Twin Peaks: Zen, Or The Skill To Catch A Killer

January 21st, 2008

Season 1, Episode 2

Synopsis

Twin Peaks The Hornes are having a quiet family dinner when Ben’s brother Jerry arrives, carrying some French baguettes with brie and butter. Ben bites into it with relish. His wife rubs her forehead with disdain. The two brothers leave the room, and Ben says there’s a new girl at One Eyed Jacks, a secret brothel and casino. Ben calls her freshly scented from the perfume counter at Horne’s, the department store he owns.

Ben and Jerry pay a late night visit to One Eyed Jacks. They’re greeted by the proprietor, Blackie. The new girl, a blond dressed in lingerie, leads Ben to a back bedroom.

Hawk calls Cooper at the Great Northern Hotel with additional information on Ronette Pulaski. She recently quit her job at the perfume counter. Hawk also saw a one-armed man snooping around the hospital. After Cooper hangs up the phone, someone slips a note under his door, that reads “Jack with One Eye.”

Bobby and Mike drive to a remote location in the dark woods. They dig up a football containing a plastic bag of cocaine. Leo emerges and asks for the money they owe him. Bobby sheepishly admits the money is in Laura’s safe deposit box. Leo says Laura was a wild girl, and that Shelly is sleeping with someone else (it’s Bobby). Angered, Leo orders them to run. The boys panic and run back to the car. An empty football lands on the hood. Later, Shelly turns off the television which as showing the soap opera Invitation to Love. She has a bruise on her jaw where Leo hit her. Bobby drops by and threatens to kill Leo if he hits her again.

Nadine is exercising while Ed enters their house, his hands covered with black oil. Ed steps all over her homemade runners, breaking them, and dripping oil on some cotton balls. Furious, Nadine screams at Ed and bends the handlebars of her exercises machine. Later, Ed returns home to find Nadine insanely happy. The grease he dripped on the cotton balls were the secret to creating silent runners. Nadine believes her invention will make them rich.

The next day, Cooper is with the police team in the woods, setting up a blackboard, a glass bottle, a bucket of rocks, and a table full of donuts and hot coffee. Cooper mentions that the coffee is damn good and hot. He tells everyone to take a seat, points to a map of Tibet, and launches into a bit of history. He had dream in which he learned a deductive technique based on intuition. On the blackboard he has written several names that may be the “J” in Laura’s diary. The names are: James, Josie, Dr. Jacoby, Johnny Horne, Norma Jennings, Shelly Johnson, and Jack with One Eye… which Harry comments is not a person; it’s a casino up north.

Harry is instructed to read each name in the list while Cooper pitches rocks at the glass bottle off in the distance. All the rocks miss except for Dr. Jacoby - the bottle is struck. When Cooper throws the stone for Leo Johnson - the bottle breaks. His connection to Laura is unknown.

Audrey stops by the diner where the Haywards are eating, and chats with Donna about Laura, Cooper, and coffee. Audrey saunters over to the jukebox and slowly dances by herself, while the Haywards stare.

Harry and Cooper are examining a towel coated with blood found at the murder scene, when Albert Rosenfield and his forensics team arrive. Albert is abrasive and rude, and calls Twin Peaks a backwater. Harry tells Albert off while Cooper gives him thumbs up.

Pete sneaks a safe key away from Catherine and lends it to Josie. She uses it to open a secret safe behind a bookshelf. Inside, she finds two ledgers.

Leland Palmer picks up a framed picture of Laura and starts to cry. He rotates around the room, trying to dance with his murdered daughter. As Sarah attempts to stop him, he breaks the frame on a table, cutting his hand on the shattered glass. He smears blood on Laura’s photograph as he continues weeping.

Back at the Great Northern, Cooper goes to bed and begins to dream. The light changes and a much older Cooper is seated in a red, curtained room. Sara descends a staircase and sees BOB crouching behind a bed. The one armed man (Mike) reads recites a poem containing the line “fire walk with me.” He cut his own arm off. BOB is the man behind the bed, and he vows to kill again. A circle of candles surrounding a dirt mound is extinguished.

Back in the red room, The midget (The Man From Another Place) shivers in the corner. He sits on a couch and a girl who looks like Laura Palmer sits next to him. The midget speaks backwards-forwards: “I’ve got good news. That gum you like is going to come back in style. She’s my cousin. But doesn’t she look almost exactly like Laura Palmer?” As the midget dances in the middle of the room, The Laura-look alike leans over Cooper and whispers something in his ear.

Cooper wakes up. He makes a phone call, inviting Harry to breakfast. He knows who killed Laura Palmer.

Thoughts

Awesome stuff: The classic nuttiness of Ben and Jerry eating brie and butter baguettes. Cooper’s odd Tibetian deductive technique and increasing love of coffee.

The glimmers of horror in the two previous episodes come to a head with Cooper’s bizarre dream that explains nothing but lays out so many strange concepts that the show never fully explains. Perhaps this was just David Lynch’s way of providing a crap load of otherworldly ideas for the writers to explore over the rest of the season. A backwards-talking midget in a red room will forever go down in television history. Meanwhile, I’m already tiring of Nadine’s runners and Donna’s new romance.

Clues:

Leo Johnson is the “J” in Laura’s diary and has a strong connection to Laura’s murder.
Leo is still a complete asshole.
Dr. Jacoby is also connected to Laura Palmer.
A towel coated with blood is found at the murder scene.
Ronette worked at the same perfume counter as the new girl at One Eyed Jack’s.
Someone slipped a note saying “One Eyed Jacks” under Cooper’s door.
Ben Horne and Jerry Horne are regulars at One Eyed Jacks.
The one armed man (Mike) seen creeping around the hospital appears in Cooper’s dream.
Bob also appeared in Cooper’s dream. Up until this point, he only appeared in Sarah’s visions.
Audrey has the hots for Cooper.
Cooper’s dream had clues to the identity of Laura’s killer.