I’m simply thrilled to be filling in to talk about the latest episode of Twin Peaks: The Return. We’ll be talking about the episode in some detail, so get ready for spoilers. Like, say, every episode of the series, a whole lot of things are just a little bit closer to happening. But this week? We’re a far bit closer than we were before. Here. I’ll unlock the door for you.
1. “I think you say…convenience store.”
In what was certainly the most shocking sequence this week, our friend BOOP takes a long dark Lynch road to the actual, famed Convenience Store, the one we saw in Part 8, the one with all those Woodsmen palling around (by the way, did you know they’re black because of motor oil?!? I know, it’s the creepiest!!). (That also got me thinking, Mike says, way back in Season 1, that they lived “among the people”. Are the “people” the Woodsmen? I mean, that’s creepy, right? Maybe he just meant us-type people, who knows.)
But speaking of who knows, I bet most people figured that one bit in Fire Walk With Me, when Philip Jeffries (oh, did I mention Phillip Jeffries showed up as a sorta clanky vat thing that speaks and also communicates through steam? We’ll get to him. It. Whatever.) says “I’m not gonna talk about Judy, in fact, we’re not gonna talk about Judy at all,” that was just some random Lynch type thing that meant nothing, right? Wrong! BOOP wants, in fact, to know exactly who Judy is! Which means eventually we’ll know who Judy is!
Bet you weren’t expecting that!
But, right! The convenience store! We travel above the convenience store, where we saw one of the meetings Jeffries visited in Fire Walk With Me (and I bet just like me you gasped when you first saw that flight of rickety stairs leading up the side). We also see a room that looks an awful lot like the one Laura walked into through the photo given to her by Li’l Johnny Chalfont (note: not his actual name). So that was a nice little creepy thing.
I mean this whole thing was just creepsville. Seeing our old buddy The Jumping Man again, seeing someone use “Lodge Speak” in the outdoors (was it the outdoors? I mean, where exactly were they?), the lighting in Phillip Jeffries’…house? Room?
I don’t know that was all just really unsettling.
2. I thought David Lynch had cool taste in music.
So there’s no question Uncy Dave (what, you don’t call David Lynch ‘Uncy Dave’?) has some great taste in music. Julee Cruise. All these great Roadhouse bands. I mean, friggin’ El-P produced the band that performed this week! (Between that and Hudson Mohawke, how mad do you think DJ Shadow is right now? Dude sampled Twin Peaks on his most famous album! Oh, shoot, though, El-P sampled Fire Walk With Me on I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead. So I guess that’s fair.)
But my point is, the incidental music in this entire series is like the most played out stuff! This week we had “Sharp Dressed Man” by friggin’ ZZ Top. We’ve heard “Take Five,” even “Green Onions”! It’s just a weird kinda frission, no?
Also, that screaming girl at the end of this week’s performance was America’s Sweetheart Charlyne Yi! I thought that was pretty cool.
3. Good is starting to rack up a few Ws.
It’s clear that there are just yards and yards of corrupting influences in Twin Peaks. We’ve got kids vomiting in passenger seats, Gersten Hayward crying in the forest (did you know/remember Alicia Witt was actually in the original series as a kid playing Donna’s sister? And that she’s the same character now? Me neither!), Norma corporatizing the friggin’ cherry pie, it’s a nightmare.
But things are turning around. Big Ed has been set free by Nadine. Norma extricates herself from that dastardly franchise deal. Ed Hurley and Norma are finally able to have the relationship of their dreams. Watch your back, evil Northwest forces.
4. Everything in its right place.
We know from last week that The Fireman gave Freddy his Green Glove powers because his destiny was to use them in Twin Peaks. He uses them a little to save James from a Roadhouse scrap, and that gets them put in the surprisingly amply celled holding area underneath the Twin Peaks Sheriff Department.
Continued belowThere he and James join Chad (eff that dude), Bleeds Through Mouth, and most importantly Naido from The White Lodge.
Andy warned us that evil forces were after her. Maybe they’ll run head first into Freddy’s destiny.
Dougie is also getting closer than we’ve ever seen him to the Cooper we remember. After hearing “Gordon Cole” in Sunset Boulevard, he electrocutes himself.
Richard Horne confronts (MAYBE HIS FATHER???) BOOP and they drive off together.
We even saw more of instant superstar FBI Director Randall Headley with the instantly best line delivery ever, “KID-SUH?? PLURAL??”
All the pieces are coming together as we near the three final hours.
5. Good night, Margaret.
Good bye, Margaret.
