INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘Bates Motel’ Star Freddie Highmore Talks About Norma’s Death And Norman’s Transition To ‘Psycho’

By Chrissie Williams
Published on: 11:06 PST, May 14, 2016

The season finale of Bates Motel is just days away, and there’s so much anticipation about what could happen in the final hour of Season 4. The Bates Motel video promo titled “Norman,” didn’t give away too many details other than Norman will be shocked to learn that he was the one responsible for Norma’s death.

Another little tidbit we learned from the Bates Motel promo is Sheriff Romero will be ready to attack Norman. He is confident that he killed his mother, and wants him to pay.

Freddie Highmore, the actor who portrays Norman, explained to IGN that Norma’s death has been coming for four seasons. After Norma and Alex had a fight in the last Bates Motel episode, Norman realized how broken they were, and knew he needed to do something to “fix them.”

Norman had just found Audrey’s suitcase and came to the conclusion that either he or Norma killed her. He knew he needed to do something to bring his mother peace, and felt killing her peacefully was the best thing for her. He thought that letting her dream and drift off to never wake up was the right thing to do.

” I think that just confirmed in his mind that it was the right thing to do and that this was how the two of them could be happier. Once he’s up in the bedroom I think his mind has been made. And that’s what makes the scene so powerful. There’s a happiness to it. A lightness to it. Their last scene together isn’t going to be a fight or a struggle. It’s going to be them dreaming and bonding and then dreaming on once they’ve both well and truly fallen asleep.”

Early in Bates Motel Season 4, Norma appeared to seduce Norman to get a gun out of his hand. It was evident from the way the scene was shot that she was desperate and feared her son could hurt someone. The scene was confusing and almost seemed like Norman felt a sexual attraction to his mother. Freddie Highmore explains it wasn’t exactly as it appeared.

“I feel like Norman has most certainly become more manipulative this season. But there’s still a spark of the old Norman that remains within. That we buy into. And I don’t think that it’s a performance in the end. The last scene with the two of them. I think there’s something very genuine underneath it all. There may be this knowledge that he has and she doesn’t but I don’t think it’s a pure act of seduction in the sense of manipulation.”

Freddie explained that he appreciates that on Bates Motel he knows the direction they are taking Norman. He knows that he will eventually become a very dark character, and it is a result of years and years of terrible things happening to him. Highmore noted that he knows that as long as the show is on the air, he will be on the show. The show cannot go on without Mr. Norman Bates.

“The thing I’ve been with lucky with in this show, as opposed to other TV shows, is that I’ve always known where Norman is going — season by season, seeing what happens. There has to be a certain plan in place because there’s an end that you’re working towards. And that’s really what sort of elevated this season. And hopefully, next season it will climb even higher as we rush toward that certain final point. The one we’ve been waiting to release the build up of the first three seasons. But I guess things never really changed for me in the sense that I’ve known that I’ll be there right until the end.”

IGN pointed out that Freddie Highmore wouldn’t say that Norma was officially dead, but he spoke about her as if she was gone. Highmore revealed that they have started writing the scripts for Season 5, and hopes they will bring the show back much sooner than 2017.

Voice your opinion about Bates Motel in the comments section below, and come back later for more spoilers, news, and updates.

[Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images]

Share this article: ‘Bates Motel’ Star Freddie Highmore Talks About Norma’s Death And Norman’s Transition To ‘Psycho’
bates motel freddie highmore
More from Inquisitr