Stay with me here, this might be long, but I think I've finally broken the code to Twin Peaks Season 3 (I refuse to call it The Return - but perhaps after this post I will; just stay tuned)...
Waaay back in Season 1, Cooper has a dream in which he is in the Black Lodge. He sits in a chair and Laura is there and she whispers something in his ear.
He wakes and calls Harry and tells him that Laura whispered in his ear the person who killed her, and to meet him in the morning.
The following morning Cooper, Harry, and Lucy sit at breakfast and Cooper relays the dream. Harry asks what Laura said and Cooper reveals that he could not remember. But.. Cooper did follow that up with the following quote:
"Break the code, solve the crime..."
NOW we get to get a little META (4th wall breaking stuff here)..
We know that Lynch and Frost were only involved in Season 2's first few episodes and that ABC more or less pushed them out for creative difference. Specifically it was that ABC wanted to go ahead and reveal who killed Laura Palmer and Lynch and Frost were against doing this (the original idea was to NEVER reveal the killer). So, in episode 16 (season 2, episode 9) we are shown that Laura whispers to Cooper "My father killed me" and that is, what many will argue, is was started making Twin Peaks slide. BUT it was also the main catalyst for everything that we had been watching. The Code for season 1 had been broken and the crime had been solved!
(Still with me? I'm about to take the META to ULTRA-META)
Fast forward 25 years... Season 3 we are once again seeing Cooper in the Black Lodge and once again Laura whispers something in Cooper's ear. It is never revealed to us what is whispered. However, we are aware that time had been messed with.
As Cooper said back in season 1; Break the Code, Solve the Crime.
My Ultra-Meta breaking of the code is as follows:
Lynch / Frost had this play out with Laura whispering to Cooper (in season 3) to simply undo what the latter portion of Season 2 did. To take back their creative control and, in effect, retcon what ABC forced the show to reveal (in season 2).
Further, as Cooper pointed out in season 1, there is a code here. It mimics the exact dream he had in season 1 therefore we can postulate that the code is still in effect and that it needs to be broken in order to solve the crime.
The code, in this specific instance, is what did Laura whisper this time around?
"I like frosted flakes"?
"Laura Palmer is really Carrie Page's doppleganger/tulpa"? (there may be something to this one, because recall how her body fizzles out of existence much like the tuplas do)
"Han Solo shot first"?
who knows.. The point is, I think whatever it is that she whispered to Cooper is what will solve everything, it will break the code and solve the crime. BUT going back to the original idea, Lynch / Front never wanted the crime to be solved!
We do continue to get hints, however. In season 3, Hawk finds 3 missing pages of the diary and Laura writes in it:
They've never listened to my cries and I never wanted them to anyway.
But there is this - This came to me in a dream last night...."My name is Annie. I've been with Dale and Laura (me??!!!). The good Dale is in the lodge and he can't leave. Write it in your diary."
That's what she said to me.
There I was with a plastic pumpkin full of money and the clothes that Nancy brought. She's bending my ear with all sorts of non-sense. I can't make out what she's trying to say but I take it all in as best I can. I sure didn't need a mask today. Some Halloween!
The moon has been high in the sky for hours now I can't sleep!
It's 1:30 A.M. I'm crying so hard I can hardly breath. NOW I KNOW IT ISN'T BOB. I KNOW WHO IT IS.
Keep in mind, we still have a 4th page that is missing. More evidence of this code that needs to be broken.
I feel like I'm rambling a little now, so I'm going to wrap this up, but I really think the key to all of this is what Laura whispered to Cooper the 2nd time around.
How very meta ?
So you didn't "break" the code so much as you reestablished it?
I did it in the same tradition as the way Cooper told Harry that he knew who killed Laura Palmer at the end of "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer".
CUT TO:
INT. DALE COOPER'S HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT
COOPER shoots up out of his bed, waking from this strange and disturbing dream. He turns on the light, fumbles for the phone and dials.
COOPER
Harry, it's Cooper, meet me for breakfast, 7:00 am, at the hotel lobby. I know who killed Laura Palmer. (reply) No, this can wait till morning.
He hangs up and starts to snap his fingers to the sound of the music from his dream.
TUNE ENDS: DANCE OF THE DREAM MAN
FADE OUT
The ultra-meta portion to all of this is that WE, the viewers are Cooper and Lynch is Laura Palmer whispering something in our ear. We just don't know what. Yet. That's the code that I've broken.
There are so much Twin Peaks and David Lynch books.
Dozens and dozens in many languages.
I remember have read that the very first image in FWWM (the smashed TV) was a kind of answer from Lynch to the ABC TV series season 2.
So essentially, we all live inside that dream........................
I really wish I could find a pic of Cooper after he wakes up from that dream. He had the GREATEST hair!
So essentially, we all live inside that dream........................
I really wish I could find a pic of Cooper after he wakes up from that dream. He had the GREATEST hair!
Ask and I shall provide!
YAS!!!! You made my day.
Thank you! ? ? ?
who knows.. The point is, I think whatever it is that she whispered to Cooper is what will solve everything, it will break the code and solve the crime. BUT going back to the original idea, Lynch / Front never wanted the crime to be solved!
I like this theory of Lynch and Frost 2015 "revenge" on ABC.
The first time I went in USA for vacations was in june 1990.
It was in Hawaii islands few weeks after the last season 1 episode was aired.
Of course in France, Twin Peaks was unknown at this time.
I remember have seen many people with "Who killed Laura Palmer?" t-shirts (probably unofficially ones) with the prom picture. And asked myself : WTF ?
Many guys also wore Simpsons t-shirts, born the same year as Twin Peaks (unofficially shirts were sold at this time in Hawaii with green-gecko Simpsons).
- Who shot J.R ?
- Who shot Mr. Burns ?
- Who killed Laura Palmer ?
3 cliffhangers.
...but, we are in 2018, and Laura Palmer was not killed.
- Where is Laura Palmer ?
I'm not sure to make a lot of money with this t-shirt.
Gotta Light ? is more successfull.
(Twin Peaks was aired in France in spring 1991, and season 2 was aired immediately after the end of season 1.
June 1991, I was in NY, the last episode was just aired here and nobody cared anymore about Laura Palmer in the streets).
I never thought of the smashed TV like that. But makes SOOOO much sense and definitely seems like something Lynch would do.
I would be down with a "Where is Laura Palmer" shirt. I'm sure lots of people would, but probably not as many as "Who Killed Laura Palmer" or "Gotta Light."
Back in 90, I had a huge tee shirt that said "I Killed Laura Palmer." Then it got put away once the mystery was solved but brought back out when I went to work at the Mar-T (R&R) and FWWM was premiered at the 1st TP fest.
Ahhhh, good times..........................
Stay with me here, this might be long, but I think I've finally broken the code to Twin Peaks Season 3 (I refuse to call it The Return - but perhaps after this post I will; just stay tuned)...
Waaay back in Season 1, Cooper has a dream in which he is in the Black Lodge. He sits in a chair and Laura is there and she whispers something in his ear....
That is brilliant. The past got all messed up and Lynch/Frost had to go back and fix it, save Laura, save Twin Peaks. I very much like that.
Fire walk with