Because I live in the land of DVR, everything I watch is at least five days old. I don't think I'm alone in this, although I do find myself avoiding social media after certain shows (even though I'm not really the type to get all bent out of shape by spoilers. If I know something awesome is going to happen, I still want to see how it shakes up).
So the season finale of Bates Motel aired last Monday, a good week before I got around to watching it. I always feel weird watching Bates Motel nowadays, since most of my TV-watching takes place with a fussy baby on my lap. There's nothing weird about watching a show about a mother and son's obsessive, co-dependent relationship that you know ends with the son becoming the mother and murdering guests of his motel with your infant son, right?
"Yes, Joey, a boy's best friend IS his mother!"
For anyone who hasn't seen the finale, you probably should stop here. But I have to say that this show is becoming one of the ones I really look forward to watching. Yes, it's kind of campy, but it's also immensely clever. The innocent teen Norman we met in season one is now coming to grips with the fact that he regularly blacks out and murders people at the urging of some internalized, extreme version of his mother. First it was his father (who kind of deserved it); then his teacher (a sketchy woman but not so deserving). He also killed his friend's dad, but I guess we gloss over that one since it was kind of self-defense. All it took was a few days locked in Nick Ford's water pit to realize his dark side.
The best parts of this show come in the nods to the movie. After Norman realizes he sleep-murders people, he decides to commit suicide. But not before making a fine checklist that includes making amends with his buddy Emma, cleaning up the mess in the basement, and eating apple pie. He also makes things right with his mother, and as they have an impromptu, slightly bizarre waltz in the living room, a taxidermied owl watches from above. Very Psycho.
While the first two full seasons worked to develop the characters of naive Norman, overbearing Norma and misfit Dylan (along with the rest of the most corrupt town in the world), we're now moving on. The drug trade (by far the most boring part of the show) is on the back burner. Dylan is in good with his family again. Norman smoothed Emma's hurt feelings of being left out of the Bates' family drama. And Norman has embraced his dark and murderous side. We know Blair Watson is only the first lustful woman Norman will kill in his life. The question is, how many exist between her and Marion Crane?
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