REVIEW: Bates Motel, Season 4 Episode 10 'Norman'

 REVIEW: Bates Motel, Season 4 Episode 10 'Norman'

At the end of my review for the previous episode, I mentioned how I didn't believe Norma (Vera Farmiga) was dead. With a fifth season yet to watch on iPlayer, it just seemed extremely unlikely that they would have killed the character off in the penultimate episode of this season rather than in an episode of the last. Particularly as it felt as though Norma still had places to go on her character journey. She still had to learn to listen to the people around her about their concerns regarding Norman (Freddie Highmore) so I had assumed the last season would have been Norman on a murderous rampage whilst Norma tries to get him submitted back into the care home.

It seems that's not the case however, as the episode opens with Norma very much dead. Norman seems very much unaware that he was the cause, having lit the broken furnace, which suggests he had another blackout, and blames it entirely on Alex's (Nestor Carbonell) relationship with Norma. This sets up a brutal feud between the pair, both besotted with love for the woman who they have lost. It's such a dramatically complex and emotionally charged situation, with Alex technically speaking being Norman's Stepdad, whilst also becoming his greatest enemy.

Poor Alex has it tough this episode. Not only does he have to deal with his wife's dead, but he also finds out how she was planning to divorce him in the space of such a short space of time. That would be a terrible situation for anybody to go through, and the episode really plays with how this affects Alex on an emotional level. He's full of this intense hatred for Norman, who he rightly assumes to be the reason for Norma's death, he puts the ring back on her body only for Norman to remove it, and he finds himself banned from the funeral because in regards to his marriage to Norma, Norman has practically won. He knows his mother was planning a divorce, he knows it wasn't going to last and he can use that power over Alex.

Of course Alex isn't the type to give up however, and he shows up at the funeral regardless, leading to a full on brawl in the church between stepdad and stepson. This has to be the most disastrous funeral on television. It makes a funeral on Coronation Street look normal. It makes for a really captivating fight to witness though, seeing these two shady individuals who have both committed murders coming to blows at the one place where respect and not hate is expected. There's something quite dark and macabre about turning a funeral into this place where a fight breaks out, given the expectations a funeral setting has bestowed on it to be a place of peace and remembrance.

Alex just doesn't seem to have had many good breaks lately. The past episode seemed a bad day for the poor Sheriff, but what transpires here is even worse for him. In the days since his wife's passing, he not only learns of her plans to divorce him, ends up banned from the funeral, turns up to said funeral despite the ban and finds himself brawling with Norman, he also finds himself arrested for his actions in the drug trade. It shouldn't really come as a surprise given that events catching up to him has been teased all throughout the last season, but it still comes as a shock to see this character thrown behind bars. He has fallen so hard, although I'm sure this will be far from the last time we see him. I still strongly suspect Norman will kill him under the guise of 'Mother'.

Especially as Norman is at his most disturbed. In probably the most spine-chilling scene to date, Norman - unable to process the loss of Norma and why he isn't seeing the visions of 'Mother' - decides to dig up his mother's grave, and take her body back to the motel. This is so incredibly grotesque to watch, as we witness Norman even prise open her eyes and see the empty sockets of his dead Mum stare back. When Chick Hogan (Ryan Hurst) pops round and shows some genuine concern, he tries to hide her corpse from view, which implies that he has some level of understanding of how gross his actions are, but I suspect that Chick did spot the corpse laying on the couch, as he seemed to realise that Norman wasn't accepting she was gone.

What's surprising is how little Vera Farmiga gets to do in this episode. She appears briefly at the beginning in some quick flashback sequences from Norman's childhood, she opens her eyes briefly as the corpse when Norman pleads with her to com back (but of course this is one of Norman's visions) and she returns at the end as Norman's 'Mother' vision playing the piano, but apart from these instances this is largely a Farmiga-lite episode. Which is a crying shame, because Vera Farmiga has been absolutely outstanding as Norma Bates, but I guess sometimes less is more, and by giving us less of Vera Farmiga here it leaves a greater dramatic impact when she shows up. It's important in terms of the storytelling of this episode to show Norman struggling without his mother, and that wouldn't really work if he was still regularly getting the visions of her brought on from his mental issues. 

Overall, 'Norman' is a fantastic conclusion to the fourth season. Providing some moments of emotional pathos and also some of the creepiest scenes in Bates Motel history, it's a testament to the enormous amounts of work and creativity involved that this series continues to be this good. Who knew that a Psycho prequel could work so well?

What are your thoughts on the last episode of Bates Motel's fourth season? Let me know in the comments.