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Last Week in Twin Peaks Podcasts, week of September 4th to September 10th (Part Two)

A full month after the finale, this time-displaced part two of two has been delivered! This covers the remainder of all the podcasts’ initial reactions to Parts Seventeen and Eighteen. The first part of finale week coverage is here.
Onto the podcasts:

Chopping Wood Inside covered Parts 17 & 18 over two podcasts this week. In their initial reactions podcast, the team react to the double finale, and felt Part 17 was like the real ending, and 18 was an hour long epilogue leading into a hoped-for season four. It didn’t meet their expectations but they loved it nonetheless, looking forward to the years of pondering to come. They comment on the way the tension is built effectively in the sheriffs station until everything kicks off. The Bob-orb scene was absolutely crazy and absurd, but they admire the way Frank Silva was incorporated into this with the use of effects. It’s noted that when Cooper’s face is overlaid, and he says ‘We live inside a dream’ there is a shot of Hawk nodding sagely. What that means, we don’t know, but hopefully it helps to know at least that someone understands what’s happening. They’re not sure what ‘see you at the curtain call’ means but they love it. Possibly it implied there would be a meet up of everyone at the end, but that clearly didn’t come to pass, in any way. It’s also interesting that Mike speaks normally, not backwards when he recites ‘fire walk with me’, the first time this verse has appeared in The Return. It was incredible that Laura’s scream in the woods with James the night of her death turns out to be her sighting Cooper (It would be even more incredible if Lynch had planned that from the beginning). They also thought that Part 17 was so chock-full and amazing that it could have been it. Was it the end of the script that Lynch and Frost handed to Showtime, and they just whipped up Part 18 later on? They think it feels like an ending, and an amazing ending, and Part 18 is an epilogue that turns everything on it’s head. Going into Part 18, they assume The Evolution of the Arm talking about the little girl who lived down the lane is a connection to Audrey. Does it mean Audrey is stuck in the Lodge? It’s of interest that Cooper seems to have gained the ability to leave the Lodges, shown when he makes a hand gesture to leave via the curtains to reach Glastonbury Grove. Was Part 17 one part of the mission, to save the Laura from the past, and because Cooper has never actually confronted his dark side, in Part 18 we see the real story of him confronting his shadow self, the inner struggle, and this is maybe what freaks Diane out and makes her leave. In Judy’s Diner, it’s definitely not the old Coop that we’re used to. On the drive into Twin Peaks with Carrie, they note that The RR diner doesn’t have the RR 2 Go sign anymore. When Carrie looks up at the Palmer house, and hears Sarah’s voice calling her, it seems as if memories and the realisation of who she actually is are pouring into her, leading to the scream that permeates the entire show. They surmise from the house being connected to the Chalfonts/Tremonds, and the chaos at the Palmer house when Sarah is smashing Laura’s photo definitely means that the Palmer house is evil and will always be evil, and the dark forces are way ahead of Cooper, who really doesn’t know what he’s doing after all, and is just at the beginning of his journey. (Matt Armitage)      Later in the week the hosts released another podcast called Parts Seventeen and Eighteen Deep Dive. They ask is Coop a failure? They then discuss how he’s disoriented like Jeffries in Buenos Ares, and that he’s never confronted his shadow self directly so he has to confront that part of himself now. Did the Fireman create the Golden Laura Orb to confront evil, a pawn to possess the girl who ate the frog/bug? Laura represents the combat of good and evil within herself. “In our house now” may mean the Palmer house, Carrie Page could be a new identity made to continue fighting evil, Cooper may be chasing the little girl who lived down the lane, and if you step away from reality you can see real people like the Rebers. Cooper always expects the universe to meet him halfway, and was shocked when at the Palmer house this did NOT happen. The show is a puzzle with earlier clues planted elsewhere. During the Naido transition into Diane one of the hosts may have seen a monkey, and they think Naido is probably still a separate identity from Diane somewhere. They’re working on an FBI pin theory to explain when Cooper does and doesn’t have it, and they’ve connected Carrie Page to Audrey Horne quite a bit with the guy on the couch like how Audrey choked Charlie and also how she talks about her coat and not wanting to leave the house. Was Laura put into Odessa as a pocket universe hell, and possibly the lodge’s doppelganger? The hosts ask if Experiment called DoppelCooper in that Part Two scene, and posit if the woodsmen forced Experiment to vomit all those eggs and Bob. Are the woodsmen the inciting characters, the dugpas? Mr. C knows Judy is represented by Mother, but there seems to be a human element of Judy in play as well. Does Judy represent Laura rather than Experiment? Was the glass box made to trap Judy? Even if she is a shell, Judy has to be a person based on how DoppelCooper and Jeffries talk about her. This show is taking a break but they’ll be back fairly soon.

