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.

 

I have chosen to split the 90-minute pilot episode of Twin Peaks into two ~45-minute parts to maintain the consistency of the 45-minute regular episodes of the series. The original pilot was titled simply "Pilot", with the German title being "Northwest Passage", which was the working title of the series used by Lynch and Frost before they decided upon Twin Peaks. The original title doesn't really make a lot of sense since the term Northwest Passage is used to refer to the sea route through the Arctic Ocean historically used by sailors along the northern coast of the North American continent, having nothing to do with the U.S. state of Washington where the series takes place; I suppose Lynch and Frost proposed it as the title of the series simply because the state is in the farthest corner of the U.S. northwest. I've decided to leave it as the title of Episode 0B (part two of the pilot) and call this first part "Wrapped in Plastic" for the iconic line spoken by Pete Martell after he finds Laura Palmer's dead, plastic-wrapped body on the shore of Black Lake.

 

Exterior scenes of the town of Twin Peaks were shot mostly in the town of Snoqualmie, WA, with additional exteriors in nearby North Bend and Fall City.

 

The exterior scenes of the Great Northern Hotel were shot at Salish Lodge next to Snoqualmie Falls. In the book Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town, the falls are referred to as Whitetail Falls, possibly named for the White-tailed jackrabbit that is native to western North America, including Washington state (in Episode 0B: "Northwest Passage", Cooper comments to Harry that he thinks he saw a cotton-tailed rabbit and Harry corrects him that it was a jackrabbit).

 

The opening titles of the series depict the town's "Welcome to Twin Peaks" sign, which notes a population of 51,201. But this relatively high level of population was requested by ABC, the network that purchased the show at the time, believing that the small town of 5,201 that Lynch and Frost wanted was too unrelatable to most Americans. However, Lynch and Frost have stated they continued writing the show as if the population was the lower number. The lower number does make more sense in the context of the series, judging by the visible size of the town and the number of citizens who seem to all know or recognize each other.

 

Actor Warren Frost, as Dr. Hayward, is the father of series co-creator Mark Frost. 

 

The character of the Log Lady was originally dreamed up by David Lynch in the 1970s after he'd cast actress Catherine Coulson in his film Eraserhead. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he said, "I had an idea for a show. I wanted to call it I'll Test My Log with Every Branch of Knowledge. And I wanted her to be a woman who lived with a son or daughter, single, because her husband was killed in a fire. She takes the log to various experts in various fields of science...So through the log, through this kind of absurdity, you would learn, you'd be gaining so much knowledge through the show."

 

There is a slightly longer version of the pilot, with an alternate ending that "wraps up" the story, which was released in Europe as a direct to video feature. In it, Cooper and Truman learn that the killer is BOB and the one-armed man kills BOB, wrapping up the story! Much, but not all, of this additional footage shows up in Episode 2:_"Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer", as elements of Cooper's dream. (I will discuss that European ending in the Episode 2: "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer" study).

 

The main theme music of Twin Peaks by Angelo Badalamenti is also the music of the Julee Cruise song "Falling", with lyrics by David Lynch.

 

The twin peaks of the town of Twin Peaks are referred to as Whitetail Mountain and Blue Pine Mountain in various source materials. They are fictitious, but are represented by the real world Mt. Si near North Bend, WA.

 

Twin Peaks High School is actually Mt. Si High School in North Bend, WA.

 

 

 

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.

 

It's possible that the Log Lady intros were inspired by the quotes from the fictitious Book Of The Sayings Of Tsiang Samdup which appeared at the beginning of each chapter of the 1926 Talbot Mundy novel The Devil's Guard, which is known as one of the sources of inspriation for the White and Black Lodges and dugpas (and quite probably other elements) of Twin Peaks. In both cases, the short statements are roughly related to the themes and events that take place in the linked episode/chapter.

 

The intros feature the Log Lady in what is presumably meant to be her cabin home, but the set is a bit different from what is seen of her home in Episode 5: "Cooper's Dreams".

 

The Log Lady wears the same clothes throughout the intros for the first season. Starting at the beginning of the second season she wears a couple different outfits. Whether there is any particular significance to her clothing choices is unknown.

 

The Log Lady wears a ring on both her ring finger and her little finger on the right hand. Her left hand is not clearly visible here, but in Episode 5: "Cooper's Dreams", we see that she also has a wedding band on her left hand.

 

The Log Lady's reference to "fire" here, and that "few would know that meaning", may refer to the same fire of the "fire, walk with me" tattoos of Mike and BOB and the title of the 1992 follow-up film to the series, Fire Walk With Me.

 

"Welcome to Twin Peaks. My name is Margaret Lanterman. I live in Twin
Peaks. I am known as the Log Lady. There is a story behind that. There
are many stories in Twin Peaks--some of them are sad, some funny. Some
of them are stories of madness, of violence. Some are ordinary. Yet
they all have about them a sense of mystery--the mystery of life.
Sometimes, the mystery of death. The mystery of the woods. The woods
surrounding Twin Peaks.

"To introduce this story, let me just say it encompasses the all--it is
beyond the 'fire', though few would know that meaning. It is a story of
many, but begins with one--and I knew her.

"The one leading to the many is Laura Palmer. Laura is the one."

 

welcome to Twin Peaks.wav

I am known as the Log Lady.wav

there are many stories in Twin Peaks.wav

the mystery of the woods.wav

it is beyond the fire.wav

Laura is the one.wav 

 

Didja Notice?

