BEYOND THE FIRE: The Mysteries of Twin Peaks

Thoughts, Ruminations, and Research by Christopher Frankonis

"As in dream, the images [in myth] range from the sublime to the
ridiculous. The mind is not permitted to rest with its normal
evaluations, but is continually insulted and shocked out of the
assurance that now, at last, it has understood. Mythology is
defeated when the mind rests solemnly with its favorite or
traditional images, defending them as though they themselves were
the messages that they communicate. These images are to be regarded
as no more than shadows from the unfathomable reach beyond, where
the eye goeth not, speech goeth not, nor the mind, nor even piety.
Like the trivialities of dream, those of myth are big with
meaning."

-- Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces

The following is the whole of what I've been contemplating for the
past couple of years. I've only been on-line since November of
1993, so I don't yet know how much of what I say here has been
already said by others. So, rather than start posting things to
alt.tv.twin-peaks just yet, I thought I'd stick this in the archive
and see if anyone responds. If you are inclined to do so, you can
e-mail me at <slowdog@mindvox.phantom.com>. However, please do not
send me any large files. Instead, just let me know about such
files, and where I can get them.

The section of Thoughts and Ruminations appears exactly as it was
written. The first sentence is the earliest thing I wrote, the last
sentence the most recent. Some dialogue and other details drawn
from the series and film may not be quite accurate, from what I've
seen of some of the other material in this archive and in the
newsgroup. I'll catch up and make corrections someday. In The
Mysteries of Twin Peaks as Revealed by the Log Lady, I have added
my own comments as each introduction has aired on Bravo.

This document includes:

-- An introduction (full of dreams and strange journal entries)
-- Thoughts and Ruminations on Twin Peaks (in the order in which
they came to me)
-- The Possible Symbologies of Twin Peaks (drawn from a variety of
sources)
-- The Mysteries of Twin Peaks as Revealed by the Log Lady (and
some ruminations on what her revelations might mean)

At any rate, I hope this adds to the investigation. Until coming
on-line, I hadn't run into anyone else who game a damn about what
was really going on in Twin Peaks. It's good to have finally found
a home of sorts for this material outside my own hard drive.

Christopher (call me Kit, not Chris) Frankonis
(November 12, 1993)

========================================

INTRODUCTION

Just after midnight on November 11, 1990, I wrote the following in
my journal: "Tonight I am going to try to dream of BOB. I am going
to try to let my unconscious mind piece together information and
sensations from Twin Peaks and see if I can come up with anything."
Earlier, on Saturday night, the killer of Laura Palmer was revealed
to be the BOB-possessed Leland Palmer, her father. I fell asleep
listening to the Twin Peaks soundtrack.

The dream:

-- I'm in a cafe, sort of outdoors. I hear talking about some woman
using a weird bank account to buy strange things. I keep trying to
leave, but new things happen outside. Glows and other things. I am
embarrassed that I keep returning every time something happens. I
think that people are laughing at me, but I have to come back. The
cafe becomes one side of the brick-floored, outdoor mall area of my
college. More and more people are coming out to sit along the edge.

Out on the mall, by Henry Moore's "Large Two Forms." People are
heading off toward the dorms to play the electric guitar. My friend
Jack and I are listening, with the crowd, to the music from Twin
Peaks that is floating in the air. Jack becomes Leland Palmer, and
we become the only two people who can hear the music. He cries. I
comfort him. I try to get him to come with me toward the source of
the sound, but he won't. I hurts him. "In here?" I ask him,
pointing at my head. "In here," he responds, pointing to his own.

I am out on a dark road. Leland is with me. Cars pass, right to
left, along an intersecting road up ahead. Voices from inside them.
I'm acting like events are happening for the second time. I know
what's next. The passengers in the cars are yelling things I've
heard them yell before. That's how I know what's next. I'm waiting
for the right car. Off to one side, a woman is killing herself.
"Just another normal night in Twin Peaks," I think to myself.

