Please note: the entire chapter is too long for email. Please click through to the web version for the most updated content. I will be making frequent revisions over time. Paid subscribers are welcome and encouraged to ask questions and offer feedback in the comment section for each chapter.
Acronyms & Common Terms
TP = Twin Peaks (1989-1991)
TPTR = Twin Peaks The Return (2017)
FWWM = Fire Walk With Me (1992)
RRL = The Red Room Dream Layer
TVL = The Version Layer
MPL = Missing Page Layer
TFM = The Fireman’s Mansion
Twin Peaks = The entire franchise
INTRO5
Part 5: Scene 1
(0:00:00-0:01:40) Local (3:50:57-3:52:37) Global Time
1m40s
PN: INTRO CREDITS
C9
Part 5: Scene 2
The Version Layer: Las Vegas, NV | Buenos Aires, Argentina
(0:01:40-0:03:27) Local (3:52:37-3:54:24) Global Time
1m47s
PN: Black Lodge Plan
SN: Mystery
Gene and Jake are in the car talking to a woman named Lorraine on the phone. She is a handler, sending assassins’ orders and processing their payments. She makes sure nothing goes wrong.
Everything goes wrong during this hit on Douglas Jones.
Gene says they just drove by the house, and Dougie Jones’s car is still there.
Lorraine asks if he’s still inside.
Gene says he can’t tell, but the lights are still on.
She is not happy because this job was supposed to be done yesterday. She asks if they are trying to get her killed.
Gene says they’re all over it.
Lorraine screams, “Fuck!” and hangs up the phone.
Jake says, “She’s a worrier.”
Gene says, “Yeah.”
Lorraine is agitated. She frets and hesitates for several seconds, clearly in deep distress. Then, finally, she pulls an old Blackberry from her desk drawer and starts typing on it.
We see a spider-web-covered naked light bulb hanging from a dilapidated building at night, in the dark.
Cut to what looks like a box with two holes inside a brass bowl between two parallel metal lines on some dusty rock floor. A dull beep sounds.
Lorraine cautiously types “Argent 2” into the Blackberry,
Two lights on the box activate with two successive quick beeps.
Here we see the mid-level management of Mr. C’s corporation struggling with Cooper’s escape from the kill zone. These mistakes will blow black.
One of the mysteries of TPTR is this box and its function.
One light indicates a binary machine. It’s either on or off. But two lights is a system of much greater complexity. Judging by Lorraine’s reticence to send this message, I think we can surmise that she is initiating a backup plan. Let’s call it Plan 2.1
E8
Part 5: Scene 3
The Version Layer: Buckhorn, SD
(0:03:27-0:04:33) Local (3:54:24-3:55:30) Global Time
1m6s
PN: Mystery
SN: White Lodge Plan
A fat man’s body lies cut open on a coroner’s table. A pan and sink are nearby, and water is draining.
Detectives Macklay and Harrison are talking to the Coroner, who jokes that the cause of death is decapitation. They do not laugh. She continues to joke with, “Here’s the headline. Actually I just gave you the headline. Yeah I’m still doing stand-up on the weekends.”
Finally getting to business, she says this man hasn’t eaten for days, at least not food.
She found a ring in his stomach and suggested starting with his wife. The ring is inscribed, “To Dougie, with love, Janey-E.”
How did Dougie Jones’s wedding ring get into Major Briggs’s stomach when he didn’t have a head? It’s one of the most tantalizing mysteries of TPTR. It’s the second mystery we’ve seen in the first five minutes of Part Five.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to JB Minton to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.