The Missing Pieces is a collection of never-before-seen scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the divisive prequel to the television series Twin Peaks. This feature length edit, put together by David Lynch himself, is almost like a second Twin Peaks movie. It is a chance to get some new scenes with beloved characters from the show, starts to explain some of what David Lynch was going for with the movie, and even has some scenes taking place after the end of the TV show. I actually enjoyed it more than the film it was cut from.
First of all are the additional scenes of the investigation at the start of Fire Walk With Me. These are mostly a curiosity item, a lot of them being no more than extended scenes. There is a pretty good fight scene in there. The most interesting part of this first 30 minutes is the scene with David Bowie's Agent Phillip Jeffries. In the movie, this came out of nowhere and went nowhere. You couldn't even hear what was going on half of the time due to the editing. Here, we can see a clean version of the scene, and it begins to explain some things. It's still a big mystery, but there are some new pieces.
Then we get to the main event. The Twin Peaks staples. There are lovely scenes with Norma and Ed, Bobby's parents, and a hilarious one with Josie, Pete, and an Old Man. That scene felt most like one from the show.
One of the main problems with the movie is that it shows us nothing but the dark, abusive side of the Palmer family, meaning we don't really get a chance to invest in the characters, so we don't care when devastating things happen to them. That's why the initial dinner scene from this edit is the most crucial scene that should have stayed in the movie. It shows us the Palmer family as a quirky yet functional and happy family, masking some darkness underneath. If they had kept this scene in the movie, it would have humanized them, meaning it actually means something when we see them dehumanized throughout the movie.
At the end, we see a scene with Annie from after the end of the show and an extended version of the show's final scene. Neither scene solves the massive cliffhanger the series was left on ("How's Annie?"), but they make it more intricate, tying in aspects from the movie plot.
In the end, this is a must see for Twin Peaks fans, even ones who didn't enjoy the movie. It provides new scenes in the style of the show, illuminates the thinking behind some of the movie's odd choices, and even provides more information about the massive cliffhanger from the end of the show.
