recap

‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ Finale: No End and No Beginning

17&18.jpg

By Caitlin Malcuit

It is happening again. The end of “Twin Peaks” has come, albeit a little more ceremonious. No time slot shuffling, no network exec interference—the end on David Lynch and Mark Frost’s terms (one of their terms, at least). Of course, we’re left with more questions than answers. But we’re also brought back to the start, the catalyst of it all: the girl found dead, wrapped in plastic.

Mr. C, having locked down the correct coordinates, drops by the forest clearing where Naido appeared. A trip through the vortex drops him in front of the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department. The eyeless woman begins to chirp loudly upon his arrival, stirring James and Freddie.

Mr. C approaches Andy, retrieving a picnic basket from his car. The deputy welcomes his long-lost friend and brings him inside to see the rest of the gang, running to find Hawk. With everyone is distracted above, Chad successfully pulls a key from the bottom of his boot, slipping into the evidence room to retrieve his gun. Andy stops in the holding cells, only to be held up by his disgraced colleague. Chad slowly approaches as Freddie winds up his gloved hand. The stars align: Freddie smashes his cell door right into Chad’s face.

Frank Truman meets with Mr. C in his office, as the doppelganger smirks through his scuzzy teeth that he’s in town for some unfinished business. Lucy receives a call at the front desk as the camera zooms in (resisting a “Vertigo” shot, however, which is too bad) as she exclaims, “Who?” She buzzes Truman, cautiously stating that he has a very important phone call on Line 2.

Dale Cooper is on the other line, sharing that he’s just entering the city limits and shouts, “Is the coffee on?” Truman stares at the false agent, then both draw their pistols. Mr. C shoots first, but hits the sheriff’s hat—the doppelganger slumps over as Lucy stands in the entryway, gun in hand. As the rest of the folks enter, Agent Cooper warns everyone to stay away from the body.

Hawk arrives just as Woodsmen appear, scraping at Mr. C’s body. Cooper runs in, staring in horror at the supernatural handiwork. A large blob rises out of the double’s stomach, floating up as BOB’s face materializes. BOB’s orb screams and rockets toward Cooper, knocking the agent to the floor. Freddie calls out to BOB, realizing that this is his destiny. BOB attacks the young man, but Freddie curls his glove hand into a fist and throws a punch. A couple of rounds later, one final punch breaks the orb into pieces. Cooper manages to place the green ring on his tulpa’s hand, sending the form back to the Black Lodge. “One for the grandkids,” Bradley Mitchum nods.

Frank Truman turns over the Great Northern key he received from Ben as the FBI arrives. Cooper notices Naido. The shot of his shocked face lays superimposed over the rest of the scene, hovering like Dorothy’s visage as she chants “There’s no place like home” over her clacking ruby red slippers.

Naido, if you haven’t guessed, is Diane, the real Diane (now with a red bob!) as Naido’s eyeless masking burns away. She says she remembers everything, sharing a kiss with Cooper. “Now,” he announces, more to us than the crowd in the Sheriff’s office, “there are some things that will change. The past dictates the future.” He looks back at the wall clock, stuck ticking in place at 2:53. He turns to face his old friends as his own face calls out, “We all live inside a dream.” He hopes to see all of them again, soon.

Friends old and new come together to vanquish the forces of evil. This is what everyone wants, deep inside their hearts. It would just be so tidy, wouldn’t it? Well, once Cooper, Diane, and Cole find themselves in the basement of the Great Northern, Cooper unlocks the door in the furnace room, keeping his friends back. “I’ll see you at the curtain call,” he says, walking into the space of the supernatural motel. There, he meets MIKE, who recites the “Fire Walk with Me” poem before leading Cooper to Phillip Jeffries.

Jeffries gives Cooper instructions to find Judy in his steam coding (the owl cave sign, diamonds that morph into an 8 or infinity symbol), as Cooper requests the date February 23, 1989. Steam and fan blades whoosh as the scene fades back to the night of Laura Palmer’s murder, footage from the “Fire Walk with Me” film now varnished in black and white. Cooper spies Laura in the moments leading up to her fateful encounter with Leo Johnson, Ronette Pulaski, and Jacques Renault, but he stops her in the forest. Laura takes Cooper’s hand when he reaches out to take her home. Laura’s wrapped up corpse disappears from the shores of the Blue Pine Lodge, as Pete Martell fishes in peace. In her home, Sarah Palmer grabs Laura’s homecoming portrait, smashing the glass frame to pieces. Has Laura been saved?

Hard to say—Laura disappears from Cooper’s grasp, her screams echoing into the dark woods.

Cooper is brought back to the start of “The Return,” meeting MIKE and the Arm, losing Laura again as she’s pulled through the ceiling, screaming. Leland begs Coop to find her. Dale’s endless twists and turns through the red curtains lead him back to the Lodge portal entrance at Glastonbury Grove, where Diane waits. Believing that each are who they say they are, Diane and Cooper drive down 430 miles of highway, sharing a kiss before they pass the point of no return onto a long, dark stretch of road, illuminated only by headlights.

