Friday, June 9, 2017

You're Still With Me.That's Good

Oh, so much to love about this one.
           Once again, Frost/Lynch refuse to meet expectations. They don't give us what we need, but what we want- more mystery. We wanted to know who the drinking woman is that sees actually would be.(I’m hoping it will be Laura Dern as Diane,making for a amazing Blue Velvet reunion with Kyle MacLachlan) But no mention of that moment was in this episode.
           To a casual viewer this episode may feel as if nothing really happened. As if none of the seemingly disparate storylines are moved forward.Many characters are even shown just sitting. But for me, so much happened. New mysteries were revealed that in turn made connections between individual characters.New old characters from the original series are once again seen for the first time.The Golden Shovels!That beautiful MOMENT between Norma and Shelly!
First, why are they waiting to kill Dougie?
          How hard would it be to walk into the Rancho Rosa house and kill him?Does it have to be via a car explosion? Must they make sure that the body is destroyed?Is the manufactured Dougie actually dangerous? When we first meet him with Jade, he is not as Agent Cooper now behaves.Since Dougie was manufactured by Bad Dale, it is likely that he too has been up to no good, though probably to a lesser degree since he is a copy of a copy of a ....
The woman on the phone is in quite the panic state that Dougie is not dead
           Who does she work for that she was hired for this job and will be killed if she fails?Was she the woman referred to in a previous episode when the man at the desk hands off some money to a younger man, saying to tell an unknown woman that she has the job and hope that you never meet someone like his boss? She had bruises on her face, so someone is recently not happy with her performance.It appears that someone in Argentina is the person who hired this woman to have Dougie killed.Or are we meant to assume this?The person she contacts may be third party she is alerting that the deal is not done and Dougie lives. We see her using an old blackberry phone. Odd choice, is it less traceable than today’s modern technology or is to serve a purpose of telling around what year we are currently in. It looks to be a Blackberry Curve released around 2003. It should be noted that Dougie’s car license plate has a yellow registration sticker that says 03.Presumably, the Bad Dale storyline is taking place in the same year as Dougie’s as they were both shown being drawn back into the Lodge as the Good Dale escaped. But, with all things Lodge, is it future or is it past? Whose to say that Dougie couldn’t be recalled back in 2003 while the Bad Dale was almost pulled back inside in 2015 (25 years later from the last episode of the original series). Are we watching two timelines converge on each other. The Good Dale out of the Lodge struggling to return to his old self over a 12 year period to then go after the Bad Dale when he ages to the year 2015?
        No one seems to be using modern tech/smartphones. Log Lady talks on a land line.She lives out in the woods,so a land line would not be too out of the ordinary even in these days.
Another curious note on the subject of modern tech/cell phones-at the Twin Peaks sheriff's station there are signs that say "no cell phones mp3 players etc beyond this point". The strange point being that the signs are on the inside of the room where all the modern police equipment is seen leading out to the front lobby where Lucy works and not on the outside of the door leading into this room of equipment.Is Lucy really that afraid of modern technology and the Sheriff has taken steps to ease her suffering?
        It appears she sent two text messages.Original text messages were allowed 160 characters so what we see up in the corner of the phone is a counter like the number of available spaces left on twitter. "2" was one character therefore there were 159 more slots left. Was the "2" a message that there are still two Dales out there? The box beeped twice. Could this have just been a indication that it received the two messages?
ARGENT?.........
         Argent is silver in heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. Argent is also french for money.Silver State. Silver Mustang Casino.Argentina? The receiving box in Argentina appears to turn into a silver ball.The Cow jumped over the moon:moons are often depicted as silver.Silvery spoon...cocaine spoon?
Urgent, misspelled in a panic? no autocorrect.
Dougie’s wedding ring found in the stomach of the mans body.
          How did it get there? The man in question hadn’t eaten for several days. That indicates he may have been held prisoner ( or was in a place like the Lodge where one does not eat). Was this during Dougie’s missing three days? Did Dougie have him as a prisoner?
