Spoilers below Twin Peaks' latest episode, so if you haven't yet watched, jump into the void and get on that.
For months now, Sundays have provided TV fans the gobsmackiest evening of the week thanks to the symphonic chaos that is Twin Peaks, and tonight's "Part 14" was one of the most interesting installments yet, with one big reveal after another tying together the different dreams-within-dreams and otherworldly realms that David Lynchso masterfully inhabits. In true Twin Peaks fashion, big reveals don't necessarily mean mystery-solving answers, and the next four episodes should be a whirlwind of narrative footwork. For now, though, let's feast upon everything we learned tonight, and all without any in-the-flesh appearances from either Good Cooper or Evil Cooper. .
Diane And Janey-E Are Actually Sisters
Well, half-sisters. Quite a few of Twin Peaks' most interesting reveals this season have come from moments where we learn how new characters are related to those we're most familiar with. "Part 14" unveiled an extremely intriguing connection when Laura Dern's smoking-and-swearing Diane dropped the Dougie-shell that she and Naomi Watts' naive-but-advantageous Janey-E are actually estranged half-sisters. They couldn't be more different, and so of course it makes perfect sense.
Diane shared this knowledge after being told about the inscribed ring found in the recently deceased Major Briggs' stomach, and the Las Vegas authorities are now on the lookout for the Joneses. So will we find out that Diane's familial links are why Dougie was the vessel for Good Cooper's return from the Black Lodge? I would assume so, but this show has taken my assumptions to some strange places in the past.
A Visit To Jack Rabbit's Palace And Beyond
Tonight finally took viewers to Jack Rabbit's Palace, first mentioned in Major Briggs' message to Bobby, and it was quite an eventful trek for Sheriff Truman, Hawk, Bobby and Andy. It reintroduced the Woman With No Eyes that Cooper talked to back in "Part 3" -- this time in much different attire -- whose only available mode of communication was whimpering. (Much to the chagrin of the now-arrested Chad.)
After this discovery, Andy popped out of existence for a bit and had a Black Lodge sit-down with The Fireman (Carel Struycken), who may or may not be the same entity as The Giant/The Waiter from the first run. Either way, The Fireman was similarly benevolent and offered a complacent Andy many visions, including The Experiment coughing up a Bob blog, an angelic Laura Palmer, that creepy Woodsman dude, dual Coopers, and Andy himself holding the eyeless woman. Andy is now possibly the most informed person in Twin Peaks, among other locations, so expect the former simpleton to be a major player in...whatever is coming. And the numeral 6 will almost definitely have something to do with it, too.
Where The Blue Rose Comes From
Early in the episode, following Gordon's first chat with Sheriff Truman, Albert gives Tammy the rundown on "Case Number One. This started the whole thing." Back in 1975, there was a murder in Olympia, Washington involving a woman named Lois Duffy, whom Gordon and Philip Jeffries were attempting to arrest when they found her in a motel room, shot in the stomach. Her last words to the agents were "I'm like the Blue Rose," said just prior to dying and disappearing. Naturally. Turns out, the other woman in the motel room was also Lois Duffy, who later hung herself while awaiting trial for a murder that her doppelgänger presumably committed.
The story was told and accepted with nary a raised eyebrow, though the whole "blue rose doesn't occur in nature" bit was less eye-opening. How has this show dropped ANOTHER past atrocity on viewers, and does that 1975 case tie in with everything else beyond showing us how many years Gordon and Jeffries were obsessing over these next-to-impossible oddities? Was Lois Duffy the Black Lodge's first attempt at making evil doubles of people?
David Bowie Made An Appearance
Gordon's Twin-ception tale of recurring dreams, which featured the archival-footage return of David Bowie's Philip Jeffries (from the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me), admittedly didn't offer reveals or answers that were clear-cut in their expository nature. But because this is David Lynch, that probably means this was the most important scene of the entire series, as it introduced the question "Who is the dreamer?" And then took us all back two decades to a younger Cooper talking to younger Gordon about a dream in Fire Walk with Me, which then paves the way for Bowie to come in, asking "Who do you think that is there?" in reference to Cooper. And it's apparently a memory that both Gordon nor Albert had misplaced, but one they'll likely keep in mind. Especially once they come across both Coopers out there.
David Bowie was set to reprise his role for the Twin Peaks return, and considering everything that was said in the past two episodes, I would love to know what the original plan was. Still, it was great that David Lynch included Bowie with all the other actors who've passed on, and this flashback may very well be more important than we think.
Sarah Palmer Is Not All Right
With so many characters involved in Twin Peaks' bizarre clockworks, it's fantastic each time a lesser-seen player gets brought to the forefront, and Grace Zabriskie's Sarah Palmer has offered up some of the most chilling scenes imaginable involving a woman who seems intent on drinking and smoking herself to death. No longer content watching a looped boxing match in the comfort of her own home, Sarah heads to a bar for night on the town, and that bar's floor is soon full of blood, as pooling out of an unfortunate asshole's neck.
Said asshole (who will probably end up being revealed to be Richard Horne's biological father or something), reacted to Sarah's request to be left alone by calling her a series of homophobic slurs. And once the last straw is reached, Sarah straight up OPENED HER MOTHERFUCKING FACE and offered the couth-less dipshit a front-row seat to the Black Lodge-ian horrors that literally fill her head. Then, as viewers' minds were trying to course-correct, Sarah bit his throat open and subsequently pretended to know nothing about what happened. If that bar has cameras, the bartender definitely shouldn't watch the tapes.
How Freddie Got His Green Glove
Audiences first met Freddie Sykes back in "Part 2," when he visited The Road House with James Marshall's James Hurley, and tonight offered up the strange-as-shit story about how Freddie got the green glove on his right hand, which apparently bleeds if someone makes an attempt to take it off. Birthday boy James eked the origin story out of his security guard buddy, and it (perhaps predictably) ties in with all the other weirdness.
For a while, Freddie was drowning his protagonist-esque intentions with booze, but on taking a walk home one night, he was pulled into one of the familiar vortexes, and ends up talking to The Fireman. Freddie is told to seek out the green glove at a hardware store, with the claim that it would give him super-strength. He does, and it does, and Freddie then sets off to seek his supposed destiny in Twin Peaks, Washington. Let it be missed by no one that The Fireman has apparently recruited two of this show's pure-of-heart characters for whatever Black Lodge vs. White Lodge confrontation may be happening in the near future. Not exactly Iron Fist, but I do kind of want to see a fight now.
The final moments of "Part 14" also revealed some more info about the Billy and Tina that Sherilyn Fenn's Audrey Horne was talking about in her bonkers first scene. Apparently the two were lovers, and the last time anyone saw him, he was full of blood. Hard to know what any of that means just yet, so we'll have to wait to see what was actually revealed there.
While it will continue echoing in our heads for years to come, Twin Peaks actually airs on Sunday nights on Showtime at 8:00 p.m. ET. To see everything else that's hitting the small screen soon, head to our summer premiere schedule and our fall TV schedule.
