[Podcast] Week 3: Twin Peaks Movie Club on Substack

If you ever make it up to Snoqualmie, Washington, and get the privilege of dining at the Salish Lodge & Spa, you are in for an incredible breakfast of monumental impact.

Before You Watch

Congratulations! You are about to learn immediately what millions of viewers wondered during the Summer of 1990. Is Dale Cooper dead? They had to wait months, and we will get an answer now. Good for us! A lot of cool stuff has happened in this show during the five episodes we just skipped. Let me catch you up.

1. A bunch of quirky, weird, relationshippy, crimey stuff has happened. I recommend you wait to enjoy these until you return for your next full rewatch. You may consider a complete rewatch of every episode and film immediately after you conclude this project. You should have the opportunity to appreciate the most charming elements of this dark comedic story.

   Many people may want to revisit all of Twin Peaks after this course is concluded.

2. It is revealed that a “Great Evil” lives in the woods surrounding the town of Twin Peaks. Furthermore, viewers also learn that a secret society has long been in place, generationally populated with town heroes who protect the safety of the town by paying attention to the weird shit happening and marshaling what little resources can be meted against supernatural invasions and murderous plots.

3. Leland continues to break down psychologically. His hair has turned white, and he’s acting like a freak on a leash.

4. David Lynch has become a character in his own story. Mark Frost did, as well. How cool are they? So cool. Forever cool. Not only does Gordon Cole get to wear David Lynch’s best haircut, but he is the most attuned person to what happens in Twin Peaks, just after the Log Lady.¹

5. There’s a whole thing happening with a bearded shoe salesman with one arm. It’s a tributary not to be distracted by at this time.

6. There is a brothel over the Canadian border. Laura Palmer and other teenage girls were/are being recruited from Horne’s Department Store. Ben Horne is also co-owner of this brothel. In an awkwardly comedic moment, Ben Horne almost ends up in bed with his daughter. We’ll talk more about that later.

7. Cooper has rejected Audrey’s sexual advances (she surprises him naked in his hotel room bed and gives full consent). His rejection sends Audry down a spiraling descent (accidentally ending up nearly prostituting herself to her father), and Cooper’s shame about this will flower uniquely during Season 3: The Return.

8. Laura’s cousin Maddie comes to stay with the Palmers. Doesn’t she look just like Laura Palmer?

9. A bunch of crimes were crimed. Typical crime drama stuff. Drugs. Schemes. Bribery. Grift. Theft. Attempted murder. The mill burned down, and Leo got shot. None of this matters for where we are going with Cooper.

10. At the end of the season 1 finale, “The Last Evening,” an unknown assailant knocks on Dale Cooper’s door. When he opens it, they shoot him three times in the chest. Cliffhanger!

After You Watch

1. During this episode, Cooper is in a fugue between life and death. When we visited his dreams in Episode 2 of Season 1, the fugue state was between sleep and dream. Here, a quest begins that we will name “Call For Help.” We name it this because that’s what it will be named in one of the narrative dream layers that take place in Season 3 The Return, where Cooper undertakes a journey of self revelation while lost in his own dream.

2. The quest to solve the crime of who killed Laura Palmer is about to be concluded. We will learn next week who killed the prom queen. But why Laura Palmer was killed is a quest that has another quest wrapped inside of it: a moral quest for the sanctity of his soul. This latter facet of Cooper’s quest will also become a universal test for the viewer who pays attention to their reaction to this art of Twin Peaks.

3. What if Cooper dies here? If so, perhaps what ensues is a long “Book of the Dead” descent through the underworld and out the other side (whatever that means).

4. What is the significance of Leland’s hair turning white?

5. James reveals that Laura Palmer was two people. This is an interesting thing to think about.

6. Jacoby posits that Laura Palmer perhaps allowed herself to be killed. If so, I want you to keep the question in mind as we proceed: “Did Laura Palmer allow herself to die so that her soul didn’t suffer the fate of Dale Cooper?”

7. The scene between Major Briggs and Bobby Briggs is one of the most beautiful moments of anything I’ve ever seen on screen. Later, in Season 3, in this exact spot, another transcendent moment of pure love will erupt at the end of one of Cooper’s dream loops. Dale Cooper dreams in loops and patterns. The viewer must manifest the dream’s exit for him, and that journey begins now while he waffles between life and death in this game of “Call For Help.”

8. How fucking scary is BOB? Can you believe this was aired on broadcast television just after prime time?

Next class, we’ll learn who killed Laura Palmer, and then shit gets real weird!

Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

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EXTRA CREDIT (PAID SUBSCRIBERS ONLY)

1. The Log Lady is one of the most tuned-in characters in this entire epic. She is essential to saving Cooper’s psychic soul. What the Log Lady will give to our story is supercharged with what the actress gave to her role for the sake of art, performed with her literal dying breaths.