Review By Kamal K
For Finale Episode - 10/10 This Season - 9/10
Let me tell you what: When it comes to Bates Motel, the future is certainly not mine to see. In its final season, Bates Motel proved over and over again that it is one of the few series on television that can simultaneously subvert predictions, exceed expectations of which there were many, given its inescapable source material and make every shocking twist feel completely earned.
And us. In the last analysis, five seasons planned and five seasons completed, Bates Motel has done so right by its audience. For its entire final season, Alex Romero has been fighting his way back tooth and nail, stomach wound and prison fight, stolen car and hostage situation, to be able to get back to Norman Bates and kill him for what he did to the woman he loved. But what we know is that Norman didn't kill Norma, Mother did. What we know is that Norman has only ever killed one person, and when he had control of his mind, he turned himself over to the police for it. What we know is that Norman was a broken boy without the means to fix himself.
Making Norman a sympathetic character was a narrative feat, but it was also a huge risk; a happy ending for Psycho's Norman Bates is one twist that even this series could likely not pull off. Dylan weeps to Norman once they've truly come to the end, "What I really want is something that can never happen! I want you to be happy, and I want you to be well." He now knows what we've known all along: There could be no happy ending for Norman. I guess I just assumed that meant there couldn't be a truly satisfying end for Norman either.
I was wrong. In the end, Norman Bates is just a lost boy who wants to be returned to his mother...
The Bates Motel series finale is called "The Cord," in reference to Norman's line spoken in the very first episode, while he and his mother disposed of their very first body together: "It's like there's a cord between our hearts... It's you and me; it's always been you and me. We belong to each other. I don't ever want to be without you."
When faced with the weight of what he'd done to Norma, and without Mother around to protect him, Norman simply could not handle the tragedy of his own life.
For Finale Episode - 10/10 This Season - 9/10
Let me tell you what: When it comes to Bates Motel, the future is certainly not mine to see. In its final season, Bates Motel proved over and over again that it is one of the few series on television that can simultaneously subvert predictions, exceed expectations of which there were many, given its inescapable source material and make every shocking twist feel completely earned.
And us. In the last analysis, five seasons planned and five seasons completed, Bates Motel has done so right by its audience. For its entire final season, Alex Romero has been fighting his way back tooth and nail, stomach wound and prison fight, stolen car and hostage situation, to be able to get back to Norman Bates and kill him for what he did to the woman he loved. But what we know is that Norman didn't kill Norma, Mother did. What we know is that Norman has only ever killed one person, and when he had control of his mind, he turned himself over to the police for it. What we know is that Norman was a broken boy without the means to fix himself.
Making Norman a sympathetic character was a narrative feat, but it was also a huge risk; a happy ending for Psycho's Norman Bates is one twist that even this series could likely not pull off. Dylan weeps to Norman once they've truly come to the end, "What I really want is something that can never happen! I want you to be happy, and I want you to be well." He now knows what we've known all along: There could be no happy ending for Norman. I guess I just assumed that meant there couldn't be a truly satisfying end for Norman either.
I was wrong. In the end, Norman Bates is just a lost boy who wants to be returned to his mother...
The Bates Motel series finale is called "The Cord," in reference to Norman's line spoken in the very first episode, while he and his mother disposed of their very first body together: "It's like there's a cord between our hearts... It's you and me; it's always been you and me. We belong to each other. I don't ever want to be without you."
When faced with the weight of what he'd done to Norma, and without Mother around to protect him, Norman simply could not handle the tragedy of his own life.