Twin Peaks Rewatch 17: Arbitrary Law

[Chris]

Twin Peaks Rewatch 17:

Arbitrary Law

An episode of parlor rooms and connecting dots brings some huge stories to a close, but might wrap things up with too neat a bow. It's time for "Arbitrary Law," the 17th episode of Twin Peaks in our complete rewatch of the series.

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[The Twin Peaks Podcast]

From now on when you all watch Ernie Niles in this series pay close attention to his wandering American accent. It's hilariously bad. He's obviously British.

[Elen]

I have to admit, Leland's death scene doesn't quiiiite work for me. I know many people find it very touching, but to me it comes across as a bit overwrought. I do like that Cooper once again displays almost superhuman powers of compassion.

 

(Shallowly, I like the fire extinguishers because Kyle MacLachlan is a very handsome man who is somehow even more handsome with his hair all wet.)

[Argobot]

This episode has my absolute favorite scene in the whole series: the moment between Donna and Leland. What an absolutely perfect and creepy scene. Lara Flynn Boyle plays the horror and her dawning realization of what Leland is so well.

[SirJakoz]

This episode has my absolute favorite scene in the whole series: the moment between Donna and Leland. What an absolutely perfect and creepy scene. Lara Flynn Boyle plays the horror and her dawning realization of what Leland is so well.

 

I agree, I was thinking the same thing after that scene, when she's walking away from Leland's house, and then, you hear the sound of a motorcycle, and you know James is gonna be terrible.

 

 

On a different note: when Ben signs Catherine's papers he says: "Signed, sealed, delivered" and in the next scene Leland tells Donna: "Don't you worry 'bout a thing". It's probably just a coincidence, but they're both famous Stevie Wonder songs. Maybe it's because English is not my first language, and I associate those sentences with songs I've listened to even before I knew what they meant.

[BigJKO]

It bothered me that the entire investigation comes down to Cooper just.. remembering what Laura says in his dream and.. was it just.. flimsy gum and hair evidence he recounts to Truman? It's a minor annoyance, but I wish it had been a real clue as a result of Leland slipping up a bit with the Maddy murder and disposal, somehow..

 

I like that it required a leap of faith, pushing Leland into locking and having him freak out and confirm Cooper's instinct. And obviously Cooper had sensed something wrong with Leland in the last episode, so it almost felt earned but the whole sequence at the Roadhouse resulting in him suddenly remembering what Laura says... it just felt like a coop-out.

[BigJKO]

it just felt like a coop-out.

 

I'm leaving that typo in. Deal with it!

[SirJakoz]

It bothered me that the entire investigation comes down to Cooper just.. remembering what Laura says in his dream and.. was it just.. flimsy gum and hair evidence he recounts to Truman? It's a minor annoyance, but I wish it had been a real clue as a result of Leland slipping up a bit with the Maddy murder and disposal, somehow..

 

I like that it required a leap of faith, pushing Leland into locking and having him freak out and confirm Cooper's instinct. And obviously Cooper had sensed something wrong with Leland in the last episode, so it almost felt earned but the whole sequence at the Roadhouse resulting in him suddenly remembering what Laura says... it just felt like a coop-out.

 

I was expecting something different from the Roadhouse showdown, it felt rushed.

 

Ps: love the typo

[Ozzie]

Yeah, while this episode has its moments and feels more consistent than the last one, it has elements I feel much more lukewarm about now than around the two times I watched it before.

Leland's speech at the end, when he's just about to die, feels wrong and forced. I mean, gosh, has he a lot to say before the reaper finally gets him. It's like the writers felt the need to forcefully cram in all this expository information about Leland's character at the last minute, because in their estimation the audience needs to know. It feels overwritten to me. On the other hand, I like Coop's speech. And the final scene in the woods is especially strong, it's my favorite of this episode.

[SirJakoz]

Yeah, while this episode has its moments and feels more consistent than the last one, it has elements I feel much more lukewarm about now than around the two times I watched it before.

Leland's speech at the end, when he's just about to die, feels wrong and forced. I mean, gosh, has he a lot to say before the reaper finally gets him. It's like the writers felt the need to forcefully cram in all this expository information about Leland's character at the last minute, because in their estimation the audience needs to know. It feels overwritten to me. On the other hand, I like Coop's speech. And the final scene in the woods is especially strong, it's my favorite of this episode.

