Twin Peaks: Season 1, Episode 5 "The One-Armed Man" Review
"Look at us. Two men apiece and we don't know what to do with any of the four of them."
-Norma Jennings
Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) interviews Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn), who says on the night after Laura's murder, he followed a man in a red Corvette, but lost him in the woods. Laura had told him about the man. Truman confirms that Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re) drives the same type of car. Cooper gets a call from his supervisor, Gordon Cole (David Lynch), who says that a bird scratched Laura and the fragment with the letter "J" found in her stomach looks like it's part of a poker chip. They suspect it's from One Eyed Jacks. Andy shows Cooper the sketch of BOB and Cooper confirms he saw the same man in his dream.
Hawk (Michael Horse) calls the station with news he has tracked down the One-Armed Man to a motel. Hawk also notices Josie Packard (Joan Chen) keeping watch on the motel. She is spying on Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) and Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie) who are having a tryst in one of the rooms. Cooper and Truman interrogate the One-Armed Man, a shoe salesman named Phillip Gerard (Al Strobel), who has been visiting his friend Bob at the hospital. Bob is a local veterinarian. Cooper believes that the bird that attacked Laura is a patient of Bob's and confiscates all of the files from his clinic.
Norma (Peggy Lipton) attends her husband, Hank's (Chris Mulkey), parole hearing. She reluctantly agrees to give him a job and a place to stay if he were to be released. Hank later gets his parole.
Shelley (Mädchen Amick) and Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) plan to get Leo out of their lives permanently. Shelley gives Bobby Leo's bloody shirt.
Ben manages to find some new potential investors in Iceland. Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) visits him and convinces him to give her a job at his department store working at the cosmetics counter. Later, Ben meets with Leo and hires him to burn down Josie's sawmill. Leo shows Ben the dead body of Bernard Renault (Clay Wilcox).
Andy finds a file of a bird called Waldo that matches the physical characteristics of the one that attacked Laura. It is owned by Jacques Renault (Walter Olkewicz). Cooper and the police arrive at Jacques' apartment as Bobby is planting Leo's shirt inside. Bobby manages to escape and Cooper finds the shirt, which has Leo's initials.
Truman calls Josie and tries to talk to her about being at the motel, but she dodges the question. Later she gets an intimidating phone call from Hank.
What Works:
This episode really propels the investigation storyline forward. We finally catch up to the One-Armed Man, which sends us to the veterinarian and gets us to Jacque's apartment. These are some exciting developments that send our heroes on the right track to catching Laura's killer. All of this stuff is a lot of fun and really got me excited for what was to come in this investigation, especially thanks to Bobby planting Leo's shirt.
There are also some smaller character moments that go nicely with the investigation storyline. The little stuff like Andy dropping his gun and the lawmen later going to the shooting range is pretty funny. I also love the little moment where Cooper stares a llama in the eyes. That's one of the funniest moments in all of Twin Peaks, but it's so quick and no attention is called to it. That's hilarious.
I also like the meeting of Ben and Leo. These are two very shady characters, but one is white collar and the other is blue collar. I like their meeting of the criminal minds and how unfazed Ben is by Bernard's murder.
Finally, I also like how Audrey plays Ben like a fiddle to get the job at the department store. Audrey is such a fun character because she is so active in taking action to get what she wants. It's fun to see her talking her way through different situations.
What Sucks:
I can't stand the relationship between James and Donna. They can be tolerable a times, but this episode is not one of them. They don't have much screen time together, but the scene of them digging up where they left the necklace in the woods isn't great because their dialogue makes me want to barf.
Crystal Coffee:
The Crystal Coffee Award goes to the most competent character of the episode. For the first time, Agent Cooper is not going to win this award! This time it goes to Bobby Briggs for planting the bloody shirt in Jacques apartment and escaping from Hawk. This is his first time winning this award.
Verdict:
"The One-Armed Man" is a really solid episode of Twin Peaks. It really moves the investigation along, but doesn't forget to give us plenty of smaller character moments that truly make this show so unique. Plus we get some great scenes with Ben, Leo, and Audrey. I don't love the stuff with James and Donna, but this episode has still got it going on.
9/10: Great
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