For once, or maybe twice, or three times! - this isn’t a Star Trek article. I was pretty blown away by my first rewatch of Twin Peaks in 34 years - almost an impulse decision following the too-soon death of David Lynch in January. I watched it an episode each day (with a short break in between seasons), and often posted some thoughts on Bluesky - initially as fond tributes to Agent Cooper’s tapes to Diane. But social media is so fleeting, and I wanted to keep these posts somewhere a little more permanent. So here they are, a few of them slightly expanded on.
A short piece about Lynch’s wonderful film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (which again I hadn’t seen since the mid 1990s) will follow soon. I was pretty overwhelmed by it, especially the weirdly sublime and consolatory ending, and several days later I’m still thinking about it.
In due course I’ll be watching Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), which I have never yet seen. But first a little break is needed, so (naturally)… Star Trek!
…………………….
Diane, today I started a rewatch of Twin Peaks for the first time since 1991!
It's astonishing how fresh it is after three and a half decades, and the 90 minute pilot completely held my attention. The superb, memorable characters felt like meeting old friends. And thankfully, my partner loved it!
Since l've never forgotten Fire Walk With Me (a powerful film, stupidly maligned on its release), certain elements stood out and resonated, knowing what I know. The series, of course, has more tonal variety, but the quirky humour feels a seamless part of the darker story. It was a perfect pilot!
And of course, the music is so distinctive and so memorable! As with so many great musical collaborations between composer and director, it's hard to imagine Twin Peaks without it.
…………………….
Diane - I may have found Episode 2 of Twin Peaks slightly less compelling than the pilot, but it was still a funny, quirky and disturbing examination of the darkness underlying small town American life. A damn fine show by a unique & visionary artist! And now I'm hungry for some cherry pie. 🍒🥧
…………………….
Diane, it's 11:43 pm. For all of Dale Cooper's innocent idealism and joie de vivre, he's extremely attentive and notices a great deal. Everything from the grievers at Laura Palmer's funeral to the body language of secret lovers.
"Big Ed, how long have you been in love with Norma?” 😂
Maddy's presence gave me an uncanny sense of Laura Palmer attending her own funeral. And Leland's tragic-comic grief brought a strange tone to the scene, especially in the light of Fire Walk With Me. Yes, it was an oddly farcical moment, but it was also genuinely tragic.
And the way Dale Cooper gently took Laura Palmer's hand and placed it across her body was very touching, given what I know of the role her death will play in his life. She's only seen as a corpse and in flashbacks, photos and videos, but her presence is everywhere.
"Laura is the one."
…………………….
Diane, it's 10:58 pm. Today I encountered a damn fine llama at the Lydecker Veterinary Clinic. It wasn't in my dream and I don't think it's connected with the case, but it was glorious! The best moment in the whole episode.
…………………….
Diane, it's 1:58 am. And at times I can only watch Twin Peaks through the lens of Fire Walk With Me. In Renault's cabin, the twine and blood on the floor, Julee Cruise singing Into the Night on the turntable. And the Log Lady who saw and heard it that night in fragments, a woman of such wisdom and compassion.
At times comical, the shots of animals and birds, alive and dead, are more often uncanny, like spirits watching. You get lulled into the soapiness of the characters' lives, their friendships, schemes, affairs and even their hidden violence, only to be reminded that something bigger and darker is going on.
…………………….
Diane, it's 11:28 pm. And Laura Palmer is ever-present in Twin Peaks, from her haunting musical theme (which I never tire of) to her photographs and her doppelgänger Maddy, and now Maddy disguised as Laura. “Laura is the one."
| was, of course, upset by poor Waldo's death. But hearing the recording of him mimicking the words of Laura Palmer and Ronette Pulaski was chill-inducing! Especially, as always, looking backwards from Fire Walk With Me. Amid all the quirky humour, the film brings a darker perspective.
…………………….
Diane, it's 1:15 am. As the abusive relationships in Twin Peaks come to a head, a theme of the S1 finale seems to be of residual or latent feelings and loyalties being expressed. Some are fake, but others are genuine. I find this touching, Diane. There's a White Lodge as well as a Black Lodge.
…………………….
Oh my, Nadine has woken up from her coma, with her superhuman strength intact! Except she thinks she's in high school? 😁
…………………….
My partner has a crush on Special Agent Dale Cooper. And Kyle MacLachlan is absolutely terrific in the role. Knowing what lies ahead of him gives a sad poignancy to his decency and optimism. "The good Dale is in the Lodge and cannot leave." I'm not sure how my partner will take it! 💔
And Leland Palmer. Even knowing what I know, even having seen, loved and been terrified by Fire Walk With Me, even though his grief is unhinged... it's still absolutely genuine and deeply felt. The story of the Palmer family is a tragedy, like so many real examples of multigenerational abuse.
Although at times I want to bang their heads together, I'm enjoying the funny-sad soapy stuff between Lucy and Andy. So far, S2 is slower and less intense than S1, but I still like it lots and am intrigued throughout. In fact, the slowness is refreshing. It gives me time to just enjoy and take it in.
…………………….
"It is happening again."
Directed by Lynch himself, "Lonely Souls" is a wonderful Twin Peaks episode, both darker and more beautiful than usual. Seamless transitions between comedy, tragedy and mystery and back again, the mirroring of certain scenes, an almost continuous musical score, Julee Cruise in the final scenes, unforgettably haunting images, recurring visual motifs, so many connections to the later film, and the way Lynch takes his time over everything - lots of long, slow takes, giving the experience room to breathe...