 

The pilot episode has a longer version of the series' opening titles.

 

The bird seen at the beginning of the series' opening titles is a Bewick's Wren according to the Twin Peaks card set. This is an actual species of bird known to live throughout much of the North American continent.

 

When the opening titles present the scene of the "Welcome to Twin Peaks" sign, it's obviously a still shot, as the river on the far right of the screen is absolutely still.

 

The story opens on the morning of Friday, February 24, 1989.

 

At 3:00 (and 3:25) on the Blu-ray, Josie is humming while she applies her make-up. It's hard to tell, but possibly she is humming the haunting Laura Palmer theme from the Twin Peaks soundtrack. When she hears the door slam shut as Pete heads out for a day of fishing, she turns to look in that direction, though she can't see him. This may have been intended as a red herring that she knew what he would find on the shore of the lake that morning.

 

At 3:46 on the Blu-ray, Pete hears the foghorn and says (it's kind of difficult to make out), "The lonesome foghorn blows." 

 

Pete Martell discovers Laura Palmer's body, wrapped in plastic, on the shore of the lake outside the Martell home, the Blue Pine Lodge. The book Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town (written as a travel guide for tourists to the town) reveals via a map that the lake is Black Lake. This is a fictional lake that overlaps Washington's border with Canada. A real Black Lake exists in Washington near Olympia, but this is nowhere near the Canadian border or the location of the fictional Twin Peaks.
Overview map of Twin Peaks (from Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town)			The actual northeast corner of Washington (from Google Maps)
Location of Twin Peaks (from Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town)	Map of Twin Peaks with important locations (from Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town)
	Map of residential Twin Peaks with important locations (from Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town)

 

At 3:59 on the Blu-ray, notice that the Martell mansion has totem polls on the outside similar to those seen later inside the Great Northern Hotel.

 

At 4:50 on the Blu-ray, a McDonald's children's mug is blurrily seen in the background of the Martell kitchen. A blurry Mayor McCheese and Grimace are evident on the mug.

 

The sheriff of the town of Twin Peaks is named Harry S. Truman, just like the 33rd President of the United States from 1945-1953. 

 

In Lucy's first appearance of the episode, she is wearing a sweater with diamond patterns on the sleeves that are a bit similar to the Owl Cave glyph Cooper will later draw on a napkin in Episode 25: "On the Wings of Love". In fact, pay attention to the sweaters worn by any character in the series...they tend to have diamond patterns similar to the various Owl Cave glyphs seen in later episodes and in the book The Secret History of Twin Peaks! Is there a hidden meaning in the diamond and triangular shapes of the glyphs? Are the inhabitants of Twin Peaks themselves somehow subconsciously aware of the symoblism that they would purchase and wear clothing with a similar motif?
Lucy's sweater	Cooper's sketch in Episode 25: "On the Wings of Love"

 

At 4:53 on the Blu-ray, Harry pours some coffee into a Fire King barrel mug. Fire King is a brand of the Anchor Hocking Company. The mug is next seen on Frank Truman's desk in Season Three Part 7: "There's a Body All Right"! (Thanks to Vinnie Guidera's article "Northwest Cupboard: The Drinkware of Twin Peaks" in Blue Rose magazine #14.)

 

During Harry's phone call with Pete Martell at the sheriff's station from 5:20-5:36 on the Blu-ray, notice that Lucy's face is reflected in the glass of the station's entryway as she sits at the reception desk.

 

After learning of the body Pete has discovered on the shore of the lake, Harry tells Lucy to get a hold of Dr. Hayward to meet him at the Packard Mill at the dock right below the dam. This is presumably Black Lake Dam, depicted on the map on the back cover of Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town. 

 

The building used as the exterior of the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department was the regional office of the Weyerhaeuser Corporation in Snoqualmie. A large stone with a plaque engraved with the face of a man is seen in front of the building; this is also part of the Weyerhaeuser office, but I've not been able to track down the identity of the man on the plaque. Within the universe of Twin Peaks, it may be a different person altogether!

 

The Twin Peaks trading card set states that the sheriff's office is located on Highway 21 (Main Street of town), just two blocks from Wagon Wheel Bakery, which supplies coffee and donuts to the station. There is a route called Primary State Highway 21 in Washington made up of several different routes, but it is located farther west than the Highway 21 depicted on the maps found in Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town.

 

Notice that the signage of the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department has the same brown-with-green-border coloring of the letters as the TV series logo (the font is a bit different though). The "Welcome to Twin Peaks" sign at the edge of town also has similar coloring for the words.

 

Harry's sheriff's truck is a 1987 Ford Bronco.

 

At 6:40 on the Blu-ray, notice that Deputy Andy wears his gun on his left hip, suggesting he is left-handed, but the holster is actually a right-handed one, as indicated by the gun-butt being pointed to the front of his body, not the back. Episode 2: "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer" also shows him with the backwards holster. However, later episodes have him wearing it normally on his right hip.

 

As Andy takes photographs of the body, he starts to cry at the sight. Harry, exasperated, but gentle, chides him, "Come on, Andy. Same as last year in Mr. Blodgett's barn." What did they find in Blodgett's barn? Was it another murder? Or just a natural death? Or something else?

 

When Andy breaks down, notice that Dr. Hayward takes the camera from him and, as Harry speaks to Andy, we hear, but don't see, that Hayward is finishing the picture-taking required of the body.

