Twin Peaks: The Return Parts 1 & 2

All day I felt a mix of excitement, anxiety, and general sense of uncertainty. I started the day with a damn fine cup of coffee in my Twin Peaks Sheriff Dept mug and a slice of cherry pie. Showtime 2 had been re-playing all of the episodes from the first two seasons so I kept that on in the background as I got ready for the show.  I watched the premiere at a party in Long Beach surrounded by other Twin Peaks fans. Special guest Ray Wise   (Leland Palmer) was on hand and it was a thrill to meet him. He’s such a nice guy. He signed a poster from my copy of the April ’91 issue of The Twin Peaks Gazette and then took a picture with us. As the moment drew closer I began to feel my heart racing and it was like I couldn’t breathe. This was actually happening.

Part 1

Twin Peaks: The Return opens with a portion of the red room scene from the season 2 finale.  Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) tells Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) that she’ll see him again in 25 years. The scene fades to black then fades-in up in the mist above Twin Peaks. We see the burnt remains of the sawmill and then the empty halls of the high school on the day Laura died.  We focus on the photo of Laura in the trophy case and the familiar strains of the theme start up. This time instead of looking at the falls from the side, the view is from up above looking down before returning to the red room.

The Giant (Carel Struycken) and Cooper are sitting together in a beautiful black & white scene that is very reminiscent of Eraserhead . After listening to sounds coming from an old phonograph horn, the Giant tells Cooper that “It is in our house now” but “it cannot be said aloud now.” He gives him the names Richard and Linda and the number 430.  Cooper says he understands then fades away.

What does Cooper understand? Who are Richard and Linda? What does 430 mean? So many questions already.

In the woods, presumably somewhere near Twin Peaks, Dr Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn) is living in a trailer. A truck drives up to deliver a couple of larger boxes to the Doctor.  Jacoby unpacks some shovels and the delivery man, Joe (Joseph Auger,) asks if he needs any help.  Jacoby says no he can do it on his own.

In New York City a young man named Sam Colby (Ben Rosenfield) sits idly by in a large secured room staring at a big empty glass box. He is there to monitor the box in case something appears in it. A girl he knows named Tracey Barberato (Madeline Zima) shows up with lattes.  She wants to come in with him but he tells her she can’t. He returns to the room with the lattes and she leaves.

At the Great Northern hotel, Benjamin Horne (Richard Beymer) is discussing a guest with Beverly Paige (Ashley Judd) who appears to be the hotel manager. They are interrupted by Ben’s brother Jerry (David Patrick Kelly) who left the hotel business and now has become a profitable pot farmer.

I was super excited to see them together.  This was my favorite scene of the episode.  I can’t wait to get back to more adventures of Ben & Jerry at the Great Northern or elsewhere.

At the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s station a man comes in asking for Sheriff Truman.  Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) asks him which one because it might make a difference. One is sick and one is fishing. He leaves a business card and asks her to give it to Sheriff Truman.

A car drives through the woods at night. When it stops we see Cooper’s BOB-posessed-doppelganger (MacLachlan) get out. (To keep things straight we’ll just call him Bad Cooper) He goes in to a house and speaks with a woman named Buella (Kathleen Deming.)  He asks her if Ray (George Griffith) and Darya (Nicole LaLiberte) are there. She gets them and they take off with Bad Cooper.

Who are these people? What has Bad Cooper been up to over these 25 years? And why does he look like Michael Madsen in Kill Bill? This is not a good look for Kyle.

Back in New York, it’s a night later and Tracey has once again shown up with lattes. This time the guard (Michael Bisping) that had been sitting outside the room previously is not there.  Sam reluctantly decides to let her in this time since the guard is gone. He tells her what he knows about the glass box which is not much. He’s just supposed to watch and see if anything appears. So far nothing has.  He doesn’t know who owns this but believes it’s “some billionaire.” The two of them sit watching the box together. But soon they begin making out. She stands up and removes her clothes. He does the same and they begin to have sex; no longer paying attention to the box. The box grows dark and then a figure that looks to have the body of a human female but an other-worldly head appears in the box. They take notice of it as it breaks through the glass straight towards them brutally attacking them.

As soon as the clothes came off you knew something was going to appear in the box but I didn’t expect the brutally bloody attack. This is what happens when you don’t do your job.

In Buckhorn, SD Marjorie Green (Melissa Jo Bailey) is walking her dog Armstrong down the hallway of her apartment building. As they pass her neighbor Ruth Davenport’s apartment Armstrong is drawn to a strong smell emanating from the room. She calls the police. Marjorie is a forgetful sort of person. Forgetting initially that she has a key to Ruth’s apartment she sends the officers to ask the maintenance man Hank (Max Perlich.)  Hank seems to be involved in some nefarious activity and is concerned someone has put the police on him.  When Marjorie remembers she has the key they leave Hank alone. They discover Ruth’s head and a man’s headless body in Ruth’s bed.

