Twin Peaks: Realization Time Rewatch

August 19, 2014 3:01 PM - Season 1, Episode 7

Cooper and Ed schedule a trip to One Eyed Jack's, where they gain intel about Laura's death. James, Maddy and Donna play PI to a recorded message from Jacoby's office. Audrey continues her own investigation into her father's activities relating to the murder.

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

Bonus Stuff: Recent, real life photography capturing images and locations out of the show.

posted by codacorolla (9 comments total)

Another classic episode! This one has a couple of my favorite bits of Twin Peaks business:

• Coop's exhortation to "every day, once a day, give yourself a present", words I still occasionally try to live by. For instance, just now I had a popsicle.
• Audrey doing the cherry-stem trick. When this first aired, I swear to you that 13-year-old me didn't fully understand the implications of this feat. I just remember thinking it was something goofy Audrey knew how to do, like being able to wiggle your ears or burp the ABCs.

Other observations:

• The disguises that Coop/Harry/Ed wear to One-Eyed Jack's are perfectly terrible. And Big Ed is TANKING the whole operation by not sticking to the cover story. Wasn't he supposed to be a member of an underground secret society and moonlighting as an undercover deputy? Now I'm convinced that Harry just lets Ed tag along to get him out of the house.
• Speaking of gross incompetence, why did Lucy set up the conference-room donuts on the same side of the table as the hanging bird cage? I'll wager they were ruined well before Waldo bled all over them.
• We finally got a Ben & Jerry ice cream gag in this episode, in the scene where they're entertaining the Icelanders in Ben's office.
• I don't remember the full nature of James & Maddy's plan. If all they were trying to do was lure him out of his office, the phone call would have sufficed, with no need to make Maddy dress up as her dead cousin. I'll give it until next episode, but it still feels weird.
• How does a sweet young girl like Audrey know the names of all the brothels she mentions in her "interview"? Maybe she just looked in Ben's address book.

posted by Strange Interlude at 5:58 PM on August 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have dated two women who could do the cherry stem trick. One lifted it directly from this episode; the other, I think, indirectly.

I've always loved that Canada is Twin Peaks' Tijuana.

I think the threesome of Donna, James, and Maddie simply results in terrible scheming. Wait till they meet the orchid-growing agoraphobic!
posted by maxsparber at 7:19 PM on August 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Corollary: The Threesome of Donna, the guy from Dead Poets Society, and the guy from Bio-Dome simply results in a terrible movie.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:52 PM on August 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I like that the teens on Twin Peaks do things that are ill-thought-out, like the stunt with Jacobi. Audrey's attempts at playing detective are going to get her in hot water soon. Bobby and Shelley are so sure nobody knows they are together. They are learning how to lead double lives like the adults.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:46 AM on August 21, 2014

"Every day, once a day, give yourself a present" - this advice from Cooper has been a guiding principle of my life for a long time now.
posted by naju at 3:19 PM on August 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

RE: Those meddling teens, I think that's a good point. Although they still fall into unrealistic TV teen land (who cares if they ever go to school? they're solvin' a mystery!), it still makes sense in the world of the show. It's also funny how much better Coop & Co. would be at solving the central mystery if the teens shared any data whatsoever, like, once.

Also, due to work cares I'm behind on posting the episode this week. If someone else wants to take over, then that's cool with me. If not I'll post it some time tomorrow.
posted by codacorolla at 3:43 PM on August 21, 2014

If all they were trying to do was lure him out of his office, the phone call would have sufficed, with no need to make Maddy dress up as her dead cousin. I'll give it until next episode, but it still feels weird.

I chalked it up to "they figured Jacoby could just ignore a phone call, but the video would really intrigue him". After all, even though Maddy says "meet me at the corner of Sparkwood and 21" in the phone call, Jacoby goes to Easter Park, because that's where she is.
posted by Lucinda at 8:29 PM on August 21, 2014

This is, what, the third or fourth time they've referenced this intersection. What's going on there? Is it some sort of cosmic energy hub?
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:08 PM on August 22, 2014

It's been alluded to in the series and is made explicit in the film: Laura has a moment, when riding on the back of James' bike, where she could have stayed with him, and she might have survived the night. Instead, at a red light, she climbs off his bike and runs into the woods, to her rendevouz with her awful destiny. It's why the show keeps showing stoplights turning from green to red. That interestection was Sparkwood and 21.
posted by maxsparber at 10:25 PM on August 22, 2014 [7 favorites]