Season 1, Episode 02: Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer — April 19–25, 1990

Somebody else mentioned that a favorite theme of Lynch's is the
jxtaposition of nice and nasty elements in everyday life.  I'm
convinced this theme is central to Twin Peaks and will provide the
most insight into the show.

Just to get started, I'd like to analyze each character so far.  My
impression so far is that most of the characters can easily be
categorized as nice or nasty on the surface and nice or nasty
underneath.

Nice minor characters (unlikely to show any depth unless they are
going to become major characters):

Josie Packard, Pete Martell, Sylvia Horne, Johnny Horne, Elizabeth
Briggs, Major Briggs (fascist), Dr. Heyward, Harriet Heyward, Andy,
Lucy, Janek Pulaski, Maria Pulaski.

Nasty minor characters (unlikely to show any depth etc.):

Jerry Horne, Bobby Briggs, Mike, Killer Bob.

Minor characters who look nasty but are nice:

Hawk, Albert.

Character who used to be nasty but now is nice:

One-armed Mike.

Character who was nasty but not nasty enough:

Ronette.

Characters who look nice but are hiding something:

Leland Palmer, Sarah Palmer (? maybe she's just psychic), Norma
Jennings, Shelly Johnson (we know what she's hiding), Eileen Heyward
(didn't anyone notice she was sitting on the *inside* of the booth in
the diner?  Why move so far if you're confined to a wheelchair?).

Characters who look nasty but are really nice:

James Hurley (a biker who is sweet and stupid), Nadine Hurley (okay,
I'm guessing), Audrey (rebellious but has good intentions, esp. re
Agent Cooper)

Characters who are nasty through and through:

Benjamin Horne, Catherine Martell, Leo Johnson, Dr. Jacoby.

Characters who are nice through and through:

Agent Cooper, Sheriff Truman, Ed Hurley, Donna Heyward

Characters who are weird through and through:

Dr. Jacoby, Agent Cooper, the Log Lady.

No data yet:

The Man from Another Place, the Norwegians.

I've left Laura for last; as the center of the series she naturally
has the most complex personality and the greatest intermingling of
nice and nasty elements.  She tutored Josie in English, and worked
with Johnny Horne, and helped organize Meals on Wheels, and was the
homecoming queen, and dated James Hurley.  She also was a prostitute
(the diary entries have me convinced), and dealt and used cocaine, and
dated Bobby, and probably slept with Leo Johnson (among others), and
was a member of a satanic cult (guessing), and committed unspecified
wierdness with Dr. Jacoby, and couldn't stand James Hurley.

I suspect Laura's cousin will reflect a great deal of Laura's
complexity; whether that means the same complexity or exactly
backwards remains to be seen.

I dismissed the speculation about having the wrong victim until
someone mentioned Laura's mysteriously changing eye-color (damn, gotta
go watch the tape again).  I think this is VERY significant and makes
me suspect there really is some kind of double life going on here.

Adam

In article <13089@venera.isi.edu>, raveling@isi.edu (Paul Raveling) writes:
> > In article <15410@bfmny0.UU.NET>, tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) writes:
> > [and others write similar opinions...]
>> > > It could be Wash/Ore or some other inland border.  Remember that Ronette
>> > > crossed the state line by walking across a *railroad bridge*.  So the
>> > > line could be water.  I think Laura was found on a streambank, not an
>> > > ocean beach.
> > 
> > As for the border in question, there would seem to be 3
> > possibilities:
> >     1.It's purely fictional and need not correspond to
> > any real border.
> >     2.  It's the Canadian border.  ...
> >     3.It's the Oregon border.  ...

Could it be the Washington/Idaho border at some point not far from the Canadian
border?  (I'm not familiar with the area at all so I don't know whether that
region is a viable candidate locale.)

BTW, the notion that the border crossed by Ronette was the border with Canada
would make the scope of the crime international rather than interstate.  BUT
in any case, how does the fact that a murder occurs in one state and someone
else who is not murdered crosses a bridge from one state to another necessitate
the intervention of the FBI?  I'm not sure I understand the FBI's participation
here at all, so I'm either missing something obvious (quite likely) and/or the
speculations about a "real" motive for Cooper's being there are well warranted.
--
"A new religion that'll bring you to your knees, Black Velvet if you please..."
Rich Rosenrlr@toccata.rutgers.edu
--

                      ABC Antsy Over Turn in 'Twin Peaks'
                                 by Chuck Ross
                              Chronicle TV Writer

      (Reprinted without permission from 4/25/90 San Francisco Chronicle)

It's going to be another frustrating night for "Twin Peaks" loyalists tomorrow,
and ABC executives are nervous that the seemingly never-ending mystery is
beginning to alienate some viewers.

