Review Tonight! "Twin Peaks" S02E01 "May The Giant Man Be With You"

[Mad-Pac]

Aired Thursday 9:00 PM Sep 30, 1990 on ABC

If the question "Who killed Laura Palmer?" dominated the town of Twin Peaks in season 1, now it's time for everybody to ask: "Who killed Dale Cooper?" OK, maybe not... Perhaps the investigation into Laura Palmer's death continues, and information is provided from an unexpected source.


CAST

Kyle MacLachlan ... Special Agent Dale Cooper
Michael Ontkean ... Sheriff Harry S. Truman
Mädchen Amick ... Shelly Johnson
Dana Ashbrook ... Bobby Briggs
Richard Beymer ... Benjamin Horne
Lara Flynn Boyle ... Donna Hayward
Sherilyn Fenn ... Audrey Horne
Warren Frost ... Dr. Will Hayward
Peggy Lipton ... Norma Jennings
James Marshall ... James Hurley
Everett McGill ... Big Ed Hurley
Jack Nance ... Pete Martell
Kimmy Robertson ... Lucy Moran
Ray Wise ... Leland Palmer
Joan Chen ... Jocelyn Packard (credit only)
Eric DaRe ... Leo Johnson
Harry Goaz ... Deputy Andy Brennan
Michael Horse ... Deputy Tommy 'Hawk' Hill
Sheryl Lee ... Maddy Ferguson
Russ Tamblyn ... Dr. Lawrence Jacoby
Grace Zabriskie ... Sarah Palmer
Chris Mulkey ... Hank Jennings
Mel Ferrer ... FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield
David Patrick Kelly ... Jerry Horne
Wendy Robie ... Nadine Hurley
Don S. Davis ... Major General George Hammond
Victoria Catlin ... Blackie O'Reilly
Zooey Deschanel ... Eileen Hayward
Catherine E. Coulson ... The Log Lady
Galyn Görg ... Nancy
Al Strobel ... Phillip Michael Gerard
Richard Kiel ... The Giant
Phoebe Augustine ... Ronette Pulaski
Stephen C. MacLaughlin ... Pie Eater
Charles Miller ... Doctor
Mak Takano ... Asian Man
Jessica Wallenfels ... Harriet Hayward
Sandra Kaye Wetzel ... Nurse
Alicia Witt ... Gersten Hayward
Hank Worden ... Waiter


WRITING CREDITS

Mark Frost ... (created by) &
David Lynch ... (created by)

Mark Frost ... (teleplay by)

Mark Frost ... (story by) &
David Lynch ... (story by)


DIRECTED BY

David Lynch

 

[Bob Peters 61]

First of all, I was glad to see the long intro again with more of that awesome saw-sharpener in action. For some reason I could watch that thing run all day.

I don't know whether to congratulate Audrey for evading discovery and incest at once or to think her a fool for it. Probably best to do both. Were she wiser, she would have known to sheepishly say, "Hi, Daddy," in an admission of getting caught. Sure would have changed the family dynamic, but given the damage already done to that family dynamic, it wouldn't be that bad a difference. Better than the trouble she's bought for herself now. If only Agent Cooper had read her message.

Andy's back to being comic relief after his moment of a hero's glory. Still, he did manage to bumble right into Leo's stash.

Bullet proof vest. Who didn't expect that to be a way to put Cooper back into action right after the shooting. Must be rough going on with his investigation while suffering two broken ribs and an abdominal bullet wound. Gotta love the twist about the tick, though. Especially the bullet with a tick stuck to it the doctor showed him.

That room service guy was a piece of work. Sees a man laying helpless on the floor bleeding from gunshot, and it doesn't even register with him that the guy might need help. Good thing he was on the phone with a deputy when it happened.

Also liked the way they got the drop on the room: Harry and Hawk both throwing down from opposite sides of the open doorway and Andy in the background. Just as it should be done by that Sheriff's Department.

Agent Cooper was a little too cool throughout the ordeal. So casual with his "Oh good. They're here."

Just when you thought the investigation was getting away from the supernatural, we have our favorite FBI agent visited by a creepy looking giant from another dimension. Long as the friendly behemoth is helpful, I guess.

I was a little surprised to hear Cooper sort of go along with the assumption that it was a man who shot him. That scene was one that begged the viewer to notice whatever details were available and the body behind that pistol was clearly that of a slender woman wearing a black overcoat and gloves. Maybe if he pieces together the details he's blacked out for now he might come to the same conclusion. So Blackie was busy at Jack's at the time, but there are other slender women in and around that town. What intrigue awaits us on that front?

