In case you missed it, here’s my friend Keith’s re-cap (although this series is redefining what a recap even IS and I say GOOD) of episode 7.
Episode 8 felt like a mini-retrospective of Lynch’s career. Up to and including Club Silencio. The only thing I’ll say is that Elvis Presley “hit” in 1956, and obliterated all that came before him (not really, but that was the perception.) Overnight, he made the current radio hits obsolete. The Platters’ “My Prayer” – also released in 1956 – may as well have been released in 1936 as opposed to 1956. A sound exploding up from the South, pushing upwards and outwards in a Big Bang, overtaking the universe, an explosion of energy that could not be controlled, creation and destruction, both. (A guy from Nashville who played guitar at the Grand Ole Opry said that – in the years of 1955, 56, 57, “Elvis vaporized country music.” It took 15 years for country music to recover its confidence in itself after Elvis.) The explosion of sexual and creative energy unleashing a rough beast slouching towards Bethlehem? Or the rough beast may actually be a bug-frog hybrid – just as all of the different music genres, isolated on their own radio stations, merged to become what is still – to this day – known as pop music – crawling inside the mouths of teenage girls across the land?
Teenage girls are always at the vanguard of any revolutionary cultural upheaval.
This is what David Lynch has done to me, allowed me to traipse around in my own store-room of associations, and I am very grateful. I haven’t even begun to absorb that episode.
On the other hand, I found it to be one of the more straightforward episodes in the entire series thus far. An origin story. Lynch-style.
Here’s Noel Murray’s “recap”: White Light White Heat.
//I found it to be one of the more straightforward episodes in the entire series thus far.//
^This. As I was watching, I imagined having someone who isn’t familiar with Lynch watching with me, and me being like, “No, but this actually does make sense,” and then having that hypothetical person look at me like I’m crazy.
It reminds me a little bit of when I was taking advanced Spanish classes and had to write essays in Spanish. I reached the point where I would think in Spanish as I was writing because it was easier to immerse myself that way than to constantly be translating from English to Spanish. I’m just that deeply immersed in Lynch’s world now.
// I reached the point where I would think in Spanish as I was writing because it was easier to immerse myself that way than to constantly be translating from English to Spanish. //
I love this analogy so much, Natalie. I keep coming back to it.
I’m very intrigued by the teenagers at the end.
Someone on Twitter said she felt the episode was really short – and it’s so funny, I felt the same way. In my head I was like, “Okay, so this montage of images is really long – probably 10 minutes if I had to guess” – and then I glanced at the time and 25 minutes, half an hour had gone by. It was incredible how my experience of how much time was going by was completely obliterated.
any other thoughts, observations, etc.?
I can’t stop thinking about it!
//any other thoughts, observations, etc.?//
I mean… There’s just so MUCH.
I’ve watched it 3 times now, and I still can’t fully translate my reactions into words!
The NIN song was absolute perfection. The second line (“Spread the infection where you spill your seed”) has an obvious sexual connotation, but in the context of the episode, could also apply to the bomb, and the evil that it unleashed (literally in reality and figuratively in the events of the show). And then the part about the “little mouth” opening up inside, and the girl at the end with the frog/bug thing. So gross! And what does it mean for the world now that she (Laura, I assume?) is gone?
My other big thought as I watched the first time was that when it took us inside the explosion, portions of what we were seeing looked like traveling through the cosmos, and parts of it reminded me of film I’ve seen of blood pumping through the body. Is there some connection to be made there between the fact that we are all essentially made of cosmic dust, and connected to one another and to the earth and to the entire universe that way? And that in a post-Manhattan Project and Hiroshima and Nagasaki world, that violence is in all of our blood now, too? (“Spread the infection where you spill your seed”?) Or maybe there’s some other interpretation entirely!
These are all such interesting thoughts – I’ve only seen it once so far, will have to go back to absorb more. I was so moved by the image of Laura encased in that golden orb, and the Senorita kissing that orb. Laura was always “more than” Laura – in the same way that whoever killed her was more than just a killer. Good vs. Evil.
It does seem that ingesting stuff – or vomiting stuff out – ?? – is one of the themes of this series. Bob appearing in a bubble of that stream of vomit was … well, horrifying … but I’m thinking about Dougie vomiting, and bad Cooper vomiting – I’m probably missing more. Now there’s the giant “vomiting” that celestial golden light … and that poor teenage girl “eating” that frog/bug thing (BLECH) … There’s probably way more that I am missing.
