The fans who never wanted to see Diane are slightly pacified in that Laura Dern is indeed playing the character. We’re mostly optimistic because we know the history of Dern and Lynch’s working relationship, otherwise I suspect much less of us would be optimistic for this future now that we have it.
A lot of people are starting to mention connections between The Return and the Autobiography of Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes and I feel this is Lynch and Frost pulling another “James has always been Cool” moment.
And so you know, I have a large amount of family-related events this weekend so I was unable to finish the most recent Mr Podcast, or listen at all to The Vlog Lady, Formica Table’s second episode of the week, the most recent Lodgers, and the Brad Dukes Show. Sorry, folks, I’ll get these in next week’s column.
Lodgers covered Part Five with last week’s episode. The hosts note that three of every four scenes branch out in a new direction rather than what we know, and they are confident we won’t get a driving finality you’d expect from a last hurrah. They connect Dougie’s name to the Douglas Firs, and recognize a pattern in their viewing: things they threw crap at in Part Four are now seen as okay now that another episode built upon it. They notice and appreciate Frost’s hand in these Parts, and also recognize how Lynch’s inventiveness created so many shots that were unlike anything that had come before and also something he would never go back to again. They also mention how surveillance is everywhere in Twin Peaks yet in the prison phone call scene DoppelCooper above it, outside of it, and in complete control of it.
Mr. Podcast With Claude and Justin covered Part Five (and threw in a nice shout-out for this site, thanks much gentlemen!) and went into the idea of implanted beings like Dougie, assuming (as I’ve come to assume) that Annie was a part of this. The hosts believe that MIKE and BOB shared the same body once, and they figure CooperDougie could be a thing until Part Nine. Claude found a good homonym in shoes having soles/souls in relation to Cooper’s missing shoes.They wonder if the Great Northern room key had a doppelganger key, and had a great riff in Lynch-voice: “Mark, I’ve got a great idea for Season Three: Everything’s a mystery. Because dreams..”
Wrapped In Podcast covered Parts Five and Six in two separate podcasts. The hosts think it felt like a lot less happened than we THINK it did. One of the hosts thought it was Kyle MacLachlan’s physical acting that created that Bob face morphing. Misogyny is majorly afoot in this Twin Peaks but then the hosts note the investigator women Tammy and Constance set things in motion. Jade drops the key in mail. No competent males make a meaningful discovery in Part Five though also women drive the male investigations in progress so the verdict is: it’s complicated. Jerry Horne is their guess at father of Richard, and their runner up is Ben. And they think baseball player Daryl Strawberry might actually BE important to that jail scene. Their Part Six coverage deeply depressed the guys, who said this was the best episode since Part Three. Cooper’s hand in his sleeve could be him trying to make a gun, Pursued By Bear sounds like a great wine, and the hosts connect Red’s threat of violence to what the glass box monster did to Tracy and Sam. The hosts appreciated the closer balance of humor but the grimdark was still alive and well. Though by the end they expect Cooper will be able to confront the Evil with his newfound innocence.
Deer Meadow Radio is going to AwesomeCon per Mark’s news at the front, and he’s officially a reader…he mentioned my column is a kamikaze mission. I say: accepted! This episode’s main focus is covering Part Two. The host thinks the Return is an epilogue to Fire Walk With Me (as Laura’s story does complete within that movie). He’s also developing his theory that Windom Earle is the anonymous billionaire (I am FOND of this one), especially as we know Earle loves his coordinates And the phrase “let the games begin” shows up. If Mark is wrong about this one, he says “better theories than mine have gone down in flames.” I love his sense of humor.
Tbe hosts of Fish In The Percolator come in covering Part Five quick and irreverently, and then drop in a theory like this: since he was taken in Season Two, we’ve only seen Major Briggs’ doppelgänger since. They also want to tell Lynch it’s been years since the mob owned Las Vegas. But the main point is this: the hosts are all in this week and excited for more.
Logs, Coffee & Bob covered Part Six this week. He’s wrong that Richard Horne is Becky’s Steven but not true. Otherwise this is pretty great. The host even catches the chutes and ladders comparison before anyone else. I’m a fan of the style of this show and its 15-minute summary format. WORTH a listen.
The hosts of AfterBuzz’s Twin Peaks After Show don’t think Dougie Jones’ family is made of real people, think Red is possibly the Tremond grandson all grown up, and think the hit and run scene was intentionally filmed tragicomically. They hit all the main points and do a good job bringing original thoughts through their network’s typical style. I’ve come to expect good things from this show.
