Review Tonight! "Twin Peaks" S02E08 “Drive With A Dead Girl”

[Mad-Pac]

Aired Thursday 9:00 PM Nov 17, 1990 on ABC

We learn of the consequences of the tragic incidents involving Leland and Maddy. Ben's situation gets better and better. Norma meets a family member, and Hank meets an old friend.


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
Peggy Lipton ...Norma Jennings
James Marshall ...James Hurley
Jack Nance ...Pete Martell
Kimmy Robertson ...Lucy Moran
Ray Wise ...Leland Palmer
Piper Laurie ...Catherine Martell
Harry Goaz ...Deputy Andy Brennan
Michael Horse ...Deputy Tommy 'Hawk' Hill
Sheryl Lee ...Maddy Ferguson
Grace Zabriskie ...Sarah Palmer
Chris Mulkey ...Hank Jennings
David Patrick Kelly ...Jerry Horne
James Booth ...Ernie Niles
Kathleen Wilhoite ...Gwen Morton
Jane Greer ...Vivian Smythe Niles
Al Strobel ...Phillip Michael Gerard
Emily Fincher ...Louise Dombrowski


WRITING CREDITS

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

Scott Frost ... (written by)


DIRECTED BY

Caleb Deschanel

 

[Mad-Pac]

TWIN PEAKS

Season 2

Episode 8: “Drive With A Dead Girl”​

The murder scene was brutal and the initial shots, with the camera focusing on Laura’s photographs, then traveling over the sofa, showing scattered golf balls, and these shots were enough to make me feel a little nervous and restless. Is that when Ray Wise got the experience to play the Devil later in Ripper? Anyway, wow, I didn’t expect that twist. So Leland doesn’t have a care in the world. But what about Sarah? Why is she in too? Didn’t she get knock out by Leland in his rampage? And just how strong is Leland exactly to be easily carrying a bag with a body in it? That was creepy.

Leland sheds crocodile tears. Then laughter. What a sinister character he has become. Weird how similar crying and laughing may sound. At least he’s still very musical. Leland is playing with fire. Does he want to get caught?

Ha! Ben trying to clean his cell with a handkerchief. This reminds me of when I was… (no, not in prison!) in a small hotel room (the only hotel in town) and the cleaning left much to be desired, so I ended cleaning the Venetian blinds because it was full of dead insects trapped between the blinds and the screen and it hadn’t been cleaned in centuries. So disgusting!

Ben and Jerry wore suits as kinds. I think they were born in suits. That was a bizarre dance of a girl holding a flashlight.

Jerry is an incompetent lawyer. Shame on you, Jerry. I expected more from a Gonzaga University aluminum. (What’s the singular of “alumni” again?) I mean, alumnus. But he did have the best quotes this episode:

- “Last thing a defense attorney needs to know is the truth.”
- “I strongly suggest you get yourself a better lawyer.”

So we meet Norma’s mother. (By the way, when is that food critic going to show up?) I wasn’t very interested in Nora to begin with, so my interest in her mother amounts to zero. And the interest in her new stepfather, I guess, can be expressed in negative numbers. Hank, on the other hand, is slightly more interesting, and I’m curious about what exactly he’s up to. But wait a minute! Ernie is Ernie “The Professor” Niles. Ha! Norma’s new stepfather just got interesting. But then he tells Hank he’s straight now. Maybe I spoke too soon. I guess Hank will blackmail “The Professor” into going back to a life of crimes.

Of course, Lucy and Gwen are sisters. They have the same hairstyle! Do you need bigger proof! And by the way, I told you guys Lucy went to her sister’s and not to get an abortion. Shame on you not to believe in Lucy. Meanwhile, Andy faints again… I guess they added Lucy’s sister to the story just for her to annoy Andy. So, Andy tells Lucy that he is the baby’s father (must be), but she feels visibly uncomfortable. Obviously, there’s more to the story than Andy knows. But Lucy could just pretend that other guy didn’t exist and get a fresh new start with Andy.

The slice of pie on Cooper’s nightstand seems deliciously tempting. Speaking of deliciously tempting, so we have Audrey in Dale’s room. The scene seemed to have a point… Until it didn’t.

The episode ends with Maddy having the same end as Laura. Talk about déjà vu. I’m not sure what to think about that, but I have to admit it’s the first time I’ve seen that in a show: writers create two identical-looking characters and have them both end killed the same way.

I liked this one better, though it still felt a little like a filler episode. It gets 7 pileated woodpeckers, and considering how much wood there is around him in Twin Peaks, they are going to have a lot of work ahead.

 

[Brimfin]

Leland (aka Bob) is going even more off the deep end than ever. Not only is he singing and dancing but he’s driving boldly around with Maddy in the car wrapped in plastic like her doppelganger Laura. Sarah doesn’t remember crawling around the house or seeing the horse, let alone hearing Maddy calling for help (apparently she slept through that or was unconscious). Leland almost exposed himself as the killer and was prepared to bludgeon Dale to death with a golf club, but a dumb luck distraction took Cooper away out of his clutches without even knowing about it.

