It's happening again.

In fulfillment of Laura Palmer's prophesy in the Black Lodge to Agent Cooper, 25 years later we are back. If that sounds like gobbledegook to you, you may need a Twin Peaks refresher. The original series, co-created by Mark Frost and David Lynch, debuted in 1990 on ABC and ran for two seasons (and a prequel/sequel movie) that have lived on in the hearts and nightmares of fans ever since. Last year, Showtime announced that they were reviving the series with a Season 3, to be conceptualized and directed entirely by Lynch, and its secrecy has only led to more hype.

There's a lot to unpack when it comes to Twin Peaks, far more than we could address in a single article. So what we (that being me and fellow Twin Peaks fan and Collider staffer Aubrey Page) have created below is a reference that acts as both a refresher for those who have already seen the series, and a guide for newbies. If you are a newbie though, be sure to pay attention to which sections contain spoilers and which do not.

Overview

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Image via Twin Peaks Productions/Showtime

(Spoiler-Free)

Twin Peaks is, at its heart, a murder mystery. The series starts with a girl found “dead, wrapped in plastic” in the otherwise seemingly peaceful (and excessively quirky) town of Twin Peaks. But from the very start, this is not like any other murder mystery series you have experienced. The show has a truly bizarre sense of humor, a kind of knowingly earnest satire that remains unique. And though the show takes place ostensibly in present time (which would have been the early 90s), it has a timeless pastiche of styles — though most notably a kitschy 50s vibe full of diner pie, motorcycles, and damn fine coffee.

The series is held together by the investigation of the death of homecoming queen Laura Palmer by (the thoroughly likable) FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper. The investigation reveals not only the unforgettable characters that populate the town (like iconic resident the Log Lady), but it also uncovers a mysterious evil host that lurks in the very fabric of the town’s existence. Those eerie premonitions and other-worldly warnings (“the owls are not what they seem”) combined with Angelo Badalamenti’s haunting score infuse every interaction in the small town, however silly or mundane, with a pervasive sense of menace and fear. Though it’s never gory, Twin Peaks definitely trades in off-kilter horror that constantly simmers against a backdrop of abuse, punctuated by often zany humor.

As for the murder of Laura Palmer, co-creator David Lynch never wanted to reveal her killer, but pressure from ABC led to that reveal happening in Season 2. Things fell off dramatically after that, and there is a pretty terrible stretch of episodes that follow it (until the finale). But Season 1, and the first half or so of Season 2, are truly exceptional television. It’s not just about the murder mystery, it’s about inhabiting this twisted and often darkly funny world that Lynch and Mark Frost created. But the two major things to know about the show is that Laura Palmer, and her death, are at its center (as is Agent Cooper, who is our introduction to Twin Peaks), and that its mythology is what drives it — particularly the Black Lodge, the Man from Another Place, and BOB, all of which we’ll talk about in more detail below.

Must-Watch Viewing Guide

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Image via ABC

(Spoiler-Free)

The advent of Twin Peaks Season 3 is nigh, so we understand if you can’t rewatch the entire series before it returns. There’s too much other TV to keep track of! In general, most viewers agree that Season 1 is brilliant, and Season 2 is a mess. That’s not entirely true. Season 1 is genuinely great, and so is Season 2 — until Laura’s killer is revealed. After that, David Lynch lost interest in the project, and what follows is a lot of imitation of his style that is no substitute for the real thing. As such, those episodes are pretty terrible, to put it mildly. However, Lynch returned for the finale, which is incredible (more on that below in the “where things left off” section).

If you want to just revisit a few episodes to refresh your memory, or you want to sample a few hours of Twin Peaks before diving into the new season, here are my recommendations of the four most essential episodes. (Note: I’m numbering the episodes with the 90-minute pilot as “0” — not everyone counts the pilot as zero, so I’m including the episode titles to help cross-reference. Season 2’s first episode is typically numbered as “Episode 8”).

