I've never watched a television show before that has used silence with such bravery. At times the silence seems too long and intense to be comfortable. The viewer is expected to work hard and the series is very much a series of experimental Lynch films around the subject of Twin Peaks.
Five episodes into the third season and it is starting to feel more densely packed with mystery than ever. Dale Cooper has been released from the Black Lodge, but into the body of a golem, perhaps designed to trap his spirit. The man appears to be sleepwalking through his new life. Perhaps he has been a prisoner for so long, he has forgotten how to be human? It’s both sad and comical watching him be pushed through the world be the people around him, too self-involved maybe, to realise he needs help. He is starting to latch onto some words – first “call for help” then later “agent” and “case files” as we watch eagerly for the right word to unlock the Dale Cooper we remember.
The Shadow Cooper has been arrested and FBI Agent Tamara Preston, together with the familiar characters Gordon Cole and Albert Rosenfield are trying to understand who this powerful man might be and if it is Dale Cooper how he changed so dramatically in the past 25 years. If they meet the real Dale Cooper, shoe-horned into the world as Dougie, they might be even more confused by the change. Tamara Preston, by the way, is the agent responsible for analysing the dossier found by the FBI and included in Mark Frost’s The Secret History of Twin Peaks. Perhaps she will become the next Dale Cooper if he cannot be rescued from his golem husk. Agent Preston is seen comparing fingerprints in episode 5. There is definitely something here that’s confusing her. My guess would be that the prints are reversed or mirrored, showing that this isn’t exactly Agent Cooper they are holding, but at the same time it has something of Coop about it.
Other mysteries still to be revealed include the strange glass box in which Dale Cooper temporarily materialised and the alien-looking monster broke out of and violently killed two people in New York. This was one of a number of graphically horrifying scenes, placing the new series firmly in the horror genre.
The enigmatic Log Lady passes on a message to Deputy Hawk that something is missing in the case of Dale Cooper and he is destined to find it through his heritage. The sheriff’s office hasn’t changed much in 25 years, although the older Truman brother is back as sheriff. We have been told Harry Truman is ill, and Bobby Briggs is now an officer. Lucy and Andy are as childlike as ever, which does feel rather annoying at times. Lucy faints when people use mobile phones, unable to grasp the idea of walking and talking at the same time. Their strange son, Wally Brando, is a pastiche of 60’s Hollywood bad boys and more ridiculous than his parents. Wally could be a comic nod to the original James Hurley.
It's lovely to see Norma and Shelley still together at the RR diner. We also spot James Hurley at the Bang Bang club along with a new generation of Twin Peak’s youth. One of that new generation, Becky Burnett, is played by the exceptionally beautiful Amanda Seyfried. Will she be the siphon for a new Laura Palmer style tragedy? It seems possible.
With Agent Cooper’s hotel key mailed back to The Great Northern in episode five, no doubt we will see these story lines converge in the coming episodes.
I was thrilled to hear that Twin Peaks would return. I won’t give up on it until the last episode, but it is more akin to Erasorhead or Mullholland Drive than the quirky TV show of the nineties. I am still hoping to see how well Audrey Horne has aged. She and the actress Sherilyn Fenn was a huge crush of mine in my youth.
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