Subject: Re: Conjectures and Questions
From: horny@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Michael Kaye)
Date: 1990-05-25, 14:55
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <11945@shlump.nac.dec.com> boyajian@ruby.dec.com (Cisco's Buddy) writes:

> >
> >OK, we have three Mystery Men here:
> >
> >(1) The guy who beat up Jacoby.
> >(2) The guy who killed Jacques. (Who isn't really a Mystery Man.)
> >(3) The guy who shot Cooper.

(4)  The mysterious 3rd man the log lady mentioned, possibly the murderer 
     of Laura Palmer.
(5)  The person who took the necklace Donna and James buried
(6)  Laura's "Mystery man" she speaks of to Jacoby
(7)  Laura tells Jacoby that some man may have been tried repeatedly
     to kill her, on the same tape she mentions #6.  Same person?
(many of these are the same person, I'm sure...)
> >
> >Are they all Leland Palmer?  Doubtful. MM#1 wore a ski mask, MM#2 didn't,
> >and we don't know about MM#3, though I suspect that he didn't, because
> >Frost kept the camera shot at waist level. 

I disagree that this casts doubts on Leland doing both #1 and #2.
Just because you wear a ski mask during one assault does mean that 
you must wear it again when you commit another.   I think the
descrepancy might just be matter of shrewdly deciding when to 
wear a ski mask... Leland, a lawyer, is no dummy.  Wearing a ski 
mask in a guarded hospital setting would be dumb.  Wearing one 
while hiding in bushes, beating someone in the open and then running 
away, makes more sense.  An analogy is a murderer who choses to wear 
an all black night suit during a nighttime park murder to mask his
identity, and wears normal street clothes to avoid drawing undue
attention in a guarded, confined, crowded area during the day.  

I don't understand why having a waist level shot for #3 would give
you any hint that Leland did it or did not.  I think whoever did
beat Jacoby shot Cooper, too.  Same garb, and a hunch.

> >
> >As has already been pointed out, MM#1 and MM#2 didn't use a gun. If MM#3
> >was either of the other two, why didn't he use a gun in those instances?
> >The gun *was* necessary in the third instance, as it was the only "sure"
> >way to ace the Coop. The only reason he might not have chosen to use a gun
> >on Jacoby was because he didn't plan on killing him. But, if it was Leland,
> >and his motives for attacking Jacoby were as some people have suggested,
> >one would think that he wouldn't be content with grievous bodily harm.
> >He was certainly cold-blooded enough to kill Jacques without a second
> >thought.

Just because you didn't use a gun in a murder, doesn't mean you weren't 
the person who murdered someone else with a gun.

I think Jacoby's assaulter did in fact want to kill him, but freaked out 
upon seeing Madalaura and ran...  I think Leland is one of the people who 
would freak out like that.  Could be someone else though, say Hank or Leo
on their own, or on orders from Ben Horne (all quite unlikely but possible).
I don't know why Leland would have done this... We have weak reasons 
to suspect him.  He is capable of murder, he saw Madeline leaving and 
might have followed.  If Leland killed Laura, his motivation for beating 
Jacoby might tie in somehow.  Leland supposedly didn't know that Laura 
was seeing Jacoby...  But maybe he actually did know, and wanted to shut 
Jacoby up.  Maybe Leland read Laura's diary?  Heard a tape?  Or maybe 
someone else wanted to stop Jacoby from telling Laura's secrets.  I don't 
know why else anyone would want him dead.  Hey everyone, who knew or 
could have known that Jacoby was seeing Laura?

> >In watching the episode a second time, I noticed that after Leland hit
> >the fire alarm, a policeman walked away from Jacques' door, which is how
> >Leland knew what room to check out. He might not otherwise have known
> >Jacques from a hole in the wall.

yup.

Whoever killed Laura, a metaphorical killer bob, said in Coopers
dream: "I will... kill...again".  If Leland did in fact kill Laura,
he will be the only person who has killed twice in Twin Peaks.  Hmm,
come to think of it I suppose if Leo killed Laura, then he would have
killed twice too.  Didn't he kill Jaques brother?  And he certainly
tried to kill Shelly.  Oh wait a minute... Bobby too!  Laura told 
Donna that Bobby killed someone, so he would make suspect #3.  (we
discover this when Audrey and Donna are talking in the restroom, deciding
to work together to discover Laura's murderer).  I don't think Bobby
killed Laura though.  Cooper agrees with me.  :)
Of course Laura's murderer might well be someone other than those
who could have murdered twice by now.

Finally... I would recommend the "Manchurian Candidate" to anyone.

Michael Kaye  horny@ucscb.uscsc.edu  Bursting my jeans for the good of mankind