Meanwhile, Ben is locked up for Laura’s murder and gets the world’s worst lawyer in his brother Jerry. Well, at least Jerry admits he’s a lousy lawyer. Plus his only alibi for the night of Laura’s murder is the later Catherine. But Pete comes by and plays a tape of Catherine admitting she’s still alive but saying she’ll only alibi him if he signs over his properties to her. He trashes the cell in frustration afterward. The good news he doesn’t know – Coop just figured out that he’s not Laura’s killer after all.

The highlight of the episode is meeting Lucy’s sister Gwen, played by Kathleen Wilhoite. She specializes in ditzy characters including playing Benny’s mentally challenged girl friend and later wife on L.A. LAW. (Benny was mentally challenged too, so it was a match made in Heaven.) Here she gets really annoying when Andy tries to tell Lucy about his sperms being alive and Gwen keeps making snarky remarks until finally both Andy and Lucy tell her to shut up. When Andy tells Lucy the baby maybe his, she hesitates as if there’s something she doesn’t want to tell him. Is it just that she slept with Dick, or did she already abort the child? Tune in next week…or whenever they get to it.

Meanwhile that tape Bobby found last week has Ben and Leo discussing burning down the mill. I see blackmail in the near future. The one-armed man escapes, but then is recaptured. Norma’s mother is married to an ex-con who was a friend of Hank’s. And Josie is gone again.

Not much excitement or even advancement of plot. I’d give it a five, but because I like Kathleen Wilhoite I'll bump it up to 6 large sized golf club carriers, perfect for transporting beautiful dead women around in.

Best dialogue:

Gwen: (to Hawk) You must really hate white people – after all they’ve done to you.
Hawk: Some of my best friends are white people.

Truman: I’m sick of the dwarves, the dances, that giant, Tibet and all the hocus pocus.

 

[Brimfin]

And by the way, I told you guys Lucy went to her sister’s and not to get an abortion. Shame on you not to believe in Lucy.

Season 2 - Episode 5 (The Orchid's Curse) - 30 minutes into the story:
(Andy digs through the sticky notes on his desk and then finds a regular white note reading "Gwen and Larry", but with two phone numbers on it. He calls one of the numbers)

Voice on phone: Adams Abortion Clinic
Andy: Hi, is Lucy..... (pauses in shock) What?
Voice on phone: Adams Abortion Clinic.
(Andy hangs up phone)
Andy: Oh, my God!

So, no shame felt here buddy. Yes, she did go to see her sister but still may have made a side trip to an abortion clinic where no one would know who she was. Until the writers write something to prove otherwise, that was her plan. Maybe she changed her mind, and I hope she did! But the implication was clearly there that she was at least thinking about it.

 

[Bob Peters 61]

And just how strong is Leland exactly to be easily carrying a bag with a body in it? That was creepy.

I had that same thought.

Leland almost exposed himself as the killer and was prepared to bludgeon Dale to death with a golf club, but a dumb luck distraction took Cooper away out of his clutches without even knowing about it.

The other thing that really stuck out to me about that, funny how Coop followed the story about showing his golf clubs to think nothing of the club in his hand.

As for Audrey's visit to Coop's room, I got the following meaning in a nutshell out of it:
"Was I actually responsible for my daddy getting arrested?"
"Only partially. There were other things involved."
"I only wanted for him to love me."
"He does."

Of course, Lucy and Gwen are sisters. They have the same hairstyle! Do you need bigger proof! And by the way, I told you guys Lucy went to her sister’s and not to get an abortion. Shame on you not to believe in Lucy. Meanwhile, Andy faints again… I guess they added Lucy’s sister to the story just for her to annoy Andy. So, Andy tells Lucy that he is the baby’s father (must be), but she feels visibly uncomfortable. Obviously, there’s more to the story than Andy knows. But Lucy could just pretend that other guy didn’t exist and get a fresh new start with Andy.

I thought the faint was this ep's comic relief at Andy's expense. You could almost read him like a book, "But I thought she wasn't nearly that far along."

Face it. Andy must have known that she had also slept with Dick and made his peace with that fact by Dick's presence as a potential father of her child earlier.

I know that DNA testing was much less advanced than today, but didn't they have a paternity test of some sort at the time?

Voice on phone: Adams Abortion Clinic
Andy: Hi, is Lucy..... (pauses in shock) What?
Voice on phone: Adams Abortion Clinic.
(Andy hangs up phone)
Andy: Oh, my God!

Caller ID and Gwen messing with whoever would be calling her from the Sheriff's Department?

Of course, Lucy and Gwen are sisters. They have the same hairstyle! Do you need bigger proof

And the same style of ditziness as well. That locks it in airtight.

I don't know why, but for some odd reason I enjoyed this one just a hair less than most eps of this series. 6 cassette tapes moving the plot forward.