A collection of thoughts now that I've finished the 2024 real time rewatch

1. Interestingly, at the end of the original series, Mike is one of the characters I feel the most sorry for. In that final scene of their storyline with the whole mess of what was happening with Nadine, he was the only one who took any responsibility, when... he's 18. He's a kid. None of that should be, or *is*, his responsibility, and he shouldn't feel like it is. Everyone else in that situation, from Ed, to Norma, to Dr. Jacobi, maybe even Dr. Jacobi, are the adults and they're the ones that should have been responsible from the very beginning to be prepared for the possibility of her getting her memory back, and not throwing a poor kid into the things who might end up in a bad way just because Nadine not having her memory and being distracted by Mike meant that Norma and Ed could do whatever they wanted. I love Norma and Ed, but this storyline makes them look so bad. And Mike, who was easily on of the least likeable people in the pilot, ends up being one of the most sympathetic in the end. 2. I think, when I really look at it, the reveal of Andrew Packard being alive and his storyline through the end of season 2 is probably my least favorite thing about the season. Yes, James' story is, in my opinion, probably the worst storyline overall, but that's a storyline that was doomed from the beginning. It was taking a character who didn't work well and isolating from everyone else and the rest of the story to play out a contrived and predictable noir soap opera. It was always going to be bad. Andrew Packard held so much potential. His death being such a big deal to multiple characters meant that the reveal that he was alive, especially as Josie was already in such a difficult spot, was so effective. And then they hardly did anything with him. The way they chose to have him handle and interact with Josie was the most predictable, he had one good scene riling up Eckhardt, and then was wasted for the rest of the season on that lame puzzle box or whatever. Having him likely die (yes, we know from TSHOTP that he *did* die, but I'm trying to talk just from the perspective of the writing for the original series) just makes a decision with so much potential feel so pointless. 3. I also think killing of Josie was pointless. Based on her ending up in the knob or whatever I imagine there was probably some intent to do something with her down the line, but I feel like killing her when they did was kind of the easy way out of that storyline, and as such just completely threw away a lot of potential. 4. Really, I have a lot of ideas about Josie and Andrew in particular and more broadly about people in the town and their relationship with the supernatural/lodge stuff. While I like Windom Earl and his quest for the black lodge and would still want him around, I feel like it would have made sense for at least *some* of the people in the town outside of Briggs (and Margaret?) have some awareness of the lodge. And I think it would make sense of the people who have the most solid information about it was some of the wealthier citizens, like Andrew. It would have been far more interesting if his season 2 storyline had to do with also seeking at least more information on the lodge (because rich people love the idea of having power to exploit). And that could have also made Eckhart a little more interesting, if he was there for more than *just* Josie, and if the fallout between him and Andrew had in part something to do with the supernatural stuff. That could have also given Josie something interesting to do instead of just being killed off. Maybe in her desperation, thinking it will help her save herself, she starts seeking out the lodges, too. That could help to tie Harry deeper into things in the very end, too (not saying he'd have to go to the lodge with Cooper, or that anyone else would have to actually go than those who did, except maybe Josie), wanting to save Josie. 5. My brain always ends up focusing on things that don't matter to the story, but like... who's doing Meals on Wheels now? Obviously it's not Donna (and it absolutely shouldn't be, after what happened with Harold she should be banned from Meals on Wheels for life). Did some random from the high school take over? 6. Speaking of Harold, I really think what Donna (and Maddie, I guess, but Maddie didn't know him) did to him is among the cruelest things any of the characters do, and I am kind of irritated that she doesn't seem to feel that bad about it after a few seconds of being assured that it's not her fault (which, I mean, sure, it's not *entirely* her fault, but there's definitely some blame she should take) and that nothing really comes of it. Harold does seem like kind of a wasted character, considering how much his agoraphobia could have played into the supernatural stuff in show, which was suggested. 7. There's something I really, really like about having the scene in the Double R with Bobby, Shelley, and Heidi play out so similarly to how it played out in the pilot, only this time Shelley and Bobby are able to be open about their relationship and are blissfully happy, and then go to a much dark place by bringing Sarah in, seemingly being used by a lodge entity, to inform Major Briggs that Cooper was in the lodge. I imagine it was unintentional (though with Lynch, who the hell knows), but I think it ends up leading into The Return so well, with the way that season of television really focuses on that idea that you can't go back to the past, and that, when it comes to this town at least, things didn't just keep getting better, that that darkness kept seeping in more and more and for a lot of people (including Shelley and Bobby) there were a lot of ways in which things ended up worse. 