I have some conflicted feelings about the finale, and I think that’s probably appropriate. One of the things I have loved so much about this whole series – the parts that worked for me, and the parts that didn’t – was that I always felt I was in the presence of an artist who was doing exactly what he wanted to be doing. I prefer this – ALWAYS – over other things. I mean, not in all art forms – for example, in the last season of Supernatural, I felt that the new team in charge had not watched or understood the old seasons, had no idea what they were doing, and completely betrayed the entire SPIRIT of the entire series. In a case like that, then, yes, I expect to be catered to a bit. That’s a long-running series, and suddenly there were new people in charge and they clearly did not understand the show.
But with something like this? Or any other singular piece of art? A movie, a book, a painting, a play … I can think of so many examples in all of these where the artist broke all of the conventional rules. And that’s WHY the art was so good. And no, not everyone would love it. But not everyone loves everything. The artist’s desire is PARAMOUNT. I’m into that. So, for example, David Foster Wallace’s book Infinite Jest … Nobody ASKS you to write a book like that, nobody WANTS a 1,000 page book, with 100 pages of footnotes … The powers-that-be in CHARGE of who gets to see what do not WANT that. But that’s the kind of book he wrote, it was the only book he COULD write, and wow, lookeee there, it made his name 10 times over. Beware his imitators. Boy oh boy his imitators are awful. Great work is often uningratiating. I am thinking of Annie Baker’s extraordinary play The Flick, which I am so glad I got to see. Each act is an hour and a half, an hour and forty minutes long. There is nothing fan-service-y about that. I was riveted by each and every second. There were many many walkouts at intermission. But those of us who stayed, stayed because we knew we were witnessing something unique, something unlike anything else. A playwright who had been forbiddingly clear in her script about the pauses, how long they should be … she KNEW the kind of music she wanted to create. And no. It’s not for everybody.
In today’s day and age, where every fan feels a sense of “ownership” over the thing they love – to an annoying degree – something like Twin Peaks was refreshing. Lynch/Frost knew the fan base was still there. That ground was set. But after THAT, they owed us nothing.
This is the proper attitude of artists. I realize that’s not a popular sentiment. But I am suspicious of popular sentiments, in general. More so now than ever.
I felt the same way when I sat through Martin Scorsese’s Silence, one of the most extraordinary movie-going experiences of the past year. It is not an ingratiating film. It doesn’t care about me. It cares about ITSELF, and the points it wants to make. And subMITTING to Scorsese … giving up mySELF and giving over to HIM …. was WHY that experience was so memorable. I felt so CLOSE to Scorsese in doing so, I felt like I was almost getting to Scorsese’s heart, his soul, closer to him than I felt when watching Good Fellas, Casino, etc.
Now I’m not going to submit to any old Tom, Dick, Harry. You have to prove yourself already. (That’s why things like Infinite Jest or The Flick are extraordinary. If you read Infinite Jest when it first came out, before you knew who DFW would become, you were submitting entirely to an unknown. Same with The Flick. That’s why those of us who DID choose to submit, feel so so lucky that we were on that lonely vanguard.) But for the most part, I only submit wholeheartedly to artists who have earned my trust.
David Lynch has more than earned mine. I’m just excited to see what the hell he’s thinking about, dreaming about. It’s a privilege.
So those are some overview thoughts, not about the episode, but about the whole experience. It has been quite a singular thing. Nothing else quite like it.
For good serious writing about the finales: here’s my friend Keith at Mubi.
And FINALLY. I went back and re-watched Charlie Rose’s 1997 interview with David Lynch, right after the release of Lost Highway. There are just so many wonderful things in this interview, including his typical cagey refusal to explain things. I love that about him. There are a lot of things here that I hadn’t remembered though. One, which blew me away, was his answer to a question: “Philadelphia.” And then what came after that.
