Twin Peaks

parker · March 15, 2017, 9:22am

my favorite

and finally, a trailer for the new twin peaks:

parker · March 21, 2017, 8:32am

In case anyone was interested here is an essay from the old twin peaks fan magazine “wrapped in plastic” that lays out the cooper dream theory for fire walk with me

FWWM at 10: Dreams of Deer Meadow [Wrapped in Plastic #60]
by Craig Miller and John Thorne

I think fragments of things are pretty interesting. You can dream the rest. Then you’re a participant.
-David Lynch (Lynch on Lynch, p. 26)

Introduction

David Lynch’s most bewildering and complicated work may be his sixth feature film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The motion picture prequel (and coda) to the TV series is filled with cryptic dialogue, seemingly abandoned plotlines, and baffling characters. The film is distinctly divided into two parts, a thirty-minute prologue that features the investigation into the murder of a young woman named Teresa Banks, and a two-hour primary story about the last week of Laura Palmer’s life and the events that lead to her murder.

Audiences (whether they are familiar with the series or not) often feel that there is more going on in the film than is immediately apparent. The movie offers what seems to be a restricted glimpse into a larger universe. It hints that there is a great deal more happening behind, the picture, outside the frame and between the scenes. It tantalizes by what it does not reveal.

Deciphering Fire Walk With Me is a game that has been played by fans and scholars. Numerous theories about the meaning of the film (how its narrative works and why the characters behave the way they do) have been proposed. Still, the film continues to mystify.

It has been a decade since Fire Walk With Me was released, and we know more about David Lynch’s approach to storytelling now than we did then. If we look at Lynch’s recent work - particularly at Mulholland Drive - can we learn any thing about his directorial approach and thematic designs that shed new light on Fire Walk With Me? In short, can we now deduce more satisfying answers about the film?

The answer is: Yes.

The history of Mulholland Drive is particularly instructive. As many know, Lynch filmed and edited an open-ended pilot for a TV series. When the network did not pick up the series, Lynch was left with an incomplete work. Later, he had the opportunity to film new material to complete the project. Rather than finish the story by tying up the loose ends, Lynch re-interpreted the pilot so as to make it a dream of a (new) main character. In effect, the pilot became a reﬂection of a much different story.

Years earlier, Lynch co-wrote and directed the film Lost Highway. Like Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway has a bifurcated narrative - a story about one character that shifts into a seemingly different story about another. Both films suggest that one of their two stories is real and the other is a dream (or mental fantasy) of one of the characters. Fire Walk With Me contains a similar, though less obvious, narrative framework. In fact, a study of Fire Walk With Me shows that Lynch’s approach to his later works took root in this film. It is a point of origin - in essence, an early version of a structure that would be developed more fully in Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive.

Due to circumstances beyond his control, Lynch was forced to make Fire Walk With Me in ways he did not originally intend. This led to some storytelling experimentation as he struggled to maintain his vision. As a result, Lynch found new ways to structure narratives and tell stories. In later films, he would continue those experiments. Dreams and multiple personalities would become overt parts of Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. But they find their beginnings in Fire Walk With Me.

As we will show, the prologue portion of Fire Walk With Me can be interpreted as the dream of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, a character who was supposed to have a prominent role in the original version of the film (and who was, arguably, the most important character in the TV series). Through storytelling experimentation Lynch managed to maintain this prominence. The prologue – as - dream scenario restores Cooper to an active presence in the story, and it resolves many of the film’s confusing and obscure elements. In fact, the dream interpretation solidifies the film, making it a more cohesive work.1

Vision and Revision

When David Lynch and Robert Engels began to write Fire Walk With Me, they envisioned an ambitious film that would tell a number of complex stories. First, they saw the film as the story of Laura Palmer and her last few days alive. Second, they saw it as the story of Dale Cooper and his investigation into the death of Teresa Banks -an investigation that would introduce Cooper to the arcane world of the Red Room and its denizens. Third, they saw a story about the inhabitants of the Red Room - Bob and Mike - and their efforts to return to their “home.” Fourth, they saw a film that would feature familiar characters from the TV series (such as Sheriff Truman, Deputy Andy, Pete Martell, Big Ed Hurley, etc.) in numerous vignettes.

The magnitude of such a project was daunting, but the film presented other challenges as well. Fire We Walk With Me was designed as a prequel, depicting events that took place before the television show - events that would not be fully resolved until the story “continued” in the series. However, the film was also intended to be a self-contained, stand-alone work - one that provided a definite beginning, middle. and end. Within this difficult framework, Lynch and Engels attempted to craft a film that would tell a familiar story but provide fans with something new. Clearly, this framework meant that Lynch and Engels were limited with what they could do with one of the series’ most important “established facts” - the Teresa Banks story. It had to be integrated with the Laura Palmer story, but it could not venture (too far) into new story territory.

Viewers of Twin Peaks already knew Teresa Banks had been killed by Leland Palmer (possessed by Bob) and that Leland / Bob inserted a small scrap of paper imprinted with the letter “T” under her fingernail (as he inserted an “R” under Laura’s). Fans also knew that the Teresa Banks murder would remain unsolved until well into the series: any investigation into Teresa Banks’s death in the film would have to lead to a dead end. Although the Teresa Banks story would allow viewers to learn more about the character and the crime, the fact remained that no meaningful resolution or revelation could be supplied by the film.

So why bother covering Teresa’s murder at all? One obvious reason is that the investigation allowed Dale Cooper to be in the film. After all, a Twin Peaks film without the show’s dominant character would have been untenable. But Lynch and Engels also saw a vital a narrative purpose for the Teresa story: to integrate the character of Dale Cooper into the world of Laura Palmer - to make him a crucial figure in her life (and afterlife).2 The TV series hints that Cooper was somehow a presence in Laura’s world before she died. (Episode 2009 reveals that Laura and Cooper once shared the same dream.) The film, then, would show how Cooper became “connected” to Laura’s psyche. Events in the Teresa Banks story would trigger Cooper’s intuition and alert him to a potential danger surrounding a future, unidentified victim (Laura). This intuitive “alarm” would resonate with Laura; she dreams of Cooper and receives his warnings. When she dies she is comforted by his presence in the vague World of the Red Room and (arguably) shepherded by him to a place of happiness (Heaven).

The lives and minds (and spirits) of Dale Cooper and Laura Palmer are explicitly intertwined, even though they never physically meet. In the world of Twin Peaks they are the two most vibrant, important characters, and Fire Walk With Me was originally designed to show how these connections came to be.

This original vision of the film, which included Cooper’s investigation into Teresa‘s murder, along with the other three storylines mentioned at the beginning of this section, is not what ended up in the final cut. In some respects, this comes as no surprise - such a version would have had a running time of well over three hours, so substantial trimming was required. But more importantly, actor Kyle MacLachlan refused to commit the amount of time needed to shoot his part, and this led to significant revisions.

