Agent Dale Cooper's Horrific Version Of The Odyssey: How David Lynch Thrilled And Disappointed Twin Peaks Fans!

The Good: Most of the acting, A lot of good direction, Moments of engaging plot, Basic concept
The Bad: The end (seriously, way to piss on your legacy, David Lynch!), Drifts and tangents that go nowhere, More information undermines the strong concept . . .
The Basics: Twin Peaks returns for a long-awaited third season to bore, confuse, delight and ultimately infuriate the fans of the beloved, surreal series.


I admire an ambitious concept. I truly do. And it is hard to argue anything other than the idea that David Lynch is one of the reigning masters of ambitious concepts. David Lynch has a long history of making television shows and movies that demand attentive, engaged viewers. So, when David Lynch publicly confirmed that Twin Peaks would be returning to television for a third season - after being off the air for more than twenty-five years, the reactions of the die-hard fans was more of an indifferent, "we know; you told us it would be back around this time in the last episode!" than the enthusiasm some might have anticipated.

The third season of Twin Peaks, somewhat commonly known as Twin Peaks: The Return because all of the episodes were called "The Return Part X," was an ambitious concept and David Lynch met a number of serious challenges in executing the season that he had more than twenty years to conceive and tinker with. At its core, Lynch described the new season of Twin Peaks as The Odyssey for Agent Dale Cooper and it was widely reported before even the first episode aired that Lynch wrote the entire series as one massive script and then broke the story up into the episodes. That is an ambitious idea . . . and it shows in the execution of Twin Peaks Season Three. In fact, the episodes themselves often hold up much poorer as individual episodes than the season holds up; the sheer volume of detail and callbacks throughout the eighteen-episode third season of Twin Peaks virtually begs for a single binge viewing by an audience that is alert, engaged, and able to handle a lot of screaming.

Conceptually, David Lynch had a Herculean task in creating a third season of Twin Peaks. Since the very end of the original Twin Peaks (reviewed here!), viewers who invested in the concept of the show had plenty of time to accept the sad reality of the show's protagonist. Agent Dale Cooper was trapped within the ethereal abode of evil known as The Black Lodge, while a doppelganger of him - possessed by the ultimate evil entity Bob - was free on Earth. Within (what used to be) the series finale, Agent Dale Cooper was told that he would be trapped in the Black Lodge for twenty-five years. The thing is, for all of its faults, the second season of Twin Peaks was constructed pretty solidly in terms of its lore about the Black Lodge and some of the concepts pertaining to it. The Black Lodge was not, in the original Twin Peaks simply a place; it was a place that existed in physical reality only in specific times. So, right off the bat, David Lynch was somewhat hamstrung by his own concept; given all of the established information of the original Twin Peaks, saving F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper should have been a matter of his doppelganger being returned to the right place and time to push him back into the Black Lodge and Agent Cooper escaping at that time.

There is, alas, not much of a television show in that. So, David Lynch threw out his own book; in the new rendition of Twin Peaks portals are all over the fucking place. In fact, from the moment Agent Dale Cooper manages to escape the Black Lodge through one of the many, many other exits that manifest, the attentive viewer has to ask, "Why the hell did Dale Cooper wait twenty-five years to leave through one of these other exits?!"

Twin Peaks Season Three picks up with Agent Dale Cooper right where Season Two left off. Dale Cooper is in the Black Lodge and the twenty-five years have passed and he has aged. He encounters Phillip Gerard (the one armed man) and The Arm, who encourage him to take an alternate route out of the Black Lodge, noting that Dale Cooper's doppelganger did not return to the Black Lodge. Bob, still in Cooper, has become a crime lord who is doing everything he can to avoid returning to the Black Lodge and he has managed to avoid his old friends from the F.B.I. by using a laptop from a long-missing agent. When Agent Cooper manages to make it to our plane of existence, Cooper is in a car accident and incarcerated, which puts him on the radar of F.B.I. Deputy Director Gordon Cole, Agent Albert Rosenfield and their protege, Agent Tammy Preston.

Dale Cooper, however, has not managed to simply return to our plane of existence. He is insensate in the body of Dougie Jones, who has a wife, son, prostitute and gambling problem. In Jones's body, Cooper is deposited at a casino in Las Vegas where he wins a lot of money by following stimuli from the Black Lodge. While Dougie's wife, Jane, strong-arms Doug's debtors, Dougie is sent back to work at an insurance company where Dale Cooper manages to point out insurance irregularities to his boss and get on surprisingly good terms with the mobsters who run the casino. While Dougie is hunted by assassins hired by Cooper, Cooper manages to get released from prison, survive one of his compatriots attempting to assassinate him and avoid other attempts to get dragged back into the Black Lodge using technology from that place and ethereal beings who heal him whenever he is mortally wounded.

While Agent Cooper slowly asserts himself and Cooper cuts a swath of carnage across the U.S., Rosenfield and Cole enlist Diane to help them figure out just who Cooper is. And in Twin Peaks, Margaret (the Log Lady) sets Deputy Chief Hawk on a search that clues him into the idea that there are two Coopers and that the case of the long-missing F.B.I. agent is soon to be resolved!

The third season of Twin Peaks has its highs and lows, but for the most part it does tell one long, somewhat absurd, story with a bunch of nostalgia-driven tangents thrown in. One of the greatest limitations of the third season of Twin Peaks was that David Lynch had to tailor the story around the actors who were still alive, still acting, and still interested in participating. To his credit, Lynch got actor Everett McGill to come out of retirement to play Big Ed Hurley again. It's nice, it's very Twin Peaks and, sadly, it is entirely unnecessary.

Unfortunately, Michael Ontkean could not be persuaded to return to Twin Peaks for the revival. Within the narrative of the third season of Twin Peaks, Ontkean's absence as Sheriff Harry Truman is explained and not prohibitively conspicuous (there is a lot going on in the season!), but for fans of Twin Peaks, Lynch pushing the project along without his participation becomes a tonal unforgivable sin. One need not rewatch much of the original Twin Peaks at all to see that the lifeblood relationship of the series was the one between Agent Dale Cooper and Sheriff Harry S. Truman. They had a relationship built on mutual respect, professionalism and a shared desire for the truth that made them bond quickly. Twin Peaks had tons of relationships that were, essentially, soap operatic connections between the characters, but Truman and Cooper had a bromance long before the term was ever coined!

Within the third season of Twin Peaks Sheriff Harry S. Truman's absence is glossed over with medical excuses delivered by his brother, Sheriff Frank Truman, who has taken over the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department. Frank Truman is played quite well by Robert Forster, who manages to be the least-obtrusive new addition to the Twin Peaks cast (for those keeping score, Chrysta Bell breaks out in Twin Peaks Season 3 as Agent Tammy Preston, but David Lynch uses her frequently for window dressing and there are several scenes where Bell seems to be trying desperately not to look like she is a supermodel playing an F.B.I. Agent . . .).

