Recap of Episode 29

"How's Annie?"

Season 2 Episode 29

Written by: Mark Frost, Harley Peyton & Robert Engels

Directed by: David Lynch

Original Air date: June 10th, 1991

"Fire Walk With Me."

Andy and Lucy put their heads against each other at the Sheriff's station. Andy asks if she's afraid. Lucy tells him about being on stage at the Miss Twin Peaks contest when the lights when out. Lucy wonders what would happen if the lights went off at the hospital when she has her baby. Andy tells her he'd help her have that baby in front of God and everybody. Then they kiss. Meanwhile in the conference room, Dale studies the blackboard while Hawk stands near. Harry walks in and tells Dale he's got everyone looking for Windom Earle. Dale says the only hope they have of finding Earle is on the Owl Cave map. Dale carefully gazes at the blackboard and repeats the phrase, "Fire Walk With Me." 

Pete storms in saying that the Log Lady stole his truck. Dale informs him that The Log Lady didn't steal his truck, because she'll be here in one minute. Pete continues to rant saying he had 12 rainbow trout in the back. It makes Harry think. Then he says there are 12 Sycamore trees up at Glastonbury Grove. Dale's eyes widen. He replies that Glastonbury Grove is the legendary burial place of King Arthur. Pete insists that King Arthur is buried in England. Then the Log Lady shows up with oil in a jar. Dale asks what her husband said about the oil. Margaret tells him he said the oil is an opening to a gateway. They smell the oil and Harry thinks of Dr. Jacoby saying he smelled scorched engine oil. Dale has Hawk bring in Ronette Pulaski. She smells the oil, gets scared, and says she smelled that the night Laura Palmer died.

"An appointment at the end of the world."

Windom Earle brings Annie into the woods and drags her the circle of Sycamore trees with a flashlight. Annie is afraid and starts reciting verses from the Bible. She asks Windom what they're doing there. He tells her they have an appointment at the end of the world. Then she asks why he's doing this to her. Windom says Dale will come for her, because the same thing happened before when he fell in love with his wife. Windom forces Annie into the circle. She screams, but then seems to fall into a trance. After red curtains appear, and Windom walks Annie through them.

"Thirty-five, you moron!"

At Big Ed's house, Nadine and Mike sport intense head bandages from their accidents at the Miss Twin Peaks contest. Mike tells Nadine he loves her. Nadine starts to freak out and claims she doesn't know him. Doc Hayward, Norma and Big Ed watch as she yells. Nadine looks at Norma and asks why she's there. She doesn't think it's fair. Then Nadine runs around screaming about her drape runners. Ed grabs her and asks how old she is. Nadine screams, "thirty-five, you moron!" Mike stands up and humbly tells Ed he's sorry, because he thinks he let things go too far.

"You're my Daddy!"

Eileen and Ben Horne wait for Donna downstairs. She comes downstairs in tears and asks who her parents are. Ben claims it felt so good to tell the truth after all these years. Doc Hayward walks in and orders Ben to get out of his house. Then Sylvia Horne comes in and asks Ben what he's trying to do to "this" family. Ben asks Doc if he can forgive him. Donna cries to Doc, "You're my daddy, you're my daddy, you're my daddy!" Doc Hayward seethes, "leave my family alone!" Then he punches Ben. Ben's head smashes into the fireplace. He collapses unconscious or possibly dead, it's not clear, and Doc drops to his knees screaming. Meanwhile at the Packard's, Pete catches Andrew stealing the key from the cake saver. He groans, "Oh Andrew." Andrew casually says goodnight and walks off.

"I have to go on alone."

Dale and Harry go to Glastonbury Grove in Harry's police cruiser. They venture into the woods together. However Dale seems to hear a psychic call and tells Harry he has to go on alone. Harry asks why, but Dale walks off. Harry follows him. As Dale makes his way to the circle of Sycamore trees, he hears the call of an owl. Dale then enters into the circle, strolls around it in a particular way, and then he sees the red curtains. From a far, Harry watches Dale walk through as the curtains disappear. It shocks Harry. He whispers, "Oh my god."

"Sycamore Trees."

When Dale enters The Black Lodge he hears music. Watch here --> Sycamore Trees. He walks into the waiting room and sees the Little Man come dancing through the curtains. Jimmy Scott performs as Dale watches in terror. Meanwhile Andy finds Sheriff Truman waiting near the circle outside. They wait together on a large log for 10 hours. Harry can't take his eyes off the Sycamore circle. Andy quietly asks if Harry wants a thermos of coffee and a plate special with dessert. Harry can only answer, "yeah."

"Oh Shi...!"

At Twin Peaks Savings and Loan, an elderly New Accounts agent soundly sleeps as Audrey strolls in. She is greeted by Dell Mibbler. She tells him to call the Twin Peaks Gazette. Audrey then chains herself to the bank vault in protest of their financial ties to the Ghost Wood development project. She also asks him for a glass of water. Dell walks off to get her water, and after he's shocked to see a very much alive Andrew Packard walk in with Pete. Andrew shows him Eckhardt's key, which Dell says is one of their safety deposit keys. However Dell tells him there might be a problem opening the vault. Andrew and Pete walk over to Audrey. Andrew quotes Marcus Aurelius in appreciation for Audrey's protest. He tells Dell there won't be a problem. Audrey moves aside so Andrew, Dell and Pete can get inside. Dell locates the appropriate box and walks Pete and Andrew over to it. Andrew proceeds to open the box. Waiting inside is a bomb with a note from Thomas Eckhardt that says, "Got you, Love Thomas." Andrew yells, "Oh shi...,!" as the bomb explodes. All we see after is Dell's glasses flying into the trees outside as money rains down in the street.

"Too busy jump starting the old man...again!"

At the Double R, Major Briggs and Betty snuggle in a booth. At the counter, Shelly and Bobby cozy up together. Bobby says they should get married. Shelly reminds him she's still married to Leo. Then Heidi walks in late for work with a bloody nose. She tells Shelly she couldn't get her car started. Shelly teases her, "too busy jump starting the old man," Bobby chimes in and they both laugh, "again!" Heidi giggles and walks away. After Bobby tells Shelly that Leo is likely having the time of his life in the woods. We get a flash of Leo struggling with the rope tied to a cage of spiders in Windom's cabin. Then Dr. Jacoby and Sarah Palmer walk in. They see Major Briggs so Jacoby walks her over and tells him Sarah has a message for him. Sarah sits down and looks at the Major with an odd expression. A scary voice, other than her own, begins to speak through Sarah. It says, "I'm in The Black Lodge with Dale Cooper." We flash to shot of the The Black Lodge hallway, red curtains, chevron floor with a slow pan as the voice continues, "I'm waiting for you."

"Coffee."

Dale sits with the Little Man. The Little man tells Dale, "When you see me again, it won't be me." Then he explains to Dale that they're in the "waiting room," and asks if Dale would like some coffee. He also tells him that some of Dale's friends are there. Laura Palmer walks out and says, "Hello Agent Cooper." She snaps her fingers and tells him, "I'll see you again in twenty five years." Then she poses her hands around her face like a statue and says, "Meanwhile," then she disappears. After the room service waiter from The Great Northern appears and says, "Hallelujah," with the Little Man. The waiter then shimmies over to Dale offering coffee. He appears to transform into the Giant, who sits down next to the Little Man and tells Dale, "one and the same." Then the Giant disappears.

"Doppelganger."

After the Little Man rubs his hands together and makes Dale's coffee completely hardened. When Dale looks again it's back to normal, when he looks a third time, it's like sludge. The Little Man recites, "Wow Bob Wow, Fire Walk With me." The lights go off and Laura can be heard screaming. A Strobe light begins to flicker as Dale walks into another hallway and into another identical room. He decides to go back to where he was, but the Little Man tells him, "wrong way." Dale goes back to the next room and finds the Little Man's doppelganger groaning, "another friend." Then Maddy Ferguson walks in and tells Dale, "I'm Maddy, watch out for my cousin." Dale goes back to the waiting room, but finds it empty, devoid of furniture. The Little Man's doppelganger dances beneath him and says, "doppelganger." Then Laura Palmer's doppelganger appears and yells, "doppelganger." She begins screaming incessantly. It frightens Dale so he runs back to the other room.

"I saw the face of the man who killed me!"

When he enters his stomach begins to bleed from a puncture wound. He stumbles into another room and sees himself dead on the floor next to a woman. Dale thinks it's Carolyn, but then realizes it's Annie as she sits up. Dale calls out for Annie repeatedly. His wounds then instantly heal as he walks into another room. Annie is standing there and tells him she saw the face of the man who killed her. Dale is confused. She tells him it was her husband. He calls her Annie, but she asks who Annie is. Then he sees Carolyn. She then becomes Annie again and tells him he's mistaken, because she's alive. Laura Palmer's doppelganger appears in front of him again and begins screaming. Then Windom Earle appears with an evil smile. Annie appears to Dale a final time before disappearing again.

Windom begins laughing and tells Dale if he gives him his soul, he'll let Annie live. Dale agrees so Windom stabs him. However then the room bursts into flames. Windom's stabbing of Dale is reversed, and Bob is heard yelling. Bob grabs Windom and orders him to, "be quiet!" Then Bob tells Dale to go, because Windom is wrong and can't ask for Dale's soul. Bob says he will take Windom's instead. Windom screams as fire explodes from his head. Bob laughs maniacally as Dale leaves the room. Then Dale Cooper's doppelganger runs up behind Bob and they start laughing together.

