So why do you think Diane was crying while being "intimate" with Dale and why was Dale so completely flat affect? Hell, Dougie had more of a reaction with Janey-E and he was basically lobotomized.
I like to think of Dougie as a 14 year old boy, developmentally and intellectually. 😉
So why do you think Diane was crying while being "intimate" with Dale and why was Dale so completely flat affect? Hell, Dougie had more of a reaction with Janey-E and he was basically lobotomized.
I think that the alternate reality/dimension they were in was affecting them both. They mentioned, before crossing over, that they might not be the same. And they definitely weren't. Diane changed so much that she no longer thought of herself as Diane, and bailed on the Fireman's plan. Cooper still retained enough of himself to continue the mission to save Laura and take her home, but he'd obviously changed a bit, as well.
That's all I got.
So why do you think Diane was crying while being "intimate" with Dale and why was Dale so completely flat affect? Hell, Dougie had more of a reaction with Janey-E and he was basically lobotomized.
I think because that was not real Coop..., and she knew it... covered his face because she knew?
So why do you think Diane was crying while being "intimate" with Dale and why was Dale so completely flat affect? Hell, Dougie had more of a reaction with Janey-E and he was basically lobotomized.
I think that the alternate reality/dimension they were in was affecting them both. They mentioned, before crossing over, that they might not be the same. And they definitely weren't. Diane changed so much that she no longer thought of herself as Diane, and bailed on the Fireman's plan. Cooper still retained enough of himself to continue the mission to save Laura and take her home, but he'd obviously changed a bit, as well.
That's all I got.
It's more than what I got.
All I can get out of it is something along the lines of them either BEING Richard & Linda or playing out Richard & Linda's story.
It was a disturbing scene. I took it as a mirror image of Mr.C's rape of Diane. And some of that bled through into their lovemaking. Some of Mr. C seemed to be bleeding into Coop as well.
I can't wrap my head around Diane seeing Diane outside the hotel and not reacting
I can't wrap my head around Diane seeing Diane outside the hotel and not reacting
I wish I could say that was the weirdest thing that happened.
It was a disturbing scene. I took it as a mirror image of Mr.C's rape of Diane. And some of that bled through into their lovemaking. Some of Mr. C seemed to be bleeding into Coop as well.
Totally agree and was hard to watch!
So why do you think Diane was crying while being "intimate" with Dale and why was Dale so completely flat affect? Hell, Dougie had more of a reaction with Janey-E and he was basically lobotomized.
Yeah, because having sex with someone who looks exactly like/kind of is the guy who raped you is weird as shit? I was really disturbed by this scene. I was disturbed when they kissed. I didn't want anything along these lines at all and everything along these lines weirded me out. I don't know why they did this. Sex magic, perhaps? Dale does not seem into it,as you note. Diane ends up nearly crying. Neither of those reactions bothered me. What bothered me was the question as to why this was happening at all.
I don't have any any answers to this scene either. I have to say that the only thing I am confident on is that is was uncomfortable and every part of that scene was directed to feel wrong. I just feel frustrated not knowing what the purpose was. With nearly every other moment in the Return, I may not have always understood what was happening, but I was always able to process and sit with the emotion of what was happening - they inherently felt like they were supposed to feel.
That being said, I am confounded by this goddamned scene!
My take:
Cooper and Diane were in an in-between world, between death and reincarnation. Cooper, who had reached enlightenment in his past life ("fully awake" after coming to in the hospital as Dougie), retained his memories and then woke the next morning (reincarnated) with knowledge of his true "self" intact... he could have gone to nirvana but instead chose to be a boddhisattva, to come back to try to ease others' suffering again.
Diane hadn't reached enlightenment yet though. She had the opportunity to face her suffering (the rape) and not turn away from it, while she was with Cooper in the motel... but she wasn't ready. She couldn't / didn't break the cycle of her own suffering. So she reincarnated as Linda, and didn't know anything from before... and Cooper reincarnated as Richard, but did know his mission and who he is.
We needed the scene to show us why Cooper and Diane couldn't stay together happily-ever-after. He was awake, she wasn't. He was choosing to come back to free others (Laura again, really ) from suffering, she was coming back just because she was still caught in the cycle of reincarnation.
It was sad, but Cooper being unattached in his rebirth to help Laura again makes some sense to me...
I never thought or wanted Coop and Diane to be romantically attached.
From the time Cooper and Diane are in the car together, it's as if two young virgins have finally decided to have sex (cross over) and they're nervous about it (are you sure you want to do this? Everything might be different after) and not talking about it, and they go to the hotel, and the girl sees herself as somebody different from herself, and they go wordlessly into the room, and it's not like it was supposed to be, it's not like they'd always imagined, and they don't really know what to do (What do I do now?) (You come to me) like they're reciting lines from some play, and they finally do it, and . . .
Two things about this scene struck me:
1) Juxtaposition with the Dougie/Janey-E sex scene. They are shot in a very similar manner, but while the Janey-E scene is a tender, loving one, this one almost seems torturous. Coop's piercing stare throughout definitely reminds of Mr C's. This leads into...
2) The song used is the SAME song that was playing in ep 8 right before the locust/bullfrog scene. I think this was completely intentional to evoke a similar disgusted reaction to seeing that thing crawl into the girl's mouth.
Fire walk with