34. Jesus Christ, how hot was Billy Zane?
The eagle-eyed will note that by skipping ahead to this prime man candy, I’ve basically leapt over about seven episodes, but absolutely nothing good happens in them (except a newspaper headline that reads “ASIAN MAN KILLED!!” which made me laugh). In fact, until the final two or three episodes, the show seems to try to outdo itself for unwatchably turgid, wheel-spinning storylines including: Nadine as a super-strong high-schooler, James having a chemistry-free affair with rando rich bitch Evelyn Marsh, Ben Horne’s Civil War reenactments, the Mayor’s brother’s irresistibly attractive wife (played by Robin Lively, sister of Blake), David Duchovny in drag (hilarious!), Andy deciding that the kid Richard is minding is the devil, Ben rekindling his romance with (of all people) Donna’s wheelchair-bound mother, stuff about Hank and Norma’s new stepfather, and so on and on. Believe me, although it’s dumb as paint, purely for the attractiveness of the couple, the relationship between Zane’s Jack and Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) is 80% of what the show has going for it during this dumbfounding, borderline-unwatchable half-season plummet from greatness.
35. Josie Is Now A Bedside Table Drawer Knob
Well, this is more like it. Continuing the recurring motif of “spirits in wood” or seeing people or animals “in the trees,” Josie’s body may be lifeless, but her soul is apparently alive and trapped in pine. It is episode 16 of season 2 and there seems to be a (strobe) light at the end of the tunnel.
36. Annie and Coop in the Diner
The fun Josie drawer bit was kind of a false dawn, but here we are at the third-to-last episode, and this is the scene that makes you think maybe they can salvage something from the soap-opera, trainwreck tatters of the season. It’s a great season 1 trick: making a sweet scene — a quirky chat between new lovers, no less — feel sinister, with that slow creep back from the action and the ominous music striking up.
37. Windom Earle’s Black Mouth
The New Big Bad for season 2, Windom Earle (Kenneth Welsh), never quite encompassed the same degree of unholy, soul-sucking horror as Bob, and it’s not till we realize how closely allied the two are that we start to get the same high-quality willies from him. This white face/black mouth moment sure helps, though.
38. Jimmy Scott Sings “I’ll See You In The Trees” In The Black Lodge
Finally, a truly worthwhile reward for having stuck with the show through the hard times: this sublime sequence, in which Jimmy Scott lends his perfect countertenor to a song written by Badalamenti and Lynch, and spines duly turn to jelly across the nation.
39. “I’ll see you again in 25 years”
Yes, you will. Give or take.
40. “How’s Annie?”
You’ve got to hand it to the show: “Twin Peaks” knows how to cliffhanger.
41. “Her name is Lil”
Some actors slot easily into the world of “Twin Peaks,” and weirdly, Chris Isaak in the feature-length prequel “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” was definitely one of them: he felt like he’d always been there, offhandedly deciphering the codes Gordon Cole leaves in the form of dancing women in bright red wigs. Kiefer Sutherland, perhaps not so much, though he also gets saddled with kind of a hopeless role here. Still, this sequence in general promised a fresh kind of fizzy oddness that the rest of the film didn’t quite deliver on.
42. The Long Lost Philip Jeffries (Bowie Grief Trigger Alert)
Speaking of actors who slotted into this Lynchian world seamlessly: David Bowie. He’s terrific in this minute, oddly accented role (and there’s a bit more of him to be found on the deleted-scenes compilation), but we can’t say anything else about him because it’s still Too Soon.
43. Julee Cruise performing at the Roadhouse
Cruise leant her pipes and her offbeat look to a few episodes of the series as well, but this in ‘Fire Walk With Me’ is a personal favorite of the songs she performs, to such ethereal effect, throughout the show.
44. Sheryl Lee
All right, this is a bit of a cheat, as this precise clip comes from the deleted scenes that only nerdlingers like me will have watched. However, it does neatly encapsulate an element that, within all the many, many kilotons of literature written about “Twin Peaks,” tends to get overlooked: Sheryl Lee is greatness. In the show, when she’s either Maddy — who is, let’s face it, a bit wet — or Dead Laura speaking gobbledygook about her bendy arms, she rarely has scenes that allow her to show her range. But perhaps the best thing about ‘Fire Walk With Me’ is that it gives Laura Palmer back some ownership of her story, and in so doing gives Lee a huge role into which she breathes life, sadness, horror and, yes, fire.
45. The First Trailer For The New Season
…and all of a sudden, it’s like the show has actually been unfolding all this time, all these past 25 years, like all these people have always been there, drinking coffee, wearing knitwear, eating pie and falling prey to the unspeakable evil that lurks in the trees. It is finally ready to welcome us home again. Welcome to Twin Peaks, population: you.