The forethought of mastermind David Lynch alone is enough to leave me flummoxed. How could he have possibly imagined…?
The scene with Laura Palmer and an aged Agent Cooper in the Black Lodge filmed over 25 years ago has come to full fruition. Remembering the Agent Cooper made up to look old way back then, and then seeing his actually aged face in this moment, in the same set with its zigzag floor and bright red velvet curtains, but with the statue now large and dominant …Chills.
And then the diary entry, “This came to me in a dream last night. ‘My name is Annie. I’ve been with Dale and Laura. The good Dale is in the Lodge and he can’t leave. Write it in your Diary.’” written on yellow paper and tucked away in the door of a bathroom stall for now grey-haired Hawk to discover, led by synchronicity and the disjointed words of Margaret Lanterman…Mega chills.
Look, I’m not here to give you a recap. There are millions out there and you should probably just go watch the show anyway, because it’s good, like REALLY good. It’s on Netflix and Amazon. Plus everyone and their mom are talking about it on Youtube, so hop to it. Love it or hate it, Twin Peaks is everything right now.
With a mythology half science fiction and half shamanism, a plot that rivals every soap opera that has ever existed, and a hearty dose of Jungian psycho-mysticism, in 1990, it broke all molds of Television history…and it’s happening again.
I wondered how they could do it.. Would it end up being like the X-files reboot, aged and corny, championing stereotypes where they once were challenged? I was seriously let down by that continuation and did not want the same to be true for this.
As I began to watch, there was a moment when a bit of doubt crept in.. and then as if someone read my mind, a lipstick-wearing David Duchovny intervened and voiced my exact concerns, and Lynch himself—as Agent Cole—assured that no, this woman, Agent Preston, is not just here because of her long thin neck, hourglass figure, and cat-woman-esque bone structure. She has an important part to play. Ok, I’m waiting for it.
And then Episode 8 happened—which I wrote all about here—and my heart swam again in that ocean of Lynchian surreal abstraction that— as a writer, and artist, and thinker, and regular old human being—I live for.
So if you have not already, give it a try. Test your patience. Gaze in wonder and disgust and joy and wild awe. In this climate of tyrannical buffoonery, and selfie-centric social media, I feel we need this totally other kind of media in our lives. We need the language of dream and magic. We need metaphysical crises to ponder. We need mystery, curiosity, and bravery in the face of the unknown. This artwork is here for us now, to provoke a level of thought and feeling that little else has gotten to in a long time. Or maybe ever.
The best part of the whole thing is that it feels like a community experience. Voices around the world are chiming in, sharing secrets, asking questions, rolling eyes, laughing out loud, all of it.
So feel free to share your thoughts on the return of Twin Peaks below even if it’s not your cup of tea. Let’s hear it.
...and to set the mood, "Shadow" by the Chromatics.
You're welcome :)