How "Twin Peaks: The Return" Audrey Horne failed

A fan favorite in David Lynch's quirky world of Twin Peaks Audrey Horne Sherine Fenn was one of the returning characters that fans were most excited to see in the highly anticipated 2017 revival of Twin Peaks The Return. However, like many returning cast members, Audrey was relegated to a small role making way for new characters as Lynch expanded the universe beyond BOB and the small town of Twin Peaks. Audrey doesn't make her debut until Part 12 of The Return and when she does she shares about 30 minutes of screen time with her real-life husband Charlie Clark Middleton. Charlie and Audrey spend most of their scenes together in a room and nearly all of their conversations revolve around meeting the mysterious Billy who is likely a man Audrey has been in a relationship with.

The scenes between Audrey and Charlie whether they are meant to be or not are painful. Charlie is always sleepy and dismissive and Audrey is noisy and crazy. Their dynamic borders on that of a doctor and his patient which may be intentional as Audrey appears to be in a mental institution in her final comeback scene. She recreated her iconic Roadhouse dance and as was 25 years ago she's a wonderfully dreamy hypnotic and whimsical one. A fight broke out and he broke his dream as he ran to Charlie and pleaded to Get me out of here! Suddenly the Roadhouse disappears and we see Audrey in a white room in a hospital gown staring in horror at her own reflection in the mirror. The last shot is terribly disturbing and it's a classic moment in Double Tops. What exactly happened to Audrey Horne the daring brave girl of 25 years?

The last time we saw Audrey was just before the bank exploded in the season two finale as she chained herself to a vault door at Twin Peaks Savings and Loan Bank in protest of the banks associated with the Ghostwood Project. Mark Frost's epistolary novel Twin Peaks The Final Dossier published a month after the season finale of The Return filled in the gap about what happened to Audrey between the end of the original series' the second season and return. Top questions from fans. Urgent Questions Has Audrey been in a coma for 25 years? Was she still in one in return?

Frost confirmed that Audrey survived the bank explosion as Pete Jack Nance protected her body. However, she was taken to the hospital in a critical condition and while there she fell into a coma for three and a half weeks. Coop Kyle MacLachlan who was of course Evil Coop/BOB at the time was seen leaving the hospital the next day. Two months after Audrey woke up from her coma and was released from the hospital she found out she was pregnant. While the final file doesn't explicitly state that Evil Coop/BOB is the father of Audrey's child Richard Eamonn Farren was born nine months after her hospital stay just after her nineteenth birthday. She raised Richard as a single mother and refused any financial assistance from her parents.

Around 2000 Audrey married her longtime accountant for financial gain rather than love. While the final file does not provide the accountant's name it is likely Charlie especially since Audrey and her husband's relationship according to The Final Dossier have been plagued by public arguments excessive drinking and verbal abuse on Audrey's part. In 2012 Audrey suddenly closed her hair salon and disappeared from view rumored to be committed to a private grooming facility.

The final scene we see with Audrey in The Return seems to confirm that Audrey is still in a mental institution. It's accepted as canon in Twin Peaks lore that Evil Coop BOB actually raped Audrey while she was in a coma because it's the only logical explanation for Richards's birth a true demon spawning nine months later. Raising Richard a kid from The Lodge certainly wouldn't have walked in the park especially considering how utterly terrifying Richard was as an adult in The Return. It would make sense that given the horrific trauma of being raped while in a coma by an evil version of the man she once loved and admired and giving birth to his demon nine months later Audrey's mental state would begin to deteriorate.

It's not that Audrey's long-awaited fate in The Return is inconsequential it is. Everything we see with Audrey in The Return is probably a dream happening in Audrey's fragmented mind as befits Twin Peaks. Fans of Twin Peaks are no strangers to tragedy Lynch's surreal sprawling universe revolves around the tragedy of Laura Palmer Cheryl Lee one shown to be absolutely shocking in Lynch's controversial film Fire Walk With Me. And of course anyone whos a fan of Lynch knows he's not interested in pandering to viewers and giving them whatever they want. Remember Lynch had us watch the cleaner mop the Roadhouse floor to the tune of Green Onions for several minutes.

All told what happens to Audrey Horne after 25 years of waiting doesn't add up. With Audrey in the lead, the lovable women of the Twin Peaks universe who reprised their roles in The Return seem to be stuck in the same patterns they were many years ago Shelly Mädchen Amick swaying like a teenage girl with a crush on her. Her new boyfriend Red Balthazar Getty is an international drug smuggler. She is divorced from Bobby Dana Ashbrook who grew up and changed his life to become a cop by the way and they have a daughter together Amanda Seyfried who is married to an unemployed drug addict Caleb Landry Jones. Meanwhile, Norma Peggy Lipton is no longer with Big Ed Everett McGill but with her business partner Smarmy Walter Grant Goodeve. Still Nadine Wendy Robbie Nadine She is now obsessed with Dr. Jacobi Ross Tamblyn who is currently selling spray painted gold shovels and is fervently urging people to get rid of them. Additionally, the new female characters introduced in The Return serve little purpose other than murder in her underwear Tracey Madeline Zima who was brutally murdered in the first episode during sex, and Daria Nicole Laliberte who was shot. . in the head by Evil Coop/BOB.

With Audrey being one of the sexiest and bravest women in the world of Twin Peaks it feels like a punch in the stomach to see her role transform into that of a madwoman another woman who falls victim to Hands Lodge. Audrey has gone from being a gritty precocious teen in the original race to a stereotypical boisterous woman who has nothing to do with the original cast of characters. Instead, viewers are forced to wait for Audreys 12 to appear screaming about Billy and Tina for Charlie all of whom are new unexplained characters and unrelated to the original series. Again Lynch isn't trying to appease us which is his purchase.