nickfourtimes's review against another edition
4.0
1) [Albert Rosenfield, on Leo Johnson] "My own interaction with this knuckle-dragger was fleeting, but he left a vivid impression, not unlike the livid marks on his soon-to-be ex-wife’s neck after he nearly strangled her. His entire life span could easily be written off as a scathing indictment of our public education system, but to be fair, you’d probably have to go all the way back to the crossroads where Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal went their separate ways and say: Leo’s forbears took the path less traveled.
So, for starters: It wasn’t the spiders that killed him. Whatever 'evil genius'–I’m looking at you, Windom Earle–decided to hoist a bag of tarantulas over his head as a dire threat to Leo’s health obviously wasted far too much time watching cheesy Vincent Price movies and not nearly enough studying arachnids. Tarantulas aren’t ever fatally venomous, dipshit; they just look scary.
[...]
The world is changing pronto, Chief, and now that these salt-of-the-earth “country volk” realize they’ve been left behind, it’s going to be sheer hell playing catch-up. (I know, I know, I’m a raging asshole.)
And speaking of entrepreneurial initiative, here’s a no-brainer: Why don’t some of these enterprising yokels kick-start a craft brewery here in town? They’d instantly attract an endless stream of thirsty proles, and the only competition is swill.
Enough community building for one night. To sum up: Leo Johnson’s dead. Having a hard time arguing that the local landscape isn’t trending upward because of it."
2) "The level of Cooper’s suffering and remorse in the terrible aftermath of these tragic events can’t be underestimated. He fiercely committed himself to counseling and self-reflection during his physical recovery in a way that was 100 percent sincere. He’s on record—well, tape, anyway—confirming that this experience represented the most difficult lesson of his life, and, admirably, he took it to heart. But that’s not quite the same thing as entirely purging an ingrained impulse to save a troubled woman from herself, is it, Chief?
(Am I being too harsh on Agent Cooper here? I’m open to suggestions, so please let me know if you feel that’s the case. Notwithstanding its importance, I believe Cooper’s obsession with the Laura Palmer case harbors echoes of this tendency.)"
3) "James had edged past thirty, and at this point the bloom faded permanently from his Kerouac romance with the road. Once his leg healed up, he went back to work for Ed at the Gas Farm, and a few years later he took a second job working night security at the Great Northern. He lives alone, modestly, drives a used Ford Focus now, still plays guitar, writes plaintive, simple, and appealing songs—unrequited love, heartbreak, and so on—that he sometimes performs locally, and as far as I can tell has never hurt another human being."
4) [Margaret Lanterman, read aloud at her funeral] "Every meeting between friends must end with a parting, and so, my friends, today we take our leave. This is life. None of us profits from ignoring or hiding from the facts, so why should we bother? Life is what it is, a gift that is given to us for a time—like a library book—that must eventually be returned. How should we treat this book? If we are able to remember that it is not ours to begin with—one that we’re entrusted with, to care for, to study and learn from—perhaps it would change the way we treat it while it’s in our possession. How do you treat a precious gift from a dear friend? This is a good question to ask, and today is a good time to ask it.
Such busy, busy minds we have. Have you noticed? We think and we think until we twist ourselves into the ground like a flathead screw. My log has this to say: The answers to all our questions are in the wind and the trees, the rocks and the water.
No one is helpless. No one is beyond helping. It is good to seek out those who need us and do what we can for them. I recommend that. There is nothing that can’t be done if we set our minds to doing it. Don’t be sad. Be happy you have another day to do what needs doing. We only have so many of them.
We are born into this world, not another one. It’s not perfect, but it is what it is. This world presents some simple, certain truths. It helps us grow if we accept them, but many of these truths seem to trouble or frighten us. For instance, there is no light without darkness—and this troubles many of us—but without it, how else would we tell one from the other? We spend half of every day in darkness; surely we should make our peace with this. You may decide to see this as a metaphor. Many people do. I see it as a fact. Metaphors are beautiful ways of speaking about the truth. So are facts. Both tell us that time—and light, and darkness—moves in cycles. We move through them, too, often as passengers, but if our eyes are open, there is much to be learned along the way. A traveler learns more than a passenger. When darkness comes, a traveler learns to be brave, for they know the light will return. Anyone who’s spent a night alone in the woods learns this. When a dark age comes, hold the light inside. That’s where it lives anyway. There are forces of darkness—and beings of darkness—and they are real and have always been around us. They’re part of the dance, just as you and I are; they’re just listening to different music. This may be the most troubling truth we will ever know. Many of us live most of our lives and brush up against this reality only rarely. It is far from pleasant, but wishing it were otherwise will not make it so.
