Bob le Samourai

Two overriding first impressions: 1. If there's anything I'm sure of, it's that the decision for Bad Coop to have raped both Audrey and Diane wasn't as flippant as it seemed in Episode 16—the trauma of sexual abuse continues to be central to the show. If this season is as much in the mold of Lynch's last three films as it seems to be, Audrey & Diane as a pair are central to the exchange between different levels of reality/narrative in the same way as Fred + Pete in Lost Highway, Betty/Diane + the dead girl in the apartment in Mulholland Drive, or Nikki/Sue + the Lost Girl in Inland Empire. The most Mulholland Drive-esque reading (which I'm not persuaded of, but is worth pursuing as far as it goes) is that all or part of Season 3 has been a product of Audrey's imagination—with Audrey projecting aspects of herself onto Diane and perhaps also Laura/"Keri Page." At the very least, Audrey's consciousness must have been involved with much of what's happened in the Black Lodge, and I don't think any interpretation of Season 3 can be satisfying without fully grappling with this. 2. Kyle MacLachlan's last 45 minutes are a real rabbit-duck of a performance. The closest thing I can think to compare it to is the splicing of Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee's voices as Gandalf the White in The Two Towers. It's uncanny. At first I was convinced this was the doppelganger all over again. Going over the same scenes a second time, though, I can just as easily rationalize all the same mannerisms as coming from Cooper following the Gaint Fireman ???????'s hints while being distrustful of his surroundings.

Perhaps this has all been a ploy to start a weekly, 22-minute-format Jones family sitcom?