10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Finale
1. ...But Twin Peaks Will Confound Until The End Because There Is No End
Did Lynch want us to prise some sort of joy from this harrowing ending?
Every physical sensation experienced was unsettling. But as Laura's life reverberated around her with Judy's faint cry, her scream created a power surge within the Palmer household. Judy's electrical conduit was short-circuited. But then, as the screen faded to black, the image of Cooper and Laura in the Red Room rematerialised. We were left with the disturbing image of Laura harkening an uncomfortable truth to an uncomfortable Cooper. Crucially, Angelo Badalamenti's Dark Space Low droned over the credits. The hope the dimmed house built diminished; the piece was ostensibly the aural translation of despair.
Jeffries' infinity symbol was a warning to Cooper. It described Judy's unbeatable grasp of the world, something even the benevolent puppet masters of the White Lodge were unable to checkmate - but Lynch received his wish of telling a continuing story, one which might yet continue. When The Return was first announced - and its ending was already pencilled in, not that the page bound the improvisational auteur in the director's chair - co-creator Mark Frost suggested that "If we have a great time doing it and everybody loves it and they decide there’s room for more, I could see [a further continuation]."
As long as the ceiling fan stops whirring - that horribly mundane symbol for the cycle of abuse - there is always hope.