Jake Posted January 21, 2015 Twin Peaks Rewatch 15: Lonely Souls It's happening again. Join us as we discuss "Lonely Souls," one of the pivotal episodes of Twin Peaks' second season, as part of our weekly re-examination of the show's complete run. Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Subscribe to the RSS Feed Subscribe on iTunes Episode 16 Pre-Discussion ThreadCatching up? Listen to the Rewatch archive. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BigJKO Posted January 21, 2015 Somehow when I first watched this I never actually saw this particular episode, because I was watching it with a group and missed that particular night. I wasn't too bothered missing it, because I had accidentally spoiled myself by catching a glimpse of Fire Walk With Me earlier. But holy hell! That last scene. Nightmares! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LostInTheMovies Posted January 21, 2015 Well, finally the big reveal. Who could have foreseen that Mr. Tojamura was really Catherine? In all seriousness, what an episode (if you're for some reason reading this thread before watching this episode, stop now. Trust me, the above spoiler is nothing compared to what's coming). This, to me, is the one which emphatically disproves John Leonard's speculation that Twin Peaks "had nothing in its pretty little head except the desire to please." The post-Maddy scene in the Road House crystallizes what this show is all about: a town that knows something is wrong, and cares deeply about this, but is too lost in the fog to actually figure out what what it is, let alone what to do about it. They feel it deeply, but cannot fully acknowledge the tragedy in their midst. And the look on Cooper's face as he realizes, vaguely, that he has failed in his duty. Man! It's amazing to think Lynch wrote the lyrics to "The World Spins" several years before this episode aired (there's even a spot where she says - I just looked it up - "a dog and bird are far away" and it always sounded to me like "the darkened murder far away"). So haunting. The scene that precedes this is, of course, the most well-executed (no pun intended!) in the entire series. And it resets Twin Peaks completely. No longer is this the show of exciting, winking evasions and moody suggestion in lieu of stark revelation, even when it wants to be. You'd think, leading up to it, that nothing could actually fulfill all the hype and anticipation of the Laura mystery. Lynch shatters this complacent expectation in what remains, to me, the most emotionally devastating sequence he's ever directed. It's surprisingly graphic for 1990 network television (God knows how this got past the censors), but more importantly it puts you in the victim's shoes completely - the sense of helplessness is palpable. I find it much more upsetting, and harder to watch, than scenes 100X more gory. This is one of my favorite episodes yet it isn't really one I look forward to watching for that reason. Sheryl Lee, whose daffy Maddy was a sweet but mostly unchallenging character for the untested actress, really proves her chops in this sequence. She went through hell that day - not only attacked by Frank Silva and Ray Wise but also Richard Beymer (Ben Horne) because the crew needed to be kept in the dark about who the killer actually was. I also like the way the Leland/Bob reveal is handled. Although the show is setting up a supernatural context we don't yet know exactly how this works. Is Leland a helpless puppet of Bob? Is he a kind of metaphysical partner? Is Bob simply a name for his evil side? As we watch Leland look in the mirror and see Bob (and that really spooky 2- or 3-second superimposition) the irresistible feeling, for me at least, is that the Leland we've come to know and love is implicated in this reflection. I remember the first time I watched this on DVD, going off to watch it all excited to find out what I'd been waiting for (the season was clearly leading in this direction) and then my gut kind of sinking when I saw who it was. Somehow, the filicide aspect seemed distant enough from reality (although, of course, it isn't), but I was really unsettled by the jarring, creepy realization that Leland must also be the mysterious abuser and sexual partner that the series kept hinting at. My perception of the show shifted and none of the subsequent comic hijinks or clunky melodrama (not to be spoiler-ish, but the rumors you've heard about the rest of season 2 are true) could erase this memory. And finally, on another note entirely, the implicit killer's reveal obviously overshadows everything else in the episode but boy is this is a superbly-directed episode of Twin Peaks. Every scene crackles with a weird energy and extremely effective cutting, camera, and design choices. Weak subplots like comatose Leo and (especially) super Nadine are actually effective, reminding us of the dark heart and psychological reality that beats underneath even these wacky storylines (the cherry dripping down Nadine's hand is a foreboding indication of what's to come). That