Lynch's comments regarding Audrey could be the key here. Maybe there is no definitive story, point, resolution or ending, and the whole of it is a collection of stuff to create an emotional and/or cognitive response in the viewer. A true non-linear "story" that doesn't actually do anything in the traditional sense of story. It's a popular approach in music and other arts, so why not a tv show?
We keep coming up with ideas to make the whole thing hang together, which is a reasonable idea, since some individual sections make sense on their own. What if the whole thing doesn't hang together, and deliberately so?
I admit I have no idea if this is true but think it's worth considering.
I think it's absolutely natural for our minds to have the need for resolution to these stories in Twin Peaks. It's part of being human- to have closure.
But as we all know, life often presents us with NO closure, and I think that's one of the messages from Twin Peaks. Sometimes there just isn't one answer or even an answer at all. And it's messy and cruel, but life can be that way. We don't often see that portrayed in television shows where it's pretty much about just pleasing the viewer, but not being completely honest.
Above all, David is an artist. He shows us not just what we want to see, but what we need to see.
Lynch's comments regarding Audrey could be the key here. Maybe there is no definitive story, point, resolution or ending, and the whole of it is a collection of stuff to create an emotional and/or cognitive response in the viewer. A true non-linear "story" that doesn't actually do anything in the traditional sense of story. It's a popular approach in music and other arts, so why not a tv show?
We keep coming up with ideas to make the whole thing hang together, which is a reasonable idea, since some individual sections make sense on their own. What if the whole thing doesn't hang together, and deliberately so?
I admit I have no idea if this is true but think it's worth considering.
I think it's absolutely natural for our minds to have the need for resolution to these stories in Twin Peaks. It's part of being human- to have closure.
But as we all know, life often presents us with NO closure, and I think that's one of the messages from Twin Peaks. Sometimes there just isn't one answer or even an answer at all. And it's messy and cruel, but life can be that way. We don't often see that portrayed in television shows where it's pretty much about just pleasing the viewer, but not being completely honest.
Above all, David is an artist. He shows us not just what we want to see, but what we need to see.
That's the thing...if we all know that life brings no closure then why is Twin Peaks a vehicle to teach us what we've already figured out?
Throwing 18 hours of open ended haphazard material just to convey that life can be confusing and you don't get all the answers you want is kind of over the top to explain something so obvious in that immense amount of time.
Inland Empire and Mulholland Drive are vastly different movies...ones very abstract and the other is more narrative...but they both have closure in their own way. Even when they were confusing you knew it had to be for a narrative or symbolic point.
The Return is just confusing for confusings sake to teach us that life is confusing.
Just a further note on the writing process (I believe this was in the AMA, but I've been reading so much lately I could be remembering incorrectly lol): when Mark Frost left to write the Secret History, Lynch and his crew actually sent any script updates Frost's way so he could review them as he wrote the book. So Frost was definitely trying to work back from S3 to make it fit properly between the old and new run, but that doesn't stop continuity conflicts arising from changes made in post-production via editing, etc.
And I'm glad (albeit not surprised) to see other people here drawing comparisons between this work and others such as Naked Lunch and Bunuel's films that really break our conventional modes of narrative form. I've definitely been on that track myself lately.
S3 also reminded me very much of the ambiguity of Philip K. Dick's Ubik, which also happens to deal with dream-states (a bardo-like half-death that people can be suspended in). It too contains an ending that leaves many questions about the nature of reality unanswered and hanging.
I do also wonder if Mark Frost wasn't interested in creating a closed narrative himself. The intentional errors and ambiguities throughout the Secret History strike me as him playing along in creating an unstable reality in which there isn't necessarily a definite mode of singular truth and fact to narrative events.
Plus, if I recall correctly, Frost actually approached Lynch with an idea for this season that sparked Lynch's interest enough to finally make it, so I do wonder what exactly that initial pitch could have been. Perhaps it was there that the germ to have Dale go back, save Laura, and destabilize reality was born? Or something akin to that, allowing them a nebulous playground in which both author's contributions can ultimately all be canon, even while in conflict with one another? Pure conjecture on that, but I am curious how he managed to get Lynch interested enough finally!
To me, it's rather brilliant that Lynch & Frost, with this season (and the book preceding it, plus perhaps the one after) have created for themselves a scenario in which there is not a definitive truth to the narrative facts, and thus each author's voice is equally valid, even when narrative tensions arise between the two.
Great comments, Thomas. Yes, it could be that the unresolved nature of it all was Frost's idea anyway. Perhaps he said to David, "Look, here's this crazy idea I've had. It's not really going to make any sense, so that allows you free reign to be as creative as you want."
The Secret History, although it does tie together more cohesively than The Return did, it was not quite the book we were all expecting. It's like Frost used it as an opportunity to write all about UFOs and conspiracy theories. He could have just written a book about that anyway, but it wouldn't sold as well as it did when it was attached to the Twin Peaks series.
