Subject: Re: question about finale
From: barb@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Barb Miller)
Date: 1991-06-21, 19:01
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Reply-to: barb@zurich.ai.mit.edu

In article <1278@sys.uea.ac.uk> swc@sys.uea.ac.uk (S.W. Cox CMP Staff) writes:
> >
> >I was wondering if any of you could have ideas on the following.
> >
> >Most seem to believe that the Black Lodge is a 'place', 'universe', 'dimention'
> >etc. occupied by evil spirits, dopplegangers and general bad guys. I was 
> >puzzled then by the presence of Maddy and more importantly the Giant/Droolcup
> >whom had seemed, by his actions, to belong to the White Lodge.

The amiguity of the Black Lodge concept gives it a much wider possible
meaning than a single interpretation, but, for what it's worth, I base
my interpretation on the concept of it being a place where the "Dream
Soul" meets its dark opposite.  My guess is that the Black Lodge
appears different to each person who enters it, and that the beings
that he or she meets there are those who have a special significance
in the person's life and are particularly close to whatever it is that
characterizes the person's "dark side".  Those people may not be in
the Black Lodge at all; it may just be that, upon entering the Lodge,
the nearness to the dark side of oneself causes leftover fears,
regrets, hatreds, etc., to take concrete form as people.

I haven't thought this through in detail, but assuming that Cooper is
about to have to confront his worst fear about himself, what might
that fear be and how would these people be related to it?  I think he
sees his conscious mission in life to protect the innocent people from
the evil that seems to consume so many of them.  He is so invested in
this mission that his worst fears would have to be:

1) He is incapable of stopping evil, either because it is simply too
strong, or because he isn't smart enough or capable enough;

2) The innocent are not really innocent;

3) He is capable of doing these evil things himself;

4) The mission itself is flawed, i.e. truly smart people take the side
of evil, only fools try to be good.

In addition, he is probably afraid that he acts as a sort of jinx to
women that he cares about.  (Some of this analysis comes from reading
his autobiography.)

Maddy and Caroline are strong symbols of his past failure.  Bob is a
symbol of the power of evil, Leland saying he didn't kill anybody
could show some unconscious doubt that Cooper might have that he
identified the wrong killer.  The Laura who screams in his face could
stem from a fear that the innocent are not really innocent.  Windom
Earle shows how very intelligent the side of evil can be.  And the
presence of the Giant and Dwarf could taunt him with the sense that
information is being given to him but he is incapable of figuring out
what it means in time.  In Annie he could see his hope for future
happiness mingled with the dread that by letting himself get close to
her, he will cause her death and bring on the pain of loss once again.
Thus, the doppelganger concept could have one single being, i.e.
Cooper's dark side, or his deep fear, taking all these different
forms.

If I can risk further interpretation along these lines, it seems that
he faces a number of these fears reasonably well (although the willingness
to give up his soul to let Annie live may or may not be the best way
to handle the fear tied up in her) but when the doppelganger takes the form of
himself (which I would take to be his fear that he himself is capable
of committing the evil he is trying to fight), that fear consumes and
overcomes him.  He awakens from his dream possessed by that fear, and
so of course he sees Bob when he looks in the mirror, and it appears
for now anyway that he will be driven to act out that fear. 

This doesn't necessarily mean that the Black Lodge is not an actual
place, or that people can't be seen to disappear into it.  I just am
inclined to believe that its appearance and what goes on there is very
much affected by the psyche of the individual dream soul.  For Cooper,
who is so intensely conscious of hidden evil, it makes sense that the
Black Lodge decor would be curtains the color of blood and fire,
which could be hiding anything at all, since one of the scariest
aspects of the evil he tries to fight is that it can stay hidden for
so long, until it suddenly and unexpectedly strikes.

Barb Miller