Season 1, Episode 0: The Pilot, a.k.a. “Northwest Passage” - Welcome to Twin Peaks. The series kicks off with that iconic image of Laura Palmer “dead, wrapped in plastic,” but also does what a good pilot is supposed to do and introduces all of the show’s major characters, plots, and locations (including Leo and Shelly’s relationship, The Mill closing, the diner, etc). It’s really weird and dreamy, and sets the stage for what’s to come, even though it doesn’t give a particularly accurate portrayal of how the show works week to week. For that, head over to …

Season 1, Episode 2: “Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer” - This is where we really get to see Agent Cooper in action with his bizarre methodology of investigation. It also really sets up the show’s humor far more than “Northwest Passage” does (More Audrey! More Nadine!), and also gives us the first key to the underlying mythology of the series through a dream Cooper has of The Red Room and the Man from Another Place.

Season 2, Episode 14: “Lonely Souls” - If you’re just starting out with Twin Peaks, I would suggest spending some more time in Season 1 before you head here. But just as a refresher, “Lonely Souls” not only solves the murder of Laura Palmer, it provides another key piece of information about the reality of BOB, who he is, and how he matters to the overall (and continuing) story.

Season 2, Episode 22: “Beyond Life and Death” - The finale. It’s a horror show, and one of the most insane things to ever air on broadcast (yes, Hannibal included). I tackle more of the specifics of the hour below, but this is the episode where Lynch returns to direct, giving us the final result of Agent Cooper’s showdown with BOB. And it’s dark — very dark. And brilliant. And unforgettable television.

Character Guide

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Image via ABC

(Spoilers)

If there’s one thing we know about David Lynch’s return to the small screen, it’s the sheer number of characters the auteur plans to stuff into his 18-episode arc. Over 200 names adorn the official Twin Peaks cast list for Season 3, including A-listers like Laura Dern and Naomi Watts, musical wildcards like Trent Reznor and Sky Ferreira, and of course nearly all of the original Twin Peaks cast. It’s a lot to keep track of, so we’ve put together a small character guide to help you keep tabs on the key players in the Twin Peaks universe.

[NOTE: some notable actors, such as Michael J. Anderson, Lara Flynn Boyle, Joan Chen, Michael Ontkean and Heather Graham will not be returning for the revival. As a result, a few high-profile characters have been omitted from the following list] – Aubrey Page

Agent Dale Cooper

Played By: Kyle MacLachlan

Importance: Essential

Moral Status: Damn Fine

Simple. There is no character more inextricably linked with Twin Peaks than Agent Cooper, the soft-spoken and almost manically wholesome FBI agent with a taste for coffee, cherry pie, Tibetan mythology and, perhaps against his better judgment, a certain kind of girl next door. Arriving in Twin Peaks on February 24, 1989, Agent Cooper found his life changed forever by the dark mythos lurking underneath the unassuming fog of the mysterious northern town. Initially there to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer, Coop eventually finds both the coffee and the girl of his dreams – though before the show’s close, things go sour – and the agent is forced to enter the dreaded Black Lodge in an effort to track down his beloved Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham, who won’t be returning for the revival). While there, he encounters his evil doppelganger, who manages to exit the Lodge and trap the real Cooper inside, leaving his fate unknown. Clues to his ultimate whereabouts are slim, but in a key scene in Fire Walk with Me, his unlucky lover Annie appears to Laura to tell her “the good Dale is in the Lodge, and he can’t leave.” Diane, take that down.

