This episode picks up with good Cooper still dropping through space on his way back to earth. On his way he ends up on a strange looking purple planet. Crashing through a cloud and into a purple planet, the sound effects are very high definition, and the visuals have a very psychedelic, but cartoony energy. Its here that the extra budget Lynch has to work with compared with the limited budget of the real show shines through. In another way much of the design of the episode, feels like Lynch ripping up the canvas and creating a new world, almost going back to his artist roots. It is again important to me that this is a space away from earth. The surface of the world feels plastic, and artificial, and you can almost feel the material that has gone into the design.
The classic Lynch eerie tone of dread and uncertainty creeps in, in the next scene with Cooper wandering around a weird house. This again felt like Lynch experiementing with the more intimate digital camera, like in INLAND EMPIRE. This made the scene all the more creepy, unpredictable, imerisvie, espcially since I was watching it late at night with the lights dimmed. Cooper comes across a woman with her eyes blurred out, and crucially she has a 'Blue Rose' - this is a call back from Fire Walk From Me. Last week's double seemed to indicate that much of this new series is going to link back to the film. In a very odd, and random moment, the room starts to shake and Cooper is squeezed through a porthole and back onto earth, this connects to Dark Cooper/Bob who is driving (I'm guessing looking for Philip Jefferies), when suddenly he loses control of the car and crashes. The other Cooper meanwhile has consummed the body of someone named Dougie. It is noticable that he has no momery of who he is, either as Cooper or Dougie. Dougie is with an attractive looking girl in a bed. When she takes a shower in another connection moment, both Coopers vomit at the sametime. This was a effective monster movie gross out style moment, again with a very Hyptic quality to it. I also enjoy the level of detail we get about the connection between the two sides of Cooper. When finding Cooper on the floor, the woman helps him get dressed and drives him to a hotel complex. Along the way Cooper there is an attempt on Cooper's life from a shooting in a car, though Cooper is directed to duck at the right time by a street sign. This appears to be a messge coming from above.
Within this fragmented Cooper stuff, we return to Twin Peaks the town. There's some nice quirky humour at the station with Hawk, Lucy and Andy. Lucy's suggestion that Hawk's native American history could be important to the investigation and to the missing chocalate bunny was just so cheeky. Lucy, one of my favourite characters from the original cast anyway, has not missed a beat so far this season. In another odd deveolpment Jacoby is spray painting shovels while in a creepy serial killer style mask....
Back at the hotel complex, Cooper gets lost in a casino and starts randomly playing the slot machines.
We then get the line of the episode as Cooper shouts "Hello"! at one of the machines and hits the jackpot. Nothing seems out of the blue to the staff, untill Cooper starts winning multiple jackpots and suspicion strikes among the management. The episode again closes in the bar with another band playing us out.
Episode MVP: Lucy
Though I enjoyed Cooper's mad journey throughout the episode, the cut away to TP made for a nice catch your breath moment, and again Kimmy Robertson did so much with so little.
Verdict
A mixed bag of an episode at least on my first viewing. The opening was very exciting, as again it was Lynch not just doing the surreal stuff to the extreme, but again he offered the viewer another unique layer of his new world. It was anything but predictable. As things moved on, the events maybe seemed too random, and the plot lacking in momentum. The second half the episode lacked that sinister edge of the previous two-parter, but at the sametime it wasn't entertaining enough to offer much of a contrast. Unlike, the pilot this did feel a bit plodding at times. Within context of what's to follow, and when I revisit it (which I no doubt will), chances are me not digging it as much as I was hoping to may turn out to be one big mad Lynchian dream on my part. Coop on the slots was worth the price of admission alone. "HELLO"!
Brings Back some Memories
With Cooper wrecking havoc at the slots, this episode sees the debut of Lynch regular Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive, Rabbits, playing a Rabbit in Inland Empire) as Dougie's aggressive wife, Janney E. Jones. She makes her first appearance when Dougie/Cooper is chauffeur driven home from the casino and boy is she pissed! Questioning where he's been for hours on end, she's taken aback by his smart looking demeanor (it will become clear why the next day). The rant comes to a sudden end when Janney discovers Dougie's winnings. It soon becomes clear that the family have money issues. Watts is a force of nature throughout this scene as well as the episode as a whole. One of the hardest things you can do as a actress is to drop into a story with no context about your character, and to start off dialed up to eleven. She pulls it off brillaintly. A welcome return to the Twin Peaks verse was from David Duchovny as the FBI drag act Denise. Considering how Duchovny perfected deadpan cool, in his landmark role as special agent Fox Mulder (in some way inspired no doubt by Agent Cooper) in The X-Files, then there is something mysterious about Duchovny repeating that performance for a brief scene behind drag, and sharing a scene with Lynch himself, resuming his role as Gordon. The excange between the two gave me a warm, magical and fuzzy feel inside. At one point Denise cooly tells Gordon, "I trust you and believe your on the trail of something big." Gordon and Albert (Miguel Ferrer) are investigating the killing from the pilot episode. And Denise now has a higher job ranking than Gordon. In a neat twist, the FBI have divided its cases into two catagories, the ones marked by a blue rose, and everything else, marked by a red rose. Red being the key colour in Twin Peaks...
