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

[baladec]

I made the mistake of touching the circuit board of a disposable camera in high school. The charge of the capacitor bucked my body and I was left with an empty tingling sensation.

 

That's how I feel after watching episode 18: like I have been electrocuted.

 

Dale Cooper feels like Roland from the Dark Tower. He's just completed his first cycle and there's signs he's making progress. Dale knew after seeing Diane that something was wrong, there was still something out there pulling the strings, which made what would be a severely happy moment feel worthless.

 

The final moments of season three is going to give me nightmares. I am deeply unsettled.

[FRENDEN]

My theory posted earlier definitely has cycle/Roland vibes, Plastic. I feel pretty good about it -- I'm happy with that being my interpretation and personal ending at least.

[pyide]

For the first time in this series I have absolutely no desire to see or hear any fan theories, speculations, or explanation attempts. Right now I feel as though none will be good enough and most everything could make me think less of it, haha. I have to avoid the internet for a while I suppose. At least until my dumb ol' brain can parse some of this on its own. 

[James]

Those last few moments were amazing. And the final closing credits. And Cooper's face being superimposed over all that stuff in 17. And the incredibly slow pan back and forth in the forest right before the credits in 17.

 

I have to confess that a fairly significant part of me wants more answers and a brighter tone for the ending. I didn't expect to get that (Lynch was co-helming, after all), and being dispassionate about it I know it's almost certainly better the way it is, but the part of me that wants something easier is definitely there, and won't keep quiet.

 

We actually got a lot more answers than I expected in the episodes running up to this, to be fair. And I guess those answers won't stick with me a fraction as long as this ending will. But man.

 

Richard Cooper definitely has an element of BadCoop to him.

 

Oh, and what's up with the corpse in Carrie's house? Feels like a dream. But I don't know.

 

I stayed up to watch it starting at 2 am local time (I took tomorrow off work), so I'm now incredibly tired. Not that I'd fare much better fully rested.

 

Jesus, what a show. What an ending.

 

Time to sleep.

[Argobot]

I wanted him to save Laura, so badly. Even if that would upend everything great about Twin Peaks and FWWM, I desperately wanted Cooper to rescue her and fix everything. I was so heartbroken by the end, along with Cooper and Laura. What a horrifying episode of television. We had the good Cooper back, only for him to revert to someone new. I like the interpretation of new Coop being a combination of his good and evil sides, that seems right. Time travel, dreams, the Black Lodge, none of really matters. The past is the past and there's nothing you can do about it.

 

I want to believe there's still hope though.

[purps]

I don't think Lynch and Frost are done with Twin Peaks. This felt like it's the ending in case it had to be, but it very deliberately left the door open. Sounds like right now it's time for Showtime to gauge fan reaction and ratings and make a decision. 

 

 

[Gregalor]

I literally said, "Starring Kyle MacLachlan" as a joke at the end, like "Wouldn't it be funny if the credits rolled right now?"

And then they did.

 

I also like to think that an extension to the final scene is Cooper's phone ringing and it's the angry Vegas FBI guy to yell at him about finding people. This is what we do at the FBI!!!!

[Bob le Samourai]

Two overriding first impressions:

 

1. If there's anything I'm sure of, it's that the decision for Bad Coop to have raped both Audrey and Diane wasn't as flippant as it seemed in Episode 16—the trauma of sexual abuse continues to be central to the show. If this season is as much in the mold of Lynch's last three films as it seems to be, Audrey & Diane as a pair are central to the exchange between different levels of reality/narrative in the same way as Fred + Pete in Lost Highway, Betty/Diane + the dead girl in the apartment in Mulholland Drive, or Nikki/Sue + the Lost Girl in Inland Empire. The most Mulholland Drive-esque reading (which I'm not persuaded of, but is worth pursuing as far as it goes) is that all or part of Season 3 has been a product of Audrey's imagination—with Audrey projecting aspects of herself onto Diane and perhaps also Laura/"Keri Page." At the very least, Audrey's consciousness must have been involved with much of what's happened in the Black Lodge, and I don't think any interpretation of Season 3 can be satisfying without fully grappling with this. 

 

2. Kyle MacLachlan's last 45 minutes are a real rabbit-duck of a performance. The closest thing I can think to compare it to is the splicing of Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee's voices as Gandalf the White in The Two Towers. It's uncanny. At first I was convinced this was the doppelganger all over again. Going over the same scenes a second time, though, I can just as easily rationalize all the same mannerisms as coming from Cooper following the Gaint Fireman ???????'s hints while being distrustful of his surroundings. 

