Episode 13
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 1:54 pm
I've often called this my favorite non-Lynch episode. In truth, it's tricky. It's like a microcosm of early season 2, containing both the strengths and flaws of this part of the show. On the one hand, its high points are arguably higher than anything in season 1, as the show gets stranger and more intense and we get to know the characters even better. In this particular episode, Mike's transformation is the obvious highlight (it's probably my favorite non-Lynch scene, period) but there are many other great moments: everything with Audrey in the Book House (I remembered her creepy encounter with her father, but had forgotten the really great scene with Cooper immediately following the opening credits), Maddy's talk with James by the lake (which should by all rights be corny nonsense, and maybe it is - at least James' soliloquy - but I've always just loved this scene: the color, the sunlight, the fact that the paperback romance/soap opera quality is basically embraced wholeheartedly and made sweetly sincere), all the stuff with Leland whose mania is slowly gaining a sinister edge. And of course we get our first visit from Gordon Cole, which is just a sheer delight. I love Lara Flynn Boyle trying not to laugh when David Lynch first pops in.
On the other hand, as with the rest of early season 2, its low points are lower than season 1's. An episode like #6 is virtually perfect, with no weak scenes. The same cannot be said here: the Shelly/Bobby/Leo story and Super Nadine's antics simply aren't as interesting as even the least compelling storyline in the first season. Nonetheless, this episode handles all of these subplots better than #10, 11 or 12, and it's only in comparison to the flawless s1 episodes that it suffers. Nadine's scene is mercifully short and more playful than ridiculous, the party scene with Leo has a certain charming energy to it, and even the Josie stuff was more absorbing than I remembered. Most of all, Glatter is adept at engaging the actors and keeping the show moving at an entertaining clip. This may actually be her least visually stylish episode, with fewer overt camera/editing flourishes than #5 or #10 but it is always colorful and interesting and the fondness for mediums services the performances well. I particularly like the opening - while I think ep. 12 is very underrated, it's ending falls flat to me. Here the Harold antics are slightly ridiculous and exaggerated but there's a certain elegance and moodiness to it that was lacking when he was scratching his face in a canted angle.
Ultimately, whether this is my favorite non-Lynch episode depends on what mood I'm in (though it's very enjoyable in any mood). If I'm looking for a gripping, polished entertainment that flows smoothly from start to finish, I'll probably lean more towards something like ep. 6. If I'm looking for individual moments that give me what I'm most looking for from the show (be it a supernatural aura, a soapy sense of emotional investment, a dark psychological undertow, or absurdist hilarity) I will probably go more for this. Although both episode 6 and 13 are building toward climaxes, there's a difference: episode 6 is what you get when the mystery could go on forever, episode 13 is what you get when you know it's about to come to a powerful conclusion. In that sense it's more like the late second/early third act of a movie than a tightly-packed entry in an ongoing serial.
Additional thoughts:
- Audrey/Ben is really astute set-up for ep. 14. On the one hand, it's a good red herring as it brings Ben back into the fold of prime suspects after he's sort of been off on his own adventures for a while - knowing that ultimately he was behind his daughter's suffering in some sense gives him a "ominous figure pulling all the strings" vibe. But this is also good psychological preparation for the REAL reveal: the vaguely-sensed dirty secret between father & daughter, Ben's possible ignorance of what he's actually responsible for (as with Leland), and Audrey's fearful inability to actually tell Cooper what's going on (Fenn just NAILS her wincing, working-up-her-courage expression when Ben says it's time to go and she's turned away from Cooper in bed). I think this is one of the reasons - along with stuff like Leland's shady behavior in Ben's office - that when the true killer is revealed next time we have a sense of "Oh, that's right - I didn't see it coming yet I knew it all along."
- Maddy & James by the lake is definitely Sheryl Lee's finest moment on the show (next to the murder, I suppose, though that's very apples/oranges). You get a great sense of the character's maturity but also her vulnerability (which isn't immediately apparent from the script - the ambiguity is in the performance). Acting aside, it's also very good writing. It's the best sense we've ever had of her individual character, gives us a feeling for why she changed so drastically between ep. 7 & 8, and connects up nicely with the larger community's ambivalent relationship to Laura and her memory. Of course she does seem to contradict her statement in ep. 3 that she didn't really know Laura well. Maybe the connection was always more psychic than anything else, something she wouldn't have felt comfortable admitting to her acquaintances at their first meeting.
- Even as the episode is setting up the big reveal, it's also working overtime to plant seeds for arcs later in the season: Truman IDs Jean Renault, Cooper alludes to his dark past ("Harry, this isn't the first time..."), Cole talks about both Cooper's shooter and Windom Earle (even introducing a chess move!), and Josie's Hong Kong tormenters are fleshed out. Oddly enough, these tangents feel pretty well-integrated into the overall sense of anticipation and plot momentum. Episode 13 is one of the few season 2 episodes in which the disparate threads seem to belong together/cohere, in mood if not in direct narrative links (whereas in episodes 15 and 16 they already feel like annoying distractions from the conclusion of the Laura Palmer investigation).