Lynch and Engels altered their vision of the film so that Laura‘s story became prominent. They reduced the Mike/Bob conﬂict to an echo of its former self; removed the Twin Peaks Vignettes entirely: and - in the most dramatic alteration - truncated and transformed the story of Dale Cooper into the story of Chester Desmond (played by Chris Isaak 3). As such, a different FBI agent entirely would investigate the murder of Teresa Banks.

When this shift occurred, a whole new set of problems arose. First, story continuity seemed to be disrupted. Though not explicitly stated in the TV pilot, the implication is that Cooper had investigated the Banks murder himself. When The Autobiography of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper arrived in stores in May 1991, Cooper is, indeed, the investigating agent.‘ One can argue the canonicity of tie-in books (a strict reading would reject them), but the fact is that the book (written by sometime Twin Peaks screenwriter Scott Frost) simply presented what fans had assumed all along. Now suddenly, the movie would reveal that Cooper does not investigate the Banks murder alter all.

An equally significant problem was this: having Desmond investigate the Banks murder does not resolve the primary issue of making Cooper an important player in the film. If that was one of the main reasons for including Teresa in the first place - if not the main reason - and now Cooper is relegated to a few minor scenes, why bother with it at all?

Such questions were certainly in the minds of viewers of the theatrical version. The Teresa Banks investigation, sometimes referred to as the “Deer Meadow prologue” (this story opens the film and takes place mostly in Deer Meadow, Washington), takes about thirty minutes to complete, at which point the film shifts to the story of Laura Palmer. Her story then dominates the rest of the film - almost two hours. Outside of some subtle and minor connections be tween the prologue and the rest of the film, the two seem like different stories. [We wrote in WIP 34 that Fire Walk With Me feels like “two stories squeezed together.”)

So the question remained: why keep the Deer Meadow section at all if there would be no significant presence by Dale Cooper?

The Dreams of Dale Cooper

We will contend that Cooper‘s relative insignificance in the prologue is an illusion, and that he is a more dominant presence than first appears. True, Chet Desmond does seem to lead the investigation. But as with many Lynch films, there may be more going on here than appears at first.

The original scripts provide some clues. When the investigating agent changed from Cooper (in a pre-release draft dated July 3, 1991) to Desmond (in a shooting draft dated August 8, 1991), the names changed, but Desmond’s role was the same as the one scripted for Cooper. Almost all of Cooper’s original lines were left as they were - including his dialogue with Sam Stanley, who assisted him in the investigation. Despite the fact that MacLachlan pulled out of the project, David Lynch was essentially shooting from his original script of Fire Walk With Me.

Some changes, of course, had to be made. Agent Desmond meets a mysterious fate when he inexplicably disappears. Dale Cooper is then introduced into the story. Rather than investigate Teresa Banks’s death. He is sent out to investigate Chet Desmond’s disappearance.5 The problem with this scenario is that Cooper’s role is now minor and passive. He is a seemingly insignificant character in this revised version of Fire Walk With Me, absent from many critical scenes and appearing only after the action had transpired. What’s more, his investigation into Desmond’s disappearance is brief and essentially fruitless. He leaves the scene as baffled as he arrives. Although his presence in the film provides a critical link to the series, his function in the Fire Walk With Me narrative is muted and almost seems unnecessary.

This was clearly not Lynch and Engels’ original intent. Cooper was supposed to be a more vibrant figure, especially if he was going to play a crucial part in Laura’s story. Lynch must have understood that the film was weakened without Cooper’s playing a more significant role.

Faced with this predicament, we believe Lynch took a bold and risky approach to re-imagining the narrative of Fire Walk With Me [the same approach he would take years later when he reworked the Mulholland Drive pilot into a feature film). By adding a few critical lines of dialogue and by carefully editing and restructuring certain scenes, Lynch positioned the entire Deer Meadow prologue (from the opening shot of the TV being smashed to Cooper’s monologue beside Wind River) as a dream of Dale Cooper. By doing so, Lynch restored Cooper to a more resonant, meaningful presence in the story. The Cooper-as-dreamer scenario allowed Lynch to return to his (and Engels’) original concept of fire Walk With Me. It is Cooper, not the imaginary Chet Desmond who confronts the mystery of Teresa Banks.

Lynch ensures that Cooper’s dream has narrative purpose. He understood that the dream had to be more than mere authorial conceit - the act of “dreaming” had to be necessary for the story, had to contribute something that a reality-based narrative could not. otherwise such dreaming would be arbitrary.

Cooper’s dream had to have intrinsic value, and it does. Lynch deliberately composed the dream so that it leads Cooper to a better understanding of the Owl Cave Ring (Teresa Banks’s ring). Almost every change he made to the prologue - almost every “dream” element Lynch added - was designed to guide Cooper’s mind to the secrets of the ring. As we will see, Cooper‘s subconscious mind is seeking answers through the dream, while, at the same time other-worldly beings access Cooper’s dream and try to help him.

The prologue, then, is not as much about the Teresa Banks investigation as it is about Cooper himself and his journey as an FBI agent who will one day use information gleaned here to help him solve the Laura Palmer case.

Remember, the idea that Cooper could be dreaming the events of the prologue is perfectly in keeping with the character (who, in the series, experiences powerful and significant dreams) and with themes Lynch has explored in earlier works. Dream imagery and character preoccupation with dreams is prevalent in almost all of Lynch’s previous films, from Eraserhead to Blue Velvet. (And, as noted, these concepts figure prominently in Mulholland Drive.)

The Cooper-as-dreamer scenario provides a satisfying explanation for the confusing, sometimes arbitrary nature of the prologue. Its various cryptic lines, narrative dead-ends, and extraneous story con tent can be viewed as part of Cooper’s powerful dreaming subconscious - a mind working to sort facts, process information, and assign meaning to certain experiences. What’s more, dream “logic” explains the shifting reality of the prologue as it moves from Deer Meadow to Philadelphia and back to Deer Meadow.

Cooper’s dream can also be viewed as a pathway to another world. The dream opens the door to the reality. of the Red Room, a place that is home to a group of autonomous inhabitants and that is governed by its own battling rules. As we mentioned, some of these beings will try to ’help Cooper (just as they do in the series).

Finally, the dream scenario allows the film to become a more organic whole. Cooper’s psyche dominates the first part of the film and echoes into the second. Cooper’s presence in Laura’s story now seems more appropriate. It feels “right” for Cooper to guide Laura through dreams and through death when his mind has already guided viewers through the crucial events that precede her tragic story.

In constructing fire Walk With Me so that it positions Cooper as an active (though dreaming) participant, Lynch transforms the film from a patchwork tapestry of loosely connected scenes into a unified and balanced work.

Inside a Dream

Lynch conveys a sense of dreaming by using numerous instances of “doubling” in the prologue. As we will see, dialogue, characters, and events regularly occur twice. This pronounced use of doubling does not happen in the second part of the film (Laura‘s story); it only happens in the prologue. There are also many lines of dialogue in which characters talk about sleep and dreams. Again, this kind of dialogue is primarily confined to the prologue.

