Around the dinner table, the conversation was lively. Thank you but for now, the forum has been archived.
I have not seen this mentioned here, but I have seen this referenced elsewhere online: Upon multiple viewings of the entire series (The return and the original), I am starting to think that Cooper never survived that gunshot wound at the end of season 1, and has been in the lodge (AKA the afterlife) ever since. Bare with me for a minute and consider the following evidence:
-Go back and watch Cooper's "dying" speech as he lays on the ground of his hotel room at the Great Northern on the last episode of Season 1 (it's on youtube) He mentions Tibet a couple times and says that getting shot is not as bad as you think as long as you keep the fear from your mind. In Tibetan Mythology, one can navigate the wondrous and often scary, "dreamlike" world of the afterlife with more ease and comfort if you are able to enter with little to no fear.
- Consider that, although there were some supernatural elements before episode 8 when he is shot, the Lodge mythology and all the supernatural elements really flooded the series after that episode.
- Consider the concept of the protagonist being dead and the Sunset Blvd. reference, a film in which the protagonist is dead and does not know it.
- Consider the Freddy Green Glove character and how it is a direct reference to the French film "Orpheus" in which the main character travels into the afterlife to find his dead wife and can only enter this realm by putting on a green latex glove and walking through a mirror. Another obvious reference to the journey of the afterlife.
- In season 2, Episode 1 (this is shortly after Coop being shot), Cooper asks the Giant (AKA The Fireman) where he came from and the Giant replies, "You should ask, where have YOU gone?"
- We all know Josie is the one who shot Cooper back in the original series. Perhaps when he opens the hotel room door and sees Josie, her face is partially obscured. I've always felt that Naido is a reference to Josie, not because they are both Asian actresses, but because, her eyes are obscured perhaps mirroring the last thing Coop saw--I know this point may be a stretch, but in the Return, when Gordon Cole opens the hotel room door and has his Laura Palmer vision, it seems very similar to the time Cooper opened the hotel room door and got shot.
- Room 315 key - Why is this key so important? Why is hotel room that Cooper stayed in the original series so important for him to get back to? It's not like anything majorly important happened there. There are no known portals there, etc. The only thing I can think of is that this room is important because it is the last place Cooper was when he was alive (if he indeed was killed at the end of Episode 8, season 1).
- Also, in the Return during the episode when Dougie/Coop gets driven out to the desert to meet the mitchum Brothers, Bushnell is opening the limo door for Dougie and says something about a dead man or uses that phrase in a benign way. Dougie/Coop then squeezes his own face with his hand and repeats "dead man" "dead man." - I know that could be a foreshadowing of the Mitchum Brothers' intent to assassinate Dougie Jones, but it just seems weird and a bit emphasized and it is also worth noting that Dougie does not repeat everything people say, just words and ideas that seem important to him.
There are plenty more references, but this post is already exceeding my intended length. I acknowledge that there have been posts about Cooper never leaving the lodge and wandering through some Tibetan bardo realty or realities and I think this coincides with my thoughts about Cooper being dead. I think the lodge aka red room aka WAITING ROOM (the original name of this mystical place) is a limbo state of the afterlife and from there you are launched into new realities as a sort of spiritual test. I do not think that he is passing this test, as I believe he does not know he is dead. These "alternate" realities that he is experiencing through the afterlife are comprised of people who serve as projections from Cooper's own fears and desires, as well as real sentient people. I think in the Twin Peaks world, dreams--what we all do when we go to sleep each night--are previews of these realities that you experience when you pass over. Again this is not a thought I had on my own, but rather a variation of Tibetan death philosophy. This is why Cooper says we live inside a dream. To take this even further, perhaps Gordn Cole et al. are starting to realize that life as we know it, is just another one of these Bardo realities.
I'm sure I lost many people by now and maybe angered many others (which is not my intent), but if you re-watch with this in mind, it almost seems obvious..to me anyway, which is what makes this show so amazing. The versatility of its meaning is truly eternal. Either way, I am curious what you all think 🙂
Not only am I on board, but I've always thought of Twin Peaks as a Bardo world destination in which Cooper has entered -- after having died. When he tells Albert, "they have a pie -- that'll KILL ya," then later tells some of the bookhouse boys in the RR "this must be where pies go when they DIE," I take that as a clue that he may in fact be dead already.
Maybe it was that knife attack by Windom Earle (possessed by BOB?) that did him in and Cooper is working through his bardo after having been guilty of an adultery that led to his death along with that of someone he cared about (remember how Cooper reacted when Audrey called him 'perfect'?), hence his obsession with saving the damsel in distress.
Cooper said in the pilot: " I came out over Highway Two near Louis* Fork. I stopped at a little place called the Lamplighter Inn, had a slice of cherry pie. Incredible."
I recall how in Angel Heart there is a play on words where "Louis Cyphre" is later revealed as "Lucifer." So if Louis Fork could be read as a veiled reference to Lucifer holding a pitchfork, then there's that. But more importantly and less of a stretch, "Lamplighter Inn" could be a reference to a passage into another realm. The lighthouse being a common trope. Think of how a lamp post in the Chronicles of Naria was used, or even the lighthouse appearance in the show LOST.
Well, no point going on and on. But yeah, I am definitely open to the idea of a dead Cooper.
*(I am assuming "Louis" and not "Lewis")
Thanks for those references; I never caught those, but I agree, it seems to allude, or at least nods to an afterlife realm. I also like the idea of him being dead from the beginning. I think that would explain some holes in my theory of him being dead after episode 8, season 1. The only thing I am having trouble with is the two Mark Frost books. If TP is just Cooper's journey through the afterlife, what is the point of establishing a deep history and thoughtful conclusion from the perspective of the F.B.I. For now, I suppose we can explain that by saying in each of these bardo realities, there are sentient beings in these realities that do not understand the nature of their existence.
Thanks for those references; I never caught those, but I agree, it seems to allude, or at least nods to an afterlife realm. I also like the idea of him being dead from the beginning. I think that would explain some holes in my theory of him being dead after episode 8, season 1. The only thing I am having trouble with is the two Mark Frost books. If TP is just Cooper's journey through the afterlife, what is the point of establishing a deep history and thoughtful conclusion from the perspective of the F.B.I. For now, I suppose we can explain that by saying in each of these bardo realities, there are sentient beings in these realities that do not understand the nature of their existence.
I look at it like this; Lynch and Frost wrote the script together. But then Frost wrote the books and Lynch directed, made the script visual. Lynch added scenes and I assume may have added his own visual symbolism independent of Frost. What I mean to say is, although both wrote the story together, they both have different perspectives on what said story means, like two different sides of the same coin. And so Lynch could easily have been creating some Bardo state experience whilst Frost was focussed on enriching the mythology of Twin Peaks itself. I like that the show could be so versatile as to handle both perspectives and for both to be true to the story that was put down on paper.