Listen to how he talks about creativity. This is how a genius talks. In case you were unclear. Ha. He knows when things “open” up. He talks about “opening” a lot. Which is then connected to his obsessions with doorways and curtains (which he also mentions in the interview.) Even just the thought of doorways and curtains sparks his creativity because he wants to know what is through the door, behind the curtains.
For the most part, what I really want to say is I feel LUCKY that I am the age that I am … younger than David Foster Wallace, who wrote one of the best essays about Lynch ever written (the hedging is kneejerk but unnecessary. I don’t think the essay, for Premiere magazine, was “one of the best” on Lynch. I think it’s “THE best.” End-stop.) – but DFW and I are close enough in age that I was a young person when Blue Velvet came out, I watched the original Twin Peaks on TV, etc. Like, David Lynch was on TV and he was also down the street at the multiplex in those years and it was thrilling beyond belief. And I read DFW’s magesterial definitive essay in Premiere when it came out, I had a subscription. I hadn’t seen Lost Highway at the time (the essay stemmed from a set-visit to Lost Highway), but when I eventually did, it became one of my favorite Lynches. Not a popular sentiment … again … although it has its defenders. I LOVE that movie. I don’t think it needs a defense at all!
I’m happy I’m still around to have seen this next phase. I’m sure we’ll all be talking about it for years.
(My apologies if this rambles. I’m getting over a crashing illness.)
//David Lynch has more than earned mine. I’m just excited to see what the hell he’s thinking about, dreaming about. It’s a privilege.//
This is what I had to remind myself of after the finale, and of the fact that he and Frost did not owe me explanations, nor did I expect anything to be tied up with a bow.
That said, “conflicted” is a good word for how I felt at the end, mostly because my initial question was, “Was this just a giant middle finger directed at all the people who loved this world and these characters?” Mostly because the ending seemed to undo every thoroughly satisfying moment that came before it in The Return and made me question if any of it was real. (Within the show, I mean. I do understand the difference between fiction and reality :-)) It felt almost like Lynch and Frost had some level of contempt for all of us who loved the original so much that we refused to let it go. It felt like a bit of a sucker punch. I don’t know if those feelings are reasonable or not. And I HOPE I’m wrong about the contempt for the fans. That would sour the whole experience for me if it were true. It’s one thing for an artist to create exactly what they want to create without a sense of owing anything to the audience; it’s something else entirely to insult and ridicule the audience.
That said, my thoughts and reactions have been evolving since that immediate reaction, and I have some theories about what was actually happening in those episodes and what it means.
Overall, watching was an amazing experience. I’m not quite ready to do a full re-watch yet, but I’m working up to a full 18-hour binge to see if that changes anything up for me – especially to watch from the beginning, knowing where it’s going to end.
I hope you have a speedy recovery!
Natalie –
My recovery has been slow as hell – although I did manage to take some time on Friday to meet Jessie!! From our Supernatural threads! She was here in the city … so that was awesome, health-giving, wonderful. Much discussion in re: the upcoming SPN season, our feelings of dread, hopelessness, and yet “oh well WTF I’m watching …”
at any rate, sorry it’s taken me a while to get back to this.
// I don’t know if those feelings are reasonable or not. //
I think those are very reasonable feelings. I’m not sure about contempt for the fans … I did not feel that. Could you elaborate?
// That said, my thoughts and reactions have been evolving since that immediate reaction, and I have some theories about what was actually happening in those episodes and what it means. //
Would love to hear.
I’ve been pondering my reactions – and both Keith and Dan’s re-caps have helped solidify my focus. It can take me a while to actually home (hone? I always get those mixed up) in on what I actually thought. Dan’s in particular was kind of a revelation.
Here’s my initial thought.
I found the finale absolutely devastating. The man who made TP:TR is 25 years older than the man who made TP. He is an old man now. Closer to death. He’s got mortality on his mind. TP has always had an obsession with time – all those NUMBERS – it would take a math whiz to put together what those numbers might add up to. Here, it felt like time was always ticking us forward to the inevitable conclusion – which is death and dissolution.
