Twin Peaks “Coma” Episode 10: Mak Takano

Breakfast

My last review was a bit quote heavy and made up 16.8% of my last article. Oh man, that was a long ass article. Jesus! My sincerest of apologies, I shall endeavour to be more concise and I have already name checked the irregular cast members to see if they’ve appeared in Star Trek.

None of them have so… I’m all out of ideas!

Our episode begins like so many episodes have done before; at the Great Northern Hotel. Cooper and Albert Rosenfield are having breakfast while a smoking barbershop quartet hum in the background. They’re oddly positioned within the frame while in the foreground Cooper and Albert almost bookend the aforementioned quartet. The two FBI agents discuss Jacques Renault’s murder… he was suffocated! See! I said that in my last piece. That’s not me being completely oblivious on how a fucking script works! Sometimes mistakes do happen… why does this sound like some weird confessional? Anyway, Cooper attempts to enlighten Albert on the history of King Thothori Nyantsen, the first Tibetan King to be touched by the Dharma and in by doing so, he and the Kings that succeeding him were known as the Happy Generations.

He belonged to the Yarlung Dynasty from Southern Tibet and Buddhist legend tells of a chest that fell from the sky and landed on the roof of his palace. Inside the chest were four items, including one of those cool Singing Bowls, some jewels and one of those little yellow capsules you get inside Kinder eggs.

What relevance does this story share with this episode? Well, Cooper once had a dream about the plight of the Tibetan people and in this dream a secret Tibetan method of deduction was revealed to him.

I had a dream where I was thrown into a deep pit by modern day pirates on a tropical island, the pit functioned as a toilet and for two days the men would use the quite large latrine to shit and piss on me while they waited for me to die. Then on the third day, starved, fatigued and ill from being pissed and shitted on, one of the men slipped and fell. I bite his nose off and gouged his eyes until he either died from the agony or from choking on his own blood.

Using his machete, I severed his limbs and used his bones to climb out of the pit… I never gained any special deduction method from that fucked up dream but I now know how to make a ladder.

Digressing back to the scene, we learn from Albert Rosenfield that the FBI have no lead on Jacques Renault’s killer. This is obviously good news for Leland Palmer.

Agent Cooper also informs him that his ring is gone, vanished during his spiritual visitation.

This scene ends with a suspicious Asian Man, I kid you not, his character name is “Asian Man”.

He’s definitely Asian, Japanese to be exact. The actor is Mak Takano and I urge you to check out his website; www.maktakano.com

He’s basically, the most Japanese man on the fucking planet. There’s this massive picture of him, being all stoic while wearing a Gi, he’s even got a fucking black belt! The Shō pipe music that plays in the background fully cements Mak Takano-san as one of, if not the most Japanese man on the planet.

If he doesn’t spend every dawn, meditating on top of a mountain or practising his Kamehameha technique then I just don’t know if I could handle that level of disappointment. Reality would undoubtedly collapse due to a severe lapse in logic. Maths would stop working and our planet, no, the fucking universe would end up looking very much like a shrivelled up and burnt old sphincter.

Japan, yeah!