Review S02E20 “The Path To The Black Lodge”

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
Aired Thursday 9:00 PM Apr 18, 1991 on ABC

Love is in the air and strange ominous things start to occur all over town. Briggs shows Cooper a tape of Windom Earle making a report on his quest for the Black Lodge.


CAST

Kyle MacLachlan ...Special Agent Dale Cooper
Michael Ontkean ...Sheriff Harry S. Truman
Mädchen Amick ...Shelly Johnson
Dana Ashbrook ...Bobby Briggs
Richard Beymer ...Benjamin Horne
Lara Flynn Boyle ...Donna Hayward
Sherilyn Fenn ...Audrey Horne
Warren Frost ...Dr. Will Hayward
Jack Nance ...Pete Martell
Kimmy Robertson ...Lucy Moran
Piper Laurie ...Catherine Martell
Eric DaRe ...Leo Johnson
Harry Goaz ...Deputy Andy Brennan
Michael Horse ...Deputy Tommy 'Hawk' Hill
Kenneth Welsh ...Windom Earle
Billy Zane ...John Justice Wheeler
Heather Graham ...Annie Blackburn
Robyn Lively ...Lana Budding Milford
Don S. Davis ...Maj. Garland Briggs
Mary Jo Deschanel ...Eileen Hayward
Dan O'Herlihy ...Andrew Packard
Willie Garson ...Heavy Metal Roadie
John Boylan ...Mayor Dwayne Milford
Carel Struycken ...The Giant
Ron Blair ...Randy St. Croix
Ron Kirk ...Cappy
Ted Raimi ...Heavy Metal Youth
Frank Silva ...Bob


WRITING CREDITS

Mark Frost ... (created by) &
David Lynch ... (created by)

Harley Peyton ... (written by) &
Robert Engels ... (written by)


DIRECTED BY

Stephen Gyllenhaal
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
I’m a little behind, but now I’m updating my reviews. I’ve seen the last three episodes, and since this is an ongoing story, I’m going to treat them like a single thing. Believe me, you won’t notice any difference. Honestly, in my mind they’re all mixed up. Anyway… We’re slowly staggering to the agonizing end, but we’ll get there, at least we’ll be trying until our last breath.

Last time I’d checked, this pretty and “strong” woman was lying in bed with an unconscious Truman, but he wasn’t as lucky as I’d thought, since she tried to strangle her. This is one of those clichés: an assassin tries to strangle the hero, but he quickly puts his hand between his neck and the piano wire that is about to cut off his jugular, throat and everything else. Amazingly, the hero’s hand is never seriously hurt, when, in real life, the string would sever muscles, nerves, etc, and get to the bone, saving his life, but rendering that hand most probably useless for life. I’m amazed at how much abuse hands get in movies and TV shows, yet the damage is always treated as a simple flesh wound. Wrap it with a bandage and you’re ready to go.

Bonsai: the ultimate miniature. (Which reminds me I have a giant bonsai in my backyard.) Ah! The old microphone-in-the-bonsai-tree trick! (As Maxwell Smart would’ve described it.) Windom Earle had a chess thing and now he has a card thing. But he also uses expert electronics to spy on Cooper. And he’s a master of disguises. It’s amazing how unnecessarily elaborate TV criminals are. How many tropes rolled into just one character? Oh, and Windom Earle is now a petroglyph expert as well. Add that to his list of gimmicks.

Windom Earle is such a criminal mastermind that he left Coop completely bewildered. Windom Earle (and I can only refer to him by his full name) is changing the pattern of the game board so any hope of deducing his next move has evaporated! And what a hilarious moment it was when Leo electrocuted himself, trying to use the zapper remote as a weapon! That was perfect!

Oh, and… Windom Earle has a new minion, apparently. How does he get them? By lying there’s a party with beer, or so it seems. It turns out the kid was just a “messenger” to give Coop a message. And Coop got the message. I don’t know why they made such a big suspense about what was in the gazebo at the end of the episode. I really thought it was a body. And it turns out… It was a body. Next time it’ll be someone Coop knows. Well, I hope he goes through with his promise, because two episodes later, that detail had been completely forgotten. Will Coop lose somebody he loves by the end of the show?

And then it hit me: of course this is why Coop and Audrey fell out of love so quickly and now even have new romantic interests. At least I understand Annie’s role in all this: she’/s the one that’s going to be sacrificed, so the writers wouldn’t need to touch Audrey, who is a main character, as opposed to Heather Graham, a mere guest star. And as we’ve learned in Lost, guest stars usually get killed. By the way, I have a close recollection of the time when Heather thing was the hottest thing on TV and in the movies. What’s she up to these days?