The third season of Twin Peaks is fundamentally two narrative streams - the story of Agent Dale Cooper, Cooper (Bob) and the law enforcement officers that are figuring out the long-cold case of the missing F.B.I. agent (Chief Hawk and Agent Cooper's former F.B.I. colleagues) and a series of nostalgia-driven scenes that pertain to Twin Peaks. Indeed, most of Cooper and Agent Cooper's narrative occurs well outside the Washington state town of Twin Peaks . . . and much of the drama within Twin Peaks has absolutely nothing to do with the dual-Coopers' narrative.

The second narrative track includes scenes with Norma Jennings (who is franchising the RR Diner), Shelly (who is still working at the RR Diner and has a troubled daughter), (former) Dr. Jacoby doing a podcast, Nadine Hurley listening to that podcast, and (eventually) Audrey Horne popping up to indicate that she suffered a psychotic break. There is a high nostalgia aspect to the Twin Peaks scenes involving the cast from the original - Norma Jennings has an opportunity, she changes her mind, she and Big Ed get a delightful happy ending, it's cute to see and it offers some minor catharsis for two characters who did not spend a lot of time at the narrative forefront of the original Twin Peaks. Similarly cute is the lone appearance of Andy and Lucy's son, who was named after the bird who witnessed Laura Palmer's murder and provided the sheriff's clues. The scene with Wally is dull as hell, but hardcore fans will find it cute that Lucy and Andy named their kid after the bird. Ironically, Jerry Horne being lost in the woods plays into the main narrative more directly than almost all of the other tangent storylines.

And the nostalgia storylines are not all thrilling or happy. Shelly and Bobby had a relationship, it burnt out, and they now have a cocaine-abusing daughter who shoots up a door. Shelly and Bobby's daughter is a distant tangent storyline that gets dropped mid-season as it appears part of Cooper's agenda is keeping drugs flowing into Twin Peaks High School, but that fizzles out after Cooper is captured in South Dakota. Those who love Audrey Horne will be excited when she eventually pops up in the narrative . . . until they follow the clues back and realize that after leaving the Black Lodge, Cooper raped Audrey while she was in a coma following the bank explosion and the ass hole hellion who has been running around killing people and beating up others, Richard Horne, is her son and she likely went crazy as a result of that abuse.

To the credit of David Lynch, Twin Peaks Season Three contains some explanations for the evil in the woods in the form of nightmarish, surreal divergent scenes that show how the entities from another place interacted with the Earth, seeding both Bob and Laura Palmer into the mix. Also to Lynch's credit, if he was going to break his own wheel, his cheats were pretty clever. Phillip Gerard prepared for the battle between Dale Cooper and Cooper, seeding manufactured people like Doug Jones (and another, far more spoilerific one) onto Earth to be a part of Agent Cooper's escape hatch. The second doppelganger gets explained, but the Doug Jones storyline is initially irritating, especially given that Jane Jones does not seem to stop to notice what the audience immediately observes; that Doug is simply repeating the last thing said to him. Lynch even insinuates that there is another person attempting to leave one of the alternate realities the same way that Agent Cooper is (i.e. by using a back door from The Other Place and replacing a manufactured doppelganger already on Earth), in the form of a prisoner at the Twin Peaks jail who exhibits the same repeating trait as Doug Jones. But, like so very many plots in the third season of Twin Peaks, that is not actually resolved and is unceremoniously dropped before the end of the series.

The third season of Twin Peaks is an investment for fans of Twin Peaks. So little of the third season occurs within Twin Peaks that viewers have to watch a lot of the season and take on faith that the show is going somewhere. Twin Peaks Season Three meanders, but it does return to Agent Cooper and his struggle to return to Earth after twenty-five years sitting on his ass in another dimension. The faith viewers place in David Lynch is justified in the seventeenth episode of the season . . .

. . . and then utterly shat upon in the season finale. Without any spoilers, Twin Peaks Season Three climaxes an episode before its end. The final episode of the series proves in the first few moments what most viewers will easily suspect coming out of the prior episode and then it turns the entire series upside down. And not in a good way. David Lynch had an audacious storyline for the third season of Twin Peaks, but its resolution is one of the most insanely conceived, poorly-executed finales that one immediately suspects will be one of the episodes fans of Twin Peaks watch the least. Seriously, watch up to the end of the seventeenth episode and you'll be happy. If you have a hankering to watch the final episode, go back and watch the second season episode of Twin Peaks with the "Miss Twin Peaks" Pageant. You might say, geh! This is terrible; whatever is in the eighteenth episode of the third season of Twin Peaks cannot possibly be this bad. You would be wrong. It's like David Lynch said to himself, "I hate every one of my fans and I want to not just undermine my classic Twin Peaks, I want people to think of how I end this season and make it hard for them to ever want to watch any part of the series again." Yeah, the end of the third season of Twin Peaks was enough to drag the entire season rating down by at least a point. Why? Because a season review is about how the whole story holds together and what it does and says. With one episode, David Lynch makes the viewer forget about the annoying, surreal tangents, the mysticism, the pointless added characters, the beloved classic characters, the essential struggle between good and evil, the delightful quirks of Twin Peaks and just get a sour taste in the mouth and a headache that cannot be cured by coffee and cherry pie.

All that said, Kyle MacLachlan is amazing in the third season of Twin Peaks. Straddling three roles with an effortless quality, MacLachlan makes viewers care about Agent Cooper once again and feel genuine emotions for him. When MacLachlan plays Dougie needing to go to the bathroom (having forgotten such basic things), it is painful to watch - expertly performed by the actor. Similarly, MacLachlan manages to make Cooper a stone-cold villain that raises the level of tension every time he appears on screen.

The supporting cast of Twin Peaks Season Three is good, but the highest praise should be reserved for the late Miguel Ferrer. Ferrer plays Albert Rosenfield and the magic of his performance is that Albert has mellowed considerably over the twenty-five years, but Ferrer plays him in a way that the viewer never once doubts they are watching Albert at work. Given that an acerbic quality and angry deliveries were the hallmark of Albert in the original Twin Peaks, it is no small feat to reinvent the portrayal of the character and make him feel like the same old guy!

Fans of Twin Peaks who were waiting for the event to be complete and for a final analysis before watching will want the bottom line. It is this: Binge watch the third season of Twin Peaks. Find one day you can devote to it, watch episodes one through seventeen and stop there. The event is worth it . . . up to a point and David Lynch rather politely gave a clear point where the season stops being worth watching.

For a better idea of exactly what this season entails, please check out my reviews of the specific episodes at:
"The Return Part 1"
"The Return Part 2"
"The Return Part 3"
"The Return Part 4"
"The Return Part 5"
"The Return Part 6"
"The Return Part 7"
"The Return Part 8"
"The Return Part 9"
"The Return Part 10"
"The Return Part 11"
"The Return Part 12"
"The Return Part 13"
"The Return Part 14"
"The Return Part 15"
"The Return Part 16"
"The Return Part 17"
"The Return Part 18"

6/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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SO. FUCKIN'. GOOD! Twin Peaks "The Return Part 17" Ramps Up The Series!

The Good: Amazing tension, Great acting, Good character moments, Wonderful plot development
The Bad: Nothing!
The Basics: "The Return Part 17" is the episode of Twin Peaks every fan has waited twenty-five years for!


