I don't want to take an analysis of Twin Peaks into the political realm, so this is only a brief fun detour. There has been a strong political undercurrent referenced the spectacle that we witnessing, a decline of America. Janey-E alluding to the 1%, Doctor Amp's rants, and ecological destruction was always a theme in Twin Peaks, now we have the opioid epidemic, and even unfortunately the very current issue of setting off an atom bomb. It is fair to say that those excesses of modern life are almost always caused by people that are sure of themselves, or pretend to be. Those who have to clean up those messes; scientists, journalists, upstanding FBI agents are the ones that keep asking the questions.
You need questions to advance. A lot of people get frustrated by questions, they see them as dead end streets. No answer, so what's the point? It's a nihilistic way of looking at the world, black and white, the earth is flat.
In science a question always brings forth another question, linking in, joining hands, dragging you out whatever swamp you are in. Digging your out of the shit.
Questions are not only for the hopeful, but also for the romantic. When you start a relationship, you want to know everything about the other person, so you ask, and ask. Till, if everything goes well, you think you know the other person, and stop asking. You love that other that shares your life, sure that you know who that person is. But do you really? Is somebody completely knowable? Passion dies when you stop asking questions. Contentment set in, if you are lucky, but you have to be careful. The moment you are sure you know who you partner is and pigeonhole that person, you are doing a disservice to that strange magic that is loving someone.
Immediately after the ending of Twin Peaks The Return, the same despair rang out on social media, the same that Lost or the Sopranos had to deal with. Noo! Nothing makes sense, they are all dead, he got whacked, they are stuck in a loop. Nothing Cooper did helped, in anyway.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Do you remember when season two ended? Coop was stuck there in that awful place. Forever.
Those who liked to ask questions, continued asking them. For 25 years. That is a frigging long time. I know I am being simplistic here, but being thankful, and asking questions are the two things that will get you through life without bitterness. Artist are children, and children love simple things. Cooper came back. He came back!
Those who liked to ask questions, continued asking them. For 25 years. That is a frigging long time. I know I am being simplistic here, but being thankful, and asking questions are the two things that will get you through life without bitterness. Artist are children, and children love simple things. Cooper came back. He came back!
Laura didn't die. She didn't. Those two terrible tragedies were undone. Pete caught a fish, the mill stayed open, Laura went missing and a whole new chain of events unfolded. But the beacon of light was not extinguished, it lived on. That is a freakishly happy ending. Cooper and Laura hand in hand, is my favorite image, one that still gives me goosebumps.
Now for the questions, some answers, that lead to more question, as it should be.
1. Why did Laura disappear, slipping from Coop's hand?
The entity in Sarah's house was trying to stab the photo of Laura Palmer, not managing to do that. One interpretation is that this Judy by stabbing the photo, yanked Laura away, and put her into this other dimension. But that is only one interpretation, and I am not entirely sure it works.
Laura was yanked away before, in the Lodge. When Coop got out of the lodge, he started his journey from box, to space box, to socket to Dougie. Where did Laura go when she got yanked out of the Lodge? Did she end up like Dougie, trapped in a Tulpa's life, still herself but without being able to express or access the real Laura? When Coop took Carrie Page to her old house she woke up. And screamed. Now that scream was terrifying, but does that mean what we are seeing is a bad thing? You would scream too if you had been stuck into a different body for twenty-five years. Or was is less time than that? Did Carrie Page become Laura Palmer more or less when Cooper left the Lodge to become Dougie?
So why did the Laura Palmer that was led by hand by Coop disappear?
Once Cooper led Laura away from her death, and he did, everything after that shifted and it was no longer strictly necessary for Coop to arrive at Twin Peaks. Back to the future baby.
But this isn't perfect.
Laura told us a long time ago, she already knew: 'I am dead, yet I am alive.' The Laura in the Lodge knew that somewhere out there Carrie Page was alive. It already happened.
The question is when did it happen? When did Coop get out of the Lodge, saw Diane, went to the other dimension and found Laura? It is not necessarily true it happened when we saw it. It could have happen 25 years ago. It isn't clear when this is happening. Yeah, I know.
When Laura slips from his hand, suddenly he is back in the Lodge. Without explanation. We don't know when this is.
This sounds horrible but I don't think it is. That leads to the next question.
2. When did Coop meet the Fireman?
This is the most important clue of all. It starts the show. The fireman gives Coop the instructions. We saw Andy disappearing into the vortex, but we never saw Dale Cooper arriving there. We saw Bad Coop being sucked in, and spit out. But again, we never ever saw Coop going there. This is a huge deal.
The Fireman is the principal source of good in the world, battling the Mother. The fireman, knows about the Richard and Linda dimension, so there's no way that Coop is just lost in there. He is there on purpose being sent by the Fireman.
