Chapter 8: Third Hour "Call For Help"
008 - 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
INTRO3
Part 3: Scene 1
(0:0:00-0:01:39) Local (1:55:09-1:56:48) Global Time
1m39s
PN: Intro Credits
A5
Part 3: Scene 2
The Void: Purple Power Station
The Version Layer: New York, NY
(0:01:39-0:14:37) Local (1:56:48-2:09:46) Global Time
12m58s
PN: White Lodge Plan
SN: Black Lodge Plan | Mystery
Cooper falls through space, and he seems to be falling down. Cut to an explosion of a sperm-like substance into a smoky space. Cut to a modern-looking veranda, segmented into three sections. It is unevenly raised in the middle with a door on the left side. High walls climb into shadow. The sound here is hollow, like being on the ocean when it’s calm. Cut to Cooper falling straight down, so gravity is at work here. His impact is nearly silent when he lands on the terrace without harm. Cut to an immense ocean that is moving rhythmically and fades into black. This is not an Earthen sky. Cut to a broad upshot of this tower; it looks immense. Cut back to the original view of the veranda. Cooper stands up and looks around; the air seems to ripple around Cooper. The veranda wall comes up to his heart level. He peers into the ocean below, and Cooper now lives inside a few brief moments of peace, with the rolling sea deep below. One can almost sense the stillness in that water, just below its active surface. Cooper seems to resolve he has to do something besides gaze into this peaceful yet turbulent abyss. He looks to his right and sees a window in the recess of the veranda. He approaches it, and we see a large, floor-to-ceiling, double set of windows that swing inward and are unlocked. He enters cautiously, hopping down into the dark room. There is a flickering light casting onto the corner as he enters. Cut to a frightening-looking woman (Naido) in a red dress with skin sewn over her eyes; she looks frozen in stasis. Cooper shuts the window behind him and saunters into the room. He startles when he sees the woman. Time seems to stutter with “[odd reverberations].” Quick cut to a fire in the fireplace. When Cooper walks further into the room, they acknowledge each other. The strange woman becomes animated. Cut to a view of her from across the room, seated from a different angle. The fireplace fire brings warmth to this scene, a bit of safety and comfort. There are two three-legged short posts with metal balls at the entrance to the fireplace. In addition, there are electric sconce lights on the walls above the fireplace's mantle. Cooper seems to nod and stutter at the woman. She turns toward him, seated in a short, dark, plush chair, surrounded by a circular wall behind her, where flames cast flickering shadows, creating a medieval scene powered by electricity and fire. She tilts her head in what seems to be acceptance of his presence, maybe even welcoming. She raises her open palm to him in what could be a halting gesture, then puts it down, then raises it again. Cooper leans in and walks toward her. Both hands are in front of her but seemingly in resignation now rather than warding him off. They reach out to each other. Cooper grasps her right hand in his left hand. Her left hand is still up with the palm open. She grabs his other hand and looks straight into his belly, then away, then back to him.
When they touch, time stutters back to normal speed. Cooper looks around the room with its rounded ceiling. He asks Naido, “Where is this? Where are we?” She moves her right hand up Cooper’s sleeve to just above his elbow and pulls him closer.
He sits down next to her, and she takes both his hands in hers again. She reaches up to touch his face in what seems to be a loving gesture. She feels his face as if searching for recognition. Naido says something, but it sounds like the words are flowing out in reverse, like they are sucking the air out of the room into her body. A loud pounding interrupts the scene. It sounds like a mallet on a medium-thick metal door and could be some kind of alarm. Cooper looks at the door, and the woman holds her right finger to her lips in a “stay silent” gesture. The pounding continues. Something outside the door wants in, and it does not seem friendly. A light flickers by a credenza, highlighting a panel on the wall. It is a steam-punk-looking brass-like panel with the number 15 engraved on it. Rivets and a long tube are running around what appears to be the other side of an ordinary house electrical outlet. The woman seems to be thinking and coming to a decision. The light comes back on by the credenza, drawing Cooper’s attention again. This scene replays several more times. Then, finally, the woman seems to whisper another warning. Cooper’s curiosity gets the better of his fear, and he stands, but Naido keeps her hand on his shoulder and arm as if to ward him away from the panel. She reaches for him when he walks towards the panel but hasn’t risen from her seat. Cooper rounds the circular wall and walks toward the panel. The woman seems to scream something, but her words get sucked inside, perhaps a warning or broadcasting a critical concern that Cooper is walking towards something hazardous. He approaches the outlet, and she grows more agitated. As Cooper approaches the panel, an electric hum