Twin Peaks is a series that requires - and always has - some serious investment of attention on the part of the audience. David Lynch requires viewers to pay attention to details and remember strange, minute aspects of the plot and characters to put together the puzzle-like stories that he weaves. As a season, the third season of Twin Peaks had a demanding concept with an execution that was problematic for its concept; David Lynch wrote the season of Twin Peaks (supposedly) as one long script before cutting it up into the eventual eighteen episodes that aired. The problematic aspect of that is that small details in the earliest episodes make an appearance in the final episodes and unless one rewatches the entire series before the two-part season finale, odds are, they will go into the final episodes woefully unprepared (three months is far too long to go without reinforcing some of the weird details in play in "The Return Part 17").

"The Return Part 17" is a direct follow-up to "The Return Part 16" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the first part of the season finale without making specific references to where the prior episode left off. After all, "The Return Part 16" started cutting some of the superfluous plot threads with Richard Horne and the pair of assassins getting killed and Agent Dale Cooper finally returning to Earth with his memories intact (albeit in the constructed body of Doug Jones). "The Return Part 16" also revealed explicitly that Audrey Horne is not in the place and time she initially appeared to be (suggesting incredibly heavily that she has suffered a psychotic break). "The Return Part 17" is responsible for further whittling down of the sprawling plotlines and characters that have characterized the third season Twin Peaks event.

Opening with Albert and Gordon Cole regrouping after Diane disappeared in their hotel room, Cole reveals that there was an entity colloquially called "Judy" that was revealed to him by Major Briggs. Cole reveals that Ray was working for him and that Cooper was looking for coordinates. Bud gives Cole Agent Cooper's message, which gets the team headed to Twin Peaks. At the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department, the woman from another place awakens, agitating the other prisoners. Benjamin Horne gets a call from Wyoming, where his brother has ended up in police custody. The next morning finds Cooper at the coordinates he has sought, when a portal opens allowing him to safely return to an alternate reality.

But the attempt to escape is only a teleportation for Cooper. Cooper is teleported to the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Station where he confronts Andy and in her cell, the woman from the other place becomes severely agitated. Chad, the corrupt cop who is in prison there, uses the opportunity to escape. Andy steps into a dangerous situation and in the process, Freddy steps up to heroic levels. And when Dale Cooper finally makes it back to Twin Peaks, his return puts him in direct conflict with Bob and Cooper!

"The Return Part 17" has some truly amazing line, not the least of which is Gordon Cole telling Albert that he is sorry, despite Albert understanding his reasons. The pacing for the episode is fairly unrelenting after the initial conversation in which Gordon Cole delivers exposition needed to explicitly tie together - for characters within the narrative - what the viewers are likely to have figured out already.

The surreal aspects of "The Return Part 17" are far less distracting and weird than in many other episodes of Twin Peaks. The first major alternate dimension is a room where Major Garland Briggs's disembodied head (a necessity considering actor Don S. Davis has been dead for years), where The Giant is seen and appears to activate the teleportation device.

The sense of tension in "The Return Part 17" has an amazing sense of tension to it. Throughout the episode there is a sense of movement and the constant development of a threat unseen in explicit terms. Kyle MacLachlan is amazing for insinuating that tension into every scene he is in as Cooper. His tightened body language connotes that Cooper is ready at any moment to leap into action and what action he is going to take a mystery. When it comes, the payoff is incredible.

Freddy, with his green-gloved fist does more in "The Return Part 17" than Danny Rand did as the Iron Fist in the entire season of that show!

Ultimately, "The Return Part 17" is the episode fans of Twin Peaks have been waiting for and it perfectly moves the story of Agent Dale Cooper in his epic struggle with Bob toward its logical conclusion. The beauty of the episode is that it is the right combination of dense and satisfying - the proper Diane is returned to Earth, Experiment is revealed to be a template, there is an epic fight with Bob and David Lynch's use of a faded head over one of the critical scenes is no doubt to be the subject of much scholarly interpretation. But, at its core, "The Return Part 17" pays off almost all of the critical elements of Twin Peaks, leaving the final episode as a denouement.

For other penultimate episodes of note, please visit my reviews of:
"Love Is To Die" - True Blood
"The Sound Of Her Voice" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"Absolution" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Twin Peaks - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the temporally displaced season of the surreal show here!
Thanks!]

10/10

For other television and movie reviews, please visit my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Audrey Horne Returns!!!!!!!! "The Return Part 12" Brings Back A Twin Peaks Favorite!

The Good: Audrey Horne returns, Character development, Good performances, Plot threads are decent, Surprisingly funny, Ties together a number of previously incongruent moments
The Bad: One or two bits that still feel pointless and disconnected.
The Basics: "The Return Part 12" has most of the past Twin Peaks being smart in an episode that has almost no Kyle MacLachlan!


Twin Peaks returning to television has been a truly mixed blessing. The idea that the show might wrap up the twenty-five year old mystery of "what the hell happened after Agent Cooper was lost in the Black Lodge and Bob, with Cooper's face, made it out into out world" was a compelling one. But the concept has had an execution that is much more crowded than it is direct. Unlike the original Twin Peaks featuring disparate plotlines that did not have anything to do with Laura Palmer's murder, the incongruent elements of the new Twin Peaks seem widely unattached to the main plot. Viewers are further isolated from the original Twin Peaks by the fact that much of the action in the new season of Twin Peaks does not occur within the town of Twin Peaks.

"The Return Part 12" picks up after "The Return Part 11" (reviewed here!) and it continues the story with greater focus on answering the questions about the alternate planes of existence that Dale Cooper disappeared into. "The Return Part 12" takes a long time to get back to Cooper, but there is the sense in many of the scenes leading up to his appearance that people are working toward finding him or understanding what truly happened to him.

At the Mayfair, Gordon, Albert, and Tammy have wine and Albert informs Preston about Project Blue Book's end. Tammy is offered a position on Gordon and Albert's U.F.O.-related task force before Diane heads to the meeting. Diane is deputized by Gordon with the potential that she might learn the truth of what happened to Agent Cooper. In Twin Peaks, Sarah Palmer freaks out at the grocery store, claiming people are coming and in the trailer park, Carl exhibits compassion on one of his residents by releasing him from next month's rent.

Sheriff Truman visits Ben Horne and tells him about his grandson's hit and run. Horne takes financial responsibility for Miriam's treatment and laments his loss of his childhood bicycle. Albert meets with Gordon again and the two try to figure out what Diane is involved in. Cooper's assassins take out the warden. And Audrey takes to task the man who is supposed to find Billy.

"The Return Part 12" has a strong science fiction beginning. Dale Cooper, it turns out, was part of a top secret FBI task force pertaining to the Blue Rose Task Force, an investigatory body looking into U.F.O. cases that were unsatisfactorily investigated during Project Blue Book. Twin Peaks has had a pretty strong fantasy undertone to it when it was not a literal forensics drama or melodramatic soap opera, so the turn into explicit science fiction is an intriguing twist.

