Synopsis:

Norman spends the day with a surprising visitor; Norma struggles to keep secrets under wraps; and at the farm, Caleb helps Dylan follow through on a good deed, but there's a cost.

Season 3, Episode 9

This season has flown by. I was productive for this episode and added five minutes to the DVR.

Damn, Nicola is a hot little piece, isn't she? And what a shift of gears, from Norman about to get some to the hallucination of mom. That shot of him walking away alone with his arm out was awesome.

There's no doubt now Emma is in love with Dylan. Wait till she finds out about what he did for her. It's ironic that Dylan, the product of something so awful, turned out to be the most upright character.

Romero... damn. His scenes with Norma were all $$$

Am I alone in thinking that Norman has Bradley stuffed and mounted somewhere?

Probably.

That scene at her house, when she saw how her mother had completely moved on, was heartbreaking. The show has all kinds of scenes of insanity but rarely does it have one where your heart sinks for a character like that.

And something tells me things will end badly for that DA because she will ask all the wrong questions. Just her grilling of Romero in his office alone was awkward.

This year has truly been exceptional. Pretty amazing that Dylan has become sort of the moral center of the story, but even more impressive is that it is completely believable within the story. Norman has become truly scary and even Norma finally truly sees it. Such great acting all around in this episode. Emma's father's reaction was perfect when he was given the money. If I were him, not sure I would keep Dylan's secret. Vera and Nestor have ridiculous chemistry together. They should be cast together in other TV and move projects. Fantastic show. Petrified it will be cancelled. Hopefully it is far enough along to get the final two seasons.

I spent the 1st 2 seasons thinking Dylan was dead weight. I am completely shocked that he is so vital to the story now, but this season really took the character to another level.

This was another great episode. I especially liked that super intense scene with Norma and Alex. Those 2 may be the death of me...and each other.

This season has been fantastic. I am not ok with the thought of it ending next week.

I hope not and each season is only 10 episodes and it must not be that expensive to produce.

The Norma blackouts with his mom talking to him are the best scenes.

Yeah, the seasons are shorter and the show is filmed in Canada, which IIRC tax breaks and other financial incentives are given if a few Canadian actors are hired for production. So far on this show, most of the major roles are played by non-Canadians. SyFy's remake of Being Human filmed in Canada and they got some heat for hiring several inexperienced Canadian actors.

That said, I think Bates Motel will get a season 4. Have the EPs ever talked about how long the show may last?

I don't see why A&E would cancel the series. I'm not sure how well it does in the ratings but it seems popular and its one of their only original scripted shows. I don't think the series has a confirmed end but some people in a thread for another episode mentioned one of the show runners views it as a five season series which seems about right to me.

As far as this week's episode I thought it was great yet again. The stuff with Dylan and Emma is good but it seems obvious it's not going to end well for one or both of them when Norman finds out. Dylan has become the most likable character at this point I agree. Curious if Caleb is actually leaving after beating the shit out of the mountain man or if he'll be back. I'm not a huge fan of the character but it doesn't seem like his story is really wrapped up fully to me.

The stuff with Bradley was okay. I felt bad for her when her and Norman went back to her house and her mother seemingly has completely moved on already. At the same time though I'm not sure what she expected after faking her death and trying to show up like nothing happened. Not sure if I really understand the point in bringing back her character and I'm wondering if she'll just end up another victim of Norman or what the writers have in mind for her.

Norman continues to get worse. The scene with Norma cleaning out his taxidermy projects from the basement and Norman acting threatening to her he came off very creepy and I felt like he was on the verge of doing something to her. The scene at the end with him having a full on conversation with "Norma" was good too. He's definitely going more out of his mind it seems like, hence the title of this week's episode I suppose. The stuff with Norma and Romero is good too.

Sad to see Norma bagging up Norman's pets.

Does Norman identify so closely with his mom that he's beginning to think they both possess the same identity? Is the cross-dressing an identity crisis or just his way of keeping Norma around when she disappears (not looking ahead to the original movie)?

What if none of the events shown are really happening and all of this is going on in Norman's mind?

I can't wait for the scene when Norman digs up Norma's corpse then takes it down to the basement and prepares the body for display in her bedroom window.

It's dropped about 20 percent in viewership between Season 2 and Season 3. I can't imagine A&E not bringing it back, but stranger things have happened.

I'm pretty sure Cuse said 5.

This season has been, by far, their best season. Crazy Norman is great. Every scene with him and Vera is fantastic. I'll be quite irked if this one doesn't get picked up for s4.

I don't see this going away. What a great season. If they are truly looking at a 5 season arc then they are almost there. Would love to see this whole thing pan out till what becomes the psycho movie.

Yeah I have a hard time seeing A&E cancelling the series even if the ratings are down a bit. They don't have a lot going on as far a scripted shows go and I would think with the upcoming Damien series they might want to keep it around to pair the two together.