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Twin Peaks Brought Back David Bowie’s Character In the Most Insane Way Possible

Warning: Important spoilers about Part 15 of Twin Peaks: The Return follow.

In the fifteenth installment of Twin Peaks: The Return last night, Phillip Jeffries, David Bowie‘s elusive disappearing FBI agent character, appeared in the new series for the first time. He’s had an important role in the plot of The Return thus far, though he’d surfaced only in flashback footage from his appearance in the Fire Walk With Me film. Agent Jeffries’ significance in the new series’ plot seemed strange, considering that it was commonly believed that Bowie had not filmed any scenes for the show before his death, and was not included on pre-released master cast lists. What happened when he had to show up for real, and not just in flashback?

Lynch provided us with his solution to the apparent dilemma last night, in a scene that took place in a netherworld beyond the “Convenience Store” that was haunted by crackling, dirty-faced shadow men in the series’ symphonic eighth episode. Evil Dale disappeared into a Black-Lodge-adjacent realm featuring a dingy strip motel. In one room, “Phillip Jeffries” was hanging out, waiting for bad-boy Coop, but instead of the Thin White Duke he was a crazy teapot-looking thing the size of a furnace. It spoke to Dale in the fake Southern accent Bowie used in Fire Walk With Me, approximated perfectly by voice actor Nathan Frizzell. It blew a mysterious phone number to Coop in smoke, giving him a crucial hint about where to find the elusive character of “Judy” that Jeffries claimed to have met, probably in the Lodge, back in 1989.

This is the sequel to “The Man From Another Place becoming a crazy talking flesh-tree” we didn’t know we needed. Only David Lynch could recast David Bowie as a huge haunted teapot and make it play this well. Watch the episode via Hulu, and see the demonic teapot below.