S05.E03: Bad Blood

[Mick Lady]

Norman helps Chick with a project; Romero makes his move; an apologetic Madeleine reaches out to Norman

[Chaos Theory]

Everybody loves Norma.

That had to be the best awkward meal every. Although not sure if it was for two or three.  Although nice save Chick.  And yes Norma would like more curry.

Chick writing a true crime.  Hey maybe his own murder.  Now that will be novel.

In other news Romero escapes but gets shot.  Another one who loves Norma skulking through the woods.  Nice try though.  

Its interesting that Norman isn't a killer.  He needs Mother and well Chick to help him.  

Edited March 7, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[Spartan Girl]

Moral of the story: never text while driving. Bye, Caleb.

Norma(n) was right about Caleb's creepy incest feelings being exactly like Norman's. I know I ought to feel bad for Caleb, that he and Norma were both messed up, but dude, it's your sister!

I feel bad for Madeline. Sam is a jerk, and next week she's probably going to wind up as Mother's next victim. I was trying to see if there was some semblance of the old Norman when he was around her...but nope. Just a Nice Guy with an Oedipus Complex.

[raven]

So Chick is a real sociopath or something.  Just wants to sit back and observe Caleb die of hunger and thirst if he's not murdered.   I was amused by Chick having conversations with Norma & Norman until he decided not to do anything about Caleb - now I hope Chick is the victim in his own true crime story.  Not that I have any particular sympathy for Caleb (though young Caleb and Norma were heart breaking) but Chick just sitting back to watch is evil; not to mention totally encouraging Norman's illness.   Freddie Highmore as Norma is very, very creepy - he's got some of VF's mannerisms down.  Great job.

As soon as Caleb ran to the road I knew he would be hit by a car.  Now Norman-as-Norma knows about Dylan's daughter too.

Quote

Its interesting that Norman isn't a killer.  He needs Mother and well Chick to help him.  

It was interesting too that Mother insisted that Norman be the one to do it, rather than take care of it herself.  Is Norman's psyche trying to move beyond her?

Maddy Loomis coming by to apologize for a bad double date was odd.  You don't bring cookies and bare your troubles to the young guy who's obviously interested in you, unless you want to start something with him.  I wouldn't have an issue but Norman stares at her, goes out of his way to run into her...it should be obvious.  Or maybe he creeps me out so much I want to scream "stay away"!

Oh and oh shit!!!  Romero was gut shot!!  I have no idea what's going to happen there.

In Caleb's memory, didn't little Norma say the same thing she would later say to Norman "as long as we're together, nothing bad will happen"?  The same patterns go around and around.

[FlickerToAFlame]

Is Chick writing "Psycho?"

[Calibabydolly]

2 minutes ago, FlickerToAFlame said:

Is Chick writing "Psycho?"

I had the same feeling when he came over to bring Norman that casserole! Holy crap is this getting good!

[tennisgurl]

Chick is totally writing Psycho! At first I thought he was turning into Normans Reinfield for some reason, but he's actually writing a book! The whole series is going to end with Chick, now a best selling author, wondering if his book would make a decent movie...

This is just so good. Creepy and totally insane, but so good. FH is just amazing. The fact that none of the actors have ever gotten awards love is just sad on so many levels. You can actually see on his face when he shifts from Norman to Mother and back again. I think its in keeping with the movie that Norman doesn't kill, its Mother that does it. Even in the movie, we never see Norman as himself killing, its always Mother, and he always acts all shocked and pissed off that mom keeps killing people. Damn it Mom! I don't have time to bury all these corpses!

No, Romero! No way is he killed off by some random kid. No way.

I got a dark chuckle out of the "He`s your son" "Your my brother" exchange. Caleb just had this look like, "...touché". Buy Caleb. I knew he was dead the second he run into the house last week. Amazed he survived this long. Also, don't text and drive kids.

[Mick Lady]

34 minutes ago, FlickerToAFlame said:

Is Chick writing "Psycho?"

