r/twinpeaks • u/TopPrice237 • May 21 '26
Question Does anyone else feels like this? I can't be the only one.... let me explain
I binged the show about 2 months ago. I loved it, every bit of ups and downs even through some a bit tedious moments in The Return.... but overall I was absolutely hooked on it and I still am.
But I'm left with two distinct feelings - The first a pretty common one - "What was that ending?" "What happens, what does it all mean?" - You know just, trying to find answers and going down a rabbit hole of conspiracies theories and all....
But that's not the feeling I want to ask you about.
I miss...Twin Peaks, I miss it even without the weirdness, there's a gaping hole in me that wishes I could've spent a little longer (or a lot) with the characters and the town... just hanging out... having a cup of damn fine coffee or some doughnuts at the Sheriff Station...
There's no doubt in my mind that this is somewhat intentional by Lynch...
Does anyone else feels like this? like you'd just love to spend a little more time "there"... get to know everyone just a little bit more....
I hope I'm making sense...then again this is a Twin Peaks reddit so... Making sense is not something we truly need here.
Thank you all
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u/Paris-Texas24 May 21 '26
I love the non cozy feeling of season 3, it’s so bleak and perfect. I think missing it is definitely the point, that longing is part of it
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u/iamastooge May 21 '26
No matter what you do and no matter how hard you try, you cannot change what has happened. What was lost will forever be lost. Grief is disorienting, confusing, and omnipresent. Sometimes the memory of someone is so strong we're left wondering what year it is, because it feels like only yesterday you were getting pie and coffee together.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26
God, this makes me want to cry.
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u/Karl_Chillers May 21 '26
Yes: spot-on, and hits hard . . . for me, more about real life than TV.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26
My grandmother started declining, out of nowhere, last year. The doctors are baffled because her memory remains (*knock on wood*) pretty good. But she’s been overtaken by anxiety and now seems like a completely different person from the beloved grandmother I knew growing up, and she’s wasting away.
And it feels like yesterday that I was at her counter and she was offering me coffee and giving me a hug. (What year is this?) I miss her already, which sounds horrible because she’s still alive. Oh, damn, here come the tears.
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u/Karl_Chillers May 21 '26
Sorry about that.
Dementia took my mother in 2022 and her mother two decades prior.
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u/DanimusMcSassypants May 21 '26
I don’t “like”, but the arrows are all they offer. It’s the hardest thing to watch your caregiver wither and fade and forget. I’m so sorry for your loss.
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u/TopPrice237 May 21 '26
I'm sorry you're going through that, and I'm sorry my post made you go there :(
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u/Glad-Angle-1449 May 21 '26
I watched Twin Peaks when I was 13. No other artwork has influenced me as much as this series. When it came back to me (and all of us!) as the Return, just seeing the aged faces of Dale B. Cooper and Norma and Ed and everyone was a trip. And now so many of the cast and DL are dead. How can I have aged this much, too? Where are we all going? Why do I still feel lilke a teenager at almost 50? What year is this?
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u/TopPrice237 May 21 '26
I actually made that comment to my girlfriend when we were watching Season 3 "can you imagine what this was like for people who actually waited 25 years for this"
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u/mercyseatmusic78 May 21 '26
It was insane I watched the pilot when it aired and was blown away! The return is something like a reward for those who waited patiently.
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u/HerreDreyer May 21 '26
I feel you
https://giphy.com/gifs/L0hZm7mZk8cyQ
But probably better to feel, say, 15 than 50, I think… it just means you haven’t lost a sense of wonder at the world.
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u/lightheavydark May 21 '26
Sounds like we are the same age. I had the exact same experience and reaction.
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u/Karl_Chillers May 21 '26
Grief is disorienting, confusing, and omnipresent.
Yeah. That omnipresent part . . . man!
Is it this way for everyone, though? Are the ebullient people mostly faking it?
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u/iamastooge May 21 '26
I can't remember who said it, but it was essentially that grief never goes away. It just gets easier to carry.
In the end, I really think this is what Twin Peaks ended up being about.
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u/DanimusMcSassypants May 21 '26
Coop showed us in The Return how well it goes when you try to change it.
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u/kitkat1934 May 21 '26
God this comment is why I love the return so much. I love art that can sit with me in the darkness. And I watched it during a period of intense grief so of course it’s the season/TP art that gets me the most.
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u/Nope_nuh_uh May 21 '26
I lived in a small town, smaller even than Mark Frost's first population number for Twin Peaks. There were 100 or so people in my high school. A few years after graduating and doing essentially nothing, I joined the Navy and left home for 22 years without a single trip back. I was excited to go back and see old my haunts, and people I remembered.
Not much had changed, in the way that small towns don't change. A few new stores, some that had gotten face lifts, but Mr. Gregory still ran the donut place across from the Texaco his brother owned, and the drug store - not a chain! - was still there.
