Will Twin Peaks Come Back For Another Season?

Twin Peaks had a major cult following when the show aired over two seasons from 1990 to 1991. When the show returned in 2017, it was radically different. Often using a non-linear, dream-like narrative, Twin Peaks’ third season both surprised audiences with its new format and drove fan interest to new heights.

Despite the newest season’s popularity, the show wasn’t renewed or confirmed to return by the Showtime network. David Lynch, the creator of the series, has been asked numerous times if there are plans for a fourth season. Most recently, Lynch shot down the idea of another season and simply stated that nothing was happening (( Hollywood Reporter )). With the recent phenomenon of remakes and revivals taking hold in the industry, will Twin Peaks really come back for another season?

Dear Diane… What Year Is This?

Where did we leave off? Well, Cooper woke up from his coma and reunited with his old friends in Twin Peaks to finally destroy BOB, Laura Palmer’s true murderer. BOB is indeed destroyed, wrapping up one of the original 1990 plotlines, but Cooper is still unsure about how to save Laura.

Cooper goes to former FBI agent Phillip Jeffries for advice. Jeffries incites Cooper to “remember” and warns him about electricity. At this point, thoroughly confused viewers see Cooper transported to 1989 before Laura dies. Laura, recognizing Cooper from her dreams, goes with Cooper as opposed to having an orgy in the woods that would lead to her death. Cooper guides her away from the woods, but she literally and inexplicably vanishes. Realizing he has failed to save Laura, Cooper meets with Diane to come up with a new plan.

Diane asks Cooper if he is still up to the task and they drive endlessly to power lines in the middle of the desert. After Cooper tells Diane that everything could change, the duo drives through electricity and arrives at a motel. Cooper and Diane have sex and Cooper awakens to find a puzzling note from a Linda to a Richard. The note is possibly indicative of the change Cooper mentioned earlier. Cooper decided to disregard the letter and continue his search for Laura Palmer, which was eventually successful. Tracking her down to Odessa, Cooper tells Laura that they must return to Twin Peaks despite her having no memory of the town and insisting her name is Carrie Page.

Cooper and Carrie eventually pulled up to Palmer’s house in Twin Peaks. Carrie still seems to show no recollection of Twin Peaks or the house she grew up in. When they knock on the door, a woman answers who has no knowledge of Palmer’s or Cooper’s affiliation with Twin Peaks. Cooper and Carrie walk back to the car, but Cooper takes a second look at the house and ominously asks,

“What year is this?”

(( Twin Peaks ))

Hearing her mother’s voice distantly call out “Laura,” Carrie screams loudly as the entire house goes dark and the screen cuts to black. All that is shown over the end credits is Laura whispering to Cooper in the red room as he listens intently.

Picking Up The Pieces

So, how can we make sense of this ending? (( Vulture )) It seems that Cooper tried to save Laura when he time-traveled back to 1989 to rescue her in the woods. But the attempt failed. Lynch seems to suggest that since BOB was destroyed, Judy is likely responsible for teleporting Laura away from Cooper in the woods (( Judy, being the mysterious entity that spawned BOB, to begin with )). This was further established when Carrie was seen working at a diner called “Judy’s.”

Still trying to find a way to prevent Laura from dying, Cooper goes back to the Lodge to try and come up with a solution. When he gets there, he meets Diane. It seems to me that Cooper and Diane discerned what Phillip Jeffries meant when he mentioned electricity. Essentially, the power lines in the desert are a portal of some sort that alters aspects of space and time and also involves the malevolent Judy. Cooper knows this, which is why he warns Diane that everything could be different.

This is likely why after Cooper and Diane have sexual intercourse, he wakes up to find a note from Linda to Richard. Basically, by going through the portal their identities changed. Laura’s identity has also changed to Carrie, which is why she has no memory of Twin Peaks or Cooper. But since Cooper was told to “remember” by Phillip Jeffries, he has helped Carrie remember the past by taking her to her old house. The caveat to all of this being the time shift has landed them somewhere other than the 1989 they knew.

