My Twin Peaks coverage continues, here are my thoughts on Season 1 Episode 5: Cooper’s Dreams.

Finally something has rattled Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), he’s not a man who fares well if awoken early, especially by carousing Icelandic businessmen. He records a request for Dictaphone Diane to send him some form of noise-cancelling equipment, if this arrives it may disprove my theory that Diane is either fictional or deceased.

Audrey’s (Sherilyn Fenn) hair is no longer modelled after Cooper’s, but she is flirting in intense mode. It’s revealed she’s eighteen, which I guess makes this legal but still creepy, and I don’t like it. It seems Audrey’s interest in Cooper extends to being involved in the mystery-solving side of things too, which I’m hoping is from her own personality and not some need to glom onto his. She reminds me a little of Laura Dern’s character in Blue Velvet, but less innocent.

I cannot get past the button positioning on Jerry’s (David Patrick Kelly) very large shirt. This is the maddest aspect of Twin Peaks so far. He and Ben (Richard Beymer) are planning to take the raucous Icelanders to One-Eyed Jacks. Leland (Ray Wise) shows up to help and to have something to occupy his grieving/guilty mind, but Ben justifiably dismisses him.

The cops have a hand-signal shorthand for donuts and coffee, of course they do.

I think I’ve missed some references to Flesh World magazine in previous episodes as they make a big deal of finding a copy at Jacques’ place, alongside Leo’s bloody shirt which Cooper correctly guesses has Jacques’ blood on it before the test results come back. Nice.

Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) acts so tough in front of Shelley (Madchen Amick) , bragging of how he’ll stand up to Leo (Eric DaRe), only to shit a brick when deputy Andy (Harry Goaz) shows up unexpectedly. Bobby sucks, but I’m glad he and Shelley are working out a plan to get rid of Leo, Bobby feels like at least a half-step up from that abusive scumbag.

Hank’s (Chris Mulkey) been paroled, so Norma and Big Ed (Peggy Lipton and Everett McGill) plan to finally end it with their spouses and be together, except Ed is maybe welching on this deal and sticking with Nadine who is “ill”. Norma claims to be “at the edge of her life” despite being maybe thirty five and stunning.

Audrey’s investigation into the Laura/Ronette case takes her to working at her father’s department store. She wants in on the perfume counter, where the victims worked, but her father insists she start in gift-wrapping. I don’t love that Audrey threatens to frame her new boss Emory Battis (Don Amendolia) with a fake sexual harassment claim if he doesn’t agree to putting her in perfume but telling her father she’s in gift-wrapping, but I’m semi-hoping Emory turns out to be a horrible person so my girl Audrey is in the right.

The red drapes from Cooper’s dream match those in the background of a photo of an unidentified body with the head cropped off, so the photo must be of Laura. I hope they get some more concrete evidence than “it looked like something this guy saw in a dream”, but bear in mind this is coming from me, someone who hasn’t remembered a dream in maybe twenty years.

Madeline, James and Donna (Sheryl Lee, James Hurley and Lara Flynn Boyle) are also on their own little private investigation. They meet at the diner where Maddy reveals Laura had a secret hiding place – apparently everyone in this town has one, should I have had a secret hiding place growing up? Should I have one now? Maddy requests James orders her a cherry coke, which arrives and they leave without her even taking the smallest of sips. Not a sip!

I’m truly lost on this Invitation to Love show, I haven’t been paying attention at all.

Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn) sees Bobby and his parents for family counselling. Alone, Jacoby asks Bobby about the first time he and Laura made love, asking if Bobby cried and Laura laughed. Jesus! Bobby says Laura told him she wanted to die, and that people try to be good but are rotten, whereas Jacoby convinced Bobby that Laura was a corrupting force who liked to break people down, and that she was the driving force behind Bobby selling drugs. Hmmmm. Not sure of Jacoby’s intentions here, but they don’t seem fully ethical.

Cooper, Harry (Michael Ontkean), Hawk (Michael Horse) and the old doctor (Warren Frost, who I now realise is Donna’s father, this is a small town) go out into the woods to find a cabin, where they talk to the Log Lady (Catherine E. Coulson) and, more specifically, her log. She has tea, cookies, but no cake, and she slaps Cooper’s hand when he goes for a cookie before the tea is ready. “The fish aren’t running. Tea first, then be ready.” Everything this lady says sounds ominous written down, but is delivered with such nonchalance and normality. I love her. Her husband is a logging man who met the devil. She willingly interprets what the log is “saying” about what the log “saw” the night Laura was killed. The log saw two men, two girls, flashlights, later another man, before there were faraway screams from a single female voice. The assumption (I agree) is that the two girls were Laura and Ronette, the two men were Jacques and Leo, and the third man is unknown as yet (but of course my prediction is Leland).

They find another cabin with red drapes, twine, bloodstains, a caged bird and a broken One-Eyed Jacks poker chip. Feels like an orgy of evidence to me.

Along with me only now realising the older doctor is Donna’s father, I’m only just now piecing together that nice old man Pete (Jack Nance) is the put-upon husband of conniving Catherine (Piper Laurie). Poor guy.

Catherine’s method of getting Ben away from his clients is to, mid-conversation, pour champagne on his shoes. Subtle. Audrey uses her secret hotel tunnels to catch Catherine slap Ben three times then kiss him in secret. Ben offering Catherine a post-kiss breath mint is just rude.

As much as I’m assuming Leland is a bad guy, when he starts cry-dancing on his own and Ben makes Catherine dance with him to make less of a scene, then a room full of people starts imitating and mocking this man who, for all they know, just innocently buried his only daughter, is awful.

Scandal! Ben meets with a smoking Josie (Joan Chen) alone in a dark room, she found Catherine’s secret account book. Double scandal! Ben kisses her hand, they’re in cahoots! I did not see this coming, I hope Josie is playing Ben as he’s a piece of work, it’s probably to resolve her conflict with Hank.

Hank intercedes Leo arriving home and punches him, apparently Hank had told Leo to “mind the store” whilst Hank was in prison, but Leo “opened his own shop”. So Hank is behind the drug dealing, and Leo started going out on his own with Hank not around. This doesn’t matter much though, because Shelley then shoots Leo, hell yeah! I hope he’s dead.

Cooper arrives back to his hotel room with a distraught, naked, Audrey in his bed. Oh boy, this could be a turning point for Cooper and I hope he handles it in a gentlemanly way. I’m pretty sure he will.

New Mysteries:
Who is the third man seen on the night of Laura’s murder (presuming the other two are Leo and Jacques)? – Right now I’m sticking with Leland.
There’s a whole tangled mess around the mill, with Josie, Ben and Catherine all planning to burn it down together or separately, so this counts as some kind of mystery, I’m just not sure quite how to word it.

Old Mysteries:
What happened to Laura?
Who assaulted the other traumatised girl?
Where did the blood on Leo’s shirt come from?
Who is the “J” Laura was anxious about meeting?
Who was the shadowy figure behind Leo in the woods?
What did any of Cooper’s dream mean?
Who is the man in the red Corvette?
Why is Hank blackmailing Josie?