“It is happening again. It is happening
again.”
Though he
only actually appears in a few scenes, the Giant is one of the most memorable
characters in Twin Peaks. He’s played
by Carel Struycken, who’s had lots of bit parts playing tall and/or unusual
characters. Aside from Twin Peaks,
his most high profile role was probably Lurch in the 90s Addams Family films.
A Lodge
spirit who appears in the Great Northern Hotel, the Giant has a human host just
like BOB and MIKE – an unnamed, elderly room service waiter from the Hotel,
whose actions are obscure at best and the product of senility at worst.
As with
virtually everyone and everything involving the Black and White Lodges, the
Giant is ambiguous. Initially he gives the impression of being a good guy; his
initial information is helpful to Cooper, if cryptic. Later, he tells warns
Cooper of BOB’s murder of Maddy, and he explicitly warns Cooper against Annie
entering the ”Miss Twin Peaks” pageant. Sounds like someone who’s trying to
help, right? But later we see him sitting alongside the Man from Another Place
in the Red Room (whose own villainy was suggested in the final episode, and
confirmed in Fire Walk With Me).
So the Giant
may have his own agenda, but I still lean toward seeing him as a good guy. Carel
Struycken is set to reprise his role in season 3, so we may get a solid
confirmation. Or we may get this.
Funko’s sculpting
captures Struycken’s unusual features quite well, while still neatly fitting the
POP format. The head is a little more egg-shaped than the usual rounded-off
cube style, and they’ve made his body a little taller than usual to fake the
height. He’s bigger than a regular figure, but not quite as tall as he appears
in a show – though to be fair, an in-scale figure might have been too big to
fit in a regular box. He’s depicted with his right arm raised, pointing with
his index finger. I remember happening in the show, but can’t remember which
scene it actually appears in. It makes sense for the character – I suppose they
could have given him Cooper’s ring, but this is better.
The first
episode that the Giant first appears in is called “May the Giant Be with You”,
and thanks to a good business decision by Funko, he can be with you. The POP version of the Giant was originally
intended to be a chase version of Leland Palmer. Though a few packaged examples
of the “chase” seem to have made it to retail, Funko realised that this was a
terrible idea and decided to release him as part of the main series. In a world
where it feels like common sense rarely prevails, it’s nice to see it triumph –
a trivial victory in the grand scheme of things, but you need to take your wins
where you can get them.
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