Subject: Finale Theory
From: webb+@cs.cmu.edu (Jon Webb)
Date: 1991-06-12, 05:51
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

My wife and I took a second look at the finale again last night, and the
contrast between the two directorial styles is amazing.  Hunter's
episode is mainly plot-advancement and silliness (like the Miss Twin
Peaks contest), with a few jokes thrown in like the deer.  Knowing the
plot, we fast-forwarded over most of it.  But Lynch's episode is
fascinating on second viewing -- almost everything there stands up the
second time around.

I believe that this episode was originally filmed as a "happy ending"
completing the Twin Peaks series, and then re-edited, possibly with
additional filming (the only additional bits, I think, were the final
two scenes and the explosion in the vault), once Lynch had decided to
make a Twin Peaks movie; I think Lynch had a limited budget or time to
re-edit the film, hence the inclusion of doubtful scenes.  The scene
with Nora and Big Ed happily kissing while Nadine and Mike are bandaged
is totally out of place considering her sister was just kidnapped; also,
the dialogue from that scene does not fit -- Mike says he was hit by a
tree, and there were no trees around hitting people in the previous
scenes.  Ditto the later scene with Bobby and Shelley -- they are very
happy, and repeat the dialogue from the pilot almost word for word,
almost suggesting "life in Twin Peaks returns to normal" following the
defeat of Evil -- but Evil has not been defeated, Shelley's friend has
just been kidnapped by a murder.  There's no way Shelley should be
acting like that.  Either the direction is terribly wrong (and Lynch
would not make a mistake like that) or the scenes were filmed with
something else in mind.  Similarly, the final confrontation between Doc
Hayward and Ben, where he apparently kills Ben, is followed later by the
recovery of CooBob attended by Hayward and Truman, and Hayward is his
usual self,  Just doesn't make sense.  Also the scene with the Log Lady
and the oil doesn't make sense since the oil is not used again and it
hasn't been established that Coop expects the Log Lady to show up.

The original plot was probably something like: Coop uses the Log Lady's
oil to gain access to the Black Lodge before Windom Earle; he confronts
his doppelganger, and defeats WE, saving Annie; he then leaves Twin
Peaks with Annie, and life returns to normal.

I think that Lynch changed the final episode to kill off all the plot
lines he could not sustain in the movie.  Hence the deaths of Pete,
Andrew, and probably Audrey (Pete and Andrew are definitely out of it,
you see the flash of the explosion in their faces standing before the
safe deposit box), the inclusion of the scene "resolving" the Nadine/Big
Ed plot, the flash to Leo in the woods -- implying he's going to die
without having to film a scene of him dying, and the murder of Ben Horne
even though it doesn't make sense in the context of the later scene.

BTW, Bob may have made a great Leland, but he doesn't make much of a
Coop.  His "I wasn't sleeping" is pretty un-Cooperish, and he repeats "I
have to brush my teeth" in an odd way.  This in addition to the "How's
Annie" Truman and Hayward must have heard from the bathroom.

-- J