Twin Peaks: The Return Part 16 is satisfying, glorious, disturbing, and mind blowing television that rewards viewers on every level.
By Stewart Gardiner // Twin Peaks: The Return part 16 is quite possibly the most satisfying hour of television ever. That it also finds time to be one of the most mind blowing is a miracle. Part 16 is the culmination of so much of The Return and it’s executed perfectly by David Lynch. Television really can be this great.
No Place Like Home
Night road. A truck traveling down a dark highway. Mr C is driving. Richard sits in silence in the passenger seat. What conversations have taken place since they met outside the convenience store? Mr C pulls up in the middle of nowhere, which recalls when he stopped with Ray before attempting to kill him. He steps out of the car and it becomes clear that he is tracking co-ordinates, presumably with an app. Co-ordinates abound in Twin Peaks: The Return. Which co-ordinates are these in part 16?
“I’m looking for a place,” says Mr C. “Do you understand, a place?”
“A place?” asks Richard.
“Three people have given me co-ordinates to that place. Two of the co-ordinates match. What would you do, Richard?”
“I’d check out the two that matched.”
“You’re a very bright young man.”
Mr C sounds as proud as that coldly calculating way of talking he has will allow. He continues:
“And we’re very close to the two that match. It says it’s there.”
He indicates an outcrop of rock up an incline. Like in previous parts, the words ‘Hanging Rock’ spring to mind. It’s a monolith in the dark night. Or perhaps it is more like some ancient sacrificial altar.
Walkabout
Nearby, Jerry Horne runs over a hill. How close is this to Twin Peaks? Pretty close one would have to assume. Jerry can’t have traveled on foot so very far away from home. Could he? That he’s on a walkabout, with all the spiritual implications, links him to Australia and Hanging Rock.
“People?” says Jerry to himself, genuinely surprised. He looks down upon where the truck is and brings up his binoculars. Jerry has the binoculars back to front and only looks through one eye, but it is enough for him to exclaim, “Dear God.” Although nothing has happened yet and it is unlikely he recognized Mr C from that distance. Perhaps something evil was channeled through his mind’s eye.
Ersatz Co-ordinates
Mr C says he has received co-ordinates allegedly pertaining to the same location from three people. Those three people would be: 1) Diane 2) Ray and 3) Phillip Jeffries. Although it would appear from later in part 16 that Diane sends the co-ordinates twice. Perhaps she is confirming them as the correct co-ordinates. Or she doesn’t realize that she already sent them; she was in a sort of trance the first time and ‘wakes up’ during part 16. It would make sense that the co-ordinates from Ray and Phillip Jeffries are the same. A betting man would suspect ersatz co-ordinates from those two. Mr C would seem to be a betting man, although with the lives of others rather than himself.
The co-ordinates that Jeffries gave Mr C in part 15 started with the same digits as those from Ruth’s arm that Diane passed along. If a trap was to be set, then better to make the bait as close as possible to the real thing. Therefore it would make sense to locate it somewhere reasonably nearby without being so close as to give the game away. I think that with Twin Peaks being an otherworldly nexus point then it would be unsurprising for the co-ordinates to point there or thereabouts.
Right Up There on That Rock
Mr C plays the seniority card (he has 25 years on Richard) and tells him to go up the rest of the way to the rock by himself. He gives Richard the tracker and says to let him know what he finds. Richard walks up to the rock and goes round the back of that place. Then climbs up onto it and manoeuvres along to the precise co-ordinates. Richard hits the spot and is caught in a fire of modern day electricity. He’s lit up, smoking, crying out.
“Goodbye my son,” says Mr C as he walks away.
It’s a great line, partly because it speaks of Mr C’s complete disregard for human life. But also because the idea wasn’t plucked out of thin air and dropped on the audience; it was strongly implied that Richard was Mr C’s son. Part 16 confirmed it in the most dramatically satisfying way possible. Also, zero sympathy towards Richard’s fate. However, he figured in The Fireman’s message to Cooper, so is that really his last appearance. There’s always the Lodge.
