Diane, August 23, 1 pm. Sheriff Harry Truman remembers his lost lover in a drinking glass full of whiskey, then finds the will to keep living. Ben Horne stages a fashion show to save an endangered species – as well as his conscience. Shelly Johnson, finally free of her abusive husband, slowly begins to think of herself as attractive once again.
Today’s episode pairing, “Wounds and Scars” and “On the Wings of Love,” signals a moment of change. The wounds of the past cut deep, but as the title implies, love and kindness are offering salvation to the many recovering characters around the town of Twin Peaks. Unfortunately, while they try to put the pieces of their lives together and move on, Windom Earle is determined to drag everyone Cooper loves back down into the muck. As Sheriff Truman says, it’s a pretty simple town, and nothing good can last. Six to go.
Here’s five thoughts on “Wounds and Scars” and “On the Wings of Love.” The log says there are spoilers below.
1. The Dirtiest Conscience in the Entire Northwest
Ben has changed – or so he says. He’s fully healed after his short stint in the Confederate army, and the horrors of the Civil War have given way to a new Ben: a Ben built on kindness and love and understanding. He tells Catherine Martell he’s sincere in his efforts to save the pine weasel, though it’s hard to take him seriously when he pairs his earnestness with enormous chomps of a raw carrot.
Only problem: Ben is kind of a sociopath. By his own confession, he has no idea how to be a good person, and currently his method seems to be making as much noise as possible in an attempt to prove his own goodness. That involves inserting himself back into the life of his maybe-former mistress Eileen Hayward, threatening to upend what to this point has seemingly been the only happy household in Twin Peaks. Her daughter, Donna, teams up with Audrey to spy on their parents. Early on in the series it seemed like Donna and Audrey were going to be a sort of dynamic duo investigating Laura’s death, and as we approach the end of things I’m sad we didn’t get to see much of the pair together (Dondrey? Audna?). They have genuine chemistry that Donna lacked with the other teens previously in her orbit, and it would’ve been fun to see them fight evil together.
Speaking of Audrey, Ben’s chaotic shift brings about a charming moment with Audrey as he tells her he trusts her opinion, giving her actual responsibilities within the family business. I’m brought back to the opening of the second episode of the show, with the Horne family sitting and eating dinner in complete silence. If nothing else, Ben’s flirtation with doing the right thing has mended the broken connections in his family. That’s not nothing.
Sidenote: It’s hard to describe the pained noise I made when Dick Tremayne returned after his blessed several-episode absence. He’s frequently roped into the show’s most ridiculous hijinks, so of course it tracks that he’s on hand for the fight to save the pine weasel. It tracks even further that this plot would involve a weasel biting him on the nose, a beat of pure absurdity that is somehow the most enjoyable thing the character has done in the entire series.
2. Black Box
Two villains are stirring up mischief in Twin Peaks with a healthy mixture of mystery and malice. First up is Jones (Brenda Strong), Eckhardt’s assistant, who comes bearing a gift – and a problem. She claims to be resolving Eckhardt’s affairs, and gives a mysterious black box to Catherine Martell. She follows that up with a visit to the Bookhouse, crawling into bed with Sheriff Truman and, after drugging him with a kiss and causing him to hallucinate seeing Josie, nearly garrotting him. Strong plays her scenes as a sort of dark, unknowable force. Her aims aren’t clear, but one wonders if her final orders from Eckhardt were simply to cause as much chaos as possible.
Then, of course, there’s Windom Earle. The master of disguise is trotting around town in various guises and visiting some potential pieces in his ongoing chess game with Agent Cooper. He spooks Donna, Shelly, and Audrey all in turn, nudging them in the direction he wants. Twin Peaks wrapped up many of its more complicated plotlines in previous episodes, leaving all three of those women with little to do in the narrative – and with plenty of time to fall deeper into Earle’s clutches.
