10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 4
5. Angelo Badalamenti Is Pressing The Keys More Firmly
Angelo Badalamenti's score has been curious - or perhaps more conspicuous - in its absence.
He was featured in one of few promotional teasers, and his name is proudly flaunted in a mostly bare opening credits sequence. His eerie, beautiful synths and jazzy interludes have barely been heard, but the minimal use has already lent one scene a rich gravitas; his Dark Mood Woods scored Hawk's foray into the woods in the two-hour premiere, but several scenes since have played out to silence. We have been told by Hawk, repeatedly, that something is "missing". A wonderful, evocative scene in Part 4 suggests this clue extends beyond the central mystery.
Bobby Briggs is on the right side of the law in what presumably is 2014, given that The Return is set 25 years after Laura Palmer's 1989 death. His first appearance sees him enter the conference room. The sad, familiar strains of Laura Palmer's Theme swell up as the camera lingers on her image, prompting a fit of emotion in Bobby and viewer alike.
Provided the relative absence is deliberate - and it seems to be, given the clues strewn within dialogue and Lynch's far-away, observant direction in many of the Pacific Northwest scenes filmed thus far - it's incredibly astute.
Badalamenti's score was used both excessively and incongruously during the original series, the repetition draining its mystique and resonance. There is no arbitrary usage here; we are slowly and purposefully being welcomed into the world.