Destruction and creation. It does seem that – especially in ep. 8 – all of that becomes One. Like you say – Manhattan Project, bombs in Japan … these things are IN us, we made them, we ingested them in, we spit them out – they ARE us. Just like we are all made up of Big Bang particles.
I’ll watch again tonight.
//It does seem that ingesting stuff – or vomiting stuff out – ?? – is one of the themes of this series. //
You know, it’s funny, I almost put something in about this before, but I wasn’t quite sure what to say about it. I know there’s a lot of body horror in general in a lot of Lynch’s work, but there does seem to be something specific with ingesting and vomiting here. And specifically that most of the vomit seems to take the appearance of garmonbozia – and at least in Evil Cooper’s case, it was so toxic that it basically required hazmat to clean up and just being near it made people so sick they needed to be hospitalized. I’ve gone back and forth about whether this is just a fascination with bodily functions or if there’s something more specific to be read into it. Or both, I suppose. And is it a callback to the Six Men Getting Sick short film?
I will also say, on a personal note, that while I’m not as emetophobic as I used to be (as a kid and even into my early 20s I used to have literal panic attacks about vomiting or being around people who were sick, and that doesn’t happen anymore – I still don’t like being exposed to it, but who does?), but the Evil Cooper vomiting scenes were easily the most triggering thing I have ever seen in any form of media. It was so disgustingly realistic and just went on and ON. So, so gross!
//I was so moved by the image of Laura encased in that golden orb, and the Senorita kissing that orb//
I whispered “What?” and immediately tears streamed down my face. I think it was something like “shock that it made so much sense”. I don’t know. (I felt kinda like Jerry Horne)
//Destruction and creation.//
I love that this story is both so big – the horror of the atomic bomb concerns humanity as a whole – and so small, so intimate – Twin Peaks, Laura Palmer.
I’m not being very articulate, sorry.
Lyrie – I’m pretty sure we are ALL Jerry Horne.
//I’m not being very articulate, sorry.//
You’re more articulate than you think you are! I know what you mean, though. I’ve felt the same trying to express my thoughts. It’s that whole “trying to translate from Lynch to words” thing, I think.
//I’ve gone back and forth about whether this is just a fascination with bodily functions//
Speaking of which, I haven’t shared this before, but I keep thinking… If Dougie-Coop didn’t know how to pee, can you imagine what happened when he first needed to poop? I’m sorry but I have to say, if I were his wife, I’d be pissed off too.
#YoureWelcome #kthxbi
// And is it a callback to the Six Men Getting Sick short film? //
Natalie – really good call. I had forgotten about that.
Ingestion/digestion/expulsion all play a huge part in myths in every culture too – although I am hardly an expert. You could see it as destruction but also as creation. The explosion of the atomic bomb a kind of vomiting out of poison – but also … beauty? The terrible beauty of creation? As horrifying as that shot was – moving towards the explosion and then into it – it was also so so beautiful.
// but the Evil Cooper vomiting scenes were easily the most triggering thing I have ever seen in any form of media. //
For me too.
I’m not sure if this is phobic but when I’ve actually witnessed someone vomiting, I start to gag myself. I suppose there is a name for this?
That didn’t happen for me when I watched that scene but it was horrifying nonetheless.
Jerry Horne is like the audience watching this show!!
Lyrie – I felt the same explosion of emotion when I saw Laura’s face.
And … I also wondered about the Poop Question. I mean, this man is OUT of it.
Kyle McLachlan is just killing it. I’ve always loved him but he’s never been asked to do anything like this – and he’s essentially playing 4 (??) roles here – and he is absolutely brilliant.
I love how much David Lynch loves the actors he loves. You can see it with Laura Dern too. She is a major muse for him and so this role is like … a gift to her. “Here you go. I love you. Have fun.”
Here’s Keith’s re-cap, for anyone interested:
https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/twin-peaks-episode-8-recap-did-you-like-that-song
Ooh, and here’s Dan. https://nylon.com/articles/twin-peaks-return-recap-episodes-five-eight
Keith and Dan are a couple. I just had dinner at their place last week, with much discussion in re: Twin Peaks and other things. It’s so fun to finally read what both of them have been working on.
Uhm …. wow. http://welcometotwinpeaks.com/music/woodsmen-beethoven-moonlight-sonata/
Wow, indeed! Moonlight Sonata is probably my favorite piece to play, and I don’t think I ever would have caught that. It sounds so spooky slowed down like that!