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

[dartmonkey]

A Bloody Finger In Your Mouth - Roadhouse performance compilation.

A Pot Of Boiling Oil - 37 minutes of oil in a saucepan, gradually heating and boiling.

Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers - a documentary explaining the lack of Windom Earle in Season 3.

See You On The Other Side, Dear Friend - detailed profile of Richard explaining all hanging plot threads and lore.

Tell It, Martin - David Lynch's cousin, Martin, gives tips for maintaining a healthy, attractive lawn.

The Man With The Gray Elevated Hair - Andy deep-dive.

Two Blue Balls - teaser for season 4.

[dartmonkey]

Two more segments named Bad Binoculars and The Number of Completion have been added to the extras lineup for the disc releases. Also, two episodes of something called Behind the Red Curtain, approximately 30 mins each and both subtitled 'Additional Material, Season 1'. http://welcometotwinpeaks.com/news/twin-peaks-season-3-blu-ray-bonus-material/

 

My TV has a line of bright blue pixels down the left hand side of the screen, and I've been eyeing at some beautiful 4K screens, super-large compared to my 32", not astronomically expensive... 

 

Edit. Also, check out this interview with Lynch about the music in the series. > https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/morning-becomes-eclectic/david-lynch-2017-10-11

[lethalenforcer]

Audiobook clip from The Final Dossier, which reveals the fate of a character from the original series:

 

http://welcometotwinpeaks.com/news/twin-peaks-the-final-dossier-audiobook/

[dartmonkey]

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/10/twin-peaks-season-4-mark-frost-david-lynch-showtime-1201891106/

 

'Musing.'

 

Two days until the book!

[LostInTheMovies]

On 9/4/2017 at 11:15 AM, Don't Go There said:

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,  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.

 

Awaiting the Final Dossier's arrival in a local bookstore, I finally made my way to this last forum thread which I didn't get to in the past 2 months. And I'm finding this particular post a fascinating read in light of some of the interviews Sabrina Sutherland and Mark Frost - and Sherilyn Fenn - have given lately which sheds (a little bit of) light on the process behind the series and Lynch's approach to it.

 

Basically it seems to me that many of these dangling threads are less a case of Lynch saying "Screw the script" and throwing out explanations that were in it than of him ADDING new, one-off, unexplained material to the script. Not in every case, maybe not even in most, but certainly in a lot of the examples you point out.

 

A few observations:

 

-- According to both Sutherland and Frost, the first two hours were written before the rest of the story (Frost got pretty specific at a recent appearance, saying him and Lynch discussed the series for a year (2012-13), wrote the screenplay for the first two hours in the next year (2013-14), and wrote the rest of the material the year after that (2013-14, which puts much of it *after* the Showtime announcement). I strongly suspect this leads to what you deftly call "the Bill Hastings website problem." When I watched that scene in pt9, I had the odd sensation that I was watching like a several-seasons-later retcon, rather than something that was all written and worked out ahead of time. Maybe, in a sense, I was? I kind of like the idea that Lynch/Frost wrote a "pilot" without knowing where it would lead and then more or less left it intact as they worked out the various threads, writing as if their hands were foced even though of course they could go back and scrap/reinvent the beginning if they wanted to. Maybe this was their way of getting back into the mode they'd been in when the wrote the actual pilot back in 1988, with no firm plans of how it would unfold from there? This partly explains why so many threads of pt1/2 kind of wither away and why it has such a different feel in many ways from the rest of the series, despite all the "2-hour movie" claims.

 

- We now 100% know, thanks to both Fenn and Frost, that Audrey was supposed to run a hair salon and that her main (possibly only?) scene was going to be her getting assaulted by Richard. She was gonna be in Sylvia's place. Fenn cried when she read the script and did not want to play this role, so Lynch (by himself, though he shared it with Frost, who approved) rewrote the scene during production into what we know see. Much more to be said about this, which I've said elsewhere, so I'll leave that be for now - but we also know Lynch winged a lot of the Roadhouse scenes too, writing them late in the game on his own (along with other material), so I think it's less a case of having some subterranean story going on than sort of weaving a dream based on a combination of momentary impulses and outside challenges.

 

- Ok, spoiler-y warnings for the Dossier I guess (I haven't read it yet but this is what I've heard - I think mostly sourced from public announcements, though I can't be sure): 

Spoiler

The frogbug girl is almost certainly going to be Sarah - Frost himself said he hopes viewers figured out who the girl was by the end of the series (which doesn't leave many options - it's obviously not just some random person) and others who either read the book, heard whispers, or seen advance copy via trailers etc have confirmed that it is directly addressed in the text and is not going to be a big surprise/twist. This could just be Frost winging it of course but the way he spoke about it doesn't sound to me like "we left it ambiguous and this is my read" but "we designed this storyline with a firm idea of who she was and why it was in there even though we didn't tell you on the series itself." Maybe Lynch feels differently of course. Either way, I've long suspected it was Sarah due to various clues - the girl seems to have a psychic ability, her age almost perfectly matches up with Grace Zabriskie's although admittedly it's a little off from Sarah's according to the Secret History, and the creature that crawls in her mouth has a pointy noise and leaps around on strong hind legs, connecting it to the Jumping Man who is later linked to Sarah via the sharp object poking out of the black space when she takes her face off, and the shot of her superimposed for a few frames across the JM's mask in the convenience store. Much as I like mysteries, I'm kind of glad we're getting an answer on this.

