10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 4
3. Wally Brando: Between Two Worlds Of Delight And Embarrassment
One of few fan theories has revealed itself to be true: Michael Cera is playing the biker son of Andy and Lucy Brennan. His sole scene thus far has proved divisive.
Some are baffled that Lynch used the actor to perform an off-kilter and seemingly dissonant impression of Marlon Brando, the man whose name he was bestowed and whose identity he has assumed. Others, your writer included, found his lispy line readings as hilarious as Lynch and Frost's dialogue, in which he deduced where his shadow could be found via laborious process of elimination ("not at night...or on cloudy days...").
The scene on first impression seems out of place, even gimmicky - fan service stunt casting. But the decision to cast him as a Brando impersonator drives home the theme of identity and steers it into a lighter, on-the-nose direction than is evident elsewhere. There is a tenuous (though still evident) thematic link to the series itself; like Mr. C, he is incapable of inhabiting a persona with any degree of realism. His Brando is cartoonish, garbled, but purposefully so.
Cera's performance also nods wryly at a maligned season two storyline. With his bizarre affectations and pretentious cultural grasp, it's hard to fathom that Wally isn't the biological son of Dick Tremayne.