“It’s like I fell into a dream.” While this episode’s title implies that the focus is one of the many “mysterious” men in and around Twin Peaks, it’s really about the way we attempt to understand one another, the harm we do to one another, and how women and men see each other and then see themselves reflected back in one another’s gaze.
Bob somehow visited Ronette in the hospital, despite a constant guard. He put the letter “B” under her nail, almost as though he wanted to mark her despite her surviving the attack. Or, really, has she survived? We don’t know yet if she’ll come out of this experience remotely intact. She seems to have lost herself and only wakes up when Bob, or a picture of him, comes calling.
Cooper and Co. now know that Leland knew Bob as a child. Leland mentioned that Bob (or “Robertson”) “must have” lived in a white house beyond a vacant lot. That’s a hugely important geographical theme, and I submit that Bob really lived in the vacant lot between Leland and the white house, which is obviously similar to the palace that Major Briggs talked about. Robertson used to say, “Do you want to play with fire, little boy?” Leland seems totally unaware of Bob’s significance, and isn’t struck by the oddness of a man looking exactly despite the passage of at least 30 years.
Harold Smith is yet another of Laura’s many men. But whereas Laura’s other men (Doctor Jacoby, Bobby, James, Mr. Horne…) saw her as the mystery, Harold thinks that Laura saw him that way. She felt affinity with him, as two people separated from everyone around them and as the objects of scrutiny. Harold was just as enchanted with her as the other men were. We’ll never know how she felt about him. Not really. Did Laura have substantial feelings for any of her men, or did she just like to be seen and misunderstood by them?
Even James, one of Laura’s former men, is struggling with how to understand Donna. And Audrey is being filmed, objectified, and debased by a group of women who exist to prop up a pleasure haven for men. Blackie sees herself in Audrey, and is replicating that youthful debauchery to get back at the man who did it to her: the captive becomes the captor. Donna looks at James and Maddie, but misunderstands what she sees. She sees with the eyeballs of jealousy, covered with a Harold Smith pair of orchid-tinted lenses. (That sentence got away from me.)
Maddie is having a hard time with this: people see her, but they see Laura, and she’s starting to slip into Laura’s life a bit too easily.
Cooper, on the other hand, sees right through Shelley’s insurance fraud without getting wrapped up in it, and even sees that it’s not the sort of plan she would make on her own. Mike Gerard sees clearly, but only without the “chemicals” of his medication. Hopefully we’ll find out just what he’s seen soon enough.
Clues, Questions, and Answers:
• Cooper has realized that four people, including himself, have seen the long-haired man. The Giant’s clue was: “One person saw the third man. Three have seen him, but not his body.” Clue solved.
• Has Mike been wandering around the Sheriff’s office since the Season Two Premiere? That’s so crazy.
• Ben Horne got Blackie hooked on heroin.
• Doctor Jacoby smelled burned engine oil in the park where he was assaulted.
• Doctor Jacoby revealed the Leland killed Jacques Renault.
• Donna discovered Laura’s diary at Harold’s.
Bits and Pieces:
• Harry: “You were visited by a giant?”
Albert: “Any relation to the dwarf?”
• Harry: “Anything we should be working on?”
Albert: “Yeah, you might practice walking without dragging your knuckles on the floor.”
Harry: “Albert, let’s talk about knuckles. Last time, I knocked you down. I felt bad about it. The next time is gonna be a real pleasure.”
Albert: “You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a naysayer and a hatchet-man in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I’ll gladly take another, because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. I love you, Sheriff Truman.”
Cooper: “Albert’s path is a strange and difficult one.”
• Donna: “You’re dead, Laura, but your problems keep hanging around. It’s almost like we didn’t bury you deep enough!”
• Standard poodle enthusiasts!
• Richard Tremaine of Horne’s Department store is dating Lucy. She is pregnant.
• Nadine is producing more adrenaline than a “wildcat well,” according to Doc Hayward. I don’t know what that metaphor means, but I like it.
Doctor Jacoby had to go under hypnosis to “see” what had happened. The world gets too much in the way of clear-seeing for many of the characters. We have the privilege of seeing more, because that’s the joy of being a televoyeur. Cooper’s perspicacity helps us, too: he clues us into the motives we might only guess at. But even Cooper’s gift of clear-seeing might not be enough to solve the mystery of Laura Palmer’s murder. Oh, Coop.
Three out of four Creative Kahuna Healings
Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)
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