10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 10
Hello, Johnny. How are you today?
The last seven days brought with them a lurching - and appropriately Lynchian - sense of dread. Part 9 marked the first occasion on which Twin Peaks: The Return stuttered in places, almost self-consciously evaluating its labyrinthine narrative. The dense plot was unpacked with much exposition, stupefying the viewer more than it left us reeling in a state of unknowing wonderment.
It still posed questions, even while doling out answers - but the most pertinent, disturbingly, concerned the structure of the plot. Is it too intricate to simply show, and not tell?
In a superior Part 10, there was but one clunky moment of exposition in an hour of cinema that, elsewhere, was a return to a classic Lynchian theme. Duncan Todd summoned Anthony Sinclair to his desk - but instructed him to remain standing, thematically mirroring Richard Horne by exercising his last ugly morsel of agency - he asked him if he "recalls his business rivals and bitter enemies the Mitchum brothers." It was a blunt turn of phrase intended not for Sinclair but for the viewer.
Reassuringly, it was the only concession made to our comfort in what otherwise was 52 minutes of unrelenting ugliness.
10. Richard Horne Is A Being Of Unspeakable Awfulness
Part 10 begins with Richard Horne covering up his tracks following the gut punch hit and run of Part 6.
He paid a visit to Miriam, giggling doppelgänger of the RR's Heidi. You knew, when he caught her in the rear view mirror of The Farmer's truck, that she was not long for this world. Miriam explained that she mailed a letter to the police confirming that he was behind the wheel. If anything were to happen to her, the police would know he was the culprit.
Something did happen to her; Horne smashed the plate glass door of her trailer and battered her. This was not filmed directly; Lynch instead made the decision to let the scene play out in the mind of the viewer, capturing the sounds from a distance. Given the overarching theme of the hour, it was conspicuous for not being remotely gratuitous. The scene was a narrative necessity required to propel many subplots forward and reinforce the sheer awfulness of Richard's character.
What happened to her and or what is going to happen to her is self-evident. Blood pooled from her head. Scratch marks scarred her arms. Horne lit a candle and turned the gas oven on.
You'd think she was dead...