Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

[AgentEcho]

Some notes after a rewatch of the final two parts:

-After the whole experience I was struck by how long ago and far away some of those early scenes in Part 17 seemed, even though I'd just watched them.
-A little plot twist that gets lost in everything that followed: Ray Monroe was an informant working with Cole.
-The extended scenes of bad Coop arriving at the sheriff station and all the other parties was incredibly tense and well edited. It was also surprising when watching it how quickly everything seemed to be climaxing.
-Bad Coop doesn't drink coffee.
-The superimposition of Cooper's face: It starts when Coop seems to recognize Naido and ends with the shot of the door in the basement of the Great Northern.
-There's a shot during this sequence of a clock reversing, almost like a record skipping. There's a sense of something about this section, and maybe everything about the narrative up to this point, getting locked in time. Cooper seems to say a goodbye to everyone, and tells them everything is about to change.
-The superimposed version of Cooper says "We live inside a dream." I didn't take this as "dream" being something different from reality, but rather a fundamental statement about the nature of reality itself.
-A transition to the basement of the Great Northern. It could probably be read that Cooper, Diane and Cole traveled straight there after the scene at the Sheriff's (Diane is still wearing the Naido robe), but it doesn't play that simple. It feels more like they are descending into deeper stages of the dream. It's not so much like they moved from one location to the next, but rather the setting changed around them, as it might in a dream.
-Again, Cooper says a goodbye, and again it doesn't seem totally final.
-Through the door Cooper and the One Armed Man are travelling to what seems to be the Convenience store, but the One Armed Man is not speaking in reverse.
-Kettle Jeffries seems to send Cooper back into time.
-It was a bit more obvious in the rewatch that the scenes of Laura meeting Cooper was new footage, the first time I really couldn't tell what I was looking at. They did a pretty good job with whatever effect they used, whether it was makeup or CGI de-aging. Laura didn't look exactly like like she did in FWWM but it still looked like a young woman. That she looked a little different definitely gave it an uncanny vibe.
-Coop seemingly leads Laura away from her potential murder. We see the pilot play out with Pete having never discovered Laura's body.
-A really unsettling scene of Sarah attacking Laura's picture. Sarah's wails seems to be the same as the ones she made after discovering Laura died.
-Coop loses Laura through the Forest after hearing the "sound" The Fireman instructed Coop to listen to, and there's a beautiful transition to the Roadhouse.
-Part 18 starts with Evil Coop in flames. He seems to have on different contacts, the original "doppelganger" grey contacts from the Season 2 finale.
-Again, for some reason the One Armed Man is no longer speaking in reverse. He creates a new Dougie. It's interesting with all the stories that were left hanging Lynch and Frost wanted to take time to give us closure for the Jones'.
-There's a repeat of Cooper losing Laura and hearing "The sound".
-Back in the Red Room. Is it future or is it past? Laura whispers to Coop again and Coop gets the plea from Leland again to "Find Laura".
-Cooper exits the Lodge in Glastonberry Grove, and Diane is there.
-All of the sudden we're on the road with Cooper and Diane, the first of many lengthy scenes of traveling in the final part. Cooper is following one instruction from The Fireman... "430" means exactly 430 miles from where exactly?
-Once again we are told where they are going, everything will be different.
-Cooper and Diane are transported to someplace or sometime else (they are now driving at night).
-The motel sex scene. A few things here: This is the first time I became aware of a shift in Cooper's character and I started wondering if the Coop we are seeing is the "Evil Coop". Maclachlan's performance throughout the return was so different from character to character. That's it's no longer clear seems an intentional choice. And we didn't get to know the real Diane very well, so we have to literally see two Dianes to start asking ourselves which Coop and which Diane are we seeing.
-The music played during the sex scene is "My Prayer" by the Platters which also played on the radio station in New Mexico before the Woodsman took over, which creates a sense of unease and something being wrong. Again, who are we looking at here?
-The next morning Coop calls out to Diane and she's gone. He finds a note to Richard from Linda. Are Cooper and Diane now Richard and Linda? If Coop understood The Fireman's clue about Richard and Linda in the first scene of the season, he's not going to clue us in on it. At any rate, it doesn't seem that hearing the names triggers recognition in Coop.
-Cooper is now at a different motel and driving a different car than the one he arrived with Diane at. Coop seems to recognize this, or at least he has a look of doubt that creeps over his face.
-Judy's diner. We're not told how Coop found this place or why he's interested in the waitress there.
-Cooper drinks coffee, but he doesn't seem to be very passionate about it. It's an after thought. I bring it up because Part 17 noted bad coop isn't interested in coffee.
-Again there seems to be a consolidation of certain character traits of Evil Coop and Good Coop. Prop's again to Maclachlan for drawing such clear lines with his performance throughout and blurring them here, if that is in fact what he's doing. Coop defends the waitress, which is what Cood Coop would do. He easily disarms the cowboys and knows the third one is carrying a gun, which could be traits of either. His cadence when asking for the address of the waitress was far closer to Evil Coop than how he speaks as Coop.
-An electrical pole with the number 6 by Carries. He seems surprised that she looks like Laura. Who was he expecting? And Carrie, when Coop identifies himself as FBI, immediately thinks he's there for some other reason. "Did you find him?" She's not particularly concerned about letting an FBI agent see the dead body in her living room.
-Very lengthy scenes of driving. Again Lynch is testing the patience of audiences conditioned to instant gratification.
-Carrie asks him is he's really FBI. Cooper has a badge to prove it, but I wonder if he's really an FBI agent in this reality.
-They pass the RR diner. Wherever they are the RR still exists.
-You can see the doubt creep into Cooper when Carrie doesn't recognize anything about the house.
-The entire scene at the doorway was so uncomfortable. The once assured Cooper seems very hesitant and confident here. Carrie's glances at Coop.
-The Chalfonts and Tremonds are still factoring into this.
-We end with another unsettling scream. Lynch sure knows how to do the unsettling scream.
-A lot of travelling and transitioning in these final two parts. Not just traveling on roads but traveling from seemingly one plane of reality (or dream-reality) to another. There's even time travel. Despite knowing before each transition that things will not be the same, and even despite understanding that he may never be able to return, Cooper seems to have ended up some place he was not expecting.
-It's probably a strain to try to make literal sense of what happened in these two parts even though I'm trying. I think perhaps the existential questions being raised are more important.
-The final part was not very fulfilling or cathartic emotionally, but Part 17 and previous parts did have those moments. It's disappointing not not get that in the final part, but what there was there in force was existential dread. Particularly on rewatching the final long drive to Laura's house, knowing that it's not going to end the way Cooper expects, and watching Carrie's doubts about Cooper and Cooper's own self doubts surface. The entire sequence is very quietly but very powerfully unsettling. It's definitely a downer note to end the franchise on if that's the end. It's not just asking us to question what is happening with the story, but it makes us question why we went on this journey in the first place, which is a ballsy thing for people who are writing the story to have us question.
-It seems like there's possibilities for this to continue, though is that because we are still seeking resolution on many things that were not resolved? Lynch loves enigma and mystery and resolution and answers often end the mystery. Lynch was so upset about being forced to solve the Laura murder, perhaps he just wanted to bring back the mystery in full force. In that case should there be more, don't expect any more answers about any of this, other than what is necessary to form the basis of some sort of narrative.