 

   At 8:17 on the Blu-ray, notice that packages of Quaker Oatmeal and Cap'n Crunch cereal are seen in the background on the kitchen counter in the Palmer home, but the labels have been altered to "Cereal" on the oatmeal container and "Crunchies" on the Cap'n Crunch box! The real world brands are both owned by the Quaker Oats Company.

   Also notice that the Palmers appear to have two microwave ovens in their kitchen! Maybe one of them is actually a convection oven? Or it could be that the "built-in", overhanging one ceased functioning and the other, countertop one, was purchased to use instead (personal note: this happened at my grandparents' summer cabin, so it appeared they had two microwaves!). However, Sarah in this scene, after shouting for Laura to get out of bed and get ready for school, turns around and twists a knob on the overhanging oven for no apparent reason!

 

When Sarah goes upstairs to rouse (the missing) Laura out of bed for school, notice that Laura's bedroom door and, from the sound of it, the bathroom door are both closed. It seems odd that the doors would closed if no one was in there. Since Laura did not come home last night, you'd think the doors would be open. Maybe Laura, as a typical petulant teenager, would choose to keep her bedroom door closed all the time to keep her stuff private, but why would the bathroom be closed with no one in it? Did Leland/BOB close the doors so that Sarah wouldn't realize Laura was missing right away that morning?

 

In the Briggs household, notice that refrigerator magnets of what appear to be praying figures are seen and there is a small religious statue on the kitchen sink.

 

When Mrs. Briggs answers Sarah's phone call, notice that she picks up a pair of scissors and plays with them while she talks. This fidgeting reflex may be a trait on her side of the family, for notice throughout the series that her son Bobby is constantly seen fidgeting with objects. It's also possible the scissors were put into her hands by director Lynch, as a red herring that maybe she was the killer.

 

The Briggs' phone has a large 911 sticker on it. 911 is the emergency number to dial in the U.S. and Canada.

 

Though Mrs. Briggs is generally referred to as "Betty", Sarah seems to call her "Beth" during their phone call. Possibly, her full first name is Elizabeth.

 

At 10:24 on the Blu-ray, notice that Mike Nelson is listening as the high school's football coach is speaking to Mrs. Palmer about Bobby Briggs' absence from football practice that morning.

 

The sign for the Great Northern Hotel is the actual sign for the Salish Lodge, covered with a Great Northern design.

 

At 10:59 on the Blu-ray, Audrey Horne climbs into a Mercedes-Benz 600 W100 limousine for her ride to school. When she gets in, the triangular back-side window is rolled up, but when she sits down, the window has suddenly been rolled down (to give the camera a clearer shot of her face!).

 

Audrey is wearing saddle shoes when she leaves for school. When she arrives at school, she exchanges her saddle shoes for a pair of sexy red pumps she keeps in her locker.

 

Also at 10:59 on the Blu-ray, notice that the Great Northern Hotel flies the flags of both the U.S. and Canada, as well as the state flag of Washington.

 

As he and Leland Palmer are about to go into their meeting with the Norwegian investors, Benjamin Horne tells him, "Let's get out there and get those cheese-eaters where they live." Norwegians are known for cheese being a large part of their diets.

 

Ben Horne is attempting to get investors to build Ghostwood Estates and Country Club in Twin Peaks. In later episodes, we learn that the Ghostwood National Forest surrounds the environs of Twin Peaks; this is a fictitious forest. The actual woods in the part of Washington where Twin Peaks is shown to be located in the Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town book is the Colville National Forest. Of course, "Ghostwood" refers to the spiritual/supernatural aspects of the Twin Peaks region in the series.

 

A painting of White Tail Falls (Snoqualmie Falls) is seen hanging on the wall in the Great Northern during Ben and Leland's meeting with the Norwegians.

 

At 14:55 on the Blu-ray, the phone number on the house phone at the Great Northern is difficult to make out entirely, but appears to be something like 924-8004. The area code appears to be blacked out. The 924 prefix is widely used in Washington.

 

The exteriors of the Double R Diner were shot at the Mar T Cafe in North Bend, WA. The place is now known as Twede's Cafe.

 

Double R waitress Heidi drives a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle. 

 

At 15:38 on the Blu-ray, a sign is seen leaning against a RR wall, "Saturday All You Can Eat Spaghetti".

 

PopApostle reader Conrad S. has identified the make and model of the jukebox at the Double R as a Seeburg LPC-1 (thanks for writing in, Conrad!). It has a banner logo inside the glass proclaiming the "Finest Stereo Albums of the Month". Some hand-written notes on the album cover images read "Top Hit" and the 1989 "Big Tube Squeezer" album I Have a Thing for Love. (Close-up of the jukebox from WelcometoTwinPeaks.com.)

 

Shelly asks Heidi why she's late: "What kept you, Heidi, seconds on knockwurst this morning?" This may be an allusion to sex. When Heidi tells her she couldn't get her car started, Shelly responds, "Too busy jump-starting the old man, huh?" and Heidi just giggles adorably.

 

Heidi seems to be German and Bobby says to her, "I thought you Germans were always on time." It seems he may be confusing Germany with Switzerland, known for its manufacturing of outstanding timepieces.

 

The selection Bobby plays on the jukebox as he's leaving is "I’m Hurt Bad" by Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch from Lynch's 1989 avant-garde play, Industrial Symphony No. 1.