                What is Hank involved with? Do we need to keep him in mind? I say yes.

Late at night Lucy receives a call at the Sheriff’s station for Deputy Chief Hawk (Michael Horse.)  The call is from Margaret Lanternman (Catherine E. Coulson.) Her log has a message for him regarding Agent Cooper. She tells him that something is missing and his heritage will help him figure it out.

Back in Buckhorn, Officer Constance Talbot (Jane Adams) discovers that a set of fingerprints found all over Ruth’s apartment belong to her children’s High School principal Bill Hastings (Matthew Lillard.) Mild mannered Hastings is arrested from his home but he is unsure of why.

As Hastings is arrested, his wife’s main concern seems to be that they have company coming for dinner that night. This is such a Lynch-ian moment. I love how much Lynch there is in this; particularly the dialogue here and in the previous scenes with Sam and Tracy.

Hawk has pulled out the old case files surrounding Cooper’s disappearance to figure out what’s missing. Lucy points out that Agent Cooper is missing. She and Andy (Harry Goaz) state further they’ve never even received a Christmas card nor has he ever seen Wally, their son who is now 24. Hawk asks Lucy to have the files all laid out for tomorrow along with the donuts.

Don Harrison (Bailey Chase) of the South Dakota state police shows up to the Buckhorn police station. Detective Dave Macklay (Brent Briscoe) asks Don if he’s there to take over the case and do the interrogation.  Macklay is reluctant to interrogate Hastings because he’s known him since high school. But Harrison feels that their relationship might make Hastings more likely to open up to him. Hastings tells Macklay that he barely knows Ruth and relays his schedule over the past few days.  When he appears to slip up by leaving a noticeable gap in his timeline he decides he wants to speak with his lawyer before continuing.  Macklay tells him why he’s been arrested. Hastings seems shocked.

When I first saw Hastings being arrested I felt sympathy for him. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a Leland situation. Is Buckhorn the new Twin Peaks? However, as soon as the interrogation starts, Hastings looks extremely guilty.

Macklay and Harrison go back to Hastings’ house with a warrant to search the premises. Hastings’ wife Phyllis (Cornelia Guest) is upset about the intrusion. In addition to the house, they also search his car discovering what looks like a chunk of flesh in the trunk.

Part 2

At the jail Phyllis is let into Hastings’s cell for a private conversation.  He tells her he is in so much trouble.  He starts to tell her that he had a dream about being in Ruth’s apartment but he wasn’t there.  She tells him that she knows about their affair and always has.  He fires back that he knows about her affair with their lawyer. As she leaves, she tells him he’s going to rot in prison and he begins to breakdown.  On her way out she sees George Bautzer (Neil Dickson,) their lawyer. She informs him that Hastings knows about them. Back in the jail what looks like a burnt figure of a man is sitting in one of the cells.  The figure fades away and its face rises like smoke to the sky.

WHAT WAS THAT?

Back at the Hastings home, Phyllis arrives to find Bad Cooper waiting for her. She appears to know him. He tells her she’s “done good” and “she follows human nature perfectly.”  He then shows her George’s gun before shooting her through the eye.

How do they know each other?  And what did he mean by “she follows human nature perfectly?” Could she also be a doppelganger? 

In Las Vegas, Duncan Todd (Patrick Fischler) gives a young man named Roger (Joe Adler) two stacks of cash and instructs him to “let her know she got the job.” Roger asks him “why do you let him make you do these things?” Todd replies to Roger that he’d better hope he never gets involved with someone like this unknown person.

Who is the “him” they refer to? Is it the billionaire who owns the glass box in New York?

Bad Cooper, Ray, Darya and a fourth named Jack (Steve Baker) are sitting in a diner discussing some information that Ray is supposed to get from Hastings’s secretary.

What information could Hastings’ secretary possibly provide that Bad Cooper would need want?

Hawk walks the woods at night looking. He receives another call from Margaret. Hawk tells her that he and her log have the same idea about what’s happening. He arrives at Glastonbury Grove, where Cooper entered the Black Lodge.

Inside the lodge, Cooper is in the waiting room with the one armed man Phillip Gerard (Al Strobel.)  Gerard asks him if it is the future or the past. Cooper doesn’t answer and Gerard disappears. Laura Palmer enters the room and tells Cooper that he can get out now. The scene is a variation of the original red room scene from the pilot episode. She kisses him and the whispers in his ear. Suddenly everything begins shaking; Laura starts violently screaming and then is whisked into the air.  The scene then appears to start over as Cooper is once again sitting with Gerard who once again asks him if it is the future or the past. This time however he has Cooper follow him into another room where the man from another place aka the arm has evolved into a large tree like creature. The arm reminds Cooper that his doppelganger is out there in world and must come back before Cooper can leave.

