Part 9

Part 9.

After the insanity of Part 8, we get put hurrily back in the basics. What became of Mr. C, the ongoing Major Briggs mystery, and the weird lodge stuff going on back in Twin Peaks. While the focus is parallel on all of these plots at once, the outcome is shared through all of them.

We follow the FBI team on their sudden change of plans, investigating someone who a strange case of a special someone we've not known much for regarding his death.

This episode contains just the right amount of plot progression I'd expect, especially after Part 8, a really crazy episode.

Overall, really enjoyable, and didn't tire me a bit.

I was still trying to decide if I want to proceed watching this show, esp after the disaster that was Episode 8.

However, while deciding, I noticed that fewer and fewer people are both rating and reviewing the show.

Does that mean people have checked out? I wonder what their Neilsen ratings are?

Eventually I watched Ep 9. I was NOT impressed.

After a freaky and way out episode 8, we are back to normality, well as normal as any Lynch episode can get.

Evil Cooper is alive and hell bent on revenge against the Prison Warden. He meets associates Hutch and Chantal at an isolated farm and gives them some orders and also sends a text to Diane.

Deputy Director Gordon and Agent Albert divert their plane to Buckhorn where they examine the headless body of Major Briggs at the morgue. When they get a rundown of the story of a beheaded librarian murdered by her lover Bill Hastings, a high school principal and then his wife got killed by his lawyer. Albert asks 'What happens in season two?'

Both Albert and Gordon notice that Major Briggs body has not aged in the last 25 years as well as having Dougie Jones wedding ring in his stomach.

The FBI interview Hastings who talks about how he and his lover the librarian investigated alternative dimensions in their blog. It led Albert to remark, 'Fruitcake anyone?'

The police are now interested in Dougie. His car has been bombed and he was involved in an attempted hit by Ike the Spike. It seems Dougie attracts trouble and there are no records of Dougie prior to 1997. The police think witness protection and one of the gets his prints by way of a nice cup of coffee. The police also arrest Ike the Spike who has a heavily bandaged hand.

This episode is mainly about Major Briggs. I recall in the original show he was less of a military caricature and rather more human who was exasperated by his teenage son's antics. Now we learn that he also had some kind of second sight, even a supernatural ability.

Deputy Bobby Briggs visits his mother with Hawk and Sheriff Truman. She tells them that her husband once told her that the three of them would show up one day and ask about Agent Cooper. She also gave them a small metal cylinder which Bobby Briggs knows what to do with it.

Once opened it gives some instructions of a location and a date in the future and Copper written down twice.

It certainly looks like that the two Coopers are headed for a showdown hopefully in Twin Peaks. The FBI will also get a scent that Dougie is Cooper once the police in Las Vegas get those finger prints analysed.

We're halfway through, and all the pieces are finally in play. As much as I loved the trip of pure Lynch that was Part 8, it did seem to bring the momentum that Part 7 had finally managed to establish to a screeching halt. However, Part 9 certainly managed to get the ball rolling again. When the episode ended, I couldn't believe that an hour had passed until I thought back and realized all the things that had happened in the episode. All the major threads were addressed, and many of them finally began to merge together. It managed to accomplish a lot of plot movement without feeling too heavy or overstuffed.

The biggest development this week is the merging of the Buckhorn plot with the FBI investigation plot. And the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department doesn't seem to be too far behind on this either. At the centre of this is of course Major Briggs, who we finally get quite a bit of new information about in this instalment, with the promise of even more to come very soon. I'm also starting to see how they're going to discover Dougie.

I don't have much more to say about the episode overall, just some specific notes. It's looking more and more like Jerry's story is not just a joke but will in fact have major significance to the lodge plot. Albert had some great one-liners in this one. The use of Deer Meadow Shuffle was fantastic. Tim Roth finally showed up, meaning that there are no longer any major actors stowed away. The (recast?) Johnny Horne cameo seemed brutal and pointless and really caught me by surprise. And finally, I really wish David Lynch would stop it with the drawn-out Roadhouse teases near the end of episodes. If you're gonna end it, end it, but don't make me sit there for five minutes wondering whether or not it will!

All in all, a very very solid instalment that gave me a lot yet left me desperate for more. We're exactly halfway through now, and I think we're right where we need to be.

While I do love the surreal trips of episode 8, Episode 9 allows you to enjoy a more straight-forward experience that gives the right amount of progression as plot points slowly inter-connect each other. It packs in surprises that makes certain past moments more meaningful then previously thought. All of it fits in a nicely packed box filled with many goodies while still leaving you wanting more even if you're pretty full.

Funny enough, This is actually the least traumatic episode of the series so far (Which isn't saying much considering the Johnny Horne scene).I mean even the evil coop scenes were pretty tame compared to before. Instead we get really beautiful moments that warmed my original Twin Peaks fan (and American side if you know what I mean) inside me. There are also many moments that really establish how well Lynch portrays normal human interaction. These interactions are either extremely awkward, comfortable banter, both, or maybe more then that. All of these show certain relationships (Conflict, distrust, friendship, tension, first-time meet-ups) between characters really well without a word spoken sometimes. It all makes each conversation very unique.

All and all, this was a great episode that is keeping the ball rolling after a amazing and confusing piece of scary-ass art. The show has been fantastic and it keeps on delivering.

10/10

P.S That one detective's laugh was really the highlight of the episode.