Subject: Re: Who died and Donna's birth certificate
From: jblum@lucy.umd.edu (Jon Blum)
Date: 1992-06-02, 11:18
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <1992Jun2.122516.14877@pdn.paradyne.com> pitchon@paradyne.com (Howard Pitchon) writes:
[re "Eileen Hayward" on Donna's birth certificate]

> >         I'm sure there are a zillion other scenarios.

Here's an easy one.  Will and Eileen Hayward were separated at the time of
Donna's birth.  She was legally married, hence using her married name, but
she didn't want this man who'd left her to be recorded on her daughter's
birth certificate.

This would explain why Will wouldn't tell Donna what was going on -- he
wouldn't want his daughter to think of him as the kind of guy to run out
on his wife.  Of course, it could be that he left her over her affair with
Ben, but it's still my gut feeling that the motives run deeper than that.
It could be that Ben knows the truth about how Eileen got paralyzed... and
perhaps that Will's to blame, which would be even more of a reason for Will
not to want him involved at all.

On the other hand, maybe it was Will who had the affair with Ben...  :-)

> >         Who died:

> >         Doc does  appear in the last scene to examine Cooper/Bob, but 
> >         this  is not conclusive evidence  that he didn't accidentally 
> >         murder Ben Horn. Think about the blood on Ben's head:
> >              Cooper/Bob  smashes  its  head  in  the last ever scene. 
> >         Cooper  is  dead  or  trapped  in  the  black lodge. (I think 
> >         trapped.) 
> >              ie.  The  smashed  forehead  is  pretty symbolic in this 
> >         series and since Bob is in Cooper, now, I think Ben is dead.

I think it could be symbolic in a different way than you intend -- perhaps
that Ben too could be possessed.  Think about it.  Ben's a bad man who has
seen the light and changed.  Does the name "MIKE" ring a bell?

For the record, a while back someone posted the director's notes for the
last episode, and it referred to the scene summary as Ben getting knocked
UNCONSCIOUS, not killed.

> >              Also, given the  information on Doc's temper in the last 
> >         episode, and the fact that Donna's mom is not in a wheelchair 
> >         in the  photos in the attic, maybe Doc  put her there when he 
> >         found  out that she and Ben  were doing the horizontal mambo. 
> >         If he did, he didn't get jail time for that, so....

Or we don't KNOW he had jail time.  Just because they never mentioned it...