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Image via New Line Cinema

Laura Palmer/Maddy Ferguson

Played By: Sheryl Lee

Importance: Essential, duh

Moral Status: It’s Complicated

Known in Twin Peaks as the picture of apple pie perfection, Laura Palmer was the quintessential homecoming queen and the object of affection for her two doting parents. But after her gruesome death, dark details are uncovered about Laura Palmer’s true life: cocaine addiction, a stint as a prostitute at a local brothel and a victim of sexual abuse as a child and young adult at the hands of her father, Leland Palmer. Known first for her relationship with the high school football captain Bobby Briggs, Laura carried on a lengthy affair with fellow student James Hurley in secret, as well as a brief relationship with Audrey’s father, Ben Horne. As we all know, Laura met a violent end before the events of the show, killed by her father Leland Palmer while possessed by a demonic spirit known as BOB.

Sheryl Lee also appeared in the series as Maddy Ferguson, the raven-haired older cousin of Laura, her spitting image in glasses. First simply appearing as a plot device to drive a wedge between James and Donna, she becomes the key to unraveling the show’s central mystery by helping Donna track down Laura’s diary. But because this simply isn’t a series about happy endings, Maddy is also killed by Leland Palmer during the course of the show, her body hidden in the same manner as her cousin’s.

[NOTE: It’s unclear if Sheryl Lee will appear as Laura, Maddy or a completely new creation in the third season of Twin Peaks.]

Audrey Horne

Played By: Sherilyn Fenn

Importance: Essential

Moral Status: Fundamentally Good (Despite Her Iffy Parents)

A fan-favorite femme fatale of the cloudy Twin Peaks tableau, Audrey Horne is the daughter of business magnate Benjamin Horne. Not a close friend of Laura Palmer prior to her death, she still harbored tender feelings for her classmate after she tutored Audrey’s mentally handicapped brother, Johnny. A bit of a misfit in the small town thanks to her tendency for bluntness despite her reputation as a bombshell, Audrey harbors an ardent crush on Agent Cooper for much of the series. And while she doesn’t get a chance to be a lynchpin for much of the most important stuff, she’s a completely necessary ingredient to keeping the world of Twin Peaks turning. At the close of the show, while making a political stand of civil disobedience, Audrey is caught in a rigged explosion. (Don’t worry – co-creator Mark Frost has clarified that she survived the blast.)

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Image via CBS

Leland Palmer & Sarah Palmer

Played By: Ray Wise & Grace Zabriskie

Importance: Essential

Moral Status: The Absolute Pits

An attorney devoted to working closely with businessman Ben Horne, Leland Palmer is a well-known and well-respected citizen of Twin Peaks thanks to his picture-perfect public life. But when Laura turns up murdered, Leland Palmer becomes prone to shocking fits of instability, throwing himself into Laura’s grave at her funeral, sporting a suddenly white shock of hair atop his head after killing a man he suspects to be Laura’s murderer, and generally acting like a man adrift. Leland Palmer is eventually revealed to be Laura’s killer, having been taken over by a demonic entity known as BOB, who would periodically possess him throughout his life after molesting him as a child. As a result, Leland molested Laura throughout her childhood and killed her (along with his niece Maddy) in a fit of rage.

Sarah Palmer, the wife of Leland and mother of Laura has always had a tenuous grip on her mental health (especially after years of being habitually drugged by Leland to give him a chance to commit his heinous crimes). But after the death of Laura, Sarah’s grip on reality begins to loosen further as she witnesses visions of the malevolent entity BOB and her life begins to unravel. In our last encounter with Sarah Palmer, she says “I’m in the Black Lodge with Dale Cooper.”

Donna Hayward

Played ByLara Flynn Boyle / Moira Kelly

Importance: BFF Status

Moral Status: Squeaky Clean

Laura Palmer’s best friend, Donna spends the majority of the series searching tirelessly to understand what happened to Laura. In Fire Walk with Me, it’s revealed that Donna had absolutely no idea the extent of the darkness that her friend’s life contained, despite every attempt to understand. At the close of the series, it was heavily suggested that Donna Hayward was a result of her mother’s affair with Benjamin Horne, and that she was in fact Audrey Horne’s half sister.

