So many things ARE indeed out of chronological order in the physical reality, but following dream logic this order is essentially the only way that makes sense: the appearance of one memory triggers the appearance of another while this memory could be of something that happened before the other. I’m of the contention that the element of time is of crucial importance in IE: thematically as well as structurally.
Yeah, I like that way of putting it, and I basically agree.
Memory is definitely crucial, in that Sue is remembering her life. (Since she is very much dead.)
You state that the characters are real and the actors are fake. You write that Sue Blue and Billy Side are real people. I was wondering: since you believe that Sue and Lost Girl are two halfs of the same person than how can Sue Blue be real? She represents one half so she must be metaphorical wouldn’t you agree?
This is a movie that is showing us actual spiritual mechanics, not just crazy dream metaphors. I think that view has mountains of evidence to support it, all of which is seen in the film.
Sue and Lost Girl being spiritual halves — if not halves, very intimately linked — seems very clear to me.
That's why I titled the analysis "HALFBORN." I think it's the crux of the movie. And it's a term coined by Lynch himself within the film:
"A little girl went out to play. Lost in the marketplace as if half-born."
– Visitor #1
Lost Girl is not experiencing incarnate life. But she is "half" experiencing Sue's life as she very empathically and emotionally watches it unfold on the TV. Her connection with Sue goes even beyond that empathy link. Lynch and Dern themselves lay it out pretty well as they're shooting the scene:
Lynch: She'll see you looking at her from the TV.
Dern: Okay. Okay.
Lynch: You know, like that. You're lookin' right at the camera.
Dern: And I'm looking at the camera as though I see myself?
Lynch: You see your—yeah, yeah.
She sees Lost Girl, and Lost girl sees her. They are seeing each other but also themselves.
Just to put a cherry on top and make sure we understand, Lynch actually shows them merging at the end.
So…according to you Sue is real. Who according to you is the Dern character who talks to Mr K with a southern accent and is quite vulgar? Are these all representations of the same Sue according to you?
Yeah, when Dern is talking to Mr. K, that is probably the purest embodiment of Sue. It's the same Sue we see having the affair with Billy or slogging through that horrible relationship with Smithy... just a bit grittier. Because she is talking about the worst parts of her life.
And who is the Dern character on Hollywood Boulevard?
Sue, when she "dies" on Hollywood & Vine, is already dead. Play-acting her death (probably as it happened) triggers her realization that she is and has been dead, and that it's time to move on.
She then does just that — moves on — walking past Kingsley, ignoring the Nikki Grace fantasy, because she knows it is a fantasy. We then see her slowly travel through the layers of the spirit world until she reaches Lost Girl.
And if you believe Sue Blue to be real than do you think that what we see happening to her is real and in real time?
This is one of the more mysterious parts of Inland Empire. I believe what we see is an ambiguous combination of living and reliving. There is certainly a lot of dream-like and surreal reliving. (Most of it is probably that.) The question is how much of which are we seeing. I'm not sure the answer is actually important, but it's kind of interesting.
If that didn't make sense, I try to explain this starting with Part 3 - Dream Origin, supported by plenty of evidence.