Major Briggs had the coordinates of Jack Rabbit's palace.
Gordon Cole, Briggs and Coop had a plan.
So did twenty-five years ago, Cooper go to Jack Rabbit's Palace, met the Fireman and got the story? Did he get Richard and Linda, Freddie, die he get that from the Fireman. That's why he woke up out of Dougie's life and knew everything that was supposed to happen.
The meeting must have happened after he got to Twin Peaks before going into the Lodge.
Briggs while time traveling, ( in the same manner Coop did?) managed to get back and leave instructions, so Bobby and Andy and Hawk could go to Jack Rabbit's Palace and save Diane.
Saving Diane shifts reality in the sheriff's department, when Coop and her touch, splitting Coop, making him float like Briggs, and realizing that the reality around him may not be the one he will get back to.
The important thing to remember here is that the Richard and Linda dimension was foreseen by the Fireman, a source of good in the world. The Fireman is still there moving the pieces. Not all is lost, even if Coop didn't know what year it was. The Fireman is watching. Laura is alive.
This is what one Reddit theory said: When Laura screams the electricity goes out in the house. That scream is not only a scream of horror but also one of power. The Lodge entities tried to trick Coop and Laura, but she woke up out of the Carrie Page body. Shattering that dimension.
Now for all the real murky bits.
Next question.
3. What timeline have we been witnessing in Twin Peaks?
When we got the: ' Where is Billy?' question the diner changed customers in an instant. It seems to suggest we are seeing more than one timeline at once. There are some very good things happening in Twin Peaks, some bad and some supernatural. They are not happening all at once.
We have seen the old Twin Peaks, the one after Laura died, we have seen the alternative Twin Peaks, the one wear Coop ends up as Richard, we have probably also have seen that alternative Twin Peaks slowly spilling out into the one already known by us. What we haven't seen is the new Twin Peaks, the one where Laura didn't die. Or did we? Later about that one.
The story in our old Twin Peaks is the one that Bad Coop came out of the Lodge, impregnated Audrey, who had Richard, who killed a boy in a hit and run and got his well deserved ending.
In this Twin Peaks, we have the Sheriff's department run by Frank, the diner where Norma and Ed finally get together, Dr Amp ranting and Jerry getting lost in the woods. We have some scenes in the Roadhouse, the one where Shelly is there, the one where Freddie is, and the one where Richard, the son, is there.
Then we have the alternative universe where we got all those stories with names of people we didn't know, I think this is the Richard and Linda alternative universe.
When Billy goes missing, something shifts and we get that insane episode with the zombie girl and all the hyped up craziness, this could be when Coop and Carrie Page are heading to Twin Peaks, realities start to converge, things are getting freaky.
So now there is another reality that I think we haven't seen. That is the one that was created when Laura didn't die. What happened then? This is an intriguing question. If Laura didn't die, and Leland wasn't caught, what happened to Bob? In this reality we don't end up in the sheriff's station with Bob being beaten by Freddie's glove, because Cooper was never there, and Bad Coop didn't have Bob in him. So what happened then?
People are asking for a fourth season and it would be certainly be fun imagining whatever happened.
The Blue Rose task force had already been put together, Bob killed before, Jeffries and Chet were already lost, Briggs was there, so Bob could still be caught. It could go on and on.
4. Who is Beverly Page? And where is Audrey?
There was always overlap with Laura and Audrey. Ben loving Laura very much, abusing her even without realizing, just like her own father did, Audrey wanting that attention that Laura got, putting herself in Laura's shoes, going to One Eyed Jacks. Now that Laura is stuck in another dimension as somebody else, Audrey is too. The woman romancing her father, Ben, has the same last name as the woman hosting Laura. This is mind boggling, much more complicated than the rest.
'Is this the story of the little girl that lived down the lane?" Does this allude to the movie with Jodie Foster? I haven't seen it, but the theme seems to be childhood abuse, and the notion that a child could live alone, and is better off than being with his/hers abusing parents.
Now Audrey and Laura both have had their fair share of abusing fathers.
Another woman that Audrey has a link to is Diane. Diane was raped by Bad Coop, Diane is in love with Coop. And Diane shifts out of her identity when she arrives in the other dimension and disappears. ( it would be spectacular if the vanished Diane is the one Dale is talking to in the original Twin peaks, but, yeah head exploding.)
Audrey seems to know the people in the Road House that we don't. So it seems this is the Audrey that lives in the alternative dimension. The Carrie Page one. She never met Coop, she never met Bad Coop, this is not our Audrey. Or this is a Dougie? Like Coop and Laura, Audrey is poured into someone else body trying to wake up.
