The One-Armed Man

Diane is 8.35 p.m. Welcome to the fourth episode of Twin Peaks Peaks. Well, fifth episode. Fifth episode, you're right.

This is the fourth episode of the TV series. Not counting the pilot. Yes. This is technically a TV movie.

Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Getting that straight.

I'm Ashley Brandt and... I'm Matthew Olson. Hello. Hey.

So, yeah, we've been hosting this show for five episodes now. Yep, which in terms of weeks past between episodes makes for a month. And let me tell you what a month it has been. Oh, the things that I've gotten up to between each episode.

I've just been having a fantastic time living it up here in beautiful Portland, Oregon. Well, you can tell how... You can just tell by the tone of my voice how enthusiastic I am about everything I've been doing. So, we'll just leave it at that.

I mean, we both had some good news this past week. This is true. This is true. Speaking of news, do we have any revival news for the upcoming season on Showtime?

You. So, this is from a source that I've not used before. So, should we be... Take this with a grain of salt.

I did it all digital times is reporting that Dave Lynch is going to direct all 18 episodes of the revival. Hmm. That would be more episodes, like way more episodes than he's directed at the show so far. Yeah, I actually directed four in the first and second seasons.

I'm going to be really interested to see what that looks like if this is true. Yeah, I mean, the only thing that I feel makes this plausible is at the time of filming, or, you know, I imagine the way it worked out in his career when the original series was being made was that Twin Peaks was signed and it was developed in collaboration with Mark Frost and a team of other people. But at the same time, he's still a film director and he has those film projects, like, approved independently and then those are going on at the same time. That's just the nature of being a working director.

But aside from the occasional album release or clothing line he collaborates on, it's what was the last movie he released. Like, that's not the way his career is going where he's just, you know, going to be in talks and responsible for making multiple films coming out in the near future as well as Twin Peaks. So then he could devote himself fully to it, I would imagine. Yeah.

And that brings up kind of an interesting point because television traditionally a given show or a given season of a show will have many different directors, generally just a different director per episode. Yeah. And I think one of the major breaks in that pattern that we've seen is the first season of True Detective, which had, oh, I'm going to say his last name wrong if I don't. If you don't look it up right now, I'm sorry.

Okay, it's okay. No, Jerry Fukunaga. He directed Jane Eyre and then he directed all of the season one of True Detective. Was his Jane Eyre with Fastbender?

Yes. Okay. All right. One of my favorite books.

Really? Yeah, I really like Jane Eyre. I have a red Jane Eyre. I think it's a great book.

So I should watch that for the fact that I like that book. I liked the first season of True Detective and Michael Fastbender more often than not. It's pretty okay. Okay.

Wait, I have a theory about Michael Fastbender. Is it related to Twin Peaks at all? No. Well, my initial feel about how great of a month I've had isn't necessarily.

Well, I mean, we've been doing this podcast and that's great, but my feel wasn't related to Twin Peaks. You had it in. Give us your Fastbender theory. I think he's the white Idris Elba.

Hmm. Really? Yeah. In the sense of like all around or like looks or acting style, is it like?

Both of those things. Ah, you know, I don't want to waste time thinking about it now, but I'll let you know if I think of- Yeah, think on that. I don't agree, but I feel like there might be a better answer. I just can't.

It doesn't come immediately to mind because I don't think about these sort of things. I don't sit around in my spare time. I mostly mope. I don't at least actively think, hey, this person is the white Idris Elba, for instance.

Anyway, okay. That's the revival news. Maybe David's directing all 18 episodes, maybe not. Yeah.

I don't know if we could see that being a possibility. I don't know exactly what it would look like, especially if we were to assume in some sense stylistically the TV show has to follow from season two, which had less of David's overt influence and then Firewalk with me, which had 100% of David's overt influence and looks really different from how the TV show looks in a lot of substantial ways. And then of course we talked about moving to HD, moving to digital and how that will affect things. So just 25 years of change in the television industry.

Yeah. I'm really interested in seeing a high degree of visual and stylistic coherence. We saw Intro to Tech of Season 1, we all always get in TV, and they're not doing that this season, which is I think part of the reason that their Intro to Tech of Season 2 is less successful. Well, I want to watch it because I only recently learned that the first episode at least was directed by Justin Lin, who's directed some of my favorite films.

Isn't he directing the new Star Trek movie? Yes, which I'm not super excited about because... The second peg wrote the script and Idris Elba is in it as long as they don't pull some foolishness and make him cling on. Look, this isn't the Star Trek podcast or the Idris Elba podcast.

What it is for about another 30 seconds is the Justin Lin podcast because I'm upset he's directing Star Trek 3 because that means at the time being he is not involved with the Fast and Furious franchise the way he was from Fast and Furious, Tokyo Drift on through Furious 6. Okay, that's what I want to say. I feel like the audience needs a little context because you have been talking about the Fast and Furious nonstop since April of this year. I'm going to say I haven't really.

In fact, go back and listen to the last four episodes of this podcast where it doesn't come up at all. I've been in hibernation, but it started to come, come starting back up because I think the Blu-ray is going to be out soon. During the month of May, did you have any conversations where you didn't bring up the Fast and Furious franchise? Here's the thing, any conversation where I didn't bring that up, I was just sad about graduating.

