Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

[Ragnell]

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

Seriously, though. He won. He had everything. It was all worked out... and he LEFT. He couldn't just go home to Janey-E and Sonny Jim. He couldn't go back to the FBI. He couldn't just accept well enough. But he HAD to go back. He HAD to get Laura.

And he lost it all. That it was Diane with him underscored it. His oldest closest friend went through the barrier... and he lost her. Compare their sexual encounter to his and Janey-E's. (Definitely intentional: Sisters, red hair/platinum blonde like Lost Highway, same position) Its meaningless. He looks like the Doppelganger during it. He was euphoric as Dougie. Janey-E looked at him and called him by the name she knew him as, she spent the night in his arms and they declared love. Diane looks away, covers his face, never calls his name and he wakes up alone, facing the edge of the bed and her note. With two names he doesn't know.

Richard and Linda. 430. 2 birds with one stone.

The clue was backwards, showed that if he tried to get those two birds he'd end up with Richard and Linda's unsatisfying night. "I understand" "You are far away"="You are nowhere near understanding."

And he's caught in this endless loop, trying to save Laura, the trouble girl. Laura is so great. She is every girl in the background of the scene where they interrupt the villain with some nameless girl. The eternal thrill seeker. You can't save a girl like Laura, only Laura can save Laura. Cooper's unable to accept that his role is cleanup, find and contain the evil afterwards. That he can't go back and save anyone after the fact, he'll just lose everything trying.

Holy cow, its nothing I wanted but it was still amazing and energizing and actually satisfying right now. Wow.

[mtwentz]

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.

Except haven't most of Lynch's recent works worked on the dream/fantasy level?

And if you look at the European Pilot, it can be interpreted as one long dream?

Robert Engels has said the entirety of Fire Walk With Me is a dream.

If it helps you get through this at all, I think 'dream' is just another level of reality. I don't think Lynch would use the words, 'just a dream'.

[Cipher]

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

The "explanation" to Picnic at Hanging Rock is so wild, and, I think, capable of expanding its themes and mystery more than answering, that I wish it had made it into the film.

I hardly think it's more concretely conclusive than Twin Peaks' ending.

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.

Well, what do the other spirits actually care about Coop, except when his interests dovetail with theirs?

He did the one thing for them they were all hoping he would, even the Black Lodge denizens. He got rid of the troublesome Bob.

Now, as to whether Judy may have gotten one over on the Fireman ("Listen to the sounds; it is in our house now," followed by the scratching noise before Laura's disappearance), I'm not sure. I'm also not sure it matters; their tug of war will never be complete.

I also like the reading above that interprets "430. Richard and Linda. Two birds with one stone" as a warning. That's certainly possible. Either way, it's an inscrutable spiritual tug of war with Laura (capable of saving herself and understanding) and Cooper (who can't) in between. I'm happy we know as little about the spirits as we do--they illustrate the emotional components without subsuming them, as I was worried at points this season they might.

[TPDpz]

Kyle MacLachlan was superb in pulling these roles out, I'm in awe how scary he was in the latter part. He convinced me of playing a person with a severe schizophrenia and it was horror to see him come to question his own reality, like snapping out of a dream he'd been living. It could continue, but it could stay here and it would be quite a horror. I want more, but only if they can keep it intact. There must be a way out of that nightmare.

[Jonah]

This is what was posted on Reddit.

last scene was a dream
laura in 1989 is the dreamer
cooper asks what year is it
laura's mother calls out to her from the waking world
laura recognizes her mother's voice and realize she's dreaming
she screams and wakes up back in 1989 the morning they would have found her body had cooper not had changed the past

I like this but I don't necessarily think it's the ultimate or final interpretation. And if it is, then that's only Laura's part. I still think there were other dreamers. We literally saw Audrey wake up out of her dream in Part 16. (And possibly saw Cooper waking up as Richard in Part 18.)

Maybe Season 4's hook could be the mystery of who the dreamer is/dreamers are.

[Mr. Reindeer]

Coop's body language in the very last scene reminded me of Dougie's. The slight leaning forward, fiddling with something in the air that only he could see, it looked like. I think we saw the same gesturing from him earlier in the episode.

Yes. At one point when he was walking around in the Black Lodge before exiting in Glastonbury Grove he had a bit of a Dougie-style walk and stuck his arm and hand out and was twiddling his hand back and forth.

Hmmm. I read that as being similar to Mike with his arm up while trying to communicate with Dougie (others have humorously referred to it as "searching for reception" when trying to hear/see our world).

[Cipher]

This is what was posted on Reddit.

last scene was a dream
laura in 1989 is the dreamer
cooper asks what year is it
laura's mother calls out to her from the waking world
laura recognizes her mother's voice and realize she's dreaming
she screams and wakes up back in 1989 the morning they would have found her body had cooper not had changed the past

I like this but I don't necessarily think it's the ultimate or final interpretation. And if it is, then that's only Laura's part. I still think there were other dreamers. We literally saw Audrey wake up out of her dream in Part 16. (And possibly saw Cooper waking up as Richard in Part 18.)

Maybe Season 4's hook could be the mystery of who the dreamer is/dreamers are.

I saw that. It's too pat. It's also a little self-contradictory. If Laura's dreaming the morning after what would have been her murder, had Cooper not stopped it, what is Cooper doing literally having entered her dream? (I mean, I suppose the supernatural elements of the show aren't above literally transporting Cooper and Diane into a dream as they cross that 430-mile mark, but ... why?)

That's not particularly emotionally interesting or narratively coherent, eye-em-oh.

