Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 42: The Return, Part 8

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I loved this episode. I won't go into speculation for fear of being hoisted when it's all proven wrong next month, but this episode has crystallised my reactions to the series thus far.

 

The more the Return goes on the more i separate it from the original run and Fire Walk With Me. The original and FWWM had wildly different tones, styles and perspectives. But I still found them connected and thought that FWWM was a good capper to the end of the series, filling out Laura's story and grounding the show. With the Return... I don't know what it's doing yet? I enjoy the experience but I don't feel like it's been meaningfully connecting to the original thus far. 

 

That's not to say that it's meaningless or even that it's wholly detached. But this feels like a follow up, a new story that carries on with some unresolved ideas. As little expectations as I tried to have from this series, this still disappoints me a bit. I'm not getting more Twin Peaks, I'm getting a new show set in Twin Peaks.

 

I'd love for the next ten episodes to prove me wrong. I'd still be happy to see them carry on and wrap up my 18 hour Lynchian baptism, just a tad disappointed.

 

Once the series is done I'll definitely look back through Lynch's filmography, the only other one I've seen is Blue Velvet.

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10 hours ago, prangman said:

-On an unrelated note, I love that nearly every Black Lodge figure we have seen across the series has their own signature poem, and that they kind of suit their characters.

MIKE, who is played in an almost hammy, Shakespearean way by Al Strobel has 'one chants out between two worlds, Fire walk with me' a rhyming, formal poem with arcane language. BOB has a dark version of a children's nursery rhyme ('catch you with my death bag...') and the woodsman has an almost hippyish free piece of free verse ('water...well...white horse'), perfectly suited to his almost hipster-y appearance.

 

This is cool. Also with the Woodsman's poem, I like how it kind of becomes a long, single mantra poem in its repetition. I'm sure DL knows a thing or two about mantras.

 

Quote

A mantra (from Sanskrit: man- "to think" and -tra meaning, tool) literally means "instrument of thought." Originating in ancient India out of Vedic Hinduism, mantras serve a variety of functions and are especially popular as aids to meditation and devotion. As powerful sound vibrations, mantras encompass various forms of sacred utterance (syllable, scriptural verse, or sacred formula), which can be repeated silently or chanted for different purposes such as instilling concentration, facilitating spiritual growth, and helping to visualize a deity. It is said that a mantra, when recited with proper understanding and intonation, can revitalize the mind with mystic power and help deliver it from illusion to enlightenment. Mantras have also been used in religious ceremonies to accumulate wealth, avoid danger, or even allegedly to eliminate foes.

 

In addition to Hinduism, mantas are also used by Buddhists, Jains, Tantrikas, Sikhs and followers of some new religious movements. The practice of prayer in the Abrahamic religions is said in some ways to have a similar function to mantras.

 

Mantras have two components of primary importance - Meaning and Sound. For the mantra to be effective, great emphasis is put on both correct pronunciation and the level of concentration of the mind on the meaning of the word or words that are recited. This emphasis on correct pronunciation resulted in an early development of a science of phonetics in India. It was recognized that words do have a mysterious power to affect human beings.

Since the term mantra is derived from the roots: "man" (to think) and the action oriented suffix "tra," a mantra can be translated as a linguistic device for deepening ones thought, or in the Buddhist context for developing the enlightened mind. However it is also true that mantras have been used as magic spells for very mundane purposes such as attaining wealth and long life, and eliminating enemies. Indeed, Dr. Edward Conze, a scholar of Buddhism, frequently translated "mantra" as "spell," and one scholarly etymology links the word mantra with "manas" (meaning "mind") and 'trâna' (for protection) making a mantra something which protects the mind. Indeed, vocal sounds in India are frequently thought of as having magical powers, or even of representing the words or speech of a deity.

