Chris

Twin Peaks Rewatch 0: The Pre-Episode

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The European pilot isn't really a pilot, it's a TV movie. You'll know if you watched it because it (partially) reveals who killed Laura Palmer at the end.

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The European pilot isn't really a pilot, it's a TV movie. You'll know if you watched it because it (partially) reveals who killed Laura Palmer at the end.

Oh OK. Then I'm glad It wasn't the TV Movie that I watched.

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I have been meaning to watch Twin Peaks for a long time, esp after seeing Mulholland Drive and loving it. This cast finally pushed me over the edge, and I watched the pilot last night. It was so good. I love the tone but I think my favorite thing so far is how everyone is broken in different ways. Looking forward to the cast.

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I love the tone but I think my favorite thing so far is how everyone is broken in different ways.

 

I'm trying to think of who in Twin Peaks isn't involved in some secret love affair.

 

Pete?

Major and Mrs. Briggs?

Mrs. Horne?

Toad the Double R Diner regular?

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Wow, great idea!  Loved this when I watched it a few years ago with some friends.  About 6 of us packed into my dorm room a few times and powered through it, generating traditional remarks during the intro theme ("It's so red") and just generally, many lasting memories.  It's a perfect show to spark Thumbs-style discussion.

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I watch Twin Peaks every couple years.  This time, I was inspired to come back upon hearing that Lynch and Frost were going to be creating 13 new episodes for Showtime.  Once I started rewatching, I had to see what podcasts would be out there, which brought me to you guys.  I will definitely be checking out your other podcasts, as well.

 

My intro to Twin Peaks was basically my mom and grandma (soap opera lovers) watching this when it first aired, making me about 9 at the time.  As the show got  darker and darker, and weirder and weirder, my mom and gran called it quits, but I was hooked.  The second it came out on VHS it was on the top of my x-mas list, and then ended up there again when the DVD set came out.

 

So happy to be able rewatch, listen, and converse along the way.  Given you guys the "glad hand!"

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Guest LostInTheMovies

Okay, so I want to find out who here likes season 2 better than season 1. There aren't very many of us, so it would be nice to figure this out ASAP!

 

Season 2 is more uneven than season 1 - not just episode-to-episode but within episodes (the subplots are much less engaging when they are severed from the main mystery). The worst parts of the series, hands down, belong to the middle stretch of season 2. But season 2's best sequences are better than anything in season 1. The last two Lynch-directed episodes stand as masterpieces, more than fulfilling the promise of season 1.

 

I also think Fire Walk With Me is a great movie, and a necessary component to the Twin Peaks saga. A controversial opinion, I guess, but thankfully not so much as it used to be. The film is probably my favorite part of the whole experience which is saying a lot since this is my favorite TV show.

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So, more or less apropos of nothing, the AV Club is doing "Sesame Street" week this week, which includes a link to this little gem:

 

 

Of course, Twin Peaks parodies abound, but this one is charming, and doesn't contain any actual spoilers.

 

"That not darn fine answer..."

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Season 2 is more uneven than season 1 - not just episode-to-episode but within episodes (the subplots are much less engaging when they are severed from the main mystery). The worst parts of the series, hands down, belong to the middle stretch of season 2. But season 2's best sequences are better than anything in season 1. The last two Lynch-directed episodes stand as masterpieces, more than fulfilling the promise of season 1.

I also think Fire Walk With Me is a great movie, and a necessary component to the Twin Peaks saga. A controversial opinion, I guess, but thankfully not so much as it used to be. The film is probably my favorite part of the whole experience which is saying a lot since this is my favorite TV show.

The Its Happening Again scene is also a masterpiece. Brutal, beautiful, solemn, its everything Twin Peaks is in like eight minutes. I saw it at like 12 at night and just had my mouth agape the entire time.

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The Its Happening Again scene is also a masterpiece. Brutal, beautiful, solemn, its everything Twin Peaks is in like eight minutes. I saw it at like 12 at night and just had my mouth agape the entire time.

 

"its everything Twin Peaks is in like eight minutes"

 

Yes, everything from the Bang Bang sign flashing in the puddle to the fade out over red curtains...that just says everything about the show. The ethereal mood as Julee Cruise sings "Rockin' Back Inside Your Heart" (love Donna mouthing the words), the sense of dread/excitement as the giant appears, the unforgettable gut-punch of Leland/Bob's reveal, the horrific brutality of the murder itself - which falls completely outside of the framework we thought we'd established for the show, and finally the return to the Road House as everyone just sinks into this mood of grief, guilt, and inexplicable sadness. Wow.

 

It's maybe that scene above all else (at least in the show itself) that makes me grit my teeth whenever another retrospective piece pops up declaring "Twin Peaks is about nothing" or "the Laura Palmer mystery doesn't really matter" etc etc. I just want to point to those three or four minutes while "The World Spins" plays and say, THAT's what it's all about.