Mick and I think so!

It's just not Caleb's night, is it?

[Mick Lady]

Best line (paraphrase) "He killed his mother, than froze her! Who does that?"

No one Chick, just Norman.

Romero's a dead man, if that's a 30-30. I wanted a better end for him!

[Bec]

1 hour ago, FlickerToAFlame said:

Is Chick writing "Psycho?"

Chick is writing "The Psycho". Then Mother is going to tell him "lose the 'The', just 'Psycho', it's cleaner."

[thuganomics85]

Well, that was a nice PSA about the dangers of texting while driving.  Take your eyes off the road for one second, and you hit a guy who is running away from his nephew, who has been taken over by his mom, and is trying to kill you!  Ouch!  Fare thee well, Caleb.  Kenny Johnson at least got a pretty great episode to go out with.

I have no idea what Chick is up too.  He's scarily impressive at adapting to this situation and appeasing both Norman and "Norma."  But he's tape recording everything and planning on writing it all down?  Either he's going to end up dead very soon, or I'm down with the theories that he is going to end up writing "Psycho."

Romero escapes is transport detail (if I learned anything from television, never have only one cop watching the prisoner during a bathroom break.  Or take off the handcuffs?  Really, just put on a glove and hold his junk.  It will suck, but it would save you a lot of trouble), only to get shot by some kid, when he was busted trying to take the family car.  I doubt he is dying before he takes on Norman, but I'm wondering how he'll get himself out of this little pickle!

Maddy comes to the hotel to give Norman cookies, apologize for the double-date, and cry about how much her relationship with Sam sucks, and how she wants to be friend with Norman.  Yeah, she is totally crushing on him and doesn't even know it yet.  Too bad she just ends up happening to fall for... well, Norman.

No Dylan or Emma this time, so I'll just add my normal "Please stay in Seattle, you two!" line, and hope they listen!

Seeing Norman's face when he flipped between Norman and Norma was creepy.  Freddie Highmore has always been good on this show, but he really has taken it to another level these past two seasons.

[Stringey]

Best episode yet. My favorite scene was the part at the beginning when Norman in his "mother"persona is talking to caleb dressed as "mother". I was waiting for that and I hope we get more of Norman dressed as her when he flips identities. And I refer to his Norma persona as "mother" because this is a different Norma than the one we knew obviously.  Her personality is obviously not the same I mean.

[Peanut6711]

10 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Chick is totally writing Psycho! At first I thought he was turning into Normans Reinfield for some reason, but he's actually writing a book! The whole series is going to end with Chick, now a best selling author, wondering if his book would make a decent movie...

Gawd I hope they don't go that route. While Chick is an intriguing character, last night pointed to his utter lack of morals and compassion for other human beings. He knows Norman is sick; yet he makes no attempt to get him help. He knows Caleb is being held hostage; yet he makes no attempt to free him. Worse yet, he further instigated Caleb's death when Norman forgot about him and Chick suggested that Caleb probably wanted to kill Norman. Chick is playing on Norman's psychosis and using real people's lives like players in a chess game, his end goal--produce the most salacious book.  Chick has the blood on his hands of anyone who dies from this point forward. He's actually worse than Norman in the sense that Norman is mentally ill and doesn't full grasp reality and what he's doing. Chick clearly does.  At the very least, he should end up in jail. I will be utterly disgusted if he comes out the sole survivor of this tale.  Surely, there's a more suitable ending that pays homage to the movie and to Hitch. 

Edited March 7, 2017 by Peanut6711

[Ohwell]

After last night, I want Chick to die a very, very gruesome death.

[truthaboutluv]

There were way too many moments of this episode that I totally inappropriately laughed at. None more so than that dinner scene between Chick, Norman and "Norma" where Chick has to keep pretending Norman isn't totally batshit crazy and that he can actually see Norma who is so obviously dead. I also laughed at the unexpectedness of after all that drama, that being the way Caleb dies and hell even the teenager clearly shooting Alex by accident. All things I should not have found funny in the least but damn if I didn't laugh. 