In a hilarious scene back at the Sheriff station Lucy still stuck in the 1990s is overpowered by a cellphone. As it happens its a trick from the new Sheriff and the other Truman brother, enter stage left, Robert Forster. This casting again seems spot on. Forster is a very watchable and charming character actor (his bails bonds man from Jackie Brown probably the most likeable character ever to appear in a Tarantino film). His delivery of dialouge has the perfect blend of dry wit, and cool mystery, and his face always carries withit a world weary history. Forster is credible as the brother of the old Sheriff Harry Truman (Michael Ontkean rumour has it has retired from the acting game, so sadly will not appear in this new series). On this first appearance, this Truman seems to have a different edge to him, but who knows what's behind Forster's steely eyes.... This was a nice tease. Again Lucy shines as classic Lynchian outsider during the scene, with her discomfont at the invention and domaintance of cellphones in modern culture. It wouldn't surprise me if Lynch has the same anxieties, certainly Twin Peaks as a town feels distached from such a modern obsession. That the new Truman would play such a gag on Lucy, makes me think of him as a more modern sort of character. Very much a outsider in the town.
The most dramatic reveal of this episode was the return of Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook), and the discovery that he is now a deperty. This sort of brings his arc to a nicely rounded full circle, and was certainly unexpected to fans who know Bobby from the old show and FWWM. In the next breath, Bobby spots that iconic framed picture of Laura on the desk, Laura's theme comes plays for the first time in season three, the camera sharp cuts to Bobby's face, slowly closes in as Bobby is over come with emotion and breaks down. Add this to the many iconic moments in Twin Peaks that will live on. Such a great calling card for this new season, and probably Bobby's greatest ever scenes. Its a big scene for me partly because it highlights that no one in Twin Peaks can escape the memory of Laura Palmer. Its a truly haunting moment. Ashbrook sells it very well too.
Another impressive piece of casting was Michael Cera of (Juno, Arrested Development). Though I have mixed feelings on Cera, he was just the perfect choice to take the part of Lucy and Andy's son Wally Brando, with his wet around the ears oddballness. And yes the last name is on purpose. Wally is a walking, talking Marlon Brando lookalike, complete with biker jacket, and motorbike. There is some doubt if Wally is Andy's son or Dick, the slimeball who Lucy had a brief thing with during the second season. My guess is we will never find out the truth, because it makes no great difference to the overall story, and besides its a great little detail for Lynch to keep up in the air. My own personal opinion is that Andy is the father, no question. Wally makes a flying visit to his parents, passes on some nutty lines of philosophy and rides off into the moonlight... Whether this is a one off appearance by Cera or not remains to be seen. Think he makes sense as a cameo, who at the most appears two or three times. A theory doing the world is that Wally's look and rambling is Lynch's response to the hatred that James attracts online. Well anything is possible.
The next morning Dougie/Cooper gets has breakfast with his family, and is wearing a lime green suit and is clearly still totally baffled. Much to the degust of Janney. Gordon and Albert get a call about a Cooper sighting. This moment called my bluff perfectly. Of course I was thinking it was the real Cooper. This episode gets back to some of the oddball comedy of the old show. Love the scene with Albert, Gordon, and Tammy in the car, where Gordon confuses "Car sick" with "Korsakov"! As it turns out, they are visting Dark Cooper/Bob who has been arrested by the local athorities. As the talk to Cooper/Bob behind glass, the lighting of the scene and atmosphere is very creepy. Lynch actually does a really great job in selling this scene. Gordon isn't just a madcap creation, you can see something twig in Gordon that something is a foot as Dark Cooper/Bob mentions that he needs to get out to track down Philip Jefferies. Lynch sells the moment with dead eyes, with just enough of a switch, so as its not over done, but is noticably. The tension throughout the scene is wonderful. Gordon asks if Cooper can be held till they get to the bottom of it, and they are told that he can be held for forty eight more hours. Outside, Gordon and Albert discuss the fact that something isn't quite right.
Gordon: "There's only one girl who can help us out. Do you know where we can find her?"
Albert: "I know where she drinks"....
And we cut to the bar for what is becoming the normal closing to the episode, with this time the cool synth pop band Au Revoir Simone playing their track Lark out over the closing credits. That final line and question mark left hanging is a great hook for the next episode. Whether the girl in question is actually going to be drinking at that bar in Twin Peaks, or a different bar remains to be seen. Because of Cooper's history with Diane, many are predicting that this will be her debut on the show. My original reaction was that it must be Audrey! And on a purely biased level I am praying that it turns out to be the case.
Episode MVP: Gordon Cole
Watts and Forster both made impressive debut, and Cera was cleverly weaven in the fabric of the show. But not only did Lynch as Gordon have some of the most important scenes in the episode, he also proved that he has true dramatic acting chops, and that Gordon isn't just a one note character.
Verdict
After a bit of a misfire last time out, Brings Back Some Memories, got things right back on track. Unlike the previous three episodes, it felt like a return to the core basics of Twin Peaks the original show. Not just because of the quirky humour, and it being more plot driven, but it also had that slow burning mystery feel of the old show, with every piece of the puzzle feeling important to the bigger picture. The tension between that, and the abstract feel of the doppleganger Cooper plot made for a very rich and edge of the seat episode. There were some wonderful character moments, some promising debuts, again we were left with the sense that anyhing could happen next. Trying to second guess Lynch just never ends well...
No comments:
Post a Comment