Didja Know?

 

For the titles of the Twin Peaks TV episodes, I have taken the unique approach of using both the episode numbers, which were the only titles given the scripts by series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost, and the translated German titles of the episodes that were assigned when the series aired in that country. Frequent readers of PopApostle know I like the aesthetic of actual episode titles, but I also wanted to honor the simple numbering used by Lynch and Frost, hence the expanded titles presented in these studies.

 

This study is part one of the 90-minute season two premiere episode. I have chosen to split the episode into two ~45-minute parts to maintain the consistency of the 45-minute regular episodes of the series.

 

The actor who portrays the decrepit room service waiter at the Great Northern, Hank Worden, was a well-known character actor in films since 1935, particularly known for playing sidekicks, ranch hands, etc. in western films directed by Howard Hawks and John Ford, and appeared in 17 of John Wayne's films.

 

Notes from the Log Lady intros

 

When cable channel Bravo obtained the rights to air reruns of Twin Peaks in 1993, David Lynch directed all-new introductions to each episode featuring the Log Lady, portrayed by original actress Catherine E. Coulson. These intros also appear as options on the DVD and Blu-ray collections of the series.

 

The Log Lady is wearing different clothes here than she was throughout the intros for the first season episodes (she also changes them again later this season). Note also that, while her teacup is still by her side, the rest of the china that was sitting on the table is gone, replaced by what looks like a crumpled burlap sack.

 

The Log Lady comments that she understands many things because of the woods. She also states that she chews pitch from the trees. Might part of her understanding from the woods come from chewing the pitch? Some tribal societies believe that drinking the blood of an animal or person can imbue one with some of their knowledge or characteristics; is the Log Lady doing the same with tree pitch? Recall as well that it seems that human spirits of the deceased may be able to reside in wood.

 

"Hello again. Can you see through a wall? Can you see through human
skin? X-rays see through solid, or so-called solid objects. There
are things in life that exist, and yet our eyes cannot see them.
Have you ever seen something startling that others cannot see? Why
are some things kept from our vision? Is life a puzzle?

"I am filled with questions. Sometimes my questions are answered.
In my heart, I can tell if the answer is correct. I am my own judge.

"In a dream, are all the characters really you? Different aspects of
you? Do answers come in dreams?

"One more thing: I grew up in the woods. I understand many things
because of the woods. Trees standing together, growing alongside one
another, providing so much.

"I chew pitch gum. On the outside, let's say of the ponderosa pine,
sometimes pitch oozes out. Runny pitch is no good to chew. Hard,
brittle pitch is no good. But in between these exists a firm,
slightly crusted pitch with such a flavor. This is the pitch I chew."

 

 

 

Didja Notice?

 

This episode has an extended opening theme/titles than the regular one-hour episodes, similar to the pilot.

 

This episode opens on Friday, March 3, 1989.

 

In his hotel room, Cooper is lying shot on what may be a Navajo rug. It has designs on it vaguely reminiscent of the Owl Cave symbols.

 

When Agent Cooper found Audrey's note that had been slipped under the door in Episode 7: "The Last Evening", it was addressed "My Special Agent". But in this episode, at 3:39 on the Blu-ray, it is addressed simply "Agent Cooper". When Cooper finds the forgotten envelope again under his bed in Episode 12: "The Orchid's Curse", it again reads "My Special Agent".

 

At 4:39 on the Blu-ray, we can see that the waiter wears a hearing aid in his left ear (probably in both ears, but we don't get a close look at his right).

 

    When Cooper signs the room service bill, as he lies wounded on the floor of his hotel room, he uses his left hand. Is he left-handed? In Episode 2: "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer", he is seen to write on the chalkboard with his right hand and also throw the rocks at the bottle with his right.

   After signing the bill, Cooper takes a second to unclick the point of the ball point pen, despite his predicament! 

 

    Is there any particular significance to the old waiter's repeated actions in Cooper's presence while the agent lies on the floor bleeding? The waiter twice says, "I've heard about you," three times winks at Cooper (twice the left eye, once the right), and three times gives him a thumbs up. Cooper uses a thumbs up signal several times in the series; possibly the waiter is emulating Cooper by doing it.

    Soon after this, the Giant appears, wearing a bowtie as the waiter did, suggesting a connection between the two.

 

Notice that the faint ticking of a clock can be heard in Cooper's room throughout the scene until a few seconds before the Giant appears. After he disappears, the ticking returns. This may be intended as an indication that Cooper is no longer in the room during this meeting. Remember, Cooper asks the Giant where does he come from and the Giant responds, "The question is, where have you gone?"

 

The Giant tells Cooper "We want to help you," but does not answer Cooper's question, "Who's we?"

 

Blackie calls the room Audrey is in (with Ben) the "little flower room".

 

Ben refers to the hidden Audrey as "Prudence" in the little flower room. Besides being a feminine name, the word "prudence" means to exercise good judgment. It may also be a play on the word "prude" since Audrey is rebuffing his advances.

 

As Ben uncovers Audrey from under the bedspread, he says, "I will huff...and puff...and blow your house down!" These are lines from the European fairy tale "Three Little Pigs", said by the Big Bad Wolf. Ironically, Ben is a big bad wolf in more ways than one throughout the series.

 

As he lies on the floor of his room having been shot, Cooper speaks aloud to Diane, hoping he inadvertently hit the voice activation button of his tape recorder. We see that, indeed, he has, as the tape spools are spinning as he speaks. It seems rather unlikely he would have inadvertently hit the button just when he needs to though. Maybe it was more than dumb luck; maybe his finger was guided to do so subconsciously or by an outside force. Presumably is interaction with the old room service waiter was captured as well, but not his conversation with the Giant, since, when Cooper asks him "Where did you come from?", the Giant responds, "The question is, where have you gone?"

 

While babbling on to Diane, Cooper wishes he could have cracked the Lindbergh kidnapping case. This is a reference to the kidnapping, and eventual murder, of the 20-month old son of famed American aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1932. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested and convicted of the crime in 1935 and put to death by electric chair in 1936, so Cooper could not have been involved in the case in any way, not having been born yet. Is this just a bit of delusional whimsy on his part as he lays there bleeding? I have to wonder if it is an allusion to a past life in which he was involved or, at least, alive at the time of the case.

 

Cooper goes on to say to Diane, that he would very much like to make love to a woman whom he had genuine affection for. Of whom is he speaking? The most obvious candidate is Audrey, though he seemed to have ruled out a liaison with her due to her age, even though she was over 18, in Episode 6: "Realization Time". Another possibility is that he is referring to Diane herself, though it is implied in Season Three that he and she had already had an affair before his assignment to the Laura Palmer murder investigation in Twin Peaks.

 

After the bullet is removed from Cooper's abdomen, Lucy brings him up to date on what has happened the past evening with a list of numerous events that occurred in Episode 7: "The Last Evening". And the list doesn't even include all of the cliffhangers left over from that first season finale episode! Her list does provide updates to some of the cliffhangers from that episode: Pete and Shelly are suffering from smoke inhalation after the Packard Mill fire and Catherine is missing after same. And, add one happening not known at the end of that episode...Josie Packard is missing.

 

The sweater Lucy wears in this episode again has designs on it vaguely reminiscent of the Owl Cave symbols.

 

Dr. Hayward remarks that they haven't had this much action since the Elks Club fire of '59.

 

At 20:07 on the Blu-ray, the newscaster on the television is played by Mark Frost.

 

As the shot of the newscaster on TV switches to Shelly Johnson in her hospital bed, we can just hear the newscaster remark "...police officials have told me that they have, as yet, uncovered no apparent link between these two seemingly unrelated tragedies." To what two tragedies is he referring? Obviously, the mill burning is one, but what is the other? Is he referring to Laura Palmer's murder about a week ago? Or the murder of Jacques Renault in the hospital the same night as the fire?

 

Shelly is plaintively crying Bobby's name in her hospital bed, probably because she assumes that Leo has killed him, as he promised to do when he left her tied up in the mill the night before.

 

We aren't given an explanation of why Shelly doesn't mention what happened to Catherine during the mill fire. They were attempting to escape it together at the end of Episode 7: "The Last Evening", so how did they get separated?

 

The dialog between Maddy and Sarah in the morning reveals that Maddy's mother is named Beth.

 

Leland wakes up this morning with his hair having turned white. There have been stories in history of a person's hair turning white or gray overnight due to extreme fright or stress, but they are unsubstantiated and there is no scientifically documented case of it in modern times. Why Leland's hair should turn white over this particular night is unknown; possibly because he killed Jacques Renault, but he also killed his own daughter a week ago and Teresa Banks a year ago, and that didn't do it.

 

The song Leland sings in front of Sarah and Maddy is "Mairzy Doats", a 1943 novelty song by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston.

 

At 24:20 on the Blu-ray, Maddy sees a vision on the carpeted floor of the Palmer house. Many fans think the image is of a large blood stain on the carpet (the original script of this episode does indicate the image is supposed to be blood stain), but to me it looks more the impression of a body laying on it. The location on the floor looks to be where Sarah's unconscious body will lay just a few days later after she's been drugged by Leland as he prepares to kill Maddy in Episode 14: "Lonely Souls". An alternate version of the carpet image is seen in the Japanese version of this episode, with a rather cheesy effect of BOB looking back at us (you can see the scene on YouTube: "Twin Peaks Episode 8 Alternate BOB Japanese Animation").

 

Ben tells Jerry he wants a satisfactory explanation why Leo is not being measured for a plot in Ghostwood Memorial Park. This is presumably the same cemetery where Laura Palmer was buried in Episode 3: "Rest in Pain".

