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Twin Peaks Rewatch 21: Checkmate

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Twin Peaks Rewatch 21:

 

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Checkmate

Our complete rewatch of Twin Peaks has taken us deep into late season two, a time when the show can't decide what its wants to be and seemingly re-invents itself each week. Fortunately there's more or less as much to like as there is to be perplexed by, in the show's 21st episode, "Checkmate."

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I bet chess is involved, though with Twin Peaks episode titles you can never really be sure.

 

Yeah, remember all those masked balls from a couple weeks ago?

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Not too much comment on this one but I get a kick out of the opening. It's admittedly pretty cheesy and totally out-of-tune with the way supernatural stuff is depicted earlier in the show but it's fun especially after a stretch frustratingly low on otherworldly phenomena. You also get Maj. Briggs touching the wood table and mumbling, "Is this for the soul? My soul?" which

certainly seems to foreshadow Josie's fate although I don't know when they came up with the whole "drawer pull" idea - supposedly it was Lynch's last-minute idea and that's not for a few episodes. So this may just be a coincidence, or a reference to the Log Lady's husband or something. The whole wood mythology does seem to be one of Lynch's personal obsessions so maybe he dropped into the writer's room on his way to the bathroom or something to offer this suggestion (supposedly he was barely present at storytelling conferences, at least for this stretch of the second season but I suspect for most of the show). Think like Cooper in ep. 2: "Harley, Bob, the Major thinks his soul could be trapped in a wooden conference table! Now if you'll excuse me, I really have to urinate." Before disappearing for a few more episodes.

 

This episode was directed by Todd Holland, who also directed episode 12 - the one which begins with the zoom out of the ceiling tile. So he definitely seems to like dramatic openings. Overall, not a great episode by any means but Holland does bring some visual interest to the table, and some familiarity with the Twin Peaks universe.

 

On the other hand, three of the next four episodes are directed by first- (and only-)timers - the only exception being Lesli Linka Glatter returning to wrap up some (semi-)important matters for her fourth and final outing. Some of these guest directors are more notorious than others (and one of them directs what, to my eyes, is the beginning of the comeback) but I'll leave that for new viewers to suss out for themselves.

 

On a bright note, we are now more than halfway through the really rough mid-season stretch! ...Yay?

 

Also, that's Kyle MacLachlan's brother playing the dead guy in the last shot.

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Okay. I have approached this one a little differently than previous episodes. Rather than writing an off-the-cuff post based on my general thoughts I actually took some notes while watching this one. I'll go through them as coherently as I can and hope it's not so long that it becomes tedious.

First off, I found this episode to be much better than the last one. So that's something.

The dripping sprinkler echoes the episode where Leland dies. It's such a specific image that I have to think it's intentional. Notice that it's dripping onto a photo of Major Briggs' tattoo.

I still love Denise, who proves to be a badass by the end of the episode. I especially love the delighted look on Cooper's face when she comes into the room as "Dennis". Also, she gives Ernie a "noogie". Which is fantastic.

The Bobby/Shelly relationship seems to have completely deteriorated at this point. When she slaps Bobby I find myself saying "finally!". Somehow "Businessman Bobby" manages to be even sleazier than "Drug-Dealer Bobby". Also, that's some shirt he's wearing.

James has $12 in savings? Seems like too much. The James story really seems to be milking the memory of Laura for all it's worth:"I loved a girl who died--her name was Laura". Hey, James, didn't you also love a girl named Donna--who you unceremoniously ditched? Didn't you ALSO sorta-love a girl named Maddie? Who ALSO died? James, you're the worst.

How did Ernie Niles--a character who seems to have stepped out of an episode of "The Love Boat"--become a key Twin Peaks character? The mind boggles.

This is already longer than I had hoped, so I'll check in later with more notes on this episode.

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Hey, Audrey!  Remember last week when your dad owned a brothel at which he demands to have his way with all the new girls?  Anyway, now he's tormenting his young female hotel staff and it's really funny; check it out.

 

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After this line, I don't really care if Ben Horne is faking it or not:

 

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If I recall correctly, this is the end of the Little Nicky storyline.  Is that right?  Dick and Andy get caught, nothing happens, and Nicky disappears?

 

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Denise is still cool.

 

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And you know what?  I like this couple.

