Bates Motel Will Introduce A Legendary Psycho Character In Season 5

Bates Motel has been a show that manages to both honor one of the greatest horror movies in film history and stand on its own as a seriously creepy series. It will be coming to an end after the upcoming fifth season, which is both good and bad news for fans. The bad news is that a great show will be leaving the airwaves, but the good news is that Bates Motel will finally be able to go full Psycho. Now, executive producer Carlton Cuse has revealed that a legendary Psycho character will be joining the show, with Marion Crane herself appearing in Season 5.

Marion Crane will show up on Bates Motel in a big moment for Season 5, Cuse told TVLine. She’ll play a part in multiple episodes, and we can expect that she’ll have a decent amount of time on screen before she climbs into that infamously ill-fated shower of her, should this show dare to replicate that iconic slice of cinema.

Psycho is a movie filled with fabulous twists and turns, but it’s most famous for the fate that befell Marion Crane when she hopped in the shower at Norman Bates’ motel. Most Bates Motel fans will likely be familiar with all things Psycho, so it should be interesting to see how the show goes about paying tribute to the original without beating us over the head with references. Perhaps some scenes will be mirrored in shot-for-shot fashion, but in a way that doesn't remind us of that regrettable 1998 remake.

Bates Motel is already well on its way to a Psycho Season 5. The end of Season 4 finally featured the inevitable death of Norma Bates at the hand of her son Norman. If Bates Motel was going to follow the framework of Psycho, Norma was always doomed to die by the end. Luckily, the Season 4 finale revealed that Norma is still very much alive in Norman’s mind, so we won't be losing actress Vera Farmiga from the show. Bates Motel wouldn’t be the same without the dynamic between Farmiga as Norma and Freddie Highmore as Norman. It's good to know that Bates Motel is departing from Psycho and keeping Norma as a visual presence on the show.

Season 5 was ordered at the same time as Season 4, so the team behind the scenes at Bates Motel has had plenty of time to prepare for what’s to come next. The fact that the fifth season has already been established as the last means that the show will be able to come to a natural conclusion rather than end up cancelled on a terrible cliffhanger or rushed to fit everything in a final episode. Hopefully, Marion Crane will help to put Season 5 over the by being as unforgettable a character on Bates Motel as she was in Psycho.

Season 4 of Bates Motel has only just ended, so we still have a wait ahead of us before we see Marion Crane in action with Norman Bates in Season 5. Check out our schedule of summer TV premiere dates to see what you can watch in the meantime.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).