Subject: lots of finale stuff (SPOILERS!!!)
From: larryy@Apple.COM (Larry Yaeger)
Date: 1991-06-11, 19:02
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

First of all, regarding the "deaths" of Andrew, Pete, and Audrey:

  Pete was directly behind Andrew Packard, so it's not unreasonable that he
  might survive.

  Audrey was far enough away to at least conceivably survive.

  Andrew is a goner, short of "Ooo, it's a miracle" type of shoddy writing.

In response to Rocky Giovinazzo:
> >I didn't understand why the Giant/SDC were in the waiting room.  I
> >suppose that the waiting room was neutral territory for Black/White
> >lodgers?
> > ...
> >The Black and White Lodges must also be "one in the same" I guess--
> >coexisting in the same place/time (whatever that is)?

Certainly not made all that clear, but I'd say that there were essentially
two waiting rooms, one for each lodge.  Perhaps this is all that one can
experience while still in corporeal form; one would have to abandon one's
physical body entirely to enter the Lodges themselves.  Coop ran back and
forth between them.  The MFAP and the Giant/SDC were there representing the
White Lodge, though I think we also saw a Black Lodge MFAP (gads, already the
details fade from memory... I am going to watch it again!).  Despite Hawk's
tale of it being necessary to defeat one's Black self in order to enter the
White Lodge, it would seem that there are Black and White versions of pretty
much everyone (a theme certainly in keeping with Lynch's cinematic vision).
(Or perhaps Coop's failure to best his doppelganger means he never even saw
the White Lodge or its waiting room, but I don't believe this interpretation.)

> >Was WE then simply lured by BOB to be used as bait for Cooper?  The
> >whole love/fear thing didn't make much sense.  Apparently, WE needed
> >Annie to pass through the gateway, but then Cooper didn't need a 2nd
> >person (soul) to pass through.
> >
> >What happened to all of the power WE was supposed to have after passing
> >through?  -- I guess WE was just set up by BOB to think he would gain
> >power.

Well, WE was all too fallible, and his understanding of the Black Lodge
incomplete, as was demonstrated quite effectively by his fate.  He may or
may not have "needed" Annie; we'll never know.  My interpretation was not
so much one of BOB manipulating WE, as BOB taking advantage of WE's own
predilections.  Just because a character/person is evil, doesn't mean that
person can't be overcome him/herself, by the very evil he/she embraces;
witness WE!

> >[and referring to my interpreting a petroglyph symbol near the circle of
> >trees as the Black & White Lodges]
> >I can see how you interpreted the symbol this way, but doesn't it look
> >more like a small well of water?

It's a little tough to make out on my desktop screen shot here, but I think
it looks about like this:
                        _________
                       /_________\
                      //=========\\
                      ||==========||
                      | __________ |
                      ||          ||
                       \\________//
                         ---------

Whew... that was tough, and still not very good.  Imagine each of the above
marks as diffuse white chalk on a blackboard.  Hence the top portion is
completely shaded in as white, and the lower portion is a doubly-ringed black
oval.  Doesn't really look like a well.  And it's not in the center of the
ring, but outside just to the left on the "map".  The Access Guide has a
good rendering of the petroglyph (even though it has a statement to the
effect that no cave markings were ever found or some such in the text?).

In response to Melanie Horn:
> >* Was anyone else very annoyed by the scene with the old man
> >  at the bank.. walking.. very.. slowly.. to.. wherever.. it..
> >  was.. he.. was.. going?  ARGH!  Especially since Coop was
> >  in the Lodge at the same time..

Not me!  I absolutely loved this scene.  I'm sure responses to it vary a lot,
but the pacing (pun intended) was fabulous.  The hesitations.  The obvious
lets-just-take-a-walk-to-sort-of-do-what-she-asks-to-figure-out-what-the-
hell-is-going-on-in-a-daze behavior is so damn human!  And so counter to
the slam bang action of most television drama that I found it positively
delicious!

And regarding the phallic deer... yep, my wife and I cracked up in almost
complete disbelief.  Slapstick horror... a whole new genre!

In response to Theresa Buchman:
> >... BOB waited until Cooper surrendered his soul to WE, (a BOB minion) then
> >dismissed WE and claimed the offered soul for himself.  This was the
> >permission that BOB needed to possess Coop. ...