Unanswered Questions

Despite numerous unanswered questions, Twin Peaks season three did clear up a lot about the mysterious nature of the show. Things tied together nicely with the Cooper doppelgänger, Freddie’s glove, the woodsmen, and the bodiless Major Briggs in the last few episodes. In episode eight, we finally got the origin story for how BOB was created and how the Fireman sent Laura Palmer to counteract his evil. We also got to see a really creepy creature, known as a frog-moth, crawl into a girl’s mouth. What does this have to do with the plot?

It just proves that even a season based around giving explanations to a twenty-five year-old questions ultimately sparks more than it answers. Of course, the major question fans want an answer to is did Cooper save Laura from dying? Carrie’s scream at the end would seem to suggest that the answer is yes. However, Cooper and Carrie were displaced in time as a side-effect of Cooper driving through the electricity. But there are many other unanswered questions too:

• Is Sarah Palmer the chaotic entity Judy?
• How do Judy and Sarah fit into all this?
• What happened to Audrey?
• What year is it actually?
• Are Laura and Carrie the same person?
• And most importantly, what the hell was that frog-moth thing and why did it crawl inside someone’s mouth?

All of these questions are pretty legitimate reasons for fans to want another season.

The Lynchian Approach

Of course, fans want another season of Twin Peaks. They want answers to their questions, but they also enjoy experiencing Lynch’s signature directing style, often involving bizarre, visually stimulating story-telling. There’s an understandable demand, but Lynch’s universal acclaim comes at a price.

Because Lynch and his creations are so beloved, he will always be called upon to produce more. In fact, the fourth season of Twin Peaks will only lead fans to request a fifth. This would be perfectly acceptable if the show’s third season was designed to be a direct continuation of the original series. Continuing the story, it did, but the Showtime revival was intended to be a limited series that responded to the original ABC series.

Regardless of the fact that another season would likely only present more unanswered questions, the third season aimed to encapsulate the essence of the entire series. Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost were certainly successful in this endeavor and deserve immense praise. However, the third season was more or less a conclusion (( Indiewire )).

After all, the season was originally only supposed to consist of nine episodes, but after Lynch discussed ideas further with Showtime, the order was increased to eighteen. It is highly unusual for a subscription-based network like Showtime to order a full season of eighteen hour-long episodes for a show, with most standard seasons consisting of eight episodes nowadays. To me, this indicates that Lynch wanted the season to be in-depth and wide-ranging, serving to cover all the groundwork laid in the Twin Peaks universe.

The Past Dictates The Future

One of the most interesting aspects of the Twin Peaks revival was how Lynch and Frost handled some core actors’ deaths as well as Michael Ontkean’s retirement from acting, resulting in him refusing to return to his role as Sheriff Harry Truman. Notably, the role of Arm, originally played by Michael J. Anderson, who declined to return to the part, was replaced by a CGI tree-like figure.

In addition to the numerous actors that have died since the original series, Catherine E. Coulson, AKA the Log Lady, died just four days after completing her scenes for the revival; David Bowie, who played Phillip Jeffries, died after giving Lynch permission to use footage of him; and Miguel Ferrer, Warren Frost, and Harry Dean Stanton all died in 2017 after completing filming. All of these characters played pivotal roles in the third season and their absence in a potential fourth season would have to be explained in some way.

Overall, I’m skeptical as to whether Lynch will return to direct and write another season of Twin Peaks. Despite its critical acclaim, the third season of Twin Peaks took over four years to write and film. Even for a man who loves his ideas like Lynch, that process has got to be taxing. Considering the scope of the show, I would bet that our time with special agent Dale Cooper and Homecoming Queen Laura Palmer is over. But Lynch is a man of surprises.

The original series ended over twenty-five years before Twin Peaks was revived in 2017. Considering this, there is always the possibility that Lynch will wake up with a new idea fresh in his mind, light up a cigarette, and start writing another outlandish adventure for us to enjoy.