Keith’s point that Dale Cooper all along had this fatal flaw was very difficult for me to hear … and I resisted it … but I’ve been trying it on, trying to think about it in a different way. Maybe all along the hope that Dale Cooper would make it all right was just a big ol’ delusion. And Dale had bought into it too. You cannot turn back time. Laura is dead. Always will be dead.
I don’t know … I’m not sure.
Dan’s observations about the … more than meta … it’s something else … commentary on having the actual owner of the Palmer house show up.
A wrinkle in time? It’s really beyond a wrinkle in time.
One of the most devastating things about this whole thing is that I am haunted by the final image we had of Audrey. That, to me, is about the worst part.
Look forward to more of your thoughts.
I just re-watched episodes 1 and 2 for the first time since the airing.
Early in the first episode, from the one-armed man, is “Is it future or is it past?”
I think that’s ultimately what happened in that disorienting finale. Where the hell were we in time.
Was it all a dream? Whose dream though? Did Dale kill Laura?
//Could you elaborate?//
Always! ;-)
I don’t know if I really made it clear enough that this was my immediate reaction – within 15 minutes of the end credits, I had moved on to other theories. Throughout the entire series, I devoured any article and recap I could find about it, because I love seeing all the different interpretations and theories. One of the theories I rejected throughout was the idea that there WAS a level of contempt for the fans who “wouldn’t let go” of the original show and their expectations for how it was supposed to end, especially for Cooper. The theory was, that’s why we had so much Dougie and no Cooper, and why it took us so far outside of Twin Peaks and why there was so little of fan favorites like Audrey. I didn’t see it that way at ALL – until those last few minutes when it seemed like we had been handed almost everything we’d wanted all along – Cooper’s back good as new, the team is mostly reunited, Andy and Lucy are heroes, BOB is vanquished, the Mitchums have Candie and the girls bring in refreshments for everyone, and Ed and Norma are finally together for good – only to have it ripped away in a way that made me doubt the entire story. So I did have that sickening moment of wondering if the intended message was “You fans would have been better off letting it go, because we’re going to take that cliffhanger ending and make it far, far worse.”
So, like I said, it was just a momentary, kneejerk, were-those-theories-RIGHT feeling. Once I gave it some more thought, I don’t actually believe that’s the case, but it’s been a nagging thought in the back of my head. That doesn’t jive with what I know of Lynch, at least. (I’m not quite as familiar with Mark Frost’s artistic sensibilities.) As far as I can tell, while Lynch doesn’t seem to care about the audience reaction, in that he’s not going to be catering to audience expectations and desires (which I respect), I’ve never had the impression that he wants to spite the audience, either – he just wants to tell the story he wants to tell, even if it’s not the one we want to hear.
//Maybe all along the hope that Dale Cooper would make it all right was just a big ol’ delusion. And Dale had bought into it too.//
I agree with this. I actually came to the same conclusion about Cooper’s fatal flaw before reading Keith’s recap, when I reflected on it a little more. He had that hubris and savior complex, even – I’m seeing upon rewatch now – in the original series. I didn’t see it right away – I think because Cooper’s strengths are very genuine as well (he WAS often the smartest man in the room, and his compassion and concern for the other characters and capacity for joy were very real parts of his character, too) – but the exact same hubris that led him to believe he could change history was what got him trapped in the Black Lodge to begin with. I had a hard time accepting that, too.
My working theory at this point is that we the audience are the dreamers, trying to will the world of Twin Peaks into reality. It was striking, I thought, that when Cooper woke up in a different hotel after crossing whatever that boundary was, suddenly he was in a real town in Texas, and when he and Carrie/Laura stopped at a gas station, it was a real gas station chain, and then it was the real owner living in the Palmer house. I think the boundary Cooper and Diane crossed may have been into the “real” reality, as opposed to the dream reality within Twin Peaks. I think it’s possible that Audrey – the one we saw in that brief flash in the mirror – is here in the “real” reality, too, and now they’re both, along with Carrie/Laura, trying desperately to get back to a Twin Peaks that doesn’t actually exist here. (What if “Billy” is actually Billy Zane?) And maybe the Roadhouse is some kind of netherworld between the two realities. All symbolic of an inability to return to our pasts or even who we used to be.
