by Francis Friel, The Projectionist and Hanna Lesky

This episode was the first that seemed to perfectly balance the dark and moody aspects with the tightly-structured narrative momentum of Season One. I think the biggest misconception about Twin Peaks is that Frost is the structure and character guy, while Lynch picks up the thematic and atmospheric side of things. While this is largely true, and is the reason they got together in the first place, it’s a fallacy that Lynch is the “weird” one. He wouldn’t be where he is today if he was just a cult underground director making one Eraserhead after another (and that movie is as tightly plotted and executed as a film of its kind can really be). His films always follow their own internal logic, and operate on a level of cinematic storytelling that is emotionally probing and feel almost like epic poems. One thing leads to another, then that thing follows a new thread, leads over here, over there, until it may even circle around to the beginning again, but never forget where they started and never (or rarely) feel like work lacking focus or a sure hand behind the camera. And Frost is a wacko. Have you seen Hill Street Blues?