As far as finales go, this wasn’t one of Bates Motel’s finest (that would go to the finale from the second season), but it did enough house-cleaning to get me excited for the inevitable fourth season we will be getting next year. As usual, Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore saved the episode, while nearly every other plotline paled in comparison.

First of all, I’d just like to congratulate myself for being right: Bradley was brought back for the sole purpose of being murdered by Mother. As predictable as it was, it was still a very well done scene. Norman’s transition into Mother was handled perfectly by him, and the visual transformation as Highmore became Farmiga was a nice touch. As useless as Bradley was as a character, it was quite shocking to see Mother bash her head into the rock like that. I never really liked her as a character, but I felt pretty bad for her at that moment.

Farmiga never disappoints on Bates Motel. Her scene at the psychiatric facility and her scene with Highmore where she told Norman about her visit to the facility were great; but Highmore stole the show tonight. When he was announced in the role of Norman Bates, no one really knew what to make of it. He has more than proven himself capable in the role. As Norman gets more psychotic, Highmore’s performance gets better.

As for Dylan and Emma, they had a sweet moment when he comforted her over her potential lung transplant. Their kiss was a long time coming so it was definitely nice to see those two get together. It was a sweet scene and nicely acted by Thieriot and Cooke.

Now for the bad: everything involving The Arcanum Club. After an entire season of bland scenes involving Bob Paris and the aforementioned club, Romero just went ahead and killed him. The issue here is that Bob never made much of an impression. Ever since his introduction, he has had maybe a handful of scenes to be intimidating, but that’s about it. We don’t really know anything about him, which is why he never worked as a villain.

Add the fact that his reasoning for murdering Annika and the two other girls in the beginning of the season apparently has no importance whatsoever and what are we left with? The entire Arcanum Club arc proved to be completely pointless (and all too reminiscent of the first two seasons’ pot dealer storyline). The one good thing to come out of this is that it showed Romero killed Bob so he would still have a shot with Norma. Also, maybe we can do without an evil organization/club/drug trade next season and just focus on the characters and their relationships. Bates Motel doesn’t need a big bad every season.

“Unconscious” was a pretty standard episode of Bates Motel, which is not really something you want to say about a season finale. Everything involving Norman’s evolving psychosis and Norma’s attempt to institutionalize him was very nicely handled. Unfortunately, nothing else in the episode really made much of an impression. Here’s hoping that the house-cleaning this episode did leads to a clearer path for season 4.

Random Notes

• Norma, stop badgering the nice woman about the cost of the even nicer medical facility.
• “K. Thanks for coming by and telling me that.” -Norma to Romero, defending his behavior from last week. Way to be passive aggressive Norma.
• “I had to stop him! I knocked him out and locked him up in the basement.” -Norma, on Norman trying to leave.
• “Mother would like to talk to you.” -Norman to Bradley. This gave me chills.
• I feel like Bradley’s car is going to get easily found. It’s not like it’s getting carried out to sea or anything. Still, it was a nice homage to Psycho.
• “We will always be together. Won’t that be nice.” “Yes it will Mother. Yes it will.” -Cue “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes, which always reminds me of the opening credits to Dirty Dancing.
• That’s it for my Bates Motel reviews you guys! See you all next year for Season 4!