The pair arrives at a motel; Cooper runs into the office as Diane sees a vision of herself appear next to the carport. The image disappears when Coop returns, both entering the hotel room. Something is off, though. Diane wonders, “What do we do now?” and Cooper replies just a little too sternly, “You come over here to me.” Again, they kiss, engaging in some somber lovemaking. Diane looks up at the ceiling in distress, covering Dale’s face. Cut to the next morning—Cooper wakes up, alone, in a new motel room. He reads a “Please don’t try to find me” note from “Linda” on the nightstand for “Richard.” Cooper departs this new motel in a new car, driving to the Odessa city limits, population 99,940.

Cruising through Odessa brings Cooper to a diner called Judy’s, and he pulls in for a cup of coffee. The waitress working is apparently not the one he hopes to see—he asks after another one, learning that she’s on her third day off. Some not-so-fine gents accost the waitress, and Cooper, in a more ruthless move than usual, knees one in the groin and shoots another’s foot—he takes their guns and drops them into a fryer. He gets the address of the other waitress, and goes to her home.

After knocking, the door opens to reveal a woman who looks identical to Laura Palmer—but she’s confused by the name. The woman insists that she is Carrie Page, but Cooper maintains his belief that she may be Laura and that he has to take her home to Twin Peaks. Carrie figures, ah, fuck it; she wants to get the hell out of Dodge anyway. She races to pack her bags (and a coat—it’s can get chilly in the Pacific Northwest) and invites Cooper in. Coop notices a dead man’s body sprawled in an armchair, bullet hole right in the forehead. His eyes wander to a figurine of a white horse on Carrie’s mantle.

More driving down long, dark roads—Carrie’s grateful to leave Odessa, but worries about the car headlights that tail them. She wonders out loud if they’re being followed, but it passes as Cooper glimpses up in the rearview. “It’s a long way,” Carrie sighs, cryptically following with, “In those days, I was too young to know any better.”

Cooper drives past the RR Diner down the streets of Twin Peaks. He asks if Carrie recognizes any of her surroundings, but she does not. They pull up to Laura’s house—she doesn’t recognize that, either. At the door, Coop knocks a couple of times before there’s an answer. A middle-aged woman with long hair—not Sarah—opens the door a crack. This woman, Alice Tremond, does not know the name Sarah Palmer, having purchased the house from a Mrs. Chalfont. Tremond and Chalfont are the surnames of an elderly woman used, likely a Black Lodge spirit, but Cooper never encountered her during his adventures. Laura did meet her, but the names don’t light a spark for Carrie.

Cooper starts back to the car, but stops, swiveling back to look at the house as Carrie looks on guardedly. The agent looks to the ground, asking, “What year is this?” Carrie blinks and looks up at her supposed home. The wind picks up as a whispered shout carries over, screaming, “Laura!” Carrie begins to shake, and she screams as Cooper whips around to look at her. The lights in the house pop and go out, static crackling.

Who is the dreamer? Whoever it may be in the world of Twin Peaks, “The Return” was the audience’s hypnotic jerk, rousing us from our television reverie, back to the beginning to experience this temporal loop all over again.

More “Twin Peaks” Coverage

Full Television Archive

‘Twin Peaks’ Recap: Parts 14 & 15

norma&ed_part15.jpg

By Caitlin Malcuit

Parts 14 and 15 together make for a poignant two hours, running down the list to check off a host of emotions. You’ve got heartbreak, you’ve got grief, you’ve got delight—rollercoaster sure does work as a metaphor here, because the lump in your throat and tears in your eyes are physical reminders of mortality. It’s red curtains for all of us, eventually.

Part 14: I Cannes Dream about You

The fine folks of the Twin Peaks Sherriff’s Department and the FBI bring each other up to speed on their respective storylines, but not before Gordon Cole nearly deafens Lucy with his shouting. Frank Truman reveals they have the missing pages of Laura Palmer’s diary and that there may be two Coopers out in the wild.

Albert elaborates on the Blue Rose nomenclature to Tammie; the case of origin involved a woman named Lois Duffy, who shot her doppelganger. The double, with her dying breath, utters, “I’m like the Blue Rose.” Agent Preston observes that such a color rose does not occur in nature—the fake Duffy was “a tulpa”—a manifestation of Lois, separate from her own consciousness. We, the audience, slowly realize this conceit indulges Lynch’s passion for transcendental meditation.

Diane is questioned about her last encounter with Cooper to see if Major Briggs ever came up in conversation. She claims that he did not, and learns about the ring found in Briggs’ stomach. Turns out Janey-E is Diane’s half-sister, who lives in Las Vegas with her husband Douglas Jones. They do not get along. In turn, Cole gets Las Vegas agents Wilson (Owain Rhys Davies) and Headley (Jay R. Ferguson) on the horn, asking them to round up Dougie and Jane.

