Twin Peaks Premiere "Pilot" Review

 "Diane, I'm holding in my hand a small box of chocolate bunnies."

-Special Agent Dale Cooper

In the small, Washington town of Twin Peaks, Pete Martell (Jack Nance) discovers a dead body wrapped in plastic while going fishing.  He calls the police, who discover the body is that of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), a popular high school student.

Laura's mother, Sarah (Grace Zabriskie), discovers Laura isn't in her room and tries to get ahold of her boyfriend, Bobby (Dana Ashbrook).  When that doesn't work, Sarah calls her husband, Leland (Ray Wise), who is in a business meeting.  During their call, Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean) arrives to inform him of Laura's death.

Bobby is at the Double R Diner instead of football practice.  He offers to give one of the waitresses, Shelley (Mädchen Amick), a ride home and it's revealed the two of them are having an affair.  As they approached Shelley's house, they see that her terrifying husband, Leo (Eric Da Re), has gotten home from. work early and Bobby flees to avoid being seen and heads to school.  Word gets out that Laura has been killed and her friends are devastaed.  Bobby is briefly questioned by the police, but Sheriff Truman advises him to get a lawyer before they question him again.

It's discovered that another girl is missing; Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine).  She is found near a railroad bridge in a daze and covered in bruises with rope around her wrists.  She crossed the bridge from Washington into Idaho, garnering the attention of the FBI.  Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) arrives in town to investigate.  He goes to the hospital to work with Sheriff Truman.  They discover Ronette is now in a coma.  They then check Laura's body and Cooper discovers a small letter "R" underneath her fingernail.  They then check Laura's diary.  Her last entry was about her being worried about meeting J.  

Next they interrogate Bobby and show him a video they found in Laura's room of Laura and her best friend, Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle), on a picnic with a 3rd person filming them.  Bobby claims he doesn't know who filmed them, but Cooper and Truman's secretary, Lucy (Kimmy Robertson), figure out it's a biker.  They question Donna as well, but she claims the person filming was a random hiker.  Cooper deduces that she's protecting someone.

Deputy Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz) finds the crime scene where Laura and Ronette were held and tortured.  It's an old train car.  Cooper and Truman inspect the scene.  They find half of a heart-shaped necklace and a note written in blood, "FIRE WALK WITH ME."  It's revealed that James Hurley (James Marshall), a biker, has the other half of the necklace.

Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn), the daughter of the owner of the Great Northern Hotel, tells a group of her father's business associates about the murder just before they sign a contract with him.  They end up deciding to not sign and flee Twin Peaks.

Cooper and Truman go to the bank to open Laura's safety deposit box.  They find a skeevy magazine called "Flesh World," which has a picture of Ronette inside.  They don't notice another picture of Leo's truck.  Cooper calls a town meeting and informs everyone that Laura's murder may be connected to another murder the previous year.

Dr. Hayward (Warren Frost), who has been helping the police with the investigation, tells his wife about the necklace that was found.  Their daughter, Donna, overhears and sneaks out to a bar called the Roadhouse.  When the Doctor finds out she's gone, he tells Bobby and Donna's boyfriend, Mike (Gary Hershberger), and they guess she's at the Roadhouse.  Cooper and Truman stake out the Roadhouse and see Donna arrive.  When Bobby and Mike get there, a fight breaks out between the jocks and the bikers.  Donna escapes with another biker, Joey (Brett Vadset).  Cooper and Truman follow, but Joey loses them and brings Donna to James.

James tells Donna that Laura was with him the night she died and was acting very strange.  Laura was secretly seeing James, but he and Donna end up kissing and decide to bury the other half of the necklace.  Cooper and Truman find them and take them into custody.  James is put into a cell near Bobby and Mike, who were arrested for the Roadhouse fight.  Donna is released to her father.

Truman is reveled to be in a secret relationship with Josie Packerd (Joan Chen), the widower of the owner of the mill, who left it to her when she died.

Sarah has a vision of someone digging up the buried half of the hear-shaped necklace.

What Works:

First and foremost, Dale Cooper is probably my favorite character from an TV show ever.  He's the absolute best.  Kyle MacLachlan gives a brilliant performance.  He's very quirky, yet serious about the investigation.  He can switch on a dime.  This episode also gives us the start of one of the greatest bromances in television history, between Cooper and Truman.  At first I thought the two of them might butt heads.  In most shows the feds often have problems with local law enforcement.  That isn't the case here and I'm so happy.

I love how surreal this show is.  David Lynch can make just about anything work even if you have no idea why it's in the show.  The random student dancing in the hallway and Bobby and Mike barking at James are just some of the bizarre highlights.

This episode also does a great job of building up the dread.  We know Laura Palmer is dead and waiting for her parents to find out is painful.  The scene at the school before the announcement of Laura's death is made is another good one.  We hear a student screaming and then both Donna and James guess what happened.  It's chilling.

On a broader note, this episode introduces us to a ton of characters.  I don't know how Lynch does it, but he manages to make all of them fascinating in one way or another.  Even characters we don't spend a lot of time with manage to pop.  It's really impressive.

Finally, the end of the episode is utterly chilling.  We get Sarah screaming and having a creepy vision of the necklace being dug up.  That along with the music works really well on its own, but then, if you look in the mirror behnd Sarah, you get a glimpse of BOB (Frank Silva).  On the rewatch, this is even more terrifying.

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Crystal Coffee:

The Crystal Coffee Award goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For the pilot, this award goes to Special Agent Dale Cooper for building up a strong working relationship with Sheriff Truman and for his impressive work investigating the case.  I would bet Cooper will be winning quite a few of these.

Verdict:

The Twin Peaks pilot is a standout pilot in the world of television.  In intoduces us to an amazing cast of characters, my favorite TV character of all-time, starts an epic bro-mance, has a chilling ending, and manages to be funny, quirky, sad, and terrifying.  It has absolutely got it going on.

 10/10: Amazing