Formica Table covered Parts Five and Six this week but I only was able to cover Part Five (Six’ll be in next week’s column, fellas). They think the mirror scene might’ve been too hand-holdy but everything else was pretty effective. They note how Leland was operating 90 percent of the time, and they’re curious how this new dynamic works. They compare Doris Truman to Nadine Hurley, and think the first new Badalamenti music has appeared in the drum swishes as Cooper finds coffee at Dougie’s work. They think this is the first episode that has balance between light and dark tones. They also wonder if DoppelCooper’s skipping down the phone line while people see a manipulated image of him still in that prison room. And perhaps he goes to that device that alchemically transforms into the small chunk of metal.
Damn Fine Podcast covered Part Six and the hosts point out Lynch knows how to play with our tensions. Diane thing is an answer but literally stops there and only half answers things. Hawk answer. But otherwise lined up questions are ready to go while Lynch and Frost bet hard on Dougie to torture us while waiting for our Cooper. They wonder if Dougie’s life is in Vegas or is it all just a bigger waiting room.
The Gifted and the Damned hosts do their usual news and audience reviews segments then cover Part Six. They wonder if we’ve heard about the same Richard and Linda’s the Giant wanted Cooper to know as clues or if there are still more to come. They wonder if there’s a connection between Lucky 7 Insurance and the 7-shaped Z’s on the coffee cups in New York. They say the Ike murders were greusome for sure, but they didn’t hit us as hard because there were (to us) strangers involved. Also, they promised a listener feedback show on the week of July 4th.
Twin Peaks Rewatch begins their Part Six coverage by saying they feel more like they’re in the middle of a TV season now. They note The Return is the first time Frost is writing about Fire Walk With Me and Lynch came back to conspiracy theory stuff after a long time, and felt the first five Parts strongly marched the plot forward while Part Six was mostly about character events (and about slow human beings allowed to be slow). They acknowledge Richard Horne, discuss Cooper’s returning intuition, the straightforward Janey-E scene in the park, love that Lorraine has her own music theme. Despite the Tremond-style magic trick they think Red is the new Hank, and they note how the loss of life is scaled to Season Two levels rather than Season One when there was literally only one death in the whole show.
EW’s A Twin Peaks Podcast had a sense of interesting stasis with their Part Six coverage: mood was huge and plot was light. They pick up on the cowboy statue having regular businessman shoes rather than boots, that Janey-E mothers Dougie, and that the kid dies at the same intersection as Mike’s confrontation with Laura and Leland in their car.
Who Killed Laura Podcast covered Part Six and the hosts figured out Janey-E really does love Dougie, noticed Mike’s reaching in the lodge was his attempt at finding the curtains, and discuss if the coin trick is the drugs or if something was genuinely happening. They recognize the diner as an example of compassion and helping people, and call out Lynch’s underworld as having a common language of codes and symbols. The hosts want to know what the forces are helping Coop, is Earle the billionaire, and what ABOUT Annie.
Fire Talk With Me covered Part Six with guest Russ Fischer. They noted how Lynch cops always have a world weariness about them, how Carl’s scene in the park is SO touching before it goes to hell, call out a red square followed by a black circle as potential patterns to watch for, before ending with the horror of this episode and how it’s done.
The Eagle Scouts over at Bickering Peaks covered Part Six and noticed immediately how FINALLY Cooper is being treated like a dementia patient by someone (the local cop, and later that Janey-E has him scheduled to see a doctor). They note Janey-E’s lack of surprise when she has to take over even about Dougie’s bookies, the blast of color that is literally Diane, call out the Fire Walk With Me intersection, declare Red as SOME kind of magician, and are the first and one of the few pods to call out the similarity between the black dot on the hit paperwork and the playing card DoppelCooper shows Darya. They discuss the name seen on the discovered pages, and the mental health of Doris Truman. They guess Briggs is the one who put the diary pages in the bathroom stall door as he possibly swallowed Dougie’s wedding ring on purpose (what IS the deal with Major Briggs?), and they hope to see more from Bill Hastings and Ruth Davenport as the hosts are developing a theory that DoppelCooper may be rounding up and killing the spirits above the convenience store. You really should be listening to this show.