Cole loudly announces to his colleagues that, “Last night, I had another Monica Bellucci dream.” Yeah, honest-to-god, it’s Monica Bellucci, even more cryptic here than she was in “The Matrix: Reloaded.” In his dream, Cole joined Bellucci and her friends for coffee at a Parisian café. Dale Cooper materialized, his face indistinguishable. Monica woefully recites a philosophical text: "We are like the dreamer who dreams, and then lives inside the dream. But who is the dreamer?" Cole is compelled to look behind him, following his companion’s gaze, and sees his younger self. This triggered a memory of Phillip Jeffries sudden reappearance in “Fire Walk with Me.”

Deputy Chad runs out of opportunities to sneak in conference room lunches when he’s arrested by his co-workers, who have their lunch on the table, taunting him.

Bobby, Hawk, Andy, and Frank head to the forest and Jack Rabbit’s Palace, coming upon a clearing with fog swirling about. A young woman’s body lies on the ground, but she’s still alive. Her face is eyeless; this is the woman who helped Cooper escape his interdimensional limbo. As 2:53 hits, a vortex appears in the sky, all staring at it—only Andy disappears. He drops in to the black and white from the premiere. The giant arrives, projecting a brief film that shows Andy the creation of BOB, Laura, as well as Cooper and his evil double. The vortex disappears as the sheriff’s team snap out of their daze. Andy reappears with the young woman in his arms. Our usually cyclical, repetitive deputy lays down the facts: the tall man is called the Fireman, who explained the woman is very important, and people want her dead.

Lucy and Andy get Naido (per the credits) set up with nice cozy pajamas and keep her in a cell, where Chad and a bloodied drunk also sit. Naido starts clicking and cooing, and the drunk grunts as well. Chad screams at them to shut up to no avail, and starts mocking them with ape sounds before he screams.

James Hurley, taking a break from his security detail at the Great Northern, shoots the shit with his coworker Freddie (Jake Wardle), obliterating walnuts with his grip. They’re heading to the Roadhouse for James’ birthday, but James has another b-day request: the story behind Freddie’s green, rubber-gloved right hand.

After a night of drinking at a London pub, Freddie was compelled to tackle a stack of boxes in an alley. But once he jumped, he levitated. Like Andy, he saw a vortex and was dropped into the Fireman’s room. Freddie was instructed to stop in a hardware store and pick up a lone green rubber glove that would grant him staggering strength. From there, he’d travel to Twin Peaks to seek his destiny. The clerk didn’t want to sell an opened package with a single item, but Freddie paid and decked the clerk, breaking the guy’s neck. The glove wouldn’t come off even with a doctor’s assistance. Freddie figured he’d head to Twin Peaks, but to his surprise, his plane ticket had already been purchased.

James decides to check out a noise in the hotel boiler room, but we’re spared a Winkie’s jump scare and instead find Sarah Palmer depositing herself at the Elk’s Point #9 Bar to get her Bloody Mary fix. A trucker zeroes in on her, but Sarah’s not amused by his (un)smooth talk. The jerk keeps hounding her, escalating with threats, but Sarah does him one better: she pulls off her face. The trucker stares in horror into a dark void as a floating mouth sasses, “Are you sure you want to fuck with this?” She fixes her face back in place and rips out the trucker’s throat. He drops to the floor as Sarah campaigns for an Emmy, acting as if she’s mortified. The bartender thinks something is fishy, but she icily replies, “Sure is a mystery, huh?”

At the Roadhouse, we’re back to another mystery: Where the hell is Billy? Megan (Shane Lynch) chats with her friend Sophie (Emily Stofle) about his last-known whereabouts. Megan and her mother caught sight of him in their yard, frightening them both. He dashed into their kitchen, bleeding from his mouth and nose before taking off again. Sophie’s face and the music darkens as she asks, “What’s your mother’s name?” “Tina,” Megan replies.

Part 15: Lights Out

Golden shovel in hand, Nadine Hurley marches down the highway and stops at Big Ed’s Gas Farm. Following her conversation with Dr. Jacoby, Nadine tells Ed that she came to a realization: she’s changed. She loves Ed so much, but, as she puts it, “I’ve been a selfish bitch to you all these years, and you’ve been a saint.” Nadine knows that Ed always pined for Norma, but kept them apart out of spite, taking advantage of her husband’s guilt. She just wants him to be free and gives her blessing to the couple. After one last embrace, Nadine swings her shovel over her shoulder, strutting out into the sunset.

Ed, overcome with newfound freedom, bolts to the Double R Diner as Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” swells, probably the best, most breathtaking musical moment of the show. He rushes up to Norma, telling her everything’s changed, that they’re free to be together. For the Double R’s owner, that’s great and all…but Walter’s here. Ed’s face drops, and so do our hearts. He slumps onto a stool as Norma tells her beau that she’s selling the franchise to him, holding on to the original location. The regulars are her family, and she wants to take care of them. Walter storms off.

Ed sits in silence—practicing his Transcendental Meditation® Technique, no doubt—but Norma’s hand slides over his shoulder. He swivels around and they hold one another, together at long last. Ed says, “Marry me,” to which Norma smiles, “Of course I will,” as Shelly warmly looks on, coffee carafe in hand.

Mr. C arrives at the Convenience Store. Led by a Woodsman to the floral wallpapered space Cole saw in his vortex trip, they venture to a new realm beyond the store: a motel. A woman with a shadowed face brings Mr. C to Philip Jeffries, occupying the form of a large steam teapot-type machine. C wants to know if he sent Ray to kill him—Jeffries did not call Ray, and never spoke to the doppelganger five days prior because he doesn’t have Mr. C’s number. The conversation steers toward someone named Judy, first mentioned by Jeffries back in the 1989 FBI HQ incident. C wants to know who Judy is, but the teapot claims they’ve already met. Jeffries knows her whereabouts, however, and spouts out coordinates via steam signal. He fades away, leaving Mr. C to answer a telephone, teleporting him back outside.

Cooper’s double is greeted by Richard Horne, pistol drawn. Richard says he recognized Mr. C back at the Over the Top farm. His mom had a picture of him in his FBI glory. “Who’s your mom?” Mr. C asks. Richard answers, “Audrey Horne.” Ruh-roh!

Mr. C beats and disarms Richard for threatening him, then makes the young man enter the truck. They’ll chat when they ride. Practicing driver safety, C shoots off a text that reads, “Las Vegas?”

In the forests of Twin Peaks, Steven Burnett and Gersten Hayward clutch each other under a large tree, the former twitchy from his high. He loads a gun to Gersten’s dismay, threatening suicide because his life is a mess. The pair are discovered by a man (Mark Frost) walking his dog, and Gersten scurries off, clutching her head as she hears a gunshot. The man walks back to his home at the Fat Trout Trailer Park, telling Carl what he saw.

At the Roadhouse, James and Freddie enjoy their night out when they spot Renee (Jessica Szohr), the crier at James’ show. Hurley the younger dares to say hello, and is promptly hassled by her husband Chuck. For some reason, James blurts out that he likes her, taking a punch to the face in kind. Chuck and his pal gang up on James and Freddie steps in, striking the men with his gloved hand. This lands the bullies in intensive care, James and Freddie in a jail cell, and starts another howling session in the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department.

In Las Vegas, Agent Wilson rounds up the wrong Dougie and Jane Jones. Todd Duncan asks his assistant Roger to find Tony Sinclair, but both are shot to death by Chantal. One down, one to go, she tells Hutch.

The true Cooper gets a piece of chocolate cake from Janey-E, enjoying it along with an airing of “Sunset Boulevard.” The mention of character Gordon Cole causes Cooper to pause the film in shock. His eyes are drawn to the electrical outlet on the wall and he crawls toward it, fork outstretched. He inserts the handle into the socket, blowing out the power as Janey-E screams in fright. 

The Log Lady calls Hawk once more to let her old friend know that she’s dying. She knows that it’s her time, but there’s always room for a little fear. Margaret and Hawk have a shared knowledge though, that death is “just a change, not an end.” They exchange their final good nights, and, after Hawk hangs up, a good-bye, Margaret. 

Audrey Horne has made it as far as the foyer of her home where Charlie waits. He’s even ready to go, coat on and all! Audrey still experiences periodic dissociative spells, blinking in confusion. It’s almost as if she can’t head out the door, descending into a pissing match with Charlie. He threatens to take off his coat and just forget about going to the Roadhouse (he’s still so, so sleepy, after all). Audrey feels like she’s meeting a different person, demanding to know who he is. Charlie sighs, removes his coat and plops on the couch. Ms. Horne can’t take it anymore, and rushes at Charlie and chokes him.

So they don’t make it to the Roadhouse. Ruby (Charlyne Yi) sits slumped in a booth to check out The Veils’ performance. Two bikers approach, but she says she’s waiting for someone. They lift Ruby up and set her on the floor. She crawls through the crowd, screaming violently as the concert comes to a close.

More “Twin Peaks” Coverage

Full Television Archive

‘Twin Peaks’ Part 13 Recap: Come on Down!

By Caitlin Malcuit

If Cooper’s Dougie limbo is a parody of Walter White’s fugue put-on in Season 2 of “Breaking Bad,” as Rachel Millman posited on Twitter, then Mr. C’s confrontation with the farmhouse gang is probably a take on the dick-waving contests on “The Walking Dead” between Rick Grimes and the Saviors, Rick and the Governor, Rick and anyone. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, Part 13 is a blast of an hour.

