Episode 21

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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Episode 21

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Henrys Hair wrote:A little detail from the Blu-ray I doubt would've been visible on the VHS: Randy St Criox's badge gives his name as 'Randy Meyer'.
Randy had some identity issues. He was scripted simply as “clerk” in E21, in which as you note his nametag contradicts the credits. He then is scripted as Emile Lazar in the E23 script, whereas in the episode he is again credited as St. Croix and wearing the Meyer nametag. In the script for E24, he becomes Richard Lazare, but onscreen he finally got a nametag that matches his credited surname!
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Episode 21

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In a moment that’s not in the version of the script available online, Cooper finds some branches on the floor of Harry’s office and asks if they’re Douglas fir. Harry answers that they’re lodgepole pine. Given that Earle doesn’t leave any traces without a deliberate intent, the name of this particular tree seems to be an early, heavy-handed hint that he’s searching for the Lodges.

Boy, there is a lot of Marshland in this one. You could make a drinking game out of every time James says he’s leaving and Evelyn tells him not to (with doubles for every time James yells, “IT’S WRONG!”).

Farewell, Jeffrey Marsh. We hardly knew ye. How did you make your money? Where were you always traveling to? What’s with the track suit? So many questions that will never be answered.

I assume that offstage car crash is supposed to be in Evelyn’s scheming imagination, but it makes it seem like the crash happens at the end of the driveway. Which is inherently funny to me anyway, and even more ridiculous that it takes until nightfall for the cops to show if the crash was directly in front of the house.

There are a lot of very questionable acts of medical practice in this episode. Will, with a twinkle in his eye, encourages Ed to let his thirty-five-year-old mentally ill wife have sex with teenagers (that whole Laura Palmer thing is really in the rear-view mirror by this point). Jacoby encourages Ben’s delusions, and then makes a professional medical diagnosis that Lana is neither cursed nor capable of murder (!!)...and the lawmen defer to his expertise, with Cooper congratulating Lana! And then Jacoby is ready to go on a date with his patient as everyone grins ear to ear! (Remember four episodes ago when Pete and Will were talking about how Lana is a teenager? Again, glad the town has learned so much from that teenage girl being raped and murdered three weeks earlier...)

Speaking of Laura, I believe this is the first episode with no reference to her whatsoever outside the end credits photo. (No one mentions her in Episode 19, but her photo is seen in Ben’s office.)

That whole Lana sequence is a strong contender for worst scene in the entire history of the franchise, an absolute train wreck from the conceptual level on up. And yet, John Boylan is a charming and funny presence as Dwayne, and I always laugh at his delivery of, “I don’t wanna talk. I wanna SHOOT!”

Funny piece of trivia: If you listen closely to James’s phone call with Ed in the prior episode (or read the subtitles), Ed says James only has $12 left in his savings account! Donna drove all that way to give him $12. I wonder how much she spent on gas.

I’m sure I’ve said it before, but it’s fun seeing Beymer and Tamblyn sing together. Tamblyn starts out singing in character as Jacoby, but at the end with the shot of the waterfall, he’s full-on belting and sounds just like Riff in West Side Story! I wish they’d stayed on him singing instead of cutting to the waterfall. BTW, for anyone who hasn’t seen it, here’s a babyfaced Dr. Jacoby singing one of the most fun songs in the Broadway catalogue IMO: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j7TT4jnnWys

Briggs apparently can’t remember anything about his trip to the White Lodge other than an intuitive sense that great trouble is ahead (turns out that was putting it mildly). I’m gonna do my best to pinpoint when Garland might regain his memories of learning about Judy and when he might have his talk with Cooper and Gordon (although I have a feeling it’s a fool’s errand).

Eckhardt as a character doesn’t end up amounting to much, but I love David Warner, and he’s so cool in that moment with the fire reflecting in his shades.

I think if I ever go to a Twin Peaks trivia night, my team’s name will be ASIAN MAN KILLED!! That fax is a fun freeze-frame—the text of the article (which was obviously never intended to be read but it’s SUPER clear on the Blu Ray) is some generic prop-filler mumbo jumbo, speaking in the vaguest possible terms about a meeting and committee chairpersons (“Future plans will, of necessity, have great bearing on the situation as it now stands. Decisions will have to be made of the actual planning of the project will take considerable time but it is felt that these steps are very important”).