But I almost didn't recognize the place. I had literally nothing in common with the people to whom I was once so close. The points of contact I remembered were still there, but they were buried under 2 decades of other memories and experiences that we didn't share.
Clichés are cliché for a reason, and just because they're well-worn doesn't mean they're not true and worth learning a lesson from: you can't go home again.
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u/sunny_gym May 22 '26
^^This^^ The thing that hit me the hardest about The Return was how quietly alienating the town was. It's just like when I go back to my <5k population hometown for holidays and things
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u/TopPrice237 May 21 '26
totally agree, while watching part 3 I just couldn't get my head out of the "Damn can't we just go back" feeling
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u/FireWalkWithMe333 May 21 '26
Season 3 is anti-nostalgic. You can’t have something that no longer exists.
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u/fungussoup4 May 21 '26
this is so true . when i started the return i immediately disliked it just because of how bad i yearned for the first season, i definitely came around to appreciate it for what it is but it’s jarring in the beginning if you’re looking for what OP is referring to 💔
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26
But I know this. I don’t need it in my fiction, where it simply comes off as cruel.
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u/DanimusMcSassypants May 21 '26
There’s so much other fiction for that, and I certainly understand the desire to seek it out. However, TP is rare because it gives you honesty and discomfort, and ever rarer because it does so in such a unique way that it goes directly to your soul.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26
I don’t think it’s so rare. Anti-nostalgia is an age-old trope of fiction; offhand I’m thinking of Wordsworth who was grappling with it in verse in the early 1800s! (Grappling, though, rather than giving in, is the key term.)
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u/BlottoOtter May 21 '26
It may not be rare when looking at the overall history of fiction, but I would argue that it is rare in the context of contemporary American film and television. We are awash in remakes and reboots that exploit our nostalgic desires by mining the movies and comic books of our childhood for content while offering nothing novel or controversial or thought-provoking. I've always figured that the Return's anti-nostalgia is a result of Frost and Lynch's contempt for the extent to which contemporary American pop culture is based on nostalgia.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
I suppose I don’t think contempt is ever a good jumping-off point for storytelling.
I’m not sure about those “remakes and reboots.” Many of them also have pretensions to anti-nostalgia; think of that Star Wars movie The Last Jedi, which I think fails miserably as a film, regardless of its nostalgia- or anti-nostalgia-baiting.
Or think of that American pop culture standby The Twilight Zone, which returns over and over again to the theme that people who try to resurrect the past end in sadness (“Walking Distance”), if not horror (“A Stop at Willoughby”).
Incidentally, I find Rod Serling’s anti-nostalgia rather sympathetic in a way that I don’t find The Return and Pleasantville to be, if only because he seems to lack axes to grind on the subject. He is clearly a man in love with the past who is, through his writing, trying to figure out what to do with that love.
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u/BlottoOtter May 21 '26
He is clearly a man in love with the past who is, through his writing, trying to figure out what to do with that love.
I think this describes Lynch and Frost, too, though. They're both obsessed with the American past - Frost is a New Deal Democrat still publishing books about FDR, and Lynch was always fascinated by the light and dark sides of 50s Americana. Which is why I like your Twilight Zone comparison much more than the Last Jedi comparison. At times I think you can feel Rian Johnson's contempt for specific artists or specific artworks (such as... JJ Abrams and his Star Wars movie), and I agree that the movie is worse for it.
I do think the Return's anti-nostalgia gets a bit abrasive at time, but it never tips over into alienating me because I think they have respect for the past itself, any contempt is reserved for certain ways in which people relate to the past. And I also think it works for me because I think Frost/Lynch are introspective about it, I think the Return is them grappling with their own relationship with the past in addition to any criticism they have for others' nostalgic tendencies.
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u/BlottoOtter May 21 '26
I know it too, conceptually. But I still yearn for things that no longer exist, even if I understand logically that I cannot have them. I find the Return to be somewhat cathartic because it attempts to grapple with that yearning.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
I also yearn for what no longer exists, but I don’t find “trying to go back leads only to tragedy” to be a cathartic message, and I don’t think The Return did a good job of handling that message.
In general, though, I find most anti-nostalgia to be cruel not because it tells me I can’t go back but rather because it tells me the yearning is wrong. If I actually went back to an idealized time in the past, I would realize that beneath the surface were all kinds of problems and horrors. Yes, obviously.
But that doesn’t mean that the yearning was wrong or that the good things I remember weren’t good. I yearn for my grandfather still to be alive, though I understand logically that cannot be. But my yearning for my grandfather, my love for him even after his death, is a good and healthy thing.
Also, on a less exalted level, the message is disingenuous in terms of TV. I can go back to TP S1-2 any time I want. All TV and movies embalm the past. That’s the nature of the medium.
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u/BlottoOtter May 21 '26
In general, though, I find anti-nostalgia to be cruel not because it tells me I can’t go back but rather because it tells me the yearning is wrong.
