10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 13
Is it future, or is it past?
And nothing will proceed linearly.
Sheriff Frank Truman, Deputy Hawk and Bobby Briggs first learnt of Jack Rabbit's Place - the destination of Major Briggs' posthumous message - in Part 9. They were told to go there in two days' time. Since that message was received, several more suns than that have set, triggering concerns of a lackadaisical grasp of chronology and continuity.
Part 13 confirmed that certain scenes have been purposefully edited in non-linear fashion. Bobby Briggs, in a subverted scene from the pilot (a recurring motif), cordially confirms to a returning Big Ed Hurley that he received said message "earlier today" - placing the sequence before his later gunshot investigation in Part 11. We know that this was done so by design rather than accident - dialogue is surely a safeguard against such errors, you would hope.
The purpose of this approach is unknown. Perhaps - and this is a strange suggestion, given Lynch's steadfast insistence that this is not strictly an episodic television show - he felt the chronology was incidental, instead opting to position scenes via thematic resonance in order to imbue each Part with a standalone identity.
Or - given the delayed and looped usage of time in two phenomenal scenes of a phenomenal hour - the effect is meant to disorient, in order to serve an as-yet-elusive time fracture...
10. Audrey Isn't Leading Her Own Dance
A fan theory growing in popularity is that Audrey isn't living in the real world, but has manifested a construct of what she might perceive it as, had she awoken from the coma the Twin Peaks Savings and Loan bombing threw her into 25 years prior. This is fuelled by a briefer but no less puzzling scene in Part 13.
"Audrey, we've been over this," Charlie says, using the stern nomenclature of a psychiatrist and sitting, conspicuously, on a couch. "Audrey: stop it," he says, assuming the power in whatever their relationship may actually be. "I feel like I'm somewhere else," she says. It's the biggest clue yet. For what, nobody has a firm idea. Whether it's a red herring or not cannot therefore be deduced. Audrey doesn't know where she is, or who she is, harking back to the similarly comatose Ronette Pulaski, who didn't know "if" she was. Nonexistence, indeed. She doesn't know where the Roadhouse is. She has been a resident of Twin Peak for at least 18 years. This grows curiouser and curiouser.
Lost in the furore surrounding her role is the brilliance of Sherilyn Fenn's performance. She plays profound confusion and anxiety with a startling, unsettling authenticity.
If this isn't some form of simulation, that doesn't seem to be the impression Frost and Lynch intend to make. Mystifying misdirection abounds when Charlie says "Now, are you going to stop playing games, or do I have to end your story too?"
Something does not add up. Something, as the Log Lady warned, is missing.