David Lynch has never been a filmmaker to pander to his audience or coddle them if they react negatively to his work. Rather, like a good parent, he sternly but lovingly introduces them to a slightly different experience that, given the proper attention, is difficult but rewarding. It is surprising that Lynch returned to Twin Peaks at all given the show received increasingly negative reviews from audiences and critics before being canceled and its sequel film, Fire Walk with Me, was roundly rejected. Two evolutions in his career and the industry had a tremendous influence on his decision. First, to see audiences pine for more information, more context and express renewed appreciation for the show and its characters must have given Lynch a sense of fulfillment and confidence as more people have recently begun to understand what his vision was and why it evolved the way it did. Secondly, as the movie industry has steadily declined into mere box-office extravaganzas that cost hundreds of millions of dollars and demand billions in return with no room for risky art-house or auteur visions, cable television (and eventually streaming networks) have become a haven for filmmakers looking to continue their trade in an environment of freedom, stability and loyalty that is otherwise increasingly difficult to find. Having not completed any movie or television projects since Inland Empire in 2006, some wondered if Lynch could still be relevant in an age that seems to have lost its patience for slower-paced material and willingness to be challenged visually and narratively. Perhaps this also fueled Lynch’s desire to return to filmmaking in a big way, and his ability to find a path somewhere between episodic television and epic moviemaking is as inspirational and profound as anything in Twin Peaks: The Return.

The title The Return never appears on the screen, but it is a very interesting choice of words for a show with such a rich and challenging history. As any diehard fan knows, Lynch’s initial vision was circumvented by fans and network executives clamoring for closure on Laura Palmer’s death, which effectively ended the mystery of the show and escalated its cancellation. Even when Lynch returned to direct the final episode of season 2, the mood and tone owed much less to what had already transpired. Instead, it appeared that Lynch was responding, in his characteristically abstract manner, to what fans claimed to want and decided to give them just that despite knowing they would not respond favorably. This point was proven moreso with the release of Fire Walk with Me, which focused so heavily on Laura and the circumstances leading up to her death that many fans of the show wondered why Lynch would end the series on an apparent cliffhanger and not even acknowledge it in the subsequent film. Yet, the possibility that Lynch ended the show the only way he knew how given the circumstances cannot be dismissed. What if the ending of season 2, with Cooper discovering the Black Lodge and ultimately being possessed by BOB himself was the intended finale? Could it be that the idea of trapping Cooper in a supernatural in-between world and releasing his evil doppelgänger was a way of signifying to the audience that evil had won and good was ineffectual because of its relentless, blind pursuit of the answers? Of course, if a third season had been made, Lynch could have found a way around this but nevertheless that episode remains as haunting and striking as anything from the first season and indicates why Lynch felt compelled to focus the movie on the sweet, dimpled face of Laura suffering for her destiny: the fate of Cooper, and thus the mystery of Twin Peaks the television series, was sealed. This also helps explain why audiences initially reacted negatively to Fire Walk with Me; the desire to know what happened to Cooper seemed more urgent because in many viewers’ mind Laura’s mystery had been resolved and related details were dispensable. However, Lynch’s insistence to focus on Laura shows his need to understand the person behind the photo; Laura’s life reveals true pain and suffering of a person destined to fight evil within her own home and the saintly existence she receives in the end implies that no matter what fans think of the show, the character of Laura Palmer is what truly drove Lynch to continue to explore this world. Thus, The Return signifies not only a return to the town of Twin Peaks and its surrounding mysteries but also a return to the mystery of Laura, the origins of her existence and the very existence of the show itself.

It would be foolish to presume that the majority of viewers who tuned into the new season thought much about whether or not Lynch intended to address their own questions about the series and movie. Instead it is a safe bet that they were overwhelmingly excited for a continuation of a show they believed had been prematurely cancelled. Yet, Lynch, given the same amount of time to ponder the themes of Twin Peaks and reactions to it, certainly had his own motivations in returning to this world and it is interesting to note how his lack of interest in validating audiences’ expectations opened up this limited series to even more interpretations than the original show. Some internet critics and fans have speculated upon Lynch using this opportunity to put a clear ending to the show and, indeed, the final sequence can be read that way. Whether or not more Twin Peaks comes in the future, it is important to recognize just how groundbreaking once again this show has become. When it first premiered in 1990, some loved it and others could not grasp its ideas and tone and simply ignored it. As the decades continue onward, it has become clearer that on some level Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost were attempting to comment on the nature of television at that time and the impact shows can have on their viewers. By demanding that Laura Palmer’s murder be resolved so soon when Lynch seemed more content to explore the town and the psychological impact such an event had, it revealed an ugly side of the American television audience. In the end, Laura became merely another discarded prime-time character, utilized merely for the fleeting thrills and delights of people tuning in night after night to see similar murder cases in other television shows as well as the news itself. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that this latest incarnation of Twin Peaks is rife with pointless, aggressive violence that is up-close and personal and signals a depressing lack of understanding and moral guidance on the part of many viewers. Gone is the off-beat, slightly magical, head-in-the-clouds optimism of Special Agent Dale Cooper and the slight troubles of the townspeople. Rather, Lynch forces us to watch Cooper escape the Lodge’s hold for sixteen hours, until he fully reemerges in the real world. For some this was undoubtedly frustrating but to witness the sheer dumb luck of ‘Dougie Jones’ as he often (literally) stumbles into success and avoids death is to marvel at Lynch’s understanding that the obvious interference of the creator has not caused many viewers to lose interest. Like the original series, Lynch continues to push the envelope of what is acceptable and it is here we see his commentary on the loss of the illusive reality of television. In previous decades audiences were more willing to accept suspension of belief but in this age of too much information nearly any kind of media is nitpicked to death and it becomes almost impossible to be taken into a world unlike our own and be accepted for what it is. As a result, Lynch tests us by daring to reveal the puppeteer’s strings and the positive reaction to the show may illustrate that some simply do not care how much a program tries to take us into a ‘dream world’ (Lynch’s phrase). Rather, our cynical postmodern nature does not allow for any form of faith in the ability of the creator. The death of the artist has reached its peak in our era and we should count ourselves fortunate that Lynch is one of the few still able to create and speak for these times.