Diane, August 16, 1 pm. Eight to go. Both of this week’s episodes begin the same way. The credits roll as the camera creeps through the pieces on a chess board. The implication is clear: the game has begun. As our dashing hero Agent Cooper and his mortal enemy Windom Earle make their moves on and off the board, some of the pawns take the opportunity to duke it out amongst themselves. Several storylines – and characters – meet their ends as we march towards the finish.
Here’s five thoughts on episodes 15 and 16 of this season, “Slaves and Masters” and “The Condemned Woman.” Spoilers below.
1. Just a Boy, Standing in Front of a Girl, Asking for Her to Not Frame Him for Murder
James’s good intentions have put him in trouble once again, and this time around his pigheadedness nearly costs him his life. Evelyn Marsh fits neatly alongside the other long-suffering women of Twin Peaks, both in the sympathy inherent in her backstory and in her culpability in the consequences. Evelyn attempted to trade her bad situation in for a better one, but she attempted to do so without any sacrifice. It goes as well for her as it did for Shelly or Audrey before her – even though she does a version of the right thing by killing Malcolm and setting James free, she’s reaping what she sowed all the way to prison.
After Evelyn’s plan is put to bed, Donna and James retire to a nice sunny countryside for a good old-fashioned picnic/breakup double feature. The duo seems to end on good terms with many promises that they’ll reunite someday, but they’re in fundamentally different places: Donna is ready to move on from all the horror they’ve been through and work towards building something positive in her life and in the world, while James is still wallowing in his own suffering. Unfortunately for Donna, she may be done with the darkness, but the darkness isn’t done with her, and she’s quickly roped into Windom Earle’s schemes.
2. Windom Earle Makes a Friend*
*Oh, sorry, did I say friend? I meant a slave.
The threat of Windom Earle brings an old friend back to town: FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer), who, shockingly, now seems to love the “yokels” of Twin Peaks after their shared experiences fighting BOB. Albert brings evidence shedding light on Earle’s activities leading up to his recent arrival in town, as well as the news that numerous government agencies are out for Earle’s head. As Albert puts it, however, he’s only going to “dance” with Cooper. Earle leaves a message in Cooper’s bedroom, challenging him to continue their deadly chess game. Cooper responds by enlisting the aid of the town’s chess virtuoso (what? every town has one), none other than seeming simpleton Pete Martell.
Earle, meanwhile, has been joined by the now wanted Leo Johnson. What initially seemed like a meeting of the minds between two like-minded psychopaths quickly morphed into the episode’s titular slave and master dynamic. Earle takes Leo as a pet, fitting him with a shock collar and feeding him gruel. Still on the mend from his catatonia (and the small matter of being stabbed by Shelly last episode), Leo is helpless to defend himself. As bad as Leo has been all through the series, it’s still hard to see him this—hahahaha no I’m sorry I can’t finish that, this couldn’t happen to a better guy.
What exactly Windom Earle is planning is still obscure, and with many of its subplots pruned away Twin Peaks is taking its time setting up the game board. Earle dons a series of disguises and leaves three notes around town telling Shelly, Audrey, and Donna to meet at the bar, also giving each of them one third of a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley. What’s he playing at? Unclear, but what’s obvious is that he’s several steps ahead of his competitor.
3. There’s No Place Like Home (a.k.a. the Confederate States of America)
The play’s the thing as the Horne family and friends unite to purge Ben of his belief that he’s Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Per the expert advice of Dr. Jacoby, Audrey, Jerry, and newly minted executive assistant Bobby Briggs all dress up to play their parts and help Ben work through his (I cannot stress this enough, extremely racist) fantasy. A couple of interesting bits are buried in this strange plotline. It gives us maybe the first example of someone in the show rejecting the opportunity for a power grab. Audrey gains control of her father’s assets due to his deteriorating mental state, but she wields that power to save him rather than to take the fortune for herself. Then the whole thing resolves in a gleefully twisted mash-up of classic American iconography, as Ben wakes from his confederate reverie in a riff on The Wizard of Oz, his family peering over him as he relates his newfound understanding of the value of life.
Continued belowThe aftermath of Ben’s crisis brings about some curious changes in the Horne enterprise. Audrey earned herself a full seat at the table, joining Ben’s meetings and consulting on the company’s next steps. Those steps include a plan to… preserve the pine weasel, I guess? Ben is back to his food chomping, scheming, manipulating ways, and he’s using an endangered species to block Catherine Martell’s plans for developing Blackwood Estates. To that end, he brings on Jack Wheeler (Billy Zane, looking dashing several years before his fiancé leaves him while their ship sinks), an old friend of the family who is something of a business “Santa Claus,” specializing in revitalizing struggling businesses and selling them for a profit. He narratively serves a double purpose as a potential suitor for Audrey, who swoons for him immediately – not that she’d say that to him right away, of course.
4. Ed & Norma Might Have a Chance (in Hell)
Back in the slightly less sinister (but no less dramatic) side of the show, Ed and Norma have once again vowed to do what makes them happy and be together. They’re helped along by the respective bowing out (willing or otherwise) of their spouses. Norma’s husband Hank is back in prison for, y’know, all the crimes, and Nadine is still convinced she’s a high schooler and has fallen in love with her wrestling teammate.
For her part, Norma puts a hard stop to her marriage. It’s borderline thrilling to see someone finally rid themselves of the toxic presence in their life on this show, especially since she does it actively rather than by simply waiting for things to work themselves out. Ed, on the other hand, is clearly doomed. Nadine’s condition is bound to be temporary, and when she comes to his newfound happiness won’t survive.
In a smaller note, another equally moving reunion happened in these episodes: Shelly, freed from her responsibilities of caring for her abusive husband, asks Norma if she can come back to work at the diner. Their relationship is one of the most wholesome aspects of the show, and I’m low key overjoyed to see them back together. *sniff* girl power.
5. In the Game of Sawmills, You Win or You Die
The jousting of the rival houses has come to an end in a fiery pyre – or in a disorienting, existentially terrifying supernatural double murder, one of the two.
The jig is up for Josie as her various lies, schemes and double crosses have caught up with her. When her old pal Jonathan turns up dead in a hotel room – who she clearly murdered – everything starts to unravel. That leads to the unveiling of yet another crime of hers: the shooting of Agent Cooper in last season’s finale, a mystery I had honestly forgotten about. As it turns out, Josie saw Agent Cooper as a force that was bound to discover her and shot him preemptively to give herself a chance. It, uh, didn’t work. Josie’s storyline has never fully worked, and at its end it continues to be underbaked. Joan Chen did her best throughout the series, but as talented as she is Josie never felt like more than a flat caricature. Thankfully, Twin Peaks manages to use her demise to reintroduce the supernatural evil missing for several episodes.
It all ends with a clever play by Catherine and Andrew, arming Josie, sending him off to see Eckhardt, and manipulating the two of them into a face off. Just as they plan, Josie shoots Eckhardt after a struggle, but they likely planned on her dying herself when she was confronted by Cooper and Sheriff Truman. I’m going to go out on a limb and say they didn’t plan on Josie dying of shock after seeing BOB and becoming trapped in the handle of an end table.
At least, that’s the literal explanation of what happened in the final scene of “The Condemned Woman,” but Twin Peaks defies literal explanations as often as it could for a network show. To me that’s the most shocking element of Josie’s unsettlingly oblique end – they aired this on network television? The mad lads are out of control. Six to go, now. The end is nigh.