Not quite as good as previous episodes when you factor in the weight of duties of a double-length season premier following a cliffhanger season ending. But still pretty cool. I'll give it 6 phones innocently hung up on a deputy who's just heard a fellow lawman get shot on that line. (Even Andy knew enough to call in the cavalry to the scene.)

 

[Brimfin]

OK, this show has done a real number on us. It had 30 episodes to just barely keep in within our limit, but now we find that two of them were double-length episodes. Hope the finale isn’t a double-length job as well. I noticed the theme featured lots of new names as regulars, including those of people listed as “starring” before the guest credits in season one as well as other former guest star names like Kimmy Robertson as Lucy. Noticeably absent was Piper Laurie’s credit. Did she die in the fire after all?

What do you know? I joked that room service wouldn’t get a tip, but it turns out he did – the most undeserved tip in TV history perhaps. That guy made Lucy look like Einstein by comparison. How dumb do you have to be not to notice that a man on the floor is shot, or to be unable to comprehend the phrase “call a doctor?”

Then we have the mysterious giant, who appears out of thin air but is able to physically remove Cooper’s ring. He at least is an intriguing and imposing character. His prediction of the man in the smiling bag and Leo locked inside a hungry horse came true. Now we have to wait for “The Owls are not what they seem” and “Without chemicals, he points.”

Audrey manages to dodge Daddy by donning a mask (that surprise was actually given away by the Netflix photo of the episode showing her in the mask. I often wonder how Netflix pick these pictures. Some seem to be ridiculously random; others fit the theme of the story well. I speak this about any Netflix show, by the way, not just this.) Audrey’s in big trouble now, locked up in her room with a guard posted, and Dale never found the note she left. She’d better hope her next client is her Dad coming back.

Weird stuff with Donna and James. She comes to visit him in jail looking like some movie star vamp, and he’s not interested in kissing her. I half-expected him to tell her, “You taste like cigarette smoke. Ugh!” Oh, and that hospital has the worst-looking food I’ve ever seen. Just looking at it could literally make you sick.

At least Pete was okay, with just some smoke inhalation after running in to save Catherine and Shelly. Did he find Shelly and pull her out? Since Catherine and Shelly were together at the end of last week’s show, how come one is safe in the hospital and the other is just missing and presumed dead. It wouldn’t surprise me if she turns up later alive toward the end of one show and then is listed only in the end credits so that we would be surprised. Of course, I could look to see how many shows she was listed as being in, but where’s the fun in that? I’d rather be surprised.

Now we know how Nadine lost her eye. The whole revelation was an eye opener (LOL, no pun intended - I didn't catch that until I proofread this). Norma and Ed together for 4 years and then she takes off with Hank. A depressed Ed marries the first girl he sees. Then it turns out Norma and Hank weren’t serious yet, but she marries him after having lost Ed. And Ed couldn’t leave Nadine after accidentally shooting her eye out. So the two of them really have only themselves to blame for making some poor decisions. I’d almost like to see Ed and Nadine actually reconcile if she recovers.

My wife and I were away for a retreat this weekend and one of the things they talked about was how much children need affirmation from their fathers. We return home to see this scene where Bobby’s Dad gives him positive affirmation. I tell you, you just can’t make this stuff up!

Albert’s back, but at least this week no one slugs him – but not for lack of trying on his part. But Deputy Andy does tell him to quit making his smart remarks, earning him an admiring look from Lucy. We still don’t know for sure if Andy is the father of her baby or not. Weird.

Leland’s hair has turned white overnight. And now he’s not only dancing, he’s singing too. Perhaps next week, he’ll be doing Vegas. What’s funny is reading his song lyrics on the subtitles. The fun of the song is that it sounds like, “Maresydotes and Doseydotes and little Lamsy Divy” until he sings it slower and you hear the actual words (Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy). But the subtitles spell it exactly the same as the actual words either way, wrecking the song entirely.

Okay, it finally ended as Cooper went to sleep after a long day. What to say? I’ll give this 6 slinky black teddies which is what Audrey was last seen wearing.

Best line of the week:
“Hell of a way to kill a tick.”

Second best:
“Looks like brain damage.”
“With Leo, how can you tell?”

Line you could see coming a mile away:
“When you work for me, everybody’s your type.”

