Twin Peaks Rewatch 27: Variations on Relations

[Jake]

Twin Peaks Rewatch 27:

 

 

Variations on Relations

It's another enjoyable but aimless episode of Twin Peaks! As we close in on the series finale, the full suite of late-season-two plot threads chugs along. At least we're always glad to see Gordon Cole.

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• Episode 28 Pre-Discussion Thread
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[LostInTheMovies]

Just one person murdered actually, in a giant papier mâché pawn piece. No, I'm not kidding and yes, he is inside the pawn piece already when he is shot (with an arrow). I believe he is listed in the credits as "Heavy Metal Dude" though he does have a name and someone has written a song about him:

[Jake]

This is what I remember. This is the thing that made me stop watching.

[Persistence of 3]

Not just any Heavy Metal Dude that was Ted Raimi, right?

[O.K. Bob]

Not just any Heavy Metal Dude that was Ted Raimi, right?

Correct, Sam's brother played Mr. Tommaski!

[Fingus]

Oh yes, Wyndom Earle. The genius. Whose logic is so warped and his methods so subtle and untraceable that he has to build a giant paper mâché chess piece and stuff a dead metal head inside it.

I bet the next episode opens with Coop saying "He's trying to send us a message..."

And Heavy Metal Dude was there because of... Beer? The cost of beer in Twin Peaks must be pretty damn high for him to be cool with hanging out in a creepy cabin with an old dude playing a flute and his pet Frankenstein monster. Not to mention willingly stepping into the big ridiculous chess piece!

Like, why wasn't he a heroin junkie? They haven't been scared to show drugs in the show before. And with Leo there it would make sense that they could get in touch with an addict easily. I can see heroin withdrawals being strong enough to compel you to tag along with Wyndom's circus show, but not beer. It makes me wonder if that was in the script originally but then changed.

I also like Truman's deduction that the chess piece can't be a bomb because there's no ticking sound.

[richardco]

Ahh!  Heavy Metal Beer Chess Guy!  3rd favorite Twin Peaks character right after Norma and Major Briggs.

I'm just thankful that this episode isn't named after a cheesy 80's love song.  On the Wings of Love has been stuck in my head for a week now :/

[Elen]

And Heavy Metal Dude was there because of... Beer? The cost of beer in Twin Peaks must be pretty damn high for him to be cool with hanging out in a creepy cabin with an old dude playing a flute and his pet Frankenstein monster.

Maybe he just wanted to drink beer without having to listen to Julee Cruise's ethereal crooning.

 

 

I also like Truman's deduction that the chess piece can't be a bomb because there's no ticking sound.

Twin Peaks's finest! Man, it has not been a good week (month, year) for Harry.

[Fingus]

Oh, and another thing. The cut from Heavy Metal Dude's droopy blue face inside of a giant chess piece to Laura Palmers photo might beat the Josie Drawer Pull in terms of ridiculous juxtaposition.

[sclpls]

I gotta say that for whatever cheese factor exists in this episode, I really enjoyed it because structurally I think the show is back to what I like about it even if none of the individual story threads are all that interesting/good.

[sclpls]

Also Billy Zane's character running into Cooper at the Great Northern, and being super distraught... it's like, how has your character earned being this emotionally distraught? Hella dumb. However I appreciate the Cooper appears to be drinking a glass of milk.

[LostInTheMovies]

And I love Coop's straight-faced correction of JJW's smarmy Hindu gibe.

[Nappi]

Oh, and another thing. The cut from Heavy Metal Dude's droopy blue face inside of a giant chess piece to Laura Palmers photo might beat the Josie Drawer Pull in terms of ridiculous juxtaposition.

 

I hope that one day they will release a limited edition Bluray with alternative cover art consisting of a portrait of the Heavy Metal Youth and a police photo of his corpse. I think he deserves it.

 

Also, Donna's mum really likes those peas.

[mikemariano]

I'm glad Mike is having such fun with his ridiculous storyline.  Nadine, too.

 

 

Norma and Ed aren't in this episode at all, are they?

 

Oh, Druids.  OK.

 

[ihavefivehat]

I actually liked Heavy Metal Youth a lot. He's a dumb character but I love how he's just totally cool with everything right up until the last second. And who would meet Windom Earl and Leo and think that they're cool dudes to hang out with... just because they have beer I guess? It's one of the only instances where the late season 2 absurdity is actually funny for me.

[agorman]

This episode really just had so much nonsense in it. That stupid map was just doubling down on the LOST stuff from the last episode, and that silly box is revealed to contain another box that has strange symbols on it. I forgive the goofiness of that box because I enjoy so much where it eventually goes.

 

I found myself liking the wine tasting scene fine enough, and was glad to see Mike and Bobby back together, but overall thought this episode was mediocre to bad.

[LostInTheMovies]

Incidentally, this is the first time in 10 episodes (since Leland's death) that Mark Frost gets a writing credit. I guess he wanted to be onhand for the Lodge lore (especially Windom's link to it) and Coop's romance with Annie (although that really gets introduced last episode, so I don't know). It's kind of random that this is one of the few episodes he writes in the entire second half of the show.

[Turgid]

The futureunfolding.com/peaks site gives a strange 404: "The web app you have attempted to reach is not available in this Microsoft Azure App Service region."

 

Anyway I'm still hanging in there. Glad to see this episode was watchable, aside from the Earle b.s. which still had me cringing. The population of 5000 seems about right to me, if you imagine Twin Peaks has a lot of tourists which it evidently does. Another blessing of the Pie God? That explains the huge hotel and department store, and maybe the hospital serves the area.

[SuperBiasedMan]

One thing I did really enjoy in this episode is Pete's moment with the box. I had thought that there was going to be a further development of Pete as a great puzzle solver (an extention of his chess mastery) but then he just accidentally drops the box, discovers the other box inside and thinks "Oh, maybe I should just drop this one too!"

I feel like Annie's character is being played as oddly bored and world weary. Even as she says lines about how wonderful and magical Twin Peaks seems, her energy is flat and unengaged. Which I think would be a good pairing for Cooper but instead they wrote her as as a mirror image.

[sclpls]

Man, really surprised that Chris & Jake liked the scene with Cooper and Zane's character, but whatever!

[Argobot]

The Cooper/Zane scene will be even better if it's Zane's last appearance on the show. First he pours his heart out to Cooper about being head-over-heels in love, then he gets a telegram (??) and is never heard from again. I hope the telegram was from James Cameron.

[Professor Video Games]

The Cooper/Zane scene will be even better if it's Zane's last appearance on the show. First he pours his heart out to Cooper about being head-over-heels in love, then he gets a telegram (??) and is never heard from again. I hope the telegram was from James Cameron.

 

Note: Zane died on the way to his home planet.

[sclpls]

So Zane was an alien from another planet, suddenly his character makes so much more sense.

[mikemariano]

So Zane was an alien from another planet, suddenly his character makes so much more sense.

 

It makes more sense than the actual upcoming plot point of

 

Billy Zane penetrating a girl's hymen in mid-air.

[LostInTheMovies]

Really enjoyed your podcast this week - every week it's a fun listen, especially your verbal head-scratching when it comes to Windom Earle (your musings about the casting/costumes this week had me laughing out loud) but you've got me a bit worried with the episode shrinkage lately (each week it's getting shorter and shorter it seems)! We'll be back to the old hour+ format for the finale and FWWM, right? A lot of garmonbozia to digest there (I'm not spoiler-tagging that - newcomers, you have some interesting stuff upcoming is all I'll say). So...more Chris & Jake, please.