Jake

Twin Peaks Rewatch 5: The One-Armed Man

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Here's the 'How long will it take' dialogue.

Cooper: How long will it take us to reach the Timber Falls motel?
Andy: Half an hour!
Truman: Ten minutes.
Andy: Depends how you go.

 

Harry Goaz's (who plays Andy and has quite an interesting last name (also, in the opening credits after Goaz always comes Michael Horse!)) brilliant acting makes the scene so funny. And hey we saw Andy's wild side too:

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For those who have already watched the show:

Does that picture every get explained? I've watched the Laura Palmer episodes of this show more than a few times, and I cannot remember if that picture ever ends up having significance. This whole time I was under the impression that Audrey had nothing to do with Laura, but this picture suggests they spent time together in some form. I wish I could remember if that thread continues in later episodes, or if the only take away that picture gives is onetime these two women were in a picture together, the end.

I don't remember them having an explicitly defined relationship, but I always took it as just a nod to how small the town is. They weren't exactly friends and they didn't know each other very well, but they're two people who both grew up in the same small town so of course they had spent some time together. I know that my dad has a picture of me with someone who I don't even remember the name of just because he thinks it's a good picture of me and it reminds him of a certain time in our lives when we were closer than we are now. I imagine it's just something like that -- it's just a picture of Audrey from a time when she seemed happy and more like who he wanted his daughter to be.

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Re: Audrey's picture - I like Chris' and Jake's hypothesis that maybe they were just together because their dads were friends, and they kind of palled around on the trip but didn't have deeper connection that went beyond that. Seems very human and natural - and also part of Audrey looking up to/being jealous of Laura. I imagine that would have been an interesting experience for Audrey: the girl she usually sees as a rival for her father's attention reaches out to her (why not, they're stuck together and Laura knew how to lay on the charm when necessary). She might be flattered and let down her guard a bit (we know in these early episode that Audrey's in-control vibe is, in part, an act) and then later felt even more resentful when Laura became more distant again. Trying to remember if there's anything in the diary that fleshes this out...anyway we can make up our own story for it, I guess (and I'm sure that's been done: somewhere out there is a "Horne/Palmer Family Ski Trip" fanfic haha).

 

I like anything that gives a sense of an offscreen world unfolding. One of the nice things about Twin Peaks is that it has that texture and detail so that the world feels truly lived-in.

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Re: Audrey's picture - I like Chris' and Jake's hypothesis that maybe they were just together because their dads were friends, and they kind of palled around on the trip but didn't have deeper connection that went beyond that. Seems very human and natural - and also part of Audrey looking up to/being jealous of Laura. I imagine that would have been an interesting experience for Audrey: the girl she usually sees as a rival for her father's attention reaches out to her (why not, they're stuck together and Laura knew how to lay on the charm when necessary). She might be flattered and let down her guard a bit (we know in these early episode that Audrey's in-control vibe is, in part, an act) and then later felt even more resentful when Laura became more distant again. Trying to remember if there's anything in the diary that fleshes this out...anyway we can make up our own story for it, I guess (and I'm sure that's been done: somewhere out there is a "Horne/Palmer Family Ski Trip" fanfic haha).

I like anything that gives a sense of an offscreen world unfolding. One of the nice things about Twin Peaks is that it has that texture and detail so that the world feels truly lived-in.

I like the idea too, but I kinda also just like the idea of Audrey being absurdly duplicitous for no real reason when asked about her relationship with Laura

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I like anything that gives a sense of an offscreen world unfolding. One of the nice things about Twin Peaks is that it has that texture and detail so that the world feels truly lived-in.

 

That's definitely one of the things that I really appreciate about the writing. All the characters that are introduced have the implication of being fully realized characters, even if we only see a small slice of that on screen. The implied relationships between them are one part of that. (In that way, it reminds me of - one of the best shows on TV - Gilmore Girls). Even little bits like the dancing kid in the high school, or the "Mom" tattoo contribute to this. While these hints are  a part of the weird tone, they're also a source of making them feel like real people. Real people are often contradictory and do things that don't really make sense. It's not exactly depth, but it's akin to it. There doesn't have to be a full explanation. Just by hinting at these things you can make the world feel alive.

 

For my part, I assumed that Audrey has the same kind of relationship with Laura that she does with Donna: they're friendly, if not necessarily friends. They have the weight of entire lives lived in the same small town, so they've spent time together almost by default. They're clearly family friends: Leland is Horne's attorney, but more than that, as educated professionals in a relatively small logging town, they certainly run in the same circles (along with Dr. Heyward).

 

The girls have secrets, because everybody in the town has secrets with everybody else, and from everybody else, especially at that age.

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 (In that way, it reminds me of - one of the best shows on TV - Gilmore Girls).

 

I've been rewatching Gilmore Girls on Netflix (it's starting to become a problem, honestly) and I have to disagree. That show and its characters are woefully underdeveloped. But, it does have a strange connection to Twin Peaks in that they're both shows about small towns with wacky characters and Sherilyn Fenn and the woman who played Shelly were both supporting characters on the show (Fenn was Luke's ex and Shelly was Sherry, Chris' ex).

