Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

[mtwentz]

I cannot comment in any way what i have just seen. This goes beyond.


But I noticed one thing, during the All movie there were many girls/woman with a circle necklace.

But then, when the Lost Coop found carry page, she had an incomplete circle necklace. Like if the perfect circle was broken.

Great catch! will have to look for it on the rewatch.

[mtwentz]

What does everyone think of Coop's Great Northern key opening the boiler room door down below? That to me is another indication that everything is a dream. His Great Northern key should not open that door in the 'real world'.

[wxray]

I cannot comment in any way what i have just seen. This goes beyond.


But I noticed one thing, during the All movie there were many girls/woman with a circle necklace.

But then, when the Lost Coop found carry page, she had an incomplete circle necklace. Like if the perfect circle was broken.

Great catch! will have to look for it on the rewatch.

Yes, like the half heart.

I think it was a "lucky horseshoe" which may have other meanings too. White horse and all.

[Ene]

BOB might never be scary again after that evil volleyball match. I don't know. I could enjoy the "flashbacks" and most of Part 18, but the lack of resolution for Mr C and Cooper was disappointing. We spend ages with Mr C, and he just dropped dead. That's been the fate of several characters this season, so I shouldn't be surprised. That's maybe my largest problem with the entire season, lack of emotion and character arc. Every emotional scene was either pure nostalgia, or just emotionally manipulative (like the kid being driven over). I still love the show, quite the journey.

Really disappointed for Julee, I understand her anger. This could have been her chance for a proper comeback, but she was reduced into background noise. Some performers got two songs, some got to play entire songs uninterrupted. She got few seconds, blocked by the end credits. I think she might have also been singing live, and they replaced the track with the old audio which might have extended her anger.

[mtwentz]

BOB might never be scary again after that evil volleyball match. I don't know. I could enjoy the "flashbacks" and most of Part 18, but the lack of resolution for Mr C and Cooper was disappointing. We spend ages with Mr C, and he just dropped dead. That's been the fate of several characters this season, so I shouldn't be surprised. That's maybe my largest problem with the entire season, lack of emotion and character arc. Every emotional scene was either pure nostalgia, or just emotionally manipulative (like the kid being driven over). I still love the show, quite the journey.

Really disappointed for Julee, I understand her anger. This could have been her chance for a proper comeback, but she was reduced into background noise. Some performers got two songs, some got to play entire songs uninterrupted. She got few seconds, blocked by the end credits. I think she might have also been singing live, and they replaced the track with the old audio which might have extended her anger.

In some ways, I think we feel the same way viewers of the European pilot must have felt.

Unresolved plotlines, and an inscrutable ending.

[Ragnell]

Oh my god. He did it to us again!

I ain't even mad. They did it again.

[Pinky]

Here's the thing, we almost never get anything like this. That's the take away here, we wanted a mystery to lull over and we got one. Like Picnic at Hanging Rock years ago...and what Lynch and Frost wanted to do with Twin Peaks, they finally got to do.

Not everyone is going to agree but to me the best mysteries are ones that stay mysteries. What is the truth? It's not that easy.

A Picnic at Hanging Rock mention in the wild? Be still my heart.

But yeah, these weren't just genre trappings, in the end.

Eventually someone caved and released the 'final' chapter of Picnic at Hanging Rock, maybe Lynch and Frost will be kind:)

[mtwentz]

Oh my god. He did it to us again!

I ain't even mad. They did it again.

there were several hints along the way something like this was going to happen. I think the last couple of episodes that were exposition heavy may have been lulled into a sense of security that we actually knew what the score was

[Jonah]

Someone on reddit just posted an explanation of the ending that works for me. In the final scene, we realise Laura has been dreaming all along and hears Sarah's voice calling her as she screams and wakes up out of the nightmare. It's probably not that simple or literal but I like that idea.

I think myself that this series was a few people dreaming. We already got to see Audrey waking up from her dream. And I think Cooper woke up too.

Cooper somehow went back to the past and prevented Laura from being murdered - and that pissed the thing in Sarah Palmer off. Not sure though if that happened in reality or in a dream. Maybe it doesn't matter. And maybe Judy banished Laura to the life of Carrie Page. And Cooper to the life of Richard. And put them both in an alternative timeline. But again not sure if that's a dream or a reality.

I liked the sequence in the woods in Part 17, and I sort of like some of that final scene of Part 18 (though not the rest of that episode), but I preferred Laura and the angel at the end of FWWM as the definitive ending. There's a lot to like here in the new series, but I think overall it was a missed opportunity, and while I'm already warming to the Laura dreaming/Laura screaming ending of Part 18, the episode itself was very dreary to watch (did we really need such a long extended series of sequences with Coop and Diane?)

Anyway, I'm going to chalk this new series down to a series of dreams, maybe the entire town dreaming the night Laura is supposed to be murdered in 1989. And others dreaming in the past and future too. A series of interconnected and disconnected dreams. And some people's dreams ending nicely - such as Janey-E getting Dougie back. And some people - Laura - had to scream at the end of their dream/nightmare, hoping to wake up.

Even in Part 17, it was - again - stated "we live inside a dream". A line like that has been used several times now. So thinking of the whole Return as a series of dreams works for me and explains a lot of truncated endings/lack of resolutions/all the characters in the roadhouse/Audrey waking up. I'm not saying it makes me suddenly like the whole thing more, but it makes it a bit more....palatable? It really explains so much. This isn't the simple "it was all a dream" story, but rather a series of dreams. What do you all think?

[Rhodes]

Wow, wow, wow!!!!!

I always predicted that this would be ten times as good as the original and the best season in the history of television, and Lynch STILL managed to exceed my expectations. Un-be-lie-va-ble. I wouldn't have dared to dream that he would be so experimental.

