Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 31: Fire Walk With Me

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Also, I just watched The Missing Pieces.  Some of those scenes had no chance of getting into the movie (Pete arguing with Dell Mibbler?), so why were they even filmed?

So we could watch them a decade+ later on wildly advanced technology, duh! David Lynch is all about the long con. ^_^

 

I could have argued before why the movie doesn't work in some ways when I didn't quite align with it emotionally, and now I could say why it works so damn well, too. You always know how to rationalize your emotions.

That sounds exactly right to me. Lynch's work in general seems to work on a very specific emotional level- people seem to either like his work or not, and neither group is "right".

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I just found this 1992 alt.tv.twin-peaks recap of an advance Minneapolis screening of Fire Walk With Me.  It was a 3:40 cut with Robert Engels doing a Q&A afterwards.

 

Engels also talked about a planned sequel movie to Fire Walk With Me!


 

In regard to my last comment, Robert Engels said that there will be another movie and that it will be post-series—ASSUMING that FWWM does well enough. He said that it has already pulled a profit in Japan (i.e. they no longer have to worry about breaking even), but he hedged a little bit on saying anything for certain (understandably).  He acknowledged that there were a lot of loose ends still (which got a bit of a laugh from the audience), and he speculated a little bit about the next movie.

 

Again, it sounded like it was very much grounded in what cast members were available. He said that they HAD to try to get one of the four people who knew what was going on: Cooper, Windham Earle (or however you spell his name), Major Briggs, or...somebody else. Sorry, folks. I've forgotten.  Anyway, the point is this: it really matters more who has time to make a movie than what David Lynch WANTS to do. He hoped that they would be able to do something with David Bowie's character, although the way he mentioned it, it sounded like it would be kind of a last resort if all of the people that they want fall through.  It sounds like Cooper will NOT be doing the sequel (which has an estimated time of commencement in a couple of years—Robert & David will be doing some other project next, and they don't plan to thing about the next TP movie until that project is out of the way).

 

...

 

Me, I just can't wait for the laserdisc and the sequel.

 

It's crazy to think about a Cooper-less sequel to Twin Peaks that would just be following David Bowie around.

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Man, I really love this movie. I've seen it three times now and it keeps getting better and more interesting with each rewatch. How ballsy of Lynch to start the Twin Peaks movie with a completely un-Twin Peaks town and detective. Everything about the Chris Isaak stuff in the beginning and his experience with the shadow Twin Peaks - the mean versions of Andy, Lucy, and Truman; Teresa Banks' corpse vs angelic Laura's; the dirty version of the Double R that isn't staffed with ridiculously beautiful women - is such a great foil to the main show. I almost think the first thirty minutes of this movie are the best (almost!) because of how efficiently they tear down audience expectations. You wanted quirky Twin Peaks?? Well here's a small, crappy, realistic American town instead. 

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This is my second time watching this movie, and I liked it much, much more this time through. I definitely liked it the first time I saw it, but I had no idea what to expect from it, and I think knowing what the movie was going to be made me appreciate it a lot more.

 

The first time I found myself completely confused by the Red Room/Black Lodge spirit scenes (especially the Tremonds), but this time through I really viewed it mainly as a way to put the audience in the insane world of Laura.

 

I found it difficult both times to try and understand the purpose of the whole David Bowie scene (though maybe trying to do this is pointless), but viewing it as a continuation of the shadow Twin Peaks in Deer Meadows, where the Red Room crew is in a dingy broken down apartment building instead of the Red Room/Black Lodge we've grown to know in the show.

 

I'm really excited to listen to this podcast.

 

Edit: I can't post without mentioning one of my favorite parts of this movie! I found the soundtrack overall to be fantastic, but in particular, the use of Laura Palmer's theme was astonishing. By the end of the show, it had been used so extensively that it didn't really hold any emotional value to me, but when they used the recognisable parts of it here, rearranged it seems, it really worked for me.

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I just found this 1992 alt.tv.twin-peaks recap of an advance Minneapolis screening of Fire Walk With Me.  It was a 3:40 cut with Robert Engels doing a Q&A afterwards.

 

Engels also talked about a planned sequel movie to Fire Walk With Me!

 

 

It's crazy to think about a Cooper-less sequel to Twin Peaks that would just be following David Bowie around.

 

Great find! It seems like Bob Engels' story tends to shift over the years (he himself has admitted his memory is not that sharp) so it's good to hear his thoughts relatively close to the actual writing.

 

Me, I just can't wait for the laserdisk and the  

sequel.. not that I think we'll ever get a very clear idea of what David Lynch  

himself thinks is going on.  I got the impression that there wasn't going to be  

a third movie, but that may be just because the second movie is all the farther  

they want to think at the moment.

 

I hope that Paul Hagstrom is still with us, and that he was first in line for the Entire Mystery blu-ray last summer! What a long wait. Sometimes I wish I could've experienced the show during its original run, and sometimes I'm just glad I did not have to endure that 1-2 decade dark age in which Twin Peaks was largely forgotten, Fire Walk With Me was almost universally despised, the entire series was almost impossible to get on video, the deleted scenes seemed like they would be locked away forever, and the prospects of any additional material seemed beyond remote. You original, long-suffering Twin Peaks viewers have my respect...

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This is the first time I've watched this movie (though I have watched the series before - I either read or assumed that the movie was a retelling of the first episode, or I got it confused with the European version of the first episode, or something, or whatever, anyway I didn't watch it intentionally, shame on me).

 

So it was great!

 

I don't have much to say because I am not a deep or meaningful person but I was proud of myself for noticing this: the finger that Leland obsesses over when inspecting Laura's filthy hands, the dirt under the fingernails, it's the same finger that Cooper finds the letter in. Left hand ring finger! I thought that was a cool little detail.

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Also, I just watched The Missing Pieces.  Some of those scenes had no chance of getting into the movie (Pete arguing with Dell Mibbler?), so why were they even filmed?

 

I love that scene so much!

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Downloaded this two different times now and on both occasions it's been 1 hr 30 minutes long. It should be over 2 hours right?

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Yes. Sounds like you've downloaded The Missing Pieces.

Ah, thanks. Got the right one now. Looking forward to seeing it tonight. Only watched the finale for the first time last night.

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episode's up!

Also as said at the end of the episode, next week is a mix of discussing FWWM-related listener mail, and discussing Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces. So if you have the Complete Mystery Blu-Ray be sure to watch The Missing Pieces for next week. Otherwise, please send in your thoughts on Fire Walk With Me!

The week after next is likely our last episode until the new season starts up (Crazy!!!), which will be mostly focused on reader mail and closing thoughts on what will be the Complete Twin Peaks until next year.

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I suggest a Wayward Pines watch to fill the gap until new Twin Peaks is out.

Is it actually akin to Twin Peaks? I hear conflicting reports but am curious enough to start watching if you say it's good!

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I haven't watched it but everything I've read about it makes me really dubious, so my suggestion wasn't super serious. It would be kind of interesting to watch a current show that is so clearly influenced by old Twin Peaks in the lead up to new Twin Peaks, to kind of bridge the gap between the two, but not if the current show is actively bad.

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I've been trying to figure this out in my head and I don't know if anyone else has an opinion: Does Chester Desmond really exist?

 

His sudden disappearance made me think of Bill Pullman in Lynch's Lost Highway, who is likely an alter ego of Balthasar Getty's character.

 

Previously, the show hinted (and I guess the novels state?) that Cooper was the investigator on the Teresa Banks murder.  Maybe he still is?  But a part of him is Chris Isaak?

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I get the feeling that they paved over this by having Cooper show up where Desmond disappears. Presumably he is assigned Banks from that point on?

Desmond disappearing seems to tie entirely into the way Bowie appears and disappears. Presumably people on the "blue rose" cases tend to have this sort of ridiculousness happen to them on the regular?

