Edward Copeland's Tangents: Twin Peaks Tuesdays: Episode 27

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Twin Peaks Tuesdays: Episode 27

By Edward Copeland
Don't you hate it when someone leaves pieces of a game out for someone else to clean up? It's especially a problem when the piece in question is a gigantic pawn with a dead headbanger inside. The sheriff's department is working to remove Windom Earle's latest victim from the gazebo as we begin this episode. The authorities interview the victim's despondent friend (Willie Garson) and his tears prompt Andy to cry for the first time in awhile. Cooper has a concern beyond the murder: Earle didn't leave a move with his latest victim, which indicates to Dale that his ex-partner is playing "off the board."

Back at the sheriff's station, Lucy informs a still upset Andy that she has decided that in 24 hours, she will choose between him and Dick as to who will be the father of her child, regardless of the actual paternity. What's funny, when you think about it, is if Twin Peaks continued and followed its format of most episodes covering a single day, I can't even calculate how many episodes it would take for Lucy to come to full term.

At the Great Northern, Doc Hayward is giving Ben a physical and reports that he is in fine shape and makes sure to add that he needs to stay away from Eileen. Ben insists that he's just trying to do what's right and he won't feel good "as long as the lie persists." Doc tells him that goodness in Ben is like a time bomb; There's nothing good about ruined lives. After Doc leaves, John Justice Wheeler informs Ben that he has to leave because of his friend's murder in South America. Ben tries to convince him to stay because he doesn't know if he can stay good on his own and really save the planet. Wheeler wants to see Audrey off, but she has yet to return from Seattle, so he leaves a letter for her with Ben. Donna is searching her family's attic for clues about Ben's connection to her mother and discovers that her birth certificate doesn't include a father's name. She also finds photos of Ben in his hippie days clowning around with Doc and Eileen. Her snooping is interrupted by a call requesting her presence at the sheriff's station.

Audrey returns from Seattle but before she can find Wheeler, Hawk intercepts her and says that Cooper needs to see her at the station. At the station, Cooper and Truman get briefed by Major Briggs about what he's learned about Windom Earle's time with Project Blue Book, unaware that Earle still has his ears listening through the bug in the bonsai tree. Briggs learned that Earle was the best and brightest on the project but then became obsessed with what was beneath the woods in Twin Peaks, namely the Black Lodge. He even found an old film of Earle ranting about the place and plays it for the lawmen. Cooper realizes that his assumption that Earle had come to Twin Peaks to seek vengeance on him was miscalculated: Windom was after the Black Lodge the whole time. The chess game was a red herring, "a fish I don't particularly care for," Dale says. They advise Briggs to get some rest and, in what must be one of the stupidest decisions ever made, the major decides that it's a good idea to take a stroll through the woods.

Earle comments to Leo that Cooper is several steps behind as always and clears the chess board, though he does express an interest in talking to Major Briggs. Earle doesn't notice that Leo pockets the remote that controls his shock collar. Unfortunately, Leo still doesn't have all his wits about him and while Windom acts frightened that Leo has the control, when Leo uses it, he predictably shocks himself, giving Windom a good laugh. Something definitely is happening in the town. A diner at the Double R experiences strange hand tremors while in a booth, Bobby declares his love for Shelly while working on her speech for the Miss Twin Peaks Pageant. Their talk is interrupted by a call from Cooper, asking Shelly to come to the station as well. Mayor Milford gives Lana the news that the other two judges for the pageant will be Dick Tremayne and Norma, so he thinks it's in the bag. All Lana has to do is wear a dress with "a slit cut up to Seattle" and get alone with Tremayne.

Once the three teenagers meet with Cooper, he warns them about Windom Earle and each report running in to strange men recently whom Cooper insists were all probably Earle. He puts the pieces of the note together and asks Shelly if she recognizes the handwriting, which she does — as Leo's. Cooper tells the girls to check in with them twice a day, to never travel alone and make sure their parents know their whereabouts at all time. At the cabin, Earle is expounding again to Leo about those ancient sorcerers who fascinate him so. Leo spots the playing card with Shelly's picture on it and says, "Shelly." Earle asks Leo if he'll truly miss her when she's dead and Leo seems to actually care for the wife he used to beat. Audrey returns to the Great Northern and presses her father about Wheeler, but Ben is more interested in trying to convince her to enter the pageant so she can serve as spokesperson for his Stop Ghostwood effort.

