Review Tonight! "Twin Peaks" S02E07 "Lonely Souls"

[Mad-Pac]

Aired Thursday 9:00 PM Nov 10, 1990 on ABC

Different characters and even the show's viewers suffer from a strange case of déjà-vu. And hidden identities are revealed.


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
Peggy Lipton ...Norma Jennings
James Marshall ...James Hurley
Everett McGill ...Big Ed Hurley
Jack Nance ...Pete Martell
Ray Wise ...Leland Palmer
Eric DaRe ...Leo Johnson
Harry Goaz ...Deputy Andy Brennan
Michael Horse ...Deputy Tommy 'Hawk' Hill
Sheryl Lee ...Maddy Ferguson
Grace Zabriskie ...Sarah Palmer
Wendy Robie ...Nadine Hurley
Al Strobel ...Phillip Michael Gerard
David Lynch ...FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole
Fumio Yamaguchi ...Mr. Tojamura
Gary Hershberger ...Mike Nelson
Catherine E. Coulson ...The Log Lady
Julee Cruise ...Singer
Carel Struycken ...Giant
Hank Worden ...Waiter


WRITING CREDITS

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

Mark Frost ... (written by)


DIRECTED BY

David Lynch

 

[Mad-Pac]

TWIN PEAKS

Season 2

Episode 7: “Lonely Souls”​

The episode starts in an unusual way, which is pretty much the usual mode for Twin Peaks. The one-armed man recites the riddle whose answer was the Great Northern hotel, indicating that was where they were going, apparently to nobody in particular and that was just a way to update the viewers about what was going on. And Cooper asks Deputy Hawk to carry on with the investigations and he agrees, but only after he finished his coffee, and all the guys stay there sipping their coffees, because who is in a hurry anyway?

They go to the hotel, where Mike has a psychic shock of some sort as he senses Bob’s presence, I believe inside Ben. But what was the deal of those navy people bouncing those little rubber balls all over the place?

Bobby’s dreams seem to have come true, and now he has a “wife” and a “baby” to take care of. By the way, what could you do with 42 dollars in 1990? More than today, I’m sure. Leo is alive! No, he’s just drooling and talking nonsense about shoes, but I think he’s regaining his wits just too quickly and soon Bobby is going to regret all his greed.

Speaking of shoes, Bobby learns that Leo had told Shelly to get his boots fixed, so he goes pick up Leo’s boots and, unfortunately, breaks the boots again so now they’ll have to be fixed once more. Inside the heel he finds… A flash drive? An SD card? No, of course not, it’s 1990. It’s a micro cassette tape. I remember we had an answering machine that used those. My father still has a small recorder that uses it, but personally, I prefer my Zoom H1.

Ben’s people checked Mr. Tojamura’s references in Tokyo and they all… check out. Do you still believe he is an impostor? Impossible! Except that “Mr. Tojamura”? visits Pete Martel and Tojamura gives Pete a passionate kiss, which makes sense since they had had a little flirt the episode before. And surprise, surprise Tojamura was actually Catherine, his wife, so from now on I can stop posting that fake credit because the cat is out of the bag.

After The Log Lady comes to the police station with important information she and Mr. Log had, Cooper adds 2 and 2 together and determines that Ben be arrested. Nice camera shot of Cooper and Truman bringing Horne in and Mr. Log appearing in the foreground. (I liked it almost as much as I disliked that very fake moonshot effect used in a scene transition, except that I just checked the meaning of “moonshot” and no, it doesn’t mean taking a camera shot of the moon on film or video). Meanwhile we can’t, even for a minute, forget that there are owls in the Roadhouse.

Those kids (specifically James and Donna) know how to have some fun, and rowdy teenage fun begins with the music they listen to, so wild! (Ever heard of rock’n roll, by the way?) I liked “The World Spins”, I admit.

So… Leland goes completely off the reservation. At first, we see Sarah Palmer crawling seriously beaten and having horsellucinations. Then he attacks Maddy, and that was hard to watch. The scenes of Leland attacking Maddy, especially when he punched her face and then hit her face against a glass were pretty strong. I don’t think they’d be allowed to show that today. It would probably be something more implicit. Is Leland’s condition a Fallen (1998) thing? Hey, hadn’t Leland been arrested anyway? What’s he doing free?

Meanwhile back in the ranch, I mean, the Roadhouse, Cooper is hypnotized by Julee Cruise singing “The World Spins” and has a vision of Maddy being killed. So is this officially a “Who killed Laura Palmer AND Maddy Ferguson?” drama now? (OK, except that we know who killed Maddy, evidently.) I found it odd that the show had an important character killed before we ever saw her alive, then introduces a lookalike, just to have her killed eventually. I don’t really see the point of that, but it was surprising.

Hey, shouldn’t that super old waiter be retired already? The problem with pension plans in the US is that apparently people never seem to be old enough to afford to retire, but apparently have to keep working, sometimes even taking two waiter jobs (for instance in a bar and a hotel). I checked the actor’s page and found out that unfortunately the actor died in 1992 at the age of 91.

Episode 7 gets 6 disgusting puddles of chocolate milkshake, blood and little shards of broken glass.

 

[Bob Peters 61]

Well, it looks like I done gave myself away for watching ahead. I swear that I've tried to limit my revelations to what I had figured out from that episode, but forgot that Shelly didn't quit her job until this episode when claiming that she had in a previous one. My bad.

Still, it looks like Brimfin called it: Mr. Tojamura was indeed Katherine. When I saw it the first time, I had figured out that he was an imposter of some sort for reasons I've stated in previous threads. I also suspected that Katherine was still alive in hiding to come back later because of the way she had disappeared in the fire without so much as charred remains. But I never put those two together like Brim had. Well done, Brimfin.

And now I think we know who killed Laura Palmer. It was her own daddy posessed by Bob the demon boogeyman. Shame about his wife and niece. Around the chair by the window, I was hoping Sarah would grab the lamp and use it as a club on him. Graphic violence of man on helpless woman. I agree that they would be loathe to show that nowadays.

So Audrey came and ratted out her own daddy to Agent Cooper. Does she still have that big a crush on him? The arrest did give me another moment of childlike hero worship when he got his hand on the doorknob before any movement by Hawk, who got to him and had him in a full nelson before he had the door open. That's my man!

In the roadhouse, we heard the predecessor of autotune. Nothing like pop music nowadays, but you can't tell me that blonde singer's voice wasn't electronically messed with somehow.

Great moment in the show, but still, I'll stick with my usual for this show and give it 7 electronically augmented singers turning into Mr. Homn.

 

[Mad-Pac]

Well, it looks like I done gave myself away for watching ahead. I swear that I've tried to limit my revelations to what I had figured out from that episode, but forgot that Shelly didn't quit her job until this episode when claiming that she had in a previous one. My bad.

It's funny, but I could swear she had said to Bobby something like "What are we going to do now that I've quit my job," or something an episode or two ago. I think that was when the insurance guy told them they'd get a fraction of what they expected to receive. It's a pity I'm too lazy to check that out now. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[Brimfin]

Lots of weird goings on this week, and a couple of big revelations.

First, they’re off to investigate the Great Northern Hotel. Andy’s with them this time. So did they just forget about him chasing after Lucy to stop her from aborting her baby? Apparently so. Typical David Lynch nonsense at the hotel - there are a bunch of women in uniform bouncing balls or something. When the one-armed man goes crazy, some people react but they just walk by bouncing their balls. Spooky yelling and other things, but no real payoff to the scene.

Poor Harold apparently hanged himself after “mutilating” Laura’s secret diary. You can bet it will turn out some crucial clue was torn up right where it would have revealed everything. We do find out that Laura mentioned this Bob character multiple times. Oh, and Donna feels bad about it.

Leo speaks, although he only mutters “new shoes.” Bobby checks out a pair of the boots Leo was having repaired and finds a small tape cassette hidden in one of the heels. Too bad it wasn’t money, as he and Shelly could really use some. And next time they feed Leo a meal, it’d be nice to wipe his mouth off rather than let him sit there for that long scene with oatmeal on his mouth.

Audrey confronts her Dad about owning One-Eyed Jacks and he has to admit it once he finds out she was Prudence, the girl he was ready to have sex with. He admits having sex with Laura and being in love with her. Audrey passes her disturbing fears about her dad to Cooper. He also remembers that the one-armed man only went nuts when Ben Horne entered the scene (ah – the delayed payoff for the scene.) Cooper has Ben arrested. He gives him the choice to go quietly or be dragged out in cuffs. Ben opts not to go quietly and so he is dragged off in cuffs. Can’t say he wasn’t warned.

Then our first big reveal. My suspicions were correct. Mr. Tojamura is indeed Catherine in disguise. A nice reveal scene where she spooks her husband by telling him “I’m strangely attracted to you” in her phony voice, before telling him “It’s me, dummy!” He laughs and tells her she looks awful.

This is all a set-up to the big finale. In typical Lynch style it is just plain weird. The log lady summons Cooper to the Roadhouse. After watching a female singer for quite a while, she and everyone else vanishes and the giant appears, saying “It’s happening again.” There at the Palmer house, Maddy had earlier admitted that she was headed home. Later, we saw Sarah Palmer crawling down the stairs and across the floor. Still later, she sees a ghostly horse. Look, Sarah, a night-mare! (Actually, it’s the pale horse referred to by the log lady in the opening of the show.) And finally, Leland sees Bob as his reflection in the mirror. He dons latex gloves and attacks Maddy, killing her in slow, excruciating style complete with even a slow-motion scene where Maddy screams for help sounding like a roaring man. He even puts a letter under her fingernail. So Leland is apparently Laura’s killer, albeit Leland possessed by Bob. That’s what they get for letting him out on his own recognizance after killing Jacques.

So let’s give this one 7 shattered milkshake glasses, victims of Nadine not knowing her own strength.

We're officially halfway through now, though since two of the earlier episode were double-length ones, the second 15 shows will be slightly shorter.

Best dialogue:

Nadine: Is it your parents’ house or mine, Eddie?
Eddie: That’s right.

Log Lady: We don’t know what will happen or when, but there are owls in the roadhouse.