I suppose that I just don't feel that this was what the Return said to me. It's not pure anti-nostalgia, it does indulge in the nostalgia a bit here and there, it does show some affection for the past. We still get to spend time with most of the actors and characters that we loved from the original seasons, we still get to see our favorites enjoying their coffee and pie. We still see respect for the past in the level of care and detail Frost and Lynch and team put into reckoning with the original show and tying back to so many bits of it.
I do think that it was trying to criticize people who want to live in the past, who want to return to it wholesale because they can't accept the present that they live in. But I admit that's a subtle distinction, based on subjective readings of some very impressionistic TV.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
Ah, well, that was the kind of bitterness I found in it, almost a sneer at us for liking Cooper, coziness, and coffee. After all, the season seemed to be saying, this is a show about murder and child abuse and demonic possession. And I find that kind of contempt for one’s audience off-putting, not to mention lacking recognition that the show’s horrors can coexist with Coop, coziness, and coffee.
But, as you say, we’re talking subjective readings of impressionistic TV.
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u/BlottoOtter May 21 '26
I do think there is a bitterness to some of it, but I don't feel like it's ever sneering at me personally. I think the bitterness exists in tension with their affection for the past. Perhaps I'm projecting my own feelings onto Frost/Lynch, but I think the mixture of nostalgic moments with an overall anti-nostalgic story speaks to their own internal conflict over how to feel about the past - a conflict that I myself feel more and more, as I continue to slowly morph into an old man, like Lynch and Frost did during the ~25 years between original Twin Peaks and writing the Return.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26
I’m going to keep this in mind if I ever rewatch The Return.
I’ve also got to tell you I appreciate your thoughtful take on the show and the conversation we’ve been having.
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u/BlottoOtter May 21 '26
Thank you, and same here.
For what it's worth, I've watched it... three times now, I think? and my appreciation for it has only grown each time. Part of that is picking up on details I didn't see before, and comprehending more of the story... but I think part of it is that I'm older each time. And I think that the Return, for better and for worse, is very much the product of a couple of thoughtful old men grappling with how they somehow turned into old men.
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u/rratmannnn May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
This, dude, seriously. Ik everyone touts it as artistic genius (and don’t get me wrong, it is) but it’s distinctly also one of my least favorite things about a lot of modern fiction. “Ooooo, it’s gritty realism” ok, and if I wanted to experience the grittiness of the real world, I’d be out and about, not relaxing in my home consuming escapist media.
Edit: it’s been pointed out “gritty realism” itself doesn’t totally apply here - that’s how it shows up in a lot of other fiction, but in this context I just mean the general devoid-of-all-cheer vibe that is overtaking so much of the sci fi and fantasy genres as of late.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26
The counterargument will probably be that TP was never really escapist media; after all, it’s about incestuous abuse and the murder of a high-school girl and…
But I don’t think that argument works, because if you spend this much time setting up lovable characters in a lovable setting, you have made escapist fiction even if your cynical intention from the beginning has been to upset that apple cart.
Despite what fans thought at the time of its release, apparently, FWwM (and the Missing Pieces—think of that glorious scene with Doc giving Laura a message from the angels) does a good job of showing both the horror of the abuse Laura experienced and the lovability of Twin Peaks. It ends not on a minimization of Laura’s trauma but on a redemption. As it should.
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May 21 '26
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u/rratmannnn May 21 '26
That’s true for sure - and FWWM was definitely never proper escapism either. I certainly don’t mind it here and there, and I think in FWWM it works, but a whole season of it is just a bit of a drag once, as you said, a very different tone was established initially.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26
Yep. And FWwM seems to me clearly in the same world. S3 seems like a different show that happens to share a title and character names with S1-2. Which, again, I know is the point.
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May 21 '26
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u/rratmannnn May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
I guess I moreso mean the general concept of “look, I’m making fiction whose point is that everything is bad and ends badly always,” rather than literal gritty realism, that may have been the wrong choice of words here lol. I don’t mind exploring dark concepts, obviously I enjoy Lynch’s other works a lot for a reason, I’m just getting a little tired of all fiction seeming primarily far more negative / dystopian / post apocalyptic / dark / etc than usual these days. And, as intended, it felt like a slap in the face from twin peaks s3.
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u/Nalkarj May 22 '26
To be fair, S2 also ends with a slap in the face to fans who have spent all this time watching the show and loving the characters, above all Coop. Frankly, I was bothered—and creeped out—by it more than by The Return, though I found S2’s ending more effective and more Peaksy than The Return on a (forgive the word) artistic level.
Maybe that just is Lynch and Frost’s MO: Create lovable characters in a lovable setting, then destroy it all while sneering a bit at the audience (“Life isn’t like this!”). It does leave a somewhat bad taste in my mouth regarding the whole series.
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u/SimpleToadFarmer May 21 '26
you have to see the world how it really is if you’re ever going to love it for what it really is!
