TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.5 “The Orchid’s Curse” (dir by Graeme Clifford)

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(This Good Friday review of the fifth episode of the 2nd season of Twin Peaks is dedicated to my mom, Gloria Elena Marchi, who would have been 59 years old today. So, it better be a good episode, right?)

This episode of Twin Peaks was directed by Graeme Clifford, an Australian filmmaker who has several films and tv shows to his credit. As an editor, Clifford worked on some of the best films of the 70s, several of which share the surrealistic vision of David Lynch. Among the films that Clifford worked on: Robert Altman’s Images, Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now and The Man Who Fell To Earth, and the ultimate cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The Orchid’s Curse (and, as I pointed out yesterday, I love the pulpiness of that title) is the only episode of Twin Peaks that he directed. It’s also the first of four episodes to be credited to writer Barry Pullman.

Let’s take a look at The Orchid’s Curse!

Following the haunting opening credits, we get Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan). Dale is waking up in bed and, as always, talking into his tape recorder. He had a dream that he was eating a tasteless gum drop, just to wake up and discover that he was chewing on one of his ear plugs. As I listened to Dale speak, I breathed a sigh of relief. After the previous episode had him acting all out-of-character, it was nice to have the old Dale back.

Dale notices an envelope taped underneath his bed. It’s a note from Audrey, telling Dale that she’s gone up to One-Eyed Jack’s. Okay, Dale — now you know where Audrey is! GO RESCUE HER!

At the police station, Deputy Hawk (Michael Horse) comes in and wow, is he mad! Oh wait — he just has to go to the bathroom. As he explains to Harry (Michael Ontkean), two retired school teachers live in the house next to the Palmer summer home. Neither of them have ever seen BOB before but apparently, they made him drink two pots of tea before telling him that.

Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) tells Harry that she’s going to down to Tacoma to see her sister, who has just had a baby. She offers to stick around long enough to show the temp how to do everything. Harry tells her that they’ve got it covered but Lucy obviously knows better. As an administrative professional, I related so much to Lucy in this scene.

At the Johnson house, a salesman named Mr. Pinkle (David Lander) is showing Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) and Shelly (Madchen Amick) a product that he calls “porto-patient.” Basically, it’s a harness and crane that allows you to drag around a comatose person Shelly and Bobby are obviously planning on having some fun with Leo. Sure, how could that backfire? Bobby does worry that porto-patient appears to be a death trap and that they don’t want to kill Leo because then they won’t get his disability checks. Pinkle explains that it’s either porto-patient or a wheelbarrow.

Meanwhile, Judge Sternwood (Royal Dano) is holding court at the Roadhouse, for some reason. In my last review, I forgot to mention that Judge Sternwood travels with a much younger “law clerk.” I’m going to guess that the character of Judge Sternwood was based on Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.

William O. Douglas

Anyway, it’s time for Leland Plamer’s arraignment. Prosecutor Lodwick (Ritch Brinkley) argues that Leland (Ray Wise) should not be given bail because of the seriousness of the crime and “the oft-witnessed instability of Mr. Palmer after the death of his daughter.” Harry speaks on Leland’s behalf. Harry says that Leland is a well-respected member of the community.

(Meanwhile, Deputy Andy (Harry Goaz) gets even more adorable by doing courtroom sketches, all of which are pictures of the back of Leland’s head.)

Judge Sternwood released Leland on his own recognizance, a ruling that will prove to be so ill-thought that it actually could have been issued by William O. Douglas. (But I kid the late Judge Douglas!)

At the Harold Smith House, Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) shows up with another Meals on Wheels tray. Harold (Lenny von Dohlen) is waiting for her, a glass of wine in his hand.

“What’s behind those deep blue eyes today?” Harold asks. Oh, Harold!

Donna says that she’ll share her life with Harold, as a part of his “living novel,” but only if he lets her read Laura’s secret diary. Harold offers to read the diary to her but he emphasizes that the diary must not leave his living room.

Donna starts telling Harold about her life but quickly turns things on him, asking where he’s from and where he grew up. Harold’s from Boston and he says he grew up in books. As I watched this scene, I found myself marveling at Lenny von Dohlen’s wonderful performance. Harold is definitely creepy but von Dohlen still brought a definite sweetness to the character. I actually found myself starting to get a little bit mad at the way that Donna was manipulating him.

Seriously, Donna, don’t hurt Harold!

Donna, apparently, was not listening to me because she snatched Laura’s diary and, teasingly, used it to lead Harold outside. Harold immediately had a panic attack, which should teach Donna an important lesson about trying to act like Audrey.

Back at the Road House, Judge Sternwood rules on Leo’s competency. Leo’s lawyer is played by songwriter Van Dyke Parks and, as I watched this scene, I found myself wondering why every lawyer and judge in Twin Peaks — with the exception Leland Palmer — insisted on dressing like an extra in a 1950s western. I mean, it kind of works and I guess you could make the argument that Judge Sternwood holding court in the Roadhouse is meant to pay homage to Judge Roy Bean.

In other words, Roy Bean + William O. Douglas = Judge Sternwood.

Judge Sternwood summons Cooper and Harry to the bar so that he can deliberate on Leo’s competency while his “law clerk” serves up drinks. Sternwood drinks something called a Black Yukon Sucker Punch. Yuck.

Anyway, because he’s not a very good judge, Sternwood rules that Leo is not competent to stand trail and sends him home with Shelly.

At the Hurley house, Big Ed (Everett McGill) and James (James Marshall) attempt to adjust to a new life in which one-eyed, middle-aged Nadine (Wendy Robie) thinks that she’s a teenager. Nadine goes to get a drink and rips off the refrigerator door. Apparently, that’s something that’s going to be happening from now on.

At the Great Northern, Ben (Richard Beymer) enters his all-wood office and is informed that a Mr. Tojamura is here to see him. Mr. Tojamura is the Japanese man that Ben saw last night, the one who smart viewers will have already figured out is actually Catherine (Piper Laurie) in a not very convincing disguise. Anyway, Tojamura says that he represents an investment firm that wants to invest in the Ghostwood Project and Ben gets all excited and…

WHY ISN’T BEN WORRIED ABOUT AUDREY!?

See, this is one thing that bothers me about season 2 of Twin Peaks. During season 1, Ben was greedy and amoral. He wasn’t a great father but, at the same time, he did love his daughter. That was what made Ben an interesting character. But, in season 2, Ben is just a caricature of an evil businessmen. Reportedly, after not interfering during season 1, ABC interfered a lot in season 2 and it’s obvious when you see how a character like Ben has been robbed of all his nuance.

Ben gets rid of Mr. Tojamura and then suddenly, Hank (Chris Mulkey) pops out of a secret passage and informs Ben that Cooper is on his way. On schedule, Cooper enters the office and Jean Renault (Michael Parks) calls from Canada. Jean wants Cooper to drop off a briefcase full of money at a merry-go-round, at midnight. “Leave it by the horse’s head.”

After Cooper gets the briefcase and leaves, Hank once again pops out of the secret passage. Ben tells Hank to follow Cooper, to make sure the money is delivered, and to bring back Audrey. Hank is confused. Shouldn’t Cooper bring back Audrey? No, Ben explains, Cooper isn’t coming back. Also, because Ben is cartoonishly evil now, he tells Hank to try to bring back both Audrey and the money.

That night, at the Hayward House, Donna and Maddy (Sheryl Lee) are conspiring on a way to ruin Harold’s life. Donna will distract Harold and Maddy will sneak into Harold’s house and steal the diary. Maddy, who tends to jump at her own shadow, seems like the worst possible person to use in a situation like this but then again, maybe that’s exactly why Donna’s using her.

See, this what I think is going on in Donna’s head: Maddy gets caught, Harold kills her, and then Donna gets James to herself. Donna has crossed into the dark side!

At One-Eyed Jacks, Jean and Blackie (Victoria Catlin) are rehearsing how Jean will get the briefcase and then kill Cooper with a blade that he has hidden underneath his sleeve. Can Jean and Blackie just die now? They’re kind of boring as villains. And every minute they’re alive, that’s another minute wasted on this stupid Audrey-bring-held-hostage subplot.

At the police station, Andy is struggling to figure out how to answer the phone and transfer calls. That’s right! Nobody appreciates a good administrative professional until she’s gone! Anyway, Andy calls the lab and discovers that he’s no longer sterile. As Doc Hayward puts it, “They’re not just three men on a fishing trip. They’re a whole damn town.” So, Andy could be the father of Lucy’s baby! Woo hoo! Excited, Andy calls Lucy in Tacoma and is shocked to learn that Lucy is not visiting her sister. Instead, she’s at Adams Abortion Clinic. “OH MY GOD!” Andy say.

In Harry’s office, Harry and Cooper are planning a raid on One-Eyed Jack’s. Hopefully, it won’t take them as long to attack as it took Rick to stand up to Negan on The Walking Dead. (Rick Grimes and Sheriff Truman have a lot in common but that’ll have to wait for a future post.)

Deputy Hawk comes in and says that he found out that the One-Armed Man has been staying at a motel but nobody’s seen him in a while. Hawk found a hypodermic needle and a weird drug in the motel room. “Weird, deep smell,” Hawk says. Harry sends Hawk home, apparently forgetting that Hawk is a member of the Book House Boys and, therefore, there’s no reason to leave him out of the planning of the raid.

At the Double R Diner, Maddy rushes in and asks for a cup of coffee to go. She doesn’t even notice that James is sitting at the counter. James looked a little offended and I was worried he was going to get all weepy but instead, he just said, “Hi.” Maddy says that she can’t talk now and, under Donna’s bad influence, she lies and says that she’s going back home.

At the Harold Smith House, Donna is talking to Harold. Donna tells Harold about the time that she and Laura went down to the Roadhouse to meet boys. The story starts with Laura talking Donna into wearing a short skirt and ends, as these often do, with skinny dipping. Harold, who would have loved Twitter, says that the story was beautiful. Meanwhile, Maddy lurks around outside.