[The Gazebo]

I've read quite a lot about this dynamic as part of my art history masters. In so far as texts are meaningful texts, they are transparent, allowing words to vanish and be replaced with meanings. But the whole point of visual art, images and film is not to vanish and be replaced with meaning, but to appear: to resist the hermenuetical impulse of the audience, to stubbornly be there opposite your face looking back at you in all their visuality (and for film, audiality). The pre-occupations of Lynch as film-maker coincide somewhat with what has been called in art history 'the visual turn', 'the pictoral turn' or 'the new visuality'; i.e. a serious re-evaluation of the image as image, not as a text. In this kind of methodology, audiences do not approach images in order to 'decode' them or extract meanings from them, but as a source of experience and sensations. The emphasis is not on producing discourse about the image, still less interpreting it, but about engaging with it perceptually and experientually.

I'm not very good at this. My mind is primed to 'read' images, to 'read off' what they are purportedly telling us, rather than feeling its way around, bodily, kinaesthetically, experientially. YMMV

Yes, I can very well relate to that - and thank you very much for reminding me, because all this time it's been staring me right in the kisser. In music, I've always preferred the timbre, soundscapes, movement, the words as sounds instead of lyrics (and other related sensations), while for some reason, once I pick up a book or watch a challenging movie, I have this need to - as you say - find meaning and interpretation. That's probably one of the reasons why the original run was so powerful for me. I never went into deep analysis mode, I just let the sounds and images wash over me (I'm sure I'm not alone in having had this experience back in 1990).

