Part 2 of  Twin Peaks Second Season 

With Season 3 of Twin Peaks quickly approaching, I’ve decided to reflect back on seasons 1 & 2 along with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and the feature length deleted scenes compilation: Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces.  Twin Peaks is my FAVORITE show of all time and I want to share with all of you my take on the show, my feelings then and now, and my theories as Season 3 plays out this year.  These articles will be SPOILER heavy so if you’ve never seen the show, stop reading and watch it now.

With the mystery of Laura Palmer now over I, like a lot of people, wondered what was next for my favorite town. It was Windom Earle.  When I originally watched this storyline unfold I was not a fan of it.  Part of the problem with the second half of Season 2 it is feel like the first season and half had been a movie and this was the TV spinoff.  The first episode of this second half is surprisingly more tense than I remember but most of the back half of Season 2 is lighter and sillier. That said it’s still Twin Peaks.

Nothing demonstrates the change to being closer to typical TV show than the James (James Marshall) subplot.  He’s seduced by Evelyn Marsh (Annette McCarthy) to be the stooge in the plot by her lover Malcolm (Nicholas Love) to kill her husband. It feels like it’s a completely different show and I kept wanting James to just go back to the real show. Another example would be Nadine’s (Wendy Robie) storyline of thinking she’s a teenager in High School.  Although her story has enough weirdness to still feel connected.

All through the time that Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) and Shelly (Mädchen Amick) are trying to take care of Leo (Eric DaRe) I was convinced he was suddenly going to pop out of his chair. When he finally did, he once again seemed scary.  But then being enslaved by Earle (Kenneth Welsh) you almost feel sorry for him.  Almost, but not really…because he’s just an awful guy. How did Earle and Leo get the giant chess piece up onto the bandstand when it took at least five guys to remove it? Overall I find watching this now I like Windom Earle’s character a lot more. I really enjoyed his storyline much more this time.

Gordon Cole! I love the episodes with Gordon. He’s just a fantastic character that is perfectly played by David Lynch. Similarly is Denise (David Duchovny) she is one of my favorite characters of this second half.

Just like when I watched it originally, I cheered when Harry (Michael Ontkean) welcomed Coop (Kyle MacLachlan) as a member of The Bookhouse boys.  Likewise when Clarence Williams III showed up as FBI Agent Roger Hardy. If only  Michael Cole had been on the show then they could have had a complete Mod Squad reunion with Peggy Lipton (Norma.)

Speaking of Lipton’s Norma, I want to hate Hank (Chris Mulkey) so much! But he is just so charming that even with all the bad stuff he has done I just like him so much.  I’m so disappointed that Mulkey isn’t on the upcoming season. Hank’s last scene on the show is a great one.  He’s in jail asking her to provide him an alibi for the night he shot Leo. She refuses and he says he won’t give her a divorce otherwise. He tells her she can run off and be Ed’s (Everett McGill) whore. Norma then delivers on of the shows best lines “I’d rather be his whore than your wife.”

When I first watched the show I was SHOCKED to see Andrew Packard (Dan O’Herlihy) alive. I love how much Andrew just thinks Pete (Jack Nance) is the best. Another favorite part of this season is getting the scenes between Russ Tamblyn and Richard Beymer. I smile every time Tony and Riff (their character from West Side Story) share the screen. One thing that still creeps me out is Josie (Joan Chen) dying and then getting trapped in the drawer knob. Since Chen isn’t on the upcoming season I guess she stuck there forever. Also I’m just not comfortable with Cooper having a love interest. 

Probably the tensest storyline of the second half of Season 2 was the real world one surrounding the fate of the show.  Behind the scenes things were rocky as creators Lynch and Mark Frost began to have little involvement in show; mostly due to ABC demands that the Laura Palmer mystery be solved. Many actors felt their leaders had abandoned them and ABC moved the show to the black hole of Saturday night. The prospects of a third season seemed bleak. Fans organized a letter writing campaign called C.O.O.P. (Citizens Against the Offing of Peaks.) Sadly this didn’t change the mind of Bob Iger and ABC.

For the final two hour episode I had a Twin peaks viewing party with my friends. It was great until the ending when the all turned to me to ask what the ending meant.  I asked them how I was supposed to know. I was so upset about the ending I didn’t go to school the next day.  Not thinking about the way TV production schedules actually worked back then I fully expect the finale to wrap everything up. I was not expecting a cliffhanger with Cooper trapped in the Black Lodge and his dark shadow version replacing him.

I loved this show. For the year and two months the show was on it was my life.  I had a subscription to The Twin Peaks Gazette. My subscription came with a Twin Peaks Sherriff’s Department mug (which I still use to this day) and my own address in Twin Peaks. For Halloween of 1990, I dressed as Twin Peaks. My costume included saddle shoes, jeans and a flannel with a Twin Peaks photo on the back. Along with that I carried a basket holding a percolator with a fish in it and all my Twin Peaks books. I wish I had a picture of it.

Not long after the show ended rumors began swirling that the show would continue on the big screen. I couldn’t wait! My remaining questions would be answered.  Well, all but one…Why is costume designer Sara Markowitz credit so much larger than everyone else’s?