LOST & FOUND: TWIN PEAKS – SEASON 2, EPISODES 18 & 19

On The Wings Of Love & Variations On Relations (Twin Peaks S2, eps. 18 & 19)

Cooper: “Harry, I have no idea where this will lead us. But I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.”

After several episodes of relative tedium Twin Peaks suddenly rallied this week, turning out two enjoyably idiosyncratic installments that advance the show’s mythology, play on the quirks of the characters in a more organic, more satisfying manner than has been typical of late, and deliver both genuine laughs and genuine intrigue. These episodes reminded me of how much fun this show can be when it’s pitched at just the right ultrasonic oddball frequency. There’s still little of the creeping dread and Zen weirdness that Lynch’s directorial hand lent to the proceedings but this still feels more like than the other post-Leland installments. On The Wings Of Love sees a return to Cooper in conspicuous FBI gear, tape recorded missives to Diane (a ritual that ceased some time ago, and one that Cooper’s character practically requires – his natural self-reflection and cockeyed observations finding a perfect outlet/signifier in his tapes), Gordon Cole’s return to town, and a reflowering of Cooper’s bizarro confidence and zen detective determination. There are still stretches that feel labored/unnecessary/dull, but to be honest, that’s always been the case on this show. The first season’s Mill plot was largely banal as far as I’m concerned. As Twin Peaks approaches it’s enforced ending its returning to its roots, getting back to the good stuff just in time for the Big Finale (and oh, that finale…I cannot wait to write about it/talk about it with all of you).

Thoughts on On The Wings Of Love:

So apparently Eckhardt’s female assistant got half-naked and crawled into bed with Truman at the end of the last episode so that she could (A) apply an unidentified, but presumably hallucinogenic, substance to both of their lips so that (B) she would be mistaken for the now-entombed-in-furniture Josie Packard so that (C) she could suggestively caress and get all sexy/ rapey on Truman before (D) suddenly attempting to garrote him. For those of you not already familiar with the term: to “garrote” someone is to strangle ‘em real good with rope/wire.

Now, just WHY this woman would feel the need/desire to drug both Truman AND herself (!…?), then engage in some short, kinky foreplay prior to her attempt to murderize him is completely and utterly beyond me. Perhaps the whole “putting a pillow over someone’s face” thing is, like, totally played out in Assassin-Fashion circles (can you say “Assassin Fashion circles” three times fast? I sure can’t). Regardless, Truman showcases the absolute lack of potential misogyny on this show by proceeding to PUNCH THIS WOMAN IN THE FACE until she slumps back, unconscious on the couch wearing nothing but her absolutely-appropriate-for-close-quarters-combat lingerie.

John Justice Wheeler and Audrey Horne’s subsequent conversation about how “If you bring a hammer, you better bring nails” seems like a ninth-grader’s idea of witty sensual banter.

Cooper: “‘Project Blue Book.’ How could he have been working on that?”

Gordon Cole returns to Twin Peaks in person for the first time since the David Lynch-directed Lonely Souls, and it’s as if Lynch’s reappearance jumpstarts the show again. The episode starts out in the same bewilderingly lackadaisical manner as the past few episodes, but then Cole shows up and the tumblers start clicking into place: Coop gets his gun and badge back. Cherry pie is ecstatically-enthused over. Diane regains her invisible place in the audio firmament. Coop starts making cheery, daft pronouncements. The Sherriff’s Department engages in deliberative silences. Twin Peaks has begun at last to feel a bit more like Twin Peaks. That essential “feeling” combined with the expanding Black Lodge/Blue Book/Owl Cave mythology creates a fun, frothy atmosphere and a renewed sense that all of this is actually going somewhere. Learning that Windom Earle was somehow involved in Project Blue Book – the same top secret project that Major Briggs has worked on – cinches the plot threads tighter together, draws things a little more neatly into some kind of focus for us. If Earle worked on the same project as the Major, assumedly he was privy to some of the same secrets. And that means that Earle may be aware of the existence of the White Lodge, and perhaps the importance of Cooper in whatever greater-than-Chess game is being played out with human lives and souls amidst the pines in Twin Peaks. That ponderous pontification is verified in the next episode. Which is cool.

Also fun: Earle’s method of bugging the Sherriff’s Department via Bonsai tree, giving Lynch-as-Cole a perfectly good excuse to shout “BANZAI! BAAAAANZAAAAI!” Cole’s pitch-perfect, sincere declaration that “BREAKFAST IS A GOOD IDEA!” Heck, pretty much anything to do with in-person Lynch-as-Cole is fun.

Is it possible that Ben Horne is Donna Hayward’s father? That seems to be the direction the show is tacking toward. It’s obvious from this episode’s events that Horne and Donna’s mother had a romantic past, and while this wouldn’t ordinarily be the sort of plot line to draw my interest, Richard Beymer’s work as Horne is particularly strong lately. It’s very possible that by the end of the series we’ll learn that this new attitude toward life is a scam of some kind, but for the time being I’m taking Horne at his word. Watching him struggle with “goodness” is interesting, and Beymer plays that struggle well. Adding to my interest is the way in which Doc Hayward reacts to Donna’s growing suspicion; it’s clear that he’s helping to harbor this particular secret, but it’s not at all clear why. Where are they going with this? Will we find out before the show ends?

There are some lines of dialogue I admire simply because they’re well-crafted/witty. “A steak so rare you could sell it at Tiffany’s” is one of those lines.

Cole: “EXCUSE ME, WHILE I TRY MY HAND AT A LITTLE COUNTER ESPERANTO.”

