Why did Norman hire Duke?

1. Prior to hiring him, Norman explicitly mentions to Duke the upcoming Fairvale homecoming party and says it's bound to be busy. And Duke mentions he can only stay for a little while. Hence Norman probably only hired him on for the party. (And indeed, Duke ended up running the whole thing, didn't he?)

2. Again, Duke was only going to be around for a little while. And judging from Norman's response to this, I think he imagined that if Duke got out of hand, Mother would take care of it, and that would be that. But I also think Norman supposed that if someone else - a stranger - were living at the motel, Mother would behave herself.


"You know you want me, baby!" - Crow T. Robot

Not sure if I should put this, since you shouldn't be reading this unless you've seen the film, but in case you haven't seen the film...

****SPOILER ALERT****

I do believe the original idea for part III was to have Duke use Mother for ransom like in the movie, but unlike how it plays out in part III, he was to be doing the murders himself, and was later rewritten to have Norman doing the murders, probably because of the fact that, if you believe the ending of part II, Norman's not doing the murders. Which is also why the reporter tells him that Mrs. Spool is not his mother, but his aunt.

I thought that was strange too, but I wonder if it was an unconscious move on his part to distance himself (and Mother) from the motel and the young women who came to stay there. I mean, maybe it was even a conscious effort to stay away from them so that Mother wouldn't get jealous and murder them.

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