Twin Peaks: The Return brought audiences back to the surreal world created by David Lynch and Mark Frost that featured FBI special agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) seemingly trapped in an alternate dimension known as the Black Lodge while his evil counterpart was let loose in the world. This is how the second season of the Twin Peaks show ended in 1991. Ever since then, fans have been wondering what happened to Cooper, as well as the other characters on the show. Twin Peaks: The Return answers these questions, at least somewhat in this 3rd season. How these questions are answered can be seen as controversial since Lynch takes his time with the story and tells it in a roundabout way, with many episodes not even taking place in the town of Twin Peaks (the original show’s setting) at all. Much of the action, especially in the early episodes center most of the action in faraway places like Las Vegas and New York City as Cooper’s return to our world is in the form of a low functioning alter ego known as Dougie Jones, who is barely able to speak. Meanwhile, his evil doppelgänger rampages across the country in search of mysterious coordinates. This along with the ambiguous ending make the legacy of this return something that is already controversial among fans and will generate conversation or years to come. I have not even gotten to the truly mystifying eighth episode that doesn’t even have much dialogue at all and instead shows a collage of bizarre images of an atomic explosion in the desert and scary looking woodsmen, all of which seem to show how the denizens of the Black Kodge came to our world.

One aspect of this season that harkens back to the original is the combination of genres that Twin Peaks is famous for. Scenes with campy humor followed by something that is truly menacing or sinister, along with seeing iconic locations like the double RR diner and the Twin Peaks sheriff station all take us back to the first time we encountered these memorable places and people. Most of the original cast returns and are as wacky as ever along with new and funny characters like the Mitchum brothers (Robert Knepper and James Belushi) and Janey-E (Naomi Watts) and Sonny Jim Jones (Pierce Gagnon). These moments will definitely leave those wanting a nostalgic feeling satisfied.

Answering the question of how much you will like the rest of Twin Peaks: The Return depends on certain things. For me, I really enjoyed the whole experience because I found the whole story and characters to be very interesting and thought provoking. I will admit that the seemingly open-ended nature of the final episode was unexpected and I’m not sure what to make of it. Having said that, I still like the idea of the continuing debate that will make you remember the show and think about it long after it’s over. However, if you are not really a fan of David Lynch’s movies, this might not appeal to you since Twin Peaks: The Return is much more in line with his feature films like Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me instead of the first two seasons of the show. Those original episodes were almost like a parody of soap operas that centered on a quirky town and its characters that audiences came to love. While we do revisit these characters in the new season and it’s great to see them again, the whole tone of the 3rd season is much more in line with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and other Lynch films like Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and even Eraserhead. If you are looking for a show with a strict beginning middle and end, I’m not sure how much you will get out of Twin Peaks: The Return. It was filmed and shown as basically an 18-

hour movie, that has scenes and characters that seem to come out of nowhere and don’t seem to have anything to do with the main story. Eventually, most of what we see comes to make sense in the second half of the season as various characters and storylines do come together in the town of Twin Peaks during a final confrontation with evil Cooper. Getting there, however, does require some patience on the part of the viewer. Even then, there are some situations that seem to go unresolved at the show’s end. The basic story of Agent Cooper and his struggle with his doppelgänger does get resolved, but his ultimate fate, along with that of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) and Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn), are not clear.

This does seem to hint that Lynch and Frost would like to continue the story in a fourth season. But as of now, it’s not known if this will happen. There is a book written by Frost called Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier coming out in October, that might give some hints to the mysteries still not solved, but we’ll have to wait and see. If this is the end for Twin Peaks, I can say that while I would have like a little bit more of a resolution, i am happy that we got to go back to this world and further explore its mysteries. I’m also eager to rewatch the whole thing again, hopefully in a blu-ray release, maybe with some more answers in a missing pieces like segment that accompanied the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me blu ray. Here’s to hoping of more cherry pie and coffee in our (and Agent Cooper’s) future.

C.S. Link