How's Audrey?

I've been watching Twin Peaks yet again, though it's my first watch through since David Lynch died, which certainly casts a pall over it. But I was watching an episode not directed or written by Lynch last night, episode 7 of the first season, written by Harley Payton. I always think of this one as the Best of Audrey and the Worst of Audrey. It begins with her naked in Cooper's bed, which I've always thought was ended in an unfortunate but almost inevitable way with Cooper standing on his principles as an FBI agent who will not sleep with a teenage girl. The scene kills the wonderfully weird energy between the two that made their dialogue so interesting in the previous episodes and they never really get it back.

I did notice something new, though. Cooper says to her, "What I want and what I need are two different things." I remembered Mr. C in season three once remarks, "I don't need anything. I want." This implies he would have handled the situation with Audrey in the opposite way in which Cooper did and foreshadows what is eventually revealed about what he did do to Audrey.

I lament the scene for killing the weird energy between the two but, in real life, a girl like Audrey really wouldn't be in the right place psychologically to give away her virginity and Cooper is right to say that what she needs is a friend to listen to her. So he goes and gets some food and it's implied the two talk for hours as she unburdens herself. I've always wondered what they talked about. In the previous episode and later in this one, she was trying and failing to tell Cooper about the clue at the perfume counter at Horne's department store. Evidently she didn't disclose this in their heart to heart but, if not, what did they talk about? Audrey's relationship with her father? Some girl at school? What?

It's a bit sloppy but the previous episode's cliffhanger left this one with little choice. Audrey turning up in Cooper's bed was simply too far too soon for both characters.

Otherwise, the episode does a terrific job establishing character. I love Audrey's cleverness when she hides in Battis' closet and steals the unicorn. But she's not perfect; Blackie sees right through her false identity, recognising her assumed name from The Scarlet Letter, which says something about Blackie, too.

Twin Peaks is available on Amazon Prime in Japan.