[cgs027]

So basically Cooper failed and screwed himself, and we get an ending, but it's a downer ending.

Not sure how I feel.

Did anyone else get a bit of a "Primer" feel from this? Granted, that was more of a literal time travel movie (although I'm not sure that isn't the case here), but the main protagonist keeps going back in order to thwart a shooting, and in the process, keep mucking things up further. Not to mention that each time he goes back, he essentially creates a new double of himself that he has to worry about.

For me, there is a similar idea of trying to go back and repeatedly (although it's hard to say if this is the case for certain in TP) change the past, all the while knowing the potential damage that is being done.

[Cipher]

In the end, Cooper seems utterly lost, maybe for always. And yet he came to that time and place by correctly following the clues of the Fireman, just like in the original series. Deeply intrigued by the tragic hero interpretation of Cooper some have shared...but is it unthinkable that things could still be set right one day?

I don't think it's "unthinkable" (I love TheGum's Buddhist interpretation above), and Laura's seeming awakening at the end of the episode promises new directions if she really is the totemic opposite of the series' negative elements, or has the capacity to be, but whatever setting right there is to be done would be a long way off, after many more cycles, more suffering, more acceptance, more dreams.

At least if we don't get a season 4 that implies the ending lies at a different point. If this is it, I'm content with the spot where it stops. From here on, there's more, but a lot will be more of the same.

[cgs027]

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.

Yep, totally noticed this, as well. It appears that the lodge may be closed for business.

[claaa7]

It was about the bunny.

i'll be damned!

[Pinky]

Are the Chalfonts played by the actual real life residents of the Palmer house? I've heard this rumor a long time ago.

Yes. Timothy and Mary Reber are the real life owners of the house.

They let some youtube guy sit and watch the FWWM dinner scene in the room where it was filmed, on the TV that Sarah watched in S3. Would have been a mindbending experience. Walked past the old BBC place (it's becoming a load of luxury apartments) the other day and wondered about people at night watching reruns of old comedies, in the exact physical space where they're now sitting.

[sewhite2000]

Cooper and ... Jeffries ... are one and the same?

They share the same fate.

BUT just to offer a differing opinion, Evil Cooper was also asking Jeffries about Judy. I thought maybe in his disembodied teapot steam state, Jeffries is now easily confused and didn't really distinguish between the two Coopers.

And why should he? The Cooper who crosses over is a warped synthesis of both. Jeffries knows what is coming.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by the "same fate"? Cooper hopping from one reality to another, while Jeffries just seems to be stuck in his motel room steam state forever. How is that the same?

[silvo]

The tag line was "it is happening again" and that is very clear here.

There are several ways you can interpret the series as a whole as well as the ending. Here's one that I'm really leaning towards-

Given the numerous references to Buddhist/Tibetan beliefs in the first 2 seasons, I think that absolutely factors in here, either literally or figuratively. Buddhism is essentially all about learning to transcend or become at peace with your pain and suffering (garmonbozia) and realize that life IS suffering. If you can't enlighten yourself and accept your suffering, you experience desires, which causes more suffering, and you repeat the cycle until you can accept your inevitable suffering and reach nirvana which is a state of complete acceptance of and as a result a liberation from suffering.
I believe that despite Cooper's fascination with Buddhism, he was very far from enlightenment. His obsession with attachments- to the town of twin peaks, to Caroline, to Annie, to the FBI, Audrey, and yes, to Laura, particularly this concept of "fixing her death." are all examples of this. Attachments are another cause of suffering- when you love someone, eventually they will cause you suffering, whether they hurt you in some way, or simply by dying, which will hurt you as well. Hell-- he was fascinated with the "plight of the Tibetan people" and wanted to help fix that somehow, a classic example of a massive problem that one person such as Cooper can't possibly fix and a cause of suffering for him. (Not to mention that he has no idea if the Buddhist residents of Tibet want or need help, this could just be a part of their natural suffering in their eyes) All of these attachments led to what we could call his repeated undoing. The owl cave sign turning into an infinity loop is a warning. Jeffries is showing him the path he will go on if he continues this road. I believe that Judy IS suffering, and that she was inside Sarah Palmer- who as a character is the embodiment of suffering. That's the blackness inside of her. I also believe that Laura, in fact actually reached enlightenment, hence the white light inside of her, but that enlightenment can't exist in Cooper's reality because he is not ready or capable of understanding it yet.

