'Twin Peaks Analysis & Appreciation for Season 3 -'The Return: Part Six "Don't Die"
A Skeleton Key To Twin Peaks 2nd Edition
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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
INTRO6
Part 6: Scene 1
(0:00:00-0:1:43) Local (4:49:15-4:50:58) Global Time
1m43s
PN: Intro Credits
A15
Part 6: Scene 2
The Version Layer: Las Vegas, NV | Twin Peaks, WA
The Red Room Layer
(0:1:43-0:18:34) Local (4:50:58-5:07:49) Global Time
16m51s
PN: White Lodge Plan
Cooper is right where we left him, standing outside the business park. He is still staring at the cowboy statue with his case files. His right-hand fishes for his left hand up his left sleeve.
The security guard tells him there’s no loitering. He asks where Cooper lives. Cooper says, “Home.” The guard asks him if he’s been taking any drugs or medication. Cooper gives him enough details to get him home (“Lancelot” and “Red Door”). The security guard is moved to help him.
A short time later, the guard and his partner walk Cooper up the steps to his home.
Janey-E comes out, shocked to see her husband being led home by men with badges. But, she is grateful for his safe return when she learns what’s happened. The guard tells her that Cooper is disoriented. Janey-E says, “That’s on a good day.” She thanks them and welcomes them in, but they refuse. As they leave, Cooper touches the guard’s badge and says, “Badge.” The cop smiles and says, “He likes my badge.” As Janey-E shuts the door, the cop sees an envelope on the stoop and hands it to her before leaving.
Janey-E asks Cooper if he’s eaten, then goes to make him a sandwich. While they both sit eating at the table, she says that tomorrow she’s taking him to see Dr. Ben. She picks up the envelope and notes there is nothing written on it. She tells him that he needs to go upstairs and says goodnight to Sonny Jim, who’s been waiting for him. She urges him upstairs by touching his elbow and verbally guiding him a few times, but he finally makes it upstairs, going first into the bathroom.
Sonny Jim is reading in his room, which is dark except for an LED reading light. His bedroom is decorated in a Wild West motif. An old alarm clock, some paintings on the wall, and western curtains all create a welcoming and nostalgic environment. Sonny Jim motions twice for his father to sit down on the bed with him, which Cooper does while eating his potato chips.
Cooper offers a chip to Sonny Jim, who declines and says he has already brushed his teeth. Cooper sets a single chip on the bed. Sonny Jim asks if he can leave his cowboy light on. He wants his Dad to stay with him until he falls asleep. Cooper repeats, “Ah-sleep.” Sonny Jim turns off his reading light, lies down, then claps, and his cowboy light turns on. This catches Cooper’s attention. He puts down the bag of chips and claps the light off. The two get into a clapping battle, turning the light on and off. Sonny Jim giggles and twice calls Cooper “Dad.”
Seconds later, Janey-E opens the envelope and yells at Cooper, “Get down here, right now. Right now!” Sonny Jim protests that his Dad will stay with him, and Janey-E yells back, “Not tonight, he isn’t! Mommy will be up soon, honey!” Sonny Jim lies down, defeated.
When Cooper comes downstairs, Janey-E takes him by the nape of the neck, like a dog. Then, she leads him to sit down at the dining room table. She says he’s in the dog house because he didn’t call and set up a time to pay “them” off. She shows him the picture in the envelope, an image of Dougie and Jade walking out of a suburban home. Cooper sees Jade, says her name, smiles, then says, “Jade give two rides.” Janey-E watches him with disgust and says, “I’ll bet she did!”
