A Pilgrim's Peaks - Part 7
We return again to the theme of corrupted authority figures this week as the other shoe drops on the warden of the prison where Cooper’s doppelgänger is being held. His phone phreaking and implied insider knowledge of more checkered elements of the warden’s past which we learned about in a previous episode bear fruit here, after the brief conversation he has with Diane confirms everyone’s long-running suspicion that, appearances aside, this is not, in fact, our Special Agent Dale Cooper of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But after the violent release of the last episode, we mostly see more tension building here as the doppelgänger merely uses that leverage to obtain a quiet release from incarceration for himself and the last member of that trio he assembled in the first episode. The other two died pretty quickly, so it seems more like this other man’s lifespan is most likely a, “when,” than an, “if.”
About the biggest fireworks we get this episode are the ones between Diane, FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole, and Special Agent Albert Rosenfeld, but mostly it’s amazing to finally meet her fully after the brief cameo in the last episode. Another cut of that wholly unique cloth produced by Twin Peaks, she’s an interesting foil for Coop in the give-no-fucks world wearniess she puts up around the space where her boss used to be that makes you wonder what it would have taken for him to become like that? He still seemed so unflappable even after twenty five years in the Black Lodge that it feels like it would take something truly, cosmically awful to sour him. All of which makes it easy for a person as close to him as Diane was to smell the burning oil from behind the bulletproof glass.
In lieu of actual fireworks, though, we do get an aborted firearm discharge as Dougie Jones continues to exhibit characteristics of Agent Cooper, especially in the skill with which he foils his would-be assassin, but still remains an awkward mess of potential waiting to be unlocked and makes you wonder how long whatever’s going on in Vegas will remain there. Agent Cooper’s room key has at least found its way back to the Great Northern hotel and Twin Peaks, stirring the memory of Benjamin Horne.
Picking at the audio thread from the last episode, he and his secretary Beverly experience their own audio oddity as they try to place a sound that seems to come from different points around the room at different times. For now, though, they only find each other and some dramatic feels that cause some drama in Beverly’s home life.
And finally, the newly identified body of Major Garland Briggs is the last bit of rising tension. How did it get to South Dakota? Why does it appear to be the same age as it was when we last saw the Major twenty five years ago? Who is the coal-faced man that seems to be wandering around the halls of hospitals and prisons unnoticed by their occupants? All we can do is watch and wonder because let’s be honest this is basically a placeholder so that I can finally watch this Part 8 that everyone’s been talking about for the last five years AAAAGAAARRRRGH!