Philip Jeffries definitely had a cheesy cartoon Southern gentleman accent in FWWM. But the new guy just wasn't the same.

It seemed like evil Cooper didn't know his way around, so to speak. And there was an almost Col. Kurtz feeling to the Jeffries setup.

The whole scene was inexplicable to me. Isn't evil Cooper a Black Lodge denizen like the woodsmen? Why is Philip Jeffries in charge over there?

The whole sequence had me in tears. But it made me really extra sad that Michael Ontkean wasn't there.

That was so good. The reveal of the Jones family was great.

The trailer window was broken when (I think it was) a coffee mug was thrown out, several episodes back, while Carl was singing Red River Valley.

Considering the whole season has been a comedy of delays, it's funny the green rubber glove paid off so quickly.

Thinking about it more, most of what's so affecting about James this week is his new air of humility and cheerfulness. Part of what was so irritating about young James was the soulful and brooding nature of his stupidity. He seems to have outgrown the self-righteous mopeyness and restlessness that led him and Donna…

Not me, haha. The only one of that trio I could tolerate was Maddy. Especially after the Harold debacle.

There's a statement to be read in James's adulthood job when compared to Bobby's. James comes from a disreputable broken home and, though troubled, was essentially an innocent and good teenager, and ends up a 3rd-shift security guard; while Bobby, who came from a respected upper-class military family, and who dealt…

I always hated James, but to see him — quite realistically — as a hotel security guard, particularly after he's been built up as some local rocknroll cool guy hero… was genuinely and unexpectedly poignant.

Stan from Mad Men gets 30 glorious seconds of screen time and delivers one of the funniest & most memorable performances of the season.

Yes, and in a good way — it reminds me of the Wicked Witch of the West.

It seems to be edited thematically instead of chronologically. Dougie plays catch with Sonny Jim because the entire episode was about fathers and sons. Episode 11 was full of scenes about cars. This week, at least the second half, seems to revolve around characters' stagnation. It is happening again. All of it. And…

I'd also argue that Bartleby is a strong precursor to psychological horror that allows its proceedings to be dreamlike without ever resorting to explaining them as a dream.

Not so different. Turn of the Screw appeared 8 years after Owl Creek Bridge. It's maybe a closer analogue to The Yellow Wallpaper, but nevertheless James was a contemporary of Bierce, writing psychological horror-slash-realism with a light touch and dedication to ambiguity.

I don't feel like it needs to be interpreted — which is to say, brought into line with logic and reason and my experience of waking "reality." A movie is already a kind of dream, and can operate on its own terms without being forced to reckon with some external logical standard. I feel like this is Lynch's whole M.O.,…

I know all of this. But the standalone Twin Peaks pilot was ordered *in case* the show wasn't picked up. In either case, what I'm discussing is the final artwork, presented as-is, not how or why it came to be.

You might be surprised how many students don't know to read for unreliable narration.

Fair enough, but I'd caution against giving them too much leeway when their contemporaries — Melville and James in America, plenty of brilliant realists in Russia and France — were doing much more sophisticated and subtle work.