Bates Motel 4.10.
May. 18th, 2016 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the show decides it's not a melodrama, but a tragedy.
By which I mean: Norma is really truly dead. All in all, I think that's the right decision, despite having been torn last week. I'll miss her terribly, but like I said in the last review: it's not possible to improve on this death, and since Norma has to die in this particular story, any other scenario a season later would have felt second hand. And the next episode starting with Norma coughing and being alive after all would have felt cheesy.
Instead, we start this season 4 finale - called "Norman" for more than one obvious reason - with the follow up to last episode's end that makes clear there is no fake out: Norma is dead. And Norman is not.
Now, one big question for me was: if Norma is truly dead, how will Norman, given he wanted to die with her, survive? And as I thought, in the end, Mother returns to ensure he does. What I hadn't anticipated, but what makes very much sense, is that Norman spends the episode until then as himself. Not exactly sane, but not Mother, either. What he's done is so enormous that he can't live with it, to be sure, and thus he first lives in denial: Norma isn't really dead, it's all a mysterious secret plan, but she will be back, she will return to him. And he waits and wait and can't hear her or find her when Mother usually shows up so quickly in that much distress and pain. But not this time. Headwriter Kerry Ehrin, who wrote the script, goes for the obvious Wuthering Heights quote, and given Norma and Norman's fondness for old movies and Norman's for literature, it may even have been a quote on a Watsonian, not just on a Doylist level: "Don't leave me in this abyss where I cannot find you!"
(And if you're unfamiliar with Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff can't find her again, either, not until the very end of the novel. Cathy's ghost shows up to other people, but not to him. Heathcliff, too, unearths her dead body (though he doesn't bring it with him back home). And there's even a parallel to the business with Alex' ring; when Nelly checks on Cathy's body, she realises the locket containing a strand of Edgar's hair has been tempered with, and the strand of hair thrown on the floor. It does occur to me Norman could just as well have quoted Heathcliff on Cathy's marriage to Edgar during the dinner scene re: Norma and Alex, too, but that probably would have been an allusion too many, so it didn't happen.)
There are only a few minutes when Norman finally confronts the reality of Norma being dead, and himself having killed her, and this is the use of Chick I NEVER would have anticipated. It was clear such a moment would happen and was necessary before he breaks and sinks into complete psychosis, but I wouldn't have guessed that Chick would be the harbinger of reality. (Sidenote: this means Chick actually was sincere in his reaction to Norma mid season, and sincerely did wish her well at the end. Can't see the point of bringing casserole to her dead son otherwise.) The build up to this was fantastic, too; Norman with the dead body - the first dead body on this show which is brought into the house, not out of it - and using his taxidermic skills to open its eyes to make Norma look at him. But these eyes are dead (great special effect, too, btw), and he can't hallucinate them alive, either. Then Chick shows up, you can see Norman steadily losing his clung to facade more and more; and when Chick leaves, Norman, for the first and last time, feels the horror of his deed and the loss completely. Faces that Norma is truly gone, and that he's the reason. And races upstairs to get that revolver and kill himself.
Which is when Mother returns, as we knew she would. And not just because Juno the very dead dog, first evidence of Norman's taxidermic skills, shows up throughout the episode, as a harbinger of what will happen and what Norman will do. I was wondering whether or not the finale would end with Norman starting to work on Norma's body, but the choice the show makes instead - Norman in his happily ever after, with his Mother telling him they're together forever now, and the entire house over the top decorated for Christmas - is far more chilling. The Norman who wanted to kill himself was the last bit of sanity. Now he's given over to insanity completely, living entirely in the world of his mind, and he's no longer Norman. He's Mother-with-Norman. Norman is gone.
As is Norma. The real, so alive Norma who was so flawed and so compelling, so contradictory and alive - until last week. We'll never see her again, and that hurts. We're now left with her son's recreation of her in his head, and while that creation is chillingly compelling in her own right, it's not Norma Bates.
