Part 8 - Gotta light? (SPOILERS)

[Panapaok]

Apparently, "The Farm" is a nickname for Area 51.

[Mallard]

"Critics Notebook: How 'Legion' scooped 'Twin Peaks' as 2017's Weird Show to Watch"

In hindsight, I'd say the author of this article feels they were a bit shortsighted in their bold proclamation.

Not to mention MJA's insider scoop that Frost and Showtime were taking the reigns from DKL to turn the show into a straight soap opera.

And to be clear, my post was a knock against the author of the article, not Legion itself. I really enjoy Legion and think highly of Noah Hawley as an artist.

[Jonah]

After seeing this episode, it really does look like the character of Laura Palmer has been given attributes that are reminiscent of Christ. This does fit with what we saw in FWWM. Come to think of it, there was a lot of Christian subtext in FWWM, with regards to the angels, and Laura's fate in general. They are not subtle and always struck me as very significant. I wonder - is Lynch religious/Christian? I know he's into transcendental meditation, but apart from that I have no idea what his beliefs are.

[Ragnell]

So this was the Greatest Exposition Dump I Have Ever Seen.

We learned SOOO much this part and in such an amazing way.

My initial impression is the Charred Men work for BOB? Boblings? I wonder if maybe BadCoop can't die when he's hosting BOB. BOB fled Leland before Leland died. It also strikes me that Philip Jeffries isn't the only Philip, we've also seen that Philip Gerard wants Doppelcoop gone too.
The music performance felt like part of the ritual restoring the doppelganger to life.

The fire scenes looked like you could see a hallway in the middle. I think the Charred Men/Boblings were born in this blast, and BOB was, but the Black and White Lodges are older and that their gateway was there prior. Either way, pretty sure we witnessed the Birth of BOB. The Glass Box Monster has to be "Mother", she even looks a little pregnant in that angle. She's giving birth to BOB and the others. I fall on the idea that MIKE is older than BOB, though, and pre-existed this blast. I'm convinced he's the leader of the Black Lodge and has been since before the gold rush. If BOB is a powerful young upstart, we may have been witnessing a Black Lodge coup. That would explain most of MIKE/The Arm/TOAM's behavior over the course of the series.

That was the Purple Sea from Ep 3, and this black and white place HAS to be the White Lodge. That's the room Cooper was in. And that's a new female spirit on the couch. Classic look, gorgeous dark eye makeup. She's beautiful and I love her and I want to see her again.

It's possible that both Naido and the American Girl were white lodge spirits as well, protecting Cooper from "Mother." The alarm thing looks like the vessel they were in, which may have been constructed to take Cooper through the Realm of Non-Existence so he can return to Earth and match his doppelganger.

So BOB, a masculine evil that preys upon women, was born of a feminine spirit. Now Laura's essence comes from a masculine spirit. If the Glass Box Monster is Mother, then is the Giant/????? Father?

Either way, it looks like the dark-eyed lady blessed Laura's essence and that Laura is aligned with the White Lodge, which may be why Cooper didn't see her while he was trapped, and why she was the one to tell him she could leave. And it explains the luminescence behind her face.
It is absolutely awesome that Laura was created as a force to act against BOB. No wonder he targeted her. Personally, I LOVE this. There's a lot of discussion about sexism in media, and how women are often the recipients of violence as a way to drive a male character's story. I've seen some criticism thrown at Lynch for this, but for me Laura was always a subversion of that. The male character with the most angst about her turned out to be her killer, after all. And the focus of the story was always less about revenge for what happened to Laura and more about understanding her. FWWM went and showed us the Dead Girl trope from the POV of the Dead Girl herself and that made it amazing. She was like Persephone when she showed up in the Lodge, a violently stolen girl come into her power as a spirit queen. And tying her essence to the White Lodge elevates this even more. Laura stands for all those nameless, abused, murdered women in refrigerators in dull, cliched stories and the more focus there is on her the stronger a response to that trope this series is.

The egg lying in the New Mexico desert must be BOB, that's where he was born. I think this girl is his first host.

And we now have enough information to finally do some serious speculating about the politics between the two lodges, and which spirits belong to which lodge.

[FredMadison]

The diner in this episode looked a lot like Hap's from FWWM. I know it's not that diner, but it was very similar in layout.

Google "Chili John's Restaurant". It's in Burbank. Used to eat lunch at that place years ago.

[yaxomoxay]

The diner in this episode looked a lot like Hap's from FWWM. I know it's not that diner, but it was very similar in layout.

Google "Chili John's Restaurant". It's in Burbank. Used to eat lunch at that place years ago.

You sure they didn't feed you giant frog-like bugs ?!?




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[Mr. Reindeer]

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).

Reminded me of IE -- at two points in the film, the phrase "horse to the well" is used, seemingly to signify spirits leading Sue on her path.

[Jonah]

One idea I had - more in a poetic than a literal sense - is that it's the raw material with which, combined with the bug creature and the woodsmen's radio incantations, the girl we see dreams up Twin Peaks.

I like that idea, though also only in a poetic sense. And I like your reference to the kid in "St. Elsewhere" in your review.

-The starchild Laura stuff I'm not so sure about. Meh. Middle class white girl as the saviour of all goodness in the world? Eh.... Seems a bit overwrought. Pretty funny that these cosmic beings had her high school prom photo...

