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Episode 14 (Twin Peaks)

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"Episode 14 (Twin Peaks)"

"Episode 14", also known as "Lonely Souls",[nb 1][2] is the seventh episode of the second season of the American mystery television series Twin Peaks. The episode was written by series co-creator Mark Frost, and directed by series co-creator David Lynch. It features series regulars Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Ray Wise and Richard Beymer; and guest stars Frank Silva as Killer BOB, Hank Worden as The Waiter and David Lynch as Gordon Cole.

Twin Peaks centers on the investigation into the murder of schoolgirl Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), in the small rural town in Washington state for which the series is named. In this episode, during the ongoing investigation into Palmer's death, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent Dale Cooper (MacLachlan) and Sheriff Truman (Ontkean) are continuing to search for her killer, the demon BOB. Aided by MIKE (Al Strobel), Cooper and Truman arrest Benjamin Horne (Beymer), believing he is the one inhabited by BOB. Later that night, Cooper is warned by The Giant (Carel Struycken), while BOB's real host, Leland Palmer (Wise), murders Madeline Ferguson (Lee).

"Episode 14" was first broadcast on November 10, 1990 on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and was watched by an audience of 17.2 million households in the United States, equating to roughly 20 percent of the available audience. The episode has been well-received since its initial broadcast, and has continued to receive positive reviews several years after its original broadcast, but has been criticized for prolonging the revelation of Palmer's killer. Academic readings of the entry have since highlighted both the theme of duality and use of cinematography in the revelation scene.

Plot

Background

The small town of Twin Peaks, Washington, has been shocked by the murder of schoolgirl Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) and the attempted murder of her friend Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine). Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) has been sent to the town to investigate,[3] coming to the realization that the killer was possessed by a demonic entity—Killer BOB (Frank Silva).[4] MIKE (Al Strobel), a spirit similar to BOB, has spoken to Cooper and his FBI superior, Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole (David Lynch), explaining the nature of their existence.[5]

Meanwhile, Madeline "Maddy" Ferguson (Lee), Laura's cousin, has arrived in Twin Peaks from Missoula, Montana, and helps Laura's friends Donna Hayward (Lara Flynn Boyle) and James Hurley (James Marshall) investigate the killing. Donna finds one of Laura's friends named Harold Smith (Lenny Von Dohlen), who Laura had given a secret diary to before her death, and Donna and Maddy attempt to steal it from him.[5]

Events

Cooper, Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean), Deputy Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz) and Doctor Hayward (Warren Frost) visit The Great Northern hotel in an attempt to find the BOB's human host. Upon their arrival, MIKE goes into a spasm, indicating that BOB's host is nearby. Meanwhile, Deputy Hawk (Michael Horse) visits the residence of Harold Smith to find he has committed suicide. Hawk contacts Cooper and Truman, who arrive at Smith's residence and discover Laura Palmer's secret diary amongst his belongings. Meanwhile, Maddy announces she is leaving Twin Peaks to return home.

Elsewhere, Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) and Shelly Johnson (Mädchen Amick) discuss their financial concerns about Shelly's catatonic husband Leo (Eric Da Re). Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn) confronts her father Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) over One Eyed Jacks, a casino and brothel he owns on the Canada–United States border. When Audrey asks whether Ben killed Laura Palmer, he denies it and confesses that he and Laura had sexual relationship and that he loved her. Later, Shelly leaves for work at Double R Diner. She announces to its owner Norma Jennings (Peggy Lipton) that she is resigning to take full-time care of Leo. Ed (Everett McGill) and Nadine Hurley, suffering from amnesia and adrenaline-induced strength, enter the diner. Nadine, believing she is eighteen years old, questions Norma and both Norma and Ed put on a façade due to her condition. Meanwhile, Bobby and his friend Mike Nelson (Gary Hershberger) break open the sole of Leo Johnson's shoe and find a microcassette.

Cooper examines the remains of Laura's diary at the sheriff station. He finds repeated references to BOB and discovers he has been molesting her from childhood. Cooper also finds out that BOB is a friend of Laura's father, Leland Palmer (Ray Wise), and a diary entry which seemingly implicates Ben Horne. Upon his findings, Audrey walks in and tells Cooper about Ben and Laura's affair and when she leaves, he tells Sheriff Truman about The Giant's message "without chemicals, he points".[4] Cooper recalls when MIKE—who becomes active when his human host, Philip Gerard, is not on drugs[6]—spasmed in The Great Northern's lobby when Ben entered. Cooper concludes that Ben Horne is BOB's human host and arrests him.

