10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 13
1. Big Ed's Sad Song
Finally; after 12 hours, we finally revisit Big Ed Hurley, the last of the original holdouts. Where the return of Audrey Horne proved divisive, Big Ed's two scenes play as one heartbreaking short film in its own right, if viewed standalone.
We reacquaint ourselves with him in the Double R, sat in a booth opposite teenage sweetheart and illicit adulthood lover Norma Jennings. Bizarrely modern fade haircut aside, Big Ed hasn't changed. His is a warm, avuncular presence. He invites Bobby to sit with him - or rather, he instructs him to "get his butt over here," with a mock-strict insistence. It's a heartbreaking what if scenario for Ed and audience alike. When Norma's business (and implied romantic) partner Walter literally displaces him, he steals looks from her. Sadly, this isn't the adolescent simulation of the original series. There doesn't seem to be anything to rescue Norma from, no lost life to capture. Norma has moved on.
Like Sarah, Ed is stuck in a loop - of a more mundane variety. He tortures himself back at his gas farm, nursing soup, ordinarily a symbol of comfort, in a subversive means of conveying the tragic stillness of his life.
These are vignettes of small town heartbreak, in which Lynch and Frost again use the 25 year shortcut to create a tender short story.