Last week's episode ended with FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) having
the strangest of dreams and declaring that he knew who killed Laura Palmer, the
high-school homecoming queen whose murder is the impetus for the action in the
show.  The implication was that the murderer would be solved on tomorrow's
episode.

In fact, however, an ABC spokesman said the murder isn't solved until the
final show of the season, which is five episodes away.

The problem ABC has is that by that time there might be so few viewers watching
the show that most people won't care who did it.

High Marks for Premiere
-----------------------

The show, co-created by film maker David Lynch ("Blue Velvet," "The Elephant
Man") and former "Hill Street Blues" writer Mark Frost, premiered to critical
acclaim and high ratings on April 8.  The two-hour debut was seen in 33 percent
of the homes that had TV sets on at the time.

The following week, up against "Cheers" on NBC, that dropped to 27 percent of
the audience that was watching TV between 9 PM and 10 PM.  Last week, even
fewer homes tuned it; only 21 percent of those who had their sets on at 9 PM
last Thursday were watching "Twin Peaks."

Locally, the show, seen on KGO (Channel 7) has had a similar drop.  "Twin
Peaks" was seen in 35 percent of the homes in the Bay Area that were watching
TV when the series premiered.  That fell to 32 percent the next week and 27
percent last week.

Losing Women Over 50
--------------------

"What's happening is that we're losing primarily women viewers over 50 who
watch the 'Father Dowling Mysteries' on right before 'Twin Peaks,'" said Larry
Hyams, ABC's director of audience analysis and research.

"The show continues to be strong with women 35 to 49.  Younger viewers,
especially males, are watching NBC and 'Cheers.'"

Hyams said the show appeals to three groups:  "David Lynch fans, those who like
nighttime soap operas, and murder-mystery fans."  It is viewers in this latter
category, which is the most broad-based, that ABC is concerned are starting to
tune out.

"It's one thing to go maybe two or three episodes without finding out who done
it," said one ABC programming executive who asked that his name not be used,
"but we think there might be a real problem going eight episodes (including the
two-hour premiere) without solving the thing for viewers.  It's a damn shame,
too, because the show started up with such big numbers."

The trade magazine Daily Variety reported that "Twin Peaks" has been renewed
for next season, but ABC denied it.  Word at the network is that the decision
could swing either way.

"If the ratings continue to drop, and they slide under what 'The Young Riders'
got in that Thursday time slot (which was about 16 percent of the audience who
watch TV from 9 to 10 PM on Thursdays), from a ratings point of view, you
wouldn't want to renew it," another ABC executive said.

       Star lifts lid on the best-kept secret of TV's hottest new show!

           If you don't want to know who killed Laura on Twin Peaks,
                          don't read this story . . .

    (Gleefully reprinted without permission from 5/1/90 issue of The Star)

David Lynch, the director of the TV hit series "Twin Peaks," has hinted that he
won't reveal Laura Palmer's killer's identity during the six episodes airing
this season.

But STAR has obtained a videotape made by Lynch for sale abroad.  Eighteen
minutes of weird footage includes the answer to just who killed Laura, the high
school homecoming queen whose corpse was found at the beginning of the ABC
series.

In this version, FBI agent Dale Cooper gets an anonymous phone call telling him
to go to the hospital.  There he meets a mysterious one-armed man known as
Mike--a man viewers have already seen in an earlier episode, vanishing into the
morgue.

Mike directs Cooper to the killer's basement lair, where a wild-eyed man named
Bob is waiting.  Bob is the long-haired man Laura's hysterical mom has been
seeing in visions.

Bob yells out to Cooper:  "I will kill again."  Suddenly Mike bursts in and
screams: "Like hell."  He shoots Bob, who falls dead.  Mike also collapses in
pain and doesn't move.

What was the explanation of the letter of the alphabet found underneath Laura's
fingernail?  Before he dies, Bob explains that Laura was the last in a series
of murders and he was slowly spelling out his name: "Robert--that's my proper
name," says Bob.

In the European video version, the scene flashes forward to 25 years later. 
Cooper is sitting on a chair in a room looking at what appears to be Laura
Palmer, the dead woman, who's sitting in one of the other chairs.  A
strange-looking dwarf is in the room with them.

The dwarf claps his hands, looks at Cooper, then speaks in loony,
electronically scrambled tones.  A subtitle appears on the screen: "Let's
rock!"

