There was Another Major David Lynch Reference in Last Sunday’s True Detective

By Reuben Levine | Jul 28, 2015

True Detective has always had something of a fixation with the work of David Lynch. Specifically, Twin Peaks. First season director Cary Fukunaga has listed David Lynch as one of his influences, though it only amounted to a sort-of Twin Peaks-y feel. True Detective season two has taken things to a whole other level, which is spurring considering Fukunaga’s absence.

There have even been True Detective/Twin Peaks mashups.

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In “A Church in Ruins,” Ani Bezzerides attends an old-fashioned orgy while on “pure MDMA.” This results in a hallucination of a bearded man telling her that there are “unicorns” in the forest. As Inverse points out, the scene plays out much like famous scene involving the character Bob in Twin Peaks. In fact, Inverse has caught more Twin Peaks references than we have.

You can see the Twin Peaks scene in question in this clip:

The closeup of Bob is very much like the closeup of the man Ani sees in her drug-induced state. True Detective season two has really gone hard with the David Lynch references, but it hasn’t quite captured the feel of Twin Peaks. Not that the fist season did either, but with so many references we’ve fallen into a sort of Twin Peaks uncanny-valley. It’s weird that we’re not just watching Twin Peaks.

Even though we weren’t completely sold on the Twin Peaks-esque dream sequence after Ray is shot, this one feels more innocuous. Only Twin Peaks devotees are likely to catch the reference and it doesn’t feel completely out of place.

Let us know if you were able to catch this one.

Next: Will True Detective season two be able to wrap up all its mysteries?

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