TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.3 “The Man Behind The Glass” (directed by Lesli Linka Glatter)


 

The third episode of season two opens at the hospital, where Ronette Pulaski (Pheobe Augustine) is having another freak out while Harry (Michael Ontkean), Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), and Albert (Miguel Ferrer) look on.  Someone tried to poison her IV.  Cooper discovers that someone has also put a “B” under Ronette’s fingernail.  Harry says that Ronette was under guard all night and there is no way that anyone could have gotten to her.  Albert says, “Maybe she heard a Sousa march and got up to twirl a baton.”

Cooper reveals to Albert and Harry that he was visited twice by a giant and tells them the three clues that he was given.

“You were visited by a giant?” Harry says.

“Any relation to the dwarf?” Albert asks.

Elsewhere, Donna Hayward (Lara Flynn Boyle) goes to reclusive Harold Smith’s house and we finally meet Harold (played by Lenny Von Dohlen, who was the direct-to-video version of Anthony Perkins in the 1990s).  Harold’s house is full of flowers.  He explains that he used to be horticulturist but now he is a shut in.  He says that he and Laura were close and that she told him everything about Donna.  Donna asks why Laura never said anything about him.  Harold says that Laura liked to think of him as being, “the mystery in her life.”  After promising to come back and visit later, Donna leaves.

Back at the police station, Cooper is at the chalkboard again and explaining to Harry and Albert how four living people — Sarah Palmer, Ronette, Maddy, and himself — have seen the “long-haired man.”  Harry is still hung up on the giant.  “Did he have a booming voice?”

Albert suggests that Harry should learn how to walk without dragging his knuckles on the floor which leads to Harry grabbing Albert’s shirt and Albert declaring that he rejects violence.

“I love you, Sheriff Truman,” Albert says before leaving.

“Albert’s path is a strange and difficult one,” Cooper says.  No doubt, Coop.

James (James Marshall) comes to the station.  Cooper tells him that he is not being charged because the cocaine was planted and that he needs to stop hanging out around the police station.

Harry is still trying to understand what Cooper meant when he said he saw a giant when Leland (Ray Wise) finally shows up at the police station and tells them that “the long-haired man” used to live next door to his family’s summer home.  His name was “Robertson” but everyone called him Bob.  “One more thing,” Leland says, “he used to flick matches at me.”

At the Double R Diner, Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) is having lunch with Richard Tremayne (Ian Buchanan), who may be the father of her baby.  Richard is a salesman at Horne’s Department Store and he’s so slick that smooth jazz plays whenever he enters a room.  Richard and Lucy had one date, in which he promised to take her to the Seattle Space Needle but instead, took her to Pancake Plantation instead.  Lucy tells Richard that she’s pregnant.

At a nearby booth, James and Maddy (Sheryl Lee) sit and talk.  James is confused because he says that Donna is trying to “act tough all the time.”  James says that sometimes, he thinks he should just get on his bike and go.  (Maybe he has been watching old episodes of Then Came Bronson, starring tonight’s special guest star, Michael Parks.)  Donna comes in the diner and sees that James and Maddy are together.  Donna announces that she met Harold Smith and that he is bright and charming, “unlike anyone I know.”  Then, she leaves.

At One-Eyed Jack’s, Emory and Blackie (Victoria Catlin) have tied up Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn).  Blackie is going to hold Audrey hostage and demand a ransom from Ben Horne.

Back at the police station, the One-Armed Man, Mr. Gerard (Al Strobel), is showing Harry his latest selection in shoes.  Gerard blanks out for a minute and says that he sometimes gets disoreintated.  Harry goes to get Gerard a glass of water and runs into Shelly Johnson (Madchen Amick).  Cooper wants to talk to her about Leo and the fire at the mill but Shelly says she can’t testify against her husband.  Laying on the charm, Cooper tells her that is okay and then sends her out of the office.  He says the Shelly wants to get Leo’s life insurance and that she didn’t “think up this scheme by herself.”

But what about Laura Palmer!?  Isn’t that what Cooper is supposed to be investigating?

Cooper goes to the Great Northern and asks Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) if he knows where Audrey is.  Ben says that Audrey is missing but he does not seem to be to worried about it.

At One-Eyed Jack’s, tonight’s special guest star, Michael Parks, shows up.  He is playing Jean Reanault, the brother of Jacques Renault.  Blackie explains, to Emory, that Jean will act as their go-between with Ben.  In return for 30% of the ransom, Jean will pretend to be the one who has kidnapped Audrey.  Jean also demands that Agent Cooper, who he blames for the death of Jacques, be brought to him.  Jean gives Audrey a shot of something.  I had forgotten that Jean and Blackie kept Audrey drugged at One-Eyed Jack’s.  I hope it’s not heroin because I don’t know if I can handle Twin Peaks turning into The French Connection Part II.

Michael Parks, like Russ Tamblyn and Richard Beymer, was one of many 1960s teen idols to be cast in Twin Peaks.  Long before Tarantino has even made his first film, Lynch was resurrecting the careers of forgotten actors.  If it’s thanks to Tarantino and, not Lynch, that Michael Parks is currently having a career renaissance, that’s because Michael Parks, quite frankly, lousy on Twin Peaks.  Parks is much more convincing as Earl McGraw than he ever was as the French Canadian Jean Renault.

At the police station, Cooper wants to take a break and drink a cup of coffee but Harry is having a crisis because Josie is coming back to Twin Peaks tomorrow and he is worried about having to interrogate her about the fire at the mill.  Harry also mentions that the One-Armed Man came by the station to sell shoes.

“The One-Armed man was here!?” Cooper says.

“Yeah,” Harry shrugs.

“Remember, in my dream,” Cooper explains, “the One-Armed Man knew BOB.”

Good point Cooper.  Why wouldn’t Harry have told Cooper that the One-Armed Man was at the station?  Are they even trying to catch Laura’s killer anymore?  Even  Deputy Hawk gives Harry a “You fucked up” look.

Going to the men’s room and searching for the One-Armed Man, Cooper comes across a hypodermic needle.  “Without chemicals, he points,” Cooper says, “The Giant’s third clue.  Harry, we’ve got to find the One-Armed Man.”

(Too bad that they had the One-Armed Man and then Harry let him wander off.  Albert may have a point.)

At the hospital, the comatose Nadine (Wendy Robie) has been tied down.  Dr. Hayward (Warren Frost) tells Ed (Everett McGill) that Nadine now has Hulk-like super strength.  “She’s pumping out more adrenaline than a wildcat well,” Hayward explains.

Following the doctor’s advice, Ed sings “On top of Old Smokey” to her.  (I was waiting for James to come in with his guitar and provide accompaniment but I guess he was busy with Maddy.)  Ed singing causes Nadine to wake up and rip off her restraints.  “Good God!” Ed says.  Nadine does a cheer, because she now thinks that she and Ed are in high school and she is looking forward to cheerleader tryouts.

In his hospital room, Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn) is getting a foot massage from his Hawaiian wife, Eoloni, when Cooper and Harry drop by so that they can hypnotize him.  Jacoby is so good at hypnosis that he hypnotizes himself.  He flashes back to the murder of Jacques Renault and says that he knows the killer.

While this is happening, Donna puts some flowers (provided by Harold) on Laura’s grave.  Donna talks to the dead Laura.  Lara Flynn Boyle knocks her emotional monologue out of the park.

