Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 42: The Return, Part 8

Recommended Posts

As the show goes on Frost's book seems more and more like required reading instead of the weird little sidestory everyone assumed it was. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, purps said:

As the show goes on Frost's book seems more and more like required reading instead of the weird little sidestory everyone assumed it was. 

I haven't read any of the books, only watched the OG series and FWWM. What book is the one you think is essential reading? I might nab it tonight.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm new to the forum because I had to come here to talk about the episode, but ironically, I am speechless after that.

 

I guess lore-wise, the coolest thing for me was seeing the convenience store that I'm assuming Mike and Bob used to live above?  Was it a test building near the nuclear site?

 

Did anyone catch what shape the gold aura the Giant was projecting was taking?  It seemed to be a shape but I wasn't able to catch it.

 

The sound design in this episode unlike anything I've gotten to experience as a part of a TV show.

 

I can't believe this complete freak show ep has felt like the most info dump-y thus far.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 minutes ago, FRENDEN said:

I haven't read any of the books, only watched the OG series and FWWM. What book is the one you think is essential reading? I might nab it tonight.

Just the recent one. Secret History of Twin Peaks. 

Deals a lot with the US government investigating the Roswell incident in new mexico and other phenomenon related to UFO sightings in the 50's, and connects that stuff to the Twin Peaks lore.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The pacing is horrible.  I don't know if it's Lynch or Showtime.  It's funny, things started happening last episode, but honestly, they were insignificant and could have (and probably should have) happened 6 episodes ago.  Then this episode throws the breaks on to that little bit of progress.  The murders have barely been referenced.  Coop is still speechless, and there are endless scenes of people not speaking and barely moving.  All the episodes should have been released at once, or at least multiple episodes at a time.  This episode was visually and sonically interesting, but not why I'm here.  I don't think they have given an audience enough to latch on to for this kind of episode to be thrust in this order.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Me last week: "That was okay, but awfully straightforward and plot-heavy. I hope this iteration of Twin Peaks doesn't pull a season 2 and become the thing it's aping."

 

Me this week: "WOW BOB WOW"

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Of course tonight is the night I am visiting my folks and my pops says "I don't care if I won't get it, I'll watch Twin Peaks with you if you really have to watch it TONIGHT." I said, "sure, I mean...I probably won't understand half of what's happening either, so you'll be ok." Yeesh... 😬😬😬 pretty sure he thinks I'm insane now.  

 

He literally said "you know you are probably the only person in this county watching this right now, right?  Like, can there be more than a couple thousand people total that are interested in this?" Lol

 

That said, I thought it was pretty enthralling, a lot of interesting info revealed and the sound design in particular was spectacular.  Gonna make my film student roomie watch this one to make the case for watching the rest of the show - anything that made THIS possible on TV MUST be worth watching, right?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, that was interesting.  For me, this episode represents the point of no return for the TP franchise.  Viewers are now connected to a larger commercial & cultural mystery vs. the tailored mystique of our quiet little town.  Personally, I think this shift to larger conspiracy theories (aliens, Roswell, Area 51 type stuff) significantly degrades the ethos and pathos that makes Twin Peaks special.  Lynch/Frost are moving us from granular (small town) to cosmic at a deliberate pace (slow or fast depending on perspective).  As a participant in this 25 year story line, I feel I must now decide if I really want to know what the machine behind the curtain is doing, where it came from, and what it's motivations are.  Sure, I'm interested.  But I think I'd rather not know in full detail how the "sausage gets made".  I know the product is bad for me, but let me enjoy the experience without connecting ALL the dots.

The Return (and episode 8 in particular) confirm for me that TP is a vehicle for telling the moral of reincarnation.  We are, and are all surrounded by, energy changing form.  Energy burns bright and ascends.  Energy burns out and descends.  Every action contains energy which has an equal and opposite reaction.  Light/Dark - the black & white floor of the red room.  Bob, Dad - same forwards as backwards, equal AND opposite.  Major characters in TP having duplicate versions of themselves appear in the plot (think Maddy, Catherine Martel and Mr. Tojamura, Ben Horne as a crooked businessman and a tree hugger, Leland with dark hair and white hair.... the list goes on).

I'm too invested to stop, but I'm going to drift to the finish line on this.  I really want to be sprinting.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm so glad that we live in a media landscape where a relatively well-known TV show can have an episode like this! I know it's a huge exception to the rule, but this simply could not have existed if it wasn't for digital streaming. I don't care very much about what this does to the mythology of Twin Peaks and I definitely don't care about the lack of plot progression. What I'm here for is the incredible imagery, and the feeling of each scene, and the fact that this imagery is wrapped up in a coherent mythos only makes me pay more attention to the details. When I watched this, I was wondering at the meaning and symbolism more than I would if I was just experiencing this as a 45 minute long art-film. I think the collaboration between Frost's lore-dense mythology and Lynch's audio-visual tone making has really made something special.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So, it's probably foolish to talk about that episode without some distance, but off the top of my head...

Twin Peak's answer to Origin Stories: Lynch terrifies us while Frost gives up just enough to know how it might have happened. 

 

Some impressions from the episode: 

Lingering on the moment of annihilation and holding on inside the explosion were not only naturally tense experiences, but it was also a meditation on our ability to destroy. The moment with the hobo at the car, and the girl letting the boy kiss her were moments asking us, in a world where our capacity for devastation has been demonstrated, how do we trust one another? And the final moments, when the people accepted the unusual broadcast into their homes, and the girl left her window open, they stand as a warning that however people chose to live their lives after the bomb, whatever philosophies they adopt, however many blind eyes they turn, the facts of humanity's new found power will work over their psyches whether they know it or not. I know I'm starting to sound like a sophomore writing a simple essay on symbolism in allegory, but I wanted to lay out HOW the beats of the bomb sequence affected me and left me with the feeling that something DID happen because of the impression it made. 