 

Likewise, Frost has said for months that Annie's fate will be addressed in the Dossier. As of now (maybe in a few hours I'll know more) no idea what that means.

 

[RacecarFastlane]

Just joined the forum. Listened to the Final Dossier book this morning (it's just under 3 hours) and it answers a TON of questions. I'm hoping a new thread just for the book will be created soon. I'm interested in everyone's thoughts.

[axis1500]

Yep, I was surprised how much the book answered. Hope there's a podcast discussing it.

[LostInTheMovies]

On 9/5/2017 at 4:21 PM, Mentalgongfu said:

@Don't Go There

We already know how Annie is, at least physically. She's just fine.

 

[LostInTheMovies]

On 9/9/2017 at 1:55 PM, Persistence of 3 said:

 

 

Defintitely at the time. Wasn't aware they were scrubbed for 'the complete mystery' set.

 

Wait, why would ABC run "to be continued" on a series that had been cancelled?

[pabosher]

38 minutes ago, LostInTheMovies said:

 

Wait, why would ABC run "to be continued" on a series that had been cancelled?

 

Maybe the movie(s) had been confirmed?

[Persistence of 3]

On 12/11/2017 at 9:04 PM, LostInTheMovies said:

 

Wait, why would ABC run "to be continued" on a series that had been cancelled?

 

Wishful thinking? There was always hope for a season 3 despite the shabby reality of the ratings.  ABC didn't put that title card in the show, the showrunners did. Perhaps there was hope that 'putting it out there' would result in a groundswell that might change the network's mind. It was a groundswell that got those final two episodes aired in the first place. Once ABC moved the show from Thursdays (where it had been struggling) to Saturdays the ratings tanked entirely. They stopped running episodes in April with only two left. The reamaining faithful viewers were PISSED. A massive letter-writing campagn ensued. The newtwork relented and aired (dumped) the final two episodes in June on one night. The television "season" was over in May.  It was, litererally the least they could do for the show next to not airing it at all. After all they'd already paid for it. That said, the production date on the show would have likely been in February or March, post would have wrapped soon after. That's when "To Be Continued" would have been put on there —and with Lynch's blessing one assumes as the final hour was his episode. It probably got removed by Lynch later for the same reasons. Just a guess.

[Persistence of 3]

So Dupar's —a great coffee shop in the Studio City nieghborhood of Los Angeles is closing next month. Dupar's is famous as one of Lynch's haunts (I saw him there once with Issabella Rossillin in the early 90s). It's also said to be a location where Lynch and Frost conjoured up the narrative for Twin Peaks. Dupar's is famous for thier pies and donuts. It was said they were the ones who supplied both during the original TV show's prodcution.

 

I recalled that Dupar's got a shout-out in the "Welcome To Twin Peaks" Access Guide that was published back in the day. Feeling sentimental and wanting to confirm my recollection, I pulled out my copy for the first time in forever. Sure enough the reference is there.

 

Guess what else is there? Page: 109, the "Proposed Prison Facility".

 

It reads: "A pet project of nobody really knows who, the proposed maximum security prison to be build on an unspecified sit (sic) is annually tabled, shelved or otherwise shot down by a majority of town council members. The firm DLMF Creations, architects for the project, has submitted five concepts but none have been accepted and paid for. Pictured here is the latest. Sheriff Truman remains on the fence about the whole thing but Ben Horne recognizes a business opportunity when he sees one. The fight of this may be almost as bloody as the Ghostwood Development Project"

 

Huh. Guess I'm going to have to read through that book again to see what other seeds of Season Three, The Return, Limited Series Event that also came to fruition!

[Ozzie]

Oh my gawd, I almost cried tears from laughter when I saw this closeup of the Brennan family portrait!

 

 

[ThatThomas]

Those blu ray docs are really something. Hours and hours of David Lynch talking to cast and crew with no sense that they feel a need to mystify the creative process at all, at least not the actual shooting of it. It's fascinating and hilarious to watch the show come together.

 

Seeing David Lynch with his head in his hands, asking, "Can there be three detective brothers rather than two? I want to hire that big guy with that laugh," and going on to calling the character an idiot savant makes me laugh to no end.

[LostInTheMovies]

On 12/20/2017 at 2:59 PM, ThatThomas said:

Those blu ray docs are really something. Hours and hours of David Lynch talking to cast and crew with no sense that they feel a need to mystify the creative process at all, at least not the actual shooting of it. It's fascinating and hilarious to watch the show come together.

 

Seeing David Lynch with his head in his hands, asking, "Can there be three detective brothers rather than two? I want to hire that big guy with that laugh," and going on to calling the character an idiot savant makes me laugh to no end.

 

This is great, because I heard a podcast with that actor a few months ago and he pretty much speculated that this was the process behind him getting hired (at least once he figured out it wasn't because he'd been to David Lynch's house to meditate before, which apparently Lynch had completely forgotten).

[dartmonkey]

I found this video essay discussing intertextual references in The Return - an interesting 15 min watch.

 

The blu-ray isn't releasing until late-Feb here :) Has anybody got the Criterion edition of Fire Walk With Me? I've read that it's a great transfer and it's got a 2017 interview with Sheryl Lee. If I saw it for a good price, I'd pick it up. But it's tough to justify when I've already got the film in The Entire Mystery boxset.

 

Also, I saw this little nod in Steamworld Dig 2:

 

[Persistence of 3]

Not to be missed...

 

https://vimeo.com/251269227

[Ozzie]

Definitely not! I watched it in a public place and had to stifle my laughter pretty hard! Excellent! XD