Part 8 - Gotta light? (SPOILERS)

[Mario Stein]

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?

I'm not sure about the connection, but the explosion reminded me Garland's visions when he was abducted (by woodsman?). He was sitting on some kind of throne and maybe was told about origin of evil coming to Earth after bomb explosion and this nuclear symbol on his neck is a clue for him to discover what happened after the Trinity explosion?

[claaa7]

See what I mean, he puts everything under our noses and we don't even learn to notice these things, despite how much people speculate. It's right there!

To be fair, anybody who read Frosts TSHOTP knew right away why that was in the office and without a doubt had a much better understanding of what actually happened in this part. Theres of course plenty of mystery either way, but i was hyped that this section finally got explored.

[KyleRickards]

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 don't recall literally giving them a job and a salary. Frost/Lynch worked for years on the script without a dime and expanded it when they got the Showtime deal. Literally.

Boy, some of these possessive elements of fan culture are more frustrating than a lengthy sweeping sequence.

I don't get the entitled argument either.


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[TheGum]

I'm not sure about the connection, but the explosion reminded me Garland's visions when he was abducted (by woodsman?). He was sitting on some kind of throne and maybe was told about origin of evil coming to Earth after bomb explosion and this nuclear symbol on his neck is a clue for him to discover what happened after the Trinity explosion?

The symbol on his neck is not the nuclear symbol. They are similar in appearance, but the points of the nuclear symbol all meet in the middle.

More info here:
http://www.twinpeaksgazette.com/communi ... 7.cfm.html

[Jonah]

If this was another TV show that used flashbacks (like "LOST"), I would think that the young boy and girl were almost certainly Leland and Sarah Palmer. But, given that this is a David Lynch show, who knows? Does anyone else think it might be them?

[claaa7]

Despite it being completely out of the narrative, The Nine Inch Nails joint is probably my favorite RR stage scene so far. It seemed completely out of place yet the raw energy, the direction and lightnig effects all made it work within the looooose narrative structure.

The atom bomb test as creating an opening beteeen two or more worlds is an old idea amongst conspiracy heads and im sure this is Frost's concept, but Lynch definitfky puts a very unique twist on it... To ssy the least.

[DeepBlueSeed]

Probably a stupid question but how did the glowing gold ball that came from the Giant's head have the picture of Laura Palmer's homecoming queen photo in it back in 1945?

Two possibilities:

1. It's just a visual cue, like when we see garmonbozia as creamed corn. It's simply so we, the audience, know it's her.

2. It's Laura from the future, reincarnated in the past. Time seems to be much more fluid in the Lodge (the Giant is his old wrinkled self, so perhaps it's a version who's already seen all that BOB will do in the future) - potentially Laura is represented by the image most people will have known her in the future, as most of the town will not have known what she got up to behind the scenes.

[Jonah]

Was the bomb poster on Cole's wall introduced in the new series or was it in FWWM? Or any references in the old series? I'm rewatching the original episodes, but only at the beginning of Season 2. Curious if any of this stuff was foreshadowed in the original.

[garethw]

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.

I feel the same way, and I've been a bit wary of that in the new series -- despite being broadly pretty satisfied with the series so far.

I'd be heartbroken if what we see in the Return diminishes the power of the things that came before. I don't think we're there yet, and I'm cautiously optimistic that's not where Lynch is taking us.

[DeepBlueSeed]

So the crawling insect/frog thing... could that be the thing on Mr. C's playing card?

I got the impression that the Mother of BOB might have had little things sticking out of her head... looked pretty similar to the playing card outline IMO.

It will be interesting to see which of those Bad Cooper (or is it BOB?) means when he says "This is what I want..." Does he want Laura, or does he want Mother?

