Twin Peaks episode review — 1.5 — Episode 4/The One-Armed Man

Original air date: May 3, 1990
Director: Tim Hunter
Writer: Robert Engels

Rating: 8/10

The episode begins with Sarah Palmer sharing her visions with Sheriff Truman, which leads to Hawk sketching a depiction of Bob. It’s fairly clear Leland doesn’t take these too seriously, but the importance of the necklace is restated.

Lucy and Andy are feuding, and Cooper questions Dr. Jacoby, who he had seen towards the end of the previous episode. This is really the episode where we come to understand Jacoby as a character. He popped up a few times before, of course, but here we hear of his obsession with Hawaii, and I think this is the first time we see him with his trademark sunglasses. He comes off as a weirdo hippie that’s even too weird for Cooper to deal with. It’s clear that he’s not going to be much help.

With Donna agreeing to help Audrey investigate Laura’s death, I have to ask why. I get that Audrey sort of wants a sense of adventure and wants Cooper to fall in love with her, but does she really believe that? I guess she’s just a high school student. She could believe that. But why Donna? Why does Donna want to keep things from the police?

In the pilot, it made sense. Donna and James were worried James would be implicated. At this point, it doesn’t make that much sense. It makes sense that Bobby would be so secretive. He’s trying to frame Leo and Jacques Renault while keeping his secrets from Shelly.

There are a couple pretty good scenes in this episode. I like where James finally meets Maddy, and I like the scene with Bobby and Shelly. But I don’t think the Cooper scenes are as compellingly written as before.

Still, the episode sets up some interesting stuff, tying Hank (Chris Mulkey) with Josie, and Ben with Leo.