Part 8 - Gotta light? (SPOILERS)

[mtwentz]

Im shocked we haven't gotten a glimpse of Ed yet 8 ! Eight episodes in and nothing from him , a single scene of James , a couple of Bobby scenes , Nadine just smiling at a screen .. I would have never guessed jerry would have gotten more screen time by this point in the series than those original cast members .. we are one episode away from the halfway point of the series and I won't lie I am starting to get a little frustrated ... and then you throw an episode like this in the mix ... yikes , I trust frost and lynch to hopefully bring it all together and at the same time I think there's an equal chance that they don't .. and that would be really tragic and a big letdown. Also please don't reply with "this is their story that they're telling their way they don't owe you anything or any explanations" . I beg to differ , we as the fans literally gave them a job and a salary to create something we could enjoy and they're really playing with us here . I watched this episode 3 times last night and was up to way too late with a cold and I'm high on cold/ flu medicine so maybe I'm just in a funk but honeslty this episode was lovely to look at but a pain in the ass to watch. Long extended takes with actors in a scene is one thing , but to have such a long extended cut of explosions and swirls of color was just ... too much. That could have been cleaned up and cut down a bit , Atleast in my opinion.

Anyways sorry I just totally rambled on and on and it probably made about as much sense as this episode so I guess it's fitting I didn't know where to stop , kind of like lynch clearly not having one single person on set to tell him no or to stop himself .. lol

I will never agree with this perspective, but I respect those who feel that way. I don't think artists owe their fans anything. Lynch and Frost WILL alienate many with the show - either last night with E8 or they did it right back in the beginning - and that's sad, but ultimately necessary. Twin Peaks will move on.

The late Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead was once asked why he did not continue to play some of the older songs that the fans just loved. He basically said he was bored with those particular songs, and if he could not entertain himself, he sure as hell could not entertain anyone else.

I feel Lynch's philosophy is quite similar to Garcia's in this regard. I think Lynch would find a simple nostalgia tour quite boring and I don't think he would have been involved in this project just to recreate something he already did 26 years ago.

[Rhodes]

But I am afraid that Showtime is not going to be fooled for a second time.

Fooled? They made money out of this.

Also, do you honestly think they actually gave him total freedom and a blank check? There was supervision, just very limited on the artistic level. They certainly knew what Lynch was going to do and they probably saw a draft script before paying up for the filming of the show.


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I am curious if this is indeed true.

My two cents is that the final cut/result came as a big surprise for Showtime.

[djsunyc]

the slow zoom into the mushroom cloud may be the best cgi/visual i've ever seen on film.

[TheGum]

What about the little girl as Mrs. Tremont? She does end up above the convenience store...

[Nikki Grace]

the slow zoom into the mushroom cloud may be the best cgi/visual i've ever seen on film.

For all the talk about the "bad" CGI, I agree. That sequence felt to me like a cross between 2001 and The Tree of Life's creation scenes - but better!

[vicksvapor77]

Wow, what a batshit episode. I'm shooketh to my core haha.

Do we think this re-contextualizes the phrase "fire walk with me," with 'fire' referring to the atomic bomb and with 'walk' referring to the woodsmen walking through the desert?

Really not sure about Laura's golden soul orb, that was the one part I'm not sure I liked. I'd much rather her be a normal human girl who had to overcome her immense pain and suffering with her own fortitude and grace, not because she was made special in some way. Does no one else feel this way? Maybe we'll get more on how Laura came to be but it seems like she's some sort of supernatural spirit to me.

[Meaxylon]

I don't think the mothfrog/egg is Laura, I think these creatures are sinister. Aren't the woodsmen helping it to find a host by putting the humans to sleep? And I don't think it's Bob either. Bob is in the dark "bubble" with his face on it. "Mother"/Experiment spews out plenty of eggs along with the Bob-bubble. I don't know what they are, dark seeds perhaps. The sort of make me think of owls - the sharp/pointy nose-beak and the wings.

[madeleineferguson]

The atomic bomb sequence felt very Kubrick to me, and I couldn't put my finger on it while watching it... but it was the Penderecki Symphony. Kubrick scored the Shining almost entirely with Penderecki. Although Lynch used a different piece (Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima), Penderecki has a signature sound, and it's unmistakable.

Unimaginably thrilling art house cinema made for television. Last night was groundbreaking. Lynch truly out did himself!

[ThumbsUp]

Subversive and surprising. Loved it.

Can we talk about the "water and the well" poem? I found it and the guy both unspeakably horrifying. Why did it make people pass out/die? It seemed to be egging the frog-bug on, or buying time, or guiding it into the girl's mouth (also horrifying).

i'm leaning towards the frog being bob. the woodsmen was making folks pass out so that the frog can find a host.

significance of the little girl? she represented a pure life - wholesome and innocent. the evil that men do - aka building the nuke - destroyed all innocents and purity. the frog going into her mouth represented what man did to it's own species.

It also seemed to me like she opened her mouth for it - the bug didn't have to pry anything open. Reminds me of Bob and Laura ("Let me in") and the disturbing undertones of sexual assault in Twin Peaks. (Leland also "let Bob in") by his own admission.) The bug also plays on the parasitic elements of the show and how the spirits use vessels like doppelgangers, humans, owls.

[ThumbsUp]

Wow, what a batshit episode. I'm shooketh to my core haha.