 

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I fell off for about 8 episodes, so I've been going through quite quickly this week trying to catch up, employing my own system of abridging episodes. I've seen the show through 4 times, so I know what's going on, I just watch the first bits of each scene and if I remember it being anything good, I watch, and if not, I skip. Basically, this means skipping all parts with Bobby, Nadine, MT Wentz, Hank and Ernie, Dick Trumayne, James,etc.

 

Funnily enough, probably due to this podcast, Ben Horne has emerged as my favourite character this re-watch; I love all his scenes. A funny moment I'm surprised didn't get mentioned in the podcast is when Ben gets arrested and screams "No! No! No!" in a cartoony almost Kermit-esque fashion. That had me in absolute stitches. I remember my first time through just considering Ben's stuff as just yet another dumb jump-the-shark season 2 nonsense arc, but honestly it's actually pretty good. His character is so good at combining the awesome cigar-chomping with just pure insanity. 

 

Onto this episode:

 

- Man, that opening. That's up there with the owl at the end of Episode 17. Also, it is just me, or has Doc Hayward suddenly just started appearing at all meetings in the Sheriff's office now? I love him. He makes great faces, and his interactions with Donna in Season 1 were just so Dad-ish.

 

- I love Shelly in this episode. I know the cast is obsessed with Norma, but I think I prefer Shelly as the best female actor in the show. Sucks that her entire character arc is just to be tossed around by two shitty dudes. 

 

- Also, is it just me, or did Harry seem kinda creepy in his scene with Josie? He barely even tried talking to her before he was just all smoochin' every which way. Really makes their relationship seem even stranger than it already was. I mean, are they ever even shown talking? All the scenes as far as I can remember are just them making out.

 

- Donna has cool hair in her scene with Big Ed. 

 

- Bobby and Audrey's relationship continues to just be weird? It's hard to tell what either of them are getting out of this. I did like the "don't call me baby" line though. 

 

 Even though I've tried to the show through 4 times, I've only made it past this part of season 2 on a couple of them, and only finished once. This part is really quite a slog. Because of this, I barely remember what happens next in any of these arcs, which is kind of fun. Also, my memory is stupendously bad so everything I say is subject to me completely remembering things. 

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- Bobby and Audrey's relationship continues to just be weird? It's hard to tell what either of them are getting out of this. I did like the "don't call me baby" line though.

 

Audrey's been through a lot at the beginning of this season, but with Bobby she knows she can toy with him without getting hurt.  I really think that there's not much more to that relationship than what we see.

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As much as I love Denise that solution to the hostage situation was some serious Bugs Bunny shit. I was half expecting there to be an exploding candygram on that dinner tray.

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Ugh I forgot how squicky Truman starts to come off when he's interacting with Josie. I mean, when she first returns back he's uncomfortably physical in their reunion. She collapses into his arms and he just clutches her on the floor and kisses her a bunch. It's an odd reaction. This time round, she's being subjugated by someone and insisting it's for the best while telling him to leave. Instead of doing what she asks or actually trying to figure out what's going on, he just rubs his hands all over her and says "Let me take care of you."

I'm especially uncomfortable with this because I don't remember it being an intentional decision of making him seem creepy, I remember his character as supposed to be the good guy throughout.

 

Also I really did not like that plan with Denise. Renault literally says it's ok to not shoot her because she's a woman, then she's blatantly lifting up her skirt and he's just like "Hey don't I know you or something?"

 

Apart from that I don't have much to say except that this episode felt generally more enjoyable. It just had more to capture my interest compared to the declining recent weeks so the episode didn't feel like mostly fluff.

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Harry and Josie gross me out. It's not even really a plotline thing; it's so out of their range as actors that it makes me very uncomfortable. I'm sure the plotline is gross too, I'm just so repulsed that my brain shuts off.

 

Mike and Nadine's storyline cracks me up, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I like Wendy Robie's work with such an absurd character.

 

I like the idea of Jean Renault's speech near the end, that Twin Peaks used to be simple, and then a young woman died and Cooper came and brought a nightmare with him. Obviously, the nightmare was already there (see Fire Walk With Me), but that's a cool concept that is genuinely spooky amid a scene that is....not spooky at all.

 

Also, that's Kyle MacLachlan's brother playing the dead guy in the last shot.

