5 Sickening Questions I’m Still Left With By the End of Bates Motel

1. Did Norma secretly want Emma to die?

Yes. Absolutely, she definitely did.

From the first interaction between Norma and Emma where she decides it's fine for Norman to date her because it’s only temporary:

Norma: What is your life expectancy Emma? (Who asks this? And you can see Norman and Dylan grimacing in the background)

Emma: Maybe 27

Norma: (Face lights up and smiles at Norman) Why don't you two go upstairs and do your homework...

Following a number of sweet interactions between the two; Norma consoling Emma after Norman blows her off, Emma snitching about Bradley to Norma, the two going on a stakeout of the yoga studio, Emma getting a job at the motel and Emma getting motherly advice about her first time. You begin to see a sweet blossoming friendship between the two as Emma begins to see Norma as a motherly figure in her life, often relying on her for support and advice.

But by the end of S2 Emma tells Norma that she has decided to leave because she feels a disconnect between them. The family has been secretive about their sketchy incest pasts and their recent ties to the seedy marijuana business in town and Emma can no longer take it. This is the confrontation:

Emma: I know technically I'm not a member of your family. I just think you'd be better off without me around. Always asking questions and bugging you and just wanting to be included. (Tearing up)

Norma: That's such a shame that you'll be leaving us Emma. You've been such a big help. I understand.

Emma: You do?

Norma: Yeah, we'll miss you. (Slams the door in her face and internally thinks, "well don't let the doorknob hit ya where the good lord split ya.")

Emma: (sobs and thinks, "what the hell, I thought I was the daughter you never had.")

By S4 Dylan and Emma have started to date and Norma's relationship with Dylan has improved considerably since his first appearance. So when Dylan decides to move away with Emma to Seattle, Norma begins to reveal her true colours.

In S4:E7 Norma and Dylan catch up for several minutes and Norma invites Dylan and his girlfriend Emma to go Christmas tree shopping with her, which he agrees to. Then they say...

Dylan: I need to tell you something-

Norma: (Out of nowhere) Oh my God. Did Emma die?

Dylan: What? No! Jesus Norma!

Norma: (sighs and turns her head away in disappointment)

Dylan: No I already told you we'd go to the Christmas tree thing.

Norma: Oh right (still annoyed that Emma is alive)

It's both sweet and awful that she's at the stage of caring enough about Dylan (Norman level of caring) where she wants Emma to drop dead. Yikes but aww.

2. Did Norman as Norman Kill Blaire Watson?

Yes. Maybe. It’s confusing.

This could simply be explained by the writers being unclear of how to deal with the dissociative episodes and explaining it one way in S1 and changing it completely by S4. Or Norman changing the story to himself as a coping strategy since he was becoming suicidal after remembering what he did.

BLACKOUTS THROUGH THE SEASONS:

In S1-3 Norman would enter a blank state where he would only be able to carry out one simple task (hitting his dad over the head with the blender, trying to hit Dylan with the meat tenderiser or tackling Shelby) before going limp and not being able to respond for hours. And, sometimes he is acting out as himself in order to do more complex tasks (breaking in to Shelby's house to get the belt back and having sex with Miss Watson then murdering her) as if following his mothers orders which were a vague, “you know what you need to do.”

In the finale of S2 Mother appears to say that she was the one who killed Miss Watson so Norman can pass the lie detector test.

Then there is a shift in S4-5 where Mother shows awareness in that she is protecting Norman from knowing the details of the darker sides of his life. During the stripper scene in S4 we learn that Mother can act in sexual ways on Norman’s behalf which would make it plausible that “she” was the one who had sex with Miss Watson and then slit her throat.

3. Did Bradley’s mother seriously turn her room into a home gym?

No way. Absolutely not. The answer is no. This is one of the most infuriating things I've had to sit through and accept, because, it is so preposterous.

This is NOT a 2 bedroom house.

They expect us to believe that one tiny woman living in this GIANT house that is worth millions of dollars, purchased by the richest drug lord in town, got so desperate for space that she decided to turn her only daughter’s room (who has not even been “dead” for a year) into a home gym. It is painfully hilarious to think of Bradley saying that there's no place for her in this house when there is a fountain and an entire wing that can't fit into the shot. There must be several guest bedrooms, home cinemas, game rooms and sex dungeons probably (it is the Bates Motel after all). There is no way her mother would feel the need to change it so soon after her “death.”

Norman complains about the same thing in S4, “you made my room into a sewing room?”

Again, this is NOT a 3 bedroom house. But even if it is, she also has her own office, a DUNGEON and 12 empty motel rooms. How is a tiny woman getting so desperate for space in a house that giant, that she needs to alter her son's bedroom when he has only been gone for 2 weeks. A son who she knows will be back eventually. DYLAN DOES NOT EVEN LIVE THERE ANYMORE!

And what’s with Bradley deciding not to go home simply because her room was changed? I understand that it's just a plot point and that they needed a reason for Bradley to not go home so she could run off and have her head smashed in with a rock repeatedly. It's the same reason Norman was so offended that his mother used his room while he was away, just to cause needless tension between him and the new happily married Norma. I understand that we as viewers are supposed to understand the room altering thing to be this huge betrayal but, I can’t feel bad for these kids who live in palaces basically. I just can't.

4. Did Norman think that Julian was a human mental manifestation of his dead dog Juno?

Yes. I'm almost certain of this.