The inclusion of Diane into the Blue Rose Task Force seems like a thematic nod back to the Bookhouse Boys in the original Twin Peaks (when Agent Cooper was able to accompany the secret society). Gordon including Diane in the task force seems like a case of "keep your enemies closer," though and Gordon and Albert play it cool with Diane in a way likely to excite fans. It is refreshing when the follow-up scene comes up to see that Gordon and Albert are actually on top of things - especially given how Gordon usually appears like a bumbling moron.

Equally exciting to fans is how Benjamin Horne evolves in "The Return Part 12." Benjamin Horne spent the original Twin Peaks as a schemer, then a man suffering from a nervous breakdown before getting his skull cracked in. Apparently, all that horribleness left Benjamin a better person because in "The Return Part 12," he is contemplative, responsible, and he recognizes the horrible nature of his grandson immediately.

David Lynch takes his time with drawing out his scenes in "The Return Part 12." Gordon's date taking her time to leave is distractingly long. "The Return Part 12" is particularly melancholy for its moment with David Lynch looking sadly at Miguel Ferrer and it would be completely unsurprising if an eventual commentary track reveals that Ferrer told Lynch on the day of shooting this scene that he was ill (Ferrer died only a few months ago, before the first episode of the new Twin Peaks aired). The moment is especially poignant now and it is tough not to watch that portion of the episode and choke up.

But then "The Return Part 12" takes a right turn as Sherilyn Fenn pops back up as Audrey Horne! Fenn is part of a scene that answers a number of questions about previously incongruent elements in the new Twin Peaks season and fills in huge gaps in Horne's story. Fenn leaps upon playing the adult Audrey in a compelling way that still has the sarcasm and anger of the young woman she once played and the odd balance of dramatically advancing and maintaining the character is expertly handled by Fenn.

"The Return Part 12" finds just the right balance between answering questions and raising new one, progressing the story and continuing the mysterious feel. While there are still elements of the new Twin Peaks that feel forced for their weirdness - the exit of Gordon's mistress standing right out - most of the episode works incredibly well and fleshes out the story magnificently.

For other works with Grace Zabriskie, please visit my reviews of:
Santa Clarita Diet - Season 1
The Judge
The Grudge
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
FernGully: The Last Rainforest
Twin Peaks

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Twin Peaks - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the temporally displaced season of the surreal show here!
Thanks!]

9.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Enemies Abound In Twin Peaks "The Return Part 10!"

The Good: Good performances, Moments of character, Plot moves forward, Direction, Good use of humor and mood
The Bad: Still some pointless tangents that do not feel they work
The Basics: The table truly feels set for the back half of Twin Peaks's new season with "The Return Part 10" setting Dougie Jones in mortal peril and possibly seeding the next incarnation of Bob!


As the new season of Twin Peaks progresses towards its end, the show has a burden on it to pay off all of the seeds that have been planted in the first half of the season. The show is moving toward a somewhat obvious and sensible resolution, but for all of the surprising aspects of Twin Peaks the logical direction of the plot seems more obvious than audacious. That same direction also seems to be setting up a massive "okay, what next?!" moment. Twin Peaks is rapidly moving toward Agent Cooper and Cooper both returning to Twin Peaks and if Agent Cooper is fully restored following his twenty-five year ordeal inside the Black Lodge, how the real-world will accept his return becomes a thorny situation to deal with, especially if it comes only as a denouement.

That, however, is not quite where "The Return Part 10" is yet. Instead, "The Return Part 10" follows on the events of "The Return Part 9" (reviewed here!), which featured the long-deceased Major Briggs providing messages to the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department and his son. Cooper had set up the murder of the Warden whom he extorted for freedom and Dougie Jones and his wife learned that there had been an attempt on Doug's life by the police investigating the explosion of his car. "The Return Part 10" does a decent job of blending the old with some of the new elements and it seems to be setting up the next major plot surrounding Doug Jones as much of the plot belabors moving people to a point where they will kill the insurance adjuster.

Richard arrives at the remote home of Marion, the woman who knows that he killed the boy with his truck. Richard kills Marion and calls his contact in Twin Peaks to intercept the letter Marion sent. Dougie and Janey finally go to see a doctor, with the Doctor noticing the extreme changes in Dougie's body. At the casino, the gangsters who have taken over the casino learn that Ike has been captured and that Doug Jones is still alive. After returning home from the Doctor's, Janey gets hot for Doug and they make love.

Near Twin Peaks, Dr. Jacoby performs his latest anti-government podcast, which Nadine eagerly devours. Richard makes it to his grandmother's house, where Johnny is tied up, and he robs the place. The insurance executive pins the blame for an unpaid claim on Doug and sends the representative for the company to the Casino to rile the Mitchum brothers up to get them to take Doug out.

"The Return Part 10" features the usual amount of scenes that seem to have no apparent purpose within the main narrative. At the casino, a server - Candy - is hunting a fly when she smacks the mobster brother in the head and the joke is telegraphed and does not actually connect with the rest of the story. Similarly, Richard's place in the story seems like a random additional antagonist and why viewers are supposed to care (other than the fact that there is the possibility he is the delinquent son of Audrey Horne) remains a mystery in "The Return Part 10." As well, Nadine's scene again seems utterly unattached to anything else in the story.

Kyle MacLachlan once again gives a great, if subtle, performance as Dougie Jones and John Billingsley yet again plays a doctor on television. Eamon Farron is terrifying as Richard Horne; between seeing the effects of his attack on Marion and watching the way Richard mugs his own grandmother, Farron moves his new to the season character forward in leaps and bounds.

The most impressive aspect of "The Return Part 10" is that Twin Peaks starts paying off its network of villains. In "The Return Part 10," the viewer realizes there is a mole in the Twin Peaks Sheriff Department, Albert and Gordon figure out there is an enemy in their own ranks and we see the rest of the villains who are now set on hunting Doug Jones. Cooper had twenty-five years to build up a network of people who will protect his existence in our world; "The Return Part 10" illustrates that quite effectively.

"The Return Part 10" effectively blends menace and humor, with David Lynch's distinctive use of color and music. This is one of the best episodes of the rebooted Twin Peaks yet . . . even if it continues an escalation to a moment that viewers have to be wary of.

For other works with Jane Adams, please visit my reviews of:
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Orange County
Frasier - Season 8
Frasier - Season 7
Wonder Boys
Songcatcher
You've Got Mail

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Twin Peaks - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the temporally displaced season of the surreal show here!
Thanks!]

8/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Twin Peaks At The Midpoint: "The Return Part 9"

The Good: Good performances, Moments when the plot moves forward
The Bad: The episode itself has very little actual plot, No thematic development, Continues to prioritize mood over sensible story and character development.
The Basics: "The Return Part 9" moves characters within Twin Peaks toward understanding what happened to Major Briggs and Agent Cooper . . . even if very little actually occurs within the episode.


One of the tough aspects of considering something that is considered a cult classic is that the overall body of work often overshadows the blemishes, speedbumps and absolute dogs of a work. To wit, Twin Peaks has a somewhat legendary status in the annals of modern television, but objectively viewed, the second season of the show (reviewed here!) had a long stretch between the identity of Laura Palmer's killer being revealed and the final arc with the Black Lodge filled with episodes that were just turds. There are few people who would stand in defense of the plotline surrounding Nadine getting amnesia or Lucy having the relationship with the pretentious jagweed who came to town. The whole Miss Twin Peaks contest was a long trainwreck up until the actual event, which became the important pretext for Earl Windham to abduct Anne and put him on a collision course with Agent Cooper. My point is that Twin Peaks had some real dogs and it is hard to go back to Twin Peaks after enduring one of the terrible episodes. "The Return Part 8" was a horrible episode and it made it very hard to want to sit down to "The Return Part 9."

"The Return Part 9" picks up after the one concrete plot element of "The Return Part 8" (reviewed here!), which was the newly-escaped Dale Cooper driving away from the jail with Ray, then getting shot by Ray. After that, the episode descended into a surreal nightmare that seemed to vaguely explain how Bob was manifested on Earth and how Laura Palmer was (possibly) divinely conceived. "The Return Part 9" is a lot more literal than its predecessor.

Cooper wanders down the dirt road away from where he was almost killed the night before while Gordon Cole and his team fly back toward Philadelphia. Cole learns about Buckhorn, South Dakota and the case involving Major Garland Briggs. Rerouting the plane to meet with Lieutenant Knox in Buckhorn, Cole learns that Cooper has escaped the prison. Cooper restocks his arsenal and tasks Gary and Chantel with killing Warden Murphy. In Las Vegas, the police interrogate Dougie's boss before Dougie and Janey leave and the police are stymied to find that prior to 1997, Dougie Jones does not appear to have any records at all. They assume that Jones is a part of Witness Protection, but Detective Fusco (D. Fusco, as it turns out, all the Detectives are named Fusco) uses Dougie's obsession with coffee as a chance to get a set of prints and attempt to get a DNA sample.

The police capture Ike and arrest him for attempted murder. Meanwhile in Twin Peaks, Hawk, Truman and Briggs visit Garland Briggs's widow, who informs them of a message from Garland. The Sheriffs are given an artifact from Betty. At the morgue in Buckhorn, Cole, Albert, and Preston investigate the headless corpse that is supposed to be Major Briggs. After the coroner shows the trio a ring found in Briggs's stomach, Cole insists on speaking to William Hastings - the man accused of beheading Briggs. In Twin Peaks, Bobby shows the sheriffs how to open the device left by Garland and inside it is a map and directions and times. Preston learns from Hastings that Hastings went to an alternate dimension where he met with Major Briggs and she is surprised when Hastings correctly identifies Briggs from a photo array.

Despite being generally more straightforward than "The Return Part 8," "The Return Part 9" feels very much like Twin Peaks as it stops the primary narrative in its tracks to include a scene that features Lucy and Andy arguing about which chair they are going to buy for their house. And David Lynch includes a scene where Dougie simply stares at a wall and the American flag for about a minute. Fans will understand that the angles of the stripes and the red of the woman's shoes when she walks by are reminding Agent Cooper in Dougie's body of the Black Lodge, but within the episode that is not at all clear.

"The Return Part 9" is nice in that the characters people recognize from Twin Peaks actually begin to progress . . . even if some of the direction is very much the result of exposition. Bobby Briggs is told that his father saw him becoming a Deputy, even though he was nowhere near that place when Twin Peaks ended twenty-five years ago. Johnny Horne pops back up for random screaming and running into a wall and Jerry shows up long enough to fight with his own foot, but the idea that people are tuned into the alternate realities that exist in Twin Peaks is refreshing to see. In fact, "The Return Part 9" might be the most time in an episode spent to date featuring law enforcement officials actually investigating Agent Cooper and Major Briggs's disappearances. Briggs foresaw events and managed to leave messages that only Bobby would understand, which is pretty cool. Finally, viewers are being rewarded with the idea that someone knew when and where to be to try to rescue Agent Cooper from the Black Lodge.

The new characters begin to get some additional layers as well. Diane got a text message from Cooper and Agent Preston is clearly very intimidated by Diane. Chrysta Bell has a weird role so far in Twin Peaks, but "The Return Part 9" gives her a chance to shine as Preston. After playing the role with very uncomfortable body language, Bell is given the chance to play very serious when Preston interrogates Hastings. It is in "The Return Part 9" that Bell is given a satisfactory opportunity to make Preston seem like a credible FBI agent in a way that she simply was not given enough opportunity before.

"The Return Part 9" is another star-studded episode of Twin Peaks that manages to get big actors for comparatively minor roles. Tim Roth has a brief appearance as Gary, an employee of Cooper's in his illegal dealings. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Chantel and Lynch keeps the camera at such a distance that she is barely able to be recognized! Ashley Judd returns to the narrative as Beverly Paige for pretty much a "blink and you miss it" role. Matthew Lillard returns finally as William Hastings and Lillard is actually wonderfully credible playing Hastings as a sad sack.

"The Return Part 9" finally starts to shift the burden in Twin Peaks from re-establishing the characters and settings (which the first several episodes did very poorly) to trying to tie it all together better. So, Benjamin Horne has a scene that feels remarkably soap operatic, but given that there are now firm times and places in Twin Peaks where actions are about to happen - thanks to Garland's note - the viewer is left with the reasonable assumption that the sound Horne and Paige hear at the Great Northern Lodge is somehow tied to what is coming. Unlike the original run of Twin Peaks, the revival does not seem to be developing several storylines - there is not, for example, the contrived plots involving ownership of the saw mill that had nothing to do with Laura Palmer's murder. Instead, there are extremely disparate locations, but everything seems to be building toward one plot surrounding Agent Cooper and his exodus from the Black Lodge.

Ultimately, "The Return Part 9" does what it can to redeem the mess that was the prior episode, but it feels very much like interstitial tissue. Very little actually happens and there is truly nothing about the episode that stands out. When considering "The Return Part 9," I realized for the first time how much the new season of Twin Peaks is hinging on the pay-off. Twin Peaks Season 3 is building toward something. One assumes that Bob's arc is to maintain control of Dale Cooper's body and Dale Cooper's arc will culminate in some attempt to fully escape the Black Lodge and return to life; the long process of getting the two main characters to a resolution will turn on how effectively those character's journies come to a head. But it is in "The Return Part 9" that viewers are likely to feel like the process is slow-going and not compelling enough to fully justify the emotional investment viewers are making. Despite being far better than the prior episode and satisfying in that the pieces are moved on the board, "The Return Part 9" feels very much like what it actually is: a tiny fragment of a story, as opposed to a complete work in and of itself.

For other works with Tim Roth, please visit my reviews of:
Selma
The Incredible Hulk
Dark Water
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Twin Peaks - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the temporally displaced season of the surreal show here!
Thanks!]

4/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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"The Return Part 7" Finally Gives Diane A Proper Twin Peaks Scene!

The Good: Good performances, Moments of character, Good special effects, Decent plot development
The Bad: Still a vast number of (so far) disconnected characters and events
The Basics: Twin Peaks develops well with "The Return Part 7" and finally rewards longtime fans with the proper appearance of Agent Cooper's boss, Diane, on screen!