So really, every conversation where I only talked about Fast and Furious, I was saving people from a different type of annoyance. Okay, that was true. Those movies in very recent memory were there for me at a very tough time. Very raw emotional period and sometimes you just need family.

And sometimes you need to talk about Twin Peaks. Sometimes you need to... So you drew that out long and I need to be. I was already a comic self-off and you wanted to put it out last.

Meanwhile, you're the mastermind of this podcast and we're taking forever to talk about this episode. All of the people that we both know that are going to listen to this podcast are going to be like, oh, Matt's Fast and Furious thing and everyone who doesn't know us is going to be like, oh, Fast and Furious. Fast forward months from now when we have a large listener base that gets to episode five and episode five was like a downturn because they said the first 10 minutes talking about Matt's movie preferences and Idris Elbow of all things. Anyway.

I think those are fine things to talk about. Final point on Idris Elbow. He's got well sculpted. But anyway, this episode is called The One Arm Man.

I think it's, again, I love season one of this show. I think that this episode is generally more successful in terms of pacing and advancing the plot than the last one was. It feels like more things are being done rather than being talked about in this episode. Yeah.

Things are kind of getting started. They're not ending the way they were with the funeral. There's not enough. Despite there being a fight and a man falling on a coffin that I could use with more action in the funeral.

Maybe some Tokyo drift thing. Maybe that would have helped that a lot. It generally helps movies out. I don't know.

Bobby and Mike probably drag race. Yeah. They live their lives a quarter mile at a time. Anyway, you brought this on yourself.

Now it's going to be a sly little jokes to myself all throughout the rest of the hour. Anyway. No, it's fine. Okay.

Anyway. The top of this episode is one that always catches me off guard a little bit though because we just opened right in the Palmer residence. And we just like, again, in the middle of Cooper and Truman and so forth talking to Sarah Palmer about her visions, which Cooper already knows about. Like, these had visions of her visions, which we're just like getting into some weird inception style stuff here.

But yeah, I was like, oh, right. This is how this episode starts is that they're already taking what could have been like a five minute introduction and making it really snappy. And it's like, we're seeing Andy of all people doing like the really nice Bob sketch. And Lee Lynn walks in in yet another instance of Lee Lynn acting really strange, but not the way we've seen him extrangest thus far.

He's not crying and dancing around, but he's being like really grouchy. It's large fluffy robe. Yeah. Anything, any thoughts on the scene or did you not write down any notes about that scene?

Okay. Any notes about that scene? Well, we finally get back to like the big cliffhanger of the pilot, which is talking about the necklace like bringing up the necklace, which in the very first in the pilot episode, it's built up to be this kind of thing, like who has a necklace. It's actually kind of gone back to like background radiation level, you know, part of the mystery, but her vision of like confirming her vision of the necklace being taken is going to bring it back to who took it.

Right. Not so much who has it now. And so much that, but who on the night after her death was so involved that they went and it took it such that Sarah would have this. I like that they said, I think it's Donna, who says spooky at one point, still working my way through X-Files.

So I just giggled to myself now and I'm right here, spooky. But so spooky Sarah Palmer finally getting back to some of the initial pilot sewing the seats of the mystery thing and then cut right to invitation to love, which is one of my favorite recurring bits. So we actually haven't talked about invitation to love. This is like the second appearance in the show.

No, it's kind of always on in the background if you're looking for it, I think. But like, I think the big thing that's like touching people's attention and bringing it up now is the like identical twin storyline. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like emerald and jade. Yeah. Yeah. Love it.

Not only two precious stones, but two green precious stones. Welcome to my Steven Universe podcast where we're going to discuss whether or not Twin Peaks was an inspiration for the hit Cartoon Network series that everybody loves to talk about these days. Another day. Another podcast.

I should start especially while I'm still largely employed. Yeah. I love that we get a little bit more time watching the show. I love watching the show with the show this episode and the guy who plays jet who's in like every time you get a glimpse of the invitation to love.

It's like that same guy. Yeah. I want to I should have looked up who he was who that actors, but I whenever I watch the show, I think how he looks like a lot like a freshly shaven John Hodgman. Oh, God, you're right.

Oh my God. Yeah. I think he just looks real funny and does a great job. I'm going to get out in the previous episode.

So not one armed man, but the episode of the funeral rest in pain. The clip that we saw invitation to love during that episode of Twin Peaks was about the father of one of the identical cousins committing suicide and writing his daughter a letter. Yeah. And his niece.

They were both included in the letter. Anyway, that will become the significance of that scene will become apparent as time goes on. Yeah. Anyway, do we have anything to say about the show itself or should we talk about Lucy's amazing summary when she's asked what's new, what's going on?

Kimmy kills it. That's all I have to say is that I love that bit of characterization in the way she sells it. I know. I have something that yeah, I had dinner with my or lunch with my old boss recently and there was like a slight low on the conversation and she just turns to me and she goes, how's Kim?

Like Kim Kargam. So I felt like a real kinship with Lucy in that moment. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. We haven't spent much time talking about Dr. Jacoby yet, but we go then to seeing him. Also another kind of starting in the middle, we get the tail end of his interrogation by Cooper, which is like kind of intense.

