A&E’s psyche-twisting, jaw-dropping series Bates Motel is scheduled to launch its fifth installment this month — drawing from chilling, past plots and projecting the ongoing empire into heightened show time success.
On Feb. 20, Bates fans will be reacquainted with Norma and Norman Bates, and all their subsequent sideshows — the supporting characters who always seem to adjust their quality of life around the mother-son duo’s agenda.
Set in coastal White Pine Bay — a bustling small town with an unorthodox business base — the series shows the Bates family’s transition into the world of small business ownership.
Migrating to the town after the strange death of her husband, Norma refurbishes a run-down local inn into the unsurprisingly named “Bates Motel.”
It’s an authentic name, but one that puts a direct target on the family’s back.
A small town, White Pine Bay is run by a handful of last names – perpetuating a community where delinquency is the norm and nothing dares question it.
Tiny town mentalities draw in and local elites take action, forging personal and professional jabs at the already dysfunctional family: A major highway to deter business, caustic threats to the family’s wellbeing and unwarranted break-ins.
Survival becomes a way of life – crime becoming a tactic of survival.
Norma’s eldest works his way up in the ranks of the town’s booming marijuana business and, Norman — the developing precursor to the main character of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” — finds his own validation, masked in a love for supporting his mother’s business.
The Oedipus-like dynamic between Norma and Norman grows to become the show’s focal point as seasons unfold and, while long-time fans know there’s a clearly inappropriate dynamic between the two, it’s hard to tell if it’s all fueled by Norma’s troubled past or Norman’s strengthening, and dangerous, mental condition.
Along the way, people come in and out of the Bates’ lives, but seldom do those faces stick around.
Whether with ill intent or not, the pair’s bond always triumphs and, so, jealousy often takes over — taking a more felonious form on Norman’s part.
In season four, only two characters stuck around through the madness: Alex Romero, the town’s police chief, and Emma Decody, an inquisitive young girl – somehow thriving dynamic relationships with each of the Bates.
Romero, susceptible to Norma’s seduction, and Emma, tuned into the strange happenings right outside the hotel’s office door, grow increasingly aware of Norma and Norman’s dangerous co-dependency as the season progresses. In conclusions built, excuses are made and wrongdoings excused.
It’s a deadly game of denial in protecting those you love — or those you think you love.
The biggest crime served is inevitably committed on Norman’s part, leaving him alone, but in complete denial – all he needs to feel accompanied.
Now, the scandalous plot with shocking developments returns — possibly finishing out the character’s stories, while introducing new characters along the way.
So far, it’s been announced that Rihanna will be added to the mix, playing Marion Crane, an original Psycho character — likely with a different fortune in this sequel series.
While season five of Bates promises the answering of season four’s impending cliffhangers and long-term confusion on what the hell’s wrong with that kid Norman, it’ll likely afford some of the wildest twists and turns yet.
Norman ended season four alone, for the first time ever.
But in his world of delirium, “mother” is there through it all — rationalizing the irrational from her warm, “wake up” nudge to evening’s potpie.
mcgurllt14@bonaventure.edu
