We are at chapter 5 now of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s return to Twin Peaks on Showtime, and things have only been getting and crazier, and really haven’t started to make that more sense, but are no less intriguing. Well, maybe a little bit more sense. But this is David Lynch we’re talking about here. We take what we can get.
In this week’s episode, we got more of newly reborn Agent Dale Cooper (living his life as Dougie Jones), played brilliantly of course by Kyle MacLachlan, not to mention more batshit crazy antics with his evil doppelganger. Oh, and we get our first visit to the Double R Diner since the show’s been back. Here are the 7 most Lynchian moments from chapter 5.
Evil Cooper In The Jail Cell
Back in Buckhorn, South Dakota, Evil Doppelganger Coop is sitting silently in his jail cell. He has a moment in front of the mirror, where we get a flashback to BOB and the Doppelganger Coop laughing crazily in the Black Lodge in the original series final episode. That’s a scene that never stops being nightmare inducing.
We cut back to the present, where we see Coop staring at himself in the mirror, as his face slowly morphs into that of BOB. (the late Frank Silva). “You’re still with me. That’s good.” It seems BOB and Evil Coop haven’t been separated at all during these years, and whatever bad stuff they’re up to, they’re doing it together. The slow morph of BOB’s face into Coop’s is creepy as hell, even if we don’t get full BOB, it’s enough to give us the legit creeps.
Dougie Likes Coffee
Real Coop, still brain damaged and living the life of Dougie Jones, is dropped off at his work by his wife Janey-E (Naomi Watts), which we find out is that of an insurance salesman in Las Vegas. While still wandering around like a lost toddler, a younger member of the insurance company’s staff, carrying coffees for the entire staff meeting, gets Dougie’s attention with the smell of all that “good Joe” he’s carrying. One thing Cooper loves, memory or not, is a good old cup o’ coffee.
After Dougie snatches a fellow employee’s coffee and drinks it like it was the elixir of life, he wanders dazed into the meeting, where a fellow employee starts going on about his latest sales. As a light flashed on his face, we get a sudden moment where Dougie seemingly becomes the real Dale Cooper again, and sternly tells the other employee “he’s lying”, right before fading back into toddlerhood. We’re not sure what all this means, but could the real Dale Cooper finally be emerging?
The Poor Casino Manager Gets Busted
Back at the Silver Springs Casino in Vegas, Supervisor Burns (Brett Gelman) is being harassed by a pair of mobsters, played by Jim Belushi and Robert Knepper. Both of these wise guys are not pleased that Burns lost $425,000 to “Mr. Jackpots,” and the pair of obvious mafia dudes are convinced that Burns was in on the job somehow. After roughing him up pretty bad, they tell him he’s fired, and to never step foot in Las Vegas again. What makes this scene so purely Lynchian is while all this violence is going on, we cut to some cute blonde casino employees in pink skirts as they watch on, bored, as if they’ve seen this all a million times before.
Becky Gets High
In our first scene at the Double R Diner, we are reintroduced to Norma Jennings and Shelly Johnson, once again played by Peggy Lipton and Madchen Amick, both still serving up coffee and pie 25 years later. While Norma is in a booth doing paperwork, we see a young girl named Becky, played by Amanda Seyfried, come up to the counter and ask Shelly for money. Turns out Becky is Shelly’s young daughter.
Apparently her husband, Steven Burnett (Caleb Landry Jones), a piece of sleazoid, drug-dealing trash in a white Camaro, needed to be bailed out of money troubles for the umpteenth time. Shelly gives her daughter Becky (is she Bobby’s kid? or Leo’s? Or Neither??) some cash, and we see that Stephen is dealing cocaine. He gives Becky a bump of his latest product, and as she they drive along, we experience her high as some innocent ’50s pop music plays on the radio, all while the sun shines down on her face. It’s a super Lynchy moment, and it (sadly) looks like Shelly’s kid makes the same bad life choices her mother made all those years ago.
Dr. Jacoby, Internet Star
For four episodes now, we’ve been watching as Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn), living in his beat up trailer in the woods, has been taking a bunch of shovels and spray-painting them gold. Now, we know what for. Turns out, our wacky Hawaii loving psychiatrist has only gotten more insane over the past 25 years, and now has his own internet streaming show, where he goes off on anti-corporate conspiracy rants as “Dr. Amps.”
This is all much to the delight of local pothead Jerry Horne (David Patrick Kelly) and Nadine Hurley (Wendy Robie), who all watch the show the same way they gathered around the TV for soap opera “Invitation  to Love.” Apparently, Jacoby is selling the gold shovels, so his fans can “dig themselves out of the shit.” This whole scene is the kind of crazy nonsense we love Lynch so much for.
Richard Horne Is Our New Frank Booth
Back at the Road House, we are introduced to Richard Horne, played by Eamon Farren. Yes, that’s a new member of the Horne family. But who is he? Ben’s kid? Audrey’s?? (I hope not). He seems more like a psychotic, sleazy nutjob in the vein of Blue Velvet’s Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) than a typical member of the Horne clan, who keep their evil carefully controlled under a respectable exterior. We see him in a booth smoking and brooding, and he continues to smoke even after being asked to stop.
A girl in the booth behind him makes the mistake of flirting with him, after which he gets physical with her and all but threatens to rape her. It’s a pretty terrifying scene, and very much straight from the world of Blue Velvet more than Twin Peaks. Richard also gives a wad of money to one of the new we cops were introduced to at the Sheriff’s Station in the previous episode, probably for some drug trade business. It seems that 25 years on, the cops in town aren’t all  squeaky clean anymore. Bummer.
Evil Coop Gets His “One Phone Call.”
Back in South Dakota, Evil Doppelganger Coop gets his mandatory “one phone call”, and he knows very well that the cops are recording him, per the FBI’s request. As he watches the camera, he threatens the police with calling a certain “Mr. Strawberry.” He then calls a mysterious call box in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The lights start flashing all over the police station, the computers crash, and all hell breaks loose, as  noise starts coming from every device.
Right before Evil Coop hangs up, he says “The cow jumped over the moon” into the call box, and all the chaos stops…and we see the electronic box back in Argentina vanish into a tiny gold ball, much like Dougie Jones did in the Black Lodge a few episodes back. In typical Lynch fashion, I have NO idea what any of this means, but it’s all watchable as hell.
What were your favorite Lynchy moments from chapter 5? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.
Images: Showtime
