Tuesday, August 28, 2007

 

Twin Peaks Tuesdays: Episode 25



By Edward Copeland
As Eckhardt's assistant Jones climbs into bed with the passed out Sheriff Truman, she applies something to his lips and then to hers as well. She proceeds to kiss Harry who begins to hallucinate that it's Josie on top of him and talking to him. Soon he awakes from this reverie into a nightmare as Jones pulls out a wire and proceeds to try to strangle Harry to death. The two struggle mightily before Harry finally slams Jones against the wall and is able to knock her out cold to the couch. When the hungover Truman gets to the sheriff's station, he tells Cooper that Jones refuses to talk, instead requesting contact with the South African consulate. "In Twin Peaks?" Cooper asks, justifiably mystified why Twin Peaks should have one. Truman doesn't get why Eckhardt would want him dead. "Sexual jealousy," Dale replies and Truman seems to get it before running off to the john to puke.


Audrey visits John Justice Wheeler in his room at the Great Northern and once again plays her usual games as a tease. Wheeler remarks some advice Audrey's grandfather once told him: "If you bring a hammer, you better bring nails." Audrey is puzzled by the meaning, but Wheeler explains that it means you need to be ready to finish what you start. Audrey agrees to go out on a date with Wheeler, and tells him he's the one that better be certain to bring the nails.

As Harry returns to the chair behind his desk at the sheriff's station, he discovers a bonsai tree that has been delivered. The card says it's from Josie. At the same moment, the loud approach of Gordon Cole (David Lynch, reporting for duty) can be heard as he enters and fills Cooper and Truman on some facts from the classified portions of Windom Earle's file. Unbeknownst to everyone there, the bonsai actually was a gift from Earle, who is listening in thanks to a bug he placed in the tree. Cole informs the lawmen that Earle was on the drug Haloperidol, the same schizophrenia medication that the One-Armed Man used. (Digression: What happened to Philip Gerard? Last time we saw him he was dehydrated and dying in a Great Northern hotel room the day Leland died, but we've heard nothing since.) The revelation seems to reinforce Cooper's theory that Windom was faking his insanity. The file also reveals that Windom Earle used to work on Project Blue Book, the Air Force investigation into UFOs on which Major Briggs also worked. Cole notices the bonsai and being the loon that he is recalls banzai as the phrase Japanese suicide pilots used in WWII and yells "Banzai" into the tree, blasting the hell out of Earle's eardrums. After Cooper leaves, Cole holds Cooper back a minute with some welcome news. Thanks to Earle, the bureau needs him back so he needs to get his suit back on as Cole returns his FBI badge and a brand new gun to Agent Cooper.



Donna follows her mother to the Great Northern, taking note of a poster touting the upcoming Miss Twin Peaks Pageant. At the front desk, Mike and Nadine are checking out after what Mike describes as an "unbelievable" night. He says hi to his ex Donna, who seems a bit surprised that Nadine seems to have gotten what she wanted. Still, Donna has more important matters on her mind. She asks Audrey if she knows any reason why her mom would have business with her dad and Audrey replies in the negative, but she asks if Mrs. Hayward is there right now, so she and Donna go off to spy. In Ben's office, Eileen is trying to return some old love letters from Ben, who questions why now when she's had them for so long and he laments what could have been between them. Eileen says that all he's doing is possibly ripping open old wounds. Ben fondly remembers holding Eileen in his arms. Donna and Audrey arrive at the hiding place to watch the action, but miss the important part of the conversation, but Donna is determined to figure out what is going on.

Gordon, Harry and Cooper stop by the Double R for a meal, where Cole hopes to get "a steak so rare you could buy it at Tiffany's." The FBI man also takes an immediate interest in Shelly, whom he describes as "the kind of girl that makes you wish you could speak French." He's even more enthralled when he approaches her and realizes that he can hear her perfectly, even without his hearing aids or people yelling. Cole requests a glass of water because "his socks are on fire." Cole isn't the only one with a premature case of spring fever: Cooper seems particularly smitten by Annie, even to the point of telling her a joke. She notices him doodling, pairing the marks on Cooper an the Log Lady and remarks that it reminds her of Owl Cave. Back at the counter, Cole has had a chance to sample some of the Double R's famous pie and tells Shelly he plans to write an epic poem about it. Donna gets a postcard from James saying he's in San Francisco, heading to Mexico. Keep going James. Doc comes in and Donna quizzes him about her mom's relationship with Ben, which Hayward denies exists, though he tries to cover for his wife by saying perhaps it has something to do with a charity. Just then, flowers are delivered for Eileen, without a card.

Audrey is researching the poem she, Shelly and Donna received at the library when she "bumps into" a poetry professor, who is of course Windom Earle in yet another disguise. He identifies the poem as one by Percy Shelley and insists that Audrey read it to him. Shelly quizzes Annie at the diner about her and Cooper, but Annie denies anything is going on, admitting how weird it is to be around men again after all that time in the convent. Lucy sees a puzzling length of rope drop from the sheriff's station ceiling in front of her booth, followed by Andy's appearance practicing rappelling for their excursion to Owl Cave. Lucy makes a point of thanking Andy for being so brave during the weasel riot "unlike Dick." We get another sighting of Johnny Horne shooting suction cup arrows and buffalo cutouts outside his dad's office at the Great Northern, where Ben tells Audrey he wants someone who can give him the unvarnished truth and thinks she is the one to do that, better than Jerry at any case. He apologizes for how he's been as a father asking her, "When have I been anything but a sleazy, rapacious heel?" Audrey tells him not to feel that way and tells her, "Daddy, I'm your man." Unfortunately, that means that Ben wants to send her off immediately on a business trip to Seattle, scuttling her planned date with Wheeler. She gives the bad news to John as he comes in to talk to Ben. Ben tells Wheeler he's full to the brim with a feeling of goodness and asks if he thinks it's possible for Ben to learn to be good. Wheeler advises that one course of action is to always tell the hardest truth first, which Wheeler demonstrates by telling Ben he's in love with Audrey.

Harry, Cooper, Hawk and Andy make the long climb up the mountain to the site of Owl Cave, bearing flashlights and hiking gear. As they approach the area of the markings that Dale's doodlings reminded Annie of, an owl suddenly goes berzerk and flies at the lawmen. A frightened Andy swings his pick at the bird and the implement sticks in the cave's wall and Deputy Brennan can't get it back out. It also starts the wall moving, revealing some sort of lever whose appearance fascinates Agent Cooper. "Coincidence and fate figure largely in our lives," Dale tells the others. Cooper doesn't know where this discovery will lead, but he's sure it will be somewhere both wonderful and strange.

Speaking of strange and wonderful worlds, Annie has arrived at the Great Northern, intent on trying some liquor for the first time, served to her by the hotel bartender (Jack McGee). Soon Dale arrives, back from the Owl Cave excursion, giddy at seeing Annie again and ready to engage in what passes as flirtatious banter for the FBI agent. While Cooper and Annie get to know one another better, Windom Earle is doing some spelunking of his own, venturing to the same spot in Owl Cave. He spots the lever, then shines his light on the wall opposite where he sees the same marking on the lever on the cave wall, only upside down. Earle turns the lever so that it's marking matches the one opposite and Andy's pick falls out of the wall and the cave appears to be crumbling, much to Windom Earle's apparent glee. Whatever he's after, he seems to welcome this development.



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Comments:
Small note: When Audrey's father says he was a "sleazy rapacious heel" Audrey replies, "Maybe when I was little." The implication appears to be that both acknowledge he molested her when she was young.
 
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