Jake

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

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Box art is pretty snazzy. It's good that Lynch isn't ruling out more in the future, would love to see where it goes from here.

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When I rewatched the first two seasons I actually skipped the pilot at the beginning and watched it after the end of Season 2. Pretty cool, considering the replication of the dialogue from the Bobby and Shelly Double R scene. Then I watched Fire Walk With Me, and I noticed that the dialogue in the scene with Laura and James (and repeated in Part 17 of The Return), is basically taken word-for-word from James' recounting to Donna of his last night with Laura. I think it's really interesting, and fitting with the figure-8 structure Jeffries hints at, that this dialogue appears in the pilot as a recollection by James, then in Fire Walk With Me as an active scene, then is revisited and sort of remixed by Coop at the end of The Return. Would be interesting to watch the last two eps then fire up the pilot again, or watch FWWM, then the pilot, as a kind of constant loop, forever. I'm not gonna do that, though, I have a family that needs me. 

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On 9/9/2017 at 10:40 AM, Jake said:

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

I just read this theory that DOES attempt to connect every single thing together. It doesn't ring emotionally true to me, to what I got out of the season, but it was still an interesting read: http://www.waggish.org/2017/twin-peaks-finale/

 

(as I said at the end of the part 18 episode, it is rad and refreshing to have a television show on that can generate this much different thought, interpretation, writing. I love it.)

The one thing I took from this is that, on doing the S1&2 rewatch I'm doing right now, I take as being at least pretty solid headcanon that Red is the magic-trick Tremont kid and is spreading these tainted drugs to create more garmonbozia.

 

An aside from my S1&2 rewatch - I had forgotten that Sarah Palmer was physically (though not mentally, due to drugs/being unconscious) present on the floor for the murder of Maddy Ferguson, right after seeing the white horse. I sort of feel like this is as good a candidate as any for the moment when the frogbug 'awakens' in her - being present for such a distilled moment of suffering and fear.

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One thing I'm not sure about (well, one of 90 things I'm unsure about) 

 

I think the clear implication of the show is that Evil Coop is after Judy (though he apparently knows this source of evil by a different name. Maybe as...mother?) and that Judy is currently residing in Sarah Palmer. What's not clear to me is whether or not Sarah is indeed the frog moth host from episode 8. Unless I'm sorely mistaken, right after the box monster/experiment/mother kills Sam and Tracy, we immediately cut to the Palmer house, where Sarah is zonked out watching violent nature videos. When you first watch it, it seems on par with the all-over-the-place vibe of the Return. But in hindsight it seems like a very specific choice to demonstrate cause and effect. So what is this thing's relation to the frog moth? Did it just "activate" Sarah's inner-demon? Did the long-dormant frog moth allow access to its host? Or are these two entities completely separate? 

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Ok, apologies if this isn't the appropriate place to keep blathering about my S2 rewatch, but oh boy I am really starting to think Anne Blackburn isn't real. I don't think it was intended that way when S2 was made,  I'm sure at the time she was just crap writing in an increasingly out of control show, but the way TSHOTP and Season 3 went it just feels like she can't be, right? Here's how I figure the ret-con of Norma's background and Annie goes without it just being a crude ret-con:

 

Annie was always just a black lodge plant to trap Cooper. Somehow, they tampered with reality to either change Norma's family story (after the Dossier was written) or to just straight-up manufacture Annie as a tulpa. She existed purely to pull Cooper into the Lodge and trap him there. My only problem with this theory is that it is a little inconsistent with Annie then having the agency to tell Laura about DoppelCoop, which is why I lean toward the altered-family-history angle - at least that way Annie is a person who would have real feelings and agency. Or maybe altered-reality-Annie died in that suicide attempt that left the scar on her wrist and the version we see in Twin Peaks is a Doppelganger/Tulpa and the one who warns Laura is the real Annie? And I mean, honestly, she comes out of absolutely nowhere, no one ever talked about her before, and suddenly she's there? This is some (predating, admittedly) Dawn Summers shit. Honestly, Norma's out-of-nowhere-in-S2 family makes more sense as a weird Lodge plant. It would help explain what a cruel trainwreck her mother is - a mean restaurant critic can sure create some garmonbozia :eyeroll:.

