Twin Peaks: Seriously, Why the Heck Are Richard and Linda Important?

Way back in the first scene of Part 1 of Twin Peaks: The Return, the Giant, or as he's credited here, ??????? (Carel Struycken), told Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) to remember "4-3-0, Richard and Linda, two birds with one stone."

At the time, that was so little information that we couldn't even speculate on what that might mean, but as of Part 6, we've met Richard and heard of Linda, so we're getting somewhere with finding out why they're important. We can finally, definitively rule out that they're Richard and Linda Thompson, the folk rock duo behind songs like "Wall of Death."

Richard, of course, is Richard Horne (Eamon Farren), the horrible creep who we met in Part 5 when he smoked underneath a no-smoking sign in the Bang Bang Bar, bribed an off-duty cop and disturbingly manhandled a girl who tried to talk to him. In Part 6, he continued to be horrible. He was deputized by Red (Balthazar Getty) to help the older gangster traffic the mysterious Chinese designer drug "sparkle" across the border into Twin Peaks, but after the meeting he was so angry about Red calling him "kid" (and high on sparkle) that he didn't notice there was a kid in the road in front of him and he ran the poor boy over with his truck. Not good, Dickie boy!

And Linda is the unseen wife of Mickey (Jeremy Lindholm), Carl's (Harry Dean Stanton) fellow passenger on the ride from the New Fat Trailer Park into town. All we know about Linda so far is that she finally got the electric wheelchair from the government that she needs after suffering some kind of injury while at war.

As for how they're connected, that remains to be seen. We still don't know if Richard is related to the Horne family, but he's the right age to be Audrey's (Sherilynn Fenn) son. Maybe Linda is his twin sister. They certainly wouldn't be the only set of twins in this world, born or manufactured. We haven't seen Audrey yet, so maybe something will happen to them (two birds) that will bring her back to Twin Peaks (one stone).

Or maybe Richard and Linda are partners in evil like BOB and MIKE used to be -- Richard drove in the wrong lane and hit the kid at the same intersection where MIKE confronted BOB about his garmonbozia in Fire Walk With Me, which is no coincidence.

Twin Peaks Part 6 Recap: It Was Diane the Whole Time!

Whoever they are, it sounds like Cooper is going to have to kill them. That is, after all, what you do to two birds with one stone.

Also discussed in this week's Twin Peeks: Ike the Spike and his horrible murders, what Hawk (Michael Horse) found in the bathroom stall door, the amazing reveal that Laura Dern is Diane, and when Dougie will realize he's Special Agent Dale Cooper.

Twin Peaks airs Sundays at 9/8c on Showtime.

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