Except he survives, and she lives on in his hallucinations. Guess who that backfires on when he attempts a murder-suricide by turning up the gas heater way too high so they can die in each other’s arms by morning. In the guise of “protecting” Norman, Norma dictates what she wants him to remember and what she doesn’t after a psychotic break. Even after Norma herself has been dead for a while, she becomes an accessory to murder when she tells him exactly how to clean up the blood after he slashes Sam Loomis’ (Austin Nichols) throat in one of the motel bathrooms. He manhandles the girl and bashes her head against a rock. The problem is that “Mother” will not be replaced or tolerate Norman escaping her perfectly manicured fingernails, so she orders him to kill Bradley in another psychotic break. The same thing happens with former high school crush Bradley Martin (Nicola Peltz) as she and Norman get ready to take off together. Miss Watson is hardly Norman (and Norma’s) last victim. He literally gets away with murder because he can only see one answer to the question of who murdered Blaire Watson. When news of the murder hits the papers, she insists on his innocence, even as flashbacks of a bloody knife have him questioning what happened. His mother later takes advantage of the memory lapse that always ensues after one. After she seduces him, he sees a vengeful Norma, who never wants her son to grow up or replace her with another woman, during one of the psychotic breaks he calls “blackouts”. You could argue Miss Watson (Keegan Connor Tracy) is murdered by the hand of Norma in the form of her son. This might be true in the sense that she birthed him, but anything beyond that is disturbing. As he turns down more and more invites because of “Mother” this and “Mother” that, Norma becomes his reason for existing. Norma also has Norman trained to put her above anything or anyone else. He reluctantly obliges because “Mother” keeps insisting how much he loves singing, when she is actually the one who loves singing, and that it would be a positive experience for their relationship, meaning a convenient way to keep him under her control.Īlso, can we talk about how creepy it is whenever Norman says “Mother”? it comes off as almost robotic and just seems inherently wrong. In a reversal of this scenario, Norman has no desire to audition for the local production of South Pacific. She refuses to sign the forms and then convinces Norman he is better off not joining the team because his grades will suffer. Norma is apoplectic when he breaks this to her over dinner. She is horrified whenever he shows the slightest sign of autonomy, such as when his English teacher Miss Watson suggests he try out for the track team. Norma manages to brainwash Norman into thinking what she wants is what he wants. Sounds more like he needs to be protected from her. As the entire town starts to realize something is off, Norma waves away suspicions by insisting her son is so fragile that he constantly needs her protection. The epic kiss that ended Season 2 says otherwise. She insists she is trying to “protect” him. Never mind the creepy Oedipal overtones of Norman creeping into her bed far too often. Even when Norman is in the house, she needs to know where he is and what he’s doing, though he can usually be found making taxidermy out of roadkill in the basement. In this A&E series, which premiered in 2013, Norma takes being her son’s overlord to the extreme. Maybe all the blue and skeletons in her closet were in the wash on those days. Like most teenage boys, Norman seems to throw on whatever is clean unless it’s his mother’s robe, but she is usually in something blue, except, ironically, for her sham wedding to Sheriff Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell) and a few other random occasions. In a scene that betrays her deathgrip on Norman early on, Norma lights up the new Bates Motel sign after dark and, in an eerie haze of neon, tells him she decided on blue because it’s his favorite color. It is almost too obvious she has already been trying to keep him in a time capsule, supposedly for his own protection, long before he ever sets foot in a new high school. Norman is 17 when he and Norma first arrive in White Pine Bay. She wants to preserve him in the formaldehyde of childhood forever and ever without allowing the inevitable to happen. As Norman (Freddie Highmore) fumbles through adolescence, climbing out his window to meet girls and at least attempting to date, his mother does everything in her power to keep him from going through puberty.
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