These short Twin Peaks episode responses are spoiler-free for upcoming episodes, presented here for first-time viewers who want to read a veteran viewer's perspective on each entry while remaining in the dark about what's to come. They were first published as comments on a Reddit rewatch in 2016.
At this point either the comeback is in full swing or it's not gonna happen (until the finale). Getting Cooper into the suit (and bringing back Lynch to do it), cementing the Cooper-Annie love connection, and discovering Owl Cave - with Windom now joined to the woods mythology...all of these gestures emphasize that we are clearly in a new phase of Twin Peaks. This episode really hammers home how unnecessary the entire mid-season stretch was, and it contributes to why people look back at those episodes so scornfully. Now that we've moved on to a whole new set of subplots (aside from Nadine, who we don't see much of in this episode), can we say anything from those episodes really mattered? Maybe the first few preliminaries of Windom Earle, and Briggs' (very vague) mythology clues - and obviously the hangover from Josie lingers for Harry - but if you erased Evelyn Marsh, Little Nicky, the drug conspiracy, etc from the series, this episode could be very much the same.
Not all of these plots are the greatest, but even the weak stuff has a sense of narrative momentum. There's also an abundance of charm, spilling over from one sequence in particular: the visit to the diner, especially Gordon Cole's flirtations with Shelly. Before that moment, I found myself mildly surprised at how many "just ok" scenes there were; afterwards, I didn't mind sitting through John Justice Wheeler or Donna's Ben doubts because I was now in such a good mood. It's amazing what a few important changes and one great scene can do to the overall texture of an episode.
Want more? Here's my other coverage of the episode:
More for first-time viewers (SPOILER-FREE)
(but be careful of video recommendations at the end of YouTube videos and image/link recommendations at the end of Tumblr posts)
+ My "Journey Through Twin Peaks" chapter on this episode, from 2014 (contains a very brief clip, without any context or plot spoilers, from later in the season):
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