         The body had no wounds except for the severed head,so this indicates that the ring had been swallowed and not forcibly placed in the stomach.But how could the man be in such a position to swallow a ring that would presumably be on another hand? Did Dougie take it off for a specific reason? Did he take it off to put on the Owl Cave ring he is seen with later? And during this moment,Major Briggs (who I am assuming is the name for of the body in question) swallowed the wedding ring while Dougie was distracted? I could see Major Briggs doing this as a means to help connect the dots for anyone who is watching. If his body is found with this mans ring in his stomach,it could lead to Dougie. "Janey-E is not a common name. If the body of Major Briggs is discovered to be involved in a murder case,this could lead to a photo of Dougie, who looks exactly like Cooper , getting back to the FBI. Connecting the FBI closer to the Bad Dale.
          It is said that Major Briggs died in a fire.Catherine Martell was thought to "die" in a fire and she returned.Did Briggs not actually die in a fire? The details of his death are missing. No mention of death by smoke or a found burned body. If that is G Briggs body, then how long has he really been dead?His fingerprints have popped up 16 times at crime scenes.Had he met Dougie? but knowing him as Cooper understood more of what is going on but was killed before he could contact the right people. Or was Dougie actually a bad person and killed Briggs upon the two meeting. Dougie was missing for three days... the murder , the rings, something terrible happened. Could this also mean possibly the Log Lady's husband might still be still alive? What if the soot covered man in the cell next to William Hastings is the Log Lady’s husband?
Food is coming......
            The Bad Dale can sense things about to happen.Or perhaps smell the food approaching.Maybe he is just listening to the sounds and picks up on the smallest of changes in the noises of the prison.I found it interesting that the Bad Dale went to wash his hands before supper. Is this cleanliness a trait of the Good Dale or is this BOB.In Fire Walk With Me, BOB was very forceful in making Laura WASH HER HANDS before sitting down for supper.A moment that was BOB pretending to be father Leland resulting a heightened scene out of a typical family meal time.
The Bad Dale can sense food approaching but he cant sense when BOB is inside?
BOB under Dale.....
         Deliciously creepy image.I'll take more of that please.
         What does this indicate? We know BOB as someone who likes to control his host and make them do terrible things to themselves and others.His hosts have to ask him inside,so he presumably cant just pop in, otherwise he would have taken Laura over. But does he have control over the Bad Dale at all? What does it mean that BOB is attached not to a person ,but that persons Doppelganger shadow self? Did BOB hitch a ride out of the Lodge as a means of escape?
You’re still with me.That’s good.......
         What good?BOB has been seen outside of a host, but not necessarily physically in our world (Josie’s death, stepping out of the Lodge in Glastonbury Grove). What does he need BOB for anyway?A Doppelganger of the Good Dale most likely has a keen mind on how to handle many situations, especially ones that involve breaking the law.
         Does BOB occasionally jump ship and go play elsewhere that the Bad Dale would think he has left?Or might he have thought that BOB abandoned him for more painful pastures thinking that the Bad Dales days are numbered and he doesn’t want to be around when that time arrives.
MIKE......
         Another cast from the past emerges .....and it's Mike.He was never really major player in part of the bigger mystery of the original show so this at first felt like an odd choice.He was more of a sidekick to the Bobby Briggs and a twin to the names of the Mike and Bob of the Lodge.Having two similiar names or events occuring was a trait of the writing of the original show.
Mike is married.Appears to like to hunt,And has an office in a bit of chaos with papers everywhere.
In walks another mess who we later find out to be the boyfriend of Shellys daughter Becky. In this interaction it almost seems like Mike is talking to his son.A let's pretend you're applying for a job with me situation. Fill out these forms and we will go through the interview process and I will tell you what I think.
        Thing is... if that's Mike's kid. Who's the mother? Could it be Nadine?Nadine is still credited with the last name of Hurley.There are not a single silent drape runner on ANY of his windows.Maybe his and Nadines love was short lived after her memory returned. Did Mike marry a woman who this kid belonged to and hes just trying to be helpful? "Mike IS the man."
         Becky's man,however....I thought everyone liked him? Isn't that what Shellys friends in the bar said? Or does he do something or offer something that would make these ladies think such a thing.Is he a local dealer?
Frank Truman......
