Episode 6

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LostInTheMovies
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Episode 6

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I really like this episode, maybe as much (in a different way) as the previous one. I've said before it's a lot of set-up, but that kind of shortchanges all the classic, iconic scenes that are their own payoff. So many of the show's most memorable moments are here: Audrey spying in the closet, Maddy-as-Laura, Waldo getting shot, and of course the infamous cherry stem. And it's such a great-looking episode, with such a sumptuous, soft, rich glow to the color and lighting. You can really see that Caleb Deschanel was a cinematographer. I don't know why exactly, but I particularly love that shot of Jacoby watching TV and getting the phone call. There's also a rich soundscape: one of my favorite subtle touches on the series is the plastic rippling at Shelly's house as she sobs. I also think this might be my favorite Harley Peyton script (ep. 9 is my favorite episode he wrote, but more because of Lynch's direction, including things he added himself). There's a really joyous sense of everything clicking into place and steaming ahead here.

At times in the second season Twin Peaks "feels like a TV show" in the worst sense - like it's just marking time week by week, and has no higher ambitions than to fill its hourlong slot. But episodes like this "feel like a TV show" in the very best sense: we feel like we're part of some ongoing, ever-unfolding story with characters whose personalities and situations fuel the action. It isn't a "standalone" like the pilot (or even ep. 14 and 29 which, despite touching on many subplots, build toward setpieces that speak for themselves) it's a part of something bigger, and that's a wonderful feeling. I even find myself invested/excited in Josie's shenanigans, which I couldn't care the least about in early s2. I love that sense that everything is part of something bigger, which season one really delivers even on rewatches. I had an "all roads lead to Rome" conception of the show when I first watched it (on alt.tv.twin-peaks I think they called this the "G.U.T." - Grand Unifying Theory) with the idea that everything - the mill plot, the drug deals, Laura's murder, Cooper's dream - was connected, and would lead to startling, thrilling revelations about the corruption of the town and the darkness of the woods. The mystery seemed all-encompassing. Episodes like this really play into that sense.

There are some very enjoyable one-off bit parts in this episode. How cool would it be to see mini-callbacks in 2016? I love the Catherine/Neff Double Indemnity scene - maybe she'll finally call on his services after 25 years? And maybe young Jenny from Horne's Department Store has taken Blackie's place across the border. Speaking of later callbacks, the whole "mysterious Asian gentleman in the hallway" moment with Audrey is interesting because the Tojamura plot couldn't have been hatched yet (since Piper Laurie supposedly came up with her nationality herself in season 2) - so it must just have been a "moment" that can serve either as a red herring or to cultivate the sense of atmosphere, or both.

Ed's and Blackie's banter is hilariously awful.
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Re: Episode 6

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I have a confession. If a gun were pointed to my head and I had to pick one episode of Peaks, this would be the one. I know there's no Lynch, or supernatural, but it's probably the one I rewatched the most.

And Peyton's script is so cheeky and fun. It's his best work. I'm sure this is the one episode that made Audrey the fan favorite at the time. And the cherry stem is only one of many stellar moments for her in this installment.

The rewriting of the opening is wonderful. Where it once was ambiguous and playful of Cooper and Audrey having breakfast, the change makes their union and friendship all the better. Where in earlier episode it was playful and sexy, now it is sweet, tender and more enriched. Malt, fries, Norman Rockwell sweetness. I love that with her sigh and smile when he leaves the room, she's probably more in love with him than ever before. This scene is the heart of Peaks to me.

And the rest of the episode shows why the character of Audrey is the only one that is Cooper's equal in terms of worth, ingenuity, spunk, wit, finesse.

"You know there's a real bad accident out front... It sounded like a bus or some thin'." Like a chess game where she takes out pawns, just brilliant. Note Fenn's subtle smirk when she removes the stock boy. A wonderful moment.

Smoking in the closet might be my favorite touch to detail. Some people complain about the practicality, and it just tells me we view the show differently. Peaks is a stylized world, and this clinches it. Audrey is allowed to smoke and not get caught because it shows her confidence in knowing Jenny and Battis are also pawns to her. They could have had her laying across the desk in front of them, and I would still have bought it. And it is just so noir. Nancy Drew with a bite.

I also love the short scene of her placing the letter under Cooper's door, and caressing the door. The shot of her saddle shoes, the music shifting from her jazzy motif to ominous while she makes eye contact with the Japanese business man. Wonderful. I believe in Altman's book it was noted this was done at the last minute. So glad it was included. Also of note, notice her appearance. It matches the deleted scene of learning she is the cause of Johnny's condition. Sad the scene was cut since it reinforces her motivation of going to One Eyed Jacks on her own.

