The Official Twin Peaks Thread (TOTPT)

[Jeremy Blackman]

Um. Yeah. That was definitely one of the most magnificent things to ever be on television.

SPOILERS

I was like, wow I did not expect a NIN concert video in the middle of this episode, that's weird! Oh how naive I was. David Lynch just does what he wants. I feel like he has now reached total dominance.

That frog-roach, though. Really. And those freaking demons. I was just almost done being haunted by the icepick murder scene from two weeks ago.

MORE SPOILERS

Back to 308...

I see conflicting accounts of the woodsman's poem. At least 3 different ones. This should be right, though. It's what the subtitles say and definitely seems to be accurate:


This is the water and this is the well
Drink full and descend
The horse is the white of the eyes and dark within

[Sleepless]

I was like, wow I did not expect a NIN concert video in the middle of this episode, that's weird! Oh how naive I was.

^ My thoughts exactly!

It's a sort of relief to learn there's no new episode next week. It'll give me some more time to rewatch and process this a bit more.

Lynch grew up in the post-atomic era, and as such his childhood was colored by the conflicting aspects of 20th century Americana: apple pies and A-bombs. So when we first got that shot of the mushroom cloud, I had a huge smile on my face. And then... Well...

He's always been preoccupied by this dichotomy of light and dark, good and evil, and I'm still trying to figure out exactly what this origin story says. Is it that the world was a lot simpler or a lot more complex before humankind split the atom and wielded such power, and wrought such destruction? I don't know. Part of me feels like we're witnessing Lynch's self-portrait of his own creation. There's definitely some similarities to the opening "fertilization" of Eraserhead, and although the timing doesn't quite work, it could be seen as lining up to baby Lynch in utero. This masterpiece is tied to his own life story and creativity. It also negates my original question of whether the blast caused a more harmonious (and thus complex) existence of good and evil or cast the two of them as more or less parallel opposites. It's both. It's neither. Because before Lynch was born, there was no world. The blast was the beginning of everything.

Let's talk about the orbs containing Bob and Laura Palmer. One and the same, or opposite sides of the same coin? We've already seen Laura in the Black Lodge can be terrifying. We've seen her remove her face mask and expose the bright white radiation within. Maybe the Woodsman is Bob, the embodiment of darkness, eternally searching, hopelessly, for some light. But he repulses and scares everyone, so that he can only hope to get close to what he wants by leaning into the darkness and violently going after it.

Laura, we know, is the embodiment of conflicting natures - purity and sinful - and where else have we seen that before? Very recently? And before, repeatedly. In her mother, Sarah Palmer. Watching violent nature documentaries, and simultaneously being repulsed and aroused by them. The actress that plays her is Grace Zabriskie. She would have been 15 years old in 1956, which seems a fit for the Girl we see in the 1956 sequence of this episode. I believe that the "bug" we saw crawl into the Girl's mouth was born of the Laura orb, and the Girl is young Sarah Palmer. The Laura orb is taking a different path, but essentially wants the same thing as Bob. Lightness in a world of darkness. But even "Laura" cannot pursuit that path without Bob's help - hypnotizing an entire town in order to find sanctuary in this chaste young woman. The pursuit of goodness requires the aid of evil. And vice verse. They are one and the same.

Maybe that's what this is all about - the unyielding human pursuit of contentment, a quest for transcendental enlightenment. But there is always darkness and evil in the world. Even Laura could not avoid it. No-one in Twin Peaks can. But there are those who seem a lot closer to "enlightenment" than others. People who have experienced trying times, but by embracing normality, doing their best to be good neighbors, live positive lives, living fairly mundane and unspectacular existences. We've seen several of them already in this revival. Perhaps Bobby, Andy, and Lucy, most notably. People who, despite the horrors they encountered in the show's original run, have found normality and continued with their own lives, finding something fairly close to happiness, but all too aware that darkness still lurks all around them.

[Jeremy Blackman]

SPOILS

I think we have to first interpret the shadow mother that projectile vomits that stream of stuff (garmonbozia?) which contains the Bob orb. Is all of that still happening inside the explosion, as if a netherworld was created inside the blast? Or did the explosion create a connection with a pre-existing netherworld?

There are some egg-like objects in the vomit. That might be where the egg came from, which we see hatch later.

I kind of hope that girl is not Sarah Palmer, because I don't see a connection that makes sense to me. The frog-roach seems to be malevolent, but I don't see that kind of malevolence in Sarah or Laura. Maybe I'm wrong.

I don't think we can conclude from this episode what's going on there. Perhaps we'll get more of this origin story.

...

"Horse to the well" is a phrase repeated at least twice in Inland Empire. Now the woodsman is talking about "the horse" and "the well" in Twin Peaks. The woodsman looks like the man behind Winkie's. At least one character from Mulholland Drive appears in Inland Empire. Shared universe? (Probably not, but this is fun.)

