Twin Peaks

[Vee]

Much nicer.

[Vee]

All of those scenes from "The Missing Pieces" are from FWWM, so in the week or so before Laura's death.

As for Josie, most of her persona at the mill - sweet, innocent, poor English, inept and kind - was a put-on.

I haven't watched all the scenes yet, though they are online. I know Everett McGill talks on some of the special features about being very fond of his deleted scenes with Norma, where they get to just be together. And I think the longer version of the "convenience store" scene David Bowie's character Phillip Jeffries describes - with the spirits of the Lodge assembled - is fascinating and terrifying. (There is also a little more of Jeffries, including him warping in and out of Buenos Aires, where he was apparently involved with "Judy" and the Lodge as part of a past case.)

I do think the bit with Laura and the fan should have stayed in. It is terrifying.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Vee

[DRW50]

I had forgotten Joan filmed for FWWM. Now that I think of it it does fit FWWM's tone more - that guy with the glasses was what they sort of tried and somewhat failed to do with the mayor and his brother on the show.

Is this supposed to be like Bob's first entry into the world, or is this just supposed to be a typical coming and going?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw4Nq8aPhNA

[Vee]

Some have theorized that that scene is the spirits talking about their coming into our world from their dimension with the ring ("intercourse between two worlds"), or something - the going theory for most people is that the ring allows them to harvest their precious "garmonbozia" (human pain and suffering) as a group from a specific person, or makes a certain soul their prey. Teresa wore it and was killed; Chet Desmond touched it and vanished, with the Man from Another Place leaving his message behind on the car windshield in the trailer park for Cooper to find ("Let's Rock"). Laura put it on and BOB was unable to claim her as his host - instead, the Lodge got her pain and suffering, and Laura hung out in the Lodge for however many decades until, one hopes, ascending at the end of FWWM when she sees the angel.

Al Strobel, who played the One Armed Man, said he was told the ring was "evil". But it is, of course, all theory. And Lynch would hate for anyone to figure on one explanation (though that was often Mark Frost's job - he said in an old interview that he insisted they sit down and reason who the dwarf was when Lynch wrote him in, whereas Lynch is more about dreams, visions, impressions and his amazing ideas.) I do think BOB's line is there to indicate he was not willing to play by their rules - he tries to take Laura for himself.

There is also a lot of cut, extremely cryptic Lynchian dialogue in that scene for the other characters that was in the script but evidently not filmed, including Mrs. Tremond asking why they should not be beings composed of atoms, or something. Jürgen Prochnow's few lines as the woodsman who slaps his knee were cut - some used to theorize he was the Log Lady's lost husband, sprited away to the Lodge. Calvin Lockhart, former Hammer horror star, gets one line in the final film as the Electrician ("Animal life"). And I think the dude who played the "Jumping Man" in the red suit and mask said he was told he was "some kind of talisman."

[DRW50]

That's interesting. Thanks.

I never have been able to figure out if Bob is supposed to be the true manifestation of evil in that world, or just one manifestation, if he is supposed to be like a difficult child the others at the Black Lodge have to deal with, or if he has true power over them, or what.

I wonder if Lynch tried to get Mrs. Tremond back for the finale, since she had those scenes early in season 2 but I don't remember seeing her again (on the show), and all of that seemed to be somewhat dropped.

I'll always wonder if he had any more plans for Laura's meals-on-wheels storyline. I guess the whole thing was cooked up by whoever in charge to help Laura sort of find a way out. Then Donna was following in her footsteps but once Harold died, that was never mentioned again.

Edited October 12, 2014 by DRW50

[Vee]

IMO nothing is ever just dropped on TP, it's just something that happens and may happen again. I don't recall if Lynch wrote the Tremonds stuff in early Season 2 - I don't believe so. He did pick it up later, and his son did play little Pierre in that episode (another child plays him in FWWM). IMDB claims Harley Peyton wrote that episode, but I vaguely recall hearing a story that that scene got tweaked a bit by Lynch or someone - maybe he added the infamous creamed corn.

I think Laura's meals on wheels thing was just the Lodge spirits keeping an eye on her (as they did Teresa), but I have no clue. It also led to the Harold story.

It's impossible to provide a definite explanation for most of these things - all we have is theory, and yours is as valid as anyone's. Personally I think BOB is just one of many questionable spirits in the Lodge, some good or evil or just neutral (as I suspect the dwarf is). I do think he was the renegade, but they all seemed to profit from the deaths of some other victims (like Teresa, or perhaps Josie).