This season continues to slay. This was an engaging episode from beginning to end. Curious to see what happens with Alex. He clearly isn't going anywhere and hell I can't even see how he'll survive. That was 12-gauge shotgun. Doesn't that thing do major damage? And it seemed like the kid shot him right in the stomach. 

It was interesting that Norman didn't want to kill Caleb and let him go instead. These are the moments where I do think the writers, while not necessarily absolving or god forbid saying you should root for Norman, are showing that he's not just some cold, calculating serial killing monster but rather a very, very disturbed young man who should most definitely be locked up. And why I can see why some will be disgusted by Chick who is clearly looking to manipulate and profit off a very sick young man rather than the doing the responsible thing and calling the police and getting Norman the help he needs. 

[peacheslatour]

I don't know why you guys are surprised at Chick's bad behavior, it was clear from the first time we saw him that he's a villain. He only does anything if there's some way to profit from it.

[Lostinthehouse]

Quote

I feel bad for Madeline. Sam is a jerk, and next week she's probably going to wind up as Mother's next victim.

 Maybe I'm putting too much faith in the canon of the movie, but at some point during Sam Loomis' affair with Marion Crane, didn't he slip off his wedding ring?  If Loomis such a womanizer, I'd think he'd have no problem with Madeleine's death.  So why (as in the movie) would he continue to have his affair in motels?  

Also, I'm very intrigued with what happens to Romero.  Ambiguous-gender teenager shoots him in the gut and runs away?  You should have just gone to the lower-security prison and made your escape from there, Romero sweetie.

[Ohwell]

30 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I don't know why you guys are surprised at Chick's bad behavior, it was clear from the first time we saw him that he's a villain. He only does anything if there's some way to profit from it.

Admittedly, I haven't seen every episode so I probably missed a lot of Chick's behavior.  I knew Caleb would pay for what he did to Norma, but just the sight of Chick last night with the plate of food in front of him while he watched Caleb, told me that he (Chick) is one sick bastard.

[peacheslatour]

Just now, Ohwell said:

Admittedly, I haven't seen every episode so I probably missed a lot of Chick's behavior.  I knew Caleb would pay for what he did to Norma, but just the sight of Chick last night with the plate of food in front of him while he watched Caleb, told me that he (Chick) is one sick bastard.

Oh yeah.

[Chaos Theory]

Romero is a morally compromised but decent guy.  Right now he is too full of rage and if he found Norman he would shoot first and ask questions later.  My guess is gut shooting him will at least slow him down long enough for the rage to simmer down and the detective part of him to rise back to the surface.  In the end it will come down to Romero chosing between justice or revenge.  His love for Norma or his hatred of Norman.

Edited March 7, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[Stringey]

1 hour ago, Peanut6711 said:

Gawd I hope they don't go that route. While Chick is an intriguing character, last night pointed to his utter lack of morals and compassion for other human beings. He knows Norman is sick; yet he makes no attempt to get him help. He knows Caleb is being held hostage; yet he makes no attempt to free him. Worse yet, he further instigated Caleb's death when Norman forgot about him and Chick suggested that Caleb probably wanted to kill Norman. Chick is playing on Norman's psychosis and using real people's lives like players in a chess game, his end goal--produce the most salacious book.  Chick has the blood on his hands of anyone who dies from this point forward. He's actually worse than Norman in the sense that Norman is mentally ill and doesn't full grasp reality and what he's doing. Chick clearly does.  At the very least, he should end up in jail. I will be utterly disgusted if he comes out the sole survivor of this tale.  Surely, there's a more suitable ending that pays homage to the movie and to Hitch. 

I agree chick is a creep. Saying he is selfishness is an understatement. He is simply out for himself to get evidence and info for a book and it does not matter if people have to die so he can get evidence he needs. At the beginning of last night's episode I thought he was going to play along with Norman to save his own life and be smart so he would be able to go get help. That was sure not the reason though.

