[Twin Peaks] Chapter 18 - Hour Ten "Laura Is The One"
A Skeleton Key To Twin Peaks, 2nd, Edition
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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
Chapters 1-9 are free to read.
INTRO10
Part 10: Scene 1
(0:00:00-0:01:42) Local (8:41:30-8:43:12) Global Time
1m42s
D17
Part 10: Scene 2
The Version Layer: Twin Peaks, WA
(0:01:42-0:07:00) Local (8:43:12-8:48:30) Global Time
5m18s
PN: Something Is Wrong In Twin Peaks
Richard Horne has come to visit Miriam in her trailer. She witnessed him mow down that little boy.
Miriam tells Richard that she mailed a letter to Sheriff Truman, informing him who was at fault for the boy’s death.
Richard maniacally attacks her, turns on her oven gas, and lights a candle.
Fleeing, Richard calls Deputy Chad and berates him (“pussy,” and “fuck-face”) to tell him to get hold of that letter.
Chad agrees to do it but at a price.
After Richard pulls away, we see inside the trailer the lit candle, the open oven, and Miriam lying in a pool of her own blood. She is still breathing.
Carl Rodd strums his guitar, singing “Red River Valley” outside the Manager’s Trailer. A coffee cup is thrown through a window in the trailer across the street. There is a domestic dispute happening there.
It’s Steven, threatening Becky, “...I will throw all of this shit out the window! Quit fucking speaking to me about what I do and don’t fucking do!”
Outside, Carl witnesses the drama and says, “It’s a fucking nightmare.”
Steven is likely going through withdrawal. He is screaming in her face as Becky is huddled on the couch in a defensive posture.
In a hoarse voice, he yells at her, “I don’t tell you shit, like why you don’t ask for a raise? How much money do you make, anyways? You barely make minimum wage! We can’t even afford this shithole.”
Then he says, “I don’t tell you to clean this fucking place up!”
He pins Becky and holds his fist up to punch her, saying, “Don’t you fucking move! Don’t you fucking…”
He leans in close and says, “Listen to me! Listen to me! Don’t you give me that fucking innocent look. I know exactly what you did. You fuck. Ah, shit...”
We start this hour with two violent and traumatic events. One between a married couple and one between a psychopath and the innocent woman who witnessed his crime of recklessly murdering a child in broad daylight.
Why didn’t Miriam call or go into the Sheriff’s office to tell them about Richard? Several times in this episode, we are presented with situations of people trapped, tied down, and unable to communicate. The notion of a witness sending a critical message dealing with their own personal safety in the slowest possible channel is aligned with the handicap that Cooper’s dreaming mind faces right now.
Actions have consequences, even in dreams. Mr. C +BOB + the machine calling itself Philip Jeffries have conspired to falsely implant memories of rape and trauma in critical memories of Dale Cooper. Richard Horne is one of the unforeseen consequences of Cooper’s false rape of Audrey being passed off as a narrative beat in TVL. Richard is the result of suppression and falsity. Darkness cannot be suppressed for long; it will always bleed into the light, where it dies. If Richard Horne did not behave in the ways he was about to, then Mr. C’s plan would have likely succeeded.
Miriam will survive Richard’s assault and live to tell her tale to Sheriff Truman. But, unfortunately, that testimony will lead to the undoing of Mr. C’s plans to surprise the people of Twin Peaks if he should ever need to do so (he does).1
Carl Rodd is the shepherd of the poor and miserable in TVL, a man who asks for nothing more than a quiet moment to strum his guitar. But, alas, he doesn’t even get to sing one full song.
What drives Steven into the arms of Gersten Hayward? Is their affair long ongoing or recent? Junkies have a way of crossing paths to join each other in dark adventures that spiral into the black. That is undoubtedly what is about to happen to Steven.
This scene marks a new phase of the decomposition of moral, civil order in the town of Twin Peaks.
A19
Part 10: Scene 3
The Version Layer: Las Vegas, NV
(0:07:00-0:18:17) Local (8:48:30-8:59:47) Global Time
11m17s
PN: White Lodge Plan
A fly buzzes around the living room of the quiet hotel suite.
