Twin Peaks Episode 10 Review

By: Eric Flapjack Ashley (@flapjackashley)

Sunday night was highlighted by the return of Game of Thrones, a notoriously violent period piece on a rival pay cable channel. As if almost sensing the return of that show in the same time slot, Twin Peaks episode ten amps up its own violent content with mixed results. So, with that, let’s dig into hour ten of the 18-hour revival series!

One-Man Wrecking Crew

Demon seed Richard Horne pays a visit to Miriam’s trailer at the top of the episode. Miriam, in case you forgot, is the happy lady from the Double R Diner who witnessed him mow down a kid in a hit-and-run a few episodes ago. He tries to charm her, but instead gets told that she already went to the police and mailed a letter on top of that informing them to suspect him if anything happens to her. Well, that “something” doesn’t take long to happen and he suddenly sprints towards her, breaks into her home, and kills her. Richard then places a call to Chad, the jerk deputy who is famous for making inappropriate statements about Sheriff Truman’s child’s suicide, and tells him to intercept the letter. Deputy Chad does as told, but it is unclear whether a spying Lucy actually sees what he did – but Chad should know that Lucy isn’t as dumb as she seems.

Later in the episode, Richard bursts into Sylvia Horne’s house and calls her “grandma” as he grabs her by the throat and roughs her up. Johnny Horne is nearby, tied up in a chair – not dead and presumably for his own safety from his head ramming accident of last week. Richard demands money and the code to the safe from Sylvia, who relents before he brutally throws her to the floor. He leaves with the goods, but not before calling her the “C” word. Sylvia then cries and crawls over to Johnny, who was also crying and struggling to get free to help. The whole scene is incredibly tough to watch, and made all the more disturbing by Johnny’s toy on the table that repeats “How are you today?” over and over.



More violence ensues as Becky is being screamed at by her husband, Steven, while she lays on the bed, crying in terror. He blames her for her low paying job and the messy trailer they live in. It’s a short sequence, but still disturbing. It also is amazing that her mother Shelly doesn’t recognize the signs given the very close similarities between her and Leo Johnson in the original series. Shelly gave a hint that she suspected things weren’t right between Becky and Steven in hour two, but Becky clearly must be a great actress to hide all of this.

Do The Dougie

The good Agent Cooper/Dougie is seeing the doctor and but the doc and his wife Janey-E is impressed by how buff Dougie is. This leads to the most hilarious sex scene ever…think “flopping fish out of water.”

Meanwhile, it seems everyone wants a piece of Dougie’s action. The casino mobsters are reminded of Dougie when a local news piece airs on the capture of Spike the Ike and interviews Dougie on the attempt on his life. Their efforts to find him and make him pay for milking the casino of millions is renewed, and heightening by further manipulation of them by Duncan Todd and Tony Sinclair. If some of these names don’t ring familiar, don’t feel bad – that’s one of the drawbacks I feel this season of Twin Peaks has: too many plots and new characters with too much break in between their appearances in the show.

Laura is the one…

Agent Cole is smiling and happy as he witnesses Albert and the stand-up comic mortician out on a date. He’s not as happy when, later that night, he opens his hotel door to a shocking vision of Laura Palmer crying/screaming (in a scene from the movie Fire Walk With Me). Why he’s having visions of Laura is not yet explained. It fades and Albert is standing there, who gives him information on the text that Diane received from Doppleganger Cooper last week. He also says that Diane responded, “We got Hastings,” in encrypted format, which we did not see. Tammy shows up and they connect Doppleganger with the Penthouse murders from the first episode, which explains BOB’s connection to the glass box and preventing Good Cooper from re-entering this reality.

The Log Lady contacts Deputy Hawk and says that the “glow is dying” but that “Laura is the one.” As with anything in the series so far, we don’t know what that means but we’ll probably find out about three episodes from now.

The episode ends with a dreamy performance at the Roadhouse by Rebekah Del Rio and a song co-written by David Lynch himself. It runs about three minutes to end the shorter-than-normal episode.

Opinion and Looking Ahead

It’s pretty fascinating and aggravating how all of these random storylines are coming together. Fascinating because they seem so detached from one another and yet play a part in a bigger picture. Aggravating because there is so much ground to cover that, as I mentioned above, we can go weeks without seeing a supposedly key character that when the pop up again, we run the risk of forgetting who they are.

This week was heavy on the violence and much of it was difficult to process. But there was some moments of hope to be found: the happiness of Cole spotting Albert’s date being the leading one. It shows that while all this nastiness abounds, there is still a little light remaining. I do not like, however, the twist of Diane working with Doppleganger – I don’t buy it, especially after seeing her horrified and angry reaction she had during their interaction at the prison and her crying to Cole outside afterwards. I’m hoping this is leads to a twist that contradicts what seems to be obvious, that Diane knows what Doppelganger is up to and trying to lure him into a trap. The oddly dramatic music and slow motion of Tammy entering the hallway towards Cole’s room immediately after this Diane revelation probably means something, too.

When Richard shows up at the very beginning of the episode, he looks like a nice, shy, boy-next-door type. But he has a transformation into a monster, his face a mask of anger and rage. A comparison could be made between the contrast between a human host being one way and the evil of BOB being another and shows how we can look at people in completely different lights. The episode also gives fuel to the popular fan theory that Richard’s mannerisms and outbursts of violence (down to the way he grabs women’s throats as he did at the Roadhouse a few weeks ago) are a result of something awful: that Doppleganger Cooper attacked Audrey Horne when she was in a coma from the bank explosion in the original series finale, and Richard is the product of that attack. We have yet to see Audrey this season, but the clue of Richard calling Sylvia “Grandma” was a big one. It makes me wonder though, as popular as a theory this is, how many Twin Peaks fans actually want it to be true. Audrey is a longtime fan favorite and the thought of her being a victim of sexual assault, especially in a comatose state, is something I’m not sure fans actually want to see.

There were lighter moments, such as the still seemingly-unrelated public access show that Doctor Jacoby hosts about government conspiracies and selling shovels that Nadine seems to be completely in love with as she watches from her business (appropriately named Run Silent, Run Drapes!, a great nod to the original show). Its amusing, but one also has to wonder where is her husband, “Big” Ed Hurley?

Looking ahead, we only have eight episodes left, and the storylines are starting to fall together. There are so many lowlifes in this series, though, that I am somewhat losing faith that everyone will actually get what’s coming to them. I know in Twin Peaks, resolutions are never a given, but I always hope that after a 25-year cliffhanger, I think it is fair to expect a good ending for some – especially Agent Cooper. But the thought has crept in my mind that the series will end without closure – but I hope that isn’t the case. Twin Peaks is not coming back as Lynch said himself this was a one-time thing, so unlike how the original series wrapped up, I am hoping he finds the good in his heart and leave us looking at this revival with a happy smile – like Cole had when watching Albert’s date. That’s all I can hope for.

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