[NOTE: Neither Boyle nor Kelly, who portrayed Donna in Fire Walk with Me, will be returning for the revival. It seems unlikely that David Lynch will recast for a third time, but Donna is still an important part of Laura’s life, and thus earns a spot on this list.]

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Image via CBS

BOB

Played By: Frank Silva

Importance: Integral

Moral Status: Pitch Black

A demonic entity who seems to exist only to feed on human fear, BOB possesses human beings (most notably Leland Palmer) and commits acts of rape and murder. Given the role of BOB after accidentally being captured by the camera during filming – to David Lynch’s delight – Frank Silva’s iconic villain has become one of the single most terrifying things ever seen on television. Hailing from the Black Lodge, BOB was a serial killer and rapist in his past life, now stuck on an alternate plane of reality to cause mania in the town of Twin Peaks. Around even in Leland’s childhood (during which it is implied he abused him), BOB is the real culprit of Laura’s death, and ultimately a manifestation of “the evil that men do.” In the final episode of the series, BOB is seen inhabiting the body of Agent Cooper.

Bobby Briggs

Played By: Dana Ashbrook

Importance: Meh

Moral Status: Professional Low-Life

Defined by his fabulously ‘90s hair and his penchant for layered thermals, Bobby Briggs was a low-level thug and part-time drug dealer who also happened to be captain of the high school football team. Officially Laura Palmer’s boyfriend, Bobby maintained a lengthy affair with the married Shelly Johnson. Never a paragon of morality, Bobby still ranks fairly low on the “bad guy” totem pole, since he’s ultimately little more than a leather-ensconced pawn in a much bigger man’s game.

James Hurley

Played By: James Marshall

Importance: Purveyor of Fine Brooding Glares

Moral Status: Saint

It’s hard to talk about James Hurley without acknowledging how much most Twin Peaks fans hate him. A constant object affection for the women of Twin Peaks despite the fact that he possesses little to no definable traits, James is at the unending whim of his ever-changing emotions, constantly battling a desire to get on his bike, ride out of Twin Peaks and never look back. (To which I say, “Go, James, go!”) As a rule, James rarely has much to do with the overall plot of the show, and Lynch cut him loose at the end of the series, sending the dull love interest on his way to vroom down the California coast.

Benjamin Horne & Jerry Horne

Played By: Richard Beymer & David Patrick Kelly

Importance: Essential

Moral Status: Yikes

When they’re not bonding over butter and brie sandwiches, it’s safe to assume that Jerry and Ben are up to no good. Ben, for what it’s worth, is the richest man in Twin Peaks, a cutthroat businessman who runs the town’s only hotel and department store (not to mention One Eyed Jacks, a brothel at which Laura Palmer spent some unfortunate time). Harboring a love for Laura that he apparently couldn’t spare his own daughter, Ben played a role in Laura’s inevitable downfall and illegitimately fathered her best friend Donna Hayward. At the close of the series, Ben is seen waiting patiently beside Audrey’s hospital bed, a sign that he just might be headed for some kind of character rehabilitation.

Embroiled in one of Twin Peaks’ least interesting plot points involving the Packard Mill (which will likely be jettisoned in the upcoming series), Jerry shares his brother’s taste for money, but lacks his intellect, having graduated last in his class at university.

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Image via Showtime

Shelly Johnson & Norma Jennings

Played By: Madchen Amick & Peggy Lipton

Importance: Meh.

Moral Status: Sweet as Pie

Waitresses at the Double R Diner and best friends, Shelly is a high school dropout married to the abusive truck driver Leo Johnson and carrying on an affair with high-schooler Bobby Briggs. Norma’s got similar problems in her love life, harboring feelings for the married Ed Hurley despite her moral compass.