At One-Eyed Jack’s, Cooper and Harry are also sneaking around outside. They’re both dressed in black, like Daniel Craig in the poster for SPECTRE, so we know that it’s commando time! As an owl — “The Owls are not what they seem,” — watches, Harry takes out one of the guards. They sneak through the backdoor and find themselves in the brothel section of One-Eyed Jacks, which is full of young women in lingerie and middle-aged men who all give off a “Ted-Kennedy-About-To-Drive-Mary-Jo-Kopechne-Home” sort of vibe.

Outside the Harold Smith House, Maddy drinks the coffee that she got at the Double R. Meanwhile, inside the house, Harold is telling Donna about orchids. Harold and Donna finally kiss and, overwhelmed, Harold has to leave the room. This is Maddy’s cue to break into the house and help Donna ruin the man’s life.

As Maddy lurks towards the house, Cooper is busy lurking around One-Eyed Jacks. “Hi,” Cooper says, grabbing Jean’s main lackey, “would you take me to Audrey Horne please?” Cooper is led to a bedroom, where an unconcious Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) is tied up. After punching out Jean’s main henchwoman, Cooper untied Audrey.

Meanwhile, Harry is watching Jean and Blackie talking in another room when, suddenly, Jean stabs Blackie to death. Well, that one down. Jean spots Harry and runs off. At the same time, Cooper runs up, carrying Audrey over her shoulder. Cooper and Harry start to run for the exit when they run into a bald man holding a gun.

“Goddammit,” I yelled, “I thought this stupid kidnapping plot was finally over!”

Suddenly, the bald man falls dead. There’s a knife on his back. It turns out that Deputy Hawk not only followed Harry and Cooper to One-Eyed Jack’s but he’s totally cool with killing people. Hawk’s a badass, y’all.

Outside One-Eyed Jack’s, Hank watches as Cooper, Harry, Audrey, and Hawk run off. He calls Ben but is then grabbed from behind by Jean.

At the Harold Smith House, Maddy is looking for the diary but, because Maddy is generally incompetent and no longer wearing her big red glasses, she is struggling to find it. Donna, who is in the greenhouse and waiting for Harold to return, tries to direct her. You can tell Donna’s thinking, “Why couldn’t it have been me and Laura looking for Maddy’s secret diary instead? That would have been so much easier!”

Suddenly, Harold’s back! He’s brought Donna big flower! Harold’s so sweet.

Despite Donna’s efforts to distract him, Harold sees Maddy stealing Laura’s diary. Cornering Maddy and Laura and holding a scary-looking gardening tool, Harold shouts, “Are you looking for secrets!? Do you know what the ultimate secret is!?”

At this point, I was hoping Harold would quote Jean Renior’s The Rules of the Game and say that the ultimate secret is that everyone has their own good reasons. Instead, Harold says that it’s “the secret of knowing who killed you,” and proceeds to use the tool to cut open his face!

NO, HAROLD!

Maddy screams, as well she should. Way to destroy someone’s life, Maddy. I realize that it was Donna’s plan but Maddy’s the one who took too long to find the diary.

Plus, I just don’t like Maddy.

Cooper to the rescue! Yesssssssss!

Anyway, that’s it for The Orchid’s Secret. This was a definite improvement over the previous episode, even with the kidnapping subplot. The performances of Lara Flynn Boyle and Lenny von Dohlen elevated this entire episode while Pullman and Clifford did a pretty decent job recreating the unique style of Lynch and Frost.

All in all, a worthy episode.

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

TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.4 “Laura’s Secret Diary” (dir by Todd Holland)

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“Heaven is a large and interesting place, sir.”

— Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) in Twin Peaks 2.4 “Laura’s Secret Diary”

I have to admit that I initially got really excited when I saw who had directed Laura’s Secret Diary.

That’s largely because I misread the name and I briefly thought that the episode was directed by the veteran horror director, Tom Holland. I happen to be friends on Facebook with Tom Holland and I immediately started to try to figure out the least intrusive way to ask him about his experience directing for Twin Peaks… But no, on second glance, it turned out that the director of this episode was Todd Holland. Todd Holland is another veteran director, though he’s best known for directing sitcoms.

Speaking of credits, this episode is credited to four different writers. Along with Twin Peaks mainstays Mark Frost, Harley Peyton, and Robert Engels, credit is also given to Jerry Stahl. Like Holland, Stahl worked on several sitcoms but he’s probably best known for his memoir, Permanent Midnight, in which he wrote about his experiences as a drug addict in Hollywood. Permanent Midnight was later turned into a movie, starring Ben Stiller as Stahl. (Of course, before all that, Stahl wrote the script for an odd sci-fi film called Cafe Flesh, a movie that many consider to be one of the best pornographic films of all time.) As quoted in Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks, Mark Frost says that Stahl wrote the initial script for Laura’s Secret Diary but the script was a “an absolute car wreck… He turned in a completely incomprehensible, unusable, incomplete script a few days late and as I recall there were blood stains on it.” Stahl’s script was rewritten by Frost, Peyton, and Engels.

How did they do? Well, let’s take a look at Laura’s Secret Diary!

As always, we start with the opening credits, attempting to lull us into the town’s false sense of security. What’s interesting is that, with each subsequent viewing of the opening credits, those shots of Twin Peaks and the woods and the waterfall become more and more ominous. Since the series started, we’ve learned a lot about goes on in those woods. We know what’s lurking underneath the surface.

The show begins with a disturbing image, one that feels extremely Lynchian even if it was directed by Todd Holland. We start with an extreme closeup of … well, we don’t know what we’re looking at it. It appears to be a white surface that is covered with dark holes but, only as the camera pulls away, do we realize that we’re looking at the wall of the police station’s interrogation room. On the soundtrack, we hear screams and a distorted voice repeating the words, “Daddy!” over and over again.

(As unsettling as this may be, it’s even more disturbing if you know what’s going to happen in the next few episodes. Twin Peaks is one of the few shows that is even more unsettling in retrospect.)

We then see that Leland (Ray Wise) is staring at the wall while Harry (Michael Ontkean) and Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) attempt to talk to him about the death of Jacques Renault. Leland confesses to the murder, crying as he does so. As always, Doc Hayward (Warren Frost) is standing in the background, watching. Doc Hayward is always watching in the background, almost enough to make me wonder if he’s real or if he’s just a dream character, a symbol of old-fashioned decency who has been fantasized into existence by the beleaguered citizens of Twin Peaks.

After Leland’s confession, Hayward and Cooper talk. When Hayward expresses some sympathy for Leland, Cooper snaps, “Do you approve of murder, doctor?” (This is our first clue that Cooper’s going to spend most of this episode not acting like his usual friendly self.) Cooper then storms off, probably leaving Hayward to wonder just what exactly he did wrong. However, Hayward doesn’t have long to wonder because suddenly, he’s got Andy (Harry Goaz) to deal with.

Andy is concerned that he “flunked” his “sperm test” and wants another shot. Doc Hayward gives him a specimen jar and tells him to put it in a brown paper bag once he’s done with it. “I’ll be in the car,” Hayward says. Andy goes off with the jar and a copy of Flesh World (and I think it might be the same copy of Flesh World that contained Laura and Ronette’s personal ads). Of course, he happens to run into Lucy (Kimmy Robertson), who is none too happy to see her ex-boyfriend heading to the men’s room with a pornographic magazine. “Hmmphf!” Lucy says.

While this drama unfolds, Harry informs Cooper that the judge will be arriving that afternoon. His name is Clinton Sternwood. He travels the circuit in a Winnebago. The district attorney is also coming. His name is Darryl Lodwick. Also, it turns out that no one named Robertson ever rented the house next to the Palmers’ summer cabin. The house is currently rented to a family named Kalispell. I’m assuming that it must be Funny Name Day in Twin Peaks.

Andy wanders by and, being Andy, he accidentally drops his specimen jar and it rolls underneath a chair in the waiting room. As Andy tries to retrieve it, Cooper sees that Andy is wearing the same brand of boots that they found at Leo Johnson’s house. Cooper asks about the boots and Andy thinks he’s asking about sperm and hilarity ensues. Anyway, it turns out that Andy bought the boots from the One-Armed Man, who is apparently still missing.

At the Great Northern, a frantic employee runs up to Ben Horne (Richard Beymer).

“Mr. Horne!” she says.

“Walk and talk,” Ben says and…

Wait a minute! WALK AND TALK!? AARON SORKIN, YOU’VE JUST BEEN RIPPING OFF TWIN PEAKS!

But anyway, the employee informs Ben that she’s heard a rumor that M.T. Wentz is coming to Twin Peaks. Well, of course, he is. It’s Funny Name Day, after all. But apparently, M.T. Wentz is some sort of famous travel writer. No one knows what Wentz looks like but a favorable Wentz review could put the Great Northern on the map.

Ben steps into his office and finds Jean Renault (Michael Parks) waiting for him. Oh my God! M.T. Wentz is Jean Renault!? No, actually, it turns out that Jean is just there to show Ben a video tape of Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) being held hostage. Renault wants money and he wants Dale Cooper to serve as the delivery man.

At the Double R Diner, Hank (Chris Mulkey) tells Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) that she looks pretty today and Donna says, “Thanks,” and considers that Hank is just as troubled as James Hurley but he doesn’t cry as much. However, Hank ruins his chances by making fun of the people on Donna’s Meals on Wheels route. “You wouldn’t understand,” Donna tells him.

Norma (Peggy Lipton) tells Hank that she’s just heard that M.T. Wentz is in town. Hank has no idea who that is. Apparently, they don’t read restaurant reviews in prison. Norma explains that a good review from M.T. Wentz could being a lot of business to the Double R, especially if it appears in a “Seattle paper.” Apparently, Norma is hoping to corner the vegan hipster market.

Though Hank doesn’t know who M.T. Wentz is, he still grabs a hundred dollar bill from the register and then leaves to buy flowers and other stuff that could make the Double R look worthy of a good review. He also tells Norma to call Big Ed. Big Ed can help clean the place up! Norma nods. It’s not as if Big Ed ever has anything else to do.

Meanwhile, Donna is having lunch with Harold Smith (Lenny Von Dohlen) and it must be said that Harold is probably on the cuter end of the recluse scale. Donna has to be happy that she didn’t get stuck with some sort of Howard Hughes-type with uncut finger nails and empty Kleenex boxes on his feet. Harold offers to read something from Laura’s secret diary. Donna says sure.