The phone rings, and she asks if he will answer, “Maybe it’s Jade calling!” Cooper repeats Jade’s name, and Janey-E grows more disgusted, saying, “Oh my God, Dougie! We are not done with this!” She answers the phone and motions for him to keep silent, asking who it is calling. Cooper puts his index finger up and places it on her lips. She smacks it away in anger, saying into the phone, “He’s indisposed.” She asks how much he owes them. She tells them she’s just finding out about this right now. She asks how he’s supposed to get that; who can get that kind of money? She asks, “And what if he doesn’t have it? What are you gonna do then, break his legs? Think about it. It’s hard enough to get that kind of money, let alone with broken legs.” She tells them not to dare go to his office that she’ll “Meet them tomorrow in the park at the corner of Guinevere and Merlin, by the mall.” She’ll be the one carrying the red purse at “Noon Thirty tomorrow.” Janey-E hangs the phone up and says, “What a mess you’ve made of our lives, Dougie!” She asks out loud what she’s going to do with him. She was going to take him to see Dr. Ben tomorrow during his lunch hour but now has to meet his friends at 12:30. Angry and exhausted, she asks him where his car and wallet are. She points at the case files and says, “And if that’s work then you better get started right away! The last thing we need is you losing your job, Dougie!” She tells Cooper that tomorrow is a big day. She softens enough in her anger to call him sweetheart and kiss him before she leaves to put on her best impression of a mother with it altogether in front of her son. Prompted by her kiss, Cooper looks up to the ceiling like a baby in the crib. Janey-E retreats upstairs to give her the best impression of a mother that has their life secured. Cooper leans forward and touches the 7 logos on the cover of the entire case file. An electric hum grows.
Cut to the swinging traffic light at Sparkwood and 21, changing which grows in electric hum and starts to crackle.
Cut to the Red Room, where Philip is walking around, feeling the air.
Cut back to the Jones kitchen table again, where Cooper has a case file opened on the table and is staring at the page. He looks at the fireplace, and the Red Room grows superimposed. Philip circles his arms backward, begging Cooper, “You have to wake up. Wake up. Don’t die! Don’t die! Don’t die!” The Red Room and Philip disappear, and Cooper stares again at the case file. Smooth Jazz starts playing. A small bright light appears on the paper. Cooper puts his pencil on the dot and starts making marks, looking around the table. In a trance, he grabs another file. He sees two bright dots, like laser pointers. He holds his pencil, draws a straight line down the page, and then circles something. He moves the pencil up the page and pulls a ladder with stairs next to them. Cooper makes a mark next to Anthony Sinclair’s name. Then he grabs another case file and opens it. He sees another dot and makes a mark next to the terms of the Investigating Officers “Det. Loomis & Det. Stockton.” Cooper draws a ladder in the middle of the page. Then, he draws a set of stairs above it with a curvy line connecting the detectives’ names.
Cooper comes home safely but not without assistance. From this point forward, the middle of The Return is a story of strangers coming to aid a weirdo in need. In a few cases, bitter enemies change before our eyes to become beloved friends. The power of simplicity and kindness changes the world when we allow ourselves to be guided by natural law, which leans toward joy and peace.
There is a difference in attitude between this security guard, who guides Cooper home, and the guard in the Glass Box reception area. There is even a difference in attitude between this security guard walking the mall of this office complex and the guards in the Casino, who were helpful but not very nice. Would any of those guards drive Dougie Jones home in his time of need? No, but this one does, and he even brings a helper along.
The concept of Home is strong in The Return. Home is the goal. And what is coming home if not becoming comfortable with the death of the self (little s) in light of the experience of the Self (capital S)? Odysseus’s goal in the Odyssey was to return home to his wife and son. And at the journey’s end, Odysseus discovers what Bob Dylan already knew: “You can always come back, but you can’t come back all the way.” (“Mississippi”). Dreaming Cooper will learn this lesson: the only way it can be instructed during a dream is through pain and suffering witnessed by the dreamer (and viewers tagging along).
If a home is where the heart is, then a different kind of trap is set here for Cooper, the snare of falling in love with this simulated wife and child with these boring case files, living in a city of infinite distraction. There must be something attractive about the routine of such a life to a put-together Agent like Dale Cooper would be tempting to Dale Cooper, and Mr. C would understand this on a molecular level. But Cooper is a long way from safe in this dream layer.
We confirm in this scene that the leg breakers we’ll meet later in this episode put the photos of Dougie and Jade in the unmarked envelope and slipped it on their porch. At this point, Janey-E has softened from her anger when she dropped Cooper off earlier in the day, but her anger keeps getting restocked, and this photo does nothing to help this situation. She is more concerned with owing money than her husband’s affair. Cooper reacts to Janey-E’s loving kiss on his forehead like a baby in a crib. There has been a decisive shift inside Janey-E towards the light in 24 hours of dream-time exposure to Cooper’s innate goodness.
