The Lynch Meditations 16: Twin Peaks Episode 29 (1991)

In the year 1991 . . .

Episode 29 . . . 

Until 2017, this was the farthest along in the saga of Twin Peaks we were able to get. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me actually took us all back in time to explicitly tell the story of the last week of Laura Palmer's life. So we had the complete backstory, but for many years we didn't know what happened next. In fact, Episode 29 strongly suggested there was no next.

Hmmm . . . my decision to not do spoilers when discussing Twin Peaks has become onerous. I think I'm going to go heavy into spoilers starting with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. After all it is the chronological beginning of the whole saga, and it was the first thing I watched before I ever saw the television series.

But about Episode 29: I recall the excitement I felt as I watched this episode so many years ago. I realized just how monumentally fucked-up the very last episode was going to be, and how I had never watched every episode of a television series from beginning to end before Twin Peaks. This was my first complete watch.

Episode 29 represents the triumph of mystery. The original premise of the show involved the murder of Laura Palmer never being solved. Well, her murder got solved. New mysteries were uncovered. Mysteries so powerful they well up and swallow what's left of hope and truth and love . . . yeah, it gets dark at the end. I dug it back in the day, I dig it even more, now.

Okay, next up is Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. I'll be doing spoilers from here on out.
And I will definitely be coming back to Twin Peaks as a whole,
Enemy Time permitting . . .

NEXT: 4/24/18: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

The Lynch Meditations -16

The last episode of Twin Peaks Season Two is up there with my favorite last episodes: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, The Wire-it brings the hammer down. Whatever the flaws of Season Two-which is widely regarded as deeply flawed, as missing a step, losing the plot-the very last episode brings the threads together, reminds the loyal superfans why they got hooked in the first place.

By the way, I've never agreed with the negative critical assessment of Season Two. I have only one explicit criticism, which I'll try to convey without spoiling anything: a character impersonates another . . . and that twist has not aged well. Not so much the idea of a character disguising themselves, but rather the uncomfortable representational politics of it . . . more I will not say. If you take the time to watch the entire series you will immediately know what I'm talking about. Aside from this one element, Season Two has never been a deal breaker for me.

Oh, yes . . . I will have to come back to this show in full . . .

My Neighbor Came 'Round, Needed Their Lawnmower Back . . .

Heading Out

Greed Body 2: Never Enough

Triune Dislocation of Being . . .

. . . I blame it on the seventy-six hour Tetris session. 

The Lynch Meditations 15: Twin Peaks Episode 14 (1990)

Episode 14 . . .

"It is happening again."

I'll try not to spoil too much . . . but this episode contains a startling depiction of profound metaphysical defeat. 

Agent Coop's sitting in the Roadhouse, taking in a live music show when a giant of prophecy manifests upon the stage, displacing the band to some other space-time reality for a moment or two. The giant tells Coop,

"It is happening again."

And then there's the look on Coop's face . . . he's staring into the very abyss. For he realizes he has failed to save a life. Again. 

This is a mysterious, yet devastating scene, one that strikes me with more force now than whenever I first watched it back in the day. 

NEXT: 4/19/18: Twin Peaks Episode 29