Yes, this was one interpretation I mentioned in an earlier posting.  We've
had some suggestions that BOB requires his host to permit him in, and this
seems like a perfect "Invitation to Hate":-)  Of course it could also just
be a more diffuse:  due to Coop's fear or incomplete love his doppelganger
won out.  Maybe someday Lynch will give us his interpretation!

Also a big YES and PLEASE LET IT BE SO for Major Briggs and Annie in the
mystical realm of the two Lodges, with backup from Harry and Andy in the
physical realm, as the principals involved in saving Coops soul, by
rescuing the imprisoned good-Coop from the Black Lodge.  Briggs's belief
in love and Annie's embodiment of it make for most moving characters and
most powerful warriors on the side of good!  I'd sure like to see Albert
drawn into the conflict, too.

Umm, and... thanks for the donut!

In response to Joe Zitt:
> >The MFAP said that he'd show up again as someone else -- who?

I think he was referring to the fact the he also had a doppelganger.
And, contrary to James Mihaychuk and some others, I don't think the MFAP
is necessarily from the Black Lodge.  In fact, if I had to pick, I'd say
he was from the White Lodge, but, as we see in this final episode, it
appears that everyone has a dark side.  And I sure don't think that the
MFAP *is* BOB.  Course I could be wrong!

> >Seems like we were right in guessing that the Waiter and the Giant were
> >the same. What was with the coffee stunt?

Damn good question!  Maybe just an allegory for the multiple natures
inherent in everything and everyone.  People can be good and bad and
everything in between; coffee can be solid, liquid, and in between?
Dunno!

> >Was that Laura reflected in the coffee cup in the end titles?

Yes.

> >How did Coop know exactly when [the Log Lady would] show up at the sherrif's
> >office?

I just figured he had asked her to get that bottle of oil, and knew about
how long it would take her to retrieve it.

In response to Darragh Nagle:
> >I spotted that fake log in a second. It couldn't talk its way
> >out of a woodpile.

Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!!

> >The final credits:
> >I've been on the edge of my seat before, but upside down in
> >front of my TV? Whew! How many of you were with me?

Count me in!  And it *was* Laura!  Now what the hell did it mean?  Good and
bad Laura like liquid and solid coffee?  But what does that mean?  Probably
just another Lynchian symbol-sans-DIRECT-meaning.

In response to Mark Hessman:
> >... The way Coop reflexively 'attacked' Bob by butting his head into the
> >mirror seemed to indicate that Coop himself (the same Coop who asked
> >"How's Annie?" when he woke up, the human part of Coop that is still there
> >even though Bob is sitting atop his soul) saw Bob in the mirror and knew
> >who he was and what that meant.

Interesting interpretation.  I took the head-butting action to be BOB
demonstrating his complete control over Coop, in a manner similar to what
he did to Leland in the sheriff's office.  And the genuinely spooky
"How's Annie" repetition to be BOB's gleeful wallowing in the belief
that Coop's last non-BOB-controlled thoughts would have been better turned
to his own safety than to Annie's.  As someone else posted... yeah, you
saved Annie (for now), but you lost yourself (and the ability to protect
her ever again).

In response to Tom Sullivan:

I like "BooBer" 'cause it's the funniest, but "CooBob" is pretty good too! :-)

In complete agreement with Marci Swede:

> >Just enjoy it, it was fun even if there were cliffhangers.

Amen!  There's no way every loose end could be tied up.  I wouldn't want
them all tied up.  Twin Peaks lives on in our hearts and minds.

That said, there are a couple of things that I wish had been addressed...

One of my biggest outstanding mysteries is who the heck was the hooded figure
in the last few episodes.  That really looked all mystical and important, but
was completely ignored in the wrap-up.

And then, "What happened to Josie, Coop?"  (Though a half-hearted attempt at
answering this was given by Dale, if I remember right, when he told Harry
about her death, and stated that she had died of fright.)

Ah well, please come back in some form, Twin Peaks.
-- -larryy@apple.com "You wouldn't recognize a *subtle plan* if it painted itself purple, and danced naked upon a harpsichord, singing, 'Subtle Plans are Here Again'." - Edmund Blackadder