Fenn submitted this episode and got her Emmy nod for it.

And we also have Nadine eating bonbons, Waldo's death, and the Maddy as Laura (really screwing with all our heads). And Cooper and Ed as Fred and Barney! Just a great, great episode.
God, I love this music. Isn't it too dreamy?
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Re: Episode 6

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Totally agreed!
Audrey Horne wrote:The rewriting of the opening is wonderful.
I've heard about this, but never why. Do you know who was behind its rewriting? I agree, it works so much better.
Also of note, notice her appearance. It matches the deleted scene of learning she is the cause of Johnny's condition. Sad the scene was cut since it reinforces her motivation of going to One Eyed Jacks on her own.
Peyton lost several good scenes. I think in Reflections (or Altman's book?) he writes about one with a gravedigger or cemetery caretaker who speaks about the worms or the dirt or something equally weird "singing" to him as the coffin is scratched underneath the ground. A Peyton scene I always regret losing is the bit with Maddy and Leland in ep. 9. I feel like it adds even more bite to the eventual twist, if that's possible (I sometimes get the sense Lynch wanted Maddy to be a Laura surrogate and not really her own character). Btw, speaking of awards (below) I heard that Sheryl Lee won Best Death Scene at the Soap Emmies (or whatever the soap opera awards are called). I love that that's actually a category haha.
Fenn submitted this episode and got her Emmy nod for it.
That's pretty cool - I didn't realize that a TV show could submit different episodes for different categories; I always thought just one episode was submitted and that had to be judged in all the different categories. With that in mind, I'd love to know which episodes were submitted for each actor/crew member (especially the ones that were nominated, but the ones that weren't too). How far down the line does it go? I mean, obviously Sherilyn Fenn would be considered - and consider herself - a major contender, but would all the actors in the opening credits submit something? What about actors who are officially "guest stars" or at least not listed in the opening credits (like Harry Goaz)? Fascinating to figure out how all this stuff works; other than Peaks I've always been way more of a film than a TV buff.
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Re: Episode 6

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Audrey Horne wrote:And Peyton's script is so cheeky and fun. It's his best work.
Something else just occurred to me: for a long time, following the Lynch/Frost launch, every episode is authored by only one person. Other than the Jerry Stahl fiasco, you never see any multiple credits. Then in ep. 13 you get the first Peyton/Engels pairing (which admittedly goes very smoothly) and after that you never have either one writing solo again. You get freelancers like Tricia Brock (whom, side note, nobody ever mentions was Peyton's wife!) and Scott Frost and Barry Pullman tackling scripts alone but Engels' last solo script is #10, Peyton's is #9, and Frost's is #14. I would assume this occurred because once production actually started on season two, both Peyton and Engels were too busy with their other roles to take on entire individual scripts.

Obviously there are much, much bigger factors in the show's decline but I wonder if this fragmentation didn't also play a part. It must be harder to really shape and invest in an episode when you're just writing certain segments instead of crafting the whole. I'd argue (and I know you would as well) than even the much-loved ep. 16 suffers from this.

Anyway, when I look at the very best scripts of Twin Peaks, with the exceptions of #13 and the first few Lynch/Frost collaborations, they are all written by one person. And other than Pullman on the underrated #12, that one person is always Frost, Peyton, or Engels. (I'm leaving out #29, my favorite episode, because I don't think the original script is all that hot.) Just something to ponder, I suppose.
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Re: Episode 6

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call sheet...
TP 1006.JPG
TP 1006.JPG (147.11 KiB) Viewed 22302 times
God, I love this music. Isn't it too dreamy?
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Re: Episode 6

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Audrey Horne wrote:call sheet...
TP 1006.JPG
Seems odd to me that Deschanel is the only one listed as director, even though they were shooting 1007 as well.
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Re: Episode 6

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It is curious that perhaps Deschanel directed those scenes as well. I'm pretty sure this is also around the time Lynch was filming his episode. I know all the One Eyed Jacks season one material was filmed in the same time frame.

At the bottom of this call sheet you can see they are planning on shooting exterior's for the Lynch installment.
God, I love this music. Isn't it too dreamy?
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Re: Episode 6

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Audrey Horne wrote:It is curious that perhaps Deschanel directed those scenes as well. I'm pretty sure this is also around the time Lynch was filming his episode. I know all the One Eyed Jacks season one material was filmed in the same time frame.
Ah, weird - and kind of disappointing if true. But I'm thinking they just put one director's name on the call sheet even when there were more, because later on for the ep. 28/29 shoot that you posted they also have only one director's name - "David Lynch." I'd be shocked if he directed any of the Road House scenes for ep. 28 and besides, it looks like the ep. 28/29 scenes are being shot simultaneously (call-times for Lucy & Ben Horne are within two hours of each other).
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Twin Peaks Out of Order #7: Episode 6

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Re-watching Twin Peaks from my least favorite to favorite episode...

