The small town of Twin Peaks, Washington, has been shocked by the murder of schoolgirl Laura Palmer and the attempted murder of her friend Ronette Pulaski. FBIspecial agentDale Cooper has been sent to the town to investigate. During the investigation, Cooper has been shot in his hotel room by an unknown assailant and Audrey Horne has begun working undercover at One Eyed Jacks, a brothel and casino on the Canadian-United States border, to gather information. In Twin Peaks, Leo Johnson has been shot by Hank Jennings, Jacques Renault has been murdered by Leland Palmer, and The Packard Sawmill has been burnt down.
Events
Dale Cooper lies on the floor of his hotel room after being shot in the stomach. In the background, Deputy Andy Brennan calls out for Cooper from the telephone and The Waiter enters Cooper's room. He places a glass of warm milk on the table, hangs up the telephone and cannot understand Cooper's request to call a doctor. He leaves the room and re-enters twice, giving Cooper a thumbs up. A mysterious, semi-transparent figure enters the room and The Giant appears above Cooper. The Giant tells Cooper three things: "there is a man in a smiling bag", "the owls are not what they seem" and "without chemicals, he points." He asks Cooper for his ring and tells him he will return it to him when he discovers the meaning of his clues. He vanishes after giving a fourth clue: "Leo locked inside a hungry horse, there is a clue at Leo's house." After The Giant vanishes, Cooper begins recording a message into his tape recorder for Diane, revealing his dying wishes. During his speech, Sheriff Truman, Deputy Hawk and Deputy Brennan enter Cooper's room with weapons drawn and bring him to the hospital. At the hospital, Cooper awakes and learns of Jacques Renault's murder, Leo Johnson's attempted murder and the Packard Sawmill fire. He recovers and brings Sheriff Truman, Deputy Brennan and Hawk to Leo's house to search for clues. Hawk finds a blanket doused in gasoline and Truman concludes Leo started the Packard Sawmill fire. FBI Special Agent Albert Rosenfield arrives at the scene and Deputy Brennan, while alerting Cooper, steps on a loose plank, revealing an abundance of cocaine. Meanwhile, Audrey Horne is working undercover at One Eyed Jacks and realises her father, Ben Horne, is the owner. Audrey hides behind a mask and almost has a sexual encounter with her father before he is brought away by his brother Jerry. At the Palmer household, Madeline "Maddy" Ferguson tells Sarah Palmer of a dream she had. Leland Palmer enters the room, singing "Mairzy Doats", and both women are shocked to discover his hair has turned white overnight. Sarah leaves the room and Maddy has a vision of blood spewing across the living room carpet. Maddy later meets Donna Haywardat the Double R Diner and tells her about Leland's hair and sudden upbeat mood. Donna is given an anonymous letter by Norma Jennings telling her to look into the Meals on Wheels program. Back at the Twin Peaks Sheriff Department, Deputy Brennan discovers the answer to one of The Giant's clues, revealing Leo was locked in a jail in Hungry Horse, Montanaon the night Theresa Banks—the girl murdered by BOB a year before Laura Palmer—was murdered. Laura's secret boyfriend James Hurley brings Sheriff Truman a cassette tape of Laura speaking to Doctor Jacoby. At the hospital, Cooper and Truman question Jacoby about Laura and Jacques Renault's murders. While at the hospital, Cooper sees Jacques' bodybag, which appears to be smiling, yielding another answer to The Giant's clues. Bobby Briggs visits Shelly Johnson in hospital and later visits his father, Major Garland Briggs, who shares a story of his vision with Bobby, bringing Bobby to tears. Sheriff Truman visits Pete Martell about Josie Packard 's disappearance following the mill fire. Ben and Jerry Horne question Hank Jennings about Leo's shooting. At One Eyed Jacks, Blackie O'Reilly, the brothel/casino's manager, berates Audrey Horne about not sleeping with the owner. During a dinner at the Haywards' home, Leland Palmer sings and suddenly collapses. Later that night, Cooper is visited again by The Giant. The Giant informs him not to search for all of the answers to his clues at once and that "a path is formed by laying one stone at a time." He also informs Cooper "one person saw the third man" and he is known to Cooper. He ends his visit by telling Cooper that he forgot something. The Giant shines a light on Cooper and at the hospital, Ronette Pulaski enters a spasm in her coma. Ronette has flashback visions of Laura Palmer being murdered by BOB. After murdering Laura, BOB laughs maniacally.
Production
"Episode 8" was written by the series creators Mark Frost and David Lynch. Frost and Lynch had co-written three prior episodes—"Pilot", "Episode 1" and "Episode 2". Lynch would later direct the following episode, "Episode 9", "Episode 14" and the series finale "Episode 29", and Frost co-wrote another four installments.
Broadcast
"Episode 8" was originally broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company network on September 30, 1990. The initial broadcast was watched by 19.1 million households in the United States—which represented 20 percent of the available audience and 12.2 percent of all households in the country. It was the most-viewed episode of Twin Peaks second season and following its broadcast, the series ratings dropped a considerable amount—which lead to its eventual cancellation. The following episode, "Episode 9", marked its decline, attracting 14.4 million households. "Episode 8" was rated TV-14 when re-broadcast in the United States, though it was later rated TV-PG.
Reception
Critical response to the episode was largely positive. In his review for The A.V. Club, Keith Phipps noted that there were some moments "that are as strong as anything in the first season but right from the beginning it feels a little off. Even though David Lynch directs the double-length second-season premiere, it lacks the sustained intensity of the first season episodes." Phipps added that The Giant's first appearance to Cooper is "perversely unsatisfying" but criticised some of the episode's plotholes, giving it a B+ rating. AllRovi's Andrea LeVasseur has noted that "Episode 8" "features turning points for some major characters as well as several occurrences of supernatural visions", rating it four out of five stars. DVD Talk's Jamie S. Rich gave a mixed response and commented that after The Giant's appearance "we're off to the whacky races." Rich added that "almost immediately, however, one can sense creators David Lynch and Mark Frost starting to buckle under the weight of their own success. For their big return, they seem to be ratcheting up the weird to give the people what they want--more shots of donuts, more coffee, and even worse, they started to indulge more in goofball humor that didn't really play out all that well."