If we look beyond the film and analyze the changes made between the pre-release and shooting drafts of the script, and be tween the shooting draft and the theatrical cut of the film, we find compelling - almost conclusive - evidence that the first thirty minutes of Fire Walk With Me is Dale Cooper’s dream. When Lynch changed Cooper into Desmond, he made other changes. Some of these occur in the second part of the film, but most occur in the prologue, making it more abstract and inscrutable than originally scripted. They are evidence that Lynch was conceptually changing the prologue, altering its narrative status from reality to “dream.”

parker · March 21, 2017, 8:33am

[quote]Cooper’s Dream, Part 1: Chet Desmond

The prologue opens with a shot of a static-filled TV screen being smashed with a lead pipe. The next shot shows a body ﬂoating in Wind River and is subtitled “Teresa Banks.” These are the first images of Cooper‘s dream, but they are not figments of his imagination. Teresa Banks really was killed (as later dialogue in the film -and facts established in the series - confirm). As Cooper dreams, he envisions what must have happened to her the moments during and after her death.

Gordon Cole is shown in his Oregon office, ordering one of his two secretaries to “Get me Agent Chester Desmond on the phone!” As originally scripted, Cole is shown talking into a speaker-phone. By adding the two secretaries, Lynch changed this very simple scene into a slightly more complicated one. The appearance of the two secretaries, each of whom appears separately but performing the exact same action (walking forward from the right side of Cole’s desk, toward the right side of the camera and then off-screen) marks the first significant instance of doubling in the film. Their presence seems redundant - and noticeable. (Why does Cole need both of them?) The two secretaries are blonde and brunette, a scenario that often signifies duality in Lynch’s work. Lost Highway features the characters Alice and Renee; Mulholland Drive has Betty and Rita; Twin Peaks has Laura and Maddy. These blonde and brunette character-pairs arguably represent aspects of a single personality. Likewise, the appearance of the two secretaries, in the dreaming mind of Dale Cooper, signifies that one being (Cooper) could manifest as another (Chet Desmond).

Almost all of the Chet Desmond part of the dream is based on Cooper’s own memory. In other words, those events that Chet Desmond “experiences” are actually events that happened to Cooper. His dreaming subconscious has transformed himself into a new, slightly different, personality. It was really Cooper - not Desmond - who traveled to Deer Meadow with Sam Stanley. It was Cooper who confronted Sheriff Cable, viewed Teresa Banks‘s body, spoke with Irene at Hap’s, questioned Carl Rodd, and who, finally, was left stymied by the case. This was the story as it was originally scripted by Lynch and Engels. A dream interpretation of the prologue allows these scripted events to still be considered “reality” even though they are not explicitly depicted on screen. Instead, we see them represented through Cooper’s dreaming mind.

Lynch’s reconfiguration of the prologue employed a clever story-telling tactic. He managed to convey his original scripted concept (Cooper in Deer Meadow) but used a different actor (and different character) to do so. In short, he had it both ways.

The question arises as to why Cooper would dream himself as someone else. Why does he imagine himself as Chet Desmond? The film provides no explicit answer. Perhaps Cooper mentally re-created himself as Desmond because he knows that, in reality, he failed to solve the Banks murder and believes a different detective will have better luck. The dream is, in part, wish fulfillment - Cooper wants to solve the case. But, deep down, he knows that reality cannot be changed, that the insoluble nature of the case cannot be avoided. Just as Cooper failed in reality, so too will Desmond fail in the dream. Once Desmond fails, he is no longer necessary; Cooper’s restless, churning mind “erases” him. 6

But before that will happen, Cooper will “relive" the events of his trip to Deer Meadow through this different persona.

Desmond arrives in Deer Meadow by plane and meets Sam Stanley and Gordon Cole. Cole introduces Lil, who performs her “coded” dance. A blue rose is pinned to Lil’s dress. Desmond explains that he can’t tell Stanley what the blue rose means. Later, Stanley inquires about the blue rose when Desmond decides return to the trailer park. Cooper also mentions the blue rose in his message to Diane, where he describes the Teresa Banks investigation as one of “Cole’s ‘blue rose’ cases." Neither Cooper or Desmond offer any more information about the meaning of the blue rose, and it is not mentioned again in the film. It appears to be an aspect of only the prologue.

So what is the blue rose, and why is such an obvious mystery introduced but never resolved? Many believe its meaning is self-evident -a blue rose is an impossibility, something that cannot exist in nature. A “blue rose case," therefore, alerts the appropriate FBI investigator that they are dealing with a potential supernatural phenomena. Maybe so, but notice Desmond uses an interesting choice of words when talking to Stanley: He says he “can’t” tell Stanley what the blue rose means, not that he “won’t.” Desmond can’t tell what the rose means because he doesn’t know. The blue rose is merely a figment of Cooper‘s mind - a dream-invention that represents the impossibility of the case.

Cooper recognizes that the case potentially involves some sort of otherworldly phenomena, and so he introduces a symbol of this phenomena into the dream.

To Cooper, the blue rose could function as a subconscious alarm, something that will echo into the waking world and alert him to look beyond the rational. When Cooper travels to Twin Peaks, he is prepared to use unorthodox methods of investigation. His mind is open to all sorts of possibilities. Did his dream about a “blue rose" prepare him for this subsequent investigation? Maybe.

The pre-release draft of the script (which featured Cooper, rather than Desmond) makes no mention of the blue rose. Lil does not wear one, and Cooper does not speak about it with Stanley or mention it to Diane in his recorded report. The blue rose did not appear in the story until the prologue was changed to feature Chet Desmond. As a result, it can be considered a major clue to unlocking the mystery of the prologue. The unexplained and unresolved presence of the blue rose is one way Lynch signifies a dream world. The blue rose is but an artifact of a dreaming mind.

Desmond and Stanley arrive in Deer Meadow and confront Sheriff Cable. They gain access to Teresa Banks’s body and examine it. Desmond notices that Teresa‘s ring is not included with her personal effects. This is the first time the ring is mentioned in the story. The missing ring is critical and will dominate the rest of the prologue. Ostensibly, Cooper dreams of the missing ring because he could not locate it in “reality.” But more is going on here. Cooper intuits the importance of the ring. He may not have understood its importance during his visit to Deer Meadow, but in his dream he begins to deduce a deeper meaning. The ring becomes the focus of his dream as he “realizes” he needs to know more about it. Of course, he cannot escape “reality;” when he dreams of reaching for the ring (as Desmond does), he cannot grasp it. But finding and holding the ring is not as important as understanding it. And, as we will see, Cooper will come to learn crucial information about the ring before his dream is over.

Desmond and Stanley visit Hap’s Diner and speak with Irene. Another instance of doubling occurs when the old patron twice asks, “Are you talking about that little girl that was murdered?” Although the line is repeated in the film, it is spoken only once in both the pre-release and shooting drafts of the script. Lynch uses the line twice in the final edit to effectively reinforce the idea that “Cooper” is investigating the murder of “that little girl" for the second time.

