Episode 28

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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Episode 28

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This is still one of my absolute least favorite episodes, but it is a rather interesting one in light of TR.

Calendar check-in: By my calculation, this episode takes place on Easter Sunday! (March 26, 1989) It sure doesn’t feel like it. Weird day for a beauty pageant, and the characters we know are observant Christians (Annie and the Haywards) don’t seem to be celebrating. Interesting enough, the script has Will’s introductory pageant speech saying, “Hope you’ve had a good holiday,” indicating that maybe the writers were still tracking the calendar at this late stage! But presumably it was decided that this line was too distracting (it may have been changed to “good weekend” in ADR, Will’s lips don’t appear to match the words). If this is indeed Easter, it’s also bizarre that Lucy asks, “Have you both forgotten what day this is?” and Andy’s reply is, “Miss Twin Peaks Day?”

It’s strange how the writers converted Leo into an almost heroic figure at this late stage in the game. He was happy enough to try to kill Shelly a week ago in Episode 21.

There are so many conflicts on the Miss Twin Peaks judges’ board. Norma with Annie as her sister, Shelly as her employee and friend, and Nadine as her rival in love. Dick with Lucy. Dwayne with Lana. Donna with her dad Will on the committee and acting as emcee. The town feels so small and incestuous at this point, like the leads are the only ones who live there.

Audrey refers to “the Packards.” Who besides Catherine is she referring to? It’s left so ambiguous whether or not Andrew revealed himself to the community. He tells Eckhardt in E23 that his survival is a closely kept secret, but then he parades off to Paris to pimp Ghostwood. Then Dell is very surprised to see him in E29.

My regular episode-by-episode check-in on “the Judy of it all” continues....

Cooper: “Harry, Windom Earle has been seeking access to the Black Lodge as far back as 1965. This chess game may involve more pieces than we’ve begun to imagine.” This is a pretty stupid line of dialogue, given that chess games always involve the same number of pieces (see also, Pete in Episode 24 erroneously saying six people would die if he were able to keep twelve pieces). However, it’s interesting that this line opens up the possibility that Cooper is becoming aware that more is going on than the relatively straightforward narrative of Earle trying to access the Lodge, and that he may be becoming conscious of some of the mythological elements that form the backbone of TR.

He then tells Harry that if Earle is seeking access to the Black Lodge, it’s imperative that they find their way in before Earle does. This is really interesting. His goal is no longer to STOP Earle: it’s to beat him in gaining entry! Later, Cooper tells Diane he believes Earle is searching for the same thing “we” are, albeit for diametrically opposed reasons, again implying that Cooper’s goal now is actually not merely to stop Earle, but to enter the Lodges himself. Is he starting to hatch the “two birds, one stone” plot?

Entering the Black Lodge is probably a bad idea under any circumstances, I would venture to guess. The fact that Dale has the hubris to think that he’s supposed to enter is possibly the initial act of pride that leads to his ultimate defeat in Part 18. In terms of why he gets trapped in the Black Lodge in Episode 29...well, this certainly isn’t imperfect courage. If anything, it’s the exact opposite: way too MUCH courage. If imperfect courage is the danger when confronting the Black Lodge, perhaps one can also err the opposite direction, just as with the dichotomy between the spirits feeding off both “fear and the pleasures” (E13) and pain and suffering (FWWM). Diametrically opposed extremes, both deadly: as Mike said in E16, a “perfect relationship: appetite, satisfaction. A golden circle.”

Most significantly, Briggs mentions “Judy Garland”! Does he finally remember being told about Judy during his time in the White Lodge? (BTW, the “Judy” portion of this line isn’t in the script. Was this Don Davis or Tim Hunter’s innovation?) Also intriguing: when asked if Earle did this, Garland responds: “It was God, I suppose.” Did Garland see the face of God, as Mike did before he cut off his arm? And who is the King of Romania in all of this?

Coop, after initially questioning Briggs: “Harry, this is gonna take some time.” Indicating that they plan to question Garland further. We then have a break until the next conference room scene, and my new pet theory is that Garland babbles more information about Judy in between the two scenes, and THIS is when Dale calls Gordon and they hatch their “two birds, one stone” plot! It actually fits way more cleanly than I ever expected it would. I’m almost as giddy as Kyle is in that awful latter conference room scene. “By heavens!”

Cooper mentions Harry talking about an evil in the woods. I don’t believe we ever heard Harry use those words, although he did call it a darkness.