8. The sense of perspective in the lodge scenes in the finale is so cool and disorienting. I think the best example is when Cooper enters one of the rooms and sees himself and Caroline laying on the ground, and then Caroline turns into Annie, then she sits up and starts looking around as Cooper calls her name, like she can't see him (or maybe even doesn't hear him). When he walks in and looks them on the ground, it looks like he's just walking into a room and looking at something in front of him on the ground. But when the camera's on stabbed Cooper and Caroline/Annie, the camera is at just the right distance, and Annie looks around in such a way that the space looks far too big for Coop to just be looking at them on the ground from the entrance of the room. It's so well done. 9. I know Lynch didn't like Windom Earl so he used him as little as possible in the finale, but I've always liked Earl. While the writers sometimes leaned a little *too* wacky with him, I think a lot of the time it struck a good balance that showed how completely detached from reality he was, in a way that complemented the way the strangeness of the supernatural, the dark force in the woods that lurked beneath Twin Peaks contrasted with its seeming normalcy. I also thought he functioned as an interesting part of Cooper's backstory. And there's just the fact that Kenneth Welsh is a joy to watch every time. 10. I think it's easy to forget because she kind of ends up vanishing from the series (until her scene in the finale anyway), but Sarah Palmer is easily one of the most tragic characters. Losing her whole family in that way is just unimaginable, and I do feel like the writers in season 2 really dropped the ball in not realizing the potential in that story. As much as I love Sarah's presence in The Return and how it's handled, I feel like it would have been even more effective if we had seen more of Sarah in the aftermath of the loss of her family in season 2. 11. I really like that the story ended with so many cliffhangers. I know you'll see people on this sub throw around a lot of conflicting information about the end of season 2 - some people will say that so much stuff ended on cliffhangers because when they were shooting the finale they still thought they might get another season, others will tell you that the show had been cancelled before they even wrote the finale so they knew it was the end, etc - but ultimately I think it doesn't really matter because there is something so interesting about ending a show like this with the fate of so many characters unknown, and on so many different levels. As a show that's based so heavily on typical soap opera tropes, having the entire series end on the usual sort of season ending cliffhangers is both a great nod to those tropes while also functioning as a sort of subversion of the way so much of television worked back then, refusing to offer tidy happy endings for the finale episode of the show. As a show that deals with ideas of the way darkness is very present in the DNA of what appears to be idyllic small town life, having the show end with so many uncertainties and the lives of so many characters hanging in the balance does so much to push that idea of how uncertain and unsafe the world can really be, even in a place that looks like the ideal small town. 12. It's kind of fascinating to compare the characters who really do seem to undergo real, significant character development, like Bobby and even (imo) Andy, to characters who maybe didn't go through much character development and only seemed like they did because the situations they found themselves in allowed them act as if they had, like Ed. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but I feel like it ends up functioning as an effective reference/commentary on the kind of tv shows - soap operas - that it gets so much inspiration from. When it came to soap operas in the 80s, particularly primetime soaps, it was pretty common for a lot of characters, often even most of the characters, to not undergo particularly significant character development. Characters might change here and there, and every once in awhile there'd be the rare character who would go through a dramatic change. But characters tended to be kept relatively static. So the way TP ended up developing, or not developing, its characters, ended up being both a neat reference to and subversion of the kinds of shows it pulled so much from. 13. Speaking of Bobby's character development, I think it's really well done. Considering the fact that the show does take place over the course of just over a month, it does make sense that most characters wouldn't go through wild change, and when you watch the episodes over that amount of time it does feel pretty natural that all of the characters aren't going through serious personality changes in a month. But Bobby does change a lot from where he starts, and it all feels really natural even though it happens in a short period of time. I think the scene of Laura's funeral and the scene of his session with Jacoby are really important for that, because they go a long way in showing that Bobby isn't just an uncaring punk. 14. Though, speaking of Bobby, and leading into the point that will follow this one... there is not escaping how weird his story got in the middle-ish of season two (which, to be fair, was the case for other characters, too). I think that it makes sense that he would want to pursue a job with Ben since Leo's recording presented him with that opportunity, and especially since he'd talked Shelley into the insurance thing and now she was hurting for money and stuck at home with Leo. But I think the way he got really absent from her didn't make sense, at least with how they'd set up their relationship early in the season. It seemed like the writers kind of teamed up him and Audrey for a little while just because they weren't sure what to do with both of them. It seemed like they had maybe been considering Bobby/Audrey as a thing now that Cooper/Audrey wasn't going to be a thing, but then decided not to go with it. And I just wish they hadn't been focusing on that because (1) I do think it's the one thing that doesn't work with Bobby's emotional arc because of the way it makes him seem like he's regressing without much reason to and (2) Bobby and Audrey do have a fun chemistry and are entertaining on screen together, but then it felt like the writers decided they didn't want to go the romance route with them, so they dropped them all together and Bobby just kind of disappeared from working for Ben. That's really disappointing, because Bobby and Audrey could have been a lot of fun as friends, and it would have been nice to see that continue. That storyline seemed like it was just a "we don't know what to do with these characters", and they wasted some good chemistry and a good basis for a friendship because when they decided that wasn't what they wanted to do with them - well, really, what they didn't want to do with Audrey, because she got shifted to a different romantic relationship, and then Bobby just didn't have much to do for the rest of the season outside of insist Shelley do the pageant. 15. Okay, here's the long one... watching the episodes on the days they actually take place really just highlights how weak the Annie/Cooper and Audrey/JJW stories are and how unconvincing the idea of their feelings for each other being as strong as the writers seem to be insisting they are in the end really is. I feel like Audrey is the only character there where it can maybe kind of make sense and be at least a little believable, because she's 18 years old, she's a romantic. And she'd been recently rejected by Cooper, who she'd also fallen for fast without really knowing him. But if anything that just makes JJW look *worse*. I'm not automatically against any ship with an age gap, but I think the writers really shot themselves in the foot here by having him open up that relationship by talking about how he has a picture of her from when she was like, 10, and having him talk about it in a way that at least kind of implies that picture is playing *some* kind of role in his apparent love at first (well, second) sight with her. And that's a real shame, because outside of Audrey, I like JJW as a character, even with as little we see of him. I think that idea of the moral businessman is interesting when all we've seen of business types is moral bankruptcy and backstabbing, and that makes his relationship with a reborn Ben fun to watch and filled with potential. The character would have functioned better had his primary purpose been as a friend to Ben and not a love interest to Audrey. I think Cooper/Annie ends up coming up a lot worse, I think. A big part of that is because of the importance they ultimately play to the storyline, and because of the fact that the ways in the which the writing of this relationship fails ends up making Cooper look kind of worse as a result. I feel like there *could* maybe be a similar justification created to Audrey happening with Annie - the idea that she's at least *somewhat* young (Heather Graham looks like a baby, and while I know they meant for Annie to be older than Graham, I simply can't buy that that's the case), that she's freshly back in the world and being able to not just interact with men but entertain the possibility of being with a man for the first time in a long time, that she doesn't have much experience in that regard, and therefor gets too emotionally excited and attached too fast. And I think what little we hear of her romantic background could support this. But I think it ultimately end up not really being believable when applied to the show because of just how flat Annie is as a character and how she seriously lacks real personality (a result of both the writing for the character and Graham's performance). Because of how little time it all actually happens in, it just feels, at best, out of character for Cooper, and while I think he's definitely shown to lean toward a sort of naive "seeing the best in things" outlook with the way he sees the town of Twin Peaks in a lot of ways, I think this idea of immediately falling in love with the new girl in town that he barely knows after like, a week? If that? pushes that past the bounds of believability in a way that I think undercuts the character. I think this is especially true because he gets involved with her quickly, without much thought, and knowing that Windom Earl is around to toy with him, not long at all (even by this show's standards) after telling Audrey about what happened to Caroline and how much he wants to make sure to never put someone he cares about in that kind of position again, in part as a way to explain why he's rejecting her. And frankly, that scene has the I imagine unintended effect (really, though, if I'm being honest, sometimes when I watch this chunk of the show and I see how Annie is handled and how things unfold I really do wonder if they did it all on purpose to punish Maclachlan for shooting down Cooper/Audrey) of making it look like he's rejecting Audrey because he cares about *her* and doesn't want *her* to get hurt, but goes all in with Annie because he doesn't care that much (again, I don't think this was the intended effect and I do think this is actually true in the way he's written with Annie, it's just the way having him start this relationship so soon after that conversation with Audrey ends up framing the situation). Ultimately, I understand why Annie exists as a love interest for Cooper, because they'd already been setting up the backstory with Windom Earl and Caroline and seemed to be heading in a direction to have some kind of person in Cooper's life who could serve as a parallel to Caroline so as to give Cooper a drive to save someone in the way he couldn't save Caroline. I think that they probably were setting Audrey up to be that person based on the the first part of the season, but when that ended up not being a way they could go, they had to figure out a way to fill that void. I think there was always going to be a problem with whatever character they used to do that because with the time that was left in the season there just wasn't going to be enough time to build up that relationship in a believable way, and that conversation with Audrey was always going to lead to that awkward framing. But the fact that Annie ended up being the character they created to fill that role just made it worse because her writing was such a mess, and she did end up just kind of existing to fill that role for Cooper and nothing else, which is just a real bummer.

These aren't the only thoughts I had during the whole rewatch, but the were the biggest ones that remained in my head at the end.