Masked Ball

Episode aired Dec 15, 1990
TV-14
47m

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

4.4K

YOUR RATING

Crime Drama Mystery Thriller

Mrs. Briggs talks about her husband's disappearance into the woods. Nadine is put on the wrestling team, where she falls for Mike Nelson. James is hired by the mysterious, wealthy Evelyn Mar... Read allMrs. Briggs talks about her husband's disappearance into the woods. Nadine is put on the wrestling team, where she falls for Mike Nelson. James is hired by the mysterious, wealthy Evelyn Marsh. Dick takes on an orphan, Little Nicky.Mrs. Briggs talks about her husband's disappearance into the woods. Nadine is put on the wrestling team, where she falls for Mike Nelson. James is hired by the mysterious, wealthy Evelyn Marsh. Dick takes on an orphan, Little Nicky.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

4.4K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
David Duchovny's television debut.

Goofs
When Nicky blows the whipped cream onto Dick's face, Dick immediately wipes it off with his napkin. Nicky then spins Andy's barstool causing him to fly off onto the floor. The shot immediately cuts to a close-up of Dick laughing and the whipped cream is once again present on his left cheek.

Quotes
Special Agent Dale Cooper: Have any of you fellows heard of a place called the White Lodge?
Deputy Tommy 'Hawk' Hill: Where did you hear that?
Special Agent Dale Cooper: Well, it was the last thing Major Briggs said to me before he disappeared. He asked me if I ever heard of a place called the White Lodge and I told him I hadn't. He wouldn't tell me why.
Deputy Tommy 'Hawk' Hill: Cooper, you may be fearless in this world. But there are other worlds. Worlds beyond life and death. Worlds beyond scientific reality.
Special Agent Dale Cooper: Tell me more.
Deputy Tommy 'Hawk' Hill: My people believe that the White Lodge is a place where the spirits that rule man and nature reside. There is also a legend of a place called the Black Lodge. The shadow self of the White Lodge. Legend says that every spirit must pass through there on the way to perfection. There, you will meet your own shadow self. My people call it The Dweller on the Threshold.
Special Agent Dale Cooper: Dweller on the Threshold.
Deputy Tommy 'Hawk' Hill: But it is said that if you confront the Black Lodge with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul.

Crazy credits
The closing credits feature an old black-and-white film reel of the ground-breaking at the Great Northern Hotel instead of the regular still photo of Laura Palmer. This also marks the only episode NOT directed by David Lynch to use an alternate end credit sequence - all four other examples of this were in episodes directed by Lynch.

Soundtracks
Twin Peaks Theme (Instrumental)
Written by Angelo Badalamenti

User reviews9

Review

Featured review

8/10

Masked Ball

Overall, a pretty standard and boring episode, the highlight being the introduction of Denise Bryson, Coop's old colleague who has transitioned into a woman. At first I cringed, expecting a stereotypical 20th century negative mocking depiction of a transwoman, and while there are problems here and there ("...it suits him", "transvestite", Denise being played by a cisgender man) the overall positivity of Denise's character is astounding, being shown as a smart, hard-working woman who cares about Dale, whom is confused at first but almost immediately accepts her identity as soon as she says "I prefer Denise". It's heartwarming to see the main character in a show from the 1990s accept a trans character so easily. It's truly one of, if not the first portrayal of a transwoman in TV that wasn't used as a joke, in fact the wonderful David Lynch does not turn Denise's identity into a joke at all. Truly heartwarming, although the rest of the episode often felt quite lackluster overall.