 

Bobby drives a 1969 Plymouth Barracuda. In episodes after the two-part pilot, he drives a 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am (though Fire Walk With Me also has him driving the Barracuda). In Episode 1: "Traces to Nowhere", Cooper, while going over the available evidence with Truman, tells Truman they should check out Bobby's vehicle top to bottom, so it may be that the Barracuda was impounded for a while and Bobby had or borrowed the Firebird as a backup vehicle.

 

The sheriff's vehicle seen at 17:24 on the Blu-ray is a Ford LTD Crown Victoria, commonly used by law enforcement agencies at the time.

 

Bobby tells Shelly she's "a 3-stage-rocket", "a pocket rocket." A 3-stage rocket is one that uses three stages in consecutive order to achieve launch from Earth to orbit. A "pocket rocket" is a slang term for a petite, sexy woman.

 

During the car ride to Shelly's house, she tells Bobby that her husband, Leo, is still on the road in his trucking job, having called her from Butte last night. Butte presumably refers to the city of Butte, Montana, though it is not all that far from the location of Twin Peaks, just 7 or 8 hours drive.

 

Shelly refers to Bobby as "Mr. Touchdown", a reference to his participation in the high school football team.

 

Leo Johnson's big rig truck is a Kenworth W-900.

 

At 18:21 on the Blu-ray, we see that Leo and Shelly are in the process of having an addition put onto their house. In Episode 1: "Traces to Nowhere", it appears to be a new (or expanded) kitchen. It also provides a red herring that Leo may be responsible for Laura's murder, as plastic wrapping is seen as a barrier between the still-under-construction addition and the original portion of the house, the same type of plastic sheet Laura was found wrapped in.

 

As Bobby's car speeds rapidly away from the Johnson house when he and Shelly realize that Leo's home already, notice that accompanying the sound of screeching tires and revving engine is the sound of a timber mill sawblade cutting wood.

 

At the hospital, just before viewing the body of his daughter, Leland remarks that Laura was just 17 years old. This would place her birthday in 1971 or '72 since her death was on February 23, 1989. The Twin Peaks card set by Star Pics, Inc. states her birthday to be July 22, 1972.

 

Truman refers to Leland as Lee as he tries to comfort him after viewing his daughter's dead body.

 

The morgue attendant for the viewing of Laura's body by her father is the same one who is there when Cooper and Truman see the body later (Jim).

 

At 20:29 on the Blu-ray, notice that Donna does not have a lock on her school locker. Also, notice that Audrey does not put a lock on her locker when she finishes! They must get robbed frequently!

 

At 20:39 on the Blu-ray, notice that Audrey has an ashtray in her school locker for taking a quick, illicit smoke!

 

At 20:52 on the Blu-ray, a boy at the high school seems to be side-ways-dancing to the soundtrack as he scoots off down the hall!

 

At 21:00 on the Blu-ray, a word in cursive stitching can be seen on the right sleeve of Mike's varsity jacket. It's hard to make out, but may read "Torrance". It may be that the prop jacket was originally one from Torrance High School in Torrance, CA, a location which has appeared in a number of Hollywood productions. As stated earlier, the filming location used for Twin Peaks High School here in the pilot was Mt. Si High School in Snoqualmie, WA.

 

Bobby refers to Mike as Snake. It seems to be a nickname Mike has acquired.

 

At 22:25 on the Blu-ray, a picture of Abraham Lincoln is hanging on the wall of the classroom in the background.

 

At 22:52 on the Blu-ray, one of the students in James and Donna's class has a Holt Algebra book on his desk, though a different algebra book is seen on the teacher's desk. Holt McDougal is an American publisher of school textbooks.

 

Notice that all the way up to this point in the story, nobody has been told that Laura Palmer is dead...everyone has intuited it from scraps of information and emotions. Possilbly this is also a cue to the audience that not everything in this series will be explained directly; much of it will need to be figured out or intuited by the viewer.

 

For some reason, there is a Texas flag hung on the wall above a bookcase in the school library at 23:52 on the Blu-ray.

 

A poster of a whale's tail splashing out of the water is seen on the wall of the school library at 23:58 on the Blu-ray. It may be the tail of a humpback whale, prevalent in the ocean off the Washington coast in the summer.

 

When Bobby is informed that his girlfriend, Laura, has been murdered, and he is under suspicion for the crime, he is more upset about being suspected than he is that she is dead. This is a clue (though a red herring) that he might be the killer.

 

The public address system at Twin Peaks High School used by Principal Wolchek appears to be a Cats system, but I've been unable to confirm the brand name.

 

Principal Wolchek wears an unusual lapel pin on his sport coat. It almost looks like a cow.

 

At about 26:51 on the Blu-ray, as Donna is being comforted by her friends after the announcement of Laura's death, the blond friend almost seems to be struggling to hold back a smile instead of having a sad look. She was probably just an extra not used to being on camera.

 

At 27:18 on the Blu-ray, the trophy partially visible behind the Laura Palmer photo in the high school's trophy case actually appears to have "University of Washington" engraved on it.

 

Who is the old woman attempting to calm Sarah at the Palmer house at 27:39 on the Blu-ray? A friend? A nurse who came to the house with Dr. Hayward to help administer the sedative?

 

At 28:59 on the Blu-ray, a black-and-white framed photo of Laura is seen behind Sarah, as well as a smaller photo of a blond little girl that is presumably Laura as a child.

 

As logs are being cut and rolled at the Packard Sawmill, notice at 31:32 on the Blu-ray that some spray-painted lettering is seen on a wall in the background, but the lettering is reversed; the shot must have been flipped.