grows, and he seems to fall under a spell the closer he comes. Finally, as he nears the panel, he seems ill and falls back. The strange woman is now up and at his side, swiping towards the panel. She stands between him and the panel. She does not want him to approach her any further. She makes slicing gestures with her hand across her lower chin, and there are knife-slicing noises as she does this. This action repeats a few times. The pounding at the door resumes. She leads Cooper towards the door being pounded on. Just before the door, under a sconce on the wall, is another door, something like a utility closet. She turns a light on, and Cooper follows her into the room. He looks up, and we see her ascending a ladder to the ceiling that seems bolted to the wall. She opens a hatch...and we cut to the outside of a roof...in outer space. There are support structures above the hatch and what seems to be a large copper bell pipe with rivets behind the hatch. The hatch clangs with a metallic clang as Cooper opens the door. She climbs out of the hatch onto the roof. The image pans back to show a metal box (not big enough to hold the large room with the fire), floating without an anchor in space. The copper pipe is about three feet taller than the woman and nearly three times as round. It is wide at the bottom and narrows at the top, like a diving bell. Cooper finishes climbing out and seems to be saying something to him, like she’s explaining what she’s about to do. There are two circular instrument panels near her, with needles and three indicators. The top circle indicators are dots, and the hand is halfway between the first and second dots. The lower circle’s indicators are lines, and the needle is on the third line. Cooper shakes his head at her as if he’s telling her he doesn’t understand while acknowledging her urgency. The knocking continues at the same insistent pace and dangerous force. Her face expresses that she has made herself understand Cooper. She moves around the large copper pipe. Cooper starts following her, but she seems to say, “Stay.” Her words don’t seem to go back inside her as they did in the room below. She says other words to him, but they are indiscernible to us. She seems resolved and continues on around the pipe. Cooper seems to understand he has to stay here. He’s holding onto the support structure. It’s clear he wants to help and is frustrated. The woman moves towards a lever with a handle in the up position. She grabs the handle and looks at Cooper with resolution and what appears to be kindness. She pulls the handle. A light goes out, and electricity starts to hum. She places both hands on the bell pipe and seems to conduct the electricity through her body. She is shocked, and eventually, she’s thrown off the structure into space. Cooper seems surprised by this. She does an elegant upward backflip into space. Cooper moves to try to help Naido but can only stand and watch her fall downward (or is it inward?), eventually disappearing. The needles on the dials did not move as she was thrown off. Cooper looks around into space and sees nothing that can help him. The structure creaks and moves in the wind (wind from where?). As Cooper stares into space, a bald man’s misty ghost face appears on the screen’s right, floating toward the left. It is the head of Major Garland Briggs, and he says, “Blue Rose.” Cooper goes back down the hatch, where the pounding has stopped, but there is still a hum in the air.
As he walks back into the main room, the light seems white on the ceiling now, and the sconces on the fireplace have turned into pillars instead of electric lights. A new woman (credited as American Girl) sits in the chair with her back to Cooper. He looks at the plate on the wall; the number has now changed from 15 to 3. The metal on the plate seems brighter than before, perhaps constructed from a different material. The lamp on the credenza next to it is no longer lit. Cooper walks towards the new woman, and she turns to him, wearing a red dress. She turns back towards the fire and raises her arm. Cut to a close-up of her watch, and the digital display changes from Saturday 1st at 2:52 to 2:53. The light on the credenza comes on as 2:53 hits and a high hum starts. Cooper looks towards the panel. The humming grows in volume, and the panel draws Cooper towards it. The camera zooms in, and we move through the electrical socket.
This is a scene of the transformation and possibly transubstantiation. Cooper has barely escaped whatever fate the Experiment would have doomed him to in that glass box. He is on the run now from a mortal danger he doesn’t understand. That chase has brought him to this strange place in the middle of a cosmic ocean, vast, deep, it seems to never end.
In this scene, like Lilly Potter who stepped in front of the killing curse to save baby Harry, this strange woman infuses the energy coursing through this dream machine with the Viewer’s love and concern for Dale Cooper’s well-being. When she places her hands on the bell-shaped machine, she transfers the psychic energy of the Viewer into the dream. Every character Cooper has cared for in Twin Peak converges with the Viewer’s intention and attention into a spell of protection that could save his fictional soul.
