Day Two Hundred and Eighty-seven - Twin Peaks: Season 2, Episodes 4 & 5, "Agent Cooper (and Sheriff Truman) to the Rescue!"

It's time to put our nose back to the grindstone here on Couchbound as we're two weeks into our Halloween Spooktacular and there are still plenty of episodes left in Season 2 of Twin Peaks.

Jean Renault and Blackie make their move against Ben Horne, as Jean delivers the tape of bound and stoned Audrey directly to Ben. He demands money... and Agent Cooper to hand deliver it. Ben, of course, shows Coop the tape, but doesn't make him aware that Jean wants Coop specifically.

Over the course of the two episodes, Cooper asks Truman for the best Bookhouse Boy for a special mission and gets... Truman. They head to One-Eyed Jack's, rescue Audrey, and Truman witnesses Jean cutting Blackie out of the equation, literally. Guess there's no honor among thieves.

Elsewhere, Donna and Maddie conspire against the sweet shut-in, Harold, as he has a secret diary of Laura's but refuses to divulge its contents unless it's on his terms. Bobby and Shelly continue their play for Leo's disability insurance while Leland willingly goes to trial for the murder of Jean's brother, Jacques. Hank and Norma try to spruce up the Double-R in advance of a food critic and a mysterious Japanese businessman offers Ben a large sum of money for the Ghostwood Estates project (more on "him" in episodes to come). Josie is back from her "shopping trip" (with a new nighty... rawr!) and receives her brother from Hong Kong as a guest, while Lucy continues to deal with her pregnancy/beau woes and Andy undergoes another fertility test.

I really like the brief addition of Royal Dano to the cast as the traveling circuit judge, Clint Sternwood. He's a surprisingly on the ball character who seems on par with Coop in terms of wisdom and intelligence... and doesn't seem to have an ulterior motive, which most new characters seem to carry of late. It seems for every new White Hat, there are three to four Black Hats to counter them.

On the flip side, I'm not all that impressed with Harold The Shut-in (let's just make that his title, shall we?). I get the feeling that David originally wanted this character's duties to be handled by Audrey's developmentally challenged brother, Johnny, but then thought the better of it when he figured that Donna would probably have to seduce the diary from him (or Maddie would have to don the blonde wig, again), and that sort of behavior wouldn't exactly engender sympathy for the supposed White Hats. To be frank, I was more interested in the creepy magic kid and grandma from one of Donna's other Meals on Wheels visits.

Still, Audrey's finally out of One-Eyed Jack's after being left there last season. Thank ZOD. I mean, honestly, the whole thing could've been wrapped up in that finale, but no... David just had to leave cliffhanger after cliffhanger to tease/guarantee a second season (too bad it didn't work for a third). Audrey being rescued is enough for me, though... well, that and Joan Chen in a nighty. Thank the spirits for Black Lingerie and Hawk... those two prayers not necessarily being connected.

Nothing really supernatural in these episodes, unless you count Nadine's super-strength and The Owls (who are not what they seem). More than a bit disappointing in that regard, but oh well.

Quick shout out to David "Squiggy" Lander who makes a brief appearance as a home healthcare salesman for a little hydraulic-assisted comic relief!

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~