[Twin Peaks] Chapter 24: Hour Fifteen "There’s Some Fear In Letting Go"
A Skeleton Key To Twin Peaks, 2nd Edition
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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.
INTRO15
Part 15: Scene 1
(0:00:00-0:01:40) Local (13:22:33–13:24:13) Global Time
1m40s
B6
Part 15: Scene 2
The Version Layer: Twin Peaks, WA
(0:01:40-0:10:43) Local (13:24:13-13:33:16) Global Time
9m3s
PN: True Love of Big Ed & Norma
Nadine carries her golden shovel from the outskirts of Twin Peaks to Big Ed’s Gas Farm. She is marching and smiling, holding the shovel like a weapon of righteousness because that’s what it is.
When she arrives, Ed hesitates to accept the freedom she grants him to pursue his love with Norma. He likely thinks she’s neck deep into one of her spells. But she convinces him otherwise. She confesses to being “a selfish bitch” by keeping him and Norma apart with her jealousy, which she mistook as love. Nadine wants Ed to be free because she’s healed now. Jacoby’s vitriol has somehow dislodged all the pain and sorrow inside Nadine. With that bile released, Nadine offers the viewer, the Dreaming Cooper, and Ed a revelation of human existence: “True love is giving the other what makes them happy.”1
Ed cautions Nadine that she could wake up tomorrow and regret saying these things. But Nadine protests that she walked here and could have turned back at any point. She did not. This is also a revelation to Ed. As Nadine walks away, we see the happiness burst forth in Ed’s eyes as the possibility of a future filled with it makes his face younger and his frame lighter. The weight of sorrow is lifting from his shoulders.
Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” starts playing as Ed approaches the RR Diner in his classic truck.
Ed enters and waves at Norma like a joyous child, embracing and telling her Nadine has freed them, and they can be happy now. Norma gives him a lukewarm response, saying, “Ed, I’m so sorry. Walter’s here.” Walter passes by Ed with barely a look, and Ed hears him ask if Norma got his flowers.
They sit together in a booth, and Ed manages to sit at the counter before falling in shock. Despair visibly sets into Ed’s face. He asks Shelly for a cup of coffee and mumbles that he’d also like a cyanide tablet. Ed closes his eyes to connect with the source of all existence.
Norma breaks it off entirely with Walter, and he squirms out of the RR after whining that she’s making a big mistake. But Norma has made it clear where her priorities lie, and they aren’t with Walter and seven franchises that aren’t as good as her own diner.
Back at the counter, Ed meditates with his mantra, in touch with the unified field or whatever is supposed to happen when one loses oneself during meditation. As Walter passes behind him, Ed smiles the slightest smirk. The camera zooms in closer to Ed, who remains in meditation with his eyes closed. Several seconds pass before we see a loving pair of hands enter the lower frame right. Ed immediately opens his eyes and turns to Norma. They embrace and kiss, and he asks her to marry him. Shelly witnesses this and immediately understands what has happened. Their kiss closes out a beautiful moment that has been a very long time coming. The scene ends in the sky above the RR with what may be ripples in the clouds and blue sky behind them as Otis Redding wails, “I LOVE…!”
This entire scene, where Ed and Norma’s love finally flows into the story’s narrative, is like a boat on a river that has finally broken free from its mooring. This is precisely what Margaret (and The Log) prophesied would happen: what is true would come rushing out like a river. What is true beyond measure is that the source of all creation is love, and love operating in the field of time impacts in the form of mercy for all.
Nadine’s epiphany here is also Cooper’s epiphany. “True love is giving the other what makes them happy,” she says, and it is so. Andy and Lucy demonstrated this earlier in their brief battle over the color of their new chair. The Dreamer (and we viewers serving as passengers) recognizes a universal truth here that will become a shield for the dark territory he enters in the concluding arc of The Version Layer’s narrative.
We feel the release in this scene. When Ed and Norma embrace and commit to each other’s happiness, it pierces the dream narrative across all layers. Love pours into this long film and starts to heal everything, including the viewer. The golden seed of Cooper’s goodness is now flowing into the Version Layer, and what remains of Mr. C’s plan is currently subject to the falling physics of gravity.2 Bless Ed and Norma, for they are arguably the most positive thing about this journey in The Return.
C28
Part 15: Scene 3
???
(0:10:43-0:24:06) Local (13:33:16-13:46:39) Global Time
13m23s
PN: Black Lodge Plan
SN: Blue Rose Investigation
We hear a scratching, electrical sound and see the same power lines that Andy saw in his vision in the Fireman’s lounge in Part Fourteen.
A truck travels on a dark road in a rural area with no streetlights. A road sign passes, and we see Mr. C bouncing around in the driver’s seat. He pulls into a side lot, and we see a Woodsman waiting to receive him for an escort between worlds. Finally, we are at the convenience store that served as the site of primary corruption in Part Eight. Welcome to The Dutchman’s.
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima starts playing.
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