[Hester Prynne]

So, "Laura is the one," and when Coop goes back in time to prevent her death and she disappears from the forest, has she disappeared from existence or does she disappear in that reality - never to be heard of again and her family always wondering what happened to her? Also, it still leaves Bob in the world. If Leland never dies, does he remain inhabited by Bob? Does he kill someone else? Just because Laura was saved, it does not mean that Twin Peaks was saved from inexplicable darkness. Coop would have never ended up there, his doppelgänger would never have been unleashed upon the world, Richard Horne would have never been born, etc., but it wouldn't have gotten rid of Bob. Is that why Diane and Coop were going back in time? Was there some other part/action in the story that needed to be completed that Coop was not successful at and what were he and Diane trying to do?

[claaa7]

the one scene that i keep coming back to in my head and which is still sending chills down my spine is the final scene at the Palmer house with the Tremonds / The Chalfonts and the existential dread hanging thick in the air.. then we hear Sarah's warbled LAAAAUUUURAAA leading Laura to let out a blood curling scream as the memory of her soul starts rushing back. wonderful enigmatic ending!! there's a lot of stuff to question with the entire Return but the final scene (everything with Laura as Carrie Paige and Cooper) worked superbly for me

[hopesfall]

Seriously, though. He won. He had everything. It was all worked out... and he LEFT. He couldn't just go home to Janey-E and Sonny Jim. He couldn't go back to the FBI. He couldn't just accept well enough. But he HAD to go back. He HAD to get Laura.

And he lost it all. That it was Diane with him underscored it. His oldest closest friend went through the barrier... and he lost her. Compare their sexual encounter to his and Janey-E's. (Definitely intentional: Sisters, red hair/platinum blonde like Lost Highway, same position) Its meaningless. He looks like the Doppelganger during it. He was euphoric as Dougie. Janey-E looked at him and called him by the name she knew him as, she spent the night in his arms and they declared love. Diane looks away, covers his face, never calls his name and he wakes up alone, facing the edge of the bed and her note. With two names he doesn't know.

Richard and Linda. 430. 2 birds with one stone.

The clue was backwards, showed that if he tried to get those two birds he'd end up with Richard and Linda's unsatisfying night. "I understand" "You are far away"="You are nowhere near understanding."

And he's caught in this endless loop, trying to save Laura, the trouble girl. Laura is so great. She is every girl in the background of the scene where they interrupt the villain with some nameless girl. The eternal thrill seeker. You can't save a girl like Laura, only Laura can save Laura. Cooper's unable to accept that his role is cleanup, find and contain the evil afterwards. That he can't go back and save anyone after the fact, he'll just lose everything trying.

Holy cow, its nothing I wanted but it was still amazing and energizing and actually satisfying right now. Wow.

I usually cringe at theories if I'm honest. I don't want to sound like a snob, but some of them are so far-reaching that it verges on embarrassing. I do like this though. To me it feels more organic in merging with what I've seen on screen.

[Ragnell]

The whole Diane stuff is making my head spin... the Naido switcheroo was disappointing I'll admit, was hoping that speculation was going to be wrong. Diane sees her doppleganger? And then has passionless (for Cooper anyway) sex and then disappears? Was the sex act needed to open some kind of pathway between worlds?Was it somehow a cathartic act against her trauma of being raped and tulpa-ized and then transformed into Naido?

I was thinking ritual sex. Some religions do it, and while I'm of a faith that sees a huge connection between religion and sexuality (and does do ritual sex) I find that ritual sex as seen by many people and as portrayed in movie is pretty much like that. Passionless, meaningless, devoid of the emotion connection and warmth that gives sex its power.

But in the context of this series, its logical. Kissing with Diane and Coop is huge, its how he reassures her of his identity, but she only hugged him before he used the key so I don't think they truly have a siginificant attraction or romantic feelings.

But from the start of 18, it becomes clear... Cooper's been playing this loop a few times. And so the Lodge provides him, at this point, with a female partner. Someone who knows what's up. A woman with scarlet hair.

By several indications, Judy is Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, a goddess who is brought forth with ritual sex magic. We know the Experiment appeared the Glass Box when Sam and Tracey made love.

So, before they drive the 430 miles, Cooper and Diane clearly know what to do. So just before they go the barrier, Cooper has her kiss him to reassure her this is still him.

Then they get to the hotel and perform the ritual, which even though Diane is on top and seems to have the control is still traumatic enough she can't look at his face. And for Cooper its empty as well, he can't enjoy sex unless his partner is also into it. So its meaningless, ritual sex.

But I suppose it works, because they are transported.

[KyleRickards]

Noticed this on first viewing but didn't make a connection til the second: At the very end the electricity goes out in the Palmer house. Then after the credits, the usual Lynch/Frost slate is silent instead of making the electricity noise.

I read that as it's over for good. No season 4.

I noticed the end slate being silent also.

Also, beside the 8 million other questions I have, what was the globe that the Fireman generated which contained Laura (?) after the nuclear explosion?

Was the moth frog The Jumping Man which ended up in Sarah?

Am I being totally stupid and not understanding things?


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[N. Needleman]

That reminds me: Imma rewatch Picnic at Hanging Rock. Maybe that'll help this shellshock.

[Ragnell]

(I'm sure that some fans are begining to think that the tulpas of Lynch & Frost wrote The Return. )

No. Only they would do this.

[The Gazebo]

Seriously, though. He won. He had everything. It was all worked out... and he LEFT. He couldn't just go home to Janey-E and Sonny Jim. He couldn't go back to the FBI. He couldn't just accept well enough. But he HAD to go back. He HAD to get Laura.

It kind of mirrors Lynch's own obsession with Laura, which might indicate that Cooper is actually David Lynch, in his own dream (or something like that - I get dizzy just trying to wrap my head around the possible implications )