Harold reads a passage where Laura talks about how much she loves Donna. Laura worried that Donna wouldn’t be her friend if she knew “what my insides are really like.” Donna starts to cry and Harold apologizes. Donna says its okay but she wonders if maybe they should give the diary to the sheriff.

“No,” Harold says, “I’ve read this from cover to cover. There are no solutions.”

(Harold wasn’t the only person who read Laura’s diary from cover to cover. The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer was written by Jennifer Lynch and published shortly before the start of the second season. I’ve ordered a copy from Amazon and I’ll read it as soon as it arrives. Maybe if y’all are really nice to me, I’ll even write a review of it.)

Harold explains that people tells him their stories and he places them in a larger context. “Friends and lovers,” Harold says, even though there don’t seem to be any around. “Maybe you’ll be come one,” Harold says, as the creepy meter goes off the charts.

Meanwhile, at the Great Northern, Ben tells Cooper that Audrey has been kidnapped. Cooper is upset that Ben has circumvented “normal channels” and has contacted him directly. Uhmmm … is it just me or is Cooper kind of being a dick in this episode? This definitely does not seem to be the same Dale Cooper who has been present in every other episode of the show. It’s almost as if the script for this show was written by an outside writer who 1) hadn’t ever really watched Twin Peaks and 2) was struggling with personal issues of his own.

Meanwhile, at the Martell House, Josie (Joan Chen) has returned from Seattle. Oh my God, could Josie be M.T. Wentz!? IT WOULD EXPLAIN SO MUCH! But anyway, Josie tells Pete (Jack Nance) that she’s sorry about the mill burning down and that she’s happy that Catherine was around to take care of things. Pete mentions that Catherine died in the fire. Josie and Catherine share a hug, even as Pete explains that they still haven’t found Catherine’s body but they’re still going to have a service.

“I don’t know what, exactly, we’ll be burying,” Pete says…

Wait! If they haven’t found Catherine’s body, then she’s probably still alive! Maybe Catherine is actually M.T. Wentz…

At One-Eyed Jacks, Emory (Don Amendolia) leads Audrey into an office where a displeased Jean is waiting. Emory says that “Ms. Horne was a very bad girl, refusing to take her medicine.” When Jean realizes that Emory has been hitting Audrey, Jean shoots him. Good for Jean!

At the police station, Andy tries to approach Lucy but Lucy’s like, “Go talk to your magazines!” and she starts waving a big pair of scissors at him. At that point, Cooper walks into the station and tells Andy to go get some air. Cooper’s not in a good mood. He doesn’t have time for all of this. (In the past, Cooper would have made time but, in this episode, Dale Cooper is suddenly a raging jerk.) After Andy leaves, Cooper orders Lucy to explain what’s bothering her.

Lucy complains that Andy doesn’t work out, doesn’t wash his car, and doesn’t own a sports coat. That’s why she dumped Andy and started going out with Dick Tremayne. Tremayne owns a lot of coats, Lucy explains. Cooper asks Lucy if she knows what she wants. “I don’t know!” Lucy wails before running off.

Having ruined Lucy’s life, Cooper tells Harry that, even though he can’t give any specific details, he needs one of the Book House Boys. “The best one,” Cooper says. (In other words, not James.) “I’ll set it up,” Harry says, “9:30 at the Roadhouse.”

(Why do I have a feeling that Cooper’s going to show up at the Roadhouse and find Doc Hayward waiting for him? Actually, the Book House Boys are starting to remind me of the Brets from Flight of the Conchords.)

That night, at the nearly deserted Double R Diner, Norma and Hank watch as a fat man with a beard (Ritch Brinkley) walks in. “That must be him!” Norma says. The fat man orders a cheeseburger and then heads to the bathroom. Hank, proving the he really doesn’t understand how parole works, steals the man’s wallet while he’s gone. Hank quickly discovers that the bearded man is not M.T. Wentz. Instead, he’s Darryl Lodwick, the district attorney. Hank might want to return that wallet.

At another booth, Donna and Maddy (Sheryl Lee) talk. Maddy tries to apologize while Donna smokes a cigarette and glares at her. She wants to steal the diary from Harold’s house. She’ll do it with or without Maddy’s help.

As it rains outside, Harry goes to the Martell house and sees Josie. Josie tries to distract him by modeling a sexy black dress that she bought in Seattle. Being a paragon of truth and justice, Harry refuses to be distracted. He demands to know if Josie set the fire at the mill. “How could you!?” Josie responds. Josie and Harry end up making love on a couch while a mysterious Asian man watches from outside.

(M.T. Wentz, maybe?)

At the police station, as lightning flashes outside and thunder rumbles, Lucy drinks a cup of coffee. Judge Sternwood (played by Royal Dano, a veteran Western character actor) shows up at the station, followed by Harry and Cooper.

Sternwood asks how Cooper is finding Twin Peaks.

“Heaven, sir,” Cooper replies.

“Well, this week, heaven includes arson, multiple homicides, and an attempt on the life of a federal agent,” Sternwood replies.

“Heaven is a large and interesting place, sir,” Cooper says, a line which immediately made me think of Eraserhead and that radiator woman singing that, “In Heaven, everything is fine.”

Judge Sternwood and Cooper walk off and Lucy finally thinks that she can relax and drink her coffee. Suddenly, here comes Dick Tremayne (Ian Buchanan). Now, I have to say that, of all the new characters who showed up during the second season, Dick Tremayne is probably my favorite. He’s just such a salesman. Of course, he’s a jerk, too. But Ian Buchanan gives such a lively performance.

Dick says that he hasn’t slept. He hasn’t eaten. He’s been a fool. Dick has realized that he must do the right thing and that means … giving Lucy $650 for an abortion. Lucy kicks him out of the station and then locks herself in Harry’s office, loudly sobbing.

Andy escorts Leland to his meeting with the judge, only briefly stopping when he hears the distraught Lucy cry out, “OH DICK! WAS IT JUST YOUR ASCOT?!”

Judge Sternwood talks to Leland, saying that he knows Leland to be a decent man and a good attorney. Sternwood says that procedures must be observed but promises to raise a glass with Leland in Valhalla. Since Lodwick is still at the diner, the Judge decides to hold off on determining bail until the morning. Leland says that’s fine and that everyone’s being very nice to him in jail.

After Leland is escorted out, the Judge tells Harry and Cooper that they all have very difficult jobs. Maybe not as difficult as M.T. Wentz’s job but difficult nonetheless.

At the Great Northern, Ben is talking to the Lumber Queen semi-finalists while the mysterious Asian man stares at him. Ben and the Asian Man bow towards each other. The Asian man is checking into the hotel. He says that he only pays in cash and that he’s from Seattle. Oh my God, could it be M.T. Wentz!? That’s certainly what the desk clerk thinks…

Except, of course, we know that it’s not M.T. Wentz. It’s pretty obvious that the Asian man is actually Catherine Martell in disguise. It doesn’t matter how much makeup she wear or how much she lowers her voice, Piper Laurie is Piper Laurie.

At the Martell House, Josie’s cousin, Jonathan (Mark Takano), has arrives. Josie introduces him to Pete. Pete goes off to get coffee and suddenly, Jonathan sneers and says he doesn’t know how Josie survived living in Twin Peaks. Jonathan says they have to get back to Hong Kong. “Are there any complications?” Jonathan asks.

(Oh, there’s always a few. It’s Twin Peaks!)

Meanwhile, at the Roadhouse, Dale waits for the arrival of the best Book House Boy. Now, I have to admit that I was expecting either Hank or maybe M.T. Wentz to come walking through the door. Instead, it’s Harry!

“Are we in any particular hurry?” Harry asks.

“Harry, let me buy you a beer,” Dale says.

Sure, Cooper, why not? I mean, hey, IT’S NOT LIKE AUDREY’S BEEN KIDNAPPED WHILE TRYING TO HELP YOU OUT OR ANYTHING!

Seriously, what’s going on with Dale in this episode?

Hey, Cooper — remember Audrey!?

At the Double R, Hank (who apparently lives in the diner) is woken up by someone knocking on the front door. When Hank goes to answer the door, he is attacked by Jonathan. Jonathan knocks him to the floor and then says, “Blood brother. Next time, I take your head off.”

And this rather frustrating and uneven episode of Twin Peaks comes to an end.

It’s hard to know what to make of Laura’s Secret Diary. There were parts that I really liked, like the opening shot in the interrogation room and some of the humor between Andy, Lucy, and Dick. But, at the same time, you’ve got Dale acting totally out-of-character, the strangely unresolved M.T. Wentz thing, and it’s hard not to feel that Audrey Being Kidnapped is a storyline that should have been resolved in two episodes, as opposed to being dragged out for as long as it was. Audrey is too important a character to spend the first half of season 2 in a daze.

Tomorrow’s episode — The Orchid’s Kiss!

(That sounds like the title of one of the paperbacks that my sister would select for Artwork of the Day, doesn’t it?)

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

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

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

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.

TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.2 “Coma” (directed by David Lynch)

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

Among fans of the series, the second season of Twin Peaks is a sore point. Almost everyone agrees that it was a let down and that it never matched the brilliance of the first season. The only question is why.

Was it because the first season started as a mid-season replacement and only had to come up with eight episodes worth of story? If the first season had been a full, 22-episode season would it have eventually become as uneven as the second season?

Was it because, as some ABC executives have suggested, David Lynch and Mark Frost were making up their complex story as they went along and, when the second season did not immediately reveal who killed Laura Palmer, they ended up alienating the audience through their self-indulgence?

Was it because, as supporters of Lynch and Frost often argue, ABC demanded more control over the series during the second season? One reason that it was such a shock to hear that Lynch would be bringing Twin Peaks back was because he swore, after the show’s first cancellation and the failure of the Mulholland Drive pilot, that he would never deal with television executives ever again.

It may be that all of the above is true but one thing is for sure. If the first season of Twin Peaks showed how far the medium of television could be pushed, the second season showed just how hard television can push back.