Damn Fine Podcast covered Parts Seventeen and Eighteen with guests Conner Kilpatrick and Gabriel Hardman. Gabrial in particular was shaken by this and assumes he’ll be positive about this eventually; it’s not what he wanted or expected but there’s a lot left to think about. The hosts note how DoppelCooper was dispatched as fast as Windom Earle in episode 29, and they wonder if Carrie Page is Girl from Part 8. They think the whisper at the end could be “We’re stuck here and we’re never getting out.” They’re trapped in a loop with Judy. Tremond and Chalfont being actual names means it’s not exactly an alternate timeline (probably a lodge place because of the two Dianes), and Lynch Identity “tropes” are all over this. The wonder if Cooper is re-unified here, and the hosts’ initial thought on the final question we were left with was “Which Cooper is it that shows up in Vegas?” Because of the two Dianes the hosts think the final locations are in a lodge place. They ask what the point of the Audrey scenes are and one says “He put Ed and Norma together, what more do you want from Lynch?” Thematic closure didn’t happen because plot was there. They wonder with Ed and Norma, does that mean Twin Peaks is turning a corner out of the darkness? They wonder if the sex scene was supposed to be Diane and Cooper trying to fix things now that they’re both real people but it doesn’t fix things nor could it. Was this a reflection of her rape? A mirror of it (she’s even on top)? They note how Cooper’s the only one who retains his memories. They note how Tammy doesn’t really have a purpose, ponder if DoppelCooper was trying to get into the white lodge (and was this his plan all along), and ask what the point was of twisting the knife by calling attention to Harry repeatedly. The DoppelCooper sheriffs station scenes were INTENSE, and there’s a lot to dig into with the Return if you accept it not being the same as Seasons 1 and 2. They bring up Sarah and all the other unresolved stuff, and say they’re taking a break to ruminate but will come back to talk about things sooner than later.

Endgame Podcasts covered Part Seventeen in a podcast before watching Part Eighteen and then did a podcast after watching that. The hosts LOVED Part Seventeen. Bob and Judy are possibly the two birds with one stone, time and space bends, and the first DoppelCooper coordinates appear to have been in Wyoming with Jerry. The White Lodge intercepted DoppelCooper so they could place him at the sheriff’s station where and when they wanted him. They think Lucy can understand cellphones now because she met DoppelCooper, who shifts through time and space. They discuss the deus ex machine that is Freddy vs our 30-year-old Big Bad villain Bob. Jeffries facilitates Coop’s time travel, and they note that James is the immediate cause of Laura’s FWWM death as follows: Bob/Leland didn’t care when Laura was sleeping with people until James because she REALLY loves him. Maybe the home Cooper refers to is Laura coming out of the lodge in the end. Is Coop in the past? Is grandfather paradox afoot? Curiosity and optimism ahead for our hosts.  In their Part Eighteen coverage, the hosts ask if the show stuck the landing in Part Seventeen and this is the icing on the cake, or if that was a false sense of security? Most plot strands felt closed off enough and the Dougie scene could’ve been a nice epilogue at the end of last episode. It’d all have a nice bow on it. And all this other stuff opened it up again. Cooper is passive and DoppelCooper-like in the sex scene and Diane is obviously still traumatized. Using the ability to change time, the hosts assume their identities changed with it. Laura’s abduction changes events before her murder as well as after. RichardCooper appears to be at the midpoint between Coop and Mr. C, Carrie seems to understand Leland and Sarah’s names, and the dead guy is a WTF moment. The Odessa car ride is REALLY long and the hosts aren’t sure about the ending. Did Judy swipe Laura from Cooper in the FWWM intervention (was she the sound?) Lynch wants us to think about why the season wraps up once the year is called into question. Mission accomplished. They know Judy is a greater evil than Bob but otherwise want listener feedback. They’ll have a wrap-up episode soon.

