Now to the question of “What year is this ?” Cooper is asking what year it is because he realizes he is in the wrong place or has been tricked by the Fireman. Perhaps the Fireman used Agent Cooper to bring Laura to Judy in the Palmer, Chalfont,Tremond House knowing Carrie/Laura’s awakening would be enough to kill her doppelgänger inside Judy therefore killing Judy.
Maybe the Fireman knew Cooper and Laura would never leave and he used them to kill Judy which was the original reason he created Laura in the first place. Perhaps this is why Judy inside Sarah Palmer was trying to smash the photo of Laura but could not. In reality she could never really destroy Laura and this enraged her. When Cooper and Laura show up at the Palmer house Judy may be hiding or she may actually take the form of Alice Tremond to fool Cooper. The Fireman knew all along that since Laura had been living as Carrie Page for years the only one who could find her was Agent Cooper. He told Cooper what he had to do and Copper did it. Maybe the reason Bob murdered Laura in the first place was to keep her from destroying Judy. Maybe Bob wanted to enjoy the earthly pleasures so he waited too long and was discovered. I think it all ties together in some fashion although I’m not quite sure how yet.
When Laura whispers in Coopers ear maybe part of what she is telling him is he has tried before and failed. Everyone who has been at a portal can’t remember what happened so maybe Cooper can’t remember what’s been happening to him.
this would also explain Diane and Coopers behavior after the cross over.
If the lodge exists outside of time maybe it didn’t seem like 25 years to Cooper. It may have seemed like a short time to him inside of the lodge. If he can’t remember what’s occurred he could have been trying to accomplish his mission since he first went into the lodge. Mind you this is all theory and speculation.
I have also thought that the entirety of Twin Peaks is exactly that Twin Peaks as in the human brain . Think about it the brain has 2 sides, it send electrical signals, it dreams and it can reason and form opinions. Maybe the whole point is to use our Twin Peaks to figure out what we think is going on. Maybe there is no definitive answer
While watching part 8 yesterday I was struvk how when the fireman enters the room where Dido sits, and the alarm is going off, that he approaches the camera and looks right at us. And his look was like " what have you humans done?" Is this the only time a character does this?
And
When he goes upstairs to view what's happened, he floats up and releases his GOOD mushroom cloud...... if you look closely, it looks like the sparkles from the screen are drawn to his golden cloud.
Could he be absorbing most of the evil for us? Is this the death of the fireman?
I think it all ties together in some fashion although I’m not quite sure how yet.
a-yup.
That bit about Laura's doppel is interesting. She didn't make an appearance, but presumably she's hard at work doing something. Something to think on.
And the twin lobes of the brain - also I like.
There was a story on RadioLab about human development. The primordial cells that ultimately determine our gender go through an epic journey. They're sent to the trash bin of the developing fetus, then they are summoned by confounding means (The signal maker isn't hardly developed at the time that it begins calling them), then they walk through the valley of the shadow of death being coerced by all the organ's cells along the way to fall into temptation and become a liver, or a lung, or a heart cell - but they solemnly march on, beckoned by the siren song signal. Then they reach the gonad center, the signal caller. They, and there's only like 40 of them (if I recall), then pass through a crucible, or a sorting hat, and they are ordained male, or female. If they are chosen female, lightning strikes and all hell breaks loose and they divide and divide and divide into thousands on thousands of ova, to be neatly tucked into the walls of the future ovary (female gonad). This all happens in the early weeks of pregnancy. Before, perhaps, a woman knows she's pregnant her grandchildren are being created.
Besides being totally amazing, I'm retelling it because it just feels so much like a biblical epic, or a greek myth. And not by accident. It's so bizarre that our deepest imaginings and muses have roots in the microscopic biology or our barely formed selves. In our dreams we remember those trials. And to me, Twin Peaks has that same aroma. It's a story we already knew but couldn't find the words or images to tell it. Or it arouses an archetype story at any rate.
It's impossible to say what The Return means, not definitively at least. But how it feels is potent.
I think I have settled on what happened in the final scene.
What year is this?
I think Coop and Laura are actually back in 1989 , the morning that Laura was killed. Which is why we hear Sarah calling for Laura. It is the exact same audio as in the OS pilot.
Laura screams in realization of what actually happened....
This should perhaps go into the Final Dossier sub-forum but I decided to post this here as it relates to the series and specifically The Return, like how it all connects. If you don't want spoilers about The Final Dossier, now's the time to stop reading this reply.
I just read the book, and some things strikes as especially curious.
Cooper has White Knight syndrome, if it wasn't evident before, but it being brought up might be adding fuel to the idea that saving Laura and trying to take Carrie Page home was his hubris and not his meditative focused self, the same hubris that made him lose his badge and got him in the lodge to begin with. His mission was to find Judy (seemingly), but did Carrie Page and in extension his White Knight Syndrome side-track him?
