You know. Even though I was pretty damn excited about the return of Twin Peaks, I was worried they would try to replicate the original far too closely, or turn it into episodic Lynch too much like today's prestige TV.
Episode 4 and 5 almost killed me... but I think it's in part based upon our habit of judging episodes individually. Lynch and others have been saying this is more an 18 hour film than 18 one hour episodes of a tv program. And when you look at it that way it all starts coming together, you start to see connections and narrative threads, you start to understand the surreal digressions, the sidesteps, the labyrinth entered. I'm literally going to watch the entire 18 hours over a weekend once it's done.
This episode literally transcended TV, pushed the boundaries and scope so far past anything thus far. It was incredible. Did you feel the 2001: A Space Odyssey vibes from the atomic bomb test-Penderecki's threnody to the victims of Hiroshima part? There was so much Kubrick and Tarkovsky in this episode.
And the woodsman scene to finish was one of the more extraordinary and terrifying bits of television ever. The Abe Lincoln lookalike they chose for the role was just so damn perfect.