Desmond and Stanley visit the Fat Trout Trailer Park and meet Carl Rodd, the property manager, who takes them to Teresa’s trailer. It is here that one of the most fascinating exchanges in the film occurs - an event that strongly suggests the characters are aspects of a dream. After Rodd gives each agent a cup of coffee, Stanley says, “We sure do need a good ‘wake-me-up’ don’t we Agent Desmond?” Desmond mutely looks at Stanley and offers no reply. Stanley repeats the line: “We sure do need a good ‘wake-me-up’ don’t we Agent Desmond?" This seems to shake Desmond out of his trance and he replies, “Yeah! We do, Sam." At this moment a number of unusual events take place. The film cuts to a point-of-view shot of an unidentified old woman entering Teresa’s trailer. Desmond asks her if she knew Teresa Banks. The old woman shivers and backs away. There is a shot of a nearby telephone pole accompanied by the Indian “whooping” noise. Rodd seems to go in to a trance and speaks some cryptic lines, “You see, I‘ve already gone places. I just want to stay where I am." Desmond appears puzzled, as if trying to understand what is happening, and why Rodd is suddenly behaving so strangely. But before any further inquiry is made, the scene ends. It is an abrupt transition. The scene doesn’t properly conclude; rather, it seems to cut off in the middle.

What happens here? Why do all these strange events happen at one specific moment? And why are they not further developed in the film? Stanley’s “wake-me-up” line seems to act as a trigger, as if Cooper’s dreaming mind is trying to wake itself up.

(The “wake-me-up” line is not part of the pre-release draft of the script; there, Stanley asks, “You really do like that coffee, don’t you Agent Cooper?" Rather than change the single word “Cooper” to “Desmond.” Lynch changed the entire line. The new version suggests the idea of a dreaming mind trying to wake itself.) Before Cooper can awaken, however, a different “consciousness” manifests itself within the dream. For the first time, a separate entity, distinct from Cooper’s mind, enters the dream and attempts to communicate.

In the TV series, Cooper exhibits a psychic ability to contact other beings (and other worlds) through dreams. He encounters Mike (the One-Armed Man), Bob, the Little Man From Another Place, Laura Palmer (and possibly the Giant) all through his dreaming subconscious. In Fire Walk With Me, he again receives messages from another, this time unidentified, being. The message, however, is unclear. Rodd appears to be channeling another consciousness. He is afraid and just wants to stay where he is. But why would he (or whoever is speaking) be afraid of leaving? One possibility is that Rodd exists only within Cooper’s dream. If Cooper awakens (as he almost did when Stanley spoke his lines) Rodd would cease to exist. Another possibility is that this consciousness wants Cooper to stay asleep, perhaps because Cooper has yet to learn important information.

We admit that there is not enough evidence to support any definite solution to this puzzling scene. Nor is it even certain Lynch knew what it meant. Co-writer Robert Engels recalls that the scene was “a real cool thing that happened.” It was “sort of scripted“ but “not in any draft… it sprung from Harry [Dean Stanton’s] and David’s friendship.” The scene is a perfect example of Lynch re-working and developing the material as he shot the film. Although the specific meaning of this scene may never be known, we believe the scene, when put in context with the other changes made between drafts of the script, strongly hints that a dream is taking place, that the dreamer (who may be Cooper) is on the verge of waking, and that someone or something is attempting to deliver a message before that waking can occur.

The dream continues as Desmond and Stanley confront Sheriff Cable about taking Teresa’s body back to Portland. After they secure the body, Stanley asks Desmond if he is going back to the trailer park for the blue rose. Desmond does not reply. Here, again, there is a mention of the blue rose. The rose and the ring are two recurring objects fraught with deeper meaning, yet never satisfactorily defined in the film. Could the two items be related? Stanley’s suggestion that Desmond is “going back” for the rose, coupled with Desmond’s eventual sighting of the ring, implies a connection. The film, however supplies no further information about this potential relationship.

Cooper’s dreaming mind could be equating the two items. In “reality” Cooper never found the ring, and in his dream it becomes an important and mysterious object. Like the blue rose, however, Cooper “can’t” say what the ring means. But he wants to find out - he wants to "go back for the blue rose.”

Desmond returns to the trailer park and alter a brief exchange with Rodd, he begins to look around. He seems drawn to a particular trailer. When he looks under it, he sees Teresa’s ring sitting on a small mound of dirt. He reaches for it, and the screen goes black.

This is a critical transition point in the dream. Although the shooting draft of the script describes Desmond as “disappearing” the image on screen freezes and then fades to black. Desmond does not physically disappear. In the dreaming mind of Dale Cooper, however, Desmond ceases to exist.

As we’ve mentioned before, it is difficult to discern why Cooper is experiencing this particular dream. It is obviously based on his own memories of investigating the Banks murder. But is Cooper dreaming to relive the case and this time solve it through a new persona? Or is he trying to escape from the memory of the failed investigation by retreating into an alternate identity? In the end it doesn’t really matter, because the Desmond character will not (and can not) solve the murder. Cooper’s restless, active mind either submits to the inevitable and erases Desmond; or his retreating, passive mind finally acknowledges his failure and no longer needs Desmond. But the Desmond persona has performed a crucial function. Through Desmond, Cooper has had a glimpse of the ring. This sighting opens a doorway into Cooper’s mind, allowing him at last to grasp a deeper meaning to the ring. Its appearance triggers the ending of the first part of the dream and the beginning of the second. As we will see, Cooper‘s dreaming mind will now be more receptive to critical information from otherworldly beings.

Desmond is gone, but the dream continues. After the screen fades to black, the film cuts to an establishing shot of Philadelphia, then quickly to the first appearance of Dale Cooper. Cooper enters the story almost as soon as Desmond disappears, reinforcing the idea they are the same character - Cooper has simply replaced Desmond.

Lynch now provides the first of his two most explicit clues that the prologue is a dream. Cooper says to Cole, “I’m worried about today because of that dream I told you about.” Cole looks a bit confused and unsure of what to say.

Cooper offers no further information. But this line, so early into Cooper’s appearance, is a clear signal that dreams play an important role in the story. Cooper‘s line is an important clue regarding the Chet Desmond / Deer Meadow sequence that just ended. It was all part of a dream - Cooper’s dream.

Cooper leaves Cole’s desk and stands in the hall before the closed-circuit security camera. He then walks into an adjacent room where he checks the image on the corresponding security monitor. Cooper repeats this behavior until, inexplicably, he sees himself on the security monitor. At this moment he is in two places at once. Cooper’s appearance in the security monitor is open to many interpretations, but, if this sequence is still part of a dream, it hints at the idea that Cooper is a “doubled presence” in the dream, that he has already appeared in the dream under the guise of Desmond.

When Cooper spoke with Cole, he never described his dream. The audience, like Cole, is waiting for him to say more.

