This recap/review of Twin Peaks is written with the expectation that everyone who reads this and comments below will have seen the episode already. Thus, if you've yet to see the episode in question, DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER. SPOILERS!
PLOT: Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) tries to escape the purgatory of the Black Lodge, while his old FBI colleagues, Gordon Cole (David Lynch) and Albert (Miguel Ferrer) try to figure out why he’s been off the grid so long.
REVIEW: Given that Showtime released the first four episodes online last week, after only airing the first two in the proper time-slot, I was curious as to why that decision had been made. Was it that, with the first two playing at Cannes, Lynch wanted to keep the critical conversation limited? But then, why release the other two at all before allowing them to air?
Episode three is as hard to discern as the last two, with a full half of the episode devoted to Cooper trying to find his way out of the purgatory like state he was sucked into last week, complete with a woman with no eyes telling him not to to open “door 3”, which, maybe, had the same beast on the other side of it that killed the two glass box-watchers last week. Once that’s done with and Cooper finds himself in the real world, almost a blank slate without any memory of his life and seemingly occupying the place of a doughier shell named Dougie (who was only ever a placeholder for the real Cooper it seems), it gets a bit easier to consume.
Watching the blank, Cooper/Dougie, take on the Vegas slots (knowing exactly what machines to use to win) it becomes more fun, and throughout the rest of this episode and the next, MacLachlan is a surprisingly adept comedian, playing this hybrid as a kind-of Starman-like figure, with Naomi Watts as Dougie’s wife along for the ride (and clearly relishing working once again for her MULLHOLAND DRIVE director).
Truth be told, this episode is Lynch at his most confounding, with long, deliberately tedious segments, like Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn) spray-painting shovels in real time. That’s what makes episode four such a surprise, as it’s honestly the first one, so far, that feels like real, old-school “Twin Peaks” . The weird is still there, but we finally get back into the character stuff, and it’s a shockingly enjoyable episode – not that Lynch is incapable of delivering that, I just thought he had no interest.
There’s no much to relish here for fans, with us meeting Robert Forster as Truman’s brother – the new sheriff of Twin Peaks. His introduction, where we learn Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) is terrified of cell phones (“how is this possible???”) is priceless, as is the revelation that Bobby (Dana Ashbroke) is now a George Clooney look-alike deputy on the straight-and-narrow (but still hung-up on Laura), and “Dougie” wearing a tie as a hat. But, the best thing – maybe one of the best “Twin Peaks” moments ever, is Michael Cera as Lucy and Andy’s son, Wally, who dresses, acts, and speaks like Marlon Brando in THE WILD ONE – and I mean exactly! God, I hope we see more of him, but this bit was so perfect, maybe more would ruin how sublime it was.
The episode also includes loads of FBI stuff, with David Duchovny’s fan-favorite Denise now the FBI bureau chief (with Richard Chamberlain as her assistant!) and the late Miguel Ferrer as the still angry Albert. Lynch looks like he’s going to be major this season as Cole, and it ends on a cool note. Just in case you didn’t get how bad a guy the Bob-possessed Coop is, he has a machine gun, a brick of coke, and a dog’s leg (?) in his trunk. Overall, one episode was weird as f**k, but in a (mostly) good way, while the other was perfection. In my book, that’s a damn good week of “Twin Peaks” and I can’t wait for the next two.