Twin Peaks: The Return – Part 11


A lot of things have changed in the two and a half decades since the end of the original Twin Peaks.  But a lot of things remain the same as well.  Agent Cooper may not be himself, but he still enjoys a slice of damn good cherry pie.  After a forkful of fruity goodness, you could see his taste-buds igniting resulting in yet another minor reawakening within dormant part’s of Cooper’s brain.  One piece at a time, Agent Cooper is being reassembled, but who will he be when he finally returns?  Surely twenty-five years in the Black Lodge and living another man’s life will change Agent Cooper despite his persistent love of baked goods and coffee.

This episode we finally saw Bobby Briggs and Shelly reunited for the first time.  It turns out Bobby is Becky’s father.  Shelly calls him for help after their daughter goes off half-cocked and fully loaded for revenge on her cheatin’ husband.  Becky speeds off in her mom’s car with Shelly clinging to the hood.  It’s at once comical and harrowing as Becky shows no concern for her mother’s well-being.  When she reaches her husband’s girlfriend’s apartment, no one answers the door so she unloads her gun into it.
Later, Becky’s parents come together to stage an intervention at the Double R Diner with a concerned Norma watching from behind the counter.  Bobby used to be the town’s hotheaded bad boy.  Now he’s a concerned father whose daughter is mixed up with someone who is a lot like he used to be.  He tells Becky he hasn’t busted her husband yet because he hopes he can turn things around.  But after hearing Carl’s warning that something isn’t right in their trailer, Bobby threatens to jail his son-in-law.
Becky, like Shelly in her youth, wants a divorce.  Shelly declares that Becky is staying with her, but then immediately runs off to embrace a bad boy of her own.  Some things don’t change.  Bobby watches as his ex-wife runs into the arms of Red, the drug-dealer who freaked out Richard Horne.
Speaking of Richard, things aren’t looking good for Ben Horne’s errant grandson.  Last week, he went on a rampage which included killing eye-witness Miriam to tie up loose ends.  Only it turns out tricky Dick didn’t finish the job.  Bloodied, beaten but still breathing, Miriam struggled to find help.  Here’s hoping she lives long enough to drop a dime on Richard.
Bobby didn’t have long to dwell on his ex-wife’s new boyfriend.  Bullets ripped through the Double R and Deputy Briggs sprang into action.  It was great to see how far Bobby Briggs has come in the last two and half decades.  He’s an honest-to-goodness good police officer.  Turns out a little boy got hold of a gun and accidentally shot up the town.  Once Bobby has deescalated the situation with the firearm, he sets about dealing with the resulting traffic jam and that’s where things get really weird.
The woman in the car behind the little boy’s family won’t stop laying on the horn.  When Bobby asks her to please stop, she starts shouting at him incoherently.  The woman’s state of panic is understandable once we see the strange girl in the passenger seat.  Her pallor is inhuman.  She’s vomiting sludge and her skin matches the color of her puke.  It’s disgusting.  We don’t get much of an explanation but I couldn’t help wondering is any frog-insect creatures had crawled into her mouth while she was sleeping.
Meanwhile, Gordon and Albert were investigating “the site” where Hastings had his life-changing meeting with Major Briggs.  They found the decapitated body of Ruth Davenport.  Albert took pictures of the coordinates which were scrawled on her arm.  Later, when showing the pictures to Gordon, Albert caught Diane trying to commit the coordinates to memory.  I’m not 100% convinced that Diane is up to something sinister but she is definitely up to something and it may very well be dark in nature.