Rodney Mitchum marks a casino video surveillance log.
And Candie chases the fly, which lands near Rodney’s mouth. He spits it away.
Candie grabs a remote control. Unfortunately, the fly lands on the left side of Rodney’s face. Candie smashes him in the face with the remote and comes undone when she realizes there is a person underneath that fly. She’s hysterical.
Bradley runs in to aid his brother, and the scene becomes a mess of crying, yelling, and pulling Candie off of Rodney in her grief.
Cooper is on Dougie’s doctor’s examining table while Janey-E recites a litany of Dougie’s crimes to the doctor. She starts by disappearing after planning Sonny Jim’s party for six months, then it’s his drinking and gambling. Finally, she looks away from both of them when she confirms that their life is a downward spiral.
The doctor asks Cooper if he’s been exercising, but Cooper ignores him, grabbing for the stethoscope as the doctor dodges his fingers while trying to listen to his heart.
The doctor tells Cooper his heart and lungs sound fantastic. Then he takes his blood pressure. It’s 100 over 70.
Hearing this, Janey-E looks up at Cooper with his shirt off. He looks strong and powerful, even if he isn’t wise with words or actions. She sees his trim body and starts to simmer in her seat.
The doctor says, “Perfect” and “Remarkable.”
Janey-E is filled with lust. She confirms, “Remarkable.”
Candie is still on her crying jag in the Mitchum Brothers’ suite. Sandie and Mandie are there for presence, if not comfort.
Rodney is healing.
He wears a nice suit with a patched cut and a nasty bruise on his face.
He is getting a refill on his martini. They watch the local news.
After several moments of hearing her cry, Rodney says, “Candie, I’m fine. I’m okay.”
The next segment announces to the Mitchums that underworld assassin Ike The Spike Stadtler was captured and is now in custody. “They got Ike!” This makes the brothers very happy that “Ike finally stepped on his dick.” Now they can call off the hit on him.
But the reporter continues with the story, and there, plain as day, is Mr. Douglas Jones on their television screen. Cooper grabs at the officer’s badge while Janey-E recounts the assassination attempt for the camera.
Bradley asks Rodney to freeze-play on Cooper. Bradley says, “That’s our Mr. Jackpots, Rodney. Turns out, our Mr. Jones is actually Mr. Jones.”
Rodney says, “What a fuckin’ world.”
Finally able to stammer out a sentence between sobs, Candie asks Rodney, “How...can you... ever...love me...after...what I...did?”
Rodney is dumbstruck with no response. Bradley looks like he wants to run from the room.
Janey-E has gone from simmer to boil. She has melted into the kitchen chair, watching Dougie eat a piece of chocolate cake. She clenches her feet in her shoes, bending the fabric with her feet as she watches her husband eat.
Confidently, she asks him, “Dougie, do you find me attractive?”
He chews.
She asks, “Well? Do you?” The desire drips from her lips.
He chews.
She says, “I find you attractive.” She is opening up so wide for him. Inside she’s opening up. But outside too. She squirms in the chair.
He shoves a massive piece of cake in his mouth.
She asks, “Dougie?” and giggles.
A short time later, in bed together, Janey-E gives her husband a ride that Jade would be proud about. Cooper flops under her rhythm, the back of his hands bouncing off the bed.
Janey-E screams out her husband’s name over and over again. Finally, she wakes up Sonny Jim, who sits up inside his bed in terror from he hears his mother’s voice. He’s never heard her make that sound. The Music Of Bliss starts playing as these lovers embrace on the other side of the hill they just climbed together.
Cooper stares up at the ceiling in wonder. His dream wife is curled up on his chest. She looks happier than anyone ever.
Tenderly, she whispers to him, “Dougie, I love you.” She means Cooper.
This scene with the fly was amusing the first few times I watched The Return. But like all things we stare at for a long time, eventually, other thoughts start to gather under the scrutiny of repeated surveillance.
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