The second episode of the second season, Coma, was directed by Lynch himself. It opens with Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and Albert (Miguel Ferrer) eating breakfast at the Great Northern. For some reason, members of a Barbershop quarter, all wearing red striped jackets, are standing behind them. Cooper talks about the Happy Generations of Tibet. Albert is not happy about anything, not even Ronette Pulaski waking up. Albert also warns Cooper that his former partner, Windom Earle, has escaped from a mental asylum.

(Windom will be, after BOB, this season’s Big Bad.)

Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) is doing Laura’s Meals on Wheels route. When she brought a meal to Mrs. Tremond, a coughing woman who is confined to her bed, it took me a few minutes to realize why Mrs. Tremond looked so familiar. Mrs. Tremond was played by Frances Bay, who appeared on a classic episode of Seinfeld as a woman who is mugged for her marble rye. (Bay also appeared in Blue Velvet.)

Mrs. Tremond has a grandson (Austin Jack Lynch, the real-life son of David Lynch and Mary Fisk). He wears a tuxdeo, sits in a corner, and says, “Sometimes things can happen just like this,” before snapping his fingers. When Mrs. Tremond sees creamed corn on her meals on wheel plate, says that she asked for no creamed corn and suddenly, the creamed corn appears in her grandson’s hands.

“My grandson is studying magic,” Mrs. Tremond says.

“That’s nice,” Donna says, while the grandson stares at her without the slightest hint of a smile.

Mrs. Tremond tells Donna that she did not know Laura but she recommends that Donna ask “Mr. Smith” next door. “He was Laura’s friend.”

“J’ai une ame soilitaire,” Mrs. Tremond’s grandson adds.

(Deliberately surreal scenes like this might be why ABC executives felt that they needed to step in and assert some control over the show. Fans of David Lynch love this stuff and the scene may not seem that unusual now that we are living in a world where almost every show owes some sort of debt to Twin Peaks but, in 1990, viewers, many of whom were unfamiliar with Lynch’s films, were probably saying, “This is too weird for me,” and changing the channel.)

Donna goes next door and, when Mr. Smith fails to respond to her knocking, she slips a note under his door.

At the hospital, Cooper and Harry (Michael Ontkean) drop in on Ronette (Phoebe Augustine). After some lengthy business about Cooper and Harry trying to figure out how set up a stool so that they can sit next to Ronette’s bed, Cooper shows Ronette sketches of both BOB and Leo. Though Ronette cannot speak, she still shakes her head no when Cooper asks her if Leo is the man who hurt her. However, the sketch of BOB causes Ronette to freak out. “Trrr…trrr…” Ronette says, which Cooper interprets as meaning, “Train.”

At the Great Northern, Ben (Richard Beymer) and Jerry (David Patrick Kelly) sit on the floor and stare at two ledgers. The real ledger shows the Packard Mill slowly sinking into bankruptcy. The fake ledger shows the mill turning a profit. Ben and Jerry are trying to decide which ledger to burn. Since they can’t make up their mind, they decide to roast marshmallows instead.

(Meanwhile, in 1990, a housewife in Michigan says, “This is too weird,” and changes the channel over to Beverly Hills 90210 on Fox.)

At the Double R Diner, Andy (Harry Goaz) has been taping up pictures of BOB and now his hands are covered in tape. The Log Lady (Catherine Coulson) enters and sits down next to Major Briggs (Don S. Davis). Her log has something to tell Maj. Briggs.

“Can you hear it?” The Log Lady asks.

“No, ma’m, I cannot,” Maj. Briggs says.

“I will translate…deliver the message…do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’m, I do.”

At the police station, Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) kills a buzzing fly. Andy, who still has a piece of tape attached to his forehead, comes in and tells Lucy that, when he last donated to the sperm bank, he was told that he was sterile. So, if Lucy’s pregnant, it is not with his child. Lucy pulls the tape off his forehead and refuses to speak to him.

Hank (Chris Mulkey) comes by and signs in with Harry. Cooper watches as Harry and Hank have another tense conversation and, after Hank leaves, he asks Harry how long the two of them were friends. Harry says that Hank used to be a Bookhouse Boy. “Back then, he was one of the best of us,” Harry says.

Before Harry can continue, Ben Horne calls. He tells Harry that Audrey has been missing for two days. Then Jerry comes into Ben’s office and reveals that Catherine never signed the life insurance policy. “Win a few, lose a few,” Ben says.

Suddenly, the newly energized and white-haired Leland (Ray Wise) comes walking into the office. He says that Ben should call Thor Einer in Iceland, just to discover that Ben is already calling Thor Einer. Einer reveals that Leland already called him to tell him about the fire at the mill. Ben assures Einer that the fire is nothing to worry about, all the while glaring at Leland.

Leland sees a sketch of BOB in the corner of Ben’s office. Leland picks it up and says, “I know him.” Leland says that BOB used to live next door to his grandfather’s vacation home. Leland runs out of the office.

“Jerry,” Ben says, “please kill Leland.”

“Is this real, Ben,” Jerry says, “or just some strange and twisted dream?”

(Meanwhile, in 1990, a farmer in Iowa shakes his head, switches over to CBS, and watches Doctor, Doctor, a sitcom starring Matt Frewer.)

At the hospital, Doc Hayward (Warren Frost) updates Shelley (Madchen Amick) on Leo’s (Eric Da Re) condition. The bullet lodged in Leo’s spine. He lost a lot of blood and suffered brain damage. Shelly asks if Leo’s going to be a vegetable. Shelly cries but does not seem to be that upset.

At the police station, someone calls for Sheriff Truman but refuses to reveal their name. Lucy hangs up on them.

At One-Eyed Jack’s, Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) brings a bucket of ice to a room where her boss at Horne’s Department Store, Emory Battis (Don Amendolia), is tied up, blindfolded, and listening to a vacuum cleaner. Emory gets upset with the vacuum cleaner is turned off but is even more upset when Audrey wraps a cord around his throat, rips off his blindfold, and demands to know everything that he knows.

“I work for the owner of One-Eyed Jacks!” Emory says.

“WHO IS!?” Audrey demands, tightening the cord.

“Your father! He owns everything!” Emory goes on to say that Ben know Laura worked at One-Eyed Jack’s and then says, “Laura always got her way! Just like you!”

At night, Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) and Shelly sit in his car and listen to the generic rock station. They talk about ways to torture comatose Leo. Bobby has a plan. Shelly can bring Leo home and then collect his disability checks.

At the Great Northern, Dale records a message to Diane, telling her that Windom Earle has vanished. Unfortunately, as someone who has sat through all of season 2, I already know how long the show is going to draw out the Window Earle storyline. Before I can spend too much time dwelling on that, Maj. Briggs shows up at Dale’s hotel room. Is he delivering the log’s message?

Yes, he is! Maj. Briggs says that he can not reveal the nature of his work or the identity of the message sender but Briggs does reveal that, as a part of his work for the federal government, Maj. Briggs keeps an eye on transmission’s received by deep-space monitors, “aimed at galaxies beyond our own.” Most of the time, the transmissions are just gibberish but, on Thursday night/Friday morning, the following transmission came in:

“The owls are not what they seem.”

This was followed, hours later, by another transmission: “Cooper. Cooper. Cooper.”

(Meanwhile, in 1990, a man in Florida says, “I can’t follow this,” and changes the channel to CBS so he can watch the last few minutes of the first attempt to bring The Flash to network television.)

We now reach one of the most derided scenes in the history of Twin Peaks. At the Hayward House, James (James Marshall) plays guitar while Maddy (Sheryl Lee) and Donna sing a song into a microphone. Supposedly, the inspiration for this scene came after David Lynch walked by James Marshall’s dressing room and heard Marshall playing a blues riff.

Musical interludes are actually one of Lynch’s trademarks. Remember Dean Stockwell and Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet? Or Bill Pullman at the jazz club in Lost Highway? Or the Llorando scene in Mulholland Drive? Even the pilot for Twin Peaks had Julie Cruise singing at the Road House. The problem with the scene in Coma is that the song is boring and that the performance seems to drag on forever. Whatever genius that Lynch thought he heard coming from Marshall’s dressing room is not present in the Hayward House.

(In 1990, a Montana rancher gives up once the song reaches the second verse. He switches over to NBC, just in time to catch the final punchline in that night’s episode of a new sitcom called Wings.)

Finally, Donna gets jealous of the way that James is looking at Maddy and runs over to a corner of the house. When James walks up to her, she kisses him.

Way to Go, James!

“Donna,” James asks, “what’s going on?”

Dude, don’t ask questions! Just go with it!

“I’m trembling, James,” Donna says, “You made me.”

Wait, what?

The phone rings. Donna ignores it but Doc Hayward answers and yells downstairs, “Donna, there’s a telephone call for you from a Harold Smith.”

Donna takes the call and asks Harold if they can meet.

Meanwhile, Maddy sits in front of the microphone with a “What did I do?” look on her face. Suddenly, she sees BOB (Frank Silva) walking through the living room. She screams as he climbs over the couch. James and eventually Donna run over to her. Bob has vanished.

At the Great Northern, Cooper has a dream. He sees the Giant. He hears Maj. Briggs saying, “The owls are not what they seem.” BOB appears. His face morphs into the face of an owl and then back again.

Cooper is woken up by the sound of his telephone ringing. It’s Audrey. She’s crying. “Why aren’t you here?” she says. Cooper tells her that she needs to come home.

Suddenly, the call is cut off. Audrey has been discovered by Blackie (Victoria Catlin) and Emory. “Trouble, Ms. Horne?” Blackie says. “You don’t know what trouble is.”

End credits.

But do not worry. Cooper, Audrey, Lucy, and all your favorites will return in the next episode, The Man Behind the Glass, which I’ll be reviewing tomorrow.

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

TV Review: Twin Peaks 2.1 “May The Giant Be With You” (dir by David Lynch)

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Leonard Wilson

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For four months, people wondered about the fate of Special Agent Dale Cooper, while speculating on who really killed Laura Palmer. The impact of that first season was strong. Twin Peaks would go on to win a number of Golden Globes. Kyle MacLachlan won for Best Actor in a Drama, Piper Laurie for Best Supporting Actress, and the show won Best Drama Series for 1991.

