Edward Copeland's Tangents: Twin Peaks Tuesdays: Episode 21

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Twin Peaks Tuesdays: Episode 21

By Edward Copeland
"Windom Earle has been in this room," Cooper tells Truman as the survey the bizarre scene left in the sheriff's office. Doc Hayward moves to examine the body and Cooper predicts the cause of death: a single stab wound about one inch below the aorta. He's right. The still-suspended FBI agent tells them not to bother looking for prints or fibers: his former partner doesn't make such mistakes, but the unidentified body, strapped in the chair and pointing at the chessboard, is a sure sign that Windom Earle has come to Twin Peaks.

At the Great Northern, Audrey has a meeting with Bobby about her father's condition. Ben Horne must be brought back, she insists. Jerry already is on his way and Dr. Jacoby has taken the case as well. Audrey uses an ice cube to symbolize her father's fragile state and emphasizes to the younger Briggs that they have to rescue her dad but, until then, Audrey is the person that Bobby needs to remember to be sucking up to. Bobby certainly picked the wrong time to abandon Shelly, who is being terrorized by the reanimated Leo as an owl watches outside the house. Leo's not saying much, but he's making it clear that he is not happy with his wife and intends to punish her, this time for good. He even hauls out soap in a sock as a reminder of the bad old days.

Fortunately, Bobby does decide to return to the Johnson homestead and Leo pulls him into the melee, ready to kill his wife's lover once and for all. Before he can though, Shelly manages to get a kitchen knife and stabs Leo in the leg and the wounded villain rips through the plastic that covers unfinished portions of the home and disappears into the woods. At the sheriff's station, as Cooper predicted, Earle left no clues behind. It is clear that he was responsible for the explosion at the power plant and the fire there. Hawk comes in with more news of particularly bad timing: Hank missed the drug buy because he was hospitalized, claiming to have been hit by a bus, and they also learn that Leo is up and around again. In the lobby, Andy tells Lucy about his and Dick's suspicion that little Nicky killed his parents and an appalled Lucy can't believe, telling Andy that neither he nor Dick are fit to be parents.

Back in the ever tedious noirland, James actually meets Jeffrey Marsh (John Apricella) for the first time and he certainly doesn't appear to be the monster Malcolm and Evelyn have been describing. Jeffrey thanks James for the fine work he did repairing his car and prepares to take it out for a spin. As he drives away, Evelyn imagines the sounds of a crash. Back at the Double R, Ed sits down with Doc for a serious talk about Nadine: It seems she wants to date boys. Hayward asks Ed if Nadine is sexually active. "I wake up every morning feeling like I've been hit by a timber truck," Ed tells Doc, who advises patience and a 9 p.m. curfew, adding that it isn't easy being a parent. Norma tells Ed about Hank's hospitalization (his story to her was that he ran into a tree). Ed lets Norma in on the fact that that tree was named Nadine.

In noirland, James suddenly decides that it wasn't right of him to be boinking a married woman but Evelyn tells the idiot that she loves him and urges him to stay. Cooper decides to finally let Harry in on the full story of his history with Windom Earle. He repeats the story he told Audrey, adding that the woman's name was Caroline and that she also was Earle's wife. Cooper has come to believe that Earle killed her and was the witness she was to testify against. Dale says Earle's "mind is like a diamond: cold, hard and brilliant" He and Windom played chess every day for seven years and Cooper never beat him. Donna shows up at the bar in noirland and runs into Evelyn, who lies and says that James has already left town. Donna has another one of her annoying crying jags and recalls that god-awful song she, James and Maddie recorded while we see the tormented James slumping in anguish back at the Marsh place and we still don't care.

In Ben Horne's office at the Great Northern, his recreation has grown more and more elaborate and it shocks Jerry upon seeing it for the first time, with Bobby playing along and Jacoby watching from a perch on high. "Only God can stop us now and I believe God is a Southerner," Ben declares. Jacoby explains his theory that what Ben is doing is a positive thing. If he is able to reverse the course of the Civil War, perhaps he can overcome his own setbacks. A disheveled Major Briggs staggers into the sheriff's station and collapses. Once he's up and around again, he admits to Truman and Cooper that he has begun to doubt that the Air Force's motives for finding the White Lodge are "ideologically pure" based on the paranoid nature of their interrogations. He tells the lawmen that for now, he will remain in the shadows.

In another part of the sheriff's station, Jacoby reports that he's interviewed Lana and that finds there is no way she could have murdered Dougie but that she contains a heightened sense of sexual energy that explains her bewitching power over men. The shrink then tells the law officers that he and Lana plan to go bowling but as they exit the room into the hall, they discover the mayor aiming a shotgun on them. The mayor promises that he'll blow Lana away "and the hippie too," referring to Jacoby. Cooper suggests that perhaps Lana and the mayor should have some time alone together to talk things out, so they put them alone in the conference room and wait. A little while later, they go back in to discover the mayor covered in lipstick with Lana on his lap. The mayor announces he was wrong about her and says they have plans to adopt a child.

At the Packards, Catherine lets Pete in on the secret of Andrew's resurrection and on Josie's connection to Thomas Eckhardt and the plot to kill Andrew. Pete remains skeptical but simultaneously at the Great Northern, Thomas Eckhardt (David Warner) is checking in. Lucy has Doc Hayward set Andy and Dick straight about the tragic life of little Nicky and how the boy in no way killed his parents. Andy and Dick both crumble into tears. Harry gets a fax from Seattle that seems to show that Josie's cousin or assistant or whoever he was, Jonathan, was found shot to death. Even Harry wonders if Josie is involved. Evelyn comes into James' room as he's packing to inform him of Jeffrey's death and that Malcolm isn't her brother. The ever-slow-on-the-uptake James realizes he's been set up and bolts, finding Donna in the yard and running off together. The wounded and still physically shaky Leo wanders through the woods, barely missing being struck by an owl, when he finds a cabin and goes in. He sees a hand holding a gun, but the voice seeks to reassure him and the man (Kenneth Welsh) sits down in front of a chessboard and tells Leo, "You can call me Windom. Windom. Earle."