'Bates Motel' Postmortem: Freddie Highmore on the Sweet and Salty Sides of Norman and the New Season's Mystery

One episode into Season 3 and Norman Bates is sharing a bed with his mother, has a new girlfriend in old pal Emma, has ankled high school for homeschooling, has a job as the Bates Motel manager, and is possibly involved with the disappearance of a beautiful motel guest. Yep, Norma’s little man is growing up and growing closer to becoming the Psycho killer we know he will be.

Norman’s portrayer, Freddie Highmore, talks to Yahoo TV about playing this likable, yet inevitably broken character as he gets closer to his ultimate movie Norman destiny, how Norman will deal with the knowledge of the violence he’s capable of, how the Bates family’s relationship will evolve in Season 3, and the funniest line he said to his TV mother in the season premiere.

What would you say is the theme of Season 3?
I think in some ways, the first two seasons were the setting up of the story, and the setting up of the relationships, and establishing who Norma and Norman are. The third season is about breaking that down and moving towards the end point that we always knew would have to come.

Is it tough for you knowing that? As viewers, we have come to like these characters, so we don’t want them to end up where we know they’re going to. Do you find that to be true portraying the character?
Yes, and it’s become somewhat of a joke on set that I continually say that Norman’s this really nice guy, and he’s so friendly, and it’s not his fault this woman… I think everyone gets very defensive of their own characters after awhile, and especially because they each have something redeemable about them, for all of their negative characteristics. It’s lovely to get to see all of the characters start to, I don’t know, to see how far they’ve come. I think [this] is the first time all of the actors, at the end of this season, as we do the ninth and tenth episodes, are kind of looking back now, and there’s this sense of thinking, “Oh, we have come quite a long way… we’ve been playing these people, and feel the weight of that.” We have these very real memories now, as opposed to at the start, it was more the sense of being part of the Psycho mythology.

Related: 'Bates Motel' Is Back: Here's How Crazy-Creepy This Show Can Get

Norman is very different this season. There’s a confidence, a maturity that we haven’t seen before. Why do you think that is?
Yes, certainly. I think when Norman is made [Bates Motel] manager, he assumes the other responsibilities, and I think with the knowledge of who he actually is, and what’s he capable of… this season is about how he deals with that knowledge, and that’s certainly given him this extra responsibility, and with that, this maturity.

As upset as he was to learn what he’s capable of, is he sort of emboldened by that as well?
I think that’s an interesting question with regard even to what extent Norman is capable of manipulating that, or manipulating that knowledge, especially with Norma. Their relationship has always been, from both of their points of view, something that seems to each of them to be relatively normal, this sort of idyllic relationship, and they’re both sort of perfect for each other, and with each other, and that’s where their happiness comes from. I think with Norman’s growing maturity, and Norma’s greater knowledge and concern about her son’s condition, they both start to challenge the assumption of their relationship as positive for both of them. That’s a stretch which, without saying too much, is stretched to a breaking point in the third season… their relationship turns into something a lot more tumultuous, and they both seek to reestablish the boundaries of their relationship one way or another.

Outsider opinion seems like it will factor in a lot more this season, like when Dylan tells Norma that Norman shouldn’t be sleeping in her bed with her because it’s inappropriate.
Certainly, the people that Norma engages with outside of her relationship with him will continue to make Norman jealous. Norman, in the third season, becomes a much more insular person. He’s going to be home schooled, and that kind of sets the tone for him retreating into himself. The battle for Norman isn’t so much with other people, but it’s with himself and with this other side to him that he’s constantly juggling throughout the third season. For Norman, it’s very much this internal battle and internal trouble that he has to deal with now, which I think is really interesting, that we see his mind, and how he psychologically is developing and self-destructing.

As you said, he’s set up for home schooling, Norma makes him the manager of the motel, and then he asks Emma to be his girlfriend. He obviously genuinely cares for Emma, but is part of this new relationship with her him solidifying this safety zone around him? With school and work both there, and now Emma as his school and work companion and now girlfriend, there’s very little reason for him to leave home.
Exactly, yes. I think this sort of burgeoning relationship with Emma has always been there, and for one reason or another, neither of them have taken the step to make it something more. That finally developed, and [laughs] we’ll have to wait and see what the consequences are of that.

As always, the dark humor remains this season, like when Norma tells Norman in the car not to be so dramatic. And one of Norman’s best lines ever, when he’s comforting her about her mother’s death, and she invites him back into her bed, and he says, “Move over, you silly woman.” It’s funny and weird and kind of epitomizes their relationship.
[Laughs.] Yeah, that was a funny line to say, and I’m sure there are different takes that were probably too much one way or another. It’s always that borderline, kind of, how far do you push it, humor. That dark humor underpins so much of the show. It’s been there right from the start. These are such crazy characters, in a funny way, as well as being crazy in a mad way.

Related: 'Bates Motel' Preview: Freddie Highmore and Nestor Carbonell Play 2 Truths and a Lie

What’s different for you as an actor playing Norman in Season 3, versus when you first started playing him?
I guess I’m probably more mature, myself, as well. I was just saying to someone earlier how I felt at the start that you could plan out Norman’s journey from the very beginning, knowing exactly how he’s going to end up, but over time, you realize that you’re sort of surprised with the way that the journey takes place, and there are certain things that you can never quite plan out from the start. That’s been fun this season, sort of moving towards that end point in perhaps different ways than people might have expected.

As always, there are some great guest stars this season. Norman bonds with Annika (Tracy Spiridakos) right away, but at the end of the episode, he returns to the motel, driving her car, with her nowhere in sight. Does that story continue to unfold across the season, or will we find out right away in the second episode what is going on?
No, definitely, that story evolves. It balloons into something that’s not purely between Norman and Annika, something that encompasses the whole town… the disappearance of Annika, and who had done it, and to what extent Norman’s involved in it. Because he seemed pretty keen to go help her, with him being the manager now. Which I think is another humorous thing, Norman’s loving the responsibility of being a manager at the motel, and sort of taking that upon his shoulders, and being so proud of it with Annika, when he says, “Oh, of course I can leave now. I’m the manager. I can do what I want.” It’s that funny thing of Norman with someone he has feelings for, sexual feelings for. There’s this darker side of him that’s incredibly dangerous, and there’s also this slightly immature and more innocent side to him that’s just a little boy trying to act like a man in order to tell this girl woman he likes her.

Will Norman and Dylan grow closer this season? They care for each other, but with Norma in the middle, that might be tricky.
At the start of the season, Dylan gets in the way slightly of this affection between Norma and Norman, and Norma starts telling Dylan things that she keeps hidden from Norman. That kind of all-encompassing trust between mother and son is broken up to some extent by Dylan. Dylan’s the first person to really instigate that reassessment of their relationship that we were speaking about earlier. Dylan, who very much cares for Norman, begins to side with Norma more in terms of how best to deal with Norman’s issues, and makes her more aware of the reality of the situation, as opposed to it being these two crazy people having no knowledge of what reality is.

Bates Motel airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on A&E.