Twin Peaks Recap “The Return: Part 5”

Before we dive into Twin Peaks, “The Return: Part 5,” it has to be mentioned how much this Twin Peaks revival has struggled creating new female characters.

Starting with Tracy from the first two parts and ending with the young smoker at the bar, the show has established these flimsy dependent women. It’s nice to see hard-working characters like Shelly and Norma return but hopefully Twin Peaks will begin crafting characters who aren’t drug addicted, dumbed down, or assaulted for the sake of raising the stakes. In this age of television, there is no acceptable reason to not have equally complex women especially in television when there’s more time to flesh out characters.

Now that my biggest complaint is out-of-the-way, “The Return: Part 5,” continues to split the episode’s time between the town of Twin Peaks and different areas of the United States. Not much happens on the “Dougie as Coop” storyline since he still has the brain of a child who is simply trudging through life quietly. His wife (a completely under-used Naomi Watts) is beginning to take notice of his weird behavior and mentions that he’s having another episode. It’s a throwaway line but does clue the audience into why she was willing to overlook his unusual personality change in the previous episode.

Image Credit: Showtime

Unfortunately, fake-Dougie doesn’t fare so well at work where he not only makes an enemy out of one of his coworkers, he ostensibly gets fired as well. Unless his wife decides to do all of the work he was meant to do to save it but judging by the lingering final shot of the episode, Dougie’s career is toast.

On the evil Coop front, there aren’t many big reveals either. He does make a phone call to the prison which sets off all the alarms, messes up their security cameras, and turns the lights on, but doesn’t try to escape once. With the military on the trail of “Major Garland’s” prints, the next episode will prove to have larger consequences than “The Return: Part 5”.

Although Tammy, the new FBI Agent who made her debut last week, seems to be on to something. Hopefully it’s enough to turn her into a compelling character because so far all we’ve heard is how amazing she is yet she’s sent away during all the important conversations.

While many of the female characters are lacking, some returning faces pick up the slack. Norma is still running the diner in Twin Peaks with Shelly by her side. Unfortunately, Shelly’s daughter (played by Amanda Seyfried) is living off of her mother’s wages so her and her boyfriend can afford their coke addiction. While the two lovebirds happily drive away with their blow and her mother’s hard-earned money, Norma gives Shelly a stern talking to.

Undoubtedly, Shelly will have to force Becky to acknowledge her irresponsibility which could turn out to be a good learning lesson or will force her into a similar situation her mother was in. While Shelly may have gotten married too young to the wrong guy, she at least worked incredibly hard to support herself and later Bobby. While it’s still unclear whether Bobby is the father of Becky, but if he is hopefully he can knock some sense into her.

Image Credit: Showtime

At the Bang Bang Bar, a new rebellious smoker is hanging out completely ignoring the “no smoking” sign. He looks like he might be the new Bobby from the way the young girls are smitten by him and his clear lust for a good fight. Unfortunately, he turns out to be a clear sociopathic criminal by handing off thousands of dollars at the bar then choking one of the younger girls from the booth in front of him while threatening to rape her. Jane Levy makes her first appearance as the girl’s friend who tells him to stop but the scene is still incredibly disturbing as he continues to laugh and choke her.

More from Show Snob

In the weirdest side story to date, Dr. Jacoby has begun hosting a live-stream radio show similar to Infowars. He uses patriotism and outlandish theories to gain viewers where they excitedly mouth agreement along with him. It’s easily Twin Peaks attempt at criticizing our current political climate but rather than have it be a rallying cry, it turns out to be an advertisement.

That’s right, all of those spray-painted shovels were just a scam for Jacoby to sell at a ridiculously high price to his viewers. It’s unclear whether “The Return: Part 5,” is his swan song for the series unless these shovels will come into play later on.

“The Return: Part 5,” also continues on the Twin Peaks tradition of the electricity foreshadowing something bad is going to happen. With the consistent imagery of electricity as well as Evil Coop’s stunt at the jail,. this show is definitely ramping up for a big ending. Next week poor Dougie will undoubtedly run into more trouble with thugs, work, and his marriage but the newly mailed back key to The Great Northern Hotel will open even more mysteries for the Twin Peaks’ Sheriff Department.