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.

HOUR THREE:

“Do chocolate bunnies have anything to do with your heritage?”

Andy (Harry Goaz) asks Hawk (Michael Horse) this amongst the spread of old Laura Palmer files, donuts and coffee as he and Lucy try to help the Deputy Chief figure out what the Log Lady meant and what exactly is…missing? “It’s not about the bunny,” Hawk stoically muses, “Or is it is about the bunny?”

Earlier the third hour opened with more Red Room / Black Lodge / Limbo / WhateverAndWhereverTheHellItIs, which every nook and cranny could be described and it would still be as incomprehensible as the craziest dream with Lynch having evolved (or is it devolved?) these manipulated digital photography sequences into moving modern art installations…or, as my wife pointedly pondered, is that vast ocean Cooper looks out over in the opening moments where Lynch goes when he does Transcendental Meditation? Cooper does find his way out…and voila! he’s taken the place of some awwshucks schmuck named Dougie Jones in Las Vegas. Simultaneously the Evil Cooper vomits creamed corn and black poison while overturning his Lincoln outside of Buckhorn, South Dakota. The dazed Cooper in Las Vegas is then dropped off at a casino by his hooker-with-a-heart-of-oh-brother where he proceeds to light-up slot jackpots guided by images of that zig-zag floor topped with a flame over the machines.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia (YES!), Special Agent Tamara “Tammy” Preston (a chic and slinky Chrysta Bell) is giving Gordon Cole (old Lynch himself) and Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer) the rundown on that nasty piece of business in New York City (where those two poor kids were indeed mauled to death by whatever came out of that glass box) only to be whisked away by a phone call from someone claiming to have in custody none other than the long lost…Agent Cooper!

Cue the closing Bang!Bang! Roadhouse song and credits.

HOUR FOUR:

“Holy Jumping George!”

And Gordon Cole is right. Hour Four is where this new Twin Peaks finds its groove. What was disjointed and weird in the first three hours congeals into a jazzy-funny-scary tour de force, most of the action this hour bouncing back and forth and forth from our continued re-entry into our hometown through Hawk, Lucy and Andy; Gordon, Albert, and Tammy’s trip to Blue Rose territory and the increasingly bizarre Buckhorn, South Dakota case (where the bad Coop is itching to be debriefed by Cole); and good Coop’s entry into Dougie Jones’ family life.

The Coop / Dougie Las Vegas sequences build into a beautiful fish-out-of-water ballad (as brilliant and funny and sweet as that BoJack Horseman episode – “Fish out of Water” –  from its own Season Three). All I will say is it involves a load of life-changing cash, Naomi Watts as Dougie’s lovely but harried wife, and Pierce Gagnon as his kid (whose name is, I kid you not, Sonny Jim Jones), who is delighted by his dad’s newfound antics (and gives him the iconic “thumbs up”) – hilariously crescendo-ing in a coffee spit-take at the family breakfast table.

Meanwhile, in our hometown, we finally meet the second Sheriff Truman (a spot on – this role fits him like an old glove – Robert Forster) and Lucy and Andy’s philosophical / hipster doofus / road warrior biker son Wally Brando, played by…you guessed it correctly, social media…Michael Cera! And his rambling speech about dharma and his wonderful parents’ desire to turn his childhood bedroom into a study to a kindly patient Sheriff Truman is a joy to watch. We also learn that Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) is a Deputy now (investigating drug running, no less!). When he walks in on the Laura Palmer case evidence spread out in the conference room, his choked up tears are our very own, and we gaze together at the now faded-yellow Prom Queen photo of ancient lore. “It brings back so many memories,” he cries. Yes, Bobby, it does. And it’s beautiful.

Before leaving for South Dakota (where a great “Tammy gets carsick” comment from Albert is misheard by the hearing impaired Gordon as “Cossacks”), Gordon gets the blessing from the Chief of the Staff of the entire Federal Bureau of Investigation – none other than our very own Denise Bryson (David Duchovny, looking smashing in heels as always)!

It’s in this hour you realize all the casting is perfect (just as it was 25 years ago), and Lynch seems to know this as the hour closes with Gordon requesting Albert to get the one person up there to South Dakota who can help them crack this weirdo Coop conundrum…hinting at someone…showing up next hour…as someone…we’ve all been dying to meet (or see again?) for over 25 years. “I know where she drinks,” Albert says.

Until next week…

Cue the closing Bang!Bang! Roadhouse song and credits.

Commentary by David H. Schleicher

What say you, fellow Peakers? What were you favorite moments from Hours Three and Four? What shocked you the most?  What made you laugh the most?