Ground control to Major Briggs.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
After the last episode’s total mindf**k, black and white, 1940s/1950s-set beautiful insanity, the latest Twin Peaks was a far more grounded affair by TP standards and, akin to “Part 7,” really began to delve into more… Well, if not full “answers” at least more specifics on what is occurring.
“Part 8” dealt with the origin of Bob, a character played in the original series by an actor, Frank Silva, who has sadly passed away. Much of “Part 9” focused on Major Garland Briggs, another important Twin Peaks player also played by an actor who has died – great character actor Don S. David -- but here we learned all sorts of fascinating tidbits about what he was up to in the days before he died in a fire 25 years ago, and some of what he’s been up to since! Because, you know, this is Twin Peaks after all.
From Bill Hastings recounting meeting “the Major” in a place he called The Zone (which seemed to be his name for the Black Lodge... or the White?), to the discovery of instructions Briggs left behind for Bobby, Frank and Hawk, there was a lot to unpack here and Mark Frost and David Lynch did a commendable job of making Major Briggs’ presence felt, even without Davis’ presence.
It was also great (and necessary) to see Bobby take an active role here, after his single appearance earlier this season. Bobby started out as such an unlikable thug in the original series, but gradually we saw more layers – and one of the best scenes for both him and the show in general was when Major Briggs told him about a dream he had where Bobby turned out okay and he teared up. The fact that, from what we’ve seen, this is in fact the case, and Briggs had yet another vision of the future that came true here, was a great tie into the past.
And for those of us loving the morsels of more direct mythology, how about that bit of the message (originally thought to be from space) from the original series where Cooper’s name was mixed in with the gibberish? Except here, the double use of his name suddenly took on greater significance, given we know there are in fact two Coopers running around.
It sure seems like Evil Cooper has quite a network of people working for him, as we met Tim Roth’s Hutch (and got a Hateful Eight reunion for him and Jennifer Jason Leigh) and saw that he too is ready, willing and able to kill anyone (or any cell phone) he’s ordered to. Oh, and Evil Coop is indeed the scary boss the Vegas-located Duncan Todd (Patrick Fischler) spoke fearfully about back in the premiere.
We’re now exactly at the half way point of this 18-part season and Dougie is still Dougie-ing… but we keep getting bigger hints of the real Cooper fighting to get out, here represented by him (amusingly) hearing “America the Beautiful” and staring at the wall socket. I keep hoping this will be the episode when Cooper truly returns, but it’s still not happening yet. But hope springs eternal!
The new Twin Peaks has primarily focused on the FBI agents and those working at the Sherriff’s department, when it comes to returning characters. However, a lot of notable events occurred this week for both the Briggs and Horne families. Not only did we get the return of Betty Briggs (Charlotte Stewart, in a very warm and sweet performance), much more of Bobby (Okay, he also is part of the Sheriff’s department) and all that off-screen info on Garland, but most of the Hornes popped up this week, with a lot of strange occurrences happening around them. Jerry Horne lost control of his foot, Johnny Horne ran into a wall (and maybe died?) – which also gave us a glimpse of his mom, Sylvia – and Ben continued to hear that hum in the walls at the Great Northern. Still no sign of Audrey, but if her brother is hurt or dead, one would assume she’d be on her way back home soon.
Even with so much going on, the standout this week was Matthew Lillard, as Bill spoke to Tammy about The Zone and his relationship with Ruth. In a scene that felt like quintessential Lynch, Bill spoke about his plans with the late Ruth to go to the Bahamas and go scuba diving with the woman he loved. The scene was at turns heightened, somewhat funny and, eventually, truly sad and empathetic towards poor Bill and everything he’d lost, and Lillard played this all perfectly.
Some bullet points:
-Evil Cooper’s message to Diane is certainly an eyebrow raiser. Has she secretly been working with him (and their meeting at the prison was a ruse to fool others), or is he simply using some old pull he has over her?
-Singer Sky Ferreira (who can also be seen in Baby Driver right now) sure made an impression as that very scuzzy drug addict at the Roadhouse – whose nasty scar raises questions about some greater, darker significance behind it than her poor lifestyle choices.
-Albert’s “What happens in Season 2” was a very funny, unusually meta line for Twin Peaks from the one character who could probably say it.
-I could have done without Lucy and Andy’s scene, but look, it was sweet when she went with his color choice when she saw he was willing to let her have hers.
The Verdict
There is much more forward momentum occurring on Twin Peaks now, as a lot of disparate pieces are coming together. There was a lot of fun to be had here as we learned more about Major Briggs post-death life, found the Horne family all having strange events, learned more about evil Cooper’s reach and saw one very gross rash.
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