Twin Peaks Season 3 Episode 16 ‘No Knock, No Doorbell’ Recap
Although “officially” we have two more episodes yet to go in The Return since the remaining two will be shown back to back (just like the first two episodes were), Episode 16 – ‘No Knock, No Doorbell’ – essentially marks the point of no return for the season. Earlier in the week, we described this week’s chapter as “the perfect penultimate episode” in our Episode Review that presented us with a near constant stream of major revelations and developments.
Now, it’s time to look a bit closer at the events of Episode 16 and theorise about where they could be possibly leading us to in this weekend’s two-hour finale.
Let’s Rock!
We opened on Doppel Coop and Richard Horne driving in the dead of night towards the coordinates the former has been collecting. They arrive at a fork in the dirt track and Mr. C. focuses the truck’s spotlights on to a large rock atop a mound. In a line dripping with foretelling, Mr. C. tells Richard that he is “25 years your senior” and that the young miscreant should inspect the rock for him.
As Richard makes his way up to the rock, his Uncle Jerry comes charging over a hill in the distance to witness events, only to be baffled by his binoculars (is Lynch implying that us viewers have been looking at things the wrong way round too?). Once Richard reaches the summit of the rock, he disappears painfully in a cloud of smoke and sparks in what was presumably a trap set by Philip Jeffries to capture Doppel Coop. The odds are pretty much even on whether Richard was simply eviscerated by the trap or has been transported elsewhere.
Mr. C. then drops the bombshell which so many fans had been speculating on: Richard is indeed Doppel Coop’s son. This means something definitely happened between the doppelganger and Audrey soon after he awoke at the end of Season 2. Given that Cooper was definitely inhabited by BoB at that point, one does dread to think what that would have entailed and we perhaps get some idea of that later in this episode.
Another thing worth noting about this opening scene is when Mr. C. says he’s been given “three” sets of coordinates. Now, we know he has been given numbers by Ray and Jeffries but, up until this point, those are the only two sets we know of for sure. Later in this episode, Diane sends the set she memorised from Ruth Davenport’s corpse, but did Mr. C. already have these if he was one of the gate-crashers when Bill Hastings and Ruth visited the Zone?
The doppelganger says that only two of the three sets of numbers matched, could the set sent by Diane, later on, match the other one? If they do, then Mr. C. is heading to Twin Peaks for sure.
Trigger Warning
At the end of the opening scene, Mr. C. sends another SMS saying “:-) ALL.” but initially it is not delivered (presumably there was no phone signal out there). Later that day, back in Buckthorn, Diane receives the same text at 4:31 pm – one number out from the Fireman’s “430”. Diane gasps and suddenly seems to be overcome with previously unknown knowledge. She then replies with the coordinates from Ruth’s arm while muttering “I hope this works”.
There’s plenty to speculate about what such a vague message was trying to convey, but it could have simply been an instruction for Diane to either remember everything or tell everything. There was also some continuity irregularities as she replied to the text, with nearly 15 minutes passing between her receiving the text and sending the reply according to her phone’s clock while barely a minute had passed in real time. Of course, “real time” has become something of misnomer during this season, but it’s difficult to establish any significance to this incongruity at this point.
Next, Diane makes her way to see Gordon & Co. in their hotel room to the strains of David Lynch’s cover of American Woman, which has essentially become Mr. C.’s theme during The Return. Strangely, Gordon is expecting her and asks her to come in before she announces herself (he was also seen earlier trying to almost attune himself to some kind of intangible frequency).
Diane then confesses as to what took place when Cooper visited her after his disappearance. It would not be doing the scene or Laura Dern’s performance a modicum of justice to relay it blow for blow here, but suffice to say that Cooper arrived suddenly one night (“No knock, no doorbell”) and after grilling her about developments at the FBI, he sexually assaults her after his face changes (BoB, presumably).
She then says that she was taken to an “old gas station” (the Convenience Store) and then to a Sheriff’s Station. The latter has caused a flurry of theories as to whether the real Diane is actually Naido, who is currently residing at the Twin Peaks Sheriff Station. However, it’s unclear as to whether she is there currently or was just taken there by Mr. C. during her ordeal. Given that we’ve seen a few characters transformed into inanimate objects, if she is still at the Sheriff’s Station then perhaps she is trapped inside Dale’s dictaphone?
One thing’s for sure is that this Diane is not the real deal as she suddenly turns Manchurian Candidate and reaches for a gun inside her purse before Albert and Tammy put several bullets in her and her body flies off dramatically into the ether. Diane then finds herself in the Red Room where Philip Gerard goes through his spiel about her being manufactured for a purpose before she cuts him off with a curt “I know” and a trademark “Fuck you”. Diane then goes through the same disappearing act as Dougie in Episode 3, leaving behind another small gold sphere.
Tammy’s assessment of what just happened is that Diane was a “tulpa” and this is probably not the same thing as a doppelganger. This means that the real Diane is either elsewhere or dead. To add some further credence to the “Diane is Naido” theory: in the same room where we first met Naido, we also saw a woman who looked like Ronnette Pulaski. Could it be that some of BoB’s victims are sent to that room with the fireplace in the Mauve Zone? Who knows (well, David Lynch and Mark Frost probably do), but this likely isn’t the end of Diane’s story just yet.
Also, it now seems that Gordon’s vision of Laura in Episode 11 was a warning about Diane and the French women’s extrapolated exit from his hotel room in Episode 12 was a warning to Albert about Diane’s true nature.
