Stinkypup

Holy crap - I thought that I was a nerd watching Dr Who...

BristolUK

End of the original series it appeared as if Coop came out of the Black Lodge possessed by 'Bob' - as shown when we saw Bob's reflection in the bathroom mirror. But a little bit before that, when the man from another place () was speaking (with subtitles for the backwardish speech) he used the word doppelganger.

At one point you can see two Coops running down in between the red curtains. The good Coop was stuck inside the Black Lodge, the bad one got out.

bats

Dyes but two are out, the good one is still in the black Lodge, Bobcoop is in gaol and CasinoCoop is vacant.

BristolUK

I believe the idea is that

BristolUK

Twin Peaks meets Peanuts

DeanN

So last night's episode (Part 8) was... um.... basically an avant-garde experimental film smuggled somehow onto American cable TV.

Which isn't a criticism: it was a beautiful and absorbing hour, one of the most captivating things I've ever seen. But it'll probably be the most polarising episode of the entire series.

All I can picture is the Showtime executives watching this and wondering quite how they'd ever been convinced to give David Lynch a multi-million pound budget and full creative control.

BristolUK

I've not seen it yet, it's downloaded for later.

But I think the reason there's been so much good TV over the last few years - especially from America - is that the execs are no longer solely concerned with ratings and the product (for want of a better word) is allowed to develop to its potential rather than the formula of, say, CBS output.

They may still ponder the point you made but it's no longer the be all, end all it used to be.

DeanN

As a fellow superfan I'll be interested to hear what you make of it.

BristolUK

Got a light?

"My god, it’s full of stars" immediately occurred to me with similarities to more than just 2001's star gate bit too.

All things considered the episode fairly flew by.

I'm thinking a little research is needed and further viewing - which I'll get when my stepdaughter decides to begin catch-up.

BristolUK

It's funny...all the episode recap blogs (including the Guardian) have viewers coming out with all sorts of theories as to who people may be and what such and such must mean.

BristolUK

Is Major Briggs Judy?

Major Garland Briggs.

We know now that Gordon Cole is also the name of a character in the movie Sunset Boulevard.

Perhaps good Coop will click his heels and say "There's no place like home."

BristolUK

There's a TV series called Psych. I can't believe it's any good.

But season 5, episode 12 is Dual Spires. No prizes for guessing.

It's highly enjoyable and includes several Twin Peaks cast members.

DeanN

Sunset Boulevard has long been cited by Lynch as one of his favourite films, and there are plenty of references / similarities to it in his work (Mulholland Dr. in particular, not least the fact that both films are named for streets in Lost Angeles)

As for Judy... according to Fire Walk With Me co-writer Robert Engels, one early version of the plot had Judy turn out to be the sister of Josie Packard, last seen 'trapped' inside a doorknob in the Great Northern, and who had something to do with Philip Jeffries' sojourn to Buenos Aires. Seems unlikely this will be the case now, particularly as the actress who played Josie, Joan Chen, isn't on the cast list, but you never know. In a weird twist, Chen actually wrote David Lynch a public letter earlier this year – in character, no less – musing on what Josie might have been doing these past decades. More on that here.

For what it's worth I've loved every baffling minute of the new show and it has surpassed my expectations in every way. Sadly there's only three more hours of it left.

BristolUK

I'm not worried about so little left. I re-watched the originals prior to the return and then many of them again when my stepdaughter got into it.

So the moment it's over I shall be watching again with her. Reading the Guardian blog and similar on the AV Club it's amazing what you either miss or don't see the relevance of. Mind you some things people "see" I played back several times and I saw nothing. Something about Ed's reflection in the window...they said it looked weird but I didn't even see one. And did the customers in the diner all suddenly change? I'll watch out for that in the rerun in a couple of weeks.

I don't know if it's age or being out of the habit of watching a weekly serial but continuity, new and/or minor characters popping up and the strange theories advanced on other blogs all add to the bafflement. But add to the enjoyment too.

There was one episode I didn't like. I found myself sighing and saying "come on, get on with it" and it wasn't anything to do with those extended scenes like the guy sweeping in the bar. Those were hilarious.

bats

he is awake!