Part 10
Written by Mark Frost & David Lynch
Directed by David Lynch
I wouldn’t say this episode does much to further the mysteries of the series so far. Like last week’s episode, this is tying together the plots and weaving it all together.
We start with Richard Horne paying a visit to Miriam, the school teacher who witnessed his hit-and-run. She stays inside her trailer home telling Richard she’s already told the police and has sent a letter to Sheriff Truman detailing her account of the event. Richard barges into her home and beats her mercilessly off camera. He leaves the trailer with the gas oven running and a candle lit. A quick call is made to Deputy Chad, who is working with Richard on the drug trade, and he’s told to intercept the mail at the Department.
Carl Rodd strums on the guitar on the steps of his office at the Fat Trout Trailer Park, singing Red River Valley. A red mug busts through the window of one of the trailers, followed by the angry shouts of Stephen. He is throwing a fit, likely due to drug withdrawal, and focusing his anger on his bride Becky. He claims to know what she did, but this could simply be a delusion.
Rodney Mitchum is looking over casino logs. Candy, one of the three ladies that accompanies he and his brother chases after a housefly and ends up cracking Rodney over the head with the television remote.
Cooper is at the doctor with Janey. This is the first time anyone seems to notice the weight loss and physical improvement between Cooper and Dougie Jones. Janey also sees the musculature of Cooper which has her getting ideas.
It’s nighttime, and Candy is still broken up over Rodney’s injury. He consoles her. A news report comes on about the arrest of Ike the Spike whom they know. They also learn the name of the man who cleaned out their slots, Douglas Jones.
At the Jones home, Janey has some romantic ideas while Cooper absent-mindedly eats some of Sonny Jim’s leftover birthday cake. Janey finally gets Cooper into bed, and their union results in a level of noise that rouses Sonny Jim from his sleep in shocked dismay. We see another moment of change and recognition in Cooper’s face as he lays there holding Janey.
Lawrence Jacoby continues his populist rants via the internet. Nadine watches with admiration from her new store, Run Silent Run Drapes. One of Jacoby’s golden shovels hangs in the storefront window.
Janey tells Cooper how much the previous night meant to her. She takes Cooper to work and Sonny Jim off to school.
Jerry Horne remains lost in the woods. I think this has been two days now? My prediction is that he is going to run into Truman, Hawk, and Bobby and be witness to the event that occurs when the planets align the Lodge door opens. I have also thought back to his encounter with his foot last week, remembering the voice sounding a hell of a lot like The Arm. Could The Foot be The Arm’s doppelganger?
Deputy Chad feigns being nice for once in front of Lucy, talking about what a beautiful day it is outside. He exits to grab the mail from the mailman. Lucy is obviously not buying this and rolls her chair closer to the window to watch. Chad finds the letter from Miriam about Richard and tucks it in his shirt. Chad texts Richard that the job has been done. Lucy tells a strange story about she and Andy waking up and thinking their clocks had stopped, not knowing what time it was. The story is at surface level humor about the absent-mindedness of this couple. However, there is something being spoken about the nature of time in this mini-series. Remember The One Armed Man’s question, “Is this future or is this past?” and the line from the poem “Through the darkness of futures past.” At the end of this breakdown, I’m going to talk about some hints that time itself has been warped by the presence of the Doppelganger and the Lodge Spirits in our world.
Johnny Horne is bound and restrained in a chair at the kitchen table, seated in front of a teddy bear whose head has been replaced with a clear plastic ball. A small light bulb flashes inside as it repeats the phrase “Hello Johnny. How are you today?”. This is apparently some sort of David Lynch-ian therapy tool for the mentally disabled. His mother, Sylvia Horne is alerted by the guard of her gated community that her grandson, Richard is coming towards the house. Richard barges in and proceeds to choke his grandmother until she reveals the combination to her safe. Johnny falls over in his chair struggling to help her but unable. Richard makes mention that Sylvia has always wanted him to leave town. He takes the jewelry and all cash in the house and barges out.
