Twin Peaks
3.15: There’s some fear in letting go.
Just two episodes ago, Big Ed was nursing a solitary late
night cup-a-soup and looking as if nothing could ever come right. And even here,
it seems as if, having finally been finally let off the leash by Nadine, he’ll be
reduced to a coffee and cyanide. So the reparatory hand on his shoulder,
signalling Norma is ready to be there with him for evermore, seems too good to
be true. I’m wary that Lynch and Frost won’t just pull the rug from under them,
and how long Nadine, who thanks to Dr Amp shows no fear in letting go, will
remain in her golden, shovelled-up state.
I particularly enjoyed Wendy Robie’s delivery of “But I’ve been a SELFISH BITCH to you all
these years”, and several of the characters here – Nadine, Big Ed, Hawk –
are proving much more effective in this second wind of the series than they
ever did first time round. Michael Horse has a great face for stoic rumination
now. But not a horse face.
Hawk’s phone conversations – I say conversations; really,
they’re monologues to which he listens attentively – with the very frail
Margaret Lanterman have punctuated this season in a quietly affecting manner,
and this, her final one, as the Log Lady faces death, neven more so. It’s thus
a consolation to be helped along by Hawk’s studied reserve. There’s one final
clue (“Watch for that one. The one I told
you about. The one under the moon, on Blue Pine Mountain”), and then Margaret’s
log is turning gold (nothing to do with Dr Amp).
The episode needs these spots of reflection and connection,
as elsewhere Twin Peaks (the town) is in violent disarray. We see significantly
more of Gersten Hayward but in the most distressing of situations. Partly
because she’s with Steve Burnett, and partly because… Well no, entirely because she’s with Steve
Burnett, who evidently has a mystifying lure with the ladies. It’s said that if
you don’t see a body on a show, you can’t count on the person being dead, so
I’ll believe Steve blew his brains out when I see them. As to what they’re discussing,
barely coherently, either he’s just completely fried (which he is) or he’s also
possibly done something really bad to someone. Really bad.
It was gratifying to see Freddie and his magic glove come to
James’ rescue in the Bang Bang Bar. Given the latter’s forward manner, I can
only assume that motorbike accident had a subtly adverse effect on his
faculties, as he seems oblivious to hubby Chuck when making his introductions
Renee (“I was just trying to be polite”). I’m unclear quite why he gets locked up with Freddie, though, since he didn’t render
anyone senseless and foaming at the mouth with a fistful of green marigold. Still,
it’s quite the gang in there; Mr Echo the Souse, Naido the Monkey Girl, Grumpy
Chad, Poor Earnest James and The Green Glovelet. A sequel to The Usual Suspects could be in the
works.
Charlie: Are you going to put your coat on, or are
you going to talk me to death right here on the threshold?
I hadn’t hitherto paid much credence to the popular fan
suggestion that Audrey is still in a coma – when exactly is she supposed to
have entered this coma, with a son in the scenario? After Evil Coop raped her? –
but as her prevarication over leaving her house/mind continues, the idea becomes
teasingly more feasible. Which would be a shame, as I don’t want Charlie to
disappear in a puff of logic. And also because, as brutally unkind as Lynch and
Frost are giving us this version of
Audrey, the raped, comatose one sounds even more cruelly devised.
Aside from Chantal and Hutch tying up one of their two loose
ends (Todd dies in a splatter of digitally exploding head), the other non-Coop
moment of note comes in the last scene as a girl (Ruby, played by Charlyne Yi)
is forcibly removed from her stall at the Bang Bang Bar by bikers and proceeds
to crawl across the floor before screaming in a manner reminiscent of Laura
Palmer in Fire Walk With Me. Which
seems about right. I’m not sure how more I could have taken of The Veils
either.
I wonder a bit about Chantal and Hutch. Much as I like Roth
and Leigh, their characters don’t really click; they’re kind of sub-Tarantino –
intentionally? – right down to banal discussions of violence (torture) and
philosophical conversations instead of pop culture ones (although they do
discuss fast food). Maybe it’s just because they’re both veterans of his
productions.
Evil Coop: Who is Judy? WHO IS JUDY?
So, Phillip Jefferies is a big steaming kettle (a full body
suit iron lung?), puffing out numbers. It was a safe bet that Jefferies would
be reincarnated, but who could have foreseen this? Or his rather lacklustre
voice double (Nathan Frizzell; I particularly didn’t appreciate the overdubbing
of the Fire Walk With Me scene)? Jefferies’
presence is just as mystifying to Evil Coop as it is to us by the look of it,
since his confident, in-control manner is replaced by confusion and
frustration. Is PJ Just fucking with Evil Coop (“Did you call me five days ago?” asks Evil Coop. “I don’t have your number” replies the
kettle)? And if not, who did get him
on the blower? Why does Coop want to ask Jefferies about Judy now after all these years, other than it
being the first chance Lynch and Frost have had to address the subject?
Apparently, Coop has already met Judy, but have we?
It’s a conversation that doesn’t reveal much. Even less how
the convenience store – I’m presuming it’s
the Dutchman – gets around. At least, I assumed it was dematerialising,
TARDIS-like, to pop up somewhere else, but perhaps it just dwindles in and out
of phase like its dirty tramp inhabitants (one of whom bears a passing resemblance
to Alice Cooper circa Prince of Darkness)
and remains geographically in the same place.
Janey-E: Oh, Dougie. It’s like all our dreams are
coming true.
The Sky TV placeholder photo for this episode showed Coop in
the Red Room, so I was a little disappointed he didn’t end up back there. Is
sticking a fork in an electrical socket his ticket back there? Or will the
electric charge cause him to revert to Coop in time for Chantal and Hutch’s
visit? Even if he doesn’t, savant Coop will surely somehow persevere.
I’m wondering if Sunset
Boulevard has any greater significance on the proceedings than an
incidental character having the name Gordon Cole (it is, after all, narrated by
a dead person – one theory has the entire season taking place in Audrey’s head,
like Bobby Ewing on acid, which I don’t really buy, not least because it would retrospectively
diminish scenes such as the Log Lady’s passing). Possibly not, any more than
Chantal being able to see Mars. Or spending several minutes watching Coop
eating chocolate cake. My favourite scene of the episode, though, returns us to
the magnificent ineptitude of the Vegas FBI office, and Special Agent Randall
Headley’s fury at Agent Wilson’s inability to locate the correct Dougie Jones (“WILSON!”)
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.
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