Welcome back, dear reader. This has been quite the controversial episode. A lot of people critical of this one, and the rest are critical of those who are critical. For me, this invoked the feeling I had completely forgotten about, that kind of amazed, dazed confusion I used to feel after an episode of the original run. Immensely satisfying lore dumps, followed by utter WTF moments. In the Audrey and Roadhouse scenes alone, we are literally introduced to 12 new characters and seemingly as many plot lines.
If I can be allowed an analogy, this season has been like getting a jigsaw puzzle in a zip lock bag, with no box cover picture to go by. We’ve got most of the border pieced together, still missing a section or two perhaps, but now we just turned over a bunch of middle pieces that we can’t possibly see yet how they fit. So there wasn’t much big theory stuff this time, but we’ll have a good sized speed round to cover all the little things.
Ignore the strange man. Next stop, Wendy’s. Let’s theorize.
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Theory: Diane is a member of Team Doppelganger.
Analysis: Lots of new information on Diane this week. She gets a new text message (“Las Vegas?”), and this one would seem to necessarily not be from Bad Cooper. He would not want Team FBI to go to Las Vegas, where they would undoubtedly aid Good Cooper. Besides, he thinks Vegas is taken care of, even sending Chantal and Hutch as a backup to be sure. So maybe there’s a glimmer of hope there, that she is working with a middle man, or even working two sides of the impending big-picture conflict.
Many wonder if the ominous music cue (from FWWM) played when she said “let’s rock”, plus the phrase itself, is supposed to indicate she is possessed by a lodge entity or a lodge entity herself somehow. Her two-finger salute is also a bit reminiscent of the two-finger gun Red pointed at Richard during their meeting.
Diane used some sort of memory mnemonic, “co-or-din-ates-plus 2”, to memorize the coordinates. Maybe not such a bad spy after all. If Albert did feed her false coordinates, they are awfully believable (being just about where Jack Rabbit’s Palace ought to be).
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Theory: Good Cooper will “wake up” when (you name it) happens.
Analysis: Just a quick mention here that we did not get the “two hours” reference we were hoping for, based on the potential “four hours” and “three hours” countdown established in the prior two parts. Oh well, maybe it’s not going to be Part 14.
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Theory: There are alternate realities at work here.
Analysis: Just another quick mention here. All of the Dr. Amp / Nadine scenes were recycled footage, from multiple past scenes, and jumping around in the order. Is it future or is it past?
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Theory: There are alternate timelines at work here.
Analysis: Charlie mentions it’s a new moon tonight. It was a new moon on Sept 30, 2016. It was not in 2015 and 2014. This seems to lock Twin Peaks in step with the other locations, in the year 2016. (Always allowing that there are still onesie, twosie scenes that are being presented to us out of order.)
Miriam’s hospital monitor says 15th September 2015. This is undoubtedly a legit continuity error. The Twin Peaks scenes were filmed in Sept of 2015. [Source: u/thecowjumpedovertheM, r/twinpeaks]
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Speed Round:
- The address of the NYC glass box building (a CGI artifact overlaid on a real location), based on the buildings surrounding it, appears to be 111 Broadway. The building that exists there in the real world is known as the historic Trinity Building (another “three” reference – see my article Themes of Three in the Third Season of Twin Peaks). [Source: Hardflame Eudy, Twin Peaks (2017) Facebook group]
- Mandie, Sandie and Candie mirror the three Venus statues in the Red Room. “There’s the Venus de Medici, which is the one in the room with the sofa, the Venus de Milo in the ‘corridor’, and then a third one turns up in another room space. That one’s the Venus de Arles, which has its complete arms in real life, but in TP one is broken off to just above the elbow and the other to just below the shoulder.” [Source: Clair Taylor-Shepherd, Twin Peaks (2017) Facebook group]
- It seems like Frost and Lynch are following the classic model of the hero’s tale with Cooper’s journey. Specifically, from Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces, the transitions of the Hero are:
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- The Primordial Hero and the Human (think Mauve Zone)
- Childhood of the Hero (early Las Vegas)
- The Hero as Warrior (with Ike the Spike)
- The Hero as Lover (with Janey-E)
- The Hero as Emperor and as Tyrant
- The Hero as World Redeemer
- The Hero as Saint
- Departure of the Hero [Source: Eric Maas, Twin Peaks (2017) Facebook group]
- Gordon used his red box again to sweep the room for bugs. He turns up his hearing aide before Albert begins explaining Blue Rose to Tammy, and back down again when Albert is done.
- Somebody in the house, Hawk asks. No, just something in the kitchen, Sarah answers. (Oh come on, it’s not the delivery boy!)
- Ben failed to mention Richard’s attack on his wife/ex-wife to Sheriff Truman. Maybe because she lives in Ghostwood Estates, and he doesn’t want their security to be viewed negatively (like that’s more important to him).
- Ben seems reluctant to give up the key for Harry, as if he’d like to keep it for himself.
- Many have noticed all the father and son references in this episode. But it’s actually more so about absent fathers, dead (Warden Murphy), mentally not there (Dougie), and completely missing (Richard’s father). [Source: u/spooninthepudding, r/twinpeaks]
- Could the turnip farmer’s daughter being missing be related to the weirdness with the maintenance guy at Ruth Davenport’s apartment building?
- Charlie actually does have a crystal ball. It’s right there on his desk.
- New characters introduced in the Audrey scene:
- Charlie is the man she’s talking to; her contracted husband
- Billy – her lover, missing for 2 days
- Tina – last person to see Billy; hated by Audrey
- Paul – someone Audrey threatens Charlie with
- Tina’s husband – Tina wouldn’t have been able to talk if he was there
- Chuck – said Tina was last to see Billy; stole Billy’s truck
- We did have that scene in Part 7 where new character Bing popped into the RR Diner looking for a “Billy”, so it’s possible this is the same new character. This is also believed to be the “Farmer” that Andy was trying to talk to about his truck earlier in that same part.
- Several folks have noted the book Four Quartets by TS Elliott behind Audrey. It has some very interesting content that almost has to be related to Twin Peaks. See this Reddit thread for details: https://www.reddit.com/r/twinpeaks/comments/6qzzas/s3e12_ts_eliot_and_audrey_horne_is_it_future_or/
- Miriam has blue roses at her bed side in the hospital.
- New characters introduced in the Roadhouse scene:
- Abbie and Natalie are the ones having the conversation
- Angela – didn’t show tonight or last night; hates Mary
- Clark – been hanging out with Angela lately
- Mary – seen with Clark at Roadhouse 2 nights ago
- Trick shows up late because he was run off the road; used to be under house arrest
- Two more farmer references in this part: The turnip farmer in Buckhorn whose daughter is missing, and the farmer who pulled Trick out after being run off the road.
- In case you haven’t heard yet, titles for the last two parts have been revealed. Part 17: “The past dictates the future.” Part 18: “What is your name?”
- Last thought: At least she didn’t get turned into a brain tree! Heh..
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As always, please reply below with your own comments and corrections, or give me your own well thought out theory. You can catch me on various Facebook groups, such as “Twin Peaks (2017)” or our own “25 Years Later” page, on the Reddit r/twinpeaks forum, or email me at catnapspirit@gmail.com. See ya next week.
The title of part12 make me anxious about Dale
Given Twin Peaks events may be several days ahead of events in Buckhorn, that dangerous driver might be a familiar character returning to TP. Or Richard Horne remembering some unfinished business