by Robert Giles (Gazette Reporter)
Written by Mark Frost, Harley Peyton & Robert Engels
Directed by Tim Hunter
The episode begins with a shot of Maddy’s face when she was discovered dead. This fades to Cooper, Truman, Albert and Hawk walking through the woods behind the sheriff’s station. Albert has some evidence about Maddy’s murder. There was letter O under Maddy’s left ring fingernail and strands of fur clutched in her right hand. The fur was from a white fox, stuffed. Harry suggests Leland will know how to get a hold of Maddy’s parents. Cooper says to wait and asks for 24 hours “to finish this.” Albert says he doesn’t know where this is headed but Cooper is the only one with the coordinates, adding he use whatever means necessary “to find this beast before he takes anotehr bite.”
James meets Donna at the Double R. He gives her a ring saying, “I just think we should be together all the time…If that’s okay with you.” Donna replies, “It’s perfect.”
At the counter, Norma’s mother can’t seem to stomach a Double R omelette. Norma says nothing she ever does is good enough for her. Vivian makes suggestions for omelette ingredients to which Norma responds with much sarcasm.
As James and Donna are leaving, they hear Andy saying “Je un ami solitaire.” Donna asks him to repeat it. Andy does and translates it, “I am a lonely soul.” Donna then asks Andy if he knows Mrs. Tremond and her grandson who does the magic tricks, because the grandson said the same thing to Donna. Andy says it was Harold Smith’s suicide note. Donna leaves abruptly in search of Agent Cooper.
Cooper, Andy and Donna go to Mrs. Tremond’s. Donna tells Cooper how Tremond told her about Harold and his suicide note had to be a message that led here. A much younger woman than the Tremond she knows answers the door Donna doesn’t recognize. She says she is Mrs. Tremond, her mother is dead and she has no children, leaving Donna totally bewildered.
Cooper: Donna, we better go.
Tremond: Donna? Are you Donna Hayward?
Donna: Yeah
Tremond: Just a moment
Donna: I’ve never seen her before in my life.
Cooper: But you deliver meals here.
Tremond: The day after poor Harold died, I found this in my mail. I meant to turn it in. It’s for you.
They leave and Donna’s sees Harold’s handwriting on the envelope. Inside is a page from Laura’s diary containing her last two entries. The first entry is about a dream she had that is identical to the one Cooper had in episode 2. Laura accounts that she wanted to tell the old man (Cooper) who BOB was. She whispered it in his ear. BOB was afraid of only one man, Mike and she thought that Cooper might have been him and hoped he could help her. The last entry read: “Tonight is the night that I die. I know I have to because it’s the only way to keep BOB away from me, the only way to tear him out from inside. I know he wants me, I can feel his fire, but if I die he can’t hurt me anymore.” Cooper proclaims he and Laura had the same dream and asks Andy to take Donna home while he goes to see Gerard.
Cooper asks for Mike’s help when he sees him at the room he is being kept in at the Great Northern.
Cooper: BOB has killed again. I need to know something. I need you to help me. BOB was in my dream, Laura Palmer was in my dream, so were you. And Laura dreamt about me the night before she died, the same dream that I had.I need to unlock that, I need…the answer is inside me.
Mike: BOB and I, when we were killing together, there was this, this perfect relationship, appetite-satisfaction: a golden circle.
Cooper: ‘A golden circle’ A ring, my ring…I gave my ring to the Giant.
Mike: He is known to us here.
Cooper; Then he’s real
Mike: As real as I…He can help you find BOB
Cooper: How?
Mike: You must ask him first.
Cooper: How do I do that?
Mike: You have all the clues you need.
When Cooper walks out into the hal, he spots the old room service waiter down the hall. He says to Cooper, “I know about you…That milk will cool down on you but it’s getting warmer now.”
Cooper goes to Ben’s office where Harry has already begun his search. He shows Cooper the phone records showing the call Ben supposedly made to Laura the night she died. Cooper notices the stuffed white fox and remembers the strands of fur. Harry thinks Ben killed Maddy in the office and then took her to the waterfall. Albert arrives saying that Maddy died between 10:00 p.m. and midnight, which fits in with the time they arrested him. Albert also has the results from Ben’s blood test, but they are not revealed.
