On Sunday, one of the year’s most fascinating television events will come to a close when “Twin Peaks: The Return” airs its two-hour finale. It’s now apparent that the show’s co-creators, David Lynch and Mark Frost, had something very different in mind than a simple sequel series. Until this week’s episode, the original show’s beloved main character, the F.B.I. agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) was nowhere to be found. Sort of. It’s complicated.

Since Mr. Lynch has straddled the TV-movie divide for much of his career, The New York Times TV and movie critics James Poniewozik and Manohla Dargis met above a certain convenience store to discuss the first 16 hours of “The Return.”

MANOHLA DARGIS “Finally!” – to quote one of the most perfectly timed jokes of this glorious season.

JAMES PONIEWOZIK They called this series, “Twin Peaks: The Return.” I don’t think we realized it was going to be more like “The Eternal Return.” It was 16 episodes before the Dale Cooper we knew rematerialized. He was Odysseus, but instead of on a ship, he was waylaid in the life of one Douglas (Dougie) Jones of Las Vegas.

It was a hell of a payoff. Mr. MacLachlan shows you Cooper before he speaks a word — his eyes popping eagerly open, shaking off the Dougie Novocain. Was it too late? I don’t think so, but then I wasn’t too interested in “Twin Peaks” cranking up its old hits in the first place.