http://www.avclub.com/here-is-the-exhaustive-illustrated-unified-theory-of-t-1803137516 This is pretty good stuff I think.
Just in case no one has hyped it up yet, the second half of season 2 is just incredible. Well the whole season is, but the last few episodes really elevate the show to something else.
I'm learning so much from every finale review I've read. Makes me realize just how clueless I was while watching this season. This article really helped me: ‘Twin Peaks’ Ending Explained: How to Make Sense of David Lynch’s Baffling Finale
I'll never understand people who write off season 2. I get that Lynch departed briefly and things kind of got muddy at times but really the only thread from S2 I can say I even sort of don't care for is James/Evelyn. And even that mostly just washes right over me. I know a lot of people didn't like the Ben Horne thinks he's a Civil War general breakdown but I fucking loved it just for how ridiculous it is haha.
If I were to give a thematic breakdown of S2 of TP, I'd say there's some really interesting stuff going on albeit how strange it all appears on-screen. Some of this is just spitballing but lemme know what y'all think: We zero-in on Ben Horne's identity crisis which ultimately leads him to betray both his family and the Haywards in the search for goodness. In that final episode, it's pretty terrifying watching this deep Hayward/Horne family secret arise and obliterate both families respectively. If we're ignoring the actress issues that took place, one can assume Donna abandoned Twin Peaks to discover just who she really is-- and never returned. I choose to view James/Evelyn's story as the embodiment of his parental displacement issues and his grief over Laura. He reveals at some point in the original series that his father was absent (a traveling musician) and his mother was an alcoholic writer who slept around often. James wants unambiguous, perfect, and total love from someone (not receiving it from Laura, he projects that desire onto Donna and later Maddie), but his grief is in the way, so he then becomes obsessed with the concept of "escape," constantly wishing to "just get on his bike and go." This desire is probably inherited by his parents who were constantly on the road. Finding Evelyn satisfies this desire to leave his hometown, discover a warped version of "parental" love, and also provides him an opportunity to "fix" the abusive relationship Evelyn is trapped in (which would resolve the grief/guilt he feels for not helping Laura.) None of this works out, obviously. In my opinion, the S2 Audrey storyline is the one that frustrates me the most. Mostly because her role feels very dwindled down. So much of her arc revolves around her helping her father's mental-healing. The "Stop Ghostwood" campaign reveals her interest in social work, builds her character as a professional, and finds her a compatible partner-- but all that is halted after the explosion. It's my belief that the coma and the rape stunted her mental/emotional growth, putting her in a fragmented reality built of corrupted childhood memories and her traumatized present-day experience.
Because I'm an insane person with no respect for someone else's art: I decided a little pet project I'm going to work on, just for myself, is to see how much I can cut this season down. Can it be a 3-ish hour movie that's hyper-focused on Coop? We'll see. Probably not. I'm re-watching and documenting each scene and ranking how necessary they are. Currently on part 6. I'm thinking as soon as Cooper gets to Janey's/Dougie's house, she mentions getting him some cake. This can be followed right up with him eating the cake and sticking the fork in the socket, losing the entire Dougie / Insurance co. / Mitchums plot. The downfall here is there's no explanation for why the Mitchums love Dougie and fly him to TP/ etc. But it would save tooooons of time. I'll keep you posted on my progress / when I throw in the towel / etc.
Haha whoops. Enjoyed your analysis in the next post on the plot threads in season 2. I mean, it's because I'm such a Twin Peaks fanboy that I unconditionally love season 2 as much as season 1, but at the same time...I feel like there's still a lot of interesting character exploration going on with those stories, as you elaborated on. Cut it so that he gets hit in the head with a baseball, then the next scene is him in the hospital waking up lol.
How funny (or Lynchian) would it be if the DVD version was completely different than the Showtime version?
I like the cover but I also hope that it's a slipcover and the real cover is just Dougie in his green jacket
During my re-watch, I realized why he got teary-eyed when he was looking at Sonny Jim in the car. The real cooper inside feels guilty that the kid is a product of the lodge and deserves a real Dad.