Laura's whisper to Cooper in The Return

[Jasper]

So, what does Laura whisper to Cooper in The Return?

Is the whisper in part 2 the same whisper taking place in the end credits of part 18?



Does she tell him that we live inside a dream?

 

[Jordan Cole]

Probably the daily weather report

 

[Mr. Reindeer]

I always took this as a course correction on Lynch’s part. I don’t think he ever meant for the audience to know what Laura whispered on the original series (and he certainly never meant for it to be anything so literal as, “My father killed me”). I think this was him reclaiming the ambiguity.

 

[eyeboogers]

Or else she simply says "My father killed me" underlining the series long theme about how there is no easy way to simply escape/undo/hide from trauma. You have to deal with where you are in life today, and make the best of it. Cooper possibly sacrificed himself to give a second chance to Laura Palmer, but to no avail. What happened happened.

 

[Count Alto]

I'm one of those people who believe she could have said "My mother killed me", but we'll never know anyways. It's still fun theorizing about it.

 

[eyeboogers]

A great thing about "Twin Peaks" is that (given more episodes) they usually pay off on those kind of setups.

 

[LateReg]

I think this is a whisper never to be revealed, which is its centrally mysterious point. But it could definitely be a repeat of the original phrase, as eyeboogers pointed out, as that would fit with the unending, cyclical nature of events and Cooper's inability to change them. However, I mostly think we are meant to ponder what horrifying element the whisper may now entail that it didn't before. Cooper is very much shocked by what he heard, and the aftermath. And then that final, silent, post-scream scene, scored to "Dark Space Low" really leaves you feeling some sort of otherworldly emptiness. It's all very effective, for sure.

I have to say that what I'm most fascinated in about this/these scenes in The Return, is, during its first appearance in Part 2, the nearly inaudible whisper that literally says or perhaps even directs the actors (or characters?) to "whisper." I find that to be one of the most uncanny moments in the series. I'm almost certain it's said forwards, not backwards, so how did it get there? I highly doubt that none of the sound-oriented guys, including Lynch and Hurley, noticed that it was left there, so I don't believe it was ultimately by accident, even if it may have started that way. It's basically subliminal...I don't hear it every time I watch it, but it is definitely there, and one of many instances of real-world intrusion and evidence of process adding another layer to what we're seeing/hearing.

 

[Jasper]

I think this is a whisper never to be revealed, which is its centrally mysterious point. But it could definitely be a repeat of the original phrase, as eyeboogers pointed out, as that would fit with the unending, cyclical nature of events and Cooper's inability to change them. However, I mostly think we are meant to ponder what horrifying element the whisper may now entail that it didn't before. Cooper is very much shocked by what he heard, and the aftermath. And then that final, silent, post-scream scene, scored to "Dark Space Low" really leaves you feeling some sort of otherworldly emptiness. It's all very effective, for sure.

I have to say that what I'm most fascinated in about this/these scenes in The Return, is, during its first appearance in Part 2, the nearly inaudible whisper that literally says or perhaps even directs the actors (or characters?) to "whisper." I find that to be one of the most uncanny moments in the series. I'm almost certain it's said forwards, not backwards, so how did it get there? I highly doubt that none of the sound-oriented guys, including Lynch and Hurley, noticed that it was left there, so I don't believe it was ultimately by accident, even if it may have started that way. It's basically subliminal...I don't hear it every time I watch it, but it is definitely there, and one of many instances of real-world intrusion and evidence of process adding another layer to what we're seeing/hearing.

Well, here's some of the goings on from the filming of the scene, though it's all chopped up, with audio from one thing over top of other things and so on.

 

[Dom]

I'm surprised no one has tried deepfaking young Sheryl Lee on these scenes...

 

[Jasper]

I'm surprised no one has tried deepfaking young Sheryl Lee on these scenes...

That time might initially be better spent deepfaking FWWM Laura into the "We're going home" scene with Cooper in part 17.



I don't see it as being at all necessary, but it would be interesting to see MIKE, Laura, and Leland de-aged in The Return. The real trick would be deepfaking the evolution of the arm into Michael J. Anderson!

 

[Cappy]

I absolutely love how S3 re-mystifies the whisper from the original series.

Not sure specifically what she is saying to Coop, but whatever it is, Coop isn’t equipped to hear it. I’m guessing the whisper is Laura describing her years of abuse suffered, and her mother’s (and to some extent the town’s) willingness to turn a blind eye to it. And Cooper, with his white knight hero-complex, is incapable of understanding that this is a situation he can’t fix.

