Long time lurker, first time poster. I've spent way, way too much time on this site in the past month reading all of the amazing theories and commentary and I've definitely fallen in love with this site and you all.
Please forgive me if anyone has brought this up before (I haven't seen it, but that doesn't mean someone hasn't mentioned it) but I've been re-watching The Return for a third time while I was at work while also listening to David Lynch's various talks and interviews on YouTube, and something caught my attention - which is possibly a small thing in the grand scheme, but that kind of struck me today when I got through the last four episodes:
We've seen many times how electricity has been used to "conduct" people to various places and times, and we know Lynch and Frost seem quite fascinated with the idea of electricity and electromagnetic fields and such. One thing struck me when watching episode 15 today which made me go immediately to the end of episode 18.
When Dougie-Coop hears Gordon Cole's name on the TV and the wheels in his head turn again leading to enough recognition that he seems to know he needs to "wake up" and what he needs to do to achieve this and then he sticks the fork in the socket, of course you get the sound of electricity, you get the shot of Janey-E in the kitchen as everything goes extremely bright for a split second and then you get the click to total darkness. This seems to have been the last component needed to fully awaken Coop (and the word "awake" is used very emphatically in the next episode by both Cooper and MIKE). If you watch the ending of 18, when Carrie/Laura seems to have some recognition of who she really is, and then screams, we get the lights in the house making the same electrical sound, going bright in a flash, and then clicking off. If you watch the two scenes back to back, it seems difficult to deny that they are basically identical - one shows us the perspective inside a house, the other from the outside (obviously not the same house, of course).
Nothing huge or earth-shattering, but something I found interesting and I'd say obviously not an accident or coincidence on Lynch's part. It lends some credence to the notion that the end of the show is Carrie/Laura waking up. What that means, I do not know. I feel like I have a new theory for what's going on every other day. And all of them seem plausible. I actually don't mind ambiguity, but generally I'd like a bit of closure - but in a way, it's quite lovely how there can be so many theories and interpretations (and I'm blown away by the ones I read here, which are often brilliant and make me look at the show differently) and they can all be somewhat plausible. There's a genius to that (and I'm not actually a David Lynch fan, really - just Twin Peaks. And On The Air!).
The last thing I'll say is that in one talk I was listening to Lynch give today, after having watched those episodes, he was going on at length about meditation and the like, and at one point the moderator says so many of his films seem to be about dreams or operate on dream logic and asked Lynch why he returns to the idea that we're living in a dream, and Lynch's response was, and I'm going on memory: "Because it's true. We do live inside a dream. But one day we'll wake up and realize who we really are." I thought that idea, which I then heard him express in another talk as well (but much less clearly), is probably the only real "key" in watching TP:TR. Anyway, sorry for the lengthy post.
Interesting observation.
My first thought after reading your post. If it is wake up, Carrie didn't blow up anything. Because Dougie world still exist after this.
Second, Laura whispering to Cooper ear something new, last scene ep18. That could be this Laura who wake up and say something terrible to him.
Well connection is to the theories that they both are a dreamers. I read that once.
Keep digging, maybe you will find something else 🙂
Unrelated to what I wrote above, but there are two things that stick with me that I wish I knew the reason for:
- What is the weird scratching sound the Fireman plays for Cooper? In episode 18, that noise is heard, and that's when Coop turns around and sees that Laura is gone. In fact, it almost seems as if Cooper hearing that sound is what alerts him to turn around. Well, that and he probably noticed she wasn't holding his hand anymore. But it's the exact same noise. What is the noise?! It almost sounds like the runout groove on a record (often they have a line in the runout groove that stops the phonograph arm from advancing beyond that point; a lot of LPs have numbers carved in there as well, and when the needle hits them it skips). I seriously doubt that is what it is, of course. Though the Fireman seems to be playing the sound to Cooper on a phonograph? At one point, I thought that the noise we heard at the end of episode 8 was the noise the Fireman played for Cooper. It isn't at all, but it's slightly similar. I did notice in a scene before - I forget exactly which one now - but one of the times a double/tulpa/whatever is expiring and giving up the golden seed, the sound the seed makes is similar to the Fireman's noise. It has to be something important since the Fireman played it for Cooper. But because we don't hear it exactly again until episode 18, we have insufficient context to truly figure out what it is. (It doesn't sound when a vortex opens, for example.) David Lynch obviously is not interested in telling anyone exactly what something is, but I also don't think he wants to make his work impenetrable. Perhaps that sound will be mentioned in the Final Dossier book.
