Is Bates Motel Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot

A rundown motel and a teenager who keeps losing his evening

Norma Bates and Norman, her 17-year-old son, move from Arizona to White Pine Bay, Oregon, six months after Norman's father Sam dies suddenly. They buy a rundown motel, and Norma plans to reopen it. Norman befriends Bradley Martin and Emma Decody, who has cystic fibrosis, and gets a new English teacher, Miss Watson. His older half-brother Dylan arrives too. The town turns out to be crooked, and when Shelby, a local mixed up in its crimes, holds the family at gunpoint and assaults Norma, Dylan shoots him. Sheriff Romero covers it with a story about a gunfight, and the brothers throw a utility belt that could incriminate Norma into the harbor. Norman names a stray dog Juno and brings it to Emma's father Will, who teaches him taxidermy, after it dies. Norma tells Norman that when she was 13, her brother began raping her. After a winter dance, Norman goes to Miss Watson's house to have his injured eye looked at, then runs home with no memory of what happened in between. She is later found with her throat cut.

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A lie detector test with a suspiciously relaxed subject

After Miss Watson's funeral, Bradley attempts suicide. Four months later the motel is a vacation hot spot, and Norman is obsessed with Miss Watson's unsolved case. Bradley hides in the Bates basement and confesses to killing Gil, then is presumed dead when police find her clothes and a note. Norma's brother Caleb turns up, and she throws him out. Norman has more blackouts, including with his new girlfriend Cody Brennan. Norma joins the town council with help from Nick Ford, who is Miss Watson's father and runs the family behind the marijuana trade, so she owes him. Ford's men lock Norman in a hot box and demand that Dylan kill Zane Morgan. Inside, Norman remembers that he cut Miss Watson's throat. Romero finds Ford dead and rescues Norman. Zane kills his sister Jodi, and Romero shoots Zane. Norma talks Norman out of shooting himself in the woods. When the polygraph asks whether he killed Miss Watson, his mother's persona answers no, and he passes.

A 23-foot swimming pool nobody ordered

Norman hallucinates Miss Watson on his first day of senior year, so Norma homeschools him. A woman named Annika goes missing, and Norma's search leads her to the Arcanum Club, a gentlemen's club run by Bob Paris. Bob wants a password-protected USB drive that Norma ends up holding. Romero shoots Marcus Young, who is running against him for sheriff. Norma tells James, a man she is involved with, about Norman's blackouts, including the death of his father. Bob has a crew dig a 23-foot hole at the motel for a swimming pool, kidnaps and tortures James, and tells Romero that Norman killed Sam, which ends Romero's friendship with Norma. Norman slips into a Norma persona and cooks Dylan breakfast in her robe. The scene people dread is in the season finale. Norma knocks Norman out and drags him to the basement. He escapes with Bradley, who is alive after all. Then, acting as Norma, he pulls Bradley from the car, chases her and hits her head against a rock until she dies. He rolls the car into White Pine Bay and watches it sink.

A wedding held mostly for the paperwork

A farmer finds Norman, and he is admitted to a psychiatric unit. Flashes show "Mother" putting Audrey's body into the basement freezer. Norma and Romero marry, and Romero moves into the Bates house so the marriage looks real. As a gift, Romero fills in the pit, but a worker finds one of Audrey's earrings. At Pineview, Dr. Edwards explains that Norman has dissociative identity disorder and that the "Mother" persona appears during his blackouts. Norman comes home. Dylan finds the earring and confronts Norma, who accuses him of being jealous of Norman. Dylan says she never acted like his mother and leaves, and Norma ends things with Romero for going behind her back. By the season finale Norma is dead, and a note and her wedding ring are found. Norman exhumes her body to take it home, and Chick makes him face that she is gone. Norman picks up Norma's handgun to kill himself, then hears piano music and finds the house decorated for Christmas, with "Mother" at the piano.

Dinner for two, plus one in the basement

Two years after Norma's death, Norman runs the motel alone and lives with his hallucination of "Mother", who he believes faked her death. He is keeping Norma's preserved body in the basement. Dylan and Emma have married and moved to Seattle with a baby daughter. Romero is in prison. Caleb returns looking for Norma, learns she died, and is chained in the Bates basement, where Norman, as "Mother", tells him their history, and Caleb slowly loses his mind before he dies. Chick, who is writing a true-crime novel about Norman, cremates the body. Romero escapes custody and is shot. Marion Crane arrives at the motel after stealing $400,000 from her boss. Norman watches her undress, and "Mother" pushes him to attack her, but he resists and pushes Marion out of the motel. Madeleine's husband Sam is killed, and Norman and "Mother" dispose of the body. Dr. Edwards is missing and presumed dead. Norman is arrested, and "Mother" takes over in the interrogation room. Emma's mother's body is found in a lake. Norman's lawyer suggests an insanity plea, and Emma visits and sees "Mother" in his place.