This piece will be shorter than my last one, even though the episode was about an hour and a half long. As writing about TV is somewhat new to me, I ask for your patience as I fine tune things, and thank anyone for reading. This is a fun project.

Directed by David Lynch himself, “May the Giant Be With You”, opens with Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) on the floor, having been shot 3 times in the chest and stomach and reflecting on the experience. He’s visited by both a member of the morning room service staff with a few communication issues and a very tall gentleman (Carol Struycken) who tells him three things:

1.) There’s a man in a smiling bag.

2.) The Owls are not what they seem.

3.) Without chemicals, he points.

The tall figure let’s Cooper know this is all he’s allowed to say and can’t elaborate. He also takes Cooper’s ring and promises to return it once Cooper sees the truth in what he’s told. As an afterthought, the figure adds that there is an additional clue at Leo Johnson’s house (“Leo locked inside hungry horse.”). The figure then disappears, leaving Cooper to think about what he’s been told.

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Meanwhile, at One Eyed Jack’s, Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) is trying to introduce him to the “New Girl”, unaware that the girl is actually his daughter, Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn). Audrey is able to fight off his advances while hiding her identity in a scene that shows her just how creepy her dad is. We also learn that Blackie is a drug addict, getting her fix from Jerry (David Patrick Kelley).

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Cooper, still on the floor, is still recording his thoughts on his tape deck, going over his regrets and hopes. Before he can expire, Truman, Andy and Hawk arrive, and Agent Cooper is rushed to the Hospital. When he regains consciousness, Dr. Hayward shows him the extracted bullet, which hit a tick he was trying to get to before the incident began. Cooper can’t recall anything clear about the figure that shot him. Lucy explains that in the time he was out, Leo was shot, Jacques was strangled, the Mill burned, Shelley and Pete got smoke inhalation, Catherine and Josie are missing and Nadine is in the hospital, having taken too many sleeping pills. It’s kind of comical when Cooper asks how long he was out and receives the response that it all occurred the night before.

Shelley is recuperating from smoke inhalation, but is inconsolable due to the loss of Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook). Cooper witness a body bag being wheeled through the hospital, and is told that it’s the body of Jacques Renault, which causes Cooper to ask if the bag is smiling. Is that the first clue the Giant provided come to pass?

At the Palmer residence, Maddy (Sheryl Lee) and Sarah (Grace Zabriskie) are talking about Maddy’s dream of Laura when Leland (Ray Wise) steps into view, his hair completely white. Sarah and Maddy look on in disbelief. Having dispatched Jacques the night before, Leland is a new man. He still sings and dances, but appears to be much more pleasant and merry now. Before the scene ends, Maddy sees the blood imprint of what I believe is Laura’s body, stirring her to screams. Watching that moment reminded me of Sheryl Lee’s performance in John Carpenter’s Vampires (“He killed a Priest!!”) – pretty much the same scream.

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Leland makes a return appearance at the Great Western, presenting himself with the same song he gave his family. Ben and Jerry, who were trying to figure out how Leo wasn’t killed, greet Leland with a song and dance and welcome him with open arms.

Truman and Cooper are at Leo’s house, examining the bullet hole in the glass. Cooper is able to perfectly piece together the attack on Bobby, though Truman believes it’s Shelly that was the victim here. Cooper notes that they need to confirm when Shelly arrived at the Mill to confirm if she was the one. A car approaches, bringing Andy (Harry Goaz) and Albert Rosenfeld (Miguel Ferrer) to the scene. Andy runs out to warn Truman and Cooper that Rosenfeld’s there, but steps on a loose board at Leo’s porch. The board flies up and smacks Andy right in the face, causing him to stumble around like a cartoon character. Up to the that point, I enjoyed the scene, but Andy’s reaction to getting hit – while funny – is just a little too drawn out for me. It’s helped by one of Rosenfeld’s classic quips, but not by much. Under the boards, Cooper and Truman discover a shoe with “Circle Brand” on the bottom and some drugs. Leo truly was into some underhanded things.

The next scene takes us to the Double R Diner. Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) is given a pair of sunglasses while Maddy destroys hers, as she’s tired of them. She’s looking for some change. Norma (Peggy Lipton) gives Donna a note that came into the diner that reads “Look into the Meals on Wheels”. They ponder the meaning of this while a lady cradling a log looks on.

Cooper is being checked by Rosenfeld, who was sent by Gordon Cole (David Lynch). Rosenfeld explains the obvious – he was shot at close range. Rosenfeld also adds that Jacques’ death could just be some kind of small town vengeance, which makes Cooper a little defensive. Andy comes into the room and adds some more information about the Giant’s clue. Leo was under arrest in Hungry Horse, Montana on the same date of Teresa Banks’ murder. Leo has his alibi.

Mike, the one-armed shoe salesman, makes an appearance at the precinct, to sell some shoes. Truman and James listen to Laura’s tape. Truman suggests it was break in. James states the door was already open. On the cocaine in his bike, James believes Bobby did that, possibly with Leo’s help. James explains that Laura went on about playing with fire, of playing with BOB, which Truman can’t figure out. Cooper comes in and demands the other half of Laura’s necklace. James gives it to him, and returns to his cell. Cooper understands that Jacoby is actually plays a bigger role in the entire affair, than previously expected.

Donna, sunglasses and all, pays James a visit. They have a mini between-the-bars make out moment, and she tells him she’s eager for him to get out of jail.

Cooper gives Lucy and Andy a task to go through issues of Flesh World to see if they can find a picture of Teresa Banks in it. Cooper and Truman visit Jacoby at the hospital. Cooper plays hardball and wants to know how Jacoby got a hold of half of Laura’s necklace. Jacoby claimed to be trailing a red corvette, but lost him near the Old Mill Road. A motorcycle and police cruiser passed him by and went into the woods. He trailed them (James and Donna) to the place where they buried something under the rock. The necklace was what Jacoby dug up and kept. Jacoby theorizes that Laura was looking to die, not by a suicide, but as a murder. In regards to Jacques murder, Jacoby was too sedated to have done it himself, but notes there was a strange smell in the air. It wasn’t Jacques voiding his bowels (as strangulation victims do), but of scorched engine oil.

Bobby visits Shelly at the hospital, who is happily surprised to see him alive. He promises to take care of her when she gets out. She tells him that Leo knows about the two of them and Bobby assures her she’ll be alright.

Rosenfeld, Cooper, and Truman find Ed, who is waiting on Nadine. She survived her suicide attempt, but is in a coma. He explains of how he proposed to Nadine and how she lost her eye, which he shot out by way of some buckshot ricochet. At the end of the conversation, Cooper discovers the smiling bag hanging on the wall of another room. Another clue brought to light. We also learn that the food in the hospital is really bad.

Norma, at the hospital, finds Ed at Nadine’s bedside. With a pained expression, she leaves them be.

At the Double R, Bobby runs into his father (Don Davis) and joins him at his table. They talk about school, and of a vision the father has of a place where he was born and raised. He dreamed of his son at this place, happy and carefree. They have a hug that’s warm and loving, and when he awoke, the father felt optimistic about Bobby’s future. He wishes Bobby nothing the best in life and heads home. Bobby actually sheds a tear. When Norma returns to the diner, Bobby watches her talk to Hank and realizes that he (Hank) was the one who shot Leo.

Back at the Precinct, Cooper breaks down what happened with Laura. Laura went to the cabin, had a tryst with Leo, Ronette and Jacques, and also note that the blood on Laura didn’t match any of the other individuals, so there’s another unknown that’s tied to the murder. For a clearer picture of what exactly happened that night, it’s recommended that one watches the Twin Peaks movie, Fire Walk With Me. If you want to keep with the mystery, avoid that and stay with the episodes until the reveal. Then jump to the film.

At Josie’s, Pete and Truman talk about Josie and Catherine, and adjusting to them gone. Pete has a sad moment here. A call comes in from an unnamed individual looking for Josie, which Truman picks up. We’re not given much information on that.

Over at the Great Northern, Ben and Jerry are debriefed on what happened with Hank and Leo. Hank lets them know that Leo was chopping wood inside his house – unaware that Bobby was ever there – and the shot was in his neck. Ben is hoping that the arson of the Mill will be pinned on Leo, who out of it, and Catherine, who’s presumed dead. The brothers will take care of the ledger.

Audrey is brought to Blackie at One Eyed Jack’s. She displeased that she didn’t give the owner the rendezvous he expected, and Audrey goes on to state that “he wasn’t her type”. Blackie warns Audrey that anyone and everyone will be Audrey’s type when she’s there. She has to get out of that place as soon as she can.

Donna makes a phone call to Norma inquiring about the Meals on Wheels. She offers to take over the route that Laura had when she worked there, to try to find out about what happened to her (though she doesn’t reveal this to Norma.

The next scene presents a happy surprise for Lynch fans. Gersten, a little red-haired girl, welcomes the Palmer and Hayward families to a mini party where she plays the piano. Fans of Dune will recognize the girl as Alicia Witt, who played Paul Atreides’ (Kyle MacLachlan) daughter. Fans of The Walking Dead will recognize her as the villain who captured Carol for a while before Carol broke loose and killed everyone on site. Gersten plays the piano (As Witt does so professionally) and they have some small conversation. Leland’s change in hair becomes the topic of conversation and in explaining how well he felt the morning it happened, he breaks into song. I’ll admit I liked this. Ray Wise is pretty good at singing, overall. Leland goes a little overboard and passes out, but with the doctor right there, they’re able to assist him right away. When he comes to a minute later, he says he feels happy. Just a rush of blood from the head, I suppose.

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Nighttime. Cooper is in his room, about to sleep. At the same time, Audrey is awake, lying on her bed and talking to him in the hopes that he can hear her. She hopes that he received her note and that she may be a little over her head in having gotten caught up in the craziness of One Eyed Jack’s. She only wanted to assist him. We then cut back to Cooper, who is visited once again by the Giant Man. The giant passes on some riddles for Cooper to solve.