The programs and applications designed for this dream layer by Mr. C and BOB will play out, and Cooper will run through this slaughterhouse without even realizing the danger. But now, he is coming into this simulation with a cheat code hack, granting him the proper assistance, the right trial stage, and the right moments. The transfer of intense protective energy is magical, almost supernatural, for what will ensue. The creature pounding at the door is likely the same Experiment that murdered poor Sam and Tracey, slowed down by the countermeasure of using Sam and Tracey as bait, granting Cooper time for this strange interaction. Whatever she does here to the energy flowing into this dream machine does not seem to affect the operation of the dream, just the reactions of other characters.
After her ejection, Cooper is immediately presented with an image of Major Briggs’s floating head, planting the phrase “Blue Rose” into his consciousness, a critical factor later in this narrative.
C5
Part 3: Scene 3
The Version Layer: Buckhorn, SD
(0:14:37-0:15:03) Local (2:09:46-2:10:12) Global Time
26s
PN: Black Lodge Plan
SN: Mystery
Mr. C drives a black Lincoln on a desert road. There is a horse rider caution sign. He is speeding. Cut to the inside of the car, where a loud humming grows. His eyes seem to drift in and out of focus. He can barely read the clock in the Lincoln, which has just changed to 2:53. The cigarette lighter seems to be the source of the hum.
The Double is being recalled to the Red Room, so the Dreamer can exit the dream. But what if something were to go wrong in the dream? What if a powerful corruption infected this dream? What if the Dreamer woke up as an evil person with no knowledge of the internal corruption that bled into their dream?
A6
Part 3: Scene 4
The Void: Purple Power Station
(0:15:03-0:15:59) Local (2:10:12-2:11:08) Global Time
56s
PN: White Lodge Plan
SN: Mystery
Back in the Power Station, Cooper walks toward the panel. His curiosity seems to be fading into awareness of being pulled toward the panel.
The American Girl stands, and Cooper leans towards the panel. His head is shocked by electricity, and his face briefly distorts and smokes. He is affected and looks at the woman. She twitches and starts speaking backward, “When you get there, you will already be there.” Cooper seems to consider this and looks back to the panel. There is a scratching sound as he approaches again, his face violently distorts, and his eyes grow wide. Dale Cooper was just struck dumb.
This is when Cooper’s mind is erased, and the faculty of his Frontal Cortex is revoked just before he downloads into another layer of his dream. But what his tormentors don’t account for is that love is a force of nature built into the fabric of our existence. The power of love can be called upon by the pure heart, armed with the best intentions and one or two killer skills. Goodness bleeds into life, but will it be enough to save Dale Cooper’s mortal soul?
C6
Part 3: Scene 5
The Version Layer: Buckhorn, SD
(0:15:59-0:16:16) Local (2:11:08-2:11:25) Global Time
17s
PN: Black Lodge Plan
SN: Mystery
Mr. C isn’t doing well. He is weaving at high speed and could quickly die, so (of course) he slams on the accelerator.
What is supposed to happen here is the Double coming back to the Red Room to deliver all the pain and sorrow he’s collected on his journey throughout this dream. But that is not what’s going to happen here. Instead, we are witnessing the corruption of that process.
A7
Part 3: Scene 6
The Void: Purple Power Station
(0:16:16-0:17:10) Local (2:11:25-2:12:19) Global Time
54s
PN: White Lodge Plan
SN: Mystery
Back in the Power Station, the scratching sound as Cooper reels from that last blast that knocked him senseless. The pounding starts on the door again. The American Girl twitches and says, “You’d better hurry. My mother’s coming.” Cooper gets slowly sucked into the plug, which lights up. His head contorts, and his body turns to smoke, which is sucked into the portal. Cooper disappears except for his shoes, which fall to the floor in the Power Station.
The American Girl is more dispassionate than the previous lady, though I would not categorize her behavior as malevolent, just slightly menacing. Nonetheless, she shuffles Cooper toward the wall plate with a cryptic message about being there when he arrives. Here we go, through a socket darkly.
C7
Part 3: Scene 7
The Version Layer: Buckhorn, SD | Rancho Rosa, NV
(0:17:10-0:25:42) Local (2:12:19-2:20:51) Global Time
8m32s
PN: Black Lodge Plan
SN: Mystery
Mr. C crashes the car spectacularly and rolls backward onto the road after flipping over several times. He is unhurt but still in pain. As he looks at the lighter plug, he begins to get sick but desperately tries to stifle his vomit.n It is still 2:53, according to the car clock. The hum grows, and the Red Room curtains appear in front of the car.
