Part 17 is a better season's finale than part 18 is
Just my opinion. Lots of closure in part 17. And just the opposite in 18.
shareHmm. I sorta agree. Part 18 is the typical Lynch formula and we've seen it before.
It should just end with Julee Cruise singing as Cooper and Laura walk to their "home".
Part 17 is also the last episode where we get to see several of the original cast.
But I don't know, I can't help but feel that several of the original cast were just there as fan service - Big Ed, Nadine, Dr. Jacoby, James, Jerry, Audrey... Felt like wasted opportunities. I was especially thrilled to see Doc Jacoby again, the old kook, but he had nothing to do with the plot this time around. I think I read somewhere that the finale was going to tie everything together, to make sense of these characters' seemingly random appearances, but they weren't even mentioned. So Part 18 was a bit of a let-down for me.
It was. I still don't know how I feel about some things. Some scenes and moments were fantastic in the Return, but there wasn't any great episodes. After Part 6, it becomes unwatchable. There are a few good scenes sprinkled in through Parts 7-18, but I can't bear a rewatch at all. Those first 6 parts were so solid and seemed as if they were going somewhere. There was so much momentum in Part 3. Part 3 is probably the best episode of the third season.
Maybe Fire Walk With Me was the real finale to the series. If Laura can get through what her father did to her and find peace in the afterlife, so can the town and all the characters move on after the hellish cliffhangers of Episode 30 and find their peace too.
The Return was wrong on a lot of levels. First off, simply, I hated that they filmed in North Bend during warm weather. It made for a saturated and uninviting image. It should've been filmed in the winter, like the Pilot.
Part 17 basically told you that you can only return to the real Twin Peaks by watching the old series and movie. Because the world and everyone has had their "evolution" since the 1990's. Depressing, but true. Like Laura and Cooper, we cannot find our home. The proper time, place, and the ident are all gone.
I was toying with the idea of doing a rewatch, one episode per week (to reflect how I was forced to watch the original series the first time around), starting with the episode "Got A Light" from S3, then FWWM, then The Missing Pieces, and then seasons 1, 2 and the rest of 3. But then I saw the videos of Youtuber "Wow Lynch Wow!", and this video in particular:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlPJILl6teg
...and I think he makes a lot of sense. But, if we follow that perspective, then to me the first two seasons (and FWWM) are practically invalidated. At least, the way I had hitherto seen them is invalidated, and a big part of the magic is lost. So on my rewatch, I think I'll skip season 3 entirely - I want to preserve the magic of what I originally saw.
I believe that Lynch was laughing his ass off at the audience all through Season 3. “I’m David Lynch. What else did you expect?” Sort of like Mike Tyson’s rape defense: “She knew who I was when she went out with me.”
No Season 4.
That guy does Rummy's Corner. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZgdWPAoasAYi1iJS5N0jvg
"A channel dedicated to professional boxing, including the current boxing landscape, the rich history of prizefighting, and other topics pertaining to the sweet science."
"But I don't know, I can't help but feel that several of the original cast were just there as fan service - Big Ed, Nadine, Dr. Jacoby, James, Jerry, Audrey... Felt like wasted opportunities. I was especially thrilled to see Doc Jacoby again, the old kook, but he had nothing to do with the plot this time around."
I felt the exact opposite -- that there was NO fan service -- and thankfully so.
In short, I interpret Twin Peaks as a bardo experience, in that light we see that Big Ed, Nadine and Norma achieve advancement and get to "move on" to the next level. Dr. Jacoby, Jerry, Ben Horne et al. are still working toward that goal. Audrey is a special case altogether (and no doubt in the "nut house").
Anyway, I'm sure you have a great deal of people who agree with you. We all experience and react to things in our own way. I loved season 3 myself and I think it's because I gave absolutely no forethought toward expectations. I knew that Lynch/Frost were in complete control so I felt that I was getting a pure vision of what TP's was about -- as opposed to the original series were different directors/writers would dabble here and there (not to say that I don't love Seasons 1/2 as well).
Season 3 is weirdly a lot of re-lived storylines from Season 2. It's very spiritual and esoteric, to the point of it being like a new religion.
1) Leo was comatose in Season 2, so is Cooper in Season 3.
2) Dick and Andy take care of Little Nicky is akin to Cooper taking care of Sunny Jim.
3) Cooper was enlisted by Ben Horne to save Audrey, but gets in trouble for it. In a similar case, Leland enlists Cooper to save Laura in Season 3, but also gets in trouble for it.
4) James finding a romantic interest outside of Twin Peaks is akin to Cooper finding a romantic interest outside of Twin Peaks as well.
5) Nadine is stuck with the wrong lover (Mike Nelson) in her vulnerable state of mind, but once she wakes up, she leaves him to be with Ed. Same thing happened to Cooper in Season 3.
On top of this, Lynch was also able to adapt Jacob's story in the book of Genesis and match Cooper's story with it.
Interesting observations. Thank you.
I also notice that certain lines harken back to lines from the original TP's run. For example, when Mr C is in the car with Ray leaving the penitentiary and loses the trace on the car they were in, he says "that should do it."
And of course that's what Cooper says to Harry back in Season 2 when he induces Harry to void his stomach after a drunken binge.
I believe there are a couple of other lines like that in season 3 also, though I can't remember them off the top of my head. So I ask myself if there is a significant link when this occurs or is it just good writing in character consistency or . . . just serendipity?
Dick Tremayne says in episode 16, "Got a light?"
Which is of course the line by the woodsmen in Part 8 of Season 3.
6) Sarah and Leland clearly see a surrogate daughter in Maddy (the lookalike of Laura), as a stand in for Laura's absence. Likewise in Season 3, Janey-E sees a surrogate husband in Cooper (the lookalike of Dougie), as a stand in for Dougie's absence.
I do not know what Lynch is on. The transcendental meditation he practices might be taking him to some far out places in the realm of consciousness. It's so bizarre that Cooper relives all the storylines of Season 3.
7) Mr. Tojamura (asian character) is revealed to be Catherine. In season 3, Naido (asian character) is revealed to be Diane. Previously, Pete/Cooper thought them to be gone, until a veil was lifted off.
8) Donna is unsure of who her father is in Season 2. In Part 16 of Season 3, Sunny Jim is unsure of who his real father is.
9) In season 2, Ben Horne wishes to rewrite history by having the South win the civil war. Cooper also looks to do this in Season 3, with saving Laura.
share"I can't help but feel that several of the original cast were just there as fan service - Big Ed, Nadine . . "
It was important that karma was resolved in bardo land so they could move on. Nadine finally saw the light. Thanks to Jacoby. Team effort to be sure, but they all got there.
The blue skies shown above after the culmination of their journey implied to me an ascension to the promise land.
And Audrey, she might still in a certain level of hell (if we take the cutaway from Jacoby to Audrey as a hint).
Janey-E is presumably in 7th heaven now and so on.