Of course, while Donna is pouring out her heart, James is kissing Maddy.  Donna walks in on them and then runs out on them.  James runs after her, screaming, “WHY!?”

Maddy goes to Leland for comfort but then Harry and Cooper show up and announce that Leland is under arrest.  For killing Laura?  No, for killing Jacques Renault.

Donna goes to Harold Smith and tells him about James and Maddy.  Harold gives her a gift, the secret diary of Laura Palmer.

There is a classic episode of The Simpsons, in which the producers of Itchy and Scratchy become concerned that their show has become stale and uninteresting.  To bring in new fans, they create the character of Poochie the Dog and, of course, they hire Homer to play him.  Poochie has no real personality or reason for being on the show.  He is just a mix of things that television executives think will appeal to their audience.

In Poochie’s first episode, Itchy and Scratchy are driving to the fireworks factory when they see Poochie standing on the side of the road.  They pull over.  “It’s our new friend, Poochie!”  Poochie introduces himself and suddenly, the entire cartoon becomes about Poochie.  Itchy and Scratchy are pushed to the side while Poochie sings, dances, raps, and plays basketball.

Watching the cartoon, Milhouse cries out, “When are they going to get to the fireworks factory!?”

That is probably how many viewers of Twin Peaks felt as they watched the second season.  They had gotten wrapped up in the show.  They had come up with their own theories about who killed Laura.  All they wanted to know was who killed Laura Palmer and yet the show refused to tell them.  Instead, it kept getting distracted by other things.

That is certainly the case with “The Man Behind The Glass.”  While this episodes does do a lot to push the story and the mystery forward, it also gets sidetracked by a lot of subplots — like Jean Renault, Nadine thinking she was a teenager, and Lucy’s pregnancy — that are far less compelling than the mystery that has always been at the heart of Twin Peaks.

Who killed Laura Palmer?

For tomorrow, Lisa is back and reviewing episode 2.4, “The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer.”

Previous Entries in The TSL’s Look At Twin Peaks:

  1. Twin Peaks: In the Beginning by Jedadiah Leland
  2. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.1 — The Pilot (dir by David Lynch) by Lisa Marie Bowman
  3. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.2 — Traces To Nowhere (directed by Duwayne Dunham) by Jedadiah Leland
  4. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.3 — Zen, or the Skill To Catch A Killer (dir by David Lynch) by Lisa Marie Bowman
  5. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.4 “Rest in Pain” (dir by Tina Rathbone) by Leonard Wilson
  6. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.5 “The One-Armed Man” (directed by Tim Hunter) by Jedadiah Leland
  7. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.6 “Cooper’s Dreams” (directed by Lesli Linka Glatter) by Lisa Marie Bowman
  8. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.7 “Realization Time” (directed by Caleb Deschanel) by Lisa Marie Bowman
  9. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.8 “The Last Evening” (directed by Mark Frost) by Leonard Wilson
  10. TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.1 “May the Giant Be With You” (dir by David Lynch) by Leonard Wilson
  11. TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.2 “Coma” (directed by David Lynch) by Jedadiah Leland

Music Video of the Day: I’m Waiting Here by David Lynch & Lykke Li (2013, dir. Daniel Desure)


Ever go driving out in the middle of nowhere–especially at night? I have. Ever felt the need to drive down the middle of the road? I hope not. I guess this video is putting its focus on highway hypnosis seeing as there isn’t anything interesting to look at, and the car keeps drifting in and out of its lane. I think it fits the song well.

I love this quote from Tom Breihan on Stereogum about this video:

“It’s a very pretty piece of work, and the night-time parts recall Lynch’s Lost Highway. Still, call me crazy, but maybe David Lynch should be the guy responsible for all of David Lynch’s videos.”

If any of them are going to be like Came Back Haunted by Nine Inch Nails with its seizure inducing flashing, then maybe it’s for the best. I don’t care if seizures were often mistaken for demonic possession, which would fit the title of the song.

I put down that Daniel Desure directed this video even though it doesn’t list a director on the video. On the video it lists the crew as the following:

Concept by Lykke Li and Daniel Desure
Edited by Jesse Fleming and Sadie Strangio
DP – Nicholas Trikonis
Designer – Michelle Park

Based on that, I guess Fleming and Strangio are more the directors than Desure, since it appears as if someone just drove down the highway with a dashboard cam from one place to another, and they edited that footage down to the desired runtime. Personally, I would take it farther and list Lykke Li, Daniel Desure, Jesse Fleming, Sadie Strangio, Nicholas Trikonis, and Michelle Park all as directors of the video. I put down Desure because that’s how it is listed on IMVDb.

You can find some information on the people who worked on this video, but they all seem to be relatively new, so there isn’t a large body of work to bring up.

Enjoy!

A Movie A Day #94: Eye of the Storm (1991, directed by Yuri Zeltser)


A motel sits off of a highway in the Nevada desert.  One night, two criminals (Ally Walker and German boxer Wilhelm von Homburg) brutally murder the husband and wife who own the motel.  Their youngest son, Steven, flees the criminals by jumping through a window and is left for dead.

Ten years later, the motel is still sitting off the highway, operated by the blind Steven (Bradley Gregg) and his older brother, Ray (Craig Sheffer).  Ray is very protective of his brother and, when a car pulls up to the motel, he does not even want to turn on the vacancy sign.

The motel’s newest guests are a very unlikely couple.  Marvin Gladstone (Dennis Hopper) is an alcoholic gambler who regularly berates at his much younger trophy wife, Sandra (Lara Flynn Boyle).  Marvin and Sandra were heading to Las Vegas to renew their vows but the drunk Marvin accidentally drove their car off the road.  Now, Marvin and Sandra are stranded at the motel while a dust storm approaches and one of the brothers turns out to be psychotic.

Eye of the Storm is another low-budget and predictable thriller from the 1990s but, taken on its own terms, it’s not bad.  Along with some striking shots of the desert, Eye of the Storm features a quartet of strong performances.  For fans of David Lynch, the main interest here will be seeing Blue Velvet‘s Dennis Hopper and Twin Peaks‘s Lara Flynn Boyle as a couple in trouble.  Hopper especially seems to be enjoying himself and when his character leaves the movie, Eye of the Storm becomes much less interesting.  Lara Flynn Boyle is sexy throughout, enough to make you reconsider everything you thought you knew about Donna Hayward.

See this one on a double bill with Red Rock West.

Music Video of the Day: Came Back Haunted by Nine Inch Nails (2013, dir. David Lynch)


And if the viewer is epileptic, then they might come back having had a seizure and their driver’s license temporarily revoked because they didn’t see the warning onscreen that lasts four seconds.

What was David Lynch and everyone else involved thinking?

To add to this stupidity, there is another video for this that doesn’t do that, and is more interesting. That one is essentially a remake of the video for Bastards Of Young by The Replacements. The difference is that it’s a reel-to-reel instead of a speaker.

Jeez…if only there were some way to indicate to anyone coming across the video before they started playing it that it might cause seizures. It’s a real shame that YouTube doesn’t let you change thumbnails or anything like that.

