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Episode 26

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 10:55 pm
by LostInTheMovies
Let's talk the linkage of Windom Earle & the Lodge, the mystery of the hooded figure, Gordon's & Shelly's smooch, and whatever else you want to analyze, discuss, or criticize from this episode. And shed a tear for Rusty Tomaski.

Twin Peaks Out of Order #21: Episode 26

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2015 10:16 pm
by LostInTheMovies
Re-watching Twin Peaks from my least favorite to favorite episode...

Previously: Episode 24 (http://www.dugpa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=42940#p42940)

Finally, ten entries in, we reach an episode on which either Mark Frost or David Lynch are actually credited - both of them, for good measure! Of course, these aren't their heaviest contributions. David Lynch checks in for one last (memorable) appearance as Gordon Cole, smooching Shelly before he says goodbye. Aside from his brief, unenthusiastic vocal appearance in ep. 18 (which was very phoned-in...see what I did there?), this is the first time Lynch has appeared either on- or offscreen during this rewatch. Frost, meanwhile, co-wrote the teleplay with Harley Peyton, his only writing credit between the resolution of Laura's mystery and the final episode. The timing is odd, since 26 mostly feels like filler between the full-swing reboot of ep. 25 & the intensified climactic myth-building of ep. 27. Still, Frost's touch can be felt as the various storylines draw together. Cooper even addresses this subject directly, calling the disparate but merging threads "different verses in the same song." That sense of an intertwined community is something that has been missing for the entirety of season two, even the best episodes, and it's a welcome return (even if it emerges more in the previous episode than this one). Several of the long-isolated characters are crossing paths. We watch Donna hang out with Shelly & Bobby (joined by Nadine & Mike, whom Bobby hasn’t palled around with in a while...for reasons Mike gleefully explains here). The white-haired trio of the Doc, the Mayor, and Pete lend their bemused, skeptical ears to Ben's pitch for Miss Twin Peaks. And Coop and Jack ruminate about love over whiskey and milk, in one of the only JJW scenes that actually works for me (mostly because MacLachlan carries it: I love his matter-of-fact response to Jack's lame "Hindus, amirite?" attempt at wit). There's not much more to say about 26. Aside from two or three highlights, it mostly just chugs along harmlessly. Avoiding the pitfalls of the lower-ranked episodes, it also avoids their occasional heights. We only plunge into deep ridiculousness when a pontificating, smock-clad Windom Earle fires an arrow into Airheads dropout/giant chess piece-bound Ted Raimi (a/k/a Heavy Metal Dude a/k/a Rusty Tomaski as in The Ballad of Rusty Tomaski). But this is so completely, unapologetically cheesy that I kind of go with it. At least it serves a plot function, although "Next time it will be somebody you know" sure feel like a boy-who-cried-wolf cop-out on Windom's part. Exactly one-third of the way through the rewatch, we are mostly done with the show's mediocre batch. From now on we have a lot to look forward to.

Next: Episode 27 (http://www.dugpa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=43445#p43445

Re: Episode 26

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2015 11:16 am
by Dalai Cooper
YOU ARE WITNESSING A FRONT THREE-QUARTER VIEW OF TWO ADULTS SHARING A TENDER MOMENT

Re: Episode 26

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 11:46 pm
by David Locke
This is a really solid episode. I like how it somehow completely makes JJW non-worthless with that surprisingly poignant fireside chat with Coop. Similarly, Annie and Coop in the boat is one of the few scenes between them that really sells their romance and makes it work. Lots of big baroque images: the weird moon/hooded figure, the box designed with moon phases, the pawn in the gigantic box with the "Pull Me" sign. Even the weak subplots are not that weak this episode; I actually kind of like the wine tasting stuff with Dick. Now that I think about it this episode is refreshingly free of the bad subplots that exemplify mid-late S2. It's lean, mean and full of purpose.

Re: Episode 26

Posted: Tue May 02, 2017 12:57 pm
by Gabriel
Some great stuff in this episode. In light of where the show goes, why does Lana want to win Miss Twin Peaks so badly? Is she just trashy and vain or does her ability to manipulate every man around her serve some aim to get herself taken to the Black Lodge? Could Annie, JJW and Lana all be Lodge spirits?

The Eckhardt mystery box seemed to hold something of interest at this stage. Lynch clearly wasn't interested so the entire plotline gets blown up shortly after. It's a shame: given the whole Asian mysticism surrounding Cooper and his obsession with Tibet, maybe Josie's connections would have led to something that ties in with the woods.

The dude in the chess piece is EC Comics Grand Guignol. The hooded figure is just damn creepy. I'm sorry we never saw more of him or her. Could the figure be someone we know? (Annie?)

Not a lot happens in the episode, but yet another Lynch cameo lifts things and his scene with Shelly (and Bobby) is utterly hilarious. Coop and Annie is happening way too fast, but maybe that's the point. As the show enters its final stretch itsbseems full of life once more. Quite honestly, that bad patch of episodes really dragged this time. Oh, and the clash between Pacific Northwest and California locations really bugged me again.

Re: Episode 26

Posted: Tue May 02, 2017 11:57 pm
by David Locke
Obviously it's just speculation, but I don't get the sense that Lynch is disinterested in the mystery-box plotline. (The explosive ending was in the original script for 29, right?)

