Twin Peaks Rewatch Project - Season 1, Episode 7

For the most part, the first season up to this point has been a whole lot of character development and mystery. Here, in the season finale, that's traded for wild action and plot twists galore. It's a bumpy, twisty, road with a confusing layout, so let's get going.

When we last saw James and Donna, they were sneaking into Dr. Jacoby's office, hoping to find a missing cassette tape from Laura's sessions with the not-so-good doctor. The Hawaiian shirt that we've seen Jacoby wearing all season long is reflected in his office, where he has pictures of Hawaiian vistas, a collection of little cocktail umbrellas, and a big faux palm tree. After looking around, Donna finds a hollowed-out coconut containing the tape they've been searching for, and wrapped around the cassette is one half of the heart necklace, the one that James and Laura had.

We cut to the place that Maddy lured Dr. Jacoby to. Maddy, still dressed as Laura, is standing by the gazebo and through the bushes we see Jacoby spying on her in disbelief. Before he musters up the courage to go speak to her, he is brutally attacked and left for dead by a masked figure. James and Donna arrive and pick up Maddy, as Jacoby lays on the ground gasping for life. A close-up shot of his eyeball slowly fades into a spinning roulette wheel.

We are now at the One Eyed Jack's casino. Agent Cooper is winning hand over fist at the blackjack table. Jacques Renault (Walter Olkewicz) is dealing the cards. He seems to think that Cooper is more than the tux-wearing socialite he's presenting himself as, a hunch that Cooper confirms when he presents Jacques with the broken poker chip that was at the red-draped cabin. Cooper plays the part of the head of the whole drug smuggling operation, the one Jacques, Hank, Leo, Bobby, and Laura were involved in. He fools Jacques and then he asks how the chip got, well, chipped and Jacques describes it in disgusting detail. The camera slowly pans in on Jacques' gross wet lips as he tells the story. Leo and Laura were having rough sex (consensual or not, we are not sure) and Leo shoved the chip in her mouth and told her to "Bite the bullet, baby. Bite the bullet." Cooper looks obviously perturbed, but gathers himself and tells Jacques to meet him at a location to make a deal.

In a different part of Jack's, Audrey, who has infiltrated her way into this seedy line of work, is preparing for her first "meeting" with the man who tests out all the new girls. She asks who he is and Blackie merely tells her "No names child. You don't offer and you don't ask." Later in the episode, Ben and his brother Jerry seal the deal with the Swedish businessmen that has been talked about all season. To celebrate, Ben goes to the room where he believes the "new girl" is waiting, but unbeknownst to him, that girl is Audrey. He walks into the room she's in and Audrey is seemingly trapped, realizing it's her father who she is supposed to meet. This is the last time we see either of them for the season.

Meanwhile, Jacques is at the location that Agent Cooper gave him. Before he has any time to get wise up to the situation, a fleet of police cars traps him. Officers attempt to arrest him for the attempted murder of Ronette Pulaski and the murder of Laura Palmer. Jacques wrestles away a gun from one of the officers and takes aim at Sheriff Truman, only to be shot in the shoulder at the last second. The camera slowly pans over to reveal Deputy Andy, the same man who couldn't even hold his weapon correctly earlier in the season, standing stoically with a smoking pistol in hand.

Madeline, Donna, and James sit around the new cassette from Dr. Jacoby's office. James looks hurt but says he's fine after Laura trashes him on the tape. She even mentions another lover. He drives a red Corvette and really lights her "F-I-R-E." We can only assume this evidence points to Leo. And speaking of that sociopathic, ponytailed creep, he's kidnapped Shelly and tied her up in the sawmill to finally set Katherine and Ben's master plan in motion. Leo spreads gasoline around, says goodbye to his wife. He starts the one hour timer on the most TV prop-looking bomb he could get his hands on, and storms off to live another day. Well, at least for a little while longer.

