As Emmy nominations approach, Vanity Fair’s HWD team is once again diving deep into how some of this season’s greatest scenes and characters came together. You can read more of these close looks here.

THE SCENE: TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN, PART 18

The final diner scene in the Twin Peaks saga starts cozily, like many other warm, nostalgic moments in diners throughout the run of the show. But when the man we have known as both Dale Cooper and Dougie Jones (Kyle MacLachlan) walks into a spot in Odessa, Texas, named Judy’s, the viewer is only just beginning to understand that the landscape of his world has once again been altered. Previously, MacLachlan’s character woke up to a note from the woman he thought was Diane (Laura Dern)—but in this missive, she signs her name “Linda,” and calls him “Richard.”

Something is different. But Richard, if that’s what his name is now, doesn’t let that stop him. At this point in the story, the man who was once Dale Cooper is so fixated on trying to right the story of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) that the details about where he is—or who he is—seem extraneous.

In a series of events that seems loaded with intention and significance—although it’s unclear why—Cooper/Richard walks into Judy’s, asks for the other waitress, and first intervenes with, then thoroughly neutralizes a group of dudes harassing the waitress on duty (Francesca Eastwood). He frightens an older couple having their breakfast, calmly assures everyone that he’s an F.B.I. agent (which, is he?), and drops his opponents’ weapons into a vat of bubbling hot oil.

Viewers who recall the lore of the show will remember that Judy is a name for the dark, essential evil that the Blue Rose task force tried to defeat. But even if you do remember that, the experience of watching this scene for the first time is destabilizing. It’s a moment that marks the beginning of a massive unraveling, one that concludes with Laura Palmer’s last anguished scream. Like so much else in David Lynch’s universe, the scene is marked by oddly anticlimactic pacing, thoroughly detailed set pieces, and self-conscious, brooding performances. It makes the action, when it finally does occur, feel especially electric and uncontrollable, like energy is seeping out of the frame.

Looking at the final episode of Twin Peaks: The Return as a whole, the diner scene is the pivot that locates Richard as someone distinct from Cooper—and serves as a gateway into the revival’s final nightmarish moments. When the jerks in the diner finally stand up, shaking off their wounds, they stare after Richard, Cooper, whoever he is—and ask, quite reasonably: “What the fuck just happened?”

HOW IT CAME TOGETHER

It was, of course, Lynch’s idea to dispose of the guns in the deep fryer, said Twin Peaks: The Return production designer Ruth De Jong. There was a real fire on set, but it was monitored by the crew; the production-design team worked closely with special effects to rig the stove and create a bubbling substance that looked like oil.

MacLachlan was taken in by the illusion. When they were filming, he said in a recent interview, he found himself thinking, “Oh man, I hope this doesn’t screw the guns up.”

“It wasn’t hot, it was bubbling with air. But you’re still dropping this thing and pretending it’s oil,” he explained, laughing. “These are the thoughts that go through the actor’s head. I feel for the props guys, they’re going to have to get these out, they’re gonna have to clean ’em. I better get it right the first time.” Details like those deep-fried guns are what make Lynch stand out as a director, he added. “The time it took for Cooper to come and get the guns and come back—and he let all of that play out in real time . . . all those little beats, David wanted me to play. . . . This is as important to the story—the placing of those, the rhythm of that—as anything else.”