With an episode like this, I’d have been more than content if we didn’t get any detours to Dylan and Emma, but Dylan’s phone call to Norman is one of the more poignant moments in the episode. It’s brutal for Dylan to be checking in on his damaged brother, completely unaware of what’s happened to his mother. It’s even more upsetting to watch Norman say goodbye to Dylan in what he knows will likely be the last time they talk to each other. He’s ready for what mother needs of him, and that means doing this solo. The fact that he sheds tears over the departure at least shows that there’s some humanity left in him. I just hope Dylan has the restraint to stay away from home and accept his happy ending. I firmly believe that if he pops up next season at Norman’s residence it’s going to cost him his life. Let this blissful ignorance be the note that he goes out on.

A lot of this episode coasts off of various people through this next stage of Norman’s life giving furtive glances to each other over how peculiar Norman is acting. He’s staring at dresses for too long. He’s getting tripped up on the past tense of Norma. All of this bubbles to a beautifully uncomfortable surface tension as you begin to wonder just how far this episode will go into Norman’s evolution. A pointed discussion about embalming Norma is brought up, with the idea of preserving a forever-beautiful Norma being exactly what Norman would want. When he shoots down the procedure though, your brain can’t help but have flashes to that decrepit skeleton of Norma that’s collecting cobwebs in the Bates mansion in Psycho.

I can’t tell you how goddamned cathartic it is when Romero nearly beats the shit out of Norman in the hospital—and then succeeds in doing so at the church—after Norman tries to blame him for all of this. This has understandably been a tough season on Norman but it hasn’t been much easier on Romero. He’s been giving Norman the benefit of the doubt in order to make his wife happy and now she’s dead because of the exact thing that he was worried about. In a lot of ways his story is even more devastating that Norman’s. He’s the one that’s crying and losing it over her cold body. He’s the one that’s actually processing this loss. I had my initial reservations when the whole Norma and Romero wedding was jumped into, but I absolutely believe it when he tells her corpse that he’ll never stop loving her. His wedding ring on her hand is the brightest thing on her pale body.

My only real quibble with this episode is that it’s awfully convenient that Romero’s perjury business catches up with him now, leaving Norman further isolated during all of this. It’s a small thing to complain about, especially when it has been teased enough all season. Besides, did I mention that Norma is dead!? And Norman exhumes her corpse in this episode!? And he puts nail polish remover on her eyelids to keep her dead gaze permanently on him!? I’ll let some sloppy B-story crime stuff slide.