So may I offer a suggestion: When a dark age comes, just as you would at night, hold the light inside you. Others, I can tell you, have already learned to do the same. In time, you will learn to recognize the light, in yourself and others. In this way you will find each other. Together, you will make the light stronger.
This truth I know as sure as the dawn: Darkness will always yield to light, when the light is strong."
5) "I’m on the plane now, in the air, forty minutes east of Spokane. The uncanny penumbra I reported hasn’t left me—I barely slept—but it’s fading as I travel farther east. I don’t know what to make of it.
You wanted to know what happened there in that town and region, to these people you knew, whom I feel I’ve come to know now as well. They meant something to you for a reason, I think, beyond just your knowing them, beyond that they were good or interesting people in their own right: because it was all there, in that one town. All of life, cradle to grave, every shade and color of the spectrum, like a fractal, itself made up of infinite parts. The ocean in a drop of water."
So, for starters: It wasn’t the spiders that killed him. Whatever 'evil genius'–I’m looking at you, Windom Earle–decided to hoist a bag of tarantulas over his head as a dire threat to Leo’s health obviously wasted far too much time watching cheesy Vincent Price movies and not nearly enough studying arachnids. Tarantulas aren’t ever fatally venomous, dipshit; they just look scary.
[...]
The world is changing pronto, Chief, and now that these salt-of-the-earth “country volk” realize they’ve been left behind, it’s going to be sheer hell playing catch-up. (I know, I know, I’m a raging asshole.)
And speaking of entrepreneurial initiative, here’s a no-brainer: Why don’t some of these enterprising yokels kick-start a craft brewery here in town? They’d instantly attract an endless stream of thirsty proles, and the only competition is swill.
Enough community building for one night. To sum up: Leo Johnson’s dead. Having a hard time arguing that the local landscape isn’t trending upward because of it."
2) "The level of Cooper’s suffering and remorse in the terrible aftermath of these tragic events can’t be underestimated. He fiercely committed himself to counseling and self-reflection during his physical recovery in a way that was 100 percent sincere. He’s on record—well, tape, anyway—confirming that this experience represented the most difficult lesson of his life, and, admirably, he took it to heart. But that’s not quite the same thing as entirely purging an ingrained impulse to save a troubled woman from herself, is it, Chief?
(Am I being too harsh on Agent Cooper here? I’m open to suggestions, so please let me know if you feel that’s the case. Notwithstanding its importance, I believe Cooper’s obsession with the Laura Palmer case harbors echoes of this tendency.)"
3) "James had edged past thirty, and at this point the bloom faded permanently from his Kerouac romance with the road. Once his leg healed up, he went back to work for Ed at the Gas Farm, and a few years later he took a second job working night security at the Great Northern. He lives alone, modestly, drives a used Ford Focus now, still plays guitar, writes plaintive, simple, and appealing songs—unrequited love, heartbreak, and so on—that he sometimes performs locally, and as far as I can tell has never hurt another human being."
4) [Margaret Lanterman, read aloud at her funeral] "Every meeting between friends must end with a parting, and so, my friends, today we take our leave. This is life. None of us profits from ignoring or hiding from the facts, so why should we bother? Life is what it is, a gift that is given to us for a time—like a library book—that must eventually be returned. How should we treat this book? If we are able to remember that it is not ours to begin with—one that we’re entrusted with, to care for, to study and learn from—perhaps it would change the way we treat it while it’s in our possession. How do you treat a precious gift from a dear friend? This is a good question to ask, and today is a good time to ask it.
Such busy, busy minds we have. Have you noticed? We think and we think until we twist ourselves into the ground like a flathead screw. My log has this to say: The answers to all our questions are in the wind and the trees, the rocks and the water.