Gifted and the Damned covered Parts Seventeen and Eighteen in one podcast and began with a skit as if they were covering a tennis match. They give a more favorable reaction to Seventeen than Eighteen, and they spread out their listener reviews and prize giveaways in between major scenes. Jow Day goes with Secret History of Twin Peaks details in that Major Briggs and Gordon Cole have a previous working relationship. Earle could have been looking for Jow Day all along, Jeffries is a force of good, and Cooper is a pawn. Mork thinks more episodes seem implied. The hosts ask why Chad would have a set of jail keys in his boot, note Naido seems to feel DoppelCooper getting closer, call the white lodge set very Dune, and Chad’s escape is poorly planned. Fist ex machina happens to Chad, Coop might be on the way to beat the woodsmen, and hopefully no one touches that body and gets Bobbed. The Freddy/Bob fight is great, but why not just have James do it? And why take away DoppelCooper with a full hour and a half left in the show? Superimposed Cooper head must mean he’s the dreamer. He’s there in the room with all those people but not really interacting with any of them, except by speeching at them about “the past dictates the future.” The hosts keep joking about the fantastic Audrey resolution. Diane and Dale kiss passionately OUT OF NOWHERE. In the convenience store, is the jumping man heading right for Cole and Diane? In the scene with Jeffries, is the ball on the time travel 8 the golden laura orb? The effects on Sheryl Lee and her wig all worked in the new FWWM scenes, and Cooper’s really changing time. The Sarah-cruching-Laura’s-photo scene is in ’89. WAS Laura saved by Cooper here? Julee Cruise’s The World Spins is the episode’s high point. The hosts thought the burning DoppelCooper was reminiscent of Windom Earle, and they are shocked that Diane is the one on the other side of the sycamores because that makes her THIS important? Found it odd [and so did I]. Ignoring “how’s Annie” comes off as narrative negligence. The hosts think the power lines all season implies a force looking for a way in. Did Diane and Cooper’s car go back to a time near the Frog/Bug scene? Cooper and Diane don’t appear to be on a quest together, and the hosts wonder if Cooper can see the alternate Diane and if they’re trying to make a baby Laura, while being honest that there are lots of possibilities why Cooper and Diane have the sex scene. The hosts ask if the Richard/Linda thing is a good enough payoff for the names. They note the rotary phone there, and in the diner scene they think Cooper wouldn’t stand for those cowboy jerks but was a moron over those bullets in the fryer. Also odd, Cooper COMPELLS the waitress for Carrie’s address rather than charms her. Are the gas prices a time clue? This was the anti-Wizard of Oz: you can’t go home again. They note Lynch’s knack for filling inanimate objects like the Palmer House with dread, but then say THIS is the conclusion? Bubba’s frustrated and Mork is okay with it.

I’m Worried About Coop covered Parts Seventeen and Eighteen in a single podcast. They began by admitting they feel sorry for the viewers watching alone without any places to bounce their thoughts off of. They think expectations seems to be the problem for those who didn’t react kindly to the conclusion. They think the new Judy investigation Cole revealed will probably be investigated in Final Dossier, and they wonder what DoppelCooper was planning to DO when he found Judy. They ask the significance of a British kid killing our big bad, discuss the awkward significance of an Asian woman turning into a stand-in for a white woman, and think the infinity symbol means/implies time loop. Is Diane not Diane anymore when she and Cooper are having sex, like she knows she should know him but she doesn’t? They think Cooper goes Mr. C on those cowboys, that Carrie is possibly the missing diary page, and that Cooper has EXPECTATONS when he takes her to Twin Peaks. Carrie’s scream implies the trauma is happening again, and it can’t help but repeat. The hosts ask if the plan was to keep Laura alive to stop Bob after she grows into herself, and they ask the rhetorical question of Do you like your art easy to digest? They get philosophical about the strong negative reactions to the show, and expressed a ton of appreciation for this whole Twin Peaks experience. Next up: Mr. Robot podcasting.

