'Bates Motel' season 5 news and spoilers: Norma's death and Vera Farmiga's role next season; who will play Marion Crane?

(Facebook/BatesMotelAETV)Season 5 to introduce Marion Crane.

"Bates Motel" shocked fans by ending its fourth season with the death of a major character — Norma Bates. How will her death affect the show as it moves to its fifth, and most likely final, season?

Everyone who knows "Psycho's" mythology knows that Norma (Vera Farmiga) would eventually die. Fans were just surprised that it happened in season 4. Showrunners Kerry Ehrin and Carlton Ruse had been very open about the show being designed to run for just five seasons, so a lot of fans expected that Norma's death would happen at the end of "Bates Motel's" final season. That might not have happened, but fans got an even better story arc, as Norman (Freddie Highmore) now has Norma at home, all to himself.

Norma's death has also led fans to wonder whether season 5 will be all about Norman and his worsening psychosis. But according to Ehrin, it will actually still be about this "sad, beautiful, co-dependent love story between a mother and a son."

"That obsession with Norma will absolutely drive the final season and really keep her exactly in the center of it, not only for Norman but for Romero," Ehrin explained to Yahoo TV.

This also means that fans will still get to see Farmiga, who Ehrin described to EW as a "queen of an actress." However, fans will be seeing the actress in a modified role next season. As Cuse explained to TV Line, the character is only existing in Norman's brain now, but their complex relationship will still exist next season.

His mother might be dead, but Norman is far from being alone in this world, as his brother Dylan (Max Thieriot) and his girlfriend Emma (Olivia Cooke) are still alive and will appear next season.

Viewers will also see one iconic character checking in to "Bates Motel" next season — Marion Crane. Movie fans will recall that Crane is the guest that Norman (as Mother) killed in the shower, setting in motion the events that finally led to the hotel owner's arrest.

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