Twin Peaks: Traces to Nowhere Rewatch
July 31, 2014 10:19 AM - Season 1, Episode 2 - Subscribe
In the town of Twin Peaks, special agent Dale Cooper's investigation into the death of Laura Palmer begins in earnest. Multiple connections to the crime are revealed: Laura's secret boyfriend James Hurley, a slimeball trucker named Leo Johnson, and the unlikely psychiatrist Lawrence Jacoby. Meanwhile, Audrey Horne and Laura's best friend, Donna Hayward, vow to find out who killed Laura.
Scheduling: new episodes posted every Tuesday and Thursday. Both re-watchers and new viewers are welcome.
Spoilers: spoilers are to be expected since this is a rewatch, however it may be best to avoid openly discussing the central mystery of the show. For people new to the series, spoilers aren't really a huge deal since this is a character based show, and it's hard to spoil the storylines (apart from that one thing).
Watching: available for streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and for free on Hulu and CBS's site.
Previous Episode Threads: S1 Pilot
Bonus Stuff: Diane... The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper were supplementary material recorded by Kyle Maclachlan in the character of Dale Cooper. Spoilers for the rest of the series, of course.
Scheduling: new episodes posted every Tuesday and Thursday. Both re-watchers and new viewers are welcome.
Spoilers: spoilers are to be expected since this is a rewatch, however it may be best to avoid openly discussing the central mystery of the show. For people new to the series, spoilers aren't really a huge deal since this is a character based show, and it's hard to spoil the storylines (apart from that one thing).
Watching: available for streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and for free on Hulu and CBS's site.
Previous Episode Threads: S1 Pilot
Bonus Stuff: Diane... The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper were supplementary material recorded by Kyle Maclachlan in the character of Dale Cooper. Spoilers for the rest of the series, of course.
- I’d forgotten how long the intro music is. I suppose that’s what happens when you have a cast of thousands? I enjoy listening/watching the whole thing, though…it lulls me into the right mood to watch Twin Peaks.
- I remember the first time I saw Leo come after Shelley with the soap-in-the-sock. I had never seen anything like that before - raw domestic violence other than a slap across the face. And I didn't even see the series when it aired, I watched it for the first time in 2002.
- Dude, if they cut James Hurley and Mike and Bobby Briggs out of this show I would like it so much better. Bobby Briggs has to be one of my least favorite characters of all time. Dana Ashbrook does SUCH a good job playing him, too. *shudder*
- I like Audrey with the hairdo that she has from the second episode on out. The little pixie cut in the first episode, plus her childish shenanigans ("what's shenanigans?") really irked me. I LOVE her shirt/sweater in this episode. I may try to knit one just like it.
- I think the Palmer house has given me an eternal fear of ceiling fans. They should have had those smoke-eater fans you used to see in bars instead...I had forgotten how much Mrs. Palmer smoked.
posted by Elly Vortex at 7:13 PM on July 31, 2014 [3 favorites]
- I remember the first time I saw Leo come after Shelley with the soap-in-the-sock. I had never seen anything like that before - raw domestic violence other than a slap across the face. And I didn't even see the series when it aired, I watched it for the first time in 2002.
- Dude, if they cut James Hurley and Mike and Bobby Briggs out of this show I would like it so much better. Bobby Briggs has to be one of my least favorite characters of all time. Dana Ashbrook does SUCH a good job playing him, too. *shudder*
- I like Audrey with the hairdo that she has from the second episode on out. The little pixie cut in the first episode, plus her childish shenanigans ("what's shenanigans?") really irked me. I LOVE her shirt/sweater in this episode. I may try to knit one just like it.
- I think the Palmer house has given me an eternal fear of ceiling fans. They should have had those smoke-eater fans you used to see in bars instead...I had forgotten how much Mrs. Palmer smoked.
posted by Elly Vortex at 7:13 PM on July 31, 2014 [3 favorites]
This episode has a some of my favorite lines in the series.