Cooper repeats the word “asleep” as he sits on Sonny Jim’s bed, just before they start playing with turning the light on and off. The mind is asleep or awake as a lamp is either on or off. Cooper is starting to become aware of his statelessness. This scene concludes with Philip Gerard calling Cooper from the Red Room to wake up and not die. Because Philip walks around the Red Room feeling for Cooper’s presence, we can deduce that Cooper still has a physical presence there. Still, the layer he is caught inside is not directly visible or accessible to Philip Gerard. The relationship between the Red Room and this layer of this dream is intimate but also psychologically distanced.
I interpret the lights on the pages of these case files as the attention and affection of the Viewer bleeding into the narrative to protect and guide Dale Cooper as he’s lost in this dream. I consider what the strange lady did when she placed her hands on the machine on the roof of the purple room. Something she did reverse the energy flowing into the dream to be protective. Applying this logic as a narrative test, we would expect that Cooper, doing nothing more than following what intrigues him or gives him pleasure in this dream, will avoid the worst this dream has to throw at him.
E11
Part 6: Scene 3
The Version Layer: Philadelphia, PA
(0:18:34-0:20:40) Local (5:07:49-5:09:55) Global Time
2m6s
PN: Blue Rose Investigation
Albert is driving at night, and it is raining. He is talking to Gordon and tells him, “Have a super night too!” Albert doesn’t know when he’ll get home. Gordon thanks him and tells him his work tonight is “Very important!” Gordon says he’ll be thinking of him as he drinks this (handed to him by what sounds like a young woman) fine Bordeaux. Albert rolls his eyes and says, “Yes, I love a night on the town when it’s 34 degrees and raining.” Albert parks, and it is pouring rain outside. He opens his umbrella and gets out of the car, looking around at the buildings. Then, he says, “Fuck Gene Kelly, you motherfucker!” Albert enters Max Von’s Bar, and it is loud and packed. He makes his way, trench coat buttoned, to the middle of the bar and sees his target. He walks up behind a platinum blonde woman in an ornate oriental dress with bobbed hair. She is smoking a cigarette, an empty martini glass in front of her. Albert takes a moment and solemnly says, “Diane.” The woman recoils at his voice and turns to look at him, breathing a bit heavily when she does. They stare at each other for a moment, and she says, “Hello, Albert.” She runs her thumb across the filter of her cigarette, still staring at him.
This is not Diane. This is a trap. In this dream, Diane is a damaged memory, a corrupted construct that holds a weapon of mass destruction inside her. This is fake news, a lie conveyed as truth in the dream's source code. This person is a vessel of bitterness, betrayal, pain, and sadness. She is a grenade rolled into the room on a long timer. All is not as it seems with Diane.
D6
Part 6: Scene 4
The Version Layer: Twin Peaks, WA
(0:20:40-0:35:36) Local (5:09:55-5:24:51) Global Time
14m56s
PN: Something Is Wrong In Twin Peaks
We see a logging yard. We see an intimidating man leaning against a Camaro. The camera pans to a sizeable smiling man with a massive assault rifle. The camera lands on Red, a man we last saw in Part 2 in the Roadhouse, pointing air guns at Shelly. We hear sniffing and see Richard Horne snorting a drug. It’s bad stuff, though Richard calls it good. Red says, “That’s right, Small Time. You can pick the rest of it up at Mary Anne’s.” Richard asks him how he knew that name if he knows the area, then twitches and says, “Shit, this stuff kicks.” Red makes a grabbing punch move at him, and Richard flinches. Red holds his claw out, palm up to Richard, and asks him, “Have you ever studied your hand?” He turns his palm over and punches forward while the big man behind him continues to smile. Richard seems bewildered by this behavior and the question. Red says, “What do you think? I have been all around here the last couple of weeks. I like it. We can move the sparkle right down from Canada.” He groans and stomps his foot on the ground several times, then grabs his side and says that he has a problem with his liver. Richard is still taking this all in, saying, “Hey, these fucking little towns are a pushover, right? Law enforcement’s asleep at the wheel. Fuckin’ Sheriff here’s like 90 years old or something.” Red punches the air with both hands and then runs his hands through his hair before asking, “Did you ever see the movie The King and I?”