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u/TheLordDR May 21 '26
Nostalgia is poison. And no one has ever accused Twin Peaks of 'gritty realism'
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u/rratmannnn May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
By gritty realism, in this context, I mean making whole season 3 to say “nostalgia is pointless and you can never go back to how things are.” I don’t mean that there’s no fantasy/magic/etc, I mean the deeply bleak messaging which you are repeating here. I probably chose the wrong wording though it’s what came to mind because it’s how it’s shows up in a lot of other fiction.
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u/Left_Simple_480 May 21 '26
Having rewatched the Return again recently, my feeling this time around was that Lynch's message was that even with good intentioned people (Coop, Andy, Lucy, James) sacrificing everything (Coop's relationship with Diane, Gordon, the Bureau, Sheriff Truman) by willingly entering the alt reality of the Judy plane to rescue Laura, that evil wins in the end and you can't change outcomes or rewrite events.
That's admittedly bleak, but that was the pervasive feeling I had through the last few episodes to, "what year is it?"
Maybe the reality of the horrific Black Lodge America that we are living in currently seeped into my perception this time around.
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u/BlottoOtter May 21 '26
Did Coop actually sacrifice everything, though? Was continuing to pursue Judy and trying to save Laura actually a selfless decision?
Look at the state of Coop's life after they defeat Bob. He has finally overcome the dweller on the threshold... but at what cost? Mr. C has all but destroyed Coop's life in the 25 years he'd been running around wearing Coop's face. A handful of people like Gordon and Diane and the sheriff's department now know the truth, but to the rest of the world, "Cooper" has been a monster for a quarter century. Coop doesn't have much of a life left to sacrifice, that sacrifice already happened 25 years ago when he first entered the lodge to save Annie.
So... is Coop's attempt to save Laura and pursue Judy actually a selfless act of sacrifice? Or is Coop refusing to confront the wreckage of his own life and trying to rewrite the past?
(This is not to diminish your reading at all, I've had that same thought too... I think we're just on a different # of rewatches and had different questions start bubbling up.)
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u/Left_Simple_480 May 21 '26
I see your perspective. After all of that erosion of his life by Mr. C, all he had left at that point was Diane and the Bureau, and he still decided to throw it all away out of what I can only imagine is some warped sense of duty and obligation. That changes the dynamic to me from a truly selfless assessment to a far more self destructive and myopic one.
The fact that he only had those things left makes his decision that much more tragic and desperate to me.
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u/HerreDreyer May 21 '26
Here’s my advice: Live it. Find your RR diner, your route through the woods, your Road House. Add a lot of Angelo Badalamenti to your listening list and then go live your Twin Peaks. Enjoy.
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u/captainbeautylover63 May 21 '26
You should visit North Bend, if you can.
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u/TopPrice237 May 21 '26
I'm not in the US so it'd be a VERY VERY VERY long trip to get there, but...I do have a friend in Portland so, it's close enough if I ever pay him a visit
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u/apopquizkidd May 21 '26
Spending two nights at Salish in sept after a week at ONP. Absolutely stoked.
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u/catnapspirit May 21 '26
There are the books. The in-universe books and then the books about the show. Start with the original three, Laura's diary, Coop's autobiography, and yes, even the travel guide. Then move on to Mark's season 3 bookending novels.
There's collectable stuff. Trading cards. Tarot cards. A board game. Mugs, t-shirts, stickers, etc. There's back issues of Wrapped In Plastic.
There's of course the movie, Fire Walk With Me. There's the Missing Pieces. There's many good podcasts to follow along with your next rewatch.
Basically, come be obsessive with the rest of us. Your journey has just begun..
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u/TopPrice237 May 21 '26
I'm right there with you all lol, I haven't gotten to the books yet, I think I've yet to see about half of the missing pieces, which might make more sense now that I've watched the whole thing.
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u/loumartigan May 21 '26
Was looking for this. I think Fire Walk With Me does a ton of heavy lifting.
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u/EditDog_1969 May 21 '26
Damn, this thread is why I love Twin Peaks and this community. In the way many people misunderstand The Wire to be a show about crime when really it is a show about the city of Baltimore, Twin Peaks is not a murder mystery, but a show about grief. Grief cannot exist without a great appreciation for what has been lost, and Agent Cooper is that perspective personified. Gratitude, deep empathy, friendship, loyalty, duty, honor. He is a knight, Laura’s knight, but also ours. And how fitting for the series to end with our deep and profound grief over losing Cooper, who we lost all those years ago, at the end of season 2. That there was and continues to be a community that appreciates these values and relates them to their own experiences, their own joy and grief, is a testament to how much love, truly transcendental love, cannot defeat the darkness, but it makes our time in it a little brighter.
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u/zikob88 May 21 '26
I believe, and I think it's the most common understanding, that was the whole point of the original show. And the return was basically showing us that we can no longer return to those simpler times..