slow move through the Palmer living room is so ominous, and what a needle-drop. And even if you hate James-Donna, you've gotta love that moment where she lip-syncs Rockin' Back Inside My Heart. Well, I do, anyway. Questions: -Were you expecting this? Or anything like this? -Who did you suspect? -How do you think the Leland/Bob relationship works? Do you think it is a dramatic cheat (many in 1990 did)? -Were you surprised that Harold killed himself? -Be honest? Did you see the Catherine thing coming? Did you find it humorous or too Mickey-Rooney-in-Breakfast-at-Tiffany's cringeworthy? -Did you believe that Ben was the suspect when he was arrested, or did it seem too easy? -What do you make of Cooper's failure to correctly identify the killer from Laura's diary? -Do you think there are more big revelations to come? -Is Maddy dead? If so, will Cooper be able to stop Leland/Bob before he kills again? How long will it take him to catch the killer? -I asked this last week, but where do you see Twin Peaks going once the Laura Palmer mystery is solved? Will she remain a part of the story somehow? Or will a whole new show begin? This is only a very minor spoiler, but don't read if you don't want to know anything about the production context of upcoming episodes, or how big a role Laura Palmer plays later in the season. There are no real plot spoilers though. Reveal hidden contents This is David Lynch's last episode until the finale (and if you find yourself wanting to quit around the middle of season 2, which neither he nor Frost played much of a role in, I'd suggest at the very least skipping ahead to the final episode and watching Fire Walk With Me as well. Even more than this episode, they are my two favorite pieces of Twin Peaks and without a doubt the most Lynchian entries in the saga). Lynch has repeatedly emphasized over the years, and Mark Frost has confirmed (and later agreed that Lynch was right), that he did not want to end Laura Palmer's mystery, which he viewed as the centerpiece of the whole show - "the goose that laid the golden eggs" or the sun around which TP's solar system spun. Ironically, it brought out possibly the best work of his career. Personally I think that what was really going on was a bit different. Yes, Lynch loves being enveloped in mystery and he knows that even an ongoing drama needs a strong core. But the way he threw himself into the first part of season two suggests that what really upset him about this reveal was that it effectively ended Laura Palmer as a character in Twin Peaks. From the time he saw Sheryl Lee in the picnic video, Lynch was fascinated by Laura who is in many ways a quintessentially Lynchian construction. Frost saw Twin Peaks as something much bigger than Laura - the story of a whole community in which Laura was just a MacGuffin to push us through the door. With his experience in TV he was worried about her storyline overshadowing everything else they wanted to do with the show. When the network came down hard on the creators to unveil the killer, Frost was inclined to agree, viewing it as an opportunity to expand the show's scope. Lynch neither wrote nor directed the very problematic episode in which the storyline is completely resolved, and by all accounts mostly stayed away from Twin Peaks after this. He returns a few times as Gordon Cole and there's a very strange upcoming moment with a drawer pull which was reportedly his idea. But he was curiously absent from story meetings and the set. To this day he claims he was off shooting Wild at Heart, but that's impossible since the film premiered before the second season had even been greenlit, let alone written or shot. Instead, it seems Lynch was alienated from the series he helped create and couldn't figure out how to put it back on track. Eventually he did figure out, and while it was far too late to save the series (which honestly was already doomed by the time THIS episode aired), the best is yet to come in Twin Peaks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SirJakoz Posted January 21, 2015 Wow, what a roller coaster of an episode. Some scattered thoughts: The first scene with Mike explaining where Bob is, for those who missed last week's episode apparently Yet another secret compartment (Leo's new boots) Two-Armed Mike's return For some reason I thought Nadine was going to burst out singing at the 'Double R', when the new weird music started playing Random sailors throwing balls around and smiling, while a man is yelling and collapsing in the middle of the room What happened to Jerry? Am I missing something? I can't remember the last time we saw him Catherine's reveal, I have no idea where that storyline is going Red drapes Everyone is clearly upset after Bob kills(?) Maddie in an incredibly haunting scene I'm sure I'm missing something, but so many things happened and I didn't take notes. Ps: Manny Calavera wins the prize for most used avatar on the forums! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nappi Posted January 21, 2015 God, I had completely forgotten how harrowing the Maddy scene was. Also, we have just reached the halfway point of the series. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jutranjo Posted January 21, 2015 On 1/21/2015 at 4:47 PM, LostInTheMovies said: Reveal hidden contents And finally, on another note entirely, the killer's reveal - I don't think it's spoilerish to say that Maddy's death is meant to imply that Leland killed Laura too - obviously overshadows everything else in the episode but boy is this is a superbly-directed episode of Twin Peaks. Every scene crackles with a weird energy and extremely effective cutting, camera, and design choices. Weak subplots like comatose Leo and (especially) super Nadine are actually effective, reminding us of the dark heart and psychological reality that beats underneath even these wacky storylines (the cherry dripping down Nadine's hand is a foreboding indication of what's to come). That slow move through the Palmer living room is so ominous, and what a needle-drop. And even if you hate James-Donna, you've gotta love that moment where she lip-syncs Rockin' Back Inside My Heart. Well, I do, anyway. Why not just put this in spoilers, everything else in the other topics so far has been :\ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guts Posted January 21, 2015 "Amen! what are you looking at? what are you waiting for? you make me sick! you damn hypocrites make me sick! everybody knew she was in trouble, but we didn't do anything. All you good people, you want to know who killed Laura? You DID! We all did." Bobby Brigs at Laura's funeral Why didn't we know? Laura is showing all the symptoms of someone suffering from severe sexual abuse. I'm not a psychologist but you would think it would be obvious to some one watching at home that Leland is the killer. Now my memories of watching the first run of this show are not great, I was 12/13 years old, but I don't believe too many people saw it coming. Why? Is it because Laura Palmer's actions were not really that different from any other character in a soap opera. Is it because the viewing audience was used to seeing women portrayed as manipulative sex objects on television without context? Did the TV show flip us on our heads and say hey, Laura was actually a representation of a Human not a 2 dimensional fem fatal from a Noir Film? I would think that people watching it fresh today might have a better chance at figuring it out. How many crime dramas today involve child abuse and insest vs 1990? I don't think many episodes of Matlock, Murder she wrote, or father Dowlings mysteries went there. Maybe it was Leland's portrayal. Leland was sympathetic, the music cues told us so. He showed remorse, and we all know that guilty people never show remorse (Ask Adnan Syed). But wait, it was Bob right? Leland didn't kill anybody? Did he? I think you can make your own choice about what happens inside the world of twin peaks, but what we the audience should take away from watching this is that you can not see the demons lurking in people. Whether or not they come from deep inside or from some nether world that we can't perceive, bad people don't have signs or music cues to tell you what to think. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LostInTheMovies Posted January 21, 2015 On 1/21/2015 at 5:50 PM, Jutranjo said: Why not just put this in spoilers, everything else in the other topics so far has been :\ Apologies if I spoiled anything (I just changed the wording so that people who watched the episode can be left with some ambiguity - although at this point it looks like the rest of the thread is not following suit). In 1990 Reveal hidden contents it was openly advertised as the killer's reveal, but you are correct that the episode itself is not 100% clear on this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jutranjo Posted January 21, 2015 This is my first time going through it but I only took it that Bob is residing within Leland now. I thought maybe he could move between hosts. Leland seeing Bob at the summer house when he was younger might mean he's been Bob's host all this time or that he saw Bob residing in his neighbour. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LostInTheMovies Posted January 21, 2015 On 1/21/2015 at 6:17 PM, Jutranjo said: This is my first time going through it but I only took it that Bob is residing within Leland now. I thought maybe he could move between hosts. Leland seeing Bob at the summer house when he was younger might mean he's been Bob's host all this time or that he saw Bob residing in his neighbour. That makes sense. All I'll say is that, whether or not Bob was with Leland when Laura was killed, there is a lot about Bob's relationship to Leland, Bob himself, and Leland himself that remains to be unveiled - some of it not until the film. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guts Posted January 21, 2015 My Assumption is that we should be able to talk about the episode itself. If the reveal in the episode is to much to go into until the podcast comes out then maybe it should be stated at the opening post, or maybe there should just be a warning for anyone who hasn't seen the episode not to look further until they had. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gamebeast23456 Posted January 21, 2015 The roadhouse scene might be the most incredible sequence I've ever seen on a television show. This entire episode was just a punch to the gut, it was so deeply horrific on so many levels, but it also had an air of tragic predictability. Of course it would happen again- why not? I really have to applaud everyone who worked on this episode. They really encapsulated all the horror and beauty of the show in those scenes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apple Cider Posted January 21, 2015 The scene with Maddy was really horrifying the first time I saw it and I got that same gut punch when I finally watched FWWM. Because it gives you a huge amount of context for that scene. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Argobot Posted January 21, 2015 This reveal is probably one of the better versions of a Shocking Episode I've seen in a TV show. Leland adjusting his clothes in the mirror is a great slow lead up so that when you finally see Bob's reflection looking back at him, you've already kind of guessed what's going on and feel devastated. I'm so glad this scene maintains the kind of weird humor that follows Leland around. It's grotesquely comedic in the same way as Laura's funeral scene and it pays off. Prior to FWWM, I liked that this scene is the only real glimpse you have into the violence of Laura's death. The movie gets rid of any ambiguity by actually showing Laura die and I really wish that it didn't. As much as I like FWWM, I much rather prefer the only insight into what happened to Laura be anything that you can infer from what Maddy goes though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AgentCoop Posted January 21, 2015 I watched this episode when it first aired, and have seen it maybe fifty more times in the intervening years, and it has lost none of it's power to shock and terrify. The end of the episode (from the time when Cooper, Truman and the Log Lady arrive at the Roadhouse) remains my favorite thing that has ever been on television. I absolutely adore the moment when the Old Waiter comes over and tells Cooper "I'm so sorry". The way Kyle MacLachlan plays it is just perfect. Cooper knows he's failed somehow, but he doesn't know in what way. The way some of the other Roadhouse patrons seem to feel sadness and confusion is just beautiful. I find the whole sequence to be a testament to David Lynch's unique ability to combine beauty and horror in a way that no other filmmaker can. There's a brilliant little thing in this episode that's easy to miss: When Leland/BOB is cradling Maddy and dancing around in a circle (what an amazingly brutal scene), they are in nearly the exact spot where Leland (way back in episode 3, also directed by Lynch) danced in a circle with Laura's picture. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Elen Posted January 22, 2015 Quote In that Well, finally the big reveal. Who could have foreseen that Mr. Tojamura was really Catherine? Well, I wasn't expecting to laugh aloud when reading this thread, but there you go! I watched the series for the first time a few months ago. I think any modern TV viewer has seen some pretty explicit, violent content, but the gravity and brutality of Maddie's death was still shocking. I found it deeply upsetting, but for the right reasons, if that makes sense. It didn't seem like Lynch was going for shock-value, it seemed like he was trying to get across some bit of the horror about this thing that happens every day, around the world. In that way it's a real precursor to FWWM. Quote I absolutely adore the moment when the Old Waiter comes over and tells Cooper "I'm so sorry". The way Kyle MacLachlan plays it is just perfect. Cooper knows he's failed somehow, but he doesn't know in what way. The way some of the other Roadhouse patrons seem to feel sadness and confusion is just beautiful. I find the whole sequence to be a testament to David Lynch's unique ability to combine beauty and horror in a way that no other filmmaker can. That whole scene and setup in the Roadhouse, just....it's too good. I feel a little overwhelmed when I think about it and that makes it hard to articulate why I love it. (Thankfully, many people already have.) A big part of that is the actor playing the Giant, too: his delivery is so solemn and sad as he explains that "it is happening again". Because of course it is, and there's nothing anyone there can do about it except weep. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StealThisCorn Posted January 22, 2015 I won't do a long review--because others have already pretty much expressed my general thoughts on this episode. It is definitely one of my favorites--masterfully directed, full of emotion and truly chilling. It uses the some of the most effective techniques of horror to convey a sadly pedestrian everyday, garden-variety horror that goes on in far too many homes across the world, while at the same time appealing to my love for lore, mythology and some of the conventions of supernatural genre fiction. I've learned by now that the hosts of this podcast tend to emphasize the craftsmanship aspect of the show, the production process, the mechanics of story construction and show design etc., but I personally get the most out of analyzing the story and the characters within it in terms of the fictional reality of their own world and, just above that, the real world inspiration, coincidences, conception and compromises that lead to how that story plays out. That said, just a couple of things that I found the most perplexing in that vein for this episode: Why didn't Cooper and the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department go to the Great Northern that night at the end of last episode when "Mike" told them that Bob was there? Because of the way this show insists on having each episode more or less be a separate day, it really does feel silly how it opens up with "Mike" repeating the exact same lines that he said at the end of the last episode, about Bob being in "a large house made of wood with many rooms..." while the police all just look on and sip their coffee. It almost seems like he's just been saying this over and over again waiting for them to do something abou it but they insist on weirdly waiting till the next day even when it makes no logical sense within the story. Margaret the Log Lady tells Cooper that there are "Owls in the Roadhouse" which leads everybody to head over there after they've arrested Ben Horne. And then, while there, the Giant appears just to tell them "It. Is. Happening. Again". Cooper checks for his ring only to realize, as the whole room seems to fall into a deep sadness, that he has failed. But yet if "the Owls" wouldn't have pulled Cooper away to go wait at the Roadhouse, I would think that after reading the scraps of Laura's diary about how she was molested and abused from an early age by Bob, who she calls 'a friend of her father's', the next logical place for Cooper to go would be to the Palmer household to ask Leland some hard questions, thus causing him to catch Leland in the act and possibly save Maddy's life. So is the Giant *really* a positive force as he had seemed to be, when all he does here is get Cooper's attention in order to get him somewhere else other than where he actually needs to be to stop the crime the Giant is announcing? Also, isn't it weird that I can't think of a single instance where Cooper has ever directly interacted with Maddy on screen the whole run of the show so far? Especially when all the way back in Episode 3, the Little Man in Cooper's dream expressly said, "She's my cousin but doesn't she look almost exactly like Laura Palmer?" which directly preceded the next episode where Maddy Fergusson first arrives in town for the funeral and it seems like, because of the dream, she will be signficant. And even later, Maddy starts having visions like the bloodstain on the carpet where she met her demise in this episode or her terrifying vision of Bob coming at her at the Hayward house, which we later learn Sarah called to tell Cooper about offscreen, yet Cooper never once goes to talk to her or think that perhaps she is in danger. I have always wondered why he referenced so many clues from his dream but never followed up on the "cousin" part of it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Afterward Posted January 22, 2015 It seems to me that not everybody at the Roadhouse reacts to the murder. Donna definitely does, and interestingly Bobby appears to have some idea of what's going on, but dopey James is utterly confused by Donna's breakdown, and the extras are all carrying on without a care in the world. I didn't get the sense that Harry was aware of anything—the camera was basically ignoring him for the whole sequence. I did feel like that the Log Lady was able to see the Giant along with Cooper. She wouldn't think to mention it if she did. So by my count, the only people who feel the psychic shock of what's happening are Cooper and Margaret, whom we know to be spiritually aware individuals, and Donna and Bobby, who are a couple of teens. And any number of people could have shown up at the Roadhouse for this scene: Why don't we see Norma, who frequents the Roadhouse, or Shelly, or Audrey? Donna is heavily invested in Laura's story, as the teenage Cooper, but why does Bobby (who hasn't had cause to think about Laura for at least a week) get all empathetic all of a sudden? I have something to say about the Giant's apparent unhelpfulness but since my analysis kind of implicitly draws from later episodes I will spoil-tag it. Reveal hidden contents Some people have concluded otherwise, and it's not totally explicit in the text one way or the other, but my view is that the Giant inhabits Señor Droolcup in the same way Bob inhabits Leland Palmer and Mike inhabits Philip