 

There are various purposes of mantras depending on the religious school involved, and intention of the practitioner. It is often said that the purpose to mantras is to deliver the mind from illusion and material inclinations and to bring concentration and focus to the mind. It is claimed that a mantras can change one's consciousness, help the devotee attain one-pointedness, or concentration on the chosen deity or principle idea of the mantra. The vibrations and sounds of the mantra are considered extremely important, and thus reverberations of the sound are supposed to awaken the prana (breath or spiritual life force) and even stimulate chakras according to many Hindu schools of thought.

 

source

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7 hours ago, belamoscovitz said:

 

I think the trouble with using rape as a plot device (as in GoT) is when rape is presented as a rite of passage for a female character to "toughen up". Sansa Stark had plenty of reasons already and the writers inserted her in a scene that never existed to use this as her fuel to become stronger (when, in real life, what really empowers victims is healing, and not mindless, destructive revenge). Which, I believe, adds to the trope of female characters's relevant traits being a result of the actions of men, good of bad. 

 

In Twin Peaks, I, personally, don't feel this is the treatment given to any female character. Or to the subject of abuse, at all. So I think if these speculations turn out to be true, it would have a different outcome. 

You know, I can possibly understand that attitude,I just don't think it true in the case of GoT, and certainly not in Twin Peaks.  My main thing is I just don't get the outrage. There are plenty of shows, including shows that I like that occasionally have bouts of bad writing. GoT (especially the latter seasons) included.  In the case of GoT though, I don't think that's what was happening. They were giving Sansa Jeyne Pool's story line from the books (because they didn't know what else to do with her. Her story line could have been so great if the writers on that show would just do a little bit better.) It was a case of two things that just didn't go together, and the writers didn't know what they were doing. Sansa was supposed to be on the up, being more empowered and what not, and Jeyne Pool was the ultimate victim.

Anyways, now I'm talking about GoT. Sorry to derail. Twin Peaks has always been way better at portraying these kinds of things well, especially the return. I think so anyways. I'm with the hosts of this show though, that this episode, while I enjoyed it, has me slightly worried that things are being boiled down to Good vs. Evil. We'll see where it goes though.

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5 hours ago, SuperBiasedMan said:

I loved this episode. I won't go into speculation for fear of being hoisted when it's all proven wrong next month, but this episode has crystallised my reactions to the series thus far.

 

The more the Return goes on the more i separate it from the original run and Fire Walk With Me. The original and FWWM had wildly different tones, styles and perspectives. But I still found them connected and thought that FWWM was a good capper to the end of the series, filling out Laura's story and grounding the show. With the Return... I don't know what it's doing yet? I enjoy the experience but I don't feel like it's been meaningfully connecting to the original thus far. 

 

That's not to say that it's meaningless or even that it's wholly detached. But this feels like a follow up, a new story that carries on with some unresolved ideas. As little expectations as I tried to have from this series, this still disappoints me a bit. I'm not getting more Twin Peaks, I'm getting a new show set in Twin Peaks.

 

I'd love for the next ten episodes to prove me wrong. I'd still be happy to see them carry on and wrap up my 18 hour Lynchian baptism, just a tad disappointed.

 

Once the series is done I'll definitely look back through Lynch's filmography, the only other one I've seen is Blue Velvet.

I really think that Coop needs to come back (and soon!) for this problem to be remedied. The story is about Coop, and we're half way through, and we really haven't seen Coop yet! I mean,  a little bit in the beginning, but yeah..

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13 hours ago, prangman said:

-Related to that, many have pointed out a discrepancy between this idea of Laura-orb as pure good, and the real life, flawed, Laura we know from FWWM.

 

People keep saying things about Laura being no angel, but what exactly did she do that was so bad?  Drugs?  Having sex?  Lying to her parents about what she'd been up to, I guess?  Did she ever do anything that hurt someone besides herself?

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5 hours ago, SuperBiasedMan said:

I'm not getting more Twin Peaks, I'm getting a new show set in Twin Peaks.

 

Barely though, right?  It's mostly set in Las Vegas and South Dakota.  Not that I'm complaining, of course.

