Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 6 First Watch

June 11, 2017 6:05 PM - Season 3, Episode 6

Don't die. (description from Showtime)
posted by infinitewindow (54 comments total)

"You really give me a lot to think about"--or whatever exactly Dougie's boss said to him.

I'm making a lot of connections here but they are probably pretty obvious. The death of that kid hit by Richard (was that his first name?) Horne's truck was pretty harrowing. I think we'd been set up by the previous scene re-introducing us to Cherry Pie in Twin Peaks, thinking: Oh, finally we're back to the old fun! The individuality of the kid and his mom were quickly established in their odd sort of tag game, which in retrospect seemed a little forced to set up the tragedy.

Back to Richard Horne. There's a visual connection to Audrey Horne in the dime appearing in his mouth (as the tied cherry stem in Audrey's). Also of course seeing Diane for the first time (enough of an event they do nothing more with it.)
posted by Schmucko at 7:05 PM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

HARRY DEAN STANTON

speaking of harry dean stanton that coin-flipping king-and-I-loving drug dealer looked exactly like emilio estevez should look nowadays from the side if time was kind to him. but it wasn't him, was it? or was it?

a wizard in a creperie did the coin trick to me many years ago but I was not a cokehead at the time so I didn't have to go cry about it in a truck after.

"fuck gene kelly, you motherfucker!" truest thing Albert ever said and he says a lot of true things.

and Naomi Watts shouldn't have had to wait this many episodes to have that good a speech but she made it count.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:09 PM on June 11, 2017 [6 favorites]

The hit-and-run intersection is the same one where this scene from FWWM took place.
posted by infinitewindow at 7:09 PM on June 11, 2017 [5 favorites]

Bushnell's fight poster got a lot screen time tonight, promoting four furious rounds on June 18th, which happens to be next week's air date.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:13 PM on June 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

Doris is a mirror of Dougie and that is why I am so angry at this Sheriff Truman. not just because he isn't the other Sheriff Truman. it was a much stronger sense last episode, so strong I couldn't put it into words because it just made me upset. but now I figured it out.
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:17 PM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also obvious things: the traffic lights from the side looked like the numeral 7 ("Lucky 7") and so did the bald dwarf assassin's bent icepick.
posted by Schmucko at 7:19 PM on June 11, 2017

Was the woman the bald dude icepicked the same woman that sent the text message on the blackberry?

Also: Coop is back in his suit! This is a good sign.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:21 PM on June 11, 2017

So the obvious thing that would be in the stall door would be more missing pages from Laura's diary, right? She had the vision of meeting Dale before she died, she recorded her Lodge tripping dreams in the secret diary, Bob (as Leland) would have a reason to redact that, and... maybe Leland put them there shortly before he died?

Was the woman the bald dude icepicked the same woman that sent the text message on the blackberry?

I believe so, yes. My guess is that it's all a part of Evil Dale's crime empire.
posted by codacorolla at 7:23 PM on June 11, 2017

I'm pretty sure it's the same woman -- she's even got her own super loud theme music.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:23 PM on June 11, 2017

I just assumed they were the diary pages (but not sure how that would help anything unless they were "dale cooper is in the black lodge/this lady told me to write it in my diary" pages.

I feel vindicated by Chekhov's kid from last episode (I guess).
posted by armacy at 7:31 PM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

Wow, the camera really loves Harry Dean Stanton, doesn't it? Passages like his entire scene in the park really make this show for me. It's nothing like what would have been shown on the old Twin Peaks, but it's very pure David Lynch.

I could have lived without the drug dealer. That all seemed like the side of Lynch that Tarantino and his imitators gravitated to in the '90s. The coin toss made me think it might have been a shout-out to the Coen Brothers, but who knows. Am I even supposed to be following the various crime subplots on this show? I can't imagine why anyone would care about drug running when you've got the Black Lodge going on. I feel like that stuff is just obligatory, and I don't usually mind it, but that scene ran really long. I felt like I too was trapped in a warehouse with an inane cokehead.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:38 PM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

The coin toss made me think it might have been a shout-out to the Coen Brothers, but who knows.

