Did ‘Bates Motel’ season 4 just make its killer move before finale?

It’s been a while since we’ve written about “Bates Motel,” but Monday night’s new episode certainly gives us a little bit of a reason to given the state that we saw Norma Bates in by the end of the episode … and it’s certainly not something that we saw coming.

Of course, there are some MAJOR spoilers ahead…

On this episode, Norman decided to execute a murder / suicide plot with his mother regarding filling up a room with carbon monoxide. Were it not for Alex, we’d know for sure that both of them for dead. He dragged the bodies out, and for Norman, the good news is that we know he’s okay.

As for Norma, however, she certainly appears dead … for now. Would the show really kill her off with a season still to go in the story? Executive producer Carlton Cuse is not saying for now, beyond just handing down the following quote to TVLine:

“We designed [the finale] to be the emotional response to [Episode 9]. We don’t really want to say anything too specific because it would spoil [the finale].”

We wouldn’t be too shocked if Vera Farmiga’s character comes back during the finale, if for no other reason than that she is such a big part of this show. However, at the same time if the producers do make this move, they’re really going to have to work hard to make the final season make sense, and for the “scene we all know is coming” to have some tremendous impact. This isn’t some show, after all, with an ending crafted of complete mystery.