I believe the next episode starts with a pan up of his face, and the first time I watched it I got confused because I thought it was Cooper for half a second. They have that same strong chin!

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The episode is up! enjoy. Episode 22 thread also exists now.

Oops hahaha on the front page of idlethumbs.net I say "everybody's wearing weird sweaters," but just realized I didn't even mention that on the episode. Both Catherine and the mountie who is in cahoots with Jean Renault have the most RIDICULOUS huge sweaters on this week. That is all.

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Apologies if this has been mentioned in a previous episode's thread, but the director of this episode, Todd Holland, also directed

 

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No Chris didn't hear wrong, it did sound like Ed said 12 dollars. Even better, when Ed talks to Donna about James he says "Oh James is fine, he just asked for money."

And I weirdly got the vibe that Ed was just sending the $12 James asked for and no more. To a bar too, not a house or hotel or anything. I'm sure James is fine.

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Wait really? I not only heard 12 dollars, but the subtitles said so too. I haven't listened to the podcast yet but is there some confusion around this? I assumed the joke was that he was penniless because he's shitty, but too proud to admit it so he has Ed transfer those measly 12$ because he couldn't stand to lose face.

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Both Catherine and the mountie who is in cahoots with Jean Renault have the most RIDICULOUS huge sweaters on this week. That is all.

NYMag did a pictoral ranking of every sweater on Twin Peaks. It's amazing. There is also a Tumblr dedicated to knitwear on the show. I recommend pulling either of those up whenever James is on the screen.

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I don't think it was me who said the UFO thing but I've speculated about similar things elsewhere, so maybe it was. Either way, I can't seem to find any evidence about what they were thinking there. It does seem a likely explanation though (that they were planning to bring in aliens and then thought better and made it "the woods") because Lynch is supposedly not very into UFO lore and he would probably have put the kibbosh on that angle. But then it's weird that it comes up in the episode he directs and is squashed during a time he's not very involved with the show. He and Frost were writing a sci-fi type thing before Twin Peaks...but it definitely doesn't seem to fit in with much of anything.

 

Does anyone have quotes of Frost or Peyton or whoever talking about this? Not including the whole Bob Engels/Fire Walk With Me lore of

planets of creamed corn (which is a whole 'nother can of garmonbozia)?

I'd love to know more.

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James' savings amounting to $12 and him still requesting Ed to send them to him is the only item in my Best Moments of the James Hurley Storyline. I laughed out loud when the figure was mentioned.

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Apparently when i heard the number, I actually mentally adjusted my brain to assume that stupid 50's greaser James was actually in the 50's.

 

When I started reading this conversation I thought "sure, but back then, a burger cost a nickel..." before remembering that "back then" was the 90's.

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I don't think it was me who said the UFO thing but I've speculated about similar things elsewhere, so maybe it was. Either way, I can't seem to find any evidence about what they were thinking there. It does seem a likely explanation though (that they were planning to bring in aliens and then thought better and made it "the woods") because Lynch is supposedly not very into UFO lore and he would probably have put the kibbosh on that angle. But then it's weird that it comes up in the episode he directs and is squashed during a time he's not very involved with the show. He and Frost were writing a sci-fi type thing before Twin Peaks...but it definitely doesn't seem to fit in with much of anything.

Does anyone have quotes of Frost or Peyton or whoever talking about this? Not including the whole Bob Engels/Fire Walk With Me lore of

planets of creamed corn (which is a whole 'nother can of garmonbozia)?

I'd love to know more.

Oops I could have sworn that was you. Maybe I fully imagined it existing at all... If it was anywhere it was in the episode thread for the episode when Briggs shows Cooper the printout, or the episode immediately following it.

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Ah yeah, redaction redacted - it was me after all! Here's what I wrote:

 

"The aliens - I've never been able to figure out exactly where this thread comes from, but in Martha Nochimson's Lynch book she suggests the UFOs were Frost's idea and something Lynch convinced him to turn away from. She based this on a conversation with Catherine Coulson, the Log Lady, who is also a close personal friend of Lynch. Either way, I think the reason they didn't seed it as "the woods" at this point is because it wasn't originally supposed to be. Love the anecdote about (Chris'?) parents. That really sums up the general response to season two at the time, I think."