 

There ends my ruminating on Gilmore Girls.

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Gilmore Girls had a lot of background information and bits of ideas about characters but it never really did feel like you suddenly entered a town full of people who were interconnected, it just felt like there was lots of tidbits assigned to characters as individuals.

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I've been rewatching Gilmore Girls on Netflix (it's starting to become a problem, honestly) and I have to disagree. That show and its characters are woefully underdeveloped. But, it does have a strange connection to Twin Peaks in that they're both shows about small towns with wacky characters and Sherilyn Fenn and the woman who played Shelly were both supporting characters on the show (Fenn was Luke's ex and Shelly was Sherry, Chris' ex).

 

There ends my ruminating on Gilmore Girls.

 

Not really spoilers: Lucy's cousin is also Luke's sister. No, I didn't look that up. #GilmoreSuperFan.

 

While the individual characters aren't deep per se, the way that Stars Hollow is presented, it always seems to me like a town that has an existence outside of just the events of the show*. Arguably that's just because they drop in absurd traditions and then they characters are _so_ into them, but even so, that's where I felt the connection.

 

*Ironically, given how obviously it's a studio lot.

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I don't know what to think of them (Leo, Nadine, Pete)

Considering David Lynch has used Jack Nance in many of his movies, I would think he thinks pretty highly of his acting skills at least.

 

Also those Japanese commercials are brilliant!

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Just listened to the episode - great discussion. Glad you enjoyed my observations.

 

By the way, the book with the Gorbachev/Bush anecdote is "Reflections," an oral history of Twin Peaks which came out earlier this year. It is compiled from numerous interviews conducted by the author, Brad Dukes, over several years. Although (somewhat unsurprisingly) he wasn't able to talk to Lynch and a few other participants, he spoke to almost everybody else, including Mark Frost. It is to date the only comprehensive history of the show I know of, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Great read, with lots of anecdotes and insight.

 

Some more notes on the Lynch/Frost/Invitation to Love thing...

 

As the Reflections book recounts, Frost got together with a bunch of his buddies (there was sort of a "Minnesota mafia" involved with the series, because Frost's dad - who plays Doc Hayward - had been an acting teacher there in the 60s and 70s) at a famous house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and Frost directed all the Invitation to Love scenes in one shoot. One of the actors says he heard Lynch didn't like the footage when he saw it. Harley Peyton also says, on the old season 1 DVD commentaries (which were left off the Gold Box & Entire Mystery boxsets), that as he recalls Lynch

nixed Invitation to Love for the second season because he thought it was too on-the-nose.

 

As for the anecdote I mentioned in the email, from the book The Passion of David Lynch (by Martha Nochimson): "For example, the soap opera watched by the citizens of Twin Peaks, Invitation to Love, was envisioned by Lynch, who is interested in the emotional tones and moods that characterize the soap-opera form, as a popular culture fictional universe parallel with that in the series town. As I understand Lynch's original thoughts about Invitation to Love (from him), it might have served a function similar to that of Glinda in Wild at Heart. Lynch thought that he and Frost were in agreement on this and was surprised to find that Frost had created a cliched mockery of the soap-opera form." Although the author is obviously much more sympathetic to Lynch's vision, her discussion of Twin Peaks is one of the few I've read that actually treats Frost as an equal co-creator, with his own distinct sensibility brought to bear on the material. She interviewed both Lynch and Frost for the book.

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Although the author is obviously much more sympathetic to Lynch's vision, her discussion of Twin Peaks is one of the few I've read that actually treats Frost as an equal co-creator, with his own distinct sensibility brought to bear on the material. She interviewed both Lynch and Frost for the book.

 

I think Frost was Lynch's "foot in the door" for television. I don't know if that holds true, but what I am saying is that underestimating Frost would be a bad way to go, because I don't know how much of a television series they would have let David Lynch make without someone with Mark Frost as co-creator. In other words, everyone knew David Lynch after Twin Peaks, but going into the series, everyone at the television studio would have seen Mark Frost's resume as paramount. I'm in agreement that Mark Frost made his mechanisms felt and didn't feel second string ...well until everyone wanted to interview David Lynch instead of him.

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Spoilers relate to series three!

 

Poor Josie: everyone is after her. 

 

I wonder if we hear more about Norma’s husbands crime. It feels like it could be an accident which is quite different to how she painted it in the previous episode (to scare flirty men away)

 

Cooper makes a comment about women. For a cheery man he has some real awfulness about him. 

 

Hawk veers drunkenly between trope McGope and undermining the trope at every turn. 

 

Audret and Donna continue to have an excellent chemistry. 

 

Shellys face when bobby plonks her down is priceless. The gun penis nonsense afterwards can go in a bin. 

 

Sarah has spookiness. 

 

Probalt 6

Spoiler

Probably because she has a monster inside. 

 

 

Following on from coopers amazing dream recall last episode, it’s hard to distrust when he makes a comment about the closeness of drawing of bobs eyes. 

 

 

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