Some people give flowers, some a Starbucks gift card, some an edible fruit arrangement. All are pretty good gifts from a co-worker. But, when Harry S. Truman was tasked with getting a going away present for a two-and-half-week visitor to his town, he settled on something a little bit different. Harry gave Special Agent Dale Cooper a “Green Butt Skunk” fishing lure. He explained that when those fish are heading up stream they are thinking of only one thing: SEX. Nothing can break their concentration more than a Green Butt Skunk. This summer I feel like Mark Frost & David Lynch gave me a Green Butt Skunk, and I couldn’t be more thankful.

If there is one rule in 2017, it is to not get political with strangers. At any moment things can get ugly. You live in your bubble and I live in mine. Its the law. We try really hard not to burst any bubbles around here. I will not take a stand on politics, but I will say, no matter which side of the stream you were swimming on in May 2017, there was probably only one thing on your mind: The state of our country. Things were bad in May, they are worse in August. Again, no matter what side you are on, chances are, you think the other side is really, really wrong. What could possibly turn our segregated heads? A Green Butt Skunk.

Frost & Lynch dropped that lure into the waters of television and the school of television fans, starving for something new, changed direction and all swam together. Yes, even me, who had theories that contradicted with EVERYONE ELSE. (I still wanna believe that Richard Horne is from Johnny, but I doubt even the Red Room small gold ball can make that happen.) The distraction I was given this summer has been so much fun. So rewarding.

Every Sunday night, I was taken away to another world…and sometimes multiple worlds. Afterwards my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feed was filled with theories, pictures, quotes and Memes. It was nice to see us all wondering where the music was. Wondering where Big Ed was. Heck, just plain getting to wonder was a gift. Not knowing is fun, isn’t it? What’s the fun in knowing? You want to KNOW something, turn on the news. Was that fun?

That has always been my favorite part of Twin Peaks. As I write this, we are days away from the ending of Twin Peaks: The Return (TPR). I don’t know if we will get answers, but I am kind of hoping we don’t. Just dangle another lure in front of me and make me swim in another direction.

On September 4th, we will go back to a life without a sprawling mystery to wonder about. I will deeply miss my Sunday routine. I will miss my Monday morning, afternoon and evening calls with my Twin Peaks friends in different time zones. Arguing about gold orbs, if the Nine Inch Nails song was too long, or discussing a fake website that you could actually go to. How about the people that typed in the coordinates to find where Mr. C was going to? I love those people. It was all just so much fun. It was a television experience that will never be repeated because it can’t. No other show will wait 25 years to answer a question like Who’s Judy. I think its The America girl, or the girl in 1945, or Diane or I think its Laura…no Sarah. (See what I mean. It is fun not knowing.)

So we will all go back to our lives, and will, of course, still talk about Twin Peaks. John Thorne, Courtenay Stallings, the Blue Rose Magazine staff and I are just getting started with our analysis of this 18 part fishing lure. There is line from the new series that took place in a scene that I will eventually dissect in an upcoming essay. It was from my favorite new characters in TPR, The Mitchum Brothers.

People are under a lot of stress. TPR relieved it for a moment, changed the story in my mind and gave me the most fun experience I ever had watching a piece of art on television. Will there be things to pick apart and argue about? Of course, it wouldn’t be Twin Peaks if there wasn’t. Some of it is supposed to please us, some of it is suppose to enrage us and some of it is just to distract us from our lives.

So to Mark Frost, David Lynch and Sabrina Sutherland I say, “Thank you so much for my gift. It worked. You caught me. Hook. Line and Green Butt Skunk Sinker.”

Scott Ryan is the managing Editor of the Twin Peaks Magazine, The Blue Rose. Order the Dougie Special to get all 4 issues. Follow on Twitter.