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I figured that he had a dream involving seeing himself on the camera and seeing Bowie walk by do he went to test it and it happened? I don't know if that's too simple. I have also been assuming that the Cooper after image relates in some way to there being another out-of-time Cooper in the red room, who we were seeing when Bowie popped up. But I don't have any concrete reasoning behind that.

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Man, I loved the Philadelphia field office stuff.  One of my favorite scenes.  It's got that crazy dream logic to it that seems emblematic of Lynch--where I don't necessarily know what's going on, but I strongly feel like Lynch knows what's going on.

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Echoing everyone on how great Sheryl Lee was in this FWWM, just incredible. A couple things that stood out for me in the movie. First one, is seeing where Little Lynch's (aka Tremond boy) downward finger snap relates to was kind of gross, and still throws me and what the hell the Tremonds have to do with the mythology of Twin Peaks.

 

The other thing is something my partner suggested after seeing BOB clean Leland of the blood stains in the Black Lodge at the end of FWWM. She suggested that BOB wipes Leland of his involvement with Laura. Because as obvious as as it is during the show I was still surprised that Leland turned out to be the murderer,because of how traumatised he was after her death (Oh and as Chris and Jake mentioned during Rest in Pain, how gross did it make the coffin scene). My partner then suggested that BOB left Leland's body to die with the memories, just to torture this now worthless host.

 

This felt rather nice in how sadistic BOB engaged in his consuming of fear/garmonbozia. Just like he says in the train car: "I never knew you knew it was me", he wanted her to see Leland's face as he raped her. Those two lines by BOB and Leland were just so so disgusting in their meaning.

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I have a take on that Mike yelling at Leeland and Laura scene.  I'll have to watch it again this weekend and collect my thoughts for an email.

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I've been trying to figure this out in my head and I don't know if anyone else has an opinion: Does Chester Desmond really exist?

 

His sudden disappearance made me think of Bill Pullman in Lynch's Lost Highway, who is likely an alter ego of Balthasar Getty's character.

 

Previously, the show hinted (and I guess the novels state?) that Cooper was the investigator on the Teresa Banks murder.  Maybe he still is?  But a part of him is Chris Isaak?

 

Well, there is a theory that the first 45 minutes of FWWM is Cooper's dream, in which he reimagines the investigation, exaggerated, with Chet Desmond in his place. I don't really buy it but find it fun to consider, especially tracing the parallels with Laura's dream later in the movie (begins with omniscient view, then dreamer appears within the dream, confronted by a time-traveling character delivering a message - Bowie vs. Graham, and sees themselves in a framed image, two places at once - Coop in monitor, Laura in wall picture). There's a lot more stuff to it too; it was written down by John Thorne, editor of the fan magazine Wrapped in Plastic, in 2001. spoilers for other Lynch movies (bet you thought you'd seen the last of the spoiler tags):

obviously the release of Mulholland Drive influenced this idea. Also, while we're inside this tag - I always take Balthasar Getty to be more the alter ego of Pullman's, i.e. Pullman is projecting himself into that identity to get away from being a wife-killer - but I guess it could work both ways!

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Great episode, guys. Glad to hear there are at least a couple more episodes on the way, plus I guess a whole new podcast when the (18!) episodes of Twin Peaks come around. I wish I'd taken notes on your discussion as there were a bunch of things I thought would be interesting to address/respond to. I loved your description of Twin Peaks seeming more suburban in this film than on the show which seems apt both for the film's slasher-like aspects and more everyday, relatable vibe (vs. the ethereal, idealized world of the show). But most of all, I wanted to talk about some of the more confusing, even bewildering stuff in the movie, as I've given it a lot of thought over the past year.

Ok, long post ahead...