"If you ever....pull...another stunt like that you'll are going to be scrubbing bidets in a Bulgarian convent!" I'm still saving that for if I ever have kids.
"Do your palms ever itch?" Audrey is queen of the non sequitur.
"Black as midnight on a moonless night."
And of course, the second of Jack Nance's immortal lines.
I may be wrong, but I believe this episode is the only time Josie has any apparent difficulty with English.
Major Briggs is my hero. Just thought I'd mention that.
The blu ray release has allowed me to see the Log Lady intros for the first time. They really are pretty great both at giving an oblique preview of the episode and helping to understand some more obscure points of the story. "I carry a log - yes. Is it funny to you? It is not to me. Behind all things are reasons." That makes total sense in hindsight.
posted by Dr-Baa at 7:27 PM on July 31, 2014 [3 favorites]
"If you ever....pull...another stunt like that you'll are going to be scrubbing bidets in a Bulgarian convent!" I'm still saving that for if I ever have kids.
"Do your palms ever itch?" Audrey is queen of the non sequitur.
"Black as midnight on a moonless night."
And of course, the second of Jack Nance's immortal lines.
I may be wrong, but I believe this episode is the only time Josie has any apparent difficulty with English.
Major Briggs is my hero. Just thought I'd mention that.
The blu ray release has allowed me to see the Log Lady intros for the first time. They really are pretty great both at giving an oblique preview of the episode and helping to understand some more obscure points of the story. "I carry a log - yes. Is it funny to you? It is not to me. Behind all things are reasons." That makes total sense in hindsight.
posted by Dr-Baa at 7:27 PM on July 31, 2014 [3 favorites]
For some reason, in the previous thread I forgot that a certain scene comes up at the beginning of the next episode, not this one. So forget I mentioned it, first-time watchers.
Assorted thoughts on the episode, in rough order of me having had them:
codacorolla: "Dr. Hayward also gets a lot of time in this ep, which is (conversely) great. He just seems like such a stand-up guy. "
Which is more than I can say for Mrs. Hayward... (I'll show myself out.)
Dr-Baa: ""Do your palms ever itch?" Audrey is queen of the non sequitur. "
Is there a word for something halfway between a non-sequitur and a double entendre? Double non-sequitendre?
Dr-Baa: "Major Briggs is my hero. Just thought I'd mention that."
Me too. I'd completely forgotten about the Major's awesome verbosity, and am now looking forward to absorbing every syllable from here on out.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:44 PM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]
Assorted thoughts on the episode, in rough order of me having had them:
- It sounds like Coop has his own pet JFK assassination theory to lay on us, a full year before Oliver Stone elevated it to a national pastime. I'm gonna have to listen to see if he elaborates on it further in the Diane tapes linked above.
- Audrey's first encounter with Cooper. Never mind what I said in the pilot thread, this is the Audrey Horne I remember getting the funny climbing-the-rope-in-gym-class feelings about all those years ago. She's weird and full of pent-up urges and 7th grade me basically wants to take her roller skating.
- I'm also walking back what I said about Bobby Briggs being an unswept barbershop floor with attached ganglia. At the very least he's not Leo, who besides being an abusive scumbag is also really terrible at finding articles of clothing that have been cleverly hidden inside of drawers.
- James' vasoline-lensed flashback to Laura giving him the heart necklace made me LOL. It's like the network demanded the flashback for the normal dumb network reasons, and Lynch/Frost decided to make it super campy and on-the-nose out of sheer spite.
- I'm watching with subtitles on to catch every word, and I'd honestly never noticed that Bobby and Mike call each other "Bopper" and "Snake", respectively. I'm just gonna assume that nobody else in Twin Peaks uses those nicknames when referring to them.
- I appreciate the retcon ("drugged beer") to explain Big Ed going down like a punk in the Roadhouse fight last week. Ya hya chouhada!