I thought Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead but I don't think David Lynch is that kind of insufferable. though I would be if I were in charge. and thematically it could not be a better allusion. Cooper is pretty much where they end up. or where they started from. "What's the first thing you remember?"
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:44 PM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

I think that the various crime plotlines are supposed to make us think about the routine darkness in the world. Like, the fact that Evil Coop is not so much an aberration, but is actually thriving in the 25 years we've been removed from Twin Peaks is supposed to be meaningful, I believe.

I'm getting a Blue Velvet vibe from the whole thing - peeling off the paint of nostalgia.

I've noticed that theme especially in Dougie Coop's fascination with images of benevolent authority and power (the law-man statues, the boxer picture, the badge). Coop has always been a fantasy about benevolent power, and the viewer has to square the fiction of all around decent warrior shaman Dale Cooper with what they know to be the actual (usually fairly dark) history of the FBI.
posted by codacorolla at 7:49 PM on June 11, 2017 [13 favorites]

Is that ridiculous coin trick drug dealer like, Mrs. Tremond's grandson all grown up and gone bad or something? Drug dealing is not incompatible with the whole garmonbozia harvesting MO of Lodge spirits.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:52 PM on June 11, 2017 [3 favorites]

David Lynch knows his base. Oh, Michael Cera is in? He must be Lucy and Andy's kid. Check. Oh, Laura Dern is in? She must be Diane. Check. We know from the promo interviews that Laura Dern drives with Kyle MacLachlan, but with which Cooper? Presumably Boop (still not sorry for calling hin that) but maybe not.

Don't die, Special Agent Dale Cooper. Don't die.
posted by Ruki at 7:53 PM on June 11, 2017

Chad is the worst and I hope Dale Cooper punches him in his stupid awful face
posted by jason_steakums at 8:16 PM on June 11, 2017 [10 favorites]

The drug dealer guy was Balthazar Getty. Didn't recognize him at all.
posted by cazoo at 8:57 PM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Balthazar Getty's character is named Red. He appeared previously in the roadhouse, pointing sexy finger guns at Shelly.

I was initially thinking that the scene with him and Richie Horne was kind of defining the sort of bad dudes they are (and poking holes in the Audrey and DC's son theory), with Richie being Bobby and Red being Leo, but after he mowed the kid down... I dunno. Bobby just killed that dude in the woods and that was kinda fair play.

Also I need to stop trying to draw parallels because David Lynch wants me to do that and then he wants to laugh at me when he spins the board around.

Other thoughts:
- I love Harry Dean Stanton in all things and the sorrow on his face broke me a little tonight.
- Heidi still works at the RR and her giggles are still copious and unmistakable.
- "Fuck you Gene Kelly, you motherfucker!" was the first truly Albert moment so far -- it totally overshadowed the Diane reveal and I DON'T CARE BECAUSE IT WAS AWESOME.
- I didn't mind the scene with Red and Richie because drug dealing was sort of hugely important to the machination of things in Twin Peaks and FWWM.
- When Hawk dropped the coin I was like "Dude, sometimes you just have to let those hard to reach chips go..." but then one thing led to another and I was like oh man if this pays off I'm going to eat my hat. Now I have to go find a hat.
- Those pages looked awfully yellow, like steno pad yellow, but it HAS been 25 years and Leland DID rip them out of Laura's diary before she gave it to Harold, so if that's what they end up being I won't be surprised.
- I'm glad they gave SOME explanation to why Sheriff Truman's wife is such a shrew. And fuck Chad.
- There are more people of color in Twin Peaks now. Kinda.
- So Linda lives in the trailer park and she's a veteran in a wheelchair...
posted by elsietheeel at 9:43 PM on June 11, 2017 [8 favorites]

Oh and I was expecting that clap on-clap off scene to go on a whole lot longer than it did.