Denise Bryson

Played By: David Duchovny

Importance: An Icon

Moral Status: Right Side of the Law

Though Denise only appeared in three episodes of Twin Peaks, Duchovny’s ground-breaking character made a massive impact on the Twin Peaks fandom and pop culture at large, arriving as one of the first representations of a transgender character seen on network television. Formerly “Dennis,” Denise is a DEA agent brought in to take down the drug ring that plagued the underbelly of Twin Peaks.

Chief Gordon Cole

Played By: David Lynch

Importance: Comic Relief

Moral Status: Damn Fine

Deputy Director with the FBI and Agent Cooper’s immediate superior, Gordon Cole is characterized largely by his necessity to wear two hearing aids at maximum volume, still mishearing everyone around him and maintaining a near-yell to compete with the white noise. Present for both Fire Walk with Me and the duration of Twin Peaks, Cole was eventually suspended from the FBI after acting out of his jurisdiction during the investigation into Laura Palmer’s death. Cole also had a brief fling with Shelly Johnson after encountering her at the Double R Diner and finding that he could hear her perfectly despite his hearing aids. Now that’s what we call “a front three-quarter view of two adults sharing a tender moment.”

Deputy Andy Brennan & Lucy Moran

Played By: Harry Goaz & Kimmy Robertson

Importance: Twin Peaks Fixture

Moral Status: Damn Fine

Deputy Andy Brennan, for all his shortcomings (a less-than-sharp set of mental faculties, a woozy emotional status), is one loyal man, and was one of the first law enforcement members to find Laura Palmer’s body. He and Lucy Moran are a hell of a pair, both as spacey as the other. Despite Lucy’s brief affair with Dick Tremayne, they’re also pretty perfect for one another. At the close of the series, Lucy is preparing to give birth to Dick’s child, which Andy will happily raise with her. Now doesn’t that just warm your little Twin Peaks lovin’ heart?

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Image via CBS

The Log Lady

Played By: Catherine E. Coulson

Importance: An Icon

Moral Status: Talk to the Log

A fixture in Twin Peaks known largely for being a bit mentally unhinged, The Log Lady earns her name from the small piece of wood she carries in her arms at all time. Often dispensing advice and visions the log brings to her, The Log Lady occasionally becomes an indispensable kooky oracle. Offering advice to Laura prior to her murder in Fire Walk With Me and providing Agent Cooper the token he needs to enter the Black Lodge in the final episode, it wouldn’t be wise to count her as simply a supplemental character. The Log Lady is one to watch in the upcoming revival – my log told me so.

The Jumping Man, The Giant, The Man From Another Place & The One Armed Man

Played By: Carlton Lee Russell, Carel Struycken, Michael J. Anderson & Al Strobel

Importance: For Lynch To Know, For Us To Find Out

Moral Status: Grey

Sure to haunt your nightmares, The Jumping Man is a spirit from the Black Lodge, a figure wearing a white plaster mask with a long-pointed nose and a red suit. He jumps around, holds something that looks mostly like a slingshot and never utters a single world. Lynchian, natch.

First appearing to Agent Cooper after a near-fatal gunshot wound, The Giant possesses nearly untold knowledge about Twin Peaks and the Black Lodge, delivering key clues about the murder of Laura Palmer and vague warnings meant to keep Cooper and his love interest Annie Blackburn safe. The Giant is “one and the same” with an elderly room service waiter of the Great Northern and occasionally inhabits his body.

Though he will not be returning for the reunion (or at least, the original actor won’t), The Man From Another Place is perhaps the most iconic inhabitant of The Black Lodge, and the direct nemesis of Twin Peaks’ apex of evil. The Man From Another Place appears as a dwarf in a red suit and speaks in a disturbing, manipulated tone (called phonetic reversal) heard only in the Lodge.

Tied closely with The Man From Another Place is The One Armed Man, also known as MIKE, a prior conspirator with BOB who chose to cut off his own arm bearing a tattoo that bound the two of them rather than continue killing. Little is known about The One Armed Man beyond his ability to possess mild-mannered shoe salesman Philip Gerard.

