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This article is about the second episode of the revival series. For the second episode of the original series, see Episode 1 (Twin Peaks). For the second numbered episode of the original series, see Episode 2 (Twin Peaks).

"Part 2"
Twin Peaks episode
Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) whispers inside the ear of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan).
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 2
Directed byDavid Lynch
Written byDavid Lynch
Mark Frost
Featured musicAngelo Badalamenti
Cinematography byPeter Deming
Editing byDuwayne Dunham
Original air dateMay 21, 2017 (2017-05-21)
Running time54 minutes
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
← Previous
"Part 1" 		Next →
"Part 3"
List of episodes

"Part 2", also known as "The Return, Part 2", is the second episode of the third season of the TV series Twin Peaks. It was written by Mark Frost and David Lynch, directed by Lynch, and stars Kyle MacLachlan. "Part 2" was broadcast on Showtime along with Part 1 on May 21, 2017, and seen by an audience of 506,000 viewers in the United States.[1] In addition, the two episodes were shown as a feature at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where they received a standing ovation.[2] The episode received mainly positive reviews.

Plot

The stars turn and a time presents itself.

— Margaret Lanterman (used as a promotional tagline for the episode)

Background

The small town of Twin Peaks, Washington, has been shocked by the murder of schoolgirl Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) and the attempted murder of her friend Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine). FBI special agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) has been sent to the town to investigate[3] and has come to the realization that the killer was Laura's father, Leland Palmer (Ray Wise), who acted while possessed by a demonic entity, Killer BOB (Frank Silva).[4] At the end of the original series, BOB trapped Cooper in the Black Lodge, an extra-dimensional place, and let out Cooper's doppelgänger to use him for physical access to the world.[5] 25 years later, Cooper's doppelgänger (now known among associates as Mr. C or simply Cooper) roams freely through the world, with Cooper seemingly still inside the Lodges' world.[6] Meanwhile, in New York City, Sam Colby (Benjamin Rosenfield) is tasked with the responsibility to observe a glass cube; when he brings inside Tracey Barberato (Madeline Zima) and the two start having sex, however, a creature, the Experiment Model (Erica Aynon), appears in the glass box and breaks out of it, slaughtering the two of them. In Buckhorn, South Dakota, school principal William Hastings (Matthew Lillard) is accused of murdering Ruth Davenport (Mary Stofle), the school librarian, much to the chagrin of his wife Phyllis (Cornelia Guest).

Events

In Buckhorn, Bill Hastings sits inside his cell, seemingly anxious. Detective Dave Macklay (Brent Briscoe) accompanies Bill's wife Phyllis in the cell, warning them that the visit will be short; Bill thanks him. Phyllis informs her husband that according to George Bautzer (Neil Dickson), their attorney, he will not be released on bail; Bill insists that he did not kill Ruth Davenport, but he affirms that he dreamt of being there. Phyllis insists that he was there, and reveals that she knew about his affair with the librarian all along; Bill counters that he also knew that she was having an affair with George, and possibly someone else. She taunts him with the perspective of a life in prison; Detective Macklay comes to dismiss Phyllis, leaving Bill in his despair. In the station's entrance, Phyllis meets George and informs him that Bill is aware of their affair, subsequently instructing him not to walk her out and to meet her later at her place; George then discusses with Detective Maklay about how Bill and Phyllis feel. Two cells away from Bill, a dark figure[n 1] (Stewart Strauss[n 2][7]) sits on the bed and disappears, leaving only its head to float upwards. Phyllis returns home; in the living room she finds Mr. C, who she recognises and greets as a pleasant surprise. C comments that she followed human nature perfectly and then shoots her in the head with George's gun, which he then drops.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, Duncan Todd (Patrick Fischler) calls Roger (Joe Adler) in his office; after handing him money, he instructs him to tell "her"[8] that she has the job. Roger asks Todd why he lets "him" do "these things," to which Todd replies that Roger better not get involved with people like "him".[8] In a restaurant, Mr. C eats creamed corn with Darya (Nicole LaLiberte), Ray (George Griffith) and Jack (Steve Baker). Ray ironically remarks that Jack barely touched his "three dinners";[8] he then proceeds to discuss the plan for the future days with Mr. C, who states that he'll need to be on his own for a while. Finally, Ray reassures that he will get the information Mr. C needs from Betty, Bill Hastings' secretary; Mr. C remarks that he doesn't need the information, but wants it. In the Ghostwood forest, Hawk (Michael Horse) searches through the woods with a flashlights. He receives a call from the Margaret Lanterman (Catherine Coulson), who asks him where is he walking. When Hawk replies that something is supposed to happen there, Margaret states that "the stars turn and the time presents itself,"[8] and recommends Hawk to be careful, subsequently inviting him for coffee and pie at her house. Hawk thanks her and promises to tell her what happens, then closes the call; he arrives to Glastonbury Grove, where red curtains faintly appear and disappear.

