Bates Motel: Midnight Recap

So Norma and Sheriff Romero are totally my Bates Motel OTP right now. Just so everyone knows this.

Also, this is the season finale. How crazy is that? Ten episodes in and Norman Bates hasn’t really done much to make himself seem like Norman Bates. He hasn’t shanked any pretty girls. But man has this town they live in been crazy. Like super crazy. I can’t keep up with half the stuff that’s going on and has anyone ever explained why there was a man on fire in the middle of town that one time strung up for everyone to see?

It’s crazy.

Getting back to the matter at hand though…

The finale began with Norma bursting into the police department to talk to Romero about the threats she had gotten from the creepy guy formerly in room nine. She told the man she’d meet him with the money Keith owed him but she doesn’t have the money and doesn’t have enough of her own money to give to him either. But Romero just tells her, “I’ll take care of it.” Nothing will happen to Norma or the boys. Romero will handle it. Oh, Sheriff Romero.

Back at home, Norma talks to Dylan and asks him if he can get her a gun and teach her to use it. She tells him about the threats and going to Romero and that she doesn’t trust Romero. But obviously Dylan knows that if Romero says he’s going to do something to take care of the crime in his town he will. Norma keeps begging though and he refuses. Meanwhile Romero goes into his garage and grabs an old duffel bag full money and seems to prepare to “take care of it.” He also talks to Keith’s sister who was involved into the whole sex slavery operation to try and find the guy from number nine.

At school, Norman finds Emma standing sadly and looking at the banner for the winter formal. She wants to go but no one asked her so Norman says he’ll go with her. Emma tells him it would be lame and that he’s only asking because they are friends. Which he acknowledges is true and they both sort of laugh and agree to go together. Later, when he is walking through the halls Norman sees his teacher Miss Watson crying in a classroom and yelling at someone who is bothering her. He tells her that he doesn’t want to publish his story and she asks if it’s because of Norma. But he just shrugs it off and she begs him not to tell anyone about what she was yelling about and who she was yelling at. Then she hugs him kinda awkwardly.  Yeahhhhh. C’mon Blue Fairy. Get your shit together.

As the day goes on Norma is pretty much desperate to get a hold of the situation and she goes to the psychiatrist from earlier and talks to him. But it doesn’t really help much. They talk about how Norman leaving for college potentially will effect her. Then he asks her some stuff about being young and what she remembers and it clearly seems to bother her. She fakes being sick so she could take off. Or maybe she is sick.  Who knows with her. The whole ‘childhood’ bit really does mess with her apparently, though.

She goes home and Emma and Norma talk about the dance and dresses and things. While doing so, Emma notices and old scar that seems to brother Norma when she brings it up. So Norma leaves to go back to the house when Dylan shows up with a gun and takes her out to teach her how to shoot. Norma acts a bit like a child but it’s a good little bonding moment for the two of them. She finds out what he does for a living and though she doesn’t approve of it she doesn’t make that big of a deal about it. Funny enough, Norma turns out to be a fairly decent shot. And Dylan even calls her Mom. Awwwwww.

But he also reminds her that he really ought to trust Romero. He gets things done.

Later, Dylan and Norma have returned home as Norman is getting ready for the dance. Bradley comes over and starts talking to Dylan about her father and the affair she learned he was having with someone with the initial ‘B.’ Norman misses the fact that she’s upset and instead fumes over the fact that the two of them are getting so close. He gets angry and later starts shouting at everyone when he can’t find black socks for the dance and just seems agitated.

Then, for some reason, Norma is sitting downstairs with him waiting for Emma to come when she drops the bomb that she was sexually abused by her brother for years. It’s been bothering her since the psychiatrist asked her to remember her childhood, I guess, and she says she wants someone to know about it in case something happens to her. Though, you know, if she did die meeting with the guy from number nine and that was the last thing Norman had ever heard his mother say? That’d be messed up. Anyway Norman starts crying, they both get emotional… and then Emma shows up and Norma goes back to pretending she’s okay and is completely happy go lucky and what not.

Later that night, Norma takes her gun to the docks to meet the man who used to be in number nine. When she gets there, though, Sheriff Romero pulls up and she hides. Romero confronts the man and he leaves the bag there on the dock for him to get. He sort of lulls him into a sense of security talking about business and what not. Then when the man reaches for the bag of of money Romero shoots him multiple times. He falls into the water and then Romero throws the bag in after him saying, “Not in my town.” Then he says, “You can go home now, Norma.” And she pops up out of her hiding place. All he says is that when he tells her to trust him she should trust him.

Go Romero. He learned the truth about his shitbag friend Keith and didn’t hold it against her. He may be in bed with some of the town criminals but still. He’s got some sense of decency.

At the dance Emma and Norman seem to have a fairly good time. Norman, of course, is way too attentive of Bradley and Emma gets upset so she leaves. Then Bradley’s weird looking boyfriend to come ‘have a talk’ with him outside. He punches Norman and tells him to stay away from her and blames Norman for taking advantage of Bradley. So Norman, upset, leaves and starts walking home with this really massive cut on his face. Like, it’s bad. Almost stitches bad. As he’s walking along Miss Watson drives by and picks him up.

They go back to her place where she cleans up his face and then goes into the next room to change. In full view of Norman. Norman gets totally turned on by it (I mean, I guess the Blue Fairy is attractive) and his crazy starts to show. There’s some phantom version of Norma in his head telling him that she’s a dirty slut or whatever and trying to seduce him. He’s yelling at the apparition which probably means that it’s all going on in his head. Of course this internal dialogue gets super serial killer-y when Norma says, “Norman, you know what you have to do.”

I don’t know. What DO you have to do, Norman?

The next thing we see is him running through the rain and meeting up with Norma back at the hotel when she gets back from the dock. He tells her about Emma getting upset and leaving and then that all he remembers is running back home in the rain. So. Not going to the teacher’s house. Or, as it turns out, murdering her. Because the last thing we see this season is Miss Watson’s body half naked on the floor in her bedroom, throat slit, wearing a necklace with a B on it…

Yeah.

So, that was the season. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I think I like that the show didn’t feature Norman running around killing people. He’s not supposed to be that far gone just yet. And I think that it makes a lot of sense to see how messed up this town is and how likely it was that of all the stuff going no no one would realize that adult Norman was murdering women left and right. But yeah. I love the way they handled and updated the story.

Really, I just love Dylan. And I even love Norma as much as she annoys me sometimes.

I’m really glad that the show got renewed for another season, though, because this would have been a rather disappointing ending to the season. Now that we know we know we’ll get more out of the show, we can accept that Miss Watson was just the beginning…

The finale leaves a lot of questions as to what will happen next season. Namely whether or not Norma will put two and two together and realize that Norman murdered this woman (she probably will) and whether or not Romero and Norma will ever get together because OMG they should. Also, I just want more answers about this freakin’ town. And to know whether or not Norman will end up killing Bradley. Because I assume that he will.

Also: will Gunner the cute pothead who needs to get with Emma come back?