The giant mentions Cooper shouldn’t search for all of the answers at once, and that they’ll occur like a path, one after the other. “One person saw the third man. Three have seen him, yes, but not his body. One only, known to you. Ready now to talk.” The giant also points out that he forgot something and imbues Cooper with a strange yellow light before disappearing. I’m not sure I understand it either at this point, but given how well the tiniest of clues have worked out in Twin Peaks, I’m certain it’s important.

The final scene is trailing shot into the hospital. Ronette wakes up to visions of BOB. BOB rushing at her. BOB at the cabin and BOB killing Laura under flickering lights. His laugh is maniacal as he does this. So, the question becomes “Where is BOB?”

The end credits return us to Alicia Witt and her piano skills, which was sweet to see.

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

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

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Leonard Wilson

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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.

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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.

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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:

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

Posted on April 8, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“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:

A Movie A Day #90: Red Rock West (1992, directed by John Dahl)

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

The place is Red Rock, a little town located in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. When a man from Texas (played by Nicolas Cage) wanders into his bar, the owner, Wayne (J.T. Walsh), assumes that the man is Lyle From Dallas, the semi-legendary hit man who Wayne has hired to kill his wife, Suzanne (Lara Flynn Boyle). Wayne gives the man half of his payment in advance and promises the other half after Suzanne is dead. What Wayne doesn’t realize is that Lyle From Dallas is not actually Lyle From Dallas. Instead, he is a drifter named Michael who has just recently lost his job. Michael takes Wayne’s money but, when he sees Suzanne, he tells her that Wayne wants her dead. Suzanne responds by offering to pay Michael to kill Wayne. Michael mostly just wants to leave town but his every effort is thwarted, with him continually only managing to get a mile or two out of town just to then find circumstances forcing him to once again pass the Red Rock welcome sign. Meanwhile, the real Lyle From Dallas (Dennis Hopper) has shown up and he is pissed.

Red Rock West is a clever and energetic neo noir that plays out like the child of a marriage between the Coen Brothers and David Lynch. Like the Coens’ Blood Simple, Red Rock West is a violent movie that is full of twist and turns and features characters who are often confused and rarely understand what is actually going on. From David Lynch, it borrows both Twin Peaks‘s Lara Flynn Boyle and Blue Velvet‘s Dennis Hopper. Red Rock West was made when Nicolas Cage still gave a damn and it also shows why, during his short career, J.T. Walsh was everyone’s favorite duplicitous character actor. Hopper is his usual crazy self and Boyle is a sultry and sexy fatale. Red Rock West is one of the best neo noirs of the 1990s.

TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.6 “Cooper’s Dreams” (dir by Lesli Linka Glatter)

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“She said that people tried to be good. But they were really sick and rotten on the inside, her most of all. And every time she tried to make the world a better place, something terrible came up inside her and pulled her back down into hell, and took her deeper and deeper into the blackest nightmare. Each time it got harder to go back up to the light.”

— Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) in Twin Peaks 1.6 “Cooper’s Dreams”

Hi, everyone! Well, though it wasn’t specifically planned, we’ve got a bit of David Lynch festival going on here at the site. Not only are Leonard, Jeff, and I reviewing every single episode of Twin Peaks (in anticipation of next month’s Showtime revival) but right now, Jeff is focusing on movies with a Twin Peaks connection for his Movie A Day feature and V al is currently highlighting the various music videos that Lynch has directed over his career. And, while we’re on the topic, Erin put together an artist profile for David Lynch a few years back. Be sure to check them all out if you haven’t already!

As for the sixth episode of Twin Peaks, I have to admit that I was really excited when I saw that it was called “Cooper’s Dreams.” OH MY GOD, I thought, MORE DREAMS! YAY! So, you can imagine my surprise when I watched the episode and Cooper did not have a dream. Apparently, David Lynch and Mark Frost made the specific decision not to title any of their episodes. Instead, they just called them “Episode 5,” “Episode 6,” and so on. It was ABC that assigned and came up with the title for each episode. Some the titles they came up with were pretty good. (I will always love the sound of Zen, Or the Skill To Catch a Killer.) Other titles, like “Cooper’s Dreams,” were just kind of there.

(That said, the title isn’t totally random. It does ultimately work for this episode.)

With all that in mind, let’s take a look at Cooper’s Dreams!

We open with the opening credits. Yes, I know that’s redundant but I will always mention the opening credits because I love them so much. After watching the opening credits, you literally feel like you could step outside and find yourself in the town of Twin Peaks. They are quite simply amazing.

The show begins with a shot of a blood-red full moon, the same moon that hung over the end of the previous episode. On the soundtrack, we hear singing. Lots and lots of singing. It turns out that there’s a bunch of drunk businessmen from Iceland at the Great Northern and they’re currently celebrating some sort of beer holiday. They’ve managed to wake up Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan). For the first time since the series began, we get to see Dale actually peeved about something and it’s a wonderfully funny moment, even though it is also used to highlight one of the key themes in the series. Grabbing his tape recorder, Cooper announces that this proves that “once a traveler leaves home, he has lost 100% of his ability to control his environment.” The inability to control a previously undiscovered and unknown environment is, in many ways, the engine that keeps this show moving.

Why are the Icelandic businessmen at the hotel? Again, it has to do with the Horne Brothers and their attempts to try to attract developers to the town. Since their deal with the Norwegians fell through, Ben (Richard Beymer) and Jerry (David Patrick Kelly) have moved on to Iceland. When I reviewed the pilot, I speculated that the Norwegians were meant to be a reference to Henrik Ibsen, who was the David Lynch of his day. However, after doing hours of research, I honestly can’t come up with any subtext to the use of Iceland in this episode. My best guess, quite frankly, is that no one ever expects a bunch of Icelandic businessmen to show up at a hotel in upstate Washington.

The next morning, a grouchy Agent Cooper drinks coffee and complains to his waitress about his lack of sleep. Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) sits down at his table and tells him that she’s gotten a job at her father’s store and wonders if she could help Cooper investigate Laura’s death.

“When I was your age, Wednesday was traditionally a school day,” Cooper says, reminding us all that he’s essentially a man out of time.

Audrey picks up on this, telling him that she finds it hard to believe that Cooper was ever her age. She then mentions that she’s 18. In other words, perfectly legal.

In his office, Ben talks to Jerry. Jerry is super excited, as usual. Ben is worried about business, as usual. Jerry announces that the Icelanders are “insane for the Ghostwood Estate projects!” (The name Ghostwood is interesting, considering that the woods around Twin Peaks appear to be literally haunted.) Ben and Jerry’s celebration is interrupted by the arrival of Leland Palmer (Ray Wise). As usual, Leland is distraught. He says that, as Ben’s attorney, he needs to be a part of the Iceland deal. Obviously, neither Ben nor Jerry want him freaking out the Icelandic businessmen with talk of his dead daughter and they both try to convince him to go on a trip somewhere. While Leland sobs, another Icelandic drinking song begins in the background. Of all the characters on Twin Peaks, Leland’s grief is always the most raw. While we’re not surprised by the venality of the Horne brothers, even sympathetic characters rarely seem to know how to respond to Leland.

(Of course, there’s a deeper and more disturbing reason behind Leland’s breakdown but that will have to wait for a later review.)

As I watched this scene unfold, I once again found myself thinking about how impressive the production design of Twin Peaks was. I really love Ben’s all-wood office. Even Ben’s nameplate is carved out of wood.

Meanwhile, at Jacques Renault’s apartment, the investigation continues. Harry (Michael Ontkean) tells Dale that Renault can’t be found and neither can his brother, Bernie. Doc Hayward (Warren Frost) confirms that the blood found on Leo’s shirt was not Laura Palmer’s. Instead, it was Jacques Renault’s. Dale isn’t surprised by any of this. Instead, he’s more interested in the copy of Flesh World that Jacques had hidden up in his ceiling. Flesh World was the magazine that featured both a “personal ad” from Ronette Pulaski and a picture of Leo Johnson’s truck. This copy of Flesh World contains a letter that was mailed to Ronette from Georgia. The letter comes with a picture of a bearded man wearing a blue night gown. “That’s no Georgia peach,” Harry says.

Oh, Harry. Never change.

Back the Johnson House, Shelly (Madchen Amick) and Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) are playing with her pistol and role playing various scenarios that involve forcing Leo to cook before shooting him. At the risk of being unpopular, I have to admit that I really like Shelly and Bobby as a couple. Yes, they’re both unlikable and sleazy and they’re both trying way too hard to frame Leo for Laura’s murder. But, even with all that in mind, they just seem like they belong together. Maybe it’s just because they’re both so pretty. Who knows?

Shelly and Bobby’s fun gets interrupted twice. First, Andy (Harry Goaz) drops by and, while Bobby hides, Shelly says that she overheard Leo having an argument with Jacques. Immediately after Andy leaves, Leo calls. Leo wants to know if anyone’s looking for him. Shelly assures him that no one is and begs him to hurry on home, all the while staring down at the gun in her hand.

Meanwhile, Norma (Peggy Lipton) and Ed (Everett McGill) are having relationship drama of their own. Norma stops by the auto yard to tell Ed that Hank’s (Chris Mulkey) gotten parole and is coming home. Ed mentions that Nadine (Wendy Robie) is meeting with a patent lawyer. “The silent drape runners?” Norma asks. I don’t know what Norma’s being so snarky about. Silent drape runners sound like a great invention to me! Anyway, Ed and Norma decide to give up on their relationship. The scene veers a bit too close to getting a bit too mawkish but Angelo Badalamenti’s theme music saves it.

At Horne’s Department Store, the manager makes the mistake of trying to assign Audey to a position other than the perfume counter. Audrey replies that if she doesn’t get to work where she wants to work, she’s going to rip her dress, scream, and tell everyone that he made a pass at her. Perfume counter it is!

Meanwhile, Donna Hayward (Lara Flynn Boyle) meets James Hurley (James Marshall) at a lakeside gazebo and, as I watched them talk, I found myself wondering if maybe Cooper didn’t have a point earlier. Audrey’s at the department store, blackmailing her way to a sales job. Bobby is playing with Shelley. James and Donna are at the gazebo. Does anyone in this town go to school!? I guess Mike (Gary Hershberger) is probably there, pushing freshmen into lockers and leering at cheerleaders. But otherwise, Twin Peaks High School is probably close to being deserted by this point.

