The dream that loops back on itself
A woman relives the same afternoon, each time meeting another version of herself. Critics have long traced Lynch's doubled, looping nightmares back to it.
Meshes of the Afternoon is built on repetition with a twist. The woman comes home, falls asleep, and the walk to the house starts again, with a new detail out of place each time. Soon there are several of her in the room at once.
Lost Highway runs on the same logic: a man's life loops, splits into another man's, and ends where it began. Lynch's later Mulholland Drive does it again with two women. Writers on Lynch bring up Meshes so often that the comparison is now a fixture.
Critical comparison, widely made