I'll definitely write in for next week's episode, probably focused on the final scene. For now just wanted to say that I think the film works both as an surreal, inexplicable nightmare trip (which I suspect I'd still appreciate aside from Twin Peaks) AND a densely-layered capstone to the series' themes and mythology. The first 3-4 times I saw the movie I was definitely focused on the raw experience of Laura's final week and didn't really consider it in terms of a character arc or thematic exploration. In fact, at least the first time I saw it, I felt the weird tangents and fragments - the ring, the angels, the Tremonds, the one-armed man, the Little Man, the Red Room, the garmonbozia stuff - detracted rather than added to Laura's psychodrama. Even as I got more used to them, growing to appreciate their presence, I didn't feel much urge to "make sense" of them.

However, as I continued to watch, read about & think about the film a certain intuitive logic emerged. The seemingly erratic way the Lodge creatures act throughout the film betrays a larger order at work. I am inclined to agree that Lynch, working from his subconscious, probably cannot (and certainly would not want to) articulate this significance of his images or the structure that holds them. But I think that significance/structure still exists and it's less a matter of coincidence than the fact that Lynch is digging deep, through meditation or whatever, into the collective unconscious and a lot of stuff falls into place better than it would if he was rationalistically planning it all out. To my surprise, the more I dig into this flawed masterpiece, the less flawed it seemed to me.

Basically, the film is not just a document of Laura's decline and destruction, but an actual - positive! - journey for her character. Most obviously, she discovers that her father is Bob, a grim but necessary truth that he himself seems to have trouble facing. But more importantly, Laura grows in crucial ways throughout the movie, rendering her a dynamic rather than passive character (despite the fact that she began her narrative "life" as a corpse). She faces at least three huge challenges as she navigates her disintegrating life, but unlike even Cooper (as we see in the finale) she is able to overcome all of them.

First, she actually confronts and rejects her father, rather than denying the awful reality as he has always done (the scene in the car after Mike's "attack" is particularly chilling, note the way he asks her "Where were you? I didn't see you there?" as if to say "Hey, what are you saying? You KNOW we aren't supposed to TALK about this stuff."). Second, she discovers a generosity toward her friends (she saves not only Donna, but James - by abandoning him at the stoplight she is preventing Leland from killing him too, something she explicitly references in the woods scene). Third, she discovers the world beyond Twin Peaks, realizing that even though its small-town pleasantries are a facade concealing the darkness of Bob, there's something even MORE fundamental than that ugliness. The creepy but helpful figures of the Little Man, Phillip Gerard, and the Tremonds all contribute to this understanding, but it's most clearly defined by the overwhelmingly positive images of the angels in the end.

All three of these threads - the need for rejection (of Leland/Bob), compassion (toward other potential victims and ultimately her own hated self), and transcendence (so that her rejection is positive rather than negative) - come together in that train car scene. I saw the film many times before this scene worked for me. For a long time it seemed like a grueling necessity: obviously in a movie about Laura's final days we need to see her die, but I found myself wondering what it added to the story, really? We'd already seen her death in flashback (season 2 premiere), re-enactment (Maddy's murder), and our own imaginations. And if Fire Walk With Me redeems Laura's tragedy by finally giving her a voice, doesn't it take something away from that realization to send her to the slaughterhouse in the film's climax?

Well, I no longer feel that way - in fact I think the train car seen is the (pardon the expression) linchpin to not just the film, but the whole series; the reverse image of Cooper's fall in the finale. But I'll address that more directly in the email I'll send for your feedback episode.

For now, just wanted to say I loved your discussion of Leland-Laura in the aftermath of Mike's attack in traffic. You're absolutely right: Laura is less shaken by the one-armed man's verbal assault than her father's distress, and he seems less tormented by this random stranger than the flickering memories of Teresa...and her link to Laura. I think this is a crucially important point and something that gets lost sometimes when people get heavily into the lore aspects without tying them back in to the psychology of the human characters.

Every time these spirits appear, it can be directly linked to a crisis in these characters' lives. Think about it: the Tremonds (or should I say Chalfonts?) appear at the diner shortly after Laura has lost her diary. That was her one escape hatch from her claustrophobic world and now it too has been interfered with. So what happens? This strange duo presents her with the image of a door, a literal and figurative image of both escape and eerie discovery (what's through that door?). They also encourage her to go home and get her first big clue that Leland is her father. Later she will use this portrait to explore the possibilities beyond her everyday oppression - note that just before she places it on the wall, an unusually loving and gentle Leland bids her goodnight...and closes her bedroom door, shutting her into her room as the protected princess/prisoner of his fantasy.

