Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 47: The Return, Part 12

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Hey all, 

 

A friend recently pointed out that season 3 is like a movie version of the theatre of the absurd, a 1950's alternative thinking theatre genre, give it a Google and just look at the images, very twin peaks invoking. 

 

Anyway, I mention this because I feel like people are missing Lynch's inspiration and style, he doesn't want to give you answers, or have clean well explained scenes containing characters with well cemented back stories, they want you to feel uncomfortable, because life is so. The constant searching for pattern and meaning in life is absurd (referencing absurdism), and as such Lynch and Frost are forcing us into absurd link findings by purposefully not giving full back stories before diving into intense scenes, and shrouding evidence so the viewer is unaware of its importance in the whole. There's plenty of modern shows with neat well packaged story lines and predictable "mysteries", personally, I'm enjoying a show with true mystery, and you can't have mystery without misdirection.

 

Anyway, this episode feels like absurdism. We make the episode absurd by forcing links and meaning when there is no need. 

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Haha, would appear I went off on a tangent defending this episode. 

 

But in honesty I can see why people didn't like this episode, personally though, I like it. And I'm not saying the over analysing is wrong, I do it to an extreme at times, however, not to get worked up when it proves difficult to do so, or when bad information is given to do it with. As it's kinda the point.

 

Straight off wikipedia, forgive my research laziness;

 

In philosophy, "the Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any. In this context absurd does not mean "logically impossible", but rather "humanly impossible".[1] The universe and the human mind do not each separately cause the Absurd, but rather, the Absurd arises by the contradictory nature of the two existing simultaneously.

Accordingly, absurdism is a philosophical school of thought stating that the efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning will ultimately fail (and hence are absurd) because the sheer amount of information as well as the vast realm of the unknown make total certainty impossible. As a philosophy, absurdism furthermore explores the fundamental nature of the Absurd and how individuals, once becoming conscious of the Absurd, should respond to it. The absurdist philosopher Albert Camus stated that individuals should embrace the absurd condition of human existence while also defiantly continuing to explore and search for meaning.[2]

 

This screams Lynch and Frost in season 3 of twin peaks, and makes the point I tried to make previously far more coherently.

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I think this is the least Cooper we've had in any episode this season (except maybe 8). Despite that, this episode probably felt the closest overall to the original run of the show. That's probably mostly because the town of Twin Peaks had a whole lot of screen time.

 

Sarah Palmer's scenes were probably the best bit. Loved how they included the shots of the fan. She's incredible at acting in these disturbing monologues. Always so much expression in her face and voice.

Badalamenti music completed it.

 

I actually didn't like Cole's scenes much this time, aside from Albert's role. In particular the part where his French lady-friend took like 5 minutes to leave. I know it's the sort of stuff we see from time to time in TP, but this time it didn't entertain me. Cole's misinterpretations were as good as ever.

As best I can tell, the main link the FBI have had to Vegas is Dougie's wedding ring found inside Major Briggs' body. Maybe the unknown number was asking if the Blue Rose crew have asked about the people associated with that ring yet.

 

Ben Horne has basically been cemented as "a good guy" now, or at least that he's properly trying to be. There seems to be a lot of guilt/regret regarding his grandson. He "never had a father," doesn't really include or exclude any particular fan theory abour Richard Horne's dad.

 

Audrey's reappearance basically came out of nowhere. She looked the part, and seems to be a lot more swear-y and angry with age. The marriage with Charlie sounds like it was part of some deal involving other factors.

I saw a theory somewhere else that Charlie might be the other guy in the photo of BadCoop that Tammy showed the agents near the end of Part 10. I'm not convinced it's him, but it is possible. His clothes don't look like they fit too well, and if I try, I can decide that his fingers look short,

Pic for reference:

 

TP S03E03 BadCoop photo.jpg

Edited by Spud
Added pic

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I thought for a good while that the Audrey/Charlie bit was happening on a stage, that it was a play performed by the Twin Peaks Drama Group. I did like it, though. I am unhappy that the re-introduction of Audrey was yet another female character acting unreasonably, agitated or even irrationally. Still, I liked the performances. Not sure if any of it means anything. Perhaps that was all the Audrey we will get.

