Showtime’s Twin Peaks
Season 3: “The Return, Part 4”
Directed by David Lynch
Written by Lynch & Mark Frost

* For a recap & review of Part 3, click here.
* For a recap & review of Part 5, click here.
In Las Vegas we find Coop (Kyle MacLachlan) winning jackpots all over the casino, fresh off his transition back into the real world since spending all those years in the Black Lodge. He sees that strange little vision of the lodge’s curtains and patterned floor all over the place, each one indicating a jackpot. Like a second sight.
Then a man named Bill Shaker (Ethan Suplee) and his wife Candy (Sara Paxton) think they’ve spotted Dougie Jones, chatting him up. Poor Dougie just wants to go home. Such a comically absurd scene, so perfect.

“Thank you, Mr. Jackpots.”

The casino’s manager (Brett Gelman) and his pit boss Warrack (David Dastmalchian) wonder why Coop’s headed off without all his winnings. All he can say, again, is “call for help.” They get him a limo home, but not actual home – Dougie’s place. His wife Janey-E (Naomi Watts) is waiting, worried sick; he’s been gone three days. Now he’s back, much quieter, and with a ton of cash. Seems that the Jones’ have been worried about paying somebody back. This can solve all their troubles.
FBI Director Gordon Cole (David Lynch) is meeting with Bill Kennedy (Richard Chamberlain) and Denise Bryson (David Duchovny), who’s obviously in a much higher position than last we left her – Chief of Staff at the bureau. Seems that Cole is taking an agent named Tamara Preston (Chrysta Bell) with him on his latest excursion to find Coop. Absolutely love this exchange between these two. It’s funny, kind of heartwarming at moments.
Back in Twin Peaks, Lucy Brennan (Kimmy Robertson) is worrying over the thermostat. Sheriff Frank Truman (Robert Forster) arrives and scares the life out of her; she’s got trouble with understanding cellphones, apparently. And there are various other little things going on while the boss was away fishing. Not only that, Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) is now on the side of the law.
Deputy Chief Hawk (Michael Horse) fills Truman in on everything that’s happening, what the Log Lady (Catherine E. Coulson) prophesied. One of the newer men at the station doesn’t particularly dig how things are done in their town. Not used to all the mysticism the locals understand as important and very real. Afterwards, Bobby winds up seeing the picture of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in all the evidence and has a minor breakdown. When he calms down he mentions Coop was the last person to see his father Major Garland Briggs before he died in a fire.
At the station arrives Wally Brando (Michael Cera) – son of Andy and Lucy – wishing to “pay respects” to the sheriff, about his brother Harry’s recovery. A weird kid, though no surprise there with those two with his parents. He dresses like Brando in The Wild One. He’s a traveller, too: “I think about Lewis and his friend Clark…” – I mean, he fits right in. Frank Truman is much like his brother, in that he’s a normal fish in a pond with a whole lot of strange fish.
Coop’s still stuck as Dougie, for now. He remembers bits of the Black Lodge, where the One Armed Man, Phillip Gerard (Al Strobel) searches for him. He sees that other world just barely below the real one, superimposed below everything he sees. “Now one of you must die,” Gerard explains. Pretty tall orders for a guy who can’t even properly take a piss yet.
It’s as if coming back into the world Coop is once more like a child. Then he looks into the mirror, touching his reflection. There is no other face but his own; the chrome does not reflect any other image, like in the finale of Season 2 where Bob existed in the bad Coop behind his face. He can’t take a leak, he can’t wear a tie, he can barely eat on his own. When a coffee’s placed in front of him a familiar light brightens in his eyes, then he almost scalds himself to death. Too funny.
Gordon, along with Agents Preston and Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer), arrive from the airport and head towards their destination. Their banter is so perfect, and I think even after 25 years the hearing problems of Director Cole are still as funny as ever, maybe even better with Albert’s intolerance after decades of the same shit. They’re looking into what was found in the car, where bad Coop crashed. And then they get to have a chat.
They ask Coop where he’s been, it’s clear there’s something not right. He tells Gordon he’s been working with Phillip Jeffries. He continues repeating himself. His voice is low and unsettling unlike before. Gordon especially sees that this is not the same man who’s been his close friend all these years. Not a bit.
When they’ve left Gordon also questions Albert, about his reaction to their mutual friend. Albert says he authorised Jeffries to give over information to Coop years ago; he told him about a contact in Colombia, who wound up murdered the day after. So, was it the doppelganger of Jeffries? Were he and the bad Coop working in unison? Seems the two older FBI men are now concerned there are dark things at play. They’re just as much confused as they are sure of something sinister coming.
Then they come to the decision there’s a woman who needs in on the Coop situation, a fresh perspective. Could it be Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn)? Could it be Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie)? We’ll see.

“Blue Rose”
“It doesn‘t get any bluer“

Another beautiful, dark, mysterious episode. So much going on, and so much to look forward to over the next 14 parts of this new Twin Peaks.