I feel like I'm putting on my "Pollyanna" hat for this post, but I still think it holds up as a viable interpretation. I also think the finale is so impossibly tangled that there isn't One Right Answer, even in David Lynch's mind. I think there are probably a handful of interpretations to which he would say, "Yes, that would be one way you could see it." But I think this is one of them.
This all hangs on the exchange between Coop and Diane in the Sheriff Station, right after Naido becomes Diane. They greet each other absolutely radiantly, which is the first clue to how I'm reading this. (Coop is happy to see his other old friends, but takes it in stride.)
Diane kisses him passionately and then calls him "Cooper, the one and only."
Coop asks, "Do you remember everything?" She says yes.
I'm going to submit that both of them have already experienced what we see later in the "Richard and Linda" phase, and somehow they've managed to loop back and greet each other as themselves in this moment.
First of all, this would answer the complaint that their romantic involvement seems out-of-the-blue. We only have evidence that Coop and Diane flirted in the past, and he supposedly only had eyes for Annie when he went into the Lodge. But if they'd already been through something harrowing together and managed to come back from it, they'd be exactly this overjoyed to see each other again as Real Coop and Real Diane.
Even the kiss is a clue. They kissed just before "crossing" and later as "Richard and Linda," so Diane knows the difference and can tell it's really him.
He asks if she remembers everything and she says yes - "everything" meaning even the things they experienced when they were other people.
There's obviously another way to read all this: Diane confirming that this is Real Coop and not the Mr. C who raped her. But what does "Do you remember everything?" mean in that context? "Do you remember our pleasant professional relationship as well as your rape by my evil doppelganger and exile to another dimension?" I dunno - I think the other reading actually works better.
Anyway, this exchange is weighted with significance that begs to be read on different levels, so I don't think I'm wrong to do so. Even if I'm right(ish), this isn't an unqualified happy ending because they still go off to open that door (again?), unleashing their personal hell and maybe everybody else's. Maybe they're doomed to keep repeating this loop, which doesn't sound so good even if they get to kiss a little. But it feels a little nicer than the ending I thought I watched the first time.
A disclaimer: I've read so much commentary since the episode aired that I know this isn't all my own idea - it's just hard to keep track at this point.
What do you all think?
I took the "remember everything" as a plan that Cooper is engaged in (the one Cole said he wasn't sure was unfolding properly). Diane was Cooper's assistant and likely was informed on this larger plan...and he needed to know she was on the same page as him.
Change the past, wake up from the dream....and, well I don't have an and...fade to black
But even Albert didn't know about "the plan" and he was on the Blue Rose task force. That sounds too secret to share with an assistant. And Coop was always a G-Man's G-Man (he IS the FBI 😉 ). I don't picture him spilling hyper-classified information that he couldn't even share with fellow agents.
I don't think Albert was always on the Blue Rose team (a reason why Cole couldn't tell him about Judy)....I love these deep levels 🙂
I like this theory (and also it cheered me up a little, but that's not why I like it!). It fits together pretty well, or at least as well as anything's likely to fit together.
It would fit with what I've been thinking (and other people have said the same thing) about why Dale's head is superimposed on the scene in the sheriff's station. I think it means he's visited this moment before on some other timeline and he's sort of crossing paths with himself.
I need to re-watch, but I wonder how this fits with the other scene where Dale and Diane meet again after he emerges from... wherever... after "saving" (young) Laura Palmer. The way I remember it, they each say, "is it really you?" as if THIS is their reunion and they didn't already just have one at the sheriff's station. Maybe this is actually their "first" reunion - seeing Dale for the first time after his 25 years in the lodge - and the sheriff's station is their "second" reunion, after all the Richard-and-Linda stuff has gone down and they've returned.
I think this is spot on. Diane has already lived through her Linda phase (the red hair indicates this), and now it's Agent Cooper's turn. He knows what must happen, that he must return back to the hotel room, to a time when he is not trying to solve Laura's murder, but to a time when he must solve her disappearance. When he emerges from the Black Lodge and Diane is waiting for him, this is the start of their timeline where they become Richard and Linda, and must battle Judy. Season 4?
I need to re-watch, but I wonder how this fits with the other scene where Dale and Diane meet again after he emerges from... wherever... after "saving" (young) Laura Palmer. The way I remember it, they each say, "is it really you?" as if THIS is their reunion and they didn't already just have one at the sheriff's station. Maybe this is actually their "first" reunion - seeing Dale for the first time after his 25 years in the lodge - and the sheriff's station is their "second" reunion, after all the Richard-and-Linda stuff has gone down and they've returned.
I think this is exactly right. Just rewatched that other reunion myself (after Coop "saves(?)" Laura) - and in this one, Coop and Diane seem much more hesitant as they greet each other. They look like two people who haven't seen each other in 25 years and aren't sure what to expect. In the sheriff's station, they look overjoyed, like they've survived something ("Richard and Linda") and can't believe they both made it out in one piece.
This stuff gets fuzzy when you're talking about an endless loop... but if we can put things in sequence at all, I agree the meeting between Coop and Diane after Coop saves Laura is their first reunion, and the sheriff's station is their second. It's their "happy ending"... if only for a moment, before everything loops back on itself.
Good thought also on the meaning of the floating Coop-face. I was going in a similar direction, but somehow didn't get there.
...And now I think maybe my mind is bent about as far as it can go, but I'm a little happier about all this than I was on Sunday. 😉
I also felt this was them meeting after living through the Diane/Richard scenario. I also believe that might have been the final scene of the entire series. IMO even if the series ran 10 more seasons, I feel that journey would end with Diane becoming Naido and arriving in Twin Peaks. If I were to expand on the scene, I would say that when the lights flickered out Cooper disappeared. Then Diane would have found the Cooper she originally traveled with sitting in the jail cell. Just like she was disguised as Naido, Cooper may have been disguised as the drunk. Idk, just a wild guess.
Even if I'm right(ish), this isn't an unqualified happy ending because they still go off to open that door (again?), unleashing their personal hell and maybe everybody else's. Maybe they're doomed to keep repeating this loop,
What do you all think?
Well, I like it all, the meta theory. Just this part about the the door. It's only Cooper who goes through. In fact, IIRC, he told Diane and Cole not to try to follow him. So, he and Diane are separated here...and there's Mike...(and why was Cole even there?)
I should never look too long at such details.
I don't why I didn't think of this! As I read your post it almost seems obvious that you are absolutely correct. I knew something was strange about their "two reunions." And the line "Do you remember everything" is almost a dead giveaway. Also this interpretation can be linked with most other theories floating around. Still not sure though why they even had to live/experience the whole Richard/Linda reality. I think it might have something to do with being trapped in several layers of dreams.
It certainly could be right. At the point after Bob's destruction in the sheriffs office Dale certainly has an awareness that things are about to fundamentally change. He says something like 'some things will change, I hope to see everyone of you again'. That might mean he knows what's about to happen - and that he might know because he's experienced it before.
The sex part makes sense in this context as well, because it seems to me they are ok and intimate and together one minute but something changes - and I argue that it's THEM who change - during sex, either Diane's identity shifts or Dales or both. Maybe that's why she covers his face. Certainly Diane seeing herself for a moment might suggest multiple versions of dale/Diane traversing the timelines attempting to save Laura multiple times.
I also felt this was them meeting after living through the Diane/Richard scenario. I also believe that might have been the final scene of the entire series. IMO even if the series ran 10 more seasons, I feel that journey would end with Diane becoming Naido and arriving in Twin Peaks. If I were to expand on the scene, I would say that when the lights flickered out Cooper disappeared. Then Diane would have found the Cooper she originally traveled with sitting in the jail cell. Just like she was disguised as Naido, Cooper may have been disguised as the drunk. Idk, just a wild guess.
Yeh well Naido was probably Naido and in the purple room because of Mr C making her a tulpa - but - that might be us expecting that to be true. Her travelling might have created a fake holding entity somewhere whilst Diane was out of 'reality'. The same would then be true for Cooper, maybe Phillip too, and even Chet Desmond. They might all have been in there all along as 'mirror' entities. If Dales WAS 'Billy' it makes a lot of sense. "Where's Billy?' in the RR. Audrey being fixated / in love with Billy etc. He was repeating words almost exactly like Dougie.
Fire walk with