New drama: Audrey’s father and Donna’s mother have a thing. Perhaps the two girls are sisters? Conveniently, everybody is involved with everybody in such a small town. Oh, and that reminds me of a little thing I just realized: the actress that plays Eileen, Mary Jo Deschanel, a lady of interesting beauty, happens to be the mother of Emily and Zooey Deschanel, who usually plays “quirky brunette the protagonist falls in love with” because she’s that adorable. The old lesson is true: beautiful parents usually make beautiful children.

Andy practicing spelunking in the precinct reminded me of the fact this show sometimes tries to be a sitcom, a show in which characters do quirky things out of a thin excuse and whose real reason is to create a funny scene, or a comedic situation. OK, OK, now I realize the spelunking is connected to the Owl Cave story line that would come later, but in the end Andy didn’t have to do any spelunking in Owl Cave. But he did get his pickax stuck in the symbol, so that was the point of the whole thing I guess. What bewilders me is that he only got to stick his pickax there because the owl seemingly attacked them. In other words, it was all a reaction from Andy. Did the owl know this would happen and do it on purpose?

Of course, that thing protruding from the wall is a a petroglyph. That’s the first thing I thought. Sure, what else could it be? Seriously now, how did they even know the word petroglyph existed? And then, in the end, they just left the cave and left the petroglyph there unguarded.

As we’ve learned to expect, Ben develops another quirky habit just to make things a bit surreal. This time he carries carrots in his breast pocket, and offers carrots to people. Did you know that orange variety of carrot was developed by the Dutch or something because the Dutch love the color orange and it was a tribute to their king? Not that relates to the show in any way, but if Ben can have carrots in his suit pockets, I can ramble about them. And his son, crazy Johnny, adds a little more to the quirky surrealism of the scenes involving the male Hornes. This time he was doing an Indian chief impersonation, and I’m quite sure that would be way politically incorrect for today’s television.

Unfortunately for Audrey, her new prince charming, Billy Zane, has to disappear as quickly as he appeared. Apparently some tragedy in Brazil. Indeed, we’re full of them. What was happening in Brazil in 1991? Oh, I know! Justice Wheeler had to go to Rock in Rio because he couldn’t miss the live performance of Guns N’ Roses.

Continuing with the story, we get some wisdom tidbits from Bobby: Beautiful people get everything they want. But then how do you explain both Bobby and Shelly are such losers? But I fully agree she’s Miss Twin Peaks material. Who are you guys rooting for? “This world of Twin Peaks seems to be filled with beautiful women,” says the man who hired the casting director. I think Gordon is too clownish for my taste, but I did appreciate the funny situation in which the only person Gordon could hear clearly was Shelly, who mesmerized him.

Extra! Extra! Corruption in Miss Twin Peaks contest! Accusations of nepotism abound! Guys, chill out. It’s just a small town beauty pageant, yet they treat it like it’s the main event in the world press at the moment. Why does Lana want to win so badly? Not that she really needs much help. (But then, the competition is really tough.) But of course the Miss Twin Peaks pageant is riddled with corruption: the initial judging committee consists of three old white men: it’s 100% Patriarchal White Privilege!

Well, at least we can put our minds at ease knowing that the age of the ogling, swim-suited jiggle festivals of the past is over and now environmental issues dwarf any parochial business concerns. It’s time to kick butt for our environment. Oh, Bobby, you’re a poet.

We learn one more thing about Coop: he’s not a big fan of fish, least of all the red herring. His aversion to fish must have started when they found a fish in the percolator. Though I’ve never tried that, I don’t think that tastes very good.

Anyway, the entire story line involving Catherine has a mysterious message box in it. And she gets a visit from Sheriff Truman, who asks her to tell him more about Josie. But how come he didn’t find it strange Josie ended working as Catherine’s maid all of a sudden?

Perhaps we’d better focus on the mystery box. Obviously it needs a combination to open, but in such cases we just have to drop the box and symbols and moon phases pictures appear. Then all we need to do is to smash the box with a heavy object. A mystery made of flimsy wood, therefore not that hard to crack after all.

But the mystery we really want solved is that of Owl Cave, and whatever Major Briggs has to do with all that. With so much on his shoulders, no wonder his greatest concern is whether the possibility of love is not enough!