Cut to an establishing shot of an empty suburban neighborhood, the kind that was decimated by the 2009 Recession. We see a billboard of white people smiling with a Rancho Rosa estate sign. Several houses have For Sale signs in the yard. The cars are all muted in color except for a yellow Jeep which stands out strikingly. The camera pans towards the house where the Jeep is parked. Cut to a naked black woman (Jade) embracing a man who looks like Dale Cooper (meet Dougie Jones). They are post-coitus, and he is favoring his left arm. Jade calls Cooper Dougie and asks about his arm. He seems mildly worried, saying he thinks it fell asleep and tingly. She takes a lot of money from him and leaves to wash up. Dougie Jones stands up from the bed, still nursing his sore and tingly arm. He tries to put his jacket on, but his arm is limp. Suddenly, he is seizing with stomach cramps. He falls to the floor on his hands and knees. He’s writhing in what looks like unbearable pain. Newspaper ads are scattered across the floor. He crawls over them on his hands and knees. Jade steps into the shower, unaware of the great suffering outside the bathroom door. Dougie is trying to open that bathroom door from his position on the floor, but Jade’s locked it. He’s in so much pain that he can’t even call for help. He starts crawling away, making sounds like he’s choking back vomit. He looks at the wall socket and listens to the same electric scratching noise we heard in the Power Station. Dougie crawls in desperation, grunting into an empty room, slatted sunlight coming through the blinds. He vomits something awful, dark and thick like motor oil with chunks that could be vegetables. The Red Room curtains appear around Dougie Jones. There is a large flash and a bang, and Dougie is pulled upwards and backward, disappearing along with the Red Room curtains. Jade hears this bang from the bathroom and yells, “What the fuck was that? Dougie!”
Mr. C is in the car about to vomit inside his car. From this driver’s seat, he sees Dougie Jones sitting in a chair in the Red Room. Then, Dougie disappears, along with the Red Room curtains. Mr. C looks at the cigarette lighter in the car, out of focus and bouncing, and the electric scratching noise is intense and loud now. Mr. C vomits Garmonbozia, which looks like chunky black oil pouring out of his mouth. The scratching continues while Mr. C spews thick dark vomit, gurgling from the weight in his throat. He passes out.
Cut to the Red Room with an open-chord electric guitar strum that welcomes us on a pass across the Red Room curtains. Dougie Jones sits in a chair in the Red Room and seems distressed to see Phillip standing up and watching him. Phillip Gerard seems distressed to see this man as well. Something is wrong. Dougie, still in pain, says, “I feel funny.” He looks around briefly and asks, “What’s happening to me?” Phillip says, “Someone has manufactured you.” Dougie looks at him incredulously and asks, “Whuuut?” Phillip continues, “...for a purpose...but I think now that’s been fulfilled.” Dougie asks, “It has?” and then starts looking around, almost like he’s about to get up and leave. Then he looks at his left arm, which begins to shrink. He is wearing the Owl Cave ring. He says, “That’s weird.” The ring falls off as his arm disappears, clinking ominously on the floor. Something else is wrong with the look on Dougie’s face. His head explodes, and a geyser of dark vapor appears in its place. Phillip seems confused by this. A golden ball rises from the hole in Dougie’s neck. Dougie’s clothes fall down, like the witch in The Wizard of Oz. There is an electrical hiss, and what remains is the head of The Arm’s Doppelgänger (distinguished by its color), floating above the chair. Phillip looks confused, covering his eyes with one arm as this burnt-head-looking apparition begins vomiting some viscous liquid. A golden ball pops out, and what remains of the head flutters off and disappears. There is a bright light and electrical crackling as we see Phillip, eyes still covered, surrounded by smoke and lightning. The lighting and sound stop and Phillip takes his arm down, looking at a golden ball on the chair's cushion. He walks over, picks up the ring from the floor, and then picks up the golden ball from the chair. Cut to the Red Room chevron floor, moving towards the dais of the Formica table with the golden base and table. Phillip places the ring ceremoniously on the table and then, looking around suspiciously, turns and stumbles away.
Mr. C is not all-powerful in this dream. Laws of physics and natural order here exceed his capacity to corrupt. This is important because he has at least two weaknesses that we’ve identified. First, he is subject to the physical laws of this dream layer. Two, he does not recognize love as a force of nature. But he is a schemer, and a sacrifice must be made for Mr. C’s plan to work. So another construct of Dale Cooper had to be grown, harvested, and sent to slaughter. Dougie Jones is a creature made from a warped Golden Seed, corrupted over time by Mr. C’s schemes and dark influence.