Cooper sits in the Red Room. MIKE (Al Strobel) asks him whether "is it future or is it past,"[8] then tells him that someone is there and disappears. An older Laura Palmer enters and sits in one of the chairs. She salutes Cooper, informs him that he can go now and asks him if he can recognize her. In an almost verbatim re-enactment of his dream, Cooper asks Laura if she is Laura Palmer, to which she replies "I feel like I know her, but sometimes my arms bend backwards."[8] When Cooper asks specifically who she is, however, she confirms that she is Laura Palmer, and when he replies that she is dead she states "I am dead yet I live."[8] She removes her face, revealing a pulsating white light, and closes it back. Cooper asks when he can go; in another repetition of Cooper's dream Laura walks over to him, kisses him and whispers in his ear.[n 3] When Laura finishes she pulls back; an unseen force moves the curtains and Laura screams before being pulled away in front of Cooper. The curtains billow and take off, revealing a pale horse standing on the seemingly endless chevron floor and darkness. MIKE reappears and asks Cooper again whether "is it future or is it past;"[8] he then leads Cooper in another room, where he presents him to "the evolution of the arm", a flashing giant neuron structure resembling a barren tree, with a soft-mouthed brain on top as a head.[n 4] Repeating the lines he once told Cooper, the arm states "I am the arm and I sound like this",[8] followed by a looping sound. He asks Cooper if he remember his doppelgänger, and states that the doppelgänger must come in in order for Cooper to go out.

Jack closes a garage door with one of Cooper's doppelgänger's cars inside, and hands Mr. C the keys for another car. Before leaving, Mr. C calls Jack to him, grabs his face and strokes it. He goes to a motel, where Darya quickly hangs up the phone and tells him that she was talking to Jack to ensure that the job is done "on the secretary's car";[8] she tells him that she's happy to see him. Mr. C tells her that Ray never showed up to their meeting, and that he might borrow her gun for a job. He lays next to her and hugs her; he then tells her that he killed Jack after discovering that he wired the car. Darya tries to escape, but Mr. C smashes her head against the headboard of the bed; he proceeds to play a recording of her phone conversation with Ray, where the two discuss about his imprisonment in a Federal Prison in South Dakota for interstate transportations of firearms and their task to assassinate Mr. C, which was assigned to them by a man named Jeffries and which was now entrusted entirely upon her. Darya tries to escape once again, and Mr. C smashes her head against the headboard thrice. He asks her to reveal the name of the man who paid for his assassination, which Darya does not know, but whom, she discloses, paid $500,000 to split between her and Ray. She states that she wouldn't have done it, but Mr. C brushes this off. He then discloses that the following day he is supposed to be pulled back in a place called "Black Lodge", but that he has a plan for that. He asks her if she received any information from Ray, stating that a set of coordinates and numbers may save her life; Darya did not receive any information, although she knows that Hasting's secretary did reveal something to Ray. Mr. C pulls out an ace of spades card from his jacket, with the symbol covered by a scribbling of a black sphere with two thin protrusions like antennae, and tells Darya that is what he wants. She asks him whether he's going to kill her, to which he responds affirmatively; Darya tries to escape one more time, after which Mr. C punches her in the face, then shoots her after covering her face with a pillow.

After the assassination, Mr. C washes his hands. He contacts the man he believes to be Phillip Jeffries,[n 5] and the voice on the other end of the phone states to have missed him in New York and that the doppelgänger is still in Buckhorn. He then asks whether Mr. C met Major Briggs, much to the doppelgänger's astonishment. The voice then says that he just called to say goodbye, and that the doppelgänger is "going back in"[8] the following day so that he will be with BOB again, then disconnects. Mr. C opens up a portable laptop, and logs into an FBI database to download files relative to the Yankton Federal Prison, where Ray claims to be. He leaves the room and enters into the next one, where Chantal Hutchens (Jennifer Jason Leigh) stays. He orders her to clean up his room; gathering that he killed Darya, Chantal states that it is a good thing, since she started to be jealous of her. Mr. C tells her that he needs her and her husband to be in a specific location in the following days; he then calls her to him, opens her bathrobe and touches her groin area, stating that she is "nice and wet".[8]

