Part 10

There's admittedly little to no plot structure to Twin Peaks, sometimes that ends up benefiting with surprising results, other times it feels like the show is just showing us scenes to take up screen time. This episode was disappointingly more of the ladder. The one thing that should be taken away from this episode is probably just how disgustingly brutal Richard Horne is to people. God knows how a sweet woman like Audrey had a child that fell so far from the tree. Speaking of which, we still haven't seen her. For those who love a good fan theory, I definitely believe the theory that Richard is the offspring of Audrey and the evil Cooper who's been walking around the earth as an imposter for 25 years. It's rare that Peaks would ever appease the fans in such a way, but isn't it a hard theory to deny? Perhaps the thing more threatening is the fact that Richard has an 'in' at the sheriff's department with that one officer. This can only mean bad things. Overall, this episode was hostile and difficult to watch. No female character got through a scene without being either physically or emotionally hurt by a man, which probably isn't by coincidence. Dougie is still Dougie though, which means I'm still annoyed.

7.0/10

If you take the music out, this episode is disappointingly short. There are some interesting things that occur. First of all, there is Dougie, who walks through life totally out of the loop. He becomes the object of a plot at insurance fraud. The bad guys want to frame him, but since nothing fazes him anyway, who cares? We meet two brothers who are supposed to be his adversaries. We have the continuation of that violent kid who ran over a little boy attacking his own grandmother and taking everything she has. There is also probably a reason that we are focused on his mentally challenged cousin. He also killed a woman in a motor home. I would guess that next time we get back to the doings concerning bad Cooper. It seems like an eternity to get to the end. Once again, we are led into the rabbit hole.

Despite not feeling actually 'Twin Peaks' anymore, this outing was a solid improvement. Dougie has a growing, feeling-good moment here, the pacing was faster than usual, the story was funny enough and the final theme to close this hour is one of the most moving of the show. Surprisingly great! I Guess David Lynch touch caught me off guard this time.

We have entered the second half, and the first part manages to maintain the momentum of parts 7 and 9 fantastically while also shifting the focus onto a number of new characters who were briefly introduced in the first half but not really developed or focused on. Most prominent are the Mitchum brothers, who I would say were the main focus of this instalment. Robert Knepper and Jim Belushi have great chemistry, and their bewildered reactions to Candie's antics were not only hysterical, but helped to up the discomfort of the security camera scene which I found oddly disquieting.

Strange and unsettling scenes are of course a trademark of David Lynch (look no further than Part 8 for evidence), but I found that rather than the constant sense of unease that sometimes occurs (again, Part 8), this Part instead had a bevy of little moments that were each uncomfortable or surprising in their own way. I found myself squealing nearly every minute at some act of violence, plot twist, creepy visual, or unusual moment. Maybe it's just because of the contrast with the slower earlier parts (and Part 8, of course), but this right now feels like one of the more packed episodes of television I've ever seen.

All in all, this is yet another strong part in the revival. I love the way it's going and I feel like we're right where we need to be... although I do find it a little concerning that we're over halfway through and have yet to see Big Ed or Audrey.

In this episode we have - again - a series of vaguely connected, self-standing short stories. Bad boy Richard brings trouble wherever he goes; weird Candie behaves like your garden-variety Lynchianesque character; Log Lady sends cryptic messages.

At least, some of the action makes sense, even if a lot of it is violence to women. However, even in the dramatic scene of Richard and his granny, Lynch manages to dilute the tension by focusing on annoying, staged details (see the freakish doll...).

The sex scene is totally non-erotic... I felt like hitting the only woman left untouched: Janey, who by now must have pronounced the name "Dougie" just about a billion times

Despite the fact that the plot moves a bit, I doubt I will ever warm up to the characters. There are way too many of them, their stories are too sketchy and it seems a case of "famous actors wanting to add a Lynch-role to their curriculum" such as Ashley Judd - what is she doing here exactly?

Then, there is the level of suspended disbelief required. We know this is fiction, we know characters are not "real" but we still need a reason to follow their stories and root for (or against) them.

Considering the super-slow narrative, the lack of plot, the abundance of Lynch-nonsense and quirks for quickness sake, it seems to require too much of an effort to buy into this weird, unsettling, grim humorless world.