Twin Peaks Rewatch 30: Beyond Life and Death

[Twig]

Jake - my wife and I recently played the Puzzle Agent games. Any chance you could talk about the influence of Twin Peaks on the writing for that game in one of the Q&A podcast episodes?

I'd also like this. And get Sean in there, too, because, if I'm not mistaken, he also worked on it, and, if I'm not mistaken, has stated his distaste for Twin Peaks on the main 'cast. I've wondered for a while how that went down.

[Jake]

Got kind of behind with the podcast for various boring reasons, but I finally got caught up.

 

Jake - my wife and I recently played the Puzzle Agent games. Any chance you could talk about the influence of Twin Peaks on the writing for that game in one of the Q&A podcast episodes?

Please write in to twinpeaks@idlethumbs.net and I will do my best!

[LostInTheMovies]

-A lot of people get hung up on the doppleganger thing, but I'm not even sure if that's a real thing. Maybe I'm mistaken about this, but when the doppleganger for Cooper appears, you have one Cooper run off into the hallway, and then the other Cooper follows him, and neither of them have the clouded eyes that we see with the other dopplegangers. To me that's Lynch's way of signaling to the audience to not read too much into this stuff.

 

He does have the clouded eyes:

 

This is what makes Lynch so invigorating and maddening at the same time! Just when you've concluded that there is no cohesion and it's just dreamy stream-of-consciousness experimentation, you discover a hidden structure or pattern that is extremely suggestive. And when you think you have a grasp on the structure's existence (if not its meaning) another element enters to throw you for a loop and make you question if you are inventing significance. I find Inland Empire takes this is-it-or-isn't-it tendency to the extreme.

 

-I think there is also probably a pretty good psychoanalytic interpretation you could make with the shifting characters/dopplegangers being a sort of reflection of the way desire shifts from one object to the next. That's kind of above my pay grade in terms of trying to lay it out, but it seems pretty obvious to me that it is there to make.

 

Not sure if you've read it before, but Martha Nochimson's essay "Desire Under the Douglas Firs" (http://www.thecityofabsurdity.com/papers/nochimson.html) makes a heavy (but not TOO heavyhanded) psychoanalytic analysis of the final episode (as well as including some behind-the-scenes details of how the show developed in this direction). She expanded on the essay in her chapters on Twin Peaks and Fire Walk With Me in the book The Passion of David Lynch, which is for my money the best analysis of his work out there.

 

Consequently I don't see the ending as Cooper being possessed by Bob, or that a doppleganger emerged and the "real" Cooper is still trapped in the Lodge. I see it as Cooper has this experience where this world of duality like good and evil that grounds his character is confronted by a more confusing reality where that duality appears to not exist because two objects and people can be one and the same, and this experience shatters him.

 

I think so too. The way I'd put it is "duality" (i.e. the two sides of a single thing) vs. "dualism" (cleanly divided dark & light squaring off as separate forces). I think Twin Peaks strays toward the latter but in Lynch's hands it very much chooses the former in both the finale and FWWM. Which I find much more dramatically compelling and true-to-life.

[sclpls]

Thanks for the response LostInTheMovies! Just to clarify, the Cooper doppleganger has cloudy eyes in the room with Bob, but not in the hallway (see the shots that utilityfrog posted). That's one of those many wonderful moments in that sequence where one moment things are one way, and then the next some other way.

 

Thanks for the link to the Nochimson essay, I'll give it a read when I have a chance!

[LostInTheMovies]

Thanks for the response LostInTheMovies! Just to clarify, the Cooper doppleganger has cloudy eyes in the room with Bob, but not in the hallway (see the shots that utilityfrog posted). That's one of those many wonderful moments in that sequence where one moment things are one way, and then the next some other way.

 

Oh weird. I wonder if it would make sense to conclude that he is now beginning to merge with the other Cooper? How are his eyes when he is chasing through the strobe-lit Red Room and comes right up into the camera? It's interesting that in utiltyfrog's screencap, and also in the final image as Coop looks sideways and laughs, his eyes are still lit (or underlit) kind of cloudy and dark, almost like a shark's eyes. I don't think it's a matter of contact lenses in THAT case (as it obviously is for the milky blue eyes), but maybe I'm wrong. Man, Lynch does so much crazy hidden stuff...