 

What I find very convenient is that a few months ago on Reddit, someone pointed out that Annie's last name is Blackburn. Black Corn. Black Fire. Black Burn. I'm sure this is just a convenient coincidence - I really don't think she was intended to be anything special when she was first created - but since it exists I am sure this is why Norma's maiden name was made Lindstrom in TSHOTP - to highlight the potential significance of the name Blackburn.

 

If this is how the ret-con is working, it actually makes DoppelCoop laughing hysterically while asking 'How's Annie?' at the end of S2 work even better for me. Of course he's laughing - he knows what she is/was. I just hope we get some closure in the Final Dossier.

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10 minutes ago, Arianna said:

Ok, apologies if this isn't the appropriate place to keep blathering about my S2 rewatch, but oh boy I am really starting to think Anne Blackburn isn't real. I don't think it was intended that way when S2 was made,  I'm sure at the time she was just crap writing in an increasingly out of control show, but the way TSHOTP and Season 3 went it just feels like she can't be, right? Here's how I figure the ret-con of Norma's background and Annie goes without it just being a crude ret-con:

 

Annie was always just a black lodge plant to trap Cooper. Somehow, they tampered with reality to either change Norma's family story (after the Dossier was written) or to just straight-up manufacture Annie as a tulpa. She existed purely to pull Cooper into the Lodge and trap him there. My only problem with this theory is that it is a little inconsistent with Annie then having the agency to tell Laura about DoppelCoop, which is why I lean toward the altered-family-history angle - at least that way Annie is a person who would have real feelings and agency. Or maybe altered-reality-Annie died in that suicide attempt that left the scar on her wrist and the version we see in Twin Peaks is a Doppelganger/Tulpa and the one who warns Laura is the real Annie? And I mean, honestly, she comes out of absolutely nowhere, no one ever talked about her before, and suddenly she's there? This is some (predating, admittedly) Dawn Summers shit. Honestly, Norma's out-of-nowhere-in-S2 family makes more sense as a weird Lodge plant. It would help explain what a cruel trainwreck her mother is - a mean restaurant critic can sure create some garmonbozia :eyeroll:.

 

What I find very convenient is that a few months ago on Reddit, someone pointed out that Annie's last name is Blackburn. Black Corn. Black Fire. Black Burn. I'm sure this is just a convenient coincidence - I really don't think she was intended to be anything special when she was first created - but since it exists I am sure this is why Norma's maiden name was made Lindstrom in TSHOTP - to highlight the potential significance of the name Blackburn.

 

If this is how the ret-con is working, it actually makes DoppelCoop laughing hysterically while asking 'How's Annie?' at the end of S2 work even better for me. Of course he's laughing - he knows what she is/was. I just hope we get some closure in the Final Dossier.

I've always had a soft spot for Annie. I found her endearing. BUT! I dig this theory. Her having agency isn't necessarily a plot hole, either. Diane's tulpa was able to fight her "programming" for awhile and tell Albert, Cole and Preston the truth about her past. So I could see a scenario where Annie is able to fight her programming enough to help Laura. 

 

I don't feel a need to retcon Annie, as I always enjoyed her role, but the fact that she was only mentioned *once* this season--Hawk reading from Laura's diary--and Cooper's complete disinterest when he wakes up would point to her being, as you say, a trap. 

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11 minutes ago, SkullKid said:

I've always had a soft spot for Annie. I found her endearing. BUT! I dig this theory. Her having agency isn't necessarily a plot hole, either. Diane's tulpa was able to fight her "programming" for awhile and tell Albert, Cole and Preston the truth about her past. So I could see a scenario where Annie is able to fight her programming enough to help Laura. 