Like Cooper is not going to be talking to this kind of aloof, like almost parrot head. That's a Jimmy Buffett fan for reference. Psychiatrist and flat out asks him if he had sex with Laura and so forth, like in a very stern tone. Yeah.

But Jacoby, I can't believe we haven't talked about him yet. He's fucking glasses. Yeah. Oh my God.

It like hurts my eyes to think about wearing those. Yeah, they're not quite like, they're not free. Free D glasses. It's not an overt like deep red, deep blue.

Yeah. It's just like, they're just now, if you go to some new agey shops, of which there are plenty in Portland, there are like, there are supposed benefits to wearing glasses with like certain colored lenses, just as you go around your days, some people believe that will, you know, maybe have a positive effect on your mood or something. Doing in your spare time. Lots.

Lots. Requining these shops. No. I'm just thinking about, you know, past experiences and bring that into the podcast that's where you have an entertaining conversation.

And my conclusion is that can't be what those glasses are because all I think looking at them is how it would give me a headache. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm in agreement with you on that point.

And I feel like it's one of the most overt, like kind of quirky things, like kind of gifted to a character in Twin Peaks as terms like an identifiable trait is that here's this kooky guy who's like spitting out golf balls and has these weird colored glasses on at all times. And then last episode, I think he's got the weird cap with a feather in it. Yeah. Well, and he also was like obsessed with Hawaii.

Yeah. And then I think it's kind of like singularly identifiable characteristics. His whole vibe is off putting but in a kind of like almost painfully over the top way. Yeah.

I will say that I have a lot of questions about. I did have a kinship moment with him in this episode as he left and did a little shock at tweak. Oh my God. Treat the thumb and pinky.

I love that moment. Any other, any other thoughts on Jacoby? Yeah. I thought it was interesting like the way that he was like skirting patient confidentiality and sort of like flaunting it for Cooper.

Yeah. Because like the professional thing to do would have been to say this is all covered under doctor patient confidentiality and I'm not going to disclose this information to you. But instead this is a guessing game where Cooper never gets any real information out of it. And instead he tells that anecdote about ginger.

Yeah. I feel like I want to break a little bit out from the point by point thing that I've kind of universally started leaving us on with my point by point notes. But the very next thing that happens is we get a call from Gordon. Oh my God.

Who played by our boy David Lynch. Yeah. I wonder how many people caught on to that on their first watch because I know my mom didn't. Hmm.

And hasn't yet. Because he's now a good time to talk about some key points your mom thinks about the show and where it's going. Yeah. We can do that.

Okay. So my mom, I called her up and she had eight pages of front and back notes about this episode which she watched twice. Wow. So I'm just going to cherry pick a few interesting observations.

I have a small piece of paper ripped from a small pad of paper that's not even like particularly full but front and back. Those are my notes. And I'm supposed to be on the podcast. Her homework.

But I did ask her though and I think this was interesting because I remember when I first started watching Twin Peaks, I told my dad that I was doing that, he came to visit, he was like, I was college and I was like, I have a new show, as you do. And he was like, oh yeah, your mom and I watched that. And I guess she caught a few episodes but just like couldn't keep up with it because she wasn't watching at the beginning and she didn't have that ability at the time. Hmm.

Anyway, so her points were eight, she thinks that Leland and Ben are played by the same actor and I told her to verify that information on the internet. No. Yeah. But she thinks Hank is more suspicious than Leo.

Okay. He's kind of, I think, rising to the top of the bad boy ranks in Twin Peaks for her. He's certainly scummy from his first appearance this episode. Yeah.

Yeah. And she also thinks that Josie's relationship with the sheriff is suspicious. My mom pointed out that Josie's kind of at the intersection of a lot of peril, so why not reach out to the main, you know, police force? Why not reach out to the, the handsome sheriff who wears a really, really awesome.

I occurred to me and I've had this thought before, but watching this episode occurred to me again. How awesome his purple plaid coat is and how much I want one. I don't think I could pull it off, but I don't want to have one. You know, for special.

I like Hans of Twin Peaks. Yeah. Audrey Horn, Sheriff Truman. I don't think Truman gets as much credit as he should for the way he dresses, which isn't to say like he outshines other characters.

Like, there are, there are better style icons in Twin Peaks, but he commits to a look and he pulls it off pretty much every episode. I think he's wearing that coat and he pulls it off very well. Yeah. And you don't see a lot of experimentation with the men of Twin Peaks in their fashion.

No. We're always wearing the same suit. Well, there are some episodes where he dresses differently and still rocks it, but that's a ways off. That's months from now in podcast time.

Speaking of Hank, do you think he looks kind of like Brian Cranston? I could see that. Yeah, I guess. The jaw is not the same, but it's only about the brows and probably like the hair color.

He could be brothers. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. Nice.

Then some submission to the ring. Looks kind of like a guy from Malcolm in the Middle and Breaking Bad. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. He looks way more like the dad from Malcolm in the Middle, though. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Of course. Well, I mean, that's part, you know, age at time of filming and part of the fact that at least Hank, I mean, if you want to make Hank really scummy, all you'd have to do is give him a Walter White mustache. And then, oh, that's true. You wouldn't even need to have him sucking on a domino, a friend.