I turn left onto the intersecting road. Leland is no longer with
me. I am approaching another left. Cars are turning onto it. One
car turns onto the road, but I don't see it continue on the other
side of a large bush. As I approach the road, the car is coming out
again, having somehow turned around. For some reason, I remember
that the first time this happened, the car didn't turn around and
come out, allowing me to attack. There is a man driving the car, a
woman in the passenger seat.

I scream something and run towards the car, breaking through the
side window as I lunge toward the woman. --

I woke up, feeling that at the end of the dream, as I stalked the
car, I was playing BOB. That was why Leland had disappeared: BOB
had left him for me.

Foward into December. On December 4, I wrote the following: "On
this past Saturday's Twin Peaks, Leland Palmer was caught, BOB left
him, and Leland died. Upon Harry's asking "Where's BOB now?" we
were shown a strange, off-color scene in a ditch that began with a
crashed car, its windshield broken." This made me recall my dream,
in which I thought I was BOB as I crashed through the window of a
car.

That night, I tried to re-dream that dream, in the hopes off seeing
and hearing things I hadn't caught the first time. What were the
voices in the cars saying? What did I scream as I crashed into the
car window? I didn't succeed. But I did have a dream that included
the following words:

"Hell isn't open just for those being sent there, it's open to
anyone who wants to join."

CHRISTOPHER D. FRANKONIS
(August 11, 1993)

========================================

THOUGHTS AND RUMINATIONS ON TWIN PEAKS

Fire walk with me -- truth, reveal yourself to me? Truth in the
sense of knowledge or experience transcending human reality. What
lies after, outside, beyond this world may have nothing to do with
the way we see things.

The divided heart symbolizes the root motivations of our kind. All
of our actions (and our inactions) arise from either love or fear.
Physiologically, we feel both in exceedingly similar ways, centered
about the heart. Love and fear are inexorably intertwined, and
where there is one, there is the potential for the other.

The divided heart is not only Laura's, but everyone's.

The heart reacts to love much as it reacts to fear: A rapid beat,
a tension of sorts inside the chest.

EARLE: "What do you fear most in the world?"
BRIGGS: "The possibility that love is not enough."

Is the white moose referred to in Access Guide to the Town ("the
white moose appears to those in trouble because it understands the
agony of sorrow and despair") the same as the white horse we see in
the series and film? Was it changed from a moose to a horse,
perhaps to be a little less odd, or to get away from the Northern
Exposure link, or to partake of the symbolism of the white horse?

JAMES (relating what Laura said to him): "Do you want to play with
fire, little boy? Do you want to play with BOB?"

COOPER: "Where do you come from?"
GIANT: "The question is, where have you gone?"

COOPER: "It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your
mind."

Circle Brand boots partake of the circle motif.

Margaret's (the Log Lady's) husband didn't die in a fire. He's in
the Lodge. Or, he or his "vibes" are in her log. As Josie's image
appears in the wood of a nightstand, and as Laura's "vibes" appear
to be in her sunglasses.

COOPER: "But a town is like a river: Lots of hidden currents and
eddies, concealing their own secrets. I haven't even broken the
surface yet." From the audio tape.

Access Guide to the Town offers clues as to what would have
happened in the next season of the series, had it not been
canceled. Take the story of the football game. "Mystery play saves
Peaks season." While this comment appears as part of a football
game headline in the book, it is tantalizing, given the book's
earlier reference to a Twin Peaks "Passion Play," taking place at
Glastonberry Grove (in the book, a circle of twelve douglas firs;
in the series, sycamore trees). The historical passion plays were
forms of what were called mystery plays, because they dealt with
the true nature of the universe, the greatest mystery of all (in
their case, Christian beliefs). According to the book, this Passion
Play, when it is held, occurs in the month of April. Given that
each episode of the series covers the events of a single day
(except for a couple exceptions), we can extrapolate that the end
of the non-existent third season would have brought the storyline
into the month of April, 1989. The book says that the Passion Play
is meant to illustrate the victory of good over evil. The
implication of all this is that the main thrust of the series'
plotlines (BOB, the Lodge, etc.) would have been resolved at the
end of the third season. The reference to the mystery play saving
the season appears in large and bold print in the book, as do two
other important statements. "He began to run the wrong way." This
may be a reference to the BOB-possessed Cooper. "The best thing in
our lives and we did it together." The town would have to stand
united in action (unlike the blind eye they turned to Laura) in
order to win. In addition, there is a marginalia which gives the
comment of a coach: "The goal post is in the shape of an H and that
means Hell and that's what you have to go through to get some
points." Not just a reference to Cooper's coming experience dealing
with BOB and the Lodge, but to what nearly all heroes in
mythologies the world over must do at some point: Descend into the
underworld. Not incidentally, Gilgamesh's descent into the
underworld was through a mountain with twin peaks.

