Six episodes into the new Twin Peaks: The Return revival on
Showtime, I can already call David Lynch’s return to the director’s chair to be
one that again not only show America’s singular surrealist giving his own
oeuvre something of an overview but looking far ahead into the future into an
ocean of possibilities and many, many surprises. I can also say this time around we’ve
received probably the heaviest and most emotionally taxing David Lynch effort
of any kind since the director’s recently reappraised Fire Walk with Me prequel as well as his Palme d’Or winning Wild at Heart. Not everyone will be prepared for some of the
jolts ahead in this new episode, but then again do you really need preparation
to dive into Lynch’s world with a fresh pair of eyes?
Picking up where the fifth
episode left off with Dougie with Johnny Jewel’s Windswept taking up far more of this episode’s soundtrack than I
initially expected, the mood and arena largely stays within the ending of the
previous episode before picking up a haunting thread involving the previous
episode’s most infamous character: Richard Horne (Eamon Farren). Having already rustled the jimmies of some of
the more sensitive fans with the Horne’s malevolent and chauvinistic
introduction, we’re only scratching the surface of this character as he proceeds
to display even uglier dark weathers than previously. This is also the first time the show ties
itself directly into Lynch’s Fire Walk
with Me, though the revelation where is a surprise best left discovered on
your own.
By now you’re aware Naomi
Watts is part of the world of Twin Peaks:
The Return and it’s in this episode where she really spreads her acting
wings. Granted her character as the
hapless wife of the catatonic Dougie already left plenty of room for Watts to
assert herself but it’s here that we realize just how formidable her character
can be. As with the prior episodes, the
show begins to leap from location to location with a still great degree of
mystery behind their significance to the central thread involving the small
town of Twin Peaks, though a brief
moment of locked eyes could spell doom for the show’s current greatest
antagonist.
The story indeed continues
and only now is beginning to reveal a rhythm, but there’s a brutal shock I won’t
reveal that is as random and devastating as Sailor and Lula’s encounter with a
half-alive car accident victim in Wild at
Heart. It not only has the power to
catch you off guard but Lynch weighs in heavily on the emotional consequences
and they’re every bit as hard to take as any of the worst moments in Lynch’s
oeuvre. It’s also shot beautifully and
while tying into Fire Walk with Me it’s
a moment that viewers will remember the most vividly.
As always, Lynch’s command
of the medium and ability to shift in and out of reality or dream, comedy or
drama, beauty or horror is still amazing to watch if not get lost in. Even as we’re in one moment giggling
uncontrollably and welling tears up in our eyes the next, watching Lynch’s new Twin Peaks: The Return is so far this
year one of the wildest and truly exhilarating viewing experiences you’re
likely to have this year whether it’s on the big screen or not. Six episodes in, it’s fair to say this Lynch
die-hard is completely hooked and cannot wait to see which dark and dangerous
rabbit holes the show will disappear down next!
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki