To be clear, I DON'T think Lynch & Co. are "bluffing" about making this the end of Twin Peaks. I don't believe they've ruled out doing more, but I think they're more than fine with ending it here - and that that's the default plan. However, I also think that if there WERE some inkling about making more, they wouldn't tell us - not now, and not any time soon.

Because that forces us to process this ending as an ending. There's no easy escape hatch where we consider this a "cliffhanger" and assume everything will work out, but it sure is going to be hard waiting to find out how!

No - we have to confront this ending as if it's the only ending we'll ever have. Our only choices: find a way to be okay with landing in a deeply unsettling place, or do the hard work and analysis of pulling out the hopeful threads. (As I've posted elsewhere, I'm convinced there's a hopeful reading of the finale... but you have to dig deep for it.)

This bit might be morbid, but there's already been a lot said about The Return's hard truths on aging and mortality. So we'd be in denial if we told ourselves this show might not return because David Lynch is an evil man who wants to deprive us. The fact is, this show might not return because David Lynch is an old man who might not have enough working life left to make more. We talk a lot about things being "meta," and that's "meta" on a whole other level. It's also the truth.

Which is why we need to look this finale in the eye and consider it the end. If we're lucky, maybe it won't be. But this is not a bluff.