Something was wrong with Richard from day one. It comes down to nature rather than nurture in his case, being as he is the product of a doppelganger infecting a human. A person may have a much better chance having a Tulpa for a parent. Dougie was manufactured poorly, yet he wasn’t evil, and Sonny Jim seems to have turned out a pretty normal kid.
Jerry watches the electrical consumption and starts attacking his “bad binoculars.” It’s been a walkabout and then some for the brother Horne.
Mr C sends a text:
“: – ) ALL.”
The text isn’t sent at this point in part 16. He’s out in the middle of nowhere and can’t get a signal.
Stakeout
Hutch and Chantal are staking out Dougie’s house when the FBI pull up. No one is in. A couple agents stay behind while the rest go to Dougie’s place of employment. Later, the Mitchum brothers, Candie, Sandie, and Mandie show up to restock the Joneses’ house with food. “Are any of those guys Dougie?” asks Hutch. “Does any of them look anything like our boss?” snaps back Chantal. “It’s like a fucking circus parade,” she adds, referring to Candie leading a line of food bearers.
A car pulls up right in front of their van. It has “Zawaski Accounting Inc.” on its side, but the guy who steps out doesn’t look like an accounting type. He looks like a heavy, although he is credited as Polish Accountant. The accountant says that their van is in his driveway. Hutch and Chantal disagree, vocally and increasingly colorfully. “I move car,” says the accountant. He gets in his vehicle, starts the engine, and puts his foot down, plowing into the van, trying to push it out of the way. Chantal takes exception to this, pulls a gun, and fires into his windshield. The accountant goes round the back of his car, pops the trunk, and pulls out a sub-machine gun.
More gun play outside a house that Dougie was in and isn’t at the moment. Part 16 therefore recalls some of the earliest Vegas scenes of The Return. The heavy takes out Chantal and Hutch and the assassination threat against Dougie is thus erased.
In This Case it Did
Cooper received a wake up message via Sunset Boulevard in the previous episode and I wondered whether Lynch and Frost would delay his return until the two-part finale. Seeing Dougie in a coma reasonably early on in part 16 didn’t confirm either way, but the focus on Dougie did feel like something might happen. At the end of the episode, I thought.
Janey-E and Sonny Jim are at Dougie’s bedside. Bushnell is there too. Sonny Jim asks whether a coma has something to do with electricity. Janey-E replies that it doesn’t. “Well, in this case it did,” says Bushnell. He couldn’t be more right. Electricity is of vital importance to Twin Peaks: The Return. It is a means of journeying from one place to another. “It was, like what, electricity?” muses Bradley Mitchum when the brothers visit. Indeed, Bradley. Indeed.
Cut to Gordon Cole, standing in the hotel room surrounded by FBI machinery. He is listening. The equipment runs off electricity, the hum and beeps complimenting the sounds in Dougie’s room. Bushnell hears the sound that has been haunting the Great Northern. He goes out of the room to investigate. Dougie is left alone. Mike materializes in the seat of a chair and then one of the most glorious moments ever committed to screen occurs.
One Hundred Percent
Cooper – yes, COOPER! – opens his eyes, pulls the tube from his mouth, and sits up!
“You… are awake,” says Mike.
“One hundred percent,” replies Cooper.
And there he is right there. Immediately and completely, it is Cooper. One phrase is all it takes and it is crystal clear that Special Agent Dale Cooper has returned. What follows is more than worth the wait. Mark Frost and David Lynch knew exactly what they were doing. If Cooper had come back too soon then his ordeal in the Lodge would have been rendered inconsequential. It needed to have meaning. He was gone for 25 years and if he had just stepped out and been Cooper then, well, that would have been another, much lesser show. Cooper needed to rebuild himself over time within the outer shell of Dougie Jones.
The time for waiting is over. “Finally,” says Mike before getting down to business:
“The other one… He didn’t go back in. He’s still out. Take this.”