The Twin Peaks Log hosts split it this week: Becky quite thinks the show has upped its game while Mark sees Lynch bullshit afoot. If nobody thinks Dougie is that strange now, the hosts wonder what Dougie was like before. They also share some Secret History of Twin Peaks observations about Carl Rodd when talking about the yellow spirit energy, note the electricity buzzing through the traffic light, note dodgy deputies as a potential trope, and discuss whether CooperDougie’s thing is an allegory of recovery or of growing up.
Time For Cherry Pie & Coffee (a subheading of the Time For Cakes and Ale podcast) covered Part Six this week. The hosts are excited overall and fantasize over being able to watch the whole thing over a weekend. As Arthurian names (but not Arthur himself) are cropping up everywhere, they wonder if Cooper is Twin Peaks’s Arthur, coming back when it needs him most. They discuss if the Cooper’s doodles of stairs remind Coop of his experience of the purple room with Naido. Red’s coin trick is NOT parlor trick stuff, and they wonder if Red is from the lodges. They also assume the Linda getting a government paid wheelchair is a soldier. The way Lynch filmed the hit and run scene, the hosts call it something the viewer can sense, and an inevitability we can’t do anything about, and this is thematically related to the Return’s undercurrents. They first mention what I’ve been wondering for a bit, about why no one asks Dougie about his phone or why he doesn’t call or text them, then they come up with a positively joyful nickname for Ike the Spike: Jean Luc Ice Picard (don’t know why but that tickles me). They connect DoppelCooper’s ace of spades to the black dot, assume Miriam the school teacher will recognize Richard Horne from his days of likely being her student, and they share a universally accepted fact: Chad’s a knob. They think the scene at the sycamores between Hawk and the curtains will happen chronologically later in the Return, and the hosts look forward to seeing Ed and Audrey again.
Dark Mood Woods covered Part Six this week. The hosts and their guest Violet Lucca found Dern as Diane predictable but more so inevitable. They saw Cooper’s drawing scene as “the whole world is opening up to you,” and found it interesting that heavy metal scores crime in Lynch work rather than rap. They discuss if Janey-E’s monologue and Dougie’s work scenes are supposed to be a political statement or not about working folks and Corporate America. They also discuss the focus on children this episode had.
Twin Peaks Revival covered Part Six in a reactcast with Brian and Da Professa, who likes plot in her TV. They rightly find nothing wrong with wanting to be entertained, and call this their second favorite episode so far after Part One. Tension and relief is at play with the creators and the show, and they find the references from the past are working great. They think based on Cooper’s drawing skills that he’s the one who drew the Owl Cave petroglyph, and they think One Armed Mike left the diary pages in the bathroom door during his freakout. They also REALLY want to see a scene between Bobby and Shelly.
Twin Peaks Unwrapped made a nice Wizard of Oz reference this week that Your Own Shoes is your home. They see the case files scribbles as Lynch and Frost telling us things WILL come together. Ben put together the explicit connection that Red’s King and I reference was all about “Getting to Know You” and getting to know Richard Horne. And by the way I also thought Albert’s swearing came from someone else in that scene, the hosts aren’t alone on that one. They also figure Chad’s got to be the inside guy. After the Part Six coverage they switch to part one of their interview with Andreas Halskov, who shares information about his new book on Lynch, and a preview of his and Joel Bocko’s book on Mark Frost that I am PUMPED for. The episode ends with, thanks to Janey-E’s crunchiest sandwiches, the audio from a Ruffles commercial with Kyle MacLachlan.
Diane covered Part Six, noting it as plotty, heavy and that the secondary storylines have firmed up. They note the fragile grasp on mortality The Return has, and express a thought that the Twin Peaks Thing has gotten out to the rest of the world and it’s brought the whole world to a bad place and a crisis point. They think Windom Earle made the hit to Mr. Todd, and they’re loving the joy Cooper is feeling from the world, all his little smiles, even the clapper. Rosie makes the King and I connections to Red’s scene, and also describes Harry Dean Stanton like this: “It’s almost like Harry Dean Stanton’s soul is really close to the surface of his face or something; massive presence on that guy, gorgeous to look at.” The hosts, about the hit-and-run scene in particular, say television seldom ever asks you to take that burden on in such an uncompromising way. And at this point they figure the stuf with Dougie is too innate for us to completely forget about it. We’re probably not going back to the original Cooper.
