Subject: Use of the supernatural in TP
From: muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au (Murray Chapman)
Date: 1991-05-21, 09:32
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Reply-to: muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au

Hi there

You may (have) read my other post to this net, but I will tell you that
the episode shown tonight here in Australia revealed the killer of
Laura Palmer...

Just one thing that bugs me about TP, and over the last two weeks has
started to turn me off TP:  the plot seems to rely more and more on
supernatural events (the giant, the midget, the horse, the dreams, the
messages from space) to provide clues to the murderer... 

Admittedly the Tajimoto (sp) revelation was a relief...

Supernatural events are not used just to give clues for the murder, but to
keep the plot going along.

For example: (* SPOILER ALERT*)

I think that TWO schitzophrenics (The One-armed-man and Leyland Palmer)
is a bit hard to swallow, and I find it hard to beleive that an FBI agent
would base his investigations on dreams after being shot or the testimony
of a recluse who talks to logs.

Don't get me wrong, I think that TP is brilliantly executed, but it seems
to be falling into the trap of introducing too many supernatural or strange
events just to keep the plot alive, or to get the writers out of a tricky
situation.

Just seems a major shift from previous episodes: we have FBI forensic
experts doing cocaine analysis, and then we go talk to a log. :-)

Issues that I hope to see explored in future TP epsodes:

1)  Why does the killer put letters under the fingernails??? Sureley
    they would have explored that concept more than they did...
    How/why did the killer put them under the fingernails of the
    victim(s) that brought Cooper to Twin Peaks?

2)  What is the chess game about?

3)  What is on the tape in Leo's boot?

4)  What is the signifigance of the horse that Laura's mother saw?

5)  Why doesn't Cooper feel guilty about the man killed during his
    (illegal) raid on One-Eyed-Jack's?

6)  Why aren't the press swamping the town which is the latest site
    of a serial killer's work?

7)  Who shot Cooper?  I expected this to be solved before the killer's
    identity was revealed.

8)  Who shot the bird???  Why??

9)  What was in Laura's secret diary?

10) WHY DID LEYLAND KILL LAURA??????

11) Why is Audrey Horne so disgusted with her father sleeping
    with LP, when she lept into Cooper's bed at the first opportunity?


I was disappointed with the episode where we learnt the identity of LP's
killer, but a relief was the Tajimoto revelation.  In the matter of the
killer, I feel that the writers said "Ok, who would be most unlikely to
be suspected of the murder? (by characters in the story)", not "who would
make the most interesting (but still beleiveable) killer"... and then
saying "well, we'll just make him a schitzo, and that will explain things."

One final point: from the look of the promos of next week's episode, Cooper
and Co. don't realise who the killer is.  I hope that they continue this for
a few more episodes, to build the suspense:  knowing that he could go nuts
at any time and try to kill/cuddle someone at any time.

Anyway!  That's my $0.02 worth...

Love it or hate it, YOU have read it!


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|   | Murray Chapman                          muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au       |   |
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|   | University of Queensland      "I'd rather have a bottle in front |   |
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