Twin Peaks: The Return – Part 6

HelloooOOOOoooo, Diane!

Part 6 opens where Part 5 leaves off: DougieCoop is outside his office building, next to the statue. He tugs at the left sleeve of his jacket and pulls it over his hand for a while and the policeman comes back around trying to get him to leave. But DougieCoop doesn’t understand the concept of loitering and the officer starts to ask him some simple questions that DougieCoop answers in his usual way. He’s very interested in the officer’s badge—another blast from Special Agent Dale Cooper’s past to add to the pile of Agent Cooper Things that are slowly bringing him back to us—and the sooner the better because I miss my Special Agent.

[Sidenote: There are a lot of things that could be The Thing that ends up bringing him back, and I’m probably going to be wrong, but if I had my way it would be a big ol’ slice of Norma’s cherry pie.]

The cops bring DougieCoop home to Janey-E. One of the cops hands her an unmarked envelope that had been left at their doorstep and they leave. Over some sandwiches, Janey-E finally realizes that it’s time for “Dougie” to see a doctor, then sends him upstairs to say goodnight to Sonny Jim.

I was wondering if Sonny Jim could speak since he hadn’t up to this point but in this episode he finally talks to “Dougie.” DougieCoop is enjoying a bag of potato chips on Sonny Jim’s bed and he offers him one—a gesture that is one of the first that isn’t a learned repetition. Cooper has a genuine urge to give Sonny Jim a chip, which is such a small thing but, but when you consider DougieCoop’s behavior patterns up until now, it is actually a pretty significant change.

Sonny Jim speaks for the first time when he says he already brushed his teeth for the night, and he asks if he can keep his cowboy light on. This is when DougieCoop discovers the magic power of The Clapper. He and Sonny Jim play a little game of Clap On, Clap Off with the lights, but all the while Janey-E is downstairs making an unpleasant discovery: the unmarked envelope contains a picture of Dougie with Jade, coming out of the abandoned house after one of their rendezvous. On the back it says, “Your late,” so presumably it is from the people Dougie owes money. Janey-E calls him downstairs. Dougie is in the doghouse BIG TIME.

The funniest bit in this episode is when DougieCoop sees the picture and recognizes Jade. He says, “Jade give two rides,” and Janey-E is outraged, “I bet she did.” Naomi Watts’s line delivery was just so perfect. Definitely one of my favorite bits in the series so far.

The phone rings and Janey-E answers and gets tough with the guy on the other end. She’s taking no shit on the phone and tells them that they will be dealing with her from now on. She’ll meet them in the park at “Noon Thirty” (which is going to preclude her taking Dougie to the doctor but it is what it is). It’s pretty badass, actually. She leaves DougieCoop to his case files and goes upstairs to say goodnight to Sonny Jim.

Cut to…. the traffic light at Sparkwood and 21! Changing from green to red! Just like old times! And then we’re in the Waiting Room with the One-Armed Man. As before, DougieCoop is able to see into the Waiting Room from his house in Vegas, and the One-Armed Man gives him some simple yet ominous instructions—“You have to wake up. Wake up. Don’t die. Don’t die.”—and then the Waiting Room fades away.

DougieCoop gets to work on his case files. As with the lights above the winning slot machines and the light that flashed across his coworker’s lying face, some dots of light appear on the insurance claim paperwork, guiding DougieCoop in his attempt to make sense of the forms. The lights repeatedly point DougieCoop to the name of the lying agent, Anthony Sinclair. The lights also point to the two investigating officers, Detectives Loomis and Stockton. Through some doodles on the pages, DougieCoop proves (or at least strongly suggests) that there is ongoing insurance fraud involving Sinclair and the detectives.

We cut to a characteristically grumpy Albert, driving around in the cold and rain on his way to meet the person that he and Gordon discussed during their “Blue Rose” conversation after visiting DoppelCoop in prison. There is no real indication of what city he is in. After cursing Gene Kelly in a very Albert-esque manner, he enters Max Von’s Bar, which is where “she drinks.”

