Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 52/53: The Return, Parts 17 and 18

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Anyone else getting an Infinite Jest vibe from the way Cooper's real mission - Find Laura - only really begins as our time with the show ends? Or, for that matter, from the dread of seeing the ending draw nearer, expected resolutions unresolved, new threads forming... and realising that the artist has just about said all he needs and intends to say?

 

It's 12:37am and I'm wide awake trying to process this show - trying to reconcile its strange, melancholic emotional aftermath with the word as I see it - just as that book had me doing years before. And once again, life feels messier and sadder in the very best of ways.

 

...I wish David Foster Wallace had  been around to enjoy new Twin Peaks.

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I'm coming in late but there are many loose threads which I hope are filled out a bit in the Final Dossier, outside of the ending.

 

Was it ever clarified what happened with the seed in Argentina? The device which turned into it looked old so I've kinda assumed it was set up

by Jeffries but who knows why but when Dougie hadn't been killed and it received the '2' text turned to a seed then.... nothing?

 

also didn't the experiment in the premiere have a seed?

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I feel it is important to preface this with the statement that I really liked “The Return”, and I liked what we saw in Parts 17 and 18. It’s important, because I’m going to sound like I hated it. So, to be clear: I am an OG Peaks fan, I watched it when it first ran on ABC. I loved Fire Walk With Me from the very first time I saw it. And I have enjoyed The Return immensely.

 

That being said, nothing is perfect, and there are some problems I have with this series, and its conclusion. I’ve also been a Lynch fan from way back- I know that, in the battle between coherence of plot and surrealism, Lynch is going to pick surrealism every time. But there are some things that need to be addressed. Not “rules” really. But… well, here, let me just tell you:

 

1. Hawk was in the woods in episode 1. “Once again your log and I are on the same page.” Hawk gets to Glastonbury Grove, sees the red curtains… then nothing. We never find out where he got his information, we never find out what happened, or what was supposed to happen. It is never referred to again. Also, it seems to take place out of sequence, as the next scene with Hawk has him still mulling over the log’s initial message.

 

2. What happened to Becky? This we may already know, as Stephen is definitely hinting that he killed her. This would be a natural conclusion to where that story was headed. But we never see Bobby or Shelly react to this. Once Stephen pulls the trigger on himself-- and we see an ominous exterior shot of their trailer-- we never hear of it again.

 

3. Are we supposed to believe this “Jow-Day” entity is the Thing In the Glass Box? Because there is absolutely no reason to believe that. We are never told a thing about the thing in the box, about the thing in Part 8 that was spewing eggs, about the playing card with the silhouette, about the same design appearing on Hawk’s map. Are all these things even the same thing? Why is evil Coop seeking it out? What was his plan upon entering what I guess is the White Lodge?

 

4. “Jow-Day” is an ass-pull. I’m sorry, but it is. All “Judy” ever was, was a reference to a character in Fire Walk With Me that never ended up in the movie, but Lynch thought it sounded good enough to keep. The “Oh, hey, here’s a bunch of plot we shoe-horned in and decided to bring up 17 hours in” method of storytelling is something this show has done the whole season. Maybe we can call it the “Bill Hastings’s Web Site” method.

 

5. Where the hell is Audrey? And why should we care? The first question would seem to be answered at the end of Part 16- in some kind of hospital. Of course, we can only infer that from the tiny amount we see of it. She could be in the bathroom of Horne’s Department Store, for all we know. The second question- who cares?- is never answered. I mean, we care, because we like Audrey. But Audrey takes, what, four episodes to get out of that house, get to the Roadhouse, do her dance, and wake up (maybe) in a hospital (maybe), shouting at Charlie who is actually a mirror (maybe) and, as far as we know, she has no significance to the story beyond that. Well, then why show us anything about her at all?

 

6. We do remember Sarah Palmer taking her goddamn face off and eating a trucker’s throat, right? That all happened in your version of that episode, too? Oh good. Because it’s never referenced again. Maybe she’s possessed by Judy. Except that the ideas that, a) Judy is the Thing In the Glass Box, B) the Thing In the Glass Box is the BOB-spewing entity in the Trinity atomic bomb whatsis, c) The Thing In the Glass Box is the symbol on the card/Hawk’s map… none of that is actually in the show. At all.

 

7. Look, we need to talk about Annie. I’m sorry, but we do. I don’t much like her either, but she’s important. She’s the whole reason Dale was lured into the Black Lodge. She’s the subject of the last line of the original show. And… I guess she doesn’t exist? Because Norma’s mom has now been dead since before the first season? Even though she was in the show? And she doesn’t have a sister? Remember when we noticed this discrepancy in the book, and Mark Frost said that it would all be explained? He lied. Look, I’m sorry, but he flat-out lied.