 

The date of this episode is February 24. But the calendar in the Packard Mill at 32:15 on the Blu-ray is only marked out through the 19th.

 

The man that Catherine "fires" at the Mill is named Fred Truax. Kind of an appropriate name for a lumberman!

 

At 33:38 on the Blu-ray, the police car seen at the Packard Mill is a 1982 Plymouth Gran Fury.

 

James Hurley rides a 1975 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle.

 

According to Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town, Big Ed's Gas Farm is on Tanner Road. But the Twin Peaks card set states it is located on Highway 21. Since the card set does have a number of demonstrable errors in it, I'm going with the address given in the Access Guide in this case. At 35:33 on the Blu-ray, we see that Ed and Nadine's house is right next to the Gas Farm and the address is 31002. This would make their home address 31002 Tanner Road.

 

Ed leaves the Gas Farm to pick up Nadine's new drapes in town. Presumably he has another, never seen, employee at the station to mind the store. In Episode 1: "Traces to Nowhere", Ed mentions that his nephew James works there with him, but we just saw James speaking to Ed and then leaving, so there must be someone else.

 

    FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper drives into Twin Peaks at about 11:30 a.m., the same day that Laura's body was found and the missing Ronette crossed the state line. How did the FBI get him out there so quickly? It seems he must have been in the general area already and was sent to Twin Peaks as the closest available agent; this seems to be confirmed in "Diane..." The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper, which places him in Seattle for a fiber samples procedures seminar at the time. Contradictorily, The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper has him being assigned the case while in San Francisco at about 6 a.m. He could make it in that time if he really rushed, but Ronette's crossing on the railroad bridge seems to occur later than 6 a.m. in the episode!

   The FBI, of course, is the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which investigates federal crime and provides internal intelligence for the federal government. 

 

Agent Cooper's rental car is a 1981 Dodge Diplomat.

 

As he drives into town dictating into his mini-cassette recorder, Cooper gives the day's date as February 24.

 

The Twin Peaks card set lists Cooper's middle name as Bartholomew. This makes one abbreviation of his name "D.B. Cooper". This was also the popular media epithet of an unknown man who extorted a large amount of money and escaped a jet plane in mid-flight over the woods between Seattle, WA and Portland OR in 1971. He has never been caught or identified.

 

While dictating into his recorder for his secretary, Diane, Cooper states that Twin Peaks is located 5 miles south of the Canadian border and 12 miles west of the state line (with neighboring Idaho). If Twin Peaks is along the Columbia River as it's depicted in Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town, then the border with Idaho should be more like 20-25 miles. But, the 12 miles might be from the eastern edge of Twin Peaks' jurisdiction for sheriff and fire service, etc.

 

It can be seen right here in his introductory scene that Cooper wears a ring on the little finger of his left hand. The ring will go on to play a small but important part in second season episodes. The ring is identified as one that had belonged to his mother in The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper (though he acquired the ring in a mysterious manner).

 

Cooper remarks to Diane, “As W.C. Fields would say, 'I'd rather be here than Philadelphia'.” W.C. Fields (1880-1946) was an American comedian and actor of both stage and screen. A number of Fields' famous lines refer disparagingly to Philadelphia, but he never said this one to my knowledge, however, he once wrote a mock epitaph for himself, "I Would Rather Be Living in Philadelphia." Later episodes reveal that Cooper is based out of the FBI office in Philadelphia. However, in The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper, it seems he is still stationed in San Francisco at this time.

 

Cooper remarks to Diane that he had lunch at the Lamplighter Inn on Highway 2 near Lewis Fork. Highway 2 is a real highway that runs through Washington and near the area of Twin Peaks. Both the Lamplighter Inn and Lewis Fork are fictitious.

 

The town's local hospital is Calhoun Memorial Hospital. In the book Conversations With Mark Frost by David Bushman, Frost says the hospital was named for his maternal grandfather, Doug Calhoun, who was an obstetrician. Dr. Hayward on the show was also largely based on him.

 

Cooper asks Truman what kind of fantastic trees they have growing around there and Truman responds they are Douglas firs. Douglas firs do, in fact, grow in the northeastern corner of Washington and are the second-largest conifer in the world after the coast redwood.

 

The doctor who is attending Ronette Pulaski is Dr. Shelvy. Her name badge is hard to make out, but it looks like her first name may be Laurie.

 

Dr. Shelvy tells Cooper and Truman that Ronette may have neurological damage and is not responsive at all. But after Cooper touches her hand, she begins to speak groggily. This may suggest that Cooper has a special unconscious ability to reach others. In Episode 4: "The One-Armed Man", Cooper tells Truman that he is a "strong sender".

 

At 40:40 on the Blu-ray, notice that the One-Armed Man is seen briefly on the hospital elevator with Cooper and Truman before he exits on an earlier floor than they do. He is not seen again until Hawk sees him and follows him briefly before losing him in Episode 1: "Traces to Nowhere".

 

When the One-Armed Man gets off the elevator, Dr. Jacoby is standing by the nurse's desk outside. He seems to be telling the nurses a story about catching a big-mouthed fish that starts talking to him! Was he relating a dream he'd had?

 

In this episode, Dr. Jacoby is, for some reason, wearing some kind of corks or large plugs in his ears. Is he undergoing treatment for some kind of hearing issue? The plugs are not seen again after this but, in later episodes, he is often seen wearing glasses with one red and one blue lens (there is a pair of glasses in his medical frock here as well, but it's hard to tell if the one partially-visible lens is tinted). In the Twin Peaks card set, Dr. Jacoby says the rose- and aqua-colored glasses help balance the right and left sides of his brain. The Secret History of Twin Peaks goes into a little more detail about the glasses.