GIANT: "Don't search for all the answers at once. A path is formed
by laying one stone at a time." Good advice not only to Cooper, but
to the viewer. This is a series and film that requires a different
sort of attention, an active one. But also a patient one. Often,
forcing your way into it leads only to defeat. Many answers are
there to be found, but only if you heed the giant's advice. The
problem so many (re)viewers had was the one they always have in
America: They want to know everything right away so they can shut
down their brains for the rest of the trip. Twin Peaks didn't work
that way. It's no wonder so many people abandoned it. They were too
lazy.

LOG LADY: "Shut your eyes and you'll burst into flames." This
comment should be heeded by individuals and communities alike. At
Laura's funeral, Bobby says (of who killed her): "You did. We all
did." The town shut their eyes to Laura's troubles (acknowledging
them would have meant recognizing the town's problems as well), and
so she died. Ignorance is not bliss, it's death.

LOG LADY: "He met the devil. Fire is the devil hiding like a coward
in the smoke."

In the film, Laura tells Donna never to wear her stuff (this after
Donna, wearing a piece of Laura's clothing and high on a coke-
spiked beer, is tumbling into Laura's world). Later on, in the
series, Donna finds and wears a pair of Laura's sunglasses -- and
starts smoking, coming on to James through the bars of his jail
cell, and other peculiar things. I remember at the time that we all
wondered why she was acting so strange, and if she was falling
under whatever force had affected Laura. It must be a vibe thing,
like when psychics claim they can tell things about a person by
touching something that belonged to them, particularly clothing.

There seem to be two slightly different versions of the poem:

Through the darkness of future pasts
The magician longs to see
One chance out between two worlds
Fire walk with me

Through the darkness of futures past (or future's past, or future's
passed?)
The magician longs to see
One chance out between two worlds
Fire walk with me

The first line echoes of the circle motif, particularly in light of
the moments that repeat themselves along the way. Josie in front of
her mirror. The "I thought Germans were always on time" dialogue in
the diner. The One-Armed Man's reference to "the golden circle,"
which Cooper takes to mean his ring. Access Guide to the Town also
mentions various circle-related things, including a belief in the
cyclical nature of the world. Take the Passion Play, for example.
"One chance out between two worlds" presumably speaks of the whole
duality thing. Twin peaks, the divided heart, love and fear, the
White Lodge and the Black Lodge. Perhaps the magician of the
previous line is BOB? Looking for a way out of his world into ours,
through fear?

Harold's fear led to a self-imposed exile. In the isolation of his
home, he was in control -- be it through the writing of other
people's lives or through the raising of orchids. Unable to face
his fear -- whatever its source, its nature -- he killed himself
rather than accepting the outside world into his hermetically-
sealed psyche. Parenthetically, when Harold stumbles outside after
Donna and the diary, he looks at his right hand shaking, and
collapses. Much later, near the end of the series, Cooper, Pete,
and a woman in the diner all experience a shaking right hand. That
night, at the end of that episode, we see BOB slipping out from
within the circle of sycamores, right hand first.

