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!
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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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