Twin Peaks: Rest in Pain

 "Twin Peaks is weird..."

You don't say.

This is the episode of Laura Palmer's funeral, and inevitably there's drama, with Bobby calling out the town's hypocrisy and getting in to an altercation with James, no doubt to the intense displeasure of his authoritarian but oddly philosophical father. Poor Leland Palmer makes a spectacle of himself too, showing us the things that grief can do.

Meanwhile, Agent Cooper is puyrsuing the investigation by... analysing a dream he has, which is accepted by all and sundry, including the viewer. In any other show, this would be absurd, but this is the David Lynch dimension.

Various weird plot points advanve a little and, the findings of FBI pathologist Albert aside, the focus moves slightly away from Laura's murder to the town itself, with Albert snobbishly dismissing it as a place full of hicks while Cooper increasing feels affection for its charm and decency. It therefore feels natural when, at the end of the episode, Sheriff Truman includes him in a kind of secret society that exists to combat the, er, "evil" in the woods. 

Thing is, writing it out like that makes it seem silly. But, watching the episode, it works. And that, perhaps, is the key point. We accept and revel in the weirdness. This is oddly compelling television, and unlike pretty much anything else.