Anyway, James tells Donna that his father was a musician and his mother was a writer and that neither one of them was a good parent. He wants his relationship with Donna to be an honest relationship. In my research of this show, I’ve seen a lot of criticism of James Marshall’s performance in the role of James Hurley. Personally, I think Marshall did the best that he could do with a character who tended to be a bit of a drag. All things considered, James Hurley could be a little bit whiny. I mean, yes, his parents sucked. But his uncle is willing to do anything for him. His beautiful girlfriend may have been murdered but now he has a new beautiful girlfriend. Nobody thinks that he murdered Laura. And he apparently never has to actually go to school. Cheer up, James!

(I read an interesting interview with James Marshall where he said that James Hurley started out as the cool James Dean of Rebel Without A Cause, just to become the weepy James Dean of East of Eden. That’s the perfect way to put it so give Marshall some credit for that.)

Back at Jacques’s apartment, we’re reminded why the police are too busy to enforce the truancy laws. They’ve got a murder to solve! Searching the apartment, Dale finds pictures of a cabin that has red curtains (just like the curtains from his dream). He realizes that the curtains are also visible in one of the personal ads in Flesh World, an ad that, like Ronette’s, was apparently placed by Jacques Renault. Though her face isn’t visible, Dale deduces that the picture with the red curtains features Laura Palmer. Hawk (Michael Horse) mentions that the Renault brothers have a cabin on the border. Dale suggests that everyone pack a lunch and prepare for a walk around the woods.

(I have to admit that, during this scene, I kept getting distracted by the painting of a sad clown hanging on the wall. I found myself wondering it was the same sad clown who used to show up whenever I would play The Sims. I hated that clown and, whenever he would show up, I would always lead him into a room with a fireplace, delete the door, place a dozen rubber trees in front of the fireplace, and then light a fire. You do what you have to do when it comes to sad clowns.)

Go to Hell, Sad Clown!

At the Double R Diner, James and Donna have a meeting with Maddy (Sheryl Lee) and her oversized red glasses. Maddy is one of those characters who I always struggle with. She is way too cheerful for own good but I think that may have been intentional. Whenever she smiles and innocently says that everyone says that she and Laura were exactly alike, it’s a reminder that Laura Palmer was not at all who people thought she was. Laura was, to quote the Man From Another Place, full of secrets. Cheerful, happy Maddy is who everyone assumed Laura was but Maddy is also never as interesting a character as Laura was. Maddy’s fatal flaw will ultimately prove to be that she has no secrets and therefore, no understanding of just how dangerous the world can be. Anyway, Donna and James tells Maddy that they want to solve Laura’s murder. Maddy agrees to help.

Far more interesting is the interaction between Hank and Norma. Having just gotten out of jail, Hank is hanging out at the diner when Norma and Shelly come in. Both Norma and Shelly have gotten makeovers and now look like they should be posing for Diane Arbus. Hank tells Norma that he won’t try to kiss her. He wants to earn his place back in her heart. Even though I know Hank’s a bad guy, Chris Mulkey gives such a charming performance that I can’t help but like him.

Meanwhile, it’s family counseling with the Briggs family! Bobby, his military father (Don S. Davis), and his cross-wearing mother (Charlotte Stewart) are meeting with Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn). Jacoby is wearing a tie with a turtle neck sweater. Let that sink in.

Despite Jacoby’s sartorial missteps, this is one of the best scenes in the entire episode. Jacoby sends Maj. and Mrs. Briggs out of the office and has a one-on-one discussing with Bobby. As they talk, it becomes apparent that Jacoby’s main interest is in finding out about Bobby’s relationship with Laura. Because Jacoby was secretly treating Laura, he knows exactly what to ask Bobby to get a reaction. Jacoby is not only investigating Laura’s death but he’s also taunting a romantic rival and, ultimately, actually helping Bobby have a breakthrough. For the first time, Bobby cries and shows some sign that he actually has human feelings. Both Tamblyn and Ashbrook give amazing performances in this scene.

In the woods, Cooper, Harry, Hawk, and Doc Hayward (who I guess is some sort of cop now) search for the cabin. They find a cabin but it’s not the cabin that they’re looking for. Instead, it belongs to … THE LOG LADY (Catherine E. Coulson). YAY! The Log Lady will explain everything.

“Come on in,” The Log Lady says, “My log does not judge.”

Inside the cabin, the Log Lady adds, “Shut your eyes and you’ll burst into flame.”

“Thanks, Margaret,” Harry replies.

The Log Lady, who wears the same oversized red glasses as Maddy, says that 1) they’re two days late and 2) that her log saw something significant. The Log Lady assures her log that she’ll do the talking and then says that, the night Laura Palmer was murdered, the log was aware of many things. The owls were flying. There were two men. There was much laughing. Two girls. A flashlight passing the bridge. “The owls were near,” the Log Lady says, “the dark was pressing in on her.” Eventually, the owls were silent.

After leaving the Log Lady, Dale says that the two girls were Ronette and Laura. And the two men? Jacques and Leo? Or could it be that the two men are symbols of something far more disturbing?

The group finally comes across the cabin with red curtains. Inside,a record player plays the haunting sound of Julie Cruise singing about the night and Dale remembers the Man from Another Place saying that, where he and Laura are from, there’s always music in the air. There’s no sign of Jacques but there is a camera. And a myna bird named Waldo.

According to the Netflix subtitles, the next scene begins with people “Singing Home On The Range In Icelandic.” We’re back at the Great Northern Hotel. Like a femme fatale in a film noir, Josie (Joan Chen) sits in the shadows of an office and smokes a cigarette.

Jerry Horne announces that they are all Icelanders.

Meanwhile, in the Great Timber Room (everything’s about wood), a reception is being held for the Icelandic businessmen. The Horne Brothers have invited the best and brightest of Twin Peaks. Catherine (Piper Laurie) and Pete (Jack Nance) show up. Jack tells Catherine to go easy on the alcohol so Catherine immediately orders a drink.

Ben talks to the businessmen. He says, “What do you get when you cross a Norwegian with a Swede? A socialist who wants to be king!” I’ll be sure to remember that joke in case I ever find myself trapped in an elevator with a Bernie Sanders supporter.

Catherine and Ben meet in Ben’s office, little realizing that they’re being watched by Audrey. Apparently, the Great Northern is full of secret passages and Audrey, being a badass, knows about every single one of them. But even beyond the fun of a secret passage, this gets back to something that I’ve been saying since my very first review of Twin Peaks. This show is about the unknown that lies underneath the facade of normalcy. Just as it’s inevitable that Laura Palmer would be full of secrets, it’s inevitable that the all-wood Great Northern would be full of secret passages.

(The scene of Audrey crouches in front of a peephole also is a nice visual shout out to Psycho.)

Audrey discovers that Catherine is upset because Ben had a poker chip from One-Eyed Jacks in his suit. Audrey’s smile as she watches Catherine slap Ben is one of the main reasons why I relate so much to Audrey. Like me, she loves to observe the melodrama while, at the same time, remaining slightly detached from what’s actually happening. By observing through a peephole, she mimics what every viewer is doing while they watch Twin Peaks unfold on a screen, regardless of whether that screen belongs to a TV, a laptop, or a phone. Audrey is the audience. She loves Cooper because, in the tradition of Gary Cooper, he’s the perfect cinematic hero and the audience always loves the hero. She wants to know who killed Laura less out of a sense of justice more out of a need for the story she’s watching to have a proper conclusion. Audiences always demand a perfect and proper conclusion.

Uh-oh, Leland’s shown up at the party! And he’s dancing! And sobbing! Catherine runs out onto the dance floor and starts to dance with him, a big smile plastered across her face. When Leland starts to pound his fists against his head, Catherine mimics him but she does it with a smile. The Icelandic visitors start to dance as well. Soon everyone is beating their head and laughing, except for Leland who is still sobbing. It’s a whole new party and again, as always, Leland is pushed to the side. Significantly, it is Audrey — who was so detached just a few minutes ago — who watches Leland and starts to cry. Again, she is the audience, suddenly touched by Leland’s plight. She alone understands the scene that she’s watching. This scene is Twin Peaks at its absolute best, a combination of raw emotion and painfully dark comedy.

At the Palmer House, Maddy calls Donna that she found an audio tape in Laura’s bedroom. They agree to meet tomorrow and listen to it. Sure, why not? What else are they going to do? Go to school?

Back at the Great Northern, Ben is having a secret meeting with … JOSIE PACKARD! OH MY GOD, COULD IT BE JOSIE IS NOT AN INNOCENT AS WE ALL THOUGHT? Well, yeah. It’s Twin Peaks after all.

At the Johnson House, Leo finally returns. First Hank shows up and beat him up, yelling at him for mismanaging their drug business. When Leo tries to take it out on Shelly, she shoots him. Good for Shelly.

Dale finally arrives back at his room. He’s annoyed to hear that the Icelandic singing is still continuing. He’s even more annoyed when he realizes that someone is waiting for him in his dark room. He draws his gun. “Turn on the light!” he announces.

The light comes on and … there’s a naked Audrey in his bed! “Please, don’t make me leave,” she says.

With that, the episode ends. This is one of those episodes that starts out a little bit slow but, by the end, it actually becomes a classic. Between the Jacoby therapy session, the meeting with the Log Lady, and Leland’s dance, this was ultimately Twin Peaks at its best.

Up next: “Realization Time”

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

TV Review: Twin Peaks 1.5 “The One-Armed Man” (directed by Tim Hunter)

Posted on April 6, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

It’s all about team work.

Aren’t Lisa and Leonard doing a great job with their Twin Peaks reviews? Yesterday, I was reading Leonard’s review of Rest In Pain and I immediately thought to myself, “I’m going to have to up my game if I want to keep up.” That’s what team work does. It challenges you to work harder and hopefully, it makes you better at whatever it is that you do.