In the Black Lodge the arm states "253. Time and time again."[8] It repeats BOB's name three times, then orders Cooper to go twice. Cooper follows MIKE in a hallway; when he is in, MIKE disappears. Cooper proceed to another entrance, but he finds it blocked; he walks back in the room he came from, which is now empty, and crosses it to the other side. He finds himself in another hallway, which leads him to a room where Leland Palmer sits; he tells Cooper to "find Laura."[8] Cooper is attracted by a shining light into another room, which seemingly distorts itself on two overlapping levels, one moving towards the curtains on the opposite side and one moving from them; he then has a vision of a Venus of Arles statue. MIKE senses that something is wrong, and the arm states that it's his doppelgänger. From the room, Cooper walks into another hallway, where he sees the Venus of Arles statue; he opens the entrance next to it, and from it he sees his doppelgänger driving on a road in South Dakota. The statue morphs in the doppelgänger of the arm, identical to him except for the yellow color of its brain; the stripes forming the chevron pattern of the floor begin to move upwards and downwards under Cooper's feet, and, as the doppelgänger screams "non-exist-ent,"[8] they open up horizontally, causing Cooper to fall into a black liquid. Cooper is transported on the exterior Glass Box in New York City, and is sucked inside; he floats through a tube and inside the internal glass box. Sam Colby checks the bathroom for the guard, but it's empty; he decides to let Tracey Barberato in. As they are about to walk in, the box trembles and repeatedly creates inside itself a series of matrioska-like copies of its insides, back and forth, until Cooper disappears. He proceeds to fall through space.

Inside the Palmer House, Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) watches footage of a pack of lions killing an African buffalo.[n 6] At the Roadhouse, the band Chromatics (Ruth Radelet, Adam Miller, Johnny Jewel, Nat Walker) performs their song "Shadow". Shelly (Mädchen Amick) takes a tequila shot with her friends Hannah (Gia Carides) and Renee (Jessica Szohr); she goes on to discuss about how Steven is not the right husband for her daughter Becky. When James Hurley (James Marshall) enters the Roadhouse with his friend Freddie Sykes (Jake Wardle), the group comments on the fact that he might like Renee, with Shelly stating that there's nothing wrong with James, that he had a motorcycle accident and that "James was always cool."[8] From the bar counter, Red (Balthazar Getty) winks at Shelly, while Jean-Michel Renault (Walter Olkewicz) serves drinks to the patrons.

Production

"Part 2", like the rest of the limited series, was written by Mark Frost and David Lynch and directed by Lynch himself.[9] Frost had already written ten episodes of the original series — the "Pilot" and Episodes 1, 2 and 8 with Lynch, plus Episodes 5, 7, 12, 14, 16, 26 and the original series finale, Episode 29. Lynch also directed six episodes of the original series — the "Pilot", "Episode 2", "Episode 8", "Episode 9", "Episode 14" and "Episode 29".[10] The episode is dedicated to the memory of Frank Silva, who appears through archive footage in this episode.[n 7]

Music

Almost every episode of the 2017 Twin Peaks series featured a live performance by various bands at the Roadhouse. In this episode the American electronic music band Chromatics performing their song "Shadow". Additionally, several sped-up fragments of David Lynch's song "Last Call" from his 2013 album The Big Dream are hidden during the scene in the Palmer house.[11]

Reception

Broadcast

"Part 2" was originally broadcast on the Showtime network together with Part 1 on May 22, 2017. The initial broadcast was watched by 506,000 viewers in the United States,[1] a low number by the standards of premium cable networks. But subsequent data from Showtime estimates that in the first three days after the premiere around 1.7 million viewers watched the episode, including 298,000 from DVR viewings and viewers from various streaming platforms.[12] Although "Part 2" was not rated upon its Showtime broadcast, a TV-14 edit of the episode was uploaded on the official Twin Peaks YouTube channel for a brief period in June 2017 (on the occasion of National Doughnut Day);[13] the same edit was uploaded again on August 8, 2017.[14]

Critical reception

"Part 2" received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode received a 100% rating with an average score of 8.19 out of 10 based on 26 reviews.[15] The critics' consensus reads, "'Part Two' delivers all the addictively, terrifyingly inscrutable storytelling that Twin Peaks fans and David Lynch devotees could hope for."[15] Writing for IndieWire, Liz Shannon Miller gave the episode a B+, expressing disappointment at the "pretty staggering" violence against women in both this episode and Part 1, particularly defining Darya's death as "an excruciatingly painful sequence"; however, she praised the show as "fascinating in our current era of revivals, because it eschews all the conventions used by other series". She went on to praise Kyle MacLachlan's performance as "impressive", extending the praise to the rest of the cast in the light of the "insane" circumstances they worked under ("all actors were only given their own lines, and no knowledge of the full story"). Ultimately, she called the premiere "plenty watchable", but added that "there are a few elements that don't go down as easy as damn good coffee."[16]

