If you’ve frequented CliqueClack in the past year or so, you might recall Deb at least starting out doing a Virgin Diary here of Twin Peaks. I really had no interest in it, but since it was on the TV while I was in the room, I paid it some attention. And, still, I have no interest in it. As you’ve seen, neither does Deb. However, my brief time with Twin Peaks allowed me to catch a bunch of the references in this episode, which was brilliantly played out in hommage to the long-dead show.
For the most part, the episode played out very much as Twin Peaks did, complete with isolated mountain town and its odd inhabitants, a murder to solve and an out-of-towner there to solve it. It also featured a few old cast members, including Ray Wise, Dana Ashbrook, Sherilyn Fenn and Sheryl Lee. So, along with that, some of the call-backs I noted:
I’d definitely like to hear what others you Twin Peaks fans noticed — I’m sure I missed many, since I didn’t even dive into the second season of the show. Did they do justice to your beloved series, or was it a huge mockery? Do tell!
“The Dewey Decimal System? I didn’t even know they still used this.” – Gus
“That’s because people don’t want to crack war codes when the payoff is Jane Eyre.” – Shawn
“You guys have Bob Barker, Dr. Gooden and Randy Jackson, all living in the same inlet town with no cars, cellphones or Internet.” – Shawn
“Shawn, we have to pitch this to Mark Burnett.” – Gus
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Dec 02, 2010 @ 00:29 EST5EDT
As a big fan of Twin Peaks, I LOVED this episode. It perfectly captured all that was absurd about the show.
That said, one thing I did catch was in the very first scene of the show where Sean makes reference to a woman in Washington inventing silent drapes. This was a reference to a character in Twin Peaks, Nadine Hurley. She was kind of crazy and was constantly going on about how she was trying to invent a perfectly silent drape runner.
*POST AUTHOR*
Yes! I remember that!
A couple more references I picked up on. When they’re in the library and they meet Maudette she says something like, “Isn’t cherry the best?” This is a reference I think to her character in Twin Peaks, Audrey Horne, tying a cherry stem in a knot with her tongue when applying for a job as a prostitute at One Eyed Jacks.
Another one, is when Sean and Gus find that book on the shelf, and it has the jacket of a golf book and the author is listed as “Earl Wyndham”. That’s a play on “Windom Earle” who was Agent Cooper’s mentor in the Twin Peaks series.
LOL it’s very sad that I know all this after all this time. I just really loved that show. It ended before it’s time.
first) its SHAWN!!!!
second) log lady
third) the owl
That was great. I loved catching the references, even if it’s been a while since I saw Twin Peaks.
The photo guy looked and acted a LOT like Leo from the series, right down to the creepy stare, but according to IMDb it’s not the same guy. The sheriff, however, was from the original series (though not a super-memorable character).
The dance by the former character at the end of the show was meant to mimic the dwarf in the white room. Furthermore, the cabin layout matched that set. The characters were going to the cabin with BOB, like in Twin Peaks, but in a turn-around, Bob was not the killer. The actor who played the priest (and Leland Palmer) had his hair turn white, another reference to the series.
The Log Lady fake-out cracked me up. Sean: “No… That would just be over the top.”
It’s even better now that I see the actress was the real Log Lady.
Holy crap, that was amazing. The show did such a good job. It was great seeing all the actors from Twin Peaks (and just about every guest actor was from the show, even though some of them had very small roles).
I’m so obsessed with TP that I picked up a ton of the small references: The town paper was the Great Northern (which was the hotel on TP), the site that clued them in was underthenail (killer BOB put letters under the nails of his victims), Shawn introduced Gus as Lodge Blackman (a reference to the Black Lodge from TP). There were references to The Sawmill getting burned down (the restaurant on Psyche, the actual mill on TP). There was the minah bird in the doctor’s office that was found at Laura Palmer’s murder scene. The white horses in numerous spots. Heck, even the use of Chris Isaak music (he was in the movie). The ominous ceiling fan shots, the prom picture, the secret diary, ray wise’s hair turning white, the giant, the dog barking, the waitress doing the audrey dance — it was all awesome.
