10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 13
3. An Answer To A Mystery
Much like Bobby Briggs - whose near-constant bittersweet reverie was shaken by Part 11, in which he was finally asked to do something else - Norma Jennings was tasked with doing something beyond silently breaking her heart over surrogate daughter Shelly and filing paperwork.
It had become something of a running gag; Norma has been spotted almost exclusively in a back booth of the Double R, accounting for the finances of a small diner for a staggering length of time. Bluntly: how long does it take?
Happily, this isn't careless staging; Norma has franchised the Double R, setting up four other diners in the surrounding area with the help of entrepreneur Walter, played with a sleazily detached veneer by Grant Goodeve. We learn much in this scene, all of it thoroughly depressing. Twin Peaks, as we've inferred, is experiencing a downturn in economic fortunes, and the other franchises have borrowed the cherry pie recipe and cherrypicked lesser ingredients to ensure profitability.
Is it stretching the dough to compare this enterprise to Mr. C's pilfering of our beloved Special Agent? In a show as layered as this, every minute poses a mystery.