As Laura is talking to Cooper she removes her face and appears to be filled with a bright white light. Does this mean she is now at peace or is simply an alien?

Jack locks up Bad Cooper’s car in a storage unit and gives Bad Cooper the keys to a new car. Bad Cooper then begins squeezing Jack’s face. Bad Cooper arrives at a motel room where Darya is waiting in her underwear. She hangs up the phone as he enters. He asks who was on the phone and she tells him Jack. Bad Cooper tells her that he was supposed to meet up with Ray that afternoon but Ray never showed. Bad Cooper takes Darya’s .45 telling her he needs it for a job.  He then lies on the bed next to her and tells her that he killed Jack earlier that day. Bad Cooper plays a recording of her real phone call with the Ray. Ray says he’s been picked up for carrying guns across the state line and is now in Federal prison.  Darya and Ray discuss killing Bad Cooper as they were hired to do. 

Bad Cooper wants to know who hired them.  She says she doesn’t know, Ray knows. Bad Cooper doesn’t believe Ray is in prison at all. He mentions that the next day he’s supposed to get pulled back into the Black Lodge but he’s not going. He’s figured out a way to avoid it. Bad Cooper wants to know if Ray ever got the information from Hastings’s secretary, coordinates apparently.  She doesn’t know. He then pulls out an ace of spades that features a mysterious symbol on it and asks her if she knows what it is. She looks away from it crying asking if he’s going to kill her now. He says yes then covers her screaming face with a pillow and shoots her through the head.

Who is Hastings’ secretary that she would have these coordinates that Bad Cooper wants? The symbol on the card looks very similar to the symbol from Owl Cave.

Bad Cooper sits down at the table in the room and pulls out a black case containing a communication device.  He believes he is speaking with Agent Phillip Jefferies (last seen in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me played by David Bowie.) But when the voice on the other ends mentions Bad Cooper having met up with Major Garland Briggs he questions who he’s speaking with. The voice tells him he IS going back in tomorrow. Bad Cooper logs onto an FBI database to download information and schematics about the federal prison Ray is supposedly in. He then goes next door to see a woman named Chantal Hutches (Jennifer Jason Leigh.) He tells her she needs to clean up the room occupied by Darya’s corpse.

Who is the voice? When did Bad Cooper meet up with Major Briggs? And who is Chantal?

In the Black Lodge, Cooper is told by the arm’s new form to “go now.”  But Cooper finds the way out is blocked. He searches around and comes across Leland Palmer who tells Cooper to “find Laura.” Strange noises and movements begin occurring. The arm says it is his own doppelganger causing this. Soon after Cooper finds a curtain that opens above the road Bad Cooper is driving on. The arm’s doppelganger attacks Cooper. The doppelganger opens a hole in the floor under Cooper. Cooper falls into the glass box in New York moments before Sam brought Tracey into the room with him.

The look of the scenes with Cooper falling through the floor and then being in the glass box very much feel like Lynch’s early short films. So far this series features a lot that looks and feels like his artwork.

Back in Twin Peaks Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) is at home chain-smoking while watching footage of lions attack and tear apart a water buffalo.  Meanwhile at the Roadhouse, James Hurley (James Marshall) enters the crowded bar. Seated at a booth is Shelly (Mädchen Amick) with unknown friends. James stares at them for a while but it’s unclear who he might be staring at. Shelly is staring and smiling at a man named Red standing the bar. Red (Balthazar Getty) smiles back at her.

When did the Roadhouse become a hipster hangout? I’ve never seen it that crowded before. But most importantly: HOW IS JACQUES RENAULT ALIVE AND TENDING BAR? The answer, apparently, is that the bartender is named Jean-Michele Renault (Walter Olkewicz.) Who is Jean-Michele Renault? I thought there were only three Renault brothers.

The episode ends at The Roadhouse with a performance from Chromatics.

Final Thoughts

So far, the show has met my expectations. I’ve watched these first two episodes twice now. Once to take it all in and once more to examine them. I found I liked them even more after the second viewing. The tone of the show feels like David Lynch. It feels like the pilot, feels like Fire Walk with Me, it feels like David Lynch and I am good with this. While my favorite parts were those in Twin Peaks, I’m very intrigued by what’s happening in Buckhorn. I’m looking forward to what’s to come. A lot of questions have been established and mind is already racing to figure things out.

Join me here each week during the season for recaps and discussion of every episode. Twin Peaks airs Sundays at 9 pm on Showtime.