If there was a lack of plot activitiy last week, you certainly couldn't say that about this episode. Things get kicked off and out of the blocks from the very start. The big reveal in the opening scene is that Miriam is some how still alive! (I didn't even know this was still a question...). She is discovered crawling, bloodied by a few boys playing baseball. This is a great reveal that throws the audience off from the start, and adds a unexpected twist to the Richard/Chad letter plot from last week. Guess now it may not matter if Chad got the right letter.
In her second second dramatic scene of the show Becky (Amanda Seyfried), Shelly's daughter is desparate for a ride. She wants to confront Steve. She calls her Mum to the trailer park, but is in such a rage that she steals Shelly's car, driving off with Shelly on the hood trying to calm Becky down. That was hard to watch. Throughout these first two scenes Lynch has the dramatic syth score building to a high pitch finale, and it works to perfection. Shelly gets Carl to give her a lift to the double R diner, she calls Bobby on the way. Later, Becky show's up at Stephen's with a gun, calling him out. She's told by a neighbour that he's left, but shoots a number of bullets into the door anyway. This is another edge of your seat wild scene, and its fun watching Seyfried subvert her typical, girl next door image.
In Backthorn, Hastings takes Gordon, Diane, Tammy and Albert to the site of the incident 25 years ago. He points out a fence to Tammy, that he went through before losing his memory. Gordon looks up into the sky, a black hole/huge wind appears before him. He motions with his hands as if he is going to get sucked into the sky. Albert steps in and pulls him back. They see a headless body which they assume must be Ruth Davenport, she has coordinates on her arm. Just as things are starting to come together we are directed away from Gordon and Albert, the focus is on Diane, laidback as ever, smoking. Out of the blue, a sound, the cop who was in the car with Hastings is freaking out, because as we then see, Hasting's face has mysteriously been squashed! I laughed hard at Gordon's long pause, before, "He's dead." This is another wonderful scene, full of narrative drive, building strongly on the mystery, while also working as a strange, surreal Twin Peaks scene. It leaves some intriguging questions too.
At the Double R, Bobby and Shelly sit down with Becky. Bobby informs his daughter that she's off the hook because of him working for the law, but that she will have to pay for the damage. Her parents try to convince Becky that its time to devorce that idiot Steve. However, she still seems in denial about hr hubby. In a sharp piece of direction, at the moment that Shelly is trying to reason with her daughter, we cut to Norma watching them from the counter. At first Becky is still being stubborn, but then she catches a look from Norma who firmly nods at her, as a result, Becky gives in and hugs her mother agreeing to stay with her. Its a telling moment, selling Norma's wisdom, and the respect she has within the town, and from Becky (don't forget the history with Norma and Shelly). Then in a odd beat Shelly sees her latest frame waiting for her outside (this is the guy she eyed up in the bar in the opening episode of the season). She rushes outside, and they embrace. They've arranged to meet later on. Its an odd moment, which I'm not sure if they were aiming for comedy, like pointing out the irony of Shelly being a good parent one minute, then running around like a teenager the next, or if its another life repeating itself again (like Shelly and Bobby) etc.. It just felt a little bit forced in what other wise had been a great scene. Just when we think the scene is over, shots are dramatically fired into the diner. When Bobby rushed out, he discovers that a the shots came from a the back of a van, and were shot by a kid. In a nearby car a woman is distressed, complains that she needs to get home, suddenly next to her a boy is revealed appearing to decay.
Hawk and Frank look up the location they were given in Major Briggs notes. They are to leave in another two days, as instructed. The Log Lady (Catherine E. Coulson) phones Hawk. She wants to know what Hawk has found, he can't tell her. Catherine adds, "My log is afraid of fire. There is fire where you are going." This did strike me as a important message, which may prove to be her send off line.
Albert and Gordon discuss the coordinates found on Ruth's arm. Diane looks nervious, and is pleased when Tammy and the cop bring in coffee and doughnuts. They debate who could have killed William Hastings. Gordon and Albert mention having seen a homeless man nearby, Diane suggests that she saw the same. Albert smells a rat, gives her a stare. Was Diane involved in the killing? One reading of this scene is that she is trying to plant the seed that a unknown homeless guy was involved to detract the blame from her. Gordon then confirms that he saw lots of bearded men in the room. Are these meant to be the Woods Men?
Back to the Vegas part of the story, and Dougie's boss arrange for him to meet the Mitchum Brothers, and give them a cheque for a large amount to sort the whole mess out. Harry Mitchum is haunted by a dream of Dougie that makes him want to kill him even more. At this point, this just seems like the wheels of this plot dragging, but just wait! It all starts to make sense. We get a country version of Viva Los Vegas playing as Dougie is driven via limo to the meeting out in the desert. As the Mitchum brothers await their target, Harry returns to his dream, pointing out that in his dream Rodney's bruises (suffered at the hands of Candie last week), were gone. Dougie shows up with a box in his hand. Harry says whatever is in the box is what he saw in his dream (classic Lynchian, Twin Peaks style moment), and is why they can't kill him. In the box is a cherry pie, of course its TWIN PEAKS!! When the Brothers find the cheque they are even more convinced that they don't need to kill Dougie. So much so they take him for dinner. Again, you might think this scene is going no where, but then there's a subtle turning point, that points the Dougie plot back towards a forward movement. For much of the scene Dougie is spaced out, bemused by the attention he is recieving. There is a live piano performance, which at one point slows down, into a version of the CLASSIC TWIN PEAKS THEME, YES!!!! I marked so hard! This catches Dougie's attention too. The old lady who Dougie helped score big in the casino approaches the table to thank him. I liked that they followed this story up and show how the woman's life is different after winning all the money. Dougie enjoys the pie, adding, "Damn good." I marked again! Its left to the piano man to play us out...
Episode MVP: Becky Johnson
Her first appearance was promising, she got a brief cameo last week, but that cameo was paid off beautifully here. Not only is the casting of Seyfried a smart subversion of her past role, and public persona, but as we see here, the actress is really stepping up to the mark and producing her most full-on, powerful, and most human performance to date. We see how out of control Becky is at the start of the episode. This is sold effectively through the editing, highly charaged atmosphere, and because Seyfried lets rip and loses herself in the role. Later on she moved me during the scene with her parents. Her breakdown was a beautiful piece of acting. Again I think Lynch is empowering his female characters by allowing them to be flawed, dark, but also relatable. I look forward to seeing more of Becky's arc.
Verdict
This was the best of both worlds. The first ten minute was some of the most gruelling of television you will see all year, but at the same time we got some massive plot movements and character growth. As it turned out last week's episode which recieved a luke warm response from many, was largely set up. One of the joys of the Return has been revisting the old characters, seeing the changes, and bringing their arcs around. One plus of having twenty fives (or twenty six as it proved) between seasons is that you can mark a big change in your characters without eyebrows being raised. The plot with the Johnson's like, the Horne plot is rich, and is becoming of great importance to the direction of Twin Peaks. Because the likes of Shelly, Bobby, Benjamin, Jerry, Audrey (who still hasn't appeared!) have played important roles in the show's history, therefore, them and the new additions to their families should be important to the new series. The small moment involving Norma was nicely handled and charming. The scene when William Hastngs meets his fate, not only adds to the suspicion and question marks hanging over Diane (which first started a few episodes back), but works as a classic Lynchian moment of the real world and other universes clashing, which some how makes sense, but with a stunning air of mystery. This was a great epsiode because the plot and characters work in movement with these ambitious visual moments, and the meaty philosophy. On that note, Harry's dream and how it changed Dougie's fate seemed might have been like an intervention. Such a intervention might be to save Cooper, and to get him back on track and closer to the old Cooper again. Whatever the case the end of the episode was consistent with the alternative logic that makes the show so unique. The ending was lovely, but what it means for the Dougie's plot is still hard to say. His reaction to the Twin Peaks style music, may just be a post-modern nod to the audience, or it maybe more. Maybe his line when eating the pie is supposed to be the old Coop slowly, returning or it could be Lynch/Frost messing with us. I'm looking forward to finding out.
Further Questions
1. Is Richard busted now that Miriam has been found alive?
2. Where do you see Becky going from here? Will she hit rock bottom again or is this a big turning point?
3. Can Diane be trusted?
4. Was Harry's dream a intervention from the lodge to save Dougie/Cooper and get him back on track? If so what happened?
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