**Spoilers ahead**
I’ll put this out there right now: recapping or reviewing “Twin Peaks” is becoming increasingly difficult. Obviously, there’s a lot of weird things going on, so I thought I’d try a different, more streamlined approach. Here’s a few highlights from Sunday’s sixth episode, and as an overview, it should be said “Twin Peaks” is starting to find a groove and is becoming slightly less… strange. Slightly. That is to say the extremely out there, metaphysical, interdimensional moments that remind one of “Eraserhead” have been pushed into the background. “Twin Peaks” is mostly terrestrial now and we’re spending less time in the red room of the Black Lodge. That said, this is a brutal episode brimming with violence and blood.
Diane Revealed
You’ll of course remember Diane. She was Special Agent Dale Cooper’s secretary and she was “featured” in nearly every episode of the original season. Featured in that Cooper would dictate his findings and notes and then send them to her. “I have been assigned a secretary. Her name is Diane … She seems an interesting cross between a saint and a cabaret singer,” he said in the season one pilot. But Diane has never been seen or heard from until now. In episode six, Diane is revealed, played by Laura Dern, and found by Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer). It’s unspoken, but clearly the FBI agent has tracked her down to ask if she has seen or spoken to Special Agent Dale Cooper. It all ends on a vague and mysterious note. She just turns and says, “Hello, Albert.”
Do Not F*ck With Jane-E Jones
Dougie (aka the real Special Agent Dale Cooper, Kyle MacLachlan) remains extremely disoriented. He still owes $50,000 and the hoods that he owes money to are running out of patience. They call, demanding more money, and threaten blackmail with a photo featuring Dougie and the call girl from the earlier episodes. Dougie’s wife Jane-E (Naomi Watts) has kind of had it though. She opens the envelope, sees the photo, and goes ballistic. When the thugs call, she demands to meet them. When she finally does, she berates them and refuses to pay more than a dime than what’s owed (ok, she tosses in a little bit extra for their trouble). “We drive cheap, terrible cars!” she screams. “We are the 99 percent!” She’s certainly not going to be abused by this situation. They don’t get in a word edgewise and she storms off. “She’s a tough lady,” Jeremy Davies says in a quick cameo as one of these white trash thugs.
Meanwhile, Dougie has some kind of strange vision while working on case files for the Lucky 7 insurance company. In the previous episode, his boss demanded he go through that stack of files immediately or risk losing his job. So Dougie, in his dullard state, tries to go through the files, but soon he’s scribbling bizarre gibberish all over them, but also connecting some lines and… it appears he’s doing more than doodling nonsense. Dougie comes in later and hands the case file to his boss who is exasperated by the gobbledygook he has delivered. But on closer inspection, there’s some kind of mysterious revelation that the boss deciphers. It’s some strange code and bossman thanks him for his work and notes that they should keep it a secret between them.
Richard, Red & The Hit And Run
Richard (Eamon Farren), the teenage loose cannon introduced last episode — groping the friend of Jane Levy in the Bang Bang Bar — is back and hopped up on coke, and naturally, he gets into all kinds of trouble. He meets up with “Red” (Balthazar Getty), a coke dealer from out of town looking to set up some business in Twin Peaks through Richard. But he see’s the kid as an untested punk who may or may not be the man for the job. There’s some magical/mystical weirdness to this scene with a coin, it’s hard to explain, but it does point to the fact that even when “Twin Peaks” seems like it’s calming down, it can have its surreal moments. Dressed down by Red, Richard, in a pique of petulant, coke-fueled anger goes on a wild ride in his truck. Unfortunately, he mows down a young boy and drives off, still in a rage. Featuring tragically sad music by Angelo Badalmenti, this scene is incredibly moving, mournful and powerful, a testament to Lynch switching on a dime from opaqueness and anger to something excruciating but beautiful too. There’s been tons of strangeness in “Twin Peaks” so far, but this might be its most emotionally devastating scene so far. Harry Dean Stanton, reprising his small role as Carl Rodd from “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” is also in this scene as a witness to the catastrophe.
Ike The Spike
Shit gets really weird and Lynchian when Ike “The Spike” Stadler (Christophe Zajac-Denek) goes on a brutal killing spree. It’s a bit convoluted in my mind, but it appears that Duncan Todd, (Patrick Fischler) who tried to ominously hire someone for something in an earlier season… a hit job?… has hired a killer to assassinate Dougie and Lorraine (Tammie Bird), the nervous woman in black in the previous episode who unsuccessfully tried to have Dougie killed. Obviously, someone’s been trying to kill Dougie for several episodes and has failed, but Ike is not missing this opportunity to do away with Tammy. With an ice pick he goes to town killing her and several other innocent bystanders in a bloody, gruesome rage. All you need to know is there’s hit jobs on top of hit jobs — possibly in retaliation for fucking up — and they’re grotesque. “Twin Peaks” kind of breaks my brain, but sometimes, on just pure primal cinema levels its hauntingly engaging, even if you don’t always know what’s going on.
Other appearances and ephemera:
– We’re introduced to Miriam (Sarah Jean Long), a teacher who loves cherry pie. We also get to see a little bit more of Heidi (Amanda Hays), a waitress who creepily giggles uncontrollably.
– All this time Deputy Hawk (Michael Horse) has been rooting around in the dark for clues. In episode one, the Log Lady gave him strange instructions about clues that have something to do with Agent Cooper. Up until now, he’s found zilch, but using an all-of-a-sudden strange intuition, he finds, in a bathroom stall, a broken door that he tears apart to find a handwritten piece of paper inside. The hidden clue is not unlike the piece of paper originally found under Laura Palmer’s fingernails in that it’s a one -in-a-million chance to find it. But Hawk’s pure instincts are guiding him closer to the truth even if we don’t know what it all means right now.
– The Bang Bang club song this episode is “Tarfia” by Sharon Von Etten.
– Pay deep attention to this show or get lost (like I am sometimes).