It’s not a perfect theory, and it’s still evolving, and obviously there’s no definitive explanation. But it’s how I’m making sense of it at the moment. In any case, my personal headcanon right now is that after taking Laura/Carrie home didn’t work out, Cooper lost his sense of who he was, moved to Portland, and became Mr. Mayor on Portlandia.
But Ed and Norma really happened, even if the rest of it was all a dream. I’m never letting anyone take that away from me. :-)
It’s so cool that you and Jessie met! I have thought for all the time that I’ve been reading and commenting here how amazing it would be if we could all get together and have our own little fandom conference!
I also put some of my earlier thoughts after the finale in the blog that I linked to in my name, if you’re at all interested.
Thanks for elaborating.
One of the things I think has been so interesting about this whole experience is that it was just that – an EXPERIENCE. It required a level of engagement that is rare – for me, anyway – it was like grappling with a really avant-garde film, or one of those French films in the 60s – both explicit and political – but then also totally surreal and emotional. So we are forced to grapple with the material itself. In that way, it reminded me of the to this day controversial Sopranos finale (and – not sure if you watched the Sopranos – but the three episode Arc where we were in Tony’s dream-life.)
More in a bit …
// (What if “Billy” is actually Billy Zane?) //
That thought did cross my mind!
and I am with you on Big Ed and Norma. No one can take that away from us. It happened!
You and Sheila have said so much but //we the audience are the dreamers, trying to will the world of Twin Peaks into reality// I love what you’re saying here, Natalie. It feels right. The real gas station, the real town, that long road trip with Carrie. I also was fascinated by how Dale and Carrie stood outside the Palmer House in the dark looking up at the lights (but not at an angle where we could see what was going on inside). On the outside looking in at real life.
It was such an eerie moment. They didn’t know where/when they were.
Did you know that the real owner of the Palmer house keeps a life-size wax figure of Bob in the corner??
This woman must have nerves of steel.
//Did you know that the real owner of the Palmer house keeps a life-size wax figure of Bob in the corner??//
Ha ha ha, that’s so great! I kinda want to know her.
A life-sized Bob doll. Nerves of steel is right. Can’t imagine staring at it every day *shudders*
My friend Dan posted a picture of it. It is absolutely horrifying. Let me see if I can find it.
//Did you know that the real owner of the Palmer house keeps a life-size wax figure of Bob in the corner??//
That would be a great way to scare off potential intruders, though. I think I may need a wax figure of Bob looking deranged and staring out one of my windows.
Not sure you can see this FB link – but here’s Bob in her house, as seen through a mirror. Eeeek!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154884585177393&set=p.10154884585177393&type=3&theater
Yes to all of that. I am not as lucky as you in that I was born in ’86 so I didn’t get to Lynch in the same way, nor did I experience the original Twin Peaks as it aired. But I sure do feel lucky now that I was here for this, that I got to experience it as it was happening. Yes, some things maybe didn’t work, but even then I didn’t care. Lynch and Frost did exactly what they wanted, and that in itself is a gift. You have to take it all in. That is the whole point. I won’t even go into how entitled and weird “fandom” is now, but what you said about it was spot on. Anyway, there is sooooo much to discuss, to write, to think about The Return, and how fortunate we all are that we have been given such a complex and profound work of art to contend with.
I hope you are feeling better, Sheila. We need you here!
Brooke –
// how fortunate we all are that we have been given such a complex and profound work of art to contend with. //
I so agree. It’s been tremendously satisfying to go through this, to talk about it, think about it, experience it.
Once in a lifetime kind of project. We are so fortunate.