And just as the Tremonds are triggered by Laura's crisis, so Mike seems to be triggered by Leland's. When Leland comes across Laura and Donna innocently cuddling on the couch, he is reminded of Laura and Ronette (the film links Donna and Ronette numerous times, as projections of Laura's innocent and corrupted sides - something I'll also address in the email because I think it's REALLY important). Immediately following this, Mike comes storming down the highway like a bat out of hell...or a repressed memory rising to the surface. It is his confrontation with Leland (in which he shouts "You stole the corn," most likely referring to the murder of Teresa and also "It's him! It's your father!" to Laura) which in turn triggers the most open discussion Laura and Leland have ever had (which isn't saying much, considering how much remains unsaid - but it's enough).

Finally, Bob does not just randomly push Leland to kidnap Laura that last night out of bored bloodlust or something. The event is triggered by Laura telling her father "stay away from me," the final nail in Leland's we-have-an-understood-secret self-delusion. Note that everytime Leland kills, his victim is a woman he cannot control. Teresa guesses Leland's identity and threatens to blackmail him. Killed. Maddy, whom Leland is essentially adopting as a replacement for his daughter, tells the Palmer she is going back to her independent job, home, and life in Missoula. Killed. And Laura makes it emphatically clear to Leland that she has never consented to incest, that she was so traumatized she blocked his identity, and that she wants nothing to do with the father whose sentimental "protection" and lustful assault are dual aspects of his desire for possession. Killed...although in this case I don't think that was Leland's original intention when he took her to the train car.

And it certainly wasn't Bob's. He wants Laura to give in the way her father has, the way Leland continues to give in (because if FWWM tells us anything, it's that Bob doesn't "capture" innocent victims at one weak moment and render them helpless from then on; he grooms them, rots them away from the inside, makes them partners in their own fall). Bob wants Laura in that train car to force the issue. I would argue that the appearances of the ring and angel (signifying Laura's defeat of Leland and Bob) are also precipitated by her thoughts, feelings, and actions - same as all the other spiritual visitations in the film.

A final word on that ring, which I think is often mischaracterized - associated with death or victimhood since both Teresa and Laura wear it. But look at how and when it is featured. Teresa is NOT wearing it when she is killed (a fact easy to miss but Lynch actually has her holding her left hand in front of her for a few moments so that we can see it isn't there). Nor can we see it on her finger when Leland has the upper hand over Teresa. In fact Lynch makes a point of hiding her hand from view up until she realizes Leland might be Laura's father (in their first scene together, her left arm is crushed under Leland's body in bed and later Lynch conspicuously covers her left hand with an ice tray - remember the left arm going "numb" for both Teresa and Laura - until he's ready to link the ring to her realization).

Likewise, Laura receives the ring in a dream which also signifies her escape from the oppressive reality of her home life. Note that she doesn't just pass through the door on the wall, but opens the door to her bedroom which Leland closed earlier. And when she does, Lynch makes a point of showing us that the fan is immobile: no Bob attack tonight - she is free, at least for this moment. Note too when Laura's arm is numb (she drags and grasps it limply before seeing Annie) - BEFORE she discovers the ring in her palm, after which her limb is reanimated. By appearing on Teresa's finger (which Laura sees when she is acting as a prostitute), on Phillip's finger (when he is confronting her as a daughter, and asking her to suspect her father), and in the Little Man's hand (when he is showing her a vision of the Red Room, a space in the spirit world which is not controlled by Bob), the ring also unites the fragments of Laura's identity, empowering her to discover a cohesion in the mess of her life.

