“Teetotaling and prayer.”
Congratulations, viewers! If you’ve made it this far through Twin Peaks, you will now receive your reward: four awesome episodes and one stellar series finale await you. Death, despair, backwards talking, puddles of engine oil that might be coffee, and the cutest joke in the world await you.
This episode has a sense of whimsy that has been sorely missing. I love the way that both Coop and Gordon have the same strategy for dealing with someone else’s hangover: disgust them so much that they vomit up all that alcohol. Over and over again. Now that Coop is reinstated, we can only hope that Gordon Cole and his alter-ego David Lynch will be a bit more hands-on in their management style.
That whimsy extends to the diner scene, which is absolutely adorable. Not only does Gordon meet the woman of his dreams—Shelly, who makes him feel like his socks are on fire and he has a stomach full of bumblebees—but Coop renews his flirtation with Annie with this dopey joke:
Two penguins were walking across an iceberg. One penguin turned to the second penguin and said, ‘You look like you’re wearing a tuxedo.’ And the second penguin said, ‘Maybe I am.’
The scene’s adorability is turned up to eleven by Harry’s commentary. Even in the midst of a hangover, a recent brush with semi-erotic death, and the loss of his beloved Josie, Harry manages to be a good friend to Coop. Of course, that might be the last moment of pure happiness for our heroes—it’s cut short with Annie’s mention of Owl Cave. At that moment, the music stops, the tone shifts, and we’re back to an FBI investigation into the deepest, darkest evil.
We’ve gotten repeated mentions of “below” as the place that matters in Twin Peaks and for the Black Lodge. Maybe for the White Lodge, too. The descent into Owl Cave may have been high comedy (thanks, Andy!), but the cave itself telegraphs the extent of Twin Peaks’ uniqueness: Bob isn’t new, or recently relocated. The whole supernatural shebang has been around long enough to warrant not just cave paintings, but also Indiana-Jones-style moving rocks that reveal pictographs.
“Coincidence and fate figure largely in our lives,” says Coop. In other words, he sees this pictograph as significant, but he also “has no idea where this will lead us” likely to a place “both wonderful and strange.” Coop’s anticipation might be too exuberant: have ancient cave paintings, creepy owls, and psychotic murderers ever turned out to be “wonderful”?
Windom Earle probably hopes not, and he knows about the cave, too. What does it mean that he turns to pictograph doohickey upside down? Why did it cause an earthquake? Hmmm…
Clues, Questions, and Answers:
• Why on earth did Eckhardt’s assistant manhandle Harry before trying to garrote him? Why not just kill him in his sleep?
• Windom Earle has “planted” a bug in Harry’s office. See what I did there?
• Windom Earle used to work on Project Blue Book. So maybe it isn’t Coop that drew him to Twin Peaks, but whatever it is that lurks “below.”
Other Things that are Still Happening:
• Mike and Nadine are gettin’ it on at the Great Northern.
• Donna is starting to wonder what’s up with her mother and Ben Horne. This is a horrible subplot—most of Donna’s attempts at investigation are—especially because it makes her seem like a real moody teenager and not the adult she’s been portraying for most of the season.
Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)
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