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My reactions to the finale: theories and questions

posted 7 years ago by Popcorn Kernel (2368)
14 replies | jump to latest

Overall impression: Watched the finale twice, second time took notes. Still kind of disappointed.
Episode 17:
Albert: You've gone soft, Gordon
Gordon: Not where it counts, Buddy
*Tammy smirks*
Exposition time!
Everyone listen.
Long shot of Albert and Tammy listening to silence.
OK THEN, TALK. We're listening!
Jow Dei, the entity of pure negative energy- is this the same thing as the cricket-frog that crawled into teenage Sarah Palmer?
2:53 PM adds up to 10 the number of completion.
Later in episode 18, Cooper finds Carrie Page living at 1315 which also adds up to 10. Significant? But what is the meaning?

Jail: Who the fuck is that guy with the face bandage and what was his deal? What as his purpose other than grossness? Was he a lost extra from Dune? Why did Andy bring all the other prisoners upstairs, but not him? It might have been amusing to have him repeat everything Cooper said.
So Lucy shoots bad Cooper and Freddy greenglove kills Bob.
Good Cooper doesn't defeat Bad Cooper himself. That was a big let-down. Having peripheral characters accomplish the big purpose instead of the hero, was disappointing.
tbc

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

cont.
When the tulpa Diane vanished, I immediately wondered, where is the real Diane? Apparently all her years in the lodge, she never met Cooper who was also in the lodge, so she had to be somewhere else. She was somehow disguised as an eyeless Japanese girl who chirps and squeaks. Why?
Cut to Ben Horne and the pointless storyline about Jerry tripping balls and ending up in Wyoming naked. Did he walk all the way to Wyoming? Did he drive there tripping balls and didn't get into any crash? Still no mention of Audrey Horne who we actually care about, instead we get Jerry's thread tied up into a nice little bow. I don't fucking care about Jerry!

Evil Cooper has the coordinates and goes to the portal. The floating giant in the haunted theater apparently controls the transporter. He swipes left on the Palmer house ( Which I guess was bad Cooper's desired location), and switches the destination to the sheriff station, where bad Cooper will meet his destiny in the form of a green gardening glove.
Bad Cooper says 'no thanks' to coffee. If that's not a clue that he's not real Cooper, I don't know what is! Coop never says no to coffee!

Lucy shoots bad Cooper and the shadow people try to do their freaky deeky CPR on him, but it does not bring him back to life the way it did when Ray shot him. Why didn't it work this time?

After Bob dies, the following scenes are all superimposed onto a shot of Cooper's face. Meaning? Life is but a dream, but who is the dreamer? Is everything we see in that scene just a dream of Cooper's? This seems to be where the dream state begins, does that mean nothing that happened after Bob's death is not real?
tbc

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

cont
Some things will change
The past determines the future

So Cooper plans to go into the past to 'fix' certain things.
1. Save Laura from being murdered
2. Save Diane from being raped
3. Save Josie from being imprisoned int he drawer knob?

Also, since Cooper's face is imposed on those scenes, and it is the dreamtime, we see the clock keeps going back a minute then forward again... the same moment of time keeps repeating. I think this means that in this dreamtime, everything that happens onscreen is actually only occurring within one moment of 'real world' time.
We live inside a dream and Cooper is the dreamer, so he can use lucid dreaming to change the timeline. Or something?

Coop, Cole, and Diane go to room 315 of the Great Northern. This is still dreamtime. As they approach, it's all blackness around them, they don't enter the hotel through the normal real world lobby. The hotel is seemingly decrepit and under construction, and the key still works, there is still a keyhole lock, even though we know that the hotel was switched to card keys many years ago.
Is this the future or the past? or just a dreamtime version of the hotel.
Cooper enters the room and tells them not to follow him. Room 315 is a dreamtime portal.
Cooper says: See you at the Curtain Call.
all the world's a stage and the men and women merely players.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

cont
Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds: Fire, walk with me.

Who was the man on the stairway with the long needle nose?
Cooper goes to see Jeffries who is now a teapot with a Southern accent.
I'm a little teapot short and stout, here is my handle, here is my spout.
It's slippery in here.
You can go in now.
Electricity!

He shows the number 8, then says "This is where you'll find Judy".
But Cooper never found Judy, he only found Judy's coffee shop where Carrie Page works.
What was the significance of the 8, if it just means infinity?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flashback time!
Laura's last day of life from FWWM.
Laura sees Cooper in the woods and screams.
Ronette Pulaski and the guys wait for Laura but she never shows up, because Cooper saves her. But does he really? He leads her through the woods and says he is taking her 'home', but he looses hold of Laura's hand and she disappears, and then we hear her scream, so what happened to her? She got teleported to Odessa Texas and given amnesia?
The image of Laura's body wrapped in plastic fades out... the murder never happened.

Cut to Josie doing her makeup... does this mean Josie is saved from becoming trapped in the drawer knob?

Cut to Palmer house. Sarah is wailing and growling, but if Laura is not dead, then why is she wailing? frustration because the frog-cricket (Judy?) didn't get to kill her? is this the past Sarah or the 2017 Sarah?
I noticed that as Sarah is smashing the photo of Laura, time skips again. The glass breaks, then becomes whole again, then breaks again, etc. It's another time loop like the clock at the sheriff station. Is this the end of the dreamtime sequence?

Cut to Julee Cruse doing the final song in the roadhouse.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

Episode 18
Bad cooper goes into the red room and burns up.
The new gold seed grows into a new Dougie and goes home to Janey E and Sunny Jim. Someone gets their happy ending!