 

I love the light in that scene, seeing Major Briggs just standing there, almost ethereal and thinking that the actor who plays him (Don S. Davis) is no longer with us moved me quite a bit

[Elen]

This episode has my absolute favorite scene in the whole series: the moment between Donna and Leland. What an absolutely perfect and creepy scene. Lara Flynn Boyle plays the horror and her dawning realization of what Leland is so well.

 

I agree, I was thinking the same thing after that scene, when she's walking away from Leland's house, and then, you hear the sound of a motorcycle, and you know James is gonna be terrible.

Yes, agree absolutely with all of this.

 

I like the revelation that Cooper and Laura have dreamed the same dream. (Did they talk about that before? It's all kinda blending together...) I also thought Leland's method of death was another kind of shockingly brutal moment for the show, with clumps of bloody hair sliding down the door.

[Argobot]

I have to say, after seeing this episode a second time (and having also seen FWWM), I'm pretty disappointed in the way Bob is explained here. The idea of it being more comforting to know that an ancient spirit is responsible for Laura's abuse and death, rather than her father, is not only insulting because that's not how the real world works, it's also an incredibly unsatisfying way to end this plot thread. I know that Lynch and Frost were being pressured to wrap up Laura's killer, and that might explain why this episode shortcuts to "magic" for most of its explanations, but it could have eased up on how much responsibility is given to Bob and how little is given to Leland.

 

FWWM spoilers

At this point, I prefer the movie's take on Bob. It either suggests that Bob and Leland are more of a team, or that Bob is just Laura's creation as a method for coping with her father's abuse. Leland is surprised when he reads Laura's diary and discovers that she only recently learned Bob's real identity, which heavily suggests that Bob is not real. That to me is a much more interesting way of telling the story and doesn't let Leland off the hook for his actions.

 

Repeating this from above: I just really dislike how this episode essentially lets Leland off the hook. Again, what a disappointing end to his story. Him being absolved of his crimes by seeing Laura in his last moments do not mesh with anything that has happened previously, or anything that happens later.

[mikemariano]

Him being absolved of his crimes by seeing Laura in his last moments do not mesh with anything that has happened previously, or anything that happens later.

 

It does, sort-of:

 

Laura and Cooper staring into the bright light of the angel at the end of Fire Walk With Me.

 

Is there anything in Twin Peaks that can only be explained supernaturally?  I'd like to think that there is nothing supernatural about Twin Peaks and that every weird thing we see is just a coincidence.

[Fingus]

There is plenty that I'd say can't be explained by coincidence. The first that comes to mind is Coopers ring disappearing and then rematerializing out if thin air in the roadhouse. As well as Coopers name and "the owls are not what they seem" appearing on the readings at the military station. These are tangible physical effects that can't just be explained as hallucinations.

Even some of the things that can are shared by multiple people, down to very specific detail. Bob's appearance, Sarah's vision of the necklace, Cooper and Laura's shared red room dream, Mike's knowledge about Bob.

If it was just Cooper's visions I'd agree with the idea that it's all in his head and that Leland was just insane. But it's clear that supernatural forces are at play.

I'm confused about the relationship between Bob and Leland though. Has he been under his control all this time and all the grieving was just an act, or did Bob only take over after Leland killed Jaques. His change in personality and hair color suggests the latter, but how about Laura's murder? Can Bob take control and return it whenever he wants? Was he only able to take complete control over Leland after he became a killer on his own? Was it Bob-Leland who was responsible for the other murders outside if Twin Peaks or is Bob able to jump between different "vessels"?

I really like how unexplained the supernatural is in this show. It not only makes it legitimately mysterious, but it also puts you on edge because you don't really know what the spirits of Twin Peaks are capable of.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I have to say, after seeing this episode a second time (and having also seen FWWM), I'm pretty disappointed in the way Bob is explained here. The idea of it being more comforting to know that an ancient spirit is responsible for Laura's abuse and death, rather than her father, is not only insulting because that's not how the real world works, it's also an incredibly unsatisfying way to end this plot thread. I know that Lynch and Frost were being pressured to wrap up Laura's killer, and that might explain why this episode shortcuts to "magic" for most of its explanations, but it could have eased up on how much responsibility is given to Bob and how little is given to Leland.