Richard asks, “What?” Red says, “I said I like it. What do you think?” Red looks down at Horne’s shoes (or his crotch) and asks if he’s got this under control. Horne says, “Yeah.” Red says he better have and then makes awkward hand gestures while saying, “There’s one problem. I don’t know you yet.” The big man with the big gun is not smiling anymore.
Red makes the poke eyes gesture and says, “I’m going to be watching you, kid. I’m watching you. Got that?” Horne says, “Yeah, I got it. Don’t call me kid!” This makes Red laugh, and the big man behind him starts laughing again also. Red straightens his coat and says, “Just remember this, Kid. I will saw your head open and eat your brains if you fuck me over.”
Red puts two finger guns up, points right at Richard, and says, “You can count on that.”
Red reaches into his pocket, sniffs, and pulls out a dime. He flips the dime, and Richard looks up at it. It hangs, spinning in the air. Red is looking at Richard, looking at the dime. It sounds like someone caught the dime, and we hear Richard’s mouth click. He pulls the dime from his mouth, looks at it, then looks at Red. The spinning sound resumes, and Red catches the dime, opening his hand and showing the tail side up. Richard looks at his finger and sees the dime is gone. Red looks at the dime and says, “This is you.” He holds his left fist out, slaps the dime on it, showing the heads side up, and says, “This is me. Heads, I win. Tails you lose.”
Cut to Richard Horne driving a truck with tears in his eyes. He is distraught. He pulls himself together somewhat and drives on.
Cut to Carl Rodd on the move. We
hear a passing train whistling. He says good morning to Bill and starts getting into a vehicle as Mickey runs out of a trailer, calling his name.
Mickey asks Carl if he can get a ride into town because he has to pick up Linda’s mail at the P.O. Carl says sure, and they get into the van, another man driving them. In the van, Carl remarks that it’s a beautiful morning. Mickey asks him if he goes into town every day about this time, and Carl replies, “Damn near.” Mickey asks why. Carl says, “Gets me out of this trailer park. How much I got to look forward to at my age, Mickey? Except the hammer slamming down?” Mickey admonishes him and says, “You got a lot of tread left.”
Carl asks about Linda. Mickey says she’s doing much better since the government finally got her that electric wheelchair. Carl says, “Fuckin’ war,” and asks if the government’s taking care of him. Mickey says, “Not hardly,” that it took six months to get the wheelchair.
Carl says, “Fuckin’ government.” Traffic passes and cuts to Carl as he lights a cigarette, offering one to Mickey. Mickey wants one but quit about a year ago. Carl scoffs and says, “I’ve been smoking for 75 years, every fucking day.” They both laugh at this.
Cut to the RR Diner where Heidi is talking to a regular customer Miriam while Shelly checks her station. Miriam is joyously talking about cupcakes and pie with Heidi, saying they are magic and always have them when she wants them. Shelly says, “Well Miriam, turns out you are one of our best pie customers ever.” Miriam replies, “Because Norma makes the best pies.” Then, she asks for two cups of coffee to go, one for her and one decaf for one of the Moms who loves RR coffee. Heidi asks how school is, and Miriam says the kids this year are so cute, then leaves a generous tip and leaves with a smile. As Miriam’s walking away outside, Heidi says she can’t afford a tip like that, and Shelly agrees and suggests they treat her next time.
Cut to Richard Horne driving furious and way too fast in a big, old, nasty truck. He calls Red “Stupid magic motherfucker.” He’s going to show Red, “Fucking kid.” He upshifts and hits the gas, laughing maniacally.
Cut to Carl Rodd, smoking and drinking coffee peacefully in a park, looking up at the trees.
A woman and child playing a running game. The child runs ahead and turns around to ensure his Mom is watching him and coming to “get him.” This touching scene of the Mother and child at play makes Carl smile.
Cut to Richard Horne in the truck, still trying to get himself under control. He does not want to slow down. Finally, he says, “Fuck this,” hits the gas, and punches the ceiling.
