It’s no secret that I’m a huge Twin Peaks fan. When we started tossing around the Blow the Hatch idea, I knew exactly what that moment was for me on Twin Peaks. In the second episode of the show (not including the TV movie pilot), agent Dale Cooper has a dream. A super trippy, David Lynch directed, acid trip of a dream. I still think it was one of the greatest scenes to ever be on television, and it defined the show. The scene would go on to be mocked, mimicked, and analyzed for years to come.
Before the dream sequence at the end of “Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer,” Twin Peaks was a slightly strange, quirky mystery show. The pilot was very dramatic, establishing the bizarre characters, and the tragedy of Laura Palmer’s murder. It was clear from the start that Twin Peaks was going to be a unique show, and with David Lynch at the helm, this shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. However, it really jumped to a whole new level of television when Cooper went to sleep at the end of the episode.
What followed was pure Lynch madness: a creepy zigzag floored room, red curtains, Greek statues, and a backwards-talking dwarf. Sure, nothing really made sense in the whole thing, and it was completely disturbing (I swear I still have nightmares about it to this day), but it was awesome at the same time. It was evident after the end of this dream sequence that Twin Peaks was going to be a wild ride.
When introducing friends to the show, I always make them sit down and watch the pilot and the first two episodes, ending with the dream sequence. I figure that if someone isn’t completely entranced and intrigued after that, they might as well not watch the show. I know once I saw that scene, I was hooked for life.
Oddly enough, I don’t even think that this is the best moment from the show. I think that the episode, and particularly the scene, where Laura’s killer strikes again is the best piece of television that I have ever seen. Ever. It’s not surprising that that was also directed by Lynch himself. However, I digress….
As a special treat, I’ve embedded Cooper’s dream below.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Aug 21, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