Oh, but the idiocy doesn’t stop there. Remember that YouTube has an autoplay option. That means somebody could be listening to music, it moves over to the next video, they happen to be looking away, turn around, and have completely missed the warning. If it is a playlist on the iOS app, then you don’t even see the description. In fact, the description on YouTube videos don’t show up on the YouTube iOS app if you don’t click on the video, and then click for the description.

Here’s what it looks like if you do a search on the iOS YouTube app:

Here’s what it looks like after you have clicked on the video:

As I’m sure you already know, even the web interface while showing part of the description by default, is very easy to miss or is offscreen entirely at times unless you scroll down to look at it.

The flashing begins at six seconds–immediately after the warning–in case you were wondering.

Here’s a congrats from Uwe Boll wearing a wristwatch in his adaptation of Bloodrayne to everyone who made this video the way it is.

If you’re unhappy about what I said here, then here’s another part from Bloodrayne to tell you how much I care–courtesy of Michael Madsen.

I’m not even linking to the video. You can watch the Bastards of Young version below. And look at that? They were kind of enough to tell you in the title that it is only audio. That’s very important, but putting a warning in the title of a video is too much work. Not that it would’ve mattered anyways because plenty of people don’t even read the titles of YouTube videos before clicking on them. Just wow.

A Movie A Day #93: Whore (1991, directed by Ken Russell)


Liz (Theresa Russell) is a prostitute trying to survive on the mean streets of Los Angeles.  With the help of a homeless performance named Rasta (Antonio Fargas), Liz tries to escape from her abusive pimp, Blake (Benjamin Mouton).

To its credit, Whore was made as a response to the glamorous and irresponsible way that prostitution was portrayed in Pretty Woman but Whore had too much going against it to succeed.  It was based on a theatrical monologue, which was almost always a bad sign.  The majority of the movie was Liz talking straight to the camera, which was another red flag.  Most ominously, it was a Theresa Russell movie that was not directed by Nicolas Roeg and those never seemed to turn out well.  The director of Whore was Ken Russell but it featured none of the excess that Russell was known for.  Stuck with a low-budget and a reportedly unenthusiastic studio, Russell’s direction was uncharacteristically restrained.  (That’s a polite way of saying boring.)

The one good thing about Whore, and the reason why I’m writing about it during this site’s look back at Twin Peaks, was the presence of Jack Nance, playing one of the few men who actually tries to help Liz.  Nance, of course, not only played fishing-obsessed Pete Martell in Twin Peaks but also starred in Eraserhead and appeared in all of Lynch’s films (with the exception of The Elephant Man) up until Nance’s mysterious death in 1996.  Literally credited as playing “Helpful passerby.” Nance only had a few minutes of screen time but made a definite impression as one of the few kind people to be found in Liz’s dark world.

As a reflection of how much times have changed, Whore‘s title was so controversial that, in 1991, it was released in some areas under an alternative title: If You Can’t Say It, Just See It.

 

Music Video of the Day: Crazy Clown Time by David Lynch (2012, dir. David Lynch)


That’s as weird as I remember when I watched it for the first time, then never watched it again till I went to write this post.

It’s the bad horror movie cliche of idiots partying if it were trapped in the David Lynch universe. It’s also a music video that is already a literal music video. It’s also Lynch reworking Rockit by Herbie Hancock. You’ve got Lynch shown in brief shots on a TV as he orchestrates nightmare fuel with his music. It’s the same music video–just Lynchified. I have no problem with that. As for the meaning, as usual, have at it for yourself.

This is one of those music videos where I have to mention the YouTube comment section. Apparently, a gamer who goes by the name Crendor must have brought this video up, so a lot of people watched it about a year ago. As usual, they felt the need to announce what brought them there. There seems to be some argument over how these people could have not known who David Lynch is. David Lynch has essentially been out of the spotlight since Mulholland Dr. in 2001. How is it surprising that people around the ages of 16-25 wouldn’t know who he is? The only thing I can point to as a reason how Lynch could have shown up on some kid’s radars is the Twin Peaks inspired game, Deadly Premonition, that came out in 2010. I have included the “FK in the coffee” scene below.

I only know who David Lynch is because I happened to catch Blue Velvet (1986) on late night cable when I was in middle school, and I fell in love with his work. Twin Peaks was also on the air for its original run when I was in elementary school. I only knew of it then because I believe there is an episode of The Simpsons where Homer is watching Twin Peaks, and it’s somebody dancing with a horse at night. If you weren’t around in the 80s or 90s, then it’s perfectly reasonable to not be familiar with David Lynch.

Finally, I have included the behind-the-scenes video for it below.

Three of the actors are Emily Elicia Low, Chris Pounders, and Pandie Suicide.

Christopher Gray did the casting for the video. He and casting associate Christopher Gonzalez have worked on many movies and the upcoming new Twin Peaks.

Shakana Beatty was the casting assistant on the video.

Enjoy!

TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.8 “The Last Evening” (dir by Mark Frost)


twin-peaks-sign

And now, the Season Finale of Twin Peaks.

Season Finales are the best part of TV shows for me. When done well, a great finale will answer some of the questions presented through the season while also setting up new ones for future episodes. Planting the right seeds can result in water cooler talk (or crazy Twitstreams) that will last the entire hiatus. The idea is to reward the audience for their participation, but leave them wanting. Shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead have had closing episodes leading to long-term discussion. Twin Peaks was no different, for its time. Some bridges are mended, some are broken, and a cliffhanger or two helped to round out the episode.

Episode 7, “The Last Evening” opens a view of a sunset with pine trees. We find this is just the backdrop for some wall paper in Dr. Jacoby’s (Russ Tamblyn) office. James  (James Marshall) and Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) visit Dr. Jacoby’s office, which was recently vacated due to the lure they set up with Maddy impersonating Laura. Inside, they discover a small box filled with cocktail umbrellas. Each one is labelled with a memory – “I first lay eyes on Mimzy.”. Everyone collects something, but drink umbrellas is somewhere on the stranger side of things. As they look around, Donna accidentally turns on Jacoby’s music, which James fixes by turning down the volume. In the frantic mess of trying to stop the music, Donna discovers a coconut and recalls Laura recorded statement on this. They open the coconut to reveal two more clues, an audio tape and the other half of Laura’s heart necklace. So, this sheds some light on the story. It looks like Dr. Jacoby was maybe closer to Laura than most knew. It fits with his not showing up at the Funeral and what he told Cooper about the way she made him feel in comparison to the other patients of Twin Peaks.

Could Laura have been an obsession for Jacoby that simply went too far?

James and Donna leave on his motorcycle with the necklace. The scene closes in on Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook), who comes out of the shadows, firing an imaginary bullet at his nemesis. The drugs he left in the gas tank are sure to frame James, a final zinger after their fight at the Funeral.

The next scene has Dr. Jacoby arriving at the park with the Gazebo he saw in Laura’s video, rather than going to Sparkwood and 21, as directed. Peeking from the bushes (as seems to be the local habit in Twin Peaks, maybe even the meaning behind the town’s name), Jacoby discovers Maddy walking around and waiting for someone. Jacoby is momentarily lost in his memories at the sight of Laura, failing to notice a dark figure approaching him from behind. The figure beats Dr. Jacoby repeatedly before recognizing that the man is having what appears to be a heart attack. Jacoby witnesses Maddy being picked up by Donna and James, and calls out to them weakly before they depart. His cries go unheard.