Coop is just going to keep trying to “save the day” to ever diminishing returns, until there is absolutely nothing left. If you look at Coop’s arc over the course of the series, he solves the initial mystery (sort of), then gets trapped in the Black Lodge trying to save the day. Later he gives up a nice life in Vegas to rush back to TP, just to watch Freddy and Lucy kill the doppelgänger. Not content with that, Coop jumps back in time to save Laura Palmer from ever getting killed, which might have blown up the entire timeline, before finishing by finding Laura Palmer in Texas and forcing her to go back to the home where she was abused.

Dale Cooper is a very well meaning individual, but maybe he is not a hero. I find someone like Hawk to be more upstanding and decent — he politely gives the Log Lady space to experience the world as she dies, instead of talking over her final moments and making that sliver of time all about HAWK.

S3 forced me to see Coop as being perhaps closer to James — another well intentioned person who always wants to save the damsel in distress. James has a similar arc, with Laura, then Evelyn, and what’s her name in S3. And the one not damaged woman James gets mixed up with (Donna) he abandons, as she just can’t fit it into his specific fantasy. I suspect Coop leaves Janey-E for similar reasons…

But yeah, the whisper. Coop will never be able to understand that Laura’s problems can’t be fixed by his ultra-competent detective skills, just like James couldn’t fix her with romantic motorcycle rides and sing alongs to “Just You”.

 

[Gordon-Vs-The-Woodsmen]

To me, this feels like the face change of Coop suggests they failed their mission and Judy won.

 

[Jordan Cole]

"The pine weasel escaped"

 

[everylittlestar]

i never felt the need to know or wonder what she was whispering here myself, though i do like the idea of it just being the same line as before to emphasize the cyclical nature of unacknowledged abuse, or the difficulty in confronting such truth even when its been plainly stated to you multiple times - i know that last part from experience; even simply being informed of awful things that have happened just outside your sight can make you feel like there are two alternate pasts overlapping in your head, the brighter one you actually remember or the darker one you now know that it actually was - but the image alone that Lynch has crafted (and re-crafted) evokes all of those things (and about a thousand more that cant be put into words) for me.

often i find myself randomly picturing this ghostly Laura Palmer, who still has that same eternal aura of innocence and youthful martyrdom when visibly older, whispering something so impactful it even seems to blow Dale Cooper's mind, and it never fails to chill me to my core as well.

 

[Jordan Cole]

Whether Lynch wanted the original whisper revealed or not brings up what fascinates me so much about the production of this wacky show. Like I know Lynch wasn't there day to day, but I'd still assume he'd have veto power on major things like that. I mean there's anecdotes about him disapproving of very random things throughout the show, as is his right as co-creator.

So would that all really have gone down if Lynch didn't want it to? This isn't some wacky subplot, this is a pretty key moment in the series, all based around something Lynch conceived of and shot.

 

[Jasper]

"The pine weasel escaped"

"There’s a horse, in back of this curtain. He’s the one who’s doing it."

 

[Dom]

'I don't know what the ___k is going on either, so try to look interested and go with the flow!'

I have to admit, I almost wish they'd reused the images from the pilot rather than re-enact them.

 

[Mr. Reindeer]

I have to admit, I almost wish they'd reused the images from the pilot rather than re-enact them.

I'm curious...why do you feel this way? To me, the entire point of replaying the scene is the poignancy of seeing how the actors have aged, and contrasting the two scenes shot 25+ years apart. The passage of time is a huge theme in The Return, and for me that's such a key moment. What would be gained by replaying old footage?

 

[Dom]

It never quite sat right with me that anyone aged in the Lodge itself, I guess. I could imagine Cooper ageing when he returned to the 'real world' but I always found it odd that he and the Lodge's inhabitants got older. I guess it's down to me perceiving the Lodges as sitting outside of normal time. If anything I'd have thought everyone in there would get younger.

 

[Mr. Reindeer]

It never quite sat right with me that anyone aged in the Lodge itself, I guess. I could imagine Cooper ageing when he returned to the 'real world' but I always found it odd that he and the Lodge's inhabitants got older. I guess it's down to me perceiving the Lodges as sitting outside of normal time. If anything I'd have thought everyone in there would get younger.

This was something that troubled me during the buildup to the show in 2017. I thought a lot about it. Were they going to use de-aging effects or what? I was thinking about it in literalist terms, because of course time doesn't pass in the Lodges! But once the show aired, and I saw a 49-year-old Sheryl Lee/Laura Palmer, it just felt so thematically right. This sweet teenage girl cut down in her prime...and yet here she is, somehow having aged along with the rest of us. "I am dead, yet I live." Same for Cooper...sure, it doesn't make logical sense that he would have aged in the Lodge where time passes differently, but in an intuitive sense, how else to convey the time that he's lost from his life? Of course we have to see it on his face. It's such a powerful image, seeing those two actors replay that scene all these years later, and it plays into all The Return's themes of time passing and meta-textually breaking down the fourth wall.