Ben finally remembers the letter and gives it to his daughter who asks how long ago he left and rushes out of his office. Once alone, there's a strange noise and Ben spins suddenly and looks at something we don't see. In the lobby, Pete is staring at a section of the paneling and talking to Josie, as if he knows she's embedded in wood now. Audrey asks if he has a vehicle and when he says he has a truck, she grabs Pete to rush her to the airport to try to catch Wheeler. Cooper is taking a moment to wax on about his feelings for Annie to Truman, describing his symptoms as something similar to malaria. While looking through the blinds of Truman's office window, Cooper experiences hand tremors similar to those of the woman in the diner.

In the woods, as Briggs walks alone, he suddenly touches the mark left on his neck after his recent disappearance. Soon, he notices the approach of a horse, or rather Windom and Leo dressed as a horse. Earle hits Briggs with a dart and then takes off the horse's head and laughs that Leo may have finally found his true calling, serving as a horse's ass. In another decision that should be as obviously bad as Briggs' idea to walk in the woods alone, Cooper heads to the diner to moon over Annie and encourage her to enter the pageant, though she's skeptical. The environs don't seem to like the idea, as the camera does a slow pullback from the two before Annie knocks over some dishes and we see an extreme, slow closeup of dripping syrup. Pete and Audrey arrive just in time, blocking Wheeler's plane from taking off with his truck. Wheeler smiles and comes out to greet Audrey with a big kiss.

He promises that he'll be back and Audrey confesses that she's a virgin, but she wants him to make love to her. Wheeler says it's a good thing he owns the plane and the two disappear into the cabin for some carnal knowledge. Pete, still standing by his truck, gets teary eyed before also experiencing hand tremors. In the cabin, Earle is playing target practice with Major Briggs, who is sprawled across the wall and refusing to answer his questions, even in his drug-induced haze. Frustrated, Earle asks Briggs for the capital of North Carolina to which he dutifully replies, "Raleigh." "Fat lot of good that'll do me," Earle sighs before saying that time is a wasting and hitting Briggs with a dose of another drug. He asks Briggs for his greatest fear and the major responds, "The possibility that love is not enough." Finally, Earle gets to what he wants to know: How to get to the Black Lodge. Briggs tells him that when Jupiter and Saturn meet, they will receive him.

At the Packards, Andrew informs his sister that the foreign investors are chomping at the bit to invest in Ghostwood. Catherine is still preoccupied with the second box. Andrew tries to use the moon phases for different combinations of dates, finally getting that box to reveal yet another box when he presses the day the gift arrive. Not content to play games, Andrew smashes the smaller box to reveal a silver object that puzzles them both. At the airport, the plane takes off, waking up Pete who assumes Audrey is gone until she appears beside him, virginity free. I guess that's one cherry stem she won't be able to retie. Pete tells her that he'll be back because he promised. He then tells her that one of the best cures for a broken heart is nightfishing and watching trout dance under the moonlight, so the two head off to a lake.

At the Great Northern, Dale and Annie take a spin on the dance floor where Annie tells him that she will compete in the pageant and that she feels as if she's in a fairy tale. Cooper adds, "And you're my queen." Suddenly, Cooper sees a vision and where the mayor had stood adjusting a microphone, the Giant now stood, emphatically waving his arms and mouthing, "No!" Putting together most of the pieces back at the cabin, Windom checks his computers and remarks that while Dale has figured out the cave painting is an invitation of sorts, he hasn't realized that it is also a map, a map to the Black Lodge. The creepy feeling about town continues as we are treated to slow shots of many of the familiar sites: the halls of the Great Northern, the halls of Twin Peaks High School, the interior of the sheriff's station. Eventually, the camera moves into a section of the woods where a white circle is present on the ground. Laughter is heard and appearing slowly, seemingly out of thin air, is BOB. Is this the inhabiting spirit in corporeal form? The camera then moves down to the circle where in its dark, wet reflection, those familiar red curtains can be seen blowing.