It Doesn’t Get Any Bluer (a subcategory of Podcasting Them Softly) is a new podcast ready to dig into the Return. I have to give a warning: the file size on this show is about 9 times larger than any other audio podcast which means you may need to think about storage space before you download it. Why so big? The other warning: the hosts are on separate earphones.  If you only listen with one headphone in, you will literally miss half the conversations. All that said, these folks should have interesting takes based on this initial reaction to Parts Seventeen and Eighteen. The hosts initially loved Part 17 and had mixed feelings over 18 over it being too wide open, and they think this is top tier Lynch though they playfully say we’ve been Lynched! By now they’re warming to Part Eighteen. The lack of network interference is unlike everything before. They discuss Lynch and nostalgia, think that Frost was trying to teach us something with Part Eight, wonder if Becky is still alive, note the drug running is still open, and credit the filler as trying to lead us astray to divert from the narrative. They talk about how some scenes are real and some are lodge-like, and discuss dream realms, projections, and where the line of reality is. Good things will result from Cooper’s quest, but he’ll never be able to save her. When Sarah smashes the Laura picture, the hosts suggest the smashing of old Twin Peaks is happening. As Lynch goes on, less and less happy endings are in his work. Running away from reality never serves you. What is Cooper going to save Laura from in this mission? Leland’s still there. When Laura didn’t die and her body disappears, the hosts thing oh no, she’ll never get out of this. The moral they get from the show is You can’t change the past no matter how hard you try. “We’re destined to do this forever” could easily be what Laura whispers to Cooper in the end.

Mr. Podcast covered Parts Seventeen and Eighteen in a single podcast weighing in at two and a half hours. The hosts call these parts a huge left turn and they share a morose laugh that nothing anybody did mattered in the end. They talk about how the show doubled down on time travel and looping, and are unsure now of what’s ever happened as the show undid Laura’s murder. They thought the inclusion of Cooper into Fire Walk With Me was masterful retconning, but then admitted Cooper can’t win. They ask if Judy is Experiment, and Sarah is what? So much information is missing and they don’t even know why DoppelCooper was put in the sheriff’s station. They note how in these two parts Experiment wasn’t covered, that Jerry, Becky and Stephen have become pointless, and that the show was complicated right up to the point it’s all rendered moot as Lucy shoots DoppelCooper. “We got zero Red scenes, zero Audrey, wow.” The hosts ask did the Giant WANT this alternate timeline with another world? They think Diane felt DoppelCooper coming in those Naido-in-the-jail-cell scenes, and notice RichardCooper’s lack of verve and single-minded focus. Does Coop become his doppelganger over time? The bosts had a good handle on what the show was after each part, but not this time, not yet. And we’ll never hear what Laura whispers to Cooper this time. Production did a good job on the FWWM Laura in the scenes Cooper was added into, and there’s no clear showing of Cooper’s mistake or what went wrong. “Why is this a story of his failure?” The hosts figure Laura is the dream, Bob is the nightmare, and the woodsmen put everyone to sleep. And are we supposed to think there’s a reality beyond this dream world? The hosts speculate on everything they can, from the Experiment being in the white lodge to what Gerard is waiting for. The hosts feel like they close their hands on empty air at the end of this story.

Peaked, the podcast with one Lynch fanboy and one Lynch skeptic as hosts, covered Parts Seventeen and Eighteen in a single podcast. One host says if this is the end there was no conclusion. The other host didn’t like 17 but likes 18 more and more. The Cole exposition about the Judy plan back in Season Two is a strike against Part 17. The Briggs White Lodge scene struck both hosts as being very Tim & Eric. The sheriff’s station/DoppelCooper dynamic is intense. They say Lucy wins, gets a reasonably silly joke, then the grundles baste DoppelCooper. And Freddy killing Bob is a wet fart. Functional, but ugh. Why isn’t Cooper more of an active participant? Cooper gets all TV-Detective-Explaining on everyone then he sees Naido, where we get the really-questionable Asian-woman-turns-into-white-woman thing. MIKE speaking forwards is cool, and their initial reaction to the FWWM changes took them out of it and they didn’t like it. But it seems better with time. They credit static electricity power for the new Dougie tulpa but otherwise say Cooper’s fucked everything up. About the repeated lodge scenes, are they scenes in their right places now with better context or just bad retconning from earlier scenes? They call out genuinely bad lighting for the Diane scene, and wonder if seeing her rapist seems to make her lose herself. They say things are transitioning slowly for Coop and Diane. In the Diner scene, Cooper goes for what’s right but acts as Mr. C would. The driving scenes give us time to think things through, which is a good thing, but mostly they thought about what they WISH would’ve been resolved in the finale. They mention Mary Reber as the true owner of the house, note how it’s sloppy exposition city, and think Carrie screams because she knows she’s screwed and the cycle will happen over and over again no matter what. Even if she was pulled from the time stream and lived. Does her name signify the missing page has been “carried” and put in hiding? Coop tries hard, tries to change the past and screws it up because it’s above his level. Coop and Diane loving each other comes out of nowhere, he’s a passive participant in the climax, and he goes about screwing up time. The hosts say it’s an essay on a cyclical relationship of abuse and violence that’s insightful in an emotional point of view. It will follow Laura around no matter where she is sent. Coop can’t save the princess and you can’t take away the violence towards women. Sarah’s pain probably brought the “Judy” evil through. They wrap up their show by going through the accuracy of their list of previous predictions.

