Subject: Re: Twin Peaks - Season Finale - Everybody dies and we all go home.
From: csu@alembic.acs.com (Dave Mack)
Date: 1990-05-24, 09:46
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv,alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <873@Intrepid.ECE.UKans.EDU> bgingric@intrepid.ECE.UKans.EDU (Barry Gingrich) writes:
> >Good God.  They shot everybody.  

Could have been worse. They all could have been run down by a logging
truck while going to the Mar T oops RR diner for a cup of joe and a
piece of damned good huckleberry pie.

> >Jacoby:  Hit, heart attack.  I thought at first it was Hank who did it, but
> >         after later stuff, I think it might have been Leland.  Won't die.

Right.

> >Nadine:  Mixing them pills.  She could die, but I don't think so.  If she
> >         dies, Ed's lost his dilemma.  (Granted, he gains a new guilt...)

I think she dies. Allows the writers to pit Ed against Hank for Norma's
affection, with the resultant conflict between Ed and Hank. With Nadine
alive and in her pathetic mental state, Ed can't do much except run the
gas station and occasionally help the sheriff out. Turns him into a
cameo character.

On the other hand, if she does live, she'll probably be doing a fair
stretch in the local mental hospital - reversing the Norma/Hank
situation.

> >Andrew:  Hank killed him a while back.  It looks pretty certain that he did it
> >         *for* Josie.  And the bucks.  Always the bucks.

No question about it.

> >Jacques:  He may be too stupid to lie, but he's just stupid enough to die.  
> >          Leland, Leland, Leland.  What's your game?  Just out to issue a 
> >          little forest justice?  By doing this, you've offed a prime witness.
> >          Maybe that's just what you wanted to happen, hmmm?

Ay-yup. My thoughts exactly. Leland's performance in the police station
was just a little too slick to be the work of a distraught father.
And the bit in Jacques' hospital room with the fire alarm and the 
masking tape was ice cold.

> >Leo:      Shot by Hank, looks like he died.  The Invitation to Love bit
> >          again was apropos.

But did he kill Laura Palmer? Jacques thought so, I'd guess, and
Coop does, but we really don't know. And if Leo croaks, we may *never*
know. Unless Ronette comes out of her coma.

> >Cooper:   He's gotta be alive, folks.  He didn't bleed.  I heard three shots,
> >          saw two holes, and heard a body fall, but no blood.  Dollars to
> >          donuts, I'd bet our Special Agent wears a flak jacket.  Of course,
> >          the 64,000 huckleberry question is:  Who did it?  Looks like Leland.
> >          Of course, there could be more than one pair of black gloves and
> >          another black overcoat in Twin Peaks.  Still, you gotta admit that
> >          they really *want* you to think that it was Leland.  Perhaps this
> >          is a good reason to think that it wasn't.  Maybe the Asian gentleman
> >          who checked into the Great Northern last episode.

Of course, how could they possibly kill off Cooper? The question isn't
whether he's alive or not, but how does he survive, how badly (if at
all) is he injured, and mainly, who shot him?

There are basically three possibilities: 

1) The Asian gentleman. Motive? Josie's eliminating a potential threat.
   I find this one unlikely.

2) Leland Palmer. Even more unlikely. What's his motive? The only
   conceivable reason to suspect Leland is the black gloves. But
   where would Leland get a silenced automatic? And if he had it
   before, why wouldn't he use it on Jacques? Surely, no one
   these days believes that you can smother someone with a pillow
   and have it be mistaken for a natural death?

3) Benjamin Horne. My favorite suspect. He accosts Audrey at OEJ,
   and after some gentle pursuasion (with Blackie's help) she confesses
   that she is Cooper's "Special Agent", perhaps adding a few romantic
   embellishments. Horne, realizing that Cooper represents a serious
   threat to him, gets a silenced gun from Hank with the intention of
   pumping a few rounds into Cooper, tossing the gun over the falls,
   and going back to his room for a good night's sleep. He fails to
   take Coop's kevlar underwear into account. In which case, we
   can assume he's wearing a mask. Cooper gets knocked on his ass
   by the impact of the slugs, maybe gets a couple of broken ribs
   (not unusual with Kevlar vests), the shooter takes off, and
   Cooper crawls back to the phone to inform Andy that he's just
   been shot.

The shooter is either a throwaway character who will be disposed of
in the next season premiere or a major character who will somehow
get away with it, giving Coop something else to investigate. If it's
a throwaway character, they're going to have to come up with some
sort of motive.

-- Dave Mack