He passes Cooper the Owl Cave ring, which Cooper will presumably have to put on his doppelganger. “Do you have the seed?” asks Cooper. Mike shows him the golden Tulpa seed that Dougie was manufactured from. Cooper then takes some of the hairs from his head and passes those to Mike. “I need you to make another one,” he tells the Lodge denizen. “I understand,” says Mike, reflecting Cooper’s words to The Fireman in the premiere.
A Message From the Manufacturers
It would seem reasonable to think that Cooper wants to replace Dougie Jones, as he cannot live another man’s life, however much joy it brought him. The first Dougie was presumably created from the seed along with DNA from Mr C. No wonder he was faulty. A Tulpa created from a doppelganger would seem to be unstable to say the least, if not inherently bad. Perhaps by returning to the source DNA, Dougie has a better chance of being his best self. Cooper wouldn’t want to leave Janey-E and Sonny Jim with anything less.
Spokane, Washington
Speaking of Janey-E and Sonny Jim, they get back to the room to find Dougie awake. Things are moving fast now. Cooper directs Janey-E to go find a doctor, and she obliges, overjoyed but in shock at his swift recovery. Bushnell is equally blown away. “Bushnell, pass me some of those sandwiches,” Cooper tells him. “I’m starving.” He’s gently, respectfully commanding. And of course hungry. That’s Cooper.
The FBI have just visited Lucky Seven Insurance and Bushnell informs Cooper that they are now on their way to the hospital. “Perfect,” says Cooper to Bushnell’s consternation.
Janey-E brings the doctor, who confirms Cooper’s assertion that his “vitals are a-okay.” Sonny Jim notes that his father “sure is talking a lot.” “Yeah, he sure is,” says Janey-E.
Even as Dougie, Cooper was noticing every detail in the world around him. His perception and skills of observation were undiminished, but he couldn’t communicate or act on them as he normally would. Now he can:
“Bushnell, I’m going to need to borrow the 32 snub nose you wear on the shoulder holster under your left arm.”
Cooper asks Bushnell to get the Mitchum brothers on the line. He tells them he is bringing his family to the Silver Mustang Casino. One other thing: he needs a plane to Spokane, Washington.
The FBI Story Updated
“Girls,” says Bradley Mitchum to Candie and the others, “let’s go for a plane ride.” As he says it the “Twin Peaks Theme” kicks in. Holy cow. Talk about shivers. The theme continues over scenes set in Vegas that have already become a vital part of Twin Peaks. Part 16 makes it inarguable, if anyone was still arguing.
The elation I felt watching these scenes for the first time was tremendous. It cut to my core. I’m getting the good kind of shivers even as I type. Lynch cuts back to Cooper in the hospital with Bushnell and there must have been something in my eye because, my goodness, I was tearing up.
“I have a feeling a man named Gordon Cole will call here. If he does, read him this message.”
Cooper passes a note to Bushnell and shakes his hand.
“You’re a fine man, Bushnell Mullins. I will not soon forget your kindness and decency.”
What a beautiful, beautiful thing. This isn’t nostalgia. It’s much more powerful and long-lasting than that. It’s the continuation of a journey that speaks of the darkness, but also those who fight against the darkness, even if it’s sometimes from within themselves. Part 16 brings back Cooper and his inspiring uniqueness is there for all to see and take joy from. But that’s not all:
“What about the FBI?” asks Bushnell.
A pause.
“I am the FBI,” says Cooper.
I could’ve fainted. I’m fainting now. It’s a hero moment for the ages. Wow. Just wow.
About That Night
Diane is sitting at the hotel bar. The “Twin Peaks Theme” has faded slightly, but still there. Lynch seems to be easing the audience down off the giddy ‘Cooper is back’ heights. Diane looks at her phone and sees the message “: – ) ALL.” that Mr C has now sent. When she reads the message it is as if she snaps out of something – which also brings the “Twin Peaks Theme” to an abrupt stop. Part 16 is nothing if not an emotional ride of great complexity.
“I remember. Oh, Coop. I remember.”