Major Briggs' dossier remains from the "unofficial version". As Tamara writes, in the Major's dossier Laura was killed and Leland dies in the holding cell, yet the official records show Laura went missing and Leland killing himself a year later. So the dossier he left for the Blue Rose task force came from the timeline where Cooper didn't save laura and is perhaps the only physical evidence of that version.
The coordinates on Ruth Davenport's arm lead to the boiler room in the Laura missing timeline. But in The Return, Mr. C follows them to outside Jack Rabbits Palace. I wonder why that changed and what significance it has.
Naido became, or was, Diane already in the cell, according to all the witnesses at the Sheriff's Station and not in the office like in the "unofficial version". She along with Gordon did experience being with Cooper in the boiler room after BOB was defeated, but the door Cooper left through appeared as an "endless corridor" to Gordon. After Cooper went into it, Diane dissapeared too, and Gordon found himself in a more normal boiler room, with Ben and Jerry Horne there. Did it appear as a door to Cooper but an endless corridor to Gordon because Cooper like Phillip Jeffries have gitched out of time, does the infinity symbol come in to play here?
"I'd like to believe there's more to life than what we can see or lay our hands on, but the 'job' keeps us so focused on the evil that men do that it's a challenge to hold both thoughts at once [...] Is that the secreat at the heart of the Blue Rose and the work we do? To identify root causes of human misery and evil, do we first have to find them in ourselves?" So, Cooper described BOB as a physical manifistation of "the evil that men do". And Gordon described Judy as a more essential negative force. Is Tamara saying that BOB isn't the main antagonist here but Judy is, akin of Gordon and Cooper's secret mission?
Sarah is indeed the girl in Episode 8 and she not only lived in the proximity of the Trinity test but the Roswell UFO incident too. Whatever creature that planted itself in her the night of the Woodsman's radio broadcast, it probably got to bloom out when Laura went missing and Leland killed himself, left without answers she went severlely depressed and took refuge in alcohol dependency. She bit off the Truck You guys neck after Cooper went back in time and altered the past.
And that leads me to the last thing.
Not muched changed. Ronette was still attacked, Windom Earle still came, his victims still died, Annie still went cataconic, Mr. C still switched places with Coop, the bank explosion still happened, Audrey was still raped in her coma and still gave birth to Richard, the town still got sicker and more and harder drugs came, the Ghostwood project became a horrible corporate prison, families still split, pretty much all the events of Season 3 still happened anyways, Carrie Page still had a traumatic life and ended up a murderer. What did saving Laura actually change or undo in the bigger picture?
When the good Laura enters the black lodge 25 years later she is vulnerable and Judy is able to grab her and send her to the Odessa reality far away from the good Cooper.
Laura whispers in Coopers ear “ You must find me and take me home . The bad Laura is in my mother Sarah, Judy is also there.
When you take me home it will destroy Judy, myself and the bad Laura but you must sacrifice yourself too.
This is why he says Huh ? Because she is telling him to kill her, her mother, and himself to set things right.
Sarah has Judy and the bad Laura doppelgänger hiding inside her.
When Cooper takes Laura to Twin Peaks in the Odessa timeline, Judy is still hiding inside Sarah Palmer but not in this timeline. This suggests that Judy can cross timelines. We also see this in part 3 when Judy is knocking on the door in the Naido and American Girl timelines. Alice Tremond May be a vehicle for Judy to travel to the Odessa timeline or she is simply a lodge entity guarding the Palmer house. I even thought Alice could be talking. talking to Judy not her husband. This would also account for the mans voice when Bad Cooper calls Phillip Jeffries.
When Laura comes out of the fog of the other reality she has been in for 25 years she realizes who she really is and what happened her. The memories and the terror of it all rushes back into her and she Screams ! Since two negatives cancel each other out the negative energy from Odessa Laura shorts out her the negative Laura inside Sarah/Judy destroying Laura and Judy (two birds) and Cooper (one stone)
I realized this when Sarah was watching the boxing match on tv. Judy was manipulating time and hibernating inside a few moments In time over and over. In a word she was hiding in those few moments to protect herself from the Fireman’s plan and Cooper. This is why she can’t destroy the photo of Laura because where she is time exists as just a few moments and it keeps resetting.
Major Briggs was probably somewhere in a similar space all those years.
Cooper knows he will have to sacrifice himself in the Odessa timeline I think this may be part of the reason he acts so focused and unlike the Cooper we all know and love. By him entering the Black Lodge 25 years prior he caused the release of his doppelgänger and Bob. Since Bob is out and using Bad Cooper to find Judy, good Cooper must find Judy and destroy her before Bob can get to her. I believe Bob wants to mate with Judy and create more eggs like we saw in episode 8.
