1/3rd of the way in- how is TPTR going to end?

[Oneeyedwaldo]

So we're a third of the way through and don't really have an idea of where this is headed. With Lynch we know anything is possible.
With that in mind what do people think will be the overall outcome/ending to this season? (If we get a 4th as it's been mooted)

I get the feeling Cooper is going to be DougieCoop until near the end of the season and that doesn't sit right with me tbh. We desperately need Cooper in his black suit sorting shit out. He donned a black suit in episode 6 and I was rooting for him to wake up but it never materialised. Hopefully with Hawk getting the supposed missing pages and maybe the great northern key being returned might set the wheels of Coopers rehabilitation into motion.
So many other characters to introduce and also integrate I don't think 18 episodes is going to be enough. I have a feeling that the last few episodes will be rushed due to trying to tie everything up and we'll be left with loose ends. If they'd have stuck to 9 it might have been a bit more fast paced. But Lynch and Frost know what they're doing and I keep the faith!

[AgentEcho]

I don't think Coop is going to be DougieCoop until near the end of the series. That theory seems more born out of exasperation with the DougieCoop story than any indicators of what we've actually seen in the series. I think we'll have a good amount of time with Coop after he's regained his faculties, and the biggest indication of that is the opening scene:

Shot in black and white, making it the first use of Black and White in the TP universe (unless you count Between Two Worlds), we see some entity that looks like the Giant and Coop having a conversation. The entity gives Cooper a clue about Richard and Linda, and he understands it. If that happened during his time stuck in the Lodge, how is he going to understand this clue? What could have happened to him while stuck in the Lodge what would give him enough context to decode it? It's more likely that this scene is a flash forward, to a time after Coop as regained his faculties and familiarized himself with everything that is happening the various storylines. That's why he understands what the entity means.

I suspect the end of the series will involve Coop using that clue to overcome his final challenge for the series. What that will be I really have no clue. But I have no worries that we won't get enough of the real Cooper.

[20thCenturyBoy]

SI don't think 18 episodes is going to be enough. I have a feeling that the last few episodes will be rushed due to trying to tie everything up and we'll be left with loose ends.

This season can't be "rushed", not in the way you mean it. Lynch and Frost got the exact amount of space and time they asked for. Maybe we'll see Dougie drive off to Twin Peaks and save the day in the last 15 minutes of the last episode and we'll think it's bad, but it will be the way they wanted it to be.
They never sat at a table and planned it like "Okay, ep 1 this, ep 2 that, ep 15 this, oh shit we only got 3 episodes left for what we have to tell", they got what was needed for their story.

Each week I read comments complaining about too much Dougie or band performances as if these scenes stole the spotlight from other scenes left on the cutting floor, but that's just not true.

And if they had stucked with a 9-episodes format, Cooper would have probably remained DougieCoop for 8 episodes.