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"its everything Twin Peaks is in like eight minutes"

Yes, everything from the Bang Bang sign flashing in the puddle to the fade out over red curtains...that just says everything about the show. The ethereal mood as Julee Cruise sings "Rockin' Back Inside Your Heart" (love Donna mouthing the words), the sense of dread/excitement as the giant appears, the unforgettable gut-punch of Leland/Bob's reveal, the horrific brutality of the murder itself - which falls completely outside of the framework we thought we'd established for the show, and finally the return to the Road House as everyone just sinks into this mood of grief, guilt, and inexplicable sadness. Wow.

It's maybe that scene above all else (at least in the show itself) that makes me grit my teeth whenever another retrospective piece pops up declaring "Twin Peaks is about nothing" or "the Laura Palmer mystery doesn't really matter" etc etc. I just want to point to those three or four minutes while "The World Spins" plays and say, THAT's what it's all about.

Eraserhead spoilers

I think many people who come to TPKs and declare its pointless don't understand Lynch fully, or at least don't see in him what I do. Many of his films, using Eraserhead as an example, don't have a point. There are packets of plot-given emotions, like Henrys relationship with his girlfriend/wife exploding, or his affairs, or killing the crwature, but it's not necessarily the POINT. To be wonderfully vague, the point is processing all of these elements and having them impact you personally. Its about this feeling of unreality and perfect reality that just enrapture a viewer.

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Eraserhead spoilers

I think many people who come to TPKs and declare its pointless don't understand Lynch fully, or at least don't see in him what I do. Many of his films, using Eraserhead as an example, don't have a point. There are packets of plot-given emotions, like Henrys relationship with his girlfriend/wife exploding, or his affairs, or killing the crwature, but it's not necessarily the POINT. To be wonderfully vague, the point is processing all of these elements and having them impact you personally. Its about this feeling of unreality and perfect reality that just enrapture a viewer.

 

Agreed - ground zero with Lynch's work is the emotional experience. I just left a comment on another board w/ an interesting quote that addresses this: https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/9701-twin-peaks-rewatch-2-traces-to-nowhere/?p=327318 (last part of the post).

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"its everything Twin Peaks is in like eight minutes"

 

Yes, everything from the Bang Bang sign flashing in the puddle to the fade out over red curtains...that just says everything about the show. The ethereal mood as Julee Cruise sings "Rockin' Back Inside Your Heart" (love Donna mouthing the words), the sense of dread/excitement as the giant appears, the unforgettable gut-punch of Leland/Bob's reveal, the horrific brutality of the murder itself - which falls completely outside of the framework we thought we'd established for the show, and finally the return to the Road House as everyone just sinks into this mood of grief, guilt, and inexplicable sadness. Wow.

 

It's maybe that scene above all else (at least in the show itself) that makes me grit my teeth whenever another retrospective piece pops up declaring "Twin Peaks is about nothing" or "the Laura Palmer mystery doesn't really matter" etc etc. I just want to point to those three or four minutes while "The World Spins" plays and say, THAT's what it's all about.

 

I'm with you guys on that scene:

 

However, I'm willing to back the scene up further and include the scene where Sarah Palmer crawls into her living room. We know from FWWM that Leland periodically drugs Sarah (more than she would like to admit) so that he could have his way with Laura. Newcomers to the scene wouldn't necessarily understand this (I don't think there is a similar scene in the series?) When she sees the white horse it doesn't just appear, we get a shot of her, a shot of the living room, a shot of her, a shot of the living room, then the white horse. I'm assuming this is a unicorn, though Lynch thankfully doesn't glue a horn to its head? But the suspense in seeing her crawl down the steps to the reveal of the white horse is amazing. Also, I could be mistaken, but when The Giant says "It's happening again" there is a grainy quality to his face? I don't know how they did that but when they flip back to Dale the graininess is gone, but it is brilliant as well.

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I'm with you guys on that scene:

 

However, I'm willing to back the scene up further and include the scene where Sarah Palmer crawls into her living room.

 

Heck, I'd go all the way back to the Log Lady walking in but then I'd have to include the Tojamura sequence which, while fun (

if you're able to stomach the Mickey-Rooney-in-Breakfast-at-Tiffany'sesque caricature) and sort of thematically tied to the theme of revelation-in-the-home

still kinda comes from a different universe). But pretty much everything from the moment we fade up from the last commercial break is tremendous (I love "I'm going to get a sandwich."). Not that the rest of the episode slouches. Side note: I love how Lynch uses up commercial breaks on the show. Does this in his last episode as well, even more notably - there's a break every few minutes so that the final half of the episode can just be experienced straight-through. I didn't watch Twin Peaks when it was on but you can see this on the discs/streaming by when the scene fades to black.

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I'm assuming this is a unicorn, though Lynch thankfully doesn't glue a horn to its head? But the suspense in seeing her crawl down the steps to the reveal of the white horse is amazing.

