Turgid

For me the most interesting storyline now is Leo's, for all the reasons stated on the podcast. I find I'm genuinely curious what the hell is going on and what is going to happen with him. Shelly and Bobby's relationship and attitude towards him is so weird. (My interest does not extend to Bobby's antics though.) Apart from that mystery, I feel like I would have taken this episode as the last. I mostly liked Cooper's goodbyes and the other conclusive stuff, minus the set-up stuff. Also, by the way, that blond guy working for Jean Renault is indeed the same Mountie trying to take down Cooper, and framing him for the missing cocaine. I agreed with just about everything in the cast, except one thing, Norma's scene with her mom. While the story is typical soap opera stuff, I feel both actors sold it extremely well, especially Peggy Lipton. One thing I didn't understand: When Andy spies on Dick and Lucy's conversation, Hawk comes over and chastises(?) him. Then after Andy confronts them, Hawk says "Are you crazy?" I just can't figure out what Hawk is trying to say. What is his reaction here? He seems genuinely upset or disappointed or something, and I can't see why. Maybe part of it is because I have no idea what Hawk and Andy's relationship is since I don't think they've ever interacted before. Hawk doesn't seem like the type to show anything but support for Andy in that situation.

Thanks everyone for this discussion, it's been interesting as hell! So far I'm not convinced. Season 1 was so solid, and I miss it. Oh well, nothing to be done now so I'll stick around and see how it ended up. The high points have a lot of making up to do.

Justin is one smart fella, even when sleepy. Have him back! I like the concept of Destiny not providing references to some things, so that they have to be taught or shown person to person. However the lack of in-game communication makes me wonder if its purpose was to create that social experience. Also, it seems like quite a few games do something similar. Warframe comes to mind since I've actually played that one, but surely other multiplayer or MMO games have some experiences like that? Heck even Minecraft has obscure crafting recipes, for example. Still, it is a sweet concept that I might appreciate more now that you point it out.

As I understand it from Leland's epic exposition dump and what Bob said beforehand, Bob (and multiple other spirits like him) are capable of residing in a host. The host has to invite them in, or possibly simply be weak-willed enough that they can't resist the spirit's entrance. There seems to be some relation to their conscience as well, i.e. if someone doesn't care about doing bad things it's easier for the spirit to control them. This is what happened to Leland as a child. When he later became a terrible callous lawyer and businessman (possibly under the influence of Bob), and then killed Jacques for revenge (also maybe at the urging of Bob), it made him that much easier to control.Once they're inside, the spirit can take direct control whenever they like, and otherwise simply sit in the background and influence the person's feelings and actions. The host has no memory of their actions when the spirit is in direct control (like when Leland murdered Laura), however at other times they remember and behave mostly normally (like when Leland was grieving). So for the most part whenever we saw Leland he was just being himself, but with some manipulation from Bob, so he couldn't quite explain why he felt the way he did sometimes, and he certainly couldn't just tell people about Bob. The spirit can leave the host, travel freely, and then try to enter a different one. Leaving may or may not require saying the Fire Walk With Me poem, cracking the host's head open, or (nearly?) killing the host. It's possible Bob just did that stuff for fun. Bob was trying to use Leland to help a fellow spirit get into Laura, and once she was possessed, to break down her will to make her easier to control. But she was too strong, i.e. moral and willful, and neither Leland nor Bob could force her to submit, so as a punishment Bob killed her. Well, also just out of sheer bloodlust. Bob seems to like killing young women and signing his name with a letter under their fingernails. The other murders were done by Bob in other hosts, I think? I might be wrong about that. Bob or one of his spirit buddies seems have been around in Pittsburgh, either involved or watching when something happened to Cooper.

