Twin Peaks, Episode 3.1: The Return, Part 1

Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 1
My Log Has a Message for You

“Twin Peaks” was dead. This is how David Lynch himself described it in 2001. The show was canceled. The movie flopped. The cult following remained utterly devoted and fanatical. The public at large, meanwhile, simply recalled the show as this weird thing everyone was briefly into back in the early nineties. One could even assume that Lynch was, perhaps, a little bitter about how quickly “Peaks” had burned out, as he squashed attempts to revive the show as a comic. It turns out, all along, the cryptic master had a plan. When Laura Palmer said she would see us again in twenty-five years, nobody expected that she meant it literally.

And so, out of the darkness of future past, “Twin Peaks” would return in 2017... As an eighteen episode limited series on Showtime, directed entirely by David Lynch. (Making it his first major cinematic work in over a decade.) Most of the cast would return, with Mark Frost once again operating as co-show runner/writer. “Twin Peaks: The Return” would be gushingly received by critics. Fans would be equally fascinated, baffled, and enchanted by the event series. The revival would inspire new interest in the entire series, ignite debate over what a movie even was, and continue to expand what television is capable of as an art form.

Two and a half decades have passed since the murder of Laura Palmer. FBI Agent Dale Cooper remains trapped in an alternate dimension, where he receives cryptic hints from an entity that looks like the Giant. Meanwhile, an evil doppelganger of Cooper – still inhabited by the demonic entity BOB – has become a criminal kingpin. In Twin Peaks, where eccentric life continues as usual, the ill Log Lady calls Detective Hawk and gives him a clue about Agent Cooper. Other mysterious events continue to unwind. Such as grisly murders playing out in Buckhorn, South Dakota or a man being paid to observe a strange glass box in New York City.

The evolution of television in the last twenty-five years, David Lynch's maturing directorial style, and the move to premium cable means “Twin Peaks: The Return” is very different from the two seasons that proceeded it. Since this is Showtime, there's nudity, sex, and a graphically mangled corpse. More importantly, David Lynch's creative impulses are allowed greater freedom than he ever was on ABC. Perhaps unsurprisingly, “The Return” has more in common with “Lost Highway” or “Inland Empire” than the original “Twin Peaks.” You can see this in the laborious pacing, the highly eccentric and at times cryptic dialogue, and focus on odd imagery. This is, after all, a hotly anticipated premiere that barely features its main character, leaving him sitting in a black-and-white room listening to a scratchy phonograph.

Even if “The Return” is already aggressively establishing itself as Not for Everyone, Lynch packs “Part 1” with some unforgettable moments. Letting us know that he has full creative control, Lynch includes a night-driving, headlights shot early on here. It is scored to a nightmarish version of “American Woman,” slowed down until it's a guttural scream. Though we don't know what “Mr. C” – the Cooper doppelganger – is up to yet, the shadowy sequence of him going about his sinister business is full of foreboding dread. This later builds to full-born surreal horror. An entity that resembles both a nude woman and a grey alien emerges from the glass box, mulling a humping couple to death. It's utterly nightmarish, in that distinctively Lynchian way.

In fact, the first episode of “Twin Peaks: The Return” doesn't spend much actual time in Twin Peaks. When we do return to the Washington town, it's mostly as a source of quirky, absurd humor. In twenty-five years, it seems Lucy's skills as a secretary haven't improved much. When an insurance salesman enters the police station, she repeatedly confuses him until the man leaves. When Deputy Hawk attempts to get some help from Lucy and Andy, the happily married couple easily get distracted talking about their own child. The Horne brothers, Ben clearly having recovered from his encounter with a fireplace, have a conversation laced with absurd turns of phrase. Dr. Jacoby is doing.. something, out in the woods. Even when not in the titular town, Lynch's particular sense of humor – repetitive, knowingly dumb – shows through with a not especially helpful woman trying to help the Dakota cops.

The biggest difference, perhaps, between 1990's “Twin Peaks” and 2017's “Twin Peaks” is that the original was a mystery while the revival is a mood piece. Still, a mystery is afoot. What is happening in Buckhorn isn't clear yet but the images are evocative nevertheless. A mangled body, its head traded with someone else's, or a flap of flesh left in a trunk may not be as iconic as Laura Palmer, wrapped in plastic, but they are up there. More pressingly, “Peaks” remains fascinated with certain themes. Principal William Hasting – played by a normcore Matthew Lillard – is a seemingly wholesome high school principal. Then why is he mixed up in a grisly murder? As the police take him away, his wife explains that they have dinner plans that night. Even when not in the town of Twin Peaks, “Twin Peaks” remains fascinated with the dark, secret lives people live.

Even if their parts are relatively small, even if everyone is twenty-five years older, it is nice seeing many of the old characters again. Cooper, Hawk, the Log Lady, Andy, Lucy, the Hornes, and Jacoby will surely all have more to do, soon enough. With its moments of shocking horror and fascinating weirdness, it is apparent that David Lynch was making a bold, creative statement with the first part of “The Return.” [8/10]