Cooper says he’s worried and indicates his dream was important, but says nothing else. Of course, his subsequent behavior in front of the security camera implies he is either re-enacting, or acting upon, his dream. But nothing is certain in this part of the film.

Neither Cooper‘s announcement about his dream nor his doubled appearance were part of the pre-release draft of the script. These elements were added later, when the script was changed to accommodate Cooper’s new role. As Lynch re-worked the prologue, he added Cooper’s new dialogue to suggest that part of the film was actually a dream, then included a scene (the two Coopers) to evoke dream logic.[/quote]

parker · March 21, 2017, 8:36am

Cooper’s Dream, Part 2: Phillip Jeffries

The doubled presence of Cooper coincides with the appearance of Phillip Jeffries, the FBI agent who has been missing for two years. Jeffries, who is confused and behaves erratically, cryptically relates some of his experiences to Cooper and the other agents, then disappears.

The entire Jeffries scene was radically altered from the way it was originally scripted. Even the shooting draft of the film contains a description of this scene significantly different from the pre-release draft. A close examination of the scene, along with a comparison of the filmed version to the scripted one, suggests that Lynch purposely altered it so that it would appear dream-like. In fact, the final version of this scene (as it appears in Fire Walk With Me) is so bizarre that it seems impossible to reconcile with any waking “reality.”

In the script, Jeffries walks past Cooper’s double and into Cole’s office. Cooper follows (there is now only one Cooper). Albert and Cole recognize Jeffries, who seems distracted and confused. He points to Cooper and says, “Who do you think that is there?” He stumbles to a chair and says, “It was a dream. We live inside a dream." He then tells the tale of his journey to “one of their meetings…above a convenience store." The script ﬂashes back to the meeting. We see the Man From Another Place, Bob, the Tremonds, and the Woodsmen. The meeting adjourns, and the script returns to Jeffries, who is quietly crying, “the ring…the ring.” At this point Cole asks Albert to leave the room. Cole tries to use his intercom to call for a stenographer. The intercom does not work, but Cole continues to try as “static begins to build and the ﬂuorescent lights start to hum.” Cooper goes to the door and looks to see if anyone is coming to help Cole. Cole, meanwhile, is focused on the intercom. He turns back to Jeffries, but there is no one there. Cooper and Albert return to the room to find Jeffries has vanished.

Much of the Jeffries scene was changed for the film. The scripted scene has a logical linearity and deliberate pace to it. The on-screen version, however, is chaotic and obscure: Jeffries enters the room and points to Cooper, “Who do you think this is there?” Blue static superimposes the scene. Jeffries tells his tale, but the audience hears only snippets. His story is intercut with scenes from the convenience store meeting; Jeffries’ voice fades in and out. The audience hears him say, “It was a dream. We live inside a dream,” and, “the ring…the ring.”

Albert and Cooper never leave the room during the story. Jeffries screams, and then Cole declares, “He’s gone!" There is a shot of an empty chair, and Albert announces, “I‘ve got the front desk right now. He was never here."

(The scripted version of the scene also tells more about from where Jeffries came and went. He is shown in Buenos Aires both before and after his appearance in Cole’s office. Lynch out these scenes. As part of a dream they would be extraneous information. Dream logic requires no explanation about Jeffries’ origin. He need only enter Cooper’s mind at the right time, tell his story, then disappear.)

The Phillip Jeffries scene is a kaleidoscopic montage of images and sounds that is difficult to decipher completely. It does seem, however, that Jeffries suddenly disappears right in front of Cole, Albert, and Cooper. For three people to witness such an overt supernatural phenomenon - especially when that group includes the no-nonsense, forensic minded Albert - clashes with the subjective nature of the Twin Peaks universe. The “supernatural” in Twin Peaks was often tied to the psychology of the individual. Dreams and intuition allowed “the gifted and the damned” to tap into other worlds - to see what others could not - in ways and with meaning that was unique to the individual. Lynch has said that the Red Room of Twin Peaks is a place “that changes depending on whoever walks into it.”5 Supernatural phenomena exists in the Twin Peaks world, but in ways that uniquely reﬂect the observer.

In the Phillip Jeffries scene three people witness the exact same phenomenon. Surely, the witnessing of such of an event would challenge the way Albert, of all people, perceives the universe. Could an Albert who watched another person literally vanish be the same Albert who would later travel to Twin Peaks and sarcastically asks Cooper if he’s seen “Bob on Earth in the last few weeks” (as he does in episode 2002)? Is this same the Albert who will insist on “confining [his] conclusions to the planet earth" (episode 2003)? Having Albert witness the Jeffries disappearance contradicts his established character. There is no way to reconcile the behavior of Albert in the series with the Albert from the film.

Unless, that is, we accept that the Phillip Jeffries scene is part of a dream.

Conveniently, Jeffries supplies the most explicit, telling clue about the nature of what is happening: “It was a dream. We live inside a dream.” Phillip Jeffries, Gordon Cole, and Albert Rosenfield - and even Dale Cooper - live inside a dream. What came before - the Deer Meadow prologue - was (part of) a dream. It is as simple as that. There is no deeper meaning to what Jeffries says, no greater mystery to solve. The characters live inside a dream. This is the proper way to “read” the prologue of Fire Walk With Me. Many clues have so far hinted at this interpretation, but here, in a line that was not part of the original draft of the film, Lynch exhibits a rare moment of explicitness. He provides a glimpse into the mechanics of the narrative, an invaluable “key” that cracks the code of the prologue.

In a dream, “Albert” is free to witness a disappearing Jeffries. In a dream, Cooper can appear in two places at the same time. What‘s more, with a dream interpretation we can now venture a guess as to what Jeffries means when he asks, “Who do you think this is there?” about Cooper. Cooper, quite simply, is the dreamer. If Jeffries knows that he is inside a dream, he may very well know whose dream. (An other equally valid answer might be that Jeffries recognizes Cooper as Desmond. Again, if Jeffries knows he is in a dream, he may know that Cooper has changed identity.)

Jeffries does not seem to be a creation of Cooper’s dreaming mind, but rather an autonomous entity who has found a way to contact Cooper through his subconscious. Jeffries’ presence is important - he has vital information to impart, and in a crash of images and sound, he does. Lynch‘s complex, multi-layered editing of the scene has a dreamlike quality. Cooper’s mind is overloaded with the information that Jeffries pours into the dream. Lynch isn’t editing this scene merely to show viewers what happened at the convenience store meeting (as the original ﬂashback meant to do). He edits the scene as if the dreaming mind of Dale Cooper is receiving this information, and his mind is struggling to process it.

Jeffries succeeds in supplying some crucial information to Cooper: the boy magician looks at Bob and says, “Fell a victim." The little man is shown holding Teresa Banks’s ring and speaking to Bob. He says, “With this ring, I thee wed” (yet another line that was not scripted). This is enough information for Cooper to deduce that possession of the ring probably marks a victim for Bob. It is crucial that Cooper understand that the ring is a potentially dangerous object (at least when taken from the Little Man). Cooper will later appear in Laura’s dream and warn her not to take the ring. Cooper can only know the ring is bad if, at some time, he becomes privy to its secret. This is that time. Jeffries supplies the critical information that Cooper will need in order to warn Laura.

