Part 9 - This is the chair (SPOILERS)

[DeepBlueSeed]

So Lucy can't deal with cell phones, but has not problem ordering furniture off of that internet?

It has been established that her issue is with cell phones and the mobility that comes with them. "Static" internet sites are not a problem for her. Judging by how this latest episode is clarifying things, I have a feeling this aspect of her behaviour will be wrapped up pretty neatly by the end of the season.

I hope so. As subplots go it's one of the most engrossing, and I don't know what I'll do if they have to drag it out for another season!

[Trudy Chelgren]

This is going to be a long one. I hate to feel this way, I've loved every moment of The Return so far, but Part 9 left me cold.

I've admittedly always felt a little uneasy at all the very linear, Secret History, connect-the-dots, kind of mystery that this season has sometimes strayed into. I feel it's a little too smart, a little esoteric and gimmicky. Kind of removed, detached. I feel like, however indistinct it may be, that we're being explained too much.

I've felt that The Return is a metaphysical journey, and a literal one. Almost like a road movie. But I feel like we've come so far, only for things to become very static. Cooper, even though his material is beautiful, if catatonic, has had very little progression. In this Part, he has in effect, almost been sidelined entirely; besides his staring at the flag, he's brought up only in unnecessarily complex treasure-hunting, and knotted conspiracies.

Albert's material is desperately bipolar; his line, "what happens in season 2?" was so perfect, and such a welcome relief from another information dump of exposition. But "fruitcake, anyone?", after Lillard's simultaneously sobering and silly monologue, (a performance of childlike intensity, if a little overacted) was not funny, creative or necessary. I don't see why Gordon feels the need to continually apologize in advance for him; he's now not scathingly, cruelly funny, like he was once, but tepid and almost petulant. I'm not even going to bother with Andy and Lucy.

And I hate Au Revoir Simone. They're so lacking of personality and character. Why they were plugged for a second time, and yet they had the variety of Hudson Mohawke for what felt like a minute, I'll never appreciate. Makes the Nine Inch Nails sequence all the more potent for me.

All that being said, there was some wonderful, stand-out moments in this Part; Badalamenti's music was so beautiful throughout, and went a long way to make up for Betty Briggs' sometimes cloying dialogue. Bobby was great, Ike "the Spike" was great, Johnny racing around the house was hilarious, Diane's "IT'S A FUCKING MORGUE", DoppelCoop walking through the farmland, Hutch, Chad's huffing and puffing in the conference room. Lynch has given himself arguably one of the best roles.

So, I don't know. Maybe they consciously decided to make a far more objectively 'normal' episode after Part 8, but I want things to take flight now; we've been going around doing the same things in the same places for a while now, and if we get another episode where Cole, Tammy and Albert ask questions, join more dots, Cooper sits blankly, DoppelCoop does something vague and distantly threatening, I'll feel it's starting to outstay it's welcome. I feel it needs to start running, and start to pare back some of the tangled, intelligent, convenient, binary mysteries in place of something more organic and raw and dreamlike. All I'm saying.

[docLEXfisti]

Just watched the episode again, the humming sound of the device with the Major Briggs note in it has the same sound as the sound in the Great Northern. Maybe there is another one of these capsules hidden there.

[afrank315]

I watched Ep9 last night and awoke this morning, mind racing.

Has anyone theorized:

The "Diane" we see is the "mother" who killed the young couple outside of the glass box?

Her "daughter" has the same hairstyle. "Diane"'s hair is white, like that of Leland Palmer!

The real Diane is locked in the room in that house, banging on the door to get Cooper's attention to save her?

[MoondogJR]

Do we know who JT is, Ike the Spike mentions?

[sylvia_north]

That scene yes, case files scene a little too much.
And I think ep 9 scene would've worked better without ep 4 scene too.

