Review S02E21 “Miss Twin Peaks”

[Mad-Pac]

Aired Thursday 9:00 PM Jun 10, 1991 on ABC

Windom Earle sets his sites on the Miss Twin Peaks contest. Lucy chooses a father for her baby. Leo gets what's coming to him. Cooper unlocks the key to entering a certain place of interest. Annie and Dale make a commitment to each other. Catherine and Andrew find a mysterious object. Donna confronts Ben Horne. The Miss Twin Peaks contest ends, but not the way you'd expect (or exactly the way you'd expect if you've been paying attention to the show). Windom ends doing something evil to someone who doesn't deserve it. Andy deciphers a puzzle.


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
Everett McGill ... Big Ed Hurley
Jack Nance ... Pete Martell
Kimmy Robertson ....Lucy Moran
Piper Laurie ...Catherine Martell
Eric DaRe ....Leo Johnson
Harry Goaz ....Deputy Andy Brennan
Michael Horse ... Deputy Tommy 'Hawk' Hill
Kenneth Welsh ....Windom Earle
Russ Tamblyn ... Dr. Lawrence Jacoby
Ian Buchanan ... Dick Tremayne
Heather Graham ....Annie Blackburn
David L. Lander ...Tim Pinkle
Robyn Lively ... Lana Budding Milford
Wendy Robie ... Nadine Hurley
Don S. Davis ... Maj. Garland Briggs
Gary Hershberger ... Mike Nelson
Mary Jo Deschanel ... Eileen Hayward
Catherine E. Coulson ...The Log Lady
Dan O'Herlihy ... Andrew Packard
John Boylan ... Mayor Milford
Jill Engels ... Trudy


WRITING CREDITS

Mark Frost...(created by)
David Lynch...(created by)
Barry Pullman...(written by)


DIRECTOR

Tim Hunter

 

[Mad-Pac]

In the hurly burly of the holidays I almost forgot this one. Here we are. Just two more episodes. Meanwhile, I say,

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!
(Even though I suspect "everybody" in this case is just one person at this point.)

 

[Brimfin]

What a peculiar title this week – Miss Twin Peaks? Of course I don’t miss it. It’s been going on for 29 weeks now; more like I’m getting tired of it. I…oh, the Miss Twin Peaks pageant. I see. Never mind.

Pageant wasn’t as weird as expected, though two of the talent phases were suggestive dancing. Surprisingly, Lucy’s leggy bouncy dance was actually more fun than Lana’s silly dressed like a harem girl number. No idea what all the other talents were, including Annie’s. Apparently they all did a slightly naughty dance at the beginning - choreographed by Squiggy, so what would we expect?

In the end, Annie wins with a moving speech that she threw together somehow in less than six hours – essentially quoting some American Indian folklore and sayings. It was such a pretty speech that Dick gave her more points than Lana’s seducing him in the storage room earned her. I did like the Mayor’s protest of “she’s been in this town all of 15 minutes.” Of course, after the crowning, Windom Earle turns on a strobe light and some fog or smoke bombs and waltzes out with Annie almost effortlessly.

What was weirdest was when he posed as the Log Lady. They showed Squiggy trying to make out with her while she was sitting on a stool. Then they showed Bobby apparently seeing her backstage from a distance. He looks back and now it looked like the Log Lady was gone and Squiggy was still talking to the empty space where she had been. I thought what Bobby was seeing was some astral projection of her until he got close and you could see it was Windom in disguise. I had to go back and check to see that Squiggy was actually reacting to her being gone. Earlier, by the way, Earle seemed to be in full on Bob mode, with the rotting teach and ashen skin. Yuk.

More fun with boxes. Andrew finds that if you can’t break it with a vise, just shoot it. Turns out the silver-colored box has a key inside, but to what? We may never find out at this rate. Audrey confronts Ben and concludes he is her father, though he never acknowledged anything close to that. Dr. Jacoby gets Ed and Nadine together with their boyfriend/girlfriend and tries to dissuade them from divorcing. Nadine acts like she doesn’t care about Ed announcing he’s engaged to Norma, until she breaks Mike’s hand with her iron grip. Later, in the confusion after the contest a weighted bag falls on her head. I’m sure we all know what’s coming next on that score! “Ed, my memory had returned!”