There is evidence that at the start of his stay at Pineview that Norman understands that he hallucinates and believes that his mind has invented the Julian character. Norman then proceeds to treat this human person as his dead dog because, he doesn't think he's real. Just to be clear, Julian is a real human character on the show which has been confirmed by Dr Edwards.

Every time you're introduced to a new character on the show, you're not always sure if they are real or just a figment of Norman's imagination. When Julian is first introduced, he pokes fun at the fact that they are in a mental institution by saying maybe he isn't real. This then plants a seed in Norman’s head that Julian doesn't exist. Because of the similarity between the names Julian and Juno, Norman decides that Julian must be a human manifestation of his dead dog.

Later interactions with Julian seem to be quite odd because Norman will often talk to him as if he is a dog.

S4:E4

Julian runs up to meet Norman when he sees him leave his room and puts his arm around him. Norman pulls his arm away and says he doesn’t have time. Julian stays back still staring at Norman hurt. Norman then whispers “hey, come on” and tilts his head to call him over. Julian walks up to meet him excited.

At first, it was hard to believe that he would allow someone to treat them this way, but considering Julian has issues of his own, the over eagerness to please Norman may just be a symptom. (I also thought he might have had a crush on him, but I don't anymore.)

After the fight at the strip club, Norman sees Julian and happily greets him. Julian is heavily bruised and doesn’t react to Norman at all. This could draw a parallel to when Norman saw Juno across the road and happily greeted him, leading the dog to cross the road and get hit by a car. Seeing Julian bruised proves to Norman that he is a person who exists thus, breaking the illusion that he is a human manifestation of Juno. This may have caused a flashback to the incident of his dead dog lying on the side of the road, prompting the need to be comforted. He then hallucinates his mother coming to see him directly after this interaction. It is fascinating that even the belief that he has been hallucinating is a sufficient source of comfort to him.

S4:E7

Julian: Nice cat by the way.

Norman: It's a dog. (Internally thinking, “it’s you, can’t you tell it’s you, I'm basically holding up a mirror dude.”)

Julian: It's cute that you care.

Beforehand, Norman asks Julian what he's making (it's a big spherical lump of paper) but he jokingly says that it's a self portrait. Norman laughs after the comment because he is the one making Julian/Juno. Norman cares (but it really isn’t cute at all) and finds this funny because Julian has been this dog to him throughout their entire relationship and Julian was never aware of it.

Julian walks out of the room and in this moment he comes face to face with Juno (his dog double). It’s a well known rule that when doppelgängers meet, the world must self-destruct or some sort of chaotic course of events must occur. And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as he leaves, Norman discovers the newspaper pieces of Romero and Norma with the news of their marriage (a.k.a. the beginning of the end).

5. Did Norman do “stuff” to Norma’s corpse?/ Is Norman's dick still intact?

I don't know any more... this is a dark turn... but I hope... it doesn’t matter... everyone dies.

When Romero's trying to find Norma's body he tells Norman, "I don't know what kind of sick fuck digs his mother's body out of a grave and moves it around, okay, and I don't want to know about it or what you did to it."

The "what you did to it" comment caught me off guard, I thought woah it's not like that with them, he has the wrong idea.

Then I thought maybe he has a point and I was being naive.

At first it seemed proposterous... the possibility that Norman had done something sexual with the corpse. Although, to mummify something, you have to pull out their guts and stuff (I'm not an expert) which is kind of gross. So if he's already dug up a grave, carried a dead body down to his basement and ripped out their internal organs, it's silly to think that he's suddenly going to draw the line at full blown incest and necrophilia.

Then I thought no way. He’s classy, he’s a gentleman(ish), it's different, taxidermy is art to him, he would never cross THAT line... but then I kept thinking and...

Sometimes you like to think Norman has standards despite being a psychosexual slayer of man. But, that’s a filthy lie...

1. End of S1 he was technically still inside Miss Watson when he slit her throat. That is necrophilia.

2. S3 he sneaks into his mother’s bedroom and caresses her bottom while she’s asleep. Also they've kissed a lot. That is incest.

So if you put the two together it’s right there.

But so what if Norman Bates is willing to do both incest and necrophilia? The woman is frozen. Biologically it’s unlikely. I repeat the woman is frozen. He would need to use tools; pliers, powerdrills, chainsaws and a hairdryer, maybe (I’m not an expert). And then it would be incredibly dangerous, when he finishes, he would get stuck inside and be trapped... unless...

And, you'd think surely when he wakes up he would notice. He would scream and think something terrible has happened, "I should get this checked out." But, remember his delusions have no bounds. The boy has been surviving on jam sandwiches and thinks that he's having a full home cooked dinner. He’s delirious. He’s not making great choices. It is not inconceivable that he constantly reimagines that his mangled penis from a night gone awry with his iced mummy is actually totally fine and not needing any medical attention.

EVIDENCE THAT "IT" MAY NOT BE THERE:

1. While watching through the peephole S5:E1, he conveniently gets a phone call from this "mother" and has to stop before he can pleasure himself. Conveniently.

2. While he’s “making a cake” with Madeleine, he conveniently imagines his "mother" slitting her throat and has to run out. Conveniently.

3. It’s revealed he frequents a gay bar.

This can all be explained by Mother simply being jealous and not wanting her innocent young boy to be tainted. Both Norma and Mother have put a stop to multiple sexual advances directed towards him throughout his life and long before Norma was mummified. So, I may be reading into this one too much.

Apologies for the imagery.