 

    Also notice that Dr. Jacoby is wearing a tie featuring an embroidered, topless hula dancer. It even appears that her nipples are visible! And as he's telling Cooper and Truman that Laura was "seeing him", he is actually stroking his finger under the hula girl's skirt! It might be an unconscious tell that he was not just seeing Laura professionally as her therapist, but was engaged in sexual relations with her.

    In later episodes, Dr. Jacoby is depicted as having a particular interest in Hawaii, where hula dancing originated, even once mentioning having a wife there, whom we meet briefly in Episode 10: "The Man Behind Glass". The Twin Peaks card set states that he attended school at Punahou School in Hawaii and the University of Hawaii Medical School and placed third in the interscholastic surfing competition during his senior year of high school, all suggesting he grew up in the island state. Punahou School is a private K-12 school in Honolulu (which 44th U.S. President Barack Obama also attended!).

 

When Truman introduces Agent Cooper to Dr. Jacoby, the good doctor mishears the name as "Gary Cooper". Gary Cooper (1901-1961) was an extremely popular Hollywood actor from 1925 onward.

 

Dr. Jacoby is seen to wear a large ring on his right hand in this episode. It looks like it may be a skull ring!

 

When Cooper examines Laura's body in the hospital morgue, the fluorescent lights there keep flickering. This may be indicative of the presence of a spirit from the Black Lodge, as they seem to travel via electricity and cause similar disruptions in the 1992 follow-up film to the series, Fire Walk With Me. (Behind the scenes, the flickering was unintentional, but Lynch liked it and made it part of the scene rather than fix it or work around it.)

 

The morgue attendant is named Jim.

 

When Cooper discovers the small letter "R" under the fingernail of Laura's ring finger, he removes it and records a message to Diane, "Diane, give this to Albert and his team, don't go to Sam. Albert seems to have a little more on the ball." Albert Rosenfield appears in some later episodes. In Fire Walk With Me, we meet Sam (Stanley) during the investigation of the Teresa Banks murder in 1988 (in which the letter "T" was found under the nail of her ring finger). Despite Cooper's review here, Sam seems to be pretty competent in the film, though a bit green and gullible. (The Secret History of Twin Peaks states that Sam was placed on administrative leave after returning from Deer Meadow and that he had possibly developed an alcohol problem.)

 

Notes from the Mark Frost interview on the Season One Blu-ray boxed set

 

Cooper was intended as a modern day Sherlock Holmes.

 

Actor Robert Forster (1941-2019) was almost cast as Sheriff Truman, but he had a prior obligation to another series pilot at the time the Twin Peaks pilot was scheduled to shoot. Forster later went on to be a part of the Twin Peaks season three on Showtime in 2017.

 

Notes from the Twin Peaks card set published by Star Pics, Inc. (1991)

 

(The card images and reverse-side information can be perused online at LynchNet.com.)

 

Card #1: By the end of the second season of the series, Truman has been the sheriff for 6 years.

 

Card #4: Cooper was born on April 19, 1954, attended Haverford College and the FBI Academy, and was an Eagle Scout who scored a perfect 100 on his marksmanship test.

 

Card #8: Truman was Assistant Sheriff before he became Sheriff. Tours of the Sheriff's Station are available on Tuesdays.

 

Card #9: Truman was born on May 13, 1950. He was educated at Twin Peaks High School and Washington State College. The book Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town states that he is fond of Oriental dishes; this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to his relationship with Josie Packard.

 

Card #10: Deputy Andy was born February 27, 1960.

 

Card #11: Lucy Moran was born May 27, 1962. She attended Tacoma High School and Mrs. Smith's School of Secretarial Science (both seem to be fictitious schools). She was Employee of the Year in 1988 at the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Office. (Since Lucy attended Tacoma High School, it suggests she did not grow up in Twin Peaks, so what brought her there in the first place?)

 

Card #12: Hawk was born September 16, 1950. He attended Zuni Reservation High School (this appears to be a fictitious school). Hawk is a champion at the one-armed ax throw at the Packard Timber Games. (The Zuni Reservation exists mostly in New Mexico, with small portions in Arizona, so Hawk is apparently not a native of the Twin Peaks area; however, The Secret History of Twin Peaks states that Hawk is a full-blooded Nez Perce, a tribe native to the northwest.)

 

Card #14: Laura Palmer liked potato pancakes with creamed corn topping (creamed corn later becomes a symbol of garmonbozia, the pain and sorrow that residents of the Black Lodge feed on). For her twelfth birthday, she got a pony and named it Troy; she won a blue ribbon at the National Riding and Jumping Derby. James was teaching her to ride a motorcycle before her death. The card also incorrectly states that Laura was Prom Queen at Twin Peaks High School; she was Homecoming Queen.

 

Card #16: James Hurley was born January 1, 1973.

 

Card #17: Dr. Jacoby was born January 30, 1934.

 

Card #18: Of Laura's two diaries, the "secret" one is the one that was given to her by her parents on her 12th birthday. But shouldn't the one her parents gave her and, therefore, know about, be the "official" diary and the other one (which looks different) have been the secret one?