As a fan of Twin Peaks (reviewed here!), I was very excited about the return of the series to television. The truth, however, has been that the show has developed as a very slow burn for the new season. On the plus side, Twin Peaks has evolved nicely to fit the current sensibilities of television, so despite having a long, divergent, beginning, the show is heavily-serialized and is being allowed to develop one long story over the course of the 18-episode season. As "The Return Part 7" begins, the show has finally begun to have some coherency and momentum as Agent Dale Cooper - within the body of Dougie Jones - slowly begins to acclimate to life on our mortal plane once again.

"The Return Part 7" follows on "The Return Part 6" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the new episode without some allusions to the prior episode. After all, the serialized plot includes a number of follow-ups, including the resurfacing of a very high Jerry Horne and the Twin Peaks Sheriff Department going through notes that Sheriff Hawk found in the Twin Peaks bathroom.

Jerry Horne is out in the woods, his car having been stolen, and he calls Benjamin Horne for help. Sheriff Hawk goes through the lost pages of Laura Palmer's diary that he found in the Sheriff Department's bathroom. Sheriff Frank Truman calls his brother, then contacts Dr. Heywood about the Palmer murder. Lieutenant Knox calls Colonel Davis after she sees the headless body in South Dakota . . . the one that appears to belong to Major Briggs. Knox is perplexed because the body is only forty years old, but Briggs was much older, even when he disappeared.

Gordon and Albert visit Diane, Agent Dale Cooper's former boss, after Albert strikes out with her. They reveal that Cooper is in a federal prison in South Dakota and extort her to go there with them. Tammy notes that the fingerprints take in South Dakota appear to be altered and that impresses Gordon. Diane interrogates Cooper, starting with asking him repeatedly about when they last saw one another. Diane recognizes that Cooper is not Agent Cooper and tells Gordon that. Locked up, Cooper tells the guard that he needs to speak to the Warden about a strawberry. Andy waits for a meeting he arranged, but returns to Twin Peaks where he finds that the man he was going to meet has been killed. And Warden Murphy meets with Cooper, privately in his office, where he extorts the Warden for a car, a friend, and a gun. The episode climaxes with Dougie being returned to the narrative at Lucky 7 Insurance, while Janey gets tired of waiting for him outside. The police visit Doug at work and share with him that his car has been destroyed and was part of an incident. Very early the next morning, Cooper makes it out of prison.

"The Return Part 7" does a good job of filling in some of the specific details of how Cooper acted right after the second season finale of Twin Peaks. The episode offers the first reference to Audrey Horne, who was in a coma after the bank explosion in the finale. Dr. Heywood's appearance on "The Return Part 7" is one of the more delightful bits of exposition in the new season and the Skype call between Truman and Heywood is actually surprisingly fun.

The journey of Agent Cooper is delightfully rendered when there is an assassination attempt on Doug Jones. The reactions of Jones are those of Agent Cooper and when he sees something from the Black Lodge during the attack, it plays well to connect him to Twin Peaks.

Fans of Twin Peaks are likely to be delighted by the proper on-screen introduction of Diane. Back in the original series, Cooper was always dictating to Diane, but she never appeared on-screen. Laura Dern's Diane is an excellent addition to the cast and she has a presence that makes her character's position seem entirely plausible.

"The Return Part 7" is refreshing in that Deputy Hawk seems to be entirely clued into the idea that Agent Cooper might not have been the one who left the Black Lodge twenty-five years prior. Hawk easily accepts the mystical aspects of the Black Lodge and Bob; he seems entirely willing to make the leap that Agent Cooper might not have been able to leave the Black Lodge. "The Return Part 7" is nice in that more characters seem to be willing to accept the extraordinary. Diane is used to confirm to Gordon that Cooper is not who he appears to be and Sheriff Truman seems open to accepting that Agent Cooper might have become possessed by Bob.

Benjamin Horne's part in "The Return Part 7" starts to make him vital to the new season, when he recognizes that the key shipped back to the Great Northern was from Agent Cooper's old room there. Horne is also part of a weird new mystery within the Great Northern that has him and his employee looking for a strange noise in the hotel. That is enough to remind viewers of the secret passages in the hotel.

"The Return Part 7" is a good point to mention one of the lingering issues with the way the new season of Twin Peaks is being handled. Twin Peaks had a pretty large cast that changed quite a bit over the two years it was on and was populated by a number of intriguing secondary characters. The new season has a plethora of new characters and the show is hampered some by simple volume: when Tom is introduced as Beverly's sickly husband, viewers are likely to sit trying to figure out if Tom was someone from the original Twin Peaks. In a similar vein, now that the Road House's bartender has been identified as a Renault, it is hard for fans not to do a double take - Jean was killed back in Twin Peaks and actor Michael Parks, like Miguel Ferrer, has since died. So, the return of the comparatively minor character of Jacques Renault, played still by Walter Olkewicz is worthy of a real double-take.

Ultimately, "The Return Part 7" does a good job of deepening the mystery surrounding Cooper in a way that starts to get a decent number of characters to the point most Twin Peaks fans have been for the past twenty-years. It is, however, very much, a small component in a much larger story.

For other works with Laura Dern, please visit my reviews of:
The Founder
The Master
Everything Must Go
I Am Sam
Jurassic Park

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Twin Peaks - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the temporally displaced season of the surreal show here!
Thanks!]

8/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Weird Is Back: Twin Peaks Returns With "The Return Part 1"

The Good: Wonderful sense of mood, Interesting set-up of plot/characters not in Twin Peaks, Some decent (fast) answers to long-held questions
The Bad: Entirely inaccessible to new viewers, Still very off-putting, It takes a long time for anything of substance to actually occur, Virtually no character development.
The Basics: "The Return Part 1" does not feel much like Twin Peaks, despite having a handful of characters from the original appear in the new episode.


I am a fan of Twin Peaks (reviewed here!) and of many of the works of writer and director David Lynch. That said, while it is very easy to see the influence of Twin Peaks on the television landscape - for example, the surreal elements and heavily-serialized aspects of Lost (reviewed here!) would never have been developed or realized had the market not been softened up by Twin Peaks - it is hard not to go back to the original Twin Peaks and see its flaws. While the show was very successful in having (essentially) two age ranges of characters involved with often-separate plotlines and creating incredibly weird characters (Nadine's obsession with quiet curtain runners is more eccentric than characterization of a would-be inventor), the series was plagued with soap operatic elements and frequently unbelievable deliveries. Rebooting Twin Peaks for today's audiences seems like a potential recipe for disaster . . . unless David Lynch and Mark Frost manage to recreate the flavor of the original show, while raising the bar on realism as they push the envelope on surrealism. In other words, a holistic view of Twin Peaks (the entire original series) probably would not have gained its cult status if it were being made today.

And with "The Return Part 1," the revival of Twin Peaks effectively recreates the mood, but does not have as clear an initiating incident to lure viewers in.