The Mitchum Brothers conga dance right into Bushnell Mullins’ office as Tony Sinclair cowers behind his desk. Candie presents Mullins with several gifts, on her A-game as she presents Monte Cristo Number Twos, diamond encrusted monogram cuff links, and the keys to a brand new car with a Barker’s Beauty splendor. They go to a BMW, and it matches Dougie’s!

Tony whimpers to Duncan Todd that the plan failed, and is given only one more chance to remedy the situation. He makes a stop to the LVPD, where the Detectives Fusco run down the results of Dougie’s prints. They match those of an escaped prisoner in South Dakota, who is also a missing FBI agent. They deem the story too ridiculous to bother with and crumple up the results, directing Tony to the back of the department to meet a Detective Clark.

Clark (John Savage—doing a great Harvey Keitel) is crooked, and Tony runs to him for and undetectable poison. But it’s gonna cost a good chunk of change. Tony believes that someone is on to them and hastens off. Clark’s partner saunters over asking what the problem is. Clark is in disbelief that Tony is going to resort to murder, and says he’ll give Mr. Todd a ring.

Janey-E, basking in the glow of her new BMW convertible and Sonny-Jim’s joy with his swing set, drops her husband off at work. Tony whisks his colleague away for a cup of joe at Szymon’s. The allure of a cherry pie drags Cooper inside the café proper, giving Tony the opportunity to spike the coffee. The waitress sends Cooper back out to his seat, but the agent zeroes in on the collection of dandruff on Tony’s shoulders. He gently prods Tony’s back, which strikes Tony as being too kind for his wretched soul, so he confesses. Tony dashes to pour the coffee into the urinal (prompting an amusing “That bad, huh?” from another occupant), and sobs his apologies. Tony dishes to Mullins—even though Mullins knew thanks to Cooper’s doodles—and Mr. Sinclair swears that he’ll testify against Duncan Todd, even if it costs him his life.

At the Saviors’ compound—sorry—in Western Montana, Mr. C pulls into a garage while Ray and a couple of burly men watch on a monitor. Ray’s not happy to see him, considering that he killed the guy, but big boss Renzo (Derek Mears) assures Ray he’ll get the chance again after they have a little bit of fun.

Renzo sizes up their visitor, saying, “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a new contestant here,” and dispatches Muddy (Frank Collison) to lay out the rules of the game—it’s “Over the Top” time, baby!

If Mr. C loses, he’ll answer to Renzo. Muddy’s giving him an out, and recommends that he hightail it. In the unlikely event that he wins, Mr. C is the boss. He doesn’t want to be the boss, but he wants Ray. To the table they go, and the arm wrestling commences.

You can guess how this is gonna go, and you’re right: Mr. C bests Renzo, finishing his opponent by breaking his arm and punching his eyeballs in. His prize is a new crew, some burner phones, and Ray, who gets a gunshot to the leg for his betrayal. Dark Cooper grills him, finding out that the hit came from Philip Jeffries, who hoped to have a green ring placed on C’s left hand to force him back to the Black Lodge. As the gang watches over a monitor, Richard Horne joins the viewing party. Ray hands over a scrap of paper with the desired coordinates. Finally, last Ray heard, Jeffries was at a place called the Dutchman’s, but it’s not real. That’s all Mr. C needs to end Ray Monroe, because he knows exactly where that spot is.

In Twin Peaks, a distraught Becky calls her mom at work. Steven hasn’t come home for two days, and she’s worried. Shelly tells her to head to the diner, and she’ll serve her a piece of cherry pie and ice cream, and, gosh darn it, Becky can’t resist!

Bobby makes his own stop to the RR Diner to pick up a meal, and bumps into Ed Hurley (Everett McGill) dining with Norma (Peggy Lipton). Bobby tries to exit, offering Ed space to catch up with his former flame, but both end up moving as Norma’s boyfriend Walter Lawford (Grant Goodeve) arrives. He’s also her business partner, and as he goes over a profits report, mentions that the flagship RR Diner is underperforming where her franchise locations are thriving. Walter says Norma sells her homemade pies too cheap, but Norma doesn’t like the shortcuts the franchise takes to make pies—they just aren’t as good.

Nadine chats with Dr. Jacoby when the site of a golden shovel on display brings him to Run Silent, Run Drapes. She’s thrilled to see her hero Dr. Amp, whose mantra helped bring her business venture to life. The doctor reminisces that the last time he saw Nadine, she was looking around for a potato she dropped on the supermarket floor. Their warm reunion stands in contrast to Sarah Palmer’s evening, guzzling alcohol as she watches a loop of a boxing match (not one of Bushnell Mullins’, though).

Audrey Horne still pries Charlie for an answer about Tina’s phone call, but he won’t spill. She feels like she’s somewhere else and somebody else and doesn’t know where she’s supposed to be. Charlie reminds Audrey that they’re going to the Roadhouse to find Billy, but she can’t remember where that is or how to get there, her steely doggedness coming undone. Charlie’s frustrated and warns his wife, “Now, are you gonna stop playing games, or do I have to end your story, too?”

