For anyone still in the middle of watching this show, I advise leaving this thread right now as it is my attempt to dissect it, particularly in regards to MGTOW and gynocentrism.
I’m a bit late as I only got around to watching the last two parts today, so my interpretations are fresh and not too concrete. Would like to let them sit for a while, maybe rewatch all three seasons, in part planning to do a video on it in a series I have planned, but right now I feel it’s crucial to get it out as it comes to.
To start, there’s the low hanging fruit of Audrey Horne, whom while she may have started off as a serious character, eventually became a parody of herself. People seem to be disappointed in her arc here, but I feel it is indicative of the end of the story as a whole. In any case, she acts totally irrational here, the typical hamster wheeling of the female mind at work.
Going from that, the rest depends on how you perceived the conclusion. I have seen many theories about how the last hour takes place in an alternate dimension or timeline or some such thing. Not saying that’s invalid, but I personally find it’s much less convoluted that everything before Richard wakes up in the hotel was a dream. Can totally understand how many would feel that’s a copout, however I feel it’s a bit more nuanced than that; the clues to who Richard actually is, lie within the rest of the series. It may not have always been planned to end this way, but I think they made it fit retroactively.
Back at the end of season 2, Dale Cooper enters the Black Lodge in order to rescue Annie Blackburn from Windham Earle. Things quickly turn south, Bob killing Earle, and unleashing Cooper’s doppelganger. Annie seemingly escapes, but the good Cooper is presumably trapped there for the next 25 years, while the doppelganger is set free to do a number of pretty terrible acts, namely fathering Richard Horne and, perhaps more importantly, raping Diane and then replacing her with a tulpa, somehow sending the real one into a realm of non-existence.
Evil as he might be, and I would not condone many of his actions in the real world for obvious reasons, Mr. C seems to have been entirely self driven. Early on, in his own words, “I want things. I don’t need anything.” It’s up for debate how true that actually is, but it’s clear he was entirely independent. Minus some evil deeds, perhaps a MGTOW in his own right. His want to not return to the Black Lodge, coupled with fan theories about Bob in Fire Walk With Me, make me wonder whether he was simply trapped and subsequently corrupted into becoming a killing machine himself.
Conversely, you have Dougie Jones. 25 years later, he finds himself escaping back into the real world, but not before getting the aide of a woman with no face, who seems to flip a switch that changes the nature of the place they are on. Still unsure of this aspect but I feel it’s important. He ends up taking the place of an empty shell of a man, presumably a gambler and cheater but still has a family he supports in some fashion.
It’s here I think an obvious contrast occurs. The dichotomy is supposed to be good vs evil, but I like to think it’s that Mr. C very much got to enjoy what he reaped, whereas Dougie, while exaggeratedly lucky, was next to comatose for all he got, instead letting his wife and son have it all. Can’t really blame the kid, but Janey E showed all the ugly signs of gold diggers in the modern era, perhaps except divorce. In the end he still felt homesick for a place he could barely remember and stuck a fork in a socket. It’s only after he returns to “normal” that his gynocentrism actually kicks in.
I say “normal” because the ending has me feeling we only ever saw different sides of him. Truly, Richard is not just the malicious Mr. C, nor the zen Dougie Jones, or even the perfectly balanced Dale Cooper. In his dreams, these are both what he strives for as well as what he rejects in himself. Perhaps they were all a part of them in his past, of which I think he has stuck himself in. The story of the little girl down the lane could have well been true enough, killed by her crazed father and left behind a grieving mother, both her and him never quite moving on from something they can never go back to. Going back to 1989 and trying to save Laura was something he could not do, and I find deliberately misleading.
By the end, the faceless woman is revealed to be the real Diane, only now she has red hair, and alternating black and white nails, reflecting the Black Lodge. This, in conjunction with her having only ever been a tape recorder in previous seasons, and the apparent rape, have me believing that they were once a couple, and for whatever reason have failed, and that Richard’s dreams are in part a way of trying to get her to stay in his life.
I was originally not quite sure what to make of the ring, and in some ways I’m still not certain, but that it seems to always doom its wearers to the Black Lodge has me wonder if it was actually their wedding ring, or at least represents it, and maybe it is a bit telling that it is often both a place of dread as well as time going back and forth, and further unpleasant truths. Mike and the arm, a bit more confusing, but could symbolize trying to hold onto something lost, and more closely connected to the heart.
Richard happens to find Laura through Judy, for all its talk about it just happens to be a dead end job, and Laura herself turns out to be a fairly immature women and killer by the name of Carrie, and who uses Richard as a way out of town. People seem to think this is where Laura would end up if she survived, but I believe the evidence points towards Richard projecting his hopes onto a woman who he thinks is much like Laura. She doesn’t recognize the town, her home, and different people live there, leaving him to ask what year it is. It’s not that they’ve gone to a different time, but rather that he is coming to terms. It’s not perfect, as Carrie screams after hearing her mother call, and the electricity goes out, but I feel this is more meant to be symbolic of the theme of identity crisis present throughout the show.
For a tl;dr – different aspects of singular personalities are explored throughout the show and movie, between both genders, in the context of a dream. I feel this can be taken into account with the intention of going your own way, as a warning of letting your ego dictate your actions and later trying to rationalize mistakes.
As I’ve written all this, my mind is in doubt, so it’s a WIP. I try to remain humble and am open to others’ views, but this is so far the best I can come up with, and have felt that, with nonsense bs gender studies talk about Lynch’s apparent misogyny on other forums, this is a necessary discussion to have. Hoping I am not alone here.
"I have the fury of my own momentum." "With this ring I thee wed. Fire walk with me."
GregB0 2 years, 5 months ago.
