A Pilgrim's Peaks - Episode 19
The journal of my Twin Peaks rewatch. Begin here.
Benjamin Horne seems to be processing the trauma of his recent significant personal and professional losses through a bond with the failed war of rebellion instigated by the southern secessionist states in general and their army leader, the former American colonel Robert E. Lee. Perhaps he finds a sort of kinship in one of history’s biggest losers whose rise in the ranks of an unrecognized proto-state’s insurgent army brought him a dubious amount of fame despite his many failures. Whatever the reason, Ben has abandoned a recent obsession with feng shui-like furniture rearrangement to don the gray jacket of a militant force that tried to overthrow the United States government more than a hundred years before and is in the process of restaging Gettysburg in miniature in his office.
Weird choice, Ben!
It’s the sort of tic that once again subtly reveals the era in which Twin Peaks was originally made. Because while Benjamin’s appearance and actions weird out Bobby Briggs when he brings him evidence of Hank Jennings’ misdeeds, the discomfort is more about how strange this adult in front of him is acting rather than the fact that he’s identifying with a slaveholding seditionist who led armed forces against a lawful American government. Ben’s obviously going through some stuff and is in a place (though not another place), but it’s a sloppy kind of iconography that we have been taking more conscious steps to move past throwing around in the last thirty years.
Maybe if Bobby was in school more often these days, he’d have thought to say something? He seems to be the only teen around town who hasn’t returned to classes after the case closed. The younger Briggs also seems to have forgotten about Shelly Johnson completely for the last day or two as he took on this job for Ben while flirting with the daughter of the former local magnate, Audrey Horne. She takes the photos he took to Special Agent Dale Cooper of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to aid him in the investigation that he’s under around the actions he took to rescue Ms. Horne while investigating the death of Laura Palmer.
Coop combines those photos with some knowledge gained while house hunting at a place called Dead Dog Farm and getting some more local lore delivered to him by someone of Native American descent, “Of all the people in the world, the best and worst are drawn to Dead Dog. Most turn away. Only those with the purest of heart can feel its pain. And somewhere in between, the rest of us struggle.” That handily explains both why the photos show Jean Renault and Hank Jennings plotting drug dealings on the property and why Dale’s coin flip dropped on the listing. Thus armed, he works with female-presenting DEA Agent Denise Bryson, played by television’s David Duchovny, to plan a sting operation to catch the group of criminals that are plotting his own downfall. As a cishet man, I don’t feel entirely qualified to judge how the show handles her character beyond, “sorta well? Ish?” There are some Faces made by others in her presence, but she is accepted with little question by those around her. It will be interesting to see where she ends up because we are now firmly in the parts of the show that I remember least.
And because he only seems to happen at the end or beginning of episodes, Major Garland Briggs pops back into existence in Twin Peaks, wearing the regalia of an old time flight ace!
This occurs after an emotionally charged conversation between his wife Betty and son Bobby where the latter relates the vision that the Major related to him earlier in the season. It’s a touching scene that continues to show that beneath his teenage dirtbag exterior, there is a decent person beneath the letterman jacket. He’s got good instincts about being drawn to women who need help (Shelly Johnson and Laura Palmer), even if he doesn’t quite have the emotional or practical intelligence to help them in the ways that they need. Often as not, his intentions are twisted by the kind of youthful ambition and rebellion that needs the wisdom of age or experience to fully put his wants to work in meaningful ways. That probably wasn’t entirely helped by the elder Briggs, who’s been shown to be too free with corporal punishment in contrast to his normally philsophic demeanor. That sort of mixed messaging would provide a confusing model for how to function as an adult, but the pieces are all there, and perhaps the reappearance of his dad will help him start fitting them together in a way that lets him become the person he’s been envisioned to be.