For instance, Twin Peaks is usually thought of as being the “David Lynch show” but actually, there were several different creative voices involved and all of them left their mark on the series. The show was co-created by veteran TV writer, Mark Frost (whose father, Warren Frost, played Doc Hayward). Many of the show’s scripts are credited to Harley Peyton, who also wrote the film version of Less Than Zero. Even Jerry Stahl, of Permanent Midnight fame, is credited with writing an episode. While Twin Peaks had an easily identifiable style, only six of its 30 episodes were actually directed by David Lynch. The other episodes were directed by directors like Uli Edel, Todd Holland, and Caleb Deschanel. Even Diane Keaton directed an episode during season 2. All of them brought their own talents and perspectives to this show and upped their game.

Episode 5, “The One-Armed Man,” was written by Robert Engels and directed by Tim Hunter. Hunter, who directed two more episodes during the show’s second season, is best known for two sensitive films that he made about teenagers, Tex and River’s Edge. Of the two, the surreal River’s Edge (which features Dennis Hopper playing a one-legged drug dealer who lives with a sex doll) feels the closest to Twin Peaks.

Episode Five opens with Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) giving a description of Killer BOB (Frank Silva) to Harry (Michael Ontkean) and Andy (Harry Goaz) while Doc Hayward and Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) listen. When Leland (Ray Wise) wanders into the room and taunts Sarah about having had two visions, Sarah talks about seeing someone digging up Laura’s necklace, making Donna uncomfortable since she’s the one who buried it in the first place.

(Whenever I see Grace Zabriskie and Warren Frost play a scene together, I am reminded of their later work on Seinfeld, where they played the bitter parents of Susan Ross and Mr. Ross was revealed to have been a former lover of John Cheever.)

Back at the police station, there’s a happening. Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) is caught up in the latest episode of Invitation to Love, where the storyline seems to parallel the efforts of Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) and Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie) to run Josie (Joan Chen) out of business. FBI Director Gordon Cole (voiced by David Lynch, himself) calls in to let them know that Albert has discovered that Laura Palmer was bound by household twine and that the marks on her shoulder came from a bird. When Harry and Andy show Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) the sketch of BOB, Cooper identifies him as one of the men from his dream.

Dale also finally interviews everyone’s favorite psychiatrist, Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn). Jacoby tries to beat Cooper at his own game, speaking in riddles and comparing the people of Tibet with the native Hawaiians. Jacoby says that, when it comes to Laura, he can not violate doctor-patient confidentiality but he does share that “Laura was a woman” surrounded by boys and that, on the night Laura was murdered, he was following one of the men that Laura had told him about. When Jacoby says that the man drove a red corvette, both Harry and Dale realize that he is talking about Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re).

Lucy interrupts to let Dale and Harry know that Deputy Hawk (Michael Horse) has just called. He has tracked down MIKE, the one-armed man!

At the Timber Falls Motel, Ben and Catherine are having another tryst and discussing their plans for setting the mill on fire and forcing Josie into bankruptcy. What they do not know is that Josie is sitting outside in her car, taking pictures.

The Timber Falls Motel is also the current home of the one-armed man and, as Harry, Andy, and Dale pull up, they are met by Hawk who tells them that the man is in room 101 and that his full name is Philip Michael Gerard. (The One-Armed Man shares his name with Richard Kimble’s relentless pursuer on The Fugitive, a show that itself centered around the search for a one-armed man. This episode aired years before the film version and Tommy Lee Jones reintroduced the world to the character.)

Andy has a Barney Fife moment when, standing outside of Room 101, he accidentally drops his gun and it goes off. (“Gunplay,” Catherine says in her cabin, “Sounds serious.”) When not even the sound of gunfire can get Gerard to open the door, Harry and Dale kick it in and discover their one-armed man stepping out of the shower.

Looking at a the drawing of BOB, Gerard says that he has never seen him before but that he does “look like someone.” When Cooper asks if he has a friend named Bob, the one-armed man replies, “Bob Lydecker is just about my best friend in the world.” He says that he’s been at the hospital because Bob, who is apparently the “best veterinarian in the county,” is in a coma. Gerard is a traveling salesman, selling shoes. He says that he lost his arm in a car accident. He admits that he did have a tattoo on the arm that he lost. In tears, he says that the tattoo said, “Mom.”

Al Strobel was a real-life amputee whose cameo in the pilot, riding in an elevator with Cooper and Harry, was originally meant to be his only appearance, a one-time homage to The Fugitive. Lynch was so impressed with Strobel that he filmed some additional scenes with him that were used in the version of the pilot that was released theatrically in Europe. (Those scenes were later incorporated into Cooper’s dream.) In this episode, Strobel gives a memorable performance that justifies Lynch’s decision to expand his role.

At the high school, Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) is smoking in the girl’s room and begging Donna to help her investigate Laura’s murder. Audrey says that if she can solve the murder then maybe Dale will take her away with him. When Audrey mentions One-Eyed Jacks, Donna proves herself to be just as crushworthy as Audrey by replying, “Isn’t that a western with Marlon Brando?” Considering that One-Eyed Jacks was a box office flop that was released years before she was born, Donna’s knowledge of Marlon Brando’s filmography is truly impressive.

At the prison, Norma (Peggy Lipton) promises the parole board that, if Hank (Chris Mulkey) is released, she will give him a job at the diner and they will live together as “husband and wife.” That will be interesting considering that Norma is now having an affair with Hank’s former best friend, Ed Hurley (Everett McGill.)

Meanwhile, Dale, Harry, Andy, and Hawk have pulled up in front of Dr. Bob Lydecker’s vet clinic. Hawk immediately high-fives a biker. Harry pets a little girl’s rabbit. Cooper notices that a convenience store is right next to the clinic and sends Andy, who is still shaken up from nearly shooting himself, to discover whether the store sells the type of twine that was used on Laura.

Inside the clinic, Dr. Lydecker’s receptionist says that the sketch of Killer BOB looks nothing like the good doctor. As a woman leads a llama through the waiting room, Dale asks whether Lydecker had any bird patients. As Cooper explains to Harry, “The bird that attacked Laura Palmer is a client of this office!”

Meanwhile, back at the Johnson House, Shelly Johnson (Madchen Amick) is fooling around with Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook). Shelly says that Bobby’s outburst at the funeral really turned her on. Bobby says that he’s going to “fix” James Hurley. “Fix me first,” Shelley replies. Bobby asks when Leo’s coming back and Shelly says that Leo will be gone for hours. Whenever Shelly says that Leo won’t be back for a while, that is usually Leo’s cue to kick open the door and start yelling.

However, that does not happen this time. For once, Leo does not show up. According to Shelly, he is with “creepy Jacques, that Canuck who works at the Roadhouse.” Realizing that Jacques must be the one supplying Leo with cocaine, Bobby does his innocent act. He says that he knows that Leo has been selling drugs at the high school, maybe even to Laura. Now, if only he can find evidence linking Leo to Laura, maybe they can get Leo out of their lives forever. Shelly helps out by showing Bobby the bloody shirt that she found in Leo’s truck. She also shows Bobby the gun that she just bought and she asks Bobby to show her how it works. Hopefully, Bobby’s better with a gun than Andy.

Fan Service, Twin Peaks Style

Speaking of which, Andy is still feeling upset over nearly shooting himself so, back at the police station, Andy, Cooper, Harry, and Hawk gather at the shooting range for some gunfire and male bonding. They all agree that women cannot be understood and they all marvel over Dale’s marksmanship. Not only does Dale do dream interpretation but he can shoot a man in the nostrils.

At the diner, Norma thanks a man named Toad for his tip. When Shelly comes in, they bond over their shared experience of being married to loser drug dealers. Shelly says that she’s ready to get rid of Leo but, after seeing him at the parole hearing, Norma is now less sure about her plan to divorce Hank and marry Big Ed. She is even more unsure after she gets a phone call telling her that Hank got his parole. He is coming home.

Meanwhile, Ed’s nephew, James (James Marshall), is using the diner’s payphone (remember those?) to call Donna. However, James is distracted when Maddy (Sheryl Lee), Laura’s look-alike cousin, walks into the diner. After James approaches her, Maddy explains that she and Laura used to be close but had recently drifted apart. Maddy says that she lives in Missoula, Montana. Missoula just happens to be the birthplace of David Lynch.

Meanwhile, at the Great Northern, Audrey deftly manipulates her father into giving her a job working at the perfume counter at Horne’s Department Store. Audrey says that it is because she wants to learn the family business but actually, it’s because both Laura and Ronette Pulaski also worked at the perfume counter. Ben agrees and then leaves so that he can hire Leo Johnson to burn down the Packard Mill. Who suggested Leo to Ben? Hank Jennings!

At the police station, Cooper, Harry, and Andy pour over the files on all of the birds treated by Dr. Lydecker. Albert faxes over a reconstruction of a poker chip from One-Eyed Jacks that was found in Laura’s stomach, along with the information that the bird bites on Laura’s shoulder came from a mynah bird. At the exact moment, Andy redeems himself by announcing that Jacques Renault owns a mynah bird named Waldo.

When the police show up at Jacques’s apartment, Jacques is not there. However, Bobby Briggs is. Bobby runs as soon as the police arrive and manages to escape out a back window. (Assuming that Bobby is Briggs, Hawk gives chase but loses him in the woods.) Cooper finds what Bobby was planting the apartment, Leo’s bloody shirt.

In the woods, Donna and James go to the location where Donna buried the necklace and discover that Sarah Palmer’s vision was correct. Someone followed them and dug up the necklace. Donna and James agree they have to solve the murder and share a kiss while an owl watches above.

At the mill, Pete (Jack Nance) asks Josie if she would consider entering a fishing competition with him. Josie and Pete? That would be an interesting match. But Josie soon has more to worry about, after she receives a drawing of a domino in the mail. No sooner has she looked at the drawing then she gets a phone call from a man asking her if she got his message.

Who is on the other line?

The suddenly very important Hank Jennings!

“The One-Armed Man” is a good episode, one that moves the story forward, introduces some new mysteries, and justifies that faith that David Lynch put into collaborators like Tim Hunter and Al Strobel. As I said at the start of this review, it’s all about team work.

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