Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 16   First Watch 
August 27, 2017 6:03 PM - Season 3, Episode 16 - Subscribe

No knock, no doorbell. (description from Showtime)
posted by infinitewindow (156 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
All I want in life is for Cooper to tell me that I too have a heart of gold. All other feelings I have about the episode this week are still in the "incoherent hollering" phase, so I don't even know. That was .... a lot.
posted by sparkletone at 6:09 PM on August 27, 2017 [6 favorites]


I have some less than happy thoughts. or I would have had. but letting Eddie Vedder wear a hat and make noises for several whole minutes at me is the surest sign that David Lynch has as fine a command of the grotesque as he ever did, and that when he does awful obvious things it is never because he knows no better or because he could do no better. it is only because he wants to hurt us.

and I always respect that no matter what.

and Kyle MacLachlan's "Goodbye, my son" delivery was the funniest thing all season in a season of the best comedy I ever saw. it was good and it made me feel good.
posted by queenofbithynia at 6:14 PM on August 27, 2017 [8 favorites]


Honestly, that was the best Twin Peaks has been in an old school sense (that is, in the style of the original show), until the scene with Eddie Vedder and his ridiculous bullshit schtick. Just, honestly, so ghastly. Bring back James for a fucking Christmas album before you hit me with that again.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:18 PM on August 27, 2017 [4 favorites]


"I am the FBI."
"People are under a lot of stress, Bradley."
"I know. Fuck you."

On top of all the craziness that I'm still processing, this episode had some of the best lines of the series.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:36 PM on August 27, 2017 [11 favorites]


& I am never going to the hospital again until I have some friends who are criminals and showgirls. don't care how sick I get.

& Audrey is real, even dreaming or delusional, and Diane is not. but I believe in Diane and I don't believe in Audrey very much. fake Diane is realer than most people.

& I'm so glad Tim Roth died before he could realize Chantal was dead. it would have been too sad otherwise

& I sort of think bad Cooper's question to Richard was a test to determine whether he was worth keeping a little longer or not. because if three untrustworthy people are trying to lure you someplace and two locations match but the third one doesn't, what do you do? you check out the one that DOESN'T match, Richard. you complete idiot.
posted by queenofbithynia at 6:44 PM on August 27, 2017 [8 favorites]


That's about what Richard deserved.
posted by maxsparber at 6:45 PM on August 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


His end, that is.
posted by maxsparber at 6:45 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Things that were very satisfying about this episode:
-Richard getting killed off in the most matter-of-fact way possible
-The reprise of the opening theme that kicked in around the 30 minute mark
-The 90s-video-game-lookin CGI of Diane's tulpa self-destructing
-The audience eerily swaying in unison from side to side during Audrey's Dance

Things that bothered me:
-Eddie Schmedder
-The way Janey-E suddenly turned into a passive character with the return of Cooper

That plus the treatment of Diane and Audrey in this episode make me a little worried for the finale -- specifically, I REALLY hope they don't make Sarah Palmer the Final Boss of Twin Peaks and retcon the abuse narrative of Laura Palmer in Fire Walk with Me.
posted by speicus at 6:47 PM on August 27, 2017 [4 favorites]


So the implication is that the real Diane is in the Naido body, I guess, but now I'm super curious about what it is about OG Diane that's so important that everyone's converging on the sheriff's station and the Fireman told Andy to protect her and sent Cockney Hulk Hand to help out!
posted by jason_steakums at 6:49 PM on August 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


We have between two and three hours of the show left, so I don't think Diane at the sheriff's department is going to be the conclusion.
posted by maxsparber at 6:56 PM on August 27, 2017


Am I back????
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 6:59 PM on August 27, 2017 [36 favorites]


I don't think that'll be the conclusion, but I'm very curious as to Diane's narrative purpose at this point. It could be anything and there are a lot of pieces moved into place in that location and that's exciting! And hopefully gives a better end for Diane.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:00 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


I know it's not personal for her like it is for the other two[1] , but I swear to god, right after Diane (who is Diane, even if she was a copy and there's another Diane or even if her final story didn't happen to "her," she's a Diane even if not the Diane) pulls a gun and Albert in an absolute split-second no-emotion no-decision decision shoots to kill an old friend who has been absolutely corrupted through no fault of her own, to save another old friend, and I'm not sure for long/if they were certain she was a copy or if they knew that copies don't just suffer and die like human bodies do --

right after that, Agent Tammy Preston goes OH BOY DID YOU SEE THAT, WAS THAT A TULPA OR WHAT! I SHOT TO KILL IT TOO, ME. TULPAS, WOW

tact is not a class offered at the academy

[1] which, if that is part of the point of her being there at all, in case something ever had to be done that Albert and Gordon couldn't bring themselves to do, I like it
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:10 PM on August 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


> So the implication is that the real Diane is in the Naido body

There's also a drunk in a cell who looks straight from the convenience store and repeats words like Dougie. Diane said Booper took her to the convenience store, and we've seen her drink constantly.
posted by postcommunism at 7:11 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


When I saw Gordon Cole was in room 1827, I was afraid Diane was going to kill him. Because Cole is deaf, as was Beethoven, who died in the year 1827.
posted by Schmucko at 7:15 PM on August 27, 2017 [5 favorites]


COOPER
posted by kenko at 7:19 PM on August 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


Sorry, I'm only halfway through and skipped past all the other comments to say that.
posted by kenko at 7:19 PM on August 27, 2017 [9 favorites]


Oh, and I guess Naido is kind of Diane backwards, hadn't thought of that...
posted by Schmucko at 7:22 PM on August 27, 2017 [5 favorites]


"Darya" is "Audrey" sort of sideways, but I'm pretty sure that isn't meaningful. Naido = Diane seems like a bit of a weak revelation, since we don't have a whole lot invested in the real Diane. I'm kind of sticking with the idea that Naido is Laura.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:33 PM on August 27, 2017


omg I just realized the Horne brothers and the Mitchum brothers might meet! I want a whole season of their goofy still-over-the-top-hedonistic-but-less-criminal business venture hijinks together.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:46 PM on August 27, 2017 [4 favorites]


Naido = Diane seems like a bit of a weak revelation

well, everything's going to seem like a less satisfying revelation after the big one of finding out that Eddie Vedder's just a coma-fever-drug dream Audrey's been having. all these years I thought he was real.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:47 PM on August 27, 2017 [11 favorites]


So the implication is that the real Diane is in the Naido body, I guess

It is???

I was more curious about how the manufactured Diane came to realize her nature / apparently rebel against it. She and Jeffries gave Boop the same coörds, though she was just copying them (from the librarian), so I suppose she had no hand in that, but she did confess, in the end, to the Gordon and Albert. And was aware of herself.
posted by kenko at 7:55 PM on August 27, 2017


Wait... so Diane sent the coordinates to Mr. C... AFTER Mr. C went to the first set of coordinates? That is bonkers! Mr. C said he received 3 sets of coordinates -- I'm assuming one from Ray (the wrong one that zapped Richard), one from Jeffries, and one from Diane (both leading to the same place). Either there's another source, or there's some really weird time loop mojo going on, right?
posted by speicus at 8:01 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


It is???

When she was starting to break down, and talking about being in the sheriff's station, it seemed like a link to Naido, as she's the only important wild card we know about who is in the station. Could be that that's not the case, but it's the popular theory, and I know I immediately jumped to that too. I do like postcommunism's drunk guy idea, though. idk, Jeffries can be in a teapot, somebody can be in a monkey that says "Judy", MIKE can take over Gerard, hopefully Diane can be inhabiting another body and still play a part to get a better ending than "raped, murdered and copied twenty years ago".

Mr. C said he received 3 sets of coordinates -- I'm assuming one from Ray (the wrong one that zapped Richard), one from Jeffries, and one from Diane (both leading to the same place).

It seemed like the coordinates that Richard went to were the matching ones, which means the dying Ray was the only one who played it straight with Mr. C in the end which is kinda great. But then Diane gave him the coordinates from Ruth's body, didn't she? So were they wrong? And does that mean that Teapot Jeffries was not being straight with Mr. C when he seemed oblivious to all the current goings-on in Mr. C's life? I'm gonna have to rewatch or wait for the inevitable Reddit post about it I guess.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:09 PM on August 27, 2017


I think Jeffries and Ray gave mutually agreed on wrong coordinates intended to kill Coop, who they obviously had a problem with, and the Diane coordinates, in Twin Peaks, are the right one.
posted by maxsparber at 8:14 PM on August 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


But what do I know? I watched the episode through the wrong end of BAD BINOCULARS.
posted by maxsparber at 8:15 PM on August 27, 2017 [25 favorites]


But then Diane gave him the coordinates from Ruth's body, didn't she? So were they wrong?

I never have any idea what's going on really, but I thought she gave him the wrong coordinates on purpose. as her only possible means and opportunity for rebellion. and then the smiley text let her know it didn't work, he was still alive in the world, it didn't send him back to the lodge, and sooner or later he'd be coming for her. so the terrifying music up the elevator to Gordon's room was because she was going there to get herself killed, either at her own hand or if her nerve failed her, in a suicide-by-FBI scene, as happened.

I guess some people think she was going to shoot Gordon on bad Cooper's orders? but I didn't think that at all.
posted by queenofbithynia at 8:15 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


When Cooper said "I am the FBI," Kid and I simultaneously gave him a thumbs up. That scene needed a thumbs up.

I hope I don't have plans next weekend, because I need to binge watch this before it ends.
posted by Ruki at 8:19 PM on August 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


And does that mean that Teapot Jeffries was not being straight with Mr. C

I definitely assumed that Teapot Jeffries was not being straight with Mr. C at all. Jeffries had definitely been on the phone with … what's her face in the first episode, right?
posted by kenko at 8:20 PM on August 27, 2017


Wait, did Diane give him the coordinates previously when she did the "co-or-din-ates plus two" thing while searching them, or were the those numbers she gave him AFTER his smiley text the first time she gave him coordinates? Or were those numbers after the text even coordinates? I need to push on with my rewatch and pay more attention to those bits, I'm up to episode 8 but I've been saving it to watch again with a friend who is behind but has a lovely TV room setup for maximum "Threnody" impact. (Also I got up to episode 8 again when Trump was threatening nuclear war with North Korea and I was like "yeah maybe I'll wait on this one")
posted by jason_steakums at 8:20 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


I definitely assumed that Teapot Jeffries was not being straight with Mr. C at all. Jeffries had definitely been on the phone with … what's her face in the first episode, right?

It was Jeffries' confusion and seeming wrong guess about whether Mr. C was the real Coop that made me unsure. I do hope we get a little bit more on that with the limited time we have left. Also I just want to see that creepy hotel again.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:23 PM on August 27, 2017


She says "I hope this works" when sending him the more complete coordinates. Which begin 48551, just like the numbers that Jeffries gave and which were on Ruth's body.
posted by kenko at 8:23 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


When Cooper said "I am the FBI," Kid and I simultaneously gave him a thumbs up. That scene needed a thumbs up.

Seriously! So close.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:26 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


my last theory is on its last legs, but I so wanted and hoped to find out that the coma Audrey is in now is not the same continuous coma she was in after the bank explosion, and that she got in a good five-ten years of living before the next mysterious accident. almost no chance of that now. Though I do still have some hope that she's been in an ambulatory fugue state of some kind (or a Lodge) rather than a coma per se -- she's already standing up when she flashes to the white room.

a lot of this is just because as unforgiving as I am about Ben Horne, I still enjoy liking him when he makes it possible and the idea that he would say Richard had no father as the source of his problems instead of saying Richard had no mother, it's the final straw of unspeakableness. a bitter old man disowning his daughter for making bad choices is one thing but a selfish old man erasing his daughter from his whole mental world because she was broken and never got fixed is like Sarah Palmer-level empty space behind the face. I did think he was differently bad than that.
posted by queenofbithynia at 8:28 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


When she was starting to break down, and talking about being in the sheriff's station

Yeah the slide from "gas station" (which we recognize by now) to "sheriff's station" is surprising. But it seems as if she then says that she sent him coordinates to a sheriff's station?