Oh, God. At the end of the episode, he established that he's a bad guy. So another highlight of this episode, and I would argue the main highlight is the scene between Audre and Donna in the girl's room. Yeah.

Also, I agree. That's a great scene. I think that's like one of the more like, gift scenes. Gift scenes.

Okay. Yeah. All right. Leave it at that.

Yeah. I really wonder. So at this point, you know, they're not filming on location. So this is not in the girl's bathroom of a North Bend Washington high school, but it is the high school interiors they built for Twin Peaks are still based off of that.

So I really wonder if the zigzag stripe running through the bathroom and that you can also see L and seven the rest of the high school is just an inspired choice on the part of the set designers or if that's actually what that high school bathroom looked like. And then they just recreated it because then if that's case, I would have hung out and had a sketchy meetings in the bathroom all the time just for the sheer novelty of it. It looks so cool in there. Also, it's Donna and Audrey like teaming up to like do some like real mystery stuff.

And then we're talking about in terms of action and like advancing the plot is that they put a lot of stuff together between the two of them. They like have it as much if not more figured out in terms of like a mass evidence as the police department does it seems. Aside from like forensic evidence, which you know, can't fault them for that. Yeah.

But also like what is that adding up to at this point the forensic evidence? She was attacked by a bird, different kinds of twine, poker chip and or stomach. And like, yeah, that's all going somewhere. But what concretely does that mean in this episode that got this moment?

Not much, but I like that those things are introduced quickly and then quickly addressed in terms of like trying to track down the connections because we figure out what bird it is. And then we figure out who grew possibly owned it like very quickly. And the fine things brought up and then you get the great moment where they stop outside the veterinarians and Cooper's just like, Andy, go get me some twine. Like it's it's so great because Cooper has just received and taken in this information about two different brands of twine.

But he's so on it that it's not like the cops are thinking like, okay, maybe we should figure out what that's sold. But Cooper's just taking care of it casually while they're doing this other thing. Yeah. Like he doesn't know that there's it's part of his like kind of six cents investigative skills where he knows there's going to be a connection here.

But also it's not like, all right, that'd be hard go out and go search all this like it's taken care of in a very efficient way for the plot as well. Yeah. No, that's true. Mystery writing.

Yeah. But going back to the bathroom scene really quick, we also get one of my favorite lines in the series, which is Audrey saying, I've been doing some research in real life. There is no algebra. Yep.

I wrote it down. I wrote it down on my notes. But conversely on Usenet this week, you know, someone was like, what's your top quote from this episode? And of the like six, seven replies, none have that iconic quote.

What what things did people pick out apart from that? Let me know if there's any bloodshed. I'm going to give little Elvis a bath from Ben Horne. There's a sign outside of the veterinary clinic that says aid to the beast incarnate, which is like kind of cool.

Cooper saying, Harry, the last thing I want you to worry about is some city slicker pissing upstream of your town. I'm a strong sender and other Cooper quote. That's that's a great insightful Cooper quote is that, yeah, the notion that him being in a room would have affected the proceedings because he's just like this, like psychic hot ball of energy that's just going to influence everything around him because like you already get the sense five of a citizen. He totally is.

If we're going to suspend or disbelieve and believe that that stuff is going on, he totally is that guy. He's he's an alpha mutant telepath like like Professor X. I could see that. I could see that.

I could see Tom McLachlan doing a good job of that role. I think even the comics that was always British. So yeah, so I mean, I don't know if Tom McLachlan can do a good British accent. I'm not familiar.

You know, if he can make wine, he can do anything. That's what we should try on all these episodes. We should get some some wine from Tom McLachlan. We should get David Lynch's coffee.

Yeah. Oh, we definitely need to get some of the DL coffee. Yeah, I can't believe we haven't thought of that already. Well, I've heard it's not great.

Oh, well, excuse yourself. The man himself has already graced our young podcast a number of times with his presence. I don't think we should. Hello.

Oh, God, actually, what did you do? Hello. I couldn't help but over here that someone in the room recording the podcast was only opinion that my coffee or perhaps under the impression that my coffee is not that good. I'm just saying I'm just saying in a dark roast, you don't get the full flavor profile.

So you're not really hitting the full potential of the beans. So I think it does a disservice to the beans when you do a dark roast. You know, I think the current snobbish state of coffee appreciation, especially on the part of. The brewing aficionado.

It's a sadness. It's just a fucking sadness because there has been a tremendous loss of respect for a great black black is a night on a moonlit night cup of coffee that you would pick up at a roadside diner. I think I think people don't understand that type of coffee anymore. And it just it's a sadness.

That's all I have to say. Good day. I really like your bye. Bye David.

Bye. I did really like his women's athletic wear line. Actually what the fuck? I think you just blew it for us.

I don't think he's gonna come back. I don't think he's gonna come back and visit the show. What a shame. He flew all this way out for nothing.

He totally bugged my bedroom. He just walked in. Did you see that? He didn't even open the door.

He just phased in through the door. Tigger, the cat I live with has been scratching at this door the whole episode and yet David Lynch just kind of appeared. He's a strong sender. He's a strong receiver.