 

Card #19: Dr. Hayward was born on May 25, 1929 (actor Warren Frost was born on May 25 as well, 1925). He attended the University of Washington and the University of Washington Medical School. He is a past president of the Northwest Chapter of the American Medical Association and served on its national committee for the study of euthanasia. (According to Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town, he first graduated from the University of Minnesota).

 

Card #20: Donna Hayward was born on September 2, 1972. She has been on the high school honor roll for all four years and her senior class voted her most likely to succeed.

 

Card #21: Mrs. Tremond's grandson, Pierre Tremond, was born January 10, 1983. He attended Twin Peaks Elementary School and claims to be one of the youngest Master Magicians who can make himself disappear. He detests yellow food, particularly creamed corn.

 

Card #22: Madeleine Ferguson was born June 22, 1968 and attended Missoula High School in Montana. (There is no actual high school in Missoula by that name.)

 

Card #23: Pete Martell was born June 28, 1934 and attended Missoula High School in Montana. (There is no actual high school in Missoula by that name.) He is the perennial winner of the Twin Peaks Chess Tournament, held each year during the Packard Timber Games.

 

Card #25: Catherine Martell was born November 20, 1940 and attended Twin Peaks High School. Her mother was active civically and Catherine followed suit, serving on the Twin Peaks Town Council for 13 years and was president of the United Way for two terms. She speaks fluent Japanese and French.

 

Card #27: The Packard family was one of the original founding families of Twin Peaks and have lived in Blue Pine Lodge for three generations.

 

Card #28: Josie Packard was born September 2, 1962 (also confirmed in the Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town). She attended Fujimoto High School in Japan (I've been unable to confirm a school by that name in Japan). She was the youngest female CEO in the timber industry.

 

Card #29: It is implied that the road through town frequently referred to as Sparkwood is officially Sparkwood Mountain Road.

 

Card #30: The female pine cones of the Douglas fir tree grow on the upper branches, while the male cones grow on the lower and the wind blows the seeds/pollen from one to the other. (This is basically true of all pine trees. Perhaps the fertilization process was the inspiration for the shots of wind blowing the trees as seen throughout the TV series?) The card goes on to state the pine cone is the official Twin Peaks flower. (However, pine cones are not scientifically considered to be a true flower.)

 

Card #31: The RR Diner is stated to be located on Highway J, down the street from Horne's Department Store. In Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town, the restaurant is shown on Falls Avenue on a map (though text within the book also states the RR on Highway J). It's possible that Falls Avenue doubles as a portion of Highway J, but the card also states the diner is just down the street from Horne's Department Store, which is depicted a few blocks away, on Maple Avenue and Snow Street in the Access Guide. The diner's owner, Norma Jennings, bakes fruit pies for Eagle Scout Troop #294's annual July 4th pie-eating contest.

 

Card #32: Norma Jennings was born September 30, 1950. She attended Twin Peaks High School and Twin Peaks Community College. She was Miss Twin Peaks in 1969 and the 1987 Twin Peaks Chamber of Commerce Small Business Owner of the Year.

 

Card #34: Shelly Johnson was born May 30, 1972. She attended Twin Peaks High School for two years and never graduated, presumably dropping out to marry the older Leo Johnson.

 

Card #35: Leo Johnson was born April 25, 1968. He attended Twin Peaks High School and MTA Truck Drivers School. MTA Truck Drivers School was an accredited home study school (it appears they are no longer in business).

 

Card #36: Bobby Briggs was born December 10, 1972.

 

Card #37: Ed Hurley was born October 26, 1950.

 

Card #42: The Log Lady (Margaret Lanterman) attended Twin Peaks High School and Evergreen State University, WA. Her birth date is unknown. She is a former candy striper (volunteer hospital worker) and is a nature docent (teacher) with the Twin Peaks Wilderness Society. (Evergreen State University is probably referring to Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA.) The Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town says that she is a self-proclaimed Libra, which, if true, would make her birth date within September 23-October 23.

 

Card #43: The Log Lady's log is from a Ponderosa Pine. It was given to Margaret by her former woodsman husband as a wedding gift. (Episodes of the series generally hint that the spirit of Margaret's dead husband resides in, or communicates through, the log.) However, The Secret History of Twin Peaks states that the log is from a Douglas fir and that she took the log from a fallen tree after the forest fire that killed her husband.

 

Card #44: The Roadhouse is said to be down the road from Big Ed's Gas Farm and very close to the Bookhouse (a shot Episode 0B: "Northwest Passage" shows that the Bookhouse is just on the other side of the parking lot from the Roadhouse!). But Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town, shows it on a different street than the Gas Farm.

 

Card #45: One-Eyed Jack's is on the northwestern shore of Black Lake, on the Canadian side of the border. Live "entertainment" is provided by the "52 Pick-Up Girls". (Gambling and prostitution, the business of One-Eyed Jacks, is permitted in Canada, regulated by each of its provinces and territories; "52 Pick-Up" is a reference to a card deck, which typically has 52 cards.)

 

Card #46: Benjamin Horne was born August 4, 1940. He attended Twin Peaks High School and Stanford University. He was president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Stanford and later served on the Washington Governor's Special Advisory Board for Trade and Development. (From what I can tell, there is no chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Stanford; it is interesting to note that the fraternity is the only currently existing one that originated in the Antebellum South, possibly explaining Ben's psychotic break into believing he was Confederate General Robert E. Lee seeking to defeat U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War as depicted in several episodes of the second season.)

 

Card #47: Audrey Horne was born August 15, 1972. She is president of the French Club at Twin Peaks High School.

