''Can you get a bigger bucket?''
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
When it comes to plot progression, it’s best to expect baby steps from the new Twin Peaks, which was (mostly) the case with “Part 5.” Cooper is still very out of it – underlined by the closing credited, as he sadly just stood at the foot of that statue.
But there are intriguing little hints that things are changing. He’s remembered his love of coffee (hurray!), the word “agent” caught his attention, and the one and only time he seemed to be in the moment was when he called one of Dougie’s coworkers (Tom Sizemore) a liar. Was this his FBI deduction skills coming through or something more? We did see a strange green glow on Sizemore’s face right before it happened, so either is possible.
On the latest episode of Chanel Surfing, Matt Fowler and I laughed about the possibility that all we would ever see of Dr. Jacoby on this show were moments of him getting shovel deliveries and then painting those shovels. As it turned out though, we actually got a relatively quick payoff on what the hell the deal is with the shovels – as we learned not only is Jacoby now a conspiracy theory webshow host, but he uses his show to peddle “Dr. Amp’s Gold s**t-digging shovel.” Random? Of course! Funny? Very! And I loved how this was how we were re-introduced to Nadine, as she silently -- like a good drape runner -- but enthusiastically watched “Dr. Amp’s” show. (Jerry Horne being another faithful viewer was on brand).
Nadine wasn’t the only character to make their return appearance here, as we also caught up with Mike (as opposed to MIKE), Norma, and the Double R Diner (and yes, I’d argue that restaurant is a character, damn it!). Plus, via the Double R’s return, we saw more of Shelly and met her troubled daughter, Becky (Amanda Seyfried) – who was involved with a slimy young drug addict (X-Men: First Class and Get Out’s Caleb Landry Jones).
What a lyrical, perfectly David Lynch shot when we saw Becky, from above, caught in a drug-fueled euphoria, with Lynch using Seyfried’s famously distinct eyes in a standout manner – with Seyfried feeling right at home in the world of Twin Peaks.
Meanwhile, Evil Cooper’s phone call was a suitably creepy sequence, and when the alarms went off and everything went haywire, it seemed he might escape. Instead though, he simply got his message – “The cow jumped over the moon” – to someone.
What was really interesting with Evil Coop though was what happened earlier, as he looked into the mirror and proclaimed, “You’re still with me. That’s good.” We also got more flashbacks to the original Twin Peaks’ finale, with Bob and Cooper’s doppelganger laughing manically together and then Cooper looking into the mirror and Bob looking back. For all these years, fans had assumed that we were seeing “our” Coop possessed by Bob, but these early episodes have instead told us that the Cooper we saw in that finale was already two different evil entities – Bob and Cooper’s doppelganger. Was this always what Lynch and Frost had in mind, or is this all a newly formed plan due to Frank Silva’s death? Who knows, but it does at least mesh with what we saw 27 years ago, because yes, that doppelganger was in the Black Lodge with Bob. Evil Cooper’s statement in this episode therefore seems to be aimed at Bob, who he continues to co-exist with, and the question is how will Bob be depicted (if at all), given Silva’s death. But again, we’ve had a freaking tree in place of the Man From Another Place, so there are plenty of options!
On the new character front, Robert “In every other show this spring” Knepper and James Belushi debuted as two sinister fellows from the casino “Mr. Jackpots” won so much money from. It’s so hard to tell what parts of the story here are integral and what is a tangent Lynch and Frost have chosen to follow. So will these two come face to face with Cooper eventually (which clearly would be bad news for Coop), or are we simply going down a new path with new characters? Twin Peaks was after all always a soap opera, with tons of different storylines and characters. But by having so much of the new show not even set inside the town, it makes it murkier what is the true connective tissue. For instance, it doesn’t seem likely those random thugs who tried to steal Dougie’s car (two of whom then blew up) have any greater importance, nor the junkie and her son, but you never know… not yet at least.