The camera closes on Dr. Jacoby’s wide eyes as he is left behind in the park. Darkness embraces him, and perhaps this closes the loop on Jacoby. Were he truly Laura’s killer, would someone really need to kill him as well? What if someone witnessed what he said, taking his words and his reaction on seeing Laura as an admission of guilt? Then again, it could simply be someone going to any means to tie up their loose ends.

We then find ourselves at the roulette table of One-Eyed Jack’s. Ed (Everett McGill) isn’t having the best of times here, but Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) appears to be doing quite well at the blackjack table. In pure James Bond fashion, his eyes are focused on his dealer, the infamous Jacques Renault (Walter Olkewicz). Cooper is so focused on the task at hand that he kindly refuses a whispered proposition from one of Jack’s Ladies. He slides a purple poker chip towards Jacques, one with a hole that matches the broken piece of plastic found in Laura’s stomach in her autopsy.  On telling Jacques that he’s a friend of Leo’s, Jacques immediately denies having heard of him. Cooper offers to buy Jacques a drink, since they have much to discuss.

We cut to Blackie O’Reilly’s (Victoria Catlin)office. Audrey Horne enters the room, dressed in a beautiful white and red lingerie that really brings out a pop in her eyebrows. That may sound weird, but hear me out. Eyebrows tend to frame one’s eyes. Oddly shaped and/or off-colored, they can change the look of a person’s face. If you think that’s odd, compare Rooney Mara’s Elizabeth with Noomi Rapace’s in The Dragon Tattoo films and tell me I’m wrong. Audrey Horne (and by extension, Sherilyn Fenn) has some impressive eyebrows, along with a little beauty mark on the left side.

AudreyOEJ

Okay, getting back on track.

Approaching Blackie’s desk, Audrey glances down at the video feed and notices Cooper sitting at the blackjack table. He must have read her letter, the probably thinks, though the audience knows that the envelope is still unopened in Cooper’s room at the lodge. This catches her off guard, but she quickly recovers. Blackie informs Audrey that she’s to meet the owner of One Eyed Jack’s for a special rendezvous. Audrey asks who the owner is, but Blackie won’t tell. Blackie has Audrey pick a card. The Queen of Diamonds is chosen, and Blackie rests her hand on Audrey’s, giving her a knowing smile.

We cut to One Eyed Jack’s and a truly smooth scene. Cooper and Jacques are having drinks. Cooper asks Jacques if he knows him. When Jacques claims that he doesn’t, Cooper has him take the broken poker chip from his pocket and explains its importance – that he and his brother were doing drug running with Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re) and even going so far to mimic Waldo the Bird’s “Laura” chirp. Jacques tries to bolt, but Cooper grabs him and asks how he believes Leo was ever able to finance the drug running they did. Jacques puts things together and figures that Cooper is the one truly in charge. He also doesn’t know who was covering the dealing on the U.S. Side of the border, though mentions it was a “high school kid”. Cooper gives him $10,000 and offers him a mission stateside. Jacques agrees to meet Cooper at the water processing plant at Black Lake, which he doesn’t realize is what everyone needs for his extradition.

twin-peaks-blackjack

Before Jacques leaves, Cooper asks him one final question on how the chip ended up the way it did.  Here comes the reveal. Jacques explains that Waldo liked Laura, and happened to say her name often. At the cabin, everyone (Ronette, Leo, Jacques and Laura) partied pretty hard with drugs, and Leo was the one who let the bird out of the cage. In the middle of their tryst, Laura complained about the bird. According to Jacques, Leo responded by putting the chip in her mouth and asking her “bite the big one, baby”. The moment is something of a gross out, with a close up of Jacques mouth as he says that phase. Cooper thanks him and sends Jacques on his way, letting Hawk (Michael Horse) and Sheriff Truman know that the trap is set.

Meanwhile, Audrey is making preparations to meet with the owner of One Eyed Jack’s. Who is this mystery man? What’s his connection to Laura? Can Audrey get any information out of this that can lead to Laura’s murderer (and improve her standing with Agent Cooper)? Can she get out of this situation? Where is Cooper? The scene is brief, but it serves to set up where Audrey stands by the end of the season.

Shelly (Madchen Amick) washes her hair in the kitchen sink, setting her pistol on the table next to her. When she gets some shampoo in her eye, she tries to reach for the towel. We can see that the towel is being pulled just out of reach. Someone else is in the room. She makes the realization just a second too late as Leo grabs her before she can really get her gun. “You made me do this, Shelly, you made me!” he yells at her before the scene cuts away.

Nighttime. The Water-processing plant. Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean) and Andy(Harry Goaz) are waiting for Jacques Renault to make his appearance. When he does, the police arrive in force and corner him.  Truman makes it official, arresting him for the attempted murder of Ronette Pulaski and the murder of Laura Palmer. A brief scuffle occurs and Renault breaks free, grabbing an officer’s gun to use on Truman. Before he can fire a shot, however, Jacques himself is shot in the shoulder and slumps down to the ground near a car. Lo and behold, Truman’s savior is none other than good old Andy, who’s redeemed himself since his gun went off some time ago. It was a indeed a great moment for our favorite deputy and he shines here.

Andy Saves The Day

We’re at Donna’s place. With her father (William Frost) on the phone in the other room, she moves to the kitchen where James and Maddie are standing, along with a type player. They play the tape they found from the coconut. It’s Laura’s voice, who explains that she’s “a weird mood”. She goes on to say that James is a sweet guy and all, but she’s looking for something a little more edgy. Laura speaks of a mystery man that’s tried to kill her a few times during sex, but that she’s into it. She doesn’t give the man’s name, but gives a clue with his red corvette. So now, the truth is out. Laura was with Leo, on purpose, and in a relationship with a few sadomasochistic tendencies. Consoled by Donna, James says he’s happy to know the truth, else he would have followed along in the belief that Laura was still very much innocent in nature. Donna’s father comes in from the other room, to tell her he has to rush to the hospital for an incident and leaves.

That’s one of the running themes in this episode of Twin Peaks. Some of the characters here have changed natures. Some you thought were kind, you come to find weren’t. Some you thought as wicked do have some good intentions, deep down.

The next scene has Leo bringing in canisters of gasoline to the Mill, making the necessary preparations to burn it down. Getting rid of two birds with one stone, he has Shelly tied and gagged in the Mill as well. He informs her that she has a much time as it takes for the explosive he set to explode to think about what she did to him. He also mentions that Bobby Briggs is a dead man and that she broke his heart. Is this the end of sweet Shelly, who just wanted to get out of an unstable relationship?

We’re now at Ed and Nadine’s place. A blanket is set on the floor, as Nadine (Wendy Robie) kneels on  it while wearing a beautiful pink dress. A lullaby version of Angelo Badalmenti’s theme plays sweetly here as she pours herself both a glass of water and a bowl full of pills. She says “Goodbye”, her depression getting the best of her. Will Ed, who’s back at One Eyed Jack’s, be able to reach her in time?