She mentions a gas station, and shakes. Looks at her phone again. Shot of Gordon; cut back to Diane. Gasps and says something about a sheriff's station, but I can't tell quite what. Cut to Albert and Tammy; cut back. She again says something where I can't even make out what comes before "sheriff's station", maybe just "by a sheriff's station". Cut to Gordon; cut back, and she says "I sent him those coordinates … by a sheriff's station".
posted by kenko at 8:30 PM on August 27, 2017


I did a total dancing on the sofa thing when Cooper came back
posted by Lucinda at 8:30 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


(How come we get no Gordon Cole cringing at the sound of those gunshots?)
posted by kenko at 8:31 PM on August 27, 2017


and the theme music kicked in and it was BEAUTIFUL
posted by Lucinda at 8:32 PM on August 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


yllanif
posted by paper chromatographologist at 8:36 PM on August 27, 2017 [7 favorites]


She mentions a gas station, and shakes. Looks at her phone again. Shot of Gordon; cut back to Diane. Gasps and says something about a sheriff's station, but I can't tell quite what. Cut to Albert and Tammy; cut back. She again says something where I can't even make out what comes before "sheriff's station", maybe just "by a sheriff's station". Cut to Gordon; cut back, and she says "I sent him those coordinates … by a sheriff's station".

"I'm in the sheriff's station."
posted by jason_steakums at 8:38 PM on August 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


well, everything's going to seem like a less satisfying revelation after the big one of finding out that Eddie Vedder's just a coma-fever-drug dream Audrey's been having. all these years I thought he was real.

That Eddie Vedder seems to be playing a character fills me with dread.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:39 PM on August 27, 2017


OMG okay this is all beginning to feel awesome, and I love this episode.
posted by hippybear at 8:39 PM on August 27, 2017 [2 favorites]



"I'm in the sheriff's station."


imagine if Diane wasn't Naido, or even the drooly drunk, but CHAD
posted by queenofbithynia at 8:41 PM on August 27, 2017 [7 favorites]


If Chad's actor was suddenly channeling Laura Dern and running around working with Coop to save the day, best end ever.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:43 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Thank god for closed captioning! Ok, the Naido theory does seem more compelling now.
posted by kenko at 8:43 PM on August 27, 2017


Okay, so it makes sense that Ray and Jeffries sent the same set of coordinates, but then still, where did the third set Mr. C mentions come from? If it came from Diane, then why did she send them again? If it's a "more complete" set of coordinates than what she previously sent, where did that more complete version come from?
posted by speicus at 8:56 PM on August 27, 2017


Maybe the real Diane is the echolaliac drunk in the cell next to Naido. Repeats everything like Dougie, drinks like Diane.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:03 PM on August 27, 2017


Why do people read recappers?
Some people speculated that his fork-in-the-socket stunt in Part 15 killed him, but it seems to have just dropped him into a coma, from which he rewoke with the wiring in his head finally working.
Yeah, it probably did "just" put him in a coma, like coincidentally, and then he happened to wake up as soon as he was alone 100% back, in a kind of totally unrelated way. All the people referring pointedly to electricity right beforehand must have been diversions.
posted by kenko at 9:05 PM on August 27, 2017 [4 favorites]


A nice touch here is that the big opportunities for Just Exposition, Boop driving with Richard and then Coop riding with the Mitchums, are not exploited. We cut through the entire Boop/Richard drive, and we just get the barest uninformative (to us) summary in the Coop/Mitchum drive.
posted by kenko at 9:11 PM on August 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


The camerawork at the end of Audrey's Dance was a nice touch--the way she ran toward the camera, you almost expected her to come crashing through the screen. Instead, she crashed through her own consciousness.

Also, totally bittersweet in retrospect, but Sherilynn Fenn dancing in the roadhouse was wonderful.
posted by duffell at 10:54 PM on August 27, 2017 [5 favorites]


Dougie/Cooper came out of an electrical socket but he wasn't complete. So sticking the fork in the socket helped him download the rest...?

Diane being in the Naido body is compelling but the first thing I thought was she was the lady in the courtyard who opened the door for Mr. C to see Jeffries and then stood there during the end credits of episode 15. She says he took her to "an old gas station" right?

I think the Naido body is Laura Palmer. Major Briggs assembled all the info to find the Naido body years before anything supernatural happened to Diane. Time doesn't seem to move backwards in any of the alternate dimensions in the Twin Peaks universe AFAIK.

Barring another nineties music star chewing up way too much time, great episode.
posted by dagosto at 11:13 PM on August 27, 2017


I'll say it: that Eddie Vedder song/performance was enchanting. Damn what a voice.
posted by moons in june at 12:01 AM on August 28, 2017 [10 favorites]


I think Jeffries gave Bad Coop the accurate coordinates. We know that someone is posing as Jeffries and that they tried to kill Bad Coop. (My money's on Sarah Palmer or the Mother creature that is controlling her.) That person gave Ray the bad coordinates. When Bad Coop went to see Jeffries, Jeffries seemed surprised that Bad Coop thought they had been in communication. I don't think Jeffries actually wants Bad Coop dead or had any reason to lie. As for the third set on Ruth's body, anyone could have left those as a trap for Bad Coop to find.
posted by painquale at 1:33 AM on August 28, 2017


When Cooper woke up I just started bawling. I've been waiting 21 years to see him again and while I've enjoyed the storytelling of having The Adventures of Dougie Coop it's also been bittersweet. The joy of his face fully animated, his smile and his chipper tone and his self returned was like the best airport hug with a loved one after a long parting.

Cooper is back. He was trying to return this whole time and now he's finally here.
posted by harujion at 3:35 AM on August 28, 2017 [22 favorites]


The Eddie Vedder song was perfect. And he's not playing a character, that is his real name. Though for a moment I thought he was a character in Audrey's dream... and I guess he kinda is?
posted by crossoverman at 5:20 AM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


I keep coming back to Sonny Jim's desperate "You're my dad" and Cooper's look of pain. Sonny Jim gets what's up.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:20 AM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


I feel so confused by Charlie's physical stature. As they walked in to the roadhouse together, he appeared to be almost as tall as Audrey. It's as though the actor was walking on a 3' platform immediately adjacent to Audrey and just below the camera frame.
posted by samthemander at 7:14 AM on August 28, 2017


Clark Middleton is 5' 4", the same as Sherilyn Fenn.

He looks smaller because he has had rheumatoid arthritis most of his life, which has had lasting effects, along with the cortisone used to treat it. For one thing, he can't move his neck, which is why he always seems to be looking down. It also gave him very puffy cheeks.