[WickedCestus]

It definitely felt like 17 and 18 are two different endings to two different shows, both of which fit into the various versions of Twin Peaks. It has always felt like Twin Peaks exists in a couple different modes; 18 skews more towards Fire Walk With Me, while 17 feels like it's an extension of the ending of Season 2. Throughout the whole season, The Return has felt like it's sometimes elegantly, sometimes inelegantly, blending together these divergent ideas of Twin Peaks, and so it only fits that it has to end twice. At least, that's how I see it. 

 

What an experience, though. The whole thing. I still don't even know what to feel. I'm so glad that I was able to watch this show with all of you. Twin Peaks on Sunday has been the highlight of my week for the last few months, and the first thing I do after each ep is come onto this forum to see what everyone has to say. And then, midweek, I'd get to listen to the podcast. This has, without a doubt, been the best experience I've had with a TV show. So thanks everyone for sharing this. Excited to do it all again during the Twin Peaks The Return Re-Watch Podcast comin' in 2020. 

[JPL]

So weird that we got a totally unnecessary wrap-up for Janey-E + Dougie given everything else about that finale. I guess they were from a different world where things just work that way?

 

I'm 100000% on board with the ambiguity and nuance of the main thread's conclusion, but I gotta say it was painful not seeing any more of Audrey. Why show her trapped as she is? There was neither a ray of hope nor a decisive defeat nor a careful sprinkling of ambiguity. At least she got to dance...

[richardco]

For anyone who hasn't watched the early parts of the season recently, I'll share something from a recent rewatch of episode 3:

 

It seems that the events of Episode 18 were Cooper's original "mission." Before he leaves the Lodge in episode 3, Mike tells him to remember the numbers 430 (the number of miles he'll drive before...whatever happens) and Richard and Linda 2 birds with 1 stone. Cooper says he understands. Leland similarly tasks him with "Find Laura." As he's walking down the familiar Black Lodge hallway, something prevents him from entering the part in the curtain. Seemingly, it's the fact that Bad Coop has found a way to not have to come back into the Lodge. After Bad Coop has been returned to the Lodge, this section of curtain in episode 18 is shaking uncontrollably and Cooper is reaching toward it while he's about halfway down the hall.

[UnpopularTrousers]

I expected this to be a controversial topic on the forum but no one has really talked about it yet, so I will ask:

Are we to assume that the sexual encounter we saw between Diane and Cooper was the rape which she spoke about in episode 16? Because that's how I saw it, but can also understand why someone might disagree. 

[UnpopularTrousers]

4 minutes ago, anoldtoilet said:

No, because Diane was raped in her house, and the sexual encounter we saw took place in a mysterious motel and then a different mysterious motel. 

Well sure, but it was after they had kissed once before and certainly seemed coercive and not like something Diane wanted to do. So much of the world was off and altered at that point that I don't think a change in location rules it out.

[Nelsormensch]

2 hours ago, GregsVice said:

Jerry walked, like, 500 miles. Haha.

 

To the dinky town in Wyoming where I grew up, even!

[Mister]

The crazy thing is this is a totally kickass setup for a season 4, even though it's probably intended as the end of the series.

 

Cooper and Laura Palmer as partners in a new alternate history Twin Peaks, trying to track down Sarah Palmer/The Mother?  I would watch that at least eight times!

[GregsVice]

The sex scene was, like many other things in that final episode, an echo of something familiar, while still being entirely different. 

 

The more I think about episode 18, the more it feels like such a baffling nightmare. Oddly, the thing that sits the most with me was the corpse in Laura's(?) house. Cooper sees it and barely reacts, and there's no direct mention of it. Why did she feel okay letting an FBI agent see it? Why was there an automatic weapon there? Is this just an extreme way of letting us know she's in as much trouble as she ever was? Also, was that dude eating creamed corn before he died? 


 

[MabaseSlums]

40 minutes ago, UnpopularTrousers said:

Well sure, but it was after they had kissed once before and certainly seemed coercive and not like something Diane wanted to do. So much of the world was off and altered at that point that I don't think a change in location rules it out.

 

if anything I'd say it's an emotional connection more than a literal 1:1. Knowing that BadCoop sexually abused Diane at one point makes the very uncomfy sex scene between those two (in what can only be described in a possibly alternate dimension?) signal to me some sort of change in at least one of their characters. My gut is kind of leaning towards the theory that the Coop we see in the 2nd half of Pt. 18 is a combination of the good and bad sides of the man. Someone's who is heroic when needed and has a just mission to fulfill, but is also manipulative and uses his power to get there.

[MabaseSlums]

I would be really disappointed if this wasn't the end of the show, personally. I can't quite set my feelings out 100% coherently right now, but that ending in particular feels so emotionally correct in terms of what The Return has been. Kyle Maclachlan's performance as the... LostCoop, I guess, was out-fucking-standing. The way Cooper eyes leered with Diane, the way he kept his gun pointed during the Judy's scene, and the looks he gave when he wasn't in complete control of a given situation are the kind of subtle changes in a performance that made Pt. 18 for me, regardless of how I think it fits into everything. Now, I just need to spend some time working it out. 

[anderbubble]

10 minutes ago, MabaseSlums said:

I would be really disappointed if this wasn't the end of the show, personally.

 

I think I want no more of the show, but I want some really satisfying Frost-type explanations. Here's hoping The Final Dossier is good.

[The Great Went]

Dudes I watched 17 hours of this show before remembering it was a David Lynch joint. Whoops.

[lethalenforcer]

Per usual (this season), I thought I had the show slightly pegged. Episode 17 essentially said, "alright, here that is, but let's be quick about it." I have no idea what to think at the moment. If that really is the conclusion of Twin Peaks, I suppose I'm happy it ended with a horrific scream in front of that terrifying house at night. The entire drive to TP and "are we being followed?" was unnerving. As was the Sarah Palmer scene in 17 where it lingered for so damn long before she appeared.

 

My mind is still wrapping itself around the (alt) flashback scenes from old TP. I can't figure out if I disliked it or loved it.

 

Seeing Pete again and then a Jack Nance dedication was wonderful.

 

6 minutes ago, anderbubble said:

 

I think I want no more of the show, but I want some really satisfying Frost-type explanations. Here's hoping The Final Dossier is good.

 

I think I'm just a little bummed that the "I am the FBI" group of scenes from 16 really wound up being the only Twin Peaks-y Coop scenes all season. Everything with him in 17 was so fast, and also consumed by his huge composited head.

 

Really wish The Final Dossier was coming out sooner. Curious about how the hell that's going to take shape considering what we just saw.

[plasticflesh]

The eerie sex scene between Diane and Dale, played to the lyrics of My Prayer by The Platters, resonates with the episode 1 sex scene in front of the glass box that invokes the Mother. Both sex acts were invocations, or sacrifice rituals. 

 

I feel like season 3 is Lynch's love letter to Kyle Maclachlan, saying, "Okay, let's not type cast you as Dale Cooper. Let's give you 5 different mutations on the same character"

[The Great Went]

A few thoughts --- the (doo wop?) song when Diane and Coop/Richard are doin' it is a call back to the Ed and Norma scene only this time it's evil. Also reminded me of the scene of Naomi Watts getting onanistic in Mulholland Drive. Once Coop gets out of the red room for the "curtain call" with Diane he acts more like Mr. C but he also has generally good intentions. So he disarms the yokels assaulting the waitress with cold automaton efficiency and scares everyone enough to get the address he needs.   ... But he also just leaves all those guys there, so he's not really out to help the woman, it would seem, in a sense that the old Coop would be. Also, obviously in the motel room scene he apparently has no feelings. Interesting and telling in 2017 that Coop has destroyed but also synthesized his doppelganger with himself, effectively dimming if not extinguishing the light of virtue while on the hunt for an extreme evil. Reminds me of that old "look into the abyss and the abyss looks back into you" chestnut or however it goes. I'm grateful for another ride on this Crazy Train. Pretty much ended with exactly as many loose ends as Season 2 it would seem.

[The Great Went]

One more thing: I was watching the show on my iMac with headphones on and my dog started barking when Sarah stabbed the photo of Laura and it scared the hell out of me. I paused it, calmed him down, gave him a snack, figured it was something outside that bothered him, put my phones on and started the scene again. He immediately started barking again! One One Nine!

[lethalenforcer]

2 minutes ago, The Great Went said:

Once Coop gets out of the red room for the "curtain call" with Diane he acts more like Mr. C but he also has generally good intentions. 

 

He seemed like Lodge(Good)Coop to me, in that he has good intentions but is just incredibly quiet. That was a really long drive.

 

The TP nuggets that'll consume my mind for days/weeks to come...

 

- Lack of Audrey in 17/18 (this potentially surprised me most)

- Disappearing Diane doppleganger

- Dead body in Carrie's house

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

- "What year is it?"