 

I don't feel a need to retcon Annie, as I always enjoyed her role, but the fact that she was only mentioned *once* this season--Hawk reading from Laura's diary--and Cooper's complete disinterest when he wakes up would point to her being, as you say, a trap. 

I didn't mean to imply Annie was crap-ly written - just that everything around her introduction was handled poorly! I like her as a character and wish we didn't need to ret-con her but TSHOTP completely erases Annie out of existence. It says Norma is an only child, her maiden name is Lindstrom, and that her mother (named Ilsa, apparently) died years before the events of season 1 - no Annie, no MT Wentz, plus Heather Graham said she would have loved to have been in S3 but was never asked. We've got to find some way to square that circle!

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Someone on Reddit found this old article that was posted before the pilot of the original Twin Peaks even aired, and the quote David Lynch gives at the end is very telling about how his mindset was even at that point.

 

When it is pointed out to Lynch that television shows almost always catch the bad guy at the end of each episode, that the audience likes its criminals behind bars before they go to bed, that it gives them a sense of "closure," his soft-spoken patter erupts in disgust.

 

"Closure. I keep hearing that word. It's the theater of the absurd. Everybody knows that on television they'll see the end of the story in the last 15 minutes of the thing. It's like a drug. To me, that's the beauty of 'Twin Peaks.' We throw in some curve balls. As soon as a show has a sense of closure, it gives you an excuse to forget you've seen the damn thing."

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2 hours ago, kuddles said:

Someone on Reddit found this old article that was posted before the pilot of the original Twin Peaks even aired, and the quote David Lynch gives at the end is very telling about how his mindset was even at that point.

 

When it is pointed out to Lynch that television shows almost always catch the bad guy at the end of each episode, that the audience likes its criminals behind bars before they go to bed, that it gives them a sense of "closure," his soft-spoken patter erupts in disgust.

 

"Closure. I keep hearing that word. It's the theater of the absurd. Everybody knows that on television they'll see the end of the story in the last 15 minutes of the thing. It's like a drug. To me, that's the beauty of 'Twin Peaks.' We throw in some curve balls. As soon as a show has a sense of closure, it gives you an excuse to forget you've seen the damn thing."

Haha, fair enough. Maybe we won't get any closure on Annie, but then again, Mark Frost loves to wrap things up neatly (and was trolling about Annie on twitter the other day). It's a fun tension.

 

Edit because I don't want to spam post up this thread: Has anyone made the obvious 'Jeffries is the fish in the percolator' joke yet? Sorry guys, I'm writing a paper and procrastinating by thinking about Twin Peaks. (Realtalk though, I love how coffee has been supernaturally important to this series and yet, universally, people are calling Jeffries either a kettle or a teapot)jeffriesfish.png.049c22a133802855e9b0922d290c3e69.png

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2 hours ago, Arianna said:

Haha, fair enough. Maybe we won't get any closure on Annie, but then again, Mark Frost loves to wrap things up neatly (and was trolling about Annie on twitter the other day). It's a fun tension.

Didn't mean for my post to step on your theories. While I don't feel like I need to strain myself to make everything "fit" to enjoy it, I certainly love everyone making their own interpretations and connections.

 

It was more just an unrelated interesting note about how even back in 1990, Lynch makes it clear that he hates explaining things. Which just makes it funny that people still don't seem to grasp that with everything he has made so far.  I mean, half the discussion online revolving around Lynch saying that a Season 4 is not impossible still has people saying things like "I can wait 4 more years to find out what happened to Audrey" or "Maybe then we'll see if Cooper succeeded." Like, even after taking everything Lynch has done through his entire career, so many people STILL go "Well, maybe this is the time around he'll tie up all the loose threads." Talk about setting yourself up for disappointment.

