Season 5 kicks off 18 months after Norma's death. Romero is serving 5 years in County for the perjury charge. Norma's body is in a freezer in the basement surrounded by flowers. Norman is still the manager of Bates Motel and is keeping records of when he has his blackouts. They are happening frequently. No one appears to have checked up on his mental health issues after his stay in Pineview. Therapy is no longer part of Norman's life and he isn't taking his medication, well of course he can't if he wants to see and talk to Norma.
Norman wakes with Juno is his room, music playing in the house and the smell of cooking. Norma is at the stove with a huge green bow at the back of her apron. This is Norman's paradise. The episode is called “Dark Paradise” because of course it is all a lie. As soon as Norman turns away from the homely scene we see dirty pans and dishes covering every surface of the kitchen.
"And we're doing it. We're actually doing it. A mentally ill boy and a dead woman."
Norman manages to keep the fantasy going. Norma keeps reminding him she's dead, but he tells her that she's pretending to be dead. Norma continues to give him advice, although there is a tendency for it to be less combative now, perhaps Norman has a tighter control on her after 18 months of practice.
Norman decides the motel needs a new coat of paint. He meets a beautiful woman, Madeline Loomis, who reminds him of his mother at the hardware store. She is married, but that cannot change the way he feels. She invites him to a small business owners' meeting and he plans to go just to see her again. When he is about to pay for the paint samples, he realises he has someone else's wallet in his pocket. He investigates the guest book and cannot discover the owner of the wallet, Jim Blackwell. Who is this man and is he still alive? Norma tells him to put the wallet in the safe until the owner returns to collect it.
A man arrives at the motel wanting a room for a couple of hours. “We are not that sort of establishment,” Norman tells him, and he pays for a night in room 1 where Norman can use his spy hole to watch him and his girlfriend. The phone rings and Norma tells him to come up to the house. A hasty zipping of his fly and Norman does as he is told.
Norma stops Norman from taking the car to go to the meeting. She needs to show him something. It is Jim Blackwell in their freezer with multiple stab wounds. In a flashback we watch as Jim tries to shoot Norman but Norma saves him. They take the body to the lake and as they are about to throw him in his mobile phone rings. Against Norma's panicked advice Norman picks it up. Guess who is on the other end? County inmate Alex Romero.
In Seattle the perfect couple have a beautiful baby. We see them at Emma's birthday party as Caleb arrives uninvited asking to stay. Dylan feels guilty that he doesn't want his father there, but he did make this happiness happen by giving Dylan the money for Emma's operation. In the end it is Emma who thanks Caleb for the money but asks him to leave. Where will Caleb go? Ummm I think I can guess.