Welcome back to Twin Peaks!
Last episode, Major Briggs (Don S. Davis) returned from the land of missing and brought with him a tale of the White Lodge. Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) obsessed over the Civil War. James Hurley (James Marshall) found himself trapped in a second-rate film noir. Jean Reanult (Michael Parks) was finally killed but, when Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and Harry (Michael Ontkean) returned to the sheriff’s station, they discovered that someone had left them a present: a dead man sitting in front of a chess board.
Things start with the station still in darkness. Doctor Hayward (Warren Frost), Harry, and Cooper are looking over the dead man’s body. The first thing that they discover is that a chess pawn has been stuffed in his mouth. When Cooper correctly guesses that the dead man will have a stab wound in his chest, severing the aorta, Harry deduces that this is not the first time that Cooper has seen something like this.
Cooper says that he knows that his former partner, Windom Earle, is responsible. He guesses that the victim was a vagrant who was offered a lift by Earle. (In reality, the victim was played by Craig MacLachlan, brother of Kyle.) Earle stabbed the man and then set off the explosion in the woods. When everyone was distracted, Earle carried the body into the station. “Windom Earle has been in this room,” Cooper says, “I can still feel his presence.”
At the Great Northern, Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) makes a deal with Bobby (Dana Ashrbook). She wants Bobby to help her bring her father back from “limbo land.” “From now on, Bobby,” Audrey says, “I’m the one you suck up to.”
“What about Shelly?” Bobby asks.
“What about Shelly?” Audrey replies.
Speaking of Shelly, she is in trouble because Leo (Eric Da Re) has suddenly woken up and now she’s trapped in a dark house, with no power and a very angry husband. Fortunately, Bobby arrives home right when Leo is about to attack Shelly with an axe. When Leo attacks Bobby instead, Shelly stabs Leo in the leg with a kitchen knife. Like an unmasked Jason Voorhees, the wounded Leo staggers off into the woods while Bobby and Shelly embrace.
The next morning, back at the station, Cooper watches as the body is wheeled away. Harry gives Cooper a cup of coffee and tells Cooper that, until he is reinstated in the FBI, he is still a deputy. “If you want this case,” Harry says, “it’s yours.”
Out in the front lobby, Andy (Harry Goaz) tells Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) that he has to talk to her about Nicky. Andy explains that he and Dick have been doing some detective work and they think that Nicky may have murdered his parents.
“He’s nine years old,” Lucy says.
“We know,” Andy nods, “we think he was six at the time of the crime.”
Lucy is not amused.
At the Marsh place, James is working on another one of classic cars when Jeffrey Marsh (John Apicella) walks up and introduces himself. He says that he’s envious of James’s carefree lifestyle. He says that he’d love to talk to James about the cars later in the day but James says that he should probably be moving on. Evelyn (Annette McCarthy) walks up and says that she is sure that she can find all sorts of things for James to do around the house. James walks back inside the garage and Jeffrey drives away in the car that James just finished working on. As Evelyn looks off in the distance, there is the sound of screeching tires and a car crash.
At the diner, Ed (Everett McGill) is having a cup of coffee of Doctor Hayward. Ed is worried because Nadine wants to start dating boys and, since she’s She-Hulk now, Ed worries that Nadine could kill them with her sex drive. Doctor Hayward suggests that Ed tell her to be home by 9:00 on school nights. I could be wrong but I don’t think Doctor Hayward is taking Nadine’s condition very seriously.
Doctor Hayward is actually more concerned about Donna, who took the van that morning to go see James. Ed explains that Donna is taking James some money, presumably all twelve of the dollars that were in James’s bank account.
After the doctor leaves, Norma (Peggy Lipton) sits down across from Ed. She says that Hank is in the hospital. He says that a tree fell on him but Ed tells her that Nadine actually beat him up. Norma is happy because, once Hank gets out of the hospital, he will be going back to prison for violating his parole.
At the sheriff’s station, Cooper and Harry are staring at the chess board that Windom Earle placed in front of the dead man. Cooper explains that he and Earle played a game of chess every day for three years. Earle thought that all the answers to life’s mysteries could be found in the game of chess.
