Does Anyone Dislike Episode 29?

[bowisneski]

Long time lurker, first time poster with what I feel is an interesting question.

I personally love it, but I've been showing a friend the show on an episode per week basis. Besides James and Donna/Evelyn and Tojumura stuff, he enjoyed to loved everything. I even showed him FWwM right after episode 14 as an experiment, and he was all about it and couldn't believe it when I told him it didn't receive the warmest welcome back in the day.

However, last night, we finally got to Episode 29 and he isn't sure if he cares for it at all. This was a new opinion to me, never run in to a fan who didn't like it, and he said he couldn't quite put it in to words yet.

So I was just wondering if anyone else knew anyone, or happened to be someone, who doesn't care for the finale. If so, I'm interested in why if you feel like sharing.

[laughingpinecone]

Initial impressions as liveblogged on social media are often negative (I saw a "4/10 final episode" this very morning), but it's to be expected. Wish more people shared their thoughts once the shock wears off. I know it took me a few days to process it all!

[Rudagger]

I imagine for some people the shock of the cliffhanger overwhelms their opinion of the episode.

Having said that, I don't know why someone would hate it now, especially that we're getting more and the cliffhanger won't be unresolved anymore.

I watched 29 six or seven years ago, so, before the new season was announced. It was like a huge punch to the gut. A great one. But, an utterly depressing non-ending to a series, as without the knowledge that more is coming, you essentially resign Coop to that fate.

[mtwentz]

Long time lurker, first time poster with what I feel is an interesting question.

I personally love it, but I've been showing a friend the show on an episode per week basis. Besides James and Donna/Evelyn and Tojumura stuff, he enjoyed to loved everything. I even showed him FWwM right after episode 14 as an experiment, and he was all about it and couldn't believe it when I told him it didn't receive the warmest welcome back in the day.

However, last night, we finally got to Episode 29 and he isn't sure if he cares for it at all. This was a new opinion to me, never run in to a fan who didn't like it, and he said he couldn't quite put it in to words yet.

So I was just wondering if anyone else knew anyone, or happened to be someone, who doesn't care for the finale. If so, I'm interested in why if you feel like sharing.

I had a couple of friends who hated episode 29- and they watched shortly after the initial airing.

I'm not sure why, they never explained it to me.

[LostInTheMovies]

I even showed him FWwM right after episode 14 as an experiment, and he was all about it and couldn't believe it when I told him it didn't receive the warmest welcome back in the day.

Interesting placement; the Twin Peaks machete order! I read an article a while back that made a compelling case for watching the film there - is that where you got the idea or did you come up with it independently?

I know some people on the old Usenet boards were disappointed with the finale and I've definitely seen a lot of new viewers frustrated by it (albeit usually in the "that was really good but whaaaaaat?" fashion).

[David Locke]

Is it weird that I almost miss the way that Episode 29 felt before we knew we'd be getting new episodes? Watching for the first time in 2009, or subsequent rewatches in 2011-2013 and such, that ending was SUCH a kick in the face, I mean it hurt but the power and the audacity and bitterness and darkness of it all was so unprecedented in TV finales. So now knowing we're actually getting more kind of changes that sense.

Don't get me wrong, I'm over the moon that there's another season of this show, I'm just kinda saying, on some small level I really perversely enjoyed the fucked-up feeling you got from watching 29 and knowing that it was (in all likelihood) THE END. Just really made a deep impression on me.

[StealThisCorn]

While I absolutely love all the Lynchian Red Room stuff, I think the episode does have its weaknesses to be honest. Mostly, I think parts of it get dragged down because it's saddled with weaker plot elements from late that season which had to be integrated and wrapped up somehow. References to King Arthur, the "mystery" over Donna's parentage, Windom Earle etc. Those all stick out like sore thumbs when the rest of the episode gets elevated to the quality of early Season 2. Personally, I think Episode 9 remains the absolute best of the series because it hits all the right Peaks notes.

[Eater of Iguanas]

I definitely find it overrated, for largely the same reasons that StealThisCorn mentions (though I'm in the minority camp that finds the Donna's parentage plotline reasonably compelling - especially compared to the Civil War and M.T. Wentz crap, and a lot of similar stuff that preceded it).

Now, I pretty nearly hated the episode when I first saw it on original airing - but that's where I was then with this show - bitter, heartbroken, and hostile.

[N. Needleman]

I don't mind the Donna/Ben mystery at all. I just don't know where it would've gone. If they'd gotten Lara's colder Donna involved with Ben and the business, and had Audrey maybe go to work with Catherine or something, that could've been very interesting, very Douglas Sirk.

