TV Write-Up: Twin Peaks S3 Parts 3 & 4
SYNOPSIS: 25 years after the final episode of Twin Peaks left viewers wondering what the show’s mysteries meant, David Lynch and Mark Frost return to the world of Twin Peaks for a third season. It is happening again…
The first two parts of The Return went in directions that no one could anticipate. Agent Cooper back in the Black/White lodge, the Man From Another Place is now a tree with an Eraserhead-like…thing…for a head, and Doctor Jacoby is living in the woods somewhere. Parts 3 and 4, however, somehow go to an even more insane place. Within the first ten seconds of the episode I knew we were in for something wholly unique, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
From the outset, Peaks began as an investigation-centric series but eventually became the journey of Special Agent Dale Cooper. Cooper, caught somewhere between the Lodge and reality, starts this episode traveling through space, encountering some classic Lynchian nightmarish characters and situations before eventually being squeezed out of a power outlet in a wall in reality somewhere. At the same time, a third Cooper is revealed to be a man named Dougie, whom swaps places with Agent Cooper in this moment, arrives at the lodge and disappears for…some reason. Concurrently, evil Coop almost crashes his car off the highway at what we assume is the same time Agent Coop arrives, but can continue doing what he is doing. If the description sounds vague, that’s because it is. Throughout these reviews I fully anticipate struggling to explain the plot, but that also qualifies this story as one you absolutely must experience yourself.
We get a bit more time with Hawk, Lucy and Andy, even getting an introduction to Sheriff Harry Truman’s brother Frank Truman (now acting sheriff of Twin Peaks) as well as our first look at Bobby, now an officer with the Sheriff’s department. While we get some of the classic Twin Peaks cheesy tragedy, I found myself oddly nostalgic for that schmaltzy garbage. Yeah, Bobby is clearly hamming it up when breaking down in tears at the mere look of a photo of Laura Palmer, but Peaks was always cheesier than it should have been, trading in a certain measure of the story’s menace for some of that “aww-shucksiness”. It works here and reminds us that the show still remembers all the pieces of what made it so tantalizing a quarter-century ago.
Without question, though, the funniest thing Twin Peaks has ever done has to be Michael Cera’s turn as Wally Brando, biker and son of Lucy and Andy Brennan. Cera, sporting an incredible lisp that must have been his attempt at mimicking Brando’s iconic speech pattern, is flat out hilarious. With lines like “My dharma is the road…”, you know you’re in for some comedic gold. I hope we see him again but if that is his one moment in the series then so be it, it was magical.
As far as Agent Cooper goes, things pick up with some woman. Coop is off his game, however. Simple tasks like responding using his words and putting his shoes on are clearly a struggle. As the episode progresses, Coop uses the few phrases he has banked in his memory (“Call for help”) to try and progress forward. Coop eventually ends up at a casino where, for some reason, he hits 30 jackpots in a row. Each slot machine he sees with a floating image of the Black Lodge above it he plays, and wins. There is no explanation given, so don’t ask. Eventually, Coop has a run-in with the Casino manager who tries to implore him to stick around and spend some money in Casino. Coop, still completely out of his mind, is given a limousine ride home. Home, it turns out, is behind a red door, from which Naomi Watts appears as Dougie’s wife. Somehow, Coop and Dougie have switched places. Did Evil Coop orchestrate this to happen, and if so, to what ends? I hope we get an answer, but your guess is as good as mine.
Agent Cooper then tries to live like a normal person, mimicking what Dougie’s son, named Sonny Jim, does during breakfast, but clearly has no idea what he is doing, being almost catatonically non-verbal. While all this is happening, the return of Albert and Cole, played by Miguel Ferrer and David Lynch, is simply awesome. These scenes, including Cole’s conversation with David Duchovny’s Denise Bryson, now in charge at the FBI, are pure entertainment in the Peaks-iverse. Seeing David Lynch screaming at people again due to his failed hearing is just the best. Eventually, Evil Coop is found in a prison in South Dakota. Cole, Albert and newcomer Agent Tamara Preston visit Evil Coop there. We get the indication that Coop has been gone or off the grid for a long time as both Cole and Albert seem eager to recover Coop from wherever he is. What ensues is a strange conversation, with Evil Coop behind bars speaking as if from a dark script, repeating some of his lines and making a slight mockery of the situation. Again, where this goes, is difficult to know, but the fact that these characters are back and progressing the situation forward is enough for me to be fully invested going forward.
Parts 1 and 2 had a lot of great setup for the more sinister and surreal aspects of Twin Peaks. Parts 3 and 4 dove headfirst back into the sci-fi roots of the writing and, ultimately, brought back a thick layer of smalltown-cheese that had been absent in the beginning of this run. The show is still, consistently surprising me and I’m finding a lot to love, even if I don’t know the direction of where this is headed. Check back next episode for my thoughts and reactions.
Rating: 9/10
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