Where Things Left Off: BOB, The Black Lodge, and More

(Spoilers)

There are a ton of characters in Twin Peaks, and many of them had exceptionally twisty plots even through the show’s two short seasons. Returning to the story 25 years later, it may not be that important for us to remember exactly where everyone was when we left them, but here are a few key things to recall about where things left off in the (then) series finale:

Through investigating Laura’s death, Agent Cooper is plagued by visions and dreams of strange creatures like MIKE, The Man from Another Place, Bob, and The Giant. These characters are all connected to the Red Room, which exists in the Black Lodge. In the show’s mythology, the Black Lodge (a place of pure evil) exists on an extra-dimensional plane as a “shadow self” of the White Lodge (a place of pure good). As such, it includes a host of doppelgangers who are false versions of real people. It’s been battled by Twin Peaks’ Bookhouse Boys for generations, and it seems staunchly entrenched in Native American mythology as well.

Early on in Twin Peaks, Cooper encounters the Man from Another Place and a doppelganger of Laura Palmer in the Red Room, which is our first introduction to the mythology. Eventually, we learn that that an evil spirit of the Black Lodge, Bob (a serial killer and rapist), inhabits hosts who continue his work. In Season 2, it’s revealed that Laura’s father Leland Palmer was inhabited by Bob, which led him to sexually abuse and ultimately murder his own daughter (among others). When confronted by this truth, Leland explains that he met Bob in a dream when he was abused at his grandfather’s cabin, and “invited him in,” though never knew he was possessed. Bob forces Leland to kill himself, and from there, returns to the Red Room. The characters then wonder if Bob is “real,” or just a manifestation of the evil that men commit.

In the Season 2 finale, Cooper is goaded into crossing over into the Black Lodge (something that can only be done in a certain place on a certain night with planetary alignments) in order to save Annie, who he had fallen in love with and who had been captured and taken there. Though he ultimately sacrifices himself to free her, when we return to the town, it’s revealed that he’s still trapped in the Lodge, and in his place is Bob in the form of a Cooper doppelganger. It’s an excessively dark ending to the original series, but Laura Palmer (or her doppelganger) tells Cooper that she will see him again in 25 years. And here we are!

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Fire Walk with Me

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Image via CBS

(Spoilers)

[Below, Aubrey Page revisits the controversial prequel film Fire Walk with Me, and explains its place in the Twin Peaks canon. Is it a misunderstood masterpiece?]

After Twin Peaks concluded with one hell of a cliffhanger in 1991, David Lynch returned to the iconic town a year later, this time to explore it on the big screen. But rather than fill out the many narrative questions that the auteur left fans with after Agent Cooper’s strange transformation in the Black Lodge, the filmmaker chose to make a prequel film, following the final week in Laura Palmer’s life and chronicling the events that lead up to her death. It’s an ambitious film, attempting to provide a place for nearly every character seen in the show, while at the same time building out the world even further. But it’s also a surprisingly emotional story. The slapstick and satire that viewers had become conditioned to expect in the series are largely gone here in favor of a much more terrifying slant, probing the all-too real horrors of sexual abuse and the inevitability of ruin at the hands of morally corrupt men.

Fire Walk with Me begins with a bit of a dalliance, a chronicle of the investigation into the murder of the teenage Teresa Banks, a victim of the same killer who took Laura Palmer’s life, in a small Oregon town. Agent Cooper is sent to the town to investigate the case, and though the young agent comes up empty, Teresa’s full connection to Laura (and her possession of a curious jade ring bearing the mark of the Black Lodge) is uncovered.

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Image via New Line Cinema

The film begins in earnest with Laura, as Lynch takes time to plant the seeds of suburban bliss we’d been promised in the series prior: a popular high school girl dating Bobby, the captain of the football team; her blonde-haired, plaid-skirt adorned exterior betraying the real darkness lurking underneath. Her best friend Donna knows that Laura is currently cheating on her boyfriend with local brooding biker James, a discretion she assumes is Laura’s biggest secret. The real secret, of course, is Laura’s abusive home life, where systemic sexual abuse from a demonic entity known simply as BOB is commonplace, and where threatening posturing from her father is a mainstay of family dinners.

