Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

[Soolsma]

Anyone else expected more Mother (was it implied she's Judy?), Jumping man, Sarah?

[FlyingSquirrel]

I don't think he was Mr. C. I do think elements of his doppelganger were now heightened in the warped, askew alternate reality. His shadow self is a part of him, and the world was out of balance.

I have to say the scene at the cafe might be the best example. He seemingly did the right things - but a with a menacing twist. Fine acting.

Was the guy that he shot in the foot pulling a gun or some other sort of weapon at that moment? Otherwise I'd have a hard time imagining Cooper - as we knew him - shooting somebody in the foot quite so nonchalantly, or doing so without at least attempting a less violent solution first. He went from "these jerks aren't listening" to "time to fight" pretty quickly there.

[Cappy]

I wonder if Naido is a kind of blank slate character, one that other characters are free to project their own wishes and desires upon. She just becomes Diane for Dale, who needs a witness to validate his own life experiences. Which is not too far off from some of the old theories about Diane, namely that she wasn't a real person, and just a conceit by an FBI Agent who needed to address his meticulous case notes to somebody, anybody. He named his tape recorder Diane for this reason, according to the theory.

[N. Needleman]

Anyone else expected more Mother (was it implied she's Judy?), Jumping man, Sarah?

I did, which is one of a number of things that still makes me suspect Season 4. OTOH, maybe the foolish Cooper walking into Judy's Odessa lair indicates she's won the game, due to his pride.

[Cipher]

Anyone else expected more Mother (was it implied she's Judy?), Jumping man, Sarah?

I did, certainly, but after the explanation on "Judy" (which I am A-OK with and which I think tracks perfectly well with Fire Walk With Me), and it becoming clear the rest of the finale was going to focus on Cooper's strange journey, I was like, "Okay; this is fine too."

It was enough to understand without seeing a confrontation (not that I'd turn seeing it down, I don't think).

And yeah, I think Judy is the Experiment is Mother is Sarah. Or at least that makes the most sense to me both on a narrative and thematic level.

[The Gazebo]

Was the guy that he shot in the foot pulling a gun or some other sort of weapon at that moment? Otherwise I'd have a hard time imagining Cooper - as we knew him - shooting somebody in the foot quite so nonchalantly, or doing so without at least attempting a less violent solution first. He went from "these jerks aren't listening" to "time to fight" pretty quickly there.

I can't really remember, but it was like Cooper's moral compass (help the lady) coupled with Mr C's way of dealing with problems (use force).

[Cappy]

Was the guy that he shot in the foot pulling a gun or some other sort of weapon at that moment? Otherwise I'd have a hard time imagining Cooper - as we knew him - shooting somebody in the foot quite so nonchalantly, or doing so without at least attempting a less violent solution first. He went from "these jerks aren't listening" to "time to fight" pretty quickly there.

Also telling was the way Cooper waved the gun around the diner, pointing it at employees carelessly. Not to mention the gun-frying bit as well, along with him ignoring the dead body in Carrie Page's living room. I think the Diane sex scene, where she continually covered his face, might have blurred or masked his sense of self in a way. The sex scene was an identity loss ritual, which Cooper needed in order to access deeper levels of subconscious and pre-rational thought processes, which he utilized in tracking down Laura.

Just my take though... I expect my interpretation to shift by lunch time.

[claaa7]

Julee Cruise should be pissed. Look at all those other acts that we had to sit through that got to perform a whole song. Now we get the one we've been waiting for and it was maybe 30 seconds or so. Even James got to do his whole song!

Julee Cruise song played for a little over two minutes, but yeah i get what you're saying

[N. Needleman]

I mean, I'd like to have heard a bit more but given the circumstances I'm not sure what she expected.

This is Julee Cruise so I expect this all to be patched up in a few weeks as she gives another colorful interview.

[silvo]

Cooper: "What year is this?"

close-up POV: a registaration sticker w/ "03" on it.

In Dougie's story everyone at start believed that is 2003! It would be strange if he is Dougie Jones, who has lost him mind believing that he is an agent. Maybe like this Diane was another woman that he was seeing!

[BHell]

I'm not sure that's the case, even with the glimmers of hope this initially bleak ending offers. Judy vs. Fireman, Cooper and Laura's "adventures in dreamland" -- these things are never going to end, even if it's a different situation, a different dreamland. Their roles in the cosmology, as totems, are fixed.