Proof of this is in the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism:
1. The existence of suffering.
2. The causes of suffering.
3. The cessation of the causes of suffering
4. The path that leads to the cessation of the causes of suffering

We are introduced to the universal suffering we will all eventually endure, death, immediately in the first couple minutes of the pilot. Laura has endured that suffering and as the show progresses we find that she has endured much more than just that.
As the show moves on we learn about BOB and eventually her father and his role. We see this first hand in FWWM. We see her personal struggles with desire and suffering throughout the original series. Additionally in FWWM we are shown more of her inner turmoil in the first person. Ultimately as the plot moves forward we are introduced to the ring, and another possibility for Laura. A future where she doesn't submit to BOB and a future where she is free not only from the pain he and Leland inflicts on her, but from all of the suffering in her life. She sees in the ring that it is possible to end her suffering. In the conclusion of FWWM she takes the ring, and leaves behind all of her pain, suffering, and attachments on earth to a higher level of enlightenment. We see her rise at the end of the film to this next level of being. And she shows it directly to Cooper at the beginning of The Return.

Unfortunately, Cooper is still at odds with his own suffering and has an intense desire to fix the suffering in the world. When she shows him the light behind her face, she is spirited away from his reality because he cannot accept her peace. He still is obsessed with the idea of "making things right" and helping her whether she wants it of not. His first failure is at the end of season 2 with Caroline, Annie, and Earle. He fails again in FWWM when he tries to persuade Laura not to take the ring. He follows the advice of Leland (who, clearly is not a great person to listen to) in The Return, with the entire season essentially being a long journey back to Twin Peaks, where he fixes the immediate problems, but then quickly returns to the lodge to retcon Laura's death. Jeffries WARNS him he is on an infinite path and he disregards him. He saves Laura, but Judy, or suffering in general wins out, because saving her does nothing to rid the world of suffering, so this reality ends and he finds himself back in the lodge. Here he has another opportunity to behave differently, even after seeing Leland and hearing his request yet again when he exits the Lodge to the waiting Diane. But even with endless possibilities in front of himself, he takes her 430 miles away, and tries again to fix things. This time ending up even further away from his original reality, those he knew, himself as a person- his behavior is not original Cooper, it is clearly some distillation of Cooper, Mr. C, and Dougie. He is good, but emotionless, impatient, and somewhat confused as to what exactly to do. He takes Carrie/Laura back to the place of her suffering and once again suffering wins. Because it ALWAYS will, because life is suffering.

We have been introduced first hand to the beginning of Agent Coopers journey though life and whatever there is after. And this will continue on and on until he accepts the reality of his own suffering and reaches nirvana. Whether this all "actually happened" or was a dream doesn't matter in a literal sense. In some way it all definitely happened. What is real? What is a dream? It's inconsequential as long as Cooper keeps missing the point. So should there be a season 4? There could be, but is it really necessary?

If this is the case, which would make a great sense, there are two things I don't undestand!
What it means Laura is the One!
What it means the golden orb Laura.

Till now these things they have been translated that Laura was sent from the White Lodge to stop evil. So, I can't find the connection of Laura reaching the nirvana with the golden orb. It seems more that Laura returns back to the White Lodge. Like a female Jesus took all the pain and suffering from the Twin Peaks world and sacrifices herself.

[Pinky]

'loved you in Twin Peaks, Balthazar!!'

'I was in that?? Is that what Lynch was filming my coin trick for?'

[Jacob]

I'm a bit mixed about the two parts : honestly the whole thing felt sometimes like a joke. Still I liked Part 18 much more than Part 17. In the intro, Gordon Cole aka Lynch is saying "I may have gone soft but not when it counts". But Part 17's softness is precisely why it fails to really work in my opinion.