[FrightNight]

While I absolutely love all the Lynchian Red Room stuff, I think the episode does have its weaknesses to be honest. Mostly, I think parts of it get dragged down because it's saddled with weaker plot elements from late that season which had to be integrated and wrapped up somehow. References to King Arthur, the "mystery" over Donna's parentage, Windom Earle etc. Those all stick out like sore thumbs when the rest of the episode gets elevated to the quality of early Season 2. Personally, I think Episode 9 remains the absolute best of the series because it hits all the right Peaks notes.

How can you say Windom Earle is some sort of redundant aspect of the episode, when he was, bar Cooper, the most important element that led to the Black Lodge?! Moreover, it's not like the episode took its sweet time to wrap up his storyline (not that I'm complaining - I think his undoing at the hands of Bob was the stuff of brilliance!)...
On other front, I'm inclined to agree with you about the merit of Episode 9 (I take it that you mean the second ep of S 2, which also goes by the name "Coma" in some circles?).

[Rudagger]

While I absolutely love all the Lynchian Red Room stuff, I think the episode does have its weaknesses to be honest. Mostly, I think parts of it get dragged down because it's saddled with weaker plot elements from late that season which had to be integrated and wrapped up somehow. References to King Arthur, the "mystery" over Donna's parentage, Windom Earle etc. Those all stick out like sore thumbs when the rest of the episode gets elevated to the quality of early Season 2. Personally, I think Episode 9 remains the absolute best of the series because it hits all the right Peaks notes.

How can you say Windom Earle is some sort of redundant aspect of the episode, when he was, bar Cooper, the most important element that led to the Black Lodge?! Moreover, it's not like the episode took its sweet time to wrap up his storyline (not that I'm complaining - I think his undoing at the hands of Bob was the stuff of brilliance!)...
On other front, I'm inclined to agree with you about the merit of Episode 9 (I take it that you mean the second ep of S 2, which also goes by the name "Coma" in some circles?).

To be fair, he said the Windom Earle stuff is weak, not redundant. Just because it's important to the plot doesn't necessarily mean it's compelling material.

(I say this as someone who finds Windom Earle's only positive aspect to be that it gave an actual direction to the show .. everything else about him is terribly un-menacing .. which is a really bad trait for a main villain)

[bob_wooler]

Just because it's important to the plot doesn't necessarily mean it's compelling material.

Couldn't agree more. Even at 14 (back in '91) I found Earle boring and extremely out of place. Cartoonish characters like that just don't fit well with the TP universe IMO, especially not as a villain. And it's not to Windom Earle's credit that Cooper found his way to the Black Lodge, it's bad writing that got him there

[N. Needleman]

I like certain elements of the Windom Earle story onscreen; I also think on paper it's great and I think Kenneth Welsh does great work. I think other parts are really, really poorly executed. As fun as the show could be there was no need for Earle's first full episode to be him prancing around in long underwear playing the flute. They needed to build his menace more.

I think Lynch was right to almost totally dismiss him in the finale. He'd had enough exposure. The finale showed Earle to be a pretender to the real nightside of the town and the show, and refocused the story on what mattered. Earle's threat was ultimately just an entry point into Dale's character.

[djerdap]

It can still be a very polarizing episode, especially for those who are more of season 1 enthusiasts and are not that into full-on Lynchian weirdness. Plus the ending is way too heavy for some I guess. I loved it from the beginning and I still think it's the most successful attempt at a "soft retcon" ever made. Pretty much everything that came post-Leland is nullified in a healthy fashion, apart from an occasional weird subplot.

Regarding Windom Earle, I think Lynch put him firmly in his place here. And I have to say Kenneth Welsh's performance exacerbated further the already problematic writing of the character. The fake, over-the-top laughing was especially unbearable. The only time I find him remotely funny or entertaining was the improvised "Twelve rainbow trout!" (suggested by DKL of course) line. Lynch was right in making him a self-conscious caricature who's in way over his head.

Can anyone imagine Welsh selling these lines if, say Tim Hunter directed the episode (from the original script)?

EARLE
Good answer. I've always hoped my endless hours of
mentoring might CONTRIBUTE to the development
of a fertile MIND. You were such a dullard, Coopy, such
an earnest, plodding, do-gooding Eagle Scout - it was
all I could do sometimes to keep myself from
SHREDDING YOUR INTERNAL ORGANS OUT OF
GENERAL PRINCIPLE!

Or this gem:

EARLE (CONTINUED)
In case of emergency, break glass.
(turning back to Cooper)
Here's the deal, Dale. Throne room. Windom.
Windom sits on throne. Windom king. Windom happy.
Problem: Windom need to make deposit first. That's
how it works. Windom can't make deposit all by
himself. Windom un-happy.

It's a miracle we got an episode this great when the writing was so misguided (which includes Mark Frost) at this point.

[David Locke]

Oh god, my eyes!! The bad writing, it burns!

Seriously, though, we are very lucky Lynch did what he did with the script.