In the final, nightmare-filled episode of Twin Peaks, FBI Agent Dale Cooper entered the source of all evil in Twin Peaks, the Black Lodge. Preparing for the debut of the pilot episode of the revival of Twin Peaks, I - like many other people - rewatched "Beyond Life And Death" (reviewed here!), which until recently was simply named "Episode 29." Just as the episode titles have gotten a facelift over the years, Twin Peaks has gotten a facelift for its renewal and revival. Reviving Twin Peaks might seem like a conceptual long-shot, save for the fact that in "Beyond Life And Death," inside the Black Lodge, Cooper is told by one of the people he sees there that he will see Cooper again in twenty-five years. So, for the revival of Twin Peaks, "The Return Part 1" has a very organic potential starting point. It also has a lot of explaining to do; after all, when last seen, the protagonist of Twin Peaks had been replaced in our world by his evil doppelganger, the latest incarnation of the evil Bob.

The twenty-five years have passed in Twin Peaks and in the trophy case, Laura Palmer's picture has faded. Inside the Black Lodge, The Giant admonishes Agent Cooper to remember 430, Richard and Linda, two birds and other clues. Out in the middle of nowhere, Dr. Jacoby is given a delivery of shovels, while in New York City, a young man is sitting watching an apparently empty box when he is told "camera 3" and he changes out the video card from that camera. The young man is visited by Tracy, who wants to come into the room and brought the man coffee, but he cannot allow her into his workplace.

Benjamin Horne is running his hotel in Twin Peaks still when his brother Jerry arrives with food. Jerry is now growing his own pot and making it into edibles that he too-frequently consumes. Dale Cooper, apparently still infected with Bob and clearly no longer an FBI Agent, arrives at the lodge where Laura Palmer and Ronette Pulaski were kept at before Palmer's murder. Cooper orders around the people in the cabin and leaves with two of them. The next night, Tracy returns to the student who is watching the glass box and, because the guard is gone, he allows her inside the room. He also tells Tracy what the job is; he is tasked with watching the box to see if anything appears in it, even though nothing ever has on his watch. While the two are making out, the box turns black, something appears in it and that thing (which is generally human in shape) breaks out and attacks Tracy and the student. Meanwhile, in Buchhorn, South Dakota, Mrs. Green calls the police because she has not seen her neighbor in days and there is a smell coming from her apartment.  Mrs. Green's neighbor is dead - her head cleanly removed from her body and what appears to be an eye eaten out.  Back in Twin Peaks, the Log Lady calls Deputy Chief Hawk to tell him that his heritage will provide him clues needed to find Dale Cooper.

Right off the bat, "The Return Part 1" establishes a sense of surrealism and mystery by including two scenes (one a recap-style flashback) set in the Black Lodge. The early scenes in the episode take their time to develop and reveal themselves, which is very typical for works of David Lynch. Lynch does not rush his shots or his character. Lynch, who directed "The Return Part 1" likes long shots of people watching nothing happen and he gets that in early in the episode. The experiment that is being monitored in New York City right away recaptures the off-putting tone of David Lynch that he popularized in Twin Peaks. Those coming to the new incarnation of Twin Peaks who have no idea what it is are likely to be left confused; it is weird for the sake of being weird.

"The Return Part 1" includes a lot of repetition, like when an insurance salesman comes to the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department where Lucy Moran is startlingly unhelpful in connecting him with Sheriff Truman (whichever one he wants to speak to).

The superlative performance in "The Return Part 1" comes from Matthew Lillard. Lillard plays newcomer Bill Hastings, the prime suspect in the Buckhorn murder and he illustrates a dramatic range in the episode that many of his early roles in comedies did not allow.

The fun aspect of "The Return Part 1" is seeing the once-familiar characters now older and where they have ended up. David Lynch uses his distribution method (premium cable network Showtime) to amp up aspects of Twin Peaks that he could not on network television; there is some nudity as Tracy undresses for making out with the student. The murder is bloody, but not over-the-top, but the entity Lynch created for the episode certainly would have been difficult to create on film. The gore for Mrs. Green's neighbor is both graphic and dwelt upon in a way that would be hard to do on ABC.

The longer "The Return Part 1" went on, the more I realized that the only reason I was getting anything out of the episode is that I was a fan of the original and I have patience for the weird, long-deliveries of David Lynch. Had I never seen the original Twin Peaks, I am quite confident that I would have viewed "The Return Part 1" as a nonsensical exercise. The episode is a series of scenes that are not at all connected to one another and given that most of them are set outside of Twin Peaks, the episode does not even feel like Twin Peaks; it feels like ideas mashed together from other David Lynch works or that he could have used in other works, but chose this for.

The result is a very slow start to Twin Peaks and one that makes almost every scene feel like it is a mystery of its own, but not every character feels so vital.

For other television shows that have been brought back after cancellation, please check out my reviews of:
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
Family Guy - Season 4
Arrested Development - Season 4

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Twin Peaks - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the temporally displaced season of the surreal show here!
Thanks!]

4/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television And Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Pulling Up Toward A Fantastic Ending, Twin Peaks Episodes 25 - 29 Undoes Much Damage To The Series!

The Good: Return of genuine surrealism, Tight Windom Earle plot, Great acting, Intriguing character development
The Bad: Still needs to tie up lame plotlines/character twists, Moments of still-terrible soap operatic quality.
The Basics: When Twin Peaks sprints to its end, the series leaps into the truly weird and disturbing after finally sealing off some of the lame bits.


[IMPORTANT NOTE: As I proceed through the episodes of Twin Peaks with reviews, it is absolutely impossible to discuss some of the episodes without revealing some of the surprises I will work hard to keep while reviewing earlier episodes, especially when discussing second season episodes. No matter how careful I am, it is impossible to write about some of the later episodes without letting slip that some of the characters were (ultimately) not the killer of Laura Palmer or killed, etc. I shall do my best to minimize that, but given how serialized Twin Peaks is, it is almost impossible to do even a minimal plot summary without some nuggets slipping out. These reviews may be ideal for fans of the series who are sitting down to watch individual episodes and want to have a guide as to which episode did what, because Twin Peaks episodes do not have names, just episode numbers!]

As I reach the end of my Twin Peaks reviews, I begin to feel like I am rewatching a program on rendering dead animals into meat. As Twin Peaks rushes towards its end with the final boxed set of episodes 25 - 29, the show becomes like watching the fat cut away from a carcass as plotlines are excised and the show begins to focus on the menace of Windom Earle.

Also, because it won't ruin anything to mention it at this point, this part of the series stops doing the annoying soap opera trick of "no one truly dies." Stories in Twin Peaks frequently are built upon the backstories that lend menace to certain characters and situations and involve people murdered or disappeared well before the story begins. Unfortunately, in its worst section of episodes (Episodes 20 - 24) almost everyone who could pop up does and it guts the nefarious quality of some of them. Moreover, there comes a certain feeling of a lack of genuine menace to the series. But in "Episodes 25 - 29," the menace is back and it is front and center. It is Windom Earle!

"Episode 25" finds Truman waking up in bed with Eckhardt's last footsoldier, a woman intent on killing him. Defeated, the attention turns to tracking down Windom Earle, whose deadly chess match means a death each time a piece if forfeit. When Gordon returns to Twin Peaks to reinstate Cooper into the FBI, Donna begins to unravel the connections between Benjamin Horne and her mother. While at the Double R Diner, aimlessly doodling the tattoos from Major Briggs and the Log Lady, Annie notes that the symbols look like the petroglyphs in Owl Cave, leading Cooper and the Sheriff's department there to try to unravel more of the mysteries of Twin Peaks!

