Bates Motel 4.09.
May. 11th, 2016 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the show creators prove that the road to hell is truly paved by good intentions.
First of all, the glaringly obvious: Norma - dead or only mostly dead (tm Miracle Max)? On the one hand, she has to die before the show is over, and they can hardly top this heartrendering death sequence. Anything else will feel second rate and cheap. And the next episode opening with Norma starting to cough and suddenly being alive after all would be cheesy. So if the show just did kill off its female lead, it should commit to it.
Otoh: either way, Norma is going to be blamed for the murder-suicide because of her letter to Romero which will now read like a suicide note; it's the explanation for why Norman will escape suspicion some more years despite already having had psychiatric treatment that I never predicted yet which makes perfect sense. However, if Norma isn't dead as of this cliffhanger and does wake up again, she will have to face the destruction of the last of her delusions/beliefs: that Norman would never ever harm her. (Not least because I bet Mother will take over and tell the cops that it was Norma's idea, which in addition to the letter will clinch it, especially if Norma is too shocked to protest her innocence, which she might not in any case, since she feels guilty for what Norman has become.) Hell, she might even get additionally blamed for Audrey's death, because of the bloody robe upstairs and her behavior about the earring with Dylan. After all, bear in mind Dr. Edward did inform the not-Alex police about Norman's original accusations re: his mother's murders. Which would end the season with her being imprisoned but alive, and would solve my most urgent problem (other than NO MORE REAL NORMA BATES NEXT SEASON, because Mother is no replacement): what is season 5 supposed to consist of? A dragged out for ten hours version of Psycho? And which characters, should it consist off, because if Norma is dead, then Dylan is indeed off to Seattle with the Decodys, and while there can be some suspense had from a plot where, say, Alex remains the only one to believe Norma didn't kill herself but because of the DEA investigation is removed from office and can't do anything official about it, thus tries to prove it was Norman unofficially, Norman and Alex as the sole remaining regulars plus some girls of the week to be murdered? Surely not? Also, given what Norman intended to happen and what actually did happen, why wouldn't he make another suicide attempt, this time successfull, instead of continuing his serial killer career?
Moreover, if Norma is arrested for Audrey's death in addition for her supposed attempted murder-suicide, Emma and Dylan have a good reason to stay for the trial, and the show doesn't have to either dispense with two of its regulars or come up with another explanation of why they aren't in Seattle after all.
Then again, like I said: this was heartbreakingly perfect. Norman killing Norma not out of jealousy or in a rage but because he finds Audrey's suitcase and Norma's bloody bathrobe, and at this point it doesn't even matter anymore whether Dr. Edward's having told him he manifests his mother when blacking out is enough to make him realise the truth, or whether he thinks again that Norma did it. He knows it was one of them, and he shares Norma's conviction that they are essentially the same person. (For what it's worth, I interpreted Norman getting into the blood stained bathrobe as him realising he has done it, not as him becoming Mother again.) And the show has prepared the grounds to the conclusion he then draws very fairly: in season 2, when he first remembers killing Blair Watson, he wants to kill himself, and doesn't because Norma stops him. And early in this season, when he believes Norma is the killer, he already suggested dying together to Norma before she makes him go to Pineview.
So Norman deciding they should die together in their sleep, with Norma not knowing or feeling pain, is so in line with how the whole mother-son tragedy has been presented throughout the show: just as Norma deeply damaged Norman not in malice or hate but because of love and to protect him, him killing her for love, to protect her, completes the cycle. Like I said, I can't imagine the show finding a more fittingly tragic way for Norma to die.
But again: given this is Norman's state of mind, how is he going to stay alive now unless Mother permanently takes over?
I'm so torn on what I want to happen. Norma and her messed up, so very flawed self: that's the reason why I'm watching this show. She's my favooooouuuurite. Otoh, as I said elsewhere, Londo Mollari is my favourite on Babylon 5, and enjoyable fanfiction I like to read not withstanding, on the show I wouldn't have wanted him to live happily ever after. If this is how Norma Bates dies, it's a tragedy brought about, as Aristotle demands, by a variety of circumstance and her own guilt & flaws. There are even the obligatory warnings she ignores, in classic Greek tragedy fashion. And it's the most painless death she can have, going in her sleep, believing she and Norman are reconciled and indulging in the fantasy of another new start again. Practically every other ending she can have will be more cruel. And yet, and yet, and yet.
I DON'T KNOW.
Speaking of warnings: Norma indulges in deep denial with both Dylan and Alex, and is to blame for it, but the later isn't blame free himself, because going behind her back to enlist Dylan to have Norman forcibly committed, while a pragmatic plan, was also a breach of faith. Norma coming to trust Alex Romero was a big deal and took several seasons, because it was so against her entire life experience, and no matter how sensible in the face of Norman's budding psychosis, doing something like that behind her back was a break of that trust. Which was why only an episode after Norma declared her love in front of Norman, I also found it believable that she would consider this a reason to break things off with Romero. With the farewell note making clear she still loves him, and, no matter whether Norma is now dead or alive, inadvertendly damning her as a murder-suicide in the eyes of everyone.
"Mr. Sandman": that's the tune Norma and Norman sing at the start of season 2 when she cajoles him into going to audition for a musical for her. The upbeat tune in contrast to what's going on is of course tremendously effective, as is the camera going through the entire house. If they spent their entire budget on the CGI for the shot from the oven with the gas going through the house to Norma's room, and then back to Norman sealing the windows and doors everywhere, it was well spent.
"You've never been a real mother to me." Well, she was certainly something when she reconciled with Caleb because you wanted her to, Dylan. Not that Norma's "you've always been jealous of him" wasn't a blow aiming for the emotional gut as well. This is probably the most serious argument Norma and Dylan have had since the Caleb revelation in early s2, and not wanting their relationship to end like this is a minor reason for me not to want Norma dead. Otoh of course if that's how it ends, it explains Dylan never coming back to check on his mother or brother. Mind you, even if he now assumes that Norma killed herself and did try to kill Norman, and that she killed Audrey: he witnessed enough from Norman to make it as irresponsible as anything Norma has done if he just takes off, leaving his brother behind to kill another day.
Alex Romero's mother committed suicide, didn't she? Just for extra trauma for our morally ambigous sheriff, and surely now soon to be ex sheriff. Two possibilities, independent of whether Norma is dead or mostly dead: either Alex believes Norman, not Norma, to be responsible for what just happened, but is unable to prove it (and doesn't find the letter in time, instead, it's found by someone else and used as evidence against Norma), and the DEA moving in on him ensures he's unable to act against Norman for the time being; OR Alex actually believes it was Norma (because of his mother), and for added irony feels guilty so helps Norman by ensuring he won't be forcibly committed after all. (Remember, it needs two family members.) In which case my money is on Caleb coming back for Norma's funeral/imprisonment and being the only one to believe Norma didn't do it because he knows she would never kill her son, whether or not she tried to kill herself. Basically: we'll get an ending where Norman is free and innocent in the eyes of the world, but condemmed to live with what he did, and probably talking to Mother in his head in order to avoid that knowledge; with the cliffhanger being that one person, either Alex or Caleb (or, very outside chance, Dylan) expressing doubt and the intent to get to the truth, setting up s5 as Norman versus Whoever Figured Out The Truth.
Unless Norma is only mostly dead, and the last shot of the season is the one with her being in prison, mirroring the famous last shot from Psycho of Norman in prison but completely taken over by the Mother personality, with the question for s5 being if/how she'll get released and how she'll die regardless. Very crazy alternative: Norma does not actually die, but Norman assumes she has. The dead body he'll dress up in her clothes and have in the attic is that of Audrey Decody (remember, we still don't know where he put her after killing her!). Norman, upon waking and realising/believing he killed his beloved mother while surviving himself, goes through a permanent break with reality, and it never registers with him what really became of Norma (rushed off to a hospital, then prison?).
....Nah. I don't believe it, not really.
