Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

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N. Needleman
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by N. Needleman »

I thought 18 was harrowing and amazing. Terrifying stuff, up there with MD and LH. Especially the driving. Yes, as a fan I was fearing the length, but as a viewer I was spellbound.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by QuantumMechanic »

claaa7 wrote: Yes! Ive seen some posts really disliking the long driving scenes but i thought they were packed with atmosphere and mystery.
And constant, constant tension.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

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Tailsun wrote:
ThumbsUp wrote:The story of the girl who lived down the lane.

Audrey said the same thing to Charlie. Charlie threatened to end her story. Sarah told Hawk it's a god damn bad story.

"Story" = a particular timeline, dimension, parallel universe? Carrie had to get her coat like Audrey had to, the phone was ringing in Carrie's and Audrey was sick of waiting for the phone to ring.

I think Audrey's whole thread was to foreshadow the system of dreamers/dreams that the entire TP universe seems to be functioning in.
Thank you for this - I thought I remembered Audrey mentioning the "girl down the lane." Those other details thought - amazing!

I felt tons of deja vu during part 18 and I'm sure there are even more moments that were "seeded" earlier in the series. Very reminiscent of MD. I think Jeffries' manipulation of the Owl Cave/ring symbol is relevant here. A familiar representation of our reality (or story as you put it) rearranging and folding in on itself until it becomes "infinity," distorting our story into something uncanny. Definitely veering into extreme abstraction, even by TP standards. I'd be curious to see if this changes the impact of some scenes with a rewatch.
I loved it. Speaking of Diane, when she and Coop are having sex, is she putting her hands on his face to block out memories of her assault? Or was she touching his face to see if it was really him? Why were they having sex in the first place, and why did it seem to splinter another timeline?

It seemed like a lot of deju vu or repeat experiences the characters were going through, maybe with different versions of themselves, which links back to Jeffries' infinity symbol and the many teapots, and the larger running themes of TP like doppelgangers, lookalikes, dreams, past and future, chanting out between two worlds, etc.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by Snailhead »

I really liked Part 18, in fact it was one of the best parts of the series. But as an ending? I don't know. I think it would have been stronger if more of the Return had been in this vein rather than saving it for the very end.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by NewtoTwinPeaks »

Some questions:

- Who was it that called Cooper in episode 2? Cooper asks Jeffries this, but is it ever answered?

- How did that ring end up in Major's stomach? Who put it there?

- How did Major Briggs die? I remember Matthew Lillard saying his head started to float, but not much more.

- What was the Doppleganger's plan? He showed Daria the card with the 'Mother of All Evil' symbol but what exactly was he looking for from her? I don't really understand his end goal.

- What's up with Audrey?

- What's up with the guy that presumable killed himself? Not sure if there was much point to that storyline.

- Who exactly are Richard and Linda?
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by kornishpyxee »

BigEd wrote:I want to know who the man was that Tremond was talking to. I thought we were going to see Leland peering out a window.
Maybe he's the kid with the pointy-nosed mask and his hands full of creamed corn, all grown up.

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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by ThumbsUp »

Has there been much talk on these boards over the years about Buddhist influence on this show?

It seems like these characters are reliving past events or lives as a result of pain and suffering (garmonbozia). It'd fit in with Lynch the director and Coop the character's interest in Buddhist/Tibetan philosophy, and Laura's "fear not" mudra hand gesture in season 2, and how the Black Lodge "destroys your soul." If you can't escape your suffering, you screw up and have to start over and try again (again, the infinity symbol).

That's what the end of part 18 seems to imply to me? The Mother/Judy/the Experiment won, Coop and Laura have a sudden horrifying realisation, and everything starts over again.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by N. Needleman »

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.
Last edited by N. Needleman on Sun Sep 03, 2017 10:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by Cipher »

ThumbsUp wrote:I loved it. Speaking of Diane, when she and Coop are having sex, is she putting her hands on his face to block out memories of her assault? Or was she touching his face to see if it was really him?
I went back and forth on that, as I was getting shades of both. Then again, the music also shifted pointedly between triumphant and menacing, and the Cooper we met the next morning was, in his subtle ways, a new one.

An hour ago I was hungry for a fourth season. Now I can't imagine the show going anywhere from here.

Oh, yeah, real-deal plot-level question though: Who wanted to be "with Bob again"?
Last edited by Cipher on Sun Sep 03, 2017 11:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by ThumbsUp »

NewtoTwinPeaks wrote:Some questions:

- Who was it that called Cooper in episode 2? Cooper asks Jeffries this, but is it ever answered?