Continued below3. To the Joker, Windom Earle is a Pretty Normal Guy
Earle is prone to long (but enthralling) villainous monologues, and his most memorable this episode involves his slaveboy Leo and a card trick. As Leo draws cards from Earle’s deck, he reveals three queens, each with a face of one of the three women (Shelly, Audrey, and Donna) pasted onto the card’s face. Leo then draws the King: Agent Cooper. Then Earle reveals the final card, the Queen of Hearts, with a blank spot in place of a face. Earle tells Leo that the last queen has yet to be selected, then lays it over a flyer for the Miss Twin Peaks contest, topping it with his own card: the Joker.
His plan, though still vague, seems to revolve in part around Miss Twin Peaks, flyers for which can be seen all around town in these two episodes. His manipulations are in part geared towards getting Shelly in particular to enter the contest, which carries a cash prize and a scholarship. Earle is genuinely frightening in this pair of episodes. He’s malicious and unpredictable, but he doesn’t constantly bounce off of the walls. Kenneth Welsh portrays him as a man whose dangerousness comes not from wildness but from control. His bursts of rage aren’t what makes him scary, it’s how easily he slips between cracks, unnoticed by everyone in town.
Shelly’s performance mocking the concept of herself entering the Ms. Twin Peaks pageant is one of the best pieces of acting in the entire series. The cast features many talented actors, but oftentimes the aesthetic of the show – likely at the direction of its showrunners – pulls the actors towards a stilted delivery that feels purposely superficial. Shelly’s moment here is full of joy, pure comic timing with perfect delivery. It’s ironic (and probably intentional) that this moment that sheds the show’s typical stiffness in favor of genuineness happens in a scene where someone is doing an impression of someone else.
4. This One Goes Out to All You Lovers Out There
It’s time for this week’s update on the chaotic love lives of the Twin Peaksians, which saw a few fun developments. Ed is struggling to call it quits with Nadine, his trapped-in-the-mental-state-of-a-high-schooler wife, while Nadine has fallen head over heels for her classmate Mike. I had assumed her relationship with Mike was fully delusional, but this episode proved that wrong, showing Mike and Nadine checking into the Great Northern for some, uh, private time together.
It’s nice that this show provides at least one uncomfortable relationship between an older woman and a younger man for each one it provides of the opposite kind. For equality. Speaking of, Audrey has fallen in love with Jack Wheeler (Billy Zane). The pair is an obvious and instant match for each other. They make for a charming pair, and their chemistry is kind of infectious. It’s nice to see good things happening for Audrey both professionally and romantically, even though Windom Earle is pulling her towards something darker.
Finally, and most tragically, Agent Cooper is falling in love once again with a girl named Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham). And as he does, he’s starting to fall into his old habits. Annie is Norma’s sister, arriving fresh from the convent. She’s a girl out of time and space, who doesn’t remember how to be around people. Enter Agent Cooper, who instantly takes a shine to her sunniness and her innocence. Just like Caroline and Audrey before her, Cooper is drawn towards troubled women, and Annie’s unrevealed backstory hints at past trauma. Unfortunately for the smitten kittens, their courtship is witnessed by Windom Earle, who has likely found a new pawn to sacrifice in his and Cooper’s games.
5. Quick Robin, to the Owlcave!
The Log Lady returns this episode with her typical grave tidings. She and Major Briggs come to Cooper, linking the symbols branded onto their skins with their similar traumatic experiences. Although no one is able to parse how their stories are exactly connected, Cooper is able to rearrange the symbols to lead them to a similar marking at a place called Owl Cave. Owls in this series have been some sort of bad omen at best and, at worst, stand-ins for the malicious inhabiting spirits that have murdered several people in town.
Shockingly, the visit to Owl Cave reveals more mysterious symbols engraved in the wall. The digging of Cooper and friends culminates in what can only be described as a revolt of the owls, as the evil creatures swoop through the cave amid the flashing flashlights. More questions than answers come from the trip, but Agent Cooper isn’t in a hurry to solve them.
In a portent of both things past and things to come, towards the end of “On the Wings of Love” Cooper is making a report to Diane in his recorder, only to see Annie at the bar. With only a brief pause he clicks the recorder off; just like he did during his last tussle with Earle, Cooper is letting his romantic feelings trump his duty. Here’s hoping this time around it goes better for him. Four to go.