- Likely pointed out before, but the scream Laura gives in the moment she disappears after that noise is heard is literally just the exact same scream from the red room, complete with the sound of her dress flapping violently. That has to mean something as well. Laura gave that scream 25 years after the day Cooper "rescued" her. Why would it be the same scream complete with sound effects. So, a scream she made in the future, 25 years older etc. (Cooper reaction is also similar to the one he had in the red room.) I am trying to come up with a theory to that one. (Cooper also seems surprised by it all, so it almost seems as if he isn't expecting it.)
I'm not a huge fan of the idea that it's all a dream of some sort, but I think that plays into it. From Lynch's description of his spiritual beliefs, we are all "living within a dream" and the goal is to transcend that and wake up. That doesn't make the experiences had prior to "waking up" not real or meaningful.
Oh, and why is Cooper's face superimposed over the scene in the sheriff's station after he sees Naido? It briefly disappears when he is kissing Diane, but then comes back. It's very lucid dream-like, where Cooper is observing events while also being a part of them. Again, drawing from Lynch's talks, he describes some aspect of TM as being able to step outside of your life and see what is going on. But - again likely pointed out many times - the face that is superimposed is his reaction to seeing Naido. So, seeing her somehow jarred him loose perhaps? Maybe Cooper is unstuck in time in a way? I also don't think him saying "...Gordon Cole, who is here right on time" is a throwaway line. He seems to be anticipating everything. However, what is strange about his face being superimposed and it being his reaction to seeing Naido is when he says "We live inside a dream." He didn't say that in the "real world" (for lack of a better term). (Before playing it back several times, upon first seeing it I thought it was his reaction to what Laura whispered to him in the Red Room.)
Lots of stuff to think about. I think fans are going to be unpacking the events of this series for years.
Re electricity
Episode 18 credits have no electrical sound when the Lynch /Frost logo is shown
Oh! And what the hell was that weird head thing that spit out the golden seed when Dougie is being destroyed? I think it's just the momentary remnants of Dougie, but none of the other tulpas did that.
And how many seeds are there? I suppose there are as many as can be created. In episode 8, right before it cuts to the Mauve Zone, there's a golden blob forming. I think that is the creation of a seed. It isn't Bob, because he was already formed right after the Experiment barfed him out. If we take the meaning of a tulpa as a being created out of thought, it's interesting to think about who is creating that orb we see in the atomic rainbow blast. And the Fireman creates the Laura orb by thinking - it comes out of his head. (And the golden seed always comes out of the tulpa's head. And notice when a new one is created - such as with Dougie 2.0 - the last part to form is his head, and you see the orb "pop" there.) So, is Laura a tulpa? Or is that the creation of Carrie Page, not Laura? I don't like the idea of Laura being a tulpa, and I also - as much as I adored that episode - don't love the idea that Laura Palmer was created as a cosmic entity to counter Bob. Laura was powerful and tragic because she was a real person undergoing unspeakable trauma that in the end made her stronger. That powerful trauma narrative is tricky if Laura is created as part of some cosmic battle. I think that orb is the seed that will create Carrie Page perhaps? Obviously there's a difference between doppelgangers - like Mr. C - and tulpas. Mr C is shown on fire, but is not shown giving up a seed. And he needed the ring to transport him to the Red Room; in other cases, such as with Naido/Diane, when Cooper touches her, her face opens and she becomes fully Diane again, and no seed was involved there (though I haven't even begun to try to figure out what the hell that fleshy orb thing was - but it appeared to have Diane trapped in there). Also, that makes me assume Mr C created Dougie as a thought-form in a ploy to escape returning to the lodge, which, if that's the case, makes him pretty powerful. And is DNA required to create a tulpa? Cooper gave hair in order to create a new Dougie - perhaps, in that case, he was creating a sort of hybrid tulpa, so that Dougie Beta would not be an ass like Dougie Alpha. My head hurts.
Interesting observation.
My first thought after reading your post. If it is wake up, Carrie didn't blow up anything. Because Dougie world still exist after this.
Second, Laura whispering to Cooper ear something new, last scene ep18. That could be this Laura who wake up and say something terrible to him.
Well connection is to the theories that they both are a dreamers. I read that once.
Keep digging, maybe you will find something else 🙂
Now I have third one 🙂 I remembered something. I watched once a sync video with Cooper going with fork to socket and a girl in Roadhouse that crawls on the floor and she start to scream when Cooper put fork in socket. So it could refer to Carrie scream, this girl in Roadhouse.
What is the weird scratching sound the Fireman plays for Cooper?
I have two ideas. First one, we hear this sound in Black Lodge after distortion. Because analog sound cannot sounds same in so different environment. I wrote about it somewhere.
