Twin Peaks: Watch 5 iconic scenes from the influential TV show

David Lynch's mysterious show Twin Peaks returns this weekend after over 25 years away from television screens. The original show debuted in April 1990 and ended after its second season just over a year later.

Twin Peaks, centred around the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer, has had an enduring effect on popular culture for over a quarter of a century. Here's a look back on five of the show's most talked-about scenes to highlight why it's remembered so well.

— Del Cowie, q digital staff

1. The show's opening sequence

The opening sequence in the original Twin Peaks features quiet scenes from what is supposed to be average small-town America, typified by the "Welcome to Twin Peaks" sign. The sleepy, fictional northwestern U.S. town provides the needed juxtaposition for the murder mystery and weird events that happen in the show. Speaking with q late last year, Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost spoke of the importance of location for compelling mysteries. "You want to carefully examine the relationship between landscape and history and cultural development before you start to think even of the people who might be living in that world that you want to create."

2. The arrival of Agent Cooper

Kyle MacLachlan's Agent Cooper character is an outsider who arrives in Twin Peaks to investigate Palmer's murder. In the scene that introduces him, we are made aware of his idiosyncracies. He talks to an unseen woman named Diane on a handheld radio device while detailing his entrance into the town and inexplicably wonders aloud about what types of trees grow there. The scene, appearing halfway through the pilot episode, gives a sense of Cooper's offbeat character and establishes his importance to the show.

3. Audrey's Dance

Music is central to the universe created by director Lynch and co-creator Frost. The show's soundtrack was composed by Angelo Badalamenti. In addition to creating the show's theme and incidental music, Badalamenti composed leitmotifs that would reoccur when certain characters appeared onscreen. For instance, Audrey Horne (played by Sherliyn Fenn) has a fondness for jazz which positions her as an outsider in a town that prefers rock and Americana. During a conversation with Lara Flynn Boyle's Donna Hayward character, she gets up to dance after uttering the line "God, I love this music. Isn't it too dreamy?"

4. Cooper's Dream

Arguably one of the weirdest scenes in television history happened when Cooper's dream in the second season finds him in the Red Room with what may be the ghost of Palmer and a dwarf who breaks into a dance. Also, everyone is speaking backwards; thankfully there are subtitles. 

5. The final scene

The show's final scene seems to begin innocently enough with Agent Cooper going into the bathroom to brush his teeth. However, things soon take a decidedly sinister turn as he squirts out all the toothpaste, stares at the mirror and thrusts his forehead into it. Bleeding profusely, with the Killer Bob character who is responsible for Palmer's death staring back at him, Cooper repeats the phrase "How's Annie?" to end the original series on a terrifying, head-scratching note.

6) Honourable mention: Laura Palmer's 'Meanwhile' scene

It's all about Palmer's up-close, eye-bulging, blood-curdling screaming. Possibly one of the scariest scenes in network television history.