Sheila, Natalie, I love readings your thoughts on TP. I haven’t read much about it for the same reason I’ve only watched each episode once so far: I don’t want to intellectualize it too much for now, I’m letting it work in my subconscious (it’s also my way to make it last longer). I’m a little haunted by it and find myself thinking about it – not even really thinking, more re-watching what stuck in my mind. It keeps popping up.
What stuck: death everywhere. A lot of trios (Dale-Dougie-DarkCoop, the 3 FBI agents, the 3 girls at the casino, the 2 brothers+Dale, Janey-E-Sonny Jim-Dougie, the couples + the lover,…). The sound of the wind. Bodily fluids coming OUT (I could barely watch the guy in jail, ew).
I’ve needed so badly a story that doesn’t give all the answers. I understand why people would want to have answers and think they’re right, but for me it would take all the pleasure away. Isn’t fiction a great space to explore uncertainty? I’m so grateful for Lynch and Frost telling us it’s OK not to know.
//Isn’t fiction a great space to explore uncertainty? I’m so grateful for Lynch and Frost telling us it’s OK not to know.//
I agree, but mostly because I’m an investigator by nature. I don’t want a story that does all the work for me because part of the pleasure for me IS identifying the dots and trying to connect them and putting together theories about what’s going on and what it means. I’m basically Dean touching surfaces to check for sulfur and looking down the hallway for any flickering lights and listening for scratching in the walls all at the same time.
Interesting observation with the trios. I’m probably going to spend the rest of the night pondering the significance of that now. The first place my mind goes is triangulation: https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/triangulation
This piece is almost too deep for me to even absorb … and it may all be nonsense … but it’s got some great things to think about. Especially in re: the numbers in TP.
https://medium.com/@fatecolossal/the-dream-of-time-and-space-breaking-the-code-of-twin-peaks-f11484915098
Ohhhh. I sense a deep trip down the rabbit hole coming on….
If anyone is interested in a different rabbit hole, I found this pretty interesting, too: https://www.waggish.org/2017/twin-peaks-finale/
Oh man, I hadn’t realized there were that many trios, ha ha!
I had to break up that Medium piece into chunks … it was too much to absorb in one reading. Much of it I already picked up on – triangles and trios and numbers, etc. But this guy takes it to another level.
It’s funny, I think I get it. I’m an investigator too, but only in real life (there are tales I won’t tell in public, but… I was sort of a Veronica Mars). But then when it comes to fiction, I’m not anymore. I mean, even mystery shows, I don’t try to guess, I love letting myself be misled.
For TP, I love reading everyone’s take, but I don’t know that I’ll ever make up my mind on what I believe. I realized that that’s when Supernatural lost me – probably forever: I loved the idea of Chuck as God as long as it was not explicit, and left room for it to remain unknown, complex, only partially true, or completely wrong. When it became Chuck = God = one character whose truth can be grasped, I felt let down. I don’t know why I love uncertainty so much. Maybe because I feel it leave room for possibility?
When I scan some of those articles on TP, I’m thinking it might also just be because I’m lazy. :)
Thanks so much for those links, and for this space, Sheila. When I’m ready for my re-watch, in a few months, these will make for fun reads!
// Maybe because I feel it leave room for possibility? //
Yes, I feel that way too!
It’s why people are still talking about The Sopranos. Or Supernatural. (Well, sort of.) Or great works of literature. Or icons like Dietrich or Cary Grant. Or David Bowie. These people somehow refuse to be “pinned down” – and therefore we keep going back to them, trying to figure them out.
It’s very pleasing.
and now we have 18 hours of stuff to ponder.
I’ve been having so much fun watching Youtube videos of interviews with David Lynch.
I also highly recommend seeking out one of David Foster Wallace’s first appearances on Charlie Rose – there’s one where he appears with two other writers, and one where he appears alone. This is right after Infinite Jest came out – another difficult sprawling work, difficult to pin down. Not literal.
and in the episode where he appears alone he speaks at LENGTH about Blue Velvet, and how it changed his life, and changed his thoughts not just about film – but about what he was doing with his writing. In all its weird surreality, it helped show him the way to what he wanted to be doing.
and I know I keep mentioning it but his long essay on David Lynch is essential reading. It’s in one of his collections!