Gordon Cole sets eyes on Shelly Johnson at the Double R Diner and its love at first sight. In what’s definitely, for me, the most unexpected development of these episodes Cole romances Shelly with curiously adorable determination. It seems that Shelly’s voice is somehow pitched so that Cole can hear her with perfect clarity, and Lynch-as-Cole sells the wonder of that discovery with boyish sincerity. The entirety of the Double R Diner scene – Cole and Shelly’s conversation, Cooper and Truman’s discussion about the bird outside the window, even the banter between Annie, Cooper and Truman (“What’s good for a hangover,” Truman asks. “Teetotalling and prayer,” Annie responds.) – is good stuff. Twin Peaks gets a little more of its soul back here, and its pretty great to see the show starting to rouse itself. The scene even calls back to Cooper and Truman’s early Season 1 dialogue in the Diner, in which Cooper instinctively saw that Truman was in love with Josie. This time it’s Truman who sees that Cooper is in love, and that subtle reversal is a nice grace note here, even if Cooper’s head-over-heels routine feels kinda rushed.

Cooper: “What’s Owl Cave?”

Cooper has been drawing what he says are doodles of the Major and the Log Lady’s bizarro tattoos, except that’s not what he’s doodling – not really. Sure, the tattoo that looks like the Twin Peaks mountain range is the same, but Cooper has taken the radiation symbol-esque design that was branded on the Major and turned it into a linked chain of diamonds that runs from north to south. No explanation for this change in symbol is ever given, and I find that odd. Nitpicking aside, it’s this doodle that causes Annie to remark that the drawing looks like “the one in Owl Cave.” And it’s this remark that leads to a further expansion of the show’s still-intriguing mythology. According to Truman, Owl Cave is located in “old Indian territory,” and is “supposed to be sacred ground.” Coop and Truman make the decision to investigate Owl Cave (is it just me, or does that sound like the plot of a Scooby Doo cartoon?), and we see that investigation bear fruit by the end of the episode.

So basically, the mythology of Twin Peaks at this point consists of some combination of (largely fictional) Native American belief, UFO lore and mysticism/magic. Sounds good to me. Deeply weird and ungainly and possibly eventually deflating, sure, but for now? I say bring on the Native American Alien magicians.

James (V.O.): “Dear Donna. You were right. I had to go.”

Donna was speaking for all of us, James. She was speaking for every last one of us. Donna gets a post card from boring ol’ James during this episode, and it’s good to get a reminder of his existence if only so that we’re also reminded that it is so, so good to have him gone.

Ben: “I am filled to the brim with goodness. Like a Christmas tree all lit up inside me. But at the end of the day, when I look in the mirror, I have to face the fact that I don’t really know how to be good.”

What about you? Do you know how to be good? That’s a simple question without simple answers, and I love that has dipped its toe into those waters, using Ben Horne to investigate, however tongue-in-cheek, the notion of living out the concept of “goodness.” Watching as Horne switches from cigars to raw carrots, as he wrestles with the conspicuously-new idea of being good for goodness’ sake as if puzzling out some exotic unfamiliar language, is genuinely entertaining to me. The notion of “goodness” needs to be defined within the parameters of the show if we’re going to measure it against the notion of Evil as presented in Twin Peaks – as undying, unstopping. Is good similarly expansive? Similarly vast and all-infusing? Are Love and Fear equal opposites? Or is Fear larger and more potent than Love? These are questions that the show is wrestling with on a number of levels. Much more on this n a week or so.

Cooper: “Two symbols combined into a larger whole. But for what purpose?”

As a follower of Tibetan history and Buddhist technique, Cooper shouldn’t really need to ask this question. The answer ought to be obvious to him: These symbols, while seemingly disparate, augment and enhance each other. Each gives the other meaning through its own existence. Without the “mountain” tattoo the “diamond” tattoo would be an empty symbol, and vice versa. The same, it can and has and will be argued, can be said about the forces of Good and Evil. We know that the Black Lodge is the “shadow self” of the White Lodge, and we know that shadows can’t exist without light. It’s arguable that Lost’s “two sides, one light, one dark” motif, and its obsession with Others was at least partially inspired by the ways in which Twin Peaks plays with duality on multiple levels.

And speaking of duality, there’s plenty of it present in the conversation that Cooper and Annie have while they’re at the bar of the Great Northern. To wit:

Cooper: “It’s all new to you. Everything.”
Annie: “I feel constantly amazed … stunned. Music, people. The way they laugh and talk. Some of them so clearly in love. It’s like a foreign language to me. I know just enough of the words to realize how little I understand.
Cooper: “I’d like to see the world through your eyes.”

My question and Annie’s question are one and the same: “Why?” We’ve already seen, many times and in many ways, how Cooper views the world of Twin Peaks with the bright, curious eyes of a newborn. Does he not recognize this about himself? Is this sloppy writing on the part of the episode’s scribes? Or is it an illustration of Cooper’s eagerness to experience life as fully as possible? No matter which way you slice it, Annie’s fresh eyes are a mirror of Cooper’s own expansive, childlike view of things.

The episode ends with the sight of Windom Earle entering the Owl Cave and discovering the strange (penis-esque) lever sticking from the diamond-shaped opening in the cave’s wall. Earle proceeds to give the lever a happy ending, which results in an earth-shaking orgas – err…I mean, it results in the wall of the cave falling away to reveal an enormous, enigmatic mural.

VARY YOUR RELATIONS…AFTER THE PAGE BREAK!