While the episode spends most of its time in Norman's head - and Freddie Highmore finishes an already stellar season with a spectacular tour de force, showing all facets of Norman, from lost child to manipulative bastard (with the cop who reminds me very much of Angel's Kate Locksley) to petty jealousy (with Alex Romero) to desperate lover-plus-killer -, the few scenes showing Alex Romero coping (or rather, not) with Norma's death are powerful as well. My guess that Alex will be the only one sure that Norma didn't kill herself and that her letter wasn't a suicide note turned out to be true, as did the other guess that his corruption via the DEA will catch up with him, paradoxically ensuring not just Norman's but perhaps also his own survival. For now; even if he goes to prison between seasons, I bet he'll be out before the end of the series and will confront Norman once more. Romero starts the episode determined to prove Norman did it but ends it wanting to kill Norman; which idea will win out after he's had some time to cool off and/or stew over it in prison is anyone's guess.
Meanwhile, Dylan actually didn't tell Emma anything about her mother and ends the season in Seattle, reaching out to his brother but not wanting to talk to Norma, which means Norman can make him believe the "she won't want to talk to you for a long while, and I don't want to, either" explanation. I have to say, my sympathy for Dylan would have been larger in earlier seasons. Knowing what he does about Audrey Decody and Norman's emotional instability and capacity for violence makes it criminally irresponsible to treat all of this as "Mum and Norman don't love me enough, fine! I don't need Norma anyway!" He's as guilty as Norma ever was for enabling Norman's future deeds by denial/not doing anything about it. (Not that Max Thiorot wasn't moving in that scene, but still.)
Ongoing question: what will the next, final, Norma-less season be about? Alex versus Norman? Dylan reconsidering and coming back, only to figure out the truth re: Norma? Since we just got introduced to the Undertaker family of White Pine Bay, I assume they'll play a role. (Six Feet Under crossover possibilities lurk.) And since the show bothered to tell us Chick is still around and has seen Norma's corpse, I assume he'll be back as well.
In conclusion: it was a magnificent, heartbreaking season. We shall not see its like again.
By which I mean: Norma is really truly dead. All in all, I think that's the right decision, despite having been torn last week. I'll miss her terribly, but like I said in the last review: it's not possible to improve on this death, and since Norma has to die in this particular story, any other scenario a season later would have felt second hand. And the next episode starting with Norma coughing and being alive after all would have felt cheesy.
Instead, we start this season 4 finale - called "Norman" for more than one obvious reason - with the follow up to last episode's end that makes clear there is no fake out: Norma is dead. And Norman is not.
Now, one big question for me was: if Norma is truly dead, how will Norman, given he wanted to die with her, survive? And as I thought, in the end, Mother returns to ensure he does. What I hadn't anticipated, but what makes very much sense, is that Norman spends the episode until then as himself. Not exactly sane, but not Mother, either. What he's done is so enormous that he can't live with it, to be sure, and thus he first lives in denial: Norma isn't really dead, it's all a mysterious secret plan, but she will be back, she will return to him. And he waits and wait and can't hear her or find her when Mother usually shows up so quickly in that much distress and pain. But not this time. Headwriter Kerry Ehrin, who wrote the script, goes for the obvious Wuthering Heights quote, and given Norma and Norman's fondness for old movies and Norman's for literature, it may even have been a quote on a Watsonian, not just on a Doylist level: "Don't leave me in this abyss where I cannot find you!"
(And if you're unfamiliar with Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff can't find her again, either, not until the very end of the novel. Cathy's ghost shows up to other people, but not to him. Heathcliff, too, unearths her dead body (though he doesn't bring it with him back home). And there's even a parallel to the business with Alex' ring; when Nelly checks on Cathy's body, she realises the locket containing a strand of Edgar's hair has been tempered with, and the strand of hair thrown on the floor. It does occur to me Norman could just as well have quoted Heathcliff on Cathy's marriage to Edgar during the dinner scene re: Norma and Alex, too, but that probably would have been an allusion too many, so it didn't happen.)
There are only a few minutes when Norman finally confronts the reality of Norma being dead, and himself having killed her, and this is the use of Chick I NEVER would have anticipated. It was clear such a moment would happen and was necessary before he breaks and sinks into complete psychosis, but I wouldn't have guessed that Chick would be the harbinger of reality. (Sidenote: this means Chick actually was sincere in his reaction to Norma mid season, and sincerely did wish her well at the end. Can't see the point of bringing casserole to her dead son otherwise.) The build up to this was fantastic, too; Norman with the dead body - the first dead body on this show which is brought into the house, not out of it - and using his taxidermic skills to open its eyes to make Norma look at him. But these eyes are dead (great special effect, too, btw), and he can't hallucinate them alive, either. Then Chick shows up, you can see Norman steadily losing his clung to facade more and more; and when Chick leaves, Norman, for the first and last time, feels the horror of his deed and the loss completely. Faces that Norma is truly gone, and that he's the reason. And races upstairs to get that revolver and kill himself.