 

Card #48: Jerry Horne was born December 4, 1945. He attended Gonzaga University and Gonzaga University Law School in Washington. In Episode 15: "Drive With a Dead Girl", Cooper adds that Jerry graduated last in his class there in 1974.

 

Card #50: Dick Tremayne was born March 23, 1960. He attended Eton College. Eton College is a boarding school in England, founded in 1440 by King Henry VI.

 

Card #51: The Great Northern Hotel was founded by the Horne family in 1927. The hotel has 102 guest rooms, all furnished with queen-size, goose down mattresses designed by the E-Z Mattress Company of Seattle. (As far as I can determine, the E-Z Mattress Company is fictional and also has no other mention in Twin Peaks.)

 

Card #52: The waterfall next to the Great Northern Hotel is Whitetail Falls, described as the third highest waterfall in the U.S., with a longer drop than Niagara Falls, but not as wide. (In the real world, Waihilau Falls, Hawaii is the third highest waterfall in the United States. In the continental United States, the third highest is Yosemite Falls, California. The actual waterfall that stands in for Whitetail Falls, Snoqualmie Falls, does not come close to being anything like one of the highest falls, at just 268 feet. From the shots of the falls outside the Great Northern, it should be obvious that, while beautiful and impressive in its own right, Whitetail Falls is not particularly huge by any stretch of the imagination.)

 

Card #54: Jean Renault was born April 1, 1940. He attended Quebec Reform School. (Quebec Reform School appears to be a fictitious institution.)

 

Card #55: The Giant is a messenger of truth who comes from the place where the spirits that rule man and nature reside. He can only be seen by those who believe.

 

Card #57: Phillip Gerard (the One-Armed Man) was born February 6, 1938. He attended Spokane Vocational/Technical High School. (Spokane Vocational/Technical High School appears to be a fictitious institution.)

 

Card #58: BOB's birth date is listed as "From the beginning of time," and BOB states, "I have survived as long as man has been on earth."

 

Card #59: Leland Palmer was born February 26, 1944. He was educated at the University of Washington and the University of Washington Law School. As a third year law student, he was editor of the University of Washington Law Review.

 

Card #60: Sarah Palmer was born March 3, 1946. She attended Missoula High School, MT and the University of Montana. She was the president of the local bridge club until the death of her daughter. (As mentioned in the Maddie card entry earlier, there is no actual high school in Missoula by that name.)

 

Card #63: Albert Rosenfield was born September 13, 1956. He attended Yale University, where he graduated first in his class, and the FBI Academy.

 

Card #64: Major Briggs was born January 3, 1938. He attended Boys High School in New York City and the Virginia Military Institute. He flew a twin engine plane solo when he was just 8 years old. He is adept at speed reading. (Boys High School, NYC is possibly meant to refer to the former Boys High School, Brooklyn, NY.)

 

Card #65: Owls can represent both wisdom and evil. In Twin Peaks, owls appear whenever UFO sightings are made. On July 25, 1986, Laura Palmer was almost killed by an owl and she was frightened of the owls she saw in the woods.

 

Card #67: It is incorrectly stated that Windom Earle was sent to Twin Peaks to to conduct an FBI Internal Affairs investigation on Cooper!

 

Card #68:
	Cooper's middle name is Bartholomew.
	Laura's favorite drink at the RR Diner was a brown cow; the card describes the drink as cola and vanilla ice cream, but a brown cow traditionally refers to a root beer float made with chocolate ice cream.
	The Log Lady's husband died fighting a forest fire. (This is also confirmed in The Secret History of Twin Peaks.)
	Cooper grew up in Philadelphia, PA. (This is also confirmed in The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper.)
Card #70:
	The namesake two mountains of Twin Peaks are Whitetail Mountain and Blue Pine Mountain. (Both appear to be fictitious.)
	The Twin Peaks High School mascot is a steeplejack.
	The town newspaper is the Twin Peaks Gazette. (This was also the name of the official fan club magazine while the TV series was on.) However, The Secret History of Twin Peaks relates that the name of the paper was changed to the Twin Peaks Post in 1970.

 

Notes from the Bonus Features on the Twin Peaks Blu-ray Gold Edition set

 

Jake Morrissey is the owner of both the Bookhouse and the Roadhouse. Jake is also mentioned as the owner of the Bookhouse in The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer.

 

The exteriors of the Blue Pine Lodge were shot at Kiana Lodge, Poulsbo, Washington.

 

Unanswered Questions

 

"Sheriff" is a title normally given to the person who is elected or appointed the highest law enforcement officer of a county or parish, which would seemingly apply to Sheriff Truman. So, what county is Twin Peaks in? In the real world, the part of the map shown as the location of Twin Peaks in Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town, is Stevens County, though in the TP universe, it might be something else. The Stevens County identification is somewhat supported by Lucy's remark in Episode 2: "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer" about being in the "tri-counties"; the Stevens, Pend Oreille, and Spokane counties are often referred to as the tri-county area of Washington's northeast corner. However, the Ghostwood Estates contract signed in Episode 7: "The Last Evening", states the development to be built in Twin Peaks County!

 

Memorable Dialog

 

wrapped in plastic.wav

too busy jumpstarting the old man.wav

I want those drapes up by nightfall.wav

entering the town of Twin Peaks.wav

never seen so many trees.wav

damn good food.wav

shouldn't be too hard to remember that.wav

a clean place, reasonably priced.wav

I've got to find out what kind of trees these are.wav

what kind of fantastic trees.wav

 

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