[OSM Mom]

Just when I thought this show couldn't get any better. It just keeps bringing it. Romero can't die in this episode. He's got to get to Norman one more time at least. 

Caleb, Caleb, Caleb.  Why did you have to blab about Dylan and Emma?? Ugh. Well this is going to suck. 

And Chick is a total asshole. I've always thought so, but last night just confirmed it. And don't text and drive, kids. Bad things happen. 

I wonder who is getting the Viking funeral? Someone was on fire going out onto the lake in the preview. That's not subtle at all. 

[Dakisela]

13 hours ago, Mick Lady said:

Best line (paraphrase) "He killed his mother, than froze her! Who does that?"

No one Chick, just Norman.

Romero's a dead man, if that's a 30-30. I wanted a better end for him!

That's totally buckshot.  Kid's hot mamma patches him up and sends him off on his way to save the day.......

[cuppasun]

3 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

Curious to see what happens with Alex. He clearly isn't going anywhere and hell I can't even see how he'll survive. That was 12-gauge shotgun. Doesn't that thing do major damage? And it seemed like the kid shot him right in the stomach. 

Thought about this a lot myself, so went to do some googling: there are a lot of possible variables with a shotgun, but if that was birdshot, depending on how much (if any) was caught by Alex's leather jacket, specifics of the gun, exactly the distance between them, etc., he might well survive with relatively minor injuries, though he would likely need some medical attention and would probably need to be concerned about infection. I'm having a hard time imagining they would kill Romero like this--seems awfully pointless to have spent the time on his continuing story if so.

47 minutes ago, Dakisela said:

That's totally buckshot.  Kid's hot mamma patches him up and sends him off on his way to save the day.......

From what I understand (perpetual caveat: I could be wrong, correction welcome!), buckshot is the significantly more dangerous possibility (much bigger, designed to bring down deer); it's birdshot that would result in patch-upable minor injuries. But yeah, pretty much my first thought too. (With the addition of, mama tries very hard to comfort him in a very...personal way. Because it's Nestor Carbonell!)

[Lady Calypso]

2 hours ago, Stringey said:

At the beginning of last night's episode I thought he was going to play along with Norman to save his own life and be smart so he would be able to go get help. That was sure not the reason though.

I thought this too, but by Chick not going to uncuff Caleb after Mother went upstairs for bed in the beginning, he just kept becoming worse and worse for me and now I hope Mother kills him in a brutal way. The fact that he was actively participating in starving and attempting to kill Caleb was pretty bad. Caleb deserves a lot of things for what he did, but the way he went out this episode was not how I pictured it going, nor would I want that for him. Being handcuffed, starved, and being in close proximity to his dead sister, followed by a crazy man playing along with his nephew's mental health and then getting hit by a car? Damn. At least the actor got a really good episode to go out on.

Caleb, no! Don't tell Mother about Dylan and Emma! But I'll give him a pass since he was hit on the head pretty hard so probably had a concussion and was trying to figure out how not to get killed by Norman/Mother. It is interesting that neither Norma nor Norman can end up killing Caleb. Even in Norman's fractured mind, he knows his mother would never be able to kill Caleb willingly.  

I don't see Romero going out like he did, so I have to imagine we'll see him in the hospital or in that family's house being patched up next episode. 

Madeline's the real victim here this season. She truly is an innocent woman who will most likely get caught in the crossfires, all because she's a woman who is getting close to Norman.

[Fable]

Things are getting interesting.  I never cared for Caleb, so I’m not upset that he died, but I thought Kenny Johnson did a fantastic job playing him and for that reason alone, I will miss him. 

I sorely misjudged Chick before.  I thought he was shady but overall a decent human being, but apparently he is quite the sociopath.  At first I thought he was going along with Norman to save his skin.  I really believed he was going to get himself and Caleb out of there and bring back help, but no!  He is taking advantage of mentally ill young man and exploiting him, so he can, what, write a book?  Could he be working another angle as well? I’m curious to see where this goes. 

