Norman is on any medication, but it doesn’t appear he’s on anything other than the very mildest of sedatives. Maybe they’re holding off until they know best how to treat him.

If I were Edwards, I’m not sure I’d want to be alone with him, especially after learning any potential murders were not committed by Norma. Norman is talking to Dr. Edwards… and actually being a good therapy patient. He’s taking responsibility for his actions and he’s talking about his blackouts, and it’s probably the most astute and responsible we’ve seen Norman since the start of the series. He does drop that “my mother and I have a very typical teenage boy/mother relationship, I think.” I think not, and so does Dr. Edwards, who is suspicious of that wording. Norman explains how the reason for their closeness is because of his dad’s death, so they had to be close because they only had each other. Edwards soon realizes Norman’s problem IS his mother, and, hey, took someone long enough!

Bates Motel – S04xEp04 – Lights of Winter

Norman’s escape didn’t do much for his freedom, but the first 20 minutes were very entertaining, because watching Norman being so flippant while at Pineview, so certain he wasn’t crazy with the idea that Dr. Edwards was freeing him, after his confession about his mother, lightened him up well beyond reality.

It was almost sad that Norman was worried about getting into a car with strangers and that Julian had to remind him they were the crazy ones.

Dr. Edwards seems to be the only person that can still get through to Norman and still reach the little that’s left of him that wants to get better. And in a fantastic performance, Damon Gupton’s turn as Dr. Edwards is so comfortable and believable in this role that even I feel much more calm and collected after his scenes. Meanwhile, Freddie Highmore has really crafted the crazy of Norman so well, as the escalation of paranoia, mistrust and rage is steady and scary as hell.

Again, my heart just breaks for Norman in a way that, sometimes, BATES MOTEL is hard to watch.

Meanwhile, Norma and Romero play husband and wife over breakfast, talking about joint checking accounts, Emma’s surgery and her burgeoning relationship with Dylan. Norma says “It’s weird how people aren’t at all together and then all of a sudden they are,” and Romero takes her hand in a really beautiful (but brief) moment that suggest this fake marriage may not be as pretend as either could have predicted. Yet that kitchen, that very table, has seen such violence; just weeks ago, it was exactly where Norman’s psyche broke before her eyes, and that’s not even touching upon the most despicable actions that happened beforehand. But in that moment, that table hosts this very beautiful moment; something about that touched me in a very profound way. It is a true testament to the perseverance and strength of Norma Bates, and one of the many reasons I admire the character.

The relationship between Emma and Dylan is now moving at lightning speed, with Emma asking Dylan to come with her to Seattle as he impulsively agrees. Obviously, this isn’t quite in character to the fiery, independent Dylan we’ve seen in the past; rather, this Dylan is forging a new identity altogether, a lovesick puppy who barely considers the impact of moving away with his brother’s ex-girlfriend.

Bates Motel – S4xEp03 – ’Til Death Do You Part

’Til Death Do You Part is about two men who go to extreme measures to play savior to the women in their lives. In one case, Sheriff Alex Romero has decided to marry Norma Bates, just so her son Norman can get the medical help he so clearly needs. In another, Dylan sees a future with Emma now that she has successfully received a lung transplant, but he’ll have to go straight first. While Dylan and Norma inch toward happiness, Norman finds himself alone.

Dylan finally makes it back from Portland, ready to fire Gunner and give up his life in the drug trade. Before he can do so, Gunner quits to head off to Cali, and Chick shows up at the door, badly hurt and gaunt. He’s a threat, but he’s mostly looking for Caleb, who beat him within an inch of his life and left him for dead last season. He tells Dylan, “I thought you ought to know what your father is capable of,” and I wonder if that means that Dylan’s uncle/father will be back soon.

Making the parallels even clearer, just as Dylan is confronted by someone from his past, Alex returns home to find his own visitor, Rebecca. It turns out that Alex has a girlfriend, or at least a friend with benefits. He drops the marriage bomb, and she’s not too happy about it. She works at the bank, and people have been asking questions about Bob Paris, the man Alex killed at the end of last season. Is she in trouble? Will she get him in trouble? She gives him back his key, but this is clearly foreshadowing for future problems. And I’m not sure burying his money in the Bates basement is the best strategy.

And of course, the episode deliberately contrasts their private wedding dinner with Norman’s first institutional day. I appreciate that the episode doesn’t make a caricature of mental institutions, and neither does it flinch from the the reality that being in one strips you of so much control. Norman reacts exactly how you’d expect; great stuff from Freddie Highmore, who plays this entire episode so ill-at-ease that he looks like an angry marionette being operated from offstage. And because he’s his mother’s son, he exerts control at the earliest opportunity by lashing out as hard as he possibly can. When Mother comes to see him? “You’ve painted me into a corner I cannot get out of and I’ve never been so disappointed in anyone.” It’s the worst thing someone could level at her, of course, and he wields it like a scalpel. Several people this episode assure Norma she’s done the right thing for Norman; she seems, moment to moment, to believe that herself. But her heart is a pit, and while she’s afraid it will bury him, she’s equally afraid he’ll climb out.