Like I braced myself for it and everything.

And then was surprisingly disappointed when Janey-E called it off.
posted by elsietheeel at 9:57 PM on June 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

Janey and sad Cooper are the David Lynch version of Allison and Donnie on Orphan Black. almost exactly. what a very good thing it is he doesn't direct that.
posted by queenofbithynia at 10:09 PM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

I think Donnie is SLIGHTLY more capable than Dougie right now.

Only just.

(Poor Donnie. Also I totally forgot to watch last night. Damn.)
posted by elsietheeel at 10:12 PM on June 11, 2017

Janey-E's speech felt like a thesis statement for the series, maybe all David Lynch things ever:

"What kind of world are we living in where people can behave like this? Treat other people this way without any compassion or feeling for their suffering? We are living in a dark, dark age, and you are part of the problem."
posted by speicus at 11:37 PM on June 11, 2017 [11 favorites]

I'm amazed at how long Lynch is keeping Cooper barely sentient, but he's definitely showing signs of rousing himself out of it -- he's capable of ambulating by himself, he's developing curiosity, he's actually interacting with people, to an extent. Obviously it is frustrating, because we want Coop back, but, at the same time, Lynch films are so often an experience of intense frustration with significant (if unexpected) rewards. And there is a lot of marvelous moments of comedy. What the hell was Coop doing in the bathroom before he noticed Sonny Jim?
posted by maxsparber at 8:15 AM on June 12, 2017 [3 favorites]

I was initially thinking that the scene with him and Richie Horne was kind of defining the sort of bad dudes they are

Both of them give off distinctly Frank Booth vibes, starting with the formless intensity of their anger; Richard seems to have received the misogyny and sexual intimidation aspects of the character, while Red got the more quasi-mystical gangster aspects.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:17 AM on June 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

You know... Mrs. Tremond's grandson DID have red hair when he was a boy...
posted by elsietheeel at 9:50 AM on June 12, 2017

Ugh, I've been so game for this show, just letting it take its time and wash over me. But the car accident scene seemed so cheap, it pulled me out completely.

We are 1/3 of the way through now, correct?
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 10:36 AM on June 12, 2017

I've been rewatching TP this weekend and I'm on season 2, episode 3 right now...

"Without chemicals, he points."

Leland is in the sheriff's station and has just told Harry and Coop about BOB/Robertson living next door to his grandparents' summer house.

Soon after, MIKE/Mr. Gerard is in a sheriff's station bathroom stall trying to inject his medication but cannot because BOB is too near. Maybe slipping the ripped out diary pages into the door of the stall next to his...


And I think the car accident scene fit well, mirroring the scene in FWWM.
posted by elsietheeel at 10:55 AM on June 12, 2017 [2 favorites]

he's definitely showing signs of rousing himself out of it

Kyle MacLachlan's face when he was working on the case files was an absolute wonder. a pearl from the oceans beneath the oceans. there was a time when I didn't think he was that much of an actor, I thought David Lynch's thing for him was just one of those David Lynch things. but now I see clearly. he is some kind of brilliant artist. you could see something -- an idea, a memory, the idea of a memory -- COMING UP from behind his eyes, straining towards the surface skin of his face. what is incredible is it never got all the way there, but you could still see it. for a moment he seemed about to be alive. what an actor.
posted by queenofbithynia at 11:09 AM on June 12, 2017 [30 favorites]

After last week, I was impatient with the pace of Cooper's recovery. This week I think it's perfect.
posted by vibrotronica at 1:52 PM on June 12, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm 9000% in agreement about Kyle MacLachlan being an amazingly deep and nuanced actor. Also he's the nicest person you've ever seen on twitter.
posted by destructive cactus at 2:53 PM on June 12, 2017 [6 favorites]

Lynch does love a decrepit old man to help shuffle the plot along. First Señor Drool Cup at the Great Northern, then Dell Mibbler at the Savings and Loan, then Drool Cup again in the Red Room. As much as I love watching Coop emerge from Dougie's ashes, I sometimes fear Lynch's thing for bumbling and kismet may go on a bit longer than...

