'Bates Motel' season 4 spoilers: New episodes to pick up from season 3 cliffhangers

Norma and Norman Bates in A&E's 'Bates Motel'A&E

Viewers saw the drama and suspense that happened in the lives of Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga) and her son Norman (Freddie Highmore) in season 3 of "Bates Motel." When the mind-boggling series returns for its fourth season, the audience will see more of the complicated relationship between the mother and son. .

For the first time since the pilot episode aired in 2013, "Bates Motel" will not feature a time jump between seasons. 

"We left with a lot of cliffhangers — Bradley (Nicola Peltz) had just been killed, Norman thinks his mother did it, the actual Norma has no idea where her son is, Emma's (Olivia Cooke) going in for a lung transplant. So there are a lot of threads we [wanted] to pick up immediately," series executive producer Kerry Ehrin told TVLine

This means that fans of the A&E drama thriller will finally see Norman become a full-fledged psychopath after he was seen imitating his mother's full persona when he killed Bradley in season 3. 

When season 3 ended, Ehrin told the Entertainment Weekly that she and co-producer Carlton Cuse were interested in delving into the possibility of Norma finding a way to help cure Norman's condition. The executive producer believes that Norma is starting to become stronger, and she would really want to look for a cure for Norman despite their current situation where they have no extra money to spend for the expensive treatments. 

"But she wants, more than anything in the world, to fix things for her son and to be there for him. Also I think given her co-dependency on Norman, her ever getting him help is going to be harder for her than it will be for him," Ehrin stated. 

Also, fans would like to know if Norma will finally give in to her feelings for Sheriff Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell), which seemed to have gotten more intense in season 3. 

"Bates Motel" will begin filming by the end of the year, and season 4 is slated for release sometime in 2016.