We learn that Will delivered Dick. Which means Dick joins Andrew Packard in the ranks of Twin Peaks natives with inexplicable British accents. Although in Dick’s case, I can totally believe that he just affects the accent because he’s a pompous pretentious twit.

For some reason, I find it really funny when Evelyn tells James that Malcolm isn’t her brother. I guess the writers just wanted to get that exposition out so we don’t think they’re incestuous, but it’s such an unnatural thing for her to say in that moment. “It was Malcolm’s idea!!! ...he’s not my brother.”

This episode in Dale’s diet:
— Harry hands Cooper coffee in a plain tan and brown mug as Erik Powell’s corpse is removed from Harry’s office
— Coffee in a plain blue mug while analyzing the chessboard in Harry’s office; Harry refills him
— Cooper, Harry and Garland each thirstily gulp down a glass of water poured by Lucy
— Harry: “I don’t know about you guys, but I could definitely use something to drink.” Cooper: “Me too”
— Coffee in a plain green mug while reading a book on Tibet in Lucy’s cubicle; he pours a second cup

Even by Dale’s standards, this is a particularly coffee-heavy episode for him! Good thing he hydrates by chugging that glass of water.
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AXX°N N.
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Re: Episode 21

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Mr. Reindeer wrote:There are a lot of very questionable acts of medical practice in this episode. Will, with a twinkle in his eye, encourages Ed to let his thirty-five-year-old mentally ill wife have sex with teenagers (that whole Laura Palmer thing is really in the rear-view mirror by this point). Jacoby encourages Ben’s delusions, and then makes a professional medical diagnosis that Lana is neither cursed nor capable of murder (!!)...and the lawmen defer to his expertise, with Cooper congratulating Lana! And then Jacoby is ready to go on a date with his patient as everyone grins ear to ear! (Remember four episodes ago when Pete and Will were talking about how Lana is a teenager? Again, glad the town has learned so much from that teenage girl being raped and murdered three weeks earlier...)
This scene alone makes 21 a contender for my worst ever, but then you throw in the Marsh plotline taking a decidedly moronic turn, the absolutely weird choice of what a newspaper headline would look like in any reality, and it just keeps snowballing. An episode of total misses.

The lecherousness of the Lana stuff is more strange to me than any of the surrealism. I don't know if I've waxed about it anywhere on the forum, but my favorite pet reading of the subplots gone astray is that they can be read through a lens of the pschology of denial. If early Twin Peaks is themed around the intense lack of being able to forget about Laura and deal with her death, late Twin Peaks is themed (whether intended or not) around the over-eagerness and ability to trample over her grave and forget her completely. The wake scene being the immediate catalyst, filled with strange character notes and tonal turns, much like how death in real life can often erase the subject under canned obituaries and the biases of those left to remember them (or in some cases, dismiss them) in their own ways. It's as if the writers lapse into their own mental blocks ala Nadine and Ben, and make the weirdest, almost psychiatrically interesting writing choices, totally warped and inverted, slapstick where once was mystery, camp where once was the ineffible. And like you point out, the most seedy, male-gaze-infused scene happens to be in this, the first episode Laura's not uttered or shown. What a nadir, and for so many reasons.
Mr. Reindeer wrote:I assume that offstage car crash is supposed to be in Evelyn’s scheming imagination, but it makes it seem like the crash happens at the end of the driveway. Which is inherently funny to me anyway, and even more ridiculous that it takes until nightfall for the cops to show if the crash was directly in front of the house.
Right? I know it's supposed to be in her head, or hell, maybe just a stylistic impression of future events, but the way they did it prevents me from seeing it as anything other than an extremely comedic scene played as straight melodrama, like something from The Room. I just have to pile on to this scene, it can never get enough flak: watching it is like watching someone mount a baseball on a tee, it falls off, and then they swing. My least favorite scene ever outside of the Devil Bubble and Pine Weasel-cam.
Recipe not my own. In a coffee cup. 3 TBS flour, 2 TBS sugar, 1.5 TBS cocoa powder, .25 TSP baking powder, pinch of salt. 3 TBS milk, 1.5 TBS vegetable oil, 1 TBS peanut butter. Add and mix each set. Microwave 1 minute 10 seconds. The cup will be hot.
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Episode 21