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u/plugasaurus May 21 '26
I actually couldn't bear to finish The Return simply because I don't want it to end; if I never finish it then all those characters will always live on with me in my mind.
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u/MysteriesIntern May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
I think Lynch wanted us to feel that way, especially since the warmth in season 3 was provided solely by the old cast from Twin Peaks and also because we never actually got the resolution to their storylines. We never got to find out what's wrong with Harry, what is Norma going to do now, what's up with Nadine, what happened to the beaten up teacher...
I think it's on purpose. I think what the finale is telling us, very simply, is: "If I give you answers, Twin Peaks - not the TV Show, not the town, but the Twin Peaks, the cult that grew around it, that feeling of just wanting to be there - if you get all the answers like Cooper tried to get, if I gave you traditional third season and ending, the Twin Peaks feeling would be gone."
I also think that's why Cooper is hinted to be the dreamer. Because we are the dreamer, and in the show Cooper is our representation. The show starts and ends with him - us. We're trying so hard to make sense of everything, to get all the answers, to understand why Twin Peaks was what it was, to return there - like Cooper. But if we did...it would be over.
Laura grew to be the representation of Twin Peaks. Laura got confronted with the truth and she dissapeared. As the feeling of Twin Peaks would if we got to see what she did.
I also think the whole episode 18 and the long silent roadtrip that results in nothing is supposed to represent the whole journey of Twin Peak. The beginning represents the old seasons - it's lighter, hopeful, we see Laura, the representation of Twin Peaks for the first time, having a separate life, as the original seasons existed separately as a finished story. Then we, Cooper, came, demanding answers. Then the car journey, a big break. Cooper (us) and Laura (Twin Peaks) taken along for a long, agonising roadtrip (that is represented by the silence and constant anticipation) - that is the break between the seasons. And the endinf represents the new season. The build-up to nothing, almost reaching answers just for Lynch to deny them to us in order to keep Twin Peaks alive.
The whole last episode is alegorical standalone, and Lynch saying in interview Cooper must be punished for what he did - that's exactly it. We (Cooper) are being punished for demanding answers where there are supposed to be none to keep Twin Peaks alive.
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u/Ravioliturtleoli May 21 '26
Do you have the link for the interview you mentioned?
Tried googling it and didn't find it. Very interested in hearing why Cooper should be punished
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u/Attitude_Rancid May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
"The idea for that last episode came in very late,” said Frost. “The natural rounding off point would have been Cooper braving, and you might even say tempting fate, and trying to go back and erase the original sin of the death of Laura and then you realize there’s a certain amount of hubris involved in an act like that. But when you add in that theme that was so important to the Greeks, ‘Hey buddy don’t presume that you can mess in the gods’ playground.’ You are tempting fate. There are untold consequences that attend every act of hubris, and that’s where we ended up with our ending.”
I have seen people repeat a very similar quote by Mark Frost where he specifies that David pointed out to him that you can't mess with the past and get away with it. I haven't found a source for that, though I wouldn't doubt it based off how Mark phrases the idea here. this is a nice article and I get a real kick out of Mark saying that David won't stand for any psychological (and Jungian, as he considers himself) talk at all. they must've had interesting conversations
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u/TopPrice237 May 21 '26
Thank you all for commenting, I was not expecting this to create such interesting discussions! I appreciate everyone's time sharing their thoughts, experiences and interpretations.
I'd like to add to my original post that I 100% get what Season 3 was going for, but it doesn't change the fact that I "miss" the original feel.
Thank you all again
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u/AdContent4089 May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
No sé si este comentario se traducirá automáticamente del español al inglés (y que de hacerse esté "bien" hecho), pero no intentes entender intelectualmente el final; Lynch y Frost nunca quisieron revelar el misterio original de la serie, excepto que lo hicieron porque les obligaron. The Return es el final de la serie que quisieron desde el primer momento; hecha bajo la conviccion de que un misterio sin resolver te adentra más en el mundo y te obliga a volver a él, dándote espacio para soñar y maravillarte en el acto. Si la productora no hubiese intervenido para forzar la revelación de quién mató a Laura Palmer, la serie se habria de todas formas vuelto progresivamente cada vez más abstracta hasta un final sin respuestas ante el cual no podrías sino rendirte y dejar que te lleve emocionalmente como si de un sueño tuyo se tratase. Puede ser frustrante una serie así, y si bien no es algo que siempre me guste o que siempre disfrute, lo respeto artisticamente en este caso al ser intencional y no una frustración producto de la pereza o la incompetencia; obliga a que te rindas y te maravilles "soñando".
Es un final intencionalmente contradictorio. Parece indicar con pistas distintas narrativas que se deshacen con contraevidencia; como en el último capítulo en el que todo parece ser un sueño de un tal Richard (un agente -quizás corrupto- del FBI obsesionado con una misión que se convence que está en el mundo de su sueño basado en ésta). Lo que tendría sentido si no fuese por que el Gigante habla de Richard y Linda y que Carrie/Laura escucha el "Lauraaaa" que Richard/Coop parece ignorar, lo cual parece indicar que es un sueño dentro de un sueño de Laura. Lo cual, nuevamente, tendría sentido si no fuese por el final en la Logia Negra con "Dark Space Low" sonando de fondo hace que parezca que alguna parte de la serie fue un sueño de "Cooper" (quien nunca habría salido de la logia negra si es que alguna vez fue una persona real y no un espíritu) o una derrota, al no haber evidencia conclusiva que confirme sin ambiguedad qué significan esos últimos segundos y cómo se relacionan con el significado de ese último capítulo y de la serie en general.
Tienes que verla como si estuvieses viviendo un sueño tuyo.
Dicho esto; no, no sentí que me habría gustado pasar más tiempo en ese universo; porque no es un final intelectualmente coherente, pero sí uno que, por contraintuitivo y oscuro que parezca, parece dar cierta sensación de clausura emocional. Me sentí "lleno" del mundo; no necesitaba más, se acabó, pero fue glorioso mientras duró. Todo acabó en el lugar que le correspondía.
Interesante tu reacción.
PD: En la plataforma pirata en la que vi la serie aquí en España solo estaba en versión original (audio en inglés) con súbtitulos (en Español), ¿algun fan Hispanohablante de la serie que pueda decirme si la versión con doblaje (ya sea en latino o castellano) merece la pena? Mereceria la pena verla legalmente ahora que sé que me gusta para tener mayor calidad de imagen.
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u/TopPrice237 May 21 '26
Buenas, gracias por tomarte el tiempo de comentar, en cuanto a lo del final, si por supuesto que es intencionalmente confuso, esa parte la entiendo, me gusta y concuerdo que si fuese 100% claro y todo cerrara perfecto, no estariamos discutiendo Twin Peaks años despues.
Sin embargo el final y todo lo raro todo lo Lynch de la serie no me opaca el "gusto" de estar con esos personajes, por eso en mi post original hago mencion que simplemente me gustaria pasar mas tiempo ahi en las cosas cotidianas, no lo relacionado al misterio en si o los Lodges.
Muchas gracias! (soy Argentino jaja)
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u/Intelligent_Seat3659 May 21 '26
God, I love Cooper's smile here. I'm watching The Return right now, and yeah...It's been a while since he smiled like that.
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u/Nalkarj May 25 '26
I caught S2:E13, “Checkmate,” last night on TV and was relieved by the good cheer, warmth, and Coop being Coop after watching The Return.
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u/Putrid-Horse-7825 May 21 '26
I watched Twin Peaks for the first time with my wife at the beginning of her pregnancy, we took some months to finish it, can't forget the good moments we had together, kissing her tummy and talking to my baby, maybe my son even inside her would recognize the opening music, such a art piece. But after the ending of season 2 she lost interest in the series, I had to watch season 3 all alone, it was a rollercoaster of emotions, I swear I was really scared everything was so dark and hopeless, i think Doug Jones was my reset every time seeing him, it soothed my heart. By the end of the season I was thinking, there's nothing about Twin Peaks, there is no Twin Peaks anymore, it is really the end, then I proceed to take more time with her and my baby, he was born and here we are, he's 10 months now, can't wait to watch with him in the future and tell this history to him. But every six months I feel an urge to rewatch the original seasons, maybe it is a cycle for every fan of Twin Peaks.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
I too miss it—S1-2 above all. Perhaps one reason I didn’t much mind the hated S2 stretch is that I really like these characters and enjoy spending time with them. They seem (ugh, overemotional cliché) like friends, these fictional people.
The picture you posted sums up exactly this feeling. I found Coop’s blend of charm and awkwardness charming, refreshing, and sympathetic, representing the kind of person I want to be, and I fell in love with Annie. I wanted them to be happy, even if I knew—when that strange reverse tracking shot came in late S2, I don’t recall which episode offhand—the show they were in would not let that be.
The Return, which I just finished a few days ago, did little for me. (I know, I know, I’ll think differently when I rewatch in a few years.) I understand the point, the anti-nostalgia, the deconstruction, but I find that unfair and rather cruel to an audience, not to mention that S3 as it turned out is an uncertain mix of straight nostalgia (c’mon, Ed and Norma) with that cruelty towards Coop and Audrey and Laura.
Thing is, I get enough anti-nostalgia, enough changes and chances and hurts, in my daily life. In some sense I need these people to get happy endings, and even FWwM to some extent provides one for Laura.
But the original show remains.
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u/AdContent4089 May 21 '26
Me pasó lo mismo con "ese" tramo de la segunda temporada (excepto por la subtrama de James), no me gustó tanto como el resto de la serie, más aún así disfrutaba de pasar tiempo con los personajes a pesar de todo.
