Episode 29

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mtwentz
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Re: Episode 29

Post by mtwentz »

Twin Peaks Podcast wrote:Hey all. Just released a audio commentary for this episode featuring 3 Twin Peaks experts. (Josh Eisenstadt, Brad Dukes and Scott Ryan) Previously we've done audio commentaries for every Lynch directed episode.

http://twinpeakspodcast.blogspot.ca/201 ... ntary.html

I'd say if you've seen the episode enough times, you can listen to this without watching along to the episode of the show.
Great podcast! I may be wrong but I always thought 'It's a boy' meant Dell Mibbler was going to be a father, (not the security guard). That's why Dell walks away from Andrew and Pete with a befuddled look on his face, as if to go to the phone to hear the news for himself.
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Twin Peaks Podcast
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Re: Episode 29

Post by Twin Peaks Podcast »

mtwentz wrote:
Twin Peaks Podcast wrote:Hey all. Just released a audio commentary for this episode featuring 3 Twin Peaks experts. (Josh Eisenstadt, Brad Dukes and Scott Ryan) Previously we've done audio commentaries for every Lynch directed episode.

http://twinpeakspodcast.blogspot.ca/201 ... ntary.html

I'd say if you've seen the episode enough times, you can listen to this without watching along to the episode of the show.
Great podcast! I may be wrong but I always thought 'It's a boy' meant Dell Mibbler was going to be a father, (not the security guard). That's why Dell walks away from Andrew and Pete with a befuddled look on his face, as if to go to the phone to hear the news for himself.
Wow, that would certainly be interesting! Probably his first great-great grandchild or something. Haha.
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mtwentz
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Re: Episode 29

Post by mtwentz »

Twin Peaks Podcast wrote:
mtwentz wrote:
Twin Peaks Podcast wrote:Hey all. Just released a audio commentary for this episode featuring 3 Twin Peaks experts. (Josh Eisenstadt, Brad Dukes and Scott Ryan) Previously we've done audio commentaries for every Lynch directed episode.

http://twinpeakspodcast.blogspot.ca/201 ... ntary.html

I'd say if you've seen the episode enough times, you can listen to this without watching along to the episode of the show.
Great podcast! I may be wrong but I always thought 'It's a boy' meant Dell Mibbler was going to be a father, (not the security guard). That's why Dell walks away from Andrew and Pete with a befuddled look on his face, as if to go to the phone to hear the news for himself.
Wow, that would certainly be interesting! Probably his first great-great grandchild or something. Haha.
Well, when you think about it, not so unusual for Twin Peaks after Mayor Milford and Lana apparently got it on :-).

I do think it is ambiguous and open to interpretation, but I prefer old Dell was a lady's man right to the end.
F*&^ you Gene Kelly
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Gabriel
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Re: Episode 29

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LostInTheMovies wrote:Hm - I remembered there was a thread a while back and was able to dig this up: http://www.dugpa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2720. But I don't think anyone got too heavily into the question of why she disappears...
I assumed it was a different corridor and that the Lodge isn't internally consistent.
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Re: Episode 29

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So, I've hit the grand finale in my pre-Showtime rewatch. It's still a tremendous episode – one that feels like it belongs in a different universe from what came recently before. The unsettling pulsating underscore runs along with what seems to be a dialled down colour scheme in the town, looking a little closer to the pilot. Kyle MacLachlan's Cooper is toned down a great deal compared with the previous episode where he was bordering on doing a Colin Clive impression at some points.

More than anything, this feels like an angry Lynch making the best, most surreal, deranged, terrifying 45 minutes of TV the network had ever seen. This feels one step off Wild at Heart, complete with fiery explosions, putting Cooper through an experience that, even if he had escaped, might have left his sanity shredded.

This is Cooper walking into the Cave of the Sibyl. Even if he leaves, who knows where he'll end up? It seems that time runs differently in the lodge too. Cooper seems to have been in there relatively briefly and yet 24 hours pass outside.

And, of course, we see the return of the Palmers and we get the curious repetition of the Heidi scene from the pilot, which, along with Norma's disinterest in Annie, implies something stranger is happening in the town; almost like a reset button is being hit.

Lynch also pulls real strong emotion out of the actors. His talent of pitching emotion just shy of comic melodrama cuts through once more. Donna's 'You're my daddy!' is the first time I've cared about the character in a long time. Doc Haywood losing his temper after Sylvia's arrival and becoming violent is shocking. Nadine's despairing wail of 'Why is she here?' and the defensive 'Where are my drape runners?! almost make the viewer feel ashamed for laughing at her stunts over the last 20-odd episodes. It cuts deeply.

Also, the direction and lighting in both the town and the Lodge is on a different level from previous episodes. You can see this is the work of someone who is a level above all the other directors.

It's a tremendous end to the network incarnation of the show. Only Lynch, back then, could have put something that wild on to a mainstream network. It's a hell of a fiery way to go out.

I remember the frustration of watching the episode for the first time. I kept on looking at the clock on the VHS machine thinking 'Come on! There isn't much time left!' I didn't want to leave the show on that note.

Obviously FWWM came out subsequently and only increased my frustration. I love that film. I saw it on day one of release and while there are many surface differences, its beating heart is unquestionably Twin Peaks. I wanted more and I've never understood the hostile reactions to it. I can understand someone might not enjoy it, but to see reviews comparing it to Plan 9 from Outer Space... there was some sort of agenda there.

This is the first time I've seen the episode in the knowledge that there's definitely more to come; that we're going to see many of these characters again; that Cooper's head hitting the mirror isn't the end. For all the knowledge that the new show is less than three weeks away (I move home three days before) there's still the anticipation of finding out how things will come out in the wash.

