Part 6 - Don't die (SPOILERS)

[Mr. Strawberry]

What about "he's lying?"

Seems like his intuition is kicking in. It was a very brief glimpse of the ol' Coop but it hinted that he's just sort of waking up slowly and will regain himself. My theory on the flashes that are highlighting things, such as Anthony Sinclair when he tells a lie, or paperwork full of inconsistent data, is that we're seeing his intuition at work. Sort of like a visual indication of what clicks in his mind as he detects bullshit or sees things that don't add up.

[HagbardCeline]

Maybe I'm just seeing things, lol.

A few seconds later Hawk opens one of the pages; it looks like five lines of text are visible for a split second. Can anyone screenshot it? (I am unable to )

I think a couple people have screencapped if you go back a few pages.

[Rhodes]

but if they do renew it for a Season 4 - I would hope that season would be one set entirely within the town itself!

You miss the old Twin Peaks, the town and its beloved characters.

However, it would have been almost impossible to construct a somewhat believable story with the same set of characters. Of course, it could be done. But either it would be something like exploring what happened to all of the characters in the last 25 years (Shelly and Bobby and their marriage, Audrey being a famous journalist these days, Big Ed finally finding the love of his life, etc.). This approach would be impossible to combine with ambitious, artistic storytelling.

Or it would again be full of big mysteries/murders/etc. But it would feel very contrived that again the same set of characters would go through all of those mystery.

With the current approach, it makes perfect sense that Cooper has this great adventure. But for the rest of the original cast, it makes perfect sense that not that much happened. There is just enough Twin Peaks in the current season to have the bigger picture in mind and some feeling of the old show. But not too much Twin Peaks, so that it would be impossible to create a magnum opus.

What I''m saying is: if you want season 3 to be an ambitious project (rather than a warm glow, fanservice show), this was always the only way to go. Of course, it is subjective what approach a particular person is looking for. Personally, I think the approach that you were hoping for, would have been a complete disaster.

[BigEd]

but if they do renew it for a Season 4 - I would hope that season would be one set entirely within the town itself!

You miss the old Twin Peaks, the town and its beloved characters.

However, it would have been almost impossible to construct a somewhat believable story with the same set of characters. Of course, it could be done. But either it would be something like exploring what happened to all of the characters in the last 25 years (Shelly and Bobby and their marriage, Audrey being a famous journalist these days, Big Ed finally finding the love of his life, etc.). This approach would be impossible to combine with ambitious, artistic storytelling.

Or it would again be full of big mysteries/murders/etc. But it would feel very contrived that again the same set of characters would go through all of those mystery.

With the current approach, it makes perfect sense that Cooper has this great adventure. But for the rest of the original cast, it makes perfect sense that not that much happened. There is just enough Twin Peaks in the current season to have the bigger picture in mind and some feeling of the old show. But not too much Twin Peaks, so that it would be impossible to create a magnum opus.

What I''m saying is: if you want season 3 to be an ambitious project (rather than a warm glow, fanservice show), this was always the only way to go. Of course, it is subjective what approach a particular person is looking for. Personally, I think the approach that you were hoping for, would have been a complete disaster.

Bingo. Well stated!

[DangerMo]

Anyone else notice that the old school yellow phone at Dougie's house is nearly identical to one of the phones in Mulholland Drive?

I'm starting to wonder if the entire Dougie story is simply a dream.

That would be an interesting concept if there weren't so many scenes in Dougie Universe in which Dougie is not implicated (Janey-E's most excellent face-off with the bookies, Jade sending the Great Northern's keys back, all of the scenes with the Vegas guy in his office taking orders and sending hitmen on their way... Makes me think, by the way, is it okay with everyone now that the "Tell her she's got the job" was about that woman who got killed by Ike?)

This show is getting better by the week, and I absolutely LOVED the 1st episode, goes to tell...

[krishnanspace]

Also, RE: Jeffries --

* The red square
* The modulated voice ("Is this Phillip Jeffries?")
* The trasmutating beeper in Buenos Aires

Is he now a kind of A.I.?

Mark Frost is a huge fan of westworld

[krishnanspace]

Was one of the loan sharks played by Neil Patrick Harris?

[counterpaul]

Am I the only one who found it weird that the sheriff's station seemed to be operating "business as usual" (Frank distributing menial tasks, gossip about Frank's marriage) hours after a small child was killed in a vehicular homicide? I get that scenes in this 18-hour movie were likely shuffled around, but that disparity felt pretty jarring.

I have two responses to this.

First, it's hard to say how much time has passed in this scene since the hit and run, if any. I do not think that the show is telling its story out of chronological error, but I do think there may be moments where we might be seeing things that are happening at different locations close to simultaneously. It's possible the accident just happened (all we've seen in Twin Peaks since the hit and run is Richard cleaning up, which I imagine he got to very quickly). Maybe they had just gotten the call about a "possible hit and run" or something somewhat vague like that, sent Bobby or Andy out to investigate, and they don't yet know how horrible it really was.

Secondly, a major theme in The Return is that things are pretty bad everywhere, including in Twin Peaks. Note everyone's rather understated reaction to the news of Dennis Craig OD'ing at the high school. Pretty awful stuff, sadly, seems to be happening with a fair degree of regularity. People--especially people in professions like law enforcement and emergency medicine--tend to form a protective shell when they regularly see a lot of awful stuff.

