Vee

"...And last night I had another Monica Bellucci dream!" Okay, so thoughts as they came and were finally assembled: What a fücking show. The Lois Duffy case that spawned Blue Rose - a clear case of doppelgängers - is fascinating. I want more; I love all this crazy Mark Frost/Bob Engels-driven(?) FBI lore. And the OTT high-tech computer lair is awesome. And for me, Tammy is better and better opposite Ferrer and Lynch. Chrysta Bell works in that environment and in that high-flying Weird Tales context. She delivers exposition about tulpas (a phenomenon I had no idea this series would be exploring - wow) beautifully. Lucy and Cole reconnecting and howling at each other was gold. I loved that Lucy is still doing the thing with the blinking lights. Forster's reactions to both of them are perfect as always. I've said it before since around part 4, but Gordon Cole having an in-depth dream about international sex symbol Monica Bellucci is just further evidence David Lynch is gleefully skewering himself and his image as a lover of ladies and finer things with Gordon this season - while also enjoying making mischief. Cole remains Lynch's id/hero-self/goofy parody of his own eccentricities or peccadilloes - first all the nights with pretty ladies and Bordeaux while Albert is hard at work, then he wanders in to crash Albert and Tammy's serious exploration with "coffee time" and window wiper shenanigans, then a Very Important Dream about him and Bellucci. It is his most imperfect self run rampant, yet it is all also deeply pertinent to his work - the Bellucci dream goes from comical to quickly hypnotic, fascinating and foreboding as the music builds, and then Cole sees himself in the past, young, "long ago", like so many on the show - and then he and Albert sink back into the dream/memory unsteadily, as they remember Jeffries' words about Cooper which have spooked me for over 20 years. I love it. Diane and Janey-E - another Vertigo/Laura-esque film noir connection. Intriguing. Thrilled to finally see Owain Rhys-Davies as henpecked FBI Agent Tom Wilson in Vegas; he was all over social media during filming, and I hope there is more of him. Jay R. Ferguson from The Real O'Neals was his deranged superior - he appeared in a great-looking indie flick with Sheryl Lee and Grace Zabriskie, The Makings of You. I dunno if it ever came out but I loved the trailer (here). Everything in the Jackabbits' Palace sequence - from the drone shots of the woods to the traverse through it, to the portal to the end - was unspeakably beautiful. Anyone who says The Return has no visual splendor doesn't pay enough attention. Their journey, the giant wrecked tree reminded me so much of Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock. And as a decades-old Peaks fan it was surprisingly emotional for me to finally see a portal to the White Lodge, apparently made of milk and gold/honey? as a parallel to the Glastonberry Grove portal to the Black Lodge, which has the scorched engine oil. I never thought I'd ever see these things. Andy's lore download (complete with Laura and her FWWM angel bursting the picture into color - another emotional moment for me, and it seemed Andy as well) and the revelation of the Giant's true name, the Fireman, was amazing. Just incredible stuff. Oh, and Harry Goaz totally sold Andy's heroism and courage in the face of the unknown as the vortex roared open. The shots of him as he stared into it were awesome. Pure of heart. Having Naido back in this way is fantastic. I keep thinking she is actually Judy, hence the monkey-like noises, but I may be biased given the old fan lore from old TP staff writer/FWWM co-writer Bob Engels about how they intended for Joan Chen to play Judy as Josie's identical cousin in other TP films. I don't know what to make of the drunk in the cells though - I think that was Jay Aaseng, i.e. not the Billy we saw a few weeks back. Assuming there can't be two Billys. I haven't read all the discussion so someone refresh me if there's a way to link all the info on Billy, Audrey, Tina, etc. - I was half-sure the young girl's mother could be Audrey. And I think the dark music hinted at something like that. But did Charlie suggest that Tina was Billy's other lover? I can't recall. Cool hearing the same electric feedback grind noise on the shots of the trees as the TPSD entered the woods that we heard in all the teasers. I was hoping we'd see cute Jake Wardle again as Freddie Sykes, and now it turns out he's quite important. His long anecdote - full of jaunty British stereotype vernacular right out of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins - was classic Lynch, in both the mysticism and the heartfelt and sincere earnestness of its Old Hollywood artificiality. For someone who's not much of a trained actor I thought he totally sold a very tough Lynchian speech because he was so guileless and sweet. James' presence was especially melancholy. He remembers being that young, and now his life has come down to him minding the rich man's hotel in uniform with young men half his age. Another example of time and weathering as the show's core themes - I think James Marshall is especially good now that he's grown older. I found that basement very reminiscent of BOB's lair in the European pilot, which has a longer, non-canonical ending Lynch filmed to satisfy foreign investors who wanted to release the original pilot theatrically overseas - Lynch and Frost later carved that material up to form the famous Red Room dream of episode 2 on ABC. BOB can be glimpsed in that lair during Cooper's dream. Anyway, I don't think that resemblance is a coincidence. I got nothing to say about Sarah others haven't said online - amazing. Sarah's core is a black abyss for the Mother (patterned after Lynch's own avant-garde art) and Laura's in part 2 was full of white light. The question is, if Sarah was infected with the insect creature in 1956 (the young girl in part 8 ), has she always been a host for the Mother/creature/whatever, a sleeper agent all this time, or did she become fully corrupted in the last 25 years? I don't believe the Sarah we knew in 1989 was hiding this side. Maybe it was dormant until after Leland and Laura passed. I liked the Lissie song. Sue me! It was something different, and I think some of its lyrics related to Cooper/Dougie while also being redolent of the romantic, comforting Old West/cowboy fantasies Lynch has hewed to in some of his work, including the iconography Sonny Jim has in his room. I am really going to need Season 4. Not because I'm worried about this story, because this show is too good. Every week I have no idea what I'll see - and I spoiled myself for 14. There is still no other show like this. Fück Chad!

From Adele Rene, who plays Cynthia Knox:

A great Twitter thread from Matt Zoller Seitz on humanism in the new show.

As The Mooch Turns:

I never defend doxxing. Unless it's Nazis.

From a 1995 Wrapped in Plastic interview: Michael J. Anderson gives his take on the Owl Cave ring.

He's too weak because they are his base. He will not stand up to them.

No. This wouldn't be happening like this. By many accounts, NK is actually scrambling to play diplomat to Trump.

No. But as someone who is really glad his grandparents are dead today, it does not make my rage any less incandescent.

And of course, this is his angle - no condemnation of white supremacists, Nazis or the alt right:

As a Jew watching this play out I am officially DONE discussing the economic class struggle and how it is the root of our problems.

Oh, God:

I think I've posted this before, but Naomi Watts' King Kong anecdote may be my favorite of her many Lynch stories/impressions. (Hailey Gates, the fourth woman interviewed, plays the drug addict mom in Rancho Rosa.)

Trump could launch nukes and this dude would still be going But Obama! Simply saying "Obama" is not an argument outside of KKK Land. That said, don't engage with him. Put him on Ignore like I did.

David Tennant talks to Colbert about his Broadchurch co-star, #13: