Both season 1 and season 2 of Twin Peaks and the film Fire Walk With Me may have already been reviewed on That Was A Bit Mental, but Twin Peaks week isn’t over yet! Today I look at the recently released deleted scenes The Missing Pieces before finishing on Friday with a review of the international pilot.

Director: David Lynch

Starring: Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Moira Kelly, Chris Isaak, Keifer Sutherland, Kyle MacLachlan, Dana Ashbrook, Phoebe Augustine, Pamela Gidley, James Marshall, David Lynch, David Bowie, Madchen Amick, Michael J Anderson, Frank Silva, Walter Olkewicz

“Is it future, or is it past?” (Man From Another Place, Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces)

The shooting script for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me came in at around five hours long. Naturally, nobody in their right mind would find that acceptable, so after shooting all the footage David Lynch got to work cutting loads of it out.

As a result, Fire Walk With Me was released with a runtime of two hours and 15 minutes: still fairly long, but with more than half of its content relegated to the cutting room floor.

For over 20 years Twin Peaks fans have discussed these mythical deleted scenes, with only the shooting script and the occasional mention of them in cast and crew interviews as indication that they did indeed exist.

This all changed in 2014 when, as part of the Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery Blu-ray set, it was confirmed that many of these scenes – roughly an hour and half’s worth – would finally be remastered and made available to the public for the first time as a compilation called The Missing Pieces.

While many of these new scenes merely offer extra Twin Peaks goodness without really contributing much to the plot, a few of them introduce some new ideas and details that may make you see Fire Walk With Me in a different light.

A notable example is the new scenes featuring David Bowie’s character, Phillip Jeffries, who appears without warning in the film, talks gibberish about a dream he had then literally disappears into thin air.

While his extra scenes in The Missing Pieces still do nothing to suggest he’s anything other than a bizarre character, they at least explain where he came from and where he goes back to: namely, a hotel in Argentina via teleportation.

Another key new scene gives more information on Teresa Banks and the events leading up to her murder. While it’s explained in the movie who killed her, the deleted scenes explain the killer’s motive by showing her attempt to blackmail him.

Other scenes generally add nothing but would have contributed significantly to the feel of the film. One sequence, in which Laura and her parents share a warm moment of silliness at the dinner table, would have made the film’s subsequent, far darker scenes involving her father all the more powerful.

Prologue and Laura scenes aside, there’s another reason The Missing Pieces is an interesting curio for Twin Peaks fans: the reinstatement of popular characters from the show who ultimately didn’t appear in the final movie.

Many of Twin Peaks‘ main cast members either had blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos in Fire Walk With Me, or simply didn’t feature at all, even though they’d returned to shoot full scenes for the film. Since most of these cameos were purely fan service and contributed nothing to the main plot, these were the first to go when the scissors came out.

Now fans can finally see the comedic scene in which Pete and Josie, who weren’t in the film, are arguing with a customer at a sawmill about the size of a two-by-four. Or the lovely scene showing Big Ed and Norma sharing a moonlit night in their car, very much in love before shit goes down a few days later (when the TV show begins).

Other characters making proper appearances in these deleted scenes include Major Briggs and his wife, Donna’s parents, Dr Jacoby, Sheriff Truman, Andy and Lucy, while the likes of Annie (Heather Graham) and Leo, who literally had 15 seconds of screentime each, get full and proper scenes.

The Missing Pieces should really be of no interest to anyone other than die-hard Twin Peaks fans. Those with only a passing interest in the series won’t be too fussed by these extra scenes, and will see them as nothing more than the sort of typical ‘Deleted Scenes’ section you’d find on a decent DVD or Blu-ray for any film.

Those with a real love for Twin Peaks, however, will appreciate how elusive these scenes were, and will get a kick out of finally seeing some much-needed context for Fire Walk With Me, as well as the deleted appearances of their favourite characters in what was essentially the last Twin Peaks footage ever shot.

At least, until it returns next year.

HOW CAN I SEE IT?
The only way to see The Missing Pieces is to buy the Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery Blu-ray box set. As well as The Missing Pieces, it includes both seasons of Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me and the international version of the pilot. Here’s the UK version and the US version.

SHOW ME ONE OF THE SCENES, THEN
Okay. Here’s my favourite, in which Laura is temporarily possessed by Bob: