Judging by the reviews, this is a more popular episode than the first two, but I actually enjoyed it the least. People like it for the weirdness and surreal elements and I think weirdness and surreal elements can be great when done well, but not when they exist for no reason other than to be weird. The Leftovers is a brilliant example of how to do weirdness. It has plenty of strange, surreal scenes but they're all there for an actual purpose. The dream sequence at the end of this episode is okay because, well it is a dream so there's no breaking of Twin Peaks' internal logic. The same can't be said for the absolutely bizarre zen scene in which Cooper throws blocks at a bottle to work out who killed Laura Palmer. It's a surreal scene, which would be fine if it made any sense in context of the story. But it doesn't. Why would a professional FBI agent use a pseudo-scientific technique to catch a killer? And why would everyone else be okay with that? This is the thing I dislike about it, not the fact that it's weird. It's the inconsistent characters. We've already established that Agent Cooper has a somewhat unusual personality, but no FBI agent would use this technique or they'd be out of a job.
It's not only the nonsensical zen scene that annoyed me. The moments of "humour" were just not funny at all, not on any level. I was not even remotely amused. Watching someone eat a baguette at a dinner table... ha ha ha. The whole business with Nadine's silent drape runners is just as funny (not funny at all). There is also one scene that I think is trying to be serious but I can't take it so. When Laura's father madly dances with her photo. It's just silly, to be honest, and yet another example of characters behaving in unrealistic ways that take me out of the show.
That's not to say everything about this episode is bad. Indeed, I still enjoyed it whenever it wasn't trying to be funny or deliberately off-kilter. When Leo threatens Bobby and Mike over the owed money that is a wonderfully dark moment. The boys who were previously bullying now cower in fear. The arrival of Albert's team is another one of the better scenes, introducing an arrogant character who is sure to be trouble in the future.
It's not only the nonsensical zen scene that annoyed me. The moments of "humour" were just not funny at all, not on any level. I was not even remotely amused. Watching someone eat a baguette at a dinner table... ha ha ha. The whole business with Nadine's silent drape runners is just as funny (not funny at all). There is also one scene that I think is trying to be serious but I can't take it so. When Laura's father madly dances with her photo. It's just silly, to be honest, and yet another example of characters behaving in unrealistic ways that take me out of the show.
That's not to say everything about this episode is bad. Indeed, I still enjoyed it whenever it wasn't trying to be funny or deliberately off-kilter. When Leo threatens Bobby and Mike over the owed money that is a wonderfully dark moment. The boys who were previously bullying now cower in fear. The arrival of Albert's team is another one of the better scenes, introducing an arrogant character who is sure to be trouble in the future.