He likes his coffee very strong and black. I don't know what problem that is. I prefer his sports wear line. So maybe we'll try to review it sooner rather than later and see if we can.

I would love to be proven wrong. I'm just repeating this burned bridge. I'm just trying to prepare this burned bridge. Wow.

All right. A television show called Twin Peaks. We're supposed to talk about it. Haven't heard of it.

Oh god. Oh we were talking about how no one recognized that great quote from Audrey. Well people do now because as you said that is a favorite scene of the Tumper crowd and so forth. It's a great.

I mean I think the obvious observation is like all of the quotes cited by the Usenet members were quotes from Cooper. Yeah Ben Horn. Yeah. There's one from the one armed man.

Yeah. Misogyny which is really weird because as you know a part of the I guess we'll call it Twin Peaks fandom these days. There's not nearly so overt a tone of that from the like now wide and very audience that interacted interacts with the show. Yeah.

In the way that the internet does. And that's great because the show itself is like over 50% women or 50% women. Yeah. Like the show itself was not a show for just like dudes.

Like it wasn't like you know a macho like 18 to 34 year old male demographic show. Yeah. It had like built in. I think on average the female characters get more character development than most of the one off side male characters.

It had built into its like very DNA. I respect for that audience. And so that just tells you more about who's on Usenet at that time. Yeah.

Talk about television shows generally. But it was kind of weird to me the way that when Shelly and Bobby have their scene and this is jumping pretty far ahead in the episode. And they're talking about Leo and it becomes clear that Shelly doesn't know that Bobby isn't business with Leo. Oh yeah.

Bobby lies with his flocking teeth. Yeah. And then he takes that shirt from Shelly but he makes like every effort to like keep her uninformed. And in that way like I get why they made that choice but that also kind of prevents Shelly from doing much in the plot in this episode.

Yeah. Yeah. I do want to talk about that scene because I don't think it's apparent before then how little Shelly knows about Bobby. Yeah.

Like for Shelly it's kind of just like I'm you know I'm cheating on my like really shitty awful husband with the kind of kind of bad boy high school quarterback. But that's it not knowing the extent to which that she's actually well you know sense in danger herself but that Bobby's in danger her because he's Leo's business partner. And I don't think that those lines were clearly drawn before that scene. And then I also think that Bobby's way of like he just says like he's been onto this thing for a while.

Like he's like some kind of like high school Sherlock Holmes which I guess is now not uncommon in Twin Peaks. It's not totally unrealistic. These little kind of like you know Scooby-Doo teenagers figuring things out on their own. There's something great cultural references can make that.

America has a strong tradition of teenage crime solvers. Oh yeah. Wait. Scooby-Doo, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew.

I told you I started Veronica Mars right. Yeah. Yeah. Which reminds me a little bit of Twin Peaks.

Nice. Um but I don't believe Bobby is that for a second. He's just like I'm onto this thing that Leo's been like helping run cocaine into the school. He's like just removing himself from this narrative and making himself an observer a bystander to this thing that he's been totally a part of.

It's not a whole story if you ask me. Yeah. Yeah. Like if I were Bobby lying I would have like named someone else on the football team for instance to set this off because I was like oh that's how you would know this.

Just throw Mike under the bus. Yeah. Why not? It's an easy option.

We can see Mike for, well I guess he was in the last episode. We didn't see him in this one. Yeah. But you know clearly, clearly side character.

It would be easily you know have a lame pin on him. Yeah. Um oh god the way that that scene ends the like the sexy gunplay. Not in here.

I was like looking at my notes and it just says gunplay and then like it took a second to click and like no. Not cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Wait can we rewind this podcast and not being linear right now? That's fine. I think that's more organic more fun. We're being fun this week.

Anyway, um did you notice that there are two black members on Hank's parole board? Yeah. Other three person parole board? Where is he locked up because it is clearly not in between these metropolitan area?

Well, it would be a little much if in addition to the other high profile locales that this very small town has for some reason or another if they were also home to the nearest by penitentiary. So yeah, I assume that he is locked up elsewhere in eastern Washington probably you know closer to Spokane metropolitan area than good news. There's a joke in here somewhere. I can't find it right now.

A joke about Spokane vis-a-vis your observation. A joke about Rachel Dojal. Well, congratulations. We just dated our podcast solidly to the summer of 2015.

If you're listening to this in the future, remember that? Wasn't that crazy? Wasn't that just like unsettling? I'm sure it's only gotten weirder since this moment.

So I feel okay making that reference. I really hope that we're not still dealing with that like years from now. Anyway, what a time to be alive this summer of 2015. If you're listening to this feature, maybe you've already watched the new episodes of Twin Peaks.

Well, also okay, let's see. Let's see how far away from the mic you can open that without standing up and how much noise it makes. Okay, you're having. All right.

We haven't even gotten to what this week's food segment is, but you're gonna. I think you're gonna regret having opened that and then having to participate in the food segment as well. I think how is that cider? It's really good.

It's really good. Do you want to? I'll try this. It's not the food segment, by the way.

But did you get a ginger cider because of Dr. Jacoby's ginger talk? Because that could have been a plausible thing. You didn't think about that connection.

