Some of the Parts blend together for me a little bit, but this one sticks in my head so vividly in its entirety. It's partly because I first watched it under unique and very aggravating circumstances (in the lobby of a Puerto Rico hotel on my laptop with absolutely terrible Internet service, so it kept freezing), so that experience is seared in my mind, and I can clearly recall watching every scene for the first time in that lobby, and what my visceral reactions were. All that baggage aside, however, it's really a terrific Part from start to finish, one of my favorites.
This is also the first one in a long time where all the scenes take place on the same day (October 1), and the Part progresses in linear fashion from day into night. Technically, future Parts continue to loop back and have scenes that "should have" been in this Part if the series were fully linear. But it feels like time is starting to come back together.
Some of the series establishing shots where LA doubles for Vegas or wherever are kinda lazy, with banners and passing buses clearly marking the location as LA. So I appreciate that they actually went to the trouble of creating a Buckhorn banner to hang in front of the Mayfair.
I'm never quite sure how much I'm repeating myself since I've written so much on TR in general here the last few years, and have also done a few rewatches where I put my thoughts down in these threads. So I do apologize if certain things I say sound like a broken record. That being said, I KNOW I've said this before, but I can't help repeating it. That scene of Gordon talking to Lucy still gets a gut reaction from me of pure joy. We've gone so many Parts with Twin Peaks seeming completely cut off from Cooper's storyline, the FBI storyline, etc., despite so much that happens in those storylines revolving around the town. That withholding of any outside character having contact with the town for 13 Parts makes this opening scene so effective and wonderful. When I first watched it, I couldn't BELIEVE that bam, right out of the gate, we have Gordon calling the sheriff's department! I immediately flash back to him standing in front of Lucy's desk in Episode 14, eating donuts with the One-Armed Man. All the dialogue, the delivery, the pauses...everything about that scene is perfection. So is the following scene, with him learning that Harry is ill. I sort of wish there'd been a chance at some point for Albert to learn that Harry is sick. Their unlikely bromance in the back half of season 2 is one of my favorite little things.
I assume someone's mentioned this, but I've noticed in a few Parts that Frank has a wooden sculpture of corn stalks behind his desk. Appropriate to Hawk's map. I thought he also had a wooden owl, but I don't see it in this Part.
I've probably said this too, but I adore the absurdity of the FBI having that Bondian portable nerve center of equipment in the hotel room. Was all that on that tiny plane? Along with half Gordon's wine cellar, apparently?
I've speculated that maybe Janey-E is a tulpa due to her naming, but I know it's a dangerous rabbit hole to start screaming "tulpa" at every character. I really wonder how Dougie ended up with her though. It seems like a big coincidence, unless Mr. C planned it for some reason. But if he did, it seems like a risk that Diane and Janey-E might mend fences and Diane would recognize Cooper, or a version of him. I guess it doesn't matter since this Diane is under his control, but it's all pretty strange.
The unnecessarily ostentatious way Frank picks up his roast beef and cheese sandwich is so funny. Forster is so cool. Forster has always been cool.
I wonder exactly how much Garland foresaw in literal terms about what was to come, vs. just receiving opaque messages about what to do. For instance, he knew Jack Rabbit's Palace had some significance even when Bobby was a little kid (he tells him not to go there alone), and he sows all the seeds for the sheriff's crew to find Naido. But I sincerely doubt he knew Naido existed or what her significance was. I wonder what he thought/expected to happen when they went to that place on that date. I also wonder how many of the "tall tales" Garland told Bobby had some significance. Either way, I would happily listen to Don Davis tell tall tales (or just talk in general) for hours.
Just seeing the former road to Garland's listening post gives me chills. I love when TR fills in little between-the-lines or off-screen elements of the original show. Now I imagine Garland driving down that road after receiving the "Cooper Cooper Cooper" message.
TR started out seeming like it was going to take full advantage of being on premium cable, with female nudity in Part 1 (Tracey) and Part 3 (Jade). However, that was pretty much it, up until Naido in this Part. Again, I will mention that my first time watching was in a hotel common area with people walking by, and this scene took about 8 minutes to play due to the constant freezes. I spent more time awkwardly peering over my shoulder and trying to shield the screen with my body than actually enjoying the scene that first time.
So we know of two portals in or near Twin Peaks (Glastonbury Grove for the Red Room and this golden one for the Fireman's). I wonder if there are always dual portals in close proximity, one for each Lodge, or if Twin Peaks just got lucky? What are the other portals we know of...Buckhorn (Dutchman's), Buenos Aires maybe. Am I forgetting any? I guess there's a bunch more in the books.
Andy sees:
-- Judy (from Part 1)
-- Judy vomiting Bob
-- The convenience store with Woodsmen
-- "Gotta light?"