Personally I enjoyed this episode, despite my agreement with SuperBiasedMan. Those problems didn't bother me as much. The Roadhouse scene in particular was yeah, lame in its outcome, but so well set up and well shot that I enjoyed it anyway. I found Leland's explanation was a little long-winded and detailed, but I think it's a fine ending. I think they should have left it a bit more vague, but on the other hand this is only Leland's understanding, so he might not have the whole picture. (On the gripping hand, he seems to know quite a lot about exactly how these spirits work.) I liked the forest scene. It's a nice little epilogue. To me this episode felt like it should be the series finale. (Or maybe have one more episode to show the aftermath and wrap up the rest of the non-mystery threads.) I have zero interest in Bob coming back as someone else, so ignoring the obvious sequel set-up, it's a good reflection on the lessons learned and the confrontation of evil. I took him to mean that he's seen a lot of weird but not supernatural stuff over his career, and not in the woods necessarily, just in general. But I had forgotten that season 1 episode where he introduces the Bookhouse Boys and specifically warns Cooper about an evil in the woods. Good question! I don't really follow this. I mean, I get that in the real world abuse is done by family members and other actual people, and they don't require mental illness or evil spirits to do it. But in this case it was an evil spirit, and this is Twin Peaks which I don't think should strive to portray reality anyway, nor do I think anyone expects it to. Or is it that you think Leland should have been treated or portrayed as less sympathetic, as if he was actually responsible for his actions? Cause my interpretation was that he was literally possessed and had no control over his actions during the crimes (except maybe killing Jacques), so I was fine with his end. (Although this is my first time watching so I can't speak to later episodes or FWWM.) Maybe it bothers you guys that rather than a regular person being the killer, it was just some spirit, so it's a cop out. I guess it's alright with me since Leland did physically commit the crimes and thus leave all the clues a physical killer would, other than his motivation. Granted, the motivation is a big part of the mystery, so I can see where you're coming from. Would it have been better if Leland simply had Multiple Personality Disorder or something like that?

Sorry I'm a bit late responding. I overall really enjoyed this episode despite its lack of cohesion. - Harold's breakdown scene has a certain finality to it. Do you think his role in this story is finished? Or will we see him again? What role do you expect the diary (still in his possession) to play in the rest of the investigation? A: I imagine based on what he said that Harold knows who likely killed her, and the diary says something about her killer. So we'll see him again, maybe when Cooper gets his act together. - Donna and James seem committed to ending their junior investigations. Do you believe they're really done? A: Seeing as this is a soap opera, I doubt it. Donna doesn't seem satisfied that Cooper is taking her lead seriously. James is really done though. - Do you think Maddy is actually leaving town, or will they find a way to keep her around? What do you make of her character and her purpose in Twin Peaks? A: Well...I figure she'll be in at least one more episode. Dunno how they'd justify her sticking around even longer. However I wonder if they would really let their star actor disappear. I suppose she was a kind of reflection of Laura, showing us how the people around her felt about her. Maddy was also a commentary on how messed up Laura was when contrasted with the relatively innocent and nice Maddy. IMO. - What's up with Mr. Tojamura? A: Man I don't even know. Asian mafia like Josie and her brother? Oh man I just realized who it is! Speculation: - For that matter, what's up with Mike? Do you believe Mike is really a spirit, as he claims, or that he is one of Phillip Gerard's personalities? What's your take on the whole supernatural aura of Twin Peaks at this point? A: I can see it either way, but given the rest of the supernatural stuff on the show I think it's an actual spirit. Twin Peaks seems rife with spooky spirits and giants and crazy stuff. - Did you know Gordon Cole was David Lynch when you saw him (or, for that matter, when you heard him over the radio way back in the first season)? A: Yeah thanks to the podcast I knew. Pretty amusing! - What's going to happen with Shelly, Bobby, and Leo? Do you care? A: I read the party scene as Bobby faking being nice to Leo to make Shelly feel better. I don't think he was actually scared, which made me wish all the more that Leo would wake up and mess up their little insurance plan. I do wonder if Leo's gonna wake up, and I wonder how things will turn out for Shelly, as it's interesting that she still cares about Leo to some degree. - When Mike suggests Bob is at the Great Northern, what do you take this to mean? Is he staying there? Is he there at that moment? Is he present inside a host or inhabiting the hotel itself as a spirit? Where do you see this clue going? A: I suspect he means Bob the real guy is hiding out somewhere in or near the hotel. Like in a basement or secret room or something. Doesn't seem like Bob's style to act like a regular guest. Pretty wild to think that he might have been under Cooper's nose the whole time. - What role do you see Bob playing in revealing the killer - will he be a clue to the killer, the killer himself, or is something else going on entirely? - Do you expect the killer to be revealed soon? - On that note, who killed Laura Palmer? A: I'm under the impression that Bob was already revealed to have killed Laura Palmer, or at least to have assisted. Hence my confusion at the marketing promising to reveal the killer again. I guess there must have been someone else there when Bob went all crazy cannibal on Laura? - And where does the show go if/when we find out? A: I'm not sure where it could go long-term. Find the killer, prosecute them, then wrap up the side stories (the mill, Leo, Hank, Nadine). Half the show is still motivated by Laura in one way or another. I suppose they will really drag out finding Bob (or whoever it is) and then nailing down exactly what happened.