DFW’s Lynch article is also online – kind of difficult to read (white text on black background!) – but it’s soooo rich.
http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpremiere.html
//I love reading everyone’s take, but I don’t know that I’ll ever make up my mind on what I believe//
Oh, same here. You may have noticed that I’ve changed my mind 3 times already on my intepretation. It’s still evolving. And I love that others have different takes that I might not have considered.
I’m intrigued about your Veronica Mars days…
// I don’t try to guess, I love letting myself be misled.// Lyrie, I love this about you. That you just let it be an experience, which makes so much sense when we’ve talked about spoilers for shows here. I’m envious of all three of you because with a show like TP I spend a lot of time twisting on the couch, saying WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, and racing ahead three steps in my mind on the plot, and probably miss more of the feel of it which is what watching DL is all about.
// but for me it would take all the pleasure away. Isn’t fiction a great space to explore uncertainty? //
I really hear you on this and liked the connection you made in re: Chuck.
I so agree. Something is lost when things are nailed down.
It’s the difference between implicit and explicit.
There’s a time for being explicit. But I guess I just prefer implicit type of material. I won’t say it’s better. I just prefer it. Which is why TP has been heaven.
So far it’s been an extremely interesting thing re-watching. I’m up to episode 6.
I can’t remember which interview I watched with Lynch where he said he always wanted to do a comedy. I know it was a long time ago – 20 years maybe – I think it was in one of his Charlie Rose appearances.
His love of Jacques Tati is EVERYWHERE in TP: TR … the sound design, the visual gags, the lone figure wandering through the center, leaving chaos in his wake – it’s pure clowning. I hadn’t really put that together in my initial watching, because I was too absorbed in the moment … but in this re-watch I can see Tati’s influence everywhere, particularly in those first episodes with “Dougie” wandering around in his lime green blazer, wreaking havoc but having no idea why.
And I thought of Lynch’s comment about how he always wanted to do a comedy.
and now he has done one. The ending of TP was so bleak that it kind of colored everything else in my memory. But I am HOWLING with laughter watching these earlier episodes. I did in the first watch too. Dougie chomping those potato chips, staring at the stairs. The coffee moments. How LONG the joke goes on, how FAR Lynch takes it.
This is Tati-territory – a man who has no heirs. So it’s so fun to watch this, thinking about Lynch’s adoration of Tati, and how this might be at work here.
There is evidence in those final episodes that our hero was successful. I found these theories interesting:
https://www.reddit.com/r/twinpeaks/comments/6y5dpt/s3e18_cooper_saves_the_day_once_and_for_all/
https://www.waggish.org/2017/twin-peaks-finale/
https://medium.com/@onantiad/episodes-17-18-of-twin-peaks-the-return-are-meant-to-be-watched-in-sync-81352ce38e8
Hi Rob – sorry, this comment got caught in moderation because of the links.
Thanks for the links – will do a deep dive into them!!
And thanks for this great post and the prior great comments. I’m listening to the Twin Peaks original score by Angelo Badalamenti on vinyl with my morning coffee as I’m typing all this so it’s possible I’ve lost perspective…
That score is designed to make you lose perspective! :)
Now that i’m re-watching, I’m picking up on a lot more – and the introduction of that famous theme comes when Bobby sees the picture of Laura Palmer in the conference room … and I thought my heart would explode seeing it again. The emotional associations wrapped up in that score …
just phenomenal!
I totally agree. I re-watched that conference room scene last night. It is mesmerizing. Hawk’s stillness and quiet empathy in that moment watching Bobby break down…tremendous acting by Michael Horse and Dana Ashbrook.
