Twin Peaks – The Return: Gotta light for the woodsman?
Trent Reznor in a still from Twin Peaks. Photo: Suzanne Tenner/SHOWTIME
Free NIN Concert
We are back at the Roadhouse and who is headlining tonight but “The Nine Inch Nails.” Okay, fangirl moment. I have been a huge fan of Trent Reznor since the late 80s when I picked up Pretty Hate Machine.
The band was playing “She’s Gone Away.” I couldn’t help but feel like this was one of those old-fashioned intermissions that used to break up epic movies like “Gone with the Wind.”
Some of the lyrics also felt pertinent to the overall mood of the episode. “I can’t remember what she came here for. I can’t remember much of anything anymore.”
After the song ends, we find ourselves at that lonely stretch of road where Evil Coop was being attended to by the mysterious, shadowy woodsmen. Rising up, Evil Coop looks around totally devoid of blood.
Photo: Suzanne Tenner/SHOWTIME
Let’s Do the Time Warp
A title card comes up obscuring a bleak black and white landscape for a moment:
July 16, 1945
White Sands, New Mexico 5:29 AM
This is the day of the Trinity test. From a distance, the telltale mushroom cloud looms in the air. It looks very similar to the large photograph that is on display in Gordon Cole’s office.
The camera moves in closer and closer until finally it is engulfed in the bomb’s aftermath. Get ready because from here on out, it is going to get trippy.
Inside the cloud, particles like sparks are going crazy and interacting with one another. Perhaps this is the atomic reaction to the blast. All of the atoms are frantically mingling like crazed dancers.
In a fusion of brilliant colors, there are several explosions not unlike fireworks. I had the distinct feeling that this could have been the Big Bang theory in action. It is definitely a genesis or a birth of something.
Back to black and white film, this time a gas station is in the frame. Electrical smoke is discharging from the front door. Everything is ablaze with lights going on and off in the building like some sort of cosmic disco. All of the shadowy woodsmen are milling about while the static from a radio is heard in the background. Could this be an early facsimile of the Black Lodge?
A billowing ghost figure is seen from a distance. Opening its mouth, it starts spewing forth a ribbon of various bubbles. With the way this was photographed, I immediately thought of parallels to “Eraserhead” and the idea of an unnatural birth to something inhuman. Springing out of this being in his own bubble is BOB.
In a burst of color, red spots not unlike splashes of blood start propelling through a pitch-black background. Is this somehow in keeping with the birth motif, the placenta surrounding BOB?