Peaks TV covered Parts Seventeen and Eighteen in a single podcast. Chrysta Bell’s can’t-sit-still acting grates on the hosts. The Gordon Cole info download is oddly up front but interesting. There are only so many twists conventionally but Lynch isn’t interested in linear storytelling so we get Lucy shooting DoppelCooper, which was great. Aside from Cooper (who was not an active combatant) this sheriff’s department material was the last conventional scene. The hosts don’t see ill intention with the Naido/Diane switching but it was still AWKWARD. In the FWWM scenes, you WANT Cooper to save Laura, and Orpheus and Eurydice is referenced. Sarah being Judy is unsubstantiated but if true the hosts think Judy’s the one breaking the Laura picture’s glass. Cooper’s inability to end the fight avoids an ending good enough from Part 16 that he could’ve had with Janey-E and Sonny Jim. The switch to nighttime after the Diane/Cooper sex scene is when we get a hybrid Cooper. That scene was possibly a reimaging of Diane’s earlier rape. The meta level of Lynch’s proto lovers Dern and MacLachlan are now creepy here, an image of what we wanted but not exactly what we got. The hosts discuss the level of reality of the final scene, the Tremonds’ identities, lodge creepers, and if it was even a good idea at all to get into the Palmer House. Identity is being explored everywhere: in all the Coopers, and the lives inside and outside their houses. Aging may be under reflection with the Dougie Jones character. The hosts would be okay with or without a season four of Twin Peaks. Audrey was done dirty, though all other side plots as textures works, and the moral for Cooper should be this: Doing good (and having good intentions) doesn’t always make things better.

Red Room Podcast put out two podcasts this week: a Parts Seventeen and Eighteen Roundtable Discussion, and a standard discussion of Part Eighteen with guest Jeff Lemire. The Roundtable discussion had 10 guests on and spelling is not listed so I’ll leave them unlisted here as well. They discuss Laura’s agency (that needs attention), how Cooper screwed up and he should’ve been protecting himself rather than others, and the probability of subplots being resolved in Final Dossier (low). The redoing/undoing of Fire Walk With Me is fascinating to everyone. They also talk about dream worlds, and which parts may or may not be Laura’s. They address the choice of being a continuing story rather than obligatory nostalgia, favorite moments, favorite bits of comedy, and favorite lodge related moments. In the Part Eighteen episode, Lemire talks about his last guest spot for Part Sixteen and said at the time he was clouded into thinking there’d be a happy ending and some closure in it somehow. He knows better now of course. Freddy vs. Bob was intentionally anticlimactic, though the end of Bob logistically removes Frank Silva and subverts expectations. Lucy and Andy save the day, and the Richard (of & Linda fame) had to NOT be Richard Horne. The two birds are probably defeat Bob and save Laura. Which Cooper just came into the lodge (when DoppelCooper was in a cage) was something the Fireman had to check first before proceeding. “In our house now” is the Palmer house? Evil and sickness was spreading in Twin Peaks but was it also into the whole world? The Return was a shared experience of characters, a shared dream/reality combination of some kind. The Audrey scenes subverted expectations perfectly. Diane and Audrey are now connected thanks to the Evolution of the Arm’s line. Naido becoming a white woman is AWKWARD, and Cooper wanted to take away Laura’s suffering but instead took away her agency. The Final Dossier will not give closure to Parts Seventeen and Eighteen but it could firm up Judy/Briggs stuff. Incidental characters in the Return are only there to subvert, and adds to color and the sense of wrongness. Lemire asks this question: Does an artist have responsibility for the seeds they plant in Chapter 1 to come into play in Chapter 18? He says in work-for-hire situations, yes, but in creator-owned work he does what he wants.

