5 Years Later Twin Peaks The Return Ending Finally Makes Sense

Diane Twin Peaks
Showtime/Rancho Rosa

They enter a motel room. Cooper is insistent that they have sex. They do, although the term takes on a more horrifying definition as the act unfolds. Diane blocks Cooper's face with her hands, unable to disassociate her friend and lover from her rapist. As chillingly conveyed by Kyle MacLachlan, wearing the dead-eyed malevolence of Mr. C, they are one and the same. Diane, or Linda, leaves him behind in the night. She leaves a note for "Richard," whom she no longer recognises. When Cooper reads the name "Richard," something unsettles him. Subconsciously, he senses from a distance that the rapist is literally a part of him. Richard Horne of course is his son. When he ventures out, he finds Judy's diner, and uses the intuition that quickly deserts him to arrive at Laura's home address. As soon as we come to question our Special Agent, he earnestly implores three cowboys to stop harassing the waitress. When one steps towards his table, and asks "F*ck are you doin'?". Cooper, not remotely intimidated, says "What?"

He then grabs the gun from his hand and shoots his friend in the foot. It's a badass moment, until you recall the scene from Part 11, in which Lynch lays bare the bleak reality of gun ownership and how it will never change. Then the triumph recedes. It's Twin Peaks. It's slippery in here.

Cooper locates Laura, learns that her name is Carrie Page, and attempts to take her back home via the highways of America. En route, they stop at a gas station. This scene parallels with Big Ed mournfully eating soup over the closing credits of Part 13. There, Ed peers through the windows of the gas station. At the sight of two cars passing by, he looks perturbed, as if this is somehow significant, before returning to his meal. When Cooper sets back off on the journey, another car immediately follows his. Ed can feel a psychic reverberation of Cooper's turmoil at his own lowest moment. It is no coincidence that much of Part 18 is spent watching Cooper drive in the black of night. Mr. C did this frequently during the series. This is yet another parallel that Lynch asks the viewer to draw between Cooper and his doppelgänger throughout the finale. Perhaps it was Mr. C chasing Cooper, not as a physical entity, but rather an abstraction in human form; Cooper's unshakeable guilt. We know every version of Cooper is somehow connected; in a huge clue, even the two diametric opposites are. In Part 11, before his fateful meeting with the Mitchum Brothers, Bushnell Mullins tells Dougie to knock 'em dead. When Dougie parrots "Dead" back to him, he rubs his own face, mirroring the method with which Mr. C somehow murdered Jack in Part 2.

CONT'D...(3 of 6)

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!