[utilityfrog]

Oh weird. I wonder if it would make sense to conclude that he is now beginning to merge with the other Cooper? How are his eyes when he is chasing through the strobe-lit Red Room and comes right up into the camera? It's interesting that in utiltyfrog's screencap, and also in the final image as Coop looks sideways and laughs, his eyes are still lit (or underlit) kind of cloudy and dark, almost like a shark's eyes. I don't think it's a matter of contact lenses in THAT case (as it obviously is for the milky blue eyes), but maybe I'm wrong. Man, Lynch does so much crazy hidden stuff...

 

Yeah I noticed the eyes when I posted that pic (Doppel-Coop and Doppel-Leland in the corridor) and thought it was kind of odd. Kyle Maclachlan's performance in that moment though is still very much in the mode of Doppel-Coop.

 

I just looked at the scene again and I think it's down to lighting. See this moment from a few seconds earlier:

It's still a bit hard to see but it looks a lot like he has the glassy eyes.

 

And he definitely has the cloudy eyes in the strobe room:

[Eulogize_MBG]

Hmm, well, it's finally over. TBH, I don't really think I missed much by not making it to the end of season 2 the first time I watched the show. This finale is such a mess. There are some nice moments in the red room (rabid, strobing, dead-eyed Laura screaming her deaths lament is one hell of an image) but even then it goes on for far to long (this sequence is nowhere near as concise or effective as the ones from earlier in the show) and ends up little more than a parade of cast members past and present. The end beat of Cooper/Bob in the bathroom didn't work for me at all. It comes across like a last ditch pitch for a third season but feels shallow and an obvious attempt to spawn headlines. The prevailing sensation I'm left with is that of disappointment. In general I'm kind of amazed at how bad the writing is in season 2, something this last episode does nothing to redress. I must say that my memories of this show have been sorely tested by this second watch through. Here's looking forward to watching Fire Walk With Me, which while a very different beast I've always thought much more highly of, and after sticking out these last few episodes will be a very welcome palate cleanser.

[SuperBiasedMan]

It's funny you say that. I felt like the ending with Cooper was a shallow cliffhanger the first time round, but on this rewatch it felt more fitting for his character.

[Eulogize_MBG]

True, but it ultimately felt cheap, particularly in how it is brushed off in literally the last few moments of the show. Just a bit throwaway for such a big shift in his character.

I will admit that I really struggled to enjoy the back half of season 2, however, so my judgment may be more than a bit coloured by that.

[Spud]

So I finally caught up just now and saw the last episode yesterday. I'm another of the "never saw it before" people, since I was born in 1992, after the show aired, and wasn't even aware of its existence until 2010 when I saw people mentioning it in relation to Deadly Premonition. I'm going to ramble some thoughts about the double-episode ending here.

 

• Generally I've really enjoyed the series, and thought it was highly worthwhile as a show, but found it terribly difficult to give any shits at all about both the Windom Earle stuff and the Eckhardt stuff.
• The Josie plot lines were better back when it was suspicious asian man; I found her ending as a doorknob hilarious.
• The Miss Twin Peaks contest in general really annoyed me in its ubiquity, but especially the episode itself I found tiresome. Since when can Lucy dance like that, though? Kind of impressive.
• The James stuff got pretty dumb in season 2, but I honestly didn't find him nearly as repulsive as Chris and Jake seem to have (with a few exceptions in his arc at that lady's house)
• I don't like how the entire One Eyed Jack's plot seemed to be dropped into a hole after the Renault police takedown. Doesn't Ben Horne still own it? He only signed over Ghostwood and the Mill. Not sure how he reconciles all of that, given that his original write-out from One Eyed Jacks was that the Renaults (since arrested) took over.
• The short man in the red room, the giant and Bob still have consistently rock solid performances throughout. Good stuff.
• The scene with Ed, Norma and Nadine was incredibly depressing and highly effective.
• Doppel-Laura was very disturbing, as were Doppel-Cooper and Doppel-Leland
• I'm not sure I liked the ending with Bob appearing to have taken control of Cooper. They could always write it off as some doppelganger thing, idk.

