Thoughts on Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier
Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier, Mark Frost’s follow-up to last year’s Secret History of Twin Peaks, is largely unnecessary. Coming in at a little over 150 pages and filled almost entirely with fan service, Frost’s latest is as disappointing and inconsistent as the back half of the show’s second season.
In the months following the polarizing limited event series Twin Peaks (2017), showrunners David Lynch and Mark Frost both made a point of saying they aren’t sure if they’re ready for more just yet. After the five years it took to create the latest 18 hours, they’re both looking to take some time before deciding on whether or not they’d like to return to Twin Peaks. While they haven’t ruled out the possibility completely, their uncertainty tells us that Mark Frost’s latest novel(la), Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier, will probably be the last new addition to the Twin Peaks canon we’ll be seeing for at least a few years. The very real possibility that Lynch and Frost may never return to Twin Peaks again is what makes the needlessness of this book all the more brutal.
Frost’s Secret History, the fifth supplemental Twin Peaks tie-in novel since the show’s premiere nearly 30 years ago, is easily the most informative and the most inspired. Released in October of 2016, seven months before the show returned nearly three months before the release date for the upcoming revival had even been revealed, The Secret History provided some much-needed clarity and streamlining of the Twin Peaks canon for those looking forward to the new installment. Just shy of 400 pages, the book is filled with finely crafted backstories and important retcons concerning the history of Twin Peaks and its residents. The novel spans all the way from the Lewis and Clark Expedition to Nixon’s presidency to the days following season two’s finale. At the time, it served as a nice reintroduction to the world of Twin Peaks before its return without ever giving out the answers that fans had been begging to hear for over nearly 25 years.
Unlike The Secret History and Twin Peaks (2017), Frost’s latest novel fully embraces the lame expectations of nostalgic viewers in a way that feels completely inappropriate after the events of Twin Peaks’ latest run. If Twin Peaks never came back and Frost published this book to give fans some peace of mind after 25 years, there’s no doubt I would have absolutely loved it. But, following Twin Peaks (2017) and its staunch stance against nostalgia, I can’t help but feel like Frost coming in at the last minute and writing in happy endings for secondary characters, providing clarity for Parts 17 and 18, and answering questions like “How’s Annie?” all for the sake of fan service just isn’t right.
I have no problem with Frost elaborating on the past. Twin Peaks tie-in books have always done that. That’s what makes The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper so great: they deepen the characters by detailing their past, not hypothesizing their future. That’s what makes The Secret History great, and even parts of The Final Dossier. But for this new book to look to the future and explain what the end of Twin Peaks (2017) means is to violate everything that Lynch—and Twin Peaks—stands for now.
Fortunately, as Lynch has said, The Final Dossier is Frost’s book. It’s not necessarily “official.” It may not be completely canon. Frost’s simultaneous reluctance to address bigger questions from Twin Peaks (2017) and determination to fill in backstories and timelines for the characters who didn’t get much screen time only confirms that. The book is low-stakes, it’s hokey, and — worst of all — it doesn’t feel like the new and improved Twin Peaks. Here’s hoping Frost and Lynch decide to do another limited series or film just so that the bad taste of The Final Dossier can be washed away.