I really liked this episode of the show, and this episode of the podcast. My favorite little moment that nobody's mentioned yet: when Judge Sternwood and Cooper are having their drink, he asks "Cooper, how long you been here?" "Twelve days sir." Puts things in perspective, doesn't it? It's been almost exactly 2 weeks since Laura's murder, and all this crazy stuff has happened.

Great and thoughtful interview. I especially liked the questions about his background in gaming, it's interesting he didn't play many games where you could see the choices of a game designer as a young kid (apart from maybe Monopoly). And yet later when he started making digital games professionally, he was very conscious of the difference between those "multimedia experiences" and games where you had decisions and interaction. I hadn't really considered games from an art or "interaction design" standpoint, and it was fascinating to hear about a design company R/GA deciding to get into digital games. Really cool that Frank keeps doing big-concept but tightly focused games rather than AAA-style. I love that people are still exploring those areas of games, and it turns out Frank has been doing it all along! I can't quite put my finger on it, but there seems to be a whole set of assumptions that have built up over the decades about digital games. But he seems to have bypassed these assumptions entirely. It was great to hear some smart discussion about all the possibilities from someone still excited about games, even after a career of exploring them.

I need that link to Idle Thumbs DB! It sounds amazing.

Yeah this exactly. Personally I think he is sincere even, very Buddhist of him, but that doesn't mean he's won't enjoy being an asshole even if he's an affectionate one. I think it humanizes him wonderfully and justifies his unrelenting unpleasantness. Nice post! I'll answer these from my new viewer perspective: For Harold, I like him despite his creepiness. He seems very self-aware which is a quality I admire, especially in this show (see also my thoughts on Albert above). A little creepy, but nice. Gerard/Mike, I guess it's either mundane or supernatural multiple personalities. Probably supernatural based on that massive syringe (as opposed to a regular pill). I figure he really didn't consciously know anything about Bob as a killer, and he honestly told them the only Bob he knew was his best friend the vet. I wonder what he wants with Bob the killer, it seemed he was going to kill him or something. I'm very interested to find out! (By the way, I'm still waiting for them to follow up on the vet info. Is that the same Bob or what?) The engine oil thing, that's what I thought too. Last episode Dr. Jacoby said he smelled engine oil that night in the hospital room, but this time he changed his story. But Cooper was so intent on identifying the Jacques' killer that he missed it. So it seems the man who attacked Jacoby (and who was spying on Bobby at the drug deal?) had that engine oil smell about him. Or maybe it was Bobby who had the smell since he was there at the same time, as I recall. I think it comes under more scrutiny now because Cooper is claiming explicitly that it was not a dream. All of season 1 was dreams and visions, but now supernatural stuff is happening more directly. But yeah, some other stuff is not commented on much. I'm glad Albert at least criticizes Cooper more for this more blatant thing. I think I'll have more to say about the mysteries of the show, but I'll have to think about it and comment when I have some more time. Loving this discussion!

New viewer here. I was hard on the last episode, but this one won me back. A lot of great, great scenes. Even James' singing couldn't dampen it...much. Long-ass post ahoy! First a quick note on the podcast: I loved that you guys decided to go through by character instead of by chronology or plot thread! However it seems you fell back into doing it chronologically. Don't be afraid to jump through to the end scenes early on, it keeps the discussion coherent. I like hearing those trains of thought so don't apologize Jake! About the creamed corn scene, I don't agree with you guys on the reason it didn't work. You said the pacing was good, but in my view the pacing was terrible. I think some other Lynch scenes have this problem too, e.g. the red room, but there was enough going on that it worked anyway. This scene spends just a bit too long on each beat IMO, and Donna's non-reaction exacerbates it since she doesn't even seem unsettled, so there was very little suspense for me. This might be a personal reaction since I'm not into horror and suspense anyway, so maybe someone else would feel the pacing adds to the dread. I was just wondering why Donna didn't say something. It read more as awkward than scary, despite the music. Anyway, it was still pretty weird, and I freakin loved almost every other scene. The hospital room stool scene was comedy gold. And freakin' Andy and Lucy, when she slowly leans in...then rips the tape off his forehead and shuts the glass divider. No idea what he was expecting closing his eyes like that... a slap or a kiss? Questions time! *Why do you think Bob appeared to Maddy in Donna's living room? I don't know? Didn't seem significant to me, it's just where she happened to be. *What do you make of Maj. Brigg's message? Are you ok with the show possibly moving in a UFO direction? I'm ok with it, although like the Giant physically taking Cooper's ring, I don't really like that clear real-world connection. Like I would prefer if it was plausibly random radio noise or whatever, that's ruled out by Cooper's name, as well as the seemingly deliberate space characters between the words. It's not even every four letters or whatever, it's between the words. By the way why does the government care about other galaxies, and what exactly are they monitoring, radio band or light or what, and what code are they using to translate that to english letters wouldn't it be like binary signals at best, and why is this a secret I mean SETI does this all the time OH IT'S TV NEVERMIND *How do you think Leland knows Bob? Er...he says he was an old neighbor? I guess he probably talked to him a few times. Also, weird he didn't see this sketch when his wife was describing this guy in their house like a week ago. *Do you think Ben was being serious when he asked Jerry to kill Ben? See my interpretation of that line was that Ben was saying it as a joke, and Jerry was agreeing that Leland was being weird as hell. The dream thing wasn't about the killing, it was about how Leland himself was a twisted incompetent nightmare since he returned. *Any thoughts on Harold's neighbors and the creamed corn? None that aren't sarcastic. They seem like unpleasant and boring company. If the scene was a dream it would be much more interesting. *Do you understand the ledger shenanigans any better than Ben and Jerry? Do you care? Here's what I think I get: The mill is actually going under. The fake ledger shows the mill is profitable still, though. Original plan: Catherine mismanages the mill so it goes under and Josie will sell to Ben. She makes the ledger at this point to cover up her mismanagement. She blames Josie at every opportunity and makes her out to be the cause of the financial problems. Improved plan: Josie won't sell and/or we need to speed this up, Catherine decides to burn the place down for the insurance, which will also force or encourage Josie to sell (I guess?). The fake ledger will even make the insurance payout larger. Backstab: Ben decides to get rid of Catherine, hey why not also get some insurance from that. Also Josie is on board for the insurance money since she thinks the mill is going under anyway. Aftermath: With Catherine presumed dead, and Josie apparently gone, Ben and Jerry don't particularly care about the plan anymore. They'll get the mill when Josie gets the insurance and sells the place. If Josie were there she would tell them to keep the fake ledger so the payout is bigger, but she's not so screw her. (Ben says they'd get a better price on the land if the mill was profitable, but that seems backwards to me. They should keep the real ledger to lower the price and hold up under scrutiny too. Catherine's coverup doesn't matter anymore.) Do I care? Not really. It sure was a dramatic ride though. *"Just You" - love, hate...? Aside from the weird vocals, pretty well done! As a musician, I always appreciate convincing instrument playing, and it looks like James' actor learned to play that for real (or close enough). The song itself is exactly what I'd expect from that character, actually. Also awkward as hell scene, perfect for him. Having your dead girlfriend's doppelganger hanging out with your new girlfriend has got to be emotionally confusing and/or painful for everyone involved. *Anyone shipping Maj. Briggs & the Log Lady? Haha I don't know about shipping, but I would love to see them interact more! Then again, it wouldn't be as special. *How do you feel about the second season so far? Not as solid as season 1, so we'll see. I'm lukewarm. Maybe I can get used to the new approach to the supernatural.

Let me clarify a bit as I think my objection is subtly different. I am fine with having weird events and weird characters in the show, and I think even these things have a purpose. They're not only for their own sake IMO (though I can see why others might see it that way). My problem is that they are so blatant that they cease to seem mysterious or ominous. Having a strange dream: is this your subconscious or some force trying to communicate to you? Contrasted with: this giant is pretty clearly a real being and he's speaking in riddles specifically to mess with you (and the audience). I'm hoping Cooper digs into this more critically next episode. Maybe I'm being too sensitive here, but I'm finding it harder to let it slide that the characters just accept these CLEARLY bizarre occurrences with scarcely a mention. Nothing in season 1 stood out to me like this. All the weird stuff was either plausibly explained why people accept it (e.g. the Log Lady, Cooper's dreams), or directly called out and investigated somewhat (Sarah's visions of Bob). If the characters start talking about this stuff maybe I'll feel better about it. Leland's transformation was commented on near the end at least, but it seemed to be hand-waved far too easily. If I was Doc Hayward or the Horne brothers I would have been like, "you're saying you didn't dye it? The entire length of your hair turned white in one night? My that is unusual! And do you really want us to believe that you've overcome your grief after one week? This happiness seems kind of forced Leland, do you think that's healthy?" That's the kind of thing I'm hoping to see in the next couple episodes, since I think and hope it does serve a purpose in the story. If it's not really mentioned again then yeah, not only is it not scary but it's pointless as well. (Edited to add: after watching your examination that you linked earlier, I think you said this nicely at the end - season 1's power was in suggestion. With weird things out in plain view, I expect the characters to react appropriately.)

