TV Rewind: Twin Peaks
By Eric Hughes
October 12, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
To say I’m a touch surprised would be an understatement. Hell, I about thought we’d have to linger to the very end to find out who ridded Laura from town. Fortunately, I think, we won’t have to do any such thing.
I wouldn’t expect many of you to be reading this without having seen this episode – or the show – before. Nevertheless I’d be remiss if I failed to attach a neat little disclaimer to this post. Beginning with the next paragraph, I’ll be discussing at length the identity of Laura Palmer’s murderer. Trust me: the reveal ruins Twin Peaks’ central mystery if you’ve yet to get there yourself.
So… it’s less about the identity of Laura’s killer anymore and more about whether or not the dude gets caught. That’s because by the end of “Episode 14,” we witnessed Leland Palmer – Laura’s dad – suck the life out of Maddy in the confines of his own home. All the while his wife, Sarah, laid passed out on the floor by his feet, apparently exhausted by fatigue, fright, a mix of the two or something else entirely.
As we learned in a previous episode, Bob is less a being, and more a transient parasite that latches himself on human hosts to feast on their fears. That Bob is what Leland sees when he looks in the mirror means Bob has transitioned to him. This much we know. And as Leland does his dance with Maddy, Bob comes alive, making mouth love to his female prey.
Bob, Leland or the two of them together eventually smash Maddy’s face against the wall and then wail a pair of relentless fists on her body as she lies totally vulnerable on the ground. It’s hard to watch, really, and this thing aired on television – not cable, but broadcast – more than 20 years ago.
Where I am with this is what’s to be inferred by the sequence. Has Leland been Bob’s host for the entirety of Twin Peaks’ run, or has he only been Bob’s host in the short term? Having Leland as Bob’s murder vessel from the get-go certainly makes things nice and easy, but I don’t know that it’d be accurate.
Instead, I’d like to think Leland has been Bob’s Earthly body since around the time of the season two premiere. (Or, maybe, in the season one finale when Leland murdered Jacques with his bare hands). Keep in mind Leland opened the season with a shock of white hair that couldn’t be explained. Perhaps Bob as his keeper had something to do with that.
If this is true, then we really aren’t any closer to Laura’s killer, but merely know who would’ve killed her had she died the same night as Maddy in “Episode 14.”
What I don’t want to do, though, is pass off a moment of real significance as nothing. We very well may have observed a total Twin Peaks game changer – on the order of the season two premiere – and are poised, now, to spend the rest of the series watching what will come of Leland.
The whole thing, really, was about as bizarre as Cooper’s dream from season one. I couldn’t help but think as I watched those final 10 minutes unfold that I was seeing something that had never been done on television before.
The sequence was chilling and uncomfortable. For a long while, the camera was trained on Leland/Bob slowly leading Maddy to her demise. Shots of Leland were of him petrified, frightened, almost in tango with Maddy as if to console her, while those of Bob were in slow motion and accompanied by a soundtrack that sounded like lions growling. And because Maddy didn’t consent, anything and everything Bob did with his mouth to Maddy’s face was rape. Yep, ABC aired this thing in 1990.
When we pick up with Twin Peaks next, Leland will probably be in jail to give Cooper and Harry some time to sort everything out. Leland might have used gloves for his operation, but I’d like to think Sarah was conscious enough to realize that her husband was uncontrollably killing someone no more than a few feet from her. Husband or not, Sarah shan't be wanting to share a bed with Leland anymore.
With such a major reveal, it seems silly to spend much time on the rest of the episode, but two things strike my fancy before we let go here.
For one, Leo is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode, and I so want him to wake from his nap to give that living-at-home storyline a little oomph. Leo, quite literally brain dead since events from the season one finale, has been living with Shelly and Bobby for a couple episodes now, and as each episode passes, he seems to be gaining some valuable traction. I can’t see this story going anywhere else but Leo awaking from his coma and knifing Bobby with a sharp blade, so I’d rather we get there soon before much more screen time is wasted. As of “Episode 14” Leo is talking – a few words, but still – so we’re getting there.
The other thing, a true oddity, is Nadine, a woman I’ve spent little to no time on in these Twin Peaks analyses. Wife of Ed, Nadine has had a bit of a transformation from that season one finale, too. Awaking from her own coma, Nadine has been transported about 20 or so years into her past, totally believing that she’s a Twin Peaks high schooler again.
Besides that strangeness, Nadine has exhibited some supernatural abilities as of late, and I wonder what will come of them. An episode ago, she yanked a piece of heavy cabinetry from the walls in a fit of fury, and then in “Episode 14,” she ordered a milkshake from Norma’s diner, only to smash its glass container between her bare hands for no good reason.
Like much of Twin Peaks, the mystery hasn’t been explained enough to deserve any worthwhile analysis. Instead, we’re left scratching our heads as to why this may be until the episode comes where the answer is inevitably revealed to us.
It’s one of my major gripes I have with the show, actually, in that we aren’t given even opportunity to guess at what to make of X because we aren’t rewarded with enough clues. I had hoped the Nadine story might behave a little differently, but so far it seems to be following code.