Cooper’s dreaming mind has been working toward discovery of this information. The entire Desmond/ Deer Meadow section is driven by the mystery of the ring. Cooper is either actively seeking it or being guided to it (or both). Either way, once “Desmond” reaches for it, the dream shifts to another level of consciousness. Cooper - as himself - enters the dream and is now positioned to receive Jeffries’ crucial information.

But the dream is not yet over. Once Jeffries disappears, word arrives that “Chester Desmond” has also disappeared. This sets up the next scene in which Cooper travels to Deer Meadow to investigate the new mystery. This section is still part of the dream.

parker · March 21, 2017, 8:38am

Cooper’s Dream, Part 3: Dale Cooper

At the Fat Trout Trailer Park, Rodd tells Cooper all he knows about Desmond’s last visit. Cooper thanks Rodd and says, “Sorry to wake you.” Rodd replies, “That’s OK. I was having a bad dream anyway." Here, again, the dialogue returns to the subject of dreams.

Rodd‘s dream line was originally scripted to be part of an exchange with Chet Desmond: After completing their search of Teresa Banks‘s trailer, Desmond says to Rodd, “Sorry we woke you.” Rodd tells him he was having a bad dream. Lynch moved the exchange to the later part of the film, effectively emphasizing the continuing dream nature of the prologue.

After Rodd tells Cooper what he knows, Cooper intentionally walks toward the site where Desmond found the ring. Cooper is known to act on intuition, and so there is nothing unusual about him following his instincts and repeating Desmond’s steps. Another explanation for this behavior, however, might be that he “remembers” what Desmond did because it happened to him in an earlier part of the dream.

Cooper explores the now empty space where the trailer once stood, but there is no mound of dirt or ring to be found. He asks Rodd about who stayed in the trailer. Rodd says it was an old woman and her grandson. They were named Chalfont. Then Rodd says that the previous tenants were also named Chalfont. Here again, there is an instance of doubling. What’s more, the fact that there were “two Chalfonts" is emphasized. (Of course, this curious incident recalls the appearance of the Tremonds from the series. Donna Hayward meets Mrs. Tremond and her grandson living in a house next to Harold Smith. When Cooper visits the same home he finds another, different woman living there who is also named Tremond.) The presence of the double Chalfonts augments the dreamlike nature of the section. The presence of two Chalfonts suggests that Cooper may have been here before - either as himself in “reality,” or under another guise (Desmond) in an earlier part of the dream.

Cooper notices Agent Desmond’s car and walks toward it. He sees the words “Let’s Rock” written on the windshield (in what looks like bold, red paint). A significant connection has now been made between the film and the series. In Twin Peaks. Cooper experiences a powerful dream in which he visits the Red Room and sees Laura and the Little Man From Another Place. The Little Man’s first words to Cooper are. “Let’s Rock!" Here, in Fire Walk With Me, Cooper receives a hint of what’s to come - a kind of precognitive echo of his future dream. The “Let’s Rock” message is another reminder of the power and pervasiveness of dreams in the Twin Peaks narrative. It also marks the third time Cooper has received a message from the "another place” (arguably the Red Room). The first was Rodd’s cryptic “gone places” comment, and the second was Phillip Jeffries’ appearance. In each of his dream’s three segments, Cooper has had contact with another world.

The last moments of the dream come when Cooper dictates his report to Diane. He tells her “Agent Desmond” has disappeared and that the clues Desmond and Stanley found have lead to dead ends. He makes special note that the Teresa Banks case is a “blue rose case.” Finally, he says he has the feeling the killer will strike again. These notes to Diane are nothing more than notes Cooper is leaving for himself. As his dream ends, he summarizes all that he knows. His mind attempts to impose “order” on the facts. But Cooper knows that there is more to the case than is apparent. His dream has opened his mind to other possibilities and prepared him for the important role he will play later in the film, and especially later in the series. After Cooper finishes his report, the film transitions to the waking world of Twin Peaks and Laura Palmer.

If Cooper “wakes up” at this point, the audience doesn‘t see it. Lynch did not have the same freedom shooting Fire Walk With Me that he had shooting Mulholland Drive. In the latter case. Lynch carefully redefined his existing material (the pilot) into a dream story, then meticulously crafted a new story from which this “dream” would reﬂect. He reassembled his cast, shot the new material (including a scene of his protagonist awakening), and finished the film. Fire Walk With Me was a different affair. Lynch’s solution to re-work the prologue material into a dream was an ongoing process during the shooting and editing of the film. In fact, Lynch may not have fully committed to the dream scenario until he found a satisfying way to make all the pieces of the puzzle fit. By then it was probably too late to shoot anything new. The distinct transition from Deer Meadow to Twin Peaks would have to suffice as the border between dream and reality.

Futures Past

In both the pre-release and shooting drafts of Fire Walk With Me, the Phillip Jeffries scene happens after Cooper has completed his assignment in Deer Meadow. (Shortly after Laura Palmer is introduced. the script cuts back to Philadelphia, and Jeffries makes his appearance.) During the editing of Fire Walk With Me, however Lynch chose to move the scene back a full year and fold it into the Deer Meadow prologue.

In order to do so, Lynch had to make significant edits to the scene. As scripted and shot, Albert does not announce, “News from Deer Meadow - Chet Desmond has disappeared.” Nor does Cole ask (while he is looking at the videotape of Jeffries’ arrival), “Where is Chester Desmond. " These critical lines were added after the scene was shot. The dialogue was recorded later and inserted.

Watch closely as Albert delivers his lines. He says, “I’ve got the front desk right now. He was never here.” The scene cuts to Cole as Albert announces that Desmond is gone. Albert is not shown saying this critical line. (Lynch cleverly employs two shots of Cole during Albert’s line - a medium shot. then a close-up. This editing effectively masks the inserted dialogue. The audience focuses on Cole‘s reaction to, rather then Albert’s delivery of, the news.) Also watch Cole when he subsequently asks about Desmond. Lynch cuts to a shot of the back of Cole’s head when he speaks his line - the audience never sees him mouth the words.

Lynch moved the scene back to an earlier part of the narrative because he realized the Jeffries scene was a necessary part of the dream story. It is here that Cooper learns about the ring, the little man, and, to some extent, Bob.

Cooper’s dream ends with his report to Diane. He says, “The letter below the fingernail gives me the feeling the killer will strike again. But like the song says, ‘…who knows where or when.’” The dramatic irony is implicit in his remarks. The viewers know the answer, and Lynch verifies their knowledge by cutting to the Twin Peaks Sign and using the familiar Twin Peaks theme. These two scenes had to be placed together; they represent the boundary between dream and reality.