At Josie’s (Joan Chen), Hank (Chris Mulkey) receives his money and mentions that it doesn’t quite seem like enough. He presents a story to her on the value of the 18 months he spent in jail, and suggests that he was the one who killed Josie’s husband (probably for her). He also mentions having taken the rap for a vehicular manslaughter charge. This scene is set up well with Mulkey hitting a mark that has him standing under a deer’s head. The angle presents him with horns by his head as he talks to Josie, making him appear much like the Devil in 1922’s Haxan or Tim Curry’s Darkness in Ridley Scott’s Legend, laying bare all of her sins. Hank also informs her that “once you’re in business with someone, you’re in business with them for life, like a marriage”. To solidify the union, he cuts both their thumbs open and mingles their blood, leaving Josie in a state of shock and me thinking of all the germs they just shared. It’s a scene that gets the job done and makes both characters more interesting, in my eyes. It takes Hank and suddenly makes him more useful than I felt he was for most of the season, and also gives Josie a larger problem than just the threatened destruction of the Mill. Additionally, she’s not the innocent princess she played herself out to be. Can Josie escape this situation? What would she have to do to make that happen? How long will she have to keep paying Hank to keep him quiet.

HankHorns

The next scene finds us in Catherine Martell’s (Piper Laurie) office, and this one is really cute. Pete (Jack Nance) walks in, finding Catherine rummaging through her files and angry at something she can’t find. She turns on him, asking him where the account ledger is. Pete claims he didn’t take it, and Catherine accuses him of maybe working with Josie to undermine her. As they talk, Pete has to close the window blinds to keep the nosy co-workers from doing that Twin Peaks past-time. They reminisce over the past, the love they had. Pete bears her no ill will over how she’s been as of late. She reveals she’s in trouble, and needs his help. They make amends and he agrees to help. It’s a tender moment.

It’s a dark and stormy night. At the precinct, Hawk and Ed are telling everyone about how Andy saved the day. The story falls within earshot of Lucy (Kimmy Robertson), who walks over to the kitchenette. This is it. It’s Andy’s moment, she’s impressed. He steps into the kitchenette, closes the doors for a bit of privacy and throws all his longing into a single heartfelt kiss that (thankfully) Lucy responds to. At this point, I’m truly happy for Andy.

AndyTakingShots

“Aw! There you go, Andy!!”, I say with a little applause.

“Oh Andy…” Lucy says. I lean forward to listen, smiling.

“Punky”, he says, listening.

“Punky?” I ask, thinking of Punky Brewster, an old show from the ‘80s.

“I’m pregnant.” Lucy says.

“What!!!???” I say, blinking before laughing. “What is with this show!?”

Andy, of course, is shocked into silence, as is everyone else. Lucy steps out of the kitchenette and informs everyone there’s “Fresh coffee” available before returning to her desk. It’s Ed head shake as he walks off camera that sells the scene. What the heck happened here?

Lucy receives a call from Bobby, playing as if he’s Leo. He tells her that Agent Cooper should look into James and that he’s an “Easy Rider”, alluding to the classic Dennis Hopper film featuring bikers smuggling drugs in their gas tanks.

At the hospital, Jacques Renault is being interrogated by Truman and Cooper. On questioning, Jacques confesses to taking Ronette and Laura to the cabin as well as taking the naughty photos of them (at Laura’s request). He got into a fight with Leo over a bottle that was broken over his head. Jacques woke up outside of the cabin, with Leo, Laura and Ronette gone. He knows nothing of the train car, but used Leo’s shirt to stop the bleeding in his head. Truman and Cooper speculate that Leo took the girls to the train car, and that they need to get Jacques to testify against Leo. They have their man.

Truman and Cooper also check in on Dr. Jacoby, the reason for Donna’s dad rushing into the Hospital. According to Dr. Hayward, Jacoby reporting getting a call from Laura Palmer and saw her by Easter Park before the incident. This changes things in the investigation for Cooper and Truman. As far as they know, the body they buried is Laura. Rosenfeld (Miguel Ferrer) confirmed it, and others did. What did Jacoby see out there?

As we reach the final 10 minutes of the episode, the pace quickens.

While searching for the Ledger, Catherine Martell receives a call from Hank, telling her the Ledger can be found at the mill. She makes herself ready to go, taking a revolver with her.

Hank confesses his feelings to Norma (Peggy Lipton), in that he wants to earn her trust again. He simply asks for a bit more time. However, even with a kiss, Norma knows that trusting Hank might bring her more trouble than she’d want.

Ed finally returns home to find Nadine unconscious on the floor. He quickly calls for an ambulance. Cradling her in his arms, he asks her not to leave him. Despite what he feels for Norma, there’s still a lot of love for Nadine there.

Back at the precinct, Lucy gives Truman the note about the call from “Leo”. On the way out to pick up James, Truman runs into Leland, who’s heard that they have a suspect in custody. Truman won’t give any details, but Leland gets the idea that the hospital might have the answers.

James is brought in. James gives Cooper the tape of Laura, but Cooper has questions for him, mostly about the drugs in his gas tank. Is James going to jail? Can he exonerate himself?

At the Great Western, Ben Horne receives a call from Hank, saying that they have to close the loop on Leo. Ben gives the go ahead. When Bobby goes by Shelly’s to check in on her, he’s confronted by Leo, who attacks him with an axe. Before he can land a killing blow, a shot rings out from outside, hitting him in the neck. He falls to a slump on the soft, and when Bobby peeks out the window, he finds Hank walking away. Bobby leaves Leo to his fate. What’s funny here is that the tv mirrors the reactions of the audience. I thought that was well done.

Shelly is tied up still at the Mill. Catherine, who’s amazingly calm in this scene, manages to rescue Shelly as the Mill begins to burn down. The scene transitions with someone hitting a fire alarm, but instead of being at the Mill, we’re at the hospital. A dark figure tapes Jacques Renault’s free hand to his bed and then proceeds to suffocate him with a pillow. As the pillow is pulled back, Leland Palmer is revealed as Jacques’ killer, justice served for what was done to his daughter. Back at the Mill, Pete rushes in with a fire extinguisher to rescue Catherine, if he can. Will he survive the fire? Did Catherine or Shelly?

Ben Horne can be seen signing some documents, sitting at a familiar desk with red drapes. We come to find he’s in Blackie’s office at One Eyed Jack’s. Blackie congratulates him on the deal with the Icelanders, referring to him as Boss. Boss?! He asks to have a look at the “New Girl”. As the finishing touches are being made on Audrey, she instantly recognizes the voice of Ben Horne, her own father as he begins to enter the room. Though neither have seen the other in this scene, Audrey now knows that he is the owner of One Eyed Jack’s. She’s also in some serious trouble.

The finale ends with Cooper returning to his room at the Great Northern. He’s pleased at the silence of having the Icelanders gone. With the exception of hot milk and a warm bed, he’s looking forward to it. “24 Hour Room service must be one of the premiere achievements of modern civilization.” He says. Stepping into the room, he finds an envelope labeled “My special agent”, presumably from Audrey. When the phone rings, he picks it up, but is distracted by a knock at the door. We can hear either Hawk or Andy on the phone, informing him that Leo Johnson was shot, but this doesn’t reach Cooper’s ears. On opening the door, a dark figure faces him, armed with a silenced pistol.

The pistol fires three times, and a thud is heard as we fade to black. Is Cooper Dead? Who shot him? And if he is dead, who’s going to save Audrey?! These and other questions will hopefully have answers in tomorrow’s recap of the Season 2 Premiere, which I’m also writing.

I’ll promise to keep it short next time.

