Subject: Re: Why I give up
From: broehl@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Bernie Roehl)
Date: 1991-01-27, 12:16
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <5389@husc6.harvard.edu> burns@das.harvard.edu (John Burns) writes:
> >For example:  There was no indication of concrete supernatural activity
> >at the beginning of the show.

I disagree; certainly as early as the first episode of the first season
(following the two-hour series pilot) there were strong hints of the
paranormal, which many people at the time ignored.

> >The theory that my cell of TP watchers
> >had developed at the end of the first season was that Leland had abused
> >Laura as a child, had descended into murder, and had finally killed
> >his own daughter.

This was all discussed at length some months ago, and while it's not a bad
idea it's also relatively mundane compared to what actually happened.  If
they'd chosen that course, they'd have had to explain a lot of the events
in the series that defied "normal" explanation..

> >Notice that until the second season, we had no reason to believe
> >that the one-armed man was really the Mike of the dream.

We saw the one-armed man in the hospital in the series pilot, and again in
Cooper's dream a couple of episodes after that.  We had different people
seeing Bob in visions.  It was quite clear from that point onwards that
no completely "natural" explanation would suffice.  Cooper's dream marked
the turning point at which the series entered the realm of the supernatural,
and it happened in the first season.

> >  Suddenly we were supposed to believe that inhabiting spirits [...]
   ^^^^^^^^

I question this use of the word "suddenly"; they built up to it over a period
of months.  The diary was published back in the fall, and all the evidence
is in there (as an aside, does anyone archive alt.tv.twin-peaks?  Many of
us knew 'way back in the fall what was going on, in surprising detail).

> >   Sorry for all the grumbling.

And I apologize if this posting seems critical of your ideas, but I find it
hard to understand how anyone can call the entry of the supernatural into
Twin Peaks "sudden".

-- Bernie Roehl, University of Waterloo Electrical Engineering Dept Mail: broehl@sunee.waterloo.edu OR broehl@sunee.UWaterloo.ca BangPath: {allegra,decvax,utzoo,clyde}!watmath!sunee!broehl Voice: (519) 885-1211 x 2607 [work]