If the Jeffries scene was to be part of the dream, it could not take place after the transition. It had to be placed before Cooper‘s visit to Deer Meadow. But the Jeffries scene is awkward. As written, it is designed to parallel action taking place in Twin Peaks - it does not build toward, nor transition to, another part of the story. Moving it earlier in the narrative meant the scene would require some transitional function. It had to lead somewhere.

Lynch deftly places it between Chet Desmond’s disappearance and Cooper’s subsequent investigation. He radically edits it to be dreamlike and removes Jeffries‘ extraneous “before” and “after” scenes. Finally, he inserts new dialogue to link the scene to the next part of the film. As a result, Lynch creates a stronger narrative arc to the dream. Desmond begins the story in Deer Meadow; Jeffries acknowledges the dream in Philadelphia; Cooper ends the story in Deer Meadow: A beginning, a middle, and an end.

Dream Logic

The Deer Meadow prologue introduces a number of significant new elements into the Twin Peaks universe. But these elements are never mentioned in the series. The obvious reason, of course, is that Fire Walk With Me was written after the series; it would have been impossible for the show’s writers to acknowledge characters and events that had not yet been developed. It is striking, however, that a character like Chet Desmond, or an important case classification such as “blue rose,” would be absent from the later part of the story when they have such prominence and importance in the film. Their introduction (and subsequent absence) threatens to disrupt narrative continuity. A dream interpretation, however, diffuses these contradictions. All the prologue’s newly-introduced elements become repositioned as artifacts of a dreaming mind. In “reality” there is no Chet Desmond, no blue rose cases.

Dale Cooper, however, is real, and his presence in the waking world is an essential component of the story. If the entire prologue is Cooper’s dream, the audience only perceives his character through the arbitrary, impulsive nature of his dreaming psyche. In short, they don’t get to see or hear the “real” Cooper in the film. In order for Fire Walk With Me to function as a stand-alone work, Cooper needs to be grounded in Laura Palmer’s world. He has to be part of a shared reality, an individual who is subject to the same physical laws as the other characters. Otherwise, he exists only as an abstraction - a reﬂection of reality (just as Betty is a reﬂection of Diane in Mulholland Drive).

Lynch solves this problem - but just barely. Cooper appears in one brief scene that is explicitly connected to the waking world of Laura Palmer. In Philadelphia, Cooper speaks with Albert about the Teresa Banks case. His first words are, “Lately, I have been filled with a knowledge that the killer will strike again." This line is almost an exact replication of his earlier message to Diane (in the dream). Here, the line indicates that Cooper has had some vision - some premonition - of the future. He says he has “been filled with a knowledge." But, how? When and where did this knowledge come to him? As has already been established in the series, Cooper can gain valuable knowledge from dreams [in episode 1002, directed by Lynch, Cooper explains that he “subconsciously gained knowledge" in this manner). The “knowledge" Cooper describes to Albert was also gained from a dream - in this case, the prologue.

Cooper tells Albert they will work together on the next case. Albert then asks Cooper to describe the next victim. Cooper describes, in general terms, Laura Palmer.

Then he cements the connection by exactly describing what she is doing at that moment: “She is preparing a great abundance of food.” The film cuts to Laura Palmer at the Double R Diner as she prepares the food for her Meals-on-Wheels route.

Cooper is now established as part of Laura’s world; his conversation with Albert is not part of a dream. It is Cooper’s only “real world” appearance in the film. He will show up two more times - once during Laura’s dream - once after her death. Both times will be in the Red Room; but he won’t really be Cooper. He will be the “good Dale“ [explicitly labeled as such by Annie Blackburn in the film) - the sundered half- of-Cooper that was trapped in the Red Room during the series finale. (Lynch offers nothing more to identify this aspect of Cooper. Annie’s brief comment is cryptic, and unless viewers of the film have already seen the series finale they may not fully understand the implication of her statement.)

The Good Cooper serves an important function. He guides Laura and offers advice. He tells her not to take the ring when the Little Man offers it. He knows now, after all his varied experiences, that taking the ring from the Little Man is a bad thing. Later, Laura does take the ring - but from the One-Armed Man, arguably a force for good. Her fate is different, but still one of confusion and despair. Cooper is there for her, a comforting presence who guides her toward angels and an afterlife of happiness. Would Laura find this happiness without Cooper? There is no way to know. But Cooper’s experiences in fire Walk With Me (implicit in the dream prologue) prepare him for the vital role he will play in Laura’s destiny. Fire Walk With Me may be Laura’s story, but it is also Cooper’s. It is Cooper - not Chet Desmond or Phillip Jeffries - whose life intersects with Laura’s. He is the critical player in the narrative, and his presence in the story is far more profound if we recognize him as the consciousness that governs the film’s prologue. ’

Laura’s Dream

Is it fair to expect a viewer of Fire Walk With Me to perceive that Cooper is the dreamer, to arrive at this conclusion without a working knowledge of the series, the various drafts of the film script, or Lynch’s previous and subsequent work? Maybe. David Lynch is an intuitive director who creates movies that “feel right” to him. Filmmaking is “a subconscious intuition kind of thing. . .you can have [a scene] in the script but when it‘s in front of you, it’s ﬂuid. If a line doesn’t work you adjust it - you see it has to be this way?" Lynch doesn‘t connect the dots for the viewer, but he does ensure that all the “dots” are in place. When asked about Lost Highway, the film he made after Fire Walk With Me, Lynch stated, “The clues are all there for a correct interpretation.” For Lynch, then, there is a correct interpretation, a single, specific way of “reading” Lost Highway. He deliberately placed all the necessary clues required to decipher the film. Almost certainly, he did the same for Fire Walk With Me.

Dream imagery such as Lil’s dance, Chet Desmond’s disappearance, Cooper’s doubled appearance, and Phillip Jeffries bewildering visit pervade the prologue. What‘s more, recurring hints about dreams and sleep come from Sam Stanley, Cooper, Jeffries, and Carl Rodd. Taken together, these clues are almost enough for viewers to unlock the narrative’s peculiar structure. But they are not the only clues available to the audience. Dreams are explicit in positioned as important aspects of the narrative when, later in the film, Laura Palmer experiences her own dream, charged with meaning and portent.

Laura’s dream is a valuable clue because it echoes the prologue in both narrative structure and story content. Laura dreams of entering the Tremonds‘ painting. She moves through rooms until she arrives at the Red Room, where she sees the Little Man, the ring, and Dale Cooper. Laura does not physically appear in the Red Room; her presence is implied through her point-of-view. Cooper turns to the camera (i.e., Laura) and tells Laura not to take the ring.

Like Laura, Cooper does not “appear” in the first part of his dream. He experiences the dream either as a disembodied observer or by playing the part of Desmond. Either way, his presence is only implied.

Laura seems to “awaken” from the Red Room dream -she is shown lying in bed with her eyes open. But Laura is still dreaming. Annie Blackburne appears and tells Laura about the Good Dale being trapped in the lodge. She instructs Laura to write this message in her diary.