The New York Times' James Poniewozik gave the episode a positive review, praising Lynch's visual imagination as "inimitable" and likening the episode to the glass box it features while also drawing comparisons to Lost, Fargo and True Detective. Poniewozik wrote, "[t]he original Twin Peaks was powered by two questions: 'Who killed Laura Palmer?' and 'What the hell am I watching?'", and that while "[t]he reincarnation doesn't have the first", "it still knows how to get you to ask the second".[17] In his recap for Entertainment Weekly, Jeff Jensen also gave Part 2 a B+, criticizing the episode's "absence of certain conventions that even that unconventional pilot possessed" while also praising the episode's scope and Glass Box subplot, ultimately calling himself as "engaged" by the series.[18]

In her positive review of the episode, The A.V. Club's Emily L. Stephens gave the episode an A, writing that the "comfort" of the original Twin Peaks is "entirely eschewed", praising the Glass Box subplot as "a remark upon the creation and the consumption of television and film" and calling the episode an "unfiltered Lynchian vision, unfettered from the structures of soap operas, police procedurals, or thrillers that gave shape to the first few original outings into Twin Peaks."[19]

Notes

  1. ^ Eventually, the dark figures will be identified during Part 8 as the Woodsmen.
  2. ^ Strauss is uncredited in the episode.
  3. ^ A female voice can be faintly heard saying "Whisper" as Laura leans onto Cooper.
  4. ^ The original actor for the arm, Michael J. Anderson, did not return to the role. The voice actor for the arm is uncredited.
  5. ^ The voice actor for the Phillip Jeffries is uncredited in this episode; in the rest of the season, Phillip Jeffries is voiced by Nathan Frizzel, whose voice sounds conspicuously different from this episode. Consequently, many consider the character speaking on the phone to be a different character from the original Jeffries, possibly an impostor.
  6. ^ Similarly to an analogous accident in the Pilot, it is possible to spot a hand holding a camera in the mirrors behind Sarah Palmer.
  7. ^ In the original broadcast with Part 1, Part 2 was also dedicated to Margaret Coulson; once the episodes were split, the dedication to Coulson switched to the credits of the first episode, as she appeared there earlier.

References

  1. ^ a b Porter, Rick (May 23, 2017). ""Sunday cable ratings: 'Twin Peaks' return comes in low for Showtime"". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  2. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (May 25, 2017). "David Lynch's 'Twin Peaks' Revival Met With Standing Ovation In Cannes". Deadline. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  3. ^ David Lynch (writer and director); Mark Frost (writer) (April 8, 1990). "Pilot". Twin Peaks. Season 1. Episode 1. ABC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Tim Hunter (director); Mark Frost (writer) (December 1, 1990). "Episode 16". Twin Peaks. Season 2. Episode 9. ABC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ David Lynch (director); Mark Frost (writer); Harley Peyton (writer); Robert Engels (writer) (June 6, 1990). "Episode 29". Twin Peaks. Season 2. Episode 22. ABC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ David Lynch (writer and director), Mark Frost (writer) (May 21, 2017). "Part 1". Twin Peaks
  7. ^ Marino, Matteo (June 3, 2017). ""Twin Peaks: Who's the Man in Jail?"". davidlynch.it. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p David Lynch (writer and director), Mark Frost (writer) (May 21, 2017). "Part 2". Twin Peaks
  9. ^ "Twin Peaks- Part 2 (1990) – Full Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  10. ^ "David Lynch movies, photos, movie reviews, filmography, and biography". AllRovi. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  11. ^ Dom, Pieter (August 17, 2017). "David Lynch Hides Own Singing Voice In Sarah Palmer's First Scene". WelcomeToTwinPeaks. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  12. ^ O'Connell, Michael (May 26, 2017). "TV Ratings: With a Modest Start, 'Twin Peaks' Return Sees Massive Streaming Lift". The Hollywood Reporter. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  13. ^ Dom, Pieter (June 3, 2017). "Watch Twin Peaks: The Return Parts 1 & 2 For Free (U.S. Only)". WelcomeToTwinPeaks. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  14. ^ Video on YouTube
  15. ^ a b "Twin Peaks - The Return, Episode 2". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  16. ^ Miller, Liz (May 21, 2017). "'Twin Peaks' Season 3 Premiere Review: David Lynch Remains a Master — But The Brutality Toward Women Feels Dated". IndieWire. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  17. ^ Poniewozik, James (May 21, 2017). "Review: In 'Twin Peaks,' an Old Log Learns Some New Tricks". The New York Times. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  18. ^ Jensen, Jeff (May 22, 2017). "Twin Peaks premiere recap: 'The Return: Parts 1 and 2'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  19. ^ Stephens, Emily L. (May 22, 2017). "In its nightmarish two-part return, Twin Peaks is pure Lynchian horror". The A.V. Club. Retrieved November 27, 2017.

External links

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