Cheers for the kind words!
Apologies if this has already been posted, but I quite liked some of the ideas in this piece:
http://politicsslashletters.org/dreamer ... ks-return/
And here are my own thoughts which I posted in the comments:
"Great piece, but while I agree with many of the core implications I don’t think that Lynch would be so willing to undermine FWWM in the way you suggest. The fact that Laura was raped and murdered by her father is the dark secret at the heart of the original Twin Peaks, and is to my mind more subversive and disturbing than the notion that Dale is the man responsible.
And yet in another sense, I do believe Dale is responsible for Laura’s death. Laura is the One, a figure representative of all the suffering inflicted on women by men who believe they cannot control their own impulses. If we are to understand that Mr C is a manifestation of Cooper’s psyche, not purely a comic-book villain, then we have to conclude that Cooper raped both Diane and Audrey. The darkness inside Leland is also inside him, and he too is in denial.
Cooper is not split into two, but three. There is a part on him which once to embrace the pure wilful selfishness embodied by Mr C. There is a part of him which believes he is still a hero, an archetypal detective on the side of good. But for the most part, he is Dougie, living an ordinary family life, suppressing his agency and consciousness altogether. Maybe this is the most practical approach, as he finds himself surrounded by people who love him, and even manages to spread good to his community in simple ways. But it is also a robotic, repetitive, and sad existence, and like Audrey’s delusion of an existence with Charlie, it cannot be sustained.
As Audrey is suppressing the reality of the trauma she has endured, so Cooper is suppressing the reality of the trauma for which he is responsible. Audrey allows her delusion to become more indulgent, and as she slips into a reverie with the hope of becoming one with her younger, innocent self, and Cooper lets himself become the hero, convincing himself that he has defeated evil once and for all. Both of these fantasies collapse in on themselves. Audrey cannot hide from her pain or the reality of her existence, and Cooper cannot save Laura from what has already occurred. His attempt to do so involves bringing a woman back to the site of her trauma, and denying that darkness could possibly come from the home.
I agree with you that one of the main themes of the season – like much of Lynch’s late work – is denial vs reality. If the original series and film are about the trauma of the victims, perpetrators, and those unable or unwilling to intervene, this new series adds the dimension of time. Sarah was representative of denial in the face of trauma in the original run (especially in light of FWWM), and we see what time has done to her, this gaping chasm of guilt and suffering which has overtaken her as the years have passed. Judy is “an extreme negative force”, and negativity does not have to characterise evil so much as neglect, or any behaviour “containing negation or denial”.
The inverse of Sarah’s void is Laura’s inner-light, and I think this is due to her crucial choice in FWWM to accept the truth and exert her agency even in the face of unimaginable torment. Maybe in that light it is possible to see Carrie Paige’s ending as a good thing, as this version of Laura who has escaped from and suppressed her pain is forced to confront reality. But Cooper or Richard cannot be a part of this catharsis, as he cannot believe he is doing anything other than taking this woman (who he still sees as Laura, not Carrie) back to a place of comfort and safety. Richard is of course the real Cooper, lost, confused, and dangerously at odds with his own fragile sense of self.
There are many characters and stories in The Return, but when viewed in light of this theme of reality in conflict with fantasy I think that all the disparate threads coalesce into something much clearer and more powerful."
Having been so harsh regarding the ideas in Cory TV's video, I welcome any thoughts regarding my view on the series - especially if you see it as "total fucking bullshit".