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AXX°N N. wrote:
Mr. Reindeer wrote:I assume that offstage car crash is supposed to be in Evelyn’s scheming imagination, but it makes it seem like the crash happens at the end of the driveway. Which is inherently funny to me anyway, and even more ridiculous that it takes until nightfall for the cops to show if the crash was directly in front of the house.
Right? I know it's supposed to be in her head, or hell, maybe just a stylistic impression of future events, but the way they did it prevents me from seeing it as anything other than an extremely comedic scene played as straight melodrama, like something from The Room. I just have to pile on to this scene, it can never get enough flak: watching it is like watching someone mount a baseball on a tee, it falls off, and then they swing. My least favorite scene ever outside of the Devil Bubble and Pine Weasel-cam.
Haha, now I’m just imagining the car wreck sitting at the end of the driveway all day and Evelyn wondering when the hell the cops will show up so she can frame James, becoming ever more frantic as the hours tick by and James keeps saying he’s leaving and she repeatedly begs him to stay over and over, ever more melodramatically and desperately. James keeps packing and unpacking.

I agree, on this rewatch, this is my least favorite up to this point. I can’t imagine anything will beat it out except possibly E22 or maybe E28, which I really dislike. But I’m betting this will probably end up being on the bottom.
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Mr. Reindeer
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Re: Episode 21

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BTW, I wonder if Edel was able to specifically request those shots of the Kiana Lodge totem poles at sunset due to his clout? The Washington State B-unit stuff had become pretty generic and interchangeable at this point, with the same establishing shots repeated many times. That Grieg sequence is pretty jarring (in a good way IMO) for the fact that it’s so unique for the series in having stylishly-shot Washington location footage, paired with the rare use of non-Angelo music in the series (other than Lynch’s diegetic use of Glenn Miller and Louis Armstrong recordings, and Leland occasionally singing real-world tunes, this is the only time the score features a non-Badalamenti piece). I also kind of love that after that pomp and build-up, it transitions into Nance lamenting about hot dogs.
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Henrys Hair
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Re: Episode 21

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Mr. Reindeer wrote:
Funny piece of trivia: If you listen closely to James’s phone call with Ed in the prior episode (or read the subtitles), Ed says James only has $12 left in his savings account! Donna drove all that way to give him $12. I wonder how much she spent on gas.
I'd always wondered about this too (not to mention Ed happening to know James' bank balance off the top of his head). I suppose Ed might've thrown in a little extra (rounding up to a twenty perhaps), although there's no suggestion in his tone that he might be thinking of doing this.

The town's amnesia of Laura's death is baffling (apart from the real-world reason of the show trying to move away from the story), esp when it gets to MIss Twin Peaks and all the contestants are, well, wrapped in plastic. I'd like to think this is a knowing nod, but by that point of the show I've a feeling it was most likely an oversight.

On a positive note, the establishing shot with totem poles is indeed a wonderful surprise. Even now, this shot often catches me out (in the best way possible).
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Henrys Hair
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Re: Episode 21

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Still in the mid-season slump, although there are signs that the show might get back on track - both Thomas Eckhardt (the fire reflecting in his glasses is suitably ominous) and Windom Earle (wonderful introduction, although has Leo really spent a whole day wandering through the wood before finding a cabin?) look like they could be formidable bad guys. One thing that keeps undermining scenes during this stretch is using a music cue completely at odds with the scene, eg the Major arriving at the station to Ben's Civil War theme. Anyway, a few thoughts...

Andy's really trying not to look at the blinking corpse. I'd never noticed his aversion until this latest watch.

There's a strange glitch when Leo pushes the table forward. Also, Bobby seems to have changed clothes since leaving the Great Northern.

Speaking of clothes... Jeffrey Marsh's shell-suit! Let us never speak of this again...

Jacoby says he's spent 'almost 24 hours with Lana', even though we've just seen him with Ben. As for Cooper's suggestion that the mayor and his rifle spend time alone with Lana... well, no wonder he's been suspended.

Randy St Croix's name badge reads 'Randy Meyer' - which could actually work as a pun for Mayor Milford falling under Lana's spell, although I doubt it's intentional.
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