 

FWWM spoilers

At this point, I prefer the movie's take on Bob. It either suggests that Bob and Leland are more of a team, or that Bob is just Laura's creation as a method for coping with her father's abuse. Leland is surprised when he reads Laura's diary and discovers that she only recently learned Bob's real identity, which heavily suggests that Bob is not real. That to me is a much more interesting way of telling the story and doesn't let Leland off the hook for his actions.

 

Repeating this from above: I just really dislike how this episode essentially lets Leland off the hook. Again, what a disappointing end to his story. Him being absolved of his crimes by seeing Laura in his last moments do not mesh with anything that has happened previously, or anything that happens later.

 

This was my read on the first viewing to be honest. I was terribly disappointed with the easy out of Bob being a possessing spirit that roams and controls their host. On this rewatching, post FWWM, I had a slightly different take. Though I really don't think this was an intentional message.

 

If you take the movie depiction to be true and that Leland is highly culpable for his actions, then the explanation is either that Leland's entire death sequence is a put upon act of faux remorse, hastily delivered as he approaches judgement.

Or, Bob's final parting gift to Leland is to rip out any kind of psychological dissonance Leland held that allowed him to do unspeakable things to his own daughter and live with himself. Leland presumably spent years building a view of the world that made his actions acceptable, and as Bob left Leland he ripped apart this view and forced Leland to confront what he had actually done in his final moments.

 

Overall, I hated this episode. Suddenly I remember that I felt like this ending was an insult to the plot itself, and when I first saw it I wasn't even connecting it to the handling of actual abuse so I was even less thrilled this time. Just the direction they took where they decided they could start calling the supernatural elements magic and use that as licence to say nothing means anything. It just felt like the X-Files at the end with the dudes staring into the forest and delivering exposition to the camera so that the audience would know that the series can continue even with Laura's killer dead. The Roadhouse scene could have been interesting but it felt flat, like whoever did it didn't really care about the supernatural stuff and thought it was a goofy plot device they'd rather get out of the way.

 

It's funny how a lot of people have professed a dislike for the goofy plotlines that take up most of the rest of this season, but really it's this handling of the Laura plotline that was and is the most upsetting to me. There was such a great plotline set up and developed, and even the climax of the reveal and tension of last week were great, only to fall apart for me now with this resolution. I am super curious to see what the guys think on the cast, because frankly I expected a lot of other people here to be as down on it as me.

 

Also what is the weird stuff that Truman has seen in the woods? They vaguely set that up in season 1 but it's never seemed like any supernatural elements have been familiar to him at any point.

[mikemariano]

Also what is the weird stuff that Truman has seen in the woods? They vaguely set that up in season 1 but it's never seemed like any supernatural elements have been familiar to him at any point.

 

Yeah, the more Twin Peaks continues, the more Truman has to play the skeptic against Cooper, making it seem like he knows less and less.

[NorthernBoreus]

I was pretty disappointed by the scene in the Roadhouse, and it kind of made me realize something that's been bothering me about this season.  All of these interesting characters have spent the entire series diverging off into all these different plot lines, many of which have nothing to do with Laura's death.  And now we have them all in the same place finally, Leland and Ben Horne, Bobby and (comatose) Leo, Major Briggs and the old room service guy, all the law enforcement people, and then... Cooper just remembers a dream.  It just feels like such a wasted opportunity to have some of these characters interact with each other in an interesting way, but instead they just hang out in the background.  

 

I know that the show can't only be about Laura's murder (and it shouldn't), and I enjoy all of the side stories that all these characters have (even the silly ones), but I wish that every once in a while there'd be some reminder that all of these people are living in the same world.  In the first season, we had Bobby dealing drugs with Leo, who was working for Ben Horne, who was plotting against Catherine and Josie, who was romantically involved with Truman, who was in the Bookhouse Boys with James, who was doing his Teen Detective stuff with Donna, etc etc.  It all felt like one story with lots of individual parts.  Now it just feels like most story lines are happening in a vacuum.  

[Turgid]

Overall, I hated this episode. Suddenly I remember that I felt like this ending was an insult to the plot itself, and when I first saw it I wasn't even connecting it to the handling of actual abuse so I was even less thrilled this time. Just the direction they took where they decided they could start calling the supernatural elements magic and use that as licence to say nothing means anything. It just felt like the X-Files at the end with the dudes staring into the forest and delivering exposition to the camera so that the audience would know that the series can continue even with Laura's killer dead. The Roadhouse scene could have been interesting but it felt flat, like whoever did it didn't really care about the supernatural stuff and thought it was a goofy plot device they'd rather get out of the way.

Personally I enjoyed this episode, despite my agreement with SuperBiasedMan. Those problems didn't bother me as much. The Roadhouse scene in particular was yeah, lame in its outcome, but so well set up and well shot that I enjoyed it anyway. I found Leland's explanation was a little long-winded and detailed, but I think it's a fine ending. I think they should have left it a bit more vague, but on the other hand this is only Leland's understanding, so he might not have the whole picture. (On the gripping hand, he seems to know quite a lot about exactly how these spirits work.)

 

I liked the forest scene. It's a nice little epilogue. To me this episode felt like it should be the series finale. (Or maybe have one more episode to show the aftermath and wrap up the rest of the non-mystery threads.) I have zero interest in Bob coming back as someone else, so ignoring the obvious sequel set-up, it's a good reflection on the lessons learned and the confrontation of evil.

Also what is the weird stuff that Truman has seen in the woods? They vaguely set that up in season 1 but it's never seemed like any supernatural elements have been familiar to him at any point.

I took him to mean that he's seen a lot of weird but not supernatural stuff over his career, and not in the woods necessarily, just in general. But I had forgotten that season 1 episode where he introduces the Bookhouse Boys and specifically warns Cooper about an evil in the woods. Good question!

 

 

I have to say, after seeing this episode a second time (and having also seen FWWM), I'm pretty disappointed in the way Bob is explained here. The idea of it being more comforting to know that an ancient spirit is responsible for Laura's abuse and death, rather than her father, is not only insulting because that's not how the real world works, it's also an incredibly unsatisfying way to end this plot thread.

Repeating this from above: I just really dislike how this episode essentially lets Leland off the hook. Again, what a disappointing end to his story. Him being absolved of his crimes by seeing Laura in his last moments do not mesh with anything that has happened previously, or anything that happens later.

 I don't really follow this. I mean, I get that in the real world abuse is done by family members and other actual people, and they don't require mental illness or evil spirits to do it. But in this case it was an evil spirit, and this is Twin Peaks which I don't think should strive to portray reality anyway, nor do I think anyone expects it to. Or is it that you think Leland should have been treated or portrayed as less sympathetic, as if he was actually responsible for his actions? Cause my interpretation was that he was literally possessed and had no control over his actions during the crimes (except maybe killing Jacques), so I was fine with his end. (Although this is my first time watching so I can't speak to later episodes or FWWM.)

 

Maybe it bothers you guys that rather than a regular person being the killer, it was just some spirit, so it's a cop out. I guess it's alright with me since Leland did physically commit the crimes and thus leave all the clues a physical killer would, other than his motivation. Granted, the motivation is a big part of the mystery, so I can see where you're coming from. Would it have been better if Leland simply had Multiple Personality Disorder or something like that?

[Argobot]

 I don't really follow this. I mean, I get that in the real world abuse is done by family members and other actual people, and they don't require mental illness or evil spirits to do it. But in this case it was an evil spirit, and this is Twin Peaks which I don't think should strive to portray reality anyway, nor do I think anyone expects it to. Or is it that you think Leland should have been treated or portrayed as less sympathetic, as if he was actually responsible for his actions? Cause my interpretation was that he was literally possessed and had no control over his actions during the crimes (except maybe killing Jacques), so I was fine with his end. (Although this is my first time watching so I can't speak to later episodes or FWWM.)

 

Maybe it bothers you guys that rather than a regular person being the killer, it was just some spirit, so it's a cop out. I guess it's alright with me since Leland did physically commit the crimes and thus leave all the clues a physical killer would, other than his motivation. Granted, the motivation is a big part of the mystery, so I can see where you're coming from. Would it have been better if Leland simply had Multiple Personality Disorder or something like that?