Edited October 12, 2014 by Vee

[DRW50]

Do you know if Donna's season 2 story went the way it was intended to go? Or did LFB want any changes? We always hear about the changes she demanded in the Cooper/Audrey story, but never about her own.

[Vee]

All I know about her story there was what was mentioned in Brad Dukes' book - they mentioned that some of the stars came to the show after Season 1 and requested various changes to their characters or style or whatever. Sherilyn Fenn apparently wanted Audrey to be styled more like Katharine Hepburn versus the bobby-soxer look, and Lara Flynn Boyle allegedly was very keen on Donna becoming a more adult, sultry vixen type of heroine, a la Audrey - notable because Audrey was a) the most popular female character on the show and slated to be paired with Cooper.

Donna did change in this way somewhat, particularly in the premiere where Laura's sunglasses seem to possess first her, then Maddy; she also becomes sort of darker and colder as James grows closer to Maddy and their romance fizzles out. But the sunglasses thing disappeared, and they stopped pushing with the "new" Donna almost immediately. The thing is that, IMO, Audrey was never very dark or overtly adult - everything about her character was the young girl's idea of womanhood and sexuality. She had an innocence to her even when she exuded sex, and she always had a sense of irreverence and fun. When they had Donna transition, it was not the same thing, and I always got the sense (however accurate or inaccurate) that they soured on the character too. They did try to give her the Donna/Ben subplot near the end. I think it's mentioned by someone in Dukes' book but I can't recall what.

I was surprised to hear someone who would know claim on Dugpa recently that both James Marshall and Joan Chen were expected back for Season 3 (they were both filming movies). I thought the show had washed its hands of James by the end of the second year, especially after the Evelyn debacle.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Vee

[DRW50]

That scene with the glasses and the smoking almost feels like making fun of Donna, and perhaps LFB.

I didn't care for the Ben-is-Donna's-father story (too melodramatic and ultimately no real fallout, as Donna didn't have interesting relationships with Ben or Audrey), but I'm not sure where else they could have gone with Donna either. The main problem is LFB had a certain range and was only suited to that range.

Maybe they could have paired her with someone like Mike Nelson, as they used to date.

[DRW50]

The main problem with Annie was she didn't have an inner life - she was there mostly for how men saw her, whereas the other women on the show.

If they could have expanded on her while still keeping her sweetness and the slight melancholy within her, then I think she would have worked. Since we barely got to know her, she's mostly remembered as just replacing Audrey's story.

I did like Annie. By the end I preferred her to Cooper.

[ghfan89]

I read that Mark Frost and David Lynch disagreed on who Bob was suppose to be. Frost saw it as Bob possessing Leland, where as Lynch saw Bob as another facet/side of Leland.

[Vee]

A hilarious and candid interview from 2012 with Julee Cruise, the voice of Twin Peaks (and Blue Velvet). Portions of this were reprinted in Brad Dukes' Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks.

As per Cruise's potential involvement in the new show, I think Frost has heavily hinted that Angelo Badalamenti will return, and I personally suspect she will as well. She seems to still be friendly with Lynch - and we still have no idea what the project with him she mentions here is.

Edited October 13, 2014 by Vee

[Vee]

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Sheryl Lee narrates pieces of The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer - ghostwritten by Jennifer Lynch and an essential for any TP fan, a very dark, graphic piece of official ABC-licensed promotional material that was once sold up front at every major bookstore for impressionable young tots like me to read. This narration comes from, of all things, an ABC recap special hosted by Alan Thicke.

[Vee]

Forgive me if this has been posted: Andy Greenwald at Grantland on the return of TP and why it matters. He also reminds me that while I am 50/50 on whether Sherilyn Fenn, etc. may return, she is already doing Ray Donovan on Showtime and so would be close at hand for TP. I don't know the details but Fenn has reportedly had some rough years of late, and Lynch has apparently been a good friend to her with his transcendental meditation.

Edited October 14, 2014 by Vee

[DRW50]

I read that it was pulled in some stores...frankly I wonder if anyone read a page before they made the decision to let kids buy it. It's a superb piece of fiction and it will stay with me always, but it's a tough, tough read. My father read a few pages after I bought it last year and he was disgusted.

I do think anyone who can take it should definitely read it, as you get so much insight into not just Laura, but also Bobby. The book completely and totally enhanced my perspective of them and made me love them even more.