At the Roadhouse, James Hurley treats us with a performance of the infamous “Just You” as Vanessa from “Gossip Girl” looks on, touched by his performance. Renee (Jessica Szohr), as she’s listed in the credits, can’t keep her eyes dry. Meanwhile, James’ uncle Ed sits in silence at his gas station, quietly eating his RR To-Go cup of soup.

More “Twin Peaks” Coverage:

Full Television Archive

‘Twin Peaks’ Part 12 Recap: The Ex-Files

By Caitlin Malcuit

The circular conversations and repetitions that fill “Twin Peaks: The Return” wrings out every last drop of patience that the audience can endure. We wait and wait and wait, but when we get something new, what a slap in the face it is. After all, things can happen!

Agent Preston is officially welcomed into the ranks of the Blue Rose Task Force. Albert explains to her it stemmed from Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force’s UFO study. Spearheaded by Philip Jeffries, agents Chester Desmond, Dale Cooper, and Albert were chosen to investigate the cases that Blue Book couldn’t answer—Albert wryly notes that he’s the only one of the group who hasn’t disappeared. Despite Gordon Cole’s reluctance to bring new folks into the fold, they think Preston’s got the right stuff. Diane enters through the red drapes of the den and is deputized to assist, because they really need her, and doesn’t she want to know what happened to her dear friend Cooper? After a moment, Diane pierces through the silence by wagging a two-finger salute: “Let’s rock.”

Diane is still under suspicion: she receives a text asking, “Las Vegas?” and replies, “THEY HAVEN’T ASKED YET.” Albert intercepts the message. This brings him to Cole, regaling a French woman with FBI tales. She exits after what feels like an eternity, but for all of the waiting David Lynch has us endure, this feels like the moment he knew Miguel Ferrer’s time was short. Through a blinking and misting stare, Cole throws his hand on his colleagues shoulder and says, “Albert…sometimes I really worry about you.”

In Twin Peaks, Truman and Hawk make separate visits to town denizens. The Sheriff has the unpleasant task of telling Ben Horne that his grandson Richard struck and killed the little boy at the crosswalk and is on the run. Miriam, now in intensive care, provided her witness account and awaits surgery. Ben offers his financial assistance to cover her medical expenses, as well as Cooper’s old Great Northern hotel key as a memento for the ailing Harry Truman.

Hawk stops at Sarah Palmer’s house after a breakdown in the grocery store. After clearing the Smirnoff stock and picking up a carton of Salems, the sight of brand new turkey jerky sets her off. Sarah screams at the clerks that men are coming and they have to watch out. This is enough to warrant a well-being check. A large thump rattles the Palmer house (and liquor bottles), and when Hawk asks if anyone is inside, Sarah says it’s just something in the kitchen. The deputy chief assures Sarah that if she needs help—help of any kind—just call.

Some story threads are condensed in “Part 12:” Cooper plays catch with his face outside with Sonny Jim. Jerry Horne runs through a field and trips. Carl helps out a trailer park resident who’s trying to make ends meet. Chantal and Hutch assassinate the Warden before a trip to Wendy’s.

After another Dr. Amp broadcast, we’re abruptly sent to a study where Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn) stands, scowling at a man behind a desk (Clark Middleton). No longer the mischief-maker-turned-activist, she berates Charlie, her apparent husband, to come with her to the Roadhouse to find a man named Billy. Billy has been missing for two days. Charlie says he’s too tired and has a deadline, but Audrey leans in: she is sleeping with Billy. She even had a dream about him where he bled from his nose and mouth, and sometimes dreams harken a truth! If the Audrey of the original series was like a young Elizabeth Taylor, the Audrey of the return is the Martha to Charlie’s George.

The scene provides a mess of new names. Tina is the last person to see Billy, according to someone named Chuck, but Charlie was supposed to call Tina because Audrey can’t stand her. Chuck also stole Billy’s truck! Anyway, the two are in some sort of contract which Audrey threatens to renege on, and so Charlie calls Tina. He receives horrible news over the phone, but he refuses to share, seemingly at Tina’s behest. Billy, for what it’s worth, may be the farmer who was supposed to meet Andy in “Part 7.” Audrey is grinding her teeth, and ours are worn down to the root.

At the Roadhouse, we don’t see Audrey, but two new women: Natalie (Ana de la Reguera) and Abbie (Elizabeth Anweis). They’re waiting for someone too—their friend Angela. Angela’s going out with Clark, but Clark was seen with Mary. Suddenly, Natalie’s boyfriend Trick (Scott Coffey) dashes into their booth. Someone came at him headlong on the highway and ran him off the road. Could it have been Richard? If it is, he won’t get far—Red will find him and he’ll realize, as Diane did when plugging in the coordinates, all roads lead to Twin Peaks.

