Dream a little dream of me.
(Contains spoilers)
It doesn't have to be over if you wish hard enough. Romero and Norman arrive at Norma's shallow grave. Distraught and heart-broken perhaps Romero doesn't care that he will soon lie dead beside her. He may even want that, because in spite of his promise he doesn't shoot Norman quickly and cleanly. Instead Norman cracks Romero's skull with a rock, takes the gun and shoots him in the chest.
Norman doesn't need protection anymore. He knows everything. Norma/n says goodbye, but the last thing Norman can do is let her go.
He falls unconscious in the snow, and dreams it's the start of a new life with his mother. She's just bought the motel with the insurance money. Part conscious, carrying Norma's corpse home, and part unconscious, dreaming of them arriving together years before, he starts again.
Guests arrive at the motel and he checks them in. One of the sons is called Dylan, and that reminds Norman that is family isn't yet complete.
This episode requires complete suspension of disbelief. There is no way that the police wouldn't have kept the house and motel under surveillance, they haven't even found Regina (the kidnapped office manager yet), but here we are. If you wish hard enough, I guess, you get a romantic ending after all.
And the bitter sweet ending is a happy one of sorts. Romero is no longer suffering, Norman and his mother are together again and Dylan gets to be a hero and wins his other family back. A phone call. Norman invites Dylan to dinner. Emma begs him to call the sheriff, but he arrives alone. He tries to get his brother to accept reality, but Norman would sooner die. The word thank you, whispered with a final breath. And “this is how it ends.”
The rest, the reality, is secondary. It is the dream we are left with. A dream of solace and peace and love. A new start and new owners for the motel, while us dreamers are left to contemplate whether Norman is happy at last.