- First, Bad Coop. When I said last week that the show was becoming too "easy", and with Mr. C in particular, now just a cool bad guy, never really hurting us directly, killing people the viewers already hate (the gangster leader, Richard Horne...), well I didn't know the finale would prove me so right. 5 minutes after his arrival, boom, he's dead. He didn't even have the time to shoot Frank Truman : he's immediately harmless. Just like a fucking bad guy in a children movie. I loved how EVIL the character was in the first four parts. But since, well, he never looked once again really threatening. Like Lynch & Frost never really cared about the character and exploring his darkness.
And let's not even talk about the Green Glove fight : you've all done it already very well. I like Freddie though -- but it's so demeaning for a character like Bad Coop to be defeated by a guy introduced 3 parts earlier. Therefore, it's like his storyline had no necessity at all.
I gotta say though : the fact that the guy we've been waiting to wake up for 25 years was just here doing nothing, cheering for an unknown with a glove was really funny

- Talk about softness once again : the new Dougie for Janey-E wasn't a surprise, but it was so childish, so easy. Now, if it was just that ! But when before, the main threat is killed after 5 minutes in a cartoonish scene, and when after, Laura Palmer's death is cancelled, nothing feels real and tragic. Everyone here is talking about how those two parts, love them or hate them, were pure Lynch, but I strongly disagree. Part 17 felt fake and convenient. Nothing like Lynch.

- The return in the past was freaking cheap -- something a la "Lost", but really not as good. Because, first, it didn't feel DESERVED. Coop has woken up since not even one part, and he's already able to "save" Laura Palmer ? I would have love this scene, if it was the conclusion of a big chunk of pains and sufferings. At first, I thought Laura's body on the shore wasn't going to disappear but be replaced by Coop's. That would have be more real (because we can't escape the darkness or death). But to see it completely disappear... it felt so easy. And it wasn't a good idea to put as much of the James & Laura scene from FWWM, because it's so much better than the part itself...


But still, I liked the vibe of Part 17 : I liked Diane's return, I liked, even if there was so much mistakes, the heart of it. So I was still optimistic about Part 18. And I really liked it. Clearly it has its flaws -- and more than Audrey's absence, Judy's is really difficult to understand, since Part 17 cared so much to reintroduce "her". Even at the end of Part 17, Cooper is supposed to enter in the 315 door to find Judy ! So why, now that Coop is "on the other side", we're no longer talking about her ? The fact that Coop finally manages to find Laura thanks to Judy's name on the front of the dinner makes me think that Judy is maybe Laura... (Laura, Maddy, Carrie being the different incarnations of Judy's spirit).

But anyway, that's what I loved about Part 18 : I was fucking lost, lost like while watching Mulholland Dr. or INLAND EMPIRE for the first time, and I had forgot how I love that. So I just enjoyed the ride, not thinking about what was unresolved. And I loved that little road-movie like an Orpheus descent with Laura. I loved how we're expecting a threat that's never coming, maybe because Laura IS in fact the threat herself (if she's Judy well I guess she's evil...) And I loved, also, how the "TMZ scene" didn't played out like we all thought -- and maybe Lynch filmed the scene for everyone to see precisely because he knew that we were going to think Sarah Palmer was in the house. And, finally, I loved Laura's scream. She looked like evil. And like something that should have stay dead.

But as an end ?! Where's the catharsis ? I was expecting so much more emotion from this season ! I get that Lynch has done with this ending an anti-FWWM one (no laughs, no light, no catharsis, no release : the two characters are now in the real world, lost and alone...).

Because of this, I completely agree with :

I feel like that final episode was almost a meta-commentary on the entirety of The Return. I think the whole idea is that some things are meant to stay dead, trapped in amber, and that bringing them back can change them irrevocably. By bringing Laura back, they destroyed the reality of Twin Peaks - by bringing the show back, we may have destroyed Twin Peaks. Dale, Laura and the audience are all trapped in a purgatory together at the end of the series. It's one of the most nightmarish things I can imagine.

It's exactly what I felt when Cooper was left speechless on the side of the road with Laura, walking even like Dougie for one moment.
And yeah, for once, the show is HURTING us. The show, there, is REAL. But I felt like it wasn't enough.

I want also to quote :

Are the Chalfonts played by the actual real life residents of the Palmer house? I've heard this rumor a long time ago.

Yes. Timothy and Mary Reber are the real life owners of the house.