On the whole, it makes him appear dwarfish, rather that simply short. Probably didn't help that Lynch had him seated and complaining of being sleepy for seventeen hours, or however long those scenes went on.
posted by maxsparber at 7:25 AM on August 28, 2017 [8 favorites]


Did anybody else briefly mistake Jerry Horne's scampering form on the hillside for one of the woodsmen? In the darkness, he looked like he was wearing head-to-toe black until he came into the moonlight. The juxtaposition with the secret-coordinate site, which led me to expect to see some kind of Lodge creature(s) there, reinforced this impression for a few seconds longer than might have happened otherwise.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:10 AM on August 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


I was so worried for Jerry during that entire scene.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:29 AM on August 28, 2017 [8 favorites]


Now I'm wondering if the Roadhouse, and by extension the entire "Where's Billy?" plotline, partially exists in Audrey's coma dream-time. Obviously, some of the Roadhouse scenes have to be taking place in the "real" world (since James and Freddy clearly exist there), but I wonder if we might be able to draw some kind of line between the Roadhouse sequences where the emcee appears (which seem to have a far more surreal feeling to them) and the ones where he doesn't.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:53 AM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


For how long is Jerry running, exactly?
posted by lmfsilva at 9:33 AM on August 28, 2017


Once Cooper came back it became obvious why he couldn't come back until now—he knows exactly what's going on.
posted by kenko at 9:58 AM on August 28, 2017 [10 favorites]


Strange Interlude, I had the same thought, that the rando conversations that mention Billy were all unreal.
posted by kenko at 9:59 AM on August 28, 2017


I'm not sure if the Roadhouse is going to end up being a nexus point between realities, or if just this week's appearance is entirely in Audrey's head/reality/dimension/lodge/whatever.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 10:23 AM on August 28, 2017


At the very least, it seems like reality starts to get a little bit wobbly in the Roadhouse, which seems fitting given its status as a liminal space from the original show. So maybe Audrey's dream version of the Roadhouse contains features (and people) of the real-world Roadhouse, and vice versa, and maybe these features can interact with each other across levels of reality to an extent.

The musical acts have all been varying degrees of meta, in terms of featuring recognizable real-world artists, or lending obscure thematic reference to the preceding action of the episode, or otherwise partaking in the iconography of Twin Peaks. Examples: Rebekah del Rio's zig-zag dress, James taking the stage to play his one "hit" song, or Audrey's personal teenage reverie at the RR turned into a clear-the-dancefloor moment. The characters are interacting not just with the inner mythology of the show, but with the audience's reaction to the show as an artistic creation.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:02 AM on August 28, 2017 [10 favorites]


Cooper FTW! I loved this episode, even the stupid Eddie Vedder bit. Lots and lots of threads are getting tied together. The only missing link is who or what the ghost box was for.

If Episode 17, however, is just 55 minutes of Jayne-E crying, I will punch my Amazon Prime account.
posted by grumpybear69 at 11:33 AM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


So is the dude with the full auto Glock connected with the 119 lady? Or are they just two random people on Dougie's street?
posted by paper chromatographologist at 11:40 AM on August 28, 2017


Obviously the Eddie Vedder bit was a dream, because Audrey would have heard about Pearl Jam in 1990, being from Washington and rich and bored and probably going to Seattle to listen to bands, and she's been in a coma or whatever so that's still her only musical point of reference.
posted by maxsparber at 11:43 AM on August 28, 2017 [5 favorites]


"I'm in the sheriff's station."

They will find Coop's tape recorder in a file drawer.
posted by incster at 11:44 AM on August 28, 2017 [24 favorites]


If only. I would very much like to go back to when I was sure Diane was what Coop called his tape recorder.
posted by maxsparber at 11:48 AM on August 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


Y'all, I'm scared that Audrey was the dreamer, and at the end of the previous episode she woke up, and everything we've seen was a dream, and the last two episodes are going to have nothing to do with the rest of the show and just follow Audrey's new life. Call it the Mulholland Drive ending. I doubt it, but WHAT IF?!

After all, Mulholland Drive was originally going to be a Twin Peaks spinoff about Audrey moving to Hollywood.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 12:19 PM on August 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


So is the dude with the full auto Glock connected with the 119 lady? Or are they just two random people on Dougie's street?

The 119 lady and her kid live in the failed Rancho Rosa development (which seems to be mostly given over to squatters and car thieves), whereas Dougie and Janey-E live in somewhat more comfortable digs on the other side of town.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:24 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


It also just occurred to me -- if Janey-E is Diane's sister, and Diane isn't a real person, what does that make Janey-E? I'm almost certain that the real Diane is still out there somewhere, even if there was a decoy walking around with her name.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:27 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


not sure if continuity error

[squinting Fry from Futurama]

or a ridiculously subtle clue left by a meticulous and uncompromising auteur
posted by speicus at 12:30 PM on August 28, 2017 [5 favorites]


Current theory: The real Janey-E is a potato clock.
posted by maxsparber at 12:39 PM on August 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


if Janey-E is Diane's sister, and Diane isn't a real person

Diane is a real person.

The Diane we've seen wasn't a real person, but there's no reason to believe that she wasn't a real person when Boop assaulted her and took her to the convenience store and that her real-person-self isn't trapped somewhere else.
posted by kenko at 12:44 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


Maxsparber - thank you! Gosh, yes, this whole time I had assumed they had a height difference, so I was very thrown off and immediately thought that the scene couldn't be real. (Which it couldn't, in the end. So...)

Has Coop been aware this whole time he has been occupying Dougie? Did Coop create Dougie, and that's how he knew about the seed? Or did Mr C create Dougie after raping Diane and making her Tulpa?
posted by samthemander at 1:44 PM on August 28, 2017


Dougie was a tulpa created by Mr. C that would take his place in the black lodge once 25 years had passed.

One thing that crossed my mind was how fast Albert pulled a gun on "Diane". I wonder if he, Gordon and Tammy were already suspecting something was off.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:00 PM on August 28, 2017


They did. They've been monitoring Diane's phone messages and know she has been in contact with evil Coop. I imagine they saw "winky emoticon ALL" the moment she did and suspected something was up.