No one is helpless. No one is beyond helping. It is good to seek out those who need us and do what we can for them. I recommend that. There is nothing that can’t be done if we set our minds to doing it. Don’t be sad. Be happy you have another day to do what needs doing. We only have so many of them.
We are born into this world, not another one. It’s not perfect, but it is what it is. This world presents some simple, certain truths. It helps us grow if we accept them, but many of these truths seem to trouble or frighten us. For instance, there is no light without darkness—and this troubles many of us—but without it, how else would we tell one from the other? We spend half of every day in darkness; surely we should make our peace with this. You may decide to see this as a metaphor. Many people do. I see it as a fact. Metaphors are beautiful ways of speaking about the truth. So are facts. Both tell us that time—and light, and darkness—moves in cycles. We move through them, too, often as passengers, but if our eyes are open, there is much to be learned along the way. A traveler learns more than a passenger. When darkness comes, a traveler learns to be brave, for they know the light will return. Anyone who’s spent a night alone in the woods learns this. When a dark age comes, hold the light inside. That’s where it lives anyway. There are forces of darkness—and beings of darkness—and they are real and have always been around us. They’re part of the dance, just as you and I are; they’re just listening to different music. This may be the most troubling truth we will ever know. Many of us live most of our lives and brush up against this reality only rarely. It is far from pleasant, but wishing it were otherwise will not make it so.
So may I offer a suggestion: When a dark age comes, just as you would at night, hold the light inside you. Others, I can tell you, have already learned to do the same. In time, you will learn to recognize the light, in yourself and others. In this way you will find each other. Together, you will make the light stronger.
This truth I know as sure as the dawn: Darkness will always yield to light, when the light is strong."
5) "I’m on the plane now, in the air, forty minutes east of Spokane. The uncanny penumbra I reported hasn’t left me—I barely slept—but it’s fading as I travel farther east. I don’t know what to make of it.
You wanted to know what happened there in that town and region, to these people you knew, whom I feel I’ve come to know now as well. They meant something to you for a reason, I think, beyond just your knowing them, beyond that they were good or interesting people in their own right: because it was all there, in that one town. All of life, cradle to grave, every shade and color of the spectrum, like a fractal, itself made up of infinite parts. The ocean in a drop of water."
mariposa_ca's review against another edition
2.0
The Final Dossier focuses on events occurring in the 25 intervening years between Seasons 2 and 3 of the great Twin Peaks. As other readers have mentioned, this feels a bit like fan fic. I realized this when I got to Dr. Jacoby’s chapter (one of the longest at 10 pgs) and Frost spoke of the time Jacoby spent in Switzerland with a guru whose same translated to Dr. Little Poops. Clearly none of these details really matter and Frost just wanted to be with the characters a bit longer . . . Or he’s a troll.
The book similarly discussed other characters’ pasts, some more interesting and relevant to the present Season 3 than others, namely Audrey. But again much of this information is either irrelevant to understanding the deeper levels of the show or it’s revealing a detail from the show that really was obvious, such as Laura’s fate. We do get a few pages in the last chapter that discuss Today, the day after everything went down in Sheriff Truman’s office, and that was fun. Still, we fans are left to wonder, are some of these details part of TP canon or not?
The book similarly discussed other characters’ pasts, some more interesting and relevant to the present Season 3 than others, namely Audrey. But again much of this information is either irrelevant to understanding the deeper levels of the show or it’s revealing a detail from the show that really was obvious, such as Laura’s fate. We do get a few pages in the last chapter that discuss Today, the day after everything went down in Sheriff Truman’s office, and that was fun. Still, we fans are left to wonder, are some of these details part of TP canon or not?
ninthwave's review against another edition
3.0
I was a little disappointed. While it's always nice to hear about beloved characters, there's not much here that viewers hadn't figured out, though it does fill in some details on Major Briggs.
richtate's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
An amazing companion book that wraps up all we’ve seen of Twin Peaks thus far. There’s more than a few secrets and connections in these pages. It’s a must for any fan.
gslife's review against another edition
4.0
Unlike The Secret History of Twin Peaks, this book will only be of interest to those who have seen the entire show. For that reason, it suffers. It fills in a couple lines that could have been connected without this new “dossier” by Frost, because the show implies those dots. It seems unlikely we’ll ever get anything new about Twin Peaks, and in that light, this book is a decent final chapter.
