‘Twin Peaks’ The Return Finale: The Lost Detective Finds His Way

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*Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t seen all of Twin Peaks so far, turn around, watch the entire season, maybe see it again and then come back. And you can catch up on all our recaps here. *

Is It Future Or Is It Past? And just like that, it vanished into the nothing, dissipating with a crackling hiss like it was never there in the first place. Flickering memory grasping at pieces and bits as they evaporated. David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return” concluded tonight, a two-episode finale for 18 in total and it did so in brilliant, gobsmacking, mind bending fashion—intense, terrifying, shuddering with the ecstasy of the unknowable. When the darkness hit, I reeled, feeling like I was in the middle of one of his heart attack shots were the camera feels like it’s going to burst from experiencing too many multitudes. I felt like

And to think I doubted the show at times. Trust in Lynch, you dummy.  Scholars will ponder over the enigmatic, shattered glass ending of ‘Twin Peaks The Return,” the last two episodes titled “The Past Dictates the Future” and “What’s Your Name?,” much like they puzzled over the inexplicable ending of David Chase’s “The Sopranos” finale, but Lynch, as indecipherable as he is, as much as he speaks in foreign code, only accidentally penetrable to those with the most imaginative of wild, irrational theories, is much more satisfying. If you’re going to unpack, I hope you brought movers.

However, the key to encrypting Lynch is to not try and decipher him at all. Or, indulge in your theories (they are not wrong), let them fit into the shards of narrative you can piece together (watch those fingers) and let the inscrutable rapture take hold of you like the Lynchian’ sound design effect of an ominous curtain-pulling wind that sucks you out of your current reality.

The problem with modern narrative, especially for TV, is linear clarity and David Lynch has never, ever trafficked in that dimension. “Twin Peaks: The Return,” much more so than the original show, was like a riddle. And those trying to solve it like a crime will be deeply disappointed with the finale—perhaps not unlike how fans and critics cried foul at the end of Chase’s beloved mob drama.

Loose ends dangled in the winds, but you’d be foolish to believe otherwise. I can’t proclaim to be an expert on David Lynch by any means—though I know and love all his work—but you’d be a tourist of his oeuvre if you were believing you would be walking out of the Black Lodge of your living room with easy answers.

Duality and time were two of the key signifiers of “Twin Peaks: The Return,” a story taking place 25 years after the fact gave way to doppelganger tulpas and a supernatural mist more enigmatic than it once was. So, perhaps it was no surprise that space and time collapsed in on each other, creating different linearities and new futures—after all, the Black and White Lodge are alternate dimensions, so it stands to reason space and time are fluid. “Firewalk With Me” is both a prologue and epilogue to “Twin Peaks”, so it’s not as if Lynch hadn’t been flirting with the mutability of continuum for some years. ‘The Return’ of course, like many Lynch tropes, had double or myriad meanings. A simple return of the show on air, a return to the scene of the crime, but also a reentry into the past. Lynch and Frost play with the phenomenon of déjà vu, but beyond reoccurrence and the idea of new frequencies.

In “Twin Peaks” we witnessed Dale Cooper as the man unstuck in time, looking at the past to dictate the future by changing it. This is a huge leap for some if you look closely at Twitter, but seriously? Have you watched this mystifying, nutty show at all? The way Lynch weaved together the tapestry of his vast mosaic, how references from “Twin Peaks” lore like “Fire Walk With Me” would suddenly appear out of nowhere jolting fans like the electricity and transportive electrical sockets that helped Cooper move through temporal space and even contort continuity. This was always stunning, brain-busting stuff.

And if you dive in deep, it’s extremely intricate; fans need to have charts, graphs, and notebooks to keep it all in places. A mystifying Blue Rose case, indeed. But it’s masterful  – as if Lynch had a 30-year master plan mapped out all along. The truth is, he didn’t. But much like the trick Dale Cooper learns, “Twin Peaks The Return” was all about David Lynch diving into the past of his cannon and distorting and inventing a new future.

For those complaining that it didn’t spell itself out, the finale sure had a lot of exposition dumps (which you can forgive given the complexity of the show, but c’mon). The Past Dictates The Future began with FBI Agent Cole (David Lynch) dropping a truth-bomb to his fellow associates: he’d been keeping a secret from FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield (the dearly departed Miguel Ferrer) for 25 years. Before he had disappeared, Major Garland Briggs (the late Don S. Davis) shared a revelation with Cooper and he. Briggs had discovered an entity, an “extreme negative force known in the olden times as ‘Jowday,” and which eventually transformed into Judy.

Judy, of course, was referenced in “Fire Walk With Me” by David Bowie’s disappeared FBI agent Phillip Jeffries and again mentioned in, I believe, episode 8 of ‘The Return.’

Something happened. “Philip Jeffries, doesn’t exist anymore in the normal sense,” Cole elucidated. He was on to the entity and then vanished on assignment in Argentina. Cole explained that the last thing Cooper warned him about was that if he should disappear like the others, he should do everything in your power to find Cooper “I’m trying to kill TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE,” was Cooper’s message 25 years ago before he vanished.

The Giant delivered the message “Richard and Linda, two birds, one stone” in the beginning of ‘The Return’ and subsequently, it was revealed that Richard was the offspring of the evil Dale Cooper tulpa and was killed off in episode 16. But who was Linda? That’s complicated.

But it’s referenced again and speaks to the entirely open-ended conclusion of Lynch’s third “Twin Peaks” season. Linda was sort of revealed, but that thread was left not fully explained. Should “Twin Peaks” return, and it should, the identity of Linda (again, already sort of explained) would likely be expanded upon. What’s kind of astounding is the dualities upon dualities and the decoys littered throughout the show. Richard and Linda are the two birds, but what the show presupposes, is the character you thought was Richard, is not the Richard that the Giant (also known as ??????? and the Fireman) originally spoke of. Time is a flat circle on “Twin Peaks” and can be lapped, reversed and broken.

The same with Judy.  The entity is found through a waitress in a dinner in the middle of Odessa, Texas and its… Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Kind of. Actually, she claims it’s Carrie Page. It’s Laura Palmer in a kind of traumatized PTSD – she doesn’t know who she is, her origin, or her true identity. Or she’s a tulpa, but the final moments of the show essentially kill that theory (in my mind, anyhow).

The full explanation of Judy, Laura Palmer and Carrie Page is hinted at, but not fully explored. Theories will abound, for the rest of time if Lynch doesn’t make a fourth season (and it’s very possible he won’t), but one thing’s for certain, Laura Palmer’s/Sheryl Lee’s bloodcurdling scream is perhaps one of the most disturbing, bone-chilling sounds ever heard come out of a TV screen. I recoiled in terror each time she rang out in horror.

Again, for those frustrated and perplexed, so much was divulged by Lynch and I shouldn’t forget mentioning co-creator Mark Frost, perhaps much more elemental to the story process than many have given him credit for. The Asian lady with no eyes was revealed to be the true Diane (Laura Dern) and her romantic reunion with Dale Cooper is both moving and, as the narrative goes on, deeply furtive with more layers left unpeeled.

Heartwarmingly, Cooper goes out of his way to recreate his good doppelganger Dougie Jones, and in a quick touching moment, is reunited with Janey-E Jones (Naomi Watts) and their son Sonny-Jim (Pierce Gagnon). All is well that ends well in Nevada, though it should be noted that Sonny Jim is the son of a tulpa and who knows what that means for his future if anything at all (given that Dougie is so good at heart).