Subject: Damn good coffee! And HOT! From: tristan@darkside.com (Tristan A. Farnon) Date: 1990-04-22, 03:57 Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks "Twin Peaks" has many running symbols, perhaps the most pervasive being the act of DANCING. Laura and Donna danced in the video. Audrey Horn dances CONSTANTLY to her "dreamy music". Mr. Palmer danced with Laura's photograph. The "Man From Another Place" himself spent most of his time dancing. Coffee, and coffeepots appear in nearly every setting. The diner, the hotel, every domestic kitchen, at the sawmill, and of course the embarrassing incident with the fish-in-the-percolator. Cooper raves about the "incredible" coffee at the Great Northern. In episode #3, Lucy offers the men a "warm up" cup - and they dive for it wholeheartedly. Add to this the visual gag of anally-retented stacks of organized donuts and the myth of cops-and-donuts, and you've got one mighty comical parody. As for Cooper's dream sequence, the first thing I noticed right away was the similarity between the setting of the dream room to the setting/style of Dorothy Vallens' apartment in "Blue Velvet". The red curtains, the hidden (or at least out-of-view) entrance, the single lamp shining upward, and the one "strange" element: the statue. My interpretation brings Dale Cooper into the womb of Laura Palmer. (the soft velvet curtains could very well by associated with the intra-uterine lining of a birth canal (with apologies to biologists who know the appropriate terms). Cooper's skin was indeed wrinkled somewhat - as if he himself were not ready to be born, not ready to leave the uterus until completion. (of his dream, perhaps? of solving the mystery, perhaps?) Laura Palmer looked more beautiful and mysterious in his dream than she had ever looked in real life (or in the eyes of those who offered their own interpretation). I suppose the Man From Another Place, with his dancing, rhythmic hand-rubbing and obscured speech could very well symbolize the whole "mystery" itself. It's SO HARD to offer interpretation without sneaking a peak ahead. I've also made a 25-cent side bet with an acquaintance of mine that we will indeed be seeing more of those "chocolate bunnies". As for the mounted animal head with horns that "fell", my first reaction was that it was simply David Lynch forcing an ambiguously uncomfortable presence into an otherwise routine occurance. The whole series seems to be about "getting under your skin" - the letter [R] under Laura's ring finernail runs parallel to the ants fighting it out under the grass lawn in "Blue Velvet". I don't know WHAT to make of the One Armed Man, and I'm really quite curious as to why he and Dr. Jacoby are so interested in gloating over Laura's corpse. (Incidentally, the One Armed Man has appeared in all the episodes to date. He stepped BRIEFLY out of an elevator in the hospital in the season opener). Who is the mysterious "DIANE" that Cooper dictates to? The two most common assumptions: his secretary (who must do SOMETHING with his transcripts), or something maybe a little stranger: a deceased wife who he still attempts to communicate with (but that's treading into "Planes, Trains and Automobile" territory, and Lynch probably knows we'd guess THAT). I thought for a while it could have been the name of his CASSETTE PLAYER - but cancelled that straight away when Cooper directed a comment to Diane telling her that "if she ever came up this way," she should try the cherry pie. The murder mystery will run 7 episodes. At the end of #7, the mystery will be solved (hopefully in an episode directed by Lynch), and a NEW mystery will begin. If ABC decides not to pick up the show, we'll be left hanging and we'll NEVER know what happens. I definitely like the direction the series is going.