Everything involving Briggs is weird. “Perhaps a walk in the haunted woods will clear my mind.” Sure, sure, what could possibly go wrong with that? And I’m glad they’re finally explaining things. So, now we know that there’s a time, if Jupiter and Saturn meet, they will receive you. Also, when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars then peace will guide the planets. And love will steer the stars…

Because of this, the cave painting is a map to the black lodge and evil sorcerers are behind this fiendish plot! And The Giant tries to tell Dale a message. Bob’s arm appears in midair in the forest, then the entire body appears. Next to him we see the reflection of the red velvet room on what seems like a tar pit… And I’m so bewildered I’m not even trying anymore… At least I can be consoled by the fact that what we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.


Episode 18: 6 Penguin wearing a tuxedo filled to the brim with a feeling of goodness.

Episode 19: 5 highly inefficient shots of drugs on a man’s ribcage through a jacket and shirt.

Episode 20: 6 mad and overworked dugpas.
 

Brimfin

Member: Rank 3
92 minutes. That’s all that’s left of Twin Peaks after this week’s installment.

Dale realizes that Windom Earle is now playing “off the board”, killing without having it related to their chess game. What he doesn’t realize is that Earle is way ahead of them on finding the mysterious Black Lodge. He’s been looking for it for years, feeling it’s the hub of evil power. Apparently Jupiter and Saturn are in the right place for the Lodge to appear, plus he’s translated the petroglyph and found a map to its location. We even get a brief glimpse of part of it at the very end of the show.

Major Briggs had brought them evidence from Project Blue Book of Windom’s quest for the Black Lodge. But now Briggs had been whisked away again – not by aliens or owls but by Earle himself, disguised as the front end of a horse. Clever way to get close to someone – who would expect someone in that outfit to shoot you with a tranquilizer gun? And he has a good line to Leo, who was the back end of the horse, that he has finally found his true calling. The Major was a tough nut to crack and wouldn’t reveal anything to Windom except the capital of North Carolina. But Earle had some super truth serum of some sort and finally got the answers he sought.

Dale is falling head over heels for Annie, and vice versa. Sadly, she has just decided to sample more of life by entering the Miss Twin Peaks pageant. An earlier scene of the two of them at the diner ended in a chilling tone when while kissing her, they accidentally knocked over some dishes. And then the maple syrup dripped in an ominous manner. Finally, when she announced her decision to enter the contest, Dale’s old friend the giant appeared to try to warn him by waving off that notion. But Dale didn’t seem to catch the meaning of the less-than-subtle gesture. Annie could easily win the contest next week and lose her life.

Meanwhile, Audrey is also head over heels for John Justice Wheeler and is fortunately able to catch him before he flies off to Brazil to help a dear friend. They make love in his jet prior to his takeoff on a trip he might never come back from – at least not in the next 2 weeks, anyway. Now that she’s distracted, maybe she’ll enter the contest as well to keep her mind off John.

I had high hopes when Leo stole the remote that Windom had left out carelessly. I was hoping to see him walk toward Earle in a threatening manner while the psycho killer searched his pockets in vain for the device. Alas, Leo was so brain dead he thought the device itself emitted the pain and tried to use it on Earle only to shock himself; he wasn’t even smart enough to stop pushing the button once he saw he was the only one suffering. The strange thing is that he seemed to be doing this because he saw the playing card with Shelly’s face on it. It’s like he was trying to protect her – ironic considering how he used to treat her.

And Lucy’s also joining the contest, after which she will decide who will be the Daddy for her baby. (I thought she was waiting to see who the father actually was but….never mind.) If she picks anyone but Andy, she is truly a ditz. When she asked for his help in coming up with a “save the environment” speech, he actually made intelligent suggestions, like not polluting the lake with beer cans and finding ways to keep Styrofoam out of the landfills. Those are ideas I can get behind, not this nonsense about greenhouse gasses and that exhaling CO2 when I breathe somehow equates to polluting the air.

And finally, the payoff that I was looking for last week regarding the Gordon and Shelly kiss arrived in this episode. Bobby admitted that seeing Shelly kiss someone else made him realize what a poor suitor he has been lately and he resolves to do better. Good for him.

Less interesting stuff: It’s looking more and more like Ben is Donna’s father. And she seems to be catching on, seeing that there is no father listed on her birth certificate. Right now the clever way to go would be to find out that the secret is something totally different.

And that puzzle box was solved by Andrew punching in “combinations” like birthdays with no logic as to how he knew what symbol was what. He solved it only to find another puzzle box, which he smashed with a hammer. Turned out the hidden treasure was sarin gas, which he exposed when he smashed the glass container, killing both him and Catherine. Well, not really. The big secret was really – a hunk of metal?

But overall, the good plots outweighed the bad. Factoring in the payoff from last week’s show I’ll give this 7 trout jumping in the moonlight, which apparently sounds like the perfect cure for a missing beau – at least to Pete, bless his heart.