 

I took another look at the passage in the book (The Passion of David Lynch) and it's actually a bit more ambiguous than that. She says that Lynch is bored by UFOs and then footnotes it with "Interviews with Lynch relative to Dune generally refer to his self-avowed surprise at his interest in a futuristic story. [she elaborates] Lynch's repeated statements of this type give credibility to my surmise, parallel to that of his longtime friend and coworker Catherine Coulson, that the emotionless involutions of the UFO plot on Twin Peaks were much more Frost than Lynch."

 

Aside from being speculatory (I actually put a lot of stock in Nochimson's speculations as they are generally very resonant and based in evidence) this is kind of problematic because it seems to assume there is a "UFO plot" in Twin Peaks when in fact there's only one scene (directed by Lynch!) followed, many episodes later, but the "twist" that it wasn't UFOs at all. So she might be unintentionally misrepresenting something on the show based on memory.

 

I think I leaned toward the above reading a few months ago, but now I'm not really sure what to think. The inconvenient facts I have to look at are:

 

a. Lynch himself directed the UFO episode (which doesn't necessarily mean a lot - he also supposedly wasn't keen on Windom Earle, but that episode mentions him for the first time)

b. Lynch is generally absent from the episodes in which the UFO plot becomes "the woods" plot

c. Lynch doesn't really seem to have shot down Frost on anything until the final episode. Actually, I take that back, according to Nochimson & Harley Peyton he did not like Invitation to Love (which was written & directed by Mark Frost) and Peyton says Lynch nixed it for season two.

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I loved this episode. It put a little meat back on the bone. If Twin Peaks is some kind of post-modern take on a soap operas this back half is basically the soap opera-ness totally unhinging and it somehow really works for me. The circular plot lines devouring themselves in what might take a traditional soap opera thousands of episodes happening in a handful. It might not serve its core mystery with dignity but I feel like it serves one of its original concepts.

 

And while I couldn't say it was a conscious choice or even in the text, I feel like their own ambivalence about it being UFOs or Woods Ghosts is straight out of classic soap opera lore, where people are killed then return mysteriously alive a year later with a different actor. Not as though they weren't killed, or survived, just like "Oh, hi Bob!" Again, the sort of thing that used to play out over long periods.   

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The opening was kind of out there. I can’t tell if garland is permanently in that weird chair space or what the heck the pilot costume was for. The scar/tattoo just feels like a n other meaningless mystery. 

 

Of course conspiracy coop knows about blue book! It’s weird that garland can do this off his own steam (intriguingly you have duchovny in this episode which foreshadows the x files a fair bit). 

 

I like how it’s the third episode in a row that there’s classified information (although after the others steadfastness it’s garland who seems to be giving up the goods). 

 

Half eaten donut. 

 

The way coop pops his head in is so incredibly cheesy. 

 

More crap with Andy and Dick. 

 

Cooper, when talking to Lucy, seems lessened as a person - hunched and disappointed. 

 

Im glad bobby gets a slap. Needs more. They’re feeding Leo a lot of jam. 

 

James and Evelyn has possibly the best bit of viewer voice (all that “I can read your voice”). Everything else is gross from the implied incest to James boringly talking about how it’s his fault that maddy died to shagging Evelyn even though he only just gave a ring to Donna. Groooooooss. 

 

The whole Truman wrapping himself on Josie is also mega creepy and gross. 

 

I like bad ass Audrey. The feeling I get is that she’s acted like a child because she’s never needed or had the space to grow. But when coop showed up she sort of has things to aim for. 

 

Mad Horne is weird. 

 

I still dont don’t know what ed wanted to say to Norma. Although it’s great hank gets punched in the face by nadine. Obviously hank doesn’t care about breakfast as much as he made out (and when he vanished for days with Ernie). 

 

I like that coop was made a deputy. It seems obvious a move but a good one. 

 

The surprise that Denise can pull a man look off is kind of funny in a way. But also coop knew this so his surprise is odd. 

 

Im not really sure what happens when Catherine sees super grubby and, defeated, crazy Horne. what is she seeing? Maybe whatever is in her mind when she chose that coat that morning. 

 

Good that audrey rebuffed the slime bobby. 

 

I had a horrible sense that the whole Denise arc is about setting up the pie based sneak attack at the last second. 

 

I did like coopers apparent introspection at jeans statements. Probably true to an extent. 

 

CReePy LEo. 

 

And another ramped ending with imagery from nowhere. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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