What would a Season 4 be about?

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Cappy
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What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Cappy »

If they made a Season 4, does anyone have any ideas on what it would even be about?

I would love to see more Twin Peaks, but the finale of S3 really exploded the whole concept, what with Cooper preventing Laura's death, then returning her to her mother's home at some undisclosed moment in time... Are Cooper and Laura in some alternate timeline where Laura never died, or was this all corrected by Cooper bringing Laura back home..?

I personally feel like the finale of S3 is more of a thematic conclusion then a cliffhanger. For all of TP's twists and turns and diversions, it's ultimately the story about Laura Palmer, and Lynch/Frost seemingly end the whole saga on a note that firmly roots the entire narrative in her pain. As much as the story tries to get away from Laura, it never is truly capable of that.

Obviously there are many ways to look at the conclusion of S3, but when we were waiting for S3 to come out, I think most people had a fair idea of what to expect: Season 3 will depict the characters of TP after 25 years. Even if none of us had any clue what to expect (I don't anyone could have predicted the Dougie stuff, or Audrey stuff for that matter), we still knew that the characters would be 25 years older.

But for a prospective Season 4... would it take place some time after the events of Season 3? Like, would we see how to Briggs family was doing a year or so after Season 3, or would we be seeing Bobby and fam as they would have existed had Laura never died? Or would it not even be about most of the regular characters, instead focusing solely on Carrie Page and/or "Richard"?

What are other people expecting from a prospective Season 4? Does the story just pick up right after Laura screams at the end, or is there some other, different thread we follow back into the story?
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Soolsma »

The new, less catatonic but still dimwitted Douglas Jones has been enlisted by Gordon Cole as an FBI agent. He opens up the cold case of Laura Palmer gone missing. :wink:

In all sincerity: this now altered timeline, plus whatever the Odessaverse is, is a real tough one to crack in ways of storytelling. It's one of the reasons why I think season 4 is not happening.
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Henrys Hair »

I'm still trying to work out what Season 3 was about...

I wouldn't be surprised if a potential Season 4 was more abstract still. Beyond Laura/Carrie and Cooper/Richard I could see it continuing with the rest of the cast taking on new identities (on a morbid level, it would be one way to get round the actors who have sadly passed away since filming wrapped on S3).

When part 18 first aired it looked to me much more like the first episode of a new series than the final episode of the existing series (although subsequent viewings have changed my mind a bit on this point).
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eyeboogers
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by eyeboogers »

The Log Lady spoke of an alarming darkness that would come after the electricity dies out. The last thing we see in The Return is the electricity dying out. I am thinking Lynch/Frost probably already had something in mind and put several subtle setups in the show such as that Log Lady monologue.
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Pinky »

i'm reigning in my idealistic side and going with what i'd consider a realistic scenario. Coop and Laura's journey deeper into the Lodge. Minimise the location shooting and have it set based. Pared down cast and budget buys Lynch not only the creative freedom that he's used to but also the time to get what he wants. Basically, a situation where he's messing around on DIY sets in LA for months at a time with Coop, Laura, Desmond and Gerard, with a budget small enough that no execs are panicking, it would probably lead to plenty of lo-fi gonzo beauty. A 'Between Two Worlds' mindset but with more of the gang.

As for actual plot, oof. I could see some mileage from a 'stuck in the hostile Odessaverse with only a Desmond apparition as a potential ally' plotline, but it's hard. I'd be more tempted to play the actual ending off as Judy's little universe bubble collapsing but Cooper still being 'far away' and having to get back to more familiar parts of the Lodge. Probably better to have Laura be gone again. Just having Lee onscreen in an actual active role would kill the mystique pretty quickly. I'd have the central crux be Cooper having to get back to the real world to try and limit the damage caused, but all the time have it become more apparent to the viewer that he's just going deeper in. Whatever happens, I think his time in the real world is done now, he's not going back and having him end up anywhere approaching home would feel false. Unless Lynch doubled and tripled down on it, and gave Cooper a check shirted, wood living ending in the Log Ladies old place or Dead Dog Farm etc.

No sooner have I typed all this than I realize I hate half of it, I guess i'm conflicted!
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by eyeboogers »

Pinky wrote: Whatever happens, I think his time in the real world is done now, he's not going back and having him end up anywhere approaching home would feel false. Unless Lynch doubled and tripled down on it, and gave Cooper a check shirted, wood living ending in the Log Ladies old place or Dead Dog Farm etc.
I think Cooper makes it back. It wouldn't feel false since we've already felt the gravity of the ending of The Return. Frost modeled this past season on "The Odyssey" (and a few other things as well), and he has stated that Cooper's journey home is not yet complete. His hubris lead to his (temporary) defeat in this past season, but it does not seem that the creative team (or at least half of it) thinks that Cooper is beyond redemption.
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Mordeen »

Anything other than Cooper taking another, possibly final "stab" (wink wink) at transcending the Black Lodge and being welcomed at his final destination in the White Lodge wouldn't make any sense other than dragging out the story to include another large group of actors and several frustratingly mediocre Roadhouse bands, which, well, they've already done. Which is to say I agree in much fewer episodes and a more concise approach at depicting Cooper's struggle.

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eyeboogers
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by eyeboogers »

Mordeen wrote:possibly final "stab" (wink wink)
This coupled with the image montage you uploaded the other week seems to suggest that Cooper could have died from the Earle incident (the first one) in a version of The Return script. This would especially make sense since the working title was Dead Man's Journey.