 

I totally understand where you're coming from, but I come at the show from a different direction and consequently each of the seasons feels like it naturally follows from the season before.  To me, Twin Peaks is about FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, and all the other characters are secondary considerations.  I also don't divide the show into "seasons" based on airdates.  Everytime I rewatch the show I'm surprised that Laura Palmer's murder is "solved" in Season 2, because my memory insists that the series breaks down thusly:

  • Episode 1 thru 16 "The Murder of Laura Palmer" -- The first story arc brings FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper to Twin Peaks in search of Laura Palmer's murderer, and ends with the revelation of Leland Palmer.
  • Episode 17 thru 30 "Dwellers on the Threshold" -- The second story arc introduces the Black Lodge and Cooper's nemesis Windham Earle, and ends with Dale Cooper failing the test in the Black Lodge.
  • Episode 31 through 38 "The Search for Dale Cooper" -- Having failed the test of the Black Lodge, the third story arc details Cooper's quest to confront and defeat his own shadow (Mister C.), which naturally involves a journey of self-discovery.

Fire Walk With Me is a prequel that focuses on Laura Palmer, and gives some needed background on the FBI's involvement in supernatural affairs, but isn't essential to Cooper's story.  Also, I treat the Q2 fan-edit Teresa Banks and the Last Seven Days of Laura Palmer (which edits most of The Missing Pieces into FWWM) as canon over FWWM, since I think it's a much better movie and closer in feeling to Twin Peaks and Lynch's vision than FWWM, whose length was determine more by commercial realities than artistic choice.

 

5 hours ago, SuperBiasedMan said:

Once the series is done I'll definitely look back through Lynch's filmography, the only other one I've seen is Blue Velvet.

 

You should take advantage of the break to watch Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive.  I'd say those two are the most relevant to Twin Peaks: The Return.  Lost Highway in particular, since that very much deals with the concept of the shadow self.

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3 hours ago, Urthman said:

 

People keep saying things about Laura being no angel, but what exactly did she do that was so bad?  Drugs?  Having sex?  Lying to her parents about what she'd been up to, I guess?  Did she ever do anything that hurt someone besides herself?

To answer that, I think more than anything it was her attitude and how manipulative she could be. Of curse in FWWM is was played like she had opposing forces pulling her two directions. Like the maniplative, evil part was Bob taking over, and her good side was just her nature trying to fight it.

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2 hours ago, Nordelnob said:

To answer that, I think more than anything it was her attitude and how manipulative she could be. Of curse in FWWM is was played like she had opposing forces pulling her two directions. Like the maniplative, evil part was Bob taking over, and her good side was just her nature trying to fight it.

 

How many teenagers have bad attitudes and get manipulative with people in their lives?  It hardly takes BOB to explain that.

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13 minutes ago, Bjorn said:

 

How many teenagers have bad attitudes and get manipulative with people in their lives?  It hardly takes BOB to explain that.

Sure, but it was just how the actress and Lynch played it, like she was being puppetted or influence to do things against her nature. Like it was something she was fighting, and losing against. It's not that she was particularly evil, but that she was good but that good was being turned or corrupted. At least that's what I got out of it. Who knows!

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Maybe Laura isn't gold in the sense of purity, but in the sense of treasure.  Like the Giant created Laura as a lure to draw BOB out so that he would be exposed by Cooper and ultimately destroyed.  Keeping in mind that BOB and the Giant live outside our perception of time, maybe BOB learned of Laura's existence and possessed Leland so that he could corrupt her and use her as a power source to advance his agenda.  Gold seems to have magical power or significance -- Dougie transforms into a gold ball, the Owl Ring is gold.  The Giant has outsmarted BOB, because he knew that by attempting to claim Laura, BOB would draw the attention of Dale Cooper, who has the intuition and intelligence to possibly defeat BOB, given a few helpful nudges in the right direction.

