Tear Jerker / Psycho

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

• To people who grew to like and/or relate to Marion while considering her the main character of the movie, the sight of her lifeless body lying on the bathroom floor after the shower scene. It also looks almost like she sheds a Single Tear right before she completely dies.
  • Her backstory in Robert Bloch's novel adds more sympathy to her cause; her father getting hit by a car, supporting her sick mother and Lila, a previous boyfriend leaving her for the army, etc...all revolving around this quote:
    "Mary Crane had waited over twenty-seven years for hers [opportunity]."
  • Word of God is that Marion was planning to drive back home in the morning, hand the money back, and presumably do her best to make amends (she'd still have to replace the $700 she spent on the car). She never gets her chance at redemption and is killed with everyone believing she's a thief. No one will ever know that she was planning to return the money either.
• Norman's horrified reaction when he realizes what his mother has done to Marion. This is a lovely young woman he's come to like, only for his crazy mother to strike yet again.
• The whole existence of the mother persona is one when you think about it. Norman grew up being abused and mistreated by his mother, with no friends or other companions he could confide in. Even if you ignore the sequels, he clearly grew up very lonely and unloved. So his murder was very much killing an Asshole Victim who tormented him so much - but he was so consumed by guilt at killing someone who richly deserved it that he let her take over his mind anyway. "Maybe she deliberately prevented him from growing up," says Sam to Lila in the novel.
  • His speech to Marion about how his mother treats him underlines just how Norma's abuse affected him. He wants to sometimes "curse her and leave her forever", but stays by because she's an ill old woman who can't take care of herself. While his response to Marion suggesting he put her "some place" veers closer to Nightmare Fuel, his mother has him so controlled that giving her into the care of those who could handle her and treat her (thus ridding him of the responsibility) seems like A Fate Worse Than Death. Obviously, The Reveal shows that this is not the true situation, but it's possible that's how he felt before her death.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation here - what if his desire to "curse her and leave her forever" is what he wished he'd done. If he'd just left her and tried to set up a new life for himself, he might finally have been free of her. But he had to murder her and trap himself in this life.
• Apart from his mother's domination inside his brain which forces him to kill most of the women he is attracted to, Norman gets quite a big amount of bad luck with them, be it the chain of reactions leading to the death of Mary in Psycho II or the death of Maureen in Psycho III.
• Norman begging Mary not to let "them take me back to the institution" and recalling memories of his mother caring for him when he was sick before she went crazy in Psycho II
• In Psycho III, Norman and Maureen's breakup. The first good relationship Norman's ever had with a girl and she leaves him.
• Maureen's death in Psycho III. After realizing her feelings for Norman, she returns to him in order to save his soul and start a normal life with him, only for her to accidentally fall down the stairs and impale her head on a statue of Cupid's arrow. She was the first woman to make a breakthrough with Norman and she sadly dies completely by accident. Norman's cries only make it all the more harsher as he yells for his girlfriend to be okay.
  • Topped off by Norman's agonized howl, "MOOOOOTHERRRR!!!"
• Seeing Norman's childhood in Psycho IV:The Beginning is painful. It's hard to imagine living with Norma Bates and not losing your mind.
• Norman fearing that his unborn child could turn out as crazy as he did. He's so torn up about it that he thinks the best solution is to kill his wife and unborn baby so another child like him won't exist and he'll be locked up forever again so he can kill off his terror for good.
• His first victim was a teenage girl who had the hots for him, and a beautiful grown woman.
  • The first girl was a happy, wild girl who had a crush on Norman for a while and decided to make the first move on him. He really wants to date her, but of course, his fear of his mother is preventing him. Unable to take no for an answer, she tries pressuring Norman into being her boyfriend. He finally gives in and invites her to his house where she hopes their relationship will finally blossom, but she learns about why he's isolated from everyone else the hard way.
  • Although his second love didn't get much character, she suffers the cruelest death in the entire series. Well, alongside Norma, Chet, and Duke, but they deserved it. While waiting for Norman to get back to her car, he jumps her from behind, attempting to strangle her. She passes out, only to reawaken at the swamp. Where Norman is trying to load her body in her own trunk to dump in the lake. Afraid, Norman strangles her again in a fit of panic. Not Mother, Norman. After loading her body in the trunk, he pushes it into the lake, only for his ex-girlfriend to regain consciousness and pound on the trunk screaming as she remains trapped in her sinking car gasping for air. Even Norman is disturbed by her harsh end.
• The way things ultimately ended between Norman and Mary in Psycho II. She'd originally been sent by her mother Lila (Marion's sister) to cause Norman to go insane again after he was released from the mental institution. However, while staying with him and seeing that he wasn't the monster Lila had described him as, she began to genuinely care for him and obviously developed feelings for him. This all ended when Mary found Lila's body in the cellar and believed that Norman killed her (it was actually Norman's crazed aunt, Emma Spool). She attempts to kill Norman while dressed as his mother before being gunned down by the police.
• The scenes after the final confrontation in Psycho II; Norman doesn't utter a single word as he sits in the police station and then later returns home alone, having lost both Dr. Raymond and Mary]]. He looks so lost and alone when he steps through his front door and into that big empty house. It doesn't help that Tony Perkins's facial expressions really sell just what he's been through.
• The main theme from Psycho II. It sounds so somber and perfectly fits with Norman's loneliness that he feels in the Bates house after all the years of being away.
  • Similarly, "Maureen in the Desert" from Psycho III.