How did she get there? Well, is Audrey is in someone else body, she went through the Lodge. And through electricity. But where does Audrey end up, once the Richard and Linda dimension is broken down? She could be anywhere, any place. Think about, the Audrey we know was in a coma. She got pregnant and had Richard. But we haven't seen her. We have seen Dougie/Audrey. Once Dougie/Audrey is shaken out of this reality, it is not said she goes back to being our Audrey. Because our Audrey never met Coop. Because Laura isn't dead.
Maybe Coop still did arrive in Twin Peaks, somehow, through Teresa Banks, or Ronette, but Ronette has never been assaulted. He still met Audrey and that is the Twin Peaks timeline we don't know anything about.
Audrey looking in the mirror (essentially Charlie because she was looking in his direction, and she was the one that was so sleepy) could be anywhere. Certainly somewhere in the future. I don't think she was in a coma, I don't think she is in an institution, maybe in a hospital in the end, like Coop when he woke up, but I don't think there is a way of knowing, this is future Twin Peaks.
To screw with your head even further there is also the possibility that our Audrey, the one we haven't seen was temporarily placed into someone else, like Diane was in Naido.
5. So Beverly Page????
That one remains a mystery to me. There must be a connection but I don't see it.
Okay now for a rapid fire question round:
6. What was the importance of Andy going to meet the Fireman?
He had to save Naido/Diane. That is what the Fireman wanted, but why? Did Coop ask him to? Why was it so important that Diane also went to the Richard and Linda dimension, couldn't Coop go alone?
7. Was it so Diane and Coop had sex? That looked like a ritual. But it also looked as Diane having sex with the man she loved and the man she hated and the man she didn't now at the same time. I have no clue what was happening there.
PS. I have added this part later after reading a theory on Reddit that I think makes sense. (Diane disappeared from the Richard/Linda timeline and became Naido. That is why Coop was so happy to see her at the sheriff's station. Why, because it means the alternative dimension was already shattered, and he was also sad because the Twin Peaks he knew was about to slip away from him. Laura was never killed, he never came to investigate, etc. It already happened at the sheriff's station. And as they pointed out in Reddit, when this happened Coop essentially had another past where he and Diane became more than friends, they became lovers.)
PS. I have added this part later after reading a theory on Reddit that I think makes sense. (Diane disappeared from the Richard/Linda timeline and became Naido. That is why Coop was so happy to see her at the sheriff's station. Why, because it means the alternative dimension was already shattered, and he was also sad because the Twin Peaks he knew was about to slip away from him. Laura was never killed, he never came to investigate, etc. It already happened at the sheriff's station. And as they pointed out in Reddit, when this happened Coop essentially had another past where he and Diane became more than friends, they became lovers.)
8. Is Billy William Hasting? Who is Billy? In the original Twin Peaks dimension, Billy could be the farmer, or the guy in the prison, an entity leaking out from the other dimension, but he is not that important. But he certainly exists in the Audrey/Road House/ Richard and Linda dimension. 'Where is Billy?' Is the moment we are shown the other dimension, where Coop would eventually go.
He could be William Hasting. Hasting knew about the dimensions, see his website, he knew Briggs and the convenience store and time travel, so it is possible.
9. Did nothing really happen when Hawk went to Glastonbury Grove?
10. For all of you that have to be sure, a lot of questions have been answered. Which ones?
1. The Norma/Ed/Nadine situation has been solved. Love won. Nadine is finally feeling fine.
2. Ben lived and Doc is happily fishing.
3. Jerry got out of the woods.
4. Richard got the electric chair for his sins.
5. Doppelgänger Coop went to hell.
6. Steven committed suicide and Becky is dead, the only other option is here is that we saw two alternatives dimensions, Becky with the gun shooting up the door, and Steven with the gun and a murder suicide, but I don't think so.
7. Freddie fulfilled his destiny.
8. Bobby too.
9. Janey-E and Sonny Jim got Coop back, and it is not said at all that this isn't the real Cooper. It could be. There are some theories that a Tulpa was sent in the Richard and Linda dimension, but I don't think our Coop would run from his mission.
11. Who is the dreamer? I don't like this question because it leads into the path of this is all a dream, of nihilistic desperation. The narrative is dreamlike, but that doesn't mean it is an actual dream. Or everything is a dream, reality is dream. We all live in a dream.
For me the dreamer is the Fireman. He and Judy are the dreamers, the ones shaping the world. I don't want to even go on the path of thinking that someone is dreaming in this story. The only explanation concerning a dream I like is that the Richard and Linda dimension it is Laura's dream, where she wakes up from, once she hears her mother call her in 1989. But it that is Laura's dream, what about the scene with the Fireman? It doesn't make much sense.
See this is fun, using your brain is fun, asking question is fun. Not wanting to do that, looking for certainty will lead you nowhere, only some place unimaginative, a dimension where evil won, people are not standing up and fight and the evil that men do is never rectified.
Thank you Twin Peaks. One for the grandchildren. For sure.