Andy confronts Lucy, wanting to know about their baby. Lucy says, “Maybe it is our baby and maybe it isn’t.” Andy responds, “Dick, oh my Lord, is he the father?” “At first, I thought you were the father, but then you said you didn’t have any sperms, then I thought it was Dick. And now you say your sperms are back so as far as I can tell, it’s a 50/50 proposition.” Lucy exclaims. Andy walks boldly to the phone to call Dick and arrange a meeting but when Andy asks him he seems a little less self-assured.
Tojamura visits Ben in the cell block. He has the Ghostwoods contracts for Ben to sign. Ben says he can’t sign them. Tojamura asks for his 5 million dollars. Ben wishes to return the money or sign the contracts. He can’t because he’s incarcerated although falsely accused and will have to wait until he gets a better lawyer and his name is cleared. Tojamura takes his foot out of his shoe; the nails are painted. Ben see this and realizes this is Catherine in a brilliant disguise. He kisses her foot and asks her to tell the sheriff about the night Laura died, that they were together. She has him sign the contracts she has with her, which will hand control of the mill and Ghostwoods over to her in return for her testimony.
Ben: Now, you’ll tell the sheriff…
Catherine: I’ll consider it.
Ben: Catherine, wait…it’s the truth after all.
catherine: Why, Ben, we’ve spent our entire adult lives lying to each other. Why spoil it with the truth now?
Donna stops by the Palmer’s and gives Leland a copy of the song she and James did with Maddy to mail to her. Leland says he will and recognizes Donna’s sunglasess as familiar. Donna tells him they were Laura’s and that Maddy had given them to her. Leland seems shaken by the sight of the sunglasses and steps away from Donna. Donna asks if he knew that the police had found Laura’s secret diary, a second one she didn’t know about. Leland behaves as if he didn’t know about it either. She tells him Laura gave it to Harold Smith and that the police found it after he had committed suicide. The phone rings, interrupting them. It is Maddy’s mother, worried because Maddy hadn’t made it home yet. Donna seems extremely concerned and Leland says to her in a voice that strongly indicates BOB is in control even before his reflection is seen, “Donna, don’t you worry about a thing. I’ll go get us some lemonade and we’ll sit down and give it a think and we’ll work the problem out…together.”
When he returns, he lustfully touches Donna’s hair. When she turns around suddenly, he hands her the lemonade. Donna apologizes for being selfish; she thought she could see Maddy any time. He says she’s taking it too much to heart and that there is a reasonable explanation for all this. He then suggests, “I know the cure for what ails you.” He starts playing a record on the phonograph and asks Donna to dance, after BOB is shown having a conflict of interests. She agrees and they dance briefly until Leland embraces her rougly. The doorbell rings, stopping him. Before he goes to answer it, he says “You stay right there.” It’s Harry at the door; he came to tell Leland there has been another murder and they need his help but is unspecific as to what kind of help. Leland quickly leaves with Harry.
Donna meets James and tells him that Maddy was killed by the same one who murdered Laura. She uses Harry’s visit and Maddy’s mother’s call as evidence that it’s true. James swears they could have helped her but admits he doesnt know how. Then he says, “I gotta go…nothing’s ever gonna change…it doesn’t matter if we’re happy and the rest of the world goes to hell.” He rides of on his motorcycle, leaving Donna grieving and heartbroklen.
Meanwhile, at the Roadhouse, Cooper has gathered all the suspects for Laura’s murder, including, Leo, Bobby and Ben. Hawk, Ed, Truman & Albert are also in attendance. Cooper has them clear the center of the room. He addresses the group. “Gentlemen. two days ago a young woman was found murdered by the same individual I believe is responsible for the death of Laura Palmer. I have reason to believe the killer is in this room. As a member of the Bureau, I’ve spent most of my time seeking simple answers to difficuly questions. In the pursuit of Laura’s killer I have employed Bureau guidelines, deductive technique, Tibetan Method, instinct and luck. But now, I find myself in need of something new, which for lack of a better word, we shall call magic.” Harry asks what is next with Cooper answering he is not certain and that someone is missing. Major Briggs arrives accompanied by the room service waiter who asked the Major to drive him here. He offers Cooper a stick of gum. Leland says he remembers that gum, he used to chew it when he was a kid. The waiter assures him, “That gum you like is going to come back in style.” At that moment, time freezes for Cooper and he remembers his dream and clearly hears what Laura whispered in his ear. “My father killed me.” The Giant appears and returns Cooper’s ring to him. Everything goes back to normal. Cooper puts on his ring and asks Ben Horne to go with them to the Sheriff’s station and that he might want to bring Leland along as his attorney.The agents and sheriff’s personnel leave; Cooper gives a thumbs up to the room service waiter in farewell.
