Summary

• Joan Chen regrets leaving Twin Peaks in season 2, missing out on a return for season 3 as Josie Packard.
• Chen sought David Lynch's help to free Josie from being trapped in a wooden knob, but it didn't work out.
• Despite Chen's desire for a comeback in season 3, she its there may not have been a clear place for Josie in the show.

Twin Peaks season 2, episode 16, dying mysteriously after a standoff with Dale Cooper. In an extra Lynchian twist, Josie’s spirit seemed to be transported into a wooden drawer knob, apparently dooming her to exist as a literal piece of the furniture at the Great Northern Hotel.

Chen’s Twin Peaks exit came at her own behest, as she wished to pursue other opportunities, but now the actor says she regrets her character’s bizarre end, as it prevented her from coming back for 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return. Chen recently addressed her misgivings over the way Josie Packard went out, and discussed appealing to David Lynch himself in hopes the director would find a way to free Josie from her eternal prison. Check out her remarks below (via IndieWire):

“When I heard that they were going to make ‘Twin Peaks’ again, of course, I wanted to go back, and I regret it very much. During the shooting of ‘Twin Peaks,’ I wanted to leave the show because I wanted to do a film called ‘Turtle Beach.’ And I loved the novel of ‘Turtle Beach,’ talking about Vietnamese and Chinese refugees’ life. And there was a character I really wanted to play. And also I sort of preferred the big screen back then. I don’t know why, but I felt like I wanted to leave the show.”

“Finally, they wrote me out and put me in a drawer knob, and later on I was regretful because ‘Turtle Beach’ came out to be a very uninspired film. Now even decades later, ‘Twin Peaks’ is this iconic TV show that opened a new possibility to make TV shows. It was a revolutionary show, and because of that regret, I was like, ‘Oh, I could just go back. I want to go back.’ I wanted to write a letter to David to sort of kindle him some imagination and possibility, but obviously, it didn’t work.”

“If she could get out of the drawer knob and serve some purpose for the show, then I would love it. … I knew there was no place for Josie in [season 3].”

Could Josie Packard Return For Twin Peaks Season 4

Chen’s Josie was notable by her absence when Twin Peaks: The Return hit Showtime in 2017. That Chen was game to return makes it especially regrettable that Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost did not find some way to free Josie from being imprisoned in a wooden drawer knob and re-embodied. It’s quite possible, however, that Lynch and Frost simply had no good ideas for what to do with Josie even if they did bring her back from the dead. Chen indeed acknowledges that, when she watched the season, she saw no place for Josie among the cast of returning characters.

But all is not lost for Josie Packard when it comes to making a return to the Twin Peaks universe. Though Twin Peaks season 4 has not been confirmed, Lynch has hinted – in his inscrutable Lynch fashion – at perhaps doing more down the road, saying in 2017 that he will "never say never" as regards Twin Peaks (via THR). Recently, executive producer Sabrina S. Sutherland gave hope to fans by saying Lynch has “more ideas” for Twin Peaks, expressing optimism that another season could happen (via Tulpa forum).

Twin Peaks: The Return received a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes

If Josie does not make her Twin Peaks return, her season 2 exit will remain one of the show’s more disturbing and inexplicable character endings. If she does somehow come back to the land of the living, Lynch hopefully will give Chen an interesting storyline to play, and not once again strand her and her character in narrative limbo.

Source: IndieWire