"I did not kill anybody."

Dale walks into the hallway and runs into Leland's doppelganger. Leland says, "I did not kill anybody." Dale walks away as his doppelganger enters the hallway. Dale's doppelganger has a laugh with Leland, and then begins chasing Dale through the various rooms of The Black Lodge. Dale runs in fear trying to escape. His doppelganger appears to catch up to him and grabs him. Then we see Bob's face get in front of the camera with a smile.

"How's Annie?"

Harry sees Dale and Annie appear on the ground by the circle of Sycamore trees. He screams their names as they lay unconscious. Later we see Dale wake up in his hotel room with Harry and Doc Hayward watching over him. They think he was asleep, but he flatly says he wasn't. He immediately asks about Annie. Harry tells him that she's at the hospital and will be okay. Dale sternly tells them he needs to brush his teeth. He gets up and then turns back to Harry and says again that he needs to brush his teeth. Harry tells him it's a good idea. Dale goes into the bathroom and oddly begins playing with the toothpaste by squeezing it into the sink. Then he looks into the mirror with a sinister smirk and smashes his head into it. Bob can be seen looking back at him through the broken glass. Harry and Doc get concerned and call for him. Dale, or his doppelganger, begin laughing as he looks to the side and repeatedly laughs, "How's Annie?"

End of show!

Wow, not only is this a completely mind blowing episode, and arguably one of the best in the series, but for me personally, I'm at the end of the line with my recaps for this blog. When I started this blog in October of 2014, I had a loose plan to revisit the series in my own way. Seventy something posts later, I feel like I accomplished something in tribute to my beloved, Twin Peaks. The last few recaps have been a little rushed, which I wasn't happy about. I was in a hurry to get them done prior to "The Return." I had wanted to post an in-depth review of Fire Walk With Me before the new stuff aired, but I've decided not to rush that. 

Onto the finale, it really turns everything on its axis, doesn't it? This episode offers an amazing look into The Black Lodge, and leaves us with the mystifying question of what happened to Dale Cooper. It's always been my take that the, "Good Dale," gets trapped in the lodge, because he didn't face his doppelganger with courage. The person or entity, whichever you prefer, who laughs, "How's Annie?" is Dale's doppelganger. I don't see it as a possession like Leland was. So it begs the question, has evil doppelganger Dale been causing havoc in Twin Peaks for twenty-five years? And what about Windom Earle? It seems he unleashed something in Owl Cave when he inverted the owl symbol. If you factor in the curious nature of Mark Frost's book, The Secret History of Twin Peaks, is it possible that time itself was altered? Or that Twin Peaks got stuck at a point in time?

Who do you think is channeling through Sarah Palmer when she tells Major Briggs, "I"m waiting for you,"? It sort of feels like those who are "gifted", meaning they have certain abilities to "see" the true faces of the doppelgangers or into the future, are being collected by the spirits of The Black Lodge, thus also making them the, "damned." I've also wondered if on a larger scale part of this is someone's dream, but clearly there is a question of time, alternate dimensions or even alternate realities in play. I don't know what I'm going to see when new Twin Peaks premieres, but I hope to have my mind completely blown. 

On a finale personal note, I fell in love with Twin Peaks as a kid. It had a profound impact on me, helped mold whatever interest I have in film, and definitely inspired me creatively. I loved Twin Peaks alone for decades. It was my private world, and even though I knew on a conscious level that Twin Peaks had a devoted fan following around the world, it wasn't until I started this blog that I realized just how voracious the fan community truly is. It's a community filled with highly intelligent, talented and faithful people. I've learned so many things about the behind the scenes elements, insider factoids, and I've been fortunate enough to make what I hope will be some life long friendships all because of Twin Peaks. 

Looking ahead, of course I'm incredibly excited to see what's next. Change is inevitable, and good for the soul, but the end of anything also comes with some sadness, like the Log Lady says in her intros. I hope Twin Peaks will return with a bang that will knock the entertainment business on its proverbial ass, but selfishly I also hope it will take me back. Back to a time when my canvas was clean, my mind was unvarnished, and my enthusiasm was unscathed. I just want to be a fan again, lost in the beauty of a world created by a true auteur. Mostly, I just want to fall in love with Twin Peaks again, utterly and completely, because going forward things will never be the same again.

Watch the extended, "How's Annie?" scene --> here or below!

Recap of Episode 28  <----> Twin Peaks Returns: Thoughts on Parts 1 to 7