Twin Peaks

The core of Twin Peaks is exemplified, I think, by the third season, and to a lesser extent by Fire Walk With Me and The Missing Pieces. Of course, it is necessary to watch the first two seasons, since otherwise the third season would be totally incoherent, and these seasons are anyway still worth watching in their own right, even if the second season especially has some major lapses in quality.

Episodes and films

Symbols

Other pages

Miscellanea

Dreams. In Twin Peaks, as in reality, “dreaming” is another place that happens simultaneously with wakefulness. The red room is always there. The people I see in dreams gossip about me while I am awake. People sometimes can visit when they are asleep, or dead, or have special talents, or for various other reasons. The events of wakefulness interact with the events of dreams. Objects that are always there in dreams sometimes suddenly appear as fantasies or hallucinations. Twin Peaks depicts this aspect of reality very realistically.

Code used by Albert and Cole in the third season. Frequently Albert will ask Cole something, and Cole will mishear him and give an apparently irrelevant answer. Then Albert will stare deadpan for a few seconds. The first time we watch this series, we assume that this is a recurring joke. However, once we learn about the various supernatural spies disguised as human beings, it becomes clear that this is a sort of code that the two use to communicate. The reason why there is often a pause in the conversation is that Albert (or Cole) needs some time to process what the other is trying to communicate. They use this code to hide what they are saying from others present. However, in a few cases, they do this even when they are apparently alone. Are they worried about being spied on through, for example, electrical outlets? Perhaps. I also think that Cole at times suspects Albert himself of being a spy (that is, a tulpa or some other form of double), and he uses this code so that a fake Albert would not be able to gain any new information from what is said. (After Albert admits to giving Cooper information without Cole’s approval: “Albert. Albert… [Long pause] Albert. [Very long pause with rising hissing noise.]” (S3E4). After Albert apparently fails to understand Lil-like code from the woman visiting a friend of her mother whose daughter has gone missing: “Albert, sometimes I really worry about you.” (S3E12).)

“Waiting room.” That the room first seen in Cooper’s dream is called the waiting room, is mentioned in S2E22. There are at least two other waiting rooms mentioned by name: In FWWM, at Deer Meadow police station, and in The Return, S3E9, at the morgue. (Both times, the FBI visiting a local police station to examine a dead body as part of a Blue Rose case.)

Chocolate bunnies. In S3E3, Lucy claims that she only ate one chocolate bunny. However, two are missing. And in S1E1, we see that indeed all four were taken as evidence unmolested. If Lucy is telling the truth, who ate the other chocolate bunny?!

Red, Richard, coins. In S3E6, Red (the drug-dealer magician) tells Richard, “Heads I win, tails you lose.” Of course, the most obvious interpretation is that he means, I will win no matter what. But before that, he says: “This is you,” showing the tails side, and then “this is me,” showing heads. That is, they are two sides of the same coin. Red and Richard also look very similar. One interpretation is that Red and Richard are the same person, and they both “win” when the coin flip shows heads, and lose when it is tails. Another interpretation is that they are two aspects or variants of the same thing, and that Richard necessarily cannot win, but he can in principle prevent Red from winning, perhaps by sacrificing himself. Coins are shown several times, as far as I can tell, always showing heads. Also in S3E6, Hawk finds a coin heads up, and this leads him to find the missing pages of Laura’s diary. Examples from other episodes include: S3E8, the girl who is later poisoned by the frog-moth thing finds a coin and notes that it is heads up, which she understands to indicate good luck. At the end of S3E9, one of the characters in the Roadhouse may be wearing a coin around her neck, probably heads up.

Richard, Linda. Mentioned in S3E1 together with 430 and “two birds with one stone.” See also names on “Richard” and “Linda.” See Hotel Palm Deluxe on the unread letters connecting the following things: In S3E6, from the scene with Red and the coin, cuts of Richard driving are interspersed with cuts related to Mickie picking up Linda’s mail; this scene also mentions Billy, who apparently (although I take it we are supposed to assume that this is a different Billy) goes missing later.