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Twin Peaks Rewatch 47: The Return, Part 12

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13 hours ago, ThatThomas said:

Do we know for sure that Audrey is out of the coma? Because the only way I could fully make sense of that scene - outside of the complete randomness being kinda funny - is that might be a coma dream Audrey's having where she's partially tuning into what's happening in the real world and incorporating it into the dream.

 

The more I was thinking about the details of this scene this morning, the more I give the idea of her still being in a coma or this being some kind of dream sequence some credence. 

 

There's the "out of time" feel that it has.  Husband is using a rotary phone, doing a bunch of paperwork by hand and has an old school contact book.  Of course within the quirkiness of TP characters, it's possible this is just the way the guy prefers to live.  But we've seen stuff like Truman and Doc Hayward skyping.  Audrey's scene doesn't feel quirky, it feels like it was literally set in another time.  And it had the melodrama of a soap opera, like trapped in her own head, she's still living out some kind of melodramatic weird fantasy. 

 

Then there's the whole thing of Audrey not having been mentioned at all so far by any of her family.  Truman goes to see Ben, rather than Audrey.  The reasoning is to get Ben to pay for the woman's medical care, but still, you would generally think that a guy's mother might also be notified.  Richard violently attacks Grandma, and no one warns Audrey that her son is on a rampage.  Given the dysfunctional nature of the Hornes, again it's possible that none of them are talking to Audrey. 

 

Audrey has literally felt missing from the whole show, and here she shows up, but it's all wrong and out of place. 

 

Ultimately maybe it is all taking place in the real world, but it does seem like it's well set up to be something else as well. 

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11 hours ago, Mentalgongfu said:

I think a lot of viewers have romanticized what they want the original Twin Peaks to have been rather than what it was. Memory works that way. For me, this episode was as OG Twin Peaks as it gets; the only exception being the pacing, which is no longer dictated by the requirements of a prime-time slot on one of the 3 major networks and instead can take advantage of the luxuries afforded by Showtime and the era of streaming TV. Even back then, the show liked to take its time. Laura's murder wasn't solved until into the second season, and it wasn't yet fully solved at that point, since the mystery of Bob and the Lodges remained.

 

Exactly this. The 2nd season especially. Stuff like what happened in this episode happened in the original run often with slightly faster pacing. People just like to be nostalgic and think back fondly of stuff they loved in their youth. If you look back at most of the stuff without this rose-colored lens you find it objectively wasn't as great as you thought. With that said, even though I would rank this episode near the bottom thus far, I really think this series is one of the best things on TV in years. It is really pushing me and keeping me interested with its unpredictability. Honestly though I could do without a few of the f-bombs in the Audrey scene. Perhaps they were there to amp up the uncomfortablity of it but it just seemed overdone. 

 

As for the roadhouse scene at the end. Those vignettes are there simply to give you a feel of the local teens. I'm 100% they have no greater meaning other than to ground us in the Twin Peaks of today. While not 100% necessary, they do seem to serve a purpose in anchoring. 

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4 minutes ago, Bjorn said:

 

The more I was thinking about the details of this scene this morning, the more I give the idea of her still being in a coma or this being some kind of dream sequence some credence. 

 

There's the "out of time" feel that it has.  Husband is using a rotary phone, doing a bunch of paperwork by hand and has an old school contact book.  Of course within the quirkiness of TP characters, it's possible this is just the way the guy prefers to live.  But we've seen stuff like Truman and Doc Hayward skyping.  Audrey's scene doesn't feel quirky, it feels like it was literally set in another time.  And it had the melodrama of a soap opera, like trapped in her own head, she's still living out some kind of melodramatic weird fantasy. 

 

Then there's the whole thing of Audrey not having been mentioned at all so far by any of her family.  Truman goes to see Ben, rather than Audrey.  The reasoning is to get Ben to pay for the woman's medical care, but still, you would generally think that a guy's mother might also be notified.  Richard violently attacks Grandma, and no one warns Audrey that her son is on a rampage.  Given the dysfunctional nature of the Hornes, again it's possible that none of them are talking to Audrey. 

 

Audrey has literally felt missing from the whole show, and here she shows up, but it's all wrong and out of place. 

 

Ultimately maybe it is all taking place in the real world, but it does seem like it's well set up to be something else as well. 

I know Twin Peaks is weird but I'm pretty sure women in comas don't have children. (yeah I guess she could be in an unrelated coma or dream to the original coma we knew about.) Unless you are subscribing to the thread that Richard is Donna's boy (assuming she changed her last name to Horne). I can't remember for sure if anyone every explicitly said Richard was Audrey's.

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3 minutes ago, forstm said:

I know Twin Peaks is weird but I'm pretty sure women in coma's don't have children. Unless you are subscribing to the thread that Richard is Donna's boy (assuming she changed her last name to Horne). I can't remember for sure if anyone every explicitly said Richard was Audrey's.

 

A woman named Cooper gave birth to a kid after spending most of the pregnancy in a coma. 