[Stringey]

Yep I thought the character was one of those weirdo seeming kind of types on the outside but in reality a decent person. I got that vibe from the end of the season 4 finale scene and from the first two episodes of this season.  Nope he is a creep outside and inside too lol.

[Stringey]

Hey you know what would have been a cool idea if they had not gone the chick route. Remember the strange girl that played the organ at the funeral and was the daughter of the mortician? I could have seen her at playing the role and character that we are seeing played out by the character chick this. An interest in taxidermy and true crime leading her to try and benefit from the bad situation Norman and everyone is in.

[seashell]

5 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

Romero is a morally compromised but decent guy.  Right now he is too full of rage and if he found Norman he would shoot first and ask questions later.  My guess is gut shooting him will at least slow him down long enough for the rage to simmer down and the detective part of him to rise back to the surface.  In the end it will come down to Romero chosing between justice or revenge.  His love for Norma or his hatred of Norman.

My hope is that this series ends with Romero--perhaps with help from Dylan--exposing enough of Norman's crimes to finally get Mr. Psycho committed. This show can't really be considered a prequel to the film anymore and so I see no reason to not give viewers an emotionally satisfying ending.

[Garden Wafers]

7 hours ago, Peanut6711 said:

Gawd I hope they don't go that route. While Chick is an intriguing character, last night pointed to his utter lack of morals and compassion for other human beings. He knows Norman is sick; yet he makes no attempt to get him help. He knows Caleb is being held hostage; yet he makes no attempt to free him. Worse yet, he further instigated Caleb's death when Norman forgot about him and Chick suggested that Caleb probably wanted to kill Norman. Chick is playing on Norman's psychosis and using real people's lives like players in a chess game, his end goal--produce the most salacious book.  Chick has the blood on his hands of anyone who dies from this point forward. He's actually worse than Norman in the sense that Norman is mentally ill and doesn't full grasp reality and what he's doing. Chick clearly does.  At the very least, he should end up in jail. I will be utterly disgusted if he comes out the sole survivor of this tale.  Surely, there's a more suitable ending that pays homage to the movie and to Hitch. 

Maybe Chick will end up like Hannibal's Frederick Chilton: both an author and a victim.  

[Stringey]

I thought a very good shot was right after Norman dressed as "mother" has talked to captive caleb at the very beginning. It was when they showed norman/"mother" ascending up the stairs. The act of him walking up the stairs was simple and unimportant but it was a creepy great image.  Seeing him from the back ascending the stairs in that creepy basement he reminded me of "Mother" from the movie in those clothes and in that moment. Please I hope we see more of Norman dressed as "mother" when he flips to that personality. Oh and btw it was also creepy the whole thing with caleb watching "mother" sitting in the rocking chair. At first the face is bleary then it clears and we see it's clearly Norman. I need to watch this again because in am still confused as to why caleb is hallucinating Normas face. I am guessing  he has a concussion from  being locked in that basement and also the fact he has banged his own head up. Caleb is clearly getting brain fog because he believed he was really talking to Norma at one point. This was the scene where he thinks he is talking to Norma and thinks he is holding normas hands even after seeing the evidence of Normas  corpse in the freezer. And when I talk about things from calebs point of view I say Norma because from his pov I believe he is seeing an accurate although imaginary version of her personality. Unlike Norman whose projection of her is distorted

[Rustybones]

I can't agree that Romero is a good guy. he was shady all along and should not have been in law enforcement.  I don't care what happens to him.

I guess Maddie will be Bates Motel version of Marion Crane.  She will probably leave her hubby, check into Bates Motel and never check out.

[Chicago Redshirt]

2 hours ago, seashell said:

My hope is that this series ends with Romero--perhaps with help from Dylan--exposing enough of Norman's crimes to finally get Mr. Psycho committed. This show can't really be considered a prequel to the film anymore and so I see no reason to not give viewers an emotionally satisfying ending.