That's very interesting. And it confirms all this strange game that the season played all along with reality (when Lynch is talking with Monica Bellucci in Paris, like he's himself David Lynch, or when Eddie Vedder is "playing" his real self -- Edward Louis Severson III, or when Audrey is looking for "Billy [Zane ?]).
Anyway, in contrast to the FWWM ending -- inside the Red Room, the place where there's always music in the air, so in fact inside the dream of art, and where Cooper and Laura looks like they're finally happy and where they're supposed to be -- this ending looks like the truth behind the representation. Like, let's say, the true ending in "Life of Pi", in contrast with the dreamed one (not gonna spoil the film). It reminded me also of how Dougie looked lost, without a home, in Las Vegas, walking around the statue with "Windswept" as a soundtrack : a lost soul, who should have never got back to where it was. Dale and Laura are "out" of the dream. And that's the danger of wanting an "end" at all cost. Very "Orpheus" too. I love this.


Anyway, what a strange season. I had no idea the show was going to develop itself like this after Part 8. Adding all this new storylines (Audrey, Sarah...) to all the new ones, without tying themselves together or resolving them. There was a lot of beautiful things -- I loved the first fourt parts, the glass cage experiment, the purple world scenes, all the Las Vegas storyline, especially beautiful Dougie with his green jacket or the cherry pie with the Mitchum brothers... --, but the story itself was in fact too small, too modest, for 18 parts. Look at the Bad Coop storyline ! So deceptive. It was nothing like the magnum opus we were expecting. But still, there was plenty of food for everyone...

Part 8 > Part 3 > Part 18 > Part 1 > Part 11 > Part 16 > Part 14 > Part 4 > Part 7 > Part 15 > Part 10 > Part 17 > Part 13 > Part 5 > Part 2 > Part 6 > Part 9 > Part 12

[vicksvapor77]

Still processing and very confused and frustrated.

Did anyone else think Carrie's hair got blonder as she got closer to Twin Peaks?

EDIT: The Showtime still for the car scene reveals it was shot in March 2016 so I think it was just poor continuity, shortly after she shot the Laura Red Room scene. Carry on!

[Pinky]

Ray's a 'paid informant'. So, still generally a 'bad' guy, just one who's working for Cole? Feels better to think of him as a good guy who's in deep cover.

[N. Needleman]

Cooper and ... Jeffries ... are one and the same?

They share the same fate.

BUT just to offer a differing opinion, Evil Cooper was also asking Jeffries about Judy. I thought maybe in his disembodied teapot steam state, Jeffries is now easily confused and didn't really distinguish between the two Coopers.

And why should he? The Cooper who crosses over is a warped synthesis of both. Jeffries knows what is coming.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by the "same fate"? Cooper hopping from one reality to another, while Jeffries just seems to be stuck in his motel room steam state forever. How is that the same?

Both are unstuck in time and space.

[cgs027]

I think if there is a Season 4, whatever happened with Audrey is crucial. I believe there was material cut there.

As for Diane: I think once they crossed over the border, she became "Linda" - she was not protected from the reality shift as Dale was. He warned her things might be different, but he didn't know how much. Once they cross Diane is Linda but Dale is still Dale, not Richard, and to Linda/Diane she is making love to a strange, corrupted stranger. So she leaves. (I also think Cooper felt cocky and ascendent after destroying? BOB - before they cross, he makes advances on Diane, who seems willing but hesitant given the past. Cooper does not notice.)

And the Dale who crossed over is a strange corruption, a meld of our Coop with his doppelganger, corrupted by his new original sin, full of imperfect courage, more appetities and confusion - after violating the past to save a girl in trouble.

In the end Lynch and Frost made Dale Cooper into another of Lynch's latter-day antiheroes, plumbing his depths like Diane/Betty in MD or Fred/Pete in LH. His fatal flaws warp his world and damn him to the abyss.

If the show goes forward, IMO it will not be down to Hero Cooper to save reality. He is too in love with being the Special Agent. Like episode 29, he has never gotten over the spectre of Caroline, the original woman he could not save.

I like a lot of what you are saying here, but why did Dale and Diane have to "cross over" in the first place? Crossing over to what? Diane tries to talk Dale out of it, it seems. It seemed as if their new reality took a while to fully manifest. It is not until morning that Diane thinks of herself as Linda and Cooper as Richard. A different motel. A different car. A more populated area. What does it all mean?

I took it as he somehow knew the 430 clue would lead him to Laura ("Find Laura" -- he had figured out that she was in this alternate timeline). However, I have no idea why Diane was involved with this at all. Maybe just getting the team back together?