 

[Bob Peters 61]

My wife and I were away for a retreat this weekend and one of the things they talked about was how much children need affirmation from their fathers. We return home to see this scene where Bobby’s Dad gives him positive affirmation. I tell you, you just can’t make this stuff up!

Yeah, but didn't the diner scene between the Maj. and Bobby also feel like a "Goodbye," of some sort? That struck me as kind of weird.

 

[Mad-Pac]

I really appreciated the show's return to Crazytown. Cooper's semiconscious experience/vision/hallucination was the perfect excuse for that. Beginning with the hotel employee who must be 100 years old, but unfortunately age didn't seem to give him any wisdom, at least not enough for him to recognize the obvious, and then moving on to the strange giant messenger and his riddles. I liked the way the scene made him look even taller, with his head touching the ceiling and next to the ceiling light fixture.

The other moment of delusion/insanity/clairvoyance was the vision that "General Hammond" had and told his son Bobby, that he had returned to his home he knew as a child, it had added rooms, and he lived with Bobby there and both got along. Or something along these lines. I had a good laugh when Bobby asked his father, "what is it that you do exactly?" and his reply was "That's classified." Smart way to deal with that tiring situation of having to create a background to your characters. In this case, he can remain a mystery and doesn't have to make sense anyway. I mean, ever since the beginning I have found it very weird that the good "General" would wear his uniform *all the time*, and it's not like there's a military base near Twin Peaks, such a small town. If there were, that would've come up in the story already.

So, they brought Agent Rosenfield back and this time he's actually trying to be nice. And even then he remains as creepy and offensive as ever. I just thought the scene with Deputy Andy doing the "chicken dance" for over five minutes (after having been hit on the nose by a rake, I mean, a loose floor board) way too silly to be taken seriously. By the way, to me Deputy Andy is the 1990's version of this guy from "30 Rock". And the actor always plays a variation of the same hillbilly.

Oh, yes, and there's more crazy stuff going on. Now Leland's hair went completely white and he became a fan of impromptu singing, something that amuses his heartless partner (and the partner's brother), but makes everybody else in the family cringe. However the scene in which "Ben and Jerry" start dancing on the furniture as leland starts another session of uncontrollable singing showed just how rotten both are to make fun of such a sick man.

Even something part of a more normal world, such as how Big Ed and Nadine got married, sounded very bizarre, as something of a misunderstanding got Ed away from Norma and put Ed and nadine in the same path romantically. And little after getting married, and he was thinking about asking for a divorce or an annulment, he caused her to lose an eye, and, never ever complained and, because of guilt, he was condemned to be with that crazy woman for the rest of his days, apparently. That's very creepy.

There are other parts here and there I may comment about as I remember them later (especially after reading everyone else's reviews), but for now I'll stop around here. I just want to end with this video, one that precisely talks about one of the gun myths Hollywood has spread: the fact that you cold survive receiving a point-blank shot if you're wearing a bullet-proof vest. Yeah, right. So, really, when Cooper got shot (and we all knew he was coming back), I kept wondering, "how are they going to explain this without that tired bullet-proof vest cliché?" Well, it turns out they didn't even try. But at least he got one bullet, so the situation was at least a little risky.

I tried to link the video to its specific time, but it didn't work. Does anybody know how to do it? Anyway, got to 3min and 22sec.

Honestly I believe this is almost as good as Twin Peaks as it's ever gonna get. And I was complaining we weren't having enough crazy stuff. So, to me this episode is a reference point.

The season 2 inaugural episode gets 9 men in a smiling bag.

 

[Bob Peters 61]

Richard Kiel ... The Giant

If that's one of the gag credits and not just an error, I don't get it even though I do see the resemblance after looking up Richard Kiel. According to the closing credits, it's Carel Struycken, probably best known (at least in my circles) for the character of Mr. Homn, manservant to Lwaxana Troi.

I only looked back at that on your thread OP because I finally placed him by the character and wanted to see if there was a gag credit referencing that.

 

[Mad-Pac]

If that's one of the gag credits and not just an error, I don't get it even though I do see the resemblance after looking up Richard Kiel. According to the closing credits, it's Carel Struycken, probably best known (at least in my circles) for the character of Mr. Homn, manservant to Lwaxana Troi.

Yes, it was one gag credit reference. This is the time a character or actor from one of our previous shows is referenced. Can you remember where we did see Richard Kiel?