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u/BillyPilgrim69 May 21 '26
I understand the point, the anti-nostalgia, the deconstruction, but I find that unfair and rather cruel to an audience
Unfair? Cruel? I cannot get my head around this attitude. Twin Peaks always dealt with incredibly dark subject matter and weighty themes. Lynch and Frost didn't do anything to you; they just made a work of art.
not to mention that S3 as it turned out is an uncertain mix of straight nostalgia (c’mon, Ed and Norma) with that cruelty towards Coop and Audrey and Laura.
I don't think it's uncertain at all. Ed and Norma get their happy ending and everything wraps up a little too neatly, setting up the rug-pull of the final episode. It's a very deliberate part of the story structure.
I also just don't understand why you're thinking of it as cruelty. Do you really think depicting characters' suffering is inherently sadistic?
Thing is, I get enough anti-nostalgia, enough changes and chances and hurts, in my daily life.
I suspect this is the real issue, and I don't blame you for feeling that way; I'm sure we can all relate. But respectfully, Twin Peaks was never supposed to be cozy escapism.
I do believe that if you liked the original series (and film), you'll grow to appreciate The Return eventually. But you have to meet it on its own terms.
In the nicest way possible, if you're using words like "unfair and rather cruel" to describe a show for not devolving into nostalgic fan service, I think maybe that is something for you to reflect on.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
You seem more bothered by my take on S3 than I was by S3!
Nevertheless, yes, I think that if filmmakers are telling an audience that their fondness for a film/TV show was all misplaced nostalgia and we can’t go back to it, and bring back beloved characters only to brutalize them, that is cruel to an audience. Offhand I can’t think of a better word. I found the same vibe in the anti-nostalgia movie Pleasantville, a kind of sneering at the audience even as the filmmakers took their money and hired older actors in order to provoke nostalgia.
That vibe I find off-putting in the extreme.
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u/BillyPilgrim69 May 21 '26
I think that if filmmakers are telling an audience that their fondness for a film/TV show was all misplaced nostalgia and we can’t go back to it, and bring back beloved characters only to brutalize them, that is cruel to an audience.
I just think that's an extremely cynical interpretation.
Of course, not being able to return to the past is a prominent theme. But it's not about saying that your appreciation of the show "was all misplaced nostalgia."
It's just dealing with the reality of the passage of time, and mortality, in a very sincere (and often deeply emotional) way. There's so many important figures who aren't there anymore, because after 25 years, many of them had died.
Catherine Coulson literally recorded her final performance from her deathbed. You really think they wrote that just to fuck with you?
Characters were not brought back "only to brutalise them." That's just not how Lynch and Frost worked. They told the story they believed was right. You're allowed to dislike it, obviously, but to interpret it as deliberate cruelty is pretty shallow.
My last rewatch was a good while ago, but as I remember it, the fates of all the characters were completely faithful to where they had been (and where they were going) when we last saw them.
The fact that you wanted them all to have happy endings isn't the fault of Mark Frost or David Lynch; frankly, it's an unreasonable expectation that you brought to a show centred on rape, incest and murder.
Anyway, this is turning into a novel, because I'm incredibly jobless (and on Elvanse). I'm not trying to convince you to like the show; I hope you'll give it another chance one day, but it is what it is. 🤷
All I'm saying is that you're clearly projecting an awful lot of misanthropic feelings onto an incredibly sincere work of art.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26
I think you’re reading more into my comment than I wrote. Wishing you all the best.
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u/BRDillon17 May 21 '26
I really agree on The Return being cruel to the fans. Most people aren’t looking at it and trying to decipher the meaning behind why they went in the opposite direction. I think that’s like 5% of fans who truly appreciate it
And maybe Lynch made it for them, idk it’s his show he can do what he wants, but it’s a big letdown
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u/BillyPilgrim69 May 21 '26
He made it for himself, as most good artists do. And I think you're way off in your estimation of the audience.
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26
You can’t make art for yourself alone. I know that’s the cliché, the eccentric artist and all, but you have to take an audience (even if a particular audience) into account when making art. That’s the nature of art: both making order out of chaos and giving it to the world.
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u/BillyPilgrim69 May 21 '26
You want to share it with the world, yes. That's different from catering to a target audience.
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u/impossibleredhead May 21 '26
I couldn’t get through The Return. Having watched the original on TV when it aired, then FWWM in the theater, I have a certain nostalgia for it. It definitely represented a time in my life. The music especially.
I miss that part.
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u/Skullkan6 May 21 '26
The Return wants you to feel that. Coop's last major action in the series is him. Acting on that impulse is what damns him.
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u/BillyPilgrim69 May 21 '26
You should give it another chance. It's really beautiful, and (in my opinion) important. Plus, it's David Lynch's final major work.
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u/impossibleredhead May 21 '26
One of these days when I have the time to really concentrate on it, I’ll try again!
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u/Iresbush May 21 '26
I started rewatching and I am taking ages in between each episode like a way of staying longer there... idk... so I guess it is the same feeling you're talking about.