 

8. Why is “Red” in this show? At all?

 

9. Who the hell is Billy? Someone’s looking for him in the RR, Audrey is having a fling with him, and two girls in the Roadhouse talk about him. And, surprising no one, we are never told anything else. Why even talk about him at all? There’s this theory that many of the Roadhouse scenes are in Audrey’s head, but he is referenced in a non-Roadhouse scene, and it just brings us back to the Audrey story line going nowhere.

 

10. And the frogbug was what? And whose mouth did it crawl into? And why is the Woodsman putting everyone to sleep? What did any of that have to do with anything at all?

 

11. What is Hawk supposed to watch for, under the moon, on Blue Pine Mountain? Because- and I know this will shock you- this is never, ever mentioned again. So why mention it at all?

 

12. Why did the Fireman shit a golden globe of Laura Palmer out of his head? How did that impact the story, again? I’m sure I missed that somewhere in the 10 hours of Dougie Jones acting like a zombie. Surely this was addressed? That sequence looks like it was expensive. I would imagine it would be of no small import. Surely there would have been at least one reference to it again, somewhere in the 10 more hours they had left. I’m sure I missed it.

 

These aren’t red herrings. These are huge gaps in storytelling. I wonder if the answers to these questions were in the original script. It wouldn’t be the first time Lynch has decided, “Screw the script.”

 

Finally, while I liked the conclusion, did I miss any foreshadowing at all that would hint at what the hell that was all about? I am admittedly dense, and I may have missed all kinds of things.

 

Again, to reiterate: I really, really enjoyed the hell out of this 18 hour movie. But that list of eleven, up there… I think those are big weaknesses that need to be addressed.

 

ETA: So who hired Ray to kill Doppelcoop? Who called Doppelcoop in the hotel if it wasn't Jeffries? I mean, come on.

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I'd forgotten about the cell phone seed.  I guess Mr. C. was doing actual magic with his technology, maybe he made those devices himself like he made Dougie and Janey-E which would explain their bizarre functionality.

 

Episode 17 was a lot very quickly.  I remained convinced the pacing for this season was way off.  Much time was spent accomplishing little, never giving us enough time with the characters to know or connect to them.  The reveals happened in flashes and spurts and rarely when they were earned.  instead it is in exposition at the wrong time- Cole explains who Judy is and what Cooper's mission was, finally and only partly, to the only other two people in his Blue Rose splinter group in the penultimate episode when he has had that information and more since season one.  Episode 18 then arrived to remind me of the things I disliked about this season.  Long sequences of people staring expressionlessly into the distance.  Vast stretches of nothing happening in the service of creating mood?  no indication of what is happening, what people know, or what they think about it.  It seemed like a good deal of time-wasting.  I am compelled by the idea of Carrie/Laura, but I feel sure if there were a season four it would be consumed by the new Dougie Jones, boring Becky, magic drug dealer, and an exploration of Odessa, and when answers are finally given it will be in one episode at the end when a character tells us things he's known since the first episode, and it will be resolved in a sequence much shorter than the nonsense scenes.  

 

Were there great moments this season, yes, and when they happened it was easy to forget the filler in between.  Then the filler came back a stayed for too long.  

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Wow-eee. Part 18 was just crushing.

 

I have a lot to say, I think. But most of it I feel has been covered by others. I written and erased a lot of stuff. I think I'll call it a night and read more of what everyone else has to say.

 

But I will say, although it mightn't be the last episode, Chris and Jake, I have really enjoyed the thoughtful interpretations you both have brought over this entire run. It has pushed me to consider creative works in far greater scrutiny than I ever have before. Thank you both.

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34 minutes ago, Don't Go There said:

Many questions

 

To me, I take the sheer number of these questions as evidence that this is an intentional choice rather than sloppy or meandering story telling. I think the show has been withholding throughout. Audrey's absence, then teaser appearance and unsettling reveal without a conclusion is one of the more obvious ones.

 

Though I haven't yet concluded why it would be the case, I'm pretty convinced Frost and Lynch didn't just let a whole load of threads drop accidentally.

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Just an idea but jake and chris if you guys have time id love for you guys to rewatch the return from the beginning knowing what we know now. Twin Peaks Rewatch Rewatch.

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I feel like Bad Coop's path to the sheriff's station is important.

 

He arrived there by going through a portal into a movie theater and was then fed through a tube into the movie screen. This movie world he went into was the cartoonish world of old Twin Peaks. "What is this?" he asks. This is where the bad Lucy jokes exist and where Andy walks around with a picnic basket. Even when Lucy shot Coop, it punctuated by Truman's hat doing an absurdly silly hop atop his head and Lucy delivering a punch line to the running phone gag. I think Lucy's terrible characterization this season may have actually been a deliberate choice to mock the squeaky clean style of the old show.

