Twin Peaks: Season 3, Part 8 "Gotta Light?" Review

 "This is the water, and this is the well."

-Woodsman

Part 8 picks up with Mr. C (Kyle MacLachlan) and Ray Monroe (George Griffith) driving away from the prison in South Dakota.  Mr. C discovers three tracking devices on their car.  He deactivates them and gets them to track a truck driving in front of them instead.  Mr. C asks for the information he asked Ray to get.  Ray says it will cost him.  When they pull over for Ray to go to the bathroom, Mr. C pulls a gun on Ray to get the information, but discovers it's unloaded when he tries to shoot Ray.  Ray shoots Mr. C instead.  A group of Woodsman appear and rip into Mr. C's body and pull out a dark ball with the face of BOB (Frank Silva) on it.  Ray flees and calls Phillip Jeffries (Nathan Frizzell) to tell him that he thinks Mr. C is dead.  However, Mr. C is revealed to still be alive.

At the Roadhouse, the Nine Inch Nails perform.

On July 16th, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb is detonated in New Mexico.  This is followed by a group of Woodsmen arriving at a convenience store.

The Experiment (Erica Eynon) spits up a substance filled with eggs and the dark ball with BOB's face.

At the fortress at the purple sea, the Fireman (Carel Struycken) and Senorita Dido (Joy Nash) learn of those events and create a golden orb with the face of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) and send it to Earth.

In 1956, still in New Mexico, a creature that appears the be part insect and part amphibian hatches in the desert.  Several Woodsmen also appear in the desert.  One of the Woodsmen goes to a radio station and kills the employees before taking a song off the air and speaking a chant over the channel.  His words put the listeners to sleep, including a young girl (Tikaeni Faircrest), who may be Sarah Palmer.  The strange creature crawls into her mouth and down her throat while she sleeps.

What Works:

I will never forget the first time I watched this episode.  I was living in Los Angeles at the time so the East Coast was already buzzing about this episode.  Going in, I knew it was going to be something special.  Once the Woodsmen arrive to save Mr. C, my jaw dropped and never went back up.  This episode was absolutely insane to watch and is my favorite episode of The Return.

First we have everything with Mr. C and Ray.  It's always exciting to have BOB appear on the show in any capacity.  We also have Ray getting the drop on Mr. C, which was really unexpected.  Plus I love the look of their car driving through the wilderness.  It's so creepy and well shot.  It really makes you afraid of what is going to happen next.

The performances at the Roadhouse have been at the end of the episodes so far in The Return.  Having the 2nd section of the episode be a Roadhouse performance was very surprising and then having it be the Nine Inch Nails lets you know that we're in for something very different.  It's exciting placement for their sinister performance

The visual effects are absolutely stunning.  The nuclear blast and the borderline experimental footage used to show us the aftermath is incredible to look at.  I can't believe this was in a show of this magnitude and how long it goes on for.

This episode also seems to give us the origin for many of the spirits in the Black Lodge.  It doesn't hold your hand to fully explain everything, but it gives you some scraps and lets you form you own theories from there.  I still don't fully understand it, but that's what makes it fun.

Finally, the attack of the Woodsmen on the desert of New Mexico is simply incredible.  I'd watch a feature length movie of just that.  The Woodsmen are absolutely terrifying from just their look.  Add in the "Got a light?" and the brute strength of their kills and you have some absolute nightmare fuel.  This is my favorite segment of an episode that is filled with nothing but incredible segments.  It's some of the best filmmaking ever put to screen.

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Crystal Coffee:

The Crystal Coffee Award goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For Part 8, I'm giving this Award to the Woodsmen as a whole.  I don't fully understand what they were doing, but it seems like they saved Mr. C and their assault on New Mexico was incredibly effective.  This is their 1st time winning this Award.

Verdict:

When people talk about The Return, Part 8 is always a major part of the discussion, and for good reason.  It's the best episode of The Return, one of the best episodes of the series, and one of the most fascinating episodes of television ever.  It's so wonderful and strange.  Trying to describe this episode to someone who hasn't seen it may be impossible.  The fact that David Lynch was able to make this part of the show is truly something special.  

 10/10: Amazing