Second, this scene with Fireman isn't placed as first one. This is a scene after Cooper failed. Fireman play him sound that he heared. So Cooper heared this sound in woods. Then Fireman tell him "listen to the sounds", to remind him of something that he heared already. Sound is exactly the same because Fireman recorded it. Laura's disappearance was accompanied by a sound and he recorded this sound to replay to Cooper.
Here is this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZJ__doruW4
So if you are right about weaking up, we have here scream too.
This is why I believe at the end of Twin Peaks it is Laura waking up after being saved by Cooper when she hears her mother calling. Laura remembers who she is and awakens from her dream state in Odessa after having been placed there by either Judy or the Fireman after Cooper saves her from being killed in Twin Peaks. Electricity finally awakens Cooper from his Dougie persona and Dr Jacoby uses electricity to awaken the people of Twin Peaks from their neo-liberal capitalist lives.
This is why I believe at the end of Twin Peaks it is Laura waking up after being saved by Cooper when she hears her mother calling. Laura remembers who she is and awakens from her dream state in Odessa after having been placed there by either Judy or the Fireman after Cooper saves her from being killed in Twin Peaks. Electricity finally awakens Cooper from his Dougie persona and Dr Jacoby uses electricity to awaken the people of Twin Peaks from their neo-liberal capitalist lives.
I agree with this. Too bad Jacoby only awakened Nadine though (as far as I know).
One might think of electricity as the 'spark of life.'
If you've ever seen imagery of an egg being fertilized by a sperm there is a bright flash of light when they finally meet. It's like life sparking into existence and reminds me of Phil Gerard pressing Coop's hair together with the seed and sparking Dougie2 into existence.
Also, thoughts themselves are much like electrical current. They require energy for their creation and they course from brain to body and perhaps beyond into the ether.
The girl crawling on the floor synced with Cooper is actually kind of amazing. I have heard about the idea of playing the last two episodes in sync, which is not something I found compelling beyond coincidence, but in this case it actually does seem to be really interesting! That's one I can check off the list of questions I had - I wondered what the girl crawling on the floor was about.
It makes me wonder if The Roadhouse is some kind of almost interdimensional space, or something on the edge of reality and dream; there seem to be a lot of clues to other goings on within the show from events there. I'm not a huge fan of musical interludes in the show - it kind of takes me out of the show a bit - but on rewatch I get a strange feeling when the show goes there. Especially with some of the songs the bands chose, which seem to reflect the episodes surrounding them. I would wonder if it was some sort of way station if we didn't see character who turn up there in other areas of Twin Peaks. That being said, it still could be.
Also: When Audrey "wakes up" during her dance it is bright white and there are the sounds of electricity.
Then we see the band playing in reverse. The Roadhouse is the Club Silencio of Twin Peaks! (It also reminds me of, in a slight way - spoiler alert for the show The Leftovers - of the karaoke bar the main character finds himself in after he dies and has to sing karaoke to return to the "real world." That's a show that plays in a similar space as Twin Peaks at times. I'd highly recommend that show to anyone who likes Twin Peaks. It's not necessarily usually "Lynchian," but they place two very strange episodes that take place in what seems to be a weird limbo which is filled with symbolism and surreality of the TP variety, and when queried about whether or not this is the afterlife, the showrunners demur but point out that aboriginal people believe in something called "dreamtime" which they consider to be an actual, physical place that one can visit which is just as "real" as the "real world." I think this might be the same idea David Lynch is playing with. Interestingly - last spoiler for The Leftovers - in the penultimate episode, the male lead [played by Kevin Thoroux, a Lynch veteran!] destroys this dream space, at least the one he accesses, so that he can never go back there again - which may be very similar to what is going on at the end of TPTR.)
Thanks for all of the replies and amazing ideas. You all are great and it's really nice to be able to interact with Twin Peaks fandom where everyone here is so nice and positive. I have found the fandom in other comments sections go into hostility almost immediately.
I belive that Roadhouse scenes are connected to main plot. When first time we watched them, most wrote they are boring, too long, pointless etc...
But I belive they have a sense and this crawling girl is only one clue found. There is still a lot to be connected and discovered. In some way Dougie world is connected to those Roadhouse. There can be a connection with superimposed Coop saying "we live inside a dream" to this. Roadhouse can be some place that connect different worlds. Because in old TP it was a place where strange things happened. Cooper had there visions, and this old waitress was walking there. Now something strange happened there to Audrey, and we had a lot scenes there this season, at first glance senseless.
Fire walk with