First time viewer here. This episode nearly lost me. Some reactions: The giant - the dream riddles were intriguing in the first season, but now these are both more direct and more deliberate. If this supernatural giant guy and/or the forces he represents wants to reveal the killer, why be coy? Oh he "isn't allowed" to say more...dumb. Leland's transformation - I guess it makes sense to some degree since he seems confident he killed Laura's killer, but the white hair? The show is not even putting a pretense of lurking weirdness anymore is it. Also I could relate to a grieving father doing crazy stuff out of grief, but the singing seems way out of character and annoys me as well. The carpet - wait so now Maddie is having visions and dreams too? Actually when Leland popped out I thought it was another dream sequence, but nope. Yet another person is hallucinating. Donna's transformation - my interpretation is that the "evil" that had a hold of Laura now has a hold of Donna (see above about obvious supernatural). Some of you say Donna is doing this deliberately, but it seems way too goofy and out of character to be anything but possession, IMO. If it is her choice...then I guess I can't understand why. Yesterday she was cool, she breaks into an office and decides to change her personality completely? That stuff with James in the jail was totally bizarre and inappropriate to their relationship. Those were the most off-putting things to me. Basically up til now I was willing to suspend disbelief and accept the weird stuff since it was mostly anchored by real people. Now it's too over the top, I guess. But it's not all bad, there were a lot of good moments too. I'm glad the investigation is still making some progress. (Although come on Albert, stop deliberately insulting people in distress, you're a professional.) As a minor note, I felt James' acting has improved quite a bit, I found him pretty lifelike in the interrogation scene, so that's a relief. My interest is definitely waning - if this was on TV I'd give the show a couple more episodes and see if I wanted to quit watching. Knowing that a lot of people found the rest of the season worth watching, and that the podcast and forums will be here to help me through, I'll probably hang in there anyway. That thing that Cooper forgot, it's the vet isn't it? They never actually went back and met Bob. I hope they do.

In my mind, Jacques' testimony points squarely at Leo as Laura's killer. Maybe accidental (erotic asphyxiation?), maybe he got pissed as he is wont (cf Shelly), hell maybe he just wanted to. I suppose this implicates him as Cooper's serial killer hinted at in the pilot as well. But none of that squares with Cooper's dream. Who the hell are Mike and Bobby and what does the one-armed man have to do with Laura? He led them to the vet and the bird, but surely there's more to "fire walk with me" than pointing Coop to the cabin and bird. Still, even Cooper seems satisfied that Leo is the killer. By the way it seems clear to me that the masked figure is Leland. There was a shot of him watching Maddy leave the house last episode, implying he would follow her. I guess he stopped Jacobi from messing with her. He was at the drug deal, probably spying on Bobby as a suspect in Laura's murder. However he didn't bother with the mask in the hospital, so I don't know, maybe that means it's someone else in the mask. My own theory for the one shooting Cooper is Hank. Hank's basically cleaning up the loose ends tonight, although it doesn't make perfect sense. Cooper's the most likely to uncover all this stupid Mill/Andrew Packard business, I guess? Actually maybe Ben Horne decided to take care of this one himself, perhaps after seeing Cooper and Ed at his place. This part is speculation though. Anyway, I'm surprised at the negative reaction. Sure the shooting at the end was a bit cheap, but the show heavily implied Leo is the killer, and there really are no other reasonable suspects at this point. Of course, the killer is probably someone not yet introduced, which will be pretty frustrating if so. However, from a first-time viewer perspective this episode seemed pretty conclusive to me. Curious to hear any other new viewer's thoughts. edited to add: Oh yeah, about Catherine not knowing who Shelly is, I liked that as well! The sign in the opening credits shows Twin Peaks has a population of 51,000 some odd (though in the show it seems much smaller). Large enough to have a busy hospital and a full high school, not to mention a decent-sized hotel. We're only seeing a very tight-knit subset of characters within this town, apparently!