Twin Peaks Podcast covered Part Six and they wonder why Janey-E never remembers long about Dougie’s car, and how real are Janey-E and Sonny Jim? They discuss the 2003 theory coming to the conclusion they don’t buy it. They all love the smiley guy in the Red & Richard scene, and think Carl talking about smoking for 75 years is Lynch bragging about himself. The setup to the hit and run scene was powerful but the afterscene was sold between the extras and the “yellow cartoon flatulence.” They think the odds are good we won’t get the real Coop until after DoppelCooper is killed. They put odds on Ike coming to Lucky 7 Insurance soon, and it seems like most of the hosts are on board with the Return by now (though I get the feeling Matt still needs some nudging).
We’re Not Going To Talk About Judy (a subheading of the Another Kind of Distance podcast) covered Part Six and wondered if CooperDOugie was trying to take his coat off to get to his proper universe. The hosts went majorly into politics and tried to put them into play in story meaning. And something in the Red & Richard scene got Elise laughing and she couldn’t stop until the end of the episode, though she did recognize the heaviness of the subject matter. They also noted that lamps seem to have a positive meaning in Lynch’s work versus other forms of electricity.
Ghostwood covered Part Five this week and they thought it was way too fast of an episode compared to the first four. The hosts wonder if Dougie was ever up to murder, maybe in some mystic trade with DoppelCooper. They’re also curious about the other 15 hits of Major Briggs’ fingerprints, and they make a guess that maybe Richard Horne is Jerry’s grandson. The hosts have more enthusiasm than research but they’re asking good questions.
How’s Annie covered Parts Three and Four with their guest Patrick Bonfrisco, who knows he’ll love the Return when it’s over but right now it’s infuriating. They find it interesting Janey-E is more annoyed than worried about Dougie’s stroke symptoms, and think the first coffee should’ve been Cooper’s “he’s back” moment. They want to know where the show’s going with Harry, and think Bobby has a bone to pick with Cooper. They also hypothesize whether we’ll see DoppelCooper defeated earlier than expected and then the big bad will be another version of evil Leland Palmer, or Bob takes control there.
The Red Room Podcast covered Parts Five and Six with guests John Thorne and (Comic book writer/artist) Jeff Lemire. They discuss how taking time with art and story leads to experimenting, rather than getting in an accidental rut to meet deadlines. Scott thinks Sonny Jim’s room is exactly Cooper’s childhood room except for the clapper and lamp bulb, and they think Janey-E and Doris Truman are basically the same character. They wonder what’s real, and how many realities are we dealing with here? They also explicitly note how there’s a front office in the sheriff’s station that does one kind of thing while the back office takes care of the other stuff, and Bobby Brigg walks between them. They ponder since DoppelCooper seems in charge, does that mean Bob is trapped in someone more evil? And they think the Doppelganger’s entrance into our world was the point Twin Peaks had spun off its axis. The spinning coin scene is almost shot for shot the giant and the ring scene from season two. And Leland’s “find Laura” will become a stronger more important directive as the story goes on.
The ladies of There Will Be Drinking Recaps Twin Peaks summed up Part Six like this: Hate this week, unnecessarily gory, a lot was great and stuff happened but wow. They loved Agro Janey-E, thought Sonny Jim’s room was a total Jacob’s Ladder situation, and didn’t think Harry Dean Stanton was nearly as old as he is. They say Coop has become a toddler. Oh, and they found a hot bearded extra in the diner scene, for anyone on the lookout for that sort of thing.
Twin Peaks The Return covered Part Six with guest Christian McCrea. They notice a lot of imagery involving built-but-not-occupied things. They note the similarities of the giant scene to Red’s magic trick, and their guest suspects the black lodge will be destroyed by the end of the Return. The mention Lynch’s moral policeman trope is alive and well. And Albert is the key to what we’re supposed to be feeling, lodge stuff and all, as he is the eyes of the audience here, and he doesn’t have all of the answers. I love this thought that he gets to be the audience surrogate.
Twin Peaks Peeks put the getting to know you King and I connection right in their intro, and they cover Part Six with Scott Benson. They wonder if Red is covering for lodge possessions issues in similar ways as Gerard has done; the two make similar odd movements. The hosts don’t find Richard Horne sympathetic in the slightest but are happy he’s not a straw character. He’s not exactly a monster but still reprehensible. Per the recovered pages, the hosts are looking forward to hearing Laura’s response to Annie. They think this Part would be better served paired with Part Five rather than the disjointed segment we got. Great observations all around.