 

My reaction is entirely influenced by having seen FWWM. When I first watched this show, I think I was generally fine with how Leland's story ended (Although, I must admit that the way this show is written is a really cop out for general murder mystery shows. Bob is a real 'have your cake and eat it too' kind of killer, in that we have known about him for a long time, but were just unaware of the details surrounding him). Maybe you'll feel differently after you watch the movie, which I really recommend that you do. 

[Turgid]

Fingus, on 09 Feb 2015 - 09:18, said:

I'm confused about the relationship between Bob and Leland though. Has he been under his control all this time and all the grieving was just an act, or did Bob only take over after Leland killed Jaques. His change in personality and hair color suggests the latter, but how about Laura's murder? Can Bob take control and return it whenever he wants? Was he only able to take complete control over Leland after he became a killer on his own? Was it Bob-Leland who was responsible for the other murders outside if Twin Peaks or is Bob able to jump between different "vessels"?

I really like how unexplained the supernatural is in this show. It not only makes it legitimately mysterious, but it also puts you on edge because you don't really know what the spirits of Twin Peaks are capable of.

As I understand it from Leland's epic exposition dump and what Bob said beforehand, Bob (and multiple other spirits like him) are capable of residing in a host. The host has to invite them in, or possibly simply be weak-willed enough that they can't resist the spirit's entrance. There seems to be some relation to their conscience as well, i.e. if someone doesn't care about doing bad things it's easier for the spirit to control them. This is what happened to Leland as a child. When he later became a terrible callous lawyer and businessman (possibly under the influence of Bob), and then killed Jacques for revenge (also maybe at the urging of Bob), it made him that much easier to control.

Once they're inside, the spirit can take direct control whenever they like, and otherwise simply sit in the background and influence the person's feelings and actions. The host has no memory of their actions when the spirit is in direct control (like when Leland murdered Laura), however at other times they remember and behave mostly normally (like when Leland was grieving). So for the most part whenever we saw Leland he was just being himself, but with some manipulation from Bob, so he couldn't quite explain why he felt the way he did sometimes, and he certainly couldn't just tell people about Bob. The spirit can leave the host, travel freely, and then try to enter a different one. Leaving may or may not require saying the Fire Walk With Me poem, cracking the host's head open, or (nearly?) killing the host. It's possible Bob just did that stuff for fun.

Bob was trying to use Leland to help a fellow spirit get into Laura, and once she was possessed, to break down her will to make her easier to control. But she was too strong, i.e. moral and willful, and neither Leland nor Bob could force her to submit, so as a punishment Bob killed her. Well, also just out of sheer bloodlust. Bob seems to like killing young women and signing his name with a letter under their fingernails. The other murders were done by Bob in other hosts, I think? I might be wrong about that. Bob or one of his spirit buddies seems have been around in Pittsburgh, either involved or watching when something happened to Cooper.

[LostInTheMovies]

I left my extended thoughts on this episode in the ep. 16 thread (because I had expected to be offline right now). Just wanted to drop in and note that it's interesting, and a bit gratifying to see that people are being tough on this episode. I found it very disappointing the first time I watched it, and that was even without being particularly turned off by the Leland/Bob presentation (as Argobot & others say, I think it took FWWM for me to really realize what a cop-out that was). After all the build-up it was just...wait, that's it?! Yet the episode seems to be a fan favorite for whatever reason.

 

And I HATED how literal they made Cooper's dream. It felt like "the TV world" smoothing over Lynch's can't-define-it-just-feel-it vibe. And don't get me started on Leland casually stepping up as the attorney for his daughter's alleged murderer just so the writer can get him in a jail cell, and nobody around him (even people who don't know about Bob) bats an eye. What an absurd contrivance!

 

Still, I've learned to like things about the episode. They're mostly concept, rather than execution. I like the significance of Cooper's ring (especially amplified by the Cooper spin-off book and a different ring in FWWM). I like the idea that Laura solves her own mystery, though it's poorly executed. I like, in theory, that Cooper gets the answer from "beyond" rather than physical evidence although, again, could they have made it feel less like a deus ex machina?

