Twin Peaks Review: It Is Happening Again
Yana Grebenyuk
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The gum we like has come back in style, and it is sticking around like never before.
The two-hour premiere connected Twin Peaks Season 1 Episode 1 and Twin Peaks Season 1 Episode 2 back to back, so we don't know where one episode ended and the other picked up. The suspense, the horror, and the unexpected kept building up which set the perfect scene for this revival.
It was revealed that Cooper has been stuck in The Black Lodge for 25 years, all while his doppelganger is running around killing people. It might be too soon to assume but Evil Cooper was giving off some serious Bob vibes; that hair really gave it away.
There are other strange things occurring in random cities, all of which have to be connected to Evil Cooper being let out into the world all these years.
There is no real place to begin, but finding out that Cooper has been in that Black Lodge all this time broke my heart a little bit. It was an option, but who would have thought that he really was trapped inside of that room while everyone on the outside just thought he disappeared?
His conversation with the giant provided us with some new clues, and that is either meant to help him bring Bob back or find Laura Palmer again.
The Giant: Remember 430. Richard and Linda. Two birds with one stone.
Cooper: I understand.
Although, what is the reason for Laura Palmer needing to be found again if she has been dead all this time?
Leland insisted that Cooper get on that case, and seeing Laura after 25 years was an adventure of its own.
She promised Cooper that they would meet again, yet she can't confirm if that is even her. She mentions being dead but yet alive, then that familiar moment where she whispers something then is sucked away.
But in a way, having this all come back to Laura Palmer is exactly what Twin Peaks would do; she is what started it all.
Is it future or is it past? Someone is here.
MIKE
Both Bad Cooper and Good Cooper delivered above and beyond, making it very clear that they aren't the same person. There wasn't enough of Good Cooper, and when there was he was very out of it, much like we probably are, trying to figure out what is going on.
Weird request, but if we get more insight into Cooper's time in the Black Lodge, the first question to be answered has to be about how time travels there.
Did Cooper feel those 25 years, or is it a giant blank like the one we are experiencing with this lack of information?
My log has something it wants to tell you.
Margaret
Familiar faces once again returned, not all of them but it was a beautiful start.
It was great to see The Log Lady again, in whatever capacity she could be on the show given the illness that the actress was struggling with. It did make it even more painful to experience those scenes between Hawk/Margaret knowing that she wasn't out there helping because of the at exact illness being written into the show.
But her passing on the messages from her log became exactly the way we remembered it as if no time had passed at all.
And then there were subtle absences that were addressed before the revival got too deep in its journey. Both Sheriffs are out doing their own things, which probably means we will see the second one at some point, at least.
Meanwhile, Harry Truman is either sick or fishing, neither of which will change in the near future.
The skunk was on the whole other side of the hotel.
Ben
Lucy and Andy are still working at the station, as funny as ever and with a grown son somewhere out there. And they wanted to name Wally after Cooper before deciding not to because he didn't reach out to them.
This really made me wonder if Evil Cooper cracked his head in the mirror, managed to disappear right after, and the town figured that Cooper deserted them without much question.
Maybe they looked for him and then dropped it after a while, creating the illusion that he doesn't have anyone looking for him.
On the other side, there were other residents of Twin Peaks that we were reacquainted with, some that wouldn't have been affected by Cooper disappearing.
I don't need anything, I want. And I want that information.
Cooper/BOB
Ben Horne is still running The Great Northern but he might have actually stuck to his more honest lifestyle, while Jerry is eating food and doing something on his own.
Mrs. Palmer is smoking and watching brutal nature shows, a sad comment on the life she must be living without her daughter or husband.
Shelly has a daughter, Becky, and is still in Twin Peaks although with some new friends. She knows James (more than knows him) even though we might have to agree to disagree about him always being cool.
Hawk is as serious as ever, although it could be specifically up to him to figure out how to help Cooper. Harry won't be around, and no one else in that station has the determination to piece it together.
This might be me projecting my need to see more Hawk working together with others in the town, though.
Diane: Are you going to kill me now?
Cooper/BOB: Yes
Now comes the part that will go nowhere, the part where we piece together all the new information we may have learned about some unknown things.
After engaging in the most typical pre-death sex scene, that random guy and Tracy were killed. They did manage to introduce us to that glass box first, the one that we later found out Cooper was inside of before whatever that other thing appeared.
It might have been a thing that is connected to that other thing that appeared in the jail cell.
Bill didn't kill that librarian or that other person, otherwise, why would Evil Cooper appear to play such a big role in all this? There was a dream involved, though, another recurring theme that will haunt Bill for as long as he sticks around, to be honest.
So far everything in all the other cities points to Evil Cooper and any plans he has up his sleeve. Apart from the glass box that serves another purpose, it all ties together with no concrete explanation (yet).
We know Twin Peaks will be in no hurry to give us answers when instead we could be offered more questions.
Laura: Do you recognize me?
Cooper: Are you Laura Palmer
Laura: I feel like I know her but sometimes my arms bend back.
Overall it was everything we know and so much we didn't. The slow pacing in certain parts worked well for the premiere, crafting a lot of mystery and reminding us that we don't know anything.
We might think that after all this time and after countless binge watches we are experts, but this revival introduced plenty of new material.
The new mystery concerning Evil Cooper and those two bodies was overshadowed by the mystery of The Black Lodge, at least for me.
Cooper in that red room was more captivating for now, and his attempts to try to get out have already set up for some interesting world building.
There is also the question of the town itself, not only the characters we have yet to meet but the way it will fit into all this.
Before, it was all about the town and the dangers that were growing within it, which isn't the case anymore. The story has grown beyond Twin Peaks because Cooper's doppelganger has opened that door for it to expand.
Yet it does start and end in Twin Peaks; it might have extended beyond that but not for long. Something tells me it will all come together, back where it started.
For Your Consideration
- That wasn't the real Diane, right? It couldn't be ...
- Many years later and still no one actually sleeps with their spouse.
- Now characters can be replaced by trees because that is just something that happens, and we need to go with it. And does everyone have a doppelganger at this point?
- Where was Laura taken? What else is she wanted for?
- I would like to make it clear again that James was never cool, and Shelly would know that since they barely interacted, if at all.
What did you think of Twin Peaks' epic return after all this time? Which character do you want to see before anyone else? Are you feeling Evil Cooper or Good Cooper more? Let us know what you think below!
And if you need to try to make sense of all this more, you can watch Twin Peaks online right here on TV Fanatic.
Yana Grebenyuk was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in April 2021.