 

Notice that the stuffed white fox in Ben's office is seen in the background for the first time in this episode. Leland gets a small handful of fur from it later in Episode 13: "Demons". and uses it to try to frame Ben in Episode 16: "Arbitrary Law".

 

At 25:49 on the Blu-ray, notice that the framed Mt. Fuji-like image hanging on the Johnsons' wall is actually a actually a framed jigsaw puzzle!

 

At 26:04 on the Blu-ray, the TV in the Johnson house is not the same one that was there in the first season! Notice also that the VCR that was sitting on top of it in the previous episode (Episode 7: "The Last Evening") is missing as well!

 

In the same scene above, there is now a curtain hanging above the window next to the TV that wasn't there in Episode 7: "The Last Evening".
Johnson living room in Episode 7: "The Last Evening"	Johnson living room in this episode

 

When Agent Rosenfield and his men arrive at the Johnson house during the shooting investigation, Deputy Andy refers to him as Agent Rosenflower.

 

When Albert arrives at the crime scene of Leo's house, he is seen to remove his sunglasses three times...twice in the background and once in close-up!

 

Notice that Albert still has subtle discoloration around his left eye, where Sheriff Truman hit him back in Episode 2: "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer".

 

When the new boots are found hidden at the Johnson house, they are seen to be Circle Brand boots. We learn in a later episode that this is the brand sold by the One-Armed Man.

 

Why did Leo hide the new boots? There doesn't seem to be anything special about them. It was his old boots that had the hidden tape in the heel, not the new ones.

 

At 28:49 on the Blu-ray, a logging truck is seen turning on North Bend Way. This is a road in North Bend, Washington, where many Twin Peaks exteriors were shot, including that of the RR Diner. The logging truck is from Littlejohn Logging, a real world logging company in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Why does Maddy twist apart her eyeglasses, saying, "I hate them. I'm never wearing these again"? She is seen without glasses for the rest of her appearances on the series. Wouldn't she be seriously hampered by poor eyesight without them? Maybe the scene was put in as a red herring that she is really Laura in disguise (with the real Maddy murdered in Laura's place) as speculated by many fans during the series' initial run. I guess Maddy just took to wearing contact lenses instead!

 

The cigarette brand Donna is seen smoking at the RR appears to be Metropolitan. This is a fictitious brand. The packaging is the same as the pack Audrey smokes in the girls bathroom at the high school in Episode 4: "The One-Armed Man".

 

The position of the cigarette pack and lighter keeps changing as the scene cuts from Donna to Maddy and back again.

 

In a booth at the RR, the Log Lady finishes chewing a piece of pitch gum and sticks it to the wall of the booth. In Episode 9:_"Coma", Norma voices her displeasure at this practice and asks that she use an ashtray next time.

 

Andy's research shows that Leo was in jail in Hungry Horse, Montana on February 9, 1988, the night Teresa Banks was murdered. Hungry Horse is a real world village in Montana. The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper gives a January 1988 date for the murder of Teresa Banks. The February date given in this episode seems the more accurate one to use, as Cooper stated in Episode 0B: "Northwest Passage" that Teresa's murder took place "One year ago almost to the day" before Laura's.

 

The outside view through the main doors of the sheriff's station is different this second season, with the trees behind the short stone wall that were previously seen now suddenly gone!

 

James tells Sheriff Truman that one time when he and Laura first started dating, she started repeating a scary poem about fire over-and-over. He doesn't repeat the poem, maybe he doesn't remember the words, but it is probably the poem spoken by Mike in Cooper's dream in Episode 2: "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer":

Through the darkness of future past,

the magician longs to see,

one chance out between two worlds...fire, walk with me.

 

When Donna walks into the sheriff's office at 39:27 on the Blu-ray, someone gives a wolf-whistle! I guess one of the deputies likes what he sees.

 

Laura's sunglasses that Donna wears in this episode seem to change her personality a bit and give her an air of sultriness. In Fire Walk With Me, this seems to happen when Donna wears some of Laura's clothes and Laura warns her not to do it again, as if Laura herself was aware of the possible effect. Is Donna remembering this now and asked Maddy for Laura's sunglasses so she can wear them and feel close to Laura again?

 

Memorable Dialog

 

room service.wav

thank ya kindly.wav

the milk'll get cool.wav

I've heard about you.wav

I will tell you three things.wav

where have you gone?.wav

a smiling bag.wav

the owls are not what they seem.wav

without chemicals, he points.wav

Leo locked inside a hungry horse.wav

three bowling balls.wav

keep the fear from your mind.wav

up to date.wav

give me a couple hours to get dressed.wav

is that bag smiling?.wav

Mairzy Doats.wav

what issue is this?.wav

Agent Rosenflower.wav

another great moment in law enforcement.wav

hot damn.wav

I'll have to get back to you on that.wav

where do they keep his water dish?.wav

would you like to play with BOB?.wav

when did you start smoking?.wav 

 

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