Now excuse me. I have the most well meaning matricide to process.
First of all, the glaringly obvious: Norma - dead or only mostly dead (tm Miracle Max)? On the one hand, she has to die before the show is over, and they can hardly top this heartrendering death sequence. Anything else will feel second rate and cheap. And the next episode opening with Norma starting to cough and suddenly being alive after all would be cheesy. So if the show just did kill off its female lead, it should commit to it.
Otoh: either way, Norma is going to be blamed for the murder-suicide because of her letter to Romero which will now read like a suicide note; it's the explanation for why Norman will escape suspicion some more years despite already having had psychiatric treatment that I never predicted yet which makes perfect sense. However, if Norma isn't dead as of this cliffhanger and does wake up again, she will have to face the destruction of the last of her delusions/beliefs: that Norman would never ever harm her. (Not least because I bet Mother will take over and tell the cops that it was Norma's idea, which in addition to the letter will clinch it, especially if Norma is too shocked to protest her innocence, which she might not in any case, since she feels guilty for what Norman has become.) Hell, she might even get additionally blamed for Audrey's death, because of the bloody robe upstairs and her behavior about the earring with Dylan. After all, bear in mind Dr. Edward did inform the not-Alex police about Norman's original accusations re: his mother's murders. Which would end the season with her being imprisoned but alive, and would solve my most urgent problem (other than NO MORE REAL NORMA BATES NEXT SEASON, because Mother is no replacement): what is season 5 supposed to consist of? A dragged out for ten hours version of Psycho? And which characters, should it consist off, because if Norma is dead, then Dylan is indeed off to Seattle with the Decodys, and while there can be some suspense had from a plot where, say, Alex remains the only one to believe Norma didn't kill herself but because of the DEA investigation is removed from office and can't do anything official about it, thus tries to prove it was Norman unofficially, Norman and Alex as the sole remaining regulars plus some girls of the week to be murdered? Surely not? Also, given what Norman intended to happen and what actually did happen, why wouldn't he make another suicide attempt, this time successfull, instead of continuing his serial killer career?
Moreover, if Norma is arrested for Audrey's death in addition for her supposed attempted murder-suicide, Emma and Dylan have a good reason to stay for the trial, and the show doesn't have to either dispense with two of its regulars or come up with another explanation of why they aren't in Seattle after all.
Then again, like I said: this was heartbreakingly perfect. Norman killing Norma not out of jealousy or in a rage but because he finds Audrey's suitcase and Norma's bloody bathrobe, and at this point it doesn't even matter anymore whether Dr. Edward's having told him he manifests his mother when blacking out is enough to make him realise the truth, or whether he thinks again that Norma did it. He knows it was one of them, and he shares Norma's conviction that they are essentially the same person. (For what it's worth, I interpreted Norman getting into the blood stained bathrobe as him realising he has done it, not as him becoming Mother again.) And the show has prepared the grounds to the conclusion he then draws very fairly: in season 2, when he first remembers killing Blair Watson, he wants to kill himself, and doesn't because Norma stops him. And early in this season, when he believes Norma is the killer, he already suggested dying together to Norma before she makes him go to Pineview.
So Norman deciding they should die together in their sleep, with Norma not knowing or feeling pain, is so in line with how the whole mother-son tragedy has been presented throughout the show: just as Norma deeply damaged Norman not in malice or hate but because of love and to protect him, him killing her for love, to protect her, completes the cycle. Like I said, I can't imagine the show finding a more fittingly tragic way for Norma to die.
But again: given this is Norman's state of mind, how is he going to stay alive now unless Mother permanently takes over?
I'm so torn on what I want to happen. Norma and her messed up, so very flawed self: that's the reason why I'm watching this show. She's my favooooouuuurite. Otoh, as I said elsewhere, Londo Mollari is my favourite on Babylon 5, and enjoyable fanfiction I like to read not withstanding, on the show I wouldn't have wanted him to live happily ever after. If this is how Norma Bates dies, it's a tragedy brought about, as Aristotle demands, by a variety of circumstance and her own guilt & flaws. There are even the obligatory warnings she ignores, in classic Greek tragedy fashion. And it's the most painless death she can have, going in her sleep, believing she and Norman are reconciled and indulging in the fantasy of another new start again. Practically every other ending she can have will be more cruel. And yet, and yet, and yet.