Why can't it be considered a prequel to the film?

For some viewers, it is probably more emotionally satisfying to think of Norman on the loose than it would be to think that Dylan and Romero outsmarted Norman and brought him to justice.

[Fable]

1 hour ago, Rustybones said:

 

I can't agree that Romero is a good guy. he was shady all along and should not have been in law enforcement.  I don't care what happens to him.

 

There are no good guys in this story, except maybe Emma.  Aside from Emma, everyone has killed someone.  While Norman is the obvious psycho, he really didn’t kill anyone while in his right mind and has no idea what he has done.  Every other main character has killed deliberately and covered it up. 

[ganesh]

22 hours ago, FlickerToAFlame said:

Is Chick writing "Psycho?"

That's what I thought.

21 hours ago, Mick Lady said:

Romero's a dead man, if that's a 30-30. I wanted a better end for him!

The gut shot is a tv shooting. No one dies from that. It just delays his showdown with Norman.

It does make sense that Norman as actual Norman isn't the killer. The show has done well with making Norman somewhat of a tragic figure. I thought they would lose some of that with killing off Norma in the last season, but they've done well with this. 

I have zero issues with Chick hanging around writing a book and making curry for three. Another thing the show has excelled at is the dark humor like that. Even Caleb escaping and getting killed was lol. 

[Mick Lady]

9 hours ago, cuppasun said:

Thought about this a lot myself, so went to do some googling: there are a lot of possible variables with a shotgun, but if that was birdshot, depending on how much (if any) was caught by Alex's leather jacket, specifics of the gun, exactly the distance between them, etc., he might well survive with relatively minor injuries, though he would likely need some medical attention and would probably need to be concerned about infection. I'm having a hard time imagining they would kill Romero like this--seems awfully pointless to have spent the time on his continuing story if so.

From what I understand (perpetual caveat: I could be wrong, correction welcome!), buckshot is the significantly more dangerous possibility (much bigger, designed to bring down deer); it's birdshot that would result in patch-upable minor injuries. But yeah, pretty much my first thought too. (With the addition of, mama tries very hard to comfort him in a very...personal way. Because it's Nestor Carbonell!)

 

Shot spreads about an inch a yard. Alex was about six feet away. Maybe in leather he would survive bird shot, but not buck.  Double 00 buck would be an ounce of lead in his belly.

[peacheslatour]

14 hours ago, Rustybones said:

I can't agree that Romero is a good guy. he was shady all along and should not have been in law enforcement.  I don't care what happens to him.

I guess Maddie will be Bates Motel version of Marion Crane.  She will probably leave her hubby, check into Bates Motel and never check out.

No, the producers have already announced that Marion Crane is being played by Rihanna. She's the one having an affair with Sam Loomis, just like in the movie.

[MaggieG]

20 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I thought this too, but by Chick not going to uncuff Caleb after Mother went upstairs for bed in the beginning, he just kept becoming worse and worse for me and now I hope Mother kills him in a brutal way. The fact that he was actively participating in starving and attempting to kill Caleb was pretty bad. Caleb deserves a lot of things for what he did, but the way he went out this episode was not how I pictured it going, nor would I want that for him. Being handcuffed, starved, and being in close proximity to his dead sister, followed by a crazy man playing along with his nephew's mental health and then getting hit by a car? Damn. At least the actor got a really good episode to go out on.

 

I agree with this. Chick never really bothered me but I didn't like that he did this and pretty much left Caleb in the basement. I did laugh at his kimono though.

[seacliffsal]

Chick had vowed to kill Caleb after Caleb beat him so badly that Chick lost the use of his hands and his weed business.  Then Chick found a way to meet Norma to wreck havoc on her in Caleb's place, but ended up sympathizing with her.  So, it was always Chick's plan to take vengeance on Caleb.  Is Chick a sociopath?  Oh yes, but he's one with a plan...

Amazing episode!  This is getting so good, but all I can think of is...the season is too short and we need more episodes.  Oh well.

[truthaboutluv]

25 minutes ago, seacliffsal said:

Chick had vowed to kill Caleb after Caleb beat him so badly that Chick lost the use of his hands and his weed business.  Then Chick found a way to meet Norma to wreck havoc on her in Caleb's place, but ended up sympathizing with her.  So, it was always Chick's plan to take vengeance on Caleb.  Is Chick a sociopath?  Oh yes, but he's one with a plan...

This. I do think he is trying to profit off of a sick person's illness and being complicit in whatever murders Norman commits from here on now, considering he has more than enough evidence that Norman is a danger to himself and others. However, Chick's not helping Caleb was not that surprising to me. Not only did he have a bad history with Caleb, I always thought he grew to hate him even more once he put it together that Dylan was Caleb's son, even though Dylan's mother was Caleb's sister, because Caleb raped his own sister. Once he figured that out, I think Chick decided Caleb was a waste of human life. So no way would he try and save him from nutty Norman.

[mj2000]

I cant believe Caleb went out this way! Norman didn't like him, "Mother" wanted him dead, Chick was out to get him after the beating. It looks like Chick is the winner with death by vehicle.

I know Romero isn't going out like this. A random person shooting him? I don't think so!

I'm on the "Chick is writing Psycho" train.

[BooBear]

I didn't love this one. There was too much Chick, Caleb, and Norma, Norman as Norma and Norman.  It just felt like a bit of a stall.  I did like the idea that Chick is writing Psycho.  Not sure where they are going with Mrs. Loomis because I can't see a role for her other than death.  No way Norma is going to play dead for Norman and then have Norman start making out with her. 

[Virtual]

It's safe to say Caleb is dead now. I really hate to see him go, but after getting hit like that by the car Chick was driving, there's no way he's still alive. Chick had zero time to slow down by the time he realized Caleb was standing in the road.

I found it very interesting that Norman himself, in his own persona, can't bring himself to kill someone*, even though he's killed many when blacked out as Mother. This is why I don't think Norman is a bad guy. He IS dangerous, but because he blacks out and kills, not knowing what he's doing on a conscious level.

I already didn't like Chick because of how he knowingly put Caleb and Dylan in a position to be killed in Season 3, but he's once again hitting a low by using Norman and his illness to write a book on it, and profit from it. At least he's not doing anything to hurt Norman directly, although he sees everything that is going on with Norman and doesn't attempt to get him help, only using the situations he sees as further material for his book. To me, Chick sees other people as tools he can use for his own benefit, and only pretends to care about hard/painful predicaments others go through. But I will say this: at least he is smart in the way he is playing all of these roles.

As far as Romero, if he doesn't get to a hospital or to someone who can patch him up, I really don't see him surviving past the next episode. It looked like he got shot right in the gut by that teenager.

*Well..... Norman DID kill Norma while in his own persona and being aware of what he was doing, but he also planned on taking himself with her and when that didn't happen, he started clinging onto any semblance of Norma's memory and using it to convince himself she's still alive. Norman has yet to kill someone in his own persona while planning to survive himself.

[Stringey]

I don't believe we will see Norman willingly kill someone as his own persona. And if it came down to it and he had to it would cause great remorse. Norman is just not made for murder but "mother" can and will kill when needed. I was about to say also that in the movies Norman as himself never murdered but there was one exception. When he killed Mrs. Pool.

[queenanne]

On 3/7/2017 at 10:35 PM, ganesh said:

That's what I thought.

The gut shot is a tv shooting. No one dies from that. It just delays his showdown with Norman.

It does make sense that Norman as actual Norman isn't the killer. The show has done well with making Norman somewhat of a tragic figure. I thought they would lose some of that with killing off Norma in the last season, but they've done well with this. 

I have zero issues with Chick hanging around writing a book and making curry for three. Another thing the show has excelled at is the dark humor like that. Even Caleb escaping and getting killed was lol. 

