Now that the mystery of the death of Laura Palmer is resolved, it's time for Agent Cooper to quit the quiet town of Twin Peaks, at least that was the plan. Then another FBI man shows up with a Canadian Mountie in tow with all kinds of allegations about the manner in which the investigation was handled. Cooper is suspended and will have to stay until the investigation into his investigation is over. Then there is the small matter of Major Briggs' disappearence in the woods on a camping trip with the agent.
Following the revelations of the last few episodes, this was always going to be something of a letdown, but there is still plenty going on of interest in the small town. Not much of it is actually going on very quickly, but then that is a signature of the show. The fact that the Mountie is actually in the employ of Jean Renault who is still after Cooper for the death of his brother promises better things.
This also contains the continuation of the fine performance by Grace Zabriskie as Sarah Palmer, a woman who has had nothing but grief since the show began.
A Drugs Enforcement Agency called Dennis shows up and announces that he prefers to be called Denise these days. He/she will be looking into the drugs angle of Cooper's investigation. One of the older members of the town marries a young woman, much to his brother's disgust. The big movement, however, is in Josie's backstory. She's back and she's scared and Catherine has turned her into a domestic slave. Oh, and Andrew, Josie's dead husband, just showed up.
Yes, this is the episode that brings us David Duchovny (later of THE X-FILES fame) in a dress. Everyone's reactions, but especially Hawk's, is very funny and lightens things up considerably. The whole show has seemed lighter and that can't be a bad thing.
James has run into a suave older woman who needs his expertise in the car area. Nadine has tried out for cheerleading and fancies Mike as a potential boyfriend. Windom Earle has sent a new threat. In fact, there is so much going on that you can't help but think that the writers are setting up a whole plethora of plot strands to hide the hole where the Laura Palmer killing used to be. It remains to be seen whether any of them will be worth following.
The least believable of them all (including Nadine's cheerleading nonsense) is Josie's return to Catherine. She has confessed all to Sheriff Truman, so why did she feel the need to go to Catherine at all? Why would she accept to be Catherine's maid? That makes no sense at all, but then again when did anything in this show ever make sense?
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Episode 12
Bobby Briggs gets an assignment from Benjamin Horne and when Audrey steals the results, she might have the solutions to Cooper's problems with his own agency. Nadine makes the wrestling team. The men of the sheriff's office are entranced by a newly-created bride and Dick (Andy's rival for fatherhood of Lucy's child) begins to believe that his ward may be the devil incarnate. Major Briggs, however, is returned from wherever he went and does not feel that everything is fine.
There is a lot of stuff going on at the moment, but none of it seems to have any real weight to it. Nadine Hurley's regression to teenhood remains utterly preposterous and is better ignored, soon to be added to by the James Hurley strand. He has so obviously walked into the plot of many a noir film that you can't help but feel he's stupid for not realising that there is something really wrong with his situation, and not in the obvious way. Josie has taken up her new job as Catherine's maid and that is still the most unbelievable plot contrivance yet.
Whilst there are still many things to enjoy (David Duchovny's cross dressing agent is still good value), there is a very real sense that the show is floundering a little and really needs a new focus to anchor it.
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Episode 13
Ben Horne decides to start refighting the American Civil War in his office. James gets involved with a woman who is far too interested in the man she said was her brother. Ed makes plans with Norma, which doesn't please Hank who then gets beaten up by Nadine. Most important of all, Cooper is deputised and gets caught up in a siege with Jean Renault. And then Leo wakes up.
TWIN PEAKS is getting a bit patchy around the edges at the moment. There are so many stories vying for attention and some of them are not working. Nadine's trip into High School is really not good. James's walk down film noir alley really isn't working. The whole Cooper and the drugs bust siege is over before it has a chance to get itself properly set up and Major Briggs introduces some major symbolism before being hauled away by the military. It's all very frustrating and unsatisfying.
Then Leo Johnson wakes up in a moment that shocks even though we've been expecting it and Windom Earle makes his next chess move with a dead body and suddenly things are looking up again.
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Episode 14
The dead body that was waiting in the sheriff's office was put there by Windom Earle as a new move in the ongoing chess game. Cooper tells Harry the background to the grudge. James, meanwhile, learns that he has been the target of a set up. Shelly is attacked by Leo and Mr Johnson finds a new home.
Storm clouds are brewing and trouble is coming to town. We know this because the town is TWIN PEAKS and because Major Briggs tells us so in this episode. He has been taken to the White Lodge and there been given a vision of the turbulent future; a future that he can no longer remember. With the arrival of Kenneth Walsh's Windom Earle and David Warner's Mr Eckhardt, the pieces on the chessboard are certainly moving themselves around the chessboard, looking for positions of power.
TWIN PEAKS has lacked focus recently and with the hurried departure of the framing of Agent Cooper storyline it looked like that was going to continue, but there is a real sense of foreboding in this episode that promises much and the arrival of Cooper's ex-partner and now nemesis looks to return that focus.