But if Frost and Lynch knew there was no real sense to The Return, it would have been a lot kinder to viewers if they said that from the beginning. If they said, "You're not going to get many clear answers here, it's more a series of connected art films", this would have meant we weren't disappointed by the ending. I was only disappointed by Part 18 because I had build up the expectation that the ending would resolve the main story points. But in hindsight I can see that it was a daft assumption to make. I've seen Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway. I should have known better. If I'd gone into this fully expecting it not to tie together, I could have just enjoyed it for the art it was. I did do that too, but there was always this nagging expectation that the stories would progress somewhat like a standard TV series.
No
This piece eloquently captures my feelings about the Return.
https://25yearslatersite.com/2017/09/14/pinning-the-butterfly-and-killing-the-dream/
🙂
The key part of that article is this:
In a New York Times interview, back in 1995, Lynch said: “I like things that leave some room to dream. A lot of mysteries are sewn up at the end, and that kills the dream … I keep hoping people will like abstractions, space to dream, consider things that don’t necessarily add up.”
That says it all really. Lynch doesn't want things to make sense.
So, if we ask questions like "what does this or that mean?", we're missing the point. We trying to find out what the real meaning is behind various scenes, as if Lynch and Frost have a clear idea but are withholding it from us. No, there is no official meaning to the bits we don't understand and it was intentionally created that way.
For example, let's consider Audrey. People keep thinking about what her situation is, where she really is, who Charlie really is, like Lynch and Frost know but aren't telling us. No, they don't know for sure either. Audrey's situation could be interpreted many different ways, and that's exactly as it's intended.
You want to know what's REALLY going on? None of the people are even real. They are all played by actors. Audrey Horne isn't even a real person. Her real name is actually Sherilyn. Sorry if this all comes as news to anyone.
I'm just thinking how great this series has been. If we'd gotten the traditional, straightforward, narrative and ending that I so very much wanted this would be all over. We would have posted our comments about whether we liked it or not and that would be it. This would all be over and quickly fading from our minds as just another TV show. But look at this thing go. It has fueled so much discussion and thought. It's aroused so much feeling. That's a success for any art. It's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. Probably exactly what David Lynch was hoping for.
I do get the feeling that it all does mean something and the pieces do all fit. I don't think this story is over yet and I'm hoping the next book gives us a few more pieces to play with. I'm not expecting a complete resolution. I don't think there will ever be something like that, but I do think we may get to a point where it all feels complete or concluded some how.
I'm really interested in hearing an analysis of all the audio and visual elements of this show. I've never studied much music history or theory but it seems very important to DL and I think there may be some interesting bits there.
Finally, how about these actors. What great performances. They were all so good. Kyle's multiple characters were so brilliant, especially what seemed to me like he ever so slightly merged them (Dale and Mr. C) together at the end. Even Audrey's part (Sherilyn Fenn), which seemed smaller and very strange from what we were expecting for her, was performed so well. And all the rest.
I think what I'm feeling now, in regards to this show, is gratitude. Genuinely. I enjoyed it and am still having fun with it. There's more to look forward to and I'm glad David Lynch and Mark Frost have created this for us.
No
Yes
Maybe
Shortest review of a Yes album, in NME, back when it was still a newspaper that wrote about music and not a comic book that sometimes has things about music, was the single word, "No".
Some time later, when the band partly re-formed and other, former members blocked their use of "Yes", some wag suggested they should go under the name "Maybe".
Perhaps?
Perhaps?
Possibly.
I'm just thinking how great this series has been. If we'd gotten the traditional, straightforward, narrative and ending that I so very much wanted this would be all over. We would have posted our comments about whether we liked it or not and that would be it.
I disagree.
FWWM, while cryptic and mysterious, was a much more traditional and straightforward narrative with a somewhat conclusive ending...
...and we picked it apart for 25 years.
The difference with the Return is that it was 18 hours of plot points that were introduced without being expanded upon.
All the work being done now isn't theorizing...it's fan fiction...we're writing the details that weren't demonstrated in the show and then reaching for conclusions from those fan written details.
Whose Billy? He's nothing more than a name and there are tons of multi paragraph conclusion as to his identity.
Like I said...fan fiction,
I'm just thinking how great this series has been. If we'd gotten the traditional, straightforward, narrative and ending that I so very much wanted this would be all over. We would have posted our comments about whether we liked it or not and that would be it.
I disagree.
FWWM, while cryptic and mysterious, was a much more traditional and straightforward narrative with a somewhat conclusive ending...
...and we picked it apart for 25 years.
The difference with the Return is that it was 18 hours of plot points that were introduced without being expanded upon.
All the work being done now isn't theorizing...it's fan fiction...we're writing the details that weren't demonstrated in the show and then reaching for conclusions from those fan written details.
Whose Billy? He's nothing more than a name and there are tons of multi paragraph conclusion as to his identity.
Like I said...fan fiction,
Is it fan fiction or is it Gestaltism at it's best?
Fire walk with