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36 minutes ago, Gailbraithe said:

Maybe Laura isn't gold in the sense of purity, but in the sense of treasure.  Like the Giant created Laura as a lure to draw BOB out so that he would be exposed by Cooper and ultimately destroyed.  Keeping in mind that BOB and the Giant live outside our perception of time, maybe BOB learned of Laura's existence and possessed Leland so that he could corrupt her and use her as a power source to advance his agenda.  Gold seems to have magical power or significance -- Dougie transforms into a gold ball, the Owl Ring is gold.  The Giant has outsmarted BOB, because he knew that by attempting to claim Laura, BOB would draw the attention of Dale Cooper, who has the intuition and intelligence to possibly defeat BOB, given a few helpful nudges in the right direction.

You know, that's actually pretty interesting. I'm more inclined to believe something like that. BOB did seem to have this desire to possess Laura. He wasn't trying to destroy her, he was trying to BE her. He only killed her when it was clear he couldn't. It makes me think that she is more powerful than necessarily "good".

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I keep thinking about how when Ray says he wants to pull over for a piss, Bad Coop's reply is "go for it". With a well-annunciated T. Such an enthusiastic endorsement.

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That's actually a pretty good read on the Laura Orb,@Gailbraithe. As much as I love the Giant being a good guy with his clues and his seemingly sincere sadness when Maddie was murdered, I much prefer ambiguity. Using Laura as a lure for BOB is something that retains the culpability of Leland and the strength of Laura.

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Here's the demo reel from the VFX house in charge of the visual effects in The Return. Suffice to say, they're a bigshot CGI house. They did the effects for the new Cosmos and are currently doing VFX for the new Blade Runner movie.

 

 

It's really exciting to see an established VFX house like this, who are able to create basically anything, directed to create some weird, totally Lynchian effects. They're sparingly used (except in this latest episode) and the CGI stuff they do doesn't always look like standard seamless CGI effects (like that weird effect when Cooper was sucked into the electrical outlet) but it is executed flawlessly from a technical standpoint. :tup:

 

If we're lucky, BUF will eventually release a VFX breakdown video for Twin Peaks The Return. We can only hope!

 

EDIT: Haha, wow there was even some Batman & Robin footage in that demo reel. Possibly the same people working on Mr. Freeze's effects have now made a flawless slow-motion atom bomb for Twin Peaks. :tup:

 

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Say, with all the Twin Peaks Rewatch episodes coming in at about an hour long each (seemingly very much on purpose) does anyone else ever feel like they're cut short a bit? I often find that I feel like there's a bunch more that could have been said or which was kind of not dwelt on in order to not take too much time out of the hour, when I'd be happy to listen for like...way more time. This could just be a perspective thing with me though having basically come to TPR straight from old old episodes of Thumbs, which I think were often longer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

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Ha, when Chris says "we're running long" I often think says who?!? But they've got work and lives so an hour or so seems reasonable. Looking forward to next week's bagblast and ruminations.

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Vis a vis Earle/Evil Cooper's briefcase computers: the impression I got when Cooper's was first shown was that it was a standard-issue piece of FBI tech that Evil Cooper had either taken from the real Cooper's stuff or had picked up from Albert. I love the idea that it's Earle's, though. (I don't really care if it's obviously a newer device, as David Lynch's idea of what technology is is extremely nebulous)

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18 hours ago, Urthman said:

 

People keep saying things about Laura being no angel, but what exactly did she do that was so bad?  Drugs?  Having sex?  Lying to her parents about what she'd been up to, I guess?  Did she ever do anything that hurt someone besides herself?

We often saw Laura corrupting those around her, or in the case of James attempting to separate herself to not corrupt.  Bobby becomes a drug dealer and kills a man for her, she does things to purposefully hurt him, and says cruel things to him she knows will sting.  She recruits young women to be prostitutes, and drugs Donna so that she becomes more pliable and set for a gang rape.  

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There's definitely more to say about each of these episodes than we can pull off in an hour, but I think you hit diminishing returns. I don't personally listen to many podcasts that approach an hour in length, and I've always like that as a rough target limit. (When we started Idle Thumbs originally, an hour was our intended limit and over time we did start to blow past that but these days I prefer not to.) I think it's also the case that with a listening audience, there's this issue: just about everyone is willing to listen to a show that errs on the shorter side, but not everyone is willing to listen to a show that goes too long. The longer you go, the more likely some subset of your audience simply doesn't have time for it, and I'd put myself in that category both as a listener and a host.

