Twin Peaks is coming back in 2017, and most of the key characters are coming back with it. What’s more, David Lynch is directing the whole thing. It’ll be the tour de force that Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me didn’t manage to be. But, 25 years later, of course the show is going to feel very different than the first time. All the teenagers from the first show are middle-aged now, the adults old. But some characters won’t be returning. Some have passed away or are very well retired, others have simply moved on. Let’s take the look at the Twin Peaks characters who almost definitely aren’t coming back.
Pete Martell
Pete Martell was Catherine Martell’s husband, and he had some real zingers in Twin Peaks season 1. The Twin Peaks wiki says he’s most famous for the line “She’s dead—wrapped in plastic,” but come on now. I remember him best, without question, for the even more iconic line “There’s a fish—in the percolator!”
Alas, the beleaguered husband won’t be coming back, wherever the storyline takes us. The actor who played Pete, Jack Nance, died in the mid-‘90s under somewhat questionable circumstances. He was always one of Lynch’s favorites, and great as Pete. He’ll be missed.
Warren Frost
Warren Frost, who played Dr. Hayward, is alive and well, which is great. He’s also quite retired, and 90 years old, so I wouldn’t put too much money on him returning. Maybe we’ll get a cameo—after all, he’s co-creator Mark Frost’s father—but he won’t be in the series to the extent that he used to be. Who wants to be acting when they’re 90? At that age, you should be comfortably retired making heavy metal albums.
Garland Briggs
Garland Briggs, Bobby’s dad, was one of the only characters who knew anything about the Black Lodge and the White Lodge. It’s why he was in the town, after all, on assignment from the government to investigate such paranormal things. He was always very stern but very kind, and sadly he certainly won’t be coming back. The actor who portrayed Garland Briggs, Don Davis, died in 2008 of a heart attack. Briggs was probably lost to us anyway, even before such things, but that makes it a certainty. He will be missed.
Annie Blackburn
I’m torn about including Annie Blackburn on this list. On the one hand, Heather Graham, who played the character, is certainly not retired. She could act up a storm for Twin Peaks if she wanted to. But she’s probably too big of an actor for what is essentially a Showtime mini-series. Unless we get a Wet Hot American Summer situation where even the bigger actors just plain want to come back, I don’t know that we’ll see any more of Annie Blackburn. And it’s more complicated because she was a post-Lynch character, created in late season 2. We don’t know what Lynch thinks about the character or if he’ll want Annie in the show at all. Even though she’s in Fire Walk With Me, I’d say Annie’s fate is still in doubt.
Andrew Packard
I don’t think any of us will particularly miss Andrew Packard, the owner of the Packard Sawmill, who was best as an unseen presence in the first season. That’s not to knock Dan O’Herlihy’s performance in season 2, which was solid, but he only showed up in person once the show was in deep melodrama territory. It wasn’t fun. Packard was left on a cliffhanger, which may have written itself. O’Herlihy died in 2005, so Andrew Packard won’t be back.
BOB
Here’s the biggest one, I think: The primary antagonist of the series, the evil spirit BOB, was played by Frank Silva, who died in 1995. It’s a shame, and he’ll be much missed; his performance as BOB was quite terrifying and eerie. Unlike these other characters, though, BOB will still be with us, played by a different actor. I don’t want to spoil the end of the series for you, but if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean. That guy will probably play BOB instead. It’s a decent workaround.
It’s a shame that most of these characters probably won’t be joining us, but it’s the nature of rebooting a show 25 years later. Twin Peaks has changed, and so have the people who make it and star in it. That’s just how it goes. Sic transit gloria mundi, you know?