Coop and Laura back in the woods... but in ep 17 she disappeared so is this a do-over?
Back in the red room. Is this flashback or future?
The Arm: Is it the story of the little girl who lived down the lane?
Older Laura whispering to Cooper.
What does she tell him? Does she tell him where to find her in 2017?
Odessa Texas, Judy's Diner?
Leland in the red room: Find Laura.
This seems to indicate that Cooper lost her in the woods.

Then we see Cooper finding Diane in the woods. But he told her not to follow him. Is this the real Diane that we last saw at the door to room 315, or is this dreamtime Diane?
I think this is meant to be the past Diane, before her rape. Cooper tries to undo her rape and abduction by re-enacting it with himself in the place of bad Cooper. They are both 25 years older but I think we are supposed to see this scene as if it is the past versions of them.
They drive and drive without talking. It's cute the first time we see it but Lynch overdoes this later and it just becomes annoying filler. Why does he have to drive when he could use portals? It's still dreamtime, not real world time, right?
Exactly 430 miles from somewhere they find the portal to the alternate universe, or is it the past?.
More driving without talking.

They check into a motel and Diane sees herself in the parking lot. Was that the past Diane who would get raped by evil dopple-Coop, but she fades out because they are changing the timeline?

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

cont
The sex scene was so weird and unsexy. Coop just lays there motionless, even his facial expression never changes, so for him this is all just some play they need to act out in order to somehow un-do history. Of course by changing history they also change the present and future, which is why they had that discussion about 'on the other side it could all be different'.
For Diane, the sex at first was like the culmination of a longtime fantasy but then she still ends up crying and covering Coop's face and it's not what she dreamed of. She leaves the next morning, having become Linda, while Cooper is now Richard.

Cooper's next mission is "Find Laura".
He supposedly saved her, but her life in this alternate universe is not going so well either. She opens the door to Cooper saying "Did you find him?" and she has a dead guy in her living room. What drama is he walking into? he never even asks "hey who was that dead guy", he doesn't even care.
If they do a season 4, they should have the backstory of Carrie Page's life. Who was she expecting at the door? Who was she looking for? Did she shoot the dead guy?

The little horse figurine in front of the blue plate on the mantel- what is the significance? Did teenage Laura have something like that in her bedroom?
MORE DRIVING WITHOUT TALKING
I'M TIRED OF THIS GIMMICK NOW

Why did he even want to take her to her mother who is a nasty drunk and watches terrible snuff videos on loop repeat? Did he think Carrie/Laura could somehow defeat Jow Dei, that cricket-frog living inside Sarah?

What did Carrie see when she screamed? She heard Leland/Bob calling Laura's name from inside the house, even though they are in the alternate universe. Carrie/Laura can hear echos across dimensions.
Now back to the red room with older Laura whispering in Older Coop's ear.
It's all a loop, like the number 8 (infinity) and like the clock that repeats the same moment over and over.
And that's where it 'ends'?
It was all a dream?

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

The horse is the white of the eye and the dark within
Sarah Palmer saw a white horse on the nights before Laura and Maddie were killed.

Cooper tries to save Laura but fails and he lets go her hand in the woods, ending with her scream.

Cooper is also holding Carrie Page's hand when they leave the Palmer house but she lets go and it ends with her scream.

I think he keeps trying and keeps failing and he will be stuck in this dreamtime loop forever like Sisyphus.

Killing two birds with one stone- is this Cooper trying to change two crimes from the past: (Diane and Laura)

[–] UphillIceskater (5) 7 years ago

The double diamond that turns into the 8 reappears in episode 18.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

ahah, well done.

Who is Richard and Linda supposed to be?

Why take Laura to her mother's if her killer [her Bob possessed father] lives there?

Who in the fucks of all fucks is Linda?

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

Richard and Linda are Cooper and Diane in the alternate universe . Just like Carrie is Laura in that universe, and the Palmers never lived in that house.
I really didn't understand why take Laura to her mom's house either when her mom was a nasty drunk, but I think he wanted to defeat Jow dei which I guess is the evil frog-cricket thing that crawled into teenage Sarah Palmers mouth? And somehow Laura was the only one who can defeat 'Judy'?

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

No, I know that. What I mean is who are those characters in that reality. What are their importance and how are their "others" [in the reality that Coop and Diane came from] attached to anything?

I understand the Judy thing... but he would be putting Laura in the same house where Judy is AND her possessed father is as well. And Cooper didn't have a green glove up his ass with him [I think].

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 7 years ago

My......brain......hurts.......

PS I LOVED the ending. It was pure Lynch, a cliffhanger with more questions than answers. Of course, this leaves things open for a Season Four. I do so hope we get that!

😎

"Has my watch stopped, or is that one of the Marx Brothers?"

[–] krl97a (5619) 7 years ago

Pretty good run down. Remember there was a delay before Mr C. was revived the first time.....a whole NIN song's worth. They had a little time to work with. If Bob's presence was important to the healing process then they would have had even longer with him completely exiting this time, attacking people, and getting destroyed.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

Ah, and maybe bad Cooper would have revived eventually, but good Coop put the ring on him before he had a chance to rise up.

[–] Bobby Briggs Briganza (485) 7 years ago

"Good Cooper doesn't defeat Bad Cooper himself. That was a big let-down. Having peripheral characters accomplish the big purpose instead of the hero, was disappointing."

The only thing disappointing for me was that the peripheral character to do it was not Tammy and/or Bobby. Everyone was just standing around. They might have well have dropped balloons from the ceiling and started dancing to music.