Subject: Some theories...
From: broehl@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Bernie Roehl)
Date: 1991-04-08, 08:16
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

Regarding Window Earle...

I believe Windom Earle started out as a relatively normal guy, with
perhaps some natural psychic potential along the lines of Cooper's
("the gifted").

Windom got involved with Project Blue book, much as the Major did.  Along the
way, something happened to him... similar to what happened to Leland and Mike
Gerrard.  At first WE was able to fight it off, using Haliperidol, (spelling?)
the blue liquid Mike Gerrard was using to ward off his inhabiting spirit).
Perhaps WE learned about the drug from Gerrard, who had by this time
"found god".  He probably kept using the drug for many years.

Something went wrong, though, and WE's inhabiting spirit grew stronger.
WE's wife saw something that let her know the truth about what was going
on, and the spirit (through WE) had to kill her before she could testify.

All this is, of course, "what happened in Pittsburgh" -- the inhabiting
spirit in WE either (a) is Bob, or (b) Bob knows about him.  This explains
Bob's parting reference to Cooper in the jail cell (re: Pittsburgh).

WE wound up in an asylum.  Without the drug, the inhabiting spirit had
relatively free rein, and eventually (perhaps through supernatural means)
engineered WE's escape.  WE's killing spree en route to Twin Peaks was
the inhabiting spirit's way of having fun during the journey.

I believe that this spirit is not Bob, but is similar in nature to Bob.
So where did Bob go?  I'm not sure, but he's around somewhere.

Where do these inhabiting spirits come from?  A good question.  Here's
some speculation:

"Twin Peaks" refers not to the "real" and the "surreal" worlds, as we all
thought some months ago, but rather to the "white lodge" and the "black
lodge".  The owls seem to be associated with the black lodge, and the
wood-spirits seem to be associated with the white lodge (Margaret's husband
and Josie's spirit are both trapped in wood).

Owl Cave seems is, I suspect, at the juncture of the two mountains which
give Twin Peaks its name.  The two sides of the cave correspond to the
two mountain peaks, one with "the symbol" and the other with "the symbol
inverted".  The symbol, for whatever reason, looks like an owl seen end-on.

The symbol in the cave, formed from the merging of the two tattoos, looks
like a totem of some sort (the stacked diamonds, with the twin peaks
extending like wings from the sides, with fire at the top).  "Through the
darkness (pretty dark in a cave) of future past, the magician longs to
see; one chants out between two worlds (in the owl cave between the
two mountains peaks == the two lodges) "fire walk with me" (the fire at
the top of the totem-symbol).

The giant, a Redwood-like figure, is trying to communicate with Cooper
to help him stop the owl-spirits from their destructive acts.

The Ghostwood project is aptly named; the spirits of the Owl's victims
are encased in wood.  The Owls dwell in a cave, protected from the trees,
and the wood of Margaret's house keeps the Owls out.

I believe the Pine Weasel is another vessel the Owl-spirits can inhabit.
I suspect that Ben's Civil War phase was at least partly the result of his
being "inhabited"; perhaps his new campaign to save the Pine Weasel is
a remnant of this.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

At our Twin Peaks party, we noticed something interesting: the fire symbol
at the top of the totem was originally empty, but when Andy's pickaxe struck
it, it contain the winged-diamond "owl" symbol.  From within the drawing of
the fire came real fire, and as this owl symbol in the midst of fire was
hit, the stone shaft came with the owl symbol on its tip came out of the
fire symbol in the diamond-shaped recess.  And when Windom Earle rotated
the shaft so the two symbols were both inverted (a sign of evil, usually)
there was a waterfall of sand and stone.

I'm connecting with something here... :-)

A waterfall of sand and stone.  Water, Earth, Fire... hmm.
Fire and Water are natural enemies... why *was* Mike Gerrard at the waterfall
we've been seeing so much of lately?  Fire and wood also dont get along
too well...

White lodge, black lodge... white chess pieces, black chess pieces...

I suspect that Annie will (at Cooper's urging) enter and win the Miss
Twin Peaks pageant, and that she will die at Windom Earle's hands.  I
also suspect this will provoke the final, season-ending (series-ending?)
confrontation between Cooper (white lodge) and Earle (black lodge).

"The Owls are not what they seem" -- they can appear as many things;
this is equally true of Windom Earle.  As others have pointed out,
"Window Earle" is an anagram for "Owl in dream".

The fire at the top of the totem and the brands on the Major and the Log
Lady.  (They are *not* tattoos -- they're burn-marks).

Remember the white-hot "flying" symbol we saw at the start of the episode
where the Major acquired his three triangles.

The drawing on the computer screen in the previews appeared to contain the
following:

   A giant and a dwarf
   A circle of candles
   Twin Peaks
   A lake (at bottom of screen)
   Something (someone?) in the lake
   An eye (top left of screen)
   A sun-symbol (top right of screen)

What does it all mean?  I have no idea.

The arrow, I suspect, is Window Earle taking a pawn (the unknown voice).

Anyway, just some thoughts... we should know more soon (for us, day after
tomorrow!)

-- 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]