Lesson never to be learned on any show – don’t shush someone who says they have something important to tell you. Andy solves the pictoglyph but Coop doesn’t find out until the end of the show because he’s too busy trying to announce his own findings to listen to the deputy. We learn that poor Josie was literally scared to death and that fear is the key to the Black Lodge, while love is the key to the White Lodge. The Gray Lodge is opened by having a scary crush.

Leo manages to free the Major and send him off with the plea, “Save Shelly.” Now, an angry Earl has him holding up a box of poisonous spiders with his teeth until he can’t do it anymore and the box falls and releases the spiders. Briggs is still out of it on the drugs and isn’t much help even when recovered and brought to Harry and Dale.

And to no real surprise, Lucy wisely picks Andy to be her baby’s father, regardless of who the biological father is. Dick is relieved to have no responsibility in the matter and takes off quickly. “Try not to act so disappointed,” Lucy sneers flawlessly.

So now, Coop must rush off to rescue Annie, whom Earle is probably taking with him to the Black Lodge. How will it all end next week? More like – will any of it end or will it all be cliffhangers. We’ll find out soon. I might watch it early just to end the old year with it rather than starting the new year with it. This segment did at least advance the storylines some. So it gets 7 glass cake covers to help hide your key in plain sight.

Best dialogue:

Andy: My God, Lucy, I’m so honored you made this decision. And I promise I’ll be a great father. But…right now…I’ve got to find Agent Cooper.
(He rushes off.)
Lucy: Men.

Honorable mention:
Cooper: He’s been shot full of HaloperidolHalyperidol (Well, that’s what the subtitle read, anyway.)

 

[Brimfin]

In the hurly burly of the holidays I almost forgot this one. Here we are. Just two more episodes. Meanwhile, I say,

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!
(Even though I suspect "everybody" in this case is just one person at this point.)

And it's now 9:00 P.M. on Dec 31st, so Happy New Year to you too, Mad-pac - and to Bob Peters and Cloister56 wherever they are.​

 

[Mad-Pac]

OK, so we have the winner: Annie Blackburn, a.k.a. the girl who’s lived in town for just 15 minutes. The reason? Her moving speech. I see what the writers tried to do here. She was trying to bring up some “important issues,” but this kind of speech has been made lots of times already and, if it was something new and sincere in 1991, now sounds a little trite and generic. And I think her delivery was a little too unemotional. But she is gorgeous, all girls in Twin peaks are, by the way, so the title is in good hands, for as long as she may yet have to live.

Lucy has amazing dancing skills, by the way. This is one of those times when characters reveal to be as talented as… professional actors who usually have had dancing and singing training. Anyway, her choice of father for the baby was obvious and I don’t know why they dragged that so long. Even Dick was fed up with that plotline and received her decision with relief.

I loved the direction and photography used in the kidnapping scene. Those strobe lights really gave an eerie feeling and made the whole situation a representation of itself. And Windom Earle disguised as the Log Lady? Genius! Honestly, I can’t tell when he made the switch. I mean, I could check the episode again, of course, but at the moment I don’t intend to.

Coop and Harry finding a bug in the bonsai made me think of a few funny scenes when characters try not to give any more information that can be eavesdropped.

“O.M.G.! Is this a B-U-G?” Or…

“Harry, is this what I think it is?”
“Well, Coop, if you think it’s a big and that Windom Earle has been listening to us all this time, then yes, it is what you think it is.”

Did you notice a bag fell on Nadine’s head at the end of the confusion? Obviously she’s going to recover her memory next episode and will view Ed and Norma’s wedding from a very different perspective.

Leo is as good as dead, right? Last time we saw him he was holding with his teeth the rope that kept a cage of tarantulas from falling on his face. But then, as they say, if they don’t show the body, the character’s probably still alive.

So, Donna and Audrey are sisters after all. Well, they have been acting sisterly since the beginning.

At the end, Andy apparently solves the mystery. “It’s a map.” Hadn’t we established that the image was a map already?

I enjoyed the episode, I mean, I would’ve enjoyed it quite a lot if I weren’t fed up with the show. It was a good episode for Twin Peaks standards.

It gets 8 bullets to open a metal box without ruining its contents somehow.