Again, Laura’s dream parallels Cooper’s. After Chet Desmond disappears (upon seeing the same ring the Little Man shows to Laura), Cooper physically appears. Though still dreaming, Cooper seems to have awakened from “that dream” he told Gordon Cole about. Like Annie Blackburne, Phillip Jeffries appears” with an important message. He wants to tell Cooper, Cole, and Albert about his trip to “one of their meetings.” Jeffries says the meeting was above a convenience store, but he also talking about the Red Room (or lodge, since it houses “woodsmen”). Jeffries, like Annie, imparts his message and vanishes.

Laura gets out of bed and opens the door to her bedroom. She turns back and looks at the Tremonds’ picture, where she sees herself in the painting, standing in a doorway. Cooper, like Laura, also sees a double of himself. In another notable parallel, Cooper‘s double appears in a video monitor; Laura’s appears in a painting. As we can see, Laura’s dream points back to the prologue in a couple of ways. First, it reintroduces some of the same story elements seen earlier (the ring, the Little Man, the doubled presence of the dreamer). Second, it loosely parallels the structure of the prologue (the dream-within- a-dream, the message from an outsider about the Red Room).

Laura’s dream is also worth noting because it presents the same kind of “reality” that manifests in the prologue. Laura may be dreaming, but she is also entering another world, one with its own autonomous inhabitants (the Little Man, Annie) and rules. This is the same dream world Cooper accesses in the series - a place that reﬂects the mind of the dreamer; a reality that adapts to each individual who visits it.

By placing an explicit dream in the film that resembles and reﬂects the earlier part of the story, David Lynch provides the final, perhaps most substantive clue as to the nature of the Deer Meadow prologue. This, coupled with the other clues present in the film, gives the viewer of fire Walk With Me enough information to deduce the “correct interpretation" of the prologue.

Conclusion

For years, David Lynch considered Fire Walk With Me to be his “most experimental film." What made it, in Lynch’s mind, so “experimental?” Was it because the film was an extension of a previous work, the Twin Peaks television series? (Probably not; Lynch was used to telling an on-going story with the series, and Fire Walk With Me was just another chapter.)

Was it because Fire Walk With Me employed a sort of circular narrative that deftly connected the series’ final episode with its first? (Possibly, but Lynch had already ventured into this territory during the series finale, an episode that both echoed and repeated the series pilot.) Or was it because Fire Walk With Me represented Lynch’s first effort to rework objective story material into a subjective dream narrative - an experiment he would try again, and perfect, in Mulholland Drive? This is the likely answer. For the first time Lynch positioned story material to function as the reﬂection of a specific consciousness - in this case, Dale Cooper’s.

When asked about Kyle MacLachlan’s reluctance to commit to Fire Walk With Me, David Lynch said, “I love restrictions and I believe in fate. So what he did worked out just fine. …[T]here’s no such thing as a problem, there are only solutions, and you just go forward.”12 Lynch’s comments are telling. MacLachlan’s limited availability was not a restriction - rather, it led to a solution. This solution may have been to replace one actor for another, but this tactic merely sidesteps the narrative problem Lynch faced when his second most important character was no longer viable. We believe Lynch’s solution was far more complex and subtle. He took a chance - he “experimented” with the film and found a way to keep Cooper a prominent character in Fire Walk With Me.

Although the cryptic dialogue and abstract imagery of Lynch’s film are not always immediately comprehensible, Lynch maintains that “they are, in some way, understandable.“13 He prefers to keep things puzzling and complex because “most films are designed to be understood by many, many, many, many people,” and therefore, “there’s not a lot of room to dream and wonder."14 Fire Walk With Me has room to spare when it comes to dreams and wonder. But the film is not without purpose or design. There is a strategy at work in Fire Walk With Me.

When David Lynch added Chet Desmond to the Fire Walk With Me story, he made other significant changes in order to transform the original, straightforward prologue (featuring Cooper) into an esoteric, abstract narrative that is strongly reminiscent of a dream. When we identify Cooper as the dreamer, this prologue be- comes, for the first time, an integral part of the overall film. It balances the narrative and brings homogeneity to the work.

When Dale Cooper dreams of Deer Meadow, Fire Walk With Me achieves a new form of aesthetic unity; it emerges as a cohesive, meaningful film, at last.

parker · March 23, 2017, 8:07pm

zombieman000 · March 23, 2017, 8:16pm

Found out that Warren Frost (Doc Hayward, Mark Frost’s dad) passed last month. Wanted to embed the Hayward family scene in Missing Pieces but couldn’t dig up a copy.

Brooks · March 23, 2017, 8:18pm

Ed is so gorgeous

BustedAstromech · March 23, 2017, 9:36pm

Big Ed is Dad for All

Rudie · March 24, 2017, 4:30am

Still wearing that 1980 Olympic Levi’s Western Shirt. (I own the same shirt.)

lasa · March 24, 2017, 5:15am

Seeing Ed and Nadine reminds me that we’ve never got a clear answer at where People Under the Stairs fits in the Twin Peaks multiverse. Alternate timeline where Ed and Nadine wonder into the black lodge?

parker · March 28, 2017, 7:16pm

here’s how much of a nutcase I am, I just rewatched the series, and I watched the pilot on februrary 24th, the same day cooper enters twin peaks, then watched each episode on the day it takes place and just finished the other day.

it was the first time rewatching the bad episodes in a long time, I usually skip them. the diane keaton directed episode is definitely the nadir of the series, and a couple of the ones around it were trash but the rest weren’t too bad.

right after the evelyn marsh story mercifully concluded those ew photos of james hurley looking longingly at ghost laura and still holding his half heart necklace 25 years later wiped out any negative feeling I might have ever had about his character though.

Annetts · April 2, 2017, 9:29am

Thanks for posting that essay parker. Is there a good site with other wrapped in plastic content?

LaurelSoup · April 2, 2017, 11:37am

Holy shit, I never realized that was them!

parker · April 2, 2017, 8:19pm

Only thing I’m aware of is this book that just came out

parker · April 4, 2017, 3:12am

there’s going to be another novel

parker · April 4, 2017, 3:14am

will they ever let me go

doolittle · April 4, 2017, 3:29am

Come on, I haven’t finished corkboard stringing the last one.

LaurelSoup · April 4, 2017, 3:55am

That EW article theorizes that much of the new season will involve a frozen-in-time version of the town of Twin Peaks that exists in good Cooper’s head in the Black Lodge. If I expected something narrative and not something Mulhulland Drive-y, I’d think they’re onto something.

parker · April 12, 2017, 8:28am

either episode summaries or titles or something from the showtime site

part 1 & 2 are may 21st, 2 & 3 the week after but they’ll also apparently be available on some showtime streaming bullshit right after 1 & 2 air. kind of annoying all this time and then to get new twin peaks and then have to wait two weeks to catch up to new episodes again cause of the streaming thing, cause it’s not like I’m just not going to torrent them