Judging by the way he guards his mouth with his hands, Mr. C does not want to give up any of his precious Garmonbozia. Vomiting up this substance is happening in two places in this scene, both subjected to the process of pulling the Double back into the RRL. This duet of vomitous tribute is part of Mr. C’s plan to corrupt the operations of the dream, preventing his forced return. Instead, he offers up Dougie Jones, who has been raised and hobbled, a handicapped sacrifice, staged for slaughter like a lamb. The plan works in execution, but some critical flaws will be its undoing. Philip Gerard seems to understand this seed as he pockets it after placing the ring. This will become important later on.
There are also silver seeds, and one possible explanation for their difference is that characters whose memories are deliberately corrupted in the Dreamer's mind carry a silver seed inside them. Silver is a different quality of substance than Gold, and this seems to matter here.
A8
Part 3: Scene 8
The Version Layer: Las Vegas, NV
(0:25:42-0:33:29) Local (2:20:51-2:28:38) Global Time
7m47s
PN: White Lodge Plan
SN: Black Lodge Plan | Mystery
A close-up of the electric socket with a steady electric hum. The Red Room curtains are semi-transparent across the Rancho Rosa living room, then disappear. We see Dougie’s vomit on the floor, but he is gone. Close up on the electrical wall panel again. There are four sockets, and the upper right one begins to light up and crackle, black smoke pouring out from each of the two-prong holes. A cylindrical object is coming toward the vomit on the floor. It’s Dale Cooper in his suit. His shoes are gone, and there is a hole in his right sock at the big toe. We hear Jade ask, “What was that noise, Dougie? Where are you?” We hear her footsteps. She comes in fully dressed, and he is surprised to see her wearing a suit with different hair. He lost weight. She smells the vomit and asks if he is sick. Cooper looks up at her. He doesn’t respond. She insists they have to get out of this house. They walk out of the house together, but Cooper doesn’t have his shoes. He seems very slow, just staring ahead. He follows her back into the place and then back out, surprising her. She is agitated and gets angry at his slowness. She ends up putting his shoes on for him. Jade asks if Cooper has the car keys. As she’s reaching in to check his pockets, she pulls out the Room 315 key from the Great Northern Lodge but no car keys. She asks him, “You mean Jade has to give you two rides?” They are in her Jeep now. We see the license plate on his car is “DUGE LV.” As they drive down the street, another car passes them, and the camera holds, letting us know we are not done watching this scene. The camera pans to track this other car, the driver casing the house they were just inside. He gets on a walkie-talkie and says, “She just drove by in a Wrangler. Looked like maybe two people, but his car’s still here.” Cut to a bearded man, also holding a walkie-talkie. He says, “I’m all set near the entrance. If he’s in the car, I’ll get him here.” Back in the Jeep, Jade tells Cooper to find his wallet, cell phone, and money so he can call AAA. She says they will help him. They pass Sycamore Street, which seems to flash some memory in Cooper’s mind. He looks around, sees her, and says, “Jade give two rides.” She rolls her eyes and says, “Oh my God.” Cut to the second walkie-talkie man. He is getting ready for whatever is about to happen. Cut to the Jeep, where Cooper seems perplexed. He starts digging in his pocket. We see a speed bump sign, and Cooper pulls something from his pocket, the Great Northern Key. He looks at it with almost a smile. They hit the bump; the key falls to the floor, and Cooper goes after it, bending down at just the moment they pass the second walkie-talkie man, aiming for a high-powered sniper rifle. He doesn’t shoot the gun, though, because Jade appears alone. Cooper sits back up, but they’ve already passed the danger zone, and the second walkie-talkie man reports Cooper’s absence to Gene. Gene is still parked outside the house and says, “Yeah he must still be inside. I’ll load up his car.” The other walkie-talkie guy says, “All right. I’ll see you at Mikey’s.” As Jade pulls out of the neighborhood, they pass a shopping cart lady. Cut to Gene, who gets out of the car and places what looks like a plastic explosive under Dougie Jones’ trunk. We see him do this through the slatted blinds of a window in the house across the street from the one Dougie’s car is parked at. Cut to a young boy watching this scene from inside his house. A woman shouts out, “One One Nine!” She looks like a drug addict, sitting at a card table with pills, whiskey, a pipe, cigarettes, and a filled-up ashtray. There is a red balloon on the floor behind her. She shouts, “119” again. She is distressed. Gene walks away after placing the explosive, but the boy watches him do it and turns around. The woman shouts out “1-1-9!” again. She pours a pill into her hand from one of the bottles. Then she pours herself a half rocks glass of Evan Williams whiskey. She gingerly examines the drug and then swallows it down with the whiskey. The young boy eats from a ripped-open box of saltine crackers. The woman lights a cigarette with a small hand torch. She seems to settle into a calm state.