- I'd forgotten the whole plot thread of Laura apparently having 1,001 after-school jobs. Cocaine really is one helluva drug.
codacorolla: "Dr. Hayward also gets a lot of time in this ep, which is (conversely) great. He just seems like such a stand-up guy. "
Which is more than I can say for Mrs. Hayward... (I'll show myself out.)
Dr-Baa: ""Do your palms ever itch?" Audrey is queen of the non sequitur. "
Is there a word for something halfway between a non-sequitur and a double entendre? Double non-sequitendre?
Dr-Baa: "Major Briggs is my hero. Just thought I'd mention that."
Me too. I'd completely forgotten about the Major's awesome verbosity, and am now looking forward to absorbing every syllable from here on out.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:44 PM on July 31, 2014 [2 favorites]
I love the Major Briggs monologue in this episode as well.
I'm really into how the show puts big neon flashing lights on certain characters at various points in the show, shouting "HEY DO YOU THINK HE DID IT HE PROBABLY DID IT!!" Leo is definitely a flashpoint for this at the moment. There's a scene where Dr. Hayward is fighting tears, saying "Who would do such a horrible thing?" And then there's instantly a cutaway to Leo's trailer, with Shelley yelling "Leo!" Uh..... yeah. Subtle. It's so easy to hate the hell out of Leo that it makes sense to nudge the viewer at him from the beginning.
Lots of geese and ducks as decoration in the background in the pilot and this episode. At least 4 instances. Not sure how deliberate that is as a motif. My Jungian dictionary of symbols says that ducks and geese represent the dangers and fortunes of existence and are associated with a 'descent into hell.' Great.
posted by naju at 11:59 PM on July 31, 2014
I'm really into how the show puts big neon flashing lights on certain characters at various points in the show, shouting "HEY DO YOU THINK HE DID IT HE PROBABLY DID IT!!" Leo is definitely a flashpoint for this at the moment. There's a scene where Dr. Hayward is fighting tears, saying "Who would do such a horrible thing?" And then there's instantly a cutaway to Leo's trailer, with Shelley yelling "Leo!" Uh..... yeah. Subtle. It's so easy to hate the hell out of Leo that it makes sense to nudge the viewer at him from the beginning.
Lots of geese and ducks as decoration in the background in the pilot and this episode. At least 4 instances. Not sure how deliberate that is as a motif. My Jungian dictionary of symbols says that ducks and geese represent the dangers and fortunes of existence and are associated with a 'descent into hell.' Great.
posted by naju at 11:59 PM on July 31, 2014
(I'm convinced Jung looms large over the universe of Twin Peaks and the Lynch oeuvre in general so I apologize in advance if I'm keeping that dictionary close at hand)
posted by naju at 12:09 AM on August 1, 2014
posted by naju at 12:09 AM on August 1, 2014
It sounds like Coop has his own pet JFK assassination theory to lay on us, a full year before Oliver Stone elevated it to a national pastime.
He was ahead of the curve in the Free Tibet movement as well.
posted by Dr-Baa at 5:51 AM on August 1, 2014 [5 favorites]
He was ahead of the curve in the Free Tibet movement as well.
posted by Dr-Baa at 5:51 AM on August 1, 2014 [5 favorites]
That's true, if there were no Bobby Briggs we might not get to meet Major Briggs. There is a conversation that he has with Bobby later in the series (I don't know if Bobby actually says anything) that, when I heard it for the first time, brought tears to my eyes.
Okay Bobby can stay. *sigh*
posted by Elly Vortex at 9:22 AM on August 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
Okay Bobby can stay. *sigh*
posted by Elly Vortex at 9:22 AM on August 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
Not only does Big Ed get dropped like a sack of potatoes, but Bobby and Mike (Bopper and Snake?) also take down like 3 or 4 members of James Hurley's biker gang apiece.
posted by codacorolla at 10:11 AM on August 1, 2014
posted by codacorolla at 10:11 AM on August 1, 2014
Yup- I think the fact they both are on the football team, most likely lift, and are almost undoubtedly on coke at the time gives them a Double Dragon edge over a group of skinny bikers. The Bookhouse boy who takes Donna to James looks like a strong wind could carry him away.