The most telling and tense scenes of the lot involve Norman’s sessions with his in-center therapist, Dr. Edwards. As you might imagine, putting Norman’s motivations under the microscope, watching him tic away, slowly letting out his inner self is constantly engaging. This whole season seems like it’s going to be a game of chicken with Norman’s psyche, with Dr. Edwards helping push those buttons early on. He’s exactly the sort of person that I’d say would have a huge bullseye on him if I didn’t think Norman was fairly pacified in his care here.

However, the biggest pin of all being Norman’s confession to Dr. Edwards that he believes his mother is killing people, and that might just be the one that sends them all crashing down. The future doesn’t look bright for Norma at all. But she has a bright spot now, in her husband, Alex. They’ve finally made love, too, which I can only imagine was a wonderful scene.

Here’s hoping she embraces the happiness while it lasts.

Bates Motel – S4xEp02 – “Goodnight, Mother”

Norman was preparing for a murder suicide when Romero saved the day. What occurred prior to that was one of the most entertaining and suspenseful hours of television I’ve seen in ages. If Norma hadn’t gone out on a limb by asking Romero to marry her, she’d be dead right now. By the end of this hour, she had used every trick in her book to get her son under control and failed.

They’re interrupted by Romero, who takes Norman away while a distraught Norma apologizes. In a last fit of desperation, after hearing Romero will take him back to County (that terrible psych ward), Norma grabs the papers and forces Norman to sign them. And, shockingly, a resigned Norman actually does. Something tells me this won’t be as easy as getting Norman admitted to Pineview and getting him help. And personally, I fear for anyone that has to work with Norman Bates and try to figure out his psyche.

But let’s recap to the beginning of the episode, Norman claims that the only thing he remembers is waking up to find that Norma locked him in the room. However, memories of him dragging Audrey’s body into the basement starts to flash before him. It turns out that she was still alive after getting strangled by the scarf. Another flashback shows him struggling to close the door as Audrey fights to escape. But, of course, she didn’t manage to. The interesting thing about these flashback memories is that while Norman is initially the one disposing of Audrey’s body, he sees Norma as the guilty party. He begins to get paranoid, believing that his mother murdered their motel guest.

Dylan is still at the hospital watching Emma recover. She’s going to try and breathe on her own. They take out the ventilator and suction. She coughs a lot. She struggles to gasp for air. Maybe it didn’t work? Dylan panics. She finally breathes. She’s going to be fine.

This isn’t to say there can’t be moments of intimacy and love in the Bates family, going forward. It’s easy to imagine upcoming episodes in which Norman gets his hallucinations under control with medication, and returns home, apologetic and caring. But even if that’s the case, nothing can ever be the same. Norma can never rest easy again, or avoid the fact that there’s a part of her son that would kill them both, if given the opportunity. It’s a stressful and significant episode, to be sure, but that’s not to say it’s an enjoyable one. The first half of the episode is jarring, and inconsistent, and for awhile it looks as though we’re in for another installment of Norma and Norman sniping at each other and not saying what they mean, which is never fun to watch. But those last 10 minutes, good God: We’re used to watching in uncomfortable silence as this series puts its characters through the wringer, but this was the best sequence of the audience being the ones getting the screws put to them instead, and rightly so, since the series began.

Bates Motel – S4xEp01 – “A Danger To Himself And Others”

The Norman Bates we meet in “A Danger To Himself And Others” is no longer the Norman Bates of the first three seasons. Last year ended with a definitive shift, into a world where his unbreakable bond with his mother ceased to be a connection to Norma, the flesh-and-blood woman, and transitioned to Norma/n, the maternal figure conjured up by his mind. This murderous matriarch bubbles to the surface in times of stress. Sometimes it’s as an imaginary relation speaking to him, and sometimes—as the final section of this episode reminds us—taking over Norman entirely. The good-hearted kid still lives on, but he’s been almost entirely shunted aside in favor of the tormented young man who continually reacts to a mother who’s not really there.

What Emma’s mother said to Norma basically summed up Norma’s life. She knows exactly what it was like. But instead of physically running away, she just mentally closed the door on Norman’s problems. When Norman was in the hospital, the administrator told Norma she could be held as negligent for not getting Norman the help he needed before he was an adult, knowing fully well he had been blacking out and in need of some sort of treatment.  She finally told the doctor outside of Pineview the truth: she never got him care because she was afraid the doctors would take him away from her. Well, that’s part of it, anyway. But that’s not a good reason to keep your child from receiving something he desperately needs.

Dylan is heading up to Portland. Emma’s getting a lung transplant and he has to be there for her. He uses this moment to tell Norma that he and Emma are a thing. A beautiful thing that needs to be protected and cared for.

Emma’s lung transplant was successful. So now it’ll be interesting to see where they take her and Dylan. I’m just assuming everyone on this show, except Norman, will die by the end so I’m very curious to see what they do with Emma now that she’s, essentially, survived this heath scare. Will she rise from the ashes just to get murdered or is has she always been destined to die from health complications?