Half of me wants him to tell me more about how the road is his dharma. Half of me wants to punch him in the face.
GRADE: A-
SYNOPSIS
Cooper helps a destitute woman win big at the casino. He goes “home” with his own winnings. Dougie’s wife Janey-E is furious – he’s been gone three days and missed his son’s birthday. But she says the money would be enough “to pay them back”. Gordon meets with Denise Bryson. Lucy is terrified of cell phones. We are introduced to a different Sheriff Truman. Bobby Briggs is revealed to now be a police officer. Lucy and Andy’s son pays a visit. The One-Armed Man appears to Cooper and says that “one of you must die”. Gordon, Albert, and Tammy pay an unsettling visit to Mr. C in prison. Gordon tells Albert he wants a certain woman to have a look at the man claiming to be Cooper.
REVIEW
The kindness various people extend to Cooper flows both ways – here he points a down-on-her-luck woman to a machine that will win her a jackpot. The joy in her face (which contrasts with how embittered she was previously) is reflected in Cooper’s – one of the only times we see him express much emotion in this new state. MacLachlan is hilarious in this sequence, bellowing, “Hellooooooo!” every time he pulls down a machine’s lever (he’s imitating another patron he saw react to a win). In fact, MacLachlan’s performance as this version of Cooper is as richly realized as his Mr. C. And it’s great fun to see Naomi Watts show up as Dougie’s spitfire of a wife.
This is the last thing you see before she wallops you across the face.
We get more of a sense in this episode of just how basic Cooper’s functionality is. Everyone who interacts with him has to carry 95% of the conversation, and he even has to relearn how to pee. It’s quite the shock compared to Cooper’s previously super-sharp brain, and it was a lot to handle for many viewers. I confess it wasn’t easy for me either. This is where we began waiting for Cooper to fully return. “Surely his first taste of coffee will do the trick!” we thought. But no. I found that it all goes down easier watching the season the second time around, once you know its shape.
Robert Forster does a difficult thing, making a “regular” guy feel grounded and subtly flavourful, AND instantly making us accept someone new in the sheriff role (though upon reflection I would’ve loved to see Michael Ontkean react to Wally). Another new face at the station is Deputy Chad Broxford, who’s dripping with seething hatred. Lynch loves mystery, but paradoxically, a lot of his secondary characters tend to be instantly scannable archetypes. I suppose he’s using them as tools.
There’s also an old face in a new place – I’m not even sure why, but it makes some sort of sense that Bobby ended up a policeman. The scene where he breaks down after seeing Laura’s picture summons “Laura Palmer’s Theme”, the first time music from the show’s original run is heard this season (credits aside). What’s significant is that it occurs at a moment that’s about the past. To many people’s chagrin, The Return rarely traffics in nostalgia. And when it does, it’s in brief, purposeful ways like this one. Aside from that cue, there’s hardly any music in the episode at all. This is true of much of the season, and it makes for a much drier tone than the show used to have.
Wally Brando sharply divided fans. I stand firmly on the “pro” side. Yes, he’s incredibly annoying, but I think it’s hilarious. The way Michael Cera pronounces “Caucasians” (Caucaseans) is brilliantly pretentious, Wally’s speech about the various places he sees his shadow is perfectly ridiculous, and his lisp is the cherry on top. And Robert Forster’s exasperation is priceless.
Denise Bryson’s appearance doesn’t serve a narrative purpose, but it does give Lynch the welcome opportunity to express how he feels about transphobes, whom Cole believes should “fix their hearts or die”, and to show a transgender person in a position of power and respect.
Cole, Rosenfield, and Preston’s visit to Mr. C is chilling, primarily because of the robotic slur he speaks in – I’m guessing a combination of having just puked up all his garmonbozia and creepily attempting to imitate Cooper. It’s one of MacLachlan’s best moments – he’s playing a man without a soul pretending to have one and failing.
The first three episodes were about setting the plot in motion. This episode is what most of the show will be like from this point. It’s considerably less visually dazzling, but that makes sense because we’re not in a fantastical realm anymore. The fact that Lynch/Frost wrote this as one big thing is becoming evident – it’s why they’re called “parts” and not “episodes”. Individual parts don’t have a theme or a unifying mood, and there isn’t much structure, which results in some unusual rhythms. Maybe that’s what led to the decision to end most of them with a musical performance, to usher us out even though the narrative doesn’t provide a sense of episodic conclusion. I’m certainly glad for it; the songs are all pretty great.
Stray observations:
- Lucy’s issue with cell phones is that she perceives it as someone being in two places at once. Which becomes relevant later.
- My biggest laugh of the episode is Cole’s reaction to a photo of Mount Rushmore: “There they are, Albert. Faces of stone.”
- I could’ve done without the camera eyeing Tammy’s backside and having Miguel Ferrer say “I feel better now.”