10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 12
2. "God D*mn, You People Are Confusing."
During Audrey's depressing reintroduction, she makes reference to a "Paul", a peripheral figure she threatens her husband with. This, and another threat to break their contract, compels Charlie to join her search for Billy. "I'm so sleepy, but I'll go," he says. Theirs is a strange Oedipal arrangement.
Charlie himself makes a call to an as-yet-unseen "Tina", "supposedly" the last person to see Billy. "Chuck" told Audrey that Tina was the last person to see Billy. Talk of a truck connects Audrey and Billy to the hit and run incident of Part 6, but that is as far as the viewer is permitted to make sense of this random stream of names. Only one side of the phone call, Charlie's, is heard. Audrey hurries him along with frantic gestures; Charlie, at the close of the call, refuses to divulge to Audrey its contents.
We then cut to the Roadhouse and meet two new characters - Natalie (Ana De La Reguera) and Abbie (Elizabeth Anweis) occupying the same booth as Part 9's (one-and-done?) Chloe and Ella. A reference is made to an Angela. And a Clark. And a Mary. Another new character, Scott Coffey's Trick, makes hilarious reference to some "as*-eater" who nearly runs him off the road. Like the best Lynch material, the effect is unsettling in the most mundane manner imaginable. All we're learning is a list of faceless names. Who are these people? Will we even see or hear from the again? Why are we learning about so many of them in quick succession? Why is a rapid-fire burst of pure exposition so discomforting?
Is it the unseen presence of a secret Twin Peaks, one even more elusive than the one we are slowly familiarising ourselves with? A major theme of The Return has been alienation. This was explored to jarring effect here. By the time the credits rolled, much of the audience must have felt as stupefied as Dougie Jones.
Given the overall theme of the series, it is exceptional writing...I think.