Laura's fear was probably sexual in nature. Adolescence is
difficult enough as it is, but when unhelpful -- or, in her
father's case, harmful -- parents are added to the mix, it grows
into a matter of the soul itself. Leland was corrupted himself long
ago (precisely how, we never learned). Her sexual self adversely
affected by sexual abuse and incest, that developing sexuality
became an evil thing, something perverse. It became an object of
fear. Sex had been used as a weapon against her since she was
twelve, and throughout the period when she began to have sexual
urges herself. Since her experience with sex -- incest -- was
terrible, her own developing sexual feelings told her that she must
be a terrible person.

Harold's fear may also have been sexual in nature, not just social.
The symbolism of the orchid relates to male sexuality. The raising
of orchids may have been an expression of Harold's sexuality, since
sex itself (except perhaps with Laura) was not.

Cooper's fear was of his failures: Laura, Maddy, Caroline, Annie.
Faced with these failures, he runs ("he began to run the wrong
way.") from his doppleganger/shadow-self in fear. The door to his
soul is opened.

Had Harold's fear not driven him to suicide, it might have
attracted BOB, just as Josie's fear does, in the face of what she
has done to so many people, including Harry, the man she loves.

Ben Horne's bizarre transformation arose out of conquering -- or at
least facing -- his fears about his way of life. The revisionist
reenactment of the Civil War was an externalized production of a
psychological battle. Winning a battle formerly lost in history
covered for winning the battle against his former ways. The
struggle for him is not over, however. Learning to be good is not
a straightforward, clear-cut proposition. In fact, trying to be
what he believes to be good, by telling the truth about Donna, gets
his head smashed into a fireplace. (Also: The production of the
Civil War seems to be one thing on the surface, but is in fact
something else underneath -- just like Twin Peaks.)

On the Log Lady. Her name is Margaret Lanterman. Her log was given
to her by her husband on their wedding night. He (supposedly) died
the next day in a fire. He was a fire fighter.

The occassional quotations from Shakespeare are interesting. There
are Shakespearean elements to Twin Peaks, from the importance of
forests to the role of music. The swing back and forth between
dramatic (even tragic) scenes and more comedic (even slapstick)
scenes has some parallels to Shakespeare, whose dramatic moments
are truly dramatic and "high-brow," while his comedic moments are
often quite "low-brow." Further, the reenactment of the Civil War -
- specifically the scenery present when Ben Horne wins -- looks
remarkably like the stage of the Globe Theatre. There are also
cross-dressings, people who look like each other, the
aforementioned woods -- of course, these things are also important
in many mythologies from around the world. The notion of the fatal
flaw (the downfall of the tragic hero) echoes in what happens when
one meets the Dweller on the Threshold in the Black Lodge. One is
confronted with one's failings -- and one has a choice: To confront
those failings (those flaws), or to run from them. Running in fear
leaves you open to attack.

On the non-existent third season. If we are to believe Access Guide
to the Town, Cooper's birthday is on April 19 -- just about where
the storyline would have been at the end of the third season, when
Twin Peaks would have engaged in the Passion Play, and when good
would conquer evil (at least until the wheel -- the golden circle -
- came around again).

Come to think of it, comedy and drama comprise yet another duality.

Twin Peaks (the town and the series) is like an iceberg. Only the
most easily visible and obvious part is clearly seen, rising above
the surface. But to learn the awesome truth of it, we must properly
equip ourselves, and we must descend into the depths. Only then
will we see what is really there. Shakespeare is like that, too.

Twin Peaks is a myth. Like all myths, it is meant to explain the
mysteries of the universe. The series opens with a mystery, of the
kind we are used to. But Twin Peaks is a true mystery story,
dealing with the great secrets that only myth can handle.

It is important to notice that, although BOB is an external force,
he is meant as a symbol -- a dramatic personification -- of (as
Albert says) "the evil that men do." BOB needs our fear in order to
enter this world, to enter our minds and steal our souls. A
reviewer for the Village Voice, writing after the killer was
revealed to be a BOB-possessed Leland Palmer, complained that such
an idea placed evil outside the human being, rather than within it
where it properly belongs. She missed the point. She missed that
Twin Peaks was a myth, and she missed that BOB was a necessary
device of drama in order to transform the idea of evil into
cinematically presentable action. The reviewer failed to provide
herself with a great enough context. Like most (re)viewers of Twin
Peaks, she failed to adequately apply herself.