“She” is, as I had guessed and hoped, the as-yet-unseen Diane—Agent Cooper’s secretary who has only existed to us, thus far, in the form of a tape recorder. Many have theorized over the years that Diane was not actually a real person, but here she is, in the flesh (and played by Laura Dern no less!) The scene is brief and she only says two words—“Hello, Albert”—but it’s a great introduction to a character Twin Peaks fans have been waiting to meet for a long time.

Back in the Twin Peaks area, we get reacquainted with Richard Horne, the asshole from the Roadhouse. Richard is doing a drug deal with Red (the guy who was flirting with Shelly at the Roadhouse at the end of Part 2). Where before Richard seemed like he was gonna be a Big Bad, turns out he’s really just a punk ass kid. Red is the really scary one. Also he’s got some sick karate moves, loves the movie The King and I, has some liver problems, and does *actual* magic. It’s safe to say Red is not your garden-variety drug dealer.

Richard gets super high and Red tells him he can pick the rest of it up at Mary Anne’s (though we don’t know who Mary Anne is yet). Red is moving “the sparkle” down from Canada into Twin Peaks and the surrounding area. Richard gets pissy when Red calls him “kid” and Red legit tells him he will eat his brains—just in case it wasn’t clear who the boss was around here and that it’s way past time for Richard to STFU and do what he’s told.

Next we catch up with Carl Rodd (Harry Dean Stanton), who appeared in Fire Walk With Me as the manager of the Fat Trout Trailer Park where Theresa Banks, Deputy Cliff Howard, and the Chalfonts all lived—and where Agent Chet Desmond disappeared without a trace. This is the “New” Fat Trout Trailer Park, which I think is a half-ass attempt to deal with a retcon that puts Carl and the trailer park near Twin Peaks in Deer Meadow, Washington instead of their FWWM location in Dear Meadow, Oregon. However you slice it, Carl and his trailer park are now located within a short distance of Twin Peaks.

Carl gets his daily ride into town, accompanied by a resident named Mickey, who needs to pick up his wife’s mail at the P.O. Box. His wife’s name is Linda—a possible identity for the person that ??????? (aka The Giant) told Cooper about at the beginning of Part 1. This could just be a red herring, of course, but it’s worth noting since this is the first Linda we’ve heard about since ??????? told Cooper, “Richard and Linda, two birds with one stone.” We don’t meet Linda but we learn through Carl and Mickey’s conversation that she is a war veteran and uses a wheelchair, and like so many other veteran’s, she’s been waiting on the government to do right by her for some time now.

At the Double R we meet Miriam, a Twin Peaks school teacher with a sweet tooth for Norma’s cherry pie. She’s a regular at the Double R, known to both Shelly and the always-giggly Heidi. Miriam leaves a large tip for them, and Heidi comments that it’s an amount she can’t afford. Shelly seems to agree, although we’re not privy to what Miriam’s money troubles might be.

Richard Horne is in his truck having a temper tantrum while driving under the influence of the “sparkle.” He’s going way too fast and being way too reckless and you just know it ain’t gonna end well. Meanwhile, Carl is sitting on a park bench, enjoying a cigarette and some Double R coffee. He’s having a nice quiet moment, enjoying the trees around him, when a mother and son come by playing a game where the boy runs ahead and the mom chases after and catches him. It seems to lift Carl’s spirits to watch the mom and son playing. But because this is Twin Peaks, no moment of peace and happiness can last very long. Cut to Richard Horne, swerving into the wrong lane to pass a line of cars at a stop sign. The little boy jumps into the road and SPLAT. Richard just keeps on driving and is spotted by Miriam as he speeds away from the scene.

Carl hears the mother’s screams from the park and rushes to the scene. He sees a yellow light rise up from the dead boy’s body into the sky and disappear. Of all the bystanders who saw the accident, only Carl approaches the mother in the road to comfort her and bear witness to her pain. There is a shot of a utility pole—the same pole that was at the Fat Trout Trailer Park in FWWM, which has somehow been mysteriously transplanted to the middle of Twin Peaks.