And whether in film or TV, Lynch so often crafts an unforgettable ending.
Here a scene of horrific violence (and a huge reveal) is juxtaposed with one of weird beauty, deep sorrow and compassion. It's a wonderful television experience.
"I am so sorry." 💔
…………………….
The climactic scene of "Arbitrary Law" was so moving, in a very Lynchian way. Ray Wise and Kyle MacLachlan acted their hearts out, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the sense of compassion, forgiveness and release that, yet again, resonates even more through the lens of Fire Walk With Me.
And as so often, I liked how recurring visual motifs unified extremely contrasting scenes. Lynch may not have scripted or directed this one, but his presence still felt palpable throughout.
…………………….
When I first watched The X-Files in the 1990s, I think I thought I hadn't seen David Duchovny before. If so, then l'd completely forgotten that he played a transgender DEA agent in Twin Peaks just a couple of years earlier.
There's a nice moment in "Masked Ball", where Denise quietly but firmly
corrects Cooper for accidentally deadnaming her, and Coop immediately and calmly accepts the correction. Very Dale Cooper, and possibly very David Lynch too
- at least from the fondness with which so many actors speak of him.
And I've heard that Denise Bryson reappears 25 years later, in Twin Peaks:
The Return. So now I know what this meme was all about, that appeared all over Bluesky after David Lynch's death. It doesn't do any harm to leave it here again! 🏳️⚧️
…………………….
All the post-Laura Palmer stories in Twin Peaks are thematically on point and it's still entertaining, but I can understand why David Lynch was unhappy with it. And why, once he was freed from the studio's pressure, he took the story straight back to Laura Palmer again in Fire Walk With Me!
With Dale Cooper ostensibly the central character, Laura Palmer haunts the whole show, her portrait, musical theme and doppelgängers everywhere. In Episode 1 of S2 (one of the few Lynch directed), Harriet Hayward says it in her poem. "Laura was the one. Laura was the one."
It was always about Laura.
That said, in the work of an artist even more obsessed with doppelgängers than Star Trek is, Cooper stands in for the audience, and Windom Earle is a dark mirror of Coop! And S3 will end with that enigmatic final shot of Dale and Laura together.
…………………….
"Slaves and Masters" was quirkily directed by Diane Keaton, full of inventive camera angles and framing and extreme close ups. I'm obviously not an expert, but I think it worked for a Twin Peaks S2 episode. Violent scenes juxtaposed with slightly weird comedy, lulling you, then knocking you back.
Nadine, Ed and Norma's bed scene, the bit with Pete and Cooper and a
repeatedly swinging door, and Ben's family helping him through a very
unconventional therapy session, were quietly hilarious. This may not be quite the Twin Peaks David Lynch dreamed or wanted, but I still haven't seen a TV show like it.
…………………….
Totally coincidentally, by watching Twin Peaks an episode a day I'm basically experiencing it in real time, as the story takes place over a month. And it's the same time of year; Laura died on 23rd February, and Cooper entered the Lodge near the end of March!
I won't wait 25 years to see The Return, though! I'll be lucky if I'm still alive by then. 😊
…………………….
The scene in the diner, where Gordon falls for Shelly and Coop falls for Annie, is the most adorable thing ever. David Lynch walks into the Double R - and into Twin Peaks - like a fresh summer breeze. But to me, it also feels wonderfully meta.
My feeling is that Gordon, a stand-in for Lynch himself, can hear Shelly perfectly because wholesome, pretty women (and cherry pie!) represent the goodness Lynch loved and found easy to understand. So much of his work focuses on evil because he was trying to make sense of it somehow!
Poor Annie & Cooper, though! I remember enough of the ending to feel a sense of dread about where it's heading.
"My name is Annie, and I've been with Laura and Dale. The good Dale is in the Lodge, and he can't leave. Write it in your diary." (Fire Walk With Me)
……………………..
"YOU ARE WITNESSING A FRONT THREE-QUARTER VIEW OF TWO ADULTS SHARING A TENDER MOMENT!" 🥹❤️❤️❤️
…………………….
In "The Path to the Black Lodge" with adorable characters falling in love, oblivious to a terrifying darkness approaching, the Major's greatest fear ("the possibility that love is not enough") really adds to the dread, the sense of impending tragedy.
Dale Cooper is a very, very good man but deeply flawed, with his White Knight complex and his need to make everything right. He hasn't met his shadow self yet, and when he does he'll lose courage. My partner will be shocked by the end, and I'm not sure I'm ready for it either. I love these characters!
…………………
Parts of the Twin Peaks fandom seem to tie themselves in knots over it all, and I know that David Lynch resisted reductive interpretation. But now that I've finished the original series, I have more thoughts than I could ever write down. I'm just glad I don't have to wait a quarter century till S3!
Meanwhile... 🔥
…………………….
So many visual echoes recur throughout Twin Peaks (red curtains!), and the Lynch directed finale is full of them. The doddery old man at Savings and Loan who gives Audrey a drink of water is echoed later by the waiter (who is also the Giant) offering coffee to Cooper inside the Lodge.
And how that same coffee changes from liquid to solid (opposites, like doppelgänger coffee!), and then to a dark brown sludge - reminiscent of the scorched engine oil at the centre of Glastonbury Grove, which Ronette Pulaski remembered from the scene of Laura's murder.
Definitely not "damn fine coffee"! Not at all!
But one thing that took my breath away was the consistency across a gap of 25 years of storytelling. I'm so excited to see The Return (for the first time), in which both these statements turn out to be absolutely true!
"Between Life and Death" is a terrific finale to an unforgettable series.