Anything else? Trent Reznor, playing at the club, looks a lot like Bill Pullman in Lost Highway. Patrick Fischler appears in Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks, and the conspiracy here has similarities to the casting conspiracy in Mulholland Drive. Brent Briscoe plays a detective in both MD and Twin Peaks, and maybe Robert Forster served as his partner while Harry was still sheriff.

[polkablues]

New theory: Evil Cooper's look is definitely based on modern-day Quentin Tarantino.

EDIT: Apparently I need to find a different photo host than Photobucket now...

[Sleepless]

An expansion of my thoughts above: The Road to Twin Peaks: Thoughts on The Return So Far

[polkablues]

http://thesearchforthezone.com/

[Fernando]

Finally I'm caught up, so far 308 takes the cake in the wtf is going on category in an awesome way, but my fave wtf moment are the first 17 minutes of 303, those were a thing of beauty.

308 reminded me of Ronnie rocket, that script that leaked years ago, never read the whole thing but somehow I thought about it.

[WorldForgot]

308 reminded me of Ronnie rocket, that script that leaked years ago, never read the whole thing but somehow I thought about it.

Yeah I really got the feeling that he amped up on the electricity concept that could have been with RR.

[Sleepless]

Some great stuff in last night's episode, but I guess everyone else is going to play catchup in favor of GOT now? The Horne family drama is quickly shaping up into the primary conventional narrative, meanwhile the Log Lady scenes were some of the most moving moments of the show so far for me personally. I'm head over heels in love with this show and in a constant state of butterflies. It's Lynch's eulogy to himself and all the people he has loved and worked with.

[Drenk]

It felt like a transition after last week's transition, but the long song at the end makes me think that now we're, as the Log Lady fears, losing the glow...ENTER DARKNESS. What I like from this season–but can't articulate yet before it ends-is the collection of mini-scenes leading to nothing...before It continues...six weeks later. Now that time is running out, I wonder if it will go on that way. Or if we are heading toward some kind of convergence. It feels like they could go on for 50 episodes. But I don't feel like they're slowing the pace.

Albert "what happens in season 2?" and the Mitchums wtfing after watching Candy on the screen show that Lynch & Frost are very aware of playing with the codes and the viewers.

On Twitter I read: "Tammy is the new Cooper." Very true.

[WorldForgot]

It feels like they could go on for 50 episodes. But I don't feel like they're slowing the pace.

This is the feeling I got from the latest episode. Although the circle is almost complete for Our Characters, The Return has shown us that there are many more lives affected by Twin Peaks, and that its history flows in both directions. I wonder where Lynch's vision will leave us, and I hope it is as open-ended as the Szn 2 finale.

[polkablues]

I can suspend my disbelief about an awful lot when it comes to this show, but the music acts that the roadhouse in this rural Western Washington logging town keeps booking are really pushing it. Ancient malevolent forces, fine. Alternate planes of reality clashing and co-mingling, I'm totally on board. Ethereal chamber retro goth music at a venue that would realistically be booking nothing but Hinder cover bands? You lost me.

[Fernando]

I can suspend my disbelief about an awful lot when it comes to this show, but the music acts that the roadhouse in this rural Western Washington logging town keeps booking are really pushing it. Ancient malevolent forces, fine. Alternate planes of reality clashing and co-mingling, I'm totally on board. Ethereal chamber retro goth music at a venue that would realistically be booking nothing but Hinder cover bands? You lost me.

But...it is Twin Peaks, they have this dance music on their jukebox:

[Jeremy Blackman]

This is from a fun interview with the guy who plays scumbag Richard Horne. Here he describes getting cast by Lynch over the phone. No audition, no rehearsal...

http://www.vulture.com/2017/07/eamon-farren-twin-peaks-lynchian-villain.html

He called me at home in Australia on a Sunday a week before I left to come. He asked if I had any questions and I said, Yeah, I have a bunch of questions, can I ask who I'm playing? He said, No buddy, not really. Come over here and come into this cool forest and make a cool thing with cool people. So that's all I had. I jumped on a plane the morning after we closed The Present and I arrived in Seattle and started shooting. With the whole thing, because we only get scenes only on the day of, I threw myself into it not really knowing anything. That was a really cool way to work — I turned up. I had brief chats with Lynch about little things not really to do with the character, it was more about each other and sharing a laugh. I got a sense of Richard from the writing. It's all on the page, really. That's the great thing about Lynch. The writing is so particular. I didn't have a lot of go on except in the moment on the day, and that was a really great experience, to throw yourself in and find yourself in the moment. We usually only did one or two takes for each scene. If there's anyone you're going to trust in the world, it's going to be David Lynch.

[Drenk]

I don't entirely understand why he would do that with his actors. It's the firs time, right? I understand the fear of any leak, but what's more important? Hype and mystery or your actors knowing who they are playing?