Edward Copeland's Tangents: Twin Peaks Tuesdays: Episode 12

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Twin Peaks Tuesdays: Episode 12

By Edward Copeland
Agent Cooper awakes at the Great Northern and immediately begins dictating to Diane about having a dream about a "large, tasteless gumdrop" only to realize that while sleeping he'd accidentally been chewing on one of his ear plugs, designed to keep the world at bay. In an attempt to get back in gear, he decides a little morning exercise is in order and proceeds to do a headstand against the wall, upon which he finally spots Audrey's note and realizes what the Giant meant when he said he forgot something. He also realizes he now has a leg up on Audrey's abductors since he knows she's at One Eyed Jack's.

When Cooper makes it to the sheriff's station, he finds that Lucy is getting ready to take a two-day trip to visit her sister who just had a baby. Hawk also returns from interrogating the old women who live in the house next to the Palmers' old place on Pearl Lakes and admits it took three pots of chamomile tea to get them to say that no gray-haired man named Robertson ever lived there.

Back at the Johnson household, Bobby and Shelly prepare for vegetative Leo's homecoming by trying out some "medical equipment" from a man named Mr. Pinkle (David L. Lander), who appears to be in on their insurance scheme. D.A. Lodwick finally turns up so Judge Sternwood can hold pretrial hearings for Leland in Jacques' murder and the absent Leo for his long list of various crimes. Lodwick doesn't want bail for Leland, but Truman speaks on his behalf and Sternwood releases him on his own recognizance. Later, Lodwick surprises the judge by accusing Leo of Laura's murder on top of his other crimes, though the attorney representing Leo says that trying him in his current medical condition would make a "mockery" of the legal system. After consulting with Truman and Cooper, who says he doubts Leo killed Laura, Sternwood decides to declare Leo incompetent to stand trial and OKs his return home. The judge also asks Coop how long he has been in Twin Peaks. "12 days," the agent replies. The judge tells him to keep his eyes on the woods for they are wondrous and strange.

Donna tries to get her hands on Laura's diary from Harold Smith again, this time offering to share her own stories for his living history project in exchange for being able to read it. Harold compromises, but insists that he has to read Laura's diary to her and that it can't leave his house. During a moment in their talk, Donna snatches Laura's diary from Harold and tries to lure him outside into the open, but once the agoraphobic ventures beyond his doorway, he collapses on the ground in convulsions. Leo isn't the only one getting ready to head home from the hospital, Ed brings home Nadine, still convinced that she's 18 and puzzled by James' presence because she doesn't think she's seen him in any of her high school classes. She briefly panics, wondering where her parents are, but Ed reassures her that they are on a trip. Nadine accepts his story and skips into the kitchen to get some food only to return holding the refrigerator door in her hand. "It just came right off," she says.

The mysterious Japanese man Tojamura invites himself into Ben Horne's office and presents him with a cashier's check for $5 million as an offer to buy in to Ghostwood Estates. Ben is intrigued and keeps the check, but has to hustle Tojamura out as Cooper arrives to pick up the ransom money. Once Dale is gone, Hank sneaks into the office through the back door and Ben orders him to follow Cooper and make sure that Audrey gets back safely and, if possible, the money as well. Hank asks why Cooper won't be bringing her back and Ben says, "Cooper's not coming back."

Frustrated by her inability to get the diary away from Harold alone, Donna enlists Maddie's help. She plans to distract him out of the living room somehow and signal Maddie to run in and whisk the diary away.

At One Eyed Jack's, Jean Renault can barely contain himself and his approaching vengeance on Agent Cooper. Blackie is preoccupied about how they are going to kill Audrey and asks whether or not that won't upset the deal with Ben for taking the brothel/casino off his hands. Jean tries to reassure her and shows that he plans for a fatal heroin overdose to take care of Audrey. Andy, awash in Post-It notes while trying to fill in for Lucy, calls to get the test results from his fertility test and learns that while previous tests showed just a few men in a boat, he now is "a whole damn town!" He shouts the news to Harry who tells Cooper not to even ask as they begin to plot an assault on One Eyed Jack's. Hawk sticks his head in and says there still is no sign of the One-Armed Man, though they found more of the mysterious chemical in his motel room. Truman and Cooper try to rush the deputy out so they can get back to work. Meanwhile, Andy calls what he thinks is the number for Lucy's sister to share the good news only to be horrified when the voice on the other end identifies it as an abortion clinic.

Donna returns to Harold's and shares with him a time from her early teens when she and Laura hung out with older boys and went skinny dipping and that she considers it the "first time she fell in love." Later, she gets Harold to take her into his greenhouse and show off his flowers and she pulls him into a kiss. At the Double R, Maddie gets a coffee to go and runs into James, who she's short with and makes a hasty exit. James, figuring something is up even in his dimwitted head, follows her.

While Coop and Harry prepare to move in on One Eyed Jack's, an owl is watching from the trees and the show has a very nice tracking shock as the lawmen navigate the corridors of the establishment. Cooper heads off one way to try to find Audrey while Truman watches Blackie's office, where he sees Jean Renault kill Blackie.

Unfortunately, Jean sees him as well and squeezes off a shot before vanishing. Cooper bumps into Blackie's sister and forces her to take him to Audrey, where he discovers her near-death state and frees her. As Coop and Truman prepare to flee the scene with Audrey, a guard appears with a gun at the back door and orders them to drop their weapons and turn around. They comply and then hear a groan and a thud only to turn back to see a large knife protruding from the guard's back and Hawk saying, "It's a good thing you two can't keep a secret." As the lawmen and Audrey head off into the woods, Hank calls Ben to report what's happened but soon feels a gun pointed at his head. It's Jean Renault who reaches for Hank's ID, which happens to still be that of DA Lodwick. Back at Harold's, Donna finally distracts Harold long enough to signal Maddie who runs in but has trouble with the bookcase and makes enough noise for Harold to catch on. Maddie and Donna try to escape with the diary but Harold goes mad. "You want to know about secrets?" he says before pulling out a gardening claw and drawing three lines of blood across his cheek.