We will learn that Dougie Jones is not a good man. He’s married with a child but prioritizes hookers and gambling and has committed insurance fraud. He’s Jones, who is a liar and a cheater. He is Cooper but corrupted by force, more potent than the FBI, patriotism, and blind chivalry. Someone manipulated Dougie Jones to be in that house at this particular time. Jade may have been part of this scheme, but she also clearly has affection for Dougie, which tells us that some of Cooper’s innate charm was present in Dougie Jones.
Cooper just passed the second deadly trial, and he was saved by considering an object he either brought with him through the passage of the void between dream layers or which manifested upon his arrival. This altered replica of the Great Northern key was likely an object created as Cooper passed through the socket. One can imagine the key materializing just as his shoes were left behind in the Power Station. In this layer of his dream, Cooper rarely focuses intently on one object (like this key) during these early episodes, so this is an important moment in the narrative. Indeed, it saves his life. The Great Northern key is part of Cooper’s journey out of this dream. The key will eventually wind up in the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department, waiting for Cooper to come and collect it. It will open a ridiculous portal out of this dream layer. Perhaps the most crucial element of The Return we are introduced to here comes when we recognize that Cooper changes his environment without directly acting on it. With the protection he was imbued, combined with the goodness of his natural innocence, Cooper has a shield to protect him from the opposing forces aligned against him in this dream.
Jade suffers no fools except Dougie, whom she beds like a lover and shoes like a mother. Her compassion for Dougie leads her to drive him to the right casino, where he can call for help and start an incredible journey through insurance forms, a desert assassination, and events much odder than the Dreamer can imagine yet.
In this dream, the emotions attached to those memories can be erased and corrupted in Cooper’s mind, but the emotions attached to those memories seem to linger and remain. This will be critical to Cooper’s rise to control over his agency.
She didn’t have to do this, but something made her help Cooper.
The Drugged Out Mother yells a reverse warning of mortal peril. Is she a siren of the Black Lodge, calling out to Mr. C's minions that something has gone wrong here? Is the Black Lodge’s version of The Log Lady, and is her little son like the Log, who witnesses the horror of things as bloody as they are?
C8
Part 3: Scene 9
The Version Layer: Buckhorn, SD
(0:33:29-0:34:24) Local (2:28:38-2:29:33) Global Time
55s
PN: Black Lodge Plan
SN: Mystery
Mr. C is passed out in his Lincoln, and two State Troopers pull up, get out, and look around at the accident site. Trooper Billy looks into the driver’s side window, which opened after being crashed, and immediately starts gagging and drops to his knees. The other Trooper, interrupted from reading the license plate, runs to his aid, calling for help on his walkie-talkie. He asks the backup to bring gas masks.
Here we discover that the Garmonbozia is poisonous to characters in this dream, and this scene reinforces that Mr. C is not all-powerful.
F4
Part 3: Scene 10
The Version Layer: Twin Peaks, WA
(0:34:24-0:39:09) Local (2:29:33-2:34:18) Global Time
4m45s
PN: Hawk’s Investigation
SN: Something Is Wrong In Twin Peaks
It is morning in the town of Twin Peaks, and the sun breaks over the tall trees behind the Sheriff’s Station. Hawk enters the conference room, carrying takeout donuts and coffee from the RR2GO. Andy and Lucy sit at the table, and there are boxes, folders, and piles of paper covering the entire table, all from the Laura Palmer case files. They each look for something that’s missing. What follows is an Abbott and Costello-like routine where Hawk asks the existential question, “If it’s not here, then how do you know it’s missing?” Lucy responds, “But if it is here, it isn’t missing?” Andy gestures to everything on the table and says, “This is here….” Lucy remembers that she ate the bunny and launches into an odd memory about having gas. We learn Andy’s pet name for Lucy is still “Punky.” Hawk asks the eternal question, “Is it about the bunny?” He finally concludes that it is not, but the scene ends with the question hanging in the air over the entire episode.
Twin Peaks law enforcement is spinning but moving ahead. They ask unanswerable questions, which are the only way to box in a mystery.
B2
Part 3: Scene 11
The Version Layer: Twin Peaks, WA
(0:39:09-0:41:29) Local (2:34:18-2:36:38) Global Time
2m20s
PN: True Love Of Big Ed & Norma
Jacoby has rigged up some crazy Rube Goldberg contraption that holds the shovels upright while he sprays and paints them gold (two coats!). He has a homemade gas mask on (the second time a gas mask will be used in Part 3). The contraption not only moves the shovels down the line but also rotates them so that he can spray them evenly with minimal effort. This scene seems to stretch with an unseen purpose of intent.