Crazy as it sounds, aged 16, this episode threw me into a funk and, 26 years later, I still feel that unscratchable itch. Whatever happens next, I'll be there waiting with the utmost anticipation.

It's strange to be able to say 'What a great end to the season!' instead of 'What a great end to Twin Peaks!'
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Re: Episode 29

Post by morgue »

Hello hello, long time lurker, first time poster. I've been curating (& contributing to) a series of essays about Twin Peaks in advance of the new series, for New Zealand culture website The Ruminator. We've just hit the article for episode 29, which I cowrote with a friend, and as we talked about it I had a thought that felt like it might be worth sharing here. (Relevant link: http://ruminator.co.nz/peak-peak-rumina ... w-bob-wow/)

In the Red Room sequence, we see Bob take Windom Earle's soul in a flash of fire. Then, almost immediately after, we see the evil Cooper appear behind the curtain and come into the room.

It suddenly seems clear to me that this timing is not coincidental. Bob took Windom's soul and used it to make the evil Cooper.

Windom is already a "shadow self" of Cooper, as another mystically-inclined FBI agent, so this transfiguration feels very much in tune with the Lynchian dream logic at work. Having Bob take Earle's soul and put it to use removes the sense of anticlimax that hangs over the Earle storyline, by subsuming the Cooper vs. Earle dynamic into the greater Cooper vs. Bob/Red Room structure that is at the heart of the TV series.

I know this doesn't really explain much about what's happening in the Red Room - what difference does it make to what happens to Cooper? What would that imply about the other doppelgangers? - but thematically it seems very satisfying to me...
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Re: Episode 29

Post by Wonderful & Strange »

I notice people sometimes ask why does Cooper/Bob smash his head into the bathroom window at the end?

It appears to be an allusion to his last action inside of Leland, banging his head against the prison wall to murder him.

The suggestion is that Bob plans to put Cooper through the wringer while he has control of him. He's going to damage him mentally and physically as much as possible.

This implies to me that if Bob has possession of Cooper for 25 years, by the time the new show opens, Cooper is going to be a mess.

A major ambiguity of course is whether Cooper is actually possessed, or if the Coop we see here at the end is a doppleganger. Is Coop's soul trapped in the Black Lodge or is his body trapped too?
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Re: Episode 29

Post by TwinPeaksFanatic »

Who do you think is channeling through Sarah Palmer when she tells Major Briggs, "I"m waiting for you,"? It sort of feels like those who are "gifted", meaning they have certain abilities to "see" the true faces of the doppelgangers or into the future, are being collected by the spirits of The Black Lodge, thus also making them the, "damned." I wrote a recap for this episode here --- > http://twinpeaksfanatic.blogspot.com/20 ... de-29.html :D
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Re: Episode 29

Post by Endangered_Wulf »

This may have been covered previously on this Twin Peaks forum but what is general consensus on Donna Hayward actually being Donna Horne ?
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Re: Episode 29

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

One of the funniest things in this episode, that I don’t believe I’ve ever seen someone mention, is that Audrey and Andrew have a very polite, sweet interaction and she then lets him pass — neither one realizing that she is in fact protesting HIS development! It’s a nice bit of subtle irony that I didn’t catch for a long time.
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mtwentz
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Re: Episode 29

Post by mtwentz »

Mr. Reindeer wrote:One of the funniest things in this episode, that I don’t believe I’ve ever seen someone mention, is that Audrey and Andrew have a very polite, sweet interaction and she then lets him pass — neither one realizing that she is in fact protesting HIS development! It’s a nice bit of subtle irony that I didn’t catch for a long time.
Audrey is the world's worst protester :-)
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Re: Episode 29

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TwinPeaksFanatic wrote:Who do you think is channeling through Sarah Palmer when she tells Major Briggs, "I"m waiting for you,"? It sort of feels like those who are "gifted", meaning they have certain abilities to "see" the true faces of the doppelgangers or into the future, are being collected by the spirits of The Black Lodge, thus also making them the, "damned." I wrote a recap for this episode here --- > http://twinpeaksfanatic.blogspot.com/20 ... de-29.html :D
In light of Season 3, it may well be Judy who is speaking through Sarah Palmer! An evil creature entered into Sarah as a girl, but lay dormant for many years. After Leland has died, the evil force seems to wake up, and use Sarah to speak through. The voice says:

"I am in the Black Lodge with Dale Cooper. I am waiting for you."

It seems that Judy is a demon, hence a creature of the Black Lodge. Why speak to Maj Briggs? Well, as part of his work for the government, he has been searching for Judy. She seems to want to lure Briggs into the Lodge, to bring about his demise. Instead, he goes into hiding in another dimension! It makes sense to me. Do other people find this convincing?
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Re: Episode 29

Post by baxter »

Yes! I rewatched E29 the other night and, funnily enough, the same thought occurred. I can't think of anyone else who would be speaking.
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Re: Episode 29

Post by kitty666cats »

I figured it's Earle speaking through Sarah. Sarah was a beacon for Judy because of the frogbug, but I don't think she became possessed until the creature (Judy, probably) escaped from the glass box
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Re: Episode 29

Post by marchug »

Does anyone have any thoughts of the section from the Missing Pieces that directly ties in with episode 29? I am curious about a few things. I am assuming that they reshot the DoppleCoop+Bob in the bathroom scene, right? Any thoughts on the LMFAP and RegularCooper's scene together back in the Red Room talking about the ring? I like that it is sandwiched between Annie arriving at the hospital and the DoppleCoop+Bob mirror smashing scene. It gives just a little more oomph to episode 29. For me anyways.
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