Wrapped In Plastic: A Twin Peaks Rewatch - Part 8

This was the turning point for the original run of Twin Peaks. Despite David Lynch’s desire to leave things hanging, the network were insistent that they couldn’t just leave Laura’s murder unsolved and so we get to the point in the show where some closure had to be reached

S02E08 AKA Drive With A Dead Girl
In Which:- Laura’s killer plays a game of cat and mouse with Truman and Cooper

- Before we get to the main meat of the episode, let’s pick up on something that I’ve glossed over in the last few episodes which is hard to ignore now that, in the opening titles, Piper Laurie is credited as both Tojamura and Catherine Martell. In a way, it’s no more weird than the other extreme soap opera pastiche moments of the series - a character believed to be dead returning to the series in disguise as a man. Except here, we have a white woman in disguise as a Japanese man. Given the media furore around high profile instances of white people playing people of colour (Scarlett Johansson in Ghost In the Shell being one recent example), it’s difficult to know what to make of this now. To be fair to the show, they have done their best to not be stereotypical in their portrayal - it feels like an honest attempt to disguise her. I’m not sure you’d get a storyline like this now, though.
- The bulk of this episode is Leland pootling around in his car, living his BOB-infected life which we, the audience, know about but Coop and Harry have yet to discover. It makes for some nicely tense moments, especially when they stop him with Maddy;s body in the trunk of his car.
- There’s a moment where Truman reaches his limit for the mystic mumbo jumbo and Cooper takes it with good grace - it’s a nice illustration of their relationship.
- Ray Wise is on great form again as “evil Leland”, singing and menacing Cooper with a golf club.

Cliffhanger:- Maddy’s body is discovered by the police, wrapped in plastic...


S02E09 AKA Arbitrary Law
In Which:- Laura’s Killer is finally caught

- So this is it - seventeen episodes in and we finally have the conclusion to the “Who killed Laura Palmer?’ storyline; something that viewers clamoured for and then found that they didn't want once they had it.
- Mrs Tremond and her grandson, the creepy next door neighbours of Harold Smith, weren’t who they appeared to be as they aren’t to be found at the house when Coop and Donna visit (indeed never have been). They’ll crop up again in the film... 
- Cooper’s realisation of the killer is completely in keeping with the series - he gathers some people together, has a mystical flashback to the dream with Laura and then The Giant gives him back his ring. Textbook FBI procedure in Peaks.
- The whole capture of Leland and his subsequent demise is a masterclass from Ray Wise. He’s been on absolutely brilliant form these last three episodes, alternating between menacing and sympathetic, and it’s a definite high to go out on.

The Owls:- Flies out of white light at the end of the ep.
Iconic Peaks Moments:- Laura whispering her killer to Coop; Leland’s demise
Cliffhanger:- A creepy tracking shot through the woods (presumably BOB’s fleeing spirit) before an owl flies out of a bright white light into the camera.