❗Intro: my favorite interpretation of the ending explained (Analysis on both Part 17 and Part 18) ⚠️Spoilers for the whole show obv "A conscious dream is a type of dream in which a person is aware that they are in a dream and can control what happens: their actions, the behavior of others, and the laws that the world inside the dream obeys" - Wiki. What we see in Part 17 is just a perfect, fairy tale ending. Evil is defeated in some strange and ridiculous way, almost all the positive characters miraculously gather in one place and praise each other for the work done. The protagonist finds his lost love, goes back in time and saves everyone there too. Utterly naive absurdity, as if it were a dream, and this is exactly what Monica Belucci warned us about. "We live inside a dream" she said, but who's dreamer? As the sugary ending progresses, Cooper realizes he's in a dream and begins to watch from the sidelines while playing his part further. He knows that this is a dream and it will soon be over, that the fairy tale will end, and that's why he says goodbye so warmly to everyone. He says goodbye and goes further into the depths of the dream to wake up the one in whose dream it is. And the one in whose dream it happens doesn't want to wake up at all. We see him defending himself, and the dream gets darker and darker. According to the theory, everything we've seen on the show is Laura's dream, her fantasy that she's hiding in from the reality of being raped by her own father since childhood, and Judy's nightmarish and hostile force is nothing but reality. This literally means that Laura doesn't want to acknowledge the existence of reality. So why does Judy's negative destructive power end up being embodied in the character of Sarah? First of all, it's hard to believe that she could ignore all the cruelty her own husband did to her daughter over the years. She ignored the abuse and let it happen. Secondly, it's Sarah's voice from episode one that we hear at the end. She is trying to wake Laura up and bring her back to the cruel reality. What role does Cooper play? He is the part of Laura's consciousness that is trying to help her awaken. "Legend has it that every spirit must pass through the black lodge on the path to perfection. If you do not enter it with impeccable courage, it will completely destroy your soul," Hawk. Thus Laura must with perfect courage, overcome her fear of reality to pass through the black lodge and then, facing reality, she can defeat Judy and live peacefully, i.e. get into the white lodge. The idea of Cooper as part of Laura's consciousness may seem odd, but we've seen this sort of thing before this season, haven't we? Charlie was just that for Audrey. She needed him to bring him to the Roadhouse and make her wake up. Whether Audrey's story was real is unclear, but the concept is very similar to what happens to Laura and may have been introduced into the story as a key to understanding the overall idea of the series. To make sure this is really Laura's dream, just think of all the glitches and inconsistencies, the puking zombie girl, the trailer park owner summoning transportation with a magic flute, etc. None of it makes any sense or has any explanation simply because there's no need for them. These are just weird things that are not at all surprising in a dream. However, one might complain that everything can't be so easily devalued by the mere fact that it's all a dream, but all the events of the series were leading up to the point of completion for Laura to finally wake up, and without those events it just wouldn't have happened. Just as Audrey needed to walk to the Roadhouse to wake up, Laura needed to defeat Judy. Although there are a lot of pointless moments, the main plot is important and makes sense. There is already a theory on the Internet that perfectly explains the events of the finale, so be sure to read this https://www.waggish.org/2017/twin-peaks-finale/