March 8, 2016

Last night, A&E kicked off the 4th season of their hit series BATES MOTEL and wasted no time in getting straight to the shocks. At the top of the episode titled “A Danger To Himself and Others,” Norman (Freddie Highmore) is found wandering a field, talking to himself and then gets knocked out and dragged into a mental facility for 48 hours of observation. When released, Norma (Vera Farmiga) tries to keep him confined to the house while she figures out how to get him into a mental institution. Emma’s long-absent mother shows up to see her daughter following Emma’s life-altering lung transplant surgery, but Emma’s father is denying her access to their child for deserting them, so she holes up at the Bates Motel.

Hoping to get her letter and rabbit doll to Emma, her mom reaches out to Norman, who at this point is in his mother’s robe and in full “psycho” mode. During their interaction, there was a major Easter Egg/nod to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic original 1960 film that at first, I totally missed. The rabbit doll that Emma’s mom intends for her daughter we end up seeing again in Norman Bates room during the conclusion of PSYCHO when Lila Crane (Vera Miles) is searching the house. In the original movie, his room is still set-up as if it belongs to a child, but now at least we know where one of his “toys” came from! Have a look:

Since BATES MOTEL is acting as a prequel to the events that transpire in PSYCHO it’s fun to see little things like this start to add up. Judging from the tease of the remainder of the season, it looks like the craziness is just beginning!

Huge, huge thanks to Jason Allentoff of The Psycho Movies website for pointing out this amazing little tid-bit. You can keep up to date on all your PSYCHO related needs by “liking” their official Facebook page, and also bookmarking their website as well. There’s tons of amazing PSYCHO news, podcast, images and more for you to discover there!