-Okay, on to my many bullet points, starting with... how perfectly Twin Peaks were the gals in the photo below? (Amy Shiels, in the center, was spotlighted on the full cast list - creating another "Just how big will this role be in the long run?" question).
-the 31-year-old Amanda Seyfriend playing the 46-year-old Madchen Amick’s daughter is pretty silly, but not only is this a David Lynch series – who may think it’s just fun to do – but it’s pretty typical in Hollywood, with Seyfried playing younger than she is. But we still don’t know… who’s Becky's father? Leo? Bobby? Someone else entirely?
-Mike seemed to be doing well as a businessman, who could effortlessly tell off Steven and his crappy resume with suitable authority. It seems Mike, like his old buddy Bobby, has really managed to become a respectable member of the community. Mike is the man indeed.
-Man, does Robert Forster have one hell of a great deadpan expression, which he got to show off twice to great comic effect in the scene with Frank and his wife, Doris.
-Having Frank on the phone with Harry, but not actually hearing or seeing Harry, was a weird choice. It’s a bit muddy why Michael Ontkean isn’t back, but since he isn’t, it kind of puts a bigger spotlight on it to have this one-sided phone call, especially since Evil Cooper spoke to someone who may or may not have been Phillip Jeffries already, even though it obviously wasn’t David Bowie.
-The beginning and end of the episode, in Buenos Aires, was typically perplexing. Who is this woman? What’s this odd box that then turns into a smaller object? But it’s worth noting Buenos Aires is not new to Twin Peaks mythology, since it's where Philip Jeffries (him again!) vanished in Fire Walk With Me, and The Missing Pieces deleted scenes showed more bizarre teleportation events in Buenos Aires with Jeffries.
-Unlike Jeffries, we’ve definitively been told Major Briggs is dead. Yet we also learn the government just got their 16th “hit” on Briggs in the past 25 years. David Bowie and Don S. Davis may be gone, but Lynch and Mark Frost aren’t being shy making sure their characters have importance, however they may be incarnated.
-Jade sending the Great Northern key back to where it came from seems to open the door to the true Cooper finally being found by someone who knows him… At least I hope so!
-That seemingly random creep smoking in the Bang Bang Bar is, per the credits, “Richard Horne.” Whether he’s Jerry’s son, Audrey’s son, or someone else’s son, that does address a bit why he would feel so untouchable – but being so openly vile and violent with that girl wouldn’t go over well with our friends at the Sherriff’s Department, so let’s see if we get more of an idea of what Richard’s deal is.
-Richard’s cigarettes were Morleys. While some might see that as a big X-Files Easter egg (they were the Cigarette-Smoking Man’s brand of choice), Morley is actually a big Hollywood fictional in-joke that’s been used in a ton of unrelated TV shows and films, beginning with Psycho in 1960.
-So many familiar faces! Ernie Hudson! Elena Satine! And one I’d missed on that massive cast list last year, Jane Levy. Again, it remains to be seen if any of these people will have substantial roles, though Hudson’s colonel seems like he might and Levy’s character is at least in Twin Peaks itself.
-The first few episodes seemed to establish that each episode would end with a performance at the Bang Bang Bar. So of course this episode nicely subverted that expectation with a scene in the Bang Bang Bar that did include a performance, but with the focus on Richard and those girls – and then the episode didn’t actually end in that scene!
The Verdict
Is the new Twin Peaks lacking focus? Or are most (though, to be fair, certainly not all) of these very divergent scenarios truly adding up to something? While I’d defend many of the more random tangent moments Lynch and Frost infuse into their storytelling as a huge part of the style and atmosphere, I still feel like a vast amount of these various elements, despite their geographic separation, are truly tied together,. After all, that headless corpse had a ring meant for Dougie, Buenos Aires is tied to Philip Jeffries, and we know that box in New York is being looked into by the FBI. The owls are not what they seem, and nether is much else on this series. I continue to long for Cooper to truly be Cooper again (and hope it happens at least by the half-way point of the season, if not sooner), but in the meantime, there’s still so much to absorb here.
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