Important note, written on June 11, 1993: The Log Lady's
introduction to the first episode of Twin Peaks, which aired
tonight on Bravo, was very intriguing. It strengthens my belief in
the direction I have headed on all this. "It encompasses the All.
It is beyond the fire, though few would know that meaning." Great
stuff.

It is not just that Twin Peaks was a series many people taped, but
that Twin Peaks was a series that had to be taped. There is little
chance of finding your way through to the secrets and mysteries
without an occassional review of what has come before. Just as
Cooper sits down to bring together everything they've discovered,
so must the viewer. Twice, characters actually look through
videotape to find something not immediately noticeable the first
time through (Cooper finding the bike reflected in Laura's eye,
Jacoby seeing the gazebo in the tape of Maddy as Laura). It is a
series not of the television age, but of the video age.

One reviewer once referred to Agent Cooper as a "holy fool." There
are quiet hints that he may, in fact, be a kind of savior-hero. The
white horse often symbolizes the coming of the savior-hero. Outside
the interrogration room, where the BOB-possessed Leland is held, we
see a shot of Cooper. Behind him on the wall is a half-hidden word.
All we can read of it is "king." Later, we hear of (and see)
Glastonberry Grove -- with connections to King Arthur (who of
course had a Round Table, partaking of the imagery of the circle).
Windom Earle says that "the King must die." A reference to the
chess game, to be sure, but also something more? In Fire Walk With
Me, Philip Jeffries points at Agent Cooper and asks, "Who do you
think this is there?" It is undoubtedly important that it is Cooper
who stands at Laura's side at the end of the film. This is not
necessarily to say that Cooper is King Arthur, or the King of
Kings. It may just be Lynch's way of creating an aura, a mystique
about Agent Cooper, who surely is a critically important figure.
The Arthurian link is interesting in light of Merlin being trapped
in a tree -- Josie's wood image, the Log Lady's log, etc.

The three official books relating to Twin Peaks are not necessarily
able to be fully integrated into what the series and film have
shown us. But that may not be the point. They are other clues.
Again, they are not there only to capitalize on the short-lived
phenomenon, but to provide to the attentive and investigative
reader more stones along the path.

I recall realizing at the time that the dream Cooper relates to
Harry and Lucy is not the one we saw. Later, I learned that what he
relates is, in fact, the ending to the European-released feature
film built out of the pilot. But we often remember our dreams
differently than we experienced them.

The One-Armed Man says that he took off his left arm after he "saw
the face of God, and was purified." The left arm, the sinister arm,
his evil. The Little Man From Another Place is the arm, is the
evil. "With this ring," the Little Man says, "I thee wed." Teresa
Banks' left arm once went numb, just before "her time." The ring
(with the symbol from Owl Cave) is worn on the ring finger of the
left hand, like a wedding ring. So why does Laura put on the ring
in the train car? And why does The One-Armed Man throw it in?

Why is the symbol Cooper creates by combining the tattoos of the
Log Lady and Major Briggs not, in fact, made up of those tattoos?
The tattoo we were shown to be the Major's is three triangles, but
what Cooper draws uses three diamonds. A mistake, or did someone
decide after the fact that they wanted to change what Briggs'
tattoo was?

The One-Armed Man and the Little Man From Another Place tell BOB to
"give me back all my garmonbozia (pain and sorrow)." BOB sucks the
blood off of the hovering Leland Palmer with his right hand, and
shoots it onto the floor of the Lodge, which absorbs it. Why is it
The One-Armed Man's pain and sorrow? Or is it somehow his fault
that all this is going on? But he screams at Leland Palmer on the
street that "it's all your fault."

Who is Judy? Philip Jeffies says that "we're not going to talk
about Judy at all." She must be important. The last word we hear,
spoken by the monkey, is a whispered "Judy." If it's a reference,
the only one I can find is Punch and Judy. Actually, the tale of
Punch and Judy is quite interesting, and could be the reference
intended. But I'm not sure at all how it fits.

