''Tricked ya, f**ker.''
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Okay, so, um… Well. Where to begin?
After last week’s episode was, in many ways, the most straightforward and “classic” Twin Peaks of this revival season, David Lynch and Mark Frost went into a completely different direction this time out with an episode that was completely bats**t crazy. And I loved it! Look, I wouldn’t be shocked if this was “enough is enough” episode for some people, given how off the rails it went, but it was gloriously off the rails. And I think, maybe, sorta/kinda, it all added up? For Twin Peaks that is.
Here’s my interpretation of what we saw:
In 1945, a nuclear test either created or led to the release of Bob. After this, The Giant -- who has, to date, always seemed a force for good -- and a woman/being he was allied with ("Experiment" is her name, per the credits) were alerted to this happening. The Giant then worked to create something that could battle and stop Bob – and that thing was Laura Freaking Palmer. 11 years later, an egg in the desert opened, freeing a creature that may have been the truth physical “birth” of Bob (hey, 11 years is just your standard birth cycle for an evil possessing killer!). When this occurred, another being from the Black Lodge then used his abilities to knock out the local townspeople, allowing this huge bug creature that held Bob to crawl inside its first human host.
Or I am completely totally off.
I feel like I’m at least half right. Maybe. But obviously the details could be very different. Maybe, for instance, that bug creature wasn’t Bob but something else entirely.
It's not like we can fully, 100%, understand all the specifics. Even going by what I think I saw, I still couldn't tell you what the hell that creature was that puked out Bob. Did it live inside the explosion? Did the explosion create it? Was it the literal devil? (it did look like it might have been the creature in the glass box that killed the couple in the premiere? Or not!) There’s a lot to unpack here, and this being Lynch, we’re never going to get every single thing explained, so we have to project out own answer onto a lot of it. But in essence, it feels safe to say this episode showed Bob’s origin, and it was a fascinating mind trip.
Just seeing the text “1945” on screen was thrilling and jolting. And yes, as is becoming increasingly typical for Twin Peaks 2017, the nuclear test sequence went on uncomfortably long – but it was beautiful to behold, and backed by more of the amazing sound design this show has become known for.
It’s also worth nothing that after watching Nine Inch Nails (!) perform nearly a full song, a nuclear explosion lasting several minutes, and an utterly bizarre fantastical island scene with the Giant and his pal, we then got a really terrific 1950s horror movie sequence. As much as the dirty-faced dude asking for a light was another confusing aspect of the story (though I have some theories on that below), what actually happened for much of the 1956 sequence was, in many ways, the easiest part of this episode to follow, showing that Lynch is fully capable of telling a more traditional series of events when he wants to. The scene where that dirty-faced dude killed the DJ and the record skipped, startling all those listening, was terrific – as was him then mesmerizing everyone listening, as that massive bug crawled into that window and into that poor girl's mouth!
I haven’t even mentioned the opening, where Roy shot and “killed” evil Cooper, only for a bunch of those dirty dudes to show up and “save” him through a very bloody process – one that revealed Bob to Roy, in one of several scenes that effectively included Bob’s face, despite Frank Silva having passed away years ago.
Going back to Nine Inch Nails, that may have thrown me more than anything else in this episode! Yes, the other performers we’ve seen at the Roadhouse are real life bands/singers, but Nine Inch Nails is a famous real life band. I think it stands out so much because Twin Peaks so rarely has any sort of pop culture references – no one is quoting Star Wars or saying they want to go see the new Batman movie, or mentioning Tom Cruise. So to have an actual big name band appear felt jarring. Not “giant bug crawls into the mouth of a teenage girl” jarring, but still… jarring!
Much to ponder…
-Was that girl the bug-who-is-probably-Bob crawled inside someone we knew?
-If she’s not, was the boy who walked her home Leland, and will this lead to Bob possessing him? (the credits pointedly only listed them as “Boy” and “Girl.”)
-Given how much the original run of Twin Peaks evoked 1950s imagery, particularly with the high school kids (complete with leather jackets and saddle shoes), it was fun to see a sequence that actually included 1950s high school kids on the show.
-“Wanna light” guy is actually listed in the credits as “Woodsman” (played by Robert Broski). In Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Jürgen Prochnow played “Woodsman,” while David Brisbin was “Second Woodsman” - members of the Black Lodge group “above a convenience store” who Philip Jeffries got a look at. This episode included a convenience store in the 1945 nuclear bomb sequence that looked to be the staging area for all of these creepy, dirty dudes. So it seems the Woodsmen are the henchmen of sorts of the Black Lodge? (Look, I’m making as many educated guesses as I can!)
-Laura Palmer is, basically, the Chosen One it seems! She was created to stop Bob. And perhaps Bob knew the threat she would eventually pose, which is why he took over Leland, sought to take over Laura and eventually killed her. But Cooper was told in the premiere to find Laura. It seems like perhaps the end game here is for Cooper to find Laura and for her to put an end to Bob, once and for all.
-When Twin Peaks began in 1990, think anyone could ever fathom the answer to “Who killed Laura Palmer?” would include the events we saw in this episode?
The Verdict
I’ve never felt grading a TV episode was as useless as this week’s Twin Peaks. Much of this installment played like an avant-garde, experimental film filled with beautiful, baffling, vexing and poignant imagery and sound. I’m sure I could find people who’d give it a 10 and those who give it a 0. I’m not quite
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