This defenitely leaves the door wide wide open for a season 4. I don't know if such a season could be of the same quality. I don't think after this season it is easy to go back to a more mundane story (especially because viewers no longer know what is real and not. So could they get attached to new characters?). And to do another mythology story is also problematic (how can you avoid repeating yourself without going over the top?)

Still, if Lynch is really inspired, I have all the confidence that he can pull it off. (But will give showtime give him another huge budget to do a "heroine version"?)

Thank you Mr. Lynch!!!! You changed my life for the better!

[Nighthawk]

After reflecting for a while, I am leaning towards being disappointed with the finale. Laura's story has really gone nowhere after the big setup from part 8. I thought that she would have agency of her own rather than being led around by Cooper.

Furthermore, the whole elaborate Vegas plotline wasn't really necessary or at least it didn't warrant spending so much time on it. I'd rather see several episodes of Cooper and Laura exploring that alternate version of twin peaks.

[mtwentz]

Someone on reddit just posted an explanation of the ending that works for me. In the final scene, we realise Laura has been dreaming all along and hears Sarah's voice calling her as she screams and wakes up out of the nightmare. It's probably not that simple or literal but I like that idea.

I think myself that this series was a few people dreaming. We already got to see Audrey waking up from her dream. And I think Cooper woke up too.

Cooper somehow went back to the past and prevented Laura from being murdered - and that pissed the thing in Sarah Palmer off. Not sure though if that happened in reality or in a dream. Maybe it doesn't matter. And maybe Judy banished Laura to the life of Carrie Page. And Cooper to the life of Richard. And put them both in an alternative timeline. But again not sure if that's a dream or a reality.

I liked the sequence in the woods in Part 17, and I sort of like some of that final scene of Part 18 (though not the rest of that episode), but I preferred Laura and the angel at the end of FWWM as the definitive ending. There's a lot to like here in the new series, but I think overall it was a missed opportunity, and while I'm already warming to the Laura dreaming/Laura screaming ending of Part 18, the episode itself was very dreary to watch (did we really need such a long extended series of sequences with Coop and Diane?)

Anyway, I'm going to chalk this new series down to a series of dreams, maybe the entire town dreaming the night Laura is supposed to be murdered in 1989. And others dreaming in the past and future too. A series of interconnected and disconnected dreams. And some people's dreams ending nicely - such as Janey-E getting Dougie back. And some people - Laura - had to scream at the end of their dream/nightmare, hoping to wake up.

Even in Part 17, it was - again - stated "we live inside a dream". A line like that has been used several times now. So thinking of the whole Return as a series of dreams works for me and explains a lot of truncated endings/lack of resolutions/all the characters in the roadhouse/Audrey waking up. I'm not saying it makes me suddenly like the whole thing more, but it makes it a bit more....palatable? It really explains so much. This isn't the simple "it was all a dream" story, but rather a series of dreams. What do you all think?

I think it has to be interpreted as a dream. Cooper's old room key should not fit into the boiler room below- this indicates no logic to the world he's in except a dream logic.

I believe trying to make sense and connect all the dots for this series will be very hard, but I'm open to the possibility that I am wrong and will be interested to see what people come up with.

[lotjx2]

The whole its a dream thing maybe one of the most unsatisfying endings of all time. To me, the show ends with all of them in the police station and Dale kissing Diane. I also hate they broke their own rules about the Black Lodge. It just sucks Dale, Diane and Cole up instead of entering in a physical place. Cole is still in the Black Lodge, right? I am going with they are stuck in the past. I am also going with Laura screaming and the houses somewhat destruction means they are going to return.

[Hester Prynne]

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Nice!!! I woke up this morning and was thinking the tops of those electrical poles (or whatever they are) looked like the owl cave symbol - wasn't thinking about that symbol from the map. I always thought it was the Giant-Fireman/little man from another place, but this fits, too.

[BHell]

That's definitely one of the bigger mysteries, right?

Who's the only person who actually tells Cooper to find Laura? Leland, the only other person we've seen host Bob. And he only does it after she's whisked away, presumably, because of Cooper's own actions.

Could it just be that their two motivations come together into one unfortunate loop? Leland's guilt and greed--a need to see his daughter returned, and Cooper's desire to kill two birds with one stone by saving Laura and stopping Judy. Both are short-sighted; both have only part of a picture and somewhat naive goals. Cooper's actions trigger Leland's plea; Leland's plea spurs on Cooper's sense of righteousness without due examination.

As far as the ending being depressing, it's horrifying in the moment, but I'm coming around to the idea that Laura's awakening and the seeming shattering of that reality may in fact promise something more redemptive to come.

Though, agreed with posts above; Cooper won't be the one to lead them out of it. Laura's the one -- our gateway into the mystery, and the only one with the hard-fought self-perspective to solve her way out of her own fate.

Your observation that Leland's command to find Laura actually happened after the fact in this episode is intriguing, but then again, Leland had exactly the same line of dialogue the first time Cooper escaped the lodge. And within the lodge time does obviously not run in a linear fashion. So, yeah, probably some kind of reciprocal (and entirely non-temporal) causation between Cooper and Leland (and their individual desires) going on.

And you are certainly right on the point that Leland is as imperfect a being as is Cooper, and thus does not see the whole picture. Though that does open up another "loophole": Other lodge spirits should have been able to forsee the consequences of Cooper going after Laura (either by going back to FWWM or by crossing over to a strange (dream?) dimension with Diane). Especially Mike, who guided him throughout the whole Dougie-Plot, but later didn't deem it necessary to warn him of persuing Laura. And where again did Cooper get those "430 miles" from!?

Does that mean, that the (perceived) forces of good wanted the ending to happen the way it did? And if so, why?

Damn, Lynch is crazy. But the good kind of crazy.