Previous Entries in The TSL’s Look At Twin Peaks:

  1. Twin Peaks: In the Beginning by Jedadiah Leland
  2. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.1 — The Pilot (dir by David Lynch) by Lisa Marie Bowman
  3. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.2 — Traces To Nowhere (directed by Duwayne Dunham) by Jedadiah Leland
  4. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.3 — Zen, or the Skill To Catch A Killer (dir by David Lynch) by Lisa Marie Bowman
  5. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.4 “Rest in Pain” (dir by Tina Rathbone) by Leonard Wilson
  6. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.5 “The One-Armed Man” (directed by Tim Hunter) by Jedadiah Leland
  7. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.6 “Cooper’s Dreams” (directed by Lesli Linka Glatter) by Lisa Marie Bowman
  8. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.7 “Realization Time” (directed by Caleb Deschanel) by Lisa Marie Bowman

Music Video of the Day: Good Day Today by David Lynch (2011, dir. Arnold de Parscau)


This time around, we have a French crew who put together a music video for David Lynch.

Director: Arnold de Parscau
Cinematography: Jonathan Bertin, Antoine Bon
Actors: Elia Blanc, Jean-Christophe Bouvet, Brigitte Aubry, Sarah Barzyk.

The video is your typical downbeat commentary on modern family life–or lack there of. There are two interesting things to note about it.

First, it features prolific French actor Jean-Christophe Bouvet.

Second, it is edited from/or into a short film by Arnold De Parscau called Tommy that also came out 2011. I have embedded the film below.

Enjoy!

TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.7 “Realization Time” (dir by Caleb Deschanel)


“What I want and what I need are two different things, Audrey”

— Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) in Twin Peaks 1.7 “Realization Time)

In anticipation of the Showtime revival in May, Leonard, Jeff, and I have been reviewing every single episode of the original Twin Peaks!  Today, I will be taking a look at the 7th episode of season 1, “Realization Time.”

Now, I have to admit that I was not originally assigned to review this episode.  Much as I did with Zen, or the Skill To Catch A Killer, I literally got down on my knees and begged for the chance to review this episode.  Once again, as I explained why I felt that I was predestined to write this review, I shed many tears and threatened to utilize the power of excessive whining unless I allowed to do so.  Eventually, it paid off.

Why did I want to review this episode?  Well, first off, it’s a strong Audrey episode and, as I discovered while writing my previous Twin Peaks review, Audrey Horne is who I would be if I was a character on Twin Peaks.  She is the character to whom I most relate.

(Audrey was such a popular character during the initial run of Twin Peaks that, apparently, Mulholland Drive was originally conceived as being a spin-off in which Audrey would have gone to Hollywood and solved crimes.  In other words, no Audrey, no Mulholland Drive, no polls declaring Mulholland Drive to be the best film, so far, of the 21st century.)

Secondly, this was the final episode to feature Waldo the Myna Bird and I just happen to love the way that whenever Harry Goaz, in the role of Deputy Andy, said the name “Waldo,” he would drag out each syllable so that the bird’s name became “Walllll DOE.”

Anyway, with all that in mind, let’s take a look at Realization Time!

We start with those beautiful opening credits, that mix of machinery and nature that reminds us that Twin Peaks is a David Lynch production, even if this particular episode was directed by noted cinematographer Caleb Deschanel.

(Deschanel’s wife, Mary Jo, also played Ben Horne’s unhappy wife.  Interestingly enough, in the 1983 best picture nominee The Right Suff , for which Caleb Deschanel received an Oscar nomination, Mary Jo played the wife of John Glenn.)

This episode opens where the last one left off.  Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) is naked in Dale Cooper’s (Kyle MacLachlan) bed and Dale is explaining that he is an agent of the FBI and, as such, he has taken an oath to uphold certain principles.  He tells Audrey that she needs a friend and he says he is going to get them two malts and that she is going to tell him all of her troubles.

This is one of those scenes — and there’s a lot of them to be found in the first season of Twin Peaks — that really shouldn’t work and yet it does.  Everything about it, from Cooper’s corny sincerity to the promise of two malts, serves to remind us that Twin Peaks often has more in common with an idealized 1950s than with any recognizable modern era.  I think that only Kyle MacLachlan could have made Cooper’s lines come across as being sincere as opposed to condescending.  Being rejected by an older man who has just found you naked in his bed is not as pleasant experience as this episode makes it appear to be.  And yet, Fenn and MacLachlan both do a great job at selling this scene.

And yet, there’s one key line in this scene that I think is often overlooked.  When Audrey says that she can’t tell Cooper all of her secrets, she then asks him, “Do you have any secrets?”  Cooper says, “No.”  However, we know that’s a lie.  We know because we saw the way that Cooper smiled when Laura kissed him in his dream.  We know that Cooper is not the asexual puritan that he pretends to be.  When Cooper says that there’s a difference between what he wants and what he needs, we perhaps understand his meaning more than he does.

We learn one of Cooper’s secrets the next morning when he shows up at the police station and discovers Harry (Michael Ontkean) and Doc Hayward (Warren Frost) looking in on Waldo the Myna Bird.  Doc Hayward explains that myna bird’s have an amazing ability to mimic the human voice but they only do it when they’re feeling playful and Waldo is definitely not in the mood.  He asks Cooper if he wants to give Waldo some food.  Cooper replies, “I don’t like birds,” and steps back in such a dramatic fashion that you’re left wondering what terrible bird-related misfortune befell Cooper during his youth.

(Personally, I suspect this was meant to be yet another one of the first season’s many Hitchcock references.  There’s a few more in this episode, which we’ll be getting too shortly.)

Don’t feel to bad for Waldo, though.  While Dale, Hayward, and Harry are watching the bird, Deputy Hawk (Michael Horse) enters with the forensic report on Jacques Renault’s cabin.  There was only one exposed negative on the roll of film and it’s a picture of Waldo biting Laura Palmer’s shoulder.  BAD WALDO!

Realizing that, regardless of how much he may hate birds, Waldo is the only witness they have, Dale leaves a voice-activated tape recorder at the base of Waldo’s cage.  When Waldo speaks, they’ll have it on tape.  Dale also suggests heading up to Canada and investigating One-Eyed Jacks.  When Harry points out that he has no legal authority in Canada, Dale says, “That’s why I was thinking it would be a good job for the Bookhouse Boys.”  Yay!  Vigilante justice!

Last episode, Shelly (Madchen Amick) shot Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re) and we all cheered.  Well, it turns out that Leo survived.  He’s hanging out in the woods, watching his house through a pair of binoculars.  That’s how he sees Bobby showing up at his house and Shelly greeting him with a kiss.  It’s interesting to note that, when Shelly was talking about Leo in The One-Armed Man, she lamented that she only married him because of his red corvette.  However, Bobby — who seems to be destined to grow up to be another Leo — drives a black corvette.  Shelly needs to stop picking her men based on their car.

While Leo sits outside with a sniper rifle, a sobbing Shelly confessed to Bobby that she shot Leo.  Shelly may be upset but Bobby thinks that all this sounds like a good thing.  “Leo Johnson is history!” he declares.  No, Bobby, Leo is sitting outside with a sniper rifle.  Fortunately, for Bobby, Leo has a police scanner with him and he hears Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) announcing that Waldo has been talking.  Leo gets into his pickup truck and drives off.