Ugh, Pinkle just sucks.

I think this is the only time we see Cooper meditating, right? A nice tip-of-the-hat to Lynch, back in the days when he was still relatively ashamed of talking about the practice openly.

We also get our first sex scene with Dale...and probably the only onscreen sex scene he has across the entire series that is remotely healthy.

Cooper calls Annie “a completely original human being, her responses as pure as those of a child.” He makes a similar observation in Episode 25, and I will again note that his re-emergence as Dougie in TR seems to transform him into a literal version of this childlike archetype that he sees and envies/admires in Annie. I haven’t quite figured out what to make of this, but it really fascinates me.

I’ve probably said it before, but the “teenage Nadine” stuff is my absolute least favorite storyline on this show, ever. More than Nicky, more than Evelyn. It’s just SO embarrassingly cheesy (other people have accurately compared it to a 1990s Nickelodeon show), and it drags on FOREVER. It actually goes on for way more episodes than WKLP did (although of course it doesn’t have as much screentime), running from Episode 10 to 29! On top of how cringe-worthy it is to watch on its face, maybe it bothers me even more because it ties up characters/actors I really like for an entire season, when they should have been doing something more interesting. Nadine and Ed are genuinely tragic figures, and it sucks that their plight was turned into such a dumb sitcom subplot for an entire season. I’m so glad TR gave both of them much stronger closure.

Garland’s (unscripted) line upon Hawk finding him is interesting: “Which way is the castle?” Could this name refer to the Fireman’s house seen in TR, and/or the White Lodge?

It’s so silly that haloperidol has now become a catch-all drug for accessing the supernatural on the show. If we recall, Mike’s drug was initially described as a bizarre mixture Albert had never seen before, with haloperidol as just one ingredient. Now, haloperidol on its own (a drug used in the treatment of schizophrenia) apparently worked as a truth serum on Briggs, and Cooper can smell it!

The puzzle box stuff is so dumb, but Andrew really cracks me up in this one. I love that he just pulls a pistol from inside his sweater, like Yosemite Sam. It’s so cartoonish. “Damn boxes!” And Angelo’s Packard theme makes everything better.

Andy’s 4H club line is actually pretty funny, given that the astrological symbols for Jupiter and Saturn respectively do look like a 4 and an h. The Jupiter symbol is next to the flame with the Owl Cave symbol inside it (presumably the location of Owl Cave) and the Saturn symbol is near Glastonbury Grove. It still drives me nuts that both of these locations are depicted west of White Tail Falls on the petroglyph when they should be on the opposite side if they’re in Ghostwood Forest. Again, sloppy prop work, particularly disappointing in such an iconic part of the mythology.

BTW, this never occurred to me before, but Laura’s cat is named Jupiter in TSDoLP!

I’ve already noted that there was no instance of Jupiter and Saturn being conjunct between 1981 and 2000. But this episode compounds the inaccuracy with the truly bizarre line (clearly added in ADR) that the next conjunction occurs “January to June”! A conjunction only occurs very briefly on a single Earth day, not for six months! The script says the conjunction will take place “tonight” at midnight, and I have absolutely no idea why it was changed. The version as aired seems to imply that Earle/Cooper could wander into the Lodge anytime over the course of six months, which removes all the narrative suspense about having to catch it at a precise moment! What a really strange editorial choice. I’d love to hear the rationale for how this happened.

Cooper: “What this indicates to me is the potential for explosive change, good and bad.” Little does he know...

Garland’s “Protect the Queen” is interesting in light of Judy/Jowday/Mother. Does she require the sacrifice of a female, and this is why Earle is so obsessed with bringing a “queen” with him (beyond just baiting/taunting Dale)? Harry and Dale both convince themselves pretty quickly (and manically) that Garland’s rambling refers to Miss Twin Peaks, but I think they’re missing a larger point.

OK, BOB noted earlier in this thread that the backdrop for the pageant is a painting of Glastonbury Grove. I really can’t make up my mind whether it is or not. But if so, that is REALLY on the nose.

Lucy calls the baby “little...what’s his name.” Poor kid has no idea what he’s in for. :lol:

Poor Ben. Poor Donna. Telling the hardest truth first, indeed.

This episode in Dale’s Diet:
— Coffee in his FBI mug in the conference room while analyzing the Owl Cave petroglyph; he refills
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