I've barely explained how I came to be so in love with Twin Peaks, other than it was a show I saw when I was fifteen and wildly into abstract film, books and music. I watched the series, disappointed by the tragic ending for Cooper and the lack of a firm resolution. I knew of the prequel, Fire Walk With Me. I'd seen trailers in the video store. It was probably the first R rated movie I saw, and I wasn't quite 18 but I was allowed to watch it.
Laura Palmer is the type of character people resonated with so much they basically fell in love with her, much like Lynch did. Her dichotomy was so complex and not a total cliche, she was unique but still the embodiment of the All American Girl. She had a reason for exploring her darker nature: the darkness was out to devour her and by harnessing it she could possibly survive it. Until, in a sense, she didn't. Fire Walk With Me eventually ends with Cooper comforting her while her angel arrives, but in essence, they're both still confined. So Coop being trapped in the Lodge forever was something as a fan you never truly got over.
The rest of the town comes out of the original series to varying degrees of misery, bar one couple - Shelly and Bobby. You really had the sense they were going to survive despite her being a waitress and him being the high school football captain. You don't really know how they even got together, other than Bobby's "professional" relationship with Leo, you assume he got closer to Shelly through this but it's never explored. According to the wiki, she and Bobby dated in high school and after Bobby cheated with Laura, she took off and met Leo and married him. This is in the Final Dossier by the by, I suppose as a response to no one getting their backstory. Laura's diary states she and Bobby were together at 14 and he drifted towards Shelley but I won't split hairs. You just accept they're having an affair, they're hot as fuck, their chemistry is off the charts and you're rooting for them to make it. You know Bobby and Laura were never going to make it. And once she's gone, Bobby still goes through a process of mourning and surfacing trauma from all she made him do. Laura's diary hints she's aware of Bobby and Shelly, and she doesn't care as she's sleeping with Leo anyway and filling in for Shelly so there's no love lost. But I wanted them to make it. They survive Leo and Bobby's basic immaturity, you're happy for them.
But they don't make it.
Cut to 25 years later and much to everyone's astonishment, we're getting a new Twin Peaks. I should mention here receiving the Missing Pieces was such a gift after having read the original screenplay, as we'd been left to believe this footage would never be seen. Most of it was as close to how I imagined it, but we don't get much more of Cooper's fate beyond another minute from the script. So I should've known. We do see Annie's fate and the fate of the ring. But with the new series, no one knew what to expect and it was brilliant as it was frustrating.
We only discover the result of Audrey's accident in the bank through dialogue; that she's been in a coma and allegedly raped by Coop/Bob to produce a son who plays somewhat of an integral role. (It seems to be a fan theory). What drove me nuts was Ben Horne's involvement with Donna Hayward's mother and him being Donna's real father, not to mention him being possibly dead by the end of the second season, was all glossed over. Maybe I missed some dialogue but nothing comes of Doc Hayward's assault, he ends up Skyping Truman's replacement, (his brother - Side note, yup all this shit's in the Final Dossier.) Richard has decided to carry on the drug trafficking legacy of the town, associating with some shady guy that ironically Shelly is dating now she's left Bobby offscreen even though they've since had a daughter Becky, who's also been sucked into the cocaine crowd in town and is in her own abusive relationship, Shelly playing a bleeding heart and letting her get away with shit. I was genuinely disappointed they failed to survive, even with Bobby becoming so law-abiding he ends up working for the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department. Mark Frost stated they divorced amicably after drifting apart, thus proving young love is doomed to end in tragedy.
And while you thought Hank would be stuck with Nadine forever, she has an about-face, shovels her way out of the shit thanks to Jacoby, who's gone bonkers, and lets Hank go. He immediately proposes to Norma and they live happily ever after. That was a nice moment, and you see Jacoby and Nadine have a moment that suggests they'll both end up alright in the long run. I like to think they both take off in his Winnebago and have some weird nonsexual, platonic companionship in their golden years. Nadine was a complicated character, you felt for Hank when she snapped out of her dumb delusional state she was a teenager and in love with Mike. Oh, and Mike ends up working in an employment office. That's about it for him. I think Lynch had enough sympathy for Nadine to not hang her out to dry. You think her watching Jacoby's rants is going to end in disaster and not an epiphany, and he had a certain affection for Norma and Hank not to leave them apart any longer.
The Return was a roller-coaster as we followed Coop's odyssey from the Lodge. We all kinda fell for Dougie Jones so it was nice he was kind of left behind to live with Diane's half sister. (I didn't even really pick up that was who she was in relation to the show. I didn't think she necessarily needed that obvious a link to anything. She was just some beleaguered wife living in Las Vegas who knows her husband is a gambler and a liar. I liked she just accepted the new Dougie and that Cooper did genuinely come to love her in his own weird way but obviously couldn't stay with her.)
I don't think we were meant to get a conclusive ending for Cooper. Just seeing him wake from his coma and that he's left the Lodge was a beautiful moment, even if he basically goes back in looking for Laura. Him trying to "save" her from that moment was eerily romantic and heartbreaking too. But we're left with more questions. So if you're surprised by that, you're not Lynch fan.
I do try to respect his direction with this story. I've just glanced through the Mark Frost novel which is way more involved than I realised, it's extensive and comprehensive but not something you could read from cover to cover without skipping over shit. It's amazingly presented as well I haven't spent any time with it I just jumped into the Return after doing a basic original/FWWM rewatch.
Lucy eventually has her baby who turns out to be Michael Cera, which is fucking perfect and hilarious considering he wasn't even born when the series was on, neither was Amanda Seyfried, which of course makes sense in the context of the show. Lucy and Andy have a few tedious moments but Andy proves useful when he's transported to the Lodge to speak with the Giant. He's braver now and sort of stalwart. I'm not sure I was all that thrilled with Bob and Coop's final confrontation, with the kid from England with the green glove. That was pure Lynch I guess. James's insufferable song isn't so insufferable this time around, but the Maddy/Donna clones on backup are kind of creepy. Donna's little sister Gersten isn't really recognisable, apparently Alicia Witt reprised the role and was barely identifiable. The books seem to hold way too much pertinent info to explain who we're looking at in the new series, I didn't feel like I was tuning out so much to miss who was whom or what was happening. The first episodes were triumphant so it was sad to have dips in the story where certain aspects or characters become too tedious or pointless. The randoms in the Road House every episode were like tapestry to add some vague backstory at times, i.e. that Billy guy who was too disgusting to look at. I suppose this was all part of the melodrama and the soapy nature of the original. I don't know. I guess I'll peruse the books once I have both. There's a thousand more levels now with these texts.
Twin Peaks is a labour of love for the fans. You either get it, or ya don't. I don't think there's any such thing as a "casual" Peaks fan.
Addendum. Reading the diary implies now, by the logic above, Shelly married Leo at 15, if she was Bobby's age, as Laura mentions Shelley as Leo's wife well before Laura's sixteenth. Unless Bobby dating her happened when Shelley was roughly 17. So splitting hairs might be appropriate. I don't know why it bothers me because it was so much easier to assume Bobby was banging an older woman.
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