In fact, I think Gordon calls her into the room before she has even reached the door or knocked, and all of them constantly have their eyes on her purse.
posted by maxsparber at 2:03 PM on August 28, 2017 [6 favorites]


Still weird to have Albert use a gun. "I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method... is love. I love you, weird supernatural Diane copy." (Meanwhile Tammy still absolutely lights her up)
posted by jason_steakums at 2:07 PM on August 28, 2017


They seem to have already figured out she was a tulpa. Although I agree it was weird for Albert to use a gun, even on a projected fabrication.
posted by maxsparber at 2:11 PM on August 28, 2017


So going on the theory that the reason Cooper asks Mike to create another one is that he intends to bring Dougie back to Janey-E and Sonny Jim, what will become of Actual Cooper? Mutual annihilation with Boop? Retiring to the Lodge permanently?
posted by kenko at 2:19 PM on August 28, 2017


Perhaps I'm slow on the uptake, but while Mike is definitely of the Black Lodge, Cooper's relationship with him isn't antagonistic as such. (Perhaps a bit testy - "You're awake... finally.") So the Black Lodge is the source of difficult beings such as Bob, but Bob and by extension the whole Convenience Store crew are renegades from it, and Mike is as keen to clean them up as the Fireman?
posted by Grangousier at 2:55 PM on August 28, 2017


Coop's return was one thing... but when Audrey's dance was announced and THAT MUSIC kicked in I think I might have tulpa'ed up to heaven
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:36 PM on August 28, 2017 [5 favorites]


One of the most jarring things about the new Peaks is how the Black Lodge has changed from this hall of horror to this cozy fun place where Mike & The Arm 2.0 help Dougie through his Las Vegas hijinx.
posted by speicus at 3:47 PM on August 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


One of the most jarring things about the new Peaks is how the Black Lodge has changed from this hall of horror to this cozy fun place where Mike & The Arm 2.0 help Dougie through his Las Vegas hijinx.

The Red Room has always been the "waiting room" but how to actually define that has been difficult. In the Return, it feels very much like the Waiting Room and the Black Lodge is the space above the Convenience Store and the White Lodge is wherever the Fireman lives.

They all intersect at the Red Room though.
posted by crossoverman at 6:03 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


"I'm in the sheriff's station."

They will find Coop's tape recorder in a file drawer.


It wasn't on Cooper when he left the Lodge, so where is it? Unless we established for certain those pages from Laura's diary are what the Log Lady meant was missing, I think this is it, to be honest.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:10 PM on August 28, 2017


Also, I hate to say it, but I think the real Diane is indeed dead, and not coming back. I think Mr. C needed Diane as a Renfield but couldn't control the real Diane, so he murdered her and replaced her with the tulpa. But ultimately even a simulacrum of Diane had too strong a will.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:15 PM on August 28, 2017


In the Return, it feels very much like the Waiting Room and the Black Lodge is the space above the Convenience Store

I don't feel like MIKE is over the convenience store!
posted by escabeche at 9:47 PM on August 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


Now I'm wondering if the Roadhouse, and by extension the entire "Where's Billy?" plotline, partially exists in Audrey's coma dream-time. Obviously, some of the Roadhouse scenes have to be taking place in the "real" world (since James and Freddy clearly exist there), but I wonder if we might be able to draw some kind of line between the Roadhouse sequences where the emcee appears (which seem to have a far more surreal feeling to them) and the ones where he doesn't.
posted by Strange Interlude


Eponyveryfuckingsterical
posted by duffell at 10:14 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


posted by Strange Interlude

Eponyveryfuckingsterical


Please tell me some variation on this has happened in every TP:TR episode discussion.
posted by hippybear at 10:28 PM on August 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


I saw elsewhere that someone pointed out Diane has BOB hair, turned white just like Leland! I hadn't connected that until now.
posted by samthemander at 11:15 PM on August 28, 2017


"I'm in the sheriff's station."

But she also says something along the lines of "I am giving him the coordinates" at the same time/interspersed with that message. Now, let's go back to a time when she was peeping the coordinates (on the body) in a Sheriff's station and memorizing them, to send them to Mr. C. I'm pretty sure that's what she's remembering ("I remember now") and realizing that she's a doppelganger/tulpa working for Mr. C, but that's not her true whole self.
posted by destructive cactus at 1:14 AM on August 29, 2017


so, i input the coordinates 48 55' 14.2" -117 16' 59.56" into google maps and the pin popped up in the midst of a big green blank area. as i zoomed out, the worlds THE BLACK LODGE briefly popped up near the pinpoint, and then just as rapidly, disappeared - and now i can't get that to happen again!
posted by lapolla at 4:22 AM on August 29, 2017 [11 favorites]


lapolla, I just entered the coordinates, The Black Lodge appears there, in the middle of the woods...Maybe you need to zoom back in a little.

Google has it listed as a Night Club.
posted by doctornecessiter at 4:27 AM on August 29, 2017


I don't feel like MIKE is over the convenience store!

Right, no, I think the idea was:

- The red room really does feel like its own distinct place now, not like it might be either the Black Lodge or the White Lodge. Instead,
- The Black Lodge feels definitively located in/with the convenience store, while
- The White Lodge is that place where the Fireman lives, and
- The red room is indeed, as advertised, a separate and distinct Waiting Room.
posted by redfoxtail at 5:32 AM on August 29, 2017 [4 favorites]


so, i input the coordinates 48 55' 14.2" -117 16' 59.56" into google maps and the pin popped up in the midst of a big green blank area. as i zoomed out, the worlds THE BLACK LODGE briefly popped up near the pinpoint, and then just as rapidly, disappeared - and now i can't get that to happen again!

It's true!!!!
posted by theartandsound at 6:50 AM on August 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


probably only the influence of Mulholland Drive makes me say this but I had a short-lived but strong feeling that Diane's tulpa was telling Audrey's story, not her own. & that something else entirely happened to the real Diane. maybe simple murder, maybe something else.

because A. unless Richard is wrong about who one of his parents is, that's what happened to Audrey, and telling that story twice this show with two separate beloved characters does not sit well with me. at all. if it happened, but in coma-time, that would explain why all of Audrey's dream-fears are basically an adolescent's nightmare vision of the worst cliches of middle-aged female adulthood, of what an 18-year-old might have been afraid would become of her, and not at all about sexual menace or total fear, and no form of Cooper is in it at all. however, I do not believe that even in a coma, such an experience would fail to make its way into her horrible dreams in some disguise.

however however, regarding my two-comas notion -- or one coma, one strange interlude -- what exactly is it Richard says about his mom keeping a picture of Cooper that he recognizes the double from? I remember it being said in a way that would make very little sense if he'd never met his mother when she was herself, but probably it was intentionally vague and I don't recall the exact words.

though I can imagine Richard's horrible treatment of Johnny and Sylvia coming from rage that this luxury caretaking setup is maintained for his incompetent uncle, but his equally incompetent mother is locked away in an institution somewhere, in perpetual second place even though her disability and need for personalized home care is just as great or greater. but Richard was hardly the type to stand up against injustice. or love his mother.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:03 AM on August 29, 2017


As much as I hate hate hate the idea of rape being part of Diane's story and Audrey's story, I feel like that die was cast as soon as they decided the premise of Season Three is Bad Coop has been on the loose for 25 years.

