Twin Peaks: Season 1 Finale "The Last Evening" Review

 "Bite the bullet, baby!"

-Jacques Renault

The season 1 finale of Twin Peaks kicks off with Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) and James (James Marshall) breaking into Dr. Jacoby's (Russ Tamblyn) office, where they find Laura Palmer's (Sheryl Lee) last tape and the other half of the heart necklace.  They go and pick up Maddy Ferguson (Sheryl Lee), who is still dressed as Laura, as Dr. Jacoby watches.  He is attacked by a masked assailant and ends up having a heart attack.  He is later brought to the hospital.

Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) pretends to be Leo Johnson's (Eric Da Re) financer and gets into a business discussion with Jacques Renault (Walter Olkewicz) and asks him to meet up later that night back in Twin Peaks.  He agrees, but when Jacques arrives, the police arrive to arrest him.  Jacques tries to shoot Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean), but Andy (Harry Goaz) shoots Jacques first.  Later, Cooper and Truman question Jacques in the hospital and learn about the night in his cabin.  He ended up passing out and when he woke up, Leo, Laura, and Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine) were gone. 

Leo sneaks up on Shelly (Mädchen Amick) and kidnaps her.  He ties her up in the mill and sets a timer that will start the mill on fire.

James, Donna, and Maddy listen to Laura's tape.  She insults James and implies she is sleeping with the Leo, but he has tried to kill her.  James delivers the tape to Cooper, but Cooper figures out that James was the reason why Dr. Jacoby thinks he saw Laura Palmer.  The police station gets a call from Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) pretending to be Leo and says that James is a drug runner.  Sheriff Truman finds the drugs in James' gas tank.  He and Cooper confront James.

Nadine Hurley (Wendy Robie) attempts suicide by taking pills, but is discovered by Ed (Everett McGill) who gets her to the hospital.

Hank Jennings (Chris Mulkey) tries to blackmail Josie Packard (Joan Chen) for more money by implying he knows more about her husband's death.  Later, he gets the okay from Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) to kill Leo.  Bobby arrives at Leo's house looking for Shelley, but Leo is there instead and tries to kill him.  Hank shoots Leo and Bobby flees.

Catherine (Piper Laurie) and Pete (Jack Nance) share a tender moment and Pete agrees to help her look for her missing ledger.  Later, Catherine gets a call from Hank that her ledger is in the mill.  Catherine arms herself and goes to the mill.  She finds Shelley just as the timer goes off and lights the mill on fire.  Catherine frees Shelley and they try to escape.  Pete arrives at the mill and realizes Catherine is inside and heads into the inferno to rescue her.

When Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) hears about Andy saving the Sheriff, they end up kissing and she tells him she is pregnant.  Andy is stunned and speechless.

Ben and the Icelandic investors sign a deal on the Ghostwood Project and Ben decides to celebrate by sleeping with the new girl at One Eyed Jacks.  Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) is the new girl and she is horrified when she hears her father enter the room.

Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) learns that a suspect in Laura's murder is in custody at the hospital.  He pulls the fire alarm as a distraction and smothers Jacques to death.

Cooper gets back to his hotel room.  There is a note on the floor and the phone rings.  He answers and it's Andy, but there's a knock on the door and Cooper answers it only to be shot three times.

What Works:

This finale works so well because of the pacing.  It takes place over only a couple of hours and a ton of stuff happens.  It feels like everything is happening all at once.  It makes the episode incredibly exciting due to massive developments in every storyline.

This is the best the James storyline ever is because Cooper immediately calls him out for being a complete moron.  It's fun to see Cooper and Truman confront him with the consequences of his actions.

We get a great redemptive moment for Andy when he is the one who shoots Jacques and saves the Sheriff.  It's nice to see the buffoon of the season get such a triumphant moment.

Speaking of Jacques, Walter Olkewicz does a great job of playing such a scumbag.  Every line of dialogue he gives is disgusting and sometimes darkly funny.  It's a great sendoff episode to such a nasty character.  

Ray Wise has only a little screen time, but he makes the most of it as he murders Jacques.  He does so much with his facial expressions alone and really sets up where this character will go in season 2.

That's another really important aspect of the episode.  We get closure on some storylines here, but we also get a lot of setup and cliffhangers for season 2.  One in particular that gives me the ick is Audrey realizing her Dad is the owner of One Eyed Jacks.  I hate watching it, but it's so effective at making your skin crawl.

Shelley and Catherine escaping the inferno is another great sequence thanks to some excellent music from Angelo Badalamenti.  We also get a really nice moment between Catherine and Pete, who have been nothing but mean to each other all season, especially Catherine.  Pete charging into the inferno to save Catherine is part of the reason Pete is one of my favorite television characters of all time.

Finally, we get one more excellent cliffhanger with Cooper being shot.  I don't know what I expected to happen when Cooper opened that door, but it wasn't bullets.  That's how you end a season.

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Crystal Coffee:

The Crystal Coffee Award goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For "The Last Evening," this Award goes to Dale Cooper for tricking Jacques into going back to Twin Peaks and getting a lot of information out of him during the interrogation.

Here are the standings at the end of season 1:

Dale Cooper: 6

Bobby Briggs: 1

Audrey Horne: 1

Verdict:

"The Last Evening" is an exciting and extremely well done finale.  It gives us some great character moments, thrilling sequences, some resolution, and amazing cliffhangers.  The pacing is on point and gives us one of the best episodes of the series.  Without a doubt, this episode has got it going on.

 10/10: Amazing