This could have been the food segment. I did think about doing ginger. Just like. And then you came up with an easy option.

I was like, all right. Yeah, I came up with an option that I really wanted to do. We'll get to that. I do have to say that would be really funny if what we had done.

Was we just got some like some of that side ginger from a sushi place and we're like, wait, I have some of that at my house. Let's just try this and see what you think. It's really cleansed secret palette. It's damn fine.

Yeah. All right. Let's get back on track with talking about the television show yet again. How have we gone?

I'll track. You know what people on use that were really into this week? What? The llama.

I love that. Mama is such a pro. It gets right up in Kyle McLachlan's face and yet doesn't like ruin the shot or anything. But they share such a meaningful look for that moment.

What do you think this significant? So the llama is getting your fan theory on the llama. And its connection to the llama. Yeah.

Oh, Del Cooper grew up on a llama farm. I could see that. I could see that for sure. You know, I was I was not really okay.

All right. We'll get back to that. I was at a music festival this weekend and the like a headliner for the weekend was Weezer. The lead singer, trust me, I'm getting somewhere.

The connection is that in peace and we zero both of the early nineties joke. I don't have a connection. No, I do. Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer of wezer was raised on an ashram.

And when you're coming up at the llama farm, just made me think of that. And I'm just like, I could also see that as a Del Cooper origin story. What is an ashram? Oh, I don't want to mess this up.

I really don't. I don't want to mess up the belief system that ashrams are associated with. What you need to know is that Rivers, if you're not familiar with Weezer's body of work, he starts out as a songwriter much weirder. And you can probably trace a lot of that back to his upbringing.

Also, his brother's name is Leaf. Oh, so it's like the Phoenix family. Rivers and Leaf Cuomo. Yeah.

Anyway, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Hinduism. Oh, okay. Now Rivers Cuomo was very white. So I don't know how his family ended up raising him on an ashram.

I don't think he actually ever practiced Hinduism. But something like that, I could see as like a kind of something akin to that. I could see as a Del Cooper origin story as easily as I could see as a backstory for a Tibetan Zen monastery. Exactly.

Like that could be it. Oh, now I just took a minor trip down Wikipedia Lane, but I'm taking a trip down memory. Now I was once tripping around in the suburbs. Not so deep, suburban as to be North Bend, if only if only as it happened around North Bend.

But just drive around to see how it's covered with my friends. And we pulled up and discovered this like just in the middle of suburbia, this beautiful ornate and absolutely huge monastery. Like red and gold all over. Just like in a cul-de-sac.

Very like that itself could have been a moment plucked from a kind of surrealist work of television. I'd be really into that. That seems so specific. Or yeah, it's a very specific question.

Or it could be the lead into a really bad hack need piece of television or film. The white teenager discovers the monastery and then goes on a mystical journey. It's a really bad Woody Allen movie. I can argue.

Yeah, it could definitely be that Woody Allen enrolls at the monastery. No, no, in Walking Phoenix is like the head monk. I think we might have actually just described the original pitch for the Love Guru or something. I think you're right.

This is that kind of podcast. Anyway. But on Usenet, people were arguing as they do, whether it was plausible to see a llama in the Pacific Northwest. And someone did their research and found out that at this time, since 1990, the largest llama farm in the US was in Sisters, Oregon.

So not implausible. Yeah, 350 llamas. Okay. I'm sure some of them migrated north.

Yeah. I mean, do you think this is a bigger moment for llamas in TV and film or Napoleon Dynamite? Why did you bring that up? You started us on this track when you took me to FASC for the Fast Movies at the Top of the Show.

And now just all the pop culture neurons are firing at once. I can't keep focused on... I have a couple things I'm trying to fight back right now, but we're going to get through this episode. We have ample time to get through the episode and get through things.

We're actually going to FASC because I feel like I'm not rambling as much instead of just saying one sentence that takes us totally off the rails. Let's talk about Lucy and Andy. We get more of a peek into their relationship this episode. Lucy, not very happy with Andy.

This is the first watch through where it's occurred to me that that's got to suck for Andy in this very moment because he also drops the gun and it goes off. And I think the start of his day, he should be feeling himself and feeling great and feeling like a competent deputy for once because he makes... Why is he the sketch artist? Because he's really talented.

He's the Twin Pea sketch artist. And then his day just goes to shit from there. He should have had a great day because he didn't pass out the side of a dead body or get hit in the head of the rock during a Tibetan influence to the duct of ritual. He made great sketch and then drops his gun.

The past four days into a peek, this is probably the best day he's had. He still kind of screwed up. Still, I should feel it for him. Lucy's upset.

It's not a good place for him to be right now. Since Nadine and Ed aren't featured in this episode. I know. I'm aware.

I'm painfully aware of that. He's eaten a turkey sandwich. Pea and his turkey and mayonnaise sandwich. Alright.

I'll assume that's what's in the hand here in the top five, but I don't know at this point. How close they are to the turkey sandwich. And then we also get this interesting line from Cooper at the police station. He says to Harry, they're talking about Cooper's line of questioning because they've already met with the one armed man who we really haven't talked about a lot.