DAVID LYNCH: "Sometimes a jolt of electricity at a certain point of
your life is helpful. It forces you a little bit more awake."

DAVID LYNCH: "Believing in darkness and confusion is really
interesting to me, but behind it you can rise out of that and see
things the way they really are. That there is some sort of truth to
the whole thing if you could just get to tht point where you could
see it, and live it, and feel it. I think it's a long, long way
off. In the meantime, there's suffering and darkness and confusion
and absurdities, and it's people kind of going in circles. It's
fantastic. It's like a strange carnival: It's a lot of fun, but
it's a lot of pain."

The white light appears with the Giant, the white horse, and with
the Little Man as he dances on the bed after Josie's death.

The story of Punch and Judy. "The story roughly in its present form
is attributed to an Italian comedian, Silvio Fiorillo (about 1600),
and it appeared in England about the time of the Restoration.
Punch, in a fit of jealousy, strangles his infant child, whereupon
his wife Judy belabours him with a bludgeon until he retaliates and
beats her to death. He flings both bodies into the street, but is
arrested and shut up in prison whence he escapes by mean of a
golden key. The rest is an allegory showing how the light-hearted
Punch triumphs over (1) Ennui, in the shape of a dog; (2) Disease,
in the disguise of a doctor; (3) Death, who is beaten to death; and
(4) the Devil himself, who is outwitted. In subsequent English
versions, Jack Ketch, instead of hanging Punch, gets hanged
himself."

Pleased as punch: "Greatly delighted. Punch is always singing with
self-satisfaction at the success of his evil actions." Doesn't the
BOB-possessed Leland sing a lot after the murders of Laura and
Maddy? Again, not of direct signifiance, but perhaps another
cultural reference of thematic import.

The name Dale is from the Anglo-Saxon meaning "a dweller in a vale
between hills." The word dale is a synonym for valley, the "low
land lying between hills or mountains." Does Special Agent Dale
Cooper occupy an important position between two worlds? Between
love and fear, between life and death, between the White Lodge and
the Black Lodge, between spirit and flesh, between this world and
the next? The still-point in a tumultuous world?

Incidentally, the names Mike and Michael are from the Hebrew
meaning "who is like God." The name Laura is from the Latin meaning
"the laurel," which is a symbol of victory.

Digressing for one moment into The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer
(which may or may not mesh with the series and film): Laura defines
BOB as "Beware of BOB" -- a recursive definition, again echoing of
the circle motif.

In the end, knowledge of the specifics is probably unimportant. The
reality is that, even without such knowledge, it is clear that
there are strange, coincidental, interconnected things going on in
Twin Peaks (and in Twin Peaks). In life, if you stare at the world
long and hard enough you begin to see patterns -- some real, some
imagined. The main thing in TP is that we notice that there are
indeed patterns. Then we have a choice: Investigate carefully to
understand the patterns; or sit patiently as the patterns unfold
for us over the long haul. But there was no long haul, because
(re)viewers wouldn't apply themselves to either choice. The failure
was not of the series but of its audience. The show had its weak
links, but it was never as off track as many said. The problem was
that everyone was fixated upon the mystery of who killed Laura
Palmer, when the real mystery was much deeper, much greater, and
more profound than that. As the Log Lady says in her introduction
to the pilot, it is about "the mystery of life....It encompasses
the All."

In the Log Lady's introduction to the second episode of Twin Peaks,
she (in essence) chastizes the lazy viewer: "Do we have the time to
learn the reasons behind the human being's varied behavior? I think
not. Some take the time." So far, so good.

From Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Part II,
Chapter I): "As in dream, the images [in myth] range from the
sublime to the ridiculous. The mind is not permitted to rest with
its normal evaluations, but is continually insulted and shocked out
of the assurance that now, at last, it had understood. Mythology is
defeated when the mind rests solemnly with its favorite or
traditional images, defending them as though they themselves were
the messages that they communicate. These images are to be regarded
as no more than shadows from the unfathomable reach beyond, where
the eye goeth not, speech goeth not, nor the mind, nor even piety.
Like the trivialities of dream, those of myth are big with
meaning." If only Campbell had lived to see Twin Peaks.