Cut to the stop sign, and then the music swells as we cut to the young boy nearing the intersection. He turns and waits for his Mother to get him. Then, finally, she catches up to the little boy. A truck driver smiles at their game and waves for him to cross the street. No one sees Horne barreling up the road yet, about to pass in the other lane through a four-way stop.
The boy runs out into the road and turns to look at his Mother. Her face is the last thing he’ll ever see in this world. Horne shouts out, “Hey,” but doesn’t slow down. Instead, he plows through the boy, and the Mother screams. Carl Rodd hears the scream and jumps up. The Mother runs to the boy who is dead in the street. She comes undone. People get out of their cars, covering their mouths with their right hands. The Mother has her son in her arms and is hysterical on the ground. The man in the truck puts his hand over his eyes. Richard Horne is outraged, shouting, “I told you to get out of the fucking way!” Miriam witnesses the homicide in shock. She and Richard look at each other. The witnesses cover their mouths. Then, they either look down or also cover their eyes. Carl Rodd walks up and surveys the scene. He observes a luminous, gas-like cloud ascend from the boy, past the power lines, and evaporate into the sky. Seeing this, Carl says, “God.” Carl kneels down next to the Mother. He puts his arm around her and looks into her eyes as if absorbing her grief.
Cut to the power pole with a large number 6 etched into the pole and the number “324810” over this etching. Thunder rumbles in the distance. The camera scans up the pole. Power lines and boxes hum and crack with electricity.
This is one of the most tragic scenes in The Return. I adore the image of the energy in this innocent child being reclaimed by the sky. I consider this one of the primary signals to justify that this is a dream and everything here, including these characters, is powered by psychic energy that, while manifested, may be considered through the dual aspects of good and evil but become a single unifying force when reclaimed back into the unmanifest which is the source and host of all life in its endless forms of manifestation. Carl Rodd is an observer of suffering. He seems to have insight into the purpose of suffering but does not speak all of what he knows, which is a sure sign of wisdom. In Mahayana Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a person able to reach Nirvana but is delayed in doing so out of compassion for the suffering of others. Carl Rodd is like a Bodhisattva in this dream, witnessing the tragedy and responding with compassion and pity. This is very different from this character’s role in The Fire Walk With Me portion of this dream.
On the other side of this dime is Red. At the very least, he’s a drug kingpin who dabbles in amateur magic.
But is he a full-on Black Lodge demon, gathering Garmonbozia in this dream layer? Perhaps yes. Is he a tulpa of Mr. C, like I’ve suggested that Tammy Preston is a tulpa of Dale Cooper? Perhaps. At the very least, it’s clear that Red is an evil man who has already corrupted the town of Twin Peaks by the time we meet him officially in this scene (he shot finger guns at Shelley in Part 2). Red’s work is in the service of darkness.
Miriam is a lovely character caught in a terrible dream, and she witnesses horror and then becomes a victim of chaos. Don’t shield your eyes from what is happening. Be like these characters on the road. Put your hand over your mouth to stifle your reaction to horror, but you must see it with your eyes, hear it with your ears, and feel it with your heart. This is the only way art works.
Nothing happens with Richard Horne in this narrative, which is part of Mr. C’s plan. Chaos has no moral alignment, often to the detriment of those who wield chaos for evil. What follows from the moment Richard Horne plows into that little boy at full speed, high on sparkle. What follows is an orgy of grief that breaks beyond a single person’s suffering. This scene of communal suffering in Twin Peaks is comparable to Laura’s funeral. What happens here can’t be undone. This boy’s death sets off a chain of events that will greatly affect the outcome of Cooper’s sanity and the moral state of his soul.
C12
Part 6: Scene 5
The Version Layer: Las Vegas, NV
(0:35:36-0:39:33) Local (5:24:51-5:28:48) Global Time
3m57s
PN: Black Lodge Plan
Mr. Todd clicks on his keyboard in his office in Las Vegas. A large red box appears over the email he’s composing. He looks horror-stricken. He hits a key to make the box disappear and then gets up to open the safe behind him, first grabbing a cloth napkin. Next, he pulls an envelope out, using the napkin, and shuts the safe. The envelope has a single dot on the cover, and Mr. Todd lays it on the desk, careful not to touch it. Todd clears his throat; he resumes typing. Then, finally, he stops to look in fear at the envelope.
