I would have preferred reading a lengthier reply, but anyway!

 I have read Martha Nochimson's excellent book on Lynch, and just about every other critique of his work. Some argue FWWM does provide a satisfactory conclusion to the saga...but to argue such seems forced to me.

 It was the intention to follow-on FWWM with further films so quite simply TP is incomplete.

 Much of the symbolism in ep.2022 was, surely, food for further mysteries and dream logic in further tales from Twin Peaks. We would have seen, if it had continued, what Laura's backwards finger-snap meant, more mention of 'hallejulah' and so forth...this is further added to in FWWM with the monkey, the new characters and further symbolic images.

I see all of that as Lynch stoking the fire again to add to a continuing mystery rather than try to conclude the drama.

 Today, the ratings TP got at the end would have been highly respectable and it would likely have continued in some form on one of the many more channels we now have, according to something I read in WIP. It's a real shame that hasn't happened. And please don't write me off as some TP junkie just wishing it had lasted forever. I can accept it would have had to change a lot to sustain interest in any further episodes for certain. The series was clearly growing tired as it reached the end of the second season.

Lynch even highlights this in the scene where Mike stands up and says he 'let things get out of hand'...with Nadine, but he may as well be referring to the show itself. I think this is a deliberate reference to TP itself. Lynch admits TP became at times too 'goofball' but if it had continued I am sure it would have provided original and exciting storylines.

The beauty of this show is that it left all of those open roads...places for us 15 YEARS LATER to still be discussing, having fun with...having a festival to celebrate the awesomeness of this gem of a show, whose brilliance continues to shine after all of these years.

Exactly! When Twin Peaks first aired, I had to tape it and watch it the next day as my dad couldn't stand it. However, I was allowed to watch the last episode when it was broadcast since we were going on a family holiday the next day... of course I spent the whole two weeks of the holiday trying to work out what happened and looking forward to watching it again when I got back.

That I'm still thinking about the series so many years down the line says a lot about the quality of the show - I would love a series to come along which captures my imagination so fully.

I think it's hilarious when people say stuff like, "I liked Twin Peaks except for all the weird stuff," or "I like Twin Peaks except that it didn't give me a shortcut to thinking."   It was all weird, open ended stuff that compelled you to think on your own.

I think what these people are really saying is they wanted to like Twin Peaks.  They wanted something surprsing and unique, but not too surprising and unique.  I'll paraphrase something Al Strobel said on the FWWM extras:  Seeing a Lynch film is like going to a museum and seeing an abstract art show when you were expecting Englsih landscapes. 

My boyfriend hates everything Lynch has done, but he has to admit that it's refreshing he encourages his audiences to interpret his work for themselves.  Like it or not, it's understood that it was deliberately left incomplete.  Hell, Lynch didn't even want the murder of Laura Palmer solved in the beginning. 

Twin Peaks is a road trip.  It's about the ride, and not about when you get out of the car at the end.
 

Interesting points tp3. In the Robert Engels interview published in Wrapped In Plastic he talks about how David Lynch saw the Red Room as a kind of metaphysical dream state whereas Mark Frost portrayed it as a place of manifest evil. Suspect that's why the depiction of the Red Room/Black Lodge shifts between the literal and the abstract. I also like the theory the Lodges are identical but the zebra pattern makes it difficult to discern whether it's a white floor with black stripes (White lodge) or a black floor with white stripes (Black lodge). I think I read that in the Michel Chion book? I didn't mind the literal Owl Cave stuff because I was excited about the lodge being accessible from the 'real' world.

I can't see how David Lynch could return to Twin Peaks after all these years. The cast are all so much older (or dead). It's been four years since the first season of Twin Peaks was released on DVD and rights issues have turned the second season release into a farce. God forbid the powers that be should be required to mobilise themselves for a new series - lol! As it stands I'd settle for a second season and those FWWM deleted scenes.

.. Don't jump on me as ill-informed though. I would say I am...

I was not referring to 'weirdness' as such, just the way that towards the end the Black Lodge storyline was relied upon. It was portrayed in a too literal manner at times, in my opinion. In the Owl cave map scenes and so forth. .

I love the understand Wrapped In Plastic reached in issue 75 where the songs 'Who Knows where or When?" and "goodnight Eileen" are delved into from FWWM. Both suggest a great open-endedness.

Whoa there, no one's jumping on you for being ill informed. (the song is Goodnight Irene, btw) We're just suggesting you missed the point if you did not find the finale so grand.

Just for clarification, in your first post your complaint was that season 2 was too far fetched. Now you're saying it was too literal.