Well, it's going to go as long as it needs to.

Hallelujah!
posted by elsietheeel at 7:31 PM on June 12, 2017

You know, I really hope some graduate school film studies class is dissecting this show as part of a complete body of work as it airs in real-time.

Like, his name is Doug Jones? As in, noted character actor, mime, contortionist and fulcrum of The Doug Jones Experience????

Who also shares my birthday? And he's sleepwalking through this season, just aping and mimicking whatever he sees, beaming pure joy at the simple wonder of coffee.

Look, his son's "wallpaper, pillowcase and pajamas" matching ensemble just about blew my goddamned mind.

I know David Lynch is more of an auteur, and some people will react very viscerally to his particular artistic vision. What's weird is how many friends I see who remember loving it as kids/teenagers (my first watch was in 1989, I was 17, so...) but are confused and put off by it now. I was surprised seeing so many negative response heres in the FanFares. Still, I get that its pacing issues and weird "literally just a copy of a copy of old Dynasty/Knot's Landing reruns" acting style may seem weird to (younger?) viewers. Some people are watching this who didn't get to do this "WTF am I even watching?" feeling the first round.

My husband and I binged all of it before this started, and I mean, if we could grow extra eyeballs on stalks to watch it more and visually absorb extra everything, we totally would. The overt tropes and subtext are just so Ed-Wood-directed-Telenovela-meets-1950s-era-Henry-Rollins that it's pretty bizarre.

I guess what I'm saying is, HOLY SHIT, IT'S DIANE.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 10:38 PM on June 12, 2017 [13 favorites]

I was surprised seeing so many negative response heres in the FanFares.

I actually can't see any at all. in just the same way that Dougie's co-workers can't really see anything terribly wrong with him. I am probably looking right at those reactions but for me it is as though we are on different planes of existence completely. sometimes I see what I want to see.

I only watched the original TP in the last couple years, even though I was alive when it first aired. I just didn't know it was really that good. I don't like to say this before it's done, and I do not think the extraordinarily disgusting violence is an improvement on the still deeply disturbing and more frightening violence of the original, but I think this season may be the best. second-best, at worst. And everything is interesting, but the Jones scenes are the ones I am RIVETED by. watching Kyle MacLachlan be faraway, so close is something I could do for hours. for more hours.

plus, talk about names, his son is JIM JONES. I expect that means nothing but that sure is his name.

and I have no feelings about seeing Diane because I wanted her to be the tape recorder. always did, always will.
posted by queenofbithynia at 11:07 PM on June 12, 2017 [4 favorites]

Coop's problem?

someone needs to teach him how to Dougie, teach him teach him how to Dougie.
posted by leotrotsky at 11:14 AM on June 13, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's Sonny Jim Jones. So maybe he's more like wholesome peanut butter than poisoned Flavor-Aid.
posted by elsietheeel at 11:34 AM on June 13, 2017

someone needs to teach him how to Dougie, teach him teach him how to Dougie.

Kid said this last week and laughed for a good five minutes. Just uncontrollable giggles.
posted by Ruki at 8:51 PM on June 13, 2017

This show is a big, long version of the Monkees movie Head. Long, nonsensical no-story story with eccentric subversive anger, with a lot of disjointed celebrity cameos, and music...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 11:02 PM on June 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

Head is one of the awesomest things ever!

Are we still doing phrasing?
posted by elsietheeel at 11:59 PM on June 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

a wizard in a creperie did the coin trick to me many years ago but I was not a cokehead at the time so I didn't have to go cry about it in a truck after.