Not really.
You have to consider one very important thing. Bobby is the only one, and I mean the only one, that was dragged down by Laura's darkness.
Leo? Jerk by trade. James? He never followed her lead. Donna? She doesn't even know what she's doing. Ben? Another jerk by trade. Jacoby? A psych voyeur.
Bobby was the only one that followed her. He was just a naive teen, in the football team. She made him a rug, a tool to be used. And dragged him down, up to the point that not only he sold drugs, but he killed a man.
He killed for her.
Yet, Major Briggs told us - and repeated in S3E9 through his wife - that Bobby is a positive figure, a right man that was freed only by the traumatic event of Laura's death.
That's why he's so important this season.

Yes, Laura represents his voyage into darkness, so forgive him if he suffers from some PTSD.

That's a really nice take on things. I always remember that Bobby's introduction to the show is pretty much as a 'bad boy', and the whole thing with Shelly and Leo doesn't particularly make him a shining example of a good guy, but his father's faith in him, and the backstory apparent in FWWM and the secret diary, makes it clear that it's more a case of a kid who's stumbled in way too deep.

I've really enjoyed Booby this season. He might be acting more like an excitable scout than a professional officer of the law, but I think that makes it easier for me to (re)connect with him.

Laura was only smoking pot when Bobby got her coke though, to impress her, and he introduced her to Leo. Who's dragging whom?

This is going to be a long one. I hate to feel this way, I've loved every moment of The Return so far, but Part 9 left me cold.

I've admittedly always felt a little uneasy at all the very linear, Secret History, connect-the-dots, kind of mystery that this season has sometimes strayed into. I feel it's a little too smart, a little esoteric and gimmicky. Kind of removed, detached. I feel like, however indistinct it may be, that we're being explained too much.

I've felt that The Return is a metaphysical journey, and a literal one. Almost like a road movie. But I feel like we've come so far, only for things to become very static. Cooper, even though his material is beautiful, if catatonic, has had very little progression. In this Part, he has in effect, almost been sidelined entirely; besides his staring at the flag, he's brought up only in unnecessarily complex treasure-hunting, and knotted conspiracies.

Albert's material is desperately bipolar; his line, "what happens in season 2?" was so perfect, and such a welcome relief from another information dump of exposition. But "fruitcake, anyone?", after Lillard's simultaneously sobering and silly monologue, (a performance of childlike intensity, if a little overacted) was not funny, creative or necessary. I don't see why Gordon feels the need to continually apologize in advance for him; he's now not scathingly, cruelly funny, like he was once, but tepid and almost petulant. I'm not even going to bother with Andy and Lucy.

And I hate Au Revoir Simone. They're so lacking of personality and character. Why they were plugged for a second time, and yet they had the variety of Hudson Mohawke for what felt like a minute, I'll never appreciate. Makes the Nine Inch Nails sequence all the more potent for me.

All that being said, there was some wonderful, stand-out moments in this Part; Badalamenti's music was so beautiful throughout, and went a long way to make up for Betty Briggs' sometimes cloying dialogue. Bobby was great, Ike "the Spike" was great, Johnny racing around the house was hilarious, Diane's "IT'S A FUCKING MORGUE", DoppelCoop walking through the farmland, Hutch, Chad's huffing and puffing in the conference room. Lynch has given himself arguably one of the best roles.

So, I don't know. Maybe they consciously decided to make a far more objectively 'normal' episode after Part 8, but I want things to take flight now; we've been going around doing the same things in the same places for a while now, and if we get another episode where Cole, Tammy and Albert ask questions, join more dots, Cooper sits blankly, DoppelCoop does something vague and distantly threatening, I'll feel it's starting to outstay it's welcome. I feel it needs to start running, and start to pare back some of the tangled, intelligent, convenient, binary mysteries in place of something more organic and raw and dreamlike. All I'm saying.

I agree with all of this!

Surprised so many people are taking a Ben/Beverly affair as a given thing (or assuming the only reason it won't happen is that he's now "good"). Judd is in her late 40s while RIchard Beymer is pushing 80! Sure, he's still charming as hell, but if this storyline goes that direction, that is some classic Hollywood-male wish-fulfillment.

What??? That's political correctness run amok right there. Beymer does not look his age and appears to be in very good shape. How does his age matter?