"Episode 26" finds the larger petroglyph that Windom Earle exposed in Owl Cave and Earle reveals his goal in Twin Peaks to his captive Leo and a new chess piece: he seeks the Black Lodge, a place of unimaginable evil power. As Benjamin Horne begins to manipulate the Miss Twin Peaks pageant for the gain of the little pine weasel and his machinations, Audrey's trip to Seattle keeps her away from John. As most of the town turns out for the Miss Twin Peaks auditions - including Nadine and Mike - Richard hosts a wine-tasting at the Great Northern with mixed results. And as Donna begins to unravel her family history, Cooper and Annie fall more and more into a real relationship and a love, a love that is witnessed by the villainous Windom Earle!

"Episode 27" has Donna coming to believe her father is not who she thought he was and Audrey returning to Twin Peaks just as John is leaving for Brazil. With Pete's help, though, she manages to get to him for a rendezvous. As Cooper and the sheriff's department deal with Windom Earle's latest move and Earle listens in on their plans, plans for the Miss Twin Peaks pageant progress as does the relationship between Annie and Cooper (against the advice of the supernatural forces that advise Cooper). Following the revelation of Earle's end goal through old government tapes, Earle captures Major Briggs to enlist his aid in finding the Black Lodge.

"Episode 28" finds Major Briggs released from his captivity by a most unlikely ally, one who suffers greatly as a result of his betrayal. As Windom Earle moves toward his endgame, Cooper and Truman piece together the puzzle when they realize that the door to the Black Lodge will open at a very specific time and place and that Earle plans to use the new Miss Twin Peaks as the queen he will kill to end the chess match. Donna and Audrey join the others joining the Miss Twin Peaks Pageant and that night, the event is pulled off and an unlikely winner is declared, only to be ensnared by Earle!

and finally, "Episode 29" rockets the series home with an explosive end to the pine weasel storyline as well as the conflict between Donna and Benjamin. Nadine's head injury at the Miss Twin Peaks pageant restores her memory and shatters her relationship with Mike and fractures Big Ed and Norma's romance. Earle and Annie enter the Black Lodge and Cooper, one step behind, enters into the nightmarish realm of the Black Lodge with dark results.

This boxed set represents one of the most difficult sections of Twin Peaks to evaluate because it begins with "Episode 25" still embroiled in some of the more disappointing and soap operatic elements of the series, which drags down the overall quality of this section of episodes. Conversely, the last two episodes of the series (and of this boxed set) reach out of the muck and make for truly great television. The result is a very erratic boxed set and series of episodes.

It is, however, in this section that Twin Peaks does both the most mundane work and presents its most extraordinary ideas. On the plot front, there are standard, disappointing soap operatic bits like Donna suddenly learning her father might not be and the closure of the ridiculous Richard storyline with the wine tasting and his becoming smitten at the Miss Twin Peaks pageant. And anything with Nadine as she and Mike become publicly active are all predictable and droll on the plot front.

But then there's the character front and here Twin Peaks does not disappoint. Windom Earle is characterized as a brutal genius and in this set we see both aspects. Earle kills without mercy and torments the near braindead Leo. Earle's merciless nature is not sacrificed in this section and he kills, tortures and kidnaps in order to get what he wants. But the brilliance of Twin Peaks is that Earle is also just as smart as he was characterized as. He may be brutal and insane, but he also is highly intelligent and - most importantly - he remains one step ahead of Cooper and the Twin Peaks sheriff's department the entire time. Earle is one of the ultimate villains because he is characterized as evil in an unflinching way and then the executes his character with that level of darkness that makes him a reasonable foil to Cooper's unflinching goodness.

Ultimately, Windom Earle is a nightmarish character and the final reversal in the final episode with his character is genius. And this set builds up to a knockdown series finale that is exceptional in its setup and a genuine letdown only in that it leaves several critical storylines up for debate. And the most tragic nature of the finale is that some of the most beloved characters of the series are fearlessly and - with some genuine sense of finality - audaciously lost. And for those who become emotionally invested in characters, this is a very disturbing twist and one that will shake many viewers.

What makes much of this section work is the acting. After hours of watching Twin Peaks, I finally realized where I recognized Mike from. Mike is played by Gary Hershberger, who played Matthew Gilardi on the first season of Six Feet Under (reviewed here!). His role as Mike is so very different and it's pretty impressive to see the growth of the actor just between these two performances. In this section, Hershberger manages to do what he never did on Six Feet Under; create a character moment where one feels genuine empathy for his otherwise brash and insufferable character.

On the flipside of that, Heather Graham's appearance in these episodes of Twin Peaks makes for a milestone in her career whereby the viewer is given a clear marker for her development as an actor. Unlike her naive character, Roller Girl, in Boogie Nights Graham as Annie is just a little too goody two-shoes in her performance. For sure, the character of Annie is intended to be something of an outsider and a woman who has not had much experience in the real world, but Graham's performance is often a little too wide-eyed for reality. There are moments Graham needs to make radical alterations to her character - like the strength she exhibits when Annie is captured by Earle - that Graham does not quite land as a plausible extension of her previously-presented character. One suspects that now she could do it.

And there are the appearances by Billy Zane and Brenda Strong that might well distract viewers now, but the real stories come from the performances of the regular cast members. Everett McGill, Peggy Lipton, Lara Flynn Boyle, Richard Beymer and Harry Goaz all give performances that restore their characters to the Twin Peaks map. Vastly underused is Sherilyn Fenn as Audrey and that is unfortunate. And while performers like Heather Graham and Kenneth Welsh (Windom Earle) are given more and more airtime in this final section of Twin Peaks, the series is still dominated by the performances of Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Ontkean.

Ontkean is given a wonderful chance to shine and perform as Sheriff Truman as Truman hits the bottle following the strange circumstances resulting in Josie's demise. Given that there is an actual character arc for Ontkean to work with, he rises to the challenge and delivers masterfully restoring Truman from drunkard to respectable Sheriff once again. And he has an ability to do quiet scenes that he capitalizes on in this grouping, most notably a very quiet scene involving him and Harry Goaz's Deputy Andy waiting for Cooper after Cooper disappears into the Black Lodge.

And then there's Kyle MacLachlan. MacLachlan plays off Welsh and Graham brilliantly in this final sequence and it is MacLachlan who helps sell the nightmarish world of the Black Lodge and the very last moment of the series. He portrays dopplegangers and upsetting villains in the Black Lodge and he counterbalances that well with his portrayal of the straightforward good Cooper in a way that is ultimately quite refreshing and realistic. He manages to close out the series with a bang on the performance front and he lands what could be a ridiculous moment with one of the most creepy and powerful deliveries of the series.

But the series ends here and it is an abrupt end, one that will disappoint many viewers for the way it opens up a whole can of worms in the Twin Peaks mythos that will - likely forever - go unresolved.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Twin Peaks - The Complete Second Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the second and final season reviewed here!
or check out the entire series, available in the Gold Box Definitive edition, reviewed here!
Thanks!]

7/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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