The world is passing them by and they can no longer survive in it. They listened to old music and dressed more in the style of the era of the Hitchcock film. Bates Motel has had an undercurrent for five seasons about how Norman and Norma weren’t really of the present day. What was once a criminal enterprise is now a business specializing in artisanal weed. Their thematically relevant conversation reveals just how much times have changed. The only person left who can save or stop Norman Bates is his brother, Dylan (Max Thieriot), whom we see getting a gun from an old buddy. It’s remarkably tragic, reminding us that Norman and Norma were fleeing a violent home and hoping to start a new life. As he takes his mother’s body home, he remembers the days when they first got to the motel, when a safe and happy future seemed possible for them. We see visions of the day that Norma said they were moving to Oregon, but he’s really bloody and battered in the snow. He is still lying in the snow, having a mix of dreams and flashbacks to happier times when he first moved to White Pine Bay with Norma Bates. What happens to a Norman Bates who no longer has Alex Romero coming after him and no longer has his mother speaking to him in his subconscious? He totally breaks from reality. Or she knows that her son is now too far gone to save. Perhaps with Alex dead, she knows there’s no more need to protect him. Before the scene ends, Norman sees a vision of Norma, and she’s saying good-bye. You can’t hide from it.” In many ways, that’s what this season has been about: a young man unable to hide from his horrible crime. Alex’s last words are crucial: “You killed your own mother. And then Norman grabs Alex’s gun and shoots him twice. He lets up long enough to let Norman get the jump on him, smashing his stepfather with a rock. Norman tries to apologize, and Alex just starts pummeling him. Alex is crushed to see his wife’s mummified body in the snow. After battering Norman around a bit and pointing a gun at his head, they reach the spot in the woods where Norman left his mother. She’s understandably worried that an obviously unstable Alex is going to kill her, but he has enough remaining humanity to let her go before his final showdown with the stepson who killed the only woman he ever loved.Īs Greene (Brooke Smith) gets every cop in the county after Alex and Norman, the pair get closer to their inevitable end game, set in the woods with the body of Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga). The office manager that Alex (Nestor Carbonell) kidnapped along with Norman Bates is crying. It starts with a reminder of collateral damage. Ultimately, it is Dylan and Emma who escape, free to start their own family away from the nightmare of White Pine Bay. Think of the carnage left behind: Caleb, Chick, Romero, and both Norman and Norma Bates are dead. We saw how much Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) has changed over the course of the show, and were reminded just how much has been lost. They produced an hour that was more melancholy than action-packed, reminding us that this is a tragedy more than anything else. As they have so many times in the last two seasons of Bates Motel, which were easily the series’ best, the writers of this underrated program took their time in their final episode. Series finales often feel desperate to please, rushing to a finish line in a way that leaves audiences dissatisfied.
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