WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Animal Kingdom Season 5, Episode 5, "Family Business," which aired Sunday on TNT.
TNT's Animal Kingdom delivers high-octane action and criminal heists amidst a backdrop of family drama. However, given the Codys' unconventional lifestyle, it rises far above the typical familial spats. Since Season 1, Smurf (Ellen Barkin) and her oldest son Pope (Shawn Hatosy) have displayed a complicated relationship straight out of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Now, Pope treads dangerously close to the edge of madness as he copes with his mother's death eerily similar to Norman Bates.
Based on the 1959 novel of the same name, Hitchcock's Psycho spotlights Norman Bates, the disarming owner of a roadside motel harboring a disturbing secret. After his mother's death (who he murdered out of jealousy), Norman took on her personality. However, Mother, aka Norma Bates, doesn't like women and, when Norman's around them, she commands her son to kill. While Animal Kingdom's Pope isn't stabbing women in the shower or dressing in his mother's clothes, he has more than few things in common with the fictional slasher.
Like Norman, Pope grew up with a manipulative, emotionally abusive mother who didn't like women all that much either. Smurf inappropriately uses her sexuality to appeal to her sons and grandson, although she never crosses the line. The twisted strategy also aligns with Psycho's Norma. Although never confirmed on-screen, the film and novel heavily imply a borderline sexual relationship, a concept that the prequel series, Bates Motel, further explores. Although she achieves comparable results, Smurf forgoes Norma's abrasiveness and plays the long game with calculating manipulations. She convinces Pope to kill Cath, the love of his life, by assuring him the love was unreciprocated and no one could ever love him like her.
The Oedipal relationships and continuous manipulation cause both characters to resent their mothers. However, they simultaneously display fierce protectiveness and can't seem to live without their respective matriarchs. Both mothers know this about their unstable sons. In Bates Motel, Norma frequently worries about what will happen to Norman when she's gone, and Smurf even tries to take Pope out with her when attempting to kill herself in a shoot-out, assuring him he can't survive without her.
After killing his mother, Norman quickly descends into madness, flipping between himself and Mother. He also hears his mother's voice and talks back to her. Bates Motel explores Norman's origin story across five seasons, highlighting Norman's traumatic upbringing, increasing blackouts and Norma's attempts to get him on medication. In that regard, the prequel parallels Pope's struggles. Animal Kingdom Season 5 delves into Pope's childhood, his recent blackouts and briefly hearing his mother's voice commanding him from beyond the grave. Not to mention Season 1 has Smurf sneaking antipsychotics into Pope's food.
Psycho's big reveal and most disturbing moment involve the protagonists discovering Norma's corpse propped up in the Bate's residence. Bates Motel even sees Norman moving his mother's dead body around the house. While Pope doesn't dig his mother up, he lays in bed next to her loose ashes, inarguably delivering a chilling Norman Bates-inspired moment.
With Season 5 ongoing, it's unknown how much more Pope will unravel. While it's unclear if Animal Kingdom writers sought inspiration from Psycho, the similarities between Norman and Pope are uncanny. Hitchcock brought Norman Bates to life, and the character's unusual yet iconic maternal relationship laid the foundation for entertainment's twisted mother/son trope. With Smurf and Pope's complicated relationship at the forefront of Animal Kingdom's story, it's hard not to ponder just how much Pope will follow in Norman's terrifying footsteps, though it's doubtful he'll be donning one of Smurf's trademark silk robes anytime soon.
Pope unravels in Season 5 of Animal Kingdom. New episodes air each Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on TNT.