In the next step of the journey of Ed and Norma’s reconciliation, the construction of the golden shit-digging shovels will become a symbol of forgiveness and charity, of strength and honor. These shovels will bring together instead of tearing apart.
A9
Part 3: Scene 12
The Version Layer: Las Vegas, NV
(0:41:29-0:51:25) Local (2:36:38-2:46:34) Global Time
9m56s
PN: White Lodge Plan
Jade and Cooper pull up to the Silver Mustang Casino. She tells him to go inside and ask for help. She also says, “You can go out now,” and this conjures something in Cooper’s stretched-out and passively reactive mind. He remembers Laura Palmer telling him he can go out now in the Red Room. He struggles with the revolving door of the casino but eventually makes his way inside. He holds his five dollars out to the security guard and is directed to the cashier. Cooper seems to follow pointing fingers rather well, mimicking the pointer with his own finger and following that. The cashier has an odd exchange with him where he repeats phrases, and she gives him his change with a sincere look of worry and genuine compassion, touching her hand to her heart, and watching him walk away. Cooper needs “Some Change” to play a “Game” named “Call for Help.” He staggers into the slot machine area and watches a man pull the arm on his slot machine, yelling out, “HELLLOOOOOH,” when he wins. Cooper senses a pattern here, an accepted behavior to learn and replicate. A flame icon appears above one of the slot machines as he looks around. Cooper instinctively moves towards that machine and performs the ritual he just witnessed, complete with its exclamation “HELLLOOOOOH!” What follows is a hilarious repetition of this ritual across several jackpots.
A nasty-looking old woman sits near Cooper at one of the winning machines. She has nothing but visible contempt for him and his luck. A casino concierge (Sabrina Sutherland plays Attendant Jackie here) comes up to Cooper and tells him he is a Mega-Winner, winning two jackpots for $28,400. Cooper says, “Call for help,” and she says she’s here because it’s much more than these coins and runs to get him a giant bucket. After Cooper walks away, the mean old lady looks longingly at the quarters he left behind. She looks around to see if anyone is watching her. She looks up at the camera on the ceiling. She scowls and flips her middle finger at the camera. After Cooper wins the third jackpot, the mean old lady pulls the arm on the machine next to her, the one he pointed at before she gave him the finger, and she wins! Naturally, this makes her happy, one of the first people dramatically affected by Dale Cooper’s Golden Seed.
Cooper enters the Silver Mustang Casino with one phrase: “Call For Help.” A man in a uniform with a badge gives him another expression: “Some Change.” Finally, the kind lady exchanging value for value gives him a third: “Game.” This game of Call For Help will require some change to win.
Jade is Cooper’s metaphoric mother in this dream layer. She was present at Cooper’s birth here but experienced none of the pain associated with standard delivery. She also gives Cooper his primary mission here: to call for help. But will any assistance come when he calls for it? Is support already on the way? If not, Cooper might lose everything that he once held dear. We watch a child mature before our eyes and see characters committed to the common good come to his assistance like moths flying toward a bright light. Cooper is slowly but effectively learning to navigate this world by mimicking the behavior of those around him, just like small children, repeating meaningful phrases and following directions by hand signal. These mirroring actions become defensive shields calling characters and events within the dream to Cooper’s aid.
When Cooper thinks of Laura Palmer telling him he can go out now, equating it with Jade telling him the same thing, I believe he is beginning to understand at the lowest level of self-driven awareness within this dream that he is still trapped and caught inside. This Laura Palmer recollection and association is our first visual confirmation confirming that Cooper remembers some of his experiences in the Red Room. This recognition opens up a new ability for Cooper, like a video game. He will have unique insight into this world, provided by agents that seem supernatural to this dream layer but which only operate at higher and lower levels of consciousness. The first manifestation of this power will hover two inches above the slot machines of the Silver Mustang Casino. By trusting and following the directions of those around him and the beacons provided to him by the psychic agencies of his shelter, Cooper will navigate this world in simplicity, righteousness, and benevolence.
The fire symbol above the slot machines represents a “thin area” where love and creativity pour into the dream and change the people around him, converting most characters into guardians for Cooper. Another ability that will soon unlock is the projection of tiny bright lights meant to guide Cooper in intuition to identify liars and uncover schemes, the work that came so naturally to him at the FBI. One of the first characters we will see transform is the mean old lady, who will become a kind, gentle, and gracious human being. Her experience will represent many others who interact with Cooper in this dream layer.