Then there was the character Jack who only had partial sight in one eye — get it, One Eyed Jack!
I love Sheryl Lee. I’ve always wondered why she didn’t have a bigger career.
Also, Deb you need to give me my DVDs back! Now I have a major hankering for some Twin Peaks.
The One Eyed Jack thing JUST hit me this morning as I was groggily making coffee. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it right away.
Sheryl Lee is awesome. To be honest I think she probably doesn’t do much acting anymore because she looks too much like a real woman, and not some Hollywood freak show who’s had all kinds of work done to “stay young.” She looks her age. I think she’s beautiful, but I also think it’s very hard for a woman her age to get work, even when she looks 10 years younger than she is.
Anyway, this episode was fantastic! I really think it deserves to be ranked as one of the best episodes of the entire series. For a Twin Peaks fan, it was a dream come true.
Agreed — loved this episode! I never would have imagined it would be so incredibly well-done, and I loved the little digs at the original, with the over-the-top drama, the wife’s screams at finding Paula dead, the guy talking to the earring … so great. And log lady! What were the ceiling fan shots, though? An homage to the traffic lights or was there a fan thing I’m not recalling?A
There was a fan thing. I think as early as the first episode. I think they played mostly in Mrs. Palmer’s visions.
The Ceiling fan thing was in the first episode of Twin Peaks, when Laura’s mother is running all over the house looking for her the day Laura’s Body is found.
LOVED LOVED LOVED TP! There were Ceiling fan shots in the Pilot of TP, especially the specific camera angle, looking up towards Laura’s room… it was immediatley recognizable. I treasured that show and every minute of Psych was a tribute. There were plenty of missing characters, but plenty of others, it was a tasty visit to a very loved show from my High School Years. It was so cool to see Bobbie as a grown man, and the “juggling” of characters was neat as well. not enough good things to say about this episode. KUDOS!!!
I never watched Twin Peaks, but I did love the Everwood references.
And, I’ve never had Cinnamon pie (never heard of it before, actually), but I really want a piece!
Dual Spires… Twin Peaks… LoL
Leo the cinnamon owl… that one can’t be more obvious…
OH the donuts in the Santa Barbara police station!
The bird in the cage at the doctor’s office…
OMG the log lady was hilarious! “That would’ve been too much.” LoL
Sherilyn Fenn, looks almost exactly the same other than her age… so beautiful… Maudette Hornsby… Audrey Horne…
Well, that’s all I have time to think about now, but I’m going to watch it again and go from there. YES, I loved this episode!
Well Seeing as most of you have taken the obvious ones, im going to just point out some others that were not mentioned, its kind of a reference and kind of not, but in i think it was the season finalle of the first season, Pete and his wife are tearing apart that library and he stumbles upon his yearbook and there is the thing with the yearbook in Psych. Also there is the mention of the Road House, which of course was the bar in Twin Peaks. I know that the dwarf’s dance was mentioned but no one pointed out that Jack is wearing the same suit, that is red. I did pick up on all of the other references but you fine people got to them sooner! :)
OH! I forgot to mention the fact that the Sheriff in both Twin Peaks and Dual Spires have President Names, Harry S Truman In Twin Peaks and Andrew Jackson in Dual Spires. Oh and Dana Ashbrook plays a form of the name Robert in both Twin Peaks and Dual Spires, In TP He is Bobby, and In Dual Spires he is just Bob. The Cinnamon Owl’s name is LEO as in the jack ass in Twin Peaks. Both of the Theme Songs for Twin Peaks and Dual Spires starts with a shot of some sort of bird. That’s all I have for now, I will prolly find more as I watch this episode and the Twin Peak Episodes more…