That's about all I can think of.

[NotBob]

Finally caught up after missing the last few episodes years ago (when netflix in the UK lost the rights) .. any way, slight thing i noticed which i thought was very cool, Spoiler if you have not seen a few episodes of S3

 

Spoiler

I googled this a bit but not seen any one note it yet, .... but right at the end when Evil Coop is in his bed and says he has to "brush his teeth" the way Kyle acts is exactly the same way he acts as Evil Coop, his posture, the slow manor of speaking and the way he doesnt move his neck as he enters the bathroom.... made me smile to see that he kept the same 

 

[Jake]

6 hours ago, NotBob said:

Finally caught up after missing the last few episodes years ago (when netflix in the UK lost the rights) .. any way, slight thing i noticed which i thought was very cool, Spoiler if you have not seen a few episodes of S3

 

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I googled this a bit but not seen any one note it yet, .... but right at the end when Evil Coop is in his bed and says he has to "brush his teeth" the way Kyle acts is exactly the same way he acts as Evil Coop, his posture, the slow manor of speaking and the way he doesnt move his neck as he enters the bathroom.... made me smile to see that he kept the same 

 

That's really good.

 

Surely meaningless aside:

The first thing Sonny Jim says on screen is that he's brushed his teeth.

[mistercrayon]

On the whole this episode felt like eating too much food for lunch then sort of relaxing in the afternoon. 

 

Glastonbury grove was too much egg on the pudding of everything else. 

 

In a way it seems like it would have been better if they concreted over the ghostwood with a golf club. 

 

Man hawk knew all along and told no one of the evidence he found?!!? 

 

Nice to see coop and truman in the truck again (like the first episode). 

 

i don’t know why ed is clicking but it’s kind of a cool way to show how happy and relaxed he is. I like the painting with the lights in his and nadines house. 

 

Does horne ever say that he’s donnas father? I thought it was ambiguous and then more ambiguous. Doc goes really weird. The whole thing feels similar to the  Leland death scene too. 

 

Lynch does like a Venus di milo!

 

the shooting with the strobe light on coops face is really good. 

 

when the giant says “we are the same” does he mean With the old person or the little man? 

 

Series 3

Spoiler

It seems odd to me to see the giant at all in the black lodge (is it even the black lodge - it feels like it is but it’s also a waiting room?) given how helpful he is  I don’t get why he exists there  and especially as he’s a resident of the white lodge (I think)

 

also: when the little man says you’ll see me differently next time - he probably means as a tree

 

Does the bridge imply ronette came directly from the lodge?

 

lynch does like over playing a doddery old man scene. 

 

How does Andrew have a note in the safe? Everyone thought he was dead until the night Thomas died and catherine got the box. 

 

Series 3

 

Spoiler

Donnas okay! But she’s lost her mind.

 

Nice to see Shelly and Bobbys thing (he seems to have integrated his dog bark too)

 

Who is speaking through Sarah? Laura?

series 3

Spoiler

Judy?!!!!

 

The actor who plays Laura can really scream. I never realised the connection between the porcelain and coffee and the black and white of the floor and the lodges. (It suggests more the “black lodge” we see is nothing of the sort and more of an intermediate lodge - although only bad stuff happens it seems - but that goes towards it being a testing ground. 

 

I must say kyle machachlans last performance is really fantastic. 

 

Series 3

 

Spoiler

It’s interesting how much of bad coop is reflected in that first 20 seconds or so of coop and how little of mad mirror coop there is in bad coop later. 

 

 

I don’t think I really like this as a last episode for a series but I think contextually it’s pretty interesting

 

Series 3

Spoiler

How time works in this world and the metaphysical realms and how coop repeats his failure to save women over and over again while also being responsible in part for their dooms. His hubris in these exact situations never leaves him and leaves him

more and more in a spiral  

 

I can sort of see why they never wanted to reveal Laura’s killer because it feels like the show wanted to show a character (coop) In a perpetual death spiral (sort of like the poster of vertigo).