Well that was a very eventful episode. In episode 13 David Lynch blessed us with an arm-wrestle death match, another failed attempt on Dougie’s life, some incredible cherry pie action, more Phillip Jeffries information, and some cool updates on the OG residents of Twin Peaks, and also a nice call back to a memorable moment from Season 2. As usual there were a number of very campy moments injecting life into this show but there was also a pretty chilling sequence where the score turned what should have been a campy moment pretty damn intense.

The episode opens up with a great scene where after their recent inheritance the Mitchum brothers along with their assistants and Dougie come dancing into the insurance offices in a conga line. They come bearing gifts for Dougie’s boss which they deliver before exiting the offices still dancing in their conga line. What really completed this scene was that look of pure joy and excitement on Dougie’s face who was having the time of his life. Following this event Anthony informs Mr Todd of Dougie’s newfound friendship with the Mitchum brothers and it’s safe to say he wasn’t very happy about that. As a result Anthony is now tasked with having to take out Dougie, now we are going to have another assassination attempt that Dougie is going to need to accidentally snake his way out of. At the Jones residence the Mitchums have delivered a new car for Janey as well as a fucking massive jungle gym for Sonny Jim. He doesn’t know it but Dougie is accidentally the best parent ever.

Later in the episode the detectives who took Dougie’s fingerprints from his coffee cup receive the results and they make the discovery that he is actually a missing FBI agent and also escaped prison 2 days ago. Of course they just laugh it off as a mistake and go about their day……….. Stuff like this is why this show is so great. Immediately after, Anthony comes in to the police department to meet with someone in order to obtain a certain poison he can use to kill Dougie. I want to see how Dougie consciously or most likely unconsciously avoids drinking poison. Next up Dougie is on the way to his office building where Anthony is inside waiting for him, and what happens next is the moment we all needed. When walking into the office building Dougie walks face first into the glass door and i just absolutely lost it. I cracked up laughing instantly and this moment just made the episode 100 times better, fuck i really love the simple genius of this show.

So Anthony takes Dougie for a coffee and Dougie seems to be having one of the best days of his life with a damn good cup of coffee in his hands. But you know what can make a good day even better???? Cherry Pie…… Suddenly Dougie catches a glimpse of the cherry pie in the store and goes for it, this gives Anthony the chance to poison Dougie’s coffee but also in a way the cherry pie is what ultimately saves Dougie from another assassination attempt. Upon returning to his seat Dougie begins giving Anthony a complimentary back massage and as a result he cracks, taking the poisoned coffee and running off. Now Dougie is left all alone to enjoy his coffee and cherry pie….. just like the days of old. Later on Anthony breaks down and confesses to their boss everything he just tried to do to Dougie and also his affiliations with Mr Todd. Dougie once again makes this scene as every time he repeats familiar words he hears people still think he’s making conversation with them. And because of that Anthony feels as though Dougie is pressuring him to confess when really he’s got no clue what planet he’s on…. It will be interesting to see how Mr Todd handles this situation now.

The next storyline that has some major developments within this episode is following Evil Cooper and his hunt for the information Ray has, the same information i mentioned a number of episodes ago as most likely being the coordinates Major Briggs gave William Hastings. So Evil Cooper tracks down Ray who is in his hideout with all of his men brandishing a tonne of weapons. But where you think this is going to be some sort of epic showdown, maybe a fist fight or a gun fight, David Lynch says fuck you and makes these guys settle things with an arm-wrestle death match. This episode continues to surprise me and it’s the main reason why this is one of the greatest shows out there. So we get to see the most dramatic arm-wrestle in history take place here and when you take in the chilling score this was actually a pretty intense scene when it should have been stupid as fuck. During the showdown Evil Cooper doesn’t break a sweat and even toys with his opponent by lowering his hand to his losing side before moving it back up to the starting position. But when Evil Cooper wins he doesn’t just slam the arm down, he also delivers a fucking brutal punch to the guys face that leaves him looking like he got hit by a truck.

He then goes to interrogate Ray to gain all of the information he desired and sure enough he gets all of it. We learn plenty of very interesting information and a lot of it centered around Phillip Jeffries, the late David Bowie’s character. We find out that Jeffries is the one who hired Ray to kill Evil Cooper. Jeffries told Ray that there is something inside Evil Cooper that they want (We know that is the orb with BOB’s face on it) and so he ensured the two of them got out of prison. We then learn that from a man dressed as a prison guard Ray received the Owl Ring that Twin Fans will recognise from Fire Walk With Me as well as earlier this season in episode 3. He was supposed to place the ring on Evil Cooper after killing him so that he would be sent to the Red Room. So now we know why killing Evil Cooper didn’t work back in episode 8. We also get confirmation that the numbers Evil Cooper wanted from Ray were the coordinates Major Briggs gave William Hastings and now Evil Cooper has them too. The final piece of information we get is that Phillip Jeffries was most recently seen at a place called The Dutchman’s…… a place that Evil Cooper seems to be instantly familiar with.

And that’s the last we hear of Ray as Evil Cooper makes Ray put the ring on right before killing him. Then we see the ring disappear and appear in the Red Room followed shortly after by Ray’s body. MIKE then places the ring back on the bench in the waiting room just as he did back in episode 3.

The rest of the episode is broken up into individual scenes focusing on various original members of Twin Peaks, most of which were really good scenes. Shelly is trying to comfort Becky who is still having boyfriend problems and she does so by offering her some nice homemade cherry piiiiiiiieeeeeeeee. Also within the RR Diner Ed Hurley (Everett McGill) makes his first appearance this season and he clearly still harbours some feelings for Norma Jennings who seems to have an admirer of her own in Walter, a higher up at the company that owns RR. We learn that there is some financial trouble at the diner as due to not charging enough for their incredible cherry pie they aren’t turning in enough of a profit. We also get another crucial update on how far Sarah Palmer has fallen as she is sitting in her house smoking like a chimney, drinking like a fish, and watching the same 20 second boxing clip on constant loop.

And we get yet another update on Nadine, this time taking place at her silent drapes shop where she has one of Dr Amp’s gold shit-digging shovels on full display for all to see. This catches the eye of Dr Amp who when driving past decides to stop and pay his biggest fan a visit and make her day. Outside her shop they gush over his conspiracy show and she thanks him for helping her shovel herself out of the shit. You should also note that not one drape was heard during this scene, and you have Nadine Hurley to thank for that. Continuing on from last episode we get more Audrey content, but it’s more of the same disappointing content where she is still pressuring her husband to tell her what Tina said on the phone last episode. In a nice little homage to a memorable scene from Twin Peaks’ original run, James Hurley takes the stage in the Bang Bang Bar to perform the same song he performed once before with Maddy Ferguson and Donna Hayward ‘Just You’. This is James’ second scene in this season and it really was a great one, by far the best musical number performed in the Bar this season.

And there you have it, the episode ends with Ed sitting in his gas station unfortunately getting no customers as he enjoys what looks like a nice hot cup of noodles. I really enjoyed this episode mainly for the very entertaining Dougie storyline and the crazy intense arm-wrestle death match that Evil Cooper totally destroyed at. The conga line and Dougie slamming into the glass door were perfect and all of the quick updates on OG Twin Peaks members was a nice way to close out the episode. Five episodes left, we are now on the final stretch and i don’t know how Lynch is going to wrap up even half of the things introduced this season……. Will we even see Agent Dale Cooper be his normal self at all?

8.3/10