As the title suggests, this episode sets in motion a series of mini-plots, or teases much, without advancing character story or too much, but at this point it is hard to judge whether what we see is just Lynch dropping in on certain characters to show us what they are doing 26 years later, or if there will be a greater significace moving forward. The backend of the episode does pick things up.
A bruised looking dark haired woman is upset at two guys in a car. They are outside someone's house and informs the woman that the lights are out so its hard to tell whose home. After hanging up the woman starts typing numbers into a pager, which appears to be in a non-specific storeage facility. In an interesting development Jane Adam's Constance reveals to a couple of detectives that the dead body was a guy who staved himself to death. More importantly, Constance holds up a ring found with the body, with the names "Dougie and Janey E. Jones" engraved.
Dark Cooper has a flashback from the end of season 2. He looks in the mirror and there is a sinister voice over, who I can only assume is Bob saying, "Pleased to see your still with me." This scene takes on greater importance later. Besides just being a creepy scene this maybe shows that Dark Cooper like the other Cooper has a sense of morialty and is haunted by such a figure as Bob. It becomes like the two sides of the character wrestling with itself, which is why Bob takes hold in this scene to remain in control of the darkside, and to keep the mission on track.
Enjoyed the appearance of Sheriff Truman's wife Dolores. She gives him shit over plumbing issues at home in maybe the most entertaining rant of the series so far. And how else would you expect Truman to respond but with deadplan amusement. Returning to the double theme, there are two different coloured cars. One a red with a pattern drives off down the road. A black one drives into a shot with loud music blareing. I might be totally off the mark here, but I took this to mean that one car represented the good side of Cooper and the other the darkside. With one car trying to help each side of the persona, or perhaps one against good Cooper/Dougie and the other helping him. The next time we see the black car the guys in it, blow up another car in front of a young boy.
The Dougie side of this episode was probably my least favourite. It was just an extension of him being a fish out of water and rubbing up sociality. This week as we followed him around the work place there was a suggestion that Dougie maybe mentally handicapped, because of how others act around him. The work scenes were solid, but they just felt a bit one note and didn't advance the character or story, but like so many things at the moment these scenes might have more purpose when we see where they are going. I enjoyed Dougie chasing the co-worker with stack of coffee. Any reference/gag about Coffee in a Lynch work is a delight. Dougie's response to the drinking the coffee (too fast as it happens), is showing Cooper still being cut off by human ways, so the alien taste of coffee causing a reaction of shock. It was a nice touch. Dougie works at a insurence firm and they are discussing a murder case, which I think might be the killing from the first episode. Dougie is able to read the client and tells him that he is lying. This gets him heat with the boss who gives him a case loud of work to take home, indicating that Dougie's future with the company may depend on it. Dougie losing his job could get him even more hassle at home!
We get the first appearance in the new series of the Double R diner. Of course Norma and Shelly are still working there. Norma observes a conversation between Shelly and a new character played by Amanda Seyfried who was later revealed to be her daughter. It turns out that the daughter was borrowing money from Shelly, and its for her junkie boyfriend. We get a classic Lynchian reverse shot from the perspective of the couple in the car, to Norma and Shelly back in the diner, and back again. Its a smooth and powerful tranisition. What follows is the most visually arresting shot in the whole episode. As the car drives away, the couple get high, and Seyfried's face lights up with bright and bold reds with a brand smile. What makes the shot even more striking is how Lynch holds it for a number of seconds, making it even more dramatic.
The other hightlight of the episode was the payoff to the Jacoby shovel thing from last week. The set up is that the Doc is hosting his own radio show to the people of Twin Peaks, including Nadine who is having a giggle at Jacoby's expense. Jacoby is having an anti-capitalism rant. This then cuts to a super cheesy advert with Jacoby using the shovels to try and dig himself out of deep mud! Including the line, "Dig yourself out of the shit for $29.99!" I just love the idea of a down and out Jacoby resorting to this sort of scheme. Not to mention than it totally fits his crooked nature. Like the reveal of Bobby last week, this was another beautiful twist, but of course very different. There is a sting in the tail because when for the first time this season the episode doesn't close at the bar, though there it appears to be heading that way. But then as this week guest band are playing we cut away to the stranger at the bar (whom I think was the one Shelly nodded at the end of the pilot). There is an exchange of money between the guy and someone who tells a staff member that he will sort out the noise he's been making, this suggests some kind of drug or business transaction, When a girl at the next table asks him for a light, he invites her over to his table, and then wraps his arm around her neck asking "If you want to fuck me"? The girl clearly doesn't and when one of her friends tells him to let her go, he just tighters the grip.
The final part keeps the dopple Cooper plot bubbling. Tammy is seen looking at two different photos of Cooper, then at some finger prints. Back at the prison Cooper/Bob is given his one phone call. As requested by Gordon last week, the call is being filmed, but the tables are turned. Dark Coop somehow knows they are listening in (think that might be the Bob factor), makes out that he is going to call someone but then sets off a flash of thunder over the line. He replaces the phone with us and the prison workers uncertain of what has just happened. The episode concludes with Dougie just starring at a station outside the insurance company, he has been standing in the same place for ages.
Episode MVP: Dr. Lawerance Jacoby
One of the joys of revisiting the world of Twin Peaks is just dropping in on the characters and seeing what they are up to now, and this was most unexpected reveal yet. Though keeping with most of what the new series has produced so far, there is still a logic which works both on a everyday level and just in a mad Twin Peaks logic. Again its a character beat which is reacting to a change in culture over the last twenty six years, but has a beautiful twist that by rebelling against a capitalist culture, Jacoby is actually embracing it by encourging the people of TP to invest in a capitalist style scheme. That the neive and disturbed Nadine is one of Jacoby's followers makes complete sense too.
Verdict
Probably the weakest episode yet, but by the end of it I was more excited and maybe in weeks much of it might make sense. Bits of it just felt like random character moments, there were a few unrelated scenes. By the end things were building up a head of steam again with some intriging plots set up. The weakest moments were those involving Dougie, but the Double Cooper plot as a whole needs to be slow paced, and is still a great hook. What is going to happen, with his darker side is still very much in the air. Though she wasn't given much to do Amanda Seyfried should be a solid addition to the cast, and like with other casting choices in the past, Lynch appears to be playing on her sweet, girl next door image, and twisting it into something darker, with her being seduced into drugs and hanging out with that jerk. One weak part of that scene was that the guy she was seeing just seemed like a one note creep and the actor didn't bring much to the scene. Drugs seemed like it could be a theme emerging in the new show, so that is something to watch in the coming weeks. Think its only fair to judge this episode in a few weeks time in context of what is to come.
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