One of my favorite aspects
of David Lynch’s return to the director’s chair alongside co-creator Mark Frost’s
return to penning the episodes with Lynch is that it is wholly unpredictable
and you can never let your guard down.
Unlike the original series which formed a consistent narrative
structure, a familiar tone counterbalancing surreal comedy and horror, anything
absurd, horrific or both in equal measure can happen without warning at any
moment. Further still, you think you
know the characters’ trajectories and where they may head yet we continue as
viewers to have the rug pulled out from under us.
Nowhere is that truer than
the twelfth episode of Twin Peaks: The
Return, which includes everything from advancing the plot forward, comical
asides, Lynch’s newfound obsession with elongated awkward silences, new answers
to decades old mysteries (I think), and a reintroduction to a beloved character
that is every bit as bizarre and curious as the much divisive Wally Brando
scene from the fourth episode. While I
won’t reveal here who makes their grand entrance back into the world of Twin Peaks, I can say even after reading
up on other interpretations and reactions that I’m unable to make heads or
tails of this one. Of the moments in an
episode already chock full of amusing or bizarre abstractions, this is the one
that wouldn’t leave me alone after the episode finished.
What is familiar, however,
is Lynch’s casting of Grace Zabriskie in roles that always continue to stun in
their unparalleled ability to terrify.
From her psychosexually charged murderess Juana Durango in Wild at Heart to the elderly neighbor
with a disturbing prophetic vision in Inland
Empire, Lynch and Zabriskie know precisely how to make viewers’ blood run
cold and her return as Sarah Palmer is no exception. While functioning in the episode as a loose
recurring commentary on the world changing with the youth taking over the small
town of Twin Peaks, as any longtime
Lynch fan will tell you, Zabriskie was, is and always will be playing the
scariest female characters in his oeuvre.
Some fans will be a tad
annoyed with Lynch’s ongoing indulgence in awkward silences, particularly
involving a French woman Gordon Cole is attempting to woo, channeling the same
peculiar long take of Cole standing in a stairwell with Tammy and Diane in
episode nine. Others will also have as
many mixed feelings as I did seeing one of the show’s most beloved characters
make their return on such a strange if not seemingly inessential aside. Still, even as the plot creeps forward in
some areas while deliberately standing still in others, watching Twin Peaks: The Return I’m well aware
that what might seem inconsequential now could and likely will have great
significance later.
Even as my own notions of
what I thought I knew about David Lynch and the world of Twin Peaks continue to be subverted in episode after episode, the
journey its creators are taking me down continue to excite, enthrall and
surprise. Where most auteurs at this age
have admitted to running out of steam or simply repeat themselves, Lynch’s
longform movie as television event continues to show America’s most renowned
cinematic surrealist has never been more imaginative or innovative.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki