(As always, if you haven’t watched it, well, you’re going to get some in depth discussion of pretty spoilery stuff so best look away now if you want to be surprised.)
S02E06 AKA Demons
In Which:- Gordon Cole arrives with news about Coop’s former partner and the one-armed has some revelations about BOB...
- Picking up on the cliffhanger from last time, even though he swoops in to rescue them, James seems like a wet paper bag full of wet blankets. The whole Harold Smith thing seems pretty callous - Donna basically tortures a shut-in and gives him a breakdown.
- Some more foreshadowing for later - discussion of Coop’s former partner Windom Earle who will drive the plot in the second half of the season.
- There are a number of different character plots going on here and, even though we’re a few episodes away from wrapping up the murder mystery that started the whole show, it doesn’t feel like we’re moving there particularly quickly…
- ...until the end of the episode when the one-armed reveals himself as Mike (complete with disturbing Lynchian noises) and reveals that BOB is an inhabiting spirit (seen only by the gifted or the damned - Laura being both presumably) so could be within any of the key suspects. The mystery of whodunnit is still anyone’s game at this point.
First Appearance:- Gordon Cole in person (David Lynch on shouting form)
Cliffhanger:- The one-armed man reveals that BOB is currently in the Great Northern.
S02E07 AKA Lonely Souls
In Which:- Laura’s killer is revealed
- This is the last episode that David Lynch will direct until the last eps of the season but it certainly needed his touch.
- There’s a fakeout here which I have to admit I fell for as I was convinced the first time I watched it that Ben Horne was the murderer too. Which makes the reveal of Laura’s true killer as her father all the more shocking. In hindsight, the clues to him being a man unhinged have definitely been there throughout the second season - his physical transformation, the singing and crying, the story about seeing BOB as a child (surely he’d be much older now?) - but the reveal is still a wrench (and done in a very creepy and understated way).
- The scene in which Leland murders Maddy has to be one of the most brutal things ever to be shown on network television. Nowadays we’re used to seeing cinematic levels of violence on television thanks to premium cable shows but this was not the sort of thing you saw on mainstream TV in the early 90s. It’s not so much the violence of it (although it is violent) but the unsettling and disturbing way in which it’s shot; another trademark of Lynch. Lynch’s use of sound and visuals often combine in ways that are unnerving on a level that is difficult to articulate and Leland’s brutal murder of Maddy, intercut with images of BOB, is right up there with his most disturbing work.
- There’s too much Julee Cruise in this episode. She was clearly a protege of Lynch’s but I’d had enough of her singing by the time she’s even plastered all over the end credits.
Iconic Peaks Moments:- The brutal sequence with Maddy and Leland intercut with Coop and The Giant at the Roadhouse is pure Twin Peaks.
Cliffhanger:- Coop watching the performance at the Road House as we fade into a view of the red curtains at the Lodge.
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