           Damn,hearing Frank Truman talk to Harry and its about his health .......ow. ...... I will miss that we will never get to see Harry and Dale shaking hands one more time.Watson to his Sherlock. I kind of hope that they work something into the story where Harry somehow helps in saving Dale,even if just off screen.
         This scene feels like an opportunity for us to get to know Frank's as a person and his home life and what he has to deal with on a day to day basis.We've already seen his work life complications with Lucy and Andy. We don't know much about him yet, except that he's Harry's brother. I feel like this is to show how he's immune to BS because of his wife’s, most likely, constant nagging about superficial things and that he has extreme patience and forethought.Despite his brothers failing health on his mind, Frank seemed to be several steps ahead in planning to meet his wife’s nagging needs.He takes time to care about everyone in his life.
The Tear.........
       Cooper has missed 25 years of his life. Maybe subconsciously something triggered while looking at "his" child and hit home with him that this is not his life and he will have to leave it all someday soon. Not his child, he's missed out on so much living,wife and kids of his own. The tear is from the Good Dale, who ,under all the fog, is fighting to connect, to come through, to come back ,but the struggle gets nowhere despite all the internal exertion.Picturing the Good Dale slamming his head again and again up against a mirror ,trying to break free to the other side.
       Or perhaps, this is a reaction of the internal Good Dale as he hears Janey-E telling him he has to make an important phone call but he wont be able to because he can barely even remember his own name let alone this phone number. And this realization of this impending failure will result in something bad happening to the wife and child.The Good Dale knows this and cant prevent it in his current state of mind.He cant even ask...who do I call?When?why?
Dougie ,wheres your car? coming to a theater near you........
          After the explosion, will the people trying to kill "Dougie" think he is actually dead?"
The black car was most likely just a bunch of carjackers who picked the worst car to snatch.The dark death metal music and dark car only implying that something much more evil is afoot.But will this crime connect back to "Dougie" and raise a red flag with the people investigating the headless body? Connecting the two crimes closer. Dougie’s ring is found in the body whose head has been cut off AND is missing.(where is Major Briggs head and will it show up with another body?)The inscription on the ring has a distinctive name along with his first.Then his car is found having exploded in front of a house that is not his. Bodies are found inside and out burned to a crisp.Will we see the detectives interviewing the drugged out mother from across the street? Dougie’s DNA is all over the house (vomit,bed sheets),if they are granted access to the house will they discover another connection to Dougie?And who owns the house?Does Janey-E sell real estate and will she be connected to the crime? I still think that the two of them or one , has been running a prostitution ring out of the empty Rancho Rosa homes and this is somehow involved with all of the money they owe.
I think you're having one of your episodes?
          This might go far in explaining why everyone around Dougie is so accommodating in his odd behavior. I wonder if there were situations where his manufactured body lost focus like this?Could it be connected to the Bad Dale and when the doppelganger was under duress it sucked energy from Dougie? Could these moments have been when Dougie removed the Owl Cave ring in our world. Temporarily cutting the connection to whatever bound his manifestation as a whole.When the ring slips off his finger inside the Lodge, he ceases to remain in the physical form and reverts to a gold sphere.
The Statue........
        Cooper takes note of this statue.A Trigger. It must remind him of law enforcement.Maybe even his favorite childhood movie The FBI Story, starring James Stewart. A movie that Cooper referenced as being very important to him in his childhood in the pages of the Dale Cooper Tapes book.Interesting to not, there is a bit of a continuity error in this moment.Kyle puts his arm down, but when they cut to a wider shot, the arm is back up and Cooper is walking in the direction the statue is pointing while he himself continues to point. I wonder if they intended to use the statues pointing direction as a means to explain how Cooper ends up walking up to the correct building where he works. And interesting he works for an insurance company.
Off in dreamland again Dougie?
         Another indication the odd behavior is not new to those who know "Dougie". We live inside a dream.(I sincerely hope that we don’t find out that Cooper is inside a dream state and never escaped the Lodge. It was said that both the Good Dale and the Bad could not live in the same place and we continue to see the Bad Dale live). Was that a younger version of Big Ed and Norma walking through the lobby near the end of the scene? The clock next to the elevator is pointing at the numbers 11 ,and 9. Are we to connect what is happening in this moment with the drugged out mother? Is she part of the upcoming insurance arson fraud that is discussed.