By sending Bad Cooper/Bob to the Sheriff’s Station instead of the Palmer house where Judy was the Fireman knew Lucy would kill Bad Cooper and Freddie would kill Bob. Leaving Cooper to deal with Judy.
This was the Fireman’s plan all along. When the Fireman said “Listen to the sounds.” If you listen closely I think the sounds translate to “We live, inside a dream” or they may be coordinates to the spot where Cooper and Diane cross over.
There are several things that occur after they cross over that are worth mentioning.
When they first cross over from day into night there is absolutely no reaction from either one of them. This is very strange and could be caused by the fact not unlike what happens when someone is near a portal. They know something happened but they are not certain what at first.
I think when Diane sees her doppelgänger outside the motel she remembers what they are doing there. I also believe the reason she sees here double is that she may be trying to place herself in a Dissociative State because she has some idea of what’s about to happen. It could also be that she is trying to keep that part of herself in tact from becoming Linda.
When Cooper/Richard wakes up the next day he is in a different motel in a different location. It could be possible Diane’s double is still at the other Motel.
I had other thought as well, maybe the reason that Cooper and Diane are driving the old Lincoln before they cross over is because they are in that time period. Then when Cooper wakes up the next day the time has reset to a future time period.
It’s interesting that Cooper/Richard is driving the same model Lincoln that Bad Cooper was driving when he has his accident.
Another thing is that when Cooper and Mike go to Jeffries to find Judy, Jeffries show them where to find here and the Owl Cave symbol changes from 7 to 0 to 8 which is the address of the Palmer house.
Ultimately this is all speculation and only Lynch and Frost know the truth of it.
While watching a doco about that black meteorite stone that the muslims pray to, I was struck by how much it reminded me of what Naido's head turns into in the red room.
More musings.....
We see Coop leave the red room twice.....
Once when he is thrust into non-existence -mauve room-Dougie etc etc
Once when he walks out to meet Diane - motel - Odessa etc etc
Different timelines?
Leland says "I did not kill anybody". Well, Does he mean because Bob did it? Or because Cooper saved Laura from dying?
I'm just writing this as I'm thinking so probably doesn't make sense , but I often think of things but because I don't write them down, I forget them.
More musings.....
We see Coop leave the red room twice.....
Once when he is thrust into non-existence -mauve room-Dougie etc etc
Once when he walks out to meet Diane - motel - Odessa etc etc
Different timelines?
Leland says "I did not kill anybody". Well, Does he mean because Bob did it? Or because Cooper saved Laura from dying?
I'm just writing this as I'm thinking so probably doesn't make sense , but I often think of things but because I don't write them down, I forget them.
Maybe the time he was sent to non-existence was the time that Hawk went to Glastonbury grove, because "something was supposed to happen tonight", but arm doppleganger thwarted that.
More musings.....
We see Coop leave the red room twice.....
Once when he is thrust into non-existence -mauve room-Dougie etc etc
Once when he walks out to meet Diane - motel - Odessa etc etc
Different timelines?
Leland says "I did not kill anybody". Well, Does he mean because Bob did it? Or because Cooper saved Laura from dying?
I'm just writing this as I'm thinking so probably doesn't make sense , but I often think of things but because I don't write them down, I forget them.
There is probably a third time (once again, I dont't remember where I've read this observation). But not shown on the screen.
When Cooper is in the Sheriff's Office, just before disappearing, he had not the FBI pin on his jacket.
Just after that, there is the scene in the Great Northern basement with Diane and Gordon.
The FBI pin is on his jacket this time.
So when he vanished in the Sheriff's Office, there is another journey in the Red Room.
I had a new theory this morning .
This is so obvious now that it was right in front of me the whole time.
Naido is Diane but if you reverse Naido ( O Dian) it is missing something, it’s missing an E.
As in Janey-E who is a tulpa created by Mr. C to keep track of Douglas Jones. He may have used a part of Diane to create Janey-E. One other possibility is that Mr C imprisoned the real Janey E in some fashion.
The music/song in episode 1 when we are first introduced to Mr C is the same as when we see Diane walking to the hotel room where she is shot by Albert and Tammy.
Otis and Buella know Mr C already, from where?/when? And so does Ray snd Daria.
Ray is an FBI informant, so he would've known Coop. Of course he knows Jefferies.
Just more musings....
Yeah that just occurred to me a month ago too. I know what you mean though, I spent a long while wondering about the "E" in Janey-E, also wondering where the missing E was in "O-Dianne." It should have occurred to me sooner!
Fire walk with