[SpookySculder]

Spoiler:

This may be a long post. I have a few things I want to mention. I'm probably gonna get crapped on for this first thing but I really wanted to share something that's really hard for me to grapple with RE: Laura and I'm hoping people can settle my anxiety. I was speechless last night. Couldn't even sleep well after watching this (I haven't watched it a second time yet but I'm gonna start from ep one and do a marathon of sorts this weekend) but from what I gather from watching and reading some posts there is a possibility Laura may have been created/conceived for the purpose of fighting BOB and all the rest of these evil entities . I'm struggling with this emotionally because if that's the case, Laura will no longer seem human to me. I think what resonated with me about Laura for these many years was just how human she was! Struggling with abuse, insecurities, probably self-hating; she was a self-destructing broken kid who was so far lost and seemed to have given up with no chance of redemption. Yet, in the end even though she lost her life, she won. She didn't succumb to the evil. She didn't allow it to take her soul. If she was "created"; planned before conception, whatever, I will feel very disconnected from the Laura we thought we knew and who we connected with on a very human and emotional level. Its almost like losing a friend in some odd way. And I really REALLY didn't expect to have such strong emotions about this at all.

BTW, there is a famous bible verse where Jesus says "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live". Did anyone else think of this verse when Laura says to Cooper "I am dead yet I live"? I took it to mean that her soul was saved and that she was in a good place. Maybe a good place to help fight BOB again, yes, but since she's dead in the worldy-sense, I wouldn't mind them going that supernatural route with her NOW. It's the idea of the living Laura somehow being part supernatural that bothers me. So I hope that's not the case.

OK, enough of that since I'll probably start going in circles.

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One poster here brought "Metropolis" up. I LOVE THAT MOVIE. OK, I brought it up in another thread (the ep 1&2 thread)... The scene with Cooper and Laura in the lodge.... Laura reminded me so much of Maria with her mannerisms, her makeup, the blinking eye. Everything. The scenes with Cooper and the woman with no eyes screamed german expressionism to me. When they were outside in space, I got more reminded of Melies "A Trip to the Moon". I saw it again throughout much of this ep. Its visually a masterpiece, imo. STUNNING.

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Lastly, someone here made a funny reference to Hitchcock's "Vertigo". DL definitely seems to have an obsession with Laura, no doubt. There's one thing I'm curious about. Maybe someone who knows more about the behind the scenes stuff from the original run can answer. I know Sheryl Lee was originally only supposed to be hired for 3-4 days. Was Lynch planning on Laura being such an important piece of the TP universe originally if he was only planning on keeping an actress around for 3-4 days or did Sheryl's performance give him the motivation to build on her? I mean the fact he brought her back as Maddy (Vertigo) Ferguson and then planned on bringing her back as a third character speaks volumes of what he thought of Sheryl the actress. But I am indeed curious about what his intentions were for the character of Laura early on.

I am truly sorry for the long post, folks. If you got this far, thanks for reading it all. I'll probably have even more to say once I watch the episode a second time.

i think the laura you and all of us knew WAS human. she behaved like a human. she struggled with human emotions. if she was anything more than human, then she herself didn't know it.

[/quote]

Yes, I hope so. Again I don't mind and quite like all the supernatural elements of TP. Always have. But I don't know how comfortable I'd be if it goes so far to the supernatural that we lose the human aspects of it. I hope I explained correctly.

[Panapaok]

I guess most of the VFX budget was spent for this episode. That might explain some of the earlier wonky effects, lol.

[KyleRickards]

Was the bomb poster on Cole's wall introduced in the new series or was it in FWWM? Or any references in the old series? I'm rewatching the original episodes, but only at the beginning of Season 2. Curious if any of this stuff was foreshadowed in the original.

I think it was only introduced this season...

On a different issue, has anyone compiled a list of all the ongoing threads that may get concluded by episode 18?

Stuff like Bill Hastings and the Casino bits?


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[vicksvapor77]

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.

I feel the same way, and I've been a bit wary of that in the new series -- despite being broadly pretty satisfied with the series so far.

I'd be heartbroken if what we see in the Return diminishes the power of the things that came before. I don't think we're there yet, and I'm cautiously optimistic that's not where Lynch is taking us.

Well said! I guess I'm not sure how else we could interpret what we saw with Laura's orb. It definitely seemed like the Giant created her soul.

[justvisiting]

I can't help but be reminded of the old "Eisenhower's inauguration and a table covered in bugs" ideas that were floating around for a while on the internet.
1956, and BOB(?) as a bug...