TV Rewind: Twin Peaks
By Eric Hughes
November 29, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Turns out I was right. And in addition to that, I found out from her that the ending to Twin Peaks will be disappointing.
This is news to me, in that I’ve done so well up to now to not ask friends about Twin Peaks, to not bombard its Wikipedia page and what have you, whatever can be done to make me as much of a first-run Twin Peaks viewer as possible.
And then my co-worker had the nerve to chime in about its, you know, finale.
To her credit, she doesn’t have a clue that I’ve been uploading my thoughts to a movie and TV website. My guess is she thinks I’m pretty normal and assumed I’m watching the show and then doing nothing with my opinions.
Whatever the case may be, I’ve been told -- by a source whose word I trust - that the end is a bit of a letdown. And with “Episode 21” out of the way, we’re only eight episodes away from whatever I’m about to see in early 2012.
Honestly, “disappointing” isn’t a surprise. As fun as the last few episodes have been, I can’t argue that there’s been much of a direction for most of the lead characters to move to. Storylines seems to be spinning off in all sorts of directions. I have a hard time figuring out anymore what might have been planned from the first season to what may have been concocted to spare a little time.
One thing I’ve known from the start that 1990s-era viewers would not have known is that the series ends with “Episode 29.” I’ve finished “Episode 21,” so eight episodes to go. That kind of thing affords me the wisdom in knowing that somehow this whole thing has to wrap itself up, so to speak, in what amounts to a third of a broadcast season. Given how disjointed Twin Peaks seems now, I don’t know that I see that happening.
If there’s one guy on Twin Peaks working his share of the load when he’s on screen, it’s the dude playing Major Briggs. Now there’s a guy who digs into his role as an intelligent man with too many secrets. He spits out his lines with such gusto, and knows how to pause (and when) for desired effect. He feels like the smartest man in the room whenever a scene calls for him, and that’s not the work of his character, but of the real-life guy doing his thing as Briggs.
In “Episode 21,” we only get him for a few seconds, and yet it was a memorable few seconds. Perhaps I’ve a bit of a bias since his storyline of getting mysteriously kidnapped in a flash of light seems to be substituting in for (or better yet, continuing) the show’s “giant mystery” enforced by Bob, who’s apparently gone out to lunch. At the station, Briggs tells Cooper and Truman that he believes he was taken to the White Lodge during his kidnapping, but unfortunately remembers nothing. As well, he predicts trouble is ahead, and as such he’ll be lurking in the shadows. But he’ll be back when need be.
With that, Briggs walks away, as if he’s got somewhere better to be than in the Twin Peaks station house divulging to Cooper and Truman everything he knows about the White Lodge, aliens, Bob and the rest of it. I do hope his little vacation here is swift; I want this dude back pronto.
Alternatively, Josie’s frenemy Catherine is another favorite of mine. She’s totally a villain, and as Twin Peaks viewers we’re supposed to hate her guts or something. But I just can’t help but applaud the work her actor is really doing. (In keeping with my goal not to accidentally read anything related to Twin Peaks, I simply can’t crosscheck her name on IMDb).
Anyway, now that she’s no longer impersonating a small Asian man, Catherine is back as the town bitch, and she’s relishing every moment here in letting a select few in on her new, very surprising secret: Andrew, Josie’s former husband and a dude we’ve presumed to be dead since the start of the show, is actually alive and seeks to take vengeance on the person, or people, who tried to kill him. Thomas Eckert is one, and perhaps by association - because she’s worked for him in the past - Josie.
Though the reveal finally pumps a little juice into the Catherine/Josie storyline, again this is Twin Peaks introducing something new to grip our attentions and make us want to care. The Andrew slip is good, of course, but it’s just one more character (Thomas) who’ll probably get stoned to death by “Episode 23.”
Speaking of new faces, we also get to finally see what Windham Earl looks like. The dude has been toying with Cooper since season one, I think, so his mug on camera actually makes good sense.
Before that, we learned from Cooper that Windham was Cooper’s work partner years ago, but things went sour when a material witness in a federal crime died under Cooper’s watch. Windham was institutionalized, had gone crazy, and we come to find out that the woman, Carolyn, who Cooper had developed a bit of a thing for was actually Windham’s wife.
Cooper’s theory isn’t that Windham blames him for Carolyn’s death, but that Windham killed Carolyn himself.
Anyway, by “Episode 21’s” end, Leo is well enough to amble into the woods and comes across a cabin. Inside is, well, Windham, who’s covered in shadows and armed with a gun. Knowing Leo was one of the primary suspects in the slaying of Laura Palmer, these two could prove to be a lethal pair.