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:19 AM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:19 AM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm also glad someone else called bullshit on Big Ed's "drugged beer" story. Check out the part where the fight breaks out and it shows a wide angle of the bar- that bartender is definitely NOT Jacques Renault.
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:20 AM on August 1, 2014
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:20 AM on August 1, 2014
Would I play a Twin Peaks side scrolling brawler as Bobby and Mike? You bet your ass I would.
posted by codacorolla at 11:29 AM on August 1, 2014 [9 favorites]
posted by codacorolla at 11:29 AM on August 1, 2014 [9 favorites]
Dr-Baa: "Yup- I think the fact they both are on the football team, most likely lift, and are almost undoubtedly on coke at the time gives them a Double Dragon edge over a group of skinny bikers.
I'm also glad someone else called bullshit on Big Ed's "drugged beer" story."
ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO SLIP ROOFIES TO EVERETT MCGILL?
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:29 AM on August 1, 2014 [4 favorites]
I'm also glad someone else called bullshit on Big Ed's "drugged beer" story."
ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO SLIP ROOFIES TO EVERETT MCGILL?
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:29 AM on August 1, 2014 [4 favorites]
By the way. Twin Peaks locals can tell when someone is from out of town if they want to meet at the Roadhouse at any time other than 9:30.
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:29 AM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:29 AM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
Would I play a Twin Peaks side scrolling brawler as Bobby and Mike Snake and Bopper? You bet your ass I would.
Leo Johnson is totally Abobo.
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:34 AM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
Leo Johnson is totally Abobo.
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:34 AM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
I think a River City Ransom-style fighter would be ideal, just so you can stop at the Double R to buy pie, coffee, and donuts to regain your strength.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:50 AM on August 1, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:50 AM on August 1, 2014 [3 favorites]
The Road House is a bit of unmoored and poorly realized Lynchiana, because so much of the show was stuff he put into motion and then others filled out. He always invsioned the bikers as being sort of the intellectuals of Twin Peaks -- the bar was apparently originally going to be called Hemmingway's, and here's a quote from Lynch: "See," Lynch says, "the idea was that the bikers in Twin Peaks were the intellectuals—the beatniks."
Of course, there wasn't much they could do with that with James being their resident biker, because, well, he's stupid.
For those who want to revisit the fashions of Twin Peaks, here's a Tumbl blog devoted to the subject. Which I use to further advance my theory that the costume designers from Twin Peaks and the people who dressed Jackie from Roseanne were basically tapping the same well.
posted by maxsparber at 12:09 PM on August 1, 2014 [4 favorites]
Of course, there wasn't much they could do with that with James being their resident biker, because, well, he's stupid.
For those who want to revisit the fashions of Twin Peaks, here's a Tumbl blog devoted to the subject. Which I use to further advance my theory that the costume designers from Twin Peaks and the people who dressed Jackie from Roseanne were basically tapping the same well.
posted by maxsparber at 12:09 PM on August 1, 2014 [4 favorites]
That ethereal, haunting Julee Cruise song playing at the Roadhouse totally does get across a weird vision of the bikers being secret 4AD-worshipping bespectacled hipsters.
Twin Peaks Brawler is the best idea I've heard in a while. It would get a million in a day on Kickstarter.
posted by naju at 12:12 PM on August 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
Twin Peaks Brawler is the best idea I've heard in a while. It would get a million in a day on Kickstarter.
posted by naju at 12:12 PM on August 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
* Downtown Twin Peaks *
The BOOKHOUSE BOYS turf!
James: "BARF!"
posted by Dr-Baa at 12:21 PM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
The BOOKHOUSE BOYS turf!