Cut to the coroner pulling into Rancho Rosa. A tow truck loads what remains of Dougie Jones’s blown-up car onto the rack. The police have cataloged the scene with evidence flags.
One cop is climbing a ladder to the Drugged-Out lady’s house across the street, calling out that he found the plate on the piece of the car that landed on their roof. Inside, the Drugged-Out Mom twice calls out, “One-One Nine.” There are pieces of the car all over the ground outside. Body parts and scorched flesh litter the driveway and front lawn.
Later, Ike the Spike is a snaggle-toothed, little-person assassin. In his hotel room, he rolls dice and writes down the results in a notebook. A room service tray sits next to a bottle of whiskey and an ice pick. The envelope from Mr. Todd’s office is slipped under the door. Ike walks over, picks up the envelope with his bare hands, and opens it. BluntedBeatz’s “I Am (Old School Hip-Hop Beat)” starts playing as he pulls out pictures of Loraine and Dougie. Ike grabs his ice pick and starts circling Loraine’s facial features with the tip. He does the same for Dougie. Ike stabs Loraine’s face in the picture with the ice pick. He does the same for Dougie’s image, leaving the pick there. There is a Lucky 7 Insurance card with Dougie’s name paper clipped to his picture.
The red box on Mr. Todd’s screen is an order to tie up loose ends and escalate measures to kill Douglas Jones.
Ike the Spike’s ritual of assassination is fascinating. He sets the sequence for his targets, marking their faces with a look of ultimate hatred and an ice pick of death. There is a hint of chance here, with the rolling of the dice and the thoughtful way he moves the ice pick over his victims, but of course, there is no chance because he’s going to try killing them both, so does it matter which he starts with? It might matter.
Here are other questions I still ponder about this scene:
Was the envelope already in the safe, and was Mr. Todd waiting for the red box to alert him to pull it? Or did the envelope appear along with the red box?
Are there horns on the red dot on the cover of that envelope?
What is the Drugged Out Mother’s role here? Perhaps her role is to alert dark forces that the plan has gone off the rails.
Why does Mr. Todd wear gloves when he handles the envelope, intimating that it is toxic? And if so, why does Ike the Spike take it with bear hands with no consequences? Is the envelope made of Garmonbozia, and only those imbued with the darkest energies can handle it without protection?
A16
Part 6: Scene 6
The Version Layer: Las Vegas, NV
(0:39:33-0:48:04) Local (5:28:48-5:37:19) Global Time
8m31s
PN: White Lodge Plan
The elevator doors open, and Phil runs out. Cooper stays in the elevator. He’s holding his coffee and case files and smiling like a madman. Phil turns around and tells him to come on and quit clowning around. Cooper gets caught in the elevator door. He makes his way into the office. Bushnell sees him in the lobby and calls him over to his office (“Jones” three times and finally, “Dougie!” which makes Cooper respond). Sinclair watches this scene from his office. He does not like Cooper being in Bushnell’s office. Bushnell looks through Cooper’s scribbles on the case files with frustration. Cooper drinks his coffee in apparent bliss. Slow Jazz plays, creating a bumbling but charming atmosphere. Bushnell is not amused and asks Cooper, “What the hell are all these childish scribbles? How am I gonna make any sense out of this?” Bushnell thinks Dougie may need good professional help. Cooper looks up at Bushnell’s Battling Bud poster again while Bushnell digs into the other case files. Cooper puts his hands up like a boxer. Suddenly, in a burst of insight, Bushnell sees a pattern that starts making sense to him. He compares a few case files and puts his hand over his mouth, finally saying, “Dougie. Thank you. I want you to keep this information to yourself. This is disturbing to say the least. I’ll take it from here but I may need your help again. You’ve certainly given me a lot to think about.” Bushnell stands up and puts his hand out to shake. Cooper stands up, puts his hand out, and turns around. Bushnell laughs and says, “Dougie, you’re an interesting fellow.”
Cut to Janey-E, sitting on a park bench, holding her red purse, waiting for the scuzzy-looking guys Dougie owes money to arrive. Then, finally, they walk up and ask if she’s Jones.
