'Bates Motel' season 4 spoilers, premiere date: Brand new episodes are bound to get darker

 Facebook/A&E

"Bates Motel" is set to return with its fourth season this year and fans should prepare for more twisted episodes.

In season 3, Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) started to give in more to his darker side. Even Highmore spoke to Entertainment Weekly about what the finale means for his character.

"I think it's the beginning of the end. I've always seen season 3 as the real turning point where, by the end of it, Norman is much closer to the Norman Bates of Psycho than to the Norman that we set up at the beginning of Bates Motel," the 23-year-old actor said.

Apart from expecting a darker season 4, series creator Kerry Ehrin also hinted to TV Line's Michael Ausiello that the new season will pick up from where it left off. The previous season left so many cliffhangers and with the arrival of the new season, it is expected that Norman's psychosis will become worse and he could snap without warning.

In the finale of season 3, Norman escaped the basement where his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga), put him in. He then assumed her personality and killed off Bradley (Nicola Peltz).

Norman then thinks that it was his mother who killed Bradley, while the real Norma remained clueless when it comes to her son's whereabouts.

When the teen Bates returns in season 4, he is said to have already lost his character, according to Ehrin.

"He's somebody who's going in and out of a fictional reality in place in his head," Ehrin told Entertainment Weekly in May.

The series creator also hinted that it isn't unlikely that Norma will die in the coming seasons. So does this mean that Mrs. Bates could be Norman's next victim and she'll die in season 4?

Fans will just have to stay tuned to find out. There is no official date for the premiere of season 4, but if previous release dates will be followed, the show is likely to return to A&E sometime in March.

 

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