Twenty-six years after being canceled, David Lynch and Mark Frost's "Twin Peaks" has returned with new episodes on Showtime (new episodes 9 p.m. Sundays). For those whose memories of this enigmatic show may be cloudy or those who are coming to "Twin Peaks" for the first time, here is a refresher course on where we left most of the major characters at the end of the original series finale, "Beyond Life and Death." Spoilers abound.
Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan)
When we last saw our FBI agent hero, who stayed in Twin Peaks even after solving the murder of the tormented homecoming queen Laura Palmer, he was inhabited - possessed? - by the demonic Bob spirit.
Leland Palmer (Ray Wise)
Leland is deceased (as are many of the characters), but Wise is on the tremendously long cast list for the revival. Recall that Leland was possessed by Bob, and during one of those intermittent possessions, he murdered his daughter, Laura, and his niece, Maddy. The final image of Leland Palmer on the original series is of his doppelganger in the Black Lodge telling Cooper, "I didn't kill anyone."
Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee)
Also dead. (Obviously.) But Cooper encounters her in the Black Lodge, a supernatural den of dark forces reached in the woods outside Twin Peaks, and she tells him, "I'll see you again in 25 years." He then also sees her milky-eyed evil doppelganger, writhing and shrieking, seen in flashes from a strobe light.
Maddy Ferguson (Sheryl Lee)
Laura's look-alike cousin is also dead and also accessible somehow at the otherworldly Black Lodge. "Watch out for my cousin," she told Cooper in "Beyond Life and Death." Spooky.
James Hurley (James Marshall)
Oy, James - he's Laura's secret, sensitive boyfriend who eventually gets together with Donna Hayward, Laura's best friend. (Lara Flynn Boyle, who played Donna, is not returning to the new series.) James flees Twin Peaks and takes up with a woman who almost frames him for murder, so he flees back to Twin Peaks, then rides off to San Francisco and sends Donna a postcard.
Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie)
Laura's mother is alive, but she's also capable of being some kind of portal to the other plane, because she sometimes speaks in the garbled voice otherwise heard only in the dream world. "I'm in the Black Lodge with Dale Cooper," she says, though clearly it's not her who's saying it.
Lucy Moran (Kimmy Robertson)
After some soul-searching, the police station secretary Lucy and her true love, Andy, reunite. When the original series ends, she's pregnant, and she and Andy are together. Awww.
Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz)
The devoted, if sort of dim, deputy and Lucy share maybe the only happy ending in "Twin Peaks" lore. Mazel tov, you two.
Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn)
In one of the many cliffhangers from the original series, the impetuous Audrey chained herself to the bank vault to protest the bank's apparent ties to the Ghostwood development project - a project Audrey and her father oppose. But then! A bomb went off in the bank.
Ben Horne (Richard Beymer)
Is the Great Northern owner, and Audrey's father, dead? It's unclear; Beymer is on the cast list, at least.
Doc Haywar (Warren Frost)
Frost died this year, but he's part of the revival cast. When we last saw Dr. Hayward, he was tending to the newly possessed Agent Cooper.
Bobby Brigg (Dana Ashbrook)
The surly, mean-spirited hunk takes a good old log to the head at the Miss Twin Peaks pageant but recovers enough to be googly-eyed with his girlfriend, Shelly, the following day. He even proposes, despite the fact that he is in high school and that Shelly is still married to Leo.
Shelly Johnson (Madchen Amick)
So yes, our diner waitress is still married to Leo, though it doesn't seem to be much of an impediment to her relationship with Bobby.
Gordon Cole (David Lynch)
Cooper's quirky, hearing-impaired FBI superior, Cole doesn't show up in the final few episodes of the original series. His last appearance is in Episode 19, "Variations on Relations," where he professes his feelings for Shelly, who grants him a smooch.
Ed Hurley (Everett McGill)
James' uncle feels trapped in a marriage to the emotionally fragile Nadine, but he's really not doing anybody any favors. He loves Norma, the owner of the Double R Diner! And Norma loves him!
Nadine Hurley (Wendy Robie)
Nadine develops an almost Hulk-esque super strength at the beginning of Season 2, and a case of strange amnesia, putting her in the mindset of a teenager. She even starts attending high school again. But thanks to "Brady Bunch" logic, a subsequent head injury at the Miss Twin Peaks pageant cures Nadine of her amnesia, and thus robs Ed of his chance to get back together with Norma.
Norma Jennings (Peggy Lipton)
Man, Norma can never catch a darn break. Luckily her crummy husband, Hank, is out of the picture.
Bob (Frank Silva)
Silva died in 1995, so the return of his exact portrayal of Bob is unlikely. But could "Twin Peaks" really come back with no Bob at all? Bob is the iconic villain of the show, and when we last saw him, he was maniacally staring back at Agent Cooper in the mirror, using Cooper's doppelganger as his latest vessel.
The Man From Another Place (Michael J. Anderson)
"When you see me again, it won't be me," the Man tells Cooper in "Beyond Life and Death." So maybe we will see him again, but it won't be him?