*spoiler alert: this post contains spoilers from twin peaks: the return, episode 8*

episode 8 of twin peaks: the return was among the best things I have ever watched. it was strange, beautiful, visceral and different. it was unlike anything i have ever seen on television, and made every other show in ‘the golden age of television’ seem stale and formulaic in comparison. don’t get me wrong there have been a few really strong tv shows over the past few years, (mad men and fargo come to mind), but nothing like the 56 minutes of episode 8 of twin peaks: the return.

lynch is a well known meditator and has credited the practice with helping him creatively. his work is often beautiful, disconcerting and visceral at the same time, in a way that few other works of art are. i believe that this is in part due to this practice.

episode 8 begins with ray shooting dark cooper on a the side of a lonely road in the black of night. there is a flashing light, and strange, ominous, beautiful music and then semi-transparcent figures, dirty, dishevelled men, appear from the darkness. they dance around dark cooper, smearing him in his own blood, until a dark orb with the face of bob upon it rises from his stomach. ray screams in terror. this is a scene that echoes imagery that goes back to the earliest days of humankind (see this post on the figure of the wild man). these characters are named as ‘woodsman’. they resemble the figure seen in another lynch masterpiece ‘mulholland drive’.

after nine inch nails perform at the roadhouse, we are given an origin story of sorts for the new atomic era. we are taken back to 5:29 am on July 16, 1945, to the site of the trinity nuclear test, the first successful test of an atomic bomb- that took place in a new mexico desert. a screaming white light and screeching strings accompany footage of the bomb detonating in monochrome. we are then rushed into the explosion itself and are given a few minutes of stark and beautiful abstract imagery. the scene is powerful and depicts perhaps a moment in history when humankind overstepped its mark and unleashed into the world forces that it couldn’t control. a dark orb is seen being released from the explotion, and upon it is the face of bob. the incarnation perhaps of this modern type of evil.

there is more flashing and discordant music as we witness the ‘woodsman’ scuttling around a gas station/ convenience store at night, (bob is said to live above a convenience store in season 2). some of the visual affects resemble those heard in the red room. this leads to a few scenes which are more reminiscent of some of lynch’s earlier works such as ‘eraserhead’.

up in a tower among a wild sea, señorita dido, (a figure who resides in a tower beneath the waiting room of the black lodge), listens to jazz in an old ballroom. she walks into a theatre hall as the giant is watching the detonation of the trinity bomb from earlier in the episode. as a result of this the giant bears creation to a form of good, represented by the face of laura palmer upon a golden orb. it is then sent through a large metallic pipe where it then descends to earth.

we then return to new mexico, around 10 years after the trinity bomb. a dark figure falls to earth. ‘woodsman appear from the darkness and step into a highway. one of them pulls over a car and repeatedly asks the driver, “gotta light?”. the wife screams at the sight of another woodsman and the couple drive off in terror.

the woodsman bears a striking resemblance to abraham lincoln, though dirty and covered in scorched engine oil. the actor who plays the woodsman specialises in playing abraham lincoln. perhaps the woodsman is a representation of an altogether darker america. what is more american than oil and abraham lincoln? indeed, the power of oil in the founding of american has been explored before, notable in paul thomas anderson’s masterpiece there will be blood. with these allusions lynch helps in the creation of a modern american mythology, following in the tradition of works such as the wizard of oz, which is believed by many to be an allegory of america in the years the book was written. (incidentally there are parallels to cooper’s journey in season 3 and that of dorothy attempting to return home).

the woodsman makes his way to a quintessentially american town, (complete with a twin peaks style diner). he enters a radio station named kpjk, crushes the skulls of the the workers there, and stops their broadcast in order to recite a strange rhyme loaded with imagery.

“this is the water and this is the well. drink full and descend. the horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within.”

the scenes plays out in monochrome, and so the blood that runs down into a pool on the floor looks like it could be oil or petrol. the listeners of the station all fall unconscious.

a young boy and girl, perhaps symbolising innocence, are shown in a sweet exchange. the song ‘my prayer’ by the stillers plays. the boy is walking the girl home, and when she reaches her house he kisses her gently on the cheek. earlier in the episode we witness a strange creature, a ‘frogmoth’ emerge from the desert. this is a creature that could come from a place deep in the subconscious mind, and our shared mythology. it seems to resemble a creature found in chinook mythology. the mythology and beliefs of the native tribes of america are referenced throughout twin peaks.

the creature drags itself through the desert, then flies up to an open window and crawls inside. inside the young girl reminisces about her evening, while listening to the stillers’ song. the song is then interrupted by the woodsman’s broadcast. as she falls asleep/ unconscious, the creature crawls into her open mouth. this image is incredibly powerful and visceral and is perhaps a representation of innocence being corrupted, just as it was in the case of sarah palmer.

david lynch draws on a variety of powerful images and sounds that seem to hit the viewer on a deep and visceral level. these are the images, figures, and archetypes that wander our dreams and our subconscious mind.

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