Because the whole entire reason the cliff hanger at the end of Season Two is so horrible is the implication that Cooper has become what Leland Palmer was, that he's going to go hurt Annie and any other women that Cooper cares about. (Which was, I hope, originally an--unless Sheriff Truman & his crew can somehow stop him and/or the Real Cooper escapes--scenario.)

I've always been repelled by that part of Twin Peaks (I couldn't even bring myself to watch all of Fire Walk With Me). I usually avoid movies or TV that use rape as a plot device. Lynch has done all sorts of fascinating, beautiful, sublime, silly things with Twin Peaks, but I really wish it didn't have this element at its core.
posted by straight at 7:58 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm really hoping the Roadhouse performer in the last episode - or at least one of the last two - is Julee Cruise.
posted by dnash at 8:18 AM on August 29, 2017 [4 favorites]


I think it is very likely that evil Coop is a serial rapist and any woman that Dale knew was a potential target.
posted by maxsparber at 9:15 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


This fun recap of Part 16 suggests that Richard meeting an undignified fate* is the show's judgment on the edgelord bad boy who's become the hero of so much TV in the prestige era. It's an interesting thought, but Richard being taken out like a chump by the bona fide forces of darkness really reminded me of BOB owning Windom Earle way back when. One does not fuck with the infinite, and even someone mostly pure of heart like Coop is liable to lose a quarter century of his life to it if he steps wrong. Guys like Windom Earle and Richard Horne, lacking any sort of moral fortitude, don't stand a chance.

Still, there is something to the way Twin Peaks tends to deglamourize evil. Leaving aside the notion of Mr. C as out-and-out rapist for the moment, it's interesting that the only woman who genuinely seems sexually interested in him is Chantal, a violent psychopath. Whereas Coop -- even as Dougie! -- is a bit of a woman magnet; his inherent goodness is appealing, even when he's too shell-shocked to know who he is. In fact, damn near every person he encounters just wants to help Dougie. It's such a great subversion of the cool/sexy evil trope.

*Presuming we've really seen the last of Richard; the Fireman told Coop back in the beginning to keep an eye out for him, so I'm not sure Richard is gone from the show, even if he seems gone from this mortal coil.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 10:34 AM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Still weird to have Albert use a gun. "I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method... is love. I love you, weird supernatural Diane copy." (Meanwhile Tammy still absolutely lights her up)

I didn't think this at the time, but is there any reason to believe Albert's little speech about nonviolence was serious and not just more being a smart ass to Sheriff Truman? Cooper's comment about Albert's path being "strange and difficult" could plausibly be Cooper shaking his head at Albert's persistence in being an asshole to people who don't deserve it.
posted by straight at 10:44 AM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


Even if he's non-violent, his pulling out a picture of Mount Rushmore and giving it to Gordon Cole was a moment of passive-aggressive brilliance that to a Minnesotan was the equivalent of an actual physical beat down.
posted by maxsparber at 10:57 AM on August 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


We only know a few of the presumably many evil things Evil Coop has evil-ed over the past 25 years. What other hell has he caused? Everything recently has been focused on his survival.

Electricity brings Coop back, but zaps Richard away. Is there enough time in 2 hours to give more story to all of the characters we now have? Will we get an explanation/connection of the NY scenes?

(I'm so excited to find out)
posted by armacy at 11:00 AM on August 29, 2017


Well, (I think) we know that Mr. C set that place up. He knew someone/something would be passing through because he knows a bit more about how these portals between worlds work than humans at large do. (I also think) we know that the scary murder thing (experiment) in the box is related to the big floaty momma scary thing in the sky and also what came out of Sarah's face?
posted by destructive cactus at 11:08 AM on August 29, 2017


We know Bad Coop has seen the glass box. I don't think we know that he set it up. It seems like a science experiment to create or monitor a portal to other planes of existence (an artificial Glastonbury Grove), and that isn't really Bad Coop's style. I wonder if it was set up by whoever he talked to on the phone after killing Darya in Part 2; that person seems to understand how portals and lodges work too, and he knew that Bad Coop had been to New York.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 11:38 AM on August 29, 2017


We only know a few of the presumably many evil things Evil Coop has evil-ed over the past 25 years.

I think all the weird stuff floating around the edges is the footprint of evil coop. The rampant, deadly drug addiction in Twin Peaks. The fried, backwards speaking mother in the new housing project. The Vegas scam that Dougie uncovered. Even the fact that Max Perlich was in it for a hot second as a janitor, because you know that guy was up to no good.

It's a world full of addicts and criminals, and that's the world that DoppleCoop made in 25 years.
posted by maxsparber at 12:40 PM on August 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


We know Bad Coop has seen the glass box. I don't think we know that he set it up.

I'm sure the implication is that Bad Coop is the mysterious billionaire who had the glass box set up. He was living in a giant mansion in South America at one point.
posted by crossoverman at 1:41 PM on August 29, 2017


Pearl Jam didn't exist until eight months after the bank explosion. But maybe someone has a radio on a lot while Audrey is comatose.
posted by elsietheeel at 2:51 PM on August 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


He was living in a giant mansion in South America at one point.

I thought Jeffries?
posted by kenko at 3:22 PM on August 29, 2017


I thought Jeffries?