 

2 hours ago, Arianna said:

Edit because I don't want to spam post up this thread: Has anyone made the obvious 'Jeffries is the fish in the percolator' joke yet? Sorry guys, I'm writing a paper and procrastinating by thinking about Twin Peaks.

 

https://imgur.com/a/b5fHx

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Another moment of reversed footage ("backwards" blinking) seems to happen in episode 18 at 41:30, during Laura/Carrie and Dale/Richard's night drive. There's a 15 second shot from outside of the vehicle that shows Laura looking back at the car that's following them & it seems to be playing in reverse. This is the only instance I can find of this effect occurring in the Richard/Lindaverse.

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It's kind of bittersweet how many great actors managed to make it for one last wonderful performance in the new Twin Peaks.

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In retrospect, EvilCoop at the end of Season 2 seems to have been saying, "How's Annie? As if. Like Twin Peaks is ever gonna spend even 30 seconds caring about how Annie is doing? Ha."

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A thing that just occurred to me that feels very emotionally resonant is the Giant/Fireman in S2: “It is happening again. Cooper’s crushing defeat and realisation in that moment feels so similar to the finale here, too. Cooper literally could’ve saved Maddie (have we all forgotten her? It seems like it) because he was in Twin Peaks at the time. Maybe that’s why he’s so obsessed with the idea of going back to try and save Laura. 

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18 hours ago, Urthman said:

In retrospect, EvilCoop at the end of Season 2 seems to have been saying, "How's Annie? As if. Like Twin Peaks is ever gonna spend even 30 seconds caring about how Annie is doing? Ha."

I just rewatched the S2 finale and am even more convinced than ever that Annie isn't real, but now I'm leaning toward being one kind of unreal thing or another built out of Caroline. 

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My biggest problem with the finale is that going back in time to save Laura is an obvious folly and I don't buy Cooper trying to do that. 

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2 hours ago, brkl said:

My biggest problem with the finale is that going back in time to save Laura is an obvious folly and I don't buy Cooper trying to do that. 

 

I do, quite easily. I think Cooper is a tremendously flawed character, and so far has failed to save Maddie, Annie (if she exists barf), and if he could see from the black lodge BadCoop’s actions, then also Audrey and Diane... he believes that by saving Laura he can save his world. 

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7 hours ago, pabosher said:

 

I do, quite easily. I think Cooper is a tremendously flawed character, and so far has failed to save Maddie, Annie (if she exists barf), and if he could see from the black lodge BadCoop’s actions, then also Audrey and Diane... he believes that by saving Laura he can save his world. 

 

Maybe this is me being naive, but why the Annie-barf? I don't get why her character is so disliked in season 2 by so many Peaks fans. Is it just because she's a foil to Audrey, whom everyone wanted to Cooper to end up with?

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3 hours ago, Mentalgongfu said:

 

Maybe this is me being naive, but why the Annie-barf? I don't get why her character is so disliked in season 2 by so many Peaks fans. Is it just because she's a foil to Audrey, whom everyone wanted to Cooper to end up with?

 

Not naive, misunderstood! I like annie; I don’t like the idea that she all of a sudden doesn’t exist!

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3 hours ago, pabosher said:

 

Not naive, misunderstood! I like annie; I don’t like the idea that she all of a sudden doesn’t exist!

 

I think the idea, at least as I understand it, is that Annie was/is a tulpa, not that she didn't exist. I also quite like the idea that Maddie was in some sense a tulpa, especially given that she almost never comes up again after her death.

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My only problem with the every body is a Tulpa argument is that lodge spirits, such as Tulpas and Dopplegangers, don't seem to have corporeal bodies that follow normal earth rules. Mr C regenerates every time he dies, and confirmed Tulpas like Dougie Jones and Tulpa Diane warp out of existence when they get murdered. I'd absolutely love to believe that Darya and Ray Munroe are Tulpas conjured by Buella and her wizards. But they die human deaths with lingering mortal coil bodies and had communication with the FBI before they emerged from "back there".

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