She texts the co-ordinates to Mr C (again?) and mutters that she hopes that this works. She goes to close her bag and there’s a gun in there.
The slowed down David Lynch reworking of “American Woman” accompanies Diane as she walks through the hotel to visit the Blue Rose task force. This same track accompanied Mr C’s introduction in the premiere. That and the gun sure can’t add up to anything good.
Diane doesn’t knock, but Gordon tells her to come in. “You asked me about the night that Cooper came to visit me,” Diane informs Gordon, Tammy, and Albert. “Well, I’m going to tell you.” Albert gets her a drink. Diane clutches her bag, the audience well aware what it contains. She goes into it for her cigarettes and the tension is unbearable. Diane tells her story.
Something Went Wrong
It happened one night three or four years after Diane had stopped hearing from Cooper. She was still with the Bureau.
“One night. No knock, no doorbell. He just walked in. He was standing in my living room. I was so happy to see him. I held him so close. And we – He sat on my sofa. Started talking. I just wanted to hear everything. About where he’d been, what he’d been doing. He only wanted to know about what had been going on at the Bureau. I felt like he was grilling me. But I told myself he’s just excited to hear about Bureau news. And then he leaned in – He leaned in – leaned in and kissed me. That only happened once before.”
Was that during the date mentioned in The Autobiography of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper perhaps?
“But as soon as – as soon as his lips touched mine something went wrong. And I felt afraid. He saw the fear in me.
Mr C smiled then. An image of Bob invades the mind’s eye.
“That’s when it started. He raped me. He raped me.”
Diane is breaking down throughout this, but pushes on, her strength of character carrying her through.
“Afterward, he took me somewhere. He took me somewhere. An old gas station? An old gas station.”
The convenience store.
Diane looks at the message again on her phone, drawn to it. The message is a trigger. Yes, it triggers memories, but it is also more than that. Think along the lines of the Cylon sleeper agents in Battlestar Galactica perhaps.
Wow, Tulpa, Wow
Diane starts talking more to herself than the others in the room. She mentions “the sheriff’s station” repeatedly, saying that she sent him those co-ordinates. “Because I,” she tries to explain, to everyone now, “I’m not me.”
Events speed up. Diane pulls her gun, but Tammy and Albert are quicker. Her erratic behavior, their suspicions regarding her loyalty, and the words spoken in the first Blue Rose case all coalesce so that they are ready. Tammy and Albert shoot Diane and she is pulled and stretched out of existence. Part 16 here recalls the premiere once again, when Laura was snapped out of the Red Room.
“Wow,” says Tammy. They’re real. That was a real Tulpa.”
Indeed. What of the real Diane? I hope she’s not dead, that would be too much to take. Mr C took her to the convenience store, so perhaps she is being kept in one of the motel rooms at the Dutchman’s.
Blue Language in a Red Room
Meanwhile, Lynch cuts to the Red Room. The Diane Tulpa is sitting in an armchair. Mike tells her the same thing that he told Dougie: “Someone… manufactured you.”
Whereas Dougie was oblivious to the fact, Diane is not. Even if it was only the trigger that made her aware, she knows now and is able to make a spirited response:
“I know. Fuck you.”
Swearing in the Red Room? I like it. If this is only a copy of Diane, then I can’t wait to meet the real her.
Tulpa Diane’s face breaks away like the shell of an egg. Black smoke issues forth along with the seed. There’s a crackle of heavy electricity and smoke. Only the seed remains.
That Red Door
Part 16 steps away from the darkness and returns to Cooper. He takes Janey-E and Sonny Jim aside at the Silver Mustang Casino and tells them that he has to go away for a while.
“But I want to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed spending time with both of you.”
It’s clear that his experiences as Dougie are real and true to him. Even if he was trapped inside the shell.
“You’ve made my heart so full.”
“What are you saying?” asks Janey-E.
“We’re a family. Dougie – I mean, I will be back.”
“You’re not Dougie?”
