I wish it was just fetishization. This episode if you were a woman you were either murdered, assaulted, dumber than Dougie or arm candy for David Lynch's character. The guy is a lecherous, old slimeball up there with Frank Miller.
I won't go as far as to claim he's anywhere near the level of scumbag as Frank Miller, but this was the first episode of the new season that made me feel
very uncomfortable in a way that isn't what I would describe as welcome or good. I can't help but think back to the scenes in the original show with Leo Johnson treating Shelly like she was less than human, only this ended up being a variety of male characters over the entire episode. Really feeling put off by how gross it was.
That said, the pacing for this episode was probably the snappiest yet. We're seeing the pieces finally begin to shift around in different conflicts that are headed for a collision, as well as getting some answers for things brought up or hinted at earlier in the season. Audrey is possibly confirmed as Richard's mother, Mr. C is confirmed as the millionaire behind the box experiment, the FBI knows Diane isn't what she seems, Chad's not just a dickbag, but he's Richard's dickbag on the inside, and Anthony's insurance claim meddling goes deeper than a personal 'skim off the top' scheme. Some of this probably won't matter for long time fans who desire more attention to the questions raised by the events of the past few episodes, but time will tell how it all comes together in the end.
I'm mostly curious about Gordon's vision of Laura and what exactly it was that he felt when Diane hugged him outside of the prison. What sort of supernatural boyscout plan does he have to get to the bottom of this new Cooper and his supporting network?
EDIT: Something that just hit me... and this is kind of a big relief for me, personally. Back when Bobby Briggs was revealed to be an officer with the Sheriff's department, there was a small part of me that doubted that he'd cleaned up his act that much. With everything he'd been involved in when he was younger, becoming an inside man at the police station would make for a perfect job that someone in the drug trade could use to their advantage. Every time he began to ham it up on screen, I doubted how genuine each expression was. Now that we know Chad's the inside man, it gives me hope that Bobby did indeed change course after the Good Major had his talk with his son back in Season 2. There's still time for Lynch to change that, of course, but I'll be happy if Bobby happened to reform himself in such a drastic way in the 25 years between seasons.