 

At this point though, I don't really have any expectations of The Return. Well, I expect that most things will not be wrapped up, or explained. I do wish that the last scene of the series will be of Jerry Horne, still lost in the woods. His is a sad fate, but I can't help but to be pleased and amused by all of his scenes. I no longer associate the wilderness of Twin Peaks with menace, foreboding or Lodge/Owl Cave nonsense. It is the native habitat of a stoner loosing his mind, goofily.

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14 minutes ago, unimural said:

I thought for a good while that the Audrey/Charlie bit was happening on a stage, that it was a play performed by the Twin Peaks Drama Group. I did like it, though. I am unhappy that the re-introduction of Audrey was yet another female character acting unreasonably, agitated or even irrationally. Still, I liked the performances. Not sure if any of it means anything. Perhaps that was all the Audrey we will get.

 

At this point though, I don't really have any expectations of The Return. Well, I expect that most things will not be wrapped up, or explained. I do wish that the last scene of the series will be of Jerry Horne, still lost in the woods. His is a sad fate, but I can't help but to be pleased and amused by all of his scenes. I no longer associate the wilderness of Twin Peaks with menace, foreboding or Lodge/Owl Cave nonsense. It is the native habitat of a stoner loosing his mind, goofily.

 

Re: Audrey - Agitated? Sure. But, taking the scene at face value and ignoring the many theories about soap operas, comas/dream states, re-enactment therapy and the like, it would seem her agitation is quite reasonable and rational. Her friend and apparent lover has been missing for 2 days now, and she can't get her husband to help her go look for him. This is coming from someone whom we know was once abducted and nearly killed, in addition to the trauma of the bank explosion and resulting coma. He is not only disinterested, but seems to actively oppose her in this effort. We don't know why she can't go searching on her own, but she seems unable to do so (maybe she doesn't drive?). He then reveals relevant information about the theft of a truck that he has withheld until this point, and when he finally deigns to call this Tina as part of his stalling efforts, he refuses to share the apparently interesting information he gleaned in the phone call. And above all this behavior is some nebulous contract. You are certainly allowed to maintain your own interpretation, but to me, calling this an example of an unreasonable/irrational character is just reaching for something to criticize that fits this now well-established narrative about The Return and its female characters ( a narrative that I, frankly, just don't see). Given how little information we have to place the scene in any context, I think drawing that conclusion is both premature and undeserved.

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Best line of the episode:

"Next stop, Wendy's"

The contrast between the casual, nonchalant way that Hutch just brutally shoots the guy down and the heartbreaking kid finding his father was just so hilariously unusual.

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I think all the characters mentioned by Charlie in Audrey's scene as well as all the characters we see having exchanges at the Roadhouse and then never see again are this season's "Invitation to Love". Their (mostly offscreen) plot and dialogue mirrors the events of the season (most obviously the girl with the rotting arm) with the added complication that they seem to interact with the main plot in some ways (the stolen truck). I think it will all make sense in the Twin Peaks Rewatch Rewatch.

 

The final episode of Twin Peaks Season 3's description is "What is your name?". I would advise everyone to prepare themselves for a total absence of the original Dale Cooper from the season until the final episode.

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20 hours ago, Nappi said:

 

Wait, really? Where was this? I just read the book but can't remember this.

 

My bad, I was misremembering her talking at Robert Jacoby's funeral as someone else talking at her funeral.

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My attention may have drifted every now and then during both the Twin Peaks and podcast episodes, but when Chris and Jake said that the show was being coy when Ben Horne asked about "the boy's parents", did you mean that they were trying to avoid saying anything about Richard's parents? Because I thought Ben and the sheriff were talking about the dead kid's parents whose names and whereabouts seem relatively unimportant. Maybe I missed something.