More “Twin Peaks” Coverage:

Full Television Archive

‘Twin Peaks’ Part 10 Recap: We’re Up All Night to Get Lucky

By Caitlin Malcuit

Two prestige shows featured cameos by pasty musicians: “Game of Thrones” had Ed Sheeran, and “Twin Peaks” had Moby. That’s it—recap over.

Just kidding! Anyway, the brutality shifts from Las Vegas to Twin Peaks for an hour full of violence, suspicion, and visions.

We knew Richard Horne wasn’t above manslaughter, but he moves up to second-degree murder when he pays a visit to jovial schoolteacher Miriam at her trailer. She stares out defiantly through her screen door; his opposing reflection brings to mind the flashes of demonic killer BOB in mirrors. Miriam has told the police about the crosswalk accident, but is surprised that Richard hasn’t been arrested yet—it’s likely she told Deputy Chad, who would remain purposefully tightlipped. So, she sent a letter this very day to Sheriff Truman, telling him everything she knows, adding that if anything happens to her, it was Richard who did it. Richard rushes the trailer and brutally beats Miriam off-screen while he calls Chad to intercept the letter.

Fat Trout proprietor Carl strums his guitar until he’s interrupted by a shattered window, followed by screaming. “What a fucking nightmare,” he mutters before we find out the domestic situation inside: Steven Bennett, no longer so mellow from his cocaine high, berates and beats Becky. This echoes her mother’s old life with abusive ex-husband Leo.

In Vegas, Rodney Mitchum (Robert Knepper), last seen beating the Silver Mustang supervisor, is on the receiving end of pain himself when moll Candie (Amy Shiels) wallops him with a remote to kill a fly. After her protracted determination to swat the thing, she collapses into a hysterical mess, where Jim Belushi’s Bradley Mitchum enters and all jabber over one another like a scene from a screwball comedy. They settle down to watch the news, finding out Ike "The Spike" Stadtler was arrested and that his dispatcher “Dougie Jones” was their very own Mr. Jackpots.

As the Mitchums plot to meet with their winner, Duncan Todd summons a visitor to his desk: Tony Sinclair. The physically imposing Tony is putty in Duncan’s hands, obliging when told not to sit, not to speak. Mr. C’s treatment of Duncan is now transposed onto the insurance agent. The plan is to have Tony meet with the Mitchum brothers and convince them that Dougie Jones is the one caused their $30 million arson claim to be turned down. Furious, they’ll likely kill him. If not, Tony has to take care of Dougie himself.

Meanwhile, with a day off, Janey-E manages to get her “husband” into the doctor’s office for a checkup. Fascinated by his patient’s physical improvements, the doctor overlooks Cooper’s vacant replies. Janey-E practically has throbbing hearts in her eyes when she catches sight of his abs. Once they’re home, Cooper’s wife-but-not-really digs her shoes into the floor in an amorous daze, somehow convincing him to have sex. Despite the suspect nature of consent here, Cooper’s arms flail in ecstatic bliss, Janey-E moaning loud enough to wake her kid. But the sex isn’t enough to bring the agent out of his fugue.

In Buckhorn, Gordon Cole and Tammy Preston spy Albert dining with coroner Talbot, perhaps bonding over their shared ability to conduct autopsies. Albert later stops by Cole’s hotel room, but as soon as he opens the door, Cole is greeted with a vision of Laura Palmer sobbing in the doorway. He shakes it off, and Albert reveals that Diane’s text from Mr. C pinged off a tower in Philly, but Tammy traced it to a server in Mexico. She replied, too, “They have Hastings, he’s going to take them to the site.”

Tammy joins her colleagues to show them a photo related to the murder in New York. Mr. C, with an unidentified male, is shown visiting the room with the glass box.

Back in Twin Peaks, Richard continues to raise hell. After Chad successfully intercepts Miriam’s letter from the mail truck—under Lucy’s surveillance—Richard pulls up to his grandmother Sylvia’s house to grab money before he high tails it out of town. He chokes a safe combination out of Sylvia before he robs her of cash, silver, and her purse. She later calls her estranged husband Ben at the Great Northern Hotel, looking to be compensated for her ordeal, but he refuses. Ben hangs up, and in his frustration, asks assistant Beverly out to dinner.

Hawk receives another late-night call from The Log Lady, imparting a cryptic message:

“Hawk. Electricity is humming. You hear it in the mountains and rivers. You see it dance among the seas and stars and glowing around the moon, but in these days, the glow is dying. What will be in the darkness that remains? The Truman brothers are both true men. They are your brothers. And the others, the good ones, who have been with you. Now the circle is almost complete. Watch and listen to the dream of time and space. It all comes out now, flowing like a river. That which is and is not. Hawk. Laura is the one.”