She takes control of this situation and says, “Yes. Now let’s get to it.” Dougie borrowed $20,000 betting on a football game. “It didn’t work out for him.” With interest after three weeks, the men say that Dougie owes $53,000. Janey-E goes on a tirade: “We are not wealthy people. We drive cheap, terrible cars. We are the 99 percenters, and we are shit on enough, and we are certainly not going to be shit on by the likes of you.” One of the men says, “Nevertheless, lady….” Janey-E interrupts him and says she will pay them back more than what the bank she works at pays their customers. She gives them 25% interest on their loan and says, “What kind of a world are we living in where people can behave like this? Treat other people this way without any compassion or feeling for their suffering? We are living in a dark, dark age, and you are part of the problem.” She tells them to take a good, long look at themselves because she never wants to see either of them again. She shoves the money into one man’s chest and storms away. They watch her walk away, and one finally says, “Tough dame.” The other man agrees.
Here begins the great thawing of Bushnell Mullins, a character who will become critical to Cooper’s success in getting out of this dream so
he can discover the exit and wake up to regain consciousness. Cooper mimics as he learns to live in this strange world he’s been placed in. His natural actions, following those that intrigue him or give him pleasure, inspire compassion in most of the people surrounding Cooper in this dream layer, and they spontaneously come to his aid without him directly asking for help. This is a superpower stronger than Wolverine’s claws. Living spontaneously out of the pure nature of consciousness means living from the source that connects all manifested existence. Cooper’s goodness here is infectious and irrepressible.
But Cooper is still morally handicapped because the flesh vessel he occupies in this dream, the one named Douglas Jones, was committing adultery and insurance fraud and was addicted to gambling and bad food. Cooper was in cahoots with Anthony Sinclair, crooked cops, and bent inspectors. When Cooper called Anthony Sinclair a liar at the conference table, a chain of events was set in motion, which led us to this inspired moment of trust, empathy, sympathy, and strength of character. Cooper is modeling himself back together again. The Cowboy. The Agent with his files. The boxer is standing up against the bigger monster in the ring. The inspiration was Cooper’s, but the inflection of where those lights shine on the page is the viewer—you and I. Our intentions are manifested in this work of great Cinema.
Finally, Janey-E breaks down the politics of economics and explains clearly, to her satisfaction, why poor people need each other much more than they think. Her lesson is hot-dipped in dark comedy for this scene, but what she says is severe and holds iron.
C13
Part 6: Scene 7
The Version Layer: Las Vegas, NV
(0:48:04-0:49:12) Local (5:37:19-5:38:27) Global Time
1m8s
PN: Black Lodge Plan
Loraine is on the phone in her office. She says, “Three bodies? What do you mean he wasn’t in the car? Three bodies?” There is a scream from down the hallway, and Loraine gets up from her chair and looks worried. Ike the Spike comes running around the corner with the ice pick in his hand. He runs into Lorraine’s office with the ice pick held up. He dances with her for a moment and then stabs her repeatedly, digging the ice pick around her chest. She’s dead. Ike looks up to see a woman in the doorway. He growls and runs after her. The camera stops in the hallway. We hear furniture shattering and scuffling bodies. A few seconds later, Ike walks around the corner, bloody and almost innocent. He sees his ice pick bent and has a moment of genuine sorrow, saying, “Oh no.”
In this episode, Mr. C’s network of evil may have begun to unravel. Once he realizes this, his goal should be to pull each string as a lever to find the exit and escape with the agency of this dreaming being’s mind when he exits this dream layer.
Ike the Spike has no mercy and suffers no witnesses. How in the world is Cooper going to defend himself here? This sets up a great tension of anticipation. The sorrow Ike shows over his bent ice pick might inspire compassion in the viewer., but it should be followed by shame because Ike the Spike is a character beyond salvation.
D7
Part 6: Scene 8
The Version Layer: Twin Peaks, WA
(0:49:12-0:50:15) Local (5:38:27-5:39:30) Global Time
1m3s
PN: Something Is Wrong In Twin Peaks
Richard Horne rumbles up in the murder truck. He parks it under power lines.
Electricity crackles. He gets out of the truck, examines the grill, kicks it, and screams, “Fuck!”
He returns to the truck, comes back with a bottle of water and a rag, and attempts to wash the blood off.