Mangela Lansbury: Thanks for that post! That's pretty much exactly my thoughts as well. Also Danielle, yeah! Now it reads as "typical" casual appropriation instead of outright racism. Great! Baby steps, game industry. Regarding fighting games and balance patches, while I'm not a fighting game player, I have learned some about competitive games like that. You guys (especially Sean) thought that the main changes in the meta come from balance patches, which is probably true for modern games like LOMAs and RTSs. But historically, the big developments in arcade fighting games came from the discovery of new techniques. eRonin mentioned wavedashing in Smash, which is exactly the kind of thing that people figured out in Street Fighter. Every few months or years, somebody would work out a technique that allowed them to completely dominate a tournament, at which point everyone in the community would hear about it and try to learn it. (Typically such discoveries were kept secret until a tournament so as to keep the advantage.) Usually these things were not really intended by the designers and would lead to big shifts in which characters were strong, or even competitively viable at all. Sometimes more minor techniques would just shift how a couple characters were played or specific matchups. Or sometimes all it would take is someone focusing on a particular character and getting incredibly skilled with them for the meta to shift as more people try to follow suit. Winning or placing well in a couple tournaments with a certain character or technique would do it. These were the main sources of metagame changes before patching became a thing. Anyone who currently plays Street Fighter (or any competitive game) could give a ton of specific examples, but that's the concept. Nowadays all of that still happens, but designers can react very quickly to bugs and unintended problems with their design, and also add new things to shift the meta more or less where they like it. In the bad old days, getting a game somewhere near competitively interesting through pre-release testing alone required some luck, since you could be sure players would do their damnedest to break your game in all kinds of boring ways. A competitive game with several characters somewhere near balanced was the best you could hope for pretty much.

Minor point: the store manager's notebook stood out to me. The last page (with Ronette's name) has a slightly different handwriting style, and a very different heart style to the previous pages. The writing also strikes me as being in a more feminine style. I wonder if that was deliberate or just a quirk of the production. I can't imagine the notebook is delegated to a secretary or passed back and forth with Black Rose herself, or why the style would change.

Oh yeah and I wanted to note, regarding the cut from Bobby to the crow, I think it is very connected! A big theme of this episode is that Laura's influence is still out there "like a restless spirit" as James puts it. The crow represents Laura's influence on events: a) Bobby's corruption which is ongoing, guiding the Sheriff's boys to the cabin, also the automatically repeating record player, as well as c) the big band music out of nowhere at the party, though I admit this is a stretch. I think Audrey started the music, but it shows Laura's influence on Leland and the town as a whole is still strong.

Yeah there is no way Cooper is going to take the Audrey-bait. I expect he'll chastely calm her down and listen to her, then sleep in a chair. Perhaps even let her help out with the investigating to make her feel better. Or if Audrey does make a sexy move, shut her down immediately and tell her to leave, thus crushing her hopes. If he actually slept with her it'd pretty much ruin Cooper for me, I think. The whole dynamic between him and Audrey, and him and the town, would be completely changed. He's here to reveal the town's secrets, not start making more. I'm assuming he'd have to keep a relationship with Audrey secret, if not because of her age, then because of his official purpose here which seems compromised by taking advantage of a vulnerable townsperson. As the episodes go on it's getting harder to keep in mind that it's only been what, 7 or 8 days since Laura was found? While it seems like a lot has happened, a lot of the show is us finding out things that have already been going on. Laura's death is still very fresh to everyone. (Although it does seem strange that the Icelanders got there so soon after the Norwegians left...maybe the show has skipped a day here and there? I got the impression that every morning has been seen on-screen, more or less tracking with the episodes.)

The Sheriff's Department was out in the woods looking for Jacques' cabin, the one with the red drapes, after Cooper sees the log cabin photo and puts it together that Laura was photographed there. About 19 minutes into the episode: It's funny Jake felt like not much happened in this episode. To me it felt jam-packed with information and character moments. The amount of information we learn about Laura blew my mind. By the way, I don't get why Leo's truck is in the Flesh World magazine? Is he advertising there for some reason? Why would he send a picture of his truck? Also, if you pause and read the text, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the nearby pictures. Seems they took random saucy ads and threw in some unrelated pictures. So alas, Leo's truck is unexplained. As a side note, dear god I never want to see anything else from Eraserhead.