Someone flipped a coin straight up, it stayed in the air a weirdly long time, it appeared in your mouth, and then it appeared in his hand again?
posted by kenko at 4:56 PM on June 14, 2017 [22 favorites]

Considering all of the ridiculous (but entertaining) mythology built up around hit men in TV and movies, it's refreshing that the back-up hit man here is just a short man with an ice pick who charges up to you in broad daylight.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 5:15 AM on June 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

Some of the recaps seems confused about a black dot signaling a hit, which suggests to me that they have never read Treasure Island.
posted by maxsparber at 7:39 AM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Someone flipped a coin straight up, it stayed in the air a weirdly long time, it appeared in your mouth, and then it appeared in his hand again?

well, in my closed fist, not my mouth. but it was by magic, not sleight of hand, I swear! I understand about misdirection and so on but my fist was empty when I closed it, you can feel the difference between an empty fist and one clenched around a quarter even when you can't see it. & then he conjured it into my hand, I felt it arrive and opened my hand and there it was.

his name was Vaclav the Magician and I still have his business card to this day. I believe he was hoping for a tip, not just going from table to table to cast spells on women in order to annoy their boyfriends. but a man that powerful can magic some tips straight into his vest pockets if he really needs them.

likewise with the drug dealer, I do wonder why the drug dealing when he could just magic himself up some cash. but perhaps his conjuring skills only work on dimes. that would be time-consuming, I guess, to conjure up a pile of dimes of equal value to a kilo of cocaine.
posted by queenofbithynia at 2:01 PM on June 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

Interesting story, queenofbithynia, thanks! Couldn't manage to google how that particular trick works.

Led me to thinking about Lynch's use of prestidigitation in a story with "supernatural" elements.

In the original, Jacoby does some slight-of-hand stuff with table tennis (ping pong) balls in front of Coop and Coop remained nonplussed. Mrs. Tremond's grandson does something similar (admittedly much higher powered) with food in front of Donna and she's pretty freaked out on the inside. There might have been other instances.

Prestidigitation involves misdirection as well as manual dexterity. Is Lynch implying that the supernatural stuff is the same? That the audience/characters' attention are merely being misdirected while something "mundane" is actually going on?

edit: is that why there's a dude who's job is to stare at a glass box where something weird might/is-expected-to show up?

That the mechanism of the supernatural is something that we already understand but lack the focus to perceive? (But someone like Major Briggs or Windom Earl does? Will Coop have his eyes opened, too, by the end? Will the audience?)

I'd kind of sort of be disappointed if the whole thesis is that some people are just rotten (and "good") and BOB/Black Lodge is just the cruelty and wickedness that is inside all of us. However, I suspect more Space Odyssey 2001/2010 human lack of understanding. Oh dear, now I'm sad again that I grew up thinking that we'd have humans traveling to Jupiter for at least 7 years now.)

Side note: Heidi being giggly and essentially unchanged after 25 years... I'm starting to pay more attention to how people have changed and how people haven't, and whom. I'm starting to realize how long 25 years is, and how it isn't.

Was at a big neuroscience conference and the organizers brought in a couple of stage magicians for a bit of entertainment/edification as a side/lunch presentation; one of the presentations used a for-real volunteer and the prestidigitator relieved him of his personal effects, one-by-one, and explained to him and the audience how he did it immediately after. Pretty quickly, the audience could start see the tricks employed (but the volunteer remained oblivious) and visually catch the stage magician removing individual items.

I even managed to see how the stage magician managed to do a lot of the earlier stuff before the explanation/while it was happening.

The take home message was about saliency and attention and expectations.

At the end of the segment, he presented the volunteer's credit card without explanation - his wallet had never been involved, and indeed, upon checking it was missing from his wallet after it was handed back. Was probably one of the earliest pickups and the card extracted and wallet returned midway through during one/over-several of the explanation segments.

The return was probably one of the fakeout "obviously trying to misdirect" routines, a "Haha, I tried to go for your wallet (when I'm actually returning it) and you checked to make sure I couldn't get it. Here's your wristwatch."

