Showtime’s Twin Peaks
Season 3: “The Return, Part 5”
Directed by David Lynch
Written by Lynch & Mark Frost

* For a recap & review of Part 4, click here.
* For a recap & review of Part 6, click here.
In Las Vegas, we start on two men waiting late outside a place, as a woman named Lorraine (Tammie Baird) talking to them on a phone seems worried sick. Afterwards, she makes another call, though at the other end is only an ominous black phone or tablet-like object blinking.
Concerning the murder scene we saw recently, inside the body itself was found a ring, inscribed to Dougie Jones, from his wife, Janey-E (Naomi Watts). Hmm.
And back at the prison, bad Coop (Kyle MacLachlan remembers the Black Lodge, thinking back to when he – Bob – first entered the vessel: “You‘re still with me, that‘s good,” he says in the mirror (remember: “Chrome reflects our image,” from Fire Walk With Me). Note: Amazing work on the composite shot of MacLachlan’s face [upper half] joining the face of Bob (Frank Silva; RIP) [lower half] in a grin we’ve seen time and time again during the original series.
In an office building, Steve Burnett (Caleb Landry Jones) is chastised for a terrible resume and sent packing from a hopeful interview. Whom exactly is he?
Over in Twin Peaks at the sheriff’s station, Sheriff Frank Truman (Robert Forster) gets a visit from his wife Doris (Candy Clark), interrupting a call with his brother Harry. She’s not happy, everything at home is fucked up. He tries reassuring her everything’s fine, but it’s clear they don’t communicate so well.
Meanwhile, regular ole ‘good’ Dale Cooper (MacLachlan) is still kicking about the Jones residence, his wife trying to make sense of his “weird as shit” attitude. She’s hidden the nearly $450K he won at the casino, now she offers to drive him to work. With all the people swirling around the REAL Dougie, it’s only a matter of time before Coop winds up in a load of trouble. There are a lot of eyes on Dougie.
I wonder what exactly will pull Coop back to reality, so that he remembers himself. Or perhaps Gordon (Lynch) and Albert (Miguel Ferrer) will track him down soon enough. For now, Coop unwillingly masquerades as Dougie, puttering around the Lucky 7 Insurance offices. What gets him moving? You bet it: coffee. He sucks it back in the elevator like life sustaining nectar. The funniest thing to me about all this is that people, while feeling it’s odd, don’t exactly treat Dougie differently, they sort of play along with it and the guy delivering coffee pulls him into the board meeting; sort of Lynch and Frost’s commentary on the monotony of office work, no matter how high profile.
At the meeting, Coop’s Dougie blurts out that his friend Tony (Tom Sizemore) is a “liar” and everyone is a bit thrown off. Still, they lead Dougie around like a child and he stares with wide-eyed wonder wherever he goes. Then, like a child, the confused Coop picks up a new word: agent. Soon he learns more: case files. His journey back to Agent Dale Cooper is on its way, slow but sure.
Note: Lynch can make anything surreal, the beginning of the meeting with the coffee and the green tea latte is a perfect example. Hilariously absurd, the way Tony and the other man share a glance. Of course the whole Dougie angle is absurd, in the best ways. Especially when he’s holding his piss, nearly dying from the pressure, and once more people cater to him like an infant.
At the casino where Coop won his jackpots, Supervisor Burns (Brett Gelman) is beaten severely for letting all that money slip away, by Rodney Mitchum (Robert Knepper) while Bradley Mitchum (Jim Belushi) warns him to leave town. They’re the, uh… controlling interests, in the business. I’m sure they’ll cross paths with Coop’s Dougie at some point. Time being, the pit boss Warrick (David Dastmalchian) is put in charge.
In the house with the junkie mom, across from where Dougie left his car, the little boy heads outside to look at it. Underneath blinks the little tracking device, which the boy tries removing. Before a black car blasting music pulls up, men hop into the car, and the thing explodes when they try boosting it. Whoa.
Perhaps a clue for the outside world: Coop’s old Great Northern key is found in the working girl’s vehicle as it’s being cleaned. She pops it in the mail.
In Twin Peaks, Norma Jennings (Peggy Lipton) keeps an eye on the diner as usual, as Shelly Johnson (Madchen Amick) works away. She sees Shelly give Becky Burnett (Amanda Seyfried) money, obviously not for anything good. Norma’s worried about the new girl. She’s married to Steve, that hopeless young man from the job interview, and they’re both into coke.
OH, no. I feel like there’s a parallel between Becky and Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) already. The old-timey, romantic music, the cocaine, even her smile is similar to Laura’s with that big, sweet, toothy grin. Uh oh.
At the station and into the night, Deputy Chief Hawk (Michael Horse) and Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz) keep going through all the evidence, the old papers, et cetera. They’re searching for the clues directed by the other clues of the Log Lady. But “no Indians,” as Andy so eloquently points out.
Out in the woods, Dr. Lawrence Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn) powers up his own little radio show. He rambles about globalist conspiracy, his “cosmic flashlight” – and a bunch of other things. At least he’s passionate. A few of his listeners include perpetual hippy Jerry Horne (David Patrick Kelly) and Nadine Hurley (Wendy Robie). Jacoby uses one of those gold-plated shovels as a bell, he rings it with a hammer like tolling it for his listeners. He’s truly mental, The gold-plated shovels are a way to “dig yourself out of the shit” towards the truth: only $29.99. I mean, the absurdity is off the charts, and I love it. He’s not even mental, he’s an opportunist.
Colonel Davis (Ernie Hudson) receives information about Major Garland Briggs in Buckhorn. Stuff keeps popping up over the years about the old fella, they haven’t actually found his body yet. Well, the army hasn’t; somebody certainly has at the morgue.
At the Bang Bang Bar another excellent band plays – they’re called Trouble and the song is “Snake Eyes” – people mingle, dance together. A young man named Richard Horne (Eamon Farren) is asked to stop smoking, then proves he’s definitely one of the rich Hornes by offering up a bribe to keep his cigarette lit. Could it be the son of Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn)? Either way, he’s a creepy dude. When a girl asks him for a light he assaults her a bit, grabbing her by the throat. Shit, he is scary.
Back at the FBI, Agent Tamara Preston (Chrysta Bell) compares photos of Coop with his doppelganger, she looks at the fingerprints, examining everything carefully looking for answers. A true mystery.
In jail, bad Coop gets his phone call. The one Gordon is hoping will give them something with which they can work. The doppelganger knows they’re listening in. So he says: “Who should I call? Should I call Mr. Strawberry? No, I don‘t think I‘ll call Mr. Strawberry. I don‘t think he‘s taking calls. I know, I know who to call.” He dials madly over the numbers, making no sense. Followed by all the systems going haywire, lights flashing and alarms going off.
And into the receiver bad Coop finishes with “the cow jumped over the moon.” Everything stops immediately once he hangs up. Will the dish now run away with the spoon?
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, where that phone – or whatever it is – blinked in the beginning. It blinks more, before shrinking into a tiny morsel, like a little crumpled stone or piece of metal, in a wooden bowl where it sits. Remember, Phillip Jeffries (David Bowie) disappeared from Buenos Aires back in Fire Walk With Me/Missing Pieces. Keep that in mind.
All the while Coop’s Dougie lingers outside the Lucky 7 offices, unsure of how to keep going about his day. He’ll find his way again, somehow.
What a great episode. So weird, so funny, and more intrigue; particularly in the Jeffries-related area, part of the plot I’m very interested in since long ago first having seen Fire Walk With Me. Part 6 will surely give us more, and I can’t fucking wait!