MovieChat Forums > Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) Discussion > I have a lot of problems with how the Fi...

I have a lot of problems with how the Finale went.

posted 7 years ago by TwistedAcrobat (1725)
33 replies | jump to latest

And not because stuff wasn't explained. I'm a defender of not explaining things that don't have a "human" logic associated with them [such as the Nature of the Loges, what Jowday is, how things in the Lodges work, etc].

I am, however, a defender of tying things up nice and tightly.

I'm quite unsure on we getting a Season 4 or a movie [though I assume we will eventually get at least a movie], but as to what the finale is concerned, I'm somewhat pissed. Pissed isn't exactly the word, more like disappointed with the end result.

1 - inserting a creature of evilness that we only get to see glimpses of in action 3 times [1 generating Bob and the insects, another one killing the 2 guys in the beginning and finally through Sarah] and simply stating that that creature is being searched for some time by Briggs and Jeffries [as told by Gordon] without any more information on "why" that is, is - for the lack of a better term - bad writing. Inserting an element to a story that is briefly glanced over never to be seen again. although making it pivotal to the story via imagery, is not a good thing. Throughout the Season we were told by DoppelCooper that he is searching for that creature [he shows the card representing it] and we don't know why, how and never get to see him actually pursuing the creature itself. We get a glimpse of it via the photo of him and another guy besides that Glass box [where the creature appeared]. We never hear or see from it again.

2 - The Glass Box thread itself is lost. It goes nowhere, is not touched upon ever again and is a dead end. Bad story telling.

3 - Again, like in Twin Peaks original series, random stuff thrown in that are unimportant and ineffectual to the main story itself. Did the messed up face guy that was in prison have any relevancy to the story? Was he Bobby? Why should I even care?

3 - A random character that appears close to the Finale is the one that conquers the big bad guy. No reason for this whatsoever. There is no gravitas in the character to give him such an important role specially when we see Cooper and Laura [specifically] fighting him. Either one of these two should be endowed rightfully such task.

4 - Audrey. Don't care. Annie would be more suited to give any sort of nod to. Again, it was Annie there in the Lodge with Cooper. She was the one telling Laura to write down on her Diary that Dale was trapped in the Lodge.

5 - Time Travel cop out. Ok, I can even give this one a pass to wrap Laura's murder case a definite rest [though I was quite satisfied with her dying and finding peace in the after life in FWWM]. The problem is... it was handled poorly. There were some inconsistencies with the Time Travel thing. Such as an example: If Cooper saves her from being murdered [as we watch it happen], why would he take her to her mother's given that her killer also lived there? And even if we neglect this oddity, why would present Sarah be bashing her photo all possessed and crazy if the murder was avoided? It makes no sense whatsoever.
Even IF Sarah is the kid that swallows the bug in the past, why wouldn't Sarah kill her as soon as she was born?

6 - Naido/Diane was said by Andy that someone wanted to kill her. Well the problem is that DoppelCoop never attempts such a thing. He could have had her killed when he raped her and had a Tulpa made out of her. But he didn't. And why would she be in The Other Place as an eyeless monkey screeching woman? This is quite inconsistent.

7 - We never get to know what Laura is whispering to Cooper either. It started as it ended and there's some beauty in that imagery, but is devoid of information relative to what we actually see unfolding.

8 - The confusing part where Laura now is someone else [and aparently Coop and Diane are Richard and Linda.... I think...?] also doesn't make much sense. Why wouldn't she know she is Laura? Why wouldn't she recognize Cooper from her dreams if she even met him in the past? She could be pretending to be someone else to escape her horrible life [she says she was young and didn't know any better, which kind of wraps that part up], but wouldn't make much sense that she didn't remember she is Laura. And why would Cooper take her to her mother's place if - given that Leyland never killed her - her father would probably be living there still possessed? [We also know that her - for no reason whatsoever - possessed mother is there... and calls for her making her scream].

9 - "We live inside a dream" is never explained. We know it has something to do with the Lodges and whatnot, but no connecting thread is made.

And finally what do you make of that part in which Cooper's face hangs on screen for a long time when he is with Naido/Diane?

[–] Mister Babadook (2624) 7 years ago

As for 8, i'm thinking Cooper went to an alternate reality, where its similar to the current reality but people are different and things are a bit switched around, like the random family living in Laura's house with no trace of Sarah and Leland ever living there.

That would explain Laura being someone else and not having any memory of her life in the other reality.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

I agree, but in the end she seems to remember being Laura and responds to Sarah calling her name.

[–] Mister Babadook (2624) 7 years ago

Perhaps Sarah's yelling was kinda crossing over into the alternate reality since they was in the exact same place as Sarah is in the other reality. And maybe it broke through the alternate reality and all her memories of being Laura Palmer flooded back in.

Sarah is after all possessed by the Mother experiment.

Also to back up the alternate reality theory, Cooper did say to Diane "Once we cross it could all be different", guessing he was hoping to go to a reality where Laura lived and she never went through any of the stuff with Bob and everyone was much happier.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

yeah I can role with that.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 7 years ago

Overall, completely disappointed. This abortion was a break from the first two seasons and the movie, all of which I liked and some of which I liked very much. To address anticipated objections, I did not become stupid in the interim. This season was soigné self-indulgent pablum dished out by an old man well past his creative prime, or else he is an asshole, or both. I do salute his taste in women, but he could have covered his narrative in 10 episodes, had Showtime not been paying him by the number of episodes. I almost wrote "by the word" instead of "by the number of episodes," but there was SO MUCH DEADLY SILENCE in this padded shitparade that Lynch would have starved on a per-word compensation rate. Yes, real life is inarticulate and silent. No one pays to watch real fucking life. We can sit on our porch and watch real life for free. We pay for entertainment. This ain't it. This was tedious twaddle sold as cerebral boldness. If you enjoyed it, prithee, keep liking it. I speak only for myself. Lynch has pimped turgid absurdism as being tight, wet, velvet pussy. He has a hell of a future in used car sales.

Oh: and comparing the non-ending of TP, Season 3, to the series Finale of The Sopranos? The Sopranos ran, uninterrupted, for season after season, and then it ended. The ending was not a fade-out, like an Adele pop tune. It was an END, like a Beethoven symphony. After 25 fucking years of significant narrative interruption, Lynch just ran out of shit. His ending was like a stand-up comic telling his/her audience, "Um, I forget my other jokes." Quite the opposite of a symphonic terminus.

To repeat: disappointed. Tried giving it the benefit of the doubt. Enjoyed the women. Enjoyed the hour or so of the real Dale Cooper that Lynch, in his dotage, so graciously gave us out of 18 hours of wankfest. If Showtime picks this up for another season, it means that CBS needs a tax write-off.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

Poignant. I like that.

[–] emo_ville2002 (382) 7 years ago

lol.

[–] SimpleJack (12) 7 years ago

Bad writing is the answer to all points. This was some of the worst writing I have ever seen coming from such an established writer/director. Lynch has made some great stuff in the past, but S3 of Twin Peaks was awful. There were glimpses of greatness, but they were awash in a sea of garbage. The original 2 seasons and FWWM were in another league than this pretentious nonsense. The S2 episode "Lonely Souls" is in my opinion the best TV episode of all time, and it's hard to believe this trash was made by the same person.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

Agree. Bad writing it is.

[–] SimpleJack (12) 7 years ago

Your list is just a fraction of the issues. That's what makes it really bad. Plot holes and inconsistencies galore. If season 3 was a stand alone work a few of them would be resolved, but it isn't. It completely contradicts established plot points from the earlier Twin Peaks and reopens story lines that were given closure as if that closure never happened. The one that bothers me the most is the ending Laura gets in FWWM is completely negated, and it's almost like they completely forgot about that when writing this season.

I hope some of the blind Lynch fanboys try to come up with a logical response to a single point you have made other than the typical "It's Lynch". This season was nothing more than mediocre.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

I just want to address the issue you have with laura's ending in FWWM, because i thought the same thing. She refused B.O.B. and therefore was at peace in death.
Fast forward 25yrs. and she's brought back?
This will sound ludicrous, but try to think of things from lynch's perspective? (I know)
However warped his mind may be, we are now getting twin peaks from a 70yr old man who knows he won't be here forever.
I believe s3 was a way for lynch to explore the many possibilities of the other side.
Things are never as simple as storylines, not in twin peaks, and not in life.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

yes, it is fun to do things in other ways and see what comes out of it. I do this all the time when I'm composing. I take an idea and toy with it in multiple fashions to see what I can get out of it.