Cooper explains that Windom Earle was his first partner. Everything that he learned about the law and the bureau he learned from Windom Earle. Cooper tells the story (the same one that he told Audrey earlier) of how, four years ago, he fell in love with a woman named Caroline who was a material witness to a federal crime and how, when she was attacked, Cooper was not prepared and could not save her life. Cooper adds the detail that she was stabbed, in the same way as the vagrant. Cooper also reveals that Caroline was Windom Earle’s wife.
Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) arrives at a bar called Wallies, looking for James. James is not there but Evelyn is. “You look like someone who needs help,” Evelyn says. When Donna says she’s looking for James, Evelyn says that James did some work for her and then left for Mexico. Donna leaves, presumably taking James’s twelve dollars with her.
At the Great Northern, Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn), Audrey, and Jerry (David Patrick Kelly) watch as Ben continues to play with his little army men. Ben thinks that Jerry is General J.E.B. Stuart. Ben assures everyone that they are marching forward and only God can stop them. “The almighty is a Southerner,” Ben declares. Dr. Jacoby explains that if Ben can reverse the defeat of the Confederacy then he will also reverse his own recent mental defeats. Jacoby and Ben start to sing Dixie.
At the sheriff’s station, Major Briggs stumbles in, says that he needs to see Harry, and then collapses.
When he comes to, Major Briggs explains to Harry and Cooper that, when his superiors questioned him about his disappearance, they exhibited a degree of “intolerance and suspicion” that apparently left Briggs feeling traumatized. Briggs goes on to explain that, during his disappearance, he believes that he was taken to the White Lodge. Briggs goes on to say that there will be much trouble ahead. “I will return,” Briggs says, “but until that time, I will be in the shadows if you need me.”
As Briggs leaves, Andy enters the office and tells Cooper and Harry that he needs to show them something. He leads them to the conference room, where Dr. Jacoby announces that he has spent the last few hours talking to Lana Milford (Robyn Lively) and he has found no evidence of her being crazy or cursed. There is no way that Lana is responsible for Dougie’s death, Jacoby says. Jacoby goes on to say that Lana has a heightened sexual drive and skills that few men could ever hope to experience. Jacoby announces that he and Lana are going to go bowling but, as soon as they step out of the office, they run into Mayor Milford (John Boylan), who was a rifle and who demands that nobody move.
The Mayor wants blood but Cooper has a solution. He takes the rifle and then locks Milford and Lana in the conference room together. After a few minutes, Lana and the Mayor are in love and talking about adopting a child.
At the Martell house, Pete (Jack Nance) tells Catherine (Piper Laurie) that they forgot to pick up the hot dogs. Catherine is more interested in telling Pete the true story of how she survived the fire and marshaled the resources to defeat Ben. She reveals that her brother (and Josie’s husband), Andrew Packard (Dan O’Herlihy), is not actually dead and he’s sitting in the study. Andrew explains that he and Catherine faked his death in a boating accident because a contract had been taken out on Andrew’s life by Andrew’s former business partner, Thomas Eckhardt. Catherine also reveals that Josie works for Thomas Eckhardt and that Eckhardt will be returning to Twin Peaks to rescue her from having to work as Catherine’s maid.
At the exact same time, Thomas Eckhardt (DAVID WARNER!) and his assistant, Jones (Brenda Strong), are checking into the Great Northern.
At the sheriff’s station, Lucy is sick of both Andy and Dick (Ian Buchanan) so she brings Doctor Hayward in to talk to both of them. Doctor Hayward explains that he called the orphanage and that Nicky is no murderer. Nicky’s mother was a chamber maid at the Great Northern and his father was a man who fled back to Canada following the back alley assault that led to Nicky’s conception. Hayward explains that Nicky’s mom died in childbirth. Nicky was adopted by a loving couple who died in an icy car crash. Six year-old Nicky heroically attempted to pull his adoptive parents to safety but failed. Andy and Dick both start to cry.