At the Hayward House, Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle), James (James Marshall), and Maddy (Sheryl Lee) listen to the tape that Maddy found in Laura’s room.  It turns out to be one of several tapes that Laura recorded for Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn.)  On the tape, Laura wonders why it’s so easy for her to get men to like her and, for a few minutes, I was worried that we’d have to deal with another “James-Gets-Weepy” scene.  Fortunately, Maddy distracts him by pointing out that there’s one empty case in Laura’s collection of tapes.  The missing tape was recorded the night that Laura was killed.  James deduces that Jacoby must have it and that Jacoby might also be Laura’s killer.  He comes up with a plan to get Jacoby out of his office so that he and Donna can search for the tape.  What if Jacoby gets a call from Laura?  Everyone looks over at Maddy.

At Horne’s Department Store, Audrey attempts to convince a customer to buy a perfume that will make her smell like a forest.  Since most forests smell like death, the customer really isn’t interested.  She wants a perfume that makes a statement.  Audrey suggests hanging the perfume around her neck.  “It’s a perfume.  It’s a fashion accessory.  Two statements for the price of one?”  “I don’t appreciate your attitude,” the customer says.  If only I had a dime for every time that I’ve heard that…

Anyway, Audrey isn’t really all that concerned about making sales.  She’s got an investigation to conduct!  This means hiding in the manager’s office and listening while he recruits one of Audrey’s co-workers to go work at One-Eyed Jack’s as a “hospitality girl.”  The manager says that the co-worker’s positive and money-hungrey attitude will take her far in life.  (It’s all about attitude at Horne’s Department Store.)  Later, Audrey deftly manipulates that co-worker into giving her the number to One-Eyed Jacks.  Audrey’s the best.

Meanwhile, at the Double R, Hank (Chris Mulkey) is working at his new job and boring Shelly with inspiring stories about his time in jail.  Little does Shelly know that, before she shot Leo, Hank beat him up.  They have something in common and personally, I think they’d make a cute couple.  I mean, Hank may be sleazy but he’s so damn likable.

Of course, Harry doesn’t like Hank but that’s probably just because of all the drug dealing and other assorted crimes that Hank has committed.  When Cooper and Harry stop by the diner, Harry tells Hank that if he misses one meeting with his parole officer, he’ll be sent back to jail.  Harry tells Cooper that people never change but Cooper is too busy appreciating a cup of black coffee to worry about Hank Jennings.  Cooper tells Harry that the secret of happy living is to give yourself a random present, like a good cup of coffee.

(It’s played for laughs but again, the important word to remember is secret.  Twin Peaks is all about to secrets.)

At the Hurley House, Nadine (Wendy Robie) watches the latest episode of Invitation to Love.  When Big Ed (Everett McGill) enters the room, Nadine announces that she’s eating bon bons because a patent attorney rejected her silent drape runners.  Ed assures her, in one of my favorite lines ever, “Nadine, there’s plenty of patent attorneys.  We’re just going to have to keep looking until we find one that understands drape runners.”  McGill delivers that line with just the right amount of gravitas too.  If I ever lose an eye and become obsessed with drapes, I hope my man will be as understanding as Big Ed Hurley.

At the Packard Mill, Pete Martell (Jack Nance) laments to Harry that a fish he recently caught was bigger before he sent it to the taxidermist.  “Once they take all the innards out,” he explains, the fish loses something, a reminder that everything that makes existence interesting (in both Twin Peaks and life itself), lies directly under the surface.

Harry’s come to see Josie (Joan Chen).  He knows that she was at the Timber Falls Motel on Tuesday but he doesn’t know why.  (She was spying on Ben and Catherine.)  At first, Josie lies and says she was at the mill on Tuesday but eventually, she reveals her secret.  She also tells Harry that she heard Catherine talking about burning down the mill.  Harry swears that he won’t let that happen.

Later, that night, Cooper, looking incredibly dashing in a tuxedo, is preparing to go to One-Eyed Jacks with Harry, Hawk, and Ed.  Cooper has $10,000 of the FBI’s money for them to use in the casino.  “Whenever I gamble with the bureau’s money, I like a 10 to 15% return,” he says.  Cooper’s a gambler?  Who would have guessed, especially since Cooper claimed to have no secrets?

Walter Neff

Twin Peaks, like most of David Lynch’s films, borrowed a lot from classic film noir and nowhere is that more obvious than in the next scene.  An insurance agent (Mark Lowenthal) had dropped in on Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie).  The agent’s name is Mr. Neff, as in Walter Neff from Double Indemnity.  He’s visiting because a life insurance policy has been taken out on Catherine by … Josie Packard!  And, as Mr. Neff goes on to explain, it appears that Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) originally said that he would make sure that Catherine signed the papers!   Apparently, thinking it was strange that Catherine would be “too busy” to appear in person to sign the policy, Mr. Neff held off on giving Josie and Ben the last page that needed to be signed.  Catherine, realizing that she’s been set up, coolly says that she’ll have to look over the policy with her lawyer before signing anything.  It’s a fascinating scene because both Catherine and Neff realize what’s happening but neither comes right out and says it.  Apparently, this was Neff’s only appearance and that’s shame because Mark Lowenthal gives a fun, scene-stealing performance in the role.

Meanwhile, at the police station, Waldo the Myna Bird is feeling well enough to say, “Laura … Laura…” Suddenly, there’s a gunshot.  Hawk, Dale, and Ed — who were busy trying on disguises in the next room — run into the conference room.  Someone — and we know that had to be Leo because he was the one with the sniper rifle — has killed Waldo!

And I have to admit that I felt really bad about Waldo.  The shot of Waldo’s blood dripping down on the uneaten conference room donuts is far more horrifying than you would think, based on the description.  In just one and a half episodes, I had grown rather attached to Waldo.  The fact that we know he was talking because he was finally feeling playful again makes his death all the more tragic.  Andy, with tears in his eyes, reaffirms why he’s one of my favorite minor characters when he says, “Poor Wall-DOE!”

Rest in Peace, Waldo

Dale listens to the tape.  As Angelo Badalamenti’s somber music plays in the background, we hear Waldo say, “Laura!  Laura!  Don’t go there!  Hurting me!  Hurting me!  Stop it!  Stop it!  Leo, no!”  As the camera cuts between Dale and Harry listening to Waldo mimicking Laura’s death, I stopped to once again marvel at the genius of Twin Peaks.  This scene should have been ludicrous.  Instead, I’m getting teary-eyed just writing about it.

Leaving behind the unfortunate Waldo, we go to One-Eyed Jacks.  Cooper and a bewigged Big Ed show up.  (Cooper’s wearing a pair of glasses that look unbelievably adorable on him.)  Blackie (Victoria Catlin) approaches them, which gives us a chance to witness flirtatious Cooper.  On the one hand, flirtatious Cooper is specifically written to be kind of dorky.  That’s just who Dale Cooper is.  But, on the other hand, nothing he says is as dorky as the way Jerry and Ben Horne behaved when they visited One-Eyed Jacks in Zen, or the Skill To Catch A Killer.  Cooper, at least, has the excuse of being undercover.

Blackie takes one look at Big Ed and announces, “You look like a cop.”  Cooper smiles and says, “I’m the cop,” which leads to Blackie says that Dale looks like Cary Grant.  Ironically, MacLachlan would play Cary Grant in the 2004 film, Touch of Pink.