And he says that his best friend in the whole world is named Bob and he's Bob the vet. And Cooper says to Truman, in an investigative pursuit, the shortest distance between two points is not necessarily a straight line, which literally just means he's saying fuck it to Occam's razor. Which is the principle that the shortest and simplest explanation is the most likely. I feel like, already from the information they've gathered, there's ample support from what they've actually figured out so far that this is going to be a weird one.

We're talking about a place where, just as of last episode, a theme that's not really brought back up in this episode, I'm going to be following. The towns of folk have a sense of a darkness that lives in the woods. I feel like embracing this kind of circuitous thing. Well, I think he's bringing the circuitousness to the investigation in a certain sense.

Right. But I don't think that I'm at all questioning the police department's lack of resistance to it. I think that the person who is actually at this point in terms of being a person of the law, who's approached as most out of line with Cooper's, is Albert's thus far. Albert's now somewhere, I guess, spoken in office probably using computers and things to dig up more and more on what happened to Laura.

Whereas Cooper's just like, I'm going to stare down this llama and track down the minor bird and kind of let these far off connections start to percolate up. He's just really diverging from common investigative techniques. Which is like, in a way, the lake in another context would not be productive. In another context, no, but also on a television series might not actually be that great to watch.

Has he seen all five seasons of the wire? No, but that is a show with a very different aim in mind. I think of it this way. If I'm going to watch an unrealistic investigation of a crime, I would much rather have a twin-peaks approach in a broad sense that introduces a world that is just unlike our own in a lot of key ways in terms of how the people in it act and what they believe kind of across the board.

Which leads to both Cooper type kind of, you know, acolytes who believe in a process as well as Ben Horn, like almost like mustache twirling villains, which you would never really encounter in the world. In that same sense, at least at that level of success in real life, I'd much rather prefer that approach to kind of building a, for lack of a better term, fantastical world and then abandoning the principles of normal crime investigation than doing what a CSI does. Which is throw all the jargon in like process at the wall it can to try and make it seem like something that is like exciting and cutting edge and so forth and like cops who are the best at the thing and like doing things you never even heard of because they don't actually know or want to portray how any of that actually works. I think it could be interesting the other way.

I mean it would be a different show, but I think that. This is just Matt hates on CSI and NCIS hour now. I mean I'm not pro CSI. I'm just saying like I think I think a parallel what the academy taught him sure a parallel I think of this brings to mind is how Dexter seizes upon one aspect of forensic crime investigation with a blood splatter and just like ramps it up and goes with it because it provides a really great visual that they can kind of bust out again and again throughout the show.

But otherwise when things are investigating that show they're absolutely unrealistic and so forth, but it like takes it takes this little grain and then uses it in an artistic manner that I feel like makes it entertaining as opposed to just like all the shows that you know need the investigation to be the thing that advances the plot. And so you get zoom in hands on video feeds and things like that where you just like you ran out of ideas and you couldn't even begin to cob together like something that because you've chosen to pin the advancement of this plot to the advancement of the investigation in a quote unquote realistic or like by the book manner. You've then suddenly blown up the entire like I can't spend my disbelief anymore. I don't think Occam's razor has to be a procedural though.

What it was so do you take issue with Cooper throwing it out I guess like has the show not earned this is I feel like the show earns him being able to say something like that. Um I just I think I'd like to see I think it would make sense to see more resistance from the police department just based on like how I presume they do their own procedural stuff. And the fact they're kind of using what I presume is quite a bit of their budget and resources on basically investigating Cooper's dream that he doesn't remember all of. Like I'm into the fact that that's happening but I kind of want to see someone say we are already over budget for the year what the fuck are you doing and how can you justify this.

So you want to see I'm sorry you want to see a bean counter like is that what you're saying are you saying that the missing from the peace share department is not this is not by any means the quickest or most accurate way to catch the person who killed Laura Palmer and who has probably killed three other women. Yeah wait three almost three and I'm thinking ahead. Yeah nice one. Nice by the time three happens.

You know I feel like they're pretty close. Anyway I feel like okay there are a variety of reasons why the simplest answer is the most likely and why that's an important principle in terms of conserving resources and also like getting a deranged killer off of the streets. Right but it's more or less or more often than I'd say it's just like it leads to more predictable television like when you're already in a fantastic setting. Yes but the thing is then if then it's just like the first five episodes concerned them spending a lot of time chasing down the character who to an intelligent viewer of television knows is going to be the red herring character who's going to be proven innocent in like the spectacular fashion yet not at all surprising fashion like it's interesting that I think compared other shows Twin Peaks doesn't dangle that carrot so much of they're going to do this by the books and what they're going to turn up is going to lead them in a particular direction but that direction of course because of television because you don't want to blow the secret that fast is not going to be actual answer like instead we're getting this thing where.

Through and admittedly a totally like crazy well a totally non standard investigative technique we're getting all these little different bits of information but what we're getting out of it is this network of characters that's being formed where we have a shot who's up at things and Leo and then on the side of auditing their thing they know the people who are involved the high school level and so we know that and through just like following the other characters we know Mike and Bob is involvement with Leo and these things that's like way more fascinating to me than just. Show that at least what as it's falling cops is falling the cost doing their job the right way I don't know. I mean I think it's still be interesting because the murder itself is really interesting that it's a show I'm just saying like why can't you and say hey why don't we pursue a suspect that you didn't see in a dream and then Cooper give him a reason and then we continue with the scene as is. Is the concern just that there's no conflicts over this over the dream.