Polished Off
One loose end that we can safely say has been tied up now, though, is the fate of the Hutchenses as they arrived to finish their double header in Vegas. Parked in a van on Lancelot Court, the two hick assassins characteristically bickered as they watched first the FBI turn up looking for Dougie and then the Mitchum Bros. arrive to restock the house with food.
Just when Chantal is down to her last bag of Cheetos, a Polish accountant informs the pair that they’re blocking his drive way. Chantal threatens the accountant, but it quickly transpires that they’re messing with the wrong number-cruncher when he draws his own sub-machine gun and guns down the van as they try to escape.
Out of all of The Return’s plethora of less than competent criminals, the Hutchenses have had a higher success rate than most. However, the message of this season is still intact: crime doesn’t pay (unless you’re imbued with some kind of supernatural entity and/or powers).
And what’s up with all the accountants in Season 3? There was Charlie (not that one) who asked Lucy if he could speak to Sheriff Truman; the nebbish accountant at the Farm; and now this well-armed psychotic. Perhaps it’s some kind of joke to do with the budgetary arguments early on in the production. It’s probably not important, but it seemed to be a definite trend this season.
“I’m Very, Very Happy to see You, Old Friend.”
This was the moment we had all been waiting for and when the whole Twin Peaks community fist-pumped harder than Freddie Sykes: Special Agent Dale Cooper is back! After 13 episodes of watching the FBI agent shuffle around in a daze in the guise of his tulpa, Dougie Jones, Dale Cooper finally woke up from the self-induced coma he put himself in by experimenting with the conductive capabilities of cutlery.
The scene opened as Janey E. and Sonny Jim watched anxiously over Dougie/Dale (thank f*ck it’s the last time I have to write that) in a hospital bed before Bushnell Mullins and the Mitchum Brothers arrive to fuss over them. After the party leaves for various reasons, that distinctive hum is heard (apparently it’s the same sound a Tibetian Singing Cup) and suddenly Dale Cooper is in the house!
As Coop awakes, he sees Philip Gerard appear next to the bed and asks him if he has “the seed”, presumably meaning the gold sphere that Dougie left behind. Cooper tells Gerard he needs to make “another one” and gives him some of his hair to do so. Whether this is to make another Dougie for Janey E. is unclear as it could also be that Cooper needs another tulpa for decoy purposes later on. This also means that it’s highly likely that it was Coop who created Dougie, not Mr. C. as was first suspected.
This also means that it’s highly likely that it was Coop who created Dougie, not Mr. C. as was first suspected. This throws up all kinds of questions about the exchange all three Coopers went through in Episode 3, but it’s probably best that we wait until we know a little more before trying to answer them.
Janey E., Sunny Jim, and Bushnell all return to find a surprisingly articulate Dougie Jones as Cooper gets a doctor’s permission to leave (and yes, that is Bellina Logan playing the doctor, who also played the desk clerk in the Great Northern is the first two seasons). Cooper is informed by Bushnell that the FBI are on their way to see him to which Coop gloriously replies “I am the FBI” just as Angelo Badalamenti’s iconic theme tune kicks in.
Just as Cooper leaves the room, he gives Bushnell a message to read to Gordon Cole when he calls, probably the same greeting that Mr. C. got wrong (“yrev”) in Episode 4. Quite why Cooper can’t just phone Cole there and then is known only to him.
Cooper then drives Janey E. and S.J. to the Silver Mustang Casino (presumably their house is unsafe currently) and gives them a tearful goodbye before he sets off to Spokane, Washington with the Mitchum Brothers. The benevolent gangster siblings are clearly uncomfortable with the revelation that Dougie is actually an FBI agent, Cooper reassures them that he will see to that law enforcement is made aware of their “hearts of gold”.
Cooper did promise his surrogate family that he will return, but there is a distinct feeling that this might be a one-way ticket for Cooper.
Audrey’s Trance
And finally this week, a certain somebody put their coat on and crossed the “threshold” to enjoy a martini at the Roadhouse. As it looked like we would just have to suffice with Edward Louis Severson III (Eddie Vedder playing under his birth name) playing us out this week, Audrey and Charlie walked in and ordered some drinks at the bar.
For a brief spell, it seemed that all the talk of Audrey still being in a coma or some kind of intensive therapy had been misplaced as the couple toasted at the bar (although Audrey did raise her glass to Billy instead). But then the MC announced a very familiar piece of music, Audrey’s Dance. The dance floor suddenly cleared and Audrey finds herself overcome with her jazz infused theme and sways by herself in the middle of the Roadhouse.
She is soon rudely interrupted by a fight breaking out within the crowd and Ms. Horne panics. She rushes over to Charlie begging him to get her out of here and – boom – Charlie ends her “story” as Audrey finds herself looking into a small mirror in a pure white room. And before we can say “WTF is going on?!” the end credits start to play over the house band playing Audrey’s Dance in reverse.
The Return has been quite restrained in terms of cliffhangers, but this was a particularly cruel one. What the significance of Audrey’s “awakening” is at this point is anybody’s guess and where she actually is even more so. What’s more, have all the seemingly non-sequitur Roadhouse scenes been part of Audrey’s illusion? Hopefully, we don’t have long until we find out now…
So, what’s your theory on Audrey’s predicament?
Is Naido a barely disguised anagram of Diane?
How good did it feel to finally have Cooper back with us?
And, does everyone get a tulpa?
Let us know in the comments below and be sure to check back on Monday for our review of the grand finale double bill – “The Past Dictates the Future” & “What is Your Name?”