Best dialogue (and it really was a good exchange)

Truman: What is it, Coop?
Cooper: Oh, just thinking about Annie Blackburn.
Truman: Well, bless your heart. I’ve never know your mind to wander.
Cooper: Oh, Harry, I’ve been feeling this way all day. You know I proceed as usual, my mind clear and focused. And suddenly, out of nowhere, I see her face and I hear her voice. Naturally, I try to re-orient myself, come back to the task at hand - but the image remains. Sometime, I actually feel dizzy.
Truman: A man in love’s supposed to feel that way.
Cooper: Well, my symptoms suggest the onset of malaria. But I’ve never felt better in my life.
 

Brimfin

Member: Rank 3
Mad-pac said:
By the way, I have a close recollection of the time when Heather was the hottest thing on TV and in the movies. What’s she up to these days?
She recently appeared in the mini-series "Law & Order: The Menendez Murders" playing the real-life mistress of a psychiatrist whose affair with him played a key role in the case. She has aged, but still looked attractive enough to have been able to lure a man into cheating on his wife.
 

Brimfin

Member: Rank 3
Mad-pac said:
Also, when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars then peace will guide the planets. And love will steer the stars…
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius, age of Aquarius....Hey, wait a minute. AQUARIAS was a TV show that starred David Duchovny (cue eerie music), and it also ran 2 seasons, just like TWIN PEAKS. (eerie music intensifies). Of course, the only reason it ran two seasons is that it got good ratings the first week and NBC immediately ordered a second season. The next week the ratings began to tank and eventually they had to burn off the remaining episodes on Saturday night (the dead zone for American TV shows). Still, apparently NBC was too embarrassed to admit its mistake and let them do a second season anyway that got even worse ratings. Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
Hey, guys. Or guy... While there's still time:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

May you eat several times as much as you need!

PS: Apparently none of the emojis I pasted appeared in the final result. If I don't get too lazy, I'll try to fix that.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
92 minutes. That’s all that’s left of Twin Peaks after this week’s installment.
Indeed that is! One day I may tackle the other productions related to the theme (movies, sequel), but certainly not now. I can barely wait for this show to finish.

And that puzzle box was solved by Andrew punching in “combinations” like birthdays with no logic as to how he knew what symbol was what. He solved it only to find another puzzle box, which he smashed with a hammer.
Oh, wait, I don't remember that. Was I that distracted? Oh, well, never mind.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
She recently appeared in the mini-series "Law & Order: The Menendez Murders" playing the real-life mistress of a psychiatrist whose affair with him played a key role in the case. She has aged, but still looked attractive enough to have been able to lure a man into cheating on his wife.
Oh, yes, yes. I remember her. She has aged very well. I wonder why her career has waned.

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius, age of Aquarius....Hey, wait a minute. AQUARIAS was a TV show that starred David Duchovny (cue eerie music), and it also ran 2 seasons, just like TWIN PEAKS. (eerie music intensifies).
I remember this show being announced. I thought about checking it just for fun, then it disappeared from my radar and I never gave it a second thought. There was something I read about it that convinced me the show was not good, but I just can't remember what it was.

Another thing: any idea whatever happened to Bob Peters? I'll try reaching him.
 

Brimfin

Member: Rank 3
Mad-pac said:
Hey, guys. Or guy... While there's still time:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

May you eat several times as much as you need!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, too. Oddly enough, I celebrated it again yesterday with my siblings as the 28th was the earliest we could all get together - we're spread out across the state.
 

Brimfin

Member: Rank 3
Mad-pac said:
Another thing: any idea whatever happened to Bob Peters? I'll try reaching him.
No idea here. I was going back over the old posts to get my "By the numbers" scores. I saw Cloister56 disappear without any warning, and then Bob Peters was gone too - and he had seemed genuinely interested in the show. I hope you succeed in getting in touch with him and finding out what happened.
 

Mad-Pac

Member: Rank 5
No idea here. I was going back over the old posts to get my "By the numbers" scores. I saw Cloister56 disappear without any warning, and then Bob Peters was gone too - and he had seemed genuinely interested in the show. I hope you succeed in getting in touch with him and finding out what happened.
No problem. I'll get in touch with him. I found him once (and that's how I got him to come back at one time) and I can find him again.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, too. Oddly enough, I celebrated it again yesterday with my siblings as the 28th was the earliest we could all get together - we're spread out across the state.
Then you beat me to it, though technically I'm the first to enter the new year, as my time zone is one hour ahead of your East Coast. And to think that in Australia, 2018 is old news already...
 
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