Twin Peaks 2017 episode 9 review: A tale of two realities

*WARNING: SPOILERS FOR TWIN PEAKS SEASON 3 EPISODE 9*

Episode 9 of Twin Peaks: The Return couldn't feel any more different from its predecessor, that groundbreaking piece of experimentalism which seemed to defy the entire form of television.

Things returned to a new quiet here. Even quieter than before, perhaps; episode 9 was littered with awkward pauses and a strange sense of internal frustration: Dougie and Janey-E in the waiting room of the police station; Vegas' trio of cops (the brothers Fusco) in their investigations into the attempted murder on Dougie; or Diane, Deputy Director Gordon Cole, and Special Agent Preston on a mute cigarette break.

All long stretches of silence, accompanied by concerned expressions. Nothing is happening, but there's a looming sense around these characters that something, and something dark, lies on the horizon.

It's a perfect way to set the tone for episode 9, which was loaded with exposition and skirted around season 3's locations like it was on rounds, checking in on each of our characters to see how they're doing so far.

Sheriff Truman, Bobby Briggs, and Deputy Hawk uncovered the secret message left behind by Major Briggs before his disappearance: a set of co-ordinates and a coded message hiding the words "Cooper Cooper". Meanwhile Cole, Albert, Diane, and Preston took a trip to Buckhorn, South Dakota on the trail of a Blue Rose case.

It's there that they find William Hastings, accused of the murder of his lover Ruth Davenport, though they soon discover that Hastings and Davenport had been investigating a place they called "the Zone"; a location which enabled them to contact Major Briggs, who gave them the same "Cooper Cooper" message. At the expense, however, of Briggs' body turning up in the real world with Ruth's decapitated head attached.

Evil Cooper's plan continues to be set in motion, as he travels to "the farm" alluded to in the last episode; it's here that he meets up with Chantal (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Hutch (Tim Roth), instructing the latter to kill the prison warden and (presumably) Dougie and Janey-E.

It's an episode that alludes to, but never enters "the Zone"; in stark contrast to the abstraction of last week, we now get an episode that feels comparatively grounded in reality. All of our investigators here seem keen to extract logical explanations for what they've come across: the Fuscos point out Dougie was in a car crash 12 years ago, which could very well explain his strange behaviour now.

Preston's interrogation of Hastings has the methodical nature of a sceptic attempting to carve the truth out of a conspiracy theorist, while Jerry Horne hearing his foot declare, "I am not your foot", could easily be dismissed as a drug-fuelled hallucination.

The truly surreal is but a shadow at the edge of the screen. Dougie/Agent Cooper stares at the power socket from which he emerged many episodes ago, with the low hum reminding us of the nightmare he's been through. Then there's the hum of the Great Northern Hotel, still unexplained: is this Josie Packard, or something else?

Between episode 8 and episode 9, there lies the gulf of two realities: the world we know, awkward and dour and filled with frustrations, and the endless world of dreams, which seem always to hover just out of sight. But, as Hastings soon learned, is the journey to cross that gulf worth the inevitable price?

Twin Peaks airs 2am on Mondays on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV with the Entertainment Pass, in a simulcast with the US. The episode will then be shown again at 9pm on the following day. You can catch up now on season one and two via Sky Box Sets and NOW TV.