Harry gets an alert from Seattle, telling him that the man who Josie left with, the one who Josie claims that she merely escaped from, has been found murdered. Since Cooper is now a deputy, Harry orders Cooper to find out if Josie killed him. For once, Harry gets to order Cooper around.
At the Marsh house, James is packing his stuff when Evelyn comes in and swears the she is in love with him. Evelyn says that there’s been an accident and Jeffrey’s dead. James immediately figures out that Evelyn killed her husband and set him up to take the fall. Evelyn says that it was Malcolm’s idea and that Malcom isn’t really her brother. As the police arrive outside, Evelyn tells James to run and go find “that young girl who loves you.”
As James tries to sneak out of the house without being spotted by the cops, he runs into Donna, who is hiding behind a tree. They run off while Evelyn talks to the police.
In the woods, a dazed and confused Leo comes across a cabin. Inside the cabin, a man (Kenneth Welsh) plays a flute and invites Leo to enter. The man sits down in front of a chess board and introduces himself as Windom Earle.
End credits.
This episode shares the same flaws as a lot of season 2. There are a lot of good scenes, like Leo menacing Shelly and Bobby or the introduction of Windom Earle, but there are also scenes that are just too cartoonish, like anything involving the Mayor and Lana. This episode was the first and only episode to be directed by German director Uli Edel and he does a pretty good job, putting his own unique spin on the show’s signature style.
Tomorrow: “Slaves and Masters,” in which Cooper gets unexpected help in his chess game against Windom Earle.
Previous Entries in The TSL’s Look At Twin Peaks:
- Twin Peaks: In the Beginning by Jedadiah Leland
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.1 — The Pilot (dir by David Lynch) by Lisa Marie Bowman
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.2 — Traces To Nowhere (directed by Duwayne Dunham) by Jedadiah Leland
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.3 — Zen, or the Skill To Catch A Killer (dir by David Lynch) by Lisa Marie Bowman
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.4 “Rest in Pain” (dir by Tina Rathbone) by Leonard Wilson
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.5 “The One-Armed Man” (directed by Tim Hunter) by Jedadiah Leland
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.6 “Cooper’s Dreams” (directed by Lesli Linka Glatter) by Lisa Marie Bowman
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.7 “Realization Time” (directed by Caleb Deschanel) by Lisa Marie Bowman
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.8 “The Last Evening” (directed by Mark Frost) by Leonard Wilson
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.1 “May the Giant Be With You” (dir by David Lynch) by Leonard Wilson
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.2 “Coma” (directed by David Lynch) by Jedadiah Leland
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.3 “The Man Behind The Glass” (directed by Lesli Linka Glatter) by Jedadiah Leland
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.4 “Laura’s Secret Diary” (dir by Todd Holland) by Lisa Marie Bowman
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.5 “The Orchid’s Curse” (dir by Graeme Clifford) by Lisa Marie Bowman
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.6 “Demons” (dir by Lesli Linka Glatter) by Leonard Wilson
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.7 “Lonely Souls” (directed by David Lynch) by Jedadiah Leland
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.8 “Drive With A Dead Girl” (dir by Caleb Deschanel) by Lisa Marie Bowman
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.9 “Arbitrary Law” (dir by Tim Hunter) by Lisa Marie Bowman
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.10 “Dispute Between Brothers” (directed by Tina Rathbone) by Jedadiah Leland
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.11 “Masked Ball” (directed by Duwayne Dunham) by Leonard Wilson
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.12 “The Black Widow” (directed by Caleb Deschanel) by Leonard Wilson
- TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.13 “Checkmate” (directed by Todd Holland) by Jedadiah Leland
Eight prep school students leaves their graduation party, board a small plane, and head off for a weekend to be held on a private island resort. However, the plane hits a storm and crashes into the ocean. Though their pilot dies, the students manage to make it to a nearby island. At first, the island seems deserted but then Cowboy (Jim Youngs) comes across a backpack full of spam and vodka.
Through the Shattered Lens 