 

Also, this is related to the previous episode, but I think you will find that what one of the Mitchum brothers ripped from the other's forehead was actually a band-aid, and not a scar. David Lynch actually tells a very interesting story from his childhood in the DVD extras of one of his movies where his brother gets mildly injured while they are playing outside, but then a stranger offers him a band-aid, and days later when the band-aid is removed, the wound is healed.

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On 7/31/2017 at 7:25 PM, mostlystring said:

Has anyone considered the possibility that Johnny Horne might be Richard's father? That would still jibe with the notion of his having grown up without a father, while also explaining why Truman went to Ben about Miriam rather than Audrey.


I'm starting to think more and more that Ben Horne is Richard's father. Calling Richard his grandson may just be a way of covering up that he's the product of an affair. Kind of a reverse Jack Nicholson deal. First there was the conversation with Sylvia Horne, in which Sylvia seemed to blame Ben for Richard coming to steal her money. Ben seems to have some kind of responsibility for Richard that Sylvia doesn't seem to share. Ben reminiscing about his own father and the bike are definitely pointing to feelings that he failed Richard as a father figure, which makes a lot of sense if he's his actual father.

I don't know who that would make Richard's mother, though.

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i think Chris is right about Chet's "co-or-di-nates, plus two" being a memory trick. she probably lined up a few numbers in her brain with each syllable. like bandaids placed end to end with a few things sticking to each.

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In the previous part where they're looking at the photo with the numbers on Ruth Davenport's arm, you can clearly see Diane mouthing some syllables / words to herself as she looks at the photo, must be some sort of memory recall thing. And the +2 comes from the fact that the last few numbers were smudged out and illegible. Albert says as much, and also says the coordinates still point to a small town in the north-- (west, obviously) before getting interrupted by the policeman's dream. 

 

So I take it most of the numbers in the coordinates are still enough to pin down Twin Peaks or at least the general area around it, but none of them have the specific location that was written on the arm (of Jack Rabbit's Palace? Glastonbury Grove? Something else? IDK). Well, perhaps Gordon and Albert have obtained it via other means, but Diane only has the vague (yet specific enough in a way) location of Twin Peaks at this point.

 

 

Also, I've seen others convinced that the French woman might be conveying information ala Lil from FWWM because of the super exaggerated expressions and body movements, but I don't know if I buy that. Before Gordon's little joke he does say something like she's visiting a friend of her mother, whose daughter has gone missing. Which is sort of similar language to Lil being "his mother's sister's girl" and the line about the missing daughter could line up with Sarah and Laura Palmer if you want it to... But still, there was no blue rose on her that I could see, and why at this point would he have to be all hush-hush with Albert specifically? They're pretty out and open with the Blue Rose business in the rest of the episode. Unless he's doing it for fun? Perhaps Albert will break it all down all the specifics to Tammy in the next episode, Like Chet did with Keifer Sutherland's character (forgot his name!). I still don't buy it, though. And Albert looked completely disinterested during parts of her extended exit.

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EDIT: Hah, this is what I get for posting before listening to the full episode. Jake came to the same conclusion haha.

 

 

I don't know how I missed this until I heard it at the beginning of the podcast episode. Sarah Palmer says, "Your room seems different." The cashier kiiiiiiind of looks like Laura.

 

This is probably a stretch, but with the Laura-cashier store-room connections, the jerky might be a stand-in for the picture of the angels from FWWM.

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2 hours ago, marblize said:

i think Chris is right about Chet's "co-or-di-nates, plus two" being a memory trick. she probably lined up a few numbers in her brain with each syllable. like bandaids placed end to end with a few things sticking to each.

 

Man, poor Jake and Chris. They will never live down missing that Band-Aid. Such is the rabbit hole as dug by David Lynch. Blink and you'll spend 20 minutes justifying a completely trivial piece of non-information.