--

Yeah, I also really want Red to be Mrs. Tremond's grandson, not that I wish anyone a life/vocation of dealing illicit drugs.

--

As for why drugs if you've got magic, well, if you magic yourself rich/powerful people are going to ask questions. Magic probably makes high-level dealing drugs easier. Again, mundanity, expectation, and misdirection.

It's a lot safer/easier to be a successful stage magician than a pickpocket, and a lot more ethical.
posted by porpoise at 9:00 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I thought of this a while ago and only just remembered it now. Thank you porpoise and queenofbithnya!

Consider the barely functioning Dougie!Coop who won 30 mega jackpots on slot machines because he saw a vision above each (which isn't anything new, Cooper has long trusted visions and dreams) and the tuxedo-clad Coop in his prime at One-eyed Jack's who spent the evening counting cards with the best of them. One is chance/luck, the other is skill. Additionally, it's funny that they suspected Dougie!Coop of cheating (when he's currently incapable of doing such a thing), when back in the day he could have gone in there and won every hand. And then they'd have DEFINITELY asked him to leave because casinos really don't like card counters.

Also Cooper never would have done that because integrity. *thumbs up!*
posted by elsietheeel at 9:51 PM on June 15, 2017

Coop's preference when he's gambling with the Bureau's money is a ten percent return.

With Jade's money, though, his preference is closer to an 8.5 million percent return.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:06 PM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Thanks infinitewindow; sometimes a Lynch is just a Lynch.
posted by porpoise at 10:23 PM on June 15, 2017

Thank you for reminding me of another thing (collective annoyed sigh, sorry)!

So Jade hands him a $5. He goes in and gets change for his five -- 20 quarters.

We don't ever see him actually pick up any of the quarters from the slot machines, in fact the camera repeatedly shows his fingers running through the coins loosely and then lifting up open handed.

He indicates two winning machines to the old lady. That leaves 28 mega jackpots from... 20 quarters?

(Also how is he getting mega jackpots when those machines very clearly say you have to play multiple coins to win? Actually, THAT fact I can overlook since it could be a glitch. But where did you get the coins for the 8 other jackpots, Mr. Jackpots?)
posted by elsietheeel at 11:27 PM on June 15, 2017

and how difficult hat felt emotionally

By that time the execs had moved on from calling Mike "Wool Hat".
posted by elsietheeel at 3:11 AM on June 16, 2017 [4 favorites]

Jacoby does some slight-of-hand stuff with table tennis (ping pong) balls in front of Coop and Coop remained nonplussed

I would describe Coop in that scene as unimpressed, not nonplussed. Jacoby is a bargain-rate charlatan in comparison to what Cooper has seen by that point (think about the Philip Jeffries scene in FWWM).
posted by rocketman at 7:00 AM on June 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Coop remained nonplussed

I would describe Coop in that scene as unimpressed, not nonplussed.

As far as I can tell, this looks like a simple disagreement about the ambiguous meaning of "nonplussed." But it might be a moot point. ;)

/grammarderail
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:08 AM on June 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

mea maxima culpa

"Unimpressed" was the word I was intending to use.
posted by porpoise at 9:17 AM on June 16, 2017

also, magic apart, he dropped a dime on him. I like a little obviousness now and then, I really do.
posted by queenofbithynia at 10:45 PM on June 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Dammit! I proofread and proofread and then edit window, and THIS STILL HAPPENS.

You'll notice I gave you the FULL FIVE MINUTES too. I had that comment written and ready to go at 3:07 yet I waited, hoping that you wouldn't fix it because it was 3 in the goddamn morning and I was giggling so hard with glee and sleep deprivation.

So there, even if it didn't mean something to David and Mike, it meant something to me. ;)
posted by elsietheeel at 1:03 AM on June 17, 2017

I took "Have you ever studied your hand" to mean along the same line as "when you were partying, I studied the blade"
posted by ckape at 8:42 PM on December 3, 2019