This simultaneously horrific and absurd scene reveals some answers. We finally know the Richard connection to the Hornes, he is the grandson of Ben and Sylvia. I don’t believe Johnny had children because we see him still at home and needing 24/7 care. This means Richard is the son of Audrey Horne. This is something a lot of fans have been dreading for her character because it implies some truly dark truths. Looking at the post Season 2 finale timeline, the Doppelganger only remained in Twin Peaks for a couple days. In Part 7 Doc Heyward recalls seeing Doop emerge from the ICU at the hospital. He makes a brief mention that Audrey Horne was in a coma following the explosion at the bank. This means that Doop raped and impregnated Audrey while she was unconscious. This is a truly horrific act and casts no doubts that Doop is pure evil on Earth. I can’t say whether Richard is as evil as he is because his mother has likely shunned him or because of the otherworldly nature of his father. I do believe there is a confrontation coming between Cooper and his “son” Richard that is going to be a key piece of this story.
Back in Vegas, we see Mr. Todd has Tony Sinclair in his office. Todd tells him to convince the Mitchum brothers that Dougie Jones was responsible for their loss of $30 million after a hotel/casino fire the previous year. Or Tony has to kill Dougie himself.
At the hotel in Buckhorn, Albert and Constance, the forensics person have dinner. Gordon and Preston watch smiling seeing such a perfect match made.
Back at the Silver Mustang Casino, the Mitchum brothers watch from the surveillance room and notice Tony Sinclair is there. They send Candy to retrieve him, and Tony sells his false story about Dougie Jones ruining their insurance scam. Back at their bungalow, the Mitchums resolve to have Jones killed.
Gordon Cole is back at his hotel room using a sharpie to draw a picture of a deer like creature and an arm from off screen extending to grab it.
A knock at his door rouses him but when it opens it an image of young Laura Palmer in tears appears before him. He hears Sarah Palmer’s voice, distorted, cries out for her daughter. The image fades, and Albert is revealed as the one who knocked, looking confused at Gordon’s distant gaze. We learn that the FBI is tapping Diane’s phone and we learn she is league with Doop somehow. She replied to his text. “They have Hastings. He’s going to take them to the site.” Gordon says he felt there was something off about Diane. Preston shows up with an image from the New York penthouse box site, it shows Doop with a technician.
Gordon’s drawing recalls this moment from Season 2. See if you can notice what I’m talking about.
At The Great Northern, Ben handles a phone call from Sylvia telling him what Richard did. They are apparently divorced. When the call ends, he calls out to his secretary Beverley if she would like to get dinner with him. There is no reply, she has already gone home for the day.
The Log Lady calls Hawk again and delivers this message:
“Hawk, electricity is humming. You hear it in the mountains and rivers. You see it dance among the seas and stars and glowing around the moon. But in these days, the glow is dying. What will be in the darkness that remains? The truman brothers are both true men. They are your brothers. And the others, the good ones who have been with you. Now the circle is almost complete. Watch and listen to the dream of time and space. It all comes out now, flowing like a river, that which is and is not. Hawk, Laura is the one.”
This is not the first time she has said: “Laura is the one.” See the intro to the pilot episode when it aired on Bravo in the mid-1990s.
Rebekah del Rio plays us out with an original song by her and David Lynch, “No Stars.” Del Rio was the singer from Mulholland Drive whose appearance and song are the moment when that film began to reveal its secrets.
I’m not so sure The Return is taking place in the reality of Twin Peaks we know. This is due in part to certain strange errors in the Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost. Frost has been one of the most die hard continuity people about the series and was big on building the mythos even back in the original run. While Frost does add to the surrealism brought to the table by Lynch, he is very practical when it comes to the structure of television.
In The Secret History we run across these errors:
It’s said Pete Martell was known for playing checkers when a major plot hinges on his skill at playing chess.
Norma Jennings mother is named as Ilsa who died in 1984 after working at the Double R Diner. We know from the show she was alive and well, remarried and working as a food critic for a newspaper in Seattle.
There is a decent section of the text devoted to covering a 1968 high school football game between Twin Peaks and Kettle Falls. This same game was covered in the Access Guide to Twin Peaks that came out during the original run, an official supplement overseen by Mark Frost.
In the Access Guide Coach Bobo Hobson leads the Twin Peaks Steeplejacks to victory. Deputy Hawk was a receiver who scores the winning points in what is called a nail biter.
In the Secret History, the Twin Peaks Lumberjacks lose this same game. This time Hank Jennings had the ball and dropped it (it’s hinted he bet against the game and did this on purpose). The news article ends with Coach Bob Hobson lamenting about his team’s loss.
When asked about this really blatant errors Mark Frost has simply replied “Wait and see”. There is a good chance because the Lodge Spirits don’t adhere to our understanding of time, they have somehow influenced both past and future with their corruptions.
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