Twin Peaks: Drive with a Dead Girl Rewatch

September 18, 2014 6:56 AM - Season 2, Episode 8

Ben is locked away for Laura's murder, and Jerry attempts to take on his legal defense. Although Coop is wary of rushing to judgement, Harry sees Ben as the clear culprit and charges Ben officially. Pete taunts Ben in jail with a message from Catherine, who offers him freedom (but at a price). Meanwhile Leland goes for a drive. At the Double R, Norma's mother comes to town with a new husband, who is a figure out of Hank's past. Andy attempts reconciliation with Lucy. BOB's latest victim is discovered.

Scheduling: new episodes posted every Tuesday and Thursday. Both re-watchers and new viewers are welcome.

Watching: available for streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and for free on Hulu and CBS's site.

Previous Episode Threads:
Season One: Pilot, Traces to Nowhere, Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer, Rest in Pain, The One-armed Man, Cooper's Dreams, Realization Time, The Last Evening
Season Two: May the Giant Be With You, Coma, The Man Behind the Glass, Laura's Secret Diary, The Orchid's Curse, Demons, Lonely Souls

Bonus Stuff: The Twin Peaks soundtrack.

posted by codacorolla (7 comments total)

The wind-down of Laura's murder continues apace, and is still excellent, with Jerry's incompetent lawyering managing to be one of the Jerry high points, and the actual drive with the dead girl managing to be supremely creepy.

And yet this is also the episode that introduces Vivian, the most unethical food critic in history, and perhaps the least interesting plot point to appear on Twin Peaks. Ugh, and her deadbeat husband, who not only is just another Hank, but is actually paired with Hank for most of his tenure. This is also where we start wrapping up the Josie narrative, which is just the most nonsensical, bewildering thing ever.

We do have another of Bobby's occasional, and I think the last, attempts to be a bad guy. It won't really go anywhere, but I do like that he can't even successfully blackmail Ben Horne, who he has dead to rights. Well, Horne is an old hand at this game. Of course Bobby wasn't going to win at this.
posted by maxsparber at 8:13 AM on September 18, 2014

It's interesting, given the Major's inspiring speech to Bobby in the diner, that instead of just squeezing Ben for money (I mean, Ben has to have something with recurring receipts from Jack's and The Great Northern, even if he's reduced from what he was) Bobby actually tries to become a businessman under Ben's wing.

Something that struck me with Leland's drive scene in this episode is that Leland is under the nose of the investigation the entire time, but for whatever reason they just don't see his strange behavior as being something worth looking into. The ultimate story of an abusive familial relationship is incredibly common for real-life cases like this, but (maybe because of Leland's position in the town) it's never suspected. That's one of the major themes that keeps coming up in discussion, how an idyllic little town transplanted out of 50s Americana can hold so much sin.
posted by codacorolla at 8:18 AM on September 18, 2014

It is interesting that Audrey immediately jumps in to help Bobby. They have a pretty easy, flirtatious relationship, and Audrey has started her transition from girl detective to Horne businesswoman.

I can't decide whether. had the show continued, she and Bobby would have wound up together or if Bobby would have wound up working for her.
posted by maxsparber at 8:22 AM on September 18, 2014

If summers watching Days of Our Lives with my mom as a kid is any indication, Audrey would probably be romancing a new person each season. The signs in these episodes certainly point towards that person being Bobby.
posted by codacorolla at 8:25 AM on September 18, 2014

I also had a procedural question for people following the thread. Fire Walk With Me represents the cap to the Laura storyline, which gets backgrounded after this next episode. My original plan was to watch FWWM at the end of the show, but I think it might fit in better after next episode. Any opinions on that?
posted by codacorolla at 8:41 AM on September 18, 2014

Any opinions on that?

I've actually finished watching the episodes and started in on the movie. I've still got the 2nd half of the movie to watch. I believe there's some stuff in the movie that references things from the latter episodes of the series. I also just generally like to watch things in production order. Just my thoughts.
posted by DarkForest at 1:48 PM on September 18, 2014

That's an interesting idea, codacorolla. Normally I'm all for watching in either production order or release order, but given the degree to which FWWM directly concerns the Palmer case, I wouldn't mind taking a slight detour.

Back to my BOB:Leland ratio question from last episode...I'm now of the solid opinion that at least some of Leland's "crazy" behavior is actually real-Leland trying to overcome BOB's control. Moreover, he's trying to get himself arrested specifically to prevent BOB from hurting anyone else. In this light, the swervy driving was a deliberate ploy to get pulled over by the police, and his attempt to show Cooper his golf clubs was actually a thwarted confession. It's just as possible that BOB just drives like an asshole, and that he was going to brain Coop with a five-iron, but the ambiguity is fascinating.

I'd also forgotten that both Leland and Coop were singing "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" -- maybe it's just a coincidence, and maybe it's Coop's intuition/residual Giant-sighting mojo giving him a lead that he doesn't know to do anything with.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:16 PM on September 20, 2014 [2 favorites]