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Episode 15
Donna attempts to help James out of being framed for murder, but he finds himself staring down the barrel of a gun. Dr Jacoby comes up with a plan to bring Ben from his time in lala land refighting the American civil war and Catherine invites Eckhardt over to discover the matter of Josie.
Two story strands come to conclusion int his episode, but there is a sense of treading water about everything. Fortunately, Miguel Ferrer is back as Albert, the acerbic forensic expert and his return is immediately entertaining. The same can't be said of the much of the rest of the episode.
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Episode 16
Whilst Windom Earle gathers together three of the town's beauties in order to choose his next victim, Cooper bends his minds to the murders and attempted murders laid at Josie's door. She, on the other hand is beign manipulated by both Eckhardt and the Packards into committing another murder.
This is, presumably, the end of the Josie Packard story and if anyone out there can actually tell us what the hell happened to her then that would be a good thing. If bizarre you want then bizarre this provides. This whole subplot has been less than satisfactory from the start, and the conclusion is less than satisfactory and also less than comprehensible. Still, that's TWIN PEAKS for you.
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Episode 17
Harry is not taking Josie's death well. Drunk and morose, he's slowly taking the Book House apart, leaving the law enforcement to Cooper. Windom Earle visits Donna in her home and leaves a message for Cooper. Ben Horne, meanwhile, sets about blocking the Ghostwood development and his protege grows ever closer to Audrey.
TWIN PEAKS has always been strong on characterisation. Not always characterisation of a normal kind, but strong nonetheless. It is a brave show that will use so much of its time to the pain being felt by one of the main characters, but as the pace of the show has been erratic and slow most of the time recently it doesn't sacrifice much in the process.
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Episode 18
As Windom Earle's plan continues along its slow path, he visits Audrey who continues to grow close to her father's protege. Cooper, meanwhile is growing closer to Annie, Norma's sister. Out of the convent, she is a failed suicide and fragile soul, how could he resist? There are further mysteries to be solved down in owl cave, a place where tattoos become mystic symbols and Windom Earle seems to be one step ahead of everyone.
It's now impossible to see where TWIN PEAKS is heading. Story strands are spiralling out away from each ohter with no apparent hope of being resolved. That said, there are clues falling all around about UFOs and lodges, but nothing is being explained. It's still compelling, just more frustrating than satisfying.
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Episode 19
Windom Earle is in full possession of the mythology behind the White and Black Lodges and steps up his campaign against Cooper. Donna's parents refuse to explain the link between her mother and Ben Horne. The Miss Twin Peaks contest gets into full swing and Cooper learns that he is in love with Annie, something that plays right into the hands of Windom Earle's plans.
There are some lovely moments of quirky delight in this episode, something that has been lacking recently, but the main stories are going nowhere, something that we're not exactly unused to. Unfortunately, that robs the series of any sense of urgency.
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Episode 20
Cooper finally twigs that Windom Earle's not just looking for revenge on him, but also for the entrance to the Black Lodge and he seems to have found it. Annie decides to enter the Miss Twin Peaks contest as a way of re-entering the world, something that the giant appears to disapprove of in a vision. Catherine and her brother still can't open Eckhardt's last present and Audrey finds that love just left on a jet plane.
With only two more episodes following this one, the urgency is starting to come. There is a sense strings spun out too long finally threading together and the result is looking to be very dark indeed. Many of the annoying subplots have been jettisoned and the search for the Black Lodge and Windom Earle is taking the central stage. We can't help but need to know what happens next.
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Episode 21
The night of the Miss Twin Peaks contest finally arrives and Windom Earle makes his move. Annie Blackburn is the winner and she is the woman that he takes. Cooper's only chance now is in the understanding that he has gained of the secrets of the Black and White Lodge and the fact that Andy, of all people, has figured out the location of the Lodges.
The penultimate episode sets up a cracker of a finale, but it really ought to have been able to do it in a much more exciting way. The Miss Twin Peaks contest is really quite dull up until the point where Windom Earle crashes the party (not a moment for epilepsy sufferers) and takes Annie. This is a bravura sequence that makes up for much of what has gone before, but the cliffhanger is more significant than it actually seems.
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Episode 22
Windom Earle enters the Black Lodge with Annie. Agent Cooper goes after him to rescue the woman he now loves and finds himself in a place that he has seen before in dreams and is visited by people of otherworldly quality.
Director and co-creator David Lynch returns to direct the final episode and creates an hour of television that will astound and infuriate in equal measures. Does any of what happens inside the Black Lodge make sense? Well I'm sure it does to Lynch and the writers, but I'm also pretty sure it doesn't to most everyone else. That, though, has surely been part of the appeal of this show - it's determination to avoid easy explanations. It is an episode that demands repeat viewings to try and pick up on those bits that do have meaning and significance and those bits that are just the director having fun with his audience.
What will remain, however, is the final twist that is thrown in. Possibly predictable, it is still shocking and possibly the bravest move the show has ever made. What a pity we'll never find out how that gets resolved.
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