There Will Be Drinking Recaps Twin Peaks put out a live finale show with guests Tina Horn and Sam Corbin. It’s revealed that Cait and Murda used to recap The Bachelorette but wanted to do something different, though found the two remarkably similar (to steal their joke): They are both “lots of the same person, they get slowly whittled down, and you got to figure out which one’s real. It’s the same.” One of the hosts needs to call Lynch a genius because she said she’d need to if the show turned out to be a Jacob’s Ladder situation, and they don’t see it as Cooper’s dream, more like Audrey’s dream? They sometimes feel that none of the show mattered, and that Lynch can’t avoid the male gaze. They had on two guests: the drone operator who was “shooting a nature documentary” for Lynch, and Lynch’s personal intern whose job it was to keep track of unsolved mysteries still on the table. They say the Return is an elegy to Lynch’s failed relationship with understanding electricity. They still want answers for Billy (who’s probably Drunk who grossed out everyone), the drugs stuff, and more than everything else, Audrey. The hosts list their favorite minor characters, say you never get rid of evil may be the message, then they do a round of sweeping proclamations and what Donna’s been up to before closing their event.

The Twin Peaks Podcast covered Parts Seventeen and Eighteen with guest Allirio. He’s disappointed, glad the Return is here, but oh my god. To Lynch, the hosts figure the story’s not as important as experimenting. Most of the important things in the show is shown to us in such bland ways. They think some of the material is first drafts straight to screen, and without other voices to reign you in you get miticholians. The Jones family getting a happy ending was good. Was Andy fooled by DoppelCooper? Part Eighteen is made of vague allusions but that’s it…has no starts or ends and barely a middle. The hosts don’t think the Return knows what it is. The listener feedback section follows. Overall the hosts have thoughtful criticism about the show’s shortcomings, but then they take pot shots at the other people who will pick on their criticisms, and are proactively aggressive towards the Lynch-Can-Do-No-Wrong crowd to the detriment of those of us in the middle of the argument. The hosts say there’s too much literalness about the mythology, find it odd that brute strength is more important that mental strength versus Bob, and the Return’s most missed word from Seasons One and Two is “Endearing.” David Lynch has fun putting things together and doesn’t care if it’s objectively good or bad. And Allirio sums it up for the whole podcast team: Lynch doesn’t do what they like anymore.

Twin Peaks Revival covered Parts Seventeen and Eighteen in a single podcast with hosts Brian and Mitch. The show may come back after they disseminate more theories from the internet but this is probably Revival’s last show. The driving scenes allowed for the realization that resolutions are not going to happen. The hosts mention how Piper Laurie and Joan Chen wanted to be involved but were told there wasn’t room for them in the story, and the hosts posit they COULD have been included but rather they didn’t fit into Lynch’s vision. They don’t see The Return being as successful as Twin Peaks, more a companion piece to it at best. They also say Twin Peaks is bigger than Lynch rather than the other way around. The great-vs-boring balance is tricky in The Return, and Part Seventeen was great right up to the driving scenes. Showtime’s initial marketing traded on Seasons One and Two charm, but that files under false expectations. They don’t think Freddy killed Bob, he’s just out of Coop, and the hosts wonder why it was done funny. Lucy being the trigger puller rather than Hawk can be explained that the innocent character got the big role. The part Eighteen Coop seems more like Bob Coop, the sex scene showed Coop doing his duty but why, and his blatant cold explanations has always been a character trait (telling Harry Josie was a prostitute etc). And this way of Coop’s has broken him over time. He’s great in an immediate crisis but he never considers long term effects. The hosts mention Buddhism, enlightenment, and how Coop’s far from it, and then how attachments ARE a cause of suffering. Cooper is still fixing immediate problems but has a chance to behave differently and never takes them. Until he does behave differently he’ll continue to miss the point. And he seems like he’ll never reach enlightenment. A lot of people think Revival’s “negative” rather than their actual state of critical, and I suspect they’ve been onto Cooper’s character flaws longer than anyone (even Bickering Peaks, in the My Life My Tapes episode worth checking out), at least in the podcasting sphere.