Dim lighting? Gravity inevitable? Run amok my golden balls, insane Hollywood age gap is something everyone's been tired of for decades. Not saying 80 is inherently unattractive, but that's what "they look good for his/her age" suggests.

In Season 2, age gap was comedy. Ben now is Doug Milford's age when he died lol and Ashley Judd and Robyn Lively are just a few years apart in age. When it's played straight like Ben and Beverly, constantly, it normalizes it. If you criticize or notice it, you're a fascist or something. Ben's virility trumps all! First time Beverly asks Ben "Who's Laura Palmer?" I answered, "Teen coke hooker! Groomed her from childhood, pimped her out and banged her!" I kinda want to tell her nooooo!! Not because he's too old but because he fed Cooper to the dogs and was a creepy whoremaster! Stay in the dim lighting, Beverly! Don't fall in love

[Novalis]

I like that in this part, Bobby has the wonderfully sheepish joy about him of one who realises he is finally of some use to the weird world of this investigation. Which then blooms to become full blown boyish enthusiasm tinged with memories of his late father. And then we have the belated discovery that his father believed in him wholeheartedly. That's a whole lot of redemption, in spadefuls. No wonder he's emotional.

More generally, this was a mixed bag. I did not enjoy how on-the-nose Hasting's 'parallel universes' are. To me it feels to lessen the ambiguity and narrow the potentials; having said that I will be fully aboard if this turns out to be either a red herring or a merely perspectival thing (Hastings' explanation not resolving definitively, and remaining only one of many). The tie-in website was, besides making something interesting out of a banal necessity (registering of a domain), a nice idea and brings the series up to date with contemporary fandom relations, although ironically so because of its garish 'web 1.0' aesthetics (which are well done - makes me almost nostalgic for the pre-css pre-jquery html tag dominated internet where people used tables for page layout and alt.tv.twin-peaks style newsgroups for conversation). Also loving the links to the media resources there -- rewards for an avid fan.

With all this said about Hasting's exposition-heavy scene, Lillard's signature wailing, gurning and sobbing (which must surely have been one of the primary motivations for picking this actor) was truly delightful. In a profound existential crisis of this magnitude, he regresses to a simple bundle of frustrated desires. He wants to go scuba diving with his girlfriend. And that is it. The experiences he's been through have emptied him out. We were gonna go to the BA-BA-HA-MAS and that's pretty much all that's left of him.

Lucy and Andy's scene is also childlike, indeed I can understand the frustration of some people regarding their scene. However, the wry smile Lucy gives when, having won the game, she opts for Andy's preference after all goes to show that it was never about the chair. Which leads us to the chair. A different chair. Even then, despite the title of the part, it's not about the chair. It's about what's in the chair. Just like it's not about the bunny - is it about the bunny? - it's about a place named for a bunny.

The way the secret capsule is opened is through resonance, not through pressing buttons. This is interesting to think about. Lynch is not pressing buttons, he's attuning various strings to sound in harmonic resonance. One thing recalls another not because they are objectively tied together, but because of their internal relations, their subterranean or unconscious correspondences. Ben likens the humming in the Great Northern to a monastery bell. Easily accounted for, the ringing may simply sound alike. Why this particular type of bell though? What secondary resonances does this monastery bring to bear on the matter? This monastery is, lets be frank, happening now. Look at how Ben reacts to Beverley. He's chaste and monkish. There's a lot of Nachträglichkeit in part 9. Things that are reported as happening long, long, ago merely happened nominally, and only really fully happen when something in the present activates their memory. It's like Walter Benjamin is guiding Lynch's hand from within his TM sessions. I think about this a lot, although I no longer meditate myself regularly.

Pay-offs. Ike gets cornered. I love the laughing detective. Get how he screws his head round when he's made a funny. He does it repeatedly. I love that tic -- I know someone like this.

Uh-oh. I feel as if I could talk forever about this episode. To me that signals something is off. Part 8 left me silent for a few days, and was felt to be monumental. On the other hand, this part seemed to straightforwardly fill-us-in on what's been happening. That whole 'meanwhile' feel to the part makes me suspicious. It's very conventional and diegetic story-telling. Characters in-the-know inform characters not-in-the-know what has been going on in their absence, and as the audience we sit there eavesdropping, learning along. Not very Lynchian? I don't know, I feel as if this part is setting us up for a fall. I doubt things will be as straightforward as they have been told. I sense blind alleys and cul-de-sacs.

