Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 17 First Watch
September 3, 2017 7:19 PM - Season 3, Episode 17 - Subscribe
The past dictates the future. (description from Showtime)
Can I just pretend it stopped here? Because Julee Cruise in the Roadhouse singing "The World Spins" is exactly what I expected.....
posted by dnash at 7:24 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by dnash at 7:24 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
I've honestly waited 26 years to see Lucy do that.
posted by infinitewindow at 7:30 PM on September 3, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by infinitewindow at 7:30 PM on September 3, 2017 [8 favorites]
(I can't keep watching as I have an appointment to keep in half an hour! This is unbearable and I found the last 20+ minutes starting with Coop's superimposed face somewhat strange!)
posted by kenko at 7:33 PM on September 3, 2017
posted by kenko at 7:33 PM on September 3, 2017
I am a sucker for any orpheus/Lot's wife plot device or iconography or allusion or LITERALLY ANYTHING, show me a severed head or a scene in hell or a fuckin salt cellar and you got me. so you can imagine how I felt about this. it killed me in my heart and I died of pity and love. all this time I kept being agitated because they were running out of time for Laura to rescue Cooper, it was so clear to me that they were running it backwards and that was what was coming, but WHEN. and then he woke up on his own and I thought, so much for that. I never thought to hope they'd let him try to save her again, with everything that would have to be sacrificed and everything it would have to mean. for Sarah Palmer most of all.
I am not sure about anything to do with timestreams but I am sure that if anything was changed so that Laura never came home and her body never was found, then it is the case that Sarah Palmer was living alone in that house with Leland Palmer for the rest of his life, the only ready supply of fear and pain for him when he was at home, however long that lasted in that other world. and that explains absolutely everything about her and the ending, as far as I can see.
and I think it is a good idea to separate discussion of the two halves of the end because people will love this one and hate the other and also not necessarily have watched both of them yet, but I think I am going to be a contrarian and love them both and argue they are inseparable and perfect, forever. but the part of this one that lasted from when Lucy figured out how cell phones work up until the end of the episode is the greatest part of the greatest show on earth. we live inside a dream. also, my laptop has a shiny screen that reflects my own face back to me during darkish scenes so I thought I was Dale Cooper's giant disembodied head for quite a while there.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:34 PM on September 3, 2017 [14 favorites]
I am not sure about anything to do with timestreams but I am sure that if anything was changed so that Laura never came home and her body never was found, then it is the case that Sarah Palmer was living alone in that house with Leland Palmer for the rest of his life, the only ready supply of fear and pain for him when he was at home, however long that lasted in that other world. and that explains absolutely everything about her and the ending, as far as I can see.
and I think it is a good idea to separate discussion of the two halves of the end because people will love this one and hate the other and also not necessarily have watched both of them yet, but I think I am going to be a contrarian and love them both and argue they are inseparable and perfect, forever. but the part of this one that lasted from when Lucy figured out how cell phones work up until the end of the episode is the greatest part of the greatest show on earth. we live inside a dream. also, my laptop has a shiny screen that reflects my own face back to me during darkish scenes so I thought I was Dale Cooper's giant disembodied head for quite a while there.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:34 PM on September 3, 2017 [14 favorites]
I guess I really should have watched FWWM again :(
posted by kenko at 7:46 PM on September 3, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by kenko at 7:46 PM on September 3, 2017 [3 favorites]
Having Naido be who she was instead of who we thought she might be was excellent.
And also I went into this episode thinking holy cow he's going to tie everything up into a tidy bow...
posted by elsietheeel at 7:57 PM on September 3, 2017
And also I went into this episode thinking holy cow he's going to tie everything up into a tidy bow...
posted by elsietheeel at 7:57 PM on September 3, 2017
When the half-dissolve closeup started, I thought of Lost Highway, and how Fred remembered things the way he wanted to. But Cooper's face is so perturbed during the long closeup. He knows that what he's seeing is somehow a lie, and his expression signals that the truth is disturbing (even though it's still largely unknown). Maybe the next part is about the truth. I'm still unsure. Need to rewatch.
Earlier this week I was planning an unwise purchase to give myself a gift... something more expensive than a new shirt at the men's store, or a cup of hot, black coffee. I convinced myself I deserved it. The night before I was to go to the store, I had a cinematic dream about poverty, physical and spiritual; generational economic violence; and the poor decisions we make so we don't feel so poor.
I'm glad my subconscious spoke up and warned me off. Maybe I can entertain myself or others in better than 4K Dolby Vision by writing down and fleshing out that dream into a crime novel or screenplay. But I will always be the person who can lie somewhat convincingly to myself. It's a sobering trait I hoped never to have, and now I share it with a former fictional childhood hero.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:35 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
Earlier this week I was planning an unwise purchase to give myself a gift... something more expensive than a new shirt at the men's store, or a cup of hot, black coffee. I convinced myself I deserved it. The night before I was to go to the store, I had a cinematic dream about poverty, physical and spiritual; generational economic violence; and the poor decisions we make so we don't feel so poor.
I'm glad my subconscious spoke up and warned me off. Maybe I can entertain myself or others in better than 4K Dolby Vision by writing down and fleshing out that dream into a crime novel or screenplay. But I will always be the person who can lie somewhat convincingly to myself. It's a sobering trait I hoped never to have, and now I share it with a former fictional childhood hero.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:35 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
Low key the best moment of the episode was when Bushnell Mullins just wouldn't give Special Agent Headley his phone back after talking to Cole. I'm still delighted thinking about it.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:44 PM on September 3, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 9:44 PM on September 3, 2017 [9 favorites]
Special Agent Headley had a terrific suit.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:47 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:47 PM on September 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
Having Naido be who she was instead of who we thought she might be was excellent.
I feel dumb for not having been able to tell who she was, rather than who we thought she might be! Unless she was, in fact, Judy, somehow. Or whatever.
posted by kenko at 10:15 PM on September 3, 2017
I feel dumb for not having been able to tell who she was, rather than who we thought she might be! Unless she was, in fact, Judy, somehow. Or whatever.
posted by kenko at 10:15 PM on September 3, 2017
What the fuck just happened? Do I exist? DO I EXIST? HELP!
posted by adept256 at 12:31 AM on September 4, 2017
posted by adept256 at 12:31 AM on September 4, 2017
Do I exist? DO I EXIST?
coffee pot steam signs point to yes
posted by flabdablet at 10:46 AM on September 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
coffee pot steam signs point to yes
posted by flabdablet at 10:46 AM on September 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
Naido is, of course, "O Dian" backwards, but it's difficult to tell whether that's a Fleetwood Mac reference, or the Japanese O- honorific prefix.
"It's a good job we made so many sandwiches!"
I'd like to think that Candie settles in Twin Peaks. I think they'd be perfectly matched.
posted by Grangousier at 4:43 PM on September 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
"It's a good job we made so many sandwiches!"
I'd like to think that Candie settles in Twin Peaks. I think they'd be perfectly matched.
posted by Grangousier at 4:43 PM on September 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
All season I've felt the same way about the mythos infodumps and expansions as a grandparent feels about an infant grandchild: cute, but full of shit, and grateful when they're safely out of range of sight smell. Lois Duffy, spirit fingers, the magic ring and "jowday" (jiāodài?) all reek of juvenile storytelling (like the Hardy Boys book Sonny Jim was reading in bed earlier). But I don't think I would have started watching at age 11 if I hadn't had those childhood narrative conventions ready to be broken.
This part reiterated the rules from Season 2, the first 16 parts, and, ya know, the last century of narrative cinema, and them broke them into pieces at the thirty minute mark, in a way that other prestige television programs simply can't. It's like watching an intricate chain of falling dominos stop in the middle, as an untoppled domino floats up out of line and begins to speak.
posted by infinitewindow at 8:47 PM on September 4, 2017 [5 favorites]
This part reiterated the rules from Season 2, the first 16 parts, and, ya know, the last century of narrative cinema, and them broke them into pieces at the thirty minute mark, in a way that other prestige television programs simply can't. It's like watching an intricate chain of falling dominos stop in the middle, as an untoppled domino floats up out of line and begins to speak.
posted by infinitewindow at 8:47 PM on September 4, 2017 [5 favorites]
Um, did I pick a good time or a bad time to start watching the show again?
posted by homunculus at 9:33 PM on September 7, 2017
posted by homunculus at 9:33 PM on September 7, 2017
I just synced up Part 17 and Part 18 and watched them simultaneously comment on each other. If this is your idea of a good time, then yes, you picked a good time to start watching again.
posted by infinitewindow at 1:09 PM on September 8, 2017
posted by infinitewindow at 1:09 PM on September 8, 2017
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by JimBennett at 7:20 PM on September 3, 2017