James: "BARF!"
posted by Dr-Baa at 12:21 PM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
naju: "That ethereal, haunting Julee Cruise song playing at the Roadhouse totally does get across a weird vision of the bikers being secret 4AD-worshipping bespectacled hipsters."
I enjoy the in-universe implication that dreamy synthesizer jazz is the sound of rebellious youth culture in Twin Peaks. When Ben finds Audrey rocking out to the Badalamenti score in his office, he refers to it as "that racket," as though she had been using his high-end Bang & Olufson stereo setup to blare her L7 records.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:45 PM on August 1, 2014 [12 favorites]
I enjoy the in-universe implication that dreamy synthesizer jazz is the sound of rebellious youth culture in Twin Peaks. When Ben finds Audrey rocking out to the Badalamenti score in his office, he refers to it as "that racket," as though she had been using his high-end Bang & Olufson stereo setup to blare her L7 records.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:45 PM on August 1, 2014 [12 favorites]
I do wonder if James Marshall (Hurley's actor) ever regrets taking the part. He didn't really do a whole lot after that. For example, his starring role in Vibrations:
Rising rock star, TJ Cray, gets the shot of a lifetime, an audition with a A & R man. On the way into the city, a carload of drunks smash into his car, severing his hands. He drops out of the business and becomes a homeless drunk. Cray wakes up to a pulsing beat in an abandoned warehouse, where a "rave" party is in full action. To his rescue comes Anamika, a computer artist, who takes him outside for fresh air. They become friends and eventually reinvent TJ's career. With the help of friends, they replace his hands with prosthetics and design a metallic cyber looking suit. TJ quickly becomes an overnight sensation, known as Cyberstorm. The finale is a dramatic scenario where TJ has to make crucial decisions about his new life.posted by codacorolla at 12:51 PM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
James Marshall dealt with a health crisis caused by taking Accutane, which hospitalized him and caused the removal of his colon. It apparently ruined his career.
posted by maxsparber at 12:58 PM on August 1, 2014
posted by maxsparber at 12:58 PM on August 1, 2014
Wow, I had no idea. That's awful.
posted by codacorolla at 1:03 PM on August 1, 2014
posted by codacorolla at 1:03 PM on August 1, 2014
I forgot he was in A Few Good Men. That's terrible about his health.
posted by Dr-Baa at 1:04 PM on August 1, 2014
posted by Dr-Baa at 1:04 PM on August 1, 2014
Doesn't stop me from making fun of James Hurley though.
posted by maxsparber at 1:09 PM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by maxsparber at 1:09 PM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
Apparently Marshall didn't get a dime from his lawsuit against Roche (the maker of Accutane) either. That's just plain crummy. James Hurley the moody teen might be a drip, but James Marshall the man has my sympathies and respect.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:24 PM on August 1, 2014
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:24 PM on August 1, 2014
Also, the movie that codacorolla described above sounds amazing in a this-could-really-go-either-way kind of way. I'll have to try tracking it down.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:38 PM on August 1, 2014
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:38 PM on August 1, 2014
It's on Netflix, if you have that. Probably Amazon Prime, as well.
posted by codacorolla at 1:48 PM on August 1, 2014
posted by codacorolla at 1:48 PM on August 1, 2014
Speaking of Twin Peaks games, we've all played Black Lodge, right?
posted by Quilford at 9:05 PM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Quilford at 9:05 PM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
Okay, I'll try to get back on topic.
It's easy to make fun of the saccharine flashback James has of Laura, but there's something that Laura says which I think tells a lot about what she's going through:
"I really believe that you love me."
Laura is so used to people using love as a ploy to get what they want from her or to excuse what they do to her. Genuine love is new to her, and perhaps that's why she ran from James the night she died. She's scared of damaging the nice and sweet James by showing him what she's really facing.