A solid episode, and filled with secrets. Some parts left me cold, but I think it's going to feel differently when all played out. No doubt I will have more to say as the days fly by.

[The Gazebo]

This is going to be a long one. I hate to feel this way, I've loved every moment of The Return so far, but Part 9 left me cold.

I've admittedly always felt a little uneasy at all the very linear, Secret History, connect-the-dots, kind of mystery that this season has sometimes strayed into. I feel it's a little too smart, a little esoteric and gimmicky. Kind of removed, detached. I feel like, however indistinct it may be, that we're being explained too much.

I've felt that The Return is a metaphysical journey, and a literal one. Almost like a road movie. But I feel like we've come so far, only for things to become very static. Cooper, even though his material is beautiful, if catatonic, has had very little progression. In this Part, he has in effect, almost been sidelined entirely; besides his staring at the flag, he's brought up only in unnecessarily complex treasure-hunting, and knotted conspiracies.

Just goes to show that it's not only the generally disappointed group that has expectations of what TP should be. I'm genuinly interested in individual reactions to the show's progression, and I think every viewer has his/her own "sweet spot", ranging from full blown Lynchian surrealism to the more conventional investigation-type episodes. Straying too far from this "sweet spot" leaves the viewer unsure about where this is headed. Based on what we have seen so far I expect a continued diversity when it comes to pacing, plot, themes, subtext, etc.

As for your general concerns, I also feel that they might have made it too intricate. There are a helluva lot of plots that needs to be woven together (and probably explained in some fashion) in the space of only nine episodes.

[The Gazebo]

With all this said about Hasting's exposition-heavy scene, Lillard's signature wailing, gurning and sobbing (which must surely have been one of the primary motivations for picking this actor) was truly delightful. In a profound existential crisis of this magnitude, he regresses to a simple bundle of frustrated desires. He wants to go scuba diving with his girlfriend. And that is it. The experiences he's been through have emptied him out. We were gonna go to the BA-BA-HA-MAS and that's pretty much all that's left of him.

Yeah, I'm trying to think of a character still living which is/has been in a darker mental place than what Hastings is right now, and I come up empty. A living embodiment of nightmares becoming reality.

Apart from that, I loved the cigarette scene outside with Gordon, Diane and Tamara. Gordon is completely comfortable with Diane's tantrums, while Tamara doesn't even dare to look at her. She feels the kind of hatred that can only happen between two women, fully aware that she is just a rookie in the game, and cannot partake in the bond shared by the others.

[Mr. Reindeer]

Surprised so many people are taking a Ben/Beverly affair as a given thing (or assuming the only reason it won't happen is that he's now "good"). Judd is in her late 40s while RIchard Beymer is pushing 80! Sure, he's still charming as hell, but if this storyline goes that direction, that is some classic Hollywood-male wish-fulfillment.

What??? That's political correctness run amok right there. Beymer does not look his age and appears to be in very good shape. How does his age matter?

Wasn't thinking about political correctness, but believability. I know, I know, not TP's priority; but how many 80-year-olds do you know who are picking up women 30 years their junior? It just seems a little silly. But maybe I just don't know enough rich charismatic octogenarians?

[DamnFineCreamedCorn]

While I'm trying not to view the parts as traditional episodes, the exposition-heavy segments are the weakest for me. IMO they diminish the mysteries as mere secrets.

I was expecting a return to exposition after Part 8, and there were things I really loved here, like Bobby's enthusiasm, Lillard's performance and the appearance of Tim Roth (especially the reveal that he's not playing Jeffries, keeping alive my hopes for a Bowie cameo). But I hope Part 10 holds more mystery.

[Soolsma]

Gordon should start handing out advanced apologies for Diane..