Laura’s descent quickens when she discovers BOB’s true identity to be her own dad, Leland Palmer. Drawn slowly into the clutches of the malevolent Black Lodge in a series of eerie dreams – including the message that “the good Dale is trapped in the lodge and can’t leave” and the arrival of Teresa’s ring – Laura’s grip on reality begins to loosen as she distances herself from her friends and lovers, upping her drug use to shift her pain into near catatonia.

In the film’s climactic scene, Leland tracks Laura down and captures her as BOB appears and attempts to possess Laura. In opposition, Laura puts on Teresa’s ring, preventing him from taking over her body and ending the cycle of abuse. But in a rage, BOB stabs Laura to death. As Laura’s body is discovered in what would be the first scene of Twin Peaks, she finds peace in the Black Lodge amongst Agent Cooper and a glittering angel.

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Image via New Line Cinema

If any of that sounds weird even for Lynch, it absolutely is – the final handful of shots in the film include a close-up of a mouth masticating creamed corn and found-footage of a monkey – so weird that it opened to a chorus of boos at Cannes, where it first bowed 25 years ago. The critics almost universally panned its darkness, perhaps aching for kitschy references to cherry pie and dashes of satirical laughs. Fire Walk with Me was seemingly trapped between a rock and a hard place: critics who loved Lynch’s artsier side found themselves uncharmed by the idea of a television film spin-off, and critics expecting a proper final chapter for Twin Peaks were no doubt sorely disappointed. The film also bumbled at the box office, pulling in just under $4 million dollars despite a relatively wide release.

Still, the film has persisted in its cult status, slowly regaining a reputation as a seminal Lynchian work despite its darker hues. Lynch has said that it will be “very much important” for Season 3, which many have theorized will detail the attempt to rescue Agent Cooper from the Black Lodge, where his soul was locked up at the end of the series. Then again, it’s possible Lynch simply means Fire Walk with Me’s tone will influence the revival. Over a quarter century on, it’s possible the filmmaker would prefer to return to a much darker Twin Peaks, drained of much its campy satire and instead situated on the horror side of the crime genre. And while many would likely prefer a lighter return to that deceptively complex little town, it would hardly be Twin Peaks without that sinister gleam.

Season 3: What We Know So Far

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Image via Showtime

The short of it: We don’t know much. The revival is happening on Showtime, and it premieres Sunday, May 21st. It is a revival, not a reboot, so it picks up as Season 3 rather than any kind of spin-off. Narratively, it’s a callback to the Laura’s prophesy that she will see Cooper again in 25 years.

The cast list is immense, but there are some notable omissions. Many of the original actors will be back, though some have passed away (including Frank Silva who played BOB), and entire storylines (like the Mill) seem to be closed now since actors have either passed or weren’t invited back. Other things, like characters or events from the movie Fire Walk with Me, may not be significant (according to David Lynch himself).

Lynch is directing the new season in its entirety, which is 18 “parts” (rather than “episodes”). Some of those parts will play out as two-hour movies, others will be hourlong episodes. The structure is unclear, so it seems more like just one of those things to experience as it happens. Even promos for the new series have been without dialogue, or purposefully cryptic. Would you want or expect anything else though?

Speaking of, Showtime has let critics know that there will not be any advanced screener copies for review, and those who are able to attend a screening of the premiere in LA are embargoed from talking about it until after it has concluded its first airing on the West Coast on May 21st. So, no one will really know anything until it happens, which is on brand in its old-school approach. But we'll be covering all of it with recaps and additional commentary, so be sure to head back here after the Season 3 premiere for more!

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