Debating the Trifles of Twin Peaks: The Return Episode 5 Through a Sherlockian Lens

"It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles."

--Sherlock Holmes 

This is our take on the new season of Twin Peaks through a Sherlockian lens. Be forewarned that spoilers abound!

Brian:  Man, was I disappointed by this week’s episode (5) of Twin Peaks: The Return.  It proved that Lynch and Frost simply don’t have a strong enough story to sustain the length of this new season.  We get it:  Coop is confused.  Coop the Insurance Agent was mixed up in some shady business.  Coop has apparently become Peter Sellers from Being There since, unbelievably, nobody seems to think he has a concussion or is taking heavy tranquilizers. PLEASE, can we resolve this storyline and bring back the Agent Cooper who we’ve been waiting twenty-five years to return?  In Sherlockian terms, at least when Doyle padded his stories like A Study In Scarlet or The Valley of Fear, the diversions were interesting – you actually cared about the subplots with the Mormons and the Masons.  But this --- did we really need to wait five episodes to find out that Dr. Jacoby is selling shovels on YouTube?

Derrick: I agree that this episode fell flat. I disagree that there isn't enough material to sustain the story.  Lynch and Frost are taking their time with this third season, but Lynch was going to walk if Showtime did not give him a full 18 episodes to tell the season's story.  There's a reason for this, and I feel like Lynch is up to something here. As Holmes says, we need to pay attention to the trifles (more on that later), and there are many trifles to contend with, from the missing chocolate bunny (it was about the bunny) to hidden clues in the closing credits. Once the season wraps, I think we will have an easier time connecting the dots.

Brian:  One of the great strengths of Lynch’s directing style is his ability to draw out a scene soooooo sloooooowwwwwlllyyy... and have you riveted, because you know that there’s going to be a payoff.  The bank vault scene at the end of Season 2 is a perfect example; another would be the dialogue between Sheriff Truman and Andy waiting outside of Glastonbury Grove for Coop to return.  It’s a throwaway scene, and yet it conveys such a sense of fear and concern that it’s almost suffocating.  With this latest episode, I’m just getting bored.  I don’t think that there’s going to be any payoff to the Hawk/Andy/Lucy storyline.  While it’s really great to see Mrs. Palmer and Nadine and everyone again, it would be even better if they were… you know… doing something.  I’ll admit, the whole thing with Evil Coop and Phillip Jeffries at the end was fascinating, but it was buried under non sequiturs and the increasingly-annoying Dazed Coop storyline.

Most of the Sherlock Holmes canon consists of short stories.  We have a problem, we get just enough details on the setting and characters to engage us, and then Holmes solves the problem.  These stories are enjoyable, charming and inspiring.  Much of the joy of the original run of Twin Peaks came from its Sherlockian influences.  Here’s hoping we’ll see more of those as the new season continues.

Derrick:  There are two scenes this episode which I thought showed some glimmers of Holmesian influence. The first was the Evil Coop scene which Brian mentioned. In that scene, Evil Cooper is given his one call in prison. Knowing that the warden is listening in, evil Coop dials a long set of numbers which throw the prison security system out of whack.  The guards and the warden go into panic mode. What exactly did evil Coop do?  While everyone is distracted, Evil Coop whispers into the phone "The cow jumped over the moon." He then hangs up and everything returns to normal.

Why do I find this scene particularly Sherlockian? Aside from the mystery of it all, Evil Coop is now coming across as a criminal mastermind. He is the evil version of the Cooper we know and love from the first two seasons of Twin Peaks. He is just as knowledgeable but now is sinister. From that, we are seeing him develop into the Moriarty of the third season, just as Windom Earle served that purpose in the second season.  I'd like to see more of what Evil Cooper has been up to these past 25 years. Has he built a secret criminal empire?

The other scene to pay attention to in Episode 5 is... the closing credits. Yes, Frost and Lynch have been using the closing credits to reveal clues about characters. There is an excellent article about this by Scott Meslow over at GQ which you should read for a more in depth overview of all the hidden credit clues. In episode five we have a new menacing young character in the Bang Bang Bar. This character is purposely smoking under a No Smoking sign. He knows doing so will force a bouncer to approach him and he can pay this bouncer off. Whether he pays the man off because he's rich and can afford it, or if he is transferring funds from a drug deal is not yet revealed.

Brian:  The bouncer makes a point of being the one to deal with this character.  That, and the amount of bills in the cigarette case, imply that this was a drug payoff.

Derrick:  I agree; however, he could also be showing that because he is rich, he has little regard for the following the rules.

After paying off the bouncer, a girl next to him asks for a light and then in a disturbing scene, he has the girl sit next to him, gropes her, and makes lewd comments. Whether he was doing this to scare the girl away so she wouldn't bother him again or just to have malicious fun is also not yet revealed.

So, who is this man?  According to the credits, he is Richard Horne! Most likely this means he is the son of Audrey Horne and part of the wealthy Horne family. If this is true then why is Audrey's son so malicious? Why would he be involved in possible criminal activities (maybe a criminal enterprise)? And who is this boy's father?

Does this mean that I was wrong in my hypothesis that Audrey Horne is the person who called Cooper out of the Black Lodge and who owns the glass box in New York?  We shall see.

Brian:  Actually, he may not be Audrey's son.  It's just as likely that Richard is the son of Ben or Jerry Horne... very likely, considering how much those two like to party.  Johnny might even be the father --- a long shot, but this is a world where Bobby Briggs is now a police officer.  Anything's possible!

Derrick:  The point though is that even the credits of this show reveal vital clues.  Pay attention to all the details, the trifles, even the lyrics of each episode's closing song. Perhaps a character's name in the credits or a repeated chorus in a song will reveal why the good Cooper has not yet regained his faculties. Perhaps we will learn what is going on in Argentina.  Perhaps I am making bricks without clay.

We may know more next week. Stay tuned for more of our Twin Peaks observations through a Sherlockian lens.

Belanger Books is a small press owned by artist Brian Belanger and author Derrick Belanger specializing in new Sherlock Holmes books, Children's books, Steampunk, and genre specific anthologies.  Some of our books have been #1 bestsellers in their categories on Amazon.