Janey-E has talked about their life together as all their dreams coming true. But she senses they were but dreams now.
“You’ll see me soon. I’ll walk through that red door and I’ll be home for good.”
Cooper will at least make sure that Dougie returns to them. An improved Dougie. One who is motivated to be a good man.
Hearts of Gold
Cooper leaves in the limo with the Mitchums. Candie hands him a coffee in a glass mug, which elicits an absolutely beautiful response and moment. Coop takes a drink of the coffee and shifts his head to the side in appreciation. No need for him to say what a damn fine cup of coffee it is. The meaning is clear.
The Mitchums get up to speed on the fact that their beloved friend Dougie is an FBI agent who has been missing for 25 years. They need to take him to a town called Twin Peaks. To a sheriff’s station no less.
“Dougie, we love you. But we are not traditionally welcome at such places,” explains Bradley.
“Or by such aforementioned people. Law enforcement types,” adds Rodney.
“I read you one hundred percent. Friends, that’s about to change. I am witness to the fact that you both have hearts of gold,” says Cooper.
“Thank you,” adds Candie. “They really do.”
Cooper not only sees the good in people, but brings out the goodness in them.
Out of Sand
Part 16 has Eddie Vedder at the Roadhouse. Although he’s listed in the credits as playing the character of Edward Louis Stevenson III, that is in fact the name he was born with. He sings “Out of Sand” which contains the lyrics: “I am who I am / Who I was I will never be again.” His appearance reflects the multiple selves and questions of identity on Twin Peaks.
I must admit that I was shocked to see Audrey and Charlie step into the Roadhouse in part 16. Not because I thought they would never leave the house, but because I was convinced there was something seriously weird going on with Audrey’s situation. I’ve been throwing around references to the Twilight Zone and Shutter Island in recent weeks, while suspecting that it was something else altogether. But for them simply to walk into the Roadhouse? That couldn’t be all it was. Well, it sure wasn’t!
Audrey’s Dance
Eddie Vedder finishes his set and Charlie gets drinks at the bar. So far so not weird. Then the Roadhouse MC speaks some of the most unexpected words imaginable:
“Ladies and gentlemen, ‘Audrey’s Dance.'”
Mind blown, I almost fainted again. It’s not a meta-fictional nod though. The track wasn’t ever just non-diegetic score – Audrey danced to it in that celebrated sequence in the Double R when it was playing on the jukebox. The title of the Angelo Badalamenti track refers to this of course, but Audrey could also refer to that memory herself.
The dance floor clears and Audrey gets up and moves to the music. It’s still too dreamy and she dances like 25 years haven’t happened at all. Everything is a beautiful dream. Then a fight breaks out, which breaks the spell. Audrey rushes up to Charlie and screams at him to “Get me out of here.” There’s no place like home and she just wants to get back there. But where is home?
Bang. Audrey is in a white room. She’s looking into a mirror instead of at Charlie. Her own face has replaced his in her view. There’s the crackle of electricity all around.
“What? What, what?”
Smash to black.
Audrey’s Reverse Dance
What an ending. Bold, provocative, thrilling, mind blowing. And satisfying because Lynch didn’t hide that something was up. He lingered on the wrongness, teased it out.
Lynch fades back in to the Roadhouse band playing “Audrey’s Dance” in reverse for the credits. Another hint that Audrey is in some Lodge space. Twin Peaks isn’t pulling a simple ‘she’s in a coma.’ There’s so much more going on. Mr C visited her back in the day and considering what he did to Diane, it seems a strong possibility that he took Audrey to the convenience store too.
The electrical crackle in the white room (the White Room of the Black Lodge?) alone lends itself to a Lodge space interpretation. I was also fascinated by the staging. Audrey looking into the mirror recalls nothing less than the opening of the pilot. The first person introduced on Twin Peaks is Josie Packard. She is looking into a mirror that is eerily reflected here in part 16, except with the color drained out of the image. Last week’s questions about Judy even spring to mind. Judy was originally intended to be Josie’s sister. Just sayin’.