Precisely.
The first episode was the best part in terms of tying up some of the loose ends established in this season. It felt like a triumphant return for Cooper to Twin Peaks, excitedly getting himself into the EvilCoop mess. The vision Andy had about him and Lucy helped to save the day, and the way she shot EvilCoop was wonderful. The guy with the green hand was a bit convenient, being as he'd just been sitting around at the station for a while now, but it was still striking to watch.
Naido turning out to be Diane was something I hadn't considered, but it makes sense. I was a tad irked by her and Coop suddenly being all over each other. I suppose I was naive enough to think that Diane was just an assistant, or even and FBI agent, and never thought of them together. I suppose the amount of detail Coop went into when recording his tapes about anything and everything suggests something more intimate, but again, I never twigged.
The return of Laura Palmer was amazing, even if I actually blew a fuse just trying to suss out what was going on. We had another flashback to FWWM, though this time Coop has travelled back in time, and was waiting in the bushes to rescue Laura from her doom. Time travel here wasn't a surprise after the Major Briggs/Philip Jeffries stories, and it was a beautiful moment. Was it done through CGI and sound mixing to alter Sheryl Lee's current appearance and voice? The scream she let out when she vanished in the forest was haunting though, and I was on-board.
Now everything that happened after that was like a crazy, hazy dream. And I don't just mean because I'm still a bit tired (although I am). Everything occurring was taking a really, really long time to happen. Now yes, I have just been watching the Dougie Jones arc, the epitome of delayed gratification. Is it a little perverse that he seemed to get a happy ending whilst no one else did?
But yeah, this was Lynch turned up 11. And then turned up to like 111. It was very frustrating in places, though I imagine that's what Lynch had planned for. I think the end of Twin Peaks and it's complete lack of any resolution is like the end to Mullholland Dr. and it's similar basking in dream logic.
The Coop/Diane sex scene was very strangely shot. At different times I was wondering if it was actually EvilCoop, and then I was convinced it was EvilDiane. It was just the strange looks they were giving each other.
The morning after all that, Diane has disappeared, and she'd left a letter saying they should stop carrying on. However her and Coop were both referred to as Linda and Richard was jarring, which again made it feel like a dream of some sort. I wondering if Richard Horne was going to play a part as that was the only Richard I could remember, but again I was way off. Coop finds Laura Palmer as an adult in Odessa, only referring to herself as Carrie Page. She remembers nothing of her past life; not even her parents. Coop broke the world!
So him saving Laura seemingly created this nightmarish alternate reality, as everything had changed. Coop and Diane's names, Laura's name, and then upon her eventual return to Twin Peaks, Sarah Palmer was no longer living at the family home. Had the destruction of BOB and saving Laura somehow stopped her from even being born? We even had an opening sequence replay of season one where we saw Josie, Pete and Catherine where a body wasn't found and Pete just went fishing, apparently. Now
there's a show!
A very interesting part was the mention that the current owners of the Palmer household were the Tremond's, and that they bought the house from a Mrs Chalfont. Was it significant that these two names were the only two that were the same in old and altered timelines? They were from season two and FWWM, and appeared to be lodge beings.
Right at the end though, the gut punch? Coop asks what year it is. Laura recoils in horror, and screams hauntingly at some sort of recognition? Was there also a faint echo of Sarah Palmer crying in the house?
Alas, we just cut to black. Our final image of her whispering mysteriously into Coop's ear in the black lodge, will never be truly answered. Neither will what was truly going on with Sarah Palmer, and what will become of Audrey. Nor what was going on for the other residents of Twin Peaks we met this season, like Shelley's daughter.
It was a completely brutal, completely Lynchian ending. No matter what Coop keeps doing, he just keep failing. The start of the episode suggested the tide could be turning for the good, with all of the amazing things happening. Of course this was all shot to pieces in the second half where we see that despite saving a girl from murder, and even after destroying the evil force that was doing said murder, the world will still be a messed up and horrible place.
The never-ending, twisting roads when Coop and Laura were heading to Twin Peaks, were an absolute nightmare for denouement. I felt so tense watching it all as all we had was was Laura wondering if someone was following, some silence, and some longing stares. I admit my NOW TV stream of it cut out right at this moment for a few minutes, and I really didn't now what to do. I think I didn't miss much as it was deliberately snail-paced. It was even possible I missed an ad break? One thing that was captured very well was the eerie dark of night, and how lamplight can look very ominous.
Part of me wondered if a lot of what we've seen was all part of Audrey's mental state, being as we never saw what happened to her after revealing she was in a mental institute or hospital of some variety last week.
So that is it then? I feel like on the whole, The Return has been an absolute blast, and I look forward to watching the whole thing again at some point. It's funny before I started watching the finale with my husband, he asked what I was expecting. Pondering what we were left with at the end of season two, I figured some sort of resolution, but it will be confusing as hell. I think that's what we got. And then some.
EDIT: I read a comment somewhere basically saying that this was like The Sopranos ending on crack.