Of course, that’s what people thought twenty-five years ago.
Of course, that’s what people thought twenty-five years ago.
pulgergsari's review against another edition
3.0
This was not nearly as extensive or even well written as the Secret History of Twin Peaks, but at the end of the day, I just enjoyed getting to spend some more time learning about these characters. Does a decent job filling in the (purposeful) gaps in The Return, and nice to get some confirmation that Cooper actually did affect the timeline.
baileewalsh's review against another edition
4.0
This was good but also really short and I feel like it didn't have a lot of substance to it.
It seemed like things were made a little clearer in terms of some characters and certain plot points, as well as wrapped up some stuff, from the continuation. The book seems like a conclusion but at the same time I know THERE IS and CAN BE SO MUCH MORE. Because there's a question of whether or not a Season 4 will happen, I don't know if that means they are open to doing another or more books. It seems like a conclusion but it also seems like there could be more done.
I like it for what it is but wish there was more. I knew it wasn't going to take me that long to read, but at the same time I would have preferred something deeper and, again, with more substance.
The reason I'm giving it 4/5 stars instead of 3/5 stars is because it made me realize just how much I really love (and appreciate and respect) the continuation/The Return/Season 3- whatever you want to call it. I watched the parts/episodes as they aired for the most part and I think it would have been more effective marathoning them, which is why I might be having this belated reaction.
It seemed like things were made a little clearer in terms of some characters and certain plot points, as well as wrapped up some stuff, from the continuation. The book seems like a conclusion but at the same time I know THERE IS and CAN BE SO MUCH MORE. Because there's a question of whether or not a Season 4 will happen, I don't know if that means they are open to doing another or more books. It seems like a conclusion but it also seems like there could be more done.
I like it for what it is but wish there was more. I knew it wasn't going to take me that long to read, but at the same time I would have preferred something deeper and, again, with more substance.
The reason I'm giving it 4/5 stars instead of 3/5 stars is because it made me realize just how much I really love (and appreciate and respect) the continuation/The Return/Season 3- whatever you want to call it. I watched the parts/episodes as they aired for the most part and I think it would have been more effective marathoning them, which is why I might be having this belated reaction.
frankie_s's review against another edition
3.0
A fun extra for a twin peaks completist, which I guess I am. I loved the ending.
alexampersand's review against another edition
3.0
Kind of a mixed bag on this one; it is billed as 'filling in the gaps between Season 2 and The Return', which in itself I wasn't sure if I needed. But it fills in some unnecessary gaps, it connects some useful dots, and then it oversteps its boundaries by trying to explain the ambiguous ending of The Return.
The book comprises of 18 separate 'files', which generally cover one character (or aspect) of Twin Peaks that we all know and love. So first up: there's the direct gap-filling between Season 2 and The Return. We have files containing the histories of Shelley, Ben Horne, Donna Hayward, Norma, Jacoby, Harry Truman. And I was right; I didn't need any of this information. Having biographical content written down always just feels like fan-fiction to me. It's like the Nineteen Years Later epilogue in Harry Potter. It just doesn't feel authentic. And that's how I felt reading about everybody's continued adventures post-Season 2.
And then there's the more mythology-centric chapters. We find out what happened to Annie. We get some concrete(ish) definition of what is up with Audrey. At least, we find out a very specific event that happened to her, which lends some very strong credence to one of the popular fan theories about what was up with her in The Return. The revelations about these two characters felt anti-climactic to me. It's that old case of thinking you want something, until you get it. I was desperate to find out what was UP with Audrey Horne in The Return. And then reading this, in black and white print, on the page, just made me feel disappointed. I preferred the mystery, the ambiguity.
There is also information on Major Briggs, Philip Jefferies, and Cooper's Double, all of which I actually found interesting and enlightening. Not all of it was new information, most of it just put all the dots together. But it was quite nice to read it all laid out, kind of like a Twin Peaks wikia.
Then there are two sections that expand on the finale of The Return and attempt to make things more understandable and concrete; a chapter on Judy and a chapter titled "Today". Both of these give some pretty lore-heavy information. Judy doesn't contain explicit answers per se, but there is a little more elaboration on what Gordon Cole said about Judy/Joudy in The Return, and then there's some implications for what that means in terms of Bob (at least, that's how I read it). I'm not entirely comfortable with lore being explained solely in companion materials, but given that there's no explicit answers or revelations, I think I am actually quite content with the ambiguous nature of what is detailed.