If I can jump ahead- Major Briggs voices his fear late in season two (and I'll be going into more detail when we get to that point)- his fear of "the possibility that love is not enough." I think that fear is the central theme is of Twin Peaks. It certainly was not enough to save Laura's life.
posted by Dr-Baa at 8:47 PM on August 2, 2014 [4 favorites]
It's easy to make fun of the saccharine flashback James has of Laura, but there's something that Laura says which I think tells a lot about what she's going through:
"I really believe that you love me."
Laura is so used to people using love as a ploy to get what they want from her or to excuse what they do to her. Genuine love is new to her, and perhaps that's why she ran from James the night she died. She's scared of damaging the nice and sweet James by showing him what she's really facing.
If I can jump ahead- Major Briggs voices his fear late in season two (and I'll be going into more detail when we get to that point)- his fear of "the possibility that love is not enough." I think that fear is the central theme is of Twin Peaks. It certainly was not enough to save Laura's life.
posted by Dr-Baa at 8:47 PM on August 2, 2014 [4 favorites]
I think that fear is the central theme is of Twin Peaks.
Without spoiling anything from late in the series, "fear opens one door and love the other".
posted by crossoverman at 7:47 PM on August 3, 2014
Without spoiling anything from late in the series, "fear opens one door and love the other".
posted by crossoverman at 7:47 PM on August 3, 2014
I enjoy the in-universe implication that dreamy synthesizer jazz is the sound of rebellious youth culture in Twin Peaks.
Dreamy-music-as-exciting/intoxicating is something of a Lynch hallmark of course. As David Foster Wallace writes in his Lynch essay, "[in Lost Highway] there are also some scenes of Pullman looking very natty and East Village in all-black and jamming on his tenor sax in front of a packed dance floor (only in a David Lynch movie would people dance ecstatically to abstract jazz)".
posted by sylvanshine at 1:20 AM on August 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
Dreamy-music-as-exciting/intoxicating is something of a Lynch hallmark of course. As David Foster Wallace writes in his Lynch essay, "[in Lost Highway] there are also some scenes of Pullman looking very natty and East Village in all-black and jamming on his tenor sax in front of a packed dance floor (only in a David Lynch movie would people dance ecstatically to abstract jazz)".
posted by sylvanshine at 1:20 AM on August 10, 2014 [2 favorites]
I may be wrong, but I believe this episode is the only time Josie has any apparent difficulty with English.
Hey I'm late to this party but mr muffins and I are rewatching now and I wanted to comment on this -- in the pilot, Josie tells Pete to "push the plug" when she wants to close the mill. There was at least one other mangled colloquialism in a later season 1 ep but I can't remember which or what it was now.
posted by trunk muffins at 7:36 PM on February 17, 2015
Hey I'm late to this party but mr muffins and I are rewatching now and I wanted to comment on this -- in the pilot, Josie tells Pete to "push the plug" when she wants to close the mill. There was at least one other mangled colloquialism in a later season 1 ep but I can't remember which or what it was now.
posted by trunk muffins at 7:36 PM on February 17, 2015
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"Becaaaaause, your skin is so soft and you smell so good?"
Ah, James Hurley, you boob. You're the boobiest boob that ever boobed.
And Leo Johnson. A skuzzy customer par excellence. That shitty, half-finished house. That (undoubtedly greasy) pony-tail. That constant brutish scowl. That scene with the soap in the sock is absolutely terrifying. Maybe even more-so because of the be-bop music in the background.
Nadine gets a lot of screen time here too, which is a shame. She's my least favorite character in the series by a mile.
Dr. Hayward also gets a lot of time in this ep, which is (conversely) great. He just seems like such a stand-up guy.
Regardless, this is a great episode. It definitely sets up the primary details of Laura's murder, and gets you asking "who-dun-it" while giving you half a dozen leads. I can't come into the show fresh, but Bobby, James, Leo, Jacoby and Ben all seem like they could've.
We also get a lot of time inside the Palmer house, which is one of the spookiest haunted houses I've ever seen on film.
posted by codacorolla at 5:21 PM on July 31, 2014 [7 favorites]