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1 hour ago, Digger said:

We often saw Laura corrupting those around her, or in the case of James attempting to separate herself to not corrupt.  Bobby becomes a drug dealer and kills a man for her, she does things to purposefully hurt him, and says cruel things to him she knows will sting.  She recruits young women to be prostitutes, and drugs Donna so that she becomes more pliable and set for a gang rape.  

 

This...this summary is really messed up?  It's off-loading a lot of responsibility onto Laura for other characters decisions and actions.

 

My read of Bobby is that he was already dealing drugs, and that's why Laura started dating him, was to get free drugs.  It's crappy, but not evil and Bobby is doing an excellent job of making bad decisions all on his own (and him and Mike are both shown to have some pretty awful controlling and abusive behavior in regards to their girlfriends).  Bobby doesn't kill anyone for Laura.  He shoots a dirty cop dead when that cop tries to double cross him as part of a drug deal.  A drug deal he set up. 

 

I assume the Donna thing you're referencing is coming from the FWWM other bar scene.  Laura argues with Donna about stepping foot into Laura's other world, tries to talk her out of it, finally allows it, and then has a total freakout when she realizes that Donna's too fucked up to be consenting to what's happening.  It's literally the opposite of what you described. 

 

Who does Laura recruit into prostitution?  It's the manager of Horne's Department Store who actively recruits young women who work in the store into being sex workers at One Eyed Jacks.  She did jobs with other sex workers, but all of those are women who are already doing that kind of work. 

 

There seems to be this trend to want to take the sins of a bunch of other people around town and ascribe them to Laura (this thread isn't the only place I've seen it).  She wasn't evil.  She wasn't pure.  She was human, a broken, flawed human trying to find ways to cope and get by in the world.  She absolutely judged herself harshly, but that's such a reflection of the pain and shame she had around things that were wildly out of her control. 

 

Edited to add:  Laura, like many young women, was very well aware that she was heavily idealized by many people in town, including people like Donna and James.  Part of separating herself from them wasn't about corrupting them, it was about fearing their disappointment if they ever found out too much about her. 

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11 hours ago, Existing user? said:

I keep thinking about how when Ray says he wants to pull over for a piss, Bad Coop's reply is "go for it". With a well-annunciated T. Such an enthusiastic endorsement.

 

There's nothing quite like urinating out in the open air!

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2 hours ago, Digger said:

We often saw Laura corrupting those around her, or in the case of James attempting to separate herself to not corrupt.  Bobby becomes a drug dealer and kills a man for her, she does things to purposefully hurt him, and says cruel things to him she knows will sting.  She recruits young women to be prostitutes, and drugs Donna so that she becomes more pliable and set for a gang rape.  

 

I have to agree with Bjorn, this seems like a really unfair and skewed reading of the text.  Laura insults James behind his back, but at the same time she tries to protect him from the black hole consuming her.  Donna pushes her way into that dark part of Laura's world, and Laura freaks out and tries to protect Donna.  Bobby seems pretty intent on being his own undoing with or without Laura, as we can see from his interactions with Shelly and the Hornes -- I think it would be more fair to say that Laura is used and corrupted by Bobby then the other way around.  And I'm not sure who you are referring to when you say Laura recruited young women to be prostitutes.  Ronette?  I don't think the text supports that.  Seems more like Ronette was recruited into prostitution either by Emory Battis or Teresa Banks around the same time Laura was.    

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Oh, and Jake's description of Lost's finale as "the worst resolution of ambiguous lore, sort of meta-arc, in TV history a decade ago," really spoke to me. I might have said this before but I felt so burned by Lost I gave up watching all new television. In the years since I've seen new episodes of grandfathered series like The Simpsons and Arrested Development, some episodes of Orphan Black before they started torturing the husband, and almost nothing else. Twin Peaks The Return brought me back!

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