E5
Part 3: Scene 13
The Version Layer: Philadelphia, PA
(0:51:25-0:55:40) Local (2:46:34-2:50:49) Global Time
4m15s
PN: Blue Rose Investigation
SN: Black Lodge Plan
Gordon and Albert sit at a conference table with six other people in suits, including a new Agent named Tammy Preston. They discuss a murder case. Albert tells Gordon that their suspect has been “…officially accused of brutally murdering his wife. He claims he’s innocent and knows who did it but can’t say because it would breach national security. Apparently, the man got word to Chris that these items were buried in the man’s garden in Georgetown.” The items are a photo of a voluptuous blonde woman in lingerie posing seductively, a pair of pliers, a photo pair of women in bikinis and a little boy on the beach in a sailor suit with a cap, a sub-machine gun with a silencer, and a jar of dry beans. Gordon says, “The Congressman’s dilemma.” He sends the team off to get to work on this but asks Tammy to stay and show him and Albert what she found in New York. She turns on the television and displays the mutilated bodies of Tracey Barbareto and Sam Colby. She says that the NYPD is way over their heads, that there were supposed to be guards onsite 24/7, but no one can find any of them. Tammy says the police confiscated hundreds of digital files showing various angles of this glass box. She says these videos reveal blurred shapes passing through, but only for a few frames. Then she shows them a ghostly image that appeared in the box the night of the murders. It looks like an amorphous alien. Gordon leans forward and says, “What the hell?” Tammy says, “The other cameras saw nothing and as soon as this thing moved, it disappeared.” Albert asks about forensics, and she says, “The bodies were violently mutilated but no prints, no DNA, no fibers.” A woman interrupts from the intercom, telling Gordon, “On your phone, it’s Cooper!” Gordon confirms and, with a distraught look, touches Albert’s shoulder and says his name. They both get up and rush from the room. Tammy seems perplexed and follows. They all enter Gordon’s office. There is a massive picture of an atomic explosion behind his desk with a large American flag. He picks up the phone, saying he’ll hold. Someone comes on the line, and Gordon asks, “What? Where? Are you sure it’s him? What do you mean trouble?” He says they will be there first thing in the morning and to set up an interview for “9’ o clock sharp!” He hangs up and tells Albert they are headed for “The Black Hills of South Dakota.” Albert is not amused. A funny exchange follows where Gordon tells him, “Happy as this makes us, we can’t put this on the radio.” Gordon says, “We fly at dawn and Tammy, you’re coming with us.” She seems surprised and a bit delighted. After Gordon leaves the room, Albert shakes his head, looks at Tammy, and says, “The absurd mystery of the strange forces of existence.” Albert asks her, “How about a truckload full of Valium?” She gives him a playful but affirmative look.
The Congressman’s Dilemma is an exciting riddle without a purpose, prompting the viewer to assess each clue as an element in the case, then choose which has more impact on determining the meaning of the terrible act. Every viewer will have a different response to each of these items, and here we have a challenge presented to the viewer. Are we going to try and make all of this connect logically, or are we willing to allow it to take shape on an emotional level, informing the overall logic of our assessment?
In one episode, we have three investigations starting:
The Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department is investigating the disappearance of Agent Dale Cooper from a strange incident in the woods surrounding the town of Twin Peaks 25 years ago.
Cooper is investigating the rules and behaviors of this strange new world.
The Blue Rose Task Force is now investigating the sudden reappearance of Dale Cooper.
The Dreamer has fragmented self-analysis into three components, each monitoring one aspect of the concurrent trilogy of reality:
The past (Twin Peaks Sherrif’s Department)
The present (Blue Rose Task Force)
The future (Cooper in Las Vegas).
All three of these investigations will converge in the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department for the final showdown of this layer of dream.
G1
Part 3: Scene 14
The Version Layer: Twin Peaks, WA
(0:55:40-0:57:09) Local (2:50:49-2:52:18) Global Time
1m29s
PN: Road House Band Onstage
The Cactus Blossoms play Mississippi, and lyrics that should resonate with what we’ve seen in Part 3 are: “You look different from way down here / Like a circus mirror / I see flashes of you on the surface.”
CREDITS3
Part 3: Scene 15
(0:57:09-0:58:51) Local (2:52:18-2:54:00) Global Time
1m42s
PN: Road House Band Onstage
Questions
Was Naido part of the White Lodge’s plan?
Was the American Girl supposed to be who Cooper encountered rather than Naido?
How do you think the Lodge system works?
Music
1. “Dream Recall,” Written and Performed by David Lynch and Dean Hurley
2. “Mississippi,” Written by Jack Torrey
In Memory Of... Don S. Davis & Miguel Ferrer
