The Lobster Dance

I swear to owls I am going to write a fanzine about how Truman/Cooper is the best ship ever. Just let my favorite Bookhouse Boys kiss, okay.

This review covers the book The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost and the TV series Twin Peaks: The Return by David Lynch. Minimal spoilers for the book, some spoilers for the series; discussion of violence against women, big spoiler near end of review is tagged.

I can’t say enough good things about The Secret History of Twin Peaks, which was released last winter. The dossier is a file compiled by a mysterious Archiver and concerns Twin Peaks history from legend to the end of Twin Peaks. The premise of the book is that a young FBI agent who signs her work “TP” is reviewing and annotating the dossier for FBI Director Gordon Cole. The files contain the backstories of the Log Lady, the Milford Brothers, the Nadine-Hank-Norma love triangle, Hawk, the Briggs family, and Sheriff Truman and his brother Frank. Oh, and Roswell, the owls, and BOB, of course.

I am a sucker for a good document-based question, and I adored all the newspaper clippings, announcements, interviews, and classified documents–and easter eggs. If you liked Twin Peaks and are a research/archives nerd, you’ll love this.

Twin Peaks: The Return, however, was hard to watch. Parts of it were hilarious and sweet: Nadine’s and Norma’s storylines, what happened to Dr. Jacoby and to Bobby Briggs. Parts of it were David Lynch being David Lynch: atmospheric whooshing, a prophecy about a garden glove, more atmospheric whooshing, ghosts in outer space. I’m more of a Frost person than a Lynch fan, although I like them in combination, and my reaction to the supernatural and surreal elements was mixed. I liked the idea of two Coopers, the idea of atomic bombs causing supernatural things to happen (or to accelerate the owls), the outer space theater, the Red Room. Also: meeting Diane! I loved that the characters, especially the women, were allowed to age.

However, more disturbing than ghosts or bad relationships was the sheer amount of violence against women—it felt like almost every episode had a man or ghost murdering or attacking a woman; all except for once or twice did it advance the plot. There are also a LOT of consent issues and rape mentions used as horror that I don’t feel added to the story.

The most disappointing thing was how Special Agent Tamara Preston (“TP”), Gordon’s new protege, is just used as eye candy. From the dossier, we know she’s smart, sarcastic, and the top of her class, but most of what she does on screen is just saunter around the office in heels bringing people coffee. I was hoping she’d be like the other FBI agents, in the sense that Cooper, Albert, and Denise all have their own views of the world, their quirks and inconsistencies, their hopes and dreams–you know, like actual humans. I can’t really tell you what Agent Preston’s are because after 18 episodes, I STILL DON’T KNOW. You have this fantastic character, David, DO SOMETHING WITH HER.

~~~Major spoiler~~~

Michael Ontkean, who played Sheriff Harry S. Truman in the original series, has retired from acting and didn’t return for this season, which made me cry fandom tears. To account for his absence, in the series Harry is ill (with what, it’s unclear) and his brother Frank is filling in as sheriff in the interim. The other characters spend a lot of time talking about how much Cooper meant to Harry when clues about Cooper, who disappeared 25 years ago, start showing up; when Cooper returns, the first thing he does is go looking for Harry. It broke my little queer heart. Even if Ontkean didn’t want to come back, I like that Lynch included their relationship, even if it’s a bit subtextual. They’re obviously in love, okay? I wish the series had ended in episode 17, with Coop essentially driving off into the sunset to go find his boyfriend; episode 18 is very David Lynch and didn’t really do it for me.

My verdict: definitely read The Secret History, and consider watching the show. I’m looking forward to the Final Dossier. And I will go down with this ship.