‘Bates Motel’ season 3 spoilers: The aftermath of Norman – Annika ‘incident’

Did Norman Bates murder Annika at the end of the “Bates Motel” premiere on Monday? The show pulled no punches in certainly making it appear as though that was the case. First, they showed him spying on her in what was a complete homage to “Psycho.” Then, almost to add to the madness, there was the whole incident with the car. We never saw her come back! He clearly has some sort of innate infatuation with her, but infatuation in itself does not mean that we are getting another Miss Watson situation in the near future.

What we can at least do right now is remind you that nothing is 100% for sure at the moment when it comes to the show. It’s certainly possible that Norman did something terrible to her, just as it is also possible that she found a different ride back or something. These are questions that the show clearly wants you wondering; just take a look at what executive producer Kerry Ehrin told TV Guide on the subject:

“I think that you should always assume the worst because it is Bates Motel … There’s no reliable narrator and the audience often has to interpret or project what they think something is. The ending was very much designed for that.”

While this is not something that we want to see the show drag on forever, we’ll also admit that we wouldn’t mind if it takes a few weeks for all to become clear. They gave you almost a season of ambiguity on Miss Watson, and Norman is not the sort to suddenly develop an awareness of what he is doing.