2x18 On the Wings of Love

[5.8/10] I’ll say this for David Lynch. I may not think much of what he’s done behind the camera on Twin Peaks, but damn if Gordon Cole hasn’t become one of my favorite parts of the show. There’s just something about his hard-of-hearing, chipper demeanor that makes him a nice compliment to Cooper (love their little joint thumbs up) and a funny addition to the show.

I wouldn’t have predicted it, but he actually has pretty great comic chemistry with Shelly. There’s something kind of neat about the fact that he can hear her, and Shelly’s bemused response to his ordering massive amounts of cherry pie and claiming to want to compose an epic poem about her is superb. And the whole exchange with Shelly playing telephone between Cole and the Log Lady is a fun exercise in farce.

The only catch is that it’s interspersed with scenes between Cooper and Annie. I have to admit, I found nothing offensive about Annie in her first appearance, but I get why she’s reputed to be hated by the fans. In this episode, the show lays the romance with Cooper on really thick and really fast, and the pair don’t have the chemistry to support that.

There’s something interesting in the premise of the character -- someone who’s had a suicide attempt, been shut off from a lot of the modern world, and is just taking her first steps back into it. (Her line about reintegrating it being like a foreign language -- knowing just enough to know she doesn’t understand -- is one of the few great bits of dialogue on this show). By the same token, the idea that she is her own brand of strange and that attracts Cooper is a solid idea. But the two of them making goo goo eyes at one another doesn’t really work, and there’s a lot of that here.

Thankfully, Annie provides some plot momentum as well, as she pieces together that the tatoos for Major Briggs and the Log Lady look like a symbol in “The Owl Cave.” Remember, they’re not what they seem! The show has started to get more literal with its mythos, losing the sort of mysterious nature and devolving into Da Vinci Code-esque symbol hunting, but it’s at least advancing the plot on the whole White Lodge/Black Lodge business, which is something.

Unfortunately, we also get Windom Earle entering the same cave, doing some Indiana Jones-style twist of the knob that emerges in the cave from Andy’s pickaxe-ing, and a seeing cave-in to end the episode. It’s another would-be cliffhanger that will no doubt be wiped away within the first five minutes of the next episode.

Speaking of which, this episode opens with an attempt on Sheriff Truman’s life from Eckert’s mistress. Cooper chalks the whole thing up to sexual jealousy from Eckhert, but it’s an odd thing, and the woman’s method of trying to strangle him is pretty odd. I guess she’s trying to make it look like S&M gone wrong or something? Feels like more weird for the sake of weird, but what the hell do I know?

We also get some minor progression, or really lack thereof, with Audrey and John Wheeler. They’re all flirty and have a big date planned, but Ben inadvertently messes it up by recognizing Audrey’s potential and sending her off to Seattle to do some business. I enjoy the back and forth between Audrey and John, but it needs to be going somewhere, and right now it feels pretty rudderless.

Speaking of which, Windom Earle also gets a face-to-face with Audrey, where he creeps her out doing his master of disguise routine in the library. I suppose it’s a fine scene, but why we need him interacting with all his “queens” ahead of time is beyond me. I suppose it’s supposed to be creepy, but instead it feels like an overacting version of dress-up. We also get another painful game-related metaphor, as Earle’s taken the time to affix the women’s faces (plus Cooper’s) to playing cards. The law of conservation of major characters suggests Annie will be his fourth “queen” so yipee.

Twin Peaks is also pulling a Veronica Mars here (which, in many ways, is a better done take on this same sort of mystery show set in a quirky town with a dark underbelly), as Donna discovers that her mom and Ben Horne had a thing back in the day, and the episode hints that Ben might be her real father. It’s a pretty dumb, soapy twist to pull out, and the show seems like it just needs something for Donna to do. God only knows where the show is going with Ben’s “I’m a changed man” routine, but it’s not promising.

Otherwise, we get a weird button to the story where, you know, Nadine statutorily rapes Mike and no one seems to be bothered by this in the slightest. We get a San Francisco postcard from James Hurley, which provides the nice reminder that we don’t have to see him on a weekly basis anymore. And there’s some an amusing running gag where the G-men trying to help Truman’s hangover by describing sickening dishes to make him puke.

Overall, it’s a better episode than usual, if only because there’s some legitimate plot progression and the worst storylines are kept to a minimum, and the addition of Gordon Cole is a shot in the arm for the episode’s comedy quotient. Only four episodes to go!