Previously: Episode 13 (http://www.dugpa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=44054#p44054)

Cooper sitting on the corner of his own bed, turning down Audrey's sexual overtures, offering friendship and guidance instead. Audrey smoking in the closet, spying on the secret lives of Twin Peaks while the afternoon sunlight filters in through the slats in her door, creating a pleasing daytime-noir effect. Coop kicking off one of the show's most memorable soliloquies with a calm smile and the interjection, "Harry, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret..." Waldo's broken little bird corpse crumpled on the bottom of his swaying birdcage, dribbling droplets of blood across the cheerfully arrayed donuts, as perfect an encapsulation of Twin Peaks as you can get in a single image. Audrey (again!) in a light black dress, surrounded by red curtains and candelabra, using an improvised party trick to teach Blackie what her tongue can do. Dr. Jacoby’s office, a Hawaiian oasis in the woods of the Pacific Northwest (and the only place we dare see cool blue in the warm-red town), haunted by the ghost of Laura Palmer on the flickering television screen as her disembodied voice speaks in his ear: a VHS tape and a phone call as jolting in their own way as those found in Lost Highway. There you have a list of some of the most iconic moments in all of Twin Peaks, and every single one can be found onscreen in this episode, like a fairy-tale cottage at the end of a wooded road. As the forthcoming entries on this rewatch will make clear, I am a big fan of David Lynch's output on Twin Peaks (who isn't?!). When I first watched the series, before I trained my eye to see the big picture of what Twin Peaks adds up to, warts and all, I was mostly in it for Lynch and was always a bit disappointed when his name didn't pop up in the opening credits. But if someone was to ask me, "How good can Twin Peaks be without Lynch directing?" I would present this episode with as much confidence as Audrey presents that cherry stem. Both Lynch and Frost are absent from episode 6 (although we can detect Frost’s watchful eye drawing the narrative threads together over Harley Peyton’s shoulder), which also lacks even a whisper of the supernatural forces at work in the woods, except perhaps in the general ambiance of excitement, danger, and mystery. All the same, 6 plays as if someone uncorked a bottle labelled "Essence of Twin Peaks" and let it waft across the screen. The elegance, the weirdness, the humor, the intelligence, and the thrill of season one are all present in this episode, and only Lynch's own Episode 2 might serve as a more representative slice of what the show offers when all cylinders are firing. (*side note: I love the cameo turns of Jenny and especially Mr. Neff, and hope these actors return in season 3. Stranger things have happened on this show so I wouldn't be surprised...) The only slight disadvantage brought to light by this viewing (if it can be called a disadvantage) is that the episode works even better on the heels of Twin Peaks' first eight hours. Watching it during a marathon feels like you're hitting that perfect buzz after several drinks: everything is illuminated and you just know things are going to get even smoother and more fun after this. Of course, that blissful optimism - referred to by Aldous Huxley as a "state of uninhibited and belligerent euphoria which follows the ingestion of the third cocktail" - is almost always misleading in reality, and in a sense it is misleading in Twin Peaks too. The subsequent climax of the season will be wonderful, but not quite as magical as this episode, and after that the second season alternates moments of sheer brilliance with long stretches of disappointment. And even those highlights won't at all be in the spirit of this episode. What we have here is a shining beacon of what Twin Peaks might have been had everything gone according to plan: a weekly TV show matching entertainment with innovation, colorful characters coupled with narrative twists and turns, and best of all a world so rich and full we could explore any corner and turn up something of interest. That's the Twin Peaks that the critics (correctly) feared they would lose when the series was extended for a 22-episode series. That’s the Twin Peaks that the press still celebrates today whenever the show comes up. That’s the Twin Peaks that viewers in 1990 longed for when the very next episode on this list opened with one of the show's most alienating and antagonizing gestures.

And yet. The most fantastic moments of Twin Peaks ARE yet to come, in the chronology of the show itself, and even more so on this rewatch, whose entire point is to save the best for last. As we prepare for our final ascent, let's recall the point of that Huxley witticism. It served not only as gentle mockery of the limited, ephemeral pleasures of alcohol but to pave the way for a vision of far more profound states of consciousness. The clear road through the woods ends now, with this entry, but the rewatch does not. To quote another time-bending exercise, "Where we're going, we don't need roads."