It is only through this travel from The Return to old Twin Peaks that the two Coopers were able to meet, because they don't actually coexist in a single world. At least not in sense of two separate entities who could run into one another on the street. It was then through the collision of these two worlds that we get the more realistic character of episode 18. 

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8 hours ago, lethalenforcer said:

 

- Hidden person Alice Tremond was asking questions (probably no significance but I thought was interesting)

 

 

I was CONVINCED it would turn out to be the actor who played Audrey’s husband. 

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17 minutes ago, TheArm said:

Just an idea but jake and chris if you guys have time id love for you guys to rewatch the return from the beginning knowing what we know now. Twin Peaks Rewatch Rewatch.

 

Failing this, because it would take a lot of time and might provide diminishing returns, I would like if you guys made some time to at least systematically go through some big moments throughout the season and discuss how the total work changed your perspective on them. 

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10 minutes ago, UnpopularTrousers said:

I think Lucy's terrible characterization this season may have actually been a deliberate choice to mock the squeaky clean style of the old show.

It is only through this travel from The Return to old Twin Peaks that the two Coopers were able to meet, because they don't actually coexist in a single world. 

 

Wow I love that interpretation of Episode 17's utter zaniness.  The Lucy and Andy stuff has felt so out of place for me this entire season, easily the worst/clumsiest feeling material of the Return.  Deliberately using them as part of the meta commentary sorta delights me, though.  After all, how could you not address the fact that this stuff originally aired on ABC in 1990.  It's one of the most unique things about Twin Peaks - and the Return, specifically, is kind of an unprecedented thing.

 

Truman's Looney Toons hat completely baffled and kind of annoyed me with its idiocy on first viewing.  But now I guess it might be a hilarious meta symbol from the perspective of new Twin Peaks looking back at old Twin Peaks.  Of course all the dumb lore rules established throughout the series culminate in an outrageously terrible Dragon Ball Z orb battle.  "This is what you wanted, right gang?"

 

This show is so stupid and good lol.

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7 minutes ago, SuperBiasedMan said:

 

To me, I take the sheer number of these questions as evidence that this is an intentional choice rather than sloppy or meandering story telling. I think the show has been withholding throughout.

 

I agree with this. I woke up this morning still feeling confused about everything (including my own feelings), but also excited by the notion that there is still so much to try figuring out. And if those things are never fully discovered, and another episode never airs, it'll drive my curiousity to revisit original TP and The Return once in a while.

 

I agree with @Digger about the resolution scenes feeling like a quick afterthought. I would have really liked a few more "happy wrap up" scenes after the Bob/Freddie fisticuffs, but I'm not surprised it didn't happen. "I am the FBI" with hospital exit scene and the theme playing was the fan-service moment I'll always carry with me.

 

One tactic that never sits well with me is course-correction or anything that potentially undoes what we've previously seen. Still trying to figure out my feeling towards the Pete alt-flashback.

 

Everything from the NewCoop/Laura/Carrie story is officially consuming my mind.

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16 minutes ago, pabosher said:

 

I was CONVINCED it would turn out to be the actor who played Audrey’s husband. 

 

I thought for a moment that alt-Leyland (named Billy or something we've heard) would appear there. I also thought that the waitress was going to be The Fireman's white lodge ladyfriend. This show does weird things to me as a scramble to predict or make sense of what's unfolding.

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So I was thinking about this yesterday. Could Mr. C's/bob's electrical manipulation be related to the fact he was (apparently) born physically from nuclear energy. I guess a lot of WA is powered by nuclear, and I'm assuming that SD (just looked it up. Pathfinder is he plant's name)is also. Is it possible he can manipulate nuclear energy.  I understand this is a few episodes back, but the split that was suggested by the blast seems relevant especially since cooper now appears to be a whole person instead of an existential dichotomy. 

 

Episode 17 ended brilliantly and episode 18 ended terrifyingly. 

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Wow...

 

In Part 17, did Sarah block Cooper's attempt to change the past?

 

Dale tried to change the night of the murder, but it didn't work? Did it?

 

Cooper tried to change what he did to Diane, but did he?

 

Linda acted like she knew what they were trying to do, but seemed to despair regardless.

 

I can't stop thinking of Cole's dream. Who is the dreamer?

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1 hour ago, SuperBiasedMan said:

 

To me, I take the sheer number of these questions as evidence that this is an intentional choice rather than sloppy or meandering story telling. I think the show has been withholding throughout. Audrey's absence, then teaser appearance and unsettling reveal without a conclusion is one of the more obvious ones.

 

Though I haven't yet concluded why it would be the case, I'm pretty convinced Frost and Lynch didn't just let a whole load of threads drop accidentally.

