Twin Peaks: The Return - Better, crazier than ever
Photo courtesy of Showtime
“We live in a dream” is one of the most recurring quotes of David Lynch’s momentous return to television, Twin Peaks: The Return. After 18 hours of surreal existential dread, I might just believe that. The spoilers ahead are not part of that dream.
25 years after Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) entered The Black Lodge and was forced to remain while his evil-minded doppelganger roamed free, Cooper has finally found his way out. Only with half a mind and believing he is a man named Dougie Jones, several of his allies are converging on clues as to the nature of his disappearance and the existence of The Black and The White Lodge. The people of Twin Peaks are at relative ease before new evil starts brewing again on the edges of the wooded town and in South Dakota a man identical to Cooper with black irises is the head of a major crime ring. The spirit of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) still permeates through every day Twin Peaks life, and the threat of abuse, violence and fear grips all things.
Twin Peaks feels impossible to review. It is truly unlike anything ever seen on the small screen. Whether it’s an entire episode of surreal black-and-white imagery depicting the invention of evil after the detonation of the first atomic bomb or a monster made of TV static ripping apart two innocent teenagers, Twin Peaks is both beautifully surreal and intensely terrifying.
How does one even review something as unique as Twin Peaks? The easiest way would be to start with the story at play. Each of Twin Peaks locations of the titular town, Las Vegas and South Dakota make for really fantastic arcs that as the plots slowly advance you begin to realize the small ways in which they’re all connected by the man at the center of the show Twin Peaks all along: Dale Cooper.
The individual plotlines all really focused on interesting themes that spoke to the specific locations and characters connected to those areas. The town of Twin Peaks despite its decline in crime still feels filled with all the horrors lurking at the edges of small town life that Lynch was attempting to convey in the past two seasons of Twin Peaks. The town seems peaceful as ever, and yet something horrible grips its denizens. Children just like Laura experience the same path of self-destruction she did. There’s still commentary about the dark desires lying in the heart’s of men as characters like Richard Horne (Eamon Farren) tear through Twin Peaks with wanton and unflinching murder and assault. The town is different, everyone seems aware that The Black Lodge constantly looms around them, but no one seems willing to step back and take a look. In Las Vegas there’s a clear disconnect between the lives of the middle, lower class and the incredibly wealthy, casino-owning upper class. The town’s rampant obsession with violence is constantly blamed on economic stress, but all of it is the being manipulated by BOB in Cooper’s body. More destruction strewn by the spirit’s that lurk in America’s darkest corners. In the hearts of people who see themselves as innocent players in a chess game where the pieces have already been removed from the board. All of these elements are played off incredibly well because of two elements: MacLachlan’s incredible talent, and David Lynch and Mark Frost’s incredible writing abilities.
Kyle MacLachlan’s Cooper has always been a riveting character to watch even in past seasons, but in this third season he’s doing something completely different. Until the last few episodes his moments as the character of Cooper are completely silent and yet MacLachlan’s facial expressions convey so much drama, tension and stifled fear as Cooper encounters the truly terrifying and haunting imagery that permeates throughout the series. All of this fails to mention the two other performances Kyle MacLachlan gave this season as the character of Mr. C, the evil doppelganger Cooper from The Black Lodge that houses the evil spirit BOB, and Dougie Jones, the fabricated doppelganger that Cooper switches places with while he is in an almost catatonic state only able to recite “coffee” and a cheery “Doguie Jones.” Both of these performances are so far removed from the regular Cooper character that MacLachlan provides the audience with three unique, tour-de-force performances over 18 episodes. It’s a testament to his craftsmanship and his talents and it continues to make Cooper a riveting, nuanced and loveable character.
The other characters of the show are also fantastically well-performed across the board, with specific praise going to Miguel Ferrer, Laura Dern, Michael Horse, Catherine E. Coulson, Matthew Lillard, Naomi Watts, Jim Belushi and Robert Knepper. Also Michael Cera makes the greatest cameo in the world as the motorcycle-riding, Brando-obsessed son of Lucy and Andy Brennan known as Wally Brando.
The other stars here are Frost and Lynch. Their penchant for the weird and unconventional makes for some of the most fascinating, horrifying and unique television I’ve ever watched. To be truly scared by a television show is no easy feat for a writer to accomplish, and for those scares to be grounded in surreal, terrifying images is a lot harder than relying on lazily-constructed jump scares.
I should give the caveat that this show is not for everyone. It is filled with odd, confusing moments and Lynch has never been one to tie up his stories with a neat little bow. Twin Peaks second season ended with dozens of plot holes and while the show’s third season closes some of those holes it ends with another dozen open. The show’s two hour finale spent its first half tying season long-plot threads together nicely into a mostly well-constructed narrative. Only for its last half to be a mystery filled, confusing adventure between the two most important characters over the entire show. The season ends with loud electric static and the blood-curdling scream of Laura Palmer as Cooper questions if he’s even in the right time period. It seems like a Twin Peaks kind of ending. The greatest tragedy of the show may have been prevented, but what if everything Cooper did changed the world in a truly irrevocable way? Laura couldn’t be saved and maybe he can’t either. Those who are lost always will be, and evil will never be gone. Mothers will condemn the daughters they lost too early, and father’s will willfully lead their children to destruction. Like Abraham and Isaac hundreds of years before.
Maybe the screams never end. Maybe the dreams will always be, whether they’re beautiful or nightmarish. Whatever it all means the greatest question still needs answered “We are like the dreamer who dreams and lives inside the dream, but who is the dreamer?” Is it Cooper, Laura, BOB, Dougie Jones? Are we the dreamers? Maybe we are. As we sleep we experience stories filled with fascinating and terrifying imagery just like Lynch’s films and shows, but what he serves is never exactly what we want. We may be the dreamer, but you’re never in charge of your dreams. So if life is only a dream and we the dreamers, then who controls our lives? Whatever the answer, I’m sure we’d be terrified to know.