Classic Twin Peaks music returns again!
Coffee!
        Another trigger. Cooper saying "Damn Good Joe" !! AHHH someone plunked the heartstrings
Lucky 7 Insurance?
          More numbers, more Cooper good luck.Could the insurance man who came to see Truman work for the same company as Dougie in WA?
          Deductive Dale coming through.Cooper,with perhaps a little help from his time in the Lodge, knows immediately that the Insurance Agent is lying. Cooper could always pick up on things quickly so this is a nice bit of a return of the old Coop. Also of note, the color green is used to represent the liar in this moment. Coopers coat is green. He himself is a lie in this moment.
          When Cooper is dragged into Dougie’s bosses office, notice how he takes notice of the walls. Although wood paneling, they looked to me a bit like the red curtains of the Lodge.
"Agent"
         Damn heartstrings triggering again.Cooper is slowing coming back.When he DOES come home ( and I’m honestly hoping we get another moment of Agent Cooper driving back into the town of Twin Peaks past the sign,perhaps stopping at the ol’ lamplighter inn ) it will be a grand ,get on your feet and cheer moment ."Case Files" *plunk*
         Everyone is so caring for Dougie. Does this indicate that he was very Good Dale Cooper like in his behavior? And he earned this appreciation of many? It wasn’t because he was the best Insurance Agent, the liar apparently closed more cases in a week than Dougie did in a month.Even his coworker who shot down one married guy was ready willing to have an affair with Dougie.She is smitten.
While the Good Dale may appear to be the luckiest guy at the moment (multiple jackpots that earned enough money to pay off Dougie’s and his wife’s troubles, everyone around him being so caring making sure he gets where he needs to be and what he wants) this good luck seems to have a flip side. For every good thing that happens or is done, something bad happens to another. The Casino floor manager gets beaten up,fired,and driven out of town.Dougie’s coworker who helped Cooper be named gets called out for lying and could lead to further trouble. Especially if Dougie’s boss looks into the claim himself.Could bad luck be coming for Dougie’s wife and child too?
         But why return to the casino? Was it just to show the fallout of Dougie’s luck or is it setting up a moment where Cooper returns to the casino and there will be trouble. Perhaps if he has to return to help out Jade for some reason.
Drugged out mother and child.......
         She has been out for some time it would appear. There is a red balloon on the floor. Red balloons are in the background of both here and at Dougie’s place of work. I'm a bit surprised that Frost/Lynch didn’t have the kid get blown up by the car.What was up with the overly dramatic music when the mother sits up? Did the fire from outside wake something inside her?
JADE!!.......
        I love Jade. More of her please. In fact,just give Jade her own show.
The Great Northern Hotel key!.......
        I don’t recall the Hotel having the motto "Clean Place ,Reasonably Priced". Thought that was just a Cooper line.(hope this isn’t another indication that we are living inside a fabrication of Cooper's dream)But thanks to Jade not just tossing the key in the trash but actually into a mailbox she is hopefully setting things in motion.When the key returns to the Great Northern, that particular room number has significance. Might this lead to a line being drawn from Twin Peaks to Las Vegas? Point the FBI in the right direction of the Good Dale? Might this be the moment when we see Audrey again? As she opens hotel mail and discovers the key. Knowing that room number all too well, thinking that something of importance is happening and she contacts the FBI. Maybe that particular style of key fob is no longer in use and she recalls around the last time it was.
NORMA!!!
and SHELLY!
NORMA AND SHELLY!
        My favorite moment from tonight's episode: The two resilient ladies putting their arms around each other.After all the personal grief they have experienced in their own lives.I want a poster of that moment.To find them still having each others backs,supporting each other,after all this time was such a beautiful sight to see. *plunk, plunk*
       However, Shelly watching her daughter making bad decisions, and knowing from personal experience how it is going to turn out and also knowing that there is very little she can do to stop it from coming because she cant make her daughter stop seeing this jackass is a heart breaker of a moment.It wasn’t too long ago that she was the one sitting out in the car with Bobby making bad life decisions.
