Twin Peaks Part 14: Dreams and dreamers

Part 14
Photo: Suzanne Tenner/SHOWTIME

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Andy? Andy! There were shocks aplenty in the fourteenth chapter of Showtime's Twin Peaks revival. There was a long-promised trip, and unexpected reappearances, and a cameo by a famous performer playing themselves. But surely the most unexpected — and delightful! — surprise was that the person who received a profound download of transcendent information was…Deputy Andy Brennan!

EW's own anointed Fireman, Jeff Jensen, is on vacation this week, but we'll be discussing the episode in depth in tomorrow's episode of A Twin Peaks Podcast: A Podcast About Twin Peaks, which is indeed a podcast about Twin Peaks. I'll also have a full recap of the episode later tonight/early tomorrow. (UPDATE: Read the full recap here.) For now, here are the main talking points:

Another Monica Bellucci Dream

Gordon Cole called up Sheriff Truman and received a mysterious message about Two Coopers. Tammy Preston learned a little bit more about the origin story of the Blue Rose: Young Agents Jeffries and Cole, witnessing a woman killing another woman identical to her in every way. Diane revealed that her estranged half-sister is a woman named Janey-E married to a man named Douglas Jones.

All of these moments were depth charges, and all paled next to the nuclear bomb blast of Gordon Cole's strange dream. It's a recurring one, apparently. Monica Bellucci — international cinema siren, played Cleopatra and Mary Magdalene and the only interesting person in Spectre — joined Gordon Cole for coffee. She brought friends; Agent Cooper was there, though his face was hidden. Monica Bellucci said the ancient phrase: "We're like the dreamer who dreams and then lives inside the dream." And then she continued, with a question: "But who is the dreamer?"

Then she told Gordon to turn around. He looked back, and saw a day long gone: Feb. 16, 1989, the day Phillip Jeffries appeared and then disappeared.

This was a black-and-white repetition of a scene from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. With a special focus: the moment when Jeffries (David Bowie!) pointed at Cooper and said, "Who do you think that is, there?"

Jack Rabbit's Moat

The sheriff's troop of explorers set off into the forest. They found a glorious ruin of a tree trunk: Jack Rabbit's Palace, where Father and Son Briggs once conceived elaborate stories. They walked the appointed distance into the forest. They found: smoke or fog, a naked woman with no eyes, a pool of oil like the one in Glastonbury Grove, electric lights flashing.

The woman was Naido, last seen in Part 3 falling into space. The shock of seeing this supernatural being again was only mitigated by the sudden return of an even-more-supernatural being. For a wormhole opened, and Deputy Andy was pulled through, and he met a figure who could be the Giant and whom we've known this season as ???????

Now we have a name for him: He is the Fireman. Compare/contrast with "Woodsman," and maybe ask yourself: Is he putting out the fires, or starting them?

The Fireman sat down across from Andy. The scene looked like the setting of the very first new scene of this revival: the black-and-white dialogue with Agent Cooper way back in Part 1. Andy looked into the ceiling, and seemed to receive a complete "Previously On" rundown of the events of this universe. Experiment, Woodsmen, "Got a Light," Laura Palmer, Angels, Two Coopers, Telephone Pole.

Returned to the world, Andy seemed newly assertive. He told his fellow officers they had to take the woman to safety. "She's very important, and there are people that want her dead." They put her in a cell next to the captured Chad — they were watching you for months, Chad, you're even awful at being awful! — and just down the row from a strange bleeding urinating drunk. Weird: The drunk kept repeating everything everyone else said, Dougie-style.

Piledriver Fist

James might still be cool at the Roadhouse. But at the Great Northern, he's a security guard — working, weird coincidence, for another man who loved Laura Palmer. James works with a young man named Freddie, who told an eerily familiar story about falling through a skyhole to meet a being named the Fireman. The Fireman gave Freddie a mission: Put a rubber glove on your hand, and you'll be superstrong; then go to Twin Peaks, and find your destiny.

James was intrigued by this story. But they had to finish up work for the night. He walked in to check on the furnace, and heard that strange sound, and his eyes scanned the furnace room. It was James' birthday; lets hope there's a party.

Sarah Palmer, or Is She?

Sarah walked to the local bar to get a Bloody Mary. A man at the bar propositioned her, and then it got worse. He called her awful names and he swore he'd do awful things to her.

Then Sarah turned to him, and seemed to pull her face off — just like Laura Palmer did for Dale Cooper, way back in Part 2. Inside her face: black and white, smoke, a hand, something more? "Do you really wanna f— with this?" asked Sarah. And then she bit his neck right off, vampire-werewolf style.

"We got a dead one at the bar!" said the bartender. I have some theories, but need to rewatch the scene about 10 times before I say anything more.

Billy Again

Another evening, another strange pairing of curiously unfamiliar characters at the Roadhouse. One woman said she lifted a sweater from Paula. Another woman asked about Billy. You remember, Billy: Audrey's lover, last seen by Tina? This woman was Tina's daughter, and she saw Billy, too. He jumped over a six-foot fence. He had blood coming out of his nose and mouth. Was her uncle there?

This scene would seem to confirm that Audrey isn't trapped in a dream…unless everything that happens in the Roadhouse is a dream? Or maybe everything that has ever happened is a dream?

The MC introduced Lissie, who sang a song about the wild wild West. Check back on EW.com later tonight for more about this wild wild episode, and don't forget to listen to the our podcast tomorrow, which I guarantee will feature at least two references to Inland Empire!

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