 

[Cloister56]

Right I have been absent for a while, a combination of work, being away and then forgetting how I logged into this site. I've got 3 weeks to get through so I'm gonna be seeing circular saws in my sleep after today.

The opening scenes are some of the most infuriating I have every experienced. The elderly hotel employee moves at a glacial pace, takes ages to respond to questions and hang up phones. The whole scene just went on and on, when he returned I thought perhaps he was going to do something but no, he repeats his last line, thumbs up and he does this twice winking like a madman the whole time.
I'm sure others may find it quirky and amusing but on my second watch I was tempted to skip to the giant.

Poor Agent Cooper after the ordeal of the hotel employee he then gets mugged by the giant who takes his ring. Some cryptic phrases are delivered which I will probably need to check back to later and scene 1 is over.
Cooper's musings about what he would still like to do with his life was far better and ending the scene with a resigned "they're here" was great.
So we have a new mysteries to go with our old one. Oh and Lucy gives us a nice wrap up of the key events of the last 24 hours.
Cooper quickly pieces together the events which led to Leo getting shot and then the great Agent Rosenflower (heh) arrives to witness Andy reverting to idiot mode again, a bit of a shame after his recent heroic actions, but he does find the secret stash. Later he does discover some important information and links this crime with Teresa Banks (a prior crime). I thought for a moment this occurring in front of Rosenflower would at least soften him, but nope.

Cooper does a good recap of the events as we know them, donuts giving way to scenes of violence. I do like how the list of victims does include poor Waldo. I also think that the FBI should adopt Rosenfield's Hanky Crime rating.

The creepy one armed man arrives with his one shoe parade. I wonder how long he will wait as Cooper and Truman go off to the hospital to see Jacoby while he was waiting.
James implication that there might be another suspect who drives a red corvette is interesting. Now as this scene came immediately after the intro of the one armed man, he mentions "fire walk with me" when he appeared in Cooper's vision and James mentioned Laura's "really lights my fire", this seems to imply this guy is the new suspect.

Cooper decides to shatter Lucy and Andy's innocence by giving them a few boxes of "flesh mag" and leaving them to it. I don't know why but I found it slightly amusing.

Meanwhile Audrey is doing her best to hide from her Dad. It must have been terrifying to see your dad approaching you with lust in his eyes, Audrey is going to need some serious therapy.
Later she is taken to see the owner of One-Eye Jacks, Blackie. She mentions her room has been locked. This seems to imply that the girls are not free to leave, perhaps only when they have "misbehaved" but it makes the whole thing far more sordid.
I did find it strange that Blackie reports Ben was disappointed by Audrey, I thought he loved the hard to get he thought she was doing. But perhaps it is more jealousy fueling Blackie's actions.
Audrey's desperation and appealing to Cooper really gets across the situation she is now in.

We see a different side to Jerry (my likely killer) acting very creepy. The heroin he gives her reminded me of those little packets you throw on the floor and they go bang. I forget their name.

Leyland has become the white fox and is singing a brilliant little song. I had to look it up but all the versions I could find were nowhere near as good as his. When Ben and Jerry join in by dancing to his song it did make me laugh.

There is an odd scene with Madeline and Donna. Now I wear glasses and if I did what Madeline did I would then struggle to safely make my way out of the diner. Does she even need the glasses? Could she not get new frames? Perhaps contact lenses may be the way to go.
Then there was log lady, no just no that was disgusting.
Donna seems to have inherited Audreys sultry music backing. I didn't understand Lucy's reaction, it's like she can barely recognise her, but she is hasn't undergone a big makeover just some sunglasses.
Also when she asked James if she wanted to kiss her all I could think was "no it will be like kissing an ashtray you just finished a cigarette"

I think I might have misjudged Shelley and Bobby. She does seem to really like him and his awkward but honest response to her saying she loved him made me think there might be something more than physical from his side.
The scene between Bobby and his dad was really touching and played brilliantly by both sides. I did expect a hug at the end but the handshake probably shows the difference between dream and reality.
The show has done a good job turning Bobby from a sneering asshole to someone I actually quite like.

We finally hear how Nadine lost her eye and it does go a long way to explain Ed's situation.

The final few scenes are pretty horrific with Ronnette flailing around, Laura's face and (is it Bob?) howling at the sky.

After a slow start it was an interesting episode with a lot happening. Pretty good for a season opener.
Now I'm off to get some donuts to fuel me through episodes 2-3.

7 hanky episode on the Rosenfield scoring system out of 10