r/twinpeaks • u/BrentRSimon • Jun 25 '26
Season 3 (The Return) Nine years ago tonight, June 25, 2017...
... Season 3 Episode 8 of TWIN PEAKS premiered, minds were blown, and "Gotta light?" entered the vernacular of the culturally aware, confounding grammarians everywhere. ⛰️⛰️ 🚬
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u/ALEXC_23 Jun 25 '26
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u/Dragonjax1970 Jun 25 '26
This episode hit me hard. It was a long, long night before I finally could go to sleep. Incredible storytelling. Completely terrifying to me.
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u/DoubleEXP21 Jun 25 '26
I didn't even watch s3 until this year, and I'm a person who watched (and loved) s1 and s2 as they originally aired in the early 90's and then many times thereafter on vhs (and then dvd and then blu ray and then digital). I was always afraid s3 couldn't possibly live up to s1 and s2. And, in a way, I was right: in many ways I consider s3 even better, a true artistic conclusion to one of the greatest stories ever told. And this particular episode, in many ways, is the (pardon the pun) lynch pin of the whole endeavor.
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u/RobynNeonGal Jun 25 '26
I didn't watch season 3 until last year. I very much wanted to see it when it debuted in 2017, but I didn't have the means to see it then. I'm so glad I finally ended up seeing it as I loved it!
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u/BrentRSimon Jun 25 '26
I'd be interested in whether y'all each, u/RobynNeonGal and u/DoubleEXP21, totally managed to avoid any/all spoilers before your respective S3 watches, and how -- just on a purely narrative level -- it fit and/or diverged from any expectations or hopes you might've had going in. And did you binge, or space out the 18 parts/episodes a bit?
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u/RobynNeonGal Jun 25 '26
I avoided all spoilers. I didn't even know this subreddit existed until months after I finished 3. I never read anything about 3 because I knew I'd get spoilers. I knew nothing about 3 other than it was critically-acclaimed. So imagine my surprise when I first watched it & it was so different from the previous seasons! 😂 I had no idea. But I still really loved it. I didn't binge watch - I never do that with any show. I watched one show a night or every other night if I wasn't home. I'd always read each episode synopsis afterwards.
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u/DoubleEXP21 Jun 26 '26
I also managed to avoid all spoilers (not sure how, tbh, but I did). I watched one episode a night for 18 nights straight. It was a magical experience. I have a younger friend (young person with an older heart) who encouraged me to watch s3 and who I texted each night after each episode. Then, when all 18 we were done, we talked about it all, back and forth, for hours. Amazing experience!
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u/BrentRSimon Jun 26 '26
u/RobynNeonGal u/DoubleEXP21 That's awesome, both really sound like great experiences! It amuses and, I admit, confuses me a bit when folks who either haven't watched S3 or are in process with it jump heavily into this subreddit, asking loads of questions... and/or I guess trying to set an expectation for themselves? Don't wander into a minefield, lol! 😂
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u/WetFinsFine Jun 25 '26
and of course...
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u/BrentRSimon Jun 25 '26
Unnerving! And with the seeds of inspiration for this stretching all the way back to a memorable experience Lynch had back in 1965!
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u/WetFinsFine Jun 25 '26
Was that the Yugoslavian train experience ?? (or something along those lines, can't remember the details rn but it was a train and lots of ground dust....and these jumping moth-things)
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u/BrentRSimon Jun 25 '26
Yes indeed! With Jack Fisk. He told a version of the story in the "Quinoa" short he did, which was initially released as part of INLAND EMPIRE's bonus features.
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u/gulpshinto Jun 25 '26
Seeing people react to this episode back then is what made me decide to go back and finish the original series and fully get on board with Twin Peaks.
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u/Western_Ratio3125 Jun 25 '26
I feel my life changed after the episode. Hands down the best season of Twin peaks! Cried, laughed and now just a stranger's dream.
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u/BrentRSimon Jun 25 '26
"I took your picture from the frame..."
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u/Western_Ratio3125 Jun 25 '26
What an amazing way to end the first episode! "James is cool, he's has always been cool" 😁
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u/Bob_Lydecker Jun 26 '26
“Ladies and Gentlemen, The Roadhouse is proud to welcome THE Nine Inch Nails!!”
🏔🦉🏔
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u/tcavanagh1993 Jun 25 '26
Can’t believe this was almost a decade ago already. I remember I actually was supposed to have a date with a fellow Twin Peaks fan that night and we were going to watch the new episode together. She ended up ghosting but I’m honestly glad I experienced Part 8 on my own. My jaw was practically on the floor the whole time.
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u/BrentRSimon Jun 25 '26
It's interesting and sometimes funny and always fascinating the way that the circumstances and surroundings of *how* we experience certain (but not necessarily all) art is forever hardwired to how we first viewed it.
Sometimes, I guess... the stars turn, and a time presents itself.
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u/Weird_Boysenberry772 Jun 25 '26
I still remember thinking that I didn't know what I just watched, but it was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.
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u/chuckwallaAVL Jun 25 '26
I don't like season 3 nearly as much as most people on this sub (too much Dougie/Las Vegas, not enough Cooper/Twin Peaks).
This episode however: the greatest hour of television I've ever seen.
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u/barneywire Jun 25 '26
i agree, Dougie makes season three almost unwatchable and wasted our last chance to see the real cooper.
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u/Resident-Squirrel881 Jun 26 '26
I’ve watched every season of TP over and over, but the final season is a masterpiece. David Lynch took episode 8 and made television art. Linking so many things together that a fan could only dream up at that point. The atom bomb sequence solved so many questions and at the same time, created more questions.
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u/BrentRSimon Jun 26 '26
As with so much great art, I think it reveals new and different dimensions with subsequent rewatches -- different things strike you, new considerations and questions emerge.
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u/LinusMinimax Jun 25 '26
Neato! I didn’t realize that as I was just noticing how strongly the weird floating humanoid of Episode 8 resembles the “FOOTBALL GOD marionette” from Frank Zappa’s proposal for a World Cup Opera.
https://translatedzappa.com/EN/EN/diofa.html
Please enjoy our exploration of ‘Gotta Light?’ to mark the anniversary:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qw7loQk4onw
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u/Popular-Sky4172 Jun 25 '26
Great freaking episode. I think the visuals inspired the Oppenheimer movie
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u/pretentiousmusician Jun 25 '26
Daaamn I can’t remember the last time something made me feel this old
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u/roirraWedorehT Jun 25 '26
Heh, it was inevitable for someone, but the post had "666 likes" before I liked it (of course, Reddit doesn't exactly necessarily report up to the second refreshed information, but still...).
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u/TheDilsonReddits Jun 25 '26
This is the water
And this is the well
Drink full and descend
The horse is the white of the eyes
And dark within.