I DON'T KNOW.
Speaking of warnings: Norma indulges in deep denial with both Dylan and Alex, and is to blame for it, but the later isn't blame free himself, because going behind her back to enlist Dylan to have Norman forcibly committed, while a pragmatic plan, was also a breach of faith. Norma coming to trust Alex Romero was a big deal and took several seasons, because it was so against her entire life experience, and no matter how sensible in the face of Norman's budding psychosis, doing something like that behind her back was a break of that trust. Which was why only an episode after Norma declared her love in front of Norman, I also found it believable that she would consider this a reason to break things off with Romero. With the farewell note making clear she still loves him, and, no matter whether Norma is now dead or alive, inadvertendly damning her as a murder-suicide in the eyes of everyone.
"Mr. Sandman": that's the tune Norma and Norman sing at the start of season 2 when she cajoles him into going to audition for a musical for her. The upbeat tune in contrast to what's going on is of course tremendously effective, as is the camera going through the entire house. If they spent their entire budget on the CGI for the shot from the oven with the gas going through the house to Norma's room, and then back to Norman sealing the windows and doors everywhere, it was well spent.
"You've never been a real mother to me." Well, she was certainly something when she reconciled with Caleb because you wanted her to, Dylan. Not that Norma's "you've always been jealous of him" wasn't a blow aiming for the emotional gut as well. This is probably the most serious argument Norma and Dylan have had since the Caleb revelation in early s2, and not wanting their relationship to end like this is a minor reason for me not to want Norma dead. Otoh of course if that's how it ends, it explains Dylan never coming back to check on his mother or brother. Mind you, even if he now assumes that Norma killed herself and did try to kill Norman, and that she killed Audrey: he witnessed enough from Norman to make it as irresponsible as anything Norma has done if he just takes off, leaving his brother behind to kill another day.
Alex Romero's mother committed suicide, didn't she? Just for extra trauma for our morally ambigous sheriff, and surely now soon to be ex sheriff. Two possibilities, independent of whether Norma is dead or mostly dead: either Alex believes Norman, not Norma, to be responsible for what just happened, but is unable to prove it (and doesn't find the letter in time, instead, it's found by someone else and used as evidence against Norma), and the DEA moving in on him ensures he's unable to act against Norman for the time being; OR Alex actually believes it was Norma (because of his mother), and for added irony feels guilty so helps Norman by ensuring he won't be forcibly committed after all. (Remember, it needs two family members.) In which case my money is on Caleb coming back for Norma's funeral/imprisonment and being the only one to believe Norma didn't do it because he knows she would never kill her son, whether or not she tried to kill herself. Basically: we'll get an ending where Norman is free and innocent in the eyes of the world, but condemmed to live with what he did, and probably talking to Mother in his head in order to avoid that knowledge; with the cliffhanger being that one person, either Alex or Caleb (or, very outside chance, Dylan) expressing doubt and the intent to get to the truth, setting up s5 as Norman versus Whoever Figured Out The Truth.
Unless Norma is only mostly dead, and the last shot of the season is the one with her being in prison, mirroring the famous last shot from Psycho of Norman in prison but completely taken over by the Mother personality, with the question for s5 being if/how she'll get released and how she'll die regardless. Very crazy alternative: Norma does not actually die, but Norman assumes she has. The dead body he'll dress up in her clothes and have in the attic is that of Audrey Decody (remember, we still don't know where he put her after killing her!). Norman, upon waking and realising/believing he killed his beloved mother while surviving himself, goes through a permanent break with reality, and it never registers with him what really became of Norma (rushed off to a hospital, then prison?).
....Nah. I don't believe it, not really.
Now excuse me. I have the most well meaning matricide to process.