 

I've heard other people speculate it's a unicorn as well - also that it represents the fact that she's drugged (though doesn't horse just refer to heroin?). The explanations I've heard that make the most sense to me is that Death rides a pale horse in the Book of Revelation and that in The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer we learn that Laura loves horses and had a pony. Both might seem a bit on-the-nose for Lynch but there are some interesting clues in the new Entire Mystery blu-ray. First of all, in the scene at the Briggs' house in The Missing Pieces, the Major is reading from Revelation (though I can't recall if he reads that particular passage). Secondly, in the Between Two Worlds "Palmer family" interview (which Lynch himself wrote) he has Laura say, seemingly out of nowhere, that she loved horses. I think with Lynch, next to "he avoids any conscious meaning" the safest thing to say is that "there are always multiple meanings"...so maybe it's all of the above. And of course Frost wrote the episode but I just googled the script (http://www.glastonberrygrove.net/texts/script14.html) and it doesn't contain any sequences at the Palmer house (at the conclusion). I have to assume this was for security purposes but it makes me wonder who came up with what. Frost receives sole credit for the script but Lynch took quite a bit of dialogue, incidentally. Haven't read the whole thing yet, but just glancing over it I can see that's the case.

 

Also, I could be mistaken, but when The Giant says "It's happening again" there is a grainy quality to his face? I don't know how they did that but when they flip back to Dale the graininess is gone, but it is brilliant as well.

 

I think that may just be because they couldn't get the original elements for the restoration - a lot of optical shots in the series look like that. But I may be wrong (if it looks different on the blu-ray and the Gold Box I guess that would be a giveaway since they were able to fix a lot of Opticals this time around). Or it could just be the extremely harsh floodlighting.

 

EDIT: Man, if I was a newcomer watching this show for the first time I would be very intrigued/frustrated by all the secretive discussions haha. And probably doubling back on these forums as soon as I finished watching.

 

Meanwhile, I've got to come up with some non-spoiler-y discussion points.

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I've heard other people speculate it's a unicorn as well - also that it represents the fact that she's drugged (though doesn't horse just refer to heroin?). The explanations I've heard that make the most sense to me is that Death rides a pale horse in the Book of Revelation and that in The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer we learn that Laura loves horses and had a pony. Both might seem a bit on-the-nose for Lynch but there are some interesting clues in the new Entire Mystery blu-ray. First of all, in the scene at the Briggs' house in The Missing Pieces, the Major is reading from Revelation (though I can't recall if he reads that particular passage). Secondly, in the Between Two Worlds "Palmer family" interview (which Lynch himself wrote) he has Laura say, seemingly out of nowhere, that she loved horses. I think with Lynch, next to "he avoids any conscious meaning" the safest thing to say is that "there are always multiple meanings"...so maybe it's all of the above. And of course Frost wrote the episode but I just googled the script (http://www.glastonberrygrove.net/texts/script14.html) and it doesn't contain any sequences at the Palmer house (at the conclusion). I have to assume this was for security purposes but it makes me wonder who came up with what. Frost receives sole credit for the script but Lynch took quite a bit of dialogue, incidentally. Haven't read the whole thing yet, but just glancing over it I can see that's the case.

 

I agree it must be difficult to follow with all the spoiler blocks, but I need to respond with just one more:

 

I interpret the white horse as a unicorn, because the unicorn is mentioned specifically as a symbol of purity in the manager's office at the department store when the manager gives the crystal to (irony) the hostess he is trying to court. This could not be the case. I am the first person to admit that I love the ambiguity in a lot of Lynch's work.

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I agree it must be difficult to follow with all the spoiler blocks, but I need to respond with just one more:

I interpret the white horse as a unicorn, because the unicorn is mentioned specifically as a symbol of purity in the manager's office at the department store when the manager gives the crystal to (irony) the hostess he is trying to court. This could not be the case. I am the first person to admit that I love the ambiguity in a lot of Lynch's work.

Having not seen FWWM and still engaging here (I don't care much about spoilers with this show in particular)

I just saw the horse as being a weird thing that Sarah sees, as she does see lots of strange things. But, it makes sense that it probably goes deeper.

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I'm right when

Windoms chess game is started. I've sort of fallen off, because the show lost me

Somewhere between that and the end is when I stopped watching the first time through.

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Somewhere between that and the end is when I stopped watching the first time through.

Yeah. As the

Laura mystery was being resolved I thought S2 was AMAZING but then it ended and we just got a plotline with James being a goof in the middle of nowhere and Cooper dealing with a cross dressing FBI agent and ugh... It was even looking up in the last two EPs I watched, but I kinda just dont care.

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Will this attrition be an issue with this forum? If people are losing interest in what I think are the predictable places, how do we keep viewership going. I love all your comments, but I'm worried that after we get passed the killer reveal, there will be a huge decline in forum attendance, haha. I don't know the solution to this. My wife was the only reason I made it through season two all the way this time. So, this viewing is the first time, I have ever sat through all of it.

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Will this attrition be an issue with this forum? If people are losing interest in what I think are the predictable places, how do we keep viewership going. I love all your comments, but I'm worried that after we get passed the killer reveal, there will be a huge decline in forum attendance, haha. I don't know the solution to this. My wife was the only reason I made it through season two all the way this time. So, this viewing is the first time, I have ever sat through all of it.

I think it would be kinda nice if they condensed some of the later, less... good... Episodes into casts that were cut in half.

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