- How did that ring end up in Major's stomach? Who put it there?

- How did Major Briggs die? I remember Matthew Lillard saying his head started to float, but not much more.

- What was the Doppleganger's plan? He showed Daria the card with the 'Mother of All Evil' symbol but what exactly was he looking for from her? I don't really understand his end goal.

- What's up with Audrey?

- What's up with the guy that presumable killed himself? Not sure if there was much point to that storyline.

- Who exactly are Richard and Linda?
The only ones I can really answer are that the doppelganger was trying to unite with the Mother/Experiment to... gain more power and avoid getting sucked into the Lodge?

And see my other posts re: Audrey. I think Evil Coop took her to the Convenience Store/Lodge and she's living the same dreamer-within-the-dream nightmare loop that Cooper is, or that maybe we all are.

Richard and Linda... see above. Like Mulholland Drive, the characters in this show seem to be stuck in existence loops, or exist in parallel timelines or universes, in which they have different names and have different roles. The whole Dougie thing all season long was a lead-up to this.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by TimeLife »

If this indeed was an 18-hour movie, then slow-paced and tension-filled Part 18 was the perfect epilogue to the climax of the story that was Part 17.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

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N. Needleman wrote: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 agree with pretty much all of this. But at the same time I find it extremely depressing. I really wasn't expecting such a downer ending of Cooper failing once again.
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N. Needleman
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by N. Needleman »

Ross wrote:I agree with pretty much all of this. But at the same time I find it extremely depressing. I really wasn't expecting such a downer ending of Cooper failing once again.
I wasn't either, but in hindsight we should've seen it coming - the vicious twist in the tail is there in so much of his past-FWWM work. I thought both IE's ending - and his stated objective for The Return - precluded that here. I was wrong.

And yeah - I was depressed, scarred, shaken. But I also think it was fucking brilliant Lynch.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by Jasper »

ThumbsUp wrote:Coop looking for Laura/Carrie the waitress at the diner was the same as Chester looking for Teresa Banks the waitress at the diner in Fire Walk With Me.

Lots of infinite loops (the 8 Jeffries showed Coop can be construed as the infinity symbol).

Total Mulholland Drive moment in the diner as well. Do you think the waitress's resemblance to Becky/Amanda Seyfried was intentional?
When she was at a distance, I thought it might be Amanda Seyfried. The far-apart eyes are especially similar.
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Re: Part 18 - What is your name? (SPOILERS)

Post by Tailsun »

ThumbsUp wrote:
Tailsun wrote:
ThumbsUp wrote:The story of the girl who lived down the lane.

Audrey said the same thing to Charlie. Charlie threatened to end her story. Sarah told Hawk it's a god damn bad story.

"Story" = a particular timeline, dimension, parallel universe? Carrie had to get her coat like Audrey had to, the phone was ringing in Carrie's and Audrey was sick of waiting for the phone to ring.

I think Audrey's whole thread was to foreshadow the system of dreamers/dreams that the entire TP universe seems to be functioning in.
Thank you for this - I thought I remembered Audrey mentioning the "girl down the lane." Those other details thought - amazing!

I felt tons of deja vu during part 18 and I'm sure there are even more moments that were "seeded" earlier in the series. Very reminiscent of MD. I think Jeffries' manipulation of the Owl Cave/ring symbol is relevant here. A familiar representation of our reality (or story as you put it) rearranging and folding in on itself until it becomes "infinity," distorting our story into something uncanny. Definitely veering into extreme abstraction, even by TP standards. I'd be curious to see if this changes the impact of some scenes with a rewatch.
I loved it. Speaking of Diane, when she and Coop are having sex, is she putting her hands on his face to block out memories of her assault? Or was she touching his face to see if it was really him? Why were they having sex in the first place, and why did it seem to splinter another timeline?

It seemed like a lot of deju vu or repeat experiences the characters were going through, maybe with different versions of themselves, which links back to Jeffries' infinity symbol and the many teapots, and the larger running themes of TP like doppelgangers, lookalikes, dreams, past and future, chanting out between two worlds, etc.
Re: Diane touching Cooper's face - she was blind as Naido, and if I recall correctly she recognized Cooper by touching his face when he arrived at the room with the fireplace. It didn't seem to me that she was trying to just block his face, it was much more intentional than that. Maybe her memory is so distorted that she can only recognize him by feeling? Maybe that version of Diane is more Naido - whatever that means?

Time for me to get some sleep, I think.
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