 

Quote

A car-crash victim who was in a coma virtually her entire pregnancy has given birth to a healthy, nearly 8-pound daughter.  Doctors said it is one of few known cases in the United States in which a comatose woman was able to carry a baby to full term.

 

The mother, Chastity Cooper, 23, has slowly improved since her November car accident but still cannot move or talk. She is in a vegetative state, able to open her eyes and follow people around the room.

 

It would be incredibly rare, but it would also fit within the Soap Opera aesthetic of TP. 

 

Edited to add: I just googled whether or not a woman could carry to term while in a coma, and that story was the first one to pop up.  Just kind of a weird coincidence that a woman named Cooper is the first example I found.

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Just now, Bjorn said:

 

A woman named Cooper gave birth to a kid after spending most of the pregnancy in a coma. 

 

 

It would be incredibly rare, but it would also fit within the Soap Opera aesthetic of TP. 

I understand that but you are assuming then that she came out of the first coma and is now in another coma? 

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Just now, forstm said:

I understand that but you are assuming then that she came out of the first coma and is now in another coma? 

 

I'm not building some grand concept here, I haven't put anymore thought into it other than my first post on it.  I just think that the out of timeness of the technology in the room and some of the other trappings of the scene stand out as feeling potentially within in a dream. 

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17 minutes ago, forstm said:

I understand that but you are assuming then that she came out of the first coma and is now in another coma? 

Not that I buy the Audrey's-in-a-coma theory, but I am pretty sure they are suggesting she was raped by BadCoop while in the coma and carried Richard to term & delivered by caesarian while still in said coma.

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1 hour ago, Ozzie said:

The Roadhouse Randos don't replace anything. You cut them out, nothing would be there to replace them (I doubt there are any deleted scenes at all). Sure, the season might be less patience testing as a result. Maybe you speak of your valuable time, and I can't argue with that.

We'll probably won't see these women again. These scenes let us listen in on conversations from random residents of Twin Peaks, giving us a taste of mundane happenings in their words. I think that's what they're going for. Not sure what to think of it.

Could have expanded on Jerry Horne in the woods a bit. His scenes are so short I forget they've happened until I watch a recap.

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5 hours ago, Hansel Bosch said:

 With all due respect, people have been saying this for weeks, especially after episodes nine and ten where it seemed like the plot threads were coming together. And this week we had essentially no movement on Dougie Jones, no appearance of Bad Coop, no sense of motion on things coming together. The Sarah Palmer scenes were great, but a lot of the rest of this episode was suddenly introducing or name-dropping a whole lot of new or marginal characters. Billy? Tina? Charlie? Natalie? Abbie? Angela? Clark? Mary? Trick?

 

I didn't know other people have been saying this, although I guess I'm not surprised. Like I said, I don't think it would happen right away, but we still have 5-6 episodes for this gradual shift towards Twin Peaks to... peak. Or not! I mean, I don't know, who knows. I do think it's almost undeniable that the show has become more about the town of Twin Peaks as it's gone on. All the new characters you mention are in Twin Peaks, and if this Billy Chase becomes anything, that's yet another thread contained within the town. 

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Re: use of rotary phone by Audrey's husband. Jane-E used a yellow rotary phone in their kitchen back in episode 2 or 3. 

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Loving how measured and thoughtful people's reactions are here. People have completely lost their shit on Reddit! I really liked it, apart from the French woman scene, not because it was slow or because she was another 2D female character but because of the ridiculous French! Worth it though for Albert's amazing reaction.

 

i buy Audrey's story arc totally: troubled childhood, ending in catastrophic accident and pregnancy, raises (or doesn't raise) a psychopathic son alone, never loses her scheming ambitions but also retains naivety and innocence. Not at all improbable she's stuck in this crazy relationship, or  that she is not interested in Richard.

 

the Sarah scenes were amazing, classic Lynch suggestive horror. Did anyone else notice that the music playing in the supermarket, and also when Diane said 'Let's rock' was the super creepy music from FWWM, I think when jeffries shows up in Philadelphia?

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Modern medicine is capable of incredible things. A comatose woman could absolutely carry a child to term, or at least viability, and deliver via C-section. Or maybe the Hornes adopted Little Nicky and changed his name.  Andy and Dick did try to warn us, you know. 

 

I don't think the Audrey scene was real, either, or we are lacking some greater context as to when/where the scene takes place. When I first watched the scene, I kept waiting for the camera to pull back to reveal she was acting in a movie. Everything they said seemed deliberate, stilted and overly dramatic. The way this guy kept talking about paperwork and deadlines just didn't really seem logical. It didn't track. It reminded me of how the upset woman in the car talked, or Albert and Gordon's cat on a hot tin roof conversation: talking in a code the viewer can't parse about something we sort of, kind of, know a little bit about. Someone here said it was like being back in Invitation to Love, and I think that's not far from the truth, either in a dream/coma or actress!Audrey (I don't actually think that's very likely). 

