Twin Peaks: Episode 14 Review

By: Eric Flapjack Ashley (flapjackashley)

Twin Peaks is sprinting towards its conclusion – it only has four episodes and three weeks left, which means the finale will more than likely be a two-hour event. This is episode 14 of season three, and longtime fans will know episode 14 of the original series – if all 30 episodes of both seasons are combined – is the outing that revealed BOB and who killed Laura Palmer in a landmark moment of the franchise. Will this episode 14 live up to the other one? Let’s see:

“We Are Like the Dreamer”

Albert fills Tammy in, somewhat, on the Blue Rose while Gordon Cole recalls a dream involving Monica Bellucci and memories of Agent Phillip Jeffries (David Bowie), accompanied by flashbacks from the Fire Walk With Me movie. We also find out Diane (Laura Dern) is half sisters with Janey-E (Naomi Watts) – who of course is married to Dougie (Kyle MacLachlan), the Good Cooper.

Beyond Dimensions

After firing and arresting Chad, the dirty cop who was working with Richard Horne, Sheriff Frank Truman (Robert Forster), and Deputies Hawk (Michael Horse), Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook), and Andy (Harry Goaz) head right to “Jack Rabbit’s Place.” They come across a woman (Nae Yuuki) who has no eyes whom we saw (see what I did there?) in episode three. There is a vortex hovering above her, and unlike Gordon Cole a few weeks ago, Andy is successfully sucked right up in it. He finds himself in the same seat Agent Cooper was in at the very beginning of the first episode this season, and facing the Giant – who identifies himself as the Fireman. Andy sees images of whatever killed the Cube Couple in the first hour, Good Coop and Bad Coop side by side, and Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) surrounded by angels. Andy returns out of the Vortex, more knowledgeable but unable to share what he saw with the others. He does know the blind woman must be kept safe.

If It Don’t Fit, You Must Acquit

James (James Marshall) is at his job as Great Northern Security and having a semi-disturbing discussion with co-worker Freddie (Jake Wardle). Seems like Freddie had a dream involving the Giant, who told him to buy a specific green glove – but now Freddie can’t get it off his hand. The Giant then instructed him to go to Twin Peaks for undisclosed reasons. So Freddie tells James he is here and awaiting his destiny. Methinks it won’t be a good ending for Freddie. James then wanders off towards the same weird noise that has been haunting Benjamin Horne (Richard Beymer) and his secretary (Ashley Judd) throughout the season – although I’m not sure I like the way the scene ends with how James is looking at a locked door.

“We’ve Got a Dead One at the Bar!”

But for all of the interesting stuff in this episode, the showstopper goes to Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie). She arrives and settles in for a long night of drinking. Some lowlife with a flattering shirt reading “Truck You” sidles up to her and begins laying on the charm by threatening to “suck her lesbian t*tties off”. Sarah tells him, “I’ll eat you,” before literally removing her face from her skull, but unlike Laura in episode two, Sarah reveals images of shadows, teeth, fingers, and other stuff that reminds me of the bizarro episode eight. Sarah then lunges forward and bites out the man’s neck. She screams like an innocent as the bartender races around to see the aftermath. Sarah is suddenly creepily calm, and the bartender seems to know what really happened, but is too intimidated to do anything further.

Turns out the Bloody Mary she ordered wasn’t the only thing to be bloody after all.

The last scene of the show centers on two more random young characters we don’t know at the Roadhouse, the other bar in town that doesn’t have dead bodies lying on the floor. One of the girls says she is Tina’s daughter – bringing back the seemingly detached storyline that Audrey Horne had been ranting about for the past two episodes. Seems like Tina and Billy were having a relationship that Audrey must be unaware of, and Billy was last seen screaming with blood coming from his mouth and nose.

Speculation and Looking Forward

You can tell the show is nearing its end. Things moved at a very decent pace this week, with few moments of awkwardness and filler that some of the last few episodes were plagued with.

Diane has been painted to be duplicitous the last few weeks, but I still remember her genuine reaction to Doppleganger Cooper earlier this year, so I’m still not buying it completely. She was shaken and thrown off her game. It was not the reaction of someone who has been in the know with the dark side.

Billy’s fate of bleeding from the mouth and nose while screaming crazily is reminiscent of the last image we saw of Agent Cooper/BOB in the original series. Hey, it’s the little things I pick up on that may not mean anything, but worth mentioning!

Kyle MacLahlan is barely seen in this episode at all – marking the second time in three weeks that the show has focused on its supporting cast during its entirety.

Phillip Jeffries plays a very large role in this season. It makes me wonder if David Bowie’s death prevented him from participating in the series and if scenes had to be altered a bit due to it. Hard to say, though, since actor Don S. Davis (Major Briggs) and, obviously, Frank Silva (BOB) have been deceased for years and have major parts of the plots. Bowie’s name does appear at the end of this episode’s credits as an “In Memory Of.”

And finally, the White Horse in the room is Sarah Palmer. Aside from the obvious suspicions that she was the teenaged girl who had that bug crawl in her mouth in episode eight, questions arise here, such as is she possessed? Is this the real Sarah Palmer or is it a doppelganger? How long has this been going on? Was she possessed for the entire original series? It should be noted also that Sarah didn’t have a drop of blood on her despite ripping out a man’s throat with her teeth.

With each episode that passes, it seems more and more like a dream – or a nightmare. While other series have done it, I don’t expect this year to be the dream of Gordon Cole or Agent Cooper – or even Sheriff Harry S. Truman, who has been offscreen by oft mentioned as being ill.

There are still many questions to be answered in just four hours. Aside from the obvious questions, we still have yet to see or know what happened to Annie (Heather Graham), Agent Cooper’s girlfriend whom he went into the Black Lodge to rescue in the original series finale. We don’t know who are Richard Horne’s parents – although everyone suspects it is Audrey, but she seems completely unconcerned with him so far. Instead, she brought to light a number of characters we still haven’t seen this late into the show, and still somehow seems destined to tie into the overall story.

With just four hours left – and as noted, just three weeks remaining (cue sad face) – Twin Peaks has a lot of explaining to do. Whether it answers all of the questions, Sarah spoke for the audience when she told the bartender, “It sure is a mystery.”

The end is near.

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