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TWIN PEAKS’ 7 Most Lynchian Moments in Episode 7

We are now at the seventh chapter of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s epic return to Twin Peaks. This series was described by Lynch as “one giant movie,” and if this is the case, then episode seven of 18 is one third of the way through this super-long film. The story really starts to rev up in this episode, which sees Evil Coop (Kyle MacLachlan) confront old friends for the first time, all while the real Dale begins to stir within Dougie Jones. Here are the seven most Lynchian moments from chapter seven of Twin Peaks: 

“I don’t know where I am!!!”

This chapter of Twin Peaks opens in the middle of the woods outside of town, where we meet a very confused Jerry Horne (David Patrick Kelly). As the first episode told us, he is now making a living as a (perfectly legal) medical marijuana dispenser. Jerry dials up his big brother Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) at the Great Northern Hotel, though can’t seem to manage any words at first.

He finally tells his brother his car is missing and he doesn’t even know where he is. He screams “I THINK I’M HIGH!!! I DON’T KNOW WHERE I AM!!!” much to the exasperation of his poor brother, who has seemingly gone through this with Jerry before. I’m pretty sure this scene served no purpose aside from showing how Jerry Horne is now an Omega Level stoner, but it sure was Lynchian.

The Good Dale is in the lodge and he can’t leave. Write it in your diary.

As I suspected last week, the pages found in the door of the bathroom stall were the long missing pages of Laura Palmer’s secret diary. And in those pages were the clues that tie the new series back into Lynch’s prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

In one scene from the film, Laura Palmer has a dream, in which Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham), who hadn’t even moved to town yet during the events of the film, appears in Laura Palmer’s bed, wearing the same dress she wore in the series’ final episode during her journey into the Black Lodge. She tells Laura the following cryptic message:

My name is Annie. The Good Dale is the Lodge, and he can’t leave. Write it in your diary.”

Deputy Hawk (Michael Horse) knows exactly what this is referring to, as he knew Agent Cooper and Annie went into the Black Lodge 25 years ago. And although both came out, Hawk now knows that it wasn’t the good Dale who emerged from the Red Room, but something far worse and sinister. As to how and when those pages got into the stall door? Hawk thinks Leland Palmer hid them there, back when he was being questioned for the murder of Jacques Renault.

I caught two brown trout in my pajamas…”

In a heartwarming cameo, the then-90 year old Warren Frost (he has, since filming this scene, passed away) returned to play Doctor Will Hayward, who talked to Sheriff Frank Truman via Skype. (New technology has caught up to Twin Peaks!) Truman wants to chat with him about the last time he examined Dale Cooper, who he administered to the hospital after the events of the original series finale. “I don’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I remember that day,” he tells Truman.

Of course, we know this was Evil Coop/BOB; Doc mentions that he saw Cooper get up and leave the intensive care unit not long after being admitted, assuming he was visiting a comatose Audrey Horne (who was admitted to the hospital following the bank explosion at the end of the old series). It’s this fan’s guess that the horrible drug deal/hit-and-run driver Richard Horne may be the spawn of Evil Coop/BOB and Audrey.

Doc Hayward was on a fishing trip while Skyping, and manages to tell Truman about the good luck he’s had fishing. “Just the other morning I caught two brown trout in my pajamas,” he jokes. “How they got in my pajamas I’ll never know.” He made a breakfast out of them, friend ’em, and had some scrambled eggs with them too. (“Trout in the pajamas” is season three’s “Fish in the percolator.”)

Side note: The scene was a charming swan song for Warren Frost, who died in February. Not only was Warren a Twin Peaks vet, but the father of Mark Frost, Twin Peaks‘ co-creator and writer. That this episode aired on Father’s Day is a fitting tribute.

There’s a body, all right.”

Thanks to the character of Air Force Lieutenant Cynthia Knox (Adele René), we now know the body found in Buckhorn, South Dakota in episode one is that of Major Garland Briggs. (just the body, mind you–the head is missing). But what was revealed in this episode is that the body is that of a man in his late 40s, not the body of a man in his mid 70s, as Briggs would now be.

So are we talking time travel here? Did Evil Coop/BOB stash the body in the Black Lodge somehow for 25 years? In an earlier episode, Deputy Bobby Briggs said that his dad died “right before Agent Cooper left town” 25 years ago, but this throws all of that into question. Some wacky timey-wimey stuff is going on here folks.

I’ll always remember that night.”

We come to what is maybe the greatest moment in the new series so far. After finally meeting Diane (Laura Dern), Agent Cooper’s former secretary and confidante from the original series (whom we famously never saw in person or even heard from), we find that she’s a hard-drinking city slicker with ZERO fucks to give. Gordon Cole (David Lynch) and Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer) know that she knows Agent Cooper better than anyone, so they want her to check out the man in prison in South Dakota who says he’s Dale Cooper. She’ll know if it’s him or not, if anyone will.

Diane very reluctantly agrees, but only after telling Albert, Gordon, and new Agent Tammy Preston to fuck off multiple times. When she finally sees Cooper behind glass in person, she’s visibly shaken big time. She asks him if she remembers the last time they saw one another, to which he says, “I’ll always remember that night.”

Diane says, “So will I.”

It becomes clear that Evil Coop/BOB hurt her at their last encounter some 25 years ago…badly. Though sexual assault certainly comes to mind, you get the feeling that Evil Coop/BOB got into her head and did even further serious damage.

Kyle MacLachlan’s portrayal of Evil Coop/BOB in this scene is downright chilling, as he asks, “Are you upset with me?” to a clearly traumatized Diane Evans. Dern, in a very brief scene, shows so much emotion and range as she confronts the man she once admired, who has clearly destroyed her life. Dern has long been David Lynch’s muse, from Blue Velvet to Wild At Heart to Inland Empire, and she gives an incredible performance as she faces off with the man she thought she knew. I hope we see more of Diane, but if we don’t, this was an effective use of Laura Dern’s talent.

The mysterious humming noise in the Great Northern

We are back at the Great Northern Hotel for the first time since the first episode, and Benjamin Horne and his new secretary Beverly (Ashley Judd) keep hearing a mysterious humming noise coming from somewhere in the hotel. They look around Ben’s office for a good while, but can’t seem to find the source. At the same time, Ben is told that the old key for room 315, which Dougie’s prostitute friend Jade mailed a few episodes back, has returned to its home; Ben remembers that Room 315 is Cooper’s old room, where he was once shot.

Could this humming coming from the walls be a tie-in to the original series’ long dangling plot thread? Josie Packard (Joan Chen) once shot Dale Cooper in that room, and she died in that hotel, in an infamous episode of the original series where we see her spirit enter the wood of a nearby drawer pull. Is Josie still haunting the hotel? And if so, could she be stirring once again because of the return of Dale Cooper’s hotel room key? Joan Chen wasn’t on the cast list released a few months back, but I’d bet money we see her appear once again, somehow vibrating in the wooden walls of the Great Northern Hotel.

“Squeeze his hand off!!”

For the last five episodes, we’ve seen our beloved Special Agent Dale Cooper living the life of Las Vegas insurance agent Dougie Jones, relegated to a zombie version of the man we once knew. Barely able to walk, talk, or even pee by himself, there have been flashes of the real Coop emerging slowly. But none more so than in this past episode. When hitman Ike the Spike tries to kill him outside his office, the real’s Coop’s FBI instincts emerge and he handily takes the assailant down. (With a little help from his wife, Janey-E, played by Naomi Watts).

He did have some help, though, as the “evolution of the Arm” (a.k.a. the weird scrotum-headed tree from the Red Room that was once the Little Man From Another Place)–or perhaps the Arm’s evil doppelgänger?–helped him out, by telling him Coop to “squeeze his hand off” once he got the Ike’s gun toting hand in his grip. Although Ike got away, Coop pressed so hard while subduing him that Ike’s actual skin got stuck to the gun. Eww.

Which moments in this latest chapter stood out the most for you? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.

Images: Showtime

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