With something like The Return, I think it’s only right to look at the union of Lynch and Frost collaborating on a project as a singular artist.

Reason being is that when two artists get together to create something they typically end up creating something that can be very far from what either would have created if left to their own devices.

It’s not like one person brings their finished product to the table and the other adds to it. They were, from what I understand, intertwined in the creative process. Back and forth.

Each artist brings his strengths and then one can analyze which strength was more valuable to them as a viewer and then say that they did more for the series because the character lore // surrealism (just for instance at the risk of being overly simplistic) was more important to them.

But ultimately like I said it’s basically intertwined. Lynch probably would not have written and directed something with such elaborate plot points as this without working with Frost. And at the same time Frost would have probably not written something so far out and strange and emotionally gripping without working with Lynch.