Do we think this re-contextualizes the phrase "fire walk with me," with 'fire' referring to the atomic bomb and with 'walk' referring to the woodsmen walking through the desert?

Really not sure about Laura's golden soul orb, that was the one part I'm not sure I liked. I'd much rather her be a normal human girl who had to overcome her immense pain and suffering with her own fortitude and grace, not because she was made special in someway. Does no one else feel this way? Maybe we'll get more on how Laura came to be but it seems like she's some sort of supernatural spirit to me.

Yeah, the closeups of the bomb reminded me of the fire explosions in episode 29 in the Lodge after LMFAP says "fire walk with me."

Re: Laura, I'm kinda cold too, but perhaps she was just sent as Bob's foil, not a saviour for all of humanity? Bob is just one evil; Laura is just one good, who will defeat this particular evil?

[vicksvapor77]

The scene where the Giant/???? goes into the theater made me gasp. It looks very much like Club Silencio from Mulholland Drive, right?

Yup! The sequence was shot there

[KyleRickards]

Just a random thought. The LMFAP says where they're from there's always music in the air, but then the Giant says (about the record player), it's in our house now... does that mean anything?


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[KyleRickards]

One of the best hours of TV...ever. We basically got backstory/world building/mythology expansion in pure visual storytelling and no exposition! Lynch always was and still is a genius artist, period. This is bound to be the most polarizing episode by far, though. I can see people being furious and throwing their TVs out of the window.

My understanding is pretty much echoing what has been already said in this thread. Nuclear explosion opens a gate and bridges the two worlds. The Giant (?????) sends Laura's spirit to our world in order to save it, somehow. I guess the doppelgänger is no longer with BOB. I wonder how this will affect Cooper, or not. As someone who is seriously disturbed by insects, you can imagine that this got under my skin in a very horrific way. I think that neither the girl is Sara nor the bug is Laura. This is connected to something bad, the 'Experiment' (Mother?) vomited many eggs, along with the one that included BOB.

Anyway, that was probably the most intense hour of TV ever. Glad that we have 2 weeks to relax and contemplate.

I hope I never fall asleep with my mouth open!


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[boske]

Yes, having seen parts 5 and 6, I was afraid Lynch and Frost were going to pull a "Phantom Menace" on us. How wrong I was. This was stunning, where else will it go? Amazing.

Now, we should also refer to Revelation 16:13: "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet." That explains it, doesn't it? That cannot be Laura, it was clear right away.

[Jonah]

Just finished watching Episode 8.

Initial impressions.

I think this is an episode that defies – or transcends – critical analysis, in some respects.

“Eraserhead – The Episode” comes to mind as a good title, though there’s also a lot of influence from German Expressionist films here.

This still feels more and more like “The David Lynch TV Show” than ever before (and than “Twin Peaks”).

My favourite part was the bit with the Giant. I thought it was beautiful.

I also really liked the brief scene of the girl and boy walking on the path through the woods. I thought this was beautifully shot, especially the trees.

All of it was beautifully shot. The black and white is stunning.

I also thought the sound effects were wonderful and disconcerting.

And I really liked how Lynch incorporated Bob/Silva into this.

I skipped the song sequence in the bar, but otherwise watched it all.

The rest of it didn’t do a lot for me – and I neither loved it nor hated it.

I do think this episode was too long and feel it could have been accomplished in half the length.

I didn’t catch it when it premiered and read some recaps/reviews this morning before I watched it, which may have spoiled the possibility that this episode might have blown me away. But, in another respect, I am glad I knew what it was going to be like before I watched it, as it kept me from feeling disappointed or frustrated that the narrative wasn’t jumping ahead.

I think it’s wonderfully subversive that this episode followed Episode 7, which brought a lot of people on board, and did wonders for advancing the narrative. This one did not (unless you want to argue about advancing the mythology).

I don’t think it’s a step back narratively though. More like a sharp – and absurd – swerve in the story.

I thought that this would put a lot of people off, but if anything it seems to have gotten the show trending on Twitter for HOURS (it was still trending today when I woke up)—and a LOT of people talking about it.

So it looks like using this as the mid-season finale before the holiday break worked wonders. It might get a lot of new viewers on board and gives them ample time to rewatch the other episodes before the next part.

I can’t help wishing, though, that this episode had aired with another part that had a more traditional narrative and mid-season style cliffhanger. But I know that the whole point of this new series is to subvert expectations and detour from traditional TV narratives. Still, I would have loved a major cliffhanger in the town.

I think an episode like this had been on the cards for a long time as it was mentioned that if they had done a third series back in the day, there would have been something involving a planet of creamed corn – and this would have been a similar, mythology/cosmic-style episode I think.

It does have a bit of a “bonus” episode feel. Hard to guage if more episodes will be as out there – and seemingly as divorced from the main narrative - as this one. It feels a bit like the “Across the Sea” episode of the final season of “LOST”, though of course this is much much stranger!

I do think the series will be better on rewatch, once all parts have been aired, and people can dip in and out of the series and rewatch parts they like.

All in all, not sure what else to say. I can see that this one will be polarising. I can see how it might be frustrating and testing people’s patience. And I can also see how some people will love it. Myself – I’m not sure what to think. I appreciate getting the chance to see David Lynch making what he clearly wants to make and clearly loved making. Personally, I still prefer the original series, though.

As to the larger meaning of what this means about Laura and Bob, I’m not sure.