 

Twin Peaks has always been, in part, about people's ability to hurt and how they chose to live in the face of menace. So if there ever was a good place for this lore to start, I think they picked it, especially considering both creator's ages. Lynch's mother would have been pregnant when the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened. What she must have thought about bringing a life into the world in that moment!

 

I could criticize a few things about the episode (a laugh woulda been nice), but nothing ruined the experience on the whole; and nothing beats the sick pleasure of being disturbed by Lynch's filmmaking. I really dug it. 

 

#frogroaches

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As soon as BadCoop was shot, I got really excited, expecting this to mean the return of Real Coop. I expected a cut to Dougie, a long drawn-out scene with him, before he suddenly snaps back into being Real Coop and we would all jump out of chairs and cheer and everyone would be happy forever. Then, I thought, OK, let's be realistic, it'll probably cut to Gordon and Albert first, or cover some mundane stuff in Twin Peaks, just to let us stew in our excitement for a bit.

 

And then, uh, well, whatever happened happened! There were like three or four moments where I thought it would end and cut back to something relevant. I checked how long was left in the episode at about 49 minutes, and went, huh, well, I guess that's just that. I didn't dislike the episode; I think it's cool, but I'm not especially crazy about it either. I absolutely did not see it as the lore dump that everyone else did, since I guess I'm not well-versed enough in the lore. A lot of what seemed to be introduced about Bob and Laura does not excite me much; I expected Dale to be in the bubble instead of Laura, because he is way more of an antithesis to Bob than Laura is. Are we just supposed to ignore that Laura is complex? Is all her badness supposed to come from Bob? That just seems a bit too simple to me.

 

Also, was the guy who introduced NIN the singer from the Red Room in the finale? It kinda reminded me of him.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, WickedCestus said:

Are we just supposed to ignore that Laura is complex?

That particular photo of Laura I think is meant to symbolize just the good in Laura. Or maybe the sheen of goodness, or an idealized Laura Palmer.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well...that was...different.

 

I have a feeling we just watched Gordon Cole's origin story.  I definitely think the Boy (1956) is Gordon.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Gailbraithe said:

I definitely think the Boy (1956) is Gordon.

Great observation.  I bet you're right.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
19 minutes ago, Owlsy said:

Personally, I think this shift to larger conspiracy theories (aliens, Roswell, Area 51 type stuff) significantly degrades the ethos and pathos that makes Twin Peaks special.  Lynch/Frost are moving us from granular (small town) to cosmic at a deliberate pace (slow or fast depending on perspective).  As a participant in this 25 year story line, I feel I must now decide if I really want to know what the machine behind the curtain is doing, where it came from, and what it's motivations are.  Sure, I'm interested.  But I think I'd rather not know in full detail how the "sausage gets made".  I know the product is bad for me, but let me enjoy the experience without connecting ALL the dots.

 

I'm definitely feeling this too.  I can't help but wonder how much of what we're seeing is the result of the new run of episodes being literally doubled, from 9 to 18.  I'm so excited to see the next 10 hours of the experience, but can you imagine if we only had one episode left?  While the extra eps have given us more Twin Peaks to experience --something at this point I would never realistically turn down --I can't help but wonder what the truncated version would have looked like.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This brings a whole new meaning/layer or intrigue to the mushroom cloud photo hanging in Cole's office.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh, and my least favorite thing about this episode:  Now I have to sit through two more weeks of people speculating that Evil Cooper raped Diane and Audrey.  Was really, really hoping for a development that would quash that, no such luck.

 

...and how did Ray trick Evil Cooper anyways?  Did he make a deal with the warden?  Why would the warden make a deal with Ray?  It sure didn't seem like Ray had time to swap the guns, and where did Ray get a gun anyways?  Yeah, sure, you guys can sit and ponder the meaning of the atomic bomb and ask if the Giant is God, but me, I'm asking the real questions.

 

By which I mean desperately clinging to the five minutes of this episode I can vaguely make sense of.

 

Seriously, that was the weirdest thing I've seen since Begotten.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, MechaTofuPirate said:

Man, I feel like the only person that liked this episodes. Everyone I know hated it.

 

I was completely entranced. I knew that we were going to see the first a-bomb test from the date, and was fascinated by the use of the Threnody for the accompanying music. The idea that the A-bomb actually split the world is pretty intriguing.

Edited by LadyHawke
Spelling

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was thinking that the dust hobo contually asking, "Got a light," was a reference to the light of a soul/consciousness.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The fact that The Roadhouse can afford to book Nine Inch Nails should be a pretty good tipoff that the ownership is engaged in some extracurriculars?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Something I could stop thinking about during the atomic portion of the episode is how much it felt like an abstracted Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode.  All the way down to the design of the Woodsmen and the feel of the Convenience Store as a set.  Throw in an ominous narrator to give some explanation, and it's almost a ready made lost Outer Limits.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
12 minutes ago, LadyHawke said:

I was thinking that the dust hobo contually asking, "Got a light," was a reference to the light of a soul/consciousness.

 

Seemed very related to Bob flicking matches at Leland and Laura asking "do you want to play with fire?" and all of that stuff too. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now