Next: Episode 8 (http://www.dugpa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=44108#p44108)
Last edited by LostInTheMovies on Tue Oct 27, 2015 4:37 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Episode 6

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Wow, this is the last episode before all the Lynch ones, right? Pretty good for a Lost list! This is probably my personal favorite episode, the one I would watch again and again. I'd say the only drawback is a semi lackluster cliffhanger. But it really doesn't get better than this if one is not going to have Lynch at the helm.

Also we have to point out how good Catherine is in this one too. And with Walter "are you an ambitious man?" Neff, natch.

And to me, this reinforces Audrey as a narrative and worthy equal to Cooper. Her ingunity surprises and delights us as much as Cooper's early bottle throw or other unorthodox methods. *david and Mark, if you're reading this, look at this episode and correct all the Audrey mistakes, please!

I compare this one to episode thirteen a lot. If Peaks was to work throughout it's run, these two episodes are the ones to watch for a regular non Lynch outing. (And episode five)

And we get Laura back from the dead! Waldo biting the bullet in a classic visual!

*it never gets mentioned! but if adore the quick scene of Thenoan up from Audrey's saddle shoes as she places the note under Cooper's door, caresses it, and makes eye contact with the stranger.
God, I love this music. Isn't it too dreamy?
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Re: Episode 6

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I love this episode! So many great classic scenes sprinkled throughout! Below is a link to the recap I wrote for #6. Poor Waldo!

http://twinpeaksfanatic.blogspot.com/20 ... ode-6.html

:D
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Re: Episode 6

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I went back to read my 2008 episode guide, written during my first rewatch, and it's crazy how underwhelmed I was by this on my second-ever viewing (not sure how I felt on the first - I was probably more invested but maybe a bit frustrated that we had to wait to find out what happened with everything). I just noticed how it didn't contain any climaxes rather than how magical the moments are on their own terms. I think it's always been an archetypal "TV"-feeling (in the serialized, not episodic, sense) part of Twin Peaks, and that just works much better for me now than it did at the time.
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Re: Episode 6

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LostInTheMovies wrote:I went back to read my 2008 episode guide, written during my first rewatch, and it's crazy how underwhelmed I was by this on my second-ever viewing (not sure how I felt on the first - I was probably more invested but maybe a bit frustrated that we had to wait to find out what happened with everything). I just noticed how it didn't contain any climaxes rather than how magical the moments are on their own terms. I think it's always been an archetypal "TV"-feeling (in the serialized, not episodic, sense) part of Twin Peaks, and that just works much better for me now than it did at the time.
I can understand your take on episode 6. Personally I have watched the series so many times over the years, I basically grew up watching my old VHS set, that I think when I watch now I'm not looking for answers or mystery anymore, so I just enjoy the character's and their fun dialogue. I can see how on a first or second watch this episode would be frustrating, because it doesn't offer a lot in the way of answers.

Personally I'd like to one day just watch the pilot, all the Lynch directed episodes and then FWWM, just to see how the series would feel being viewed solely from Lynch's eyes.
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Re: Episode 6

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TwinPeaksFanatic wrote:
LostInTheMovies wrote:I went back to read my 2008 episode guide, written during my first rewatch, and it's crazy how underwhelmed I was by this on my second-ever viewing (not sure how I felt on the first - I was probably more invested but maybe a bit frustrated that we had to wait to find out what happened with everything). I just noticed how it didn't contain any climaxes rather than how magical the moments are on their own terms. I think it's always been an archetypal "TV"-feeling (in the serialized, not episodic, sense) part of Twin Peaks, and that just works much better for me now than it did at the time.
I can understand your take on episode 6. Personally I have watched the series so many times over the years, I basically grew up watching my old VHS set, that I think when I watch now I'm not looking for answers or mystery anymore, so I just enjoy the character's and their fun dialogue. I can see how on a first or second watch this episode would be frustrating, because it doesn't offer a lot in the way of answers.

Personally I'd like to one day just watch the pilot, all the Lynch directed episodes and then FWWM, just to see how the series would feel being viewed solely from Lynch's eyes.
I *sorta* did that but not exactly, back when I had a Lynch marathon. So it was basically that but with Wild at Heart between the pilot & ep. 2, and Industrial Symphony #1 between ep. 2 & ep. 8 (hard to figure out just where to place that since it was staged & released almost a year apart, I think). And then a TV ad about rats in NY between ep. 14 & 29 if that counts haha. All in all, it was really interesting to look at Lynch's filmography this way because you start to notice patterns and developments that might be invisible otherwise.
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Re: Episode 6

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I should try that myself. Since Lynch is directing all the new episodes, I think all the new stuff will feel like one long Lynch film.
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