- There are definitely ways that the One Armed Man's speech at the end seems to contradict Fire Walk With Me, and they've been discussed in other threads. But there are also interesting alignments with FWWM. For one, Mike describes Bob as a "parasite." This is actually closer to the film's conception of Bob than episode 16's, in which Bob seems to really be controlling Leland rather than feeding off what's already there.
- For another, Mike's thing with the arm is more ambiguous than I remembered. He mentions that he severed his arm "but remained close to this vessel." Why "but" - which suggests that upon severing the arm he could or even should have left Phillip behind? Why "remained close" rather than fully remained? And the whole "arm" thing doesn't really make sense if we take Mike as saying he cut off his own (Mike's) arm. Mike himself has no arm, but Phillip certainly does, and it's quite clearly missing. The arm that Mike is talking about cutting off has to be Phillip's (I know we usually refer to him by last name but somehow first feels more natural, maybe because it parallels Leland/Bob vs. Palmer/Bob). This contributes to my sense that when Phillip's arm was severed, his connection to Mike became more tenuous and perhaps even that the "Mike" we are seeing in ep. 13 is a slightly unstable/unaware mixture of Mike & Phillip. It's just a hunch, really, but it feels more "right" to me than anything else. Maybe we'll see in 2016 if Al Strobel comes out of retirement.
- Worth noting that, as per the discussion in the garmonbozia thread, this is the episode where Mike says that Bob feeds on "fear and the pleasures" (I don't think he repeats this line again, although maybe it recurs in ep. 16). The debate has been whether Bob feeds on this RATHER than on pain and sorrow. I think he does. Another interesting question, though: WHOSE fear, and WHOSE pleasures, does Bob have access to? The parasite metaphor implies that the spirit is feeding off the host. And Leland's fearful denial/repression, and the pleasure he gains from his abusive, controlling behavior would certainly provide Bob ample food. On the other hand, Bob also seems to be getting this sustenance from the victims of his host. Think his behavior in the following episode, when he is clearly savoring Maddy's terror. He certainly feeds off Laura's fear, and cultivates a twisted sense of "pleasure" in her but is this because she is his host's victim or a potential host herself? I'm not really sure: it seems like his feeding is not limited to one person, at any rate.
- This pertains more to the next episode, but relates to the last point so I'll briefly mention it here. Someone on another thread mentioned that maybe when Mike "points" at Bob in ep. 14 he actually IS identifying Bob - in other words, Ben has a bit of Bob in him too. Leland is probably more fully inhabited by Bob than anyone else in the community, but we know that Bob can torment Laura even outside of Leland and later episodes of the series imply that he is more generally infecting/affecting the entire community. I have to confess I like this idea though I know others would feel it ruins the power of the Leland-Bob link (and I'm not sure what implications it would have for the spirit Mike).
Ok, enough is enough - we already have threads for these other topics haha. But episode 13 is great.
On the other hand, as with the rest of early season 2, its low points are lower than season 1's. An episode like #6 is virtually perfect, with no weak scenes. The same cannot be said here: the Shelly/Bobby/Leo story and Super Nadine's antics simply aren't as interesting as even the least compelling storyline in the first season. Nonetheless, this episode handles all of these subplots better than #10, 11 or 12, and it's only in comparison to the flawless s1 episodes that it suffers. Nadine's scene is mercifully short and more playful than ridiculous, the party scene with Leo has a certain charming energy to it, and even the Josie stuff was more absorbing than I remembered. Most of all, Glatter is adept at engaging the actors and keeping the show moving at an entertaining clip. This may actually be her least visually stylish episode, with fewer overt camera/editing flourishes than #5 or #10 but it is always colorful and interesting and the fondness for mediums services the performances well. I particularly like the opening - while I think ep. 12 is very underrated, it's ending falls flat to me. Here the Harold antics are slightly ridiculous and exaggerated but there's a certain elegance and moodiness to it that was lacking when he was scratching his face in a canted angle.
Ultimately, whether this is my favorite non-Lynch episode depends on what mood I'm in (though it's very enjoyable in any mood). If I'm looking for a gripping, polished entertainment that flows smoothly from start to finish, I'll probably lean more towards something like ep. 6. If I'm looking for individual moments that give me what I'm most looking for from the show (be it a supernatural aura, a soapy sense of emotional investment, a dark psychological undertow, or absurdist hilarity) I will probably go more for this. Although both episode 6 and 13 are building toward climaxes, there's a difference: episode 6 is what you get when the mystery could go on forever, episode 13 is what you get when you know it's about to come to a powerful conclusion. In that sense it's more like the late second/early third act of a movie than a tightly-packed entry in an ongoing serial.