No, it was Mr. C, there's even a pic of him in front of some stock photograph of said mansion.
posted by destructive cactus at 3:43 PM on August 29, 2017


Al Capone's mansion!
posted by jason_steakums at 3:56 PM on August 29, 2017


I'm a little worried that with only two hours left in the show, there won't be a lot of time spent with Carl Rodd. I really need more Harry Dean Stanton before this show is done.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:43 PM on August 29, 2017 [6 favorites]


That's my problem too. My list of characters I'd like to see get a scene with Special Agent Dale Cooper is way too long.
posted by straight at 9:51 PM on August 29, 2017


Is it literally only two hours, or is it two episodes with 18 being extra long?

Only David knows. And Showtime. And everyone who worked on the project.

But basically, only David knows.
posted by hippybear at 10:03 PM on August 29, 2017


Stumbling on a recap somewhere, headed with the image of Diane in the chair in the Red Room, I was suddenly grateful that the last few months have been so full of moments and images that are already genuinely iconic (a ludicrously over-used word, and often inappropriately used, too).
posted by Grangousier at 2:12 AM on August 30, 2017


Pearl Jam didn't exist until eight months after the bank explosion. But maybe someone has a radio on a lot while Audrey is comatose.

He wasn't introduced as Eddie Vedder, though. He was introduced by his real first name. Edward Louis Seversen might have been playing gigs in Seattle in 1989. And Audrey did go to Seattle during the original run of Twin Peaks.
posted by crossoverman at 2:47 AM on August 30, 2017 [3 favorites]


Per Wikipedia, Vedder was living in California in 1989. But this is pedantic, and while a lot of people are hung up on the original Twin Peaks taking place at a certain time, I kinda feel like it takes place in 1990-91, because...well...it was on then. And unless the current series takes place in the future (where it's already the end of September), it must take place in 2016.

Anyway, Vedder's presence in Audrey's dream can still make sense if Audrey isn't dreaming so much as she's travelling spiritually to whatever realm this version of the Roadhouse represents. I'd have to rewatch with this notion in mind, but it seems sometimes the announcer is intense and serious (like with NIN) and other times he's pretty chill and down to earth (Lissie, ZZ Top). I'm guessing the latter are scenes where the Roadhouse we're seeing is in the real world, and the former are...the other Roadhouse. Which exists independently of Audrey, but which Audrey's spirit form can travel to. Maybe in dreams people like Eddie Vedder and "the" Nine Inch Nails can wander there, too.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:30 AM on August 30, 2017


Obviously, Eddie Vedder and Trent Reznor are eternal beings, no different from the Fireman and the Arm.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:18 AM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]


The obvious explanation is that Audrey is dreaming our reality, the one in which Eddie Vedder and you and me are supposedly "real" people.
posted by speicus at 9:11 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


The obvious explanation is that the history of popular music in Twin Peaks land bears little relation to that in actual reality, since otherwise none of these acts would ever be appearing in this nowhere town in the first place.
posted by kenko at 10:32 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


They couldn't get ZZ Top, so they're not pulling the real chart busters.
posted by maxsparber at 10:47 AM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]


The obvious explanation is that the history of popular music in Twin Peaks land bears little relation to that in actual reality

There's really no other way to explain why the sound of teenage rebellion in Twin Peaks, ca. 1989 is spooky New Age vampire jazz.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:48 AM on August 30, 2017 [7 favorites]


I just realized how funny it is that Coop gave Battlin' Bud a note to read to Gordon. He has even less of a clue about cell phones than Lucy.
posted by maxsparber at 10:49 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


The obvious explanation is that Eddie Vedder is a lodge spirit.
posted by duffell at 11:25 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]




Looks like Showtime is kicking off a marathon (all 16 episodes) at 4am Pacific on Sunday, which should finish up just in time for the final two episodes. (Cross-posted in the finale live blog thread.)
posted by christopherious at 3:55 PM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Any thoughts on the numbers "Diane" sent back to boop? She acted like it was supposed to do something, but I couldn't tell what it was other than clear herself of his influence in some way that didn't seem to be effective.

Somewhere I heard this season compared to science fiction, which I think is interesting. There was a kind of subtle shared-minds concept going on with her, I think -- she was a kind of evil doll, created by Boop, and imprinted with the image of what must have been a wonderful woman. A long time ago, inside of the world of real coop, the goofy, good-natured world he emanates where everyone is half a stereotype from a fifties movie, I imagine Diane as a quirky, fiery secretary, secretly swooning for her dreamboat FBI agent boss. She had those two elements fighting in her -- her fakeness, the fact that she was a spy for evil, and the part of her that was the real Diane, a great woman whom evil had deeply touched but was still there enough to know something was really wrong. You can see that part of her die when she consciously realizes she's a fake, leaving only the bitter shell of Boop's magic, which tries to kill the FBI agents, but fails and is destroyed in the waiting room. Anyway, that's my take on her story.
posted by Rinku at 6:26 PM on August 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Also, I hate to say it, but I think the real Diane is indeed dead, and not coming back. I think Mr. C needed Diane as a Renfield but couldn't control the real Diane, so he murdered her and replaced her with the tulpa. But ultimately even a simulacrum of Diane had too strong a will.

I agree that she may be dead, but I think one (nice?) thing about the lodge cosmology is that even if you're dead, you don't really die. Laura died, and had both her true self and her d-o-p-p-e-l-g-a-n-g-e-r present for the series finale. I think we have a good chance of seeing real Diane for that very reason. The Lynchian version of a Force Ghost.
posted by codacorolla at 6:59 PM on August 31, 2017


Also... is there any chance that Maddy was a Tulpa? The idea wasn't fleshed out at that point in the series, but a lot of it fits: identical appearance, slightly off... not sure who would've created her, though. She may have been created very early in Laura's life, which is why the Palmers recognize her as a cousin.
posted by codacorolla at 7:02 PM on August 31, 2017 [4 favorites]


Codacorolla - I like that idea. If she was copied young, that would address the issue of Tulpas retaining memories of the person they mimic. I guess Maddy was always kind of an odd slow-talker.
posted by samthemander at 8:22 PM on August 31, 2017


Any thoughts on the numbers "Diane" sent back to boop?