I haven’t read this yet – but looks like a pretty deep dive.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/tears-of-a-crazy-clown-berman
Okay I read it. I think it’s very good. It’s similar to my feelings in re: uncertainty and unknowability – but also the fun of thinking about these things, trying on different theories … wondering about what happened.
Interesting read, thanks Sheila! I’m keeping DFW’s text for when I’ve seen the movies.
Last night, I dreamt Kyle McLachlan was performing magic tricks for me. I was feeling very grateful.
I’ve been re-watching the past few days – the first time I’ve done a full re-watch since this originally aired. It’s been a dramatically different experience, watching this while already knowing (if not fully understanding) what’s happening and going to happen. Some random observations:
Episode 8 is still a masterpiece that I don’t think I will ever get tired of watching, because I get something new out of it every time. It’s just perfection from beginning to end – the NIN song, the Trinity test somehow being both horrifying and beautiful at the same time, the beautiful and deeply moving sequence with the Fireman and Señorita Dido, the woodsman and poor doomed teenage Sarah and the frog-bug thing – I can’t get enough of it.
I enjoyed the Dougie parts SO MUCH MORE this time. Because I wasn’t anxious the whole time that something would happen to him before we had a chance to get the good Cooper back, and I knew it was going to take a while to get there, I was just able observe and find the humor and fun in it. I adore Janey-E. And watching it this time, I got more of a sense of what it cost Cooper to leave Janey-E and Sonny Jim, and how deep his sense of duty ran that he was able to walk away from a family that was, technically, his. I’m really grateful that Janey and Sonny Jim got their happy ending with a new and improved Dougie.
The scene where the Diane tulpa is describing how bad Cooper raped her, watching Gordon and Albert and Tammy listening to her was incredible.
I was able to enjoy the Roadhouse scenes a lot more, too, because I was able to just experience them instead of trying to puzzle out how they fit into the whole story.
Ed and Norma’s story conclusion still just rips me apart in the best possible way. It’s even more poignant now that Peggy Lipton has passed away. I am SO GRATEFUL that we got that resolution for them. And Margaret’s death, and Hawk’s quiet presence with her on the phone, and Sheriff Truman taking his hat off – my God, but that was beautiful.
Bad Cooper and Dougie puking is still the most triggering scene I’ve seen in anything, and I can’t stand to watch – it’s not even that I WANT to look away, I HAVE to.
After having to quit coffee for medical reasons for several months, and then being able to start drinking it again, I relate so much more to Dougie’s reaction every time he sees coffee, lol.
I still want the Mitchums and the girls to have their own spin-off.
And I still don’t and probably never will fully understand the ending. But my gratitude for the experience just keeps growing.
Hi!! It took me a while to get to your comment Cassandra – I am so excited to dig in. I did a re-watch during 2020 – pandemic time – and I took copious notes – just a way to organize myself during that very very weird year. Trying to keep track of all the different storylines and how they interesected. I need to watch it again. I almost can’t believe it exists. Like you, I am so so grateful for the experience of it.
// It’s just perfection from beginning to end //
It really is.
I feel the same way about episode 3 too. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven – I wish I could go back in time and watch episode 3 and episode 8 again for the first time.
// I enjoyed the Dougie parts SO MUCH MORE this time. Because I wasn’t anxious the whole time that something would happen to him before we had a chance to get the good Cooper back, and I knew it was going to take a while to get there, I was just able observe and find the humor and fun in it. //
Yes! I had the same exact experience. The first time through – since I had no idea that Agent Cooper wasn’t really going to come back in the form that we knew him (sob) – the Dougie sections were almost anxiety-provoking. Or, not “almost”. They WERE. they were funny but I kept wanting him to snap back into the character he should be. lol
The second time through, though, I could just relax.
// I am SO GRATEFUL that we got that resolution for them. //
My God, I know. That SCENE.
I love that Peggy Lipton got to act that scene – and close out the arc for this character she created so many years before – and the same with Catherine Coulson. Thank you David Lynch for being the kind of person who provides catharses like this for audience AND characters.