Recap of Episode 20

"Redacted" by @eclecticirie

Season 2 Episode 20

Written by: Harley Peyton

Directed by: Todd Holland

Original Air date: January 19, 1991

"Cooper..."

We see the stars at night and then hear a spooky voice whisper, "Cooper..." An owl shaped yellow symbol flashes into view. Major Briggs' voice begins to seep in the background as he slowly comes into focus. The Major is sitting on what appears to be a King's thrown in the middle of the woods. He recounts the experience of his disappearance as best he can remember. We can hear Cooper's voice asking him questions as we focus on the Major. Briggs tells them he recalls a giant owl. Then a flash of an owl flying off appears. We flash back to the Major and see the same symbol has been marked on his neck. 

"Is this meant for the soul? My soul?"

In the conference room, Dale, Doc Hayward and Harry question Major Briggs. Dale asks him how big this owl was. The Major looks confused, but answers it was big enough to cloud his memory. Harry asks what the nature of his work is. Briggs exhaustively answers, "it's classified," but notes that he's repeatedly told himself that. The Major is shaky. He wearily spouts, "is this meant for the soul? My soul?" He wonders if he should tell them about the nature of his work.

He mentions Project Blue Book, which Dale knows to be a secret Air Force project that investigated UFO's in the 1960's. Briggs says that some still investigate in an 'unofficial' capacity. He also says that in Twin Peaks they are searching for a place called the White Lodge. Before he can continue, a military officer comes in to take the Major with him. Harry isn't happy about it, but the Major chooses to leave peacefully. After Dale looks at a Polaroid picture of the Mayor's neck marking and water from the sprinkler above drips onto the picture. Dale looks up slowly, then he exchanges curious glances with Harry and Doc Hayward.

"Ernie Niles is as bold as can be!"

In Harry's office, Denise waits with a nervous Ernie Niles and plate of donuts. Ernie is reluctant to make the call to Jean Renault. He tries to pump himself up by saying how he's faced tougher men before. Denise offers a neck massage to help him relax, which Ernie shrugs off uncomfortably. Then Dale walks in with coffee and asks if they're ready. Denise says Ernie is gun shy. Feeling challenged, Ernie responds, "Ernie Niles is as bold as can be!" He reaches for the phone, but before dialing begs Cooper and Denise to not make him do this. They ignore him. Dale eats a donut and Ernie finally gets on the phone.

Dick comes to the station in a khaki fedora and trench coat disguise. He pulls Andy aside and tells him that he found out at The Happy Helping Hands orphanage that Little Nicky's records were sealed. Dick wants he and Andy to break into the orphanage to learn more. Lucy tries to listen to their conversation, but misses them as they leave. Dale then pulls Lucy aside and quietly asks if she found out anything about their secret inquiry. Lucy tells him she couldn't find out anything about a chess deal or Windom Earle.

At the Double R, Norma offers Ed more coffee and asks if everything's alright. Ed smiles and slips a message to her saying, "We need to talk," on the back of his check. Norma smiles and says bye for now. Later Hank notices Norma leaving during the breakfast shift. He asks where she's going. Norma answers that she'll be right back, and that he should think of her leaving him alone as a test. Hank doesn't look pleased.

"Nothing I can think of."

At Shelly's house, she struggles to feed Leo while Bobby huffs around in his suit. Leo gets his oatmeal all over her. Shelly gets frustrated and snaps that it was Bobby's turn to feed Leo. Bobby cops an attitude and says he's not coming back. He says he's Ben's golden boy now and has better things to do. Shelly gets mad and sarcastically asks, "like I don't have anything better to do?" Bobby snarks, "Nothing I can think of!" Shelly slaps him so Bobby walks out.

James calls Ed from Evelyn's house and asks him to wire money to Wallie's Bar. Evelyn overhears so James pretends to be talking to his mom. After he hangs up, she asks James about his life in Twin Peaks. James says that after Laura died everything went to hell and no matter what he did, someone else (Maddy) got killed. He says that's why he had to leave. Evelyn is sensitive and says she understands how he feels. They kiss. James removes her sunglasses and sees a black eye. He asks why Evelyn let's her husband hurt her. A car then pulls in the driveway so Evelyn walks away. Before leaving, she asks James to help her.

"I want 16 cups of coffee!"

Original artwork by @eclecticirie

At the Double R counter, Nadine saddles up to Mike while he's drinking coffee. She wants to share pie with him. Mike gets upset when she persists. He sternly says he wants his own pie and 16 cups of coffee, if he desires, by himself. He also says he'll get a court order, if needed, to get her to leave him alone. Nadine says she thinks he's the most handsome boy at school, and she wants to go on a date with him. Then she impulsively kisses him. At first Mike seems shocked, but then he appears to like it.

At the Packard's, Harry comes to see Josie. She tries to push him away, but Harry can't keep his hands off her. Josie feels she's no good for him now that she's Catherine's maid. Harry won't hear it and continues to kiss her. Josie weakens from his intensity and they end up making out in the kitchen.

"You make my body hum."

Original artwork by @eclecticiri

At the Great Northern, Audrey sees one of the hotel workers run out of Ben's office in tears while carrying paint supplies. Audrey then goes into Ben's office and finds him on the floor reliving the Civil War with a miniature toy set. She tries to talk sense to him, but Ben seems to be convinced he's in the past. Audrey worries so she places a call to Jerry. Later Bobby plays along with Ben's reenactment for while. He sees Audrey looking in so Bobby steps out to talk with her. He tells her Ben is basically loosing it. Audrey insists that they have to help him. Bobby assures her, "don't worry baby, Bobby's on the case." Audrey tells him not to call her baby. Meanwhile Catherine shows up to see Ben when he's alone. Ben thinks she came to gloat. Catherine says it's true that she wanted to destroy him, but states that she still wants him. She claims he makes her body hum. Ben seems delighted and buries his head in her chest. 

"I want to be with you no matter what!"

Norma goes to see Ed at his house. She tells him that he's the last thing on her mind at night and the first thing she thinks about in the morning. Norma says she wants to be with him no matter what. They end up taking things to the bedroom. Later Donna stops by looking for information on James. Ed tells her about his call from James, gives her money for him and sends Donna off to Wallie's Bar. After Norma says goodbye and kisses him before leaving. Once alone, Hank appears and starts beating Ed up. Then Nadine comes home, sees what's happening to Ed and ends up hilariously knocking Hank out.

"You can call me Dennis!"

Back in Harry's office, Hawk tries to put a wire on Ernie. However Ernie is sweating so much that Hawk has trouble. Ernie says it's nervous perspiration as he recounts his own war days. Dale tries to keep Ernie focused. He goes over the plan with everyone. Dales wishes he could join them. Harry tosses him a badge and says he deputizing him. Dale looks delighted and says he hopes he can live up to it. As they prepare to leave, Ernie gets nervous and pleads, "don't make me do this?" Then he takes it back and says he's cool. Dale wonders where Denise is. Then she walks in dressed in a suit and says, "you can call me Dennis!"

Dick and Andy break into the administrator's office at the orphanage. Andy keeps watch by the door, while Dick looks through the file cabinet. A perspective adoptive, and somewhat odd, couple comes to see if their would be son, Donny, can be visited. Andy and Dick panic. At first Dick says Donny is dead, but then corrects himself by saying little Donny is dead tired. He also refers to Andy by the code name, Woody.

"Lucky boy!"

James surprises Evelyn in her driveway with a bottle of champagne, and a fixed Rolls Royce. Evelyn says Jeffrey will be home by midnight and they don't have a lot of time. James responds that he'll take whatever time they can get. She compliments his honest face and hopes James will stay with her. James takes both their glasses and dumps out the champagne. Then they start to undress each other and kiss. From a distance, after a long pan out shot of the driveway, we see Malcolm is watching. Later, after sex, Evelyn leaves a sleeping James and runs into Malcolm outside of his room. Evelyn tells Malcolm that she left James dreaming of love. Then she and Malcolm start kissing while Malcolm notes what a lucky boy James is.

"You brought the nightmare."

At Dead Dog farm, Cooper watches with binoculars while Hawks listens to Ernie's wire. Harry stands ready with a rifle. They listen as Dennis and Ernie try to broker the deal with Jean inside the house. However due to Ernie's perspiration, his wire starts to sizzle. Jean realizes what's going on, puts a gun on Dennis and calls for Cooper. Dale offers to trade himself for Dennis and Ernie. Later at night we see that a hostage situation has taken over. Inside Jean, Officer Preston King and Dale converse. Dale advises them to surrender, because the police will never deal.

Jean says he blames Dale for both his brothers' deaths. He explains the chronology of events following Laura Palmer's death. Jean feels that Dale's arrival brought a nightmare to Twin Peaks. Jean hopes that nightmare will die with Dale. Then Denise arrives dressed as a waitress from the Double R. She carries a tray of food for them. Then she surprises them by revealing a gun in her stockings, which Dale quickly grabs. A shootout ensues. Cooper fires and kills Jean. After Harry, Hawk and Andy burst in. Cooper thanks them. Dennis says it was all Harry's idea.

"Shelly!"

Shelly wakes up to blues music playing on and off, along with the lights. She calls out for Bobby, then looks at Leo's bed. She finds a toy clown in his place. Then she looks at Leo's wheelchair in the kitchen and finds it empty. She quickly turns around and sees Leo standing there with birthday cake all over his face. He cracks a sick smile and groans, "Shelly!" 

Lucy calls Dale and Harry to the station after a power failure. She talks endlessly trying to explain what happened. Hawk pops his head in to say he's checking the generator because something isn't right. Dale goes into Harry office and looks around with a lighter. Dale calls Harry to come have a look. They find a dead body sitting at Harry's desk. The body is arranged so its hand is pointing to a specific chess piece.

End of show!

Original artwork by @eclecticirie

As much as I love both the characters of Andy and Dick, their silly orphanage scenes are arguably their worse in the series. Just when you think the Little Nicky storyline couldn't get any worse, guess what...it does! However overall, this episode is a good one. I think the entertainment value brought from the Dead Dog Farm scenes, every Denise moment, as well as Shelly and Bobby's troubles, are all very enjoyable.  

Jean Renault meets his end in this episode at Dead Dog. He makes an interesting point about Cooper bringing the nightmare. I'm not sure I agree with that, but it certainly seemed to affect Cooper when he said it. Sadly, this episode does mark the last appearance for both Denise and Ernie. Ben's descent into the Civil War is very over the top, but I do enjoy it for some good laughs. 

Leo's awakening is very creepy, especially with those clown references. Personally I really hate clowns and I have always found them disturbing. I do like how the music is going on and off due to what I presume is Windom Earle messing with the town's power. Even though he's yet to be seen, Windom Earle is already wreaking his particular brand of havoc on the town. Interestingly, the body discovered in Harry's office is also Kyle MacLachan's real life brother, Craig MacLachlan. He is credited on IMDB as "The Dead Man". 

The Major Briggs elements of episode 20 are very intriguing to me. I find his plot fascinating at this point in the series. His referencing the owl and the 'unofficial' search for the White Lodge definitely seems to be inspiration for Mark Frost's, The Secret History of Twin Peaks. I also find the Log Lady Intro for this episode very interesting. She talks about fire in the woods and losing her husband. It seems almost out of place with what is contained within the episode itself, with the exception of Brigg's limited recount of his disappearance.

Watch below!

Recap of Episode 19 <-----> Recap of Episode 21