**Spoilers ahead**
After being off last Sunday following the most bonkers, far-reaching, and mythology-heavy episode of the show to date, “Twin Peaks” returned last night with an offering that had no choice but to feel normal by comparison. Relatively normal, that is, with an hour that managed to be both heartbreaking and humorous, a gentle balancing act of an episode that most resembled the tone of the first season since the revival started. There was a lot to unpack, and now that we’re at the halfway point, it really feels like the wheels are heading us in a direction with increasing speed. Let’s touch down on some of the highlights:
First up, Evil Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), fresh from his unfortunate run-in with the cluster of charcoal demons, met up with the Hutchens couple (Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tim Roth), instructing them to take down the warden at Yankton, and promising them another job in Las Vegas, where the police department is talking with Dougie’s (the real Dale Cooper, also Kyle MacLachlan) boss to see what they can find out about him and why anyone would want Dougie dead. This conversation reveals that prior to starting his current job, Dougie was in a car accident, the side-effects of which are still lingering, a shout-out to curious viewers explaining why the people in Dougie’s life don’t appear to be concerned with his seemingly odd behavior.
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The most interesting part of this sequence is that while waiting in the Las Vegas Police Department, Dougie zones out while staring at an American flag standing in the corner before getting distracted by a woman walking across the room (he also turns his attention to a light socket). It’s her shoes he’s most drawn to, red high-heels that likely reminded hardcore “Twin Peaks” fans of Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn), the one character from the original series whose absence the show seems to be teasing us with. Will she finally be the key to waking the Cooper we know and love up from his life as Dougie? It’s a dreamy scenario, but as eagle-eyed viewers probably caught, both Diane (Laura Dern) and Dougie’s wife Janey-E (Naomi Watts) were also wearing red shoes.
There’s another curious Audrey thread here: This episode also gives us a quick scene of Johnny Horne (Robert Bauer), Audrey’s mentally disabled brother, running around the house as his mother calls for him and eventually into a wall, knocking down a photograph of a waterfall and leaving a hole as well as a trail of blood, suggesting but not confirming his death. There doesn’t seem to be any real connection here, but Johnny smashing into the wall in such a violent way reminded me slightly of the night Maddie (Sheryl Lee) died at the hands of her uncle.
In other Horne family news, Ben (Richard Beymer) and Beverly (Ashley Judd) fight their attraction to one another as they continue to try and find the source of the humming sound that seems to be changing around the room. Meanwhile, Jerry (David Patrick Kelly) is still in the forest, now listening to his foot that tells him, “I am your foot.”
It’s starting to feel as though some of the characters in Twin Peaks are getting close to perhaps unlocking the secrets of the Black Lodge. Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) takes Hawk (Michael Horse) and Sheriff Truman (Robert Forster) to his mother Betty’s (Charlotte Stewart) house to talk to her about the day that Major Briggs (Don S. Davis) met with Dale Cooper before he died. She explains that she’s been waiting for this moment and provides them with a note the Major gave her more than 25 years ago, including directions to a location with instructions to “put some soil from that area in your pocket.” There are letters and numbers on the second note with the word “Cooper” written twice. “Two Coopers,” Hawk helpfully points out. Their intended destination is Jack Rabbit’s Palace, a location the Major used to take Bobby to when he was a child, a “make-believe world where [they] made up stories.” But how made up were they?
This hour is heavy with the Black Lodge of it all, as Gordon Cole (David Lynch) and his agents drop in to pay a visit to William Hastings (an exceptional Matthew Lillard) in prison to question him about the body identified as Major Briggs. Their research on Hastings uncovers that he was running a blog with dead librarian Ruth Davenport called The Search for the Zone, an online journal filled with writings and links about their obsession with time travel and the afterlife. You can actually visit the website, a GeoCities fever dream straight from the late ’90s and a clever extension of the show to reality.
William explains that he and Ruth went to the Zone and even admits to meeting the Major, a seeming impossibility considering he’s been dead for over two decades. He even talks about seeing the Major’s head disappear, which we saw floating in space in Episode 3. As we hear William talk about his experiences, it becomes clear he’s referencing what we know as the Black Lodge. And after twists, turns, and a truckload of patience, it’s finally starting to feel as though all of the show’s threads are leading us to something big in the back half of this brilliant, exasperating, and inscrutable show.
So where do you think we’re headed? How has the journey been so far? And do you think Cooper might wake up soon or am I the one dreaming?