I see what you mean. And I also had a similar thought at first. I don't really like the starchild idea per se. I'm more interested though if this somehow deepens the parallels to Christ that were hinted at in FWWM.

[FredMadison]

The diner in this episode looked a lot like Hap's from FWWM. I know it's not that diner, but it was very similar in layout.

Google "Chili John's Restaurant". It's in Burbank. Used to eat lunch at that place years ago.

You sure they didn't feed you giant frog-like bugs ?!?

They only serve(d) chili. With an attitude like no other place.

[mtwentz]

"Critics Notebook: How 'Legion' scooped 'Twin Peaks' as 2017's Weird Show to Watch"

In hindsight, I'd say the author of this article feels they were a bit shortsighted in their bold proclamation.

Not to mention MJA's insider scoop that Frost and Showtime were taking the reigns from DKL to turn the show into a straight soap opera.

Oh yeah, didn't he say something to the effect the Frost was going to be Lynch's 'handler' or something like that.

I guess Lynch broke free from his Frost/Showtime 'handlers'.

[Jonah]

Anyone who was craving world building and mythology expansion should be pretty pleased with Part 8.

LOL.

I neither loved nor hated this episode. After last week's very straight-forward episode 7, I guess I was falsely lulled into thinking the narrative would continue in that vein and pick up some of those threads, but instead we went totally off the rails into a Lynchian mindf**k, which was actually (mostly) pretty interesting stuff. The creepiness factor alone in the 50s scenes was worth the price of admission. And I actually liked the NIN part, fit in well with the mood and tone of what came before.

Having said all of that, I think the "pure heroin Lynch" aspect of the show works better when countered and balanced with some of the modern day stuff, both in Twin Peaks, Vegas and elsewhere. Episode 3 is a good example of this, or maybe I just thought so at the time since it was paired with Episode 4.

Not trying to complain because I think that was an incredible piece of art, but it's also frustrating knowing that we now have to wait 2 more weeks to see the town proper again. I want the weirdness, but I also want to see Big Ed and Audrey again in the same hour. Small-minded?

Not at all. I completely get where you're coming from. I think a lot of this is going to play better once every part has been released. It will be like a gigantic tapestry we can see all of and dip in and out of at our leisure, rewatching either from the beginning or out of order, or dipping into parts we like more than other parts. I think episodes like this are frustrating when released on a weekly basis, especially before a two-week break. I neither loved or hated it either, though I appreciated how beautiful much of it was.

[LateReg]

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.

My take is that regardless of what script a few people at Showtime read, there was no way they could actually imagine HOW certain things would be done, and the amount of time it would take on screen. It's my take on the budget dispute that the main issue was that Showtime didn't understand why a 400 page script would be 18 hours long. Part 8 goes a long way towards backing up that theory as well as explaining why it would be 18 hours!

[Jonah]

My take is that regardless of what script a few people at Showtime read, there was no way they could actually imagine HOW certain things would be done, and the amount of time it would take on screen. It's my take on the budget dispute that the main issue was that Showtime didn't understand why a 400 page script would be 18 hours long. Part 8 goes a long way towards backing up that theory as well as explaining why it would be 18 hours!

Yes, I agree. I meant to say that in my initial impressions post - this episode made it clear why Lynch insisted on 18 hours. (In script form, much of what forms this episode probably only made up 20 minutes, perhaps less. I think the ideas/concepts here were later probably expanded into a full episode.)

[Jonah]

Re-reading through all your posts.

Couple of more things I want to add -

The bug is almost certainly not Laura. I can see why people got that idea. But the egg looks nothing like the globe. And as others pointed out, it was heading in another direction. And why would she be depicted as a bug? And the dates are wrong for her conception.

The kids could be Sarah and Leland, or maybe just Sarah. But if the bug isn't Laura, then we can probably throw that idea out too. Perhaps who the kids are may not be relevant - or only relevant later. They may just be kids. Or they could turn out to be significant.

[Mr. Reindeer]

The pacing of this show is so unconventional that I have no clue how much time has passed while watching. This Part flew by. By the time we reached Señora Dido listening to music, I wasn't sure if we were ten or forty minutes in.

The Woodsmen descending on Mr. C immediately joins the pantheon of creepiest/moodiest DKL scenes ever. Holy crap. NIN worked nicely as a palate cleanser before diving full-on into DKL's dream/nightmarescape.

Interesting to see the Woodsmen taking on such a prominent role. Wonder if they're meant to represent all the Lodge spirits in a pure/basic form? Or are MfAP, Bob and Mike a different "race"?

For all the surreal grandeur of this Part, the plot/mythology developments seem pretty straightforward. Everyone seems to have drawn pretty much the same conclusions...and honestly, I find the storyline a trifle disappointing if that's all there is to what we saw. Christ-Moonchild-Laura and a nuclear blast opening our world up to the Lodge are kinda mundane developments. But damn, the way they were presented could not have been more beautiful or captivating. Incredible filmmaking, and definitely felt very much of a piece with DKL's very earliest works, in the best possible way. Can't believe this thing is airing on the network that brought us Dexter! It's gonna take two weeks to fully process this one.