-- Electrical wires crackling at night (I think this is from a Mr. C driving sequence in the next Part, IIRC)
-- Anguished girl running at Twin Peaks HS in Pilot after Laura's death
-- Red Room curtains, Laura flanked with angels superimposed (I forgot the angels had an appearance in TR! Not my favorite TP imagery, but good for Lorna MacMillan)
-- Naido naked just as Andy left her
-- Cooper and his Doppelgänger in the Red Room, their faces moving in and out of phase with each other
-- Lucy's phone with a blinking light
-- Andy guiding Lucy into place
-- Andy holding Naido's hand seconds earlier
-- The electric pole in Odessa
For the most part, this is straightforward-ish: he's given a cliff notes glimpse into the mythology/the evil we're facing, is shown Naido so he knows she's important and needs to be protected, and is shown what Lucy needs to do in Part 17. The focus on Laura is intriguing, though. Obviously there's a lot to be unwound with Laura in light of Part 8, and I'm not sure we've really begun to scratch the surface, but apparently there's something about her the Fireman thought Andy needed to know, between the crying girl, the angels shot, and even giving Andy a glimpse at the Odessaverse! I'm hoping I'll have more thoughts on it at some point. Right now I'm just opening up the floor to ideas, I guess.
I am happy to report that THIS is the Part with the least Cooper! I was a little worried this one would beat out Part 12 on a technicality, but thankfully his screen time is less than Part 12’s 23 seconds! The (mostly) headless shot in Gordon's dream is five seconds, and the "faces" shot in Andy's vision is 12 seconds, for a whopping 17 seconds of Cooper. EDIT: Ah, nuts. I realized I wasn’t counting the archive footage from FWWM. That’s another 27 seconds. So technically Part 13 is the Part with the least Cooper onscreen, but YMMV how much of Part 14’s footage you count or don’t.
Returning again to my musings from the Part 13 thread: The idea of parallel universes continues to be toyed with in an abstract way, with the beautifully edited shot of multiple Franks, Hawks and Bobbys walking in and out of each other before each of them re-forms into a whole. This also calls to mind Lynch deliberately using the alternate take of the Jeffries scene. I think it also goes to a lot of what Mark was playing with in the books in terms of subjective reality. These slight divergences, where maybe there's some other universe where you said something a little differently or went to the opposite side of a room...and maybe for a second that universe intersects or overlaps with this one and you catch a glimpse of it, like Ed looking in the window.
Every time I watch this, I wonder: How the hell did a dog "get lost" in that sheriff's station? It doesn't seem that big!
Freddie telling his story is a whopping 5 minutes of screen time, just him reciting exposition with occasional interjections or questions from James. It's such a joyfully defiant violation of the traditional "show don't tell" rule of storytelling. Lynch hates rules.
Watching that Sarah scene for the first time in a common area of a hotel was also a really weird experience. She’s always been one of my favorite characters, and her short appearances in TR up to this point made her even moreso. I thought I understood her, and when she takes a bite out of that guy’s neck, it was like watching a friend you thought you knew murder someone in front of you. I felt so betrayed and conflicted, and exposed because I was having this reaction with people all around me. Even under those weird circumstances, I loved what I was seeing, though, and felt the rightness of it. I think I spent the next day feeling weirdly tarnished and confused, almost in a daze, trying to process how I felt about that twist. Like how you feel after waking up from a really strange visceral dream.
Again, enough great things cannot be said about Grace, but I really love it when she's just a defiant badass. "Yeah. Sure is a mystery, huh?"
Continuing thoughts on Audrey (even though she isn't in this one): It's interesting that two of the three other people in the ostensible "real" world who talk about Billy are played by DKL's relatives: Riley and Emily Stofle. It definitely adds a meta/unreal element to the proceedings that I don't think I'd considered before. Add to that that the other person who talks about him is played by an actress named Shane Lynch! Unfortunately, she doesn't appear to be a relation...but damn.
I'm more and more convinced that Audrey is in a mental institution and made a contract with Charlie to escape in some form, either as a tulpa or more likely to an artificially created space. Note here that Sophie keeps accusing Megan of hanging out at the nuthouse! Megan denies this but says she's getting high in her room (they give you drugs when you're institutionalized). Also note that in all the other Roadhouse scenes the characters drink real beer brands, but here Sophie is clearly drinking from a prop bottle with a fake brand label, "American Colonial Beer" (I found it on
this prop maker's website). This adds to my sense that the scene is meant to be artificial or manufactured (unless you freeze frame, it looks like the bottle just says BEER on it in giant capital letters). (Full disclosure: James does order "two Colonials" at the bar in Part 2, so this arguably is a real brand in the TP universe.) More and more, I'm feeling like these scenes are in a constructed reality while all these people are in an asylum, although this does admittedly make the stuff about Megan's mom and Billy a bit tough to parse out.
Two other weird things about that scene: the bizarre focus on Megan not knowing whether or not her uncle was there. It reminds me of Chet’s line from FWWM: “What’s missing in that sentence? The uncle.” But I don’t think that’s what’s going on there. The other oddity is the ominous drone that starts when Megan says her mother’s name is Tina. I get that it ties into Part 12’s Audrey scene, but I’m not really sure what else we’re supposed to take from that reveal.
No Dale's Diet for this one, but Gordon recommends the cappuccino at Creperie Plougastel if you ever find yourself in Paris, or just dreaming about it!