“Out, out damn spot!” Richard Horne realizes here just how hopeless it will be to wash off the blood of the innocent. If the laws of this dream layer didn’t damn him before this episode, he has now been condemned by the scripted fate of this narrative. He must run, but not before clearing up a few loose ends.
F7
Part 6: Scene 9
The Version Layer: Twin Peaks, WA
(0:50:15-0:53:00) Local (5:39:30-5:42:15) Global Time
2m45s
PN: Hawk’s Investigation
SN: Something Is Wrong In Twin Peaks
Hawk washes his hands in the bathroom and takes two paper towels out to dry them. He reaches into his pocket for his comb and drops a coin rolling under a toilet. He goes to retrieve the coin, and dark music starts playing. He picks up the buffalo nickel and examines the Indian head on the front. Then, he looks around and sees the Nez Perce Manufacturing plate on the bottom of the stall door. He stands up to examine the door and sees it has been pried open at the top corner. He leaves to retrieve a stepladder, flashlight, and crowbar. Looking at the door, he sees something inside and pries the bent side of the door open. Deputy Chad walks in with a book and his coffee. He asks, “What the hell?” Hawk tells him to use the ladies’ room.
Chad asks if he cleared this with the Sheriff and that he’ll tell him if he doesn’t. Hawk says, “Yeah, you do that, Chad.” Hawk removes the door and pulls out two pieces of paper with handwriting on them.
Earlier in this dream, in Fire Walk With Me, Laura is told to write about Cooper in her diary (before she never met Cooper). This scene connects back to that one because the diary pages that Laura then wrote in the narrative play out in the Red Room, which echoes in this layer of the dream diary pages, are right here in Hawk’s hands. They will reveal the boundary of reality for these characters, but not one the viewer must suffer.
D8
Part 6: Scene 10
The Version Layer: Twin Peaks, WA
(0:53:00-0:54:54) Local (5:42:15-5:44:09) Global Time
1m54s
PN: Something Is Wrong In Twin Peaks
In the Command Center, Sheriff Truman consults his staff. Doris Truman storms into the room, irate again about her Dad’s car not being fixed. Frank says it sounds like he left the emergency brake, trying to calm her down. But Doris just wants to know why Frank is always against her. So they leave the room, and we hear Doris further berating Frank for his many shortcomings. Deputy Chad says he wouldn’t take that kind of shit off her. The Dispatcher tells him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, that she didn’t use to be like this. Their son committed suicide. Chad said he heard that [tear gesture and mock weeping]. “He couldn’t take being a soldier.” The Dispatcher looks at Chad with disgust. A ringing sound permeates the room. Deputy Jesse daydreams at the ceiling.
How does this scene make you feel? I feel frustrated and empathetic about Truman’s suffering. I’m pissed at Chad. What a dick! I’m drawn to the dispatcher's empathy and am aligned with her moral disappointment with her colleague’s attitude and behavior. And I am once again thinking about another person’s suffering. We learn that Doris’s anger comes from a deep trauma from losing her oldest son, who committed suicide because war drove him mad. The first time I watched this scene, I laughed. I still laugh, but now, while laughing, I am also contemplating the trauma of a mother who is struggling with a once-full void. Also, here again, is that tinnitus ringing sound, the echoing clang of Jacoby’s hammer striking the Golden Shovel.
G3
Part 6: Scene 11
The Version Layer: Twin Peaks, WA
(0:54:54-0:56:18) Local (5:44:09-5:45:33) Global Time
1m24s
PN: Road House Band On Stage
Sharon Van Etten is on stage performing “Tarifa.” She sings about rejecting being treated like a child to be summoned, about forgetting and falling away.
CREDITS6
Part 6: Scene 12
(0:56:18-0:58:03) Local (5:45:33-5:47:18) Global Time
1m45s
Music
1. “Windswept” written by Johnny Jewel from the album “Windswept”
2. “Tarifa” written and Performed by Sharon Van Etten
3. “I Am (Old School Hip Hop Beat)”: Written and Performed by BluntedBeatz with samples from “Good Man”: Written by R. Saadiq and Laura Latrice Stinson Performed by Raphael Saadiq