She hasn’t steered him wrong yet! Does this mean that The Bookhouse Boys will get back together? The dream of time and space sounds not unlike Laura’s birth in Part 8. At the Roadhouse, Rebekah Del Rio closes out with the Lynch-penned “No Stars,” with Moby here on guitar. She sings “My dream is to go to that place/You know the one/Where it all began.” Perhaps the Boys will get to that place…whether it’s the Black or White Lodge remains to be seen.

P.S. Nadine finally did it. She figured out how to make silent curtain runners. There’s a retail location, too: Run Silent, Run Drapes.

More “Twin Peaks” Coverage:

Full Television Archive

‘Twin Peaks’ Part 7 Recap: A Little Ditty ‘Bout Coop and Diane

By Caitlin Malcuit

In one of his dictograph monologues, Cooper recites to his off-screen secretary, “The trail narrows, Diane. I'm close, but the last few steps are always the darkest and most difficult.” He records this when the mystery of Laura Palmer’s death comes to a head, but the reveal of her killer ultimately causes the trail to widen. It veers off into multiple paths even all these years later, complex and overwhelming like the choking overgrowth of the Washington state forest bed. Welcome to Act II of “Twin Peaks: The Return.”

At the sheriff’s department, Hawk shows Frank Truman the pages yanked from the bathroom stall—they are indeed the missing pages from Laura Palmer’s secret diary that chronicled her long-suffering teenage years at the mercy of BOB. One page in particular details a dream she had of Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham—not resurfacing this season), foreseeing Cooper’s entrapment in the Black Lodge. Hawk can’t figure out how or why the pages got to the police station, but knows only a handful of people saw Cooper when he came out of the woods in the last series’ finale, including Harry Truman and Doc Hayward.

Frank tries to bring his brother up to speed over the phone, but he’s far too sick to sit through the call (Michael Ontkean, like Graham, opted not to return). Next on the list is Doc Hayward; Frank dials him up on Skype after twisting a pine knot, raising his desktop monitor through his desk. Hayward, played by Mark Frost’s late father Warren, remembers the night Cooper came back well, saying that he acted mighty strange the next morning, especially after he snuck out of intensive care in full dress. The Doc recalls seeing a strange face form on Cooper’s own visage.

In South Dakota, Lt. Knox (Adele Rene) is surprised to find that the hit on Major Briggs’ prints actually led to a body. Just when it seems clear that the body is Briggs, the coroner mentions that the corpse is only in its late 40s (Briggs would really be in his late 70s).

The FBI crew also jet back to South Dakota after Gordon and Albert plead with Diane (Laura Dern) to take a look at the guy in federal custody. Ten minutes, tops, are all she’ll give Cooper, she says, and with great anxiety, she raises the partition. Diane stands to face “Cooper,” who claims it’s good to see her again. She leans in, asking when the last time they saw each other was. “At your house,” he answers, but does he really remember that night? Diane says it’s one she’ll never forget. We’ve never known the extent of her and Cooper’s relationship beyond his tapes, romantic or otherwise. But Diane is the closest audience surrogate we have while Dale is in catatonia. She bellows, “Who are you?” at the weathered, soulless face of Bad Dale. She knows, like we do, that there’s a problem. Diane tells Gordon that man was not the Cooper she knows—it’s not time passing, change, or the way he looks—it’s something “here,” she cries, motioning to her heart.

Bad Cooper has a way of getting to people, and that’s certainly the case when he wants to chat with Warden Murphy (James Morrison). “Cooper” has dirt on him involving the dog leg, a mistress, and a man named Joe McCluskey, so the warden caves quickly in supplying a cheap rental car and the release of Ray Monroe rather than let face his own demons.

Speaking of cheap cars, Dougie Jones’ now-charred vehicle draws the attention of local law enforcement. Janey-E strolls in to pick up her husband, and guides Cooper through the questioning. The car was missing, yes, but it was found. It blew up and there are multiple fatalities, and that’s all Janey-E needs to know or care about because she’s out stressed enough as it is, goddamn it! She and her husband have to go home to their son, and he’s waiting for supper. As the pair leave Lucky 7 Insurance, the assassin who ice-picked Lorraine last week charges at Cooper with a gun. Cooper’s agent instincts kick in as he dispatches Ike “The Spike” in short order, judo-chopping his would-be killer’s throat as Janey-E pulls him off.

As Cooper comes closer to returning, Twin Peaks walks us through the town’s parallel inscrutables. Deputy Andy meets with the true owner of the truck that Richard drove during the accident; Jean-Michel Renault of the Bang! Bang! Bar keeps his family’s brothel business running; Ben Horne’s probably going to end up having an affair with his assistant Beverly (Ashley Judd). Like Ben’s brother Jerry, we may be lost in the woods and not know where we are (“I think I’m high!"), but the trail will narrow again.

More “Twin Peaks” Coverage:

Full Television Archive

Cart (0)