I agree with pretty much everything you said! Especially the MacGuffin part, that is a great way to put how I feel about the mystery. I feel like the whole point is to keep it ambiguous and I'm fine with that. I definitely notice the Lynch directed episodes as well, and I agree they're excellent TV. I think what I meant with the B-movie comment was more that the drama seems fairly deliberate (as opposed to naturalistic). It is well written and well presented for sure, but nonetheless artificial-feeling to me. So for example when Leland listens to the record player and starts dancing and crying, geez is that uncomfortable to watch as it drags on, but at the same time I'm thinking "wow I'm surprised the writer and actor really went for it here!" It's like theater, not "real." Like Lynch is shouting at me "look at this!" Which is not to say it can't be meaningful, just that I'm not fully immersed/emotionally involved in it. So I guess it's unlikely to be personally meaningful to me, at least not yet. However as more of the characters and plot gets revealed I find I'm more interested in the story in general, so we'll see. Thanks to you guys I'm keeping an eye out for broader themes and symbols, etc. In particular I love the analysis of Cooper as a deconstruction of the film noir detective, with Audrey as his "femme fatale" in sarcasm quotes, and his genuine appreciation of the town, and love of coffee. The conflict between the older deliberately ignorant parents and the darker youth, and the idea of the external modern world vs the rustic isolated town are also very interesting to me, I look forward to seeing if and how those develop. As for comparing to his other work, I don't believe I've seen any of Lynch's stuff except Dune when I was a kid. That certainly had some creepy and memorable images, but I'd have to rewatch it to make any comment. I plan to watch his more well-known stuff at some point and I'll report back my relevant impressions. Thanks for the great discussion, btw, keep it coming.

Fortunately I'm following this thread, and this is exactly what I've been thinking about as I'm listening to the cast. I'm largely approaching the show as a piece of entertainment, in fact a comedy with bits of melodrama thrown in. (Though there are a few truly unsettling elements as well.) Maybe this is due to my modern perspective, as the soap opera seems completely contrived and the characters laughably (and in some cases delightfully) overwrought. There's also the fact that I could go and watch the whole thing at any time, so I feel the mystery is something I'm deliberately saving and savoring as it unfolds, and I don't have the same sense of tension. However, it's pretty clear that Chris and Jake take the show much more seriously and at face value. They point out elements and choices made by the show that I didn't consider. It's interesting to think of how I would have reacted to the show in 1992 (had I been old enough to appreciate it). I get the feeling that a lot of Thumbs do treat it as a serious drama and mystery with important motifs and themes, and very deliberate choices by the artists to convey certain feelings. I really like listening and reading about these things and I can appreciate them after the fact. But to be honest when I watch each episode myself most of that stuff kind of passes me by as I'm enjoying the surface level of the plot and bizarre characters. I'm just taking it in scene by scene, following along and not thinking too deeply about it. So for me I'm not expecting much deeper meaning. Even the moody unsettling stuff (e.g. Leland's grief or Cooper's dream) can be amusing or uncomfortable to watch in the way of a B movie, but not affect me like a piece of good art can. Some of the scenes and performances are pretty great, and I can get into it, but overall the show reads as fairly empty. There's that saying "don't put more thought into a piece of art than the author." I find it hard to believe Lynch or the other writers put a whole lot of thought into this beyond making it as entertaining as possible. However some of the commentary on the cast and these forums has made me think twice. It's an interesting way to experience it.

GTA 5 first-person. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gnbUusxRks

Another visual joke in the vet scene: Lydecker Veterinary Clinic "Aid to the beast incarnate." And WickedCestus pointed this out already, but here's the shot just afterwards. Note the llama, fire hydrant, and the iguana just chillin' on the floor. Also the lady with the cat can't help smiling and looking up at the llama. That pink harness! By the way, while Mike doesn't say it explicitly in his monologue at the end of episode 3, when Cooper explains his dream at the start of episode 4 he does say Mike and Bob's tattoo was "Fire walk with me". As a first-time viewer I was anticipating the one-armed man saying this, so it was even more jarring to hear him say "Mom." Weird.

Nice jennegatron! Starting at 7:30, talking about SimCity (5) traffic patterns...

Speaking of Desert Golf, someone made this video showing all the terrain from 0 to 10,000. I can't fathom how this was produced, I hope it wasn't by recording the game and editing out everything but the transitions.