I just finished watching the last episode of Twin Peaks. This is a process I took with the greatest seriousness and allowed to last 5 years. Yes, I took 5 years to watch 29 episodes of television. Reason being, with only 29 episodes, and the inevitable cliff hanger style ending, with no questions truly answered, I wanted to prepare myself. Plus the show is so incredibly dense, well at least 15 out of the 29 episodes are, I rewatched the first season probably ten times, trying to cull as much information as I could. Well, my obsession final got the better of me, and I've been steadily watching 4 to 5 episodes a week for the past month in an effort to end, but not rush through the remaining material. And, while I'm sad Twin Peaks is over, the final episode was pretty amazing, and didn't end as abruptly or tragically as I had been led to believe. Yes, there are many questions that linger in my mind, but enough emotional and spiritual ground is covered in the final minute of that 50 minute episode, that I'm pretty sure I can come to my own story conclusions.
I've seen Fire Walk With Me twice. The first time, was at the height of my early obsession with the series, when I got far enough to know who killed Laura Palmer, my friends arranged for a private screening of a print of FWWM. It was a pretty great experience. I then saw the print for a second time in a class I took on David Lynch and Roman Polanski. But now, I need to see it again to gain as much incite into the Black Lodge as possible.
While Twin Peaks will forever reside in pop-culture as fiction, there are elements that I find so compelling within the show that they've influenced my own vision of the physical and supernatural worlds around me. The way Lynch/Frost and co. realized the Red Room/Black Lodge has done a lot to inspire my own spiritual visualizations. I come from a family of devout Christians and many members of my family were/are ministers. Discussing the dark and light sides of spiritual matters is common ground in my house, my father being one of the most liberal minded Christians I've ever met (so much so, he infuriates my cousin in law, who is as devout a Fundamentalist as I've ever met). The way Lynch/Frost and friends develop the ideas of the Black Lodge and the White Lodge fascinate me to no end. Their renderings in set form are also inspiring, and I wouldn't be surprised if when my death comes, I find myself confronted by an odd spoken little man in a room of red drapes, haunting music and riddles. I personally believe that the afterlife is what you make of it, and if my fate lay in a void of fear, then the Red Room will be waiting. Who knows.
Anyway, I rambled on there, but I think I'm going to try and go to Twin Peaks Fest this year. Something I've been threatening to do for some time now. I visited the two towns that played host to the fictional world of Twin Peaks a few years back as a tourist, but the fest sounds like a lot of fun.
Any other Twin Peaks fans around???