Recap of Twin Peaks
Season 3, Episode 1
The Return: Part 1
Written by Mark Frost and David Lynch.
Directed by David Lynch.
Airdate: May 21, 2017
Dale Cooper remains trapped in the Black Lodge. The Giant sit opposite him and directs his attention to a gramophone, which plays a strange scratching noise, and he warns Cooper that it is "in our house now." He then relates a number of cryptic messages, "430" and "Richard and Linda. Two birds with one stone", to which Cooper replies, "I understand."
In Twin Peaks, Dr. Jacoby receives a shipment of shovels to the trailer where he lives and spray paints them gold.
In New York City, Sam Colby sits in a warehouse watching a mysterious glass box monitored by cameras. Tracey Barberato, a local barista, visits him to bring a delivery of coffee. There is clear sexual tension between Tracey and Sam, and she asks Sam if she could get a peek at the project he is working on, but Sam reminds her that it is secret, and points out that the security guard who is watching them probably won't allow it.
At the Great Northern, Ben Horne introduces his brother Jerry to his new secretary, Beverly. The two brothers talk briefly about Beverly, with Jerry convinced that Ben will eventually sleep with her, much to Ben's exasperation, and about Jerry's new profession as a cannabis cultivator.
Deputy Chief Hawk gets a call from the Log Lady, who is clearly suffering from late-stage cancer. She tells him some evidence relating to Dale Cooper is missing.
In New York, Tracey visits Sam again. Much to Sam's puzzlement, the security guard is not at his usual post, nor anywhere else for that matter. He decides to grab the opportunity and lets Tracey into the room. He shows her the glass box and reveals that he doesn't know too much about the project, which, as far as he has heard is backed by an eccentric billionaire. He is just supposed to watch the box, and report it if he sees anything inside it. Intrigued, Tracey asks him if he has ever seen something appear. Sam admits that he hasn't personally seen anything, but his predecessor apparently had, but he refused to talk about it. The two of them sit down to watch the box and start making out, before undressing. As they have sex, a pale androgynous entity, the Experiment, materializes in the glass box and savagely murders them.
In Buckhorn, South Dakota, Cooper's doppelganger, a sinister, long-haired man with black irises, visits a trailer pack to retrieve his associates, Ray and Darya.
In an apartment complex in Buckhorn, the severed head of the local school librarian Ruth Davenport is discovered placed on the headless body of a John Doe. Local Detective Dave Macklay takes charge of the investigation. He is shocked when he learns that the fingerprints of his friend, Bill Hastings, the local school principal, are found at the crime scene. Reluctantly, Macklay goes to Bill's house and arrests him in front of his wife, Phyllis.
At the Twin Peaks Sheriff Station, Hawk brings Andy and Lucy to the conference room, where he conveys Margaret's message.
At the Buckhorn Police Station, Macklay meets Detective Don Harrison and Police Officer Mike Boyd, who has been sent by the state police to help on the case. Macklay starts interrogating Bill on his relationship with Davenport. Bill says he barely knew Davenport and that the last time he saw her was a couple of months earlier, but his alibi contains a gap on the day of the murder, on which he took his assistant Betty home after a meeting. As Macklay writes down notes about Bill's statement, he produces a scratching noise that seems to agitate Bill. When Bill eventually asks if he can talk to his lawyer, George, Macklay informs him that Davenport was murdered and he appears to be the prime suspect. Bill is then escorted to a cell, where he asks to speak to his wife.
Macklay and Harrison go to the Hastings home with a police team and a search warrant for the house. Upon inspecting the car, the two find an unidentifiable lump of human flesh in the trunk under a portable fridge.
Now alone, the Giant watches the phonograph as it continues to play the strange scratching noise.
Tropes:
- As You Know: Lucy points out to Deputy Chief Hawk that Agent Cooper has been missing for twenty-five years. This despite the fact Hawk would certainly know this. Amusingly, it is actually somewhat of a justified version, as it is perfectly in-character for Lucy to point out such a thing.
- Body Horror: Ruth Davenport's head is put on the headless body of an older middle-aged man.
- Character Development: Ben Horne has gone from being a literal pimp and serial adulterer to being a respectable man who holds the idea of going after a married woman in contempt.
- Demonic Possession: What Cooper has been suffering through for the past 25 years. Unusually, for this trope, his spirit is in another place (The Black Lodge) and he has no ability to resist BOB walking around in his body.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Ben tries to shame Jerry for his eating his own profits and becoming The Stoner. Jerry points out they make three times as much money with their legal pot business as they do the hotel.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: They were originally both this but the Horne brothers have since moved in opposite directions.
- Hillbilly Horrors: A Downplayed Trope example as Dopple Coop deals with a group of criminals who invoke this trope.
- Mugging the Monster: A redneck guard tries to intimidate Dopple Coop, only to get beaten down easily.
- Out with a Bang: Tracey and Sam have this when the monster in the glass box kills them mid-coitus.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The new Sheriff Truman is the previous one's older brother.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Tracey and Sam have this but not for long. It gets them killed.
- Where Are They Now: We get updates on the locations and status of several characters.
- Cooper is still trapped in the Black Lodge.
- BOB is apparently inhabiting Cooper's body (it's a bit more complicated than that) and engaging in petty crime.
- Ben Horne is still the owner of the Great Northern but has become far less sleazy.
- Jerry Horne is now a legal marijuana dealer.
- Sheriff Harry S. Truman is now dying of stomach cancer as a means of Put on a Bus to explain Michael Ontkean's absence.
- Lucy, Hawk, and Andy are still working at more or less their same jobs at the Sheriff's department.
- Who's on First?: A version of this happens when an insurance salesman comes in asking for Sheriff Truman and Lucy is confused as he can't identify which one he wants (while the other man has no idea there are two Sheriff Truman's).
- Zeerust: The Glass Box seems a combination of 90s technology with Steampunk.