Yeah is this something that the user's at this point are saying as well. Like no it's just me I don't know maybe maybe I'm just fan blowing too hard but I just like don't see that as a problem like I think like I said I think the show earns their being no resistance to the way Cooper's doing. I think it's just accelerating to the fantastic to quickly considering that like someone was killed like four days ago like this should still be a real concern like who is at risk like. Right I mean the way that would be best justified is the fact that the only reason why Cooper's here in town the first place is because he thinks that this is the second.

At least the second murder it's part of now a string of murders and so if I was local on force and I'd be like do you think you're gonna strike here again but. He Cooper the person who then is closest to this case in this like you know criminal profound so forth is not concerned about an immediate. Like repeat like another death happening that soon and as you alluded to. Right but you like my question is how much time do you want to spend on that when you've got an ensemble cast and you got all these like plot threads all right.

From the pilot onwards being sewn that you have to keep up with like it could just be one line. I just want someone to say why don't we pursue a lead that's not your dream. You want what is the worth of pursuing your dream just say what it is justified this choice. You want one line and then that one line takes away from yet more at normal time.

Okay. All right. All these things are important to every plot line in Twin Peaks is important to the overall arc of the show. I'll have you know especially I was sorry and Nadine I was gonna say you went off brand there for a second.

That's because I'm upset about something else which is just that I don't know why you're taking issue with this anyway. Sorry Nadad we already don't get them this episode. I don't want all this like questioning of the of Special Agent Dale Cooper to get in the way of yet more useless side plot romance. All I'm saying is we went from a couple of episodes that were more grounded to one that's less grounded.

I want something to justify the transition. I feel like what justifies the transition takes place in the very beginning of this episode which is like Cooper tells them one day. Hey in my dream Sarah Palmer saw this and this and then they go in and introduce Sarah Palmer and she's like yes yes and yes. Like that alone is a lot too.

Okay. The only question that I think they should be asking then in terms of procedural is like okay that's weird and if they're saying that's weird then they're like how does Cooper know this and then the answer is. This is not the X files and Fox Mulder is not in charge of this case. This is the X files because of predated the X files like.

We'll talk about investigative methodology after the podcast because this is. It's it's it's I mean this is what you want to find guess if you're right which is like discussing the show in depth rather than me making a bunch of like. Coi offhand jokes but I don't know if it feels like this concern like. I'm just going back to line because literally what he's just saying but he's not even disregard this investigative principle but he's just asserting that the opposite is what's productive.

Like I get why that's like cool and like why you would write the line that way and like what that establishes about the world but again dead person limited police resources morning family. There are a couple of like concerns. Yeah I guess I mean but I feel like at some level that's just like already five episodes in that's not the show the show is or needs to be but. Difference of opinion like they're they're they're like leaning in forward fascinated by Cooper's every word of that breakfast at the start of last episode like they're not they're not.

Already questioning them this is a concern as a last episode where they're just like what it should have been in the last episode after Cooper describes the stream. Dreaming just like slams his fist down on the table and is like are you kidding you call me you say you know who murdered her and you don't. Instead he just goes damn and at least he goes damn and it's really cute and that's what the show already is in that moment in this I don't know this is an episode later and it's still that show I guess. Yeah I mean I get your point but I guess I think that could have come up here and I think that it would be interesting if they actually did pay attention to like the like limited police sources that they're police resources that they're using such that towards the end of the series.

They've literally run out of money to pay people for the overtime for this case so it becomes just like Cooper's weird thing that he's doing by himself. That's a different show. It's like a totally different show. Okay this is just something that I think about a lot is if a show is breaking with reality the question is really come down to if it had instead adhered to something that's more realistic sequence of events would it still feel like that show at all.

And I think that in this case this is a show where it's just like it's already weird from day one where the person who is also the audience is like Cypher like entryway into this community of other characters this small town is also this like super strange yet talented like detective type figure like it's not a show that wants to play with that at all so if it did more of it would feel more like it's just like unnecessarily like crossing his teeth and dotting his eyes like just for the sake of believability whatever that means whatever the concept of that is for television. I don't think that's so much to ask for but okay. That's fine. What happens in this episode?

There's actually not that much. This is like almost a fine point which and there's some more to the one-armed man find out about the bob tattoo. That's like interesting it's what brings them to that veterinarian hospital but it's kind of like that's a dangling thread like what exactly was the tattoo. Did it happen to have a portrait?

Did the man look anything like we get confirmation that no this Bob and the Bob and the sketch are not the same. Yeah. That's kind of important moving forward. Oh my god.

I do want to say back to Andy another great moment he has this episode is when he says Jacques Renaud. Yes. Wait I wrote that down. See now we're back in agreement.

Not for long. Yeah there's actually around town I don't know if you've seen this though these yellow posters advertising an event at a local club featuring a DJ goes by Jacques Renaud. Well we haven't seen that. Twin Peaks reference tonight.