Isn't it lovely how once again, almost everybody in law enforcement is so dang quirky. It's been one of my favorite aspects of Twin Peaks ever since Coop started throwing rocks at bottles.

I have to say I'm even getting used to Chrysta Bell and have come to slightly appreciate her. And I've been worried about her ever since I saw her in the behind the scenes trailer. It's kind of funny that in the fictional world, Cole seems to support her despite the doubts of others (Bryson). This mirrors how almost every fan seems to hate her acting, while Lynch sees her as one of his muses.

But I hope Part 10 holds more mystery.

Part 10's quote is ''Laura is the one''. Up next: "There's fire where you are going.'' and "Let's rock.". Dunno about you but those sound pretty promising to me.

[referendum]

@ Novalis

it was never about the chair. Which leads us to the chair. A different chair. Even then, despite the title of the part, it's not about the chair. It's about what's in the chair. Just like it's not about the bunny - is it about the bunny? - it's about a place named for a bunny.

uh, yeah. One thing that sneaks up on you in this series of Twin Peaks are the repetitions. They are everywhere - hardly anything happens once. In this episode for instance there are alot of ' trios ' - the scenes with the three cops, the scene with tammy, cole and dern, scenes with hawk, briggs, and truman. Every episode seems to have this kind of repetition. The episode where Hawk finds the letter because of the rolling coin, had a spinning coin earlier. The same episode had started with the two horne brothers and went on straight to the two truman brothers. Two nearly identical / v similar women in the pink room in ep 3. The statue of the pointing policeman is presaged in the episode previously by two other shots of policeman pointing...andy and i forget who else. The scene where the red car drives past dougies house is followed by the black car shot from exactly the same POV. Not only does dougie repeat everything, in the police interview, janey repeats what dougie says! and takes her cues from it. The whole thing is built around 2 X coop, good coop was shot in ep8 series one and bad coop ep8 series 2, and so on. In ep 9, dern, watts, and the office woman all wear red shoes There were alot of other little repetitions i noticed over the past weeks, and forgot, whether that be of physical things, the way scenes are filmed, or of lines of dialogue. I am sure a second viewing will reveal more.

It is this kind of stuff that sticks in my head and comes back days later rather than the actual ' plot '.

[DeepBlueSeed]

@ Novalis

it was never about the chair. Which leads us to the chair. A different chair. Even then, despite the title of the part, it's not about the chair. It's about what's in the chair. Just like it's not about the bunny - is it about the bunny? - it's about a place named for a bunny.

uh, yeah. One thing that sneaks up on you in this series of Twin Peaks are the repetitions. They are everywhere - hardly anything happens once. In this episode for instance there are alot of ' trios ' - the scenes with the three cops, the scene with tammy, cole and dern, scenes with hawk, briggs, and truman. Every episode seems to have this kind of repetition. The episode where Hawk finds the letter because of the rolling coin, had a spinning coin earlier. The same episode had started with the two horne brothers and went on straight to the two truman brothers. Two nearly identical / v similar women in the pink room in ep 3. The statue of the pointing policeman is presaged in the episode previously by two other shots of policeman pointing...andy and i forget who else. The scene where the red car drives past dougies house is followed by the black car shot from exactly the same POV. Not only does dougie repeat everything, in the police interview, janey repeats what dougie says! and takes her cues from it. The whole thing is built around 2 X coop, good coop was shot in ep8 series one and bad coop ep8 series 2, and so on. In ep 9, dern, watts, and the office woman all wear red shoes There were alot of other little repetitions i noticed over the past weeks, and forgot, whether that be of physical things, the way scenes are filmed, or of lines of dialogue. I am sure a second viewing will reveal more.

It is this kind of stuff that sticks in my head and comes back days later rather than the actual ' plot '.

One bizarre echoing I noticed was that Betty Briggs, with her haircut not a million miles from the one that Diane has, talks about Garland Briggs squeezing her shoulder, in an episode where we've seen Gordon Cole squeezing Diane's shoulder on the plane for an awkward looking 30 seconds or so. I don't know if that's international but I picked up on it second time through.

[Metamorphia]

I honestly thought Chrysta Bell was really good in E9.