Several aspects of the third season of Twin Peaks have been a somewhat grating experience for me, up to and including me questioning whether I'm really the right person to review the show. However, as I said in my first review on it, I was sure that David Lynch did have a plan with this venture and that he did have a story to tell. Over the last episodes we can see the plan clicking into place. In retrospect it certainly will be easy to identify it from the first installments forward, but again, that's the nature of reviewing airing serialized television.
What annoyed me the most about Twin Peaks season three was the Cooper situation. For the longest time I have used the following as my signature on all fora related to art:
- Anton Chekhov
On this show, Sleeping Cooper is Chekhov's gun. Nothing infuriates me like showrunners teasing the gun firing and failing to deliver, and at times, this show has felt like David Lynch deliberately making fun of that dramatic principle as well as of the audience. After act thirteen, I wrote one of my most incensed comments ever only to delete it immediately afterwards: "In this episode, the officers at the Las Vegas Police Department got the result of Dougie's DNA test, laughed at it and threw it in the garbage. At the same time I looked at the show, laughed at it and threw it in the garbage."
That was certainly an overreaction. It's clear, as I said, that Lynch has "a plan" for Cooper and where he's going, even if I'm not all that happy with the pacing of it. In some manner of speaking "the gun will fire", even if I'm unclear how and even if I think it will not happen until the very last act. Also, in continuation of the last outing, here we get an episode where things "Actually Happen."
First of all, we get the reunion between Ed and Norma. Even if this is abrupt, it is rather beautifully done, and it's nice to see how Lynch doesn't simply steer away from soap clichés as a matter of course. However, the most significant plot development here is clearly Twooper meeting up with Richard, who's conclusively revealed to be Audrey's son. As much as we all hate "Bob" Cooper, watching him beat the crap out of his shit-for-a-heart supposed offspring was rather cheerworthy, but more importantly, them getting in that car together surely has to come with some major reveals down the line.
There's a lot of other things going on, as in, a lot. James gets in a fight at the Roadhouse and his friend Freddie displays his "iron fist" superpower. (He's more likable after one episode than the real Iron Fist after two series.) Chantal shoots Duncan. Steven kills himself. The Log Lady dies, in one of the most emotional scenes of the show.
Maybe, just maybe, "Dougie" electrocuting himself after hearing the name of Gordon Cole on television really will wake him up. It's hard to say.
What's easier to say, though, is that I liked this episode, it didn't bore me, and I genuinely look forward to the next part of the story.
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