Masked Ball & The Black Widow (Twin Peaks S2, eps. 11 & 12)
Deputy Hawk: “Cooper, you may be fearless in this world. But there are other worlds.”
Welcome back! Lost & Found has been on a bit of a wobbly schedule of late, given the end of Summer, continued work on Back to the Island, a book compiling my thoughts on Lost, and a general increase in day-job responsibilities. Some of you have written to ask whether this column is going to go the way of “Star Trekkin’,” never to be completed. To you I say: Patience, please. This is a lot of fun, and I’m grateful for your readership. I’m not going anywhere as long as you’re interested in hearing what I have to say, but once in a while I’ll need to take a week off due to larger life things. I’ll just have to hope that’s cool with most of you. I know firsthand how frustrating it is to anticipate a weekly column and not receive it. So, thanks for the overall-kindness of your messages, and for your much-appreciated eagerness.
On with Le Show!
Thoughts on Masked Ball:
I watched Masked Ball this past weekend, and had hoped to use a transcript to pull quotes for this column. As it turns out, there doesn’t seem to be a transcript for the episode – just a “working draft” script. This means that I may pull some quotes that did not appear in the episode, but that do appear in the script, while discussing some of the events that take place during Masked Ball. Apologies in advance.
Cooper: “Harry, Major Briggs didn’t wander off on some work assignment. That flash of light I saw signified a power; a force that lives in those woods.”
We begin with a reminder that Major Briggs has disappeared into the ether, seemingly “abducted.” We learn that Mrs. Briggs has grown accustomed to the Major’s sudden disappearances, but she seems unusually unnerved this time. That becomes justified to us through the clear association between the Major’s disappearance and the still-unfolding mysteries that surround the Ghost Wood forest which borders Twin Peaks. Cooper sums this all up nicely in the line above – the question for us becomes “What power? ‘Good’ or ‘Evil’?” Or, as Ben Horne will ask in the next episode: “what’s on the top floor, who’s up there in the penthouse and why”?
And from there things get….a lot less interesting when the camera’s not focused on the Internal Investigation of Cooper. The feuding brothers idea is a cute one, but the whole “Mayor’s getting married again” subplot doesn’t do much for me except provide a few opportunities for these characters to quip to each other. Luckily, we spend a fair amount of time in this episode watching as Cooper has the screws put to him and starts to find his way in Twin Peaks without the familiar symbols of his office. It’s weirdly reassuring to me as a viewer to have most of the show’s characters rallying around Cooper in an effort to extricate him from the bureaucratic lobster trap he’s been caught in.
Cooper: “I’m talking about seeing beyond fear, Roger. About looking at the world with love.”
Cooper blows the minds of his fellow Agents by refusing to offer up a defense for his actions. Instead, he takes responsibility for actions that may have gone outside Bureau guidelines, then insists that he committed no criminal acts. He then proceeds to go all Hippy-Dippy on them, talking about knowing the moves he’s supposed to make, but finding himself able now to see “beyond the board” and into a greater game. This is the kind of dialogue I eat with a spoon, and I’m enjoying the continued sense of Cooper embattled but unbowed, convinced of the rightness of his actions in the face of cool dispassion and disbelief. It’s easy to root for him.
As for sub plots and side stories, we return to the Mad Pirate Hulk Nadine as she sorta inexplicably starts crushing on Mike Nelson, Bobby Briggs’ buddy. Did I miss something in the last episode where this was established? In any event, I’m looking forward to seeing Nadine’s efforts on the wrestling squad for personal reasons I’ll disclose in the next column. And in addition to Nadine’s sporting efforts we also pick up the thread of James’ story, something I’ve actively been dreading – for good reason, as it turns out. Those of you who warned me were correct. James’ story-arc is hella-boring. BlahblahEvelyn Marsh, blahblahMalcolm Sloaneblahblahnobody messes with Mr. Marsh…I so don’t care. Let’s agree to only bring this stuff up if it gives us the opportunity for a hearty laugh, ‘kay?
As it turns out this episode is, overall, also boring. There’s a lot of set-up, a lot of “quirky” behavior, a lot of talk. I’d be more worried about my experience of the show as a whole if the next installment didn’t restore my interest as solidly as it did. As it is, “Masked Ball” is a lot like earlier episodes like “Laura’s Secret Diary.” There’s not much to write home about, most of it isn’t bad per se, but most of it isn’t very good either. It’s just sort of…there. What I do like about Masked Ball are the ways in which these various subplots seem to pick up some healthy steam as soon as they collide with the next episode. A perfect example of this is Little Nicky, Dick Tremayne’s “Little Brother” from the Happy Helping Hands organization. His addition to the proceedings here is pretty shrug-worthy, and yet by the next episode I’m ready to follow to where this particular storyline leads, thanks to a clever/weirdo twist or two and some fun moments.
Deputy Hawk: “My people believe that the White Lodge is a place where the spirits that rule man and nature reside. There is also a legend of a place called the Black Lodge. The shadow self of the White Lodge. Legend says that every spirit must pass through there on the way to perfection. There, you will meet your own shadow self. My people call it The Dweller on the Threshold.”
