Twin Peaks: The Return - Episode 10 "Laura is the one."

Slead Score: A-

Even 25 years later, Laura Palmer unveils the evils of men.

Taking a slight detour from the pace of last week's episode, episode 10 feels slightly off kilter from the rest of the season, if that's even possible. While we learn a fair amount of new information relating to the core Cooper plot, it seems Lynch-Frost have scraped together the lingering threads of plot that may not fit in anywhere else in the season into this "Laura is the one." titled entry. Thankfully, this does not mean we have ourselves a throw away episode, at least not for those who enjoy unpacking the social commentary at play. Much like a majority of the rest of the season, this episode of The Return feels more in tune with Lynch's other works, with Blue Velvet being the most appropriate comparison this time around. Much like Isabella Rossellini's tortured and harrowing experience in the film, we are taking a hard look at the violence against the women of Twin Peaks, which fittingly all ties into the Log Lady's musings that Laura is, indeed, the one.

Back so many years ago when the prom queen washed up on shore, the inhabitants of Twin Peaks and the viewers watching them on their TV sets were forced to not only solve a mystery that led to an unsavory answer, they were reminded that women face a very different life experience than men, regardless of their choices. While Fire Walk with Me and the remainder of Twin Peaks revealed a darker side to Laura, the constant theme around her merciless death was, "Why such an innocent girl?" Innocent is a tricky word here, but Lynch-Frost have never been afraid to call out Laura's dark decisions as human, and not paint her as a stereotypical "bad bitch."

While the rest of Twin Peaks can choose their destinies (just look at sleazy Ben Horne still living pretty and seducing women after all these years), it seems Laura was always destined to be a dead body, and while episode 10 follows several characters, it has Laura looming over it all. The showcase of violence against women is impossible to overlook, from Steve beating on Becky to the several times Richard Horne violently shuts women down who threaten to expose his darkness. The populace can see these violent acts occuring, like Carl playing his guitar outside Steve and Becky's trailer or even Johnny tied to a chair while his mom is choked, but no one stops it from happening. By the end, when the Log Lady is giving a rather mesmerizing monologue to Hawk over the phone, the intent of the episode comes together when she states: "Laura is the one." Hand in hand with this moment is Cole answering a knock at his hotel room door, only to be met with an onslaught of memories of Laura screaming in his face. Cooper may need to regain his consciousness, but more than that, Twin Peaks and the world at large needs to examine how women are treated. 

Interestingly, there are two very active female characters to give an even stronger argument to Lynch-Frost's feminist view: Janey-E and Diane. As sad as it may be to hypothesize it to be true, Diane may be more on the Black Lodge side than we imagined. The mysterious text message she received from Bad Cooper last week was responded to by Diane. She informs him that the FBI is taking Higgins to the location of the dimensional warp point, and while Diane may have a plan up her sleeve, perhaps to trap Bad Cooper, it's hard to overlook this as a tell-tale sign Diane cannot be trusted. Of course, while the narrative choice here is the most intriguing, there's an even larger discussion we should be having. Much like Laura, Diane is a woman making her own decision, and she's been doing that since we first met her. Smoking in the morgue, cussing anyone out who speaks, and doing it all with no regrets. Whether or not she's in cahoots with Mr. C or trying to trick him, Diane is complex and seemingly doing the best that she can with the cards she's been dealt. She's active, aware, and self-sufficient, which makes her a target in Twin Peaks, especially from the lowest of mankind.

On the flip side, Janey-E has repeatedly shown her resilience as a wife and mother, two roles women often play and receive nothing more than judgment or a pat on the back for doing. She wasn't attracted to Dougie before Cooper took over his body for several reasons, and while it could be easy to write off her current infatuation with him as a purely physical choice, she's also seen a man who has seemingly wiped away her worries. She finally feels her husband is active in the marriage, working on fixing the problems that she has had to handle all on her own while Dougie meets up with another escort and gambles his cares away. So while both of these women may not strike stark similarities to Laura Palmer, Lynch-Frost have done a brilliant job in linking them with her, as well as every woman in the story. This twisted tale of Americana continually leads back to the story of Laura and how she ended up on that beach.

Evan Slead

Staff Writer

Evan is a Film & Media Studies major in Boston and the host of PodSlash podcast. He loves writing novels and screenplays, and also all things Real Housewives. Don't hate.