The possibly crazy, but definitely quirky Nadine Hurley is fed up. She's sitting in the middle of the floor wearing a big pink dress and crying to herself, imagining what could have been had her completely silent drape runners not been rejected by the patent office. Nadine dumps an absurd amount of pills into a bowl and quietly whispers "goodbye." Later on, Ed rushes in to find his wife unconscious and quickly phones the police. We are unaware if he got to her in time, we can only hope.

If there is one thing that we have learned watching the town of Twin Peaks, it's that everybody in it has some sort of secret relationship with everybody else. A point reinforced when we see Josie Packard meeting up with the ex-convict Hank Jennings. Hank went to jail for vehicular manslaughter, which was part of a plea deal that took attention off of Josie's husband's murder. It turns out that Josie hired Hank for the sum of $90,000 to kill her husband so that she could take control of the sawmill. Only problem is, Hank wants more money for the time he served. To make sure that Josie understands this, he forces her to do a blood oath, cutting each of their thumbs and pressing them together. Josie rubs the blood on her lips and the deal is done, presumably.

Katherine is hunting for the missing ledger with Pete. The two reminisce about how their marriage used to be great. Katherine shows something other than hatred or indifference towards her husband for the first time since the series began, although it's tough to tell whether it's real or put on. The two even open up Pete's old yearbook to remember better times. The reflection is cut short as Katherine takes a call from Hank saying that what she is looking for is at the mill. Hank hangs up the payphone at the Double R and goes and talks to his wife. Just as Pete and Katherine were doing, Hank and Norma are remembering what was. Only in this case the two don't agree that they should still be together. Hank seems to think they should, but Norma's face, after they kiss, shows she's moved on.

At the sheriff's station everybody is bragging about Andy's display of heroism stopping Jacques, with Deputy Hawk acting it out. Lucy overhears and looks impressed as she walks to the little kitchen nook. Andy follows, and Lucy finally tells him about why she's been so cross towards him: she's pregnant! Neither seem to be too happy with it, as Andy walks away with a stunned expression. Lucy comes out furiously and sternly says to the deputies' confused looks, "Fresh. Coffee."

After calling the station we see Bobby go to Leo's house hoping to find Shelly. He runs into Leo, swinging a huge axe at him. Suddenly, Hank fires a shot through the window and hits Leo. Bobby gets out of there and Leo falls back on the couch. The TV is playing what is seemingly the only show that the citizens of Twin Peaks are allowed to watch, the faux soap opera Invitation to Love, which again proves to be prescient, as Leo and a man on the show bleed out together, shot and left for dead.

Remember the sawmill? Shelly's still there and the timer on the bomb is about expired. Luckily, Katherine shows up just in time and isn't interested in letting Shelly burn to death so she cuts her down. The fire is blazing, and the two attempt their escape. Firefighters show up outside. We don't know if Shelly or Katherine were able to escape yet, and neither does Pete. As far as he knows his wife is still in there, so Pete opens the door and runs straight into the flames.

Leland walks into the police station after hearing they a suspect had been arrested in his daughter's murder. Harry tries to make sure that Leland understands that Jacques is still just a suspect and not necessarily the culprit. Leland pieces it together and figures out Jacques is at the hospital. He makes his way to Jacques' room, and after pulling the fire alarm as a diversion, he suffocates with a pillow who he believes killed his daughter.

A whole lot has happened in this episode, so far, but the show has one more trick up its sleeve. Cooper is back at his hotel room telling Diane about the day. He picks up the note that Audrey slipped under his door in the previous episode. He doesn't have time to examine it before Andy calls his phone. The two talk shortly before there is a knock at the door. Cooper sets the phone down and we hear Andy saying that Leo has been found shot. Cooper opens the door and an unseen figure fires three shots from a silenced pistol into the FBI agent's gut.

So, Shelly, Katherine, and Pete are in a burning building, Cooper and Leo have been shot, Dr. Jacoby is in a hospital bed after a heart attack, Leland is a murderer, James is in police custody after being framed by Bobby, Josie isn't as innocent as we thought she was, and Audrey and her father are about to have a very uncomfortable meeting. In short, nobody is in a better place than they were at the start of this roller coaster. Don't worry, it will only get crazier from here.