Once again, this episode gave us some small little pieces of the overall puzzle, with some adding more to the bigger picture than others. Though a lot it seemed like quirky character stuff, there were some random moments, that was pure Lynch and truly unsettling. There were two bad asses in town this week, well in different ways. The standouts in question being Dougies wife Janey (played with vim by Naomi Watts), and the town's latest slimeball Richard Horne, son of Benjamin.
After returning home from a night of stareing at the stature, Dougie is taking to town by Janey. There's a madcap scene with his son Sonny Jim with father and son clapping the light on and off between them. That is before Janey calls Dougie back downstairs to get back to work - she's discovered that Dougie owns some men money (from the casino), and takes exception to finding a photo of Dougie and Jade in the case file. Perhaps exhange of the episode is when Janey questions him on it, and Dougie replies, "She gave me two rides!" To which Janey responds, "Oh I bet she did!" Watts plays this line perfectly somewhere between disgust and parody. She dominates the scene. This is a big episode for her character. She sets up a meeting with the money men the next day. Bless him Dougie has a bash at doing the work, but actually draws a series of lines, running up and down certain parts of the page. These markings could represent those in the red room? Anyway, there is some sort of electric connection between Dougie and the One Armed Man in the black lodge. Crucially we see the sign shake in Twin Peaks.... The One Arm Man insists that Dougie wakes up...
With Gordon taking the week off, Albert tracks down the girl at the Bang Bang bar, and it in fact turns out to be Diane, appearing visually for the first time on our screens in the form of Lynch regular Laura Dern. Appearing like a femme fatale in a grey wig, Diane deadpans, "Hello Albert." upon turning to meet his gaze.
In the most surreal scene of the episode Richard Horne (who we last saw threatening to rape the girl in the bar last week), shows up at a car dealership and talks about a drug deal with some unknown gang boss. In a trippy exchange Richard tries to show the other guy he's the one in control, but through some sort of magic coin trick it is Richard who is shown to be rookie of the piece. With Richard losing control this sets into motion a chain of events.
We see a welcome return for Harry Dean Stanton's Carl (as seen in the FWWM). Carl is picked up in a van by some unknown guys. Carl starts smoking, at which point the other guy tells him smoking is bad for him. Karl shakes this off and tells the guy, he's been "smoking for the last 75 years." To be fair HDS is 90, so that actually could be true. This again seemed like Lynch commenting on the world. The director himself is a mad keen smoker. We then intercut between Carl being dropped off in a park, to the double R diner with Shelley's friend with the annoying laugh, to Richard who is now more hyper than ever. Things take a turn for the tragic as a boy is happily walking with his mother one minute, they pass Carl, then the boy wanders out in from of Richard's car in what seems a deadly slow motion movement. Richard is so hyper and out of control, he cannot slam on the breaks fast enough, and runs the kid over. Lynch pulls no punches, its a brutal moment. Karl watches it all helpless. As hard as it is to watch, its a wonderfully directed piece of discontunity action from Lynch. The piecing of the chain of events together is solid world building too. Now Richard is actually in Twin Peaks. We know this because the inciddent happens outside of the Double R. The outsider, overcome with an evil force has now left his mark on the town. This is a big moment for sure. Karl notices some sort of power striking the telephone mast?
In another sinister yet blackly comic Lynchian style death a small man looking at a picture of Cooper/Dougie and a picture of the red haired woman (again red being a key colour in the Twin Peaks verse) later hacks a woman down with a spike!
Dougie enjoys some more coffee at work as his boss grills him on the report. The most interesting moment in this scene is Dougie's intranced stare at a poster of a boxer on the office wall. Meeting the boxer's guise for a long take. This might just be Dougie caught up in one of his dazes, or there might be some hidden meaning. I heard on the internet that boxer and his name is related to one of Lynch's early short films. Who knows?! Anyway, in another entertaining and yet oddly powerful scene Janey, meets the casino guys in the park. Giving them a piece of her mind, hearing how much money Dougie owns them, Janey goes on this brilliant rant about her and Dougie being in "99%ers and driving shitty cars! It was gold and it was a sign of Janey having a little more substance to her than the nasty, shallow house wife she appeared to be up till now. Of course she gets her way and decides to give the goons just a little less than they wanted. As Janey leaves, one of them adds, "Tough dame."
Back in Twin Peaks Hawk finds a note down the side of a toilet which maybe important? And Frank gets some more shit off Dolores. As one of the nasty cops mocks Dolores, we find out that her and Frank had a son who committed sucicide. Again the title "Don't Die" takes on a more sinister importance. Sharon Van Etten plays us out this week.
Episode MVP: Janey
Not just did Watts shine once again in the role, but this week the character became more of a driving force on the plot. Crucially we saw a complex and human side to the character. Like she has a moral compass after all. Think she has a very interesting role to play in the series moving forward.
Verdict:
At first I thoughts this one was kinda a slow episode which throw some random pieces up in the air. But thinking about it again, the theme of death was compelling and strange, and had many different links throughout the episode, from the tragic death of the boy, to the reveal about Frank and Dolore's son. Then you have the One Armed Man telling Cooper/Dougie to "wake up", as he could be in danager of dying. The lines between the evil lurking outside TP and the town itself seemed to be blurring. Once again the show left me with plenty to think about.
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