“Part 15” of Twin Peaks: The Return dove right in with a continuation from the original Twin Peaks seasons 1 and 2, with Nadine walking up to Ed and notifying him she would give him a divorce. Back in the early 90s, Ed and Norma wanted to be together, but they were never really allowed to except for a brief time in season 2 while Nadine was going through her high school phase.
It was clear how broken Ed was—obviously because he was unhappy without Norma. After the great and unselfish act by Nadine, who decided she just wanted Ed to be happy, Ed headed right to the Double R to tell Norma of the news. Though Walter arrived and Norma had to talk to him.
The arrangement just wasn’t working out—Norma only cared about the classic Double R diner in Twin Peaks. Per the agreement, Norma could be brought out and receive a handsome payday for her shares, which she wanted to use for her family. No, she doesn’t have a family, but the people of Twin Peaks are her family—something obvious to those in Twin Peaks, but not to Walter, the outsider.
Ed sat there with his eyes closed, just hoping more than anything he’s ever hoped for that things wouldn’t go well in Norma’s convo with Walter—and his wish was granted. Finally, after a couple decades-plus, Ed and Norma are getting married. Their relationship was so prevalent in the original series, and I think it’s something everyone wanted to see happen throughout this entire ordeal that is Twin Peaks.
Then, we get to Evil Cooper, who was driving down a long road (something common in the original Twin Peaks and its movies). He got to the “convenience store” and went upstairs. If you’ll remember from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Dale had a dream about the upstairs in the convenience store. In the dream, The Man from Another Place, Bob, the old woman and young boy Laura and Donna both encountered, and a couple other things including the long-nosed white face mask creature were there and some crazy stuff was going on. It appears the convenience store might be part of the Black Lodge—perhaps a portion of it, and maybe there are different parts scattered across the world.
Evil Cooper encountered “Phillip Jeffries”, though Jeffries was now some sort of boiling-type machine. Yeah, not exactly sure how that happened. Mr. C was questioning the machine sounding like and claiming to be Jeffries about someone named “Judy”. We have no idea who Judy is, currently.
In a sort of a rare twist/surprise, Richard was waiting outside with a gun pointed at Evil Cooper. Richard is kind of a fake tough guy though, and Evil Coop easily disarmed him and told him to get in the truck. Some believe Evil Cooper got Audrey Horne pregnant and Richard is his/its son. Does Mr. C have some explaining to do on the drive with Richard?
Speaking of Audrey, it almost feels like she’s still in the coma she was apparently in after the bank explosion in the season 2 finale. She’s seemingly unable to leave the house, and is extremely announced by Charlie. Audrey even basically told Charlie she knows who he is—is Charlie a figment of Audrey’s imagination?
Good old Dale Cooper was eating some pie, thanks to Janey-E. The two of them haven’t had the FBI come knocking at their doors yet, as they are fumbling with the investigation and brought in a family that does not match the description of Dougie and Janey-E. The child-like Dougie was messeing around with items on the kitchen table before he switched on the television (accidentally) and the movie Sunset Boulevard was on.
In the movie, the character named “Gordon Cole” (of course, the same name as FBI director Gordon Cole) was mentioned, which triggered something in Coop that made him gasp. For a second, it appeared he might snap out of it and remember everything, but instead he was drawn to the electrical outlet and stuck a fork in it, terrifying Janey-E (and Sonny Jim, who was upstairs wondering what was going on). We’re not sure what came of Cooper making that unknowingly stupid move.
Duncan Todd also met his end, thanks to Chantal Hutchens, who was sent by Evil Cooper. We’ll have to see what happens in response to this, but it was presumably a huge move by Evil Cooper as he tries to accomplish whatever it is he’s trying to accomplish.
At the Roadhouse, a couple things happened. One, James got beat up after saying hi to Renee, then he and Freddie were put in jail after Freddie might’ve killed both the guys beating up James. The other thing was to end the episode, where the girl named “Ruby” was waiting for someone and was then kicked out of the booth before she started crawling and let out a frightening scream to cap off “Part 15”.
I have to note that we said our goodbyes to Margaret Lanterman, “the Log Lady”, played by Catherine E. Coulson. The late Catherine E. Coulson was a true symbol in Twin Peaks, and the show would not be what it is without her. May Catherine E. Coulson rest in peace.