My understanding is that he got one set of coordinates from Diane, another from Ray and a third from Teapot Jeffries. Two of the sets were the same, and Richard advised him to "check out the two that matched". I'm not sure but I think the two that matched were that rock Richard stood on, and the third was in Twin Peaks. I might have that backwards.
posted by christopherious at 9:09 AM on September 1, 2017


Right, but the numbers Diane sends after the "ALL" text don't seem like coordinates. He sends that text to her after the coordinates fail, and then she replies with a long strong of numbers and says, terrified, "I hope this works."
posted by Rinku at 9:39 AM on September 1, 2017


Yeah, I'll have to rewatch one or two of those episodes again. Her memorization of the coordinates on Ruth Davenport' arm seemed to imply that she would text them to Evil Coop, but I recall that oddity as well. If that wasn't the third set he said he'd received, I'm at a loss as to where he might have gotten the third set.
posted by christopherious at 9:45 AM on September 1, 2017


The number Diane sent to Coopleganger in this episode is the same as the number on Ruth Davenports arm. (48551420117163956) And those can be broken out into coordinate as per lapolla above.

Teapot Jeffries also breaks them out into coordinate when we see him write the beginning in smoke. You can see the "degree" and "minute" symbols.

We see Coopleganger receive 2 sets of numbers before this episode. The ones from Ray's pocket (supposedly sourced from Hasting's secretary, Betty,) and the ones from Teapot Jeffries.

I believe that the third set of numbers that Coopleganger received is from Diane, but that she originally sent him false coordinates. Coopleganger took Richard to those false coordinates, anticipating the trap. When Diane saw the ":-) ALL" message, she tried sending the correct coordinates, hoping for, I dunno, mercy or to play it off as an error.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 11:04 AM on September 1, 2017


Got it. That makes sense. I wonder why she chose to both try to redeem herself to Boop with the right coordinates and commit suicide by FBI, rather than one or the other. I suppose maybe she didn't enter their office with a clear plan.
posted by Rinku at 11:54 AM on September 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


Right, but the numbers Diane sends after the "ALL" text don't seem like coordinates

They're coordinates. They have even begin the exact same way the coordinates Jeffries gave Boop began. As noted above.
posted by kenko at 12:18 PM on September 1, 2017


Heh, some astute redditor spotted a very interesting prop in that little house Evil Coop visited early on. (The scene, I think, when Beulah told Evil Coop, "It's a world of truck drivers.")
posted by christopherious at 5:42 PM on September 1, 2017 [2 favorites]


That's an interesting detail.
posted by hippybear at 6:10 PM on September 1, 2017


All the Artforum recaps, by far the best written, partly because they aren't really "recaps".
posted by kenko at 10:44 AM on September 3, 2017 [3 favorites]


I've been re-watching some of the earlier episodes during the marathon showing today. Just got to the one where Gordon and Albert deputize Diane. I remembered that at the time I wondered if there was anything important about the fact that she responded with "Let's rock" - the words of the Man From Another Place. This time I also noticed that right before she says that, there's a sound of what seems to be a bit of backwards music. So I think that was a clue about Diane's nature back then.
posted by dnash at 12:42 PM on September 3, 2017


Richard being taken out like a chump by the bona fide forces of darkness really reminded me of BOB owning Windom Earle way back when.

This, this, this. And it was satisfying as hell, no matter how evil Boop is. If Dick Cheney made Donald Trump drink raccoon diarrhea through a straw on live television, I'd root for him.
posted by duffell at 4:57 PM on September 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


...for instance.
posted by duffell at 5:05 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


I wondered whether "Zawaski" - as in Zawaski Accounting - meant anything in English, and apparently it translates from Polish as "too narrow". Though in Swahili it means "check out". Anyway, Mitch and Chantal were certainly called to account.
posted by Grangousier at 1:02 PM on September 5, 2017 [1 favorite]


(Hutch, not Mitch. I get my tchs confused easily.)
posted by Grangousier at 1:08 PM on September 5, 2017


apparently it translates from Polish as "too narrow"

His family is named for its tradition of having overly narrow driveways.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 1:16 PM on September 5, 2017 [2 favorites]


Someone on Reddit cross-referenced the Polish accountant with the clues from the first FBI scene back in Part 3: bikini pinups indicating the suspect is male, pliers indicating that getting them to talk will be like pulling teeth, an sub-auto machine gun, a Euro-type snapshot of a child in a sailor's uniform, and a jar of beans (presumably for a bean counter).

Maybe it's a stretch. Or maybe Twin Peaks: The Return can fairly claim to have introduced and solved at least one mystery.
posted by infinitewindow at 3:38 PM on September 6, 2017


Back in Episode 3 when Coop was about to return to the world through an electrical socket labeled "15," Naido waved him off, threw a switch, and he goes through a socket labeled "3."

So then in Episode 3, Coop emerges from an electrical socket and becomes Dougie. Then later in Episode 15, Dougie connects with an electrical socket and receives the shock that appears to bring Cooper completely back (although we don't actually get to see this has happened until Episode 16).

So was Cooper originally supposed to come back in Episode 15? but Diane realizes this will be too late and re-routes him to Episode 3? but that's too early so he gets stuck in a fog until the rest of him can come through in Episode 15?
posted by straight at 8:11 AM on September 11, 2017 [10 favorites]


That's pretty great, straight! Do you think it relates to the prominently displayed numbers on the electrical poles throughout the series?
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 8:52 AM on September 11, 2017


Maybe? The telephone pole with the prominent "6" on it first appears (after being featured in Fire Walk With Me) in the 6th Episode of Season 3.
posted by straight at 9:29 AM on September 11, 2017 [3 favorites]


, pliers indicating that getting them to talk will be like pulling teeth

Oh come the fuck on.
posted by kenko at 5:57 PM on September 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


Cooooooooooooooooooooooooop!
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:05 PM on September 12, 2017 [1 favorite]


At the very least, it seems like reality starts to get a little bit wobbly in the Roadhouse, which seems fitting given its status as a liminal space from the original show.

The strongest indicator that the roadhouse is not in our reality comes up in this episode (and to some degree during a few previous roadhouse musical performances): a wide shot shows the audience is standing in silent appreciation and the crowd is not a forest of raised smartphones recording the show.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:46 PM on July 4, 2020


Someone on Reddit cross-referenced the Polish accountant with the clues from the first FBI scene back in Part 3: bikini pinups indicating the suspect is male, pliers indicating that getting them to talk will be like pulling teeth, an sub-auto machine gun, a Euro-type snapshot of a child in a sailor's uniform, and a jar of beans (presumably for a bean counter).


I’m from MetaFilter Reddit and I could overthink a plate jar of beans.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:49 PM on July 4, 2020


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