Cooper: “Dweller on the Threshold.”
Hawk: “But it is said that if you confront the Black Lodge with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul.”
And with that, Twin Peaks drops another mammoth brick of mythology into our laps. We’ve been dealing in abstractions, in ifs and maybes and with a set of metaphysical players whose motivations and allegiances are entirely unclear. With Hawk’s tiny morsel of exposition we’re suddenly presented with a possibly-clarifying larger narrative within which to place these figures: two Lodges which stand in seeming opposition to one another. The White Lodge, which Briggs has spoken of before, and which we might assume to be the place he was referring to when speaking to Bobby about a White house where father and son are reunited in joy and in communion, and the Black Lodge, which remains so far undefined to us, save to say that it is apparently “the shadow self” of the White Lodge. This language implies a kind of yin-yang relationship between the two legendary locations, and the parasitical qualities of Bob – rogue spirit and malevolent presence – fit nicely with what might be argued as the parasitical nature of the Black Lodge itself – dependant on the White Lodge to cast a shadow in order for it to exist. This sort of symbiosis is fitting for the show as a whole, and fitting given David Lynch’s expressed interest in Eastern concepts of metaphysics/transcendental meditation. Some folks have told me that the introduction of concepts like the Lodges ultimately make the show less exciting/interesting/whathaveyou, but personally I love this kind of stuff when it’s handled in an interesting way. So far, Twin Peaks is handling it very well.
Twin Peaks essential mythos revolves around broad emotional concepts like “Love,” “Fear” and “Courage.” In this sense its mythology reflects something more primordial and less regimented than many modern-era spiritual belief systems. As we go deeper into this final season I’ll be talking more about the possible inspirations for the concepts being bandied about here, and exploring them in more depth. For now, to preserve continuing mystery, I’ll just note that the process Hawk describes above – one in which the human spirit confronts “The Dweller on the Threshhold” and has their soul annihilated if they lack “perfect courage,” is at least vaguely reminiscent of many ancient tribal rituals typically associated with achieving manhood and/or achieving spiritual enlightenment. It simultaneously evokes the judgment mythologies of many religions, including the judgment of the scales as found in Egyptian mythology. I’ll be interested to see how and where Lynch and Frost’s invented cosmology lines up with these belief systems, and where it diverges and reveals itself as unique. Note, finally, that the concept of confronting one’s “shadow self” mirrors the obsession with twinning that this show has generally. That’s important, both for the text and for the subtext. More on this next week/the next few weeks.
But enough of my pointless pontification. We’ve got David Duchovony in a dress to discuss.
It’s one thing to see Molly Shannon pop up on this show acting less than Molly Shannon-esque. It’s quite another to watch as the future Fox Mulder shows up dressed as a woman. Every time I think Twin Peaks has hit the ceiling in terms of what it can introduce without losing me the show manages to do something like this: David Duchovony in drag. His character of Denise seems to be a friend of Cooper’s, perhaps romantically interested in him, and is assisting him in helping to clear Coop’s name. I can’t imagine that Denise will stick around for long but for now I welcome the delightfully incongruous sight of – again – David Duchovony in drag. It’s a hoot to watch as Denise turns Ernie “The Professor” Niles into the FBI’s informant with hardly any effort at all in the next episode. I’m looking forward to seeing how Denise and Ernie’s drug sting operation goes down.
We learn a bunch of stuff about Josie’s past in this episode that doesn’t interest me much, if at all. The moment she mentions that Thomas Eckhart was “my father. My master. My lover,” I pretty much tuned out. There’s also some business here regarding the shift in power at One Eyed Jack’s, but again, there’s nothing much to write about. Hank’s got the power now, and Ben’s gone mad. More on all of this on the next page.
Windom Earle: “Let me paint you a picture. My knights will skirmish. Lanes of power and influence will open to my bishops and rooks. Pawns will naturally be forfeit. I’m even prepared to sacrifice my queen because I assure you, dear Dale, my goal will be attained at any
cost. The king must die.”
Windom Earle rears his head again, and the evocation of Knight imagery, along with “King and “Queen” imagery is both apt considering the chess game these two men are playing literally and figuratively, and also quite appropriate to the metaphorical roles that these men have taken on. I’ve written at length before on Cooper’s similarity to the classical conception of the shining Knight (this association is almost immediately reinforced by Cooper’s dialogue with Audrey, when she asks rhetorically “Excuse me. Didn’t you…rescue me once?” Keep this dialogue in mind. I’m going to start breaking these allusions down in greater detail relatively soon.
Do you care about the wedding of Dougie Milford to Lana Milford? Yeah, neither do I. And so we’ll end this episode’s column on a brighter note – something I do care about and was pleasantly surprised to learn – Andrew Packer isn’t dead.
ENJOY A MUCH BETTER EPISODE….AFTER THE PAGE BREAK!