Later that night, Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) struggles across her living room floor and has a vision of a white horse. Cooper and Truman visit The Roadhouse at the behest of the Log Lady (Catherine E. Coulson). While a band perform, Cooper has a vision of The Giant who tells him "it is happening again". The Giant sees Leland Palmer fixing his tie while his reflection in the mirror shows BOB. Maddy comes downstairs and sees BOB standing over Sarah's unconscious body. BOB's visage shifts back and forth between Leland's and his own. He chases Maddy up the stairs, brings her to the living room and repeatedly strangles, punches her, taunts and kisses her before killing her by ramming her head into a glass picture frame. BOB places a letter "O" under her fingernails, leaving part of a clue for Cooper. Cooper's vision ends and The Waiter (Hank Worden) tells Cooper he is sorry. Donna and James cry during the band's final song.

Production

David Lynch, the series' co-creator, directed the episode.

"Episode 14" was written by series co-creator Mark Frost, who had written six previous episodes and directed the first season finale, "Episode 7".[7] This was the fifth entry of Twin Peaks directed by Lynch, who would later direct "Episode 29", the series' finale.[8] Frost co-wrote three further installments—"Episode 16", "Episode 26" and "Episode 29".[7]

The cast of Twin Peaks did not know who would be revealed as Palmer's killer for some time. Wise had hoped his character Leland would not be the eventual murderer, as he was raising a young daughter and was disturbed by the thought of a father killing his child. Wise was called to a meeting with Lynch, Frost, Sheryl Lee and Richard Beymer; during this meeting Lynch told the cast that Leland Palmer was the killer, telling Wise "Ray, it was you, it was always you".[9] However, Wise felt that the end result was "beautiful", and that it left him and his character "satisfied and redeemed".[9]

Cinematography

The climactic murder of Madeline Ferguson in the episode features extensive use of jump cuts to portray the character of Leland Palmer as having been possessed, switching rapidly between actors Ray Wise and Frank Silva.[10] The scene itself is unusually long for a murder on television, lasting over four minutes.[11] Elements of the scene, including the insertion of a paper letter under Ferguson's fingernail and the use of jump cuts to events in the town's Roadhouse bar, are intended to echo similar cinematographic elements present in "Pilot".[12]

Erica Sheen and Annette Davison, in their book The Cinema of David Lynch: American Dreams, Nightmare Visions, have drawn attention to the use of mise en scène early in the episode. A scene featuring Ferguson, Leland and Sarah Palmer sitting in the Palmers' living room pans across the family's "bric-à-brac". That scene draws attention not only to the painting which Ferguson's head will be put through in the struggle during her murder, but highlights the similarity between Ferguson and Palmer by focusing on "the famous homecoming queen shot" of Palmer as Ferguson's face is visible.[13] Sheen and Davison argued that the scene highlights the "emotional claustrophobia" felt by Ferguson, the set surrounding her deliberately assembled by the crew to create this feeling.[13]

Themes

The revelation scene of BOB inhabiting Leland Palmer has been noted for its sense of duality, a common theme throughout Twin Peaks. In Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks, David Lavery writes that upon The Giant's appearance to Dale Cooper "The Giant has transmuted the public place into something private" and added that the murder scene is "in the living room, the public within the private".[14] Lavery summarised that the ambiguity between the public perception and the private perception—"the outer and the inner"—"reverberates" throughout the scene.[14] Lavery expanded on this theme, stating that Maddy Ferguson was Laura Palmer's "double" and that Leland is "doubled" by BOB. However, Lavery referred to the duality of Leland and BOB as a "subjective formation" and added that the use of jump cuts "could be Maddy's view of Leland just as much as Leland's view of himself".[15]

This scene has also been noted by critic Sue Lafky from the Journal of Film and Video as one of several in the series featuring the implications of incest and necrophilia. Lafky notes that "Leland/Bob may have raped the dead or dying Maddie", comparing this to the "necrophilic fantasies" evoked by the images of Laura Palmer's corpse throughout the series, and Ben Horne's unwitting brush with incest with his masked daughter Audrey in the One Eyed Jacks brothel.[16][17]

Broadcast and reception

"Episode 14" first aired on the ABC network on November 10, 1990. The initial broadcast was viewed by 17.2 million households in the United States—which represented 20 percent of the available audience and 10.4 percent of all households in the country, making it the fifty-first most-viewed broadcast episode for the week.[18] This represented a significant rise in viewing figures compared to the preceding episode, "Episode 13", which was seen by 11.3 million households.[19] However, the following episode, "Episode 15", suffered a drop in viewing figures, attracting 13.3 million households.[20]