And the "Today" section. There's a very definite confirmation of the identity of the girl in the New Mexico frog-moth scene in The Return. Which, again, feels... unnecessary. If there is going to be confirmation of ambiguous facts, I wish that that would happen within the material itself, rather than confined to the extraneous companions. It makes it feel somewhat less "official", and like it could be retconned at any point. but the "Today" file actually goes much deeper than simply confirming theories. It also explores what happened in the finale of The Return, after Cooper's dimenson-travelling appearance in FWWM and meeting with Carrie Page, and the consequences of his actions. It pretty definitively gives you an answers about what the consequences were. Which right away makes me uneasy because see above re: plot points given away in companion material. But more than that, it creates a headache in terms of dimension and timelines.
So all in all, this book falls in the middle of the road for me. There's some totally unnecessary fan-fiction-esque character catch-ups. There's some interesting and useful dot-connecting between the plot points that we saw but didn't fully explore in The Return. And then there's some fairly convoluted direct explanations of things that were (purposefully?) left ambiguous in The Return.
The book comprises of 18 separate 'files', which generally cover one character (or aspect) of Twin Peaks that we all know and love. So first up: there's the direct gap-filling between Season 2 and The Return. We have files containing the histories of Shelley, Ben Horne, Donna Hayward, Norma, Jacoby, Harry Truman. And I was right; I didn't need any of this information. Having biographical content written down always just feels like fan-fiction to me. It's like the Nineteen Years Later epilogue in Harry Potter. It just doesn't feel authentic. And that's how I felt reading about everybody's continued adventures post-Season 2.
And then there's the more mythology-centric chapters. We find out what happened to Annie. We get some concrete(ish) definition of what is up with Audrey. At least, we find out a very specific event that happened to her, which lends some very strong credence to one of the popular fan theories about what was up with her in The Return. The revelations about these two characters felt anti-climactic to me. It's that old case of thinking you want something, until you get it. I was desperate to find out what was UP with Audrey Horne in The Return. And then reading this, in black and white print, on the page, just made me feel disappointed. I preferred the mystery, the ambiguity.
There is also information on Major Briggs, Philip Jefferies, and Cooper's Double, all of which I actually found interesting and enlightening. Not all of it was new information, most of it just put all the dots together. But it was quite nice to read it all laid out, kind of like a Twin Peaks wikia.
Then there are two sections that expand on the finale of The Return and attempt to make things more understandable and concrete; a chapter on Judy and a chapter titled "Today". Both of these give some pretty lore-heavy information. Judy doesn't contain explicit answers per se, but there is a little more elaboration on what Gordon Cole said about Judy/Joudy in The Return, and then there's some implications for what that means in terms of Bob (at least, that's how I read it). I'm not entirely comfortable with lore being explained solely in companion materials, but given that there's no explicit answers or revelations, I think I am actually quite content with the ambiguous nature of what is detailed.
And the "Today" section. There's a very definite confirmation of the identity of the girl in the New Mexico frog-moth scene in The Return. Which, again, feels... unnecessary. If there is going to be confirmation of ambiguous facts, I wish that that would happen within the material itself, rather than confined to the extraneous companions. It makes it feel somewhat less "official", and like it could be retconned at any point. but the "Today" file actually goes much deeper than simply confirming theories. It also explores what happened in the finale of The Return, after Cooper's dimenson-travelling appearance in FWWM and meeting with Carrie Page, and the consequences of his actions. It pretty definitively gives you an answers about what the consequences were. Which right away makes me uneasy because see above re: plot points given away in companion material. But more than that, it creates a headache in terms of dimension and timelines.
So all in all, this book falls in the middle of the road for me. There's some totally unnecessary fan-fiction-esque character catch-ups. There's some interesting and useful dot-connecting between the plot points that we saw but didn't fully explore in The Return. And then there's some fairly convoluted direct explanations of things that were (purposefully?) left ambiguous in The Return.
bubblewombat's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
3.0
Skippable, to be honest, but better than the first book.