I am certain that they were intentional. I am of the mind that some of the material was actually written, and then ignored by Lynch (or filmed and cut). He's done that before. But, using the Audrey storyline (such as it was) as an example, the fact that Frost and/or Lynch had their reasons does not make her storyline any less pointless. This is all said with the caveat that I might be missing something painfully obvious.

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7 minutes ago, Don't Go There said:

I am certain that they were intentional. I am of the mind that some of the material was actually written, and then ignored by Lynch (or filmed and cut). He's done that before. But, using the Audrey storyline (such as it was) as an example, the fact that Frost and/or Lynch had their reasons does not make her storyline any less pointless. This is all said with the caveat that I might be missing something painfully obvious.

 

The thing is, I don't think a plot has to be resolved or relevant to not be pointless. Audrey's scant scenes still had an effect, and underlined the themes of cycles and being lost. I think leaving them out would be to the detriment of the show, even if it doesn't 'go anywhere'.

 

EDIT:
 

Quote

Linda acted like she knew what they were trying to do, but seemed to despair regardless.

 

My read was that she thought things would be different with the "real" Cooper back, but then his flat emotionless face just brought her back to memories of Bad Coop and realising she couldn't just separate them.

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11 minutes ago, MalcolmLittle said:

Wow...

 

In Part 17, did Sarah block Cooper's attempt to change the past?

 

Dale tried to change the night of the murder, but didn't it work? Did it?

 

Cooper tried to change what he did to Diane, but did he?

 

Linda acted like she knew what they were trying to do, but seemed to despair regardless.

 

I can't stop thinking of Cole's dream. Who is the dreamer?

 

 

And Cooper’s line from the superimposed face: “We live inside a dream.” It really did seem like a dream, with everyone there, one big happy family. 

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The more I think about the finale, the more I feel that this is a culmination of 25 years of Lynch's frustration with the idea that the death of Laura Palmer could be solved. This train of thought really became prominent after reading Film Crit Hulk's write-up of the finale at Vulture (http://www.vulture.com/2017/09/twin-peaks-the-return-finale-recap.html). 

 

A big meta-narrative problem in the original run of Twin Peaks was the ncultural demand for the end of the Laura Palmer investigation, for the production of a specific killer. The whole nation tuned in with the expectation that Dale Cooper would be able to work his way to the bottom of the mystery and bring closure to the death of Laura Palmer. However, as Dale delved deeper, he came to see that the specific abuse and death of Laura Palmer was also part of a broader pattern of behavior, and it's heavily implied that this behavior, though technically the result of BOB/Leland teaming up in this specific instance, is actually just another installment in age-old cycles of violence and abuse. America wants to find out who killed Laura Palmer, and Lynch is seemingly bored by the question because the answer, besides the very specifics of which body committed the act, are obvious from the first few episodes - we did. Our society did. We have enabled this to happen many times, and we seem no closer to stopping just because we make TV shows about it now. 

 

Part 17 gave a glimpse into what network executives would embrace in a conclusion, and our culture at large. All the good guys team up and they solve the case, they eliminate the bad guy. Dale Cooper's heroes journey comes to an end, and he is surrounded by his friends, new and old. After the action, he could visit the RR, hopefully before Norma puts in her last day, and eat his beloved cherry pie again. But, this just isn't Cooper's future - the superimposition of Dale Coopers face throughout the scene is inexplicable but it fills us with dread. As the buildup to this scene was happening, I thought we could be moving towards a surprisngly clean finale, but the second Cooper's face appeared I knew it wasn't so. 

 

If Lynch really cared about how the public views his work (which doesn't seem super plausible) he would probably reach peak annoyance at the fact that anybody expected this to go any other way. Or the hope that next season, Cooper is going to set everything right, he will be able to put together the shattered universe.. If that was the arc of this story, it would happen now. Lynch doesn't need five more years to figure out how to end the story on a happy note. Dale Cooper is smart, and charismatic, and kind, and determined, but he is one good man in the middle of an epidemic - and even he seems to hold elements of that social disease in him. Young women are going to keep being thrown into the maw of American life, and Dale Coopers will continue to try and put together the pieces of other people's lives, but it's just not going to work out, and it won't ever stop.  We are on a track of infinity, as Phillip Jeffries shows us. 

 

Which leaves me here - what are we to make of Dale Cooper? Is he just a tragic hero trying to make sense of the senseless? Is he accountable for his world? Should we emulate his example? If enough people did emulate him, could it change things? Or would Bad Coop always exist in all of us? 

 

What are we to make of Laura Palmer? Who is she, really? Does she represent something bigger than her own tragic life? Is there hope for people like her, if people like her is a valid category of person to consider? 

 

This went on long, but I suppose it's fitting for the last ride. 

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