We’re Not Gonna Talk About Judy (a subheading of Another Kind of Distance podcast) covered Parts Seventeen and Eighteen in a single podcast. The hosts feel like the entire Return was made like the pilot of a series that should be able to jump off from its endpoint. Clone Dougie is the only happy ending. The hosts discuss the option of when the Jow Day conversations between Briggs, Cole and Cooper must have happened, note DoppelCooper’s coordinates were to Jackrabbits Palace. They note DoppelCooper refusing coffee, that Chad only cares if the mimicking Drunk sees him escaping, and Bob’s been demoted into video game character status. The break with reality happens when Cooper sees Naido become Diane. They also note how the Return is NOT about Dale being a hyper-competent detective who solves everything. It is about him investigating deeper and deeper getting in over his head as he tries to fix things white knight style. The hosts note Jeffries is not a bad guy here, and that his 8 is a Mobius strip. From David Bowie they go off on a tech tangent where digital versions of (say) Marilyn Monroe could star in new movies, and then come back wondering if the show will earn its Fire Walk With Me alterations. They think Sarah’s screams are new recordings [but I guarantee those are from the pilot] and credit her state as not being able to handle her Laura memories anymore. This is a gothic haunted house story told in a sci-fi way. DoppelCooper is burning in the black lodge because he’s different than a tulpa. Diane’s acting like Albert to Coop’s Cole. “Richard” Cooper is creeping out our host because he’s so dissociative. Diane sees herself and we’re filled with anxiety and then the hosts say the sex scene is either horrible because Dale’s just offering himself to Diane or it’s even worse because it’s a ritual. In the scene, Diane is going towards ecstasy (literally being outside yourself) and becomes Linda afterwards. Hiding Cooper’s face is like Laura in that FWWM scene with Bob. Was that part of the spell? In the diner there’s big knight heroing by “Richard”, and he cares about even putting the fries where they belong but has Mr. C mannerisms the whole time. The show doesn’t reveal much of Carrie’s house, and Cooper remains passive and cold. There are glimpses of our Cooper but ONLY glimpses. One host think the Palmer house is haunted and that Sarah’s actually in there hiding from her daughter. “What year is this” is Cooper finally admitting he doesn’t have control. Is Cooper bringing Laura back to life in this scene? “That’s an Otto Preminger film.” The hosts wonder if, even after all this, Lynch is not actually done with Laura’s story.

Who Killed Laura Podcast recorded two podcasts, Part Seventeen after only watching Part Seventeen, and then watched Part Eighteen and recorded a reaction to that one last. The tone change is noticeable. In their Part Seventeen coverage they ask how Cole knows about Jeffries being in his current state, but trickier is how Ray was an informant yet the FBI didn’t seem to know about Mr. C. There are a lot of fast cut scenes in this Part. Maybe drunk is an in-between state like Dougie…the hosts are curious if there will be resolution with him. Jerry being in Wyoming means DoppelCooper wasn’t as close to Twin Peaks as we thought. DoppelCooper arriving at Jackrabbits Palace at the wrong time meant that Fireman can capture him and redirects to the Sheriff’s Department? And when DoppelCooper is placed there he merely goes with the flow. Andy and Lucy both coming through is great, but Hawk not noticing DoppelCooper was the bad guy just confused the hosts [and me]. The hosts think the superimposed Cooper head means he’s seeing this in real time as well as from the lodge. They wonder why room 315 unlocks the boiler room and note MIKE speaking forwards for the first time. They call out the Back to the Future 2 similarities of the FWWM scenes, wonder if Sarah’s undamageable Laura picture works like a horocrux, and call out how Audrey is poised as the most important next story. Maybe we’ll also see Shelly saved from her new bad boyfriend choice, find out if Judy’s inhabiting Sarah, see Carl one last time, maybe the bug girl from the 50s, and the tulpa Dougie should go to the Jones household [at least they got one!]. In Part Eighteen, the hosts feel the Season Two betrayal feelings all over again and part of them wants to punch David Lynch in the nose [these are immediate reactions remember]. They don’t even know if they WANT a Season Four. Dale Cooper opens the portal out of the lodge all by himself, the second Diane is noticed, and that sex scene is AWKWARD. Cooper in the diner is colder, more like My Life My Tapes Dale, and they didn’t know Mary Reber’s deal at time of recording. The hosts figure Cooper’s scorecard as follows: Successful at solving Laura’s murder, now preventing the murder, but not at all with reuniting that family. The unresolved subplots, based on where they all end, don’t seem worth it, and Part Seventeen maybe should have been the ending. The finale reaction is an open wound for the hosts but there was a lot of Great in the Return and they’re both glad they took the journey.




Written by John Bernardy


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