Day Three Hundred and Three - Twin Peaks: Season 2, Episode 21, "The Die is Cast!"

Penultimate episode time...

...and Annie and Coop fall for a classic horror trope and decide to make love right before they know something big is about to go down!

This episode is entirely about setting up the final confrontation at The Black Lodge between Windham Earle and the White Hats arrayed with Coop.

Leo, doing probably the only good thing I've ever seen him do, releases Major Briggs so he can save Shelly and the Major stumbles off into the woods in a stupor only to be found by Hawk along the side of the road. The Miss Twin Peaks pageant is the deciding factor in in Windham's plan as he aims to take its winner hostage as an offering to open the fear lock on The Black Lodge. Meanwhile, Coop puts the pieces together about the timing of things and Andy breaks the bonsai's pot which alerts Truman to the fact they were being bugged.

Speaking of Andy, not only does Lucy choose him to be the father of her child, but he manages to solve the major puzzle of the pictoglyphs on his own... after staring at it blankly for hours... and tells Coop in the final moments of the episode that it's a map, the fact of which Windham figured out well before them. Windham spirits off Annie (while disguised as The Log Lady), and Coop is left helpless, waving at smoke.

The box subplot with Andrew, Catherine, and Pete gains a new wrinkle, but nothing really to note other than it's finally given that Andrew and Catherine don't trust each other. How the two of them managed to gain a lifelong friend and husband in sweet old Pete is beyond me. I feel bad, cause I know what's coming, but taking this as a virginal run through, there's nothing really to worry about.

There are a few fun touches in the background of this episode that make me smile.

First of all, Audrey has taken to wearing a deep red dress in her first meeting with Ben since she broke her maidenhead with Wheeler last episode. Seeing as how she's usually monochrome in black and white, I find it a bit symbolic. Guess she's more of a temptress now that she's become a fully fledged woman?

Then there are the makeup effects for Windham Earle when he finds Leo has freed the Major. His face is white, eyes reddened, and teeth blacked. His visage is that of a demon or corpse and it goes away the next scene we find him in. Love it!

There's also a moment where Windham is backstage (dressed as The Log Lady, remember?) and Bobby spots him, then looks over to where the real Log Lady is and she has instantaneously disappeared. I have to wonder if that was supposed to be a clue from the spirits of The White Lodge that Bobby is just too thick to understand or if the Log called her away to protect her. I mean, we already know that Bobby is somewhat sensitive to these things since we saw both him and Donna crying after the psychic warning by the Giant earlier in the season.

I think, in the end, I'm just happy that we're almost done. Most of the progress, both in terms of relationships and in regards to the main supernatural plot, is just a checklist of things that needed wrapping up. Can't wait for tomorrow night when we're finally in The Black Lodge and Coop has his final confrontation with Windham.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~