Additional thoughts:
- Audrey/Ben is really astute set-up for ep. 14. On the one hand, it's a good red herring as it brings Ben back into the fold of prime suspects after he's sort of been off on his own adventures for a while - knowing that ultimately he was behind his daughter's suffering in some sense gives him a "ominous figure pulling all the strings" vibe. But this is also good psychological preparation for the REAL reveal: the vaguely-sensed dirty secret between father & daughter, Ben's possible ignorance of what he's actually responsible for (as with Leland), and Audrey's fearful inability to actually tell Cooper what's going on (Fenn just NAILS her wincing, working-up-her-courage expression when Ben says it's time to go and she's turned away from Cooper in bed). I think this is one of the reasons - along with stuff like Leland's shady behavior in Ben's office - that when the true killer is revealed next time we have a sense of "Oh, that's right - I didn't see it coming yet I knew it all along."
- Maddy & James by the lake is definitely Sheryl Lee's finest moment on the show (next to the murder, I suppose, though that's very apples/oranges). You get a great sense of the character's maturity but also her vulnerability (which isn't immediately apparent from the script - the ambiguity is in the performance). Acting aside, it's also very good writing. It's the best sense we've ever had of her individual character, gives us a feeling for why she changed so drastically between ep. 7 & 8, and connects up nicely with the larger community's ambivalent relationship to Laura and her memory. Of course she does seem to contradict her statement in ep. 3 that she didn't really know Laura well. Maybe the connection was always more psychic than anything else, something she wouldn't have felt comfortable admitting to her acquaintances at their first meeting.
- Even as the episode is setting up the big reveal, it's also working overtime to plant seeds for arcs later in the season: Truman IDs Jean Renault, Cooper alludes to his dark past ("Harry, this isn't the first time..."), Cole talks about both Cooper's shooter and Windom Earle (even introducing a chess move!), and Josie's Hong Kong tormenters are fleshed out. Oddly enough, these tangents feel pretty well-integrated into the overall sense of anticipation and plot momentum. Episode 13 is one of the few season 2 episodes in which the disparate threads seem to belong together/cohere, in mood if not in direct narrative links (whereas in episodes 15 and 16 they already feel like annoying distractions from the conclusion of the Laura Palmer investigation).
- There are definitely ways that the One Armed Man's speech at the end seems to contradict Fire Walk With Me, and they've been discussed in other threads. But there are also interesting alignments with FWWM. For one, Mike describes Bob as a "parasite." This is actually closer to the film's conception of Bob than episode 16's, in which Bob seems to really be controlling Leland rather than feeding off what's already there.
- For another, Mike's thing with the arm is more ambiguous than I remembered. He mentions that he severed his arm "but remained close to this vessel." Why "but" - which suggests that upon severing the arm he could or even should have left Phillip behind? Why "remained close" rather than fully remained? And the whole "arm" thing doesn't really make sense if we take Mike as saying he cut off his own (Mike's) arm. Mike himself has no arm, but Phillip certainly does, and it's quite clearly missing. The arm that Mike is talking about cutting off has to be Phillip's (I know we usually refer to him by last name but somehow first feels more natural, maybe because it parallels Leland/Bob vs. Palmer/Bob). This contributes to my sense that when Phillip's arm was severed, his connection to Mike became more tenuous and perhaps even that the "Mike" we are seeing in ep. 13 is a slightly unstable/unaware mixture of Mike & Phillip. It's just a hunch, really, but it feels more "right" to me than anything else. Maybe we'll see in 2016 if Al Strobel comes out of retirement.
- Worth noting that, as per the discussion in the garmonbozia thread, this is the episode where Mike says that Bob feeds on "fear and the pleasures" (I don't think he repeats this line again, although maybe it recurs in ep. 16). The debate has been whether Bob feeds on this RATHER than on pain and sorrow. I think he does. Another interesting question, though: WHOSE fear, and WHOSE pleasures, does Bob have access to? The parasite metaphor implies that the spirit is feeding off the host. And Leland's fearful denial/repression, and the pleasure he gains from his abusive, controlling behavior would certainly provide Bob ample food. On the other hand, Bob also seems to be getting this sustenance from the victims of his host. Think his behavior in the following episode, when he is clearly savoring Maddy's terror. He certainly feeds off Laura's fear, and cultivates a twisted sense of "pleasure" in her but is this because she is his host's victim or a potential host herself? I'm not really sure: it seems like his feeding is not limited to one person, at any rate.
- This pertains more to the next episode, but relates to the last point so I'll briefly mention it here. Someone on another thread mentioned that maybe when Mike "points" at Bob in ep. 14 he actually IS identifying Bob - in other words, Ben has a bit of Bob in him too. Leland is probably more fully inhabited by Bob than anyone else in the community, but we know that Bob can torment Laura even outside of Leland and later episodes of the series imply that he is more generally infecting/affecting the entire community. I have to confess I like this idea though I know others would feel it ruins the power of the Leland-Bob link (and I'm not sure what implications it would have for the spirit Mike).
Ok, enough is enough - we already have threads for these other topics haha. But episode 13 is great.