[Dez]

Hello everybody,

First time poster here. I'm thoroughly enjoying the show, and have no complaints whatsoever. The aspects many people criticize, especially the lack of substantial action from the old characters, as of now, I see as an essential part of it all. The show has always been about loss. Lost family, lost home, lost harmony, lost ideals -- and now, very upfront, lost time. In the old series, all that loss was wrapped in soothing nostalgia, ranging from saddle shoes to genre tropes. If the general picture feels dishearteningly cold and disconnected now, it's because that is the intended effect. It's how Lynch, a 70 year old man, wants you to feel his sorrow. It spells out that nostalgia is not useful or relevant anymore. A message that couldn't be more relevant today, I would say. It's humanity that has to be rebuilt from scratch. This is what I gather to be the essence and meaning of "The Return", most eloquently put forward by the Dougie storyline. It's quite a messianic stance from Lynch, and for that reason I agree with whomever said that this may turn out to be his magnum opus. The way he disregards all sorts of objectionable aesthetic and narrative impurities (Chrysta Bells's acting included), and keeps moving along with the most elementary blocks of myth, symbolism and archetype, has an almost biblical humbleness about it.

My two cents.

Btw, has anybody else noticed the floating orb in the very first frame of Ep. 6 (by the pointing finger of the monument)?

[Saturn's child]

Also, RE: Jeffries --

* The red square
* The modulated voice ("Is this Phillip Jeffries?")
* The trasmutating beeper in Buenos Aires

Is he now a kind of A.I.?

Mark Frost is a huge fan of westworld

Ahhh, I haven't seen it (but I have seen Person of Interest). I thought Jeffries could have got stuck between rebirths / electrical sockets, but still able to traverse as pure 'electricity'.

Also, Doogie Howser's a fish?

[douglasb]

Dougie's gambling debt is distinct from his casino win. Are we to presume it's actually BadCoop who instigated the original - and ongoing - hit on his life?

[Soolsma]

That's certainly Annie written on that page and also certainly deliberately the most readable.

Remember how a little person was found on the cast list and we were speculating it could be LMFAP.

Also; Didn't it seem like Diane knew Albert was coming?

[crazyscottishguy]

Was one of the loan sharks played by Neil Patrick Harris?

No. That actor also had a role in LOST season 4

[Soolsma]

I think it says

"I keep going over it in my head, trying to understand. Oh Annie.''

[Novalis]

Hello everybody,

First time poster here. I'm thoroughly enjoying the show, and have no complaints whatsoever. The aspects many people criticize, especially the lack of substantial action from the old characters, as of now, I see as an essential part of it all. The show has always been about loss. Lost family, lost home, lost harmony, lost ideals -- and now, very upfront, lost time. In the old series, all that loss was wrapped in soothing nostalgia, ranging from saddle shoes to genre tropes. If the general picture feels dishearteningly cold and disconnected now, it's because that is the intended effect. It's how Lynch, a 70 year old man, wants you to feel his sorrow. It spells out that nostalgia is not useful or relevant anymore. A message that couldn't be more relevant today, I would say. It's humanity that has to be rebuilt from scratch. This is what I gather to be the essence and meaning of "The Return", most eloquently put forward by the Dougie storyline. It's quite a messianic stance from Lynch, and for that reason I agree with whomever said that this may turn out to be his magnum opus. The way he disregards all sorts of objectionable aesthetic and narrative impurities (Chrysta Bells's acting included), and keeps moving along with the most elementary blocks of myth, symbolism and archetype, has an almost biblical humbleness about it.

My two cents.

Btw, has anybody else noticed the floating orb in the very first frame of Ep. 6 (by the pointing finger of the monument)?

Welcome Dez, I'm pretty new here myself (but am an old David Lynch fan).

I think you hit on something fundamental about Lynchian imagery in your comments above. To me, it's always seemed like one of Lynch's primary thematics is that of 'interrupted nostalgia', that is to say, what happens when euphoric/nostalgic dreams of things (that were likely never the case in the first place) get violently sliced up by a sudden sharp plane of reality. Like Blue Velvet's 1950s small-town America cut wide open by criminality, or Wild At Heart's saccharine Oz theme split open by all the semiotic slippages, (Double-Ought-Spool, quacking men, drugs and out-of-place sex and violence). In the same vein, Twin Peaks is another utopian place, recalling simpler and kookier people that really care about pie, being in love and coffee. But at its heart it is shattered, perhaps because of its inherently parasitic history -- its parasitism on the clearing of woodlands, industrialised labour relations built on the power asymmetries of class and race, the forced displacement of indigenous peoples. All of which vengefully explodes into new (but 'archaic') powers beneath human understanding.

In this spirit I think Twin Peaks: The Return collects and then redistributes nostalgia, slicing it up. This is not our story, we don't own it -- in the words of Lost Highway's Alice, 'you'll never have me'. Twin Peaks as we remember it (fondly, euphorically, nostalgically) did not exist to begin with, we never had it to begin with, and we will never get it 'back'. It was infuriatingly slippery from the get go. Maybe because we've had so long to 'get our feet under the table' (formica or otherwise) of the old series, to re-familiarise its de-familiarisation (if I can put it that way), the Return seems like a break from some kind of comfortable, friendly narrative. But that's not really the case historically. The innovations Twin Peaks made twenty-odd years ago are famous in terms of how they influenced the history of network tv series. While many of them have now become conventions and tropes, nostalgia for the old series is misplaced. For Twin Peaks: the Return to be as innovative, form-breaking and daring as the original, it has to break away from all our expectations, many of which are, it seems, based on pacing and a certain formula for character development. It's already a huge success in that respect.

Also my shiny two cents hovering in the air.