In a moment that’s not in the version of the script available online, Cooper finds some branches on the floor of Harry’s office and asks if they’re Douglas fir. Harry answers that they’re lodgepole pine. Given that Earle doesn’t leave any traces without a deliberate intent, the name of this particular tree seems to be an early, heavy-handed hint that he’s searching for the Lodges.
Boy, there is a lot of Marshland in this one. You could make a drinking game out of every time James says he’s leaving and Evelyn tells him not to (with doubles for every time James yells, “IT’S WRONG!”).
Farewell, Jeffrey Marsh. We hardly knew ye. How did you make your money? Where were you always traveling to? What’s with the track suit? So many questions that will never be answered.
I assume that offstage car crash is supposed to be in Evelyn’s scheming imagination, but it makes it seem like the crash happens at the end of the driveway. Which is inherently funny to me anyway, and even more ridiculous that it takes until nightfall for the cops to show if the crash was directly in front of the house.
There are a lot of very questionable acts of medical practice in this episode. Will, with a twinkle in his eye, encourages Ed to let his thirty-five-year-old mentally ill wife have sex with teenagers (that whole Laura Palmer thing is really in the rear-view mirror by this point). Jacoby encourages Ben’s delusions, and then makes a professional medical diagnosis that Lana is neither cursed nor capable of murder (!!)...and the lawmen defer to his expertise, with Cooper congratulating Lana! And then Jacoby is ready to go on a date with his patient as everyone grins ear to ear! (Remember four episodes ago when Pete and Will were talking about how Lana is a teenager? Again, glad the town has learned so much from that teenage girl being raped and murdered three weeks earlier...)
Speaking of Laura, I believe this is the first episode with no reference to her whatsoever outside the end credits photo. (No one mentions her in Episode 19, but her photo is seen in Ben’s office.)
That whole Lana sequence is a strong contender for worst scene in the entire history of the franchise, an absolute train wreck from the conceptual level on up. And yet, John Boylan is a charming and funny presence as Dwayne, and I always laugh at his delivery of, “I don’t wanna talk. I wanna SHOOT!”
Funny piece of trivia: If you listen closely to James’s phone call with Ed in the prior episode (or read the subtitles), Ed says James only has $12 left in his savings account! Donna drove all that way to give him $12. I wonder how much she spent on gas.
I’m sure I’ve said it before, but it’s fun seeing Beymer and Tamblyn sing together. Tamblyn starts out singing in character as Jacoby, but at the end with the shot of the waterfall, he’s full-on belting and sounds just like Riff in West Side Story! I wish they’d stayed on him singing instead of cutting to the waterfall. BTW, for anyone who hasn’t seen it, here’s a babyfaced Dr. Jacoby singing one of the most fun songs in the Broadway catalogue IMO:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j7TT4jnnWys
Briggs apparently can’t remember anything about his trip to the White Lodge other than an intuitive sense that great trouble is ahead (turns out that was putting it mildly). I’m gonna do my best to pinpoint when Garland might regain his memories of learning about Judy and when he might have his talk with Cooper and Gordon (although I have a feeling it’s a fool’s errand).
Eckhardt as a character doesn’t end up amounting to much, but I love David Warner, and he’s so cool in that moment with the fire reflecting in his shades.
I think if I ever go to a Twin Peaks trivia night, my team’s name will be ASIAN MAN KILLED!! That fax is a fun freeze-frame—the text of the article (which was obviously never intended to be read but it’s SUPER clear on the Blu Ray) is some generic prop-filler mumbo jumbo, speaking in the vaguest possible terms about a meeting and committee chairpersons (“Future plans will, of necessity, have great bearing on the situation as it now stands. Decisions will have to be made of the actual planning of the project will take considerable time but it is felt that these steps are very important”).
We learn that Will delivered Dick. Which means Dick joins Andrew Packard in the ranks of Twin Peaks natives with inexplicable British accents. Although in Dick’s case, I can totally believe that he just affects the accent because he’s a pompous pretentious twit.
For some reason, I find it really funny when Evelyn tells James that Malcolm isn’t her brother. I guess the writers just wanted to get that exposition out so we don’t think they’re incestuous, but it’s such an unnatural thing for her to say in that moment. “It was Malcolm’s idea!!! ...he’s not my brother.”
This episode in Dale’s diet:
— Harry hands Cooper coffee in a plain tan and brown mug as Erik Powell’s corpse is removed from Harry’s office
— Coffee in a plain blue mug while analyzing the chessboard in Harry’s office; Harry refills him
— Cooper, Harry and Garland each thirstily gulp down a glass of water poured by Lucy
— Harry: “I don’t know about you guys, but I could definitely use something to drink.” Cooper: “Me too”
— Coffee in a plain green mug while reading a book on Tibet in Lucy’s cubicle; he pours a second cup
Even by Dale’s standards, this is a particularly coffee-heavy episode for him! Good thing he hydrates by chugging that glass of water.