Having re watched episode 11 for the first time, to me this has got to be one of the weirdest episodes of the series. If ever there was a case for The Return taking place inside some kind of dream, this is probably the episode.

For me though, the "it's all someone's dream" theory doesn't quite cut it. Not quite so simply anyway. In any case here are some of my thoughts on this episode.

Multiple people in this episode get sucked into a daydream of sorts. These include:

Shelly - she's having a serious conversation with her daughter, whom narrowly avoided arrest and murdering her husband. Yet Shelly spots Red and instantly ignores the situation to run out and give him a school girl snog outside. WTF? She doesn't seem lucid of the situation at all.

Bobby - he strolls out of the diner in full on heroic police character, doing his duty, to examine the gunshots and ensure nobody is hurt. Deputy Jesse walks in calmly to say he heard shots from Big Eds (which got me thinking about the actual distance from the diner, he got there quickly?) Bobby walks up to the lady honking the horn (who's incidentally shouting that they "need to get home"). While the sick zombie girls starts to barf green vom everywhere, Bobby - rather than looking shocked or concerned - just looks confused. Almost like all of this seems familiar. He's not quite taking it all in.

Bradley Mitchum - he has a dream about Dougie which comes true. More on him in a moment.

Candy - she seems to be stuck in a constant dream/reverie. At one point she is brushing her chest and looking dreamily into the distance, in a way that suggests she is remembering the embrace of a lover.

Margaret seems to confirm the dream vibe:
"Watch and listen to the dream of time and space. It all comes out now, flowing like a river. That which is and is not."

Margaret also noted that the "circle is almost complete."

Going back to Bradley Mitchum remembering his dreams. This is exactly the sort of thing that used to happen to Cooper. He would dream of events, and they would later take place. However, Mitchum strikes me as someone who doesn't typically have these types of dreams, yet he believes that this particular dream serves a purpose and has importance. To me, it made me think that it wasn't just a dream he had: it may have been him remembering the events as they previously happened or took place.

On a similar note, I got thinking about Gordon in this episode. Interestingly, he only remembered that he saw the "dirty, bearded men" while looking into the portal a little while after the event. Much like he was remembering it from a dream.

"Is it future or is it past?"

In season 1, Cooper arrives in twin peaks and has dreams that eventually get fulfilled and come true, as well as in FWWM. Are his dreams premonitions or merely Cooper remembering what has already taken place before, and many times before that? Is Bradley Mitchum also remembering past events/the previous play through life?

And, to quote Margaret, "Laura is the one". The one who what? The one who breaks the circle? The one who completes the circle? I don't quite buy the theory that Laura is the dreamer, but it has to be mentioned.

Just thoughts and thinking aloud. I still have no idea wtf is going on after over a year of contemplating it all 😀