Part 6 - Don't die (SPOILERS)

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Xavi
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Re: Part 6 - Don't die (SPOILERS)

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claaa7 wrote:
Mr. Reindeer wrote:
Xavi wrote:Later it is revealed that this "Farewell Theme" is closely connected to the Giant/Fireman/??????? and we will hear it two more times, maybe more?
When does it play in connection with the Fireman? I remember it playing again when Margaret dies. But "The Fireman" in Part 8 is a totally separate composition.
yes, we hear it over Margaret's death and over Cooper's farewell to Janey-E and Sonny Jim.. i'd say it's more of a song embodying a feeling, of loss, and having to let go, than a song that's tied to any specific character.
I'd say that Badalamenti's high pitched symphonic synthesizer music (almost like mimicking church organs sorts of themes) in each and every scene relates to that Big Guy Above, wether he's called The Giant/???????/The Fireman or not. My opinion only though.
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Part 6 - Don't die (SPOILERS)

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Max Von’s Bar (where Diane drinks) has a wall decoration listing cities/locations in Virginia (many if not all of which are locations of Civil War battles): Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Yorktown, Savage’s Station, White Oak Bridge, &c.

The exterior shot of Ike’s motel is the Hollywood Premiere Motel at 5330 Hollywood Blvd. Although the motel is supposed to be off the Vegas strip in-show, the ad for the Occidental College spring 2016 “3rd LA” event as well as the Serrano Ave. street sign are dead giveaways.

In contrast, an instance of the show paying attention to detail: when Phil rides the elevator up with Dougie, the cup with Frank’s name has a tea bag dangling from it — presumably a green tea latte, Frank’s new drink of choice!

Richard’s truck (or rather, the farmer’s truck, which Richard borrowed) has a locked trunk on the back bed. Wonder what’s inside?
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Re: Part 6 - Don't die (SPOILERS)

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The flip side of the “Now I know it isn’t Bob” diary entry page can be glimpsed in freeze frame as Hawk shuffles papers, and also in bleed-through when Frank is looking at the other side of the page. It is the penultimate entry from TSDoLP (talking about her safety deposit box and responses to her Fleshworld ad). This is an odd piece of discontinuity — they went out of their way to reference a page from the book which in the book continuity was NOT torn out (although it did immediately precede torn-out pages which may have contained material about Laura learning her abuser’s identity). I assume Sheryl was responsible for these references to TSD given her love for the book, and the fact that the pages appear to have been handwritten by her.

In contrast, the flip side of the Annie page is original material with Laura continuing to muse about the dream (nothing revelatory). I don’t believe we ever see the flip side of the Nancy/Halloween entry.
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Xavi
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Re: Part 6 - Don't die (SPOILERS)

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Most of the times when I describe very detailed observations they serve a purpose, and I would expose such purpose, according my understanding and interpretation. Just observing tiny little oddities without any clarification is like describing each molecule in the water, while possibly someone is drowning.
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Re: Part 6 - Don't die (SPOILERS)

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Xavi wrote:Most of the times when I describe very detailed observations they serve a purpose, and I would expose such purpose, according my understanding and interpretation. Just observing tiny little oddities without any clarification is like describing each molecule in the water, while possibly someone is drowning.
Elaborate theorizing isn’t the way I engage with DKL’s works. Based on years of following his work and interviews with the man, I don’t believe there is an articulable “explanation” for what we see on screen; it’s more an intuitive logic that he expressed through audiovisual means because that’s the only way it CAN be expressed. I don’t want to discount anyone else’s POV; you’ve made some interesting observations, and there’s no denying that TP:TR seems to be engaging with freeze frame/puzzle-box storytelling far more than any of DKL’s prior works (e.g., the Sarah/Jumping Man mashup). But DKL has consistently said over the years that his works are meant to wash over the viewer and make sense subconsciously, not be explainable through words/logic, and the 20,000 myriad academic interpretations of Eraserhead and INLAND EMPIRE seem to bear that out. I just don’t believe that we’re going to find the “meaning” of TP:TR, and I’m not personally particularly interested in trying.

OTOH, now that we have a true HD copy of the work, I am thoroughly enjoying exploring every corner of the world DKL chose to display onscreen. Is some of the stuff I’m observing arcane, boring and overly OCD? Probably. But it’s stuff that fascinated me, so I thought it might be of interest to at least one or two other people. For instance, the fact that tulpa-Diane’s favorite bar (and by extension her home) seems to be in Virginia fleshes out her backstory a bit and gets me dreaming about what her life might be like.
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Re: Part 6 - Don't die (SPOILERS)

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Sonny Jim’s bedroom feels like such a 1950s nostalgia fantasy, with all the cowboy paraphernalia, the rocket and dinosaur, the Hardy Boys books, the ViewMaster (!!). I think it probably looks more like Lynch and Frost’s bedrooms when they were kids than it does any living kid’s today.

Every time I watch the scene of Janey-E yelling at the loan sharks, other than laughing nonstop, I try to find some rationale for the Tommy character seemingly being dead on Carrie Page’s couch in P18. Janey-E does say, “We are living in a dark dark age, and you are part of the problem,” but other than that random judgment by her, they don’t seem to have anything to do with anything outside that little scene.

Is Lorraine’s death the goriest scene in TP? I guess Sam and Tracey’s deaths maybe rival it, but this feels way more visceral and grounded.

Whenever I think of Frank Truman, I primarily think of him as a comedic character, since so many of his scenes are about him playing the stoic stone-faced straight man in the way that only Robert Forster could. But the backstory about his son, as well as the phone call with Harry in P5, really adds a poignancy to him. It’s sad, in light of Forster’s passing, when Richard, shit that he is, says the sheriff is basically 90. Likewise, hearing Carl mourn having nothing to look forward to in life is heartbreaking now. But I also love the joyfulness of, “I’ve been smoking for 75 years, every fuckin’ day,” with HDS’s joyful death-defying smile. God bless that man. God bless them both.

Chad is truly insufferable. He should go work in Deer Meadow. He’d fit right in.

Any thoughts on how many kids Frank has? We of course learn about the deceased son in this one. In the last one, Doris mentions Dwight having diarrhea and says “he” got into the cupboard again. I’d assumed this is a younger child, but now I’m thinking maybe Dwight is a pet of some sort. She also mentions “the twins” coming this weekend, which I assume are adult offspring of theirs, but who knows. She could mean Pete Martell’s old traveling buddies the Doolittle twins!

I wonder if Harry ever married. I sort of imagine him carrying a torch for Josie for the rest of his days. He seems like such a hopeless romantic.

This Part’s edition of DougieCoop’s Diet:
— Janey-E makes him a sandwich (it looks like ham and lettuce on whole wheat), which he eats along with Miss Vickie’s Original Recipe potato chips
— DougieCoop has his own coffee from Szymon’s when he comes into work
Last edited by Mr. Reindeer on Thu May 21, 2020 9:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Part 6 - Don't die (SPOILERS)

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Forgive me if this has been said before...I was idly pondering Cooper’s two “sons,” Sonny Jim and Richard, wondering if there were any connections or parallels, which then got me trying to even remember any lines that Sonny Jim has. He’s a pretty quiet kid. The first that sprung to mind was in this Part: “I already brushed my teeth,” which calls to mind the Doppelganger in TMP: “But I haven’t brushed my teeth.” Probably just a coincidence, but thought it was worth mentioning.
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