Twin Peaks season 3 episode 5 review: David Lynch eases into his stride

Though not as immediately surreal and vibrant as what came before, episode 5 starts to solidify ties with the original series

*WARNING: SPOILERS FOR TWIN PEAKS SEASON 3 EPISODE 5*

We’re easing into things now. With episode 5 of David Lynch’s return to the world of Twin Peaks, the pace has started to feel less aggressively styled; certainly not compared to that wild, scary premiere and its quirky two-part follow-up. The tone has migrated away from the urban nightmare, the surreal skit, and towards what can only be described as an unsettling norm.

This latest episode is strange and funny, half-charming in its awkward humour - there's a scene in which Twin Peaks sheriff Frank Truman sees his wife barge in to yell about “black mould” with the stilted urgency of an infomercial – half-uncomfortable in how that awkwardness suggests something darker lying further below.

People stand disconcertingly at the edge of the frame, frozen and purposeless like video game characters after their players have long gone, a device reminiscent from Lynch’s sitcom (of sorts) Rabbits.

The shuffling, infant-like ineptitude of Dale Cooper continues, though coffee seems to be slowly re-triggering his memory; yet, there’s a sadness to it now. At one point, he looks into the eyes of Dougie’s son and begins to cry. Is a part of him remembering that an entire lifetime has been lost to the Black Lodge?

We’re dealing now with a show that’s become increasingly impressionistic in its approach, flitting between characters with a speed that makes us unsure as to who here is crucial and who’s merely a glorified cameo. Is Jim Belushi’s mysterious casino honcho the key to anything? Will he track down Cooper to enact revenge on his supernatural spree of winnings at the slot machines?

And what about the child who lives across from Dougie’s secret pad, whose addict mother is wasting away while he’s left to witness the exploding car bomb left by those intent on killing Dougie? Is he the key to anything?

Yet, within such apparently random occurrences, Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost have quietly been forging their links to the past. The black box contacted by the woman so keen to have Dougie killed is located in Buenos Aires, the location of Agent Phillip Jeffries’ disappearance.

One of the episode’s most crucial scenes saw bad Cooper in his cell, looking into his own reflection as it subtly took on BOB’s features. A way to circumvent the fact that, sadly, the man who played BOB, Frank Silva, passed away in the mid-'90s, but it does bring to a conclusion one of the biggest questions from the original finale.

Not only is it Cooper’s doppelganger we see smashing his face into the mirror at the end of season 2, but this doppelganger is possessed by the spirit of BOB. “You’re still with me,” bad Cooper states. “That’s good.” What are his next plans?

This may be idle speculation, but perhaps that’s where one of the show’s new characters, played by Amanda Seyfried steps in. It feels as if bad Cooper must surely eventually make his way back to Twin Peaks, and there’s something reminiscent of Laura Palmer in Becky.

She’s young, sweet, and innocent in the world’s eyes, but her mother Shelley Johnson (Mädchen Amick), knows something is wrong; her (presumed) husband Steven Burnett (Caleb Landry Jones) is a drug-addicted mess who’s incapable of even writing a CV to find employment. Like Laura, Becky is hiding some dark secrets. Is history doomed to repeat itself?

Twin Peaks airs 2am on Mondays on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV with the Entertainment Pass, in a simulcast with the USTwin Peaks airs 2am on Mondays on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV with the Entertainment Pass, in a simulcast with the US airing on Showtime. The episode will then be shown again at 9pm on the following day. You can catch up now on season one and two via Sky Box Sets and NOW TV.