Kyle MacLachlan as Cary Grant in Touch of Pink

Meanwhile, Maddy sneaks out of the Palmer House, barely noticed by Leland (Ray Wise), who is sitting in the shadows.  It’s time for Operation Freak Out Jacoby and here’s where we get this episode’s other big Hitchock reference.  In order to fool Jacoby, Maddy has not only taken off her oversized glasses but she’s also put on Laura’s clothes and is now wearing a blonde wig.  Now is as good a time as any to point out that Madeleine Ferguson’s name comes from Hitchcock’s Vertigo, a film that starred Kim Novak as Madeleine and Jimmy Stewart as Scottie Ferguson.  In Vertigo, of course, Novak played two roles, just as Sheryl Lee does here.  In Vertigo, Novak was used to trick Jimmy Stewart into believing the woman he loved was still alive.  Essentially, that’s the same thing that James and Donna are planning to use Maddy to do to Jacoby.

Back at the Great Northern, Jerry (David Patrick Kelly) and Ben (Richard Beymer) are partying with the Icelandic businesspeople.  (Iceland appears to be full of a lot of fun people.)  Jerry is enraptured with the Icelandic people but Ben is more concerned about getting the contracts signed.  It turns out that the Icelanders only want to sign the contracts if they can do it at One-Eyed Jacks.  Ben agrees and then sends Jerry out of the office so that he can call Josie.  Apparently, the plan is to kill Catherine in the fire that Ben hired Leo to set.

It turns out that Ben and Jerry are not the only Hornes heading to One-Eyed Jacks,  Audrey has already arrived and is meeting with Blackie. As soon as Audrey enters Blackie’s office, we immediately notice all of the red curtains.  That’s never a good sign.  Audrey hands Blackie her resume.  “Hester Prynne,” Blackie says, as she looks the resume over, “Pretty name.”

Audrey has made the mistake of claiming to have worked extensively in Canada.  When Blackie started to quiz Audrey about where specifically she had worked, I yelled, “Degrassi!  Say Degrassi!”  (Later I realized that was foolish on my part, as Twin Peaks predates Degrassi by over a decade,)  Instead, Audrey makes the mistake of mentioning an obviously fake “dude ranch,” (which I guess is where they grow dudes because I’ve never quite understood that term) and answers a question that Blackie asks about someone named Big Amos.

Big mistake.  It turns out that Big Amos is a dog and Blackie read The Scarlet Letter in Canadian high school.

(That said, borrowing the name of a Nathaniel Hawthorne heroine is such an Audrey thing to do that it automatically becomes the greatest thing ever.)

Blackie asks Audrey for one good reason not to kick her out.  Fortunately, there’s a cheery nearby so that Audrey can take it, eat it, and then use her tongue to tie the stem in a knot.  (Before anyone asks, despite having a very flexible tongue, I cannot do that.  However, neither can Sherilyn Fenn.  Apparent, she already had a pre-tied stem in her mouth when they shot the scene.)  Audrey has the job, which — considering how much her father and uncle love visiting One-Eyed Jacks — has the potential to be all sorts of creepy.

 

Inside the casino, Dale is playing blackjack,  His original Jamaican dealer goes on break and is replaced by … JACQUES RENAULT (Walter Olkewicz).

At Jacoby’s office, the good doctor (Russ Tamblyn) is watching Invitation to Love because, apparently, that’s the only show that plays on Twin Peaks television.  When the phone rings, the Hawaii-obsessed Jacoby answers with a somewhat perfunctory, “Aloha.”  (In my experiences, a true Hawaiian can make even the most somber “Aloha” sound like an invitation to the greatest party ever.)  On the other end, Maddy pretends to be Laura.  She tells Jacoby to go to his door.  “There’s something waiting for you.”

And indeed there is!  A VHS tape has been left outside Jacoby’s office.  The tape features Maddy (as Laura) holding that day’s newspaper.  From the payphone, Maddy tells Jacoby to “Meet me at Sparkwood and 21 in ten minutes.”

(Everything in the town of Twin Peaks revolves around wood, both figuratively and literally.)

What James, Maddy, and Donna don’t realize is that they’re being followed by Bobby, who is just as shocked as Jacoby to see “Laura” apparently alive.  (Now is as good a time as any to, once again, point out that Laura was named after the title character from Otto Preminger’s Laura, a film noir about a woman who is incorrectly believed to be dead.)

When Jacoby runs off to find “Laura,” James and Donna sneak into his office.  Meanwhile, Bobby plants cocaine in James’s motorcycle.  As for Maddy, she hangs out around the gazebo, little realizing that someone is watching her from behind the trees…

What a great episode!  Tomorrow, Leonard looks at the finale of season 1!

By the way, if you want even more Lynch, be sure to check out Gary’s review of three of Lynch’s short films and Val’s look at a music video that was made for one of Lynch’s songs.

Previous Entries in The TSL’s Look At Twin Peaks:

  1. Twin Peaks: In the Beginning by Jedadiah Leland
  2. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.1 — The Pilot (dir by David Lynch) by Lisa Marie Bowman
  3. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.2 — Traces To Nowhere (directed by Duwayne Dunham) by Jedadiah Leland
  4. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.3 — Zen, or the Skill To Catch A Killer (dir by David Lynch) by Lisa Marie Bowman
  5. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.4 “Rest in Pain” (dir by Tina Rathbone) by Leonard Wilson
  6. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.5 “The One-Armed Man” (directed by Tim Hunter) by Jedadiah Leland
  7. TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.6 “Cooper’s Dreams” (directed by Lesli Linka Glatter) by Lisa Marie Bowman

 

 

Music Video of the Day: I Know by David Lynch (2011, dir. Tamar Drachli)


I don’t know if David Lynch still does this, but at least for awhile, he held music video competitions for his songs. That is the case with this music video. The following people worked on it according to the officially posted video:

Director: Tamar Drachli
Actors: Adam Horowitz & Vaan Nguyen
Director of Photography: Tom Goldwasser & Nadav Gordon
Camera Operator: Tom Goldwasser
Costumes Designer: Leeat Ramon
Compositing: Roi Werner
Online: Shahar Naor

It goes on to give some background on the competition:

“Almost 450 were entered into the competition to create the official music videos for David Lynch’s single ‘Good Day Today / I Know’m released on Sunday Best Recordings http://www.sundaybest.net

This fantastic video directd by Tamar Drachli was chosen by David Lynch as the winner for ‘I Know’ from a shortlist of 10 finalists.

The response to this competition was amazing with almost 450 videos published and some fantastic creativity and talent on display.”

That’s a lot of music videos to go through.

Based on what little I can turn up, the cast and crew are from Israel, or at least have connections there (the taxi has Hebrew characters on it). The one that stood out the most is Vaan Nguyen. The reason is because there is a whole movie about her father called The Journey of Vaan Nguyen (2005). I haven’t seen it myself.

I can find next to nothing on the others. There is a website for director Tamar Drachli, but I can’t get it to load. I can only view it in the Google Cache, which shows me she has directed some other music videos. There is also a website for costume designer Leeat Ramon.

Just to clarify one thing about the credits, it does say Adam Horowitz with a ‘w’, not a ‘v’.

Enjoy!