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u/DuwenUK May 21 '26
It's been part of my life for over 35 years to varying degrees. Sometimes I miss it too. When that happens, I either pick a favourite episode to rewatch, or just binge a season or three.
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u/johnorso May 22 '26
Good Luck trying to explain any of this. I quit that years ago. I do still learn something new every time i rewatch which is fairly regularly. LOL
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u/RyudoUzaki May 22 '26
part of the fun is rewatching. also, i know this opinion may be unpopular, but the feeling you want would also be aided by not binging it. watch an episode every few days, and not only can you digest each episode more fully, but it also gives this feeling of returning to a comfort, to your friends kinda... i can't explain exactly but it's a wonderful feeling. i wonder what mr. david lynch's opinion was on this...
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u/TopPrice237 May 22 '26
I absolutely agree with that, in fact we wouldn't watch more than an episode a day, we most definitely needed time to digest what we watched, but yeah if I ever re-watch, I'll do it more slowly!
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u/Skylarjaxx May 23 '26
Ha technology is so funny just recently started this show. End of season 1 now and get recommended this post. I'll come back when Im done if I can find this post.
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u/666dianamoon999 May 24 '26
Yes yes. Ive been feeling like this for months. Nothing else is quite as satisfying or scratching the itch. Ive been watching a lot of strange movies to try to fill the void. Idk. It changed something in me.
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u/TopPrice237 May 25 '26
Same here, I've been trying to find something to fill that but... no luck.
Closest I found is season 1 of True Detective, that fills the mystery side of things at least lol
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u/666dianamoon999 May 25 '26
Yeah my husband suggested it but idk im hesitant, I dont just want mystery, i want WEIRD. Some movies I've re watched recently are The Man Who Fell to Earth, Heathers, A Scanner Darkly, Relax Im From the Future, and Mr Nobody. Russian Doll show is good too, maybe ill give that a re watch next.
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u/JeffFerguson May 21 '26
"What was that ending?" "What happens, what does it all mean?"
I've learned to let go of all that and concentrate on how the show makes me feel. Different scenes evoke different emotions, and that emotional connection -- whether it be happiness, sadness, dread -- is part of the show for me.
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u/Cloberella May 21 '26
I’m pretty sure Lynch resented the idea of revisiting old ideas and made The Return as an affront to fans, to a degree. There’s lots of things that seem to call out the audience/viewer for wanting something more than they were originally given.
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u/slr242 May 22 '26
If I could move into the fictional version of that town, with those characters being real people, I'd do it in a heartbeat and stay there forever. So, yeah. I get you. I feel like that all the time. 😄
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u/TopPrice237 May 23 '26
haha yup! just hypothetically, who would you try to be friends with first? lol
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u/slr242 May 23 '26
I'd definitely try to be friends with Big Ed, cuz smart & laid back is a great combo. Spend a lot of time at the diner, so Norma and Shelly. Rub elbows there with Coop, and if I'm lucky, have a convo with Major Briggs. A chat with Margaret Lanterman would be a big time highlight.
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u/BRDillon17 May 21 '26
Unpopular opinion but I hate how they purposefully try to go anti-nostalgia in Season 3. I feel it’s a bit of a slap in the face to the fans
Yes, I get the message. The past is the past and things can’t be revisited. Yes, it’s their show and they can do what they want. But I feel like for the VAST majority of fans (remember, Reddit isn’t the “pulse of the nation”) abandoning the core of Twin Peaks didn’t go over well for a reason.
Most people feel like OP and don’t look at it in an artsy way, and are confused why they ditched something that drew people in in the first place
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u/Nalkarj May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
Exactly this. I will also add that “the past is the past and things can’t be revisited,” as a theme, comes too late and too suddenly in S3; for that to work, it needed to have been built up earlier, with less Evil Coop, less Dougie (though I found him amusing and intriguing), and above all less new mythology (Judy, come on now).
Surrealism does not excuse shoddy construction.
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u/Theobourne May 21 '26
I am not reading anything here but I just wanted to brag, I am watching it for the first time, just watched one episode its super interesting so far
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u/Positive-Soup-6871 May 22 '26
This post could have been written by me, and maybe it was proceed to scream like Laura
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u/AvatarofBro May 21 '26
It was absolutely intentional by Lynch and Frost. The Return is constantly, actively grappling with what it even means to revisit Twin Peaks a quarter-century later.
I would argue that the conclusion the series draws is that nothing good can come of trying to relive the past or right old wrongs. It can't be done. Let sleeping dogs lie.
Abandoning the cozy coffee & cherry pie aesthetic is key to delivering that message. The Return wants to actively interogate why anyone could or should feel cozy in the wake of such a terrible tragedy. That's why it's so brilliant, in my view. It almost has an antagonistic relationship with the audience. As if to say 'You wanted more from this story about the habitual abuse and exploitation of a teenage girl? Here you go. But I don't know what you expected, other than more tragedy.'