Gerard. On this view, the statements "It is happening again" and "I'm so sorry" are coming from the same entity. As StealThisCorn notes, Mike is still babbling about the Great Northern the morning after he first made his grand revelation. The thing is, Leland was at the Great Northern that night, but he almost certainly has returned to his home by the time Mike has had his coffee the next morning. So Mike's Bob-detecting ability is in error: He's able to pinpoint Bob's location at one point in time, but after that he either can't do another "reading," or he just doesn't for some reason. When he has an attack at the Great Northern, it's when Ben Horne walks in. Leland is nowhere to be seen. Plot-wise, this all happens because the surface level of the story is doing all it can to convince Cooper to suspect Ben and, if possible, convince the audience even sooner. But in the lore, it means Mike is just plain wrong. And the Giant, who is the same kind of thing as Mike, is just as capable of screwing up. When he says "I'm so sorry" to Coop, it's because they've both failed. I'm convinced that the Giant's (and Mike's) intentions are good, but they're limited in how much they can help. Why does the Log Lady send Cooper to the Roadhouse when there's still time to save Maddy? Maybe once Cooper concludes that Ben Horne is the man, the die has been cast, and he's sealed Maddy's fate by not following the Giant's and Mike's clues correctly. He's dragged off to the Roadhouse (which, as we've seen, is also a courtroom) to hear the sentence for his failure. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LostInTheMovies Posted January 22, 2015 Also gonna use this to respond to one of StealThisCorn's observations. On 1/22/2015 at 9:52 PM, Afterward said: It seems to me that not everybody at the Roadhouse reacts to the murder. Donna definitely does, and interestingly Bobby appears to have some idea of what's going on, but dopey James is utterly confused by Donna's breakdown, and the extras are all carrying on without a care in the world. I didn't get the sense that Harry was aware of anything—the camera was basically ignoring him for the whole sequence. I did feel like that the Log Lady was able to see the Giant along with Cooper. She wouldn't think to mention it if she did. So by my count, the only people who feel the psychic shock of what's happening are Cooper and Margaret, whom we know to be spiritually aware individuals, and Donna and Bobby, who are a couple of teens. And any number of people could have shown up at the Roadhouse for this scene: Why don't we see Norma, who frequents the Roadhouse, or Shelly, or Audrey? Donna is heavily invested in Laura's story, as the teenage Cooper, but why does Bobby (who hasn't had cause to think about Laura for at least a week) get all empathetic all of a sudden? I have something to say about the Giant's apparent unhelpfulness but since my analysis kind of implicitly draws from later episodes I will spoil-tag it. Reveal hidden contents Some people have concluded otherwise, and it's not totally explicit in the text one way or the other, but my view is that the Giant inhabits Señor Droolcup in the same way Bob inhabits Leland Palmer and Mike inhabits Philip Gerard. On this view, the statements "It is happening again" and "I'm so sorry" are coming from the same entity. As StealThisCorn notes, Mike is still babbling about the Great Northern the morning after he first made his grand revelation. The thing is, Leland was at the Great Northern that night, but he almost certainly has returned to his home by the time Mike has had his coffee the next morning. So Mike's Bob-detecting ability is in error: He's able to pinpoint Bob's location at one point in time, but after that he either can't do another "reading," or he just doesn't for some reason. When he has an attack at the Great Northern, it's when Ben Horne walks in. Leland is nowhere to be seen. Plot-wise, this all happens because the surface level of the story is doing all it can to convince Cooper to suspect Ben and, if possible, convince the audience even sooner. But in the lore, it means Mike is just plain wrong. And the Giant, who is the same kind of thing as Mike, is just as capable of screwing up. When he says "I'm so sorry" to Coop, it's because they've both failed. I'm convinced that the Giant's (and Mike's) intentions are good, but they're limited in how much they can help. Why does the Log Lady send Cooper to the Roadhouse when there's still time to save Maddy? Maybe once Cooper concludes that Ben Horne is the man, the die has been cast, and he's sealed Maddy's fate by not following the Giant's and Mike's clues correctly. He's dragged off to the Roadhouse (which, as we've seen, is also a courtroom) to hear the sentence for his failure. Lots of great thoughts here. A few responses: - The real world explanation for Bobby's reaction at the Road House is that the actor visited the set that day and Lynch, on a whim, decided to include him (he wasn't scripted in the scene). Which is great, imo, because