Twin Peaks: Season 3, Part 13 "What Story is that, Charlie?" Review

 "You didn't kill him too good, Ray"

-Renzo

Part 13 picks up with the Mitchum Brothers (Jim Belushi and Robert Knepper) and Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) dancing their way into the office of Bushnell Mullins (Don Murray) to give him presents in celebration.  The Mitchum Brothers also send a new playset to Cooper's house for Sonny Jim (Pierce Gagnon).  Anthony Sinclair (Tom Sizemore) calls Duncan Todd (Patrick Fischler) to tell him the new development and Todd gives Anthony one day to kill Cooper.  Anthony takes Cooper out for coffee and tries to poison him, but changes his mind.  He dumps the coffee out, apologizes, and goes to Mullins to confess.

Mr. C (Kyle MacLachlan) arrives at the Farm, a building in western Montana housing a criminal organization, led by Renzo (Derek Mears).  Both Ray Monroe (George Griffith) and Richard Horne (Eamon Farren) are also hiding out there.  Renzo lets Mr. C in and challenges him to an arm wrestling competition.  If Renzo wins, Mr. C has to follow Renzo's orders.  If Mr. C wins, he gets Ray.  Mr. C easily defeats Renzo and kills him with a single punch.  He interrogates Ray and learns that Phillip Jeffries (Nathan Frizzell) put the hit on Mr. C, that Jeffries' last known location is "The Dutchman's", and finally gets the coordinates he asked Ray to get for him.  Mr. C then kills Ray.

The Las Vegas police get fingerprints back from "Dougie Jones" and learn that he is apparently a missing FBI agent who recently escaped from a South Dakota prison.  They assume it's a mistake and dismiss the information.

Norma's (Peggy Lipton) business partner and boyfriend, Walter (Grant Goodeve), tries to convince to sell her pies at a higher price and use cheaper ingredients.

Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) watches the same clip from an old boxing match over and over again.  

Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn) demands that Charlie (Clark Middleton) tell her what Tina told him on the phone.  He refuses, but offers to go to the Roadhouse with her.  Audrey begins to have an existential crisis and Charlie threatens to end her story.

James Hurley (James Marshall) performs at the Roadhouse.

Ed Hurley (Everett McGill) eats alone at his gas station.

What Works:

When I think about The Return, one of the first images that pops into my head is Cooper, the Mitchum Brothers, and their assistants dancing their way through the insurance office.  I absolutely love this scene because of how joyful and happy it is.  It's a goofy scene with really fun and kind performances, especially from the Mitchum Brothers, which is just so far removed from how these character were portrayed at the beginning of the season.  I love it.

Tom Sizemore gives a fantastic performance as the guilt of his actions break him down until he finally confesses.  It's not the typical range of acting I've seen from Sizemore, but he nails it.  Watching him beg forgiveness from Cooper is genuinely moving.

I love everything at the Farm.  The arm wrestling competition is very silly, but Kyle MacLachlan makes it deathly serious with his chilling performance.  I love the way he toys with Renzo.  Plus the casting of Derek Mears in this role is inspired.  He's a large and intimidating guy.  I mean, Mears played Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th remake.  And Mr. C makes mincemeat of him and kills him with one punch.  It's awesome stuff.

The scene with Sarah Palmer watching the boxing is unsettling.  Listening to the same audio on repeat plus the strangeness surrounding Sarah makes this uncomfortable to watch, but it's effective.

The Audrey storyline continues to get stranger.  I'm still not fully sure what's going on there, but Sherilyn Fenn and Clark Middleton both give great performances and Middleton gives a nice and scary edge to his character.

Finally, the episode ends with Ed Hurley sitting alone and eating by himself in his gas station.  We saw him earlier in the episode at the Double R Diner, but we learn he and Norma are not together.  The next time we see him, he's alone.  Ed is an old man now and this scene is brutally sad.  It doesn't need any dialogue to convey the sadness of this situation.  This is some fantastic filmmaking.

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Crystal Coffee:

The Crystal Coffee Award goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For this episode, the Award goes to Mr. C for everything that happens at the Farm.  He defeats and kills Renzo, and successfully interrogates Ray before killing him.  Brutal, but effective.  This is Mr. C's 7th time winning this Award.

Verdict:

This was an awesome episode of Twin Peaks.  The Cooper/Mitchum Brothers dance and the arm-wrestling match are iconic parts of the season.  We also get fantastic performances from Kyle MacLachlan, Tom Sizemore, Sherilyn Fenn, and Clark Middleton.  Plus there is some really fantastic filmmaking without any dialogue that still makes you really feel the emotion of the scene.  This episode has absolutely got it going on.

 10/10: Amazing