I’m spending a nice Saturday evening watching Season 2 of Twin Peaks and in the season opener we see Special Agent Dale Cooper lying on his hotel room floor with one bullet wound to the lower right abdomen and two bullets to the chest–blocked by a bullet proof vest.

Why did his bullet proof vest not cover his lower stomach? Because he was trying to remove a wood tick that had burrowed into his flesh, not an uncommon incident when walking in the Great Northwest.

I remember when my dad came home one evening after hiking and he showed me his arm. There was a bug’s behind sticking out of the skin. I didn’t know what it was and he explained that a tick was feasting on his blood–very creepy for a kid to hear.

Then my Dad explained that if you try to remove a tick with your fingers you will most inevitably end up ripping off the body and leaving the head. If the head is stuck in your skin it will decay and most likely cause an infection. Plus, who wants a bug head stuck in your skin?

The way to get rid of a tick is to get the little creature to back out of your skin. My dad took a needle and used a match to heat it up. Then he touched the head of the needle on the bug’s back end. It immediately wriggled out and was squished.

In Twin Peaks, Agent Cooper ends up in the hospital and a doctor removes the bulllet. With great humor we see smashed on the end of the bullet…the wood tick. The bullet killed it.

David Lynch (or Mark Frost who also created the show) was a genius. Unless that idea was from one of the crew–someone suggested it and I can’t think of a more original twist for a season opener.

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