I'm about halfway through EW's 3.5 hour finale about the podcast and they bring up an excellent point about the end that leads me to think about zen buddhism, Cooper's "mistake," and some of Lynch's philosophic views.

In the FWWM footage, James says to Laura that he thinks she wants him to take her home. She says the old Laura is gone and he doesn't even know who she is anymore. One of the first things Cooper says when he then encounters this young Laura is that he's going to take her home. And then he shows up at Carrie's house wanting to take her home. When they finally get back home (to the Palmer house), it isn't exactly there, and the first sign that it is that old home brings terror.

Dougie gets back to his home quite happily. But for many story lines in our lives, we just won't be able to make it back home, back to what we knew before some horrible event disrupted that story line.

I so desperately wanted to see Laura and Sarah hug and be happy. I desired it! But what is one of the goals of zen meditation? (As I learned it...) It is freedom from desire--to let go of expectations. James, Dale, and us the viewers all had perfectly virtuous desires, but we have to make peace with the fact that the grief about Laura cannot be assuaged; we cannot return back "home" as though it never happened; that home would never bring Laura any peace ever again. We have to recognize the fact and move on.

In the mean time, even though we got lots of uninished stories, look at the happy, family-themed endings that we did get: Norma and Ed got together; the Jones family is together with an improved Dougie; the Mitchums are probably gonna work with the law instead of against it (and Bushnell can take down the LVPD criminals trying to use his company); and Mrs. Jackpots reunited with her son. Let go of the desire to see Laura and Sarah in complete peace and enjoy the stories that we do have instead.

Maybe I'm an apologetic sycophant.

I'd like to re-watch all of the lodge scenes from the original, FWWM, and TP:TR. I'd like to organize and compare them to see if I missed something, to see if they makes more sense.

I haven't listened to any podcasts. Do any of them discuss this subject?