In this light and especially given Leland's reaction in the train car, Cooper's worried advice to Laura - "Don't take the ring" - appears to be flat-out wrong. There are many interpretations of why this is so, but my take is that this is a further demonstration of his fallen state. We are most likely seeing "the good Dale in the Lodge" but while he is well-intentioned, he wound up in there precisely because he COULDN'T do what Laura must: confront his own dark side, accept that the good and evil are intertwined, and swim with the currents of the subconscious rather than resist them (compare the temperament and purpose of Cooper's first visit to the Red Room, in his dream, to his final entrapment in the Black Lodge)

And that's not to even get into garmonbozia...!

At any rate, the supernatural and the psychological are deeply interrelated throughout FWWM, essentially two sides of the same coin in a war between denial/repression and discovery/freedom (however painful).

If people are digging this sort of analysis, I'd offer the following resources which went a long way toward shaping my own perceptions. I have significant disagreements with all of them but taken together they all encouraged me to question things I'd taken for granted and to look at the film in a new light:

The Subject of Laura Palmer, by John Thorne: http://abovethestore.blogspot.com/2009/06/subject-of-laura-palmer.html

Cherry Pie Wrapped in Barb Wire, by Brett Steven Abelman: https://babelwright.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/cherry-pie-wrapped-in-barb-wire-understanding-twin-peaks-fire-walk-with-me/

& especially The Passion of David Lynch, by Martha Nochimson (excerpts from the chapter on FWWM, though I'd encourage anyone who's interested to borrow/buy the whole book, it's great stuff): https://books.google.com/books?id=2rNQAePxT8QC&q=fire+walk+with+me+laura+palmer#v=snippet&q=fire%20walk%20with%20me%20laura%20palmer&f=false

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If people are digging this sort of analysis, I'd offer the following resources which went a long way toward shaping my own perceptions. I have significant disagreements with all of them but taken together they all encouraged me to question things I'd taken for granted and to look at the film in a new light:

 

 

Dude, I freaking love it. Thank you so much.

 

One thing that grabbed me in your long post though - when you say that the red room is a place that Bob does not control. What do you think about the contrast between the red room in Cooper's initial dream - a very slow, methodical, (weird), safe space wherein he learns of Laura's killer - and the horrific hellhole that is seen in the series finale? Is it possible that Windom Earle's interference is what led Bob into the space, and therefore corrupted it, or am I overlooking the stuff where Mike and Bob come from the same place, i.e. the red room/black lodge too much?

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LostInTheMovies, I really enjoyed your take on the movie. Your insights have been so much fun to read and I can't wait to hear more. While I don't necessarily disagree with what your suggesting about Laura accepting her dark side in the end, I think I might disagree with how the movie reacts to that final decision. It's why I asked Chris if the movie ever gives Laura a chance to save herself from her death or if her death is fated. I know it's literally fated because it's what kicks of Twin Peaks the TV show, but I can never tell if the movie-universe gives Laura any outs. The Log Lady confronts her outside of the Bang Bang Bar and says something along the line of "when a fire like this starts, it's very hard to put out." That to me suggests that Laura has some agency in what's happening to her and if she managed to pull back from the sex and drugs, maybe she could save herself from Bob. Looking at it that way, it's hard to see the end of the movie as a success on Laura's part. That might be a depressing interpretation of the film, but I think it's almost just as depressing to believe that Laura accepting herself is also what triggers her death.

 

I don't think the movie is bad because Laura dies, I've just never been able to get a good read on what it's trying to say about fate and people. Maybe I'm too naive about what it's like to be a young woman in Laura's situation and I'm looking for an escape that just wouldn't exist.

 

One thing about the ring though. I like imagining that it is not literally connected to the Black Lodge. Laura and Leland see Teresa Banks wearing it, so it has a connection for both of them to their vices. Laura seeing it every where is a reflection of her fear that she is Teresa Banks, and wearing the ring in the end is her acceptance of that fact. Maybe not wearing the ring, like Cooper suggestions, would be a sign that Laura is no longer like Teresa and could therefore hope for a better fate. Then again, maybe the ring is just the Black Lodge manifesting a sign of who Bob will murder next. Who knows!

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