Episode 2 (Twin Peaks)

"Episode 2"
Twin Peaks episode
Three figures seated in a room draped with red curtains and a patterned carpet. A dwarf and a young woman sit beside each other while a suited man faces them.
Dale Cooper's vision of Laura Palmer and The Man from Another Place in the Black Lodge featuring backwards speech and a mysterious shadow moving along the wall.
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 3
Directed byDavid Lynch
Written byDavid Lynch
Mark Frost
Production code1.002
Original air dateApril 19, 1990 (1990-04-19)
Running time48 minutes[1]
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
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"Episode 1"
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"Episode 3"
List of episodes

"Episode 2", also known as "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer",[nb 1] is the third episode of the first season of the American mystery television series Twin Peaks. The episode was written by series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost, and directed by Lynch. It features series regulars Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Ray Wise and Richard Beymer; and introduces Michael J. Anderson as The Man from Another Place, Miguel Ferrer as Albert Rosenfield and David Patrick Kelly as Jerry Horne.

Twin Peaks centers on the investigation into the murder of schoolgirl Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), in the small rural town in Washington state after which the series is named. In this episode, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Dale Cooper (MacLachlan) tells Sheriff Truman (Ontkean) and his deputies about a unique method of narrowing down the suspects in Palmer's death. Meanwhile, Cooper's cynical colleague Albert Rosenfield (Ferrer) arrives in town, and Cooper has a strange dream that elevates the murder investigation to a new level.

"Episode 2" was first broadcast on April 19, 1990, on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network, and was watched by an audience of 19.2 million households in the United States, equating to roughly 21 percent of the available audience. "Episode 2" has been well-received since its initial broadcast, and is regarded by critics as a ground-breaking television episode. It has since influenced, and been parodied by, several subsequent television series. Academic readings of the episode have highlighted its depiction of heuristic, a priori knowledge, and the sexual undertones of several characters' actions.

  1. ^ "Twin Peaks, Season 1". iTunes Store. Apple. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
  2. ^ Riches 2011, p. 40.


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