However, what ended up being on screen doesn't necessarily lead to this conclusion, it could even be that f.ex. Lynch didn't like the idea, and lets not forget the season didn't end up being called Dead Man's Journey. I would actually be really surprised if the conclusion to this would simply be that Cooper has been looping a few times through purgatory on his way to heaven.
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Cappy
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Cappy »

I don't think there is an easy resolution or explanation of what was going on in ep. 18, so if there were to be a Season 4, I'd be ok with Lynch/Frost barely even acknowledging Seasons 1-3 for a few episodes. Episode 18 left so much to unpack, that it would be best sorted through slowly, and over the course of Season 4. Part of me wants Season 4 to focus on some new characters, at least at first, as a way of guiding us back into the story. Like, I don't know, a Turkish man and his ailing grandfather travel to the United States and visit Twin Peaks. Their optimism and enthusiasm for the Northwest woods could be seen as a callback to Agent Cooper's first arrival in town in the pilot. Due to cultural differences, the two will completely misunderstand very obvious supernatural events as being commonplace Americana, and maybe misinterpret mundane events as being supernatural. Seeing Twin Peaks through their eyes could be a way of making the town a new and slightly different experience after 30 years. Maybe a few classic characters show up in some form for a few moments here and there. The specifics of what's going on and what happened at the end of Season 3 could slowly be revealed through the Turks' misadventures. Eventually Cooper and a few other characters would appear and become important in the story.

I'd just be wary of them jumping into the 'alternate worlds' concept too much right off the bat. If trying to correct the timeline becomes the central focus of this season, it could become too much like, I don't know, Star Trek: Voyager, or some DC Comics storyline where they overhaul all of their continuity. Alternate worlds or timelines can feature into the plot, as they do in a lot of Lynch films, but the main thrust of the story needs to be anchored in a character's emotional struggle, whether it be Cooper's or Laura's or even Audrey's, whatever their struggles might be after Season 3.
Last edited by Cappy on Tue Feb 12, 2019 5:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Jerry Horne »

Who the Hell knows.

My theory du jour is that Cooper and Diane perform sex magik so that Cooper can (*) share a dream with Laura. Right before the end of S3, we hear Sarah repeat the words from the Pilot. So I can see S4 opening with Laura waking up in her old bedroom (screaming) whilst visiting her Mom. Cooper then wakes up in the hotel room.

* Or...enter an alternate timeline...

Then some weird shit happens.



My greatest fear is that they didn't have a plan for S4 and they thought it would be cool to finish it with some Lost Highway ending.
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Jerry Horne »

Ultimately though, I see S3 as Cooper caught in a loop to try and make things right time and time again becoming more and more confused liked Phillip.

It's hard to make a prediction about where it's going if we don't know where we have been.
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

It’s interesting that Cappy mentions Audrey. My only real hope for a S4 (or a future film) would be that it is as unpredictable as TP:TR was. However, if I were to make a prediction, it’s that the gender pendulum would continue to swing back and forth as it traditionally has on TP. What I mean is that the original series uses Laura’s corpse largely as a MacGuffin to introduce male-centric Hardy Boys/Sherlock Holmes bromance mystery-solving and fetishization of schoolgirls in sweaters. FWWM then course-corrects and delves to the heart of Laura’s suffering. TP:TR has a streak of casual, largely underdeveloped violence toward women that I believe is intentional, given the season’s focus on exploring masculinity through the varying Cooper personalities (with Mother presented as the ultimate villain of the piece). I believe a S4 would feature Audrey and Diane heavily, and would confront the realities of their situations as a result of their rapes at the hands of Cooper/Mr. C (albeit in a stylized/Lynchian way), perhaps with Cooper almost as a figure comparable to Leland in FWWM.

I do believe that the “Cooper was dead the whole time” theory feels reductionist in light of what we got onscreen, and if Mark intended the season to be interpreted this way at one time, he seems to have changed his mind in light of the way TFD ends and some of his subsequent interview comments about what the ending means.
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Cappy
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Cappy »

Soolsma wrote:The new, less catatonic but still dimwitted Douglas Jones has been enlisted by Gordon Cole as an FBI agent. He opens up the cold case of Laura Palmer gone missing. :wink:
I feel like perhaps the Jones family saga has been wrapped up, but it would be neat to see more of the Dougie that appeared in ep. 18. I dunno, the way the new Dougie was brimming with joy was awfully reminiscent of the sunnier side of Cooper we saw in the original series. Maybe the new Dougie is the real Cooper, and "RIchard", god knows what?
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by Soolsma »

Hmmmm, what Reindeer said about the gender pendulum swinging actually got me thinking that Laura could serve as the main character again. They could possibly delve deep in to the many facets of her character. Part(s) of her (Carrie, Laura's doppelgänger) could even serve as one of the main antagonists. Now, I'm not saying we'd go Laura like we went Coop in TPTR, but I'm sure some elements of this could work again. We'll possibly see some of her story unfold in a Mullholland Drive- or Inland Empire-esque manner.
Mr. Reindeer wrote:My only real hope for a S4 (or a future film) would be that it is as unpredictable as TP:TR was.
Rest assured. :)
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Re: What would a Season 4 be about?

Post by krishnanspace »

My guess would be that it would take place in the new timeline, where all the characters are living a different life. Gordon is the one who remembers both the timelines.There are a lot of breadcrumbs that Lynch and Frost have left around that could be explored in a new Season.
Laura's Diary had a 4th page missing. Maybe laura had a dream in which she saw herself as a grown woman living in Odessa and maybe she wrote about that in the 4th page?
The Red Room is still a mystery to me, other Blue Rose cases, Agent Desmond and finally the Black/White lodges which they have never shown us.
Finally I want it all to take place in Twin Peaks with some limited characters. The Return had way tooo many characters for me to fall in love with them.
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