In Vegas, we see Duncan Todd working on his laptop in his office when a red square appears on his screen. It appears to be some sort of communication or signal from whomever he is working for. Todd immediately goes to his safe and retrieves an envelope with a single black dot on it, taking care not to get his fingerprints on the envelope.

At Rancho Rosa, the police are investigating the scene of Dougie’s car explosion. Part of the back of Dougie’s car (which includes his DUGE LV license plate) landed on the roof of the house where Junkie Mom and son are living (or more likely, squatting). There’s a shot of Junkie Mom inside yelling “1-1-9” and it’s interesting to note that she’s in the same position she was in the first episode where she appeared. In that episode, she took the last pill that she had, and in this episode, that pill is still in the bottle. Is it future or is it past?

In a motel room, a man named Ike “The Spike” Stadtler rolls a pair of dice and records the results in a notebook. Someone slides the envelope with the dot on it under his door and he opens it to reveal two photographs: one of Dougie, and one of Lorraine (the woman with the Blackberry). He examines both photos and then stabs both photos with his ice pick.

DougieCoop arrives at work with his case files and his own cup of coffee (thanks assistant Phil!) and is called into his boss’s office. He’s wearing his Cooper suit to work today (at least I assume it’s his Cooper suit because it isn’t a hideous color and it actually fits him). Anthony Sinclair watches nervously as Phil drags DougieCoop into Mullins’s office. Mullins reviews the case files and, at first, he just sees the markings as nonsensical scribbles, but after reviewing a few of them he seems to make sense of it. DougieCoop seems fascinated with the picture of a young Mr. Mullins, during his days as a boxer, and when he looks from the poster to Mr. Mullins, it almost seems like he’s grasping the concept of aging. Once Mullins has made sense of the scribbles, he tells Dougie to keep the info to himself. This doesn’t bode well for Anthony Sinclair. Mullins goes for a handshake but DougieCoop hasn’t quite grasped that concept.

Janey-E meets up with the two loan sharks at the park at the designated time. We learn that Dougie’s debt is a result of a gambling loss on a football game, and now the interest has taken his debt from 20K to 52K. Even though DougieCoop cleared hundreds of thousands of dollars at the casino, Janey-E has no intention of paying these guys what they are asking. She pretends that all they can afford is 25K and just completely goes off on the two guys for being scumbags and taking advantage of people. She manages to get away with it, too. The guys even seem impressed by the “tough dame” they just dealt with.

Lorraine is in her office when her time runs out. Ike “The Spike” comes running into her office and brutally stabs her to death with his ice pick. He takes out a few of her coworkers for good measure, and when he’s done he’s disturbed to find that he’s bent his ice pick in the process.

At the sheriff’s department, Hawk finally discovers what has been missing. Following Margaret’s clue that it has something to do with his heritage, he notices that the stall door in the bathroom is made by Nez Perce Manufacturing company. Upon further examination, he sees that the door is missing two of its bolts. He pries the door apart with a crowbar and, after shooing away Deputy Douchebag Chad, finds several handwritten pages hidden inside the door. Could these be the missing pages from Laura Palmer’s diary? In FWWM, Annie comes to Laura in a dream and tells her, “The Good Dale is trapped in the Lodge. Write it in your diary.” These pages could very well contain Annie’s message, leading Hawk that much closer to finding Agent Cooper.

Sheriff Truman’s wife Doris is back at the station, still furious with him about her father’s car. She makes a scene in front of the other officers, including Chad. Just when you thought Chad couldn’t be a bigger asshole, we learn from the dispatcher that Doris and Frank’s son was a soldier with PTSD who committed suicide. Doris wasn’t the same after the death of their son, but Chad is a dick with no soul so instead of being sorry, he mocks their dead son. What a peach this guy is. It’d be a real shame if something horrible happened to him…

The episode ends back at the Roadhouse with Sharon Van Etten and her band performing “Tarifa.” The end credits Roadhouse performances are quickly becoming one of my favorite things about the new series. Another thing I’ve grown to look forward to is Naomi Watts’ performance as Janey-E, which was especially good in Part 6. As much as I want Agent Cooper to return to us, I’ll definitely miss Janey-E when she’s gone.