 

This was my read on the first viewing to be honest. I was terribly disappointed with the easy out of Bob being a possessing spirit that roams and controls their host. On this rewatching, post FWWM, I had a slightly different take. Though I really don't think this was an intentional message.

 

If you take the movie depiction to be true and that Leland is highly culpable for his actions, then the explanation is either that Leland's entire death sequence is a put upon act of faux remorse, hastily delivered as he approaches judgement.

Or, Bob's final parting gift to Leland is to rip out any kind of psychological dissonance Leland held that allowed him to do unspeakable things to his own daughter and live with himself. Leland presumably spent years building a view of the world that made his actions acceptable, and as Bob left Leland he ripped apart this view and forced Leland to confront what he had actually done in his final moments.

 

I am increasingly inclined to see it the latter way. I think to a large extent that's what Bob is, that's what allows him to enter and sustain himself in a host: the host's ability to

repress/deny their own guilt. I'll have to save this discussion for later, but I've recently realized that Bob DOESN'T feed on "pain and sorrow" - that's Mike's diet. Bob, as the series tells us, feeds on "fear and the pleasures." I think he much prefers if his hosts don't feel any pain and sorrow at all, but if they are instead able to compartmentalize and/or repress the knowledge of their own evil. This is the psychological meaning of the metaphysical battle between Mike and Bob in the movie: it's essentially a war between the ability to recognize trauma and the inclination to avoid facing it.

 

It's funny how a lot of people have professed a dislike for the goofy plotlines that take up most of the rest of this season, but really it's this handling of the Laura plotline that was and is the most upsetting to me. There was such a great plotline set up and developed, and even the climax of the reveal and tension of last week were great, only to fall apart for me now with this resolution. I am super curious to see what the guys think on the cast, because frankly I expected a lot of other people here to be as down on it as me.

 

I tend to draw a connection between the two. The hasty, uncomfortable way the show ties up the Laura mystery is both an indication of and a motivation for the subsequent slip in quality. As I put it when discussing the following episode, it isn't just the characters onscreen embracing denial and repression, it's the show itself. In a weird way, all the mayor/Little Nicky/Evelyn shenanigans are the inevitable result of what happens when you try to turn your back on the dramatic momentum of your own material.

 

I was pretty disappointed by the scene in the Roadhouse, and it kind of made me realize something that's been bothering me about this season.  All of these interesting characters have spent the entire series diverging off into all these different plot lines, many of which have nothing to do with Laura's death.  And now we have them all in the same place finally, Leland and Ben Horne, Bobby and (comatose) Leo, Major Briggs and the old room service guy, all the law enforcement people, and then... Cooper just remembers a dream.  It just feels like such a wasted opportunity to have some of these characters interact with each other in an interesting way, but instead they just hang out in the background.  

 

I know that the show can't only be about Laura's murder (and it shouldn't), and I enjoy all of the side stories that all these characters have (even the silly ones), but I wish that every once in a while there'd be some reminder that all of these people are living in the same world.  In the first season, we had Bobby dealing drugs with Leo, who was working for Ben Horne, who was plotting against Catherine and Josie, who was romantically involved with Truman, who was in the Bookhouse Boys with James, who was doing his Teen Detective stuff with Donna, etc etc.  It all felt like one story with lots of individual parts.  Now it just feels like most story lines are happening in a vacuum.  

 

^This. I generally like the early part of season two, but one thing it's missing - that season one has in spades - is the conviction that everyone is connected, all storylines have a level of suspense and mystery, and all roads lead to Rome. And yes, the gathering at the Road House really gives you an "Oh yeah, remember when all this stuff felt connected?" sad kind of feeling.

 

Repeating this from above: I just really dislike how this episode essentially lets Leland off the hook. Again, what a disappointing end to his story. Him being absolved of his crimes by seeing Laura in his last moments do not mesh with anything that has happened previously, or anything that happens later.

 

Spoiler for Between Two Worlds (the Palmer family interview on the blu-ray, which was written by Lynch):

It is strongly implied that Leland did not get automatic passage "into the light" after all, but instead is lost in some sort of limbo, and that he certainly has not passed on to any higher plane the way Laura clearly does at the end of FWWM. It will be interesting to see what they do with Ray Wise in 2016.

 

I don't really follow this. I mean, I get that in the real world abuse is done by family members and other actual people, and they don't require mental illness or evil spirits to do it. But in this case it was an evil spirit, and this is Twin Peaks which I don't think should strive to portray reality anyway, nor do I think anyone expects it to. Or is it that you think Leland should have been treated or portrayed as less sympathetic, as if he was actually responsible for his actions? Cause my interpretation was that he was literally possessed and had no control over his actions during the crimes (except maybe killing Jacques), so I was fine with his end. (Although this is my first time watching so I can't speak to later episodes or FWWM.)

 

I felt pretty much the same when I first saw the series. But, without spoiling too much, FWWM is a really dark horror movie/psychodrama/art film that recasts the series & Laura's life in a very different light. It's kind of amazing that Lynch made THAT movie out of THIS show (and a lot of fans resented him for it) but the links between the two worlds are there if one looks for them. It's not so much that the film changes the rules as that it makes you realize what the rules really were all along.

[Argobot]

Rewatching this show is making me realize how challenging it is to satisfyingly structure a TV show around a mystery. The medium does not allow for a coherent resolution. Twin Peaks and all its successors (X-Files, Lost, etc) establish rules for their respective universes early on, but as the episode number grows, those rules start to loosen until they effectively disintegrate into nothing. Twin Peaks internal consistency manages to hold up better than others, because it only had 1.5 seasons to ruin itself in, but it's clear that even at this point in that everything is starting to fall apart. It makes me so much more appreciative of True Detective, a show that is a great spiritual successor to Twin Peaks. It sets up rules and follows through with them to the final episode, so that everything feels narratively sound. Having one writer in charge of all eight episodes in your mini-series also helps the narrative cohesion. It kind of makes me feel more hopeful for Twin Peaks season 3, if it is kept to a limited number of episodes and Lynch/Frost are the only main writers. (And also if they don't try to connect both seasons, the movie, and all these tie-in books, which is a huge caveat but maybe the show won't be that bad?)

[Afterward]

I don't remember feeling very strongly about this episode one way or the other when I saw it the first time, but after reading the comments here and seeing the episode again, my main reaction is one of pity, mostly for the writers.

 

ABC put Lynch and Frost in a terrible position by forcing them to reveal the killer. Long before jaded fans were saying "You can stop watching after this one," Lynch knew that the mystery wasn't just the premise that let the series begin, but the driving force that was necessary for it to continue. In making "Lonely Souls", all he could do was be as true to his story as he could be while he essentially destroyed it.

 

What Twin Peaks will become in the absence of its central mystery remains to be seen. In this instant, though, the writers are in an awful predicament. Leland can't go back to being the pathetic/charming goof whom we used to know, but he can't be ignored, either. For the audience, he can only be Bob, and unlike Mike, the Midget, or the Giant, Bob's presence can never be taken lightly.

 

Maddy's murder also created a tension where the audience knew Leland was the killer, but the characters, critically Cooper, didn't. This is used to some effect in "Drive with a Dead Girl", but can you imagine that scenario extended into another couple of episodes? The rest of the season? For me, even the scene where Leland offers to show Cooper his new clubs takes it a bit too far: Leland creeps up almost like a monster in a Looney Tune, whistling innocently when Bugs Bunny happens to turn around. If Cooper doesn't solve the mystery, the show runs the risk of becoming a farce.

 

The writers have been painted into a corner, and it shows in this episode as characters are shoved forcibly into the necessary positions, expository dialog flows as from a fire hose, and dreams are retconned into clues with all the elegance of my trying to fit another analogy into this sentence. Lynch and Frost never intended for the murderer to be revealed, so the minutiae of early episodes could never have been intended to convey the meanings that Cooper reads into them here. Similarly, because Leland has to be eliminated, we have to get an explanation for his crimes out of the way, and this results in a speech that explains Bob in terms that the authors probably never imagined would be necessary.

 

In many ways this is a story that Twin Peaks was never meant to tell, an episode that the show simply wasn't built to handle. The result is a disappointment for many viewers, especially for those who watch it with the critical eye that Twin Peaks always wanted and often deserved. But think of its creators, and what a disappointment it must have been for them!