I’m Worried About Coop covered Part Six and they found all the ultraviolence tough here. They spread some love for Jeremy Davies, thought Janey-E rocked the Frost speech, and found the 2014 model Lenovo Thinkpad in Mr Todd’s office. The hosts make it this simple: CooperDougie is a newborn. They also connected King and I to Getting to Know You, and notes the fact Red doesn’t seem to know how his body works (giving them a major black lodge vibe). And deputy Jesse has SOMETHING going on.
Boob Tube Buddies had overlapping sound files AGAIN this week and it took them to the 24-minute mark to get it fixed. As far as their Part Six coverage goes that I could understand, the hosts note how no one in the Bang Bang Bar was able to anything against Richard Horne and this episode bystanders couldn’t do anything except for Carl, who brought comfort. The shock of the real creates the surreal is quite a quote, and the hosts note that people on narcotics seem to be the ones sensitive to the paranormal lodge stuff. And they note the trauma in Twin Peaks mental health based: where our brain takes us, or is it landlocked.
Bookhouse Podcast covered Part Six. The hosts noted Cooper having an issue with his left arm’s sleeve, thinks for sure now that Mr. Todd also hired Tracy, and thinks Dougie and his family must be in witness protection or something. The main host called Janey-E Jeannie-E, said Miriam is the drug contact Richard Horne needs to meet with ( not true: it’s Maryanne’s he needed to find), and he threw shade on Sharon Van Etton for badly singing and her band didn’t know their parts. I don’t understand any of THAT at all.
Fire Cast With Us led with their enthusiasm rather than research, and wondered if Mike Nelson was Becky’s dad. Otherwise their hot takes are pretty standardized (and I accidentally deleted my notes for the rest of this one, sorry folks).
Peaks TV covered Parts Five and Six and hit hard the topic of race and gener representation in Lynch’s work. The hosts think DoppelCoop’s big plan to get arrested for is so he can get to Bill Hastings. They consider the DoppelCooper-and-Audrey-are-Richard-Horne’s-Parent theory as reasonable, while they feel Red and Richard were both channeling Blue Velvet‘s Frank Booth. They interpret the show through social commentary and feel one of the main problem is around “we don’t want to know people” and general isolation.They think Cooper will re-become Cooper either in Parts Ten or Twelve.
Dishin’ The Percolator tangentially covers Part Six but is an excellent exploration of two kinds of Twin Peaks fans: The kind like me and Sean who are lifers no matter what, and the more casual kind like Dallas, who among other things angered disenfranchised and appalled with this Part. Dallas knows Lynch historically as an artist who goes places without maybe even a story and never pays off things, leaving his audience to ask WHY a I invested? He sees a high potential that Ike the spike and the hit and run will never be paid off. Sean on the other hand knows Frost is involved and knows this will be paid off. They came back to the show and discussed how the Red & Richard scene was “What’s going on” in all the best Twin Peaks ways, loved the Diane and Hawk scenes, and liked how the town was still a small town but more built up and busier. Dallas thinks if the show doesn’t turn a corner (especially with the Dougie experiment) there will be an exodus of viewers, but Sean doesn’t care because we’ve already won: we have new Twin Peaks and it can’t get cancelled. And if Dallas can’t take it anymore, never fear because Sean has my favorite new podcaster of the week in the wings: his French Bulldog Theodore.
AND IF YOU ONLY LISTEN TO ONE SHOW LAST WEEK, IT SHOULD BE:
The eagle scouts over at Sparkwood & 21 have a lot of positive love for the whole deal right now. The hosts comment Cooper’s trying to pull off his coat like shedding a skin. The “no loitering” message from the cop is right in line with Mike’s “wake up”. Janey-E has no wedding band on at the 4-minute mark but has it again at 6 minutes (and as Lynch has a thing for rings and details, this probably isn’t a continuity error). They also think Sonny Jim’s room is Cooper’s boyhood room. As their namesake intersection traffic light has returned, they discuss how 21 means lucky highway, and that numerology puts its triple sevens into the number of universal termination (destruction before rebuilding?). Mike seems to be pushing out a spell like a psychic fastball so it can get through to Cooper. They connect to Bar Max Von’s to both the Sunset Boulevard character and Max Von Sydow who they credit to working with Lynch in Dune. Red has a “Dark Humor” to shake off of his hands. Things are possibly tectonically drifting to Twin Peaks as well as metaphorically? And stair cases and case files are a bit of a play on words. So many great observations in this one and this is before their best-of-the-best feedback segment even starts. If you’re not listening to this show on a weekly basis you are truly missing out.
Miss last week’s column? Have no fear! Check it out here!