In defense of BATES MOTEL's shower scene (spoilers).

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Okay, let's talk about last night's Bates Motel.  It's the moment we've all been waiting for -- since the show was first announced years ago.  We all knew -- or hoped -- that the show could culminate or pique with the infamous shower scene in which Norman, dressed as Norma, stabs Marion to death in the shower.

Well, we got it -- sort of.

I wasn't able to watch the episode last night due to work, but I got on Facebook late last night to see a multitude of people absolutely slamming the episode.  Honestly, it made me really want to see the episode as soon as possible.

So this morning, I did just that.

And holy hell...dare I say it?  I loved it.  All of it.

SPOILERS AHEAD...

Marion doesn't die in the shower.  It's teased early on, but she lives.  It's actually Sam that gets brutally stabbed to death while taking a shower -- and twist alert -- Norman does it, not his Norma persona.


One of the complaints I read on Facebook was comparing it to Scream's opening sequence if the roles were reversed (courtesy of my buddy RSB)...
I feel like they just remade Scream but Steve was the main kill instead of Casey and he was killed by Billy not dressed as Ghostface.
I look at it like this: if I really wanted to see "Norma" kill Marion in the shower and it not be Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, then I'd watch Vince Vaughn kill Anne Heche in the 1998 Psycho redux.

Different is good.  Change is good.  Progress.  Now I don't agree with all change, but in Bates Motel's case, I loved it.  It's exactly what this entire show has been built on -- taking something familiar and tweaking just enough to make it fresh less predictable (in the grand scheme).


Now the scene itself was shot wonderfully, incorporating a lot of Hitchcock's classic camera angles.  If I had one complaint about the episode, it might be the lack of the classic "Psycho Theme" inserted right here.  But we didn't get it, and that's okay.  I'm pretty sure the Earth will keep rotating.


And this was sort of Norman's big anti-hero moment.  Sam pretty much deserved to die.  He wasn't a very good person...at all.  Norman's affection for Madeleine and sympathy for Marion created this.


I heard other rumblings of people complaining that Norman wasn't dressed as Norma when he did it.  Well, if you watched, and paid attention, to the scene, then you'd realize that this was 100% Norman sans Norma.  And it worked to a T.


Norman is still a sympathetic killer.  That hasn't wavered.  He's been a sympathetic killer since 1960.  And this is 2017.  Shit's just different now.


"Oh, mother, what have I done?"  Norman is crazy.  Norman is insane.  And even without Norma, Norman is psycho.

What'd you think of this new take on a classic scene?
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