In the Sixth Sense aforesaid gut shot was deadly, though.  (I remember it distinctly primarily because I'd always heard a gut shot was fatal, and when Bruce Willis was shot visibly and palpably in said breadbasket, I said out loud to myself, "That's it, he's gone." ) Then imagine my surprise when he started walking around; only to come full circle in self-satisfaction when it turned out he was in fact dead.  If that's the way it goes down here, maybe "Norma" has some company.

It will be interesting to see how the writers come down on the side of Chick, because theoretically the Richard Bloch manque, as well as their own predilections based on choice of profession, would steer that Chick would be seen as a neutral reporter and recorder, instead of downright scuzzy opportunist.

[Stringey]

I won't go off into silly land but there was a whole thread back in imdb.com right after season 4 ended devoted to chick and the chicken enchilada casserole lol. Things such as the chicken enchilada casserole had his beard hair in it lol.

[smorbie]

On 3/6/2017 at 11:10 PM, Spartan Girl said:

 

Moral of the story: never text while driving. Bye, Caleb.

Norma(n) was right about Caleb's creepy incest feelings being exactly like Norman's. I know I ought to feel bad for Caleb, that he and Norma were both messed up, but dude, it's your sister!

 

You should probably give Flowers in the Attic a read.  It explains incest between abused siblings, in their case, teenagers locked in a room together for years, in a way that really makes it understandable.

[smorbie]

13 hours ago, Virtual Side said:

 

It's safe to say Caleb is dead now. I really hate to see him go, but after getting hit like that by the car Chick was driving, there's no way he's still alive. Chick had zero time to slow down by the time he realized Caleb was standing in the road.

I found it very interesting that Norman himself, in his own persona, can't bring himself to kill someone*, even though he's killed many when blacked out as Mother. This is why I don't think Norman is a bad guy. He IS dangerous, but because he blacks out and kills, not knowing what he's doing on a conscious level.

I already didn't like Chick because of how he knowingly put Caleb and Dylan in a position to be killed in Season 3, but he's once again hitting a low by using Norman and his illness to write a book on it, and profit from it. At least he's not doing anything to hurt Norman directly, although he sees everything that is going on with Norman and doesn't attempt to get him help, only using the situations he sees as further material for his book. To me, Chick sees other people as tools he can use for his own benefit, and only pretends to care about hard/painful predicaments others go through. But I will say this: at least he is smart in the way he is playing all of these roles.

I have mixed feelings about Chick.  Obviously, he is very selfish and is using Norman.  But, he genuinely liked Norma and backed off when he realized he had hurt her so much.  I rewatched last season recently, and was struck by the way he assumed Caleb had raped her.  That hit him hard for some reason.

 

So he's using Norman and Norma now.  But, it didn't start out that way.  He really was watching over a young man he knew was very sick when he discovered the secret.  Why didn't he get him help?  It's hard to do that without proving the person is a danger to himself or others, and Norman appears to be a very sweet, meek, but mentally ill, young man.

13 hours ago, Virtual Side said:

 

[peacheslatour]

Quote

I have mixed feelings about Chick.  Obviously, he is very selfish and is using Norman.  But, he genuinely liked Norma and backed off when he realized he had hurt her so much.  I rewatched last season recently, and was struck by the way he assumed Caleb had raped her.  That hit him hard for some reason.

Perhaps he is also the product of rape or incest? I wonder if we'll ever know.

[Peanut6711]

On 3/7/2017 at 8:36 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

Why can't it be considered a prequel to the film?

For some viewers, it is probably more emotionally satisfying to think of Norman on the loose than it would be to think that Dylan and Romero outsmarted Norman and brought him to justice.

It's been a prequel to the film this whole time until now. With Loomis and company entering the picture it's clear this season is crossing over into the film's territory.  Norman on the loose wouldn't make much sense.  With all the films, he's either tied to the motel or in jail.  It's not like in his mental state he could operate any other way.