 

A propos of nothing, probably, I'm becoming obsessed with Lynchian food and drink. Creamed corn, turkey jerky (evil, gross, pain, sorrow, change for the worse). Cherry pie, baguette with Brie, smoked cheese pig (delicious, embodiments of life as enjoyed, devoured, relished, lived). Coffee (life-sustaining, its proper creation and appreciation an indication of virtue). Fine Bordeaux--I have no idea; that seems to be solely Cole's thing, although he had 4 bottles (!!) on the coffee table. I like my wine but lordy, can that man put it away. Though I do believe he savors it convivially, in company. Vodka (escape, drowning of/in memory, an obliteration of the self and muffling of misery; a solitary pursuit). 

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In regards to what was going with Sarah Palmer's freakout, let's no forget that she experienced some sort of direct link with the black lodge in the season 2 finale and has been living with that experience as well. 

 

 

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Hearing Chris and Jake talk about the scene with Ben Horn and Sheriff Truman made me realize something I liked about it and a few other scenes in this season of Twin Peaks.

 

One of my biggest pet peeves is when a movie or TV show skips over a critical conversation because the topic is something the viewer already knows.  This sort of thing:

Bob: How dare you show your face here, Alice!
Alice: I've got something you want to hear.

[CUT to next scene because the "something" is what happened in the previous scene]
Me: NOOOOOO!  You're skipping the most important part! It's not the mediocre action scene that revealed Bob's mother is still alive, it's Bob's reaction to that news I want to see.  Whether it involves a character learning he's been wrong about something or that a cherished thing or person thought lost has been found, that's (potentially) so interesting!  Or getting to hear how Alice tells the story to Bob.  And yes, I know those kinds of scenes are hard to write well, but that's what I'm paying you for, writers!

 

So many movies and TV shows are just plot plot plot plot plot and it's somehow anathema to have characters recount part of the plot the viewer already saw, even in situations where it would be very dramatically satisfying to see that conversation.

 

But there have been several Twin Peaks scenes where characters discuss explicitly plot points that we had already been able to infer, and (maybe trained by all the other TV shows) I was a bit disappointed to have something spelled out that was already pretty clear.  With the Ben Horn scene, Lynch was giving me what I wanted, caring more about how characters receive news than just advancing the plot another notch.

 


 

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47 minutes ago, Professor Video Games said:

That reddit post about patience is interesting but I'll tell ya what, that guy that was hired to stare at the glass box seemed pretty patient and things didn't work out well for him at all.

 

He was impatient by letting the girl he liked into the restricted room, and then impatient by getting all sexy with her rather than waiting to do so not sitting in front of creepy glass box.  As long as he was showing patience, he was fine.

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26 minutes ago, Bjorn said:

 

He was impatient by letting the girl he liked into the restricted room, and then impatient by getting all sexy with her rather than waiting to do so not sitting in front of creepy glass box.  As long as he was showing patience, he was fine.

 

You don't think a monster would have appeared and killed him anyway?

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21 minutes ago, Gregalor said:

 

You don't think a monster would have appeared and killed him anyway?

 

I don't think that's a particularly interesting question, because that's not how it happened and both of us would answer it in ways that were satisfying to us rather than addressing what the show presented.  There's an infinite number of hypothetical "what if" questions that could be asked about this season. 

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Man, the mental gymnastics some of you go to in an attempt to validate a pet theory are hilarious. 

 

Audrey is in a coma and gave birth after being raped by Cooper and she is just incorporating things people are for some reason talking about in her hospital room into her coma dreams where she is in a terrible marriage with a midget accountant?

 

Holy Christ. 

 

Also, this weeks episode of the podcast felt incredibly phoned in. Either you liked this episode a lot less than you let on or you couldn't be bothered to do any independent thinking about it and just regurgitated forum/Reddit posts for an hour. 

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