[page 5] The following papers were originally presented during “It Is in Our House Now,” an online Twin Peaks conference live-streamed on Zoom and YouTube over two days in June 2021. The idea of organizing a virtual event dedicated to David Lynch and Mark Frost’s third season of Twin Peaks, often referred to as The Return, began percolating during the darkest days of the pandemic. With its release a few years behind us and numerous re-watches underway during a moment when much of the world’s population was staying at home, the time felt ripe to give The Return the scholarly attention it deserves. Like many viewers around the world, we were awestruck by Showtime’s “limited event series” when it premiered in 2017. Created 25 years after the initial iconic two seasons of Lynch and Frost’s Twin Peaks that ran on ABC in 1990-1991, the entire season was directed by Lynch, who has described The Return as an 18-hour film project. One can argue about the distinctions between film, television, and the porosity of moving images during this shifting era of viewing and distribution practices, but the supernatural mysteries of Twin Peaks: The Return continue to intrigue, terrify, and transcend expectations regardless.

The two-day conference gathered over 40 scholars from countries as diverse as France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, the United States, Croatia, Switzerland, Denmark, Greece, and Belgium. Most of the papers were given in English, but a Francophone panel included additional contributions, attesting to the international scholarship that Lynch and Frost’s third season continues to generate. The collection of Twin Peaks papers published here represents a selection of conference presentations that address themes of gender, ecology, magic, mythology, literature, and other topics that interface with the supernatural. The town of Twin Peaks is [page 6] indeed a supernatural beacon, and, in The Return, mysterious forces convene there for an epic showdown between good and evil.

This issue is divided into thematic sections that correspond to panels given during the conference. Readers will find short introductions to each section that present the areas of research included. While The Return is widely used as a title by Showtime and the creators of Twin Peaks, it has been the subject of some debate online; for consistency and ease in cross-referencing, full titles will be provided for all Twin Peaks installments at first mention in each essay, with the following abbreviated titles used thereafter: Twin Peaks refers to the original series (1990-1991); Lynch’s feature-length film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) will be shortened to Fire Walk with Me; and the third season, Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), will be identified as The Return.

Before we leave you to discover the issue, we would be remiss not to thank those who were instrumental in facilitating the conference, which was co-organized with a number of partners. Among them, our fellow conference organizer was Roland Kermarec, who ran the popular Facebook page “David Lynch Archivist–Lynchland,” a respected resource for many years before it was sadly plagiarized and unpublished, though it now partly lives on through the active Facebook group “Lynchland Gang.” Joshua Bell provided valuable technical assistance during the conference as well. Heartfelt thanks go out to talented artist Maja Ljunggren, who designed the conference’s poster that graces the cover of this issue. We also thank our panel moderators Guy Astic, John Atkinson, Miranda Corcoran, Adam Daniel, Jean Foubert, Lindsay Hallam, Andreas Halskov, Emmanuel Plasseraud, Leah Richards, Dick Tomasovic, and Matt Zoller Seitz, several of whom generously volunteered additional time to introduce their panel section in this publication. Thanks to Intellect Books, Liverpool University Press, The Blue Rose Magazine and Fayetteville Mafia Press, all of whom provided Twin Peaks-related books and periodical issues for our conference giveaways. Daniel [page 7] Nearing, director of the Department of Screenwriting at the David Lynch Graduate School of Cinematic Arts; the magazine La Septième obsession (France), the Université de Liège (Belgium), l’Université de Bordeaux (France), and the University of Cork (Ireland) all offered institutional support for which we are grateful; while Supernatural Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Art, Media, and Culture provided additional help in panel moderation and of course, undertook the publication that you now hold in your hands (or see on your screen, as the case may be).

As this issue moved to print, David Lynch’s death was announced. Although Lynch fans and scholars were aware of his illness, the news nonetheless came as a terrible shock to his admirers around the world. Twin Peaks: The Return, although technically not his official swan song, will likely be remembered as such, a crowning achievement in the career of one of the most important artists of the past forty years. Celebrating Lynch’s artistry, we would like to raise a mug of damn fine coffee and dedicate this collection of essays to his memory, as well as to those who contributed to the success of Twin Peaks throughout the years.

We extend warm thanks to the journal’s editorial board in seeing this special issue through to the end. Finally, thank you, dear readers. You were no doubt wondering if it really is about the bunny, so please read on.

Franck Boulègue and Marisa C. Hayes

guest editors and conference organizers

MLA citation (print):

Boulègue, Franck, and Marisa C. Hayes. “It Is in Our House Now”: Twin Peaks: The Return online conference." Supernatural Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Art, Media, and Culture, vol. 11, no. 2, 2026, pp. 5-7.