Which is when Mother returns, as we knew she would. And not just because Juno the very dead dog, first evidence of Norman's taxidermic skills, shows up throughout the episode, as a harbinger of what will happen and what Norman will do. I was wondering whether or not the finale would end with Norman starting to work on Norma's body, but the choice the show makes instead - Norman in his happily ever after, with his Mother telling him they're together forever now, and the entire house over the top decorated for Christmas - is far more chilling. The Norman who wanted to kill himself was the last bit of sanity. Now he's given over to insanity completely, living entirely in the world of his mind, and he's no longer Norman. He's Mother-with-Norman. Norman is gone.
As is Norma. The real, so alive Norma who was so flawed and so compelling, so contradictory and alive - until last week. We'll never see her again, and that hurts. We're now left with her son's recreation of her in his head, and while that creation is chillingly compelling in her own right, it's not Norma Bates.
While the episode spends most of its time in Norman's head - and Freddie Highmore finishes an already stellar season with a spectacular tour de force, showing all facets of Norman, from lost child to manipulative bastard (with the cop who reminds me very much of Angel's Kate Locksley) to petty jealousy (with Alex Romero) to desperate lover-plus-killer -, the few scenes showing Alex Romero coping (or rather, not) with Norma's death are powerful as well. My guess that Alex will be the only one sure that Norma didn't kill herself and that her letter wasn't a suicide note turned out to be true, as did the other guess that his corruption via the DEA will catch up with him, paradoxically ensuring not just Norman's but perhaps also his own survival. For now; even if he goes to prison between seasons, I bet he'll be out before the end of the series and will confront Norman once more. Romero starts the episode determined to prove Norman did it but ends it wanting to kill Norman; which idea will win out after he's had some time to cool off and/or stew over it in prison is anyone's guess.
Meanwhile, Dylan actually didn't tell Emma anything about her mother and ends the season in Seattle, reaching out to his brother but not wanting to talk to Norma, which means Norman can make him believe the "she won't want to talk to you for a long while, and I don't want to, either" explanation. I have to say, my sympathy for Dylan would have been larger in earlier seasons. Knowing what he does about Audrey Decody and Norman's emotional instability and capacity for violence makes it criminally irresponsible to treat all of this as "Mum and Norman don't love me enough, fine! I don't need Norma anyway!" He's as guilty as Norma ever was for enabling Norman's future deeds by denial/not doing anything about it. (Not that Max Thiorot wasn't moving in that scene, but still.)
Ongoing question: what will the next, final, Norma-less season be about? Alex versus Norman? Dylan reconsidering and coming back, only to figure out the truth re: Norma? Since we just got introduced to the Undertaker family of White Pine Bay, I assume they'll play a role. (Six Feet Under crossover possibilities lurk.) And since the show bothered to tell us Chick is still around and has seen Norma's corpse, I assume he'll be back as well.
In conclusion: it was a magnificent, heartbreaking season. We shall not see its like again.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-19 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-19 06:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-16 06:09 am (UTC)Damn, this show rocked the various interconnected tragedies of Norma, Norman, and the Norma-Norman relationship. And just as Farmiga's been utterly compelling as Norma from day one, Highmore--who's also been a strong performer all along--really cemented his game with Norman's final, total break with reality. Everything from Norman's speech at the funeral through his last moment of total lucidity when Chick makes him realise Norma is, in fact, dead is a friggin' masterpiece of a performance, sad and blackly funny and horrifying and still, somehow, sympathetic, all at once.
I've got s5 stockpiled on my PVR. I can't wait to see how this all proceeds. :D!
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Date: 2017-04-16 03:14 pm (UTC)Mind you, in, say, season 1 or 2, I wouldn't have been able to imagine I'd still be interested beyond Norma's death. But by the time s4 ended, the show had more than earned my trust, and while a Norma-less (though not Farmiga-less) season will never be my favourite, it continues to be excellent and go out on a top quality note.