The difference here is that Twin Peaks went through two seasons and a movie previously. It followed a story with a motif and an ending. It feels like undoing what was set for decades.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

I understand where you're coming from, and that was one of the main reasons i tried to keep my expectations level coming into the season. Im also starting to wonder if guys view tps differently than girls. I never expected logic from tps but i sure would like to know what the fuck happened to leo.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

Good question. Whatever happened to Leo? What about Donna?

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

At some point between s2 and fwwm, donna got goofy and is now living in a trailer with a wicked meth habit.

[–] keybored (2654) 7 years ago

Perhaps we will see them in the next instalment.

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 7 years ago

TPS??

😎

"I Am the FBI."

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 7 years ago

You bring up some excellent points Acrobat, but that's Lynch. I still love TPTR, and I hope we get a season four or a film.

😎

"I Am the FBI."

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

well, I'm satisfied with the idea that Cooper is still trapped in the Lodge and he never got out, and we are seeing his dream-state hell over and over. Otherwise none of it makes sense [in terms of story writing].

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 7 years ago

Maybe........

😎

"I Am the FBI."

[–] modica (4169) 7 years ago

It's all about Laura. All the things Cooper did have lead up to that. Different realities are bumping up against each other and bleeding into one another. To me there are four worlds; the world of Twin Peaks, the lodges, the world we know and finally The Roadhouse. You would think that Twin Peaks and The Roadhouse would be the same, but they are not. In the Roadhouse, for some reason, the people of Twin Peaks(the one we know and the other ones)the lodge residents, and the people in the world we know all congregate here. Laura and Cooper somehow passed into another reality of Twin Peaks. I'm not sure if the year is important; but for Cooper it was the only thing he could come up with at the time. Then Carrie hearing Sarah calling her set off a memory within Laura and that is why she screamed. So even though she is a different person and all, somehow she remembered. What was done to Laura all came back and a lot of what this return focused on was the evil we do to one another and that was subtly explored through a crime drama/sci-fi/mystical/high drama offering. Lynch and Frost didn't come and hit us over the head with any of it either(except for Dr. Amp)but piled it on as the story moved along. I think many will come around later and see it differently once they realize that the show isn't about the return of Cooper, but it is about Laura.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

"Laura is the one" was emphasized a lot. And to me that is also one of the faults of the show.

[–] modica (4169) 7 years ago

We all have our own opinion on that, but for me the show makes a lot more sense now that I know that Laura is and always was the center. Most felt it was Cooper, and those are the people who did not quite like The Return.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

It's interesting to know that the show could have taken any direction and still be interesting. A lot could be done with it.

[–] modica (4169) 7 years ago

A lot more could be done with it also. I don't even care if Lynch has anything to do with it in the future, I just want more Twin Peaks. There are lots of other directors who can do justice to it also.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

I could see Guillermo del Toro doing something with it. And Terry Gilliam. Both seem to enjoy the more fantastical approach to stories.

[–] modica (4169) 7 years ago

Damon Lindelof and Darren Arronofsky would be my choices, but del Toro and Gilliam are great too.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 7 years ago

I am disappointed with this show. It went nowhere. It was every bit as vapid as I feared that it would be after the execrable Episode 8 jerkoff-fest. Compare the lumbering self- indulgence of this 18-should have been 12-episode waste with the 8-episode, tightly knit, mini series
Big Little Lies on HBO, and it's like comparing a Chevy Impala to a BMW Apline. The first is bloated and admired only by an uneducated audience, the second is as tight and responsive as the pig's-gut string on a 200-pound pull bow. The first appeals to the masses. The second appeals to the cognoscenti.

[–] modica (4169) 7 years ago

It went somewhere for me and it keeps going there even two weeks after the finale. Different strokes I guess.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

I loved episode 8. A bit too Kubrik, and would be perfect on another show due to implications to the story; other than that it had pretty good visuals and imagery.

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

Your post is like the episode 8 of this thread, compared to the episodes 1-7; 9-18 of the other posts. The former is hard to swallow, like a bowl of menudo that the cat peed in, while the latter cause belly ache in the way of pop tarts and cotton candy, only they give Das Volk a sort of postmodern satisfaction.

Anyway, congrats on not comparing the BMW Apline to a butthole.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

I second Arronofsky

[–] Kazak (2008) 7 years ago

Lonergan (take a look at "Margaret") could potentially do the show some degree of justice, but my gut says Peaks without Lynch would suffer.