        Where is Gordon Cole when you need him to make her smile and laugh ?!? (side note, wouldn't it be wild if Becky is her and Cole's child,after they had a loud but communicative tryst, haha).
Becky is looking a lot like Laura. Troubled girl doing drugs out by the train tracks and the trash.Third time in two weeks she has asked Shelly for money.
The Shovels!!!!
        Fucking brilliant! This revelation..... A golden middle finger .Not only to the obsessed fans like myself that find themselves looking for and attributing meaning to every last frame of this show. Sometimes a shovel is just a shovel. But to the typical media and political podcasts that are so prevalent these days.
      An what a priceless Jacoby podcast it was.Jacoby is still in rare whackjob form.
And we have some of his followers, the burnt out Jerry, and the screw loose Nadine,watching like one of those many vapid fans of political podcasts and news shows. Nodding along in agreement of every last shouted word and reciting the catch phrases.
Nadine has what looks like fabric samples on her office desk. Has she gone into the drape runner business? Amusing that she is drinking from a glass that looks like an adult baby bottle.
Ernie Hudson......
      That was a nice surprise.
Briggs prints
        16 hits in 25 years on his prints. All of them being wild goose chases.They seem certain enough to investigate that it is him even though he supposedly died in a fire many years ago.
The Roadhouse.
       So the guy smoking in the booth is named Richard Horne . Well he does act like a dick.He certainly acts like a Horne who has too much money and thinks his family has influence in this town to care about others rules. Is he Audrey's son? John Justice Wheeler's child? What was he paying Detective Chad for with those Morley cigarettes? Information about aliens? If drugs, could this mean he and potentially Bobby Briggs are running drugs into Twin Peaks?
Cooper's Fingerprints.
          Was it just me or did the two sets of fingerprints look as if one of them were a reverse of the other? (watching this on a phone as it is my only access, so I couldn’t see a closeup)
MR Strawberry
         I don’t think he is taking calls. This "name" seemed to strike home with the Warden. It must be someone the Warden knows....or maybe killed himself?(Hes not taking calls) Might we find out that Mr Strawberry is the billionaire who is dangerous. In urban slang, a Strawberry can be a reference to someone who sells or trades sex for drugs.Could this connect back to the Jade?
        The number Bad Dale types, is it a tune?The first sequence results in two beeps.Is this the box telling him he has two messages? On one of the screens we are shown what looks like another part of the prison and what appears to be a cooking show. But the alarm doesnt seem to be sounding outside of the room the Warden is in .Do they hear what Bad Dale says into the phone?
Cow Jumped Over The Moon
          Found myself placing meaning to the lines of the poem:
Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle ( the game that is being played )
The cow jumped over the moon. (moons are often represented with the color silver , the "cow":Coop?, has managed an impossible feat and escaped the Lodge)
The little dog laughed,
To see such fun, (Bad Dale letting someone,Jeffries?, know that BOB is still with HIM - -eager for fun)
And the dish ran away with the spoon ( Some woman has run off with an important item or money) .           
          But since he only recites the ONE line , it could be shorthand for letting someone know something has happened or some specific task has been done (But what does the Bad Dale know at this point that he would feel the need to communicate? Does he know the manufactured Dougie is gone-did he sense that?That the Good Dale is actually out of the Lodge?)
Argentina?
         We know from the missing pieces an original FWWM script that Agent Phillip Jeffries was last seen in this area. And now we see a mysterious box turn into another small ball like the manufactured Dougie was previously in the Lodge. What the hell did the Bad Dale just do? Electricity....
         With a sense of foreboding and sadness we end with the Good Dale once more.He has been left alone at the foot of the statue. Does he remember losing his shoes in the Lodge? Is he fighting to recall why this figure means something important to him? Did he just say "Sheriff"? No, he didn’t do that last bit.And good thing he didn’t say "Harry?"
        And what of the wife and child? No one was there to pick him up after work.The Good Dale is alone again. Did something bad happen to the wife and child because he didn’t make the phone call?? Who will get to the Good Dale first?

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