Maybe it's just me projecting my own thoughts, but I always feel like that plotline - with its sense of, well, mystery, and its cluster of great acting talent - is one of the best of late S2. It seems like something Lynch would be more accepting of, if only because it seems at least slightly more like something he could've come up with himself. (In the next episode, director Gyllenhaal will provide a nice, rather Lynchian touch in one of the mystery-box scenes: the camera keeps a strange, unexplained focus on the giant animal head mounted on the wall instead of following the actor actually smashing the box).

Re: Episode 26

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 4:11 pm
by TwinPeaksFanatic
Despite his controlling attitude toward Shelly, I always get a laugh from Bobby's reaction to what Mike whispers in his ear about Nadine. I wrote a recap for this episode here ---> http://twinpeaksfanatic.blogspot.com/20 ... de-26.html :D

Re: Episode 26

Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 1:01 pm
by MoondogJR
LostInTheMovies wrote:Let's talk the linkage of Windom Earle & the Lodge, the mystery of the hooded figure, Gordon's & Shelly's smooch, and whatever else you want to analyze, discuss, or criticize from this episode. And shed a tear for Rusty Tomaski.
The word linkage reminds me of sausage. Never cared much for the links. Preferred the patties :D

Re: Episode 26

Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2017 6:46 am
by Jonah
Good opening scene here with close-ups of the petroglyph/map.

And I like the music and how it dissolves to the cabin for Windom's speech about the lodges.

The Rusty stuff in this episode alternates between silly and almost disturbing.

The Catherine/Pete stuff is fun.

More Lana. Ugh.

A couple of nice scenes with Annie and Cooper.

The Mike/Nadine stuff here is sort of fun. I like the scene with Mike and Bobby.

A bit more on the lodges and with Briggs.

Shelly being nervous about making a speech is cute.

Truman going to visit Catherine to talk about Josie is interesting. The box mystery is sort of intriguing.

The scene with Annie and Cooper on the boat while Windom watches them feels very like an 80's/90's thriller movie but it works. I like it for the most part.

The wine tasting scene is another scene like the fashion show - mixed. A bit too like the mid-season stretch, though Dick is often amusing, and some of the interactions between him and Andy here are quite funny.

The Cole/Shelley scene is great. Feels like a direct sequel to the scene in the previous episode, Episode 25.

I do very much like the scene with John Justice Wheeler and Cooper.

Eileen Hayward sure likes peas! It seems a little late in the season for this Donna plot to be getting so much attention. It's okay - but it's only okay.

The final scene at the gazebo is great. Another scene that feels like a thriller/horror movie - but it works.

This scene reminds me that there's a deleted scene (I think from Season 1) where Truman and Cooper walk by the gazebo, Cooper comments on the bear, but there's also a lawman-like figure that reminds me of the statue Dougie becomes enamoured with in the new series.

All in all, a pretty good episode. For one of the "return to form" episodes, though, I don't think it has scenes as strong as some of those that appear in the few episodes preceding this. Someone else commented that it's not a very memorable episode, and I'd probably agree with that.

Re: Episode 26

Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 5:04 pm
by Mr. Reindeer
Garland seems to be becoming somewhat more aware of his blocked memories from the Lodge, recalling having seen the petroglyph somewhere and seemingly having a memory of the hooded figure and some other images. Maybe soon he’ll recall learning about Judy?

It’s funny that Ben has the gall to address the Miss Twin Peaks judges’ committee when two out of the three judges are men whose wives have cheated with Ben. Even as a do-gooder, Ben sure is brazen.

All the Annie stuff in TFD contradicts the show repeatedly saying that Annie grew up in Twin Peaks, and that she and Norma grew up together. In the book, Annie grew up in Yakima and Norma didn’t know Annie existed until 1985. And of course, the senior year “boyfriend” Annie slashed her wrists over was oddly retconned to be her abusive father-in-law.

Cooper and Annie’s dialogue about how running from fear makes it stronger ties in thematically with the Black Lodge, and Garland and Hawk’s speeches earlier in the season.

It’s funny how Earle is wearing his lamest disguise yet while spying on Cooper, the one person in town who would definitely recognize him. It’s not even a disguise, he’s just wearing fishing gear!

It’s really a tribute to Peggy Lipton’s youthful looks that I can actually buy Annie as her sister, even though the actors’ ages were 24 years apart (Graham is only six years older than Lipton’s real-life daughter Rashida Jones).

The wine-tasting stuff reeeeally drags. There sure are a lot of town events this week in Twin Peaks.

Donna references going to college overseas. While she didn’t ultimately go that far, she does go to the other side of the continent.

This episode in Dale’s Diet:
— To Annie at the Double R: “I’ve got four hungry lawmen out in the police cruiser. We need donuts. And coffee. Hot. Two black, two white, no sugars please.” Annie brings the coffees and a dozen donuts to go
— Immediately afterward, in Harry’s office, Cooper seems to have already downed his to-go coffee and is drinking from his FBI mug (now that he has been re-instated to duty)
— Cherry pie at the Double R with Annie, Gordon and Shelly (Gordon: “Three each!”)
— Milk by the fireplace in the Great Northern (in this rather bizarre glass)