I watched all of Twin Peaks again with my girlfriend. She hasn't seen it all before.

She was disappointed with the ending and the general progress of the second season. We both agree that Tp became too far-fetched towards the end.

I am still baffled as to what Lynch was attempting to create with the final episode.

My general feeling is he was spoilt at the time and wasn't putting his creativity into it properly. The long scene in the bank, the return to the red room for scenes that don't really add up to much, it all seems forced and lacking in real creative inspiration. It was just a hack job. I've read people praising Lynch's work on the last episode to the skies and I just can't buy it.

My girlfriend actually felt angry towards Lynch.

I can't say I would have liked a forced happy ending. It's such a shame nothing has come of some form of wrap-up of TP - it does feel incomplete. I can't feel overall that FWWM is a satisfactory final piece of work giving one a sense of a whole work. Somehow TP feels incomplete.

Ok, lots of people were angry that it wasn't wrapped up at the end of Season 2 and in FWWM. Some didn't even stick it out after Season 1. Ratings went down. Critics trashed the movie. Yours isn't a new opinion.  (EDIT: but you aren't going to find many, if any, who agree with you here.)  

And you can look for similar themes elsewhere, but at the end of the day you have to admit Twin Peaks stands alone and Lynch/Frost have moved on.

I think it's safe to say Twin Peaks is over tp3. If there'd been more (or should I say any) support for Fire Walk With Me it would most likely have continued. Thinking about the way critics and so called fans reacted to the film never fails to send me into a fit of rage but after all this time I for one would rather they left Twin Peaks alone. DL's other work might explore similar themes but for me they have nothing to do with Twin Peaks. Or each other, for that matter. They all have their own unique mood and texture. Maybe even their own reality.

With hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea to start the thread with a scathing critique of the last episode (lol!) because for many people (myself included) it's incredible. But I get what you're saying about the treatment of the Lodge/Red Room. When it came to directing the final episode DL discarded the script that had been written (by Robert Engels, I think) because its treatment of the Lodge was all wrong. Regardless of whether you(r girlfriend) like(s) it or not it is a (strangely) perfect conclusion to the series. I suspect my friends don't like FWWM but it's enough for me to know they live in fear of the day I find out! And they've put up with fourteen years of me babbling about it, so they deserve a medal. Come to think of it have you considered that it might not be Twin Peaks that's at fault but your girlfriend? Lol!

I will back up tp3 here, perhaps surprisingly.

While personally I used to consider Ep.29 to be the absolute best of the series, and it still would have a place in the top 5, I think I understand what someone can have against it. Someone, who enjoyed the first 16 episodes all right!

For 16 episodes after the Pilot the supernatural universe in Twin Peaks served showing the drama of ordinary people, who were not supernatural entities (even if they were connected to them). As a conclusion - all the supernaturality was fitted perfectly within the logics of drama, only adding a new level to it. The supernatural was REAL but also - closely tied to the "reality". 

Then, after Leland's death, all the supernatural is lost... for loong. It kind of comes back when we move towards Project Blue book etc., but I feel this is more an X-files kind of supernaturality than what we had before.

The last episode suddenly brings it back - right as it used to be! Fantastic! Wonderful! They're all back, The Giant and the Red Room, and BOB smelling with Scorched Engine Oil. I loved it and the moment when I realised that the last episode brings it all back was for me a moment of unforgettable excitement when I first watched it.

Now, I shouldn't be saying was all the time, I still love it. But at the same time I must admit that the sudden come back of the old friends was a bit like.. taken out of a hat... ;-)
One could say - it wasn't prepared well enough. All supernatural that took place before Ep.16 always fitted perfectly to the whole context.

And here, well, I can easily imagine a person disappointed with the previous 12 episodes bringing our expectations down (one has the right to be disappointed, let's admit it) who then suddenly sees that they're trying to act as if nothing like that happened, as if we're still in the middle of the most challenging show, endlessly rich with spiritual meanings... HMM.
The Lodge sequence is splendid in itself but is it still so well placed within the context of what I called "drama of ordinary people"? I don't think so. It looks quite as if it was done for its own sake, not to be a part of the drama.

See what I mean? It worked for me but I can well understand someone who'd find it too hasty, too loosely connected to the rest of the story, and moreover - why does actually Cooper fail? I've never heard a good explanation myself (except for: why not? ;-)). Before Ep.16 all the supernatural actions were very well grounded and well, logical. In the last episode... another HMM from me :-)

The last episode is one of my favourite episodes. The ending is fantastic (although bad at the same time). Not many films or tv programs could accomplish that kind of ending in such beauty.