Truman, Hawk, Andy and Bobby finally go to Jack Rabbit's Palace where they discover the eyeless woman from episode three. A vortex appears, sucks Andy into another plane, where he is confronted by the Giant. The Giant implants him with a sort of recap of what has happened/ will happen, then sends him back to earth. In the meantime, James Hurley is working as a security guard in the Great Northern, alongside a British chap who's wearing a rubber glove that makes him freakishly strong (lol?!). Finally, Sarah Palmer goes to a bar where she is, ahem, flirted by a persistent truck driver, but then takes off her face and eats him (literally), in a third-rate horror scene with horrendous CGI that feels like it was taken out of one of the worst "Hellraiser" movies. Is that the best you can do, Lynch?
Anyhow. The story continues to be weak, but because this episode was more eventful, it immediately makes it better than the previous ones. Unfortunately, the lame story exposes yet another of the new series' weaknesses. While it was always the case that a weird story lied at the center of the old "Twin Peaks" (the Laura Palmer mystery initially, the quest for the Black Lodge afterwards), it was interwoven between a noir labyrinth concerning the shady dealings of the town inhabitants, a humane bittersweet small-town drama, and chunks of offbeat soap-opera. These were as central as the weird quasi-mystical, quasi-horror, quasi- sci-fi "main" story lines. The show was called "Twin Peaks" after all, it was about the denizens of Twin Peaks.
One would have hoped that after Lynch made the mistake of ditching all that and focusing entirely on Laura Palmer in "Fire Walk With Me", resulting in a one-sided and mediocre film, he would have learnt his lesson. But no. This new series revolves entirely around the dull doppelganger story, with virtually no subplots, no interesting characters, no television flair whatsoever, uninspired direction (name me one scene that is as poetic as Laura's painting in "Fire Walk With Me"), cold digital feel (superiority of film proved once again), cheap CGI, ludicrous Roadhouse endings that do little more than promote Lynch's favorite hipster bands, laughable horror outbursts like the "Exorcist"-esque kid in the car, and so on, and so on. Let us hope at least that after two unmitigated disasters back-to-back (this and Inland Empire) nobody gives Lynch free reign ever again.
Anyhow. The story continues to be weak, but because this episode was more eventful, it immediately makes it better than the previous ones. Unfortunately, the lame story exposes yet another of the new series' weaknesses. While it was always the case that a weird story lied at the center of the old "Twin Peaks" (the Laura Palmer mystery initially, the quest for the Black Lodge afterwards), it was interwoven between a noir labyrinth concerning the shady dealings of the town inhabitants, a humane bittersweet small-town drama, and chunks of offbeat soap-opera. These were as central as the weird quasi-mystical, quasi-horror, quasi- sci-fi "main" story lines. The show was called "Twin Peaks" after all, it was about the denizens of Twin Peaks.
One would have hoped that after Lynch made the mistake of ditching all that and focusing entirely on Laura Palmer in "Fire Walk With Me", resulting in a one-sided and mediocre film, he would have learnt his lesson. But no. This new series revolves entirely around the dull doppelganger story, with virtually no subplots, no interesting characters, no television flair whatsoever, uninspired direction (name me one scene that is as poetic as Laura's painting in "Fire Walk With Me"), cold digital feel (superiority of film proved once again), cheap CGI, ludicrous Roadhouse endings that do little more than promote Lynch's favorite hipster bands, laughable horror outbursts like the "Exorcist"-esque kid in the car, and so on, and so on. Let us hope at least that after two unmitigated disasters back-to-back (this and Inland Empire) nobody gives Lynch free reign ever again.