without him there it would feel just a little smaller. Even though, as you note, only a few people are really reacting to what's happening the fact that it's Cooper, maybe the Log Lady, Donna/James (well, maybe not James), AND Bobby makes it feel a bit more universal. That's Lynch in a nutshell - the intersection of opportunity and instinct. - Reveal hidden contents I 100% agree that the old waiter is the Giant's host, or at least fundamentally connected to the giant. Numerous connections are drawn between them - the waiter leads to the giant's appearance in the s2 premiere and also in the episode where Coop catches the killer, and then most obviously in the finale when the giant replaces him onscreen and says "one and the same." But I have also begun to toy with the idea that "one and the same" is a double reference: meaning not only that the Giant and the waiter are identical but also, perhaps, that the Giant "folds into" the Little Man (since he is sitting right next to him when he says it). This would also explain why he isn't in FWMM (although there's probably some real-world explanation as well for why Lynch didn't/couldn't use Carol Struckyen). In that film, Lynch goes even further and basically fuses the Little Man and Mike into the same entity. By this count, Mike/the Little Man/Mike/the Giant/Phillip Gerard are all aspects or depictions of the same being, a counterforce to Bob. Though this still leaves the Tremonds as "free agents." - I agree that there's only so much the giant and the waiter and others can do. Ultimately it's Cooper's job to piece everything together. Which leads me to your other point... - I love the idea that Cooper is going to the Roadhouse for a "sentencing" - which, ironically, is where Leland was let off the hook a few weeks earlier. After watching the series several times, it occurred to me that the mystery/investigation unfolds in an unusual way, at least up to this point. For fifteen episodes we have followed the detective as he pieces together the evidence, receives visions, and draws deductions. And then...he gets the wrong man, and the killer strikes again. Obviously this says something about Coop although it's easy to overlook that aspect, since he is such an admirable hero. But he has a flaw that has blinded him to getting the right man. Among other things, I think his flaw - like the rest of the town - is that he cannot recognize that ground zero of Laura's trouble was at home. The diary gives him plenty of evidence as do all the aspects screaming "sexual abuse victim" in Laura's life. But he falls for the "big baddie" trap that the show also kind of leads us into. Ben Horne is the perfect culprit and usual suspect, but the show is always telling us to look beneath the surface, to realize how deeply good and evil and light and dark are intertwined, how there isn't actually a "safe place" to which we can retreat from the troubling aspects of the world. Later in the series Reveal hidden contents this will play out as Cooper fails to acknowledge his own shadow self. I believe this is the big reason he is trapped in the Lodge in the finale, because - unlike Laura in FWWM - he can't realize that evil is part of a larger reality and must be overcome from within (his comments in a couple episodes - "it's our job to fight it" & his wrongheaded interpretation of Leland/Bob to Sarah) establish that he sees darkness as a threatening outside force; he thinks too dualistically). - I relate this to what StealThisCorn says about Maddy. Cooper never connects with her over the series which DOES seem really odd. And there may very well be real-world reasons for this as well...it could just have been overlooked by the writers. But it also works narratively and thematically because, once again, Cooper is unable to see that family and home are at the root of Laura's problems even after Laura essentially gives him a clue in the dream. Maddy is the closest to the killer of anyone in Twin Peaks, and Cooper never gives her a second thought. It's one more way he's looking in the wrong direction. In the fact, the people who are most on track with their investigations are - surprise! - James and Donna who look for clues in Laura's inner world instead of her social connections (Audrey) or criminal/spiritual underworld tormenters (Cooper). Interestingly, their investigation is also the most destructive, landing Jacoby in the hospital and killing Harold. Regarding Leland/Bob responsibility for the attack on Maddy, Reveal hidden contents as far as Leland is concerned, it is clearly motivated by Maddy's desire to leave the Palmer home. As FWWM reveals, Leland has a real issue with control: particularly controlling young women. He gleefully taunts Teresa about not knowing who he is, and kills her when she finds out. He gives himself away to Laura by frantically leafing through her diary and verbally abusing her when he notices the necklace from James - and kills her the night after she confronts him for the first time. - Later in the show, Reveal hidden contents we