[LostInTheMovies]

Maddy's murder also created a tension where the audience knew Leland was the killer, but the characters, critically Cooper, didn't. This is used to some effect in "Drive with a Dead Girl", but can you imagine that scenario extended into another couple of episodes? The rest of the season?

 

I think it could work but the show's center of gravity would have to change. It would have to become more about Leland slowly coming to grips with the existence of Bob, rather than Cooper's hunt for Bob. Think Lost Highway. Of course this approach probably would not have been terribly successful with audiences, but then I think Twin Peaks was doomed no matter what. I can't envision any scenario in which Twin Peaks lasts more than two seasons. If they don't reveal the killer, viewers tune out (as indeed they did very quickly after the season 2 premiere). If they do reveal the killer, viewers tune out (because the show was established as WKLP at its core). It was really a lose/lose situation so the only question becomes, how could they have gone out more gracefully?

 

The writers have been painted into a corner, and it shows in this episode as characters are shoved forcibly into the necessary positions, expository dialog flows as from a fire hose, and dreams are retconned into clues with all the elegance of my trying to fit another analogy into this sentence. Lynch and Frost never intended for the murderer to be revealed, so the minutiae of early episodes could never have been intended to convey the meanings that Cooper reads into them here. Similarly, because Leland has to be eliminated, we have to get an explanation for his crimes out of the way, and this results in a speech that explains Bob in terms that the authors probably never imagined would be necessary.

 

In many ways this is a story that Twin Peaks was never meant to tell, an episode that the show simply wasn't built to handle. The result is a disappointment for many viewers, especially for those who watch it with the critical eye that Twin Peaks always wanted and often deserved. But think of its creators, and what a disappointment it must have been for them!

 

I've always had a hard time sussing out how Frost really felt about this. Apparently he and Lynch were on the same page about not revealing the killer in season 1. But Frost's comments during season 2, and his later comments as well, reveal that he was ready to wrap up the mystery once the show was renewed. His main reservation about the whodunit was that it distracted viewers from the show's other factors and would potentially alienate the audience if it wasn't solved (he was right about the latter point; people forget how early the ratings - and worse, the reviews - turned a corner).

 

Also for Frost, the show was always about the whole town. He even disagreed with Lynch about how the project was initiated - he claims that they had designed the town first, and than the murder mystery entered as a way into the story, whereas Lynch says it all began with the image of a body washing up on shore. And obviously the fact that Lynch went on to make a prequel about Laura speaks volumes about his viewpoint on the show vs. Frost's (whose next project will be a novel called The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks, covering all the different characters and stories of the town over 25 years). Frost has described Twin Peaks as "a Dickensian story about multiple lives in a contained area, that could go on perpetually." Lynch's first Log Lady intro states "It is the story of many, but it begins with one...Laura is the one."

 

So with all that in mind, it seems that Frost was ready to move on from the mystery and launch the show in a new direction. What's hard for me to figure out then, is why it unfolded the way it did. As you point out, this conclusion has a rushed, arbitrary, even desperate feel to it. The subsequent episodes don't show much evidence of Frost's own storytelling skills (and indeed he was apparently disengaging to prep a feature film as soon as Laura's mystery ended) and it does feel like Lynch and Frost gave up on the show (Lynch himself certainly did, for a while). If Frost was so eager to move on to other stories, why did he step back as soon as that became possible? I REALLY can't get a sense of this from anything I've read, all I can speculate is that he assumed the show would last longer and that with Laura's mystery over, it could coast for a bit while he worked on other projects.

 

And also that maybe he expected more collaboration from Lynch on the concluding episode and then Lynch's heart just wasn't in it, leaving Frost to scramble with Peyton & Engels to tie up all the loose ends. But that's pure speculation on my part. It does seem notable that Lynch directs every other major turning point and then is completely MIA when Leland dies.

[Jake]

Hey folks the episode is up! Sorry for the delay.

Also it turns out I agree with a ton of this thread. I skimmed it before we recorded but yes. Curious to hear your thoughts on our thoughts.

Also next week's pre-discussion thread is up!