Bates Motel: Romero Will Likely Die, But Will Norma Join Him?

With only two episodes left in Season 4 of A&E’s ‘Bates Motel’, it’s becoming more apparent that Norman Bates will likely be getting rid of Sheriff Romero by way of murder. But will Norma Bates join her new husband? Marriage is till death do us part after all.

The following contains many spoilers for Season 4 of ‘Bates Motel’. If you haven’t gotten caught up with the A&E show, I’d advise you check into a different motel until you’re current on Bates, and then return when you know your way around the Bates property.

Poor Norman. The psychologically damaged guy can’t seem to catch a break.

A Boy’s Best Friend Is His Mother- Norman Bates (Hitchcock’s Psycho

After his brother took Emma, and now with Sheriff Romero both madly in love and married to his beloved mother, Norma, it seems that Norman’s more alone than he’s ever been. Maybe he should’ve just stayed in Pineview after all.

If you watched last week’s Unfaithful, the best episode in the entire Bates Motel cannon, you’ll no doubt remember the tense dinner scene between Norman, Norma, and the biggest threat to Norman’s happiness, Sheriff Alex Romero. It’s a brilliant moment of television that’s a prime example of how to take an old horror property and do it justice.

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The scene ends with Norman telling Romero he venomously hates him, while simultaneously implying what he would really like to do is murderously strike the town sheriff with an ax, current lodged in Norman’s hand, that would make Mr. Voorhees proud.

Now that Norman knows Romero and Norma not only are deeply in love, but have become sexually involved as well, it’s made Norman completely lose it. The result will likely spell the end for Alex Romero, but will the beautiful Norma follow her new husband to the grave?

The answer: both yes and no. Both possibilities are likely. Here’s why.

My immediate, knee-jerk, response is to yell out a resounding yes. If you’re familiar with what ends up happening with Norma in Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary Psycho, you’ll remember that her eternal home in the classic 1960 film is the dark dank basement of the Bates’ huge, Victorian-style, home.

Bates Motel wouldn’t be a prequel if Norma didn’t end up a skeletal mess, with Norman eventually going full-on Norma with a kitchen knife in one hand and a vacancy log in the other. So, we certainly know that she’s going to die in the A&E series, but the real question is when. Will it be this Season? That’s where it gets tricky.

Sometimes, television studios renew a show for two additional seasons in a single moment. While this practice isn’t necessarily the norm for TV, it often happens; it happened with Bates Motel.

So going into the last two episodes, we know that a fifth Season will be happening next year on A&E. With this, its unlikely that Norma will end up biting it this soon. While she’ll no doubt be involved somehow in the hypothetical killing of Romero, she’ll probably be around till at least the first half of Season 5.

Next: ‘Bates Motel’: Norman Learns The Meaning Of ‘Unfaithful’

Then again, A&E could go in a mind-blowing direction with the next season and have the show go Psycho by having Norman fully assume the identity of his mother. It’s been rumored that Season 5 will be the end of Bates Motel, and if the last Season plays out basically like a remake of Psycho, I would be happier than Leatherface in a hardware store. A Horror Head can hope right?

So what do you think? Will Norma be dead by the end of Season 4?

Keeping up with A&E’s Bates Motel? Excited to see where the series goes after Monday’s Unfaithful? Tune in to Bates Motel at 9/8c Mondays, Only on A&E. Don’t forget to sound off below with your comments, opinions and insights so we can keep this Bates conversation going.

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