Bates Motel: Season 4 Leans into Psycho's "Impending Doom"

"Eventually the rug will be ripped away from beneath the audience's feet."

Full spoilers for the first three seasons of Bates Motel continue below.

The closer Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) gets to Mother on Bates Motel, the more troubled his relationship with his actual mother Norma (Vera Farmiga) is going to become.

When Bates Motel returns with Season 4 on March 7, it's going to be picking up not long after Norman's huge Season 3 finale mental break where he fully took on the Mother persona and killed Bradley (Nicola Peltz). That's the starting point for a big emotional schism between Norman and his actual mother, who is struggling to do right by her special needs child.
Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates on Bates Motel

Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates on Bates Motel

"Just when you thought it couldn't get worse..." Farmiga said with a laugh during a recent visit to Bates Motel's set. "The thing about them -- and I think what really is going to separate this season from all of the rest -- is up until now they've been so interconnected. What I think is what we're going to be seeing is autonomy this year and separation and a disconnectedness."

With Season 5 being the final season of the A&E show, Bates Motel is getting closer and closer to its seemingly inevitable end: the events of Psycho. There will be even more Psycho references in Season 4, including the bunny that eventually appears in that movie and another big nod that Highmore proudly said he wrote into his forthcoming episode.

But the bigger tie-in to Bates Motel's inspiration is the way the show is evolving Norman as a character to the place where audiences meet him in Psycho.

"I think it is great as an actor to have that sense of impending doom because you can play against it and that's what the writing is so clever at doing as well," Highmore said. "You can set Norman up to be the nicest guy possible because in the back of people's minds as they watch is the sense of, 'We know what is really going to happen.' So it is fun to make him as charming and as lovable as far as possible, and so far it is possible, and then eventually the rug will be ripped away from beneath the audience's feet."
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First, Bates Motel is going to deal with Norma trying to get help for her son. When Season 4 picks up, Norma is frantic to get Norman the medical help he needs, and the show is going to toy with the idea that Norman's issues can be resolved, even if the audience knows they're probably not in for a happy ending.

"It is an attempt to analyze in greater depth what is actually wrong with Norman. I guess that is the first step towards the point which we know will never arrive, that one with Norman finally recovering and being better, and that first step is understanding exactly what goes on inside his head," said Highmore. "So that is a big part of the season. Both Norman himself and other people are trying to help him and really trying to get out of whatever condition it is that we may find that he has."

He added, "Norman's storyline this season is less about being tied in with a sort of overarching plot, and it's more this quest for self-discovery and also discovery about who his mother really is and what her priorities are."

Highlighting Norman's descent into madness is the character of Mother, who both Highmore and Farmiga play. This is a character Bates Motel has been gradually introducing over the years, before she fully took over Norman in the murder of Bradley. But is that scene actually as clear-cut as it seemed? Bates Motel: Season 4 will toy with perspective to blur the line between what Mother is or isn't doing, which is going to be as confusing for Norman as it is for the audience.
Vera Farmiga as Norma Bates in Bates Motel Season 4.

Vera Farmiga as Norma Bates in Bates Motel Season 4.

"You're going to be seeing Freddie playing her, you're going to be seeing me playing her, and then combining those two performances based on nuance and integrity and earnesty and invention. It's difficult, those scenes, and it's competitive because essentially we're playing the same character," said Farmiga with a laugh.

Explained Highmore, "I think there's a Machiavellian side to Norman that we will see developing this year which is all about sort of self-preservation -- making sure that Norman is the one who will survive, as we know he must -- and that side of him is very much brought out with the development of this Mother character who appears to him more and more, this imaginary version of her, and she will do sort of whatever it takes to make sure that Norman will be around forever."

Real-life Norma is also desperate to protect her son, and Farmiga describes the Season 4 version of her character as "stronger and bolder and [emerging] like a phoenix" with the wisdom she's attained from "all the harrowing events of the last several years." That's not to say there's no trouble ahead, though. Norma's two rocks -- older son Dylan (Max Thieriot) and Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell) -- are going to offer their own obstacles for the Bates matriarch this year.

Of Dylan, Farmiga teased, "[Norma] doesn’t like to be left alone, and I think Dylan is sort of discovering and working towards autonomy and creating his own life and creating a version of a life and a family that works for him. And what does that mean for Norma potentially? It means that she’s being left again and she’s being abandoned. Even though she’s emerging so much wiser and stronger, the defense mechanisms automatically enflare because she has been abandoned. She interprets it more as betrayal and aloneness, so that’s going to be an interesting relationship to watch unfold."
Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore on Bates Motel

Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore on Bates Motel

And as for the seeming romance between Norma and Romero, Farmiga cautioned not to go into Season 4 with expectations.


When asked about any romantic possibilities for Norman in Season 4, Highmore said the only one there could be with his mother: "I think that is the real romance of Bates Motel. It has always been Norma and Norman, and I think as the season develops, it's sort of just the realization dawns that the two of them will always have to be together and have to rely on each other."

Expect that to cause some trouble for Romero as well. "Norman's attitude towards Sheriff Romero will pit the two of them against each other as the season draws to a close," teased Highmore.

Bates Motel premieres Monday, March 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on A&E.

Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN and has survived a visit to the Bates Motel twice. Follow her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.

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Bates Motel Image

Bates Motel

Release DateSeptember 17, 2013