The dwarf and Laura join hands.  The dwarf tells Cooper: "She's filled with
secrets.  Where we come from, the birds sing a pretty song--and there's always
music in the air."  Jazz music plays and a disco strobe light flashes.  The
dwarf begins to half-dance.  Laura rises, goes to Cooper and kisses him.  Then
she smiles and whispers in his ear . . . and that's it:  THE END.

Lynch provides few explanations.  And US viewers may never see the tape--a
series spokesman says it's unlikely the more bizarre scenes could be
incorporated into the US version, except as a dream sequence.  The producers
may also decide to change the identity of the killer.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But you read about the European version on the Usenet first!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

          Sidebar:  Show turned cop and suspect into unlikely lovers

Two of "Twin Peaks" hottest stars are sizzling off-screen, too.  Kyle
MacLachlan, who plays FBI agent Dale Cooper, and Lara Flynn Boyle, who plays
the troubled school girl Donna Hayward, fell hard for one another while filming
the bizarre show in Snoqualmie, Wash.  Kyle is 31.  Lara is just 19.

"They'd sneak off into the woods for long kisses and watch the moon and the
stars at night after a long day's shoot," says a "Twin Peaks" insider.

In article <1990Apr23.191742.5089@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> wchsieh@athena.mit.edu (Wilson Hsieh) writes:
> >However, before Donna and James bury his half of the heart (I, for one, believe
> >there is only one), she asks him where his half of "the heart that you
> >gave Laura"

Does anyone else remember that we saw a flashback (I believe James'
recollection on being questioned by Copper and Truman) in which Laura
and James pledge their love, and holding a whole heart together, break
it?  Each keeps a half.

So, someone who has a tape: was there a chain on the whole heart?  What
kind, gold or thong?
-- O-------------------------------------------------------------------------> | Cliff Joslyn, Cybernetician at Large, cjoslyn@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu | Systems Science, SUNY Binghamton, Box 1070, Binghamton NY 13901, USA V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .

I think we need to establish a definition of "spoilers" here.  I'm fairly
new to the net, but my understanding is this:

A spoiler is *inside information*, something from a personal contact or
other reliable info not generally available to the public.

It is *not* speculation.

It is *not* vague comments from an interview in a magazine anyone in the
world could pick up at a newsstand.

I have taken to ignoring the "spoilers" warnings on these postings, because
I haven't seen a single real spoiler yet.  Of course, if someone *does*
post a real spoiler, I guess a warning won't stop me now, since I probably
won't believe it.

In article <1990Apr25.010412.29450@chinet.chi.il.us> 
dawn@chinet.chi.il.us (Dawn Hendricks) writes:
> >This comment encouraged me to finally get in here and say something.
> >
> >Look, no offense, folks, but you're reading entirely too much
> >into Lynch's work.
> >

In the message you quoted, I wasn't reading _anything_ into Lynch's work.  
I was simplying stating that I believe he (or someone working with him) 
_carefully selects_ music, props, etc. to get his point across.

I suppose you think someone working on the show said, "Hey Mr. Lynch
what music should we have playing on the record player", and
Lynch responded, "Oh anything, it doesn't matter."

> >"Lynch is too artsy to just toss things in here".
> >Not true.  Sometimes, the best stuff in film is stuff that means
> >ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  Sometimes, there is NO meaning.  The artist's
> >intention is to laugh hysterically while knowing that millions of
> >folks are straining and losing sleep at night to "find the meaning",
> >insisting that there MUST be some meaning to everything, when
> >there really isn't.  Dada?

Twin Peaks is clearly intended to be satirical.  That doesn't mean,
however, that Lynch haphazardly throws together the stories.  I
really think all this stuff with Leo, "Pink Pussycat", "Kitty's
got a new collar", etc. were put in there to confuse the hell out
of people like us who sit around coming up with theories.  But it
wasn't accidental.  Even if he's doing it so he can get a good laugh,
he sure isn't doing it by accident.

> >Anybody who can pull out so many conflicting emotions at one time
> >is one talented artist, that's for sure.

Then why do you think he's so reckless in constructing scenes that
he wouldn't bother selecting the music for a scene with any purpose 
in mind?  Mind you, I said "purpose", NOT "symbolic meaning".

> >Of course, it IS kind of fun trying to figure out the "meaning"
> >to all of this stuff in Twin Peaks, but let's not get carried away?

What possible harm can it do?  If Lynch's point is (as you seem to
believe) to get everyone all stirred up about this, I'd say he's
doing a pretty good job, wouldn't you?  

Dave Baggett
dmb@cscwam.umd.edu