Twin Peaks – The Return: Complete Hour by Hour Guide
NOTE TO READERS – These weekly posts are meant to recap what happened (SPOILERS AHEAD) and provide conversation starters for fans to comment and share theories. Do not read if you have not watched this week’s hour(s) yet.
HOURS ONE and TWO
“The Stars Turn and a Time Presents Itself”
The Log Lady (Catherine Coulson) states this rather matter-of-factly to Deputy Chief Hawk (Michael Horse), part of message for him to go find out in the woods that which has been missing…
Most of the premiere had a tense, occasionally obtuse, and brooding vibe – somewhere between the madness of Fire Walk with Me and the tone of Mulholland Drive. Three main story-lines (along with plenty other tangled threads) were set up for some vast cosmic and physical convergence: Agent Cooper being trapped in the Red Room (for 25 years!); an evil doppelgänger Cooper running amuck in the real-world whose days are numbered and is wanted back at the Black Lodge; and some key players in our beloved hometown gearing up for something.
The two hours both inch along and somehow fly by thanks to Lynch’s uncanny knack to make you feel as uncomfortable as hell knowing that at any moment a long, static shot with stilted actors doing not much of anything could turn into an absurd experimental horror show (witness the truly ghastly special-effects that harken back to Lynch’s art school days in Philadelphia and Eraserhead). I wanted some scenes to end so badly, while at the same time I didn’t want the experience to end.
And while the two hours are peppered with tons of fanatical tidbits, and plenty of darkly comic stuff (my favorite being Detective “Uh-Oh” and his cohort “Oh, Dave” from Buckhorn, South Dakota investigating an increasingly gruesome and preposterous crime), and Andy and Lucy deliver pure Andy and Lucy moments, while Hawk and the Log Lady almost break your hearts, Lynch has you feeling so uneasy with all the other grim stuff…until…the final moments where we’re suddenly (and thankfully) at the Roadhouse and in walks James (James Marshall) and some young kid, and there’s Shelly (Madchen Amick) talking about her daughter Becky dating the wrong guy and knocking back some drinks with her gals, one of which James seems to be eyeing.
“James is still cool,” Shelly says with a wistful come hither tone. Some other guy (OMG was that Balthazar Getty?) mimes a playful pistol shot over to her. All the while the Chromatics play a pretty song…and yeah, baby…you’re back. This is Twin Peaks.
And I can’t wait to get lost there again.
Best Line of the Night: “It’s a world of truck drivers.” – spoken by dear old Beulah (that crazy lady seen in the shot above from the teaser that took social media by storm last week!)
Most WTF Moment: The “re-casting” of The Arm!
Biggest Question I Have: What is Dr. Jacoby doing will all those shovels?
Commentary by David H. Schleicher
What say you, fellow Peakers? What were you favorite moments from the premiere? What shocked you the most?
The Schleicher Spin 
I enjoyed it. It introduced the characters that will play into this story. A lot of mystery ( WTF IS THAT GLASS BOX ) and maintained the total Lynch style he had in season one. Log Lady scenes are perfect too. I know she died shortly after. And they addressed the elephant, or should I say “evolution Arm tree thing” in the room. Where is Agent Cooper ? A few concerns :
1. This will not hook new fans. You have to love Lynch or Twin Peaks to get into this episode. That is a worry for ratings only because I will want Season 4. And I’m sure other episodes will differ. But this was a slow paced set up.
2. James. I hate him already.
3. Cooper. I’m ok with Bad / Good Coop. But we all want good Coop back sooner then later so we can see him. He is the show now.
I LOVE the new opening credits. I loved seeing Leland. And there are two Sherriff Trumans ?
You leave poor James alone – he was in a motorcycle accident that kinda messed him up! Shelly still thinks he’s cool!
So many questions — what is this company “Z” in New York and who is the billionaire owner (bad Cooper?)? The scene of Mrs. Palmer watching the lions devour the cow was seriously disturbing.
Mrs. Palmer’s nighttime nature show watching on that huge screen and with that mirror over the couch was indeed perhaps the most disturbing part (in two hours filled with disturbing stuff). Poor Mrs. Palmer…
And here it is kids, that dreamy new song, straight from the Roadhouse…The Chromatics and “Shadow” …
Rolling Stone hit the nail on the head with their recap of the Premiere and captured the feeling I felt during the closing moments beautifully…
“In this last scene, Lynch and Frost finally roll out not the red curtains but the red carpet, welcoming us back to the world and the characters we’d thought we’d lost. To steal the name of the show within the show from the original series, it’s an invitation to love – a sign that despite all the horror we’ve witnessed and the 25-plus years of misery they imply, there are still good-hearted people out there, and in this show, waiting down at the roadhouse for us to show up and get to know them once more. It is happening again.”
Full recap:
http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/recaps/twin-peaks-season-premiere-recap-into-the-black-w482703