They return to the station and Cooper has Ben taken back to interrogation. After Leland asks about bail proceedings and walks on, Cooper stops Harry and whispers something in his ear. When they get below and prepare to put Ben into the room, Cooper and Harry shove Leland into the interrogation room instead. Leland starts ranting and screaming, surprising everyone out in the hall.
Cooper: Hawk, take Ben upstairs and release him.
Ben: Leland?
Hawk: That’s not Leland.
Harry: How did you know?
Cooper: Laura told me, in her dream.
Harry: We’re gonna need a lot stronger evidence than this.
Cooper: How about a confession?
During the interrogation, Cooper asks him if he killed Laura and Maddy and he says, in a manner of speaking, yes. He also adds, “I have this thing for knives, just like what happened to you in Pittsburgh that time huh, Cooper?…Leland, you’ve been a good vehicle and I’ve enjoyed the ride, but now he’s weak and full of holes…Leland’s a babe in the woods with a large hole where his conscience used to be.”
In the conference room, Lucy is talking to Andy and Dick. She tells them she’s made up her mind and she’s keeping her baby. They will do a blood test after the birth to determine the father and until then she expects cooperation from both of them.
Back outside the interrogation room, Cooper puts his dream together. The little man danced as Leland did compulsively after Laura’s death. The killer was a gray haired man and Leland’s hair turned gray overnight after he killed Jacques. The letters under the nails was BOB spelling his name. Leland placed the call from Ben’s office; he was the third man outside Jacques’ cabin and took the girls to the train car. Why kill Maddy? Either she reminded him of Laura and he couldn’t bear to part with her or she found out BOB was the killer. Harry offers that BOB can’t exist, that Leland is just crazy. As if to prove Harry wrong, Leland starts reciting the fire walk with me poem and “I’ll catch you with my death bag. You may think I’ve gone insane, but I promise I will kill again.” The sprinklers come on (caused by the smoke from Dick’s cigarette in the conference room). BOB screams preparing to liberate himself and slams Leland’s head repeatedly into the iron grate on the door. Harry and Cooper rush to make it to him, but it’s too late. Leland realizes he has killed his daughter and Teresa Banks (and Maddy), sobbing and begging forgiveness. He said he saw BOB in a dream when he was a boy and later he went inside of him. “When he was inside I didn’t know and when he was gone I couldn’t remember…he said they wanted lives, they wanted others, others that they could use like they used me.” Leland says they wanted Laura but she wouldn’t let them in so they had him kill her. Leland asks Laura to forgive him saying that he loved her with all his heart. Cooper turns Leland on his side and recites a passage from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, preparing Leland’s soul for the journey it was about to make. He tells Leland to find the light and enter it. He sees Laura there and goes to her with Cooper saying “Don’t be afraid.”
In the woods behind the station, Harry, Cooper and Albert contemplate what just happened. Major Briggs arrives, concerned and curious to see what the results of the investigation were.
Harry: He was completely insane.
Cooper: You think so?
Albert: But people saw BOB, people saw him in visions, Laura, Maddy, Sarah Palmer.
Harry: Well, I’ve lived in these old woods most of my life. I’ve seen some strange things, but this is way off the map. I’m having a hard time believing.
Cooper: Is it easier to believe a man could rape and murder his own daughter any more comforting?
Harry:…but if he was real and we had him trapped and he got away, where is BOB now?”
The point of view changes to night in the woods where we see an owl in flight, reminding us “The owls are not what they seem.”