learn that Cooper is not good at identifying or understanding trauma. He cannot figure out who tormented Caroline (the spin-off book fleshes this out - as well as revealing a backstory in which Cooper's mother was also victim of a Bob-like spirit and gave him the ring we see him wear on the show), never actually finds out any details about Annie's troubled history, and tellingly, the question he mockingly asks once Bob is ascendent is, "How's Annie?" And FWWM underscores his inability to pierce the fog surrounding Teresa's and Laura's violent deaths and painful lives. This is all part of a larger narrative move in Twin Peaks, unfolding both intentionally and accidentally, to undermine the conventional authority of the detective figure and instead emphasize the victim's understanding of her own experience. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AgentCoop Posted January 23, 2015 Great observations all around about Cooper's "blind spots", as it were. Cooper is perhaps my favorite fictional hero, and a part of the reason why is that he's not quite as perfect as he seems at first. I find it interesting that the reason Cooper goes to the Roadhouse (as opposed to the Palmer home where he's actually needed) is that Margaret tells him that there are owls there. However, the Giant had already told him that "the owls are not what they seem". It seems to me that that could be interpreted as a reason NOT to go to the Roadhouse. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
80's Bad Guy Posted January 23, 2015 I am julee cruise's crazy hair. Also, damn. That was darker than I remembered. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Horza Posted January 24, 2015 Started watching about two weeks ago and just caught up with the cast. Forcing myself not to binge the rest of the show now. On 1/21/2015 at 4:47 PM, LostInTheMovies said: -Were you expecting this? Or anything like this? Didn't expect anything this dramatic or dark at this point of the season. The Netflix episode description says "Laura Palmer's killer is revealed" so that's not a surprise but I thought it'd be in the form of Cooper getting a new clue or something. On 1/21/2015 at 4:47 PM, LostInTheMovies said: -Who did you suspect? My latest theory before this episode was that Bob jumps from hos to host. Was not sure who he'd been in when Laura died. Gerald doesn't seem to be aware of Mike (at least not completely) and I assume it works the same way with Bob and his hosts. I entertained the thought that maybe Bob entered Leland when his hair turned white. Maybe Bob was inside Jacques Renault and found a new host when he died. Doesn't seem very likely though. Bob being inside/around Leland all the time explains Maddy and Sarah seeing him around the house but I'm not sure how it fits into Maddy seeing him at Donna's house. Was Leland around when Bob killed his first victim in an another town. Ben Horn's lawyer probably does a fair amount of travelling. On 1/21/2015 at 4:47 PM, LostInTheMovies said: -Be honest? Did you see the Catherine thing coming? Did you find it humorous or too Mickey-Rooney-in-Breakfast-at-Tiffany's cringeworthy? I knew that Tojamura was obviously a woman in a bad disguise and had been wondering when Catherine comes back. I still somehow could't make a connection between the two. I'm probably more stunned about that than the Leland/Bob reveal. On 1/21/2015 at 4:47 PM, LostInTheMovies said: -I asked this last week, but where do you see Twin Peaks going once the Laura Palmer mystery is solved? Will she remain a part of the story somehow? Or will a whole new show begin? I really don't know. Wouldn't that end Cooper's assignment in Twin Peaks? I'm under the impression that whatever comes between the Laura arc being wrapped up and the finale is not that great. This probably isn't super useful 15 episodes into the series and Laura's killer having been revealed but quoting a post seems to show you the stuff inside spoiler tags. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
agorman Posted January 25, 2015 I really love the first scene at the Palmer house in this episode. Something about the way its shot, with "What a Wonderful World" playing in the background, and knowing what's about to come....something about it was quite powerful Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LostInTheMovies Posted January 25, 2015 I think if you quote the entire spoiler you should be fine. Or add a new spoiler tag to something you're already cutting off. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Horza Posted January 25, 2015 On 1/25/2015 at 10:11 PM, LostInTheMovies said: I think if you quote the entire spoiler you should be fine. Or add a new spoiler tag to something you're already cutting off. I meant that you see the contents of the spoiler section in the edit view. I just immediately thought about the (unlikely) worst case scenario of a first time viewer quoting a post containing both questions to first time viewers and mega spoilers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