 

This is the first episode where necessary info is given to the viewer via Telling Tammy Things, but I guess it is narratively neat that we learn things as she does a la TSHOTP. I didn't really need the Blue Rose explained to me - Gordon said REALLY WEIRD STUFF, and my imagination filled in the rest. I also kind of rolled my eyes at the token Chet Desmond mention, but Diane's "Let's Rock" was kinda cute. 

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55 minutes ago, Ford said:

Re: use of rotary phone by Audrey's husband. Jane-E used a yellow rotary phone in their kitchen back in episode 2 or 3. 

 

I was curious because I couldn't honestly recall.  I don't think that's a rotary phone, but it is an old style push button phone (looks like a rectangle of buttons in the middle to me).  It's slightly out of place, but nothing close to the office in Audrey's scene. 


 

Spoiler

 

phone.JPG.bf2968cf07648d46341d11a73f2c8b69.JPG

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited to add: The video clip I pulled that from.

 

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10 minutes ago, Bjorn said:

 

I was curious because I couldn't honestly recall.  I don't think that's a rotary phone, but it is an old style push button phone (looks like a rectangle of buttons in the middle to me).  It's slightly out of place, but nothing close to the office in Audrey's scene. 


 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

phone.JPG.bf2968cf07648d46341d11a73f2c8b69.JPG

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited to add: The video clip I pulled that from.

 

 

I think you're right with it being a push button. 

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Diane: Ok.. let's see if I can remember the coordinates written on the dead woman's wrist. "Co.. or.. din.. ates... + 2". Nailed it!

 

 

Sarah Palmer was genuinely scary again. Otherwise this episode was pretty dull, in my opinion, especially after previous week's episode.

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I didn't hate this episode, but it might be my least favourite from The Return. No one scene was especially bad (though I was confused by all the names being thrown around, and a little concerned that new faces are still turning up when it feels like there's so much for the plot to get through), but when it ended I was fairly disappointed. I would have been absolutely fine with everything in there had there been something that felt like it moved things along more substantially. Not that I was especially surprised; this season (and, indeed, the whole series) has been characterised by seemingly haphazard changes of pace and mood and focus and tone. I much preferred the previous one, but I suppose art doesn't always have to satisfy. I'm a little fearful that my overall feeling once the season is over will be frustration, but I'm trying to prepare myself for that possibility.

 

I also think that what interest and entertainment this episode did have was more towards the start than the end, which could have contributed to people coming away from it feeling a bit disappointed. You come away thinking more of where you ended up than where you started.

 

I'm also quite suspicious of old respected artistes making a bunch of media about younger women who can't get enough of suave older guys. There's nothing wrong with that in isolation – I'm sure it's realistic enough – but it's so self-serving that I can't help but be distracted by it. Similarly, while I'm willing to give a lot of benefit of the doubt to the creators, the sheer proportion of women in the show who are either hyper-sexualised or relentlessly harassing men in a way the show seems to present as unreasonable, is getting no less troubling. In the moment I give it a pass because I want to enjoy the show, but then I feel pretty uneasy about doing so. I don't doubt that Frost and Lynch respect and care about their characters, but it's not a great look. Maybe they're careless.

 

I don't know, I don't really feel equipped to speak particularly intelligently about it.

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I loved the acting of the guy (charlie?) That Audrey is acting with. His use of his hands and face were amazing!

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17 minutes ago, GregsVice said:

Remember when James showed up for a second in episode 2?

 

He showed up for the Comic Con panel.

 

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Diane saying 'Let's Rock!' made me imagine for a second that she was the one who scrawled that expression across the windshield from FWWM. I mean, I presume she had the lipstick on-hand. Hahaha.

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My reaction to Diane has been a bit of a roller coaster. At first, I wanted no portrayal of Diane, it would be like showing Nanny's face on Muppet Babies or Wilson's face on Home Improvement. But once I saw what type of character she was, and as played by Laura Dern, I softened up to the idea. She's pretty one-note, but entertaining to watch the other characters react to her. Now I'm back to being unsatisfied, though. It looks like we're heading into "Diane is nefarious in some way" territory, and... I want Diane to be a jerk but I don't want her to be a bad guy.

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4 hours ago, GregsVice said:

Remember when James showed up for a second in episode 2?

Remember when a monkey whispered "Judy" in FWWM?

 

8 hours ago, Bjorn said:

I'm not building some grand concept here, I haven't put anymore thought into it other than my first post on it.  I just think that the out of timeness of the technology in the room and some of the other trappings of the scene stand out as feeling potentially within in a dream. 

I think all of the technology in The Return has been deliberately all-over-the place and anachronistic. We've seen just about every era of phone imaginable, the skype call was performed with a wood-panel monitor raised via a giant lever, and let's not forget the insanity that is Dr. Jacoby's streaming set-up.Untitled.jpg.56dc57efe46a8c170af1dbacbbf85c4f.thumb.jpg.f1b5640b5d5c2306b117cf8d10b1c932.jpg

 

 

As for 'feeling like a dream', I didn't think Audrey's scene was anywhere near as dream-like as Dougie's dinner with the Mitchums last week.

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