This video contains spoilers on all things Twin Peaks.
So viewers please be warned, the spoilers are about to begin.
The one leading to the many is Laura Palmer.
Now the circle is almost complete.
Laura is the one.
Laura is the one - again!
That’s one of the most amazing things about Season 3.
After more than 25 long years, Lynch and Frost managed to do something truly incredible.
This is something that I am not sure they could have pulled off had the series continued
the following year after what was seemingly the most horrifying cliffhanger ending in
television that I’ve ever experienced.
The original series all started with the mystery of Laura Palmer’s murder.
Who killed Laura Palmer?
In episode 2, the first episode Lynch directed following the pilot, we see Cooper’s dream
sequence where Laura whispers the killer’s name to Dale.
Our favorite Special Agent remembers every single detail intricate from this dream, except
for the most important detail.
He even remembered that Laura whispered the killer’s name to him, he just couldn’t
remember who it was!
But David Lynch knew who it was, and he never really wanted it revealed.
As we all know, the network inexplicably forced their hand and made Lynch and Frost reveal
the killer.
This was extremely well done, I might add.
To this day I am absolutely flabbergasted that Maddy’s tragic demise aired on network
television back when it did.
Leland had a powerhouse exit, and then the show inherently needed a makeover.
The genie was OUT of the bottle!
The mystery of Laura Palmer was settled.
As a result of the incompetent network knuckleheads who strongarmed Lynch and Frost, the mystery
of Laura Palmer’s death was now, like Laura, DEAD!
Season 2 was forced to go through a transitional phase here.
Personally, I think some fans are a little harsh about some of the episodes during this
stretch, but most fans would surely agree that later in the Season the ball was rolling
with new momentum.
That momentum culminated in a powerhouse explosion of vintage Lynch in the Season 2 finale, where
even Laura Palmer herself resurfaced in what appeared to be a doppelganger capacity.
Meanwhile…
How’s Annie?
Personally, and I don’t think I’m alone here, but when I first heard news of the improbable
triumphant comeback of Twin Peaks - I didn’t have many real expectations.
But among those I did have, I suspected we’d get some type of closure on Annie and Cooper.
When all was said and done, we didn’t exactly get either of those.
Annie was only mentioned once in passing, and at the end Cooper looked confused, horrified,
and defeated.
Fire Walk with Me had seemed to provide closure for Laura.
So I had no idea how Laura would figure into Season 3, mainly because the mystery surrounding
Laura was already over.
Or so I thought.
Early in Season 3 Laura again whispers something to Cooper, only this time she is afterwards
somehow seemingly swept away.
At the end of Season 3, after Carrie Page screams, we once again see Laura whispering
to Dale, in a much tighter shot than what we got in Part 2.
Cooper once again seemed to forget the important part of what Laura whispered to him.
This is familiar territory!
Once again, Cooper seemingly forgets what she whispered, but Lynch knows.
Only this time, Lynch wasn’t strongarmed by some incompetent TV executives.
So as an audience, like Cooper, we don’t know what she said.
And even if I’m wrong and Cooper is aware of what she said, we still don’t know shit!
But Lynch does, and I don’t imagine he will ever be inclined to tell us.
Lynch never really wanted Laura’s mystery resolved.
And now, when all is said and done, Lynch and Frost successfully managed to put Laura’s
mystery, the magic genie itself, BACK in the bottle again.
Is life a puzzle?
I am filled with questions.
What year is this?
So in a very real way, Lynch and Frost masterfully managed to finish Season 3 by placing Laura
Palmer back at the heart of the mystery.
I believe this would have been inherently more difficult to accomplish had Season 3
happened all of those years ago immediately following Season 2.
And the reason I say this is because recently, really for the first time since Season 3 ended,
I find myself again wondering what Season 3 would have been like had it happened in 1991-92.
Don’t get me wrong!
I absolutely cherish Season 3!
And I am still now, and will always be itching for more.
Or more accurately, itching for any new content from Lynch in a filmmaking capacity, with
fingers crossed that rumors of a new series come to fruition.
It’s kind of strange though.
For 20 long years I had long fantasized about what might have been in Twin Peaks Season
3.
After I watched all of Twin Peaks for the first time many years ago, not a year went
by where these kinds of thoughts wouldn’t frequently surface and resurface in my mind.
Time and time again.
But that ongoing habit, it all came to a screeching halt when the improbable triumphant return
of Twin Peaks was underway.
It was happening again!
So all of those thoughts about a hypothetical third season manifested into reality.
A dream come true.
And then of course, most of my attention went to enjoying the entire overall experience
the 3rd season provided, while also speculating about the possibilities of what might theoretically
happen in the 4th season.
And the 5th season.
Exactly 3 years ago today, we were right in the middle of Twin Peaks Season 3.
Part 12 would have been the recent episode of 3 years ago.
And strangely enough, on the 3 year anniversary I finally ventured back intto the old habit
of wondering what Season 3 could have been like back in the early 90s.
That old habit suddenly crept back into my mind’s eye.
Had it happened back then, the entire playing field would have been inherently different.
Everything from the available cast, to the limitations of network restrictions vs the
creative freedom afforded to Lynch and Frost by Showtime, to a slew of other related and
semi-related considerations.
But it’s almost irresistible to ponder the possibilities of Mr C roaming around Twin
Peaks circa 1992.
While Season 3 did adequately fill the gap of what Mr C had been up to for 25 years,
the idea of seeing Mr C doing his thing to the characters we know and loved - that alone
had the potential to be something incredibly special.
But that’s the thing of it.
Had Season 3 happened in 1991-92, it feels like the story had become centered around
Cooper being stuck in the Black Lodge, and Mr C on the loose, in a union with Bob, hoodwinking
Twin Peaks residents left, right, and center.
Had Lynch and Frost tried to make Laura Palmer re-emerge as the center of the mystery back
then - I really believe that would have been extremely difficult to pull off back then,
just a year after their hands were forced to reveal the killer.
Season 3 opened with this soul-chilling flashback.
I’ll see you again in 25 years.
Meanwhile.
Then we see the familiar territory with a similar whispering scene, discovering new
ground with Laura’s inner essence and her subsequently being torn away.
Then we don’t see Laura for a while, but yet her essence still exudes an omnipresent
troubling mood that reverberates throughout the season.
We see her photo at the beginning of every episode, Bobby breaks down in tears when he sees her
photo; our heroic trio of Lucy, Andy, and Hawk are investigating her old case files
in search of something missing; Lucy had bad gas, but it wasn’t about the bunnies; it
was about the missing diary pages.
If there was any closure on Annie, it came from the fact that she kept the mystery alive
and helped the dream come true, because of that diary entry.
Of course, we also have the scene of Laura’s essence - seemingly a creation of The Fireman
and set off onto her path by Senorita Dito.
Now before we get to Cooper’s meddling ways where he changes the past, let’s take a
step back.
My own personal investigation, I suspect, will be ongoing for the rest of my life.
The very first scene we see that happens in Twin Peaks is good ol’ Doctor Jacoby.
He’s having a shitload of shovels delivered.
I’m sure I wasn’t alone wondering how the hell Jacoby fit in and what the hell he
was up to, because his character’s entire driving force was originally centered around
Laura’s unsolved murder.
So Jacoby is spray painting all these shovels, and we ultimately learn that Jacoby is selling
these golden shovels, two coats guaranteed, so that people can shovel their way out of
the shit.
Jacoby is just one of many characters whose primary motivations that were altered when the knucklehead
television executives strong armed Lynch and Frost.
Jacoby ultimately serves as the motivating inspiration that prompts Nadine to set Ed
free so he could pursue his true love Norma.
Ed and Norma appear to have a happy ending, together at last, after so many long years
of quasi-forbidden love.
Never wanting to hurt anyone, and never just taking what they want.
But did Ed and Norma truly have a happy ending?
After all, this is familiar territory, too!
Is this just a play on the cyclical implications that are found elsewhere in Season 3?
Before we see Laura again, back in the past, Cooper had seemingly defeated his doppelganger.
While I am not entirely sure that this is true (much like I’m not entirely sure Ed
and Norma had a happy ending), Part 17 saw what appeared to be the destruction of Bob
at the hand of Hulk-hand Freddie, Cooper seemingly defeated his doppelganger.
And Cooper had already gotten out of the Lodge by that point.
And he ultimately regained form.
And that’s when Lynch and Frost brought Laura back to the center of attention.
Cooper goes back in time, he pressures Laura into following him, he wants to take her home,
she screams and vanishes in a moment that has some type of connection with her being
sucked from the Lodge.
So Laura is alive, and Cooper changed the past.
Cooper essentially denied Laura out of her defining moment. Her defining moment!
Laura had already made her choice.
Cooper didn’t like that!
And just like so many hardships she had long suffered, Laura was again thrust into horrifying
circumstances through no choice of her own.
Cooper and Diane cross over, some version of Diane assumes Linda-form and bolts, Cooper
finds Laura in the form of Carrie Page, we see the plight of Carrie in plain sight, Cooper
brings her home, the house was owned by Tremonds and previously owned by Chalfonts!
Something feels awfully wrong about all of this, and then the big horrifying scream, and the even
more horrifying look of confusion on our beloved hero, FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper.
And the last thing we see - Laura whispering to Cooper, but tighter and sadder.
It almost exudes a sense of complete hopelessness, perhaps not unlike what Lynch and Frost themselves
felt when they were strong armed by the incompetent TV exec knuckleheads all those years ago.
Lynch knows what she whispered, and he is loving the idea that we don’t!
He’s absolutely loving it!
And damn it!
We’re just itching to know, and he knows it!
And that’s a rather beautiful thing.
Because he did it!
He expertly maneuvered that slippery genie right back into that damn fine bottle where
it always belonged.
The greater point I’m trying to make here is, after re-imagining a Season 3 from 1991-92,
I’ve personally come to the conclusion that the time gap helped make this mighty artistic undertaking
all the more profound and powerful, across the entire spectrum.
And the reason it’s more profound and powerful, is because with all that time that has passed
since Fire Walk with Me - the book was already long closed on Laura’s story.
Only, it wasn’t.
Revealing Laura’s mystery killed the essence of the show, and resurrecting her mystery
immortalized it.
Laura is indeed the one.
Damn fine triumphant return!
Where there was once one there are now two.
Or were there always two?
By the way for any Twin Peaks fans interested in reading a really awesome theory on Waldo!
Yes, that Waldo!
Please check out the link in the description.
Never in a million years would have I thought of this, but the moment I read this theory
- it’s so convincing that I’m all but entirely convinced this is exactly what Lynch
and Frost had in mind.
Fun read. So definitely worth giving that a look.
In conclusion, I’m just itching to see more of Carrie Page.
But I’m itching to see any new Lynch material in a filmmaking capacity.
Damn fine itch!
Thanks for watching everyone, I hope you enjoyed, and have a wonderful night!
The good Dale is in the Lodge and he can’t leave.
Write it in your diary.
Three of the four pages that we saw were torn out.
Missing.
And there’s still one missing.
Say hello to Gordon if you see him.
He’ll remember the unofficial version.
Don’t take the ring, Laura.
Don’t take the ring.
No! Don’t make me do this!
No!
No place to go BUT HOME!
What year is this?
Laura is the one.