We can be content with the portion of their journeys we got to see; they communicated enough.

Of course, the door is wide open for season 4 if they want it, and I'll watch. This ending increasingly feels right to me, but there are others that could too.

To be honest, I don't believe in a continuation either. There doesn't have to be one. The ending is one I can live with.

For now, we have a 18-hour-movie to rewatch with a new perspective. Even the two original seasons will be a whole new experience. We'll have Frost's next book. Whatever comes after is to be seen. And if there is nothing, that's ok. A narrative needs to have an end point.

What I'm sure of: Showtime will demand more. That does not mean that Lynch has to supply. But maybe, just maybe, we will see something new from him. Not necessarily more Twin Peaks; simply give him a budget and let him do what he wants...

Well, 'Cipher'. Thanks for your input, mate. Our discourse gave me something to think about.

[N. Needleman]

I think the Diane sex scene, where she continually covered his face, might have blurred or masked his sense of self in a way. The sex scene was an identity loss ritual, which Cooper needed in order to access deeper levels of subconscious and pre-rational thought processes, which he utilized in tracking down Laura.

I don't think that was about him so much as I think it was about her. Diane was shifting into Linda, and found herself repulsed and horrified as she found "Richard" to be a man she did not recognize (Cooper).

I also think the last of Diane may have been wrestling with her memory of the Bad Dale, and realized the newly-warped Cooper from the crossover was a damaged meld of both her Cooper and the doppelganger who raped her (he looks exactly like the Bad Dale in that scene, and behaves similarly throughout the crossover material until his confusion over Carrie leaves Cooper unmanned). Both Diane and Linda could not stand to look their lover in the face.

[KyleRickards]

"It is in our house now" - what is/was?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[silvo]

Audrey's thread fascinated me, but I would've loved to see her in Diane's place story-wise this season, especially since their threads mirrored each other so much already. Keep her as Richard's mom but make her Linda to be by Coop's side, etc.

I liked Diane as a character and Laura Dern was phenomenal, but her going with Coop on the metaphysical time-traveling trial of truth was weird.

Yes me too. It would've given these last episodes the emotional weight they needed. Cooper's close relationships with characters such as Audrey and Harry were like the heart of the show, so the fact that The Return had none of that made it difficult to care sometimes. At the same time, I agree with Needleman that it would've been heartbreaking to see Audrey in that position, and her storyline does have its own intrigue. As you say, there was no love in that sex scene, and then they leave each other. I was hoping at the least they'd continue with the Diane/Audrey parallel as part of the conclusion.

I'm wondering if maybe they were trying to connect with that memory of Diane being raped by Mr. C. Diane and Audrey both went through similar experiences which involve alternate realities/time loops, and that was when Diane's tulpa was made. Perhaps whatever Mr. C did to Diane is related to how Cooper and Diane were able to cross over?? Does that make sense?

I thought Diane made the most sense as Cooper's companion in these other realms. For several reasons, one of which: she was literally dressed/made up like a walking Red Room! (I mean, sure Audrey could be too theoretically but Diane was already established as having wild costumes.)

Her nails is like the floor, her hair like the curtain! What if she is the red room or a spirit that represent it? What if all the information that was giving cooper in season 1 and season 2, was meant to be given to the lodge?

[Novalis]

I wonder if Naido is a kind of blank slate character, one that other characters are free to project their own wishes and desires upon. She just becomes Diane for Dale, who needs a witness to validate his own life experiences. Which is not too far off from some of the old theories about Diane, namely that she wasn't a real person, and just a conceit by an FBI Agent who needed to address his meticulous case notes to somebody, anybody. He named his tape recorder Diane for this reason, according to the theory.

And when we finally get to meet Diane (not her improper tulpa copy) she is very much an embodied abstraction, a personified waiting room (red hair, black-and-white nails, etc.) That scene from TMP where Cooper talks to her offscreen only adds to the ambiguity.

FWIW I do think Diane's a real person. I think her story has gone far enough down certain roads (the trauma of rape at the doing of Cooper's doppelganger, some kind of deep connection with the good Cooper being very heavily implied in this part and the previous one, even her alt-life as Linda leaving Richard being an action based on feelings which she bothered to write for him in a note) for it to be tasteless to now rubbish all of them. Perhaps the strongest argument against Diane being in-universe fictional though might be that it just wouldn't be something Lynch would do to Dern. He sure might be seen to have done this to others though.