OhBates Motel what haveyoudone?
Marion Crane… lives!
Norman Bates doesnt kill her, going full stabby-Mother-stab-stab on Sam Loomis instead.
Credit: Cate Cameron/A&E
And then… she convinces him to kill.
All tracks lead to the same finish line, but the courses play out in oh-such-different ways.
Norman has killed before… and if Sams demise proves anything, hell kill again.
Norman Bates cant outrun his past, nor canBates MoteloutrunPsycho.
But its sure making a wild ride of the race.
But that can be set aside momentarily for some professional hospitality.
Marion tells Norman shes in town to meet her boyfriend: Yknow, the things we do for love.
Yes I do indeed, says Norman, thinking of his mother rather than his girlfriend.
WasPsychosNorman dealing with the same crisis of clarity when Marion came into his life thatBatesNorman is?
For example, you might not know that Mother immediately recommends sourdough for a ham sandwich rather than wheat.
What kind of game are we playing tonight, Norman?
Mother asks in an echo of Normans own game play questions from earlier in the series.
So I think I can manage running a hotel.
Oh Norman how simultaneously right and wrong you are.
I made you up.
My mother is not here.
Mother says he cant outmaneuver her, and Norman replies that hell prove she has no power over him.
And then he heads to see Marion Crane about a sandwich.
Oh, and was this slight variant on the parlor scene fromPsychoan ever-unfolding delight.
(And boy does she not know how narrowly shes avoiding bird status.)
A weird thing to say, bro!
Now its off to bed with Marion in lucky Room No.
Marion calls back and gets his voicemail: Sam, cut the s!
No, this is not your 1960 Marion Crane.
Much like in the film, Norman watches Marion undress.
He watches as she goes to the shower and turns on the water.
He turns away, and almost looks like hes smiling.
He hears Mother: Im with you Norman, dont forget that.
This is why you need me.
Suddenly, were watching Marion showering from overhead.
Shes facing up into the water!
Theres the swirling drain shot!
The music is swelling!
She hears the door!
We know whats coming!
We see her silhouette through the curtain and then… Marion cuts her shower short, rips back the curtain and says, Screw this s!
Bold defiance looks good on Marion Crane.
I know his wife.
Oh, Marion does not like that.
As much as she knows somethings up, she tells Norman she knows hes wrong.
And then she sees them Sam hugging Madeleine, his wife, trying to calm her down.
So do you know what this Marion does?
She takes a tire iron out of the back of her Miata and smashes the window of his car.
Then she smashes another window.
Then the hood again.
What the hell do youthinkshes doing, man?!
Has Sam been huffing every single can of paint in the hardware store?
This guy is a stone cold dumb-dumb.
I know her and she wouldnt do that!
Oh no, shes back!
So he heads straight for the refrigerator and says hes making his own dinner.
Mother says thats stupid.
No, whatsstupidis eating pretend food!
Now lets cue up for the line of the night from Mother…
Nothing like a crazy person announcing their own clarity.
Norman repeats I made you up!
And just like his mother would, Mother hugs him and says shes there to take care of him.
The camera zooms out to show Norman standing in a destroyed kitchen, hugging thin air.Yikes-a.
Ive been a good person.
And where has it gotten me?
Well, Marion, its gotten you here, standing on the precipice of being brutally murdered.
But despite the breakdown in the kitchen, Norman is trying his damnedest not to let that happen.
Oh, and that sets Norman just a-twitching.
Hes smelling her hair?
Hes fighting off turning into his homicidal mother personality?
He tell her she cant be that person.
Unspoken, is that Norman is terrified of the personhellbe if she doesnt go.
She says shes scared, and Norman tells her, You know whats scarier?
Being trapped inside yourself, a private trap, and never getting what you want.
With a hug and a thank you, Marion Crane walks away from Norman Bates alive.
But it was not without great effort, and now its time to pay the piper.
But not without one doozy of a Norman/Mother/Freddie/Vera scene first.
Mother is the creation of a little boys mind that has grown with him into a young man.
We are two parts of the same person, both very real, she tells him.
Its what youwantedto do to your father.
Of course, its what Mother ultimatelydiddo to his father because Norman couldnt.
And now its what Mother wants Norman to do to Sam in the other room.
Hes a bad man like your father was, Mother says.
Hes hurting innocent women like your mother… youre not too little now, Norman.
And in this case, it is an utter tragedy: Oh, Motherwhat have I done?