As Gordon approaches the abandoned house where the fateful meeting took place, the sky opens up above him.  He sees an image of the Woodsmen and seems to be tapping into powers beyond human comprehension.  Gordon is a stand-in for the show’s creator, David Lynch, and I couldn’t help viewing this as Lynch channeling whatever creative vision he has for the world of Twin Peaks.  I’m sure there are all kinds of meta-textual ways to read the scene, but ultimately Albert reaches out and grabs Gordon/Lynch before he disappears into another realm (his own creation?).
Pity poor Hastings.  Having delivered Gordon to the site, the world had no more use for him.  A Woodsman, glimpsed by Diane, crept into the police care where Hasting was sitting and somehow he met a sudden and gruesome end.  We don’t see exactly what transpired, but we get a good look at the results.  Hastings is inexplicably missing the top half of his head.  Diane observes with a look of bemusement.  Later, she admits to having seen a Woodsman but she’s very sketchy with the details.
In Vegas, the Mitchum brothers have set up a meeting with Dougie Jones.  Based on the intel they received from Anthony Sinclair last week, they believe Dougie is their enemy and they intend to deal with him once and for all.  Bradley Mitchum is so worked up over killing Dougie that he dreamt about it all night long.  But that dream leads Bradley to reconsider his plans.
Before sending Dougie to meet the Mitchums, his boss explains that their claim was denied fraudulently.  Bushnell Mullins gives Dougie a check for $30 million dollars and walks him to the car.  In case you were concerned about the company’s ability to survive after such a massive payout, Battling Bud assures Dougie that he took out a secondary policy and will net a tidy profit as a result.  Crisis averted.
But Dougie is still on his way to die out in the desert.  Or he would be if not for a vision of Mike which temporarily diverts him from his meeting just long enough to make a purchase.  When Dougie shows up at the meeting holding a box, Bradley remembers that there was a box in his dream too.  He tells his brother that if the box contains a certain item, they can’t kill Dougie.  I can’t be the only one who wondered if the box contained Gwyneth Paltrow’s head.  Fortunately, it was a cherry pie instead.
After a pat-down uncovered the brothers’ insurance check, they take Dougie back to their casino for a celebration.  They call on the perpetually dazed Candy to bring Coop another slice of pie when he gulps down the first one.  Their impromptu party is crashed by Mr. Jackpot’s biggest fan, the homeless woman he inadvertently helped during his winning streak.  It seems she turned her life around after her winnings.  She sings Dougie’s praises and the brothers agree.  Even in his current state, Agent Cooper is changing lives for the better.

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daffystardust
Editor
6 years ago

I’m sorry to see Bill Hastings go. I found him ultimately sympathetic and Matthew Lillard was doing a pretty good job with him. But I guess you’re right that he has served his purpose. Not sure that means he has to die, though. I was genuinely worried for Shelly’s safety when she was on the hood of her car. We have seen so little of the original cast and it would have been really upsetting to lose one of them this way. Shelly and Bobby were always fun in the original series, even as they were making dumb decisions. I… Read more »

daffystardust
Editor
6 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

At least one of the songs from the episode was credited as not only written by him, but also performed by him. That’s what made me wonder. I guess I should go look it up. What I was trying to say about Harry Dean Stanton is that he has a quality which makes me feel like he could have been a part of the series from the very beginning in a way that most of the other late-comers don’t for me. I’m seeing lots of impatience about Audrey not having shown up yet, but I just don’t feel that way… Read more »

daffystardust
Editor
6 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I went and looked at a relatively current picture of Badalamenti, and while both he and the piano player from the episode are older white men with short white hair, I don’t think it’s him. I don’t see the piano player listed in the credits either, though.

daffystardust
Editor
6 years ago

Tonight’s episode really tested my patience. It’s not that nothing happened – it’s that what did happen could have been easily squeezed into half the time. Lynch has always tended to draw out moments and take time with certain scenes, but too often during The Return it just seems to be padding the time and simply comes off as bad writing, bad acting, bad directing, and bad editing. Just watch the original series, and there will be plenty of examples of scenes with pace. The scene tonight between Audrey and Charlie was painfully inept on this count. If you don’t… Read more »

daffystardust
Editor
6 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

Tonight’s Audrey scene featured the same two actors seemingly discussing the same topic in the same general location and using the same back and forth cutting style. But this time every moment was full and every edit was timely. In short, this scene looked, sounded, and felt professionally realized.
Overall, the episode moved much better.

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