The episode has been well-received critically. Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper noted that fans and critics had begun to to turn against the series by this point in its run, but felt that "even at its most strained and obtuse, [Twin Peaks] displays more imagination and effort than almost everything else in TV land". Roeper added that viewers may have been put off by the series' frame of time, explaining that only two weeks of narrative time had elapsed since "Pilot", a slow pace compared to the "fast-forward, instant payoff philosophy of most television".[21] AllRovi's Andrea LeVasseur described the installment as "pivotal", noting that it "answers some of the series' long-running questions".[2]

Writing for The A.V. Club, Keith Phipps rated the episode an A, adding "it's not like there's any shortage of action".[22] Phipps felt that the effects used in the episode were effective and frightening while still seeming low-key; and compared the blending of surrealism and horror to scenes from Lynch's film Mulholland Dr. Phipps also described the climactic murder as "one of the most disturbing moments in the Lynch filmography", adding that the "NC-17-level violence [is] made all the more disturbing by its suggestions of incest and the way Sheryl Lee plays the part as if she were as powerless as a rag doll".[22] He added that it was a recurring Lynchian theme to represent the end of innocence as a literal death.[22]

Keith Uhlich, writing for Slant Magazine, described the episode as "quintessential Lynch, perhaps his finest work", noting that the climactic murder scene was more powerful due to its necessary use of implication and suggestion.[23] However, Uhlich felt that the installment was "a tough act to follow", and that only the series' finale and the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me were able to compete with it subsequently.[23]

Notes

  1. ^ Although the series did not originally have episode titles, when it was broadcast in Germany, the episodes were given titles, which are now commonly used by fans and critics.[1]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Riches 2011, p. 40.
  2. ^ a b LeVasseur, Andrea. "Twin Peaks: Episode 14 (1990)  Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast". AllRovi. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
  3. ^ David Lynch (writer and director); Mark Frost (writer) (April 8, 1990). "Pilot". Twin Peaks. Season 1. Episode 1. ABC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ a b David Lynch (writer & director); Mark Frost (writer) (September 30, 1990). "Episode 8". Twin Peaks. Season 2. ABC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |seriesno= ignored (|series-number= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ a b Lesli Linka Glatter (director); Harley Peyton & Robert Engels (writers) (November 3, 1990). "Episode 13". Twin Peaks. Season 2. ABC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |seriesno= ignored (|series-number= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Lesli Linka Glatter (director); Robert Engels (writer) (October 13, 1990). "Episode 10". Twin Peaks. Season 2. ABC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |seriesno= ignored (|series-number= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ a b "Mark Frost movies, photos, movie reviews, filmography, and biography". AllRovi. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  8. ^ Ankeny, Jason. "David Lynch movies, photos, movie reviews, filmography, and biography". AllRovi. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  9. ^ a b Hyden, Steven (December 4, 2008). "Ray Wise | TV | Random Roles". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  10. ^ Odell & Le Blanc 2007, p. 75.
  11. ^ Odell & Le Blanc 2007, p. 76.
  12. ^ Odell & Le Blanc 2007, pp. 75–76.
  13. ^ a b Sheen & Davison 2004, p. 99.
  14. ^ a b Lavery 1995, p. 75.
  15. ^ Lavery 1995, p. 76.
  16. ^ Lafky, Sue (October 1, 1999). "Gender, power, and culture in the televisual world of Twin Peaks: A feminist critique". Journal of Film and Video. University Film and Video Association. Retrieved August 9, 2012. (subscription required)
  17. ^ Mark Frost (writer and director) (May 23, 1990). "Episode 7". Twin Peaks. Season 1. Episode 8. ABC.
  18. ^ Donlon, Brian (November 14, 1990). "Nielsens: 'Cheers' Sweeps up for NBC". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved August 10, 2012. (subscription required)
  19. ^ Donlon, Brian (November 7, 1990). "Nielsens: NBC Wins with Fewer Viewers". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved August 10, 2012. (subscription required)
  20. ^ Donlon, Brian (November 21, 1990). "Nielsens: ABC Pulls Past CBS in Sweeps". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved August 10, 2012. (subscription required)
  21. ^ Roeper, Richard (November 15, 1990). "'Twin Peaks' still piques a devoted fan's interest". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Retrieved August 10, 2012. (subscription required)
  22. ^ a b c Phipps, Keith (February 6, 2008). "'Episode 14' | Twin Peaks | TV Club". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  23. ^ a b Uhlich, Keith (April 3, 2007). "Twin Peaks: The Second Season | DVD Review". Slant Magazine. Connotype. Retrieved August 10, 2012.

Bibliography