Leland describes for Cooper and Truman a memory of the man in the
wanted poster (BOB) from his childhood summers at Pearl Lakes. He
says the man lived next door. Of course, BOB couldn't have lived
next door, because he's only a parasitic entity. The truth of
things is probably that a neighbor up at Pearl Lakes was possessed
by BOB, and abused Leland when he was a child. As an adult, Leland
himself abuses his own daughter. Don't people call this kind of
continuing child abuse the "cycle of violence"? Yet another
intrusion of the circle motif.

This raises questions of who is responsible for violent and evil
acts. Leland was victimized as a child, and went on to be a
victimizer himself. This can bend back to Bobby's comments at
Laura's funeral about who killed her -- "You did, we all did." The
continuing struggle between the influences of love and fear is
matter for both individual and collective effort. Just as the
townspeople of Twin Peaks ignored Laura's travails, so they
probably kept their eyes closed to Leland's. When evil proves
victorious, we are all in some way responsible.

BOB is, as Albert says, "the evil that men do." Or rather, he is a
dramatic personification of the evil that men do. Words like
representative and emblematic apparently don't mean much to the
average critic/reviewer. Like in the Campbell quote, people were
seeing the images and characters "as though they themselves were
the messages that they communicate." When this kind of facile
mentation occurs, "mythology is defeated."

Since it seems so indescribably unlikely that all of this "meaning"
could have been clear to Lynch and Company from the beginning,
maybe Lynch is right when he says that "ideas come from outside us
... as if they are being broadcast in the air and we tune into
them, like our mind is a receiver." (An idea that is disturbingly
reflected in the images of "wires in the air" in Fire Walk With
Me.)

From a symbol dictionary: "Judy. One of a class of Macedonian
fairies who destroy those they induce to dance with them. A
personification of storm or wind."

From a book on goddesses: "Judy. See Vila."

From the same book: "Vila. One of the most powerful eastern
European goddesses was called Samovila, Vila, or Judy according to
the language of the people who pictured this woodland force as a
fair-skinned winged woman with glistening garments and golden hair
falling to her feet. She lived deep in the woods, where she guarded
animals and plants as well as cleaning streams of rubble and
assuring sufficient rainfall." While she may destroy men who kill
the beasts of her forest, she will also befriend humans who wish to
learn her skills.

With these things in mind, the references to a Judy in Fire Walk
With Me become very interesting. Particularly given the description
of Judy above, which resembles the angel Laura sees in the Black
Lodge -- a sequence not long after a monkey whispers, "Judy." In
fact: A mouth eats corn, the monkey whispers the name, the scene
shifts to the Red Room, and Laura sees the angel (or Judy?). If
Lynch is not aware of all this, maybe he is receiving his ideas
from somewhere out of the blue.

"You stole the corn!" screams The One-Armed Man at Leland Palmer.
According to one of the many symbol dictionaries, corn: Portends a
quarrel; symbolizes abundance and harvest; is universally worshiped
as the staff of life. Whatever is going on is perhaps a perversion
of the natural order, an interruption of the cycle of life.

IRENE: "Out of all the people in the world, the best and the worst
are drawn to a dead dog. Most turn away. Only those with the purest
of heart can feel its pain. Somewhere in between, the rest of us
struggle." In a way, this describes the spectrum of reaction to
Lynch's work. His films (and TP) are like the mentioned dead dog.
Some (the worst) simply get off on the violence, sex, and strange
allure. Others (the best, the purest of heart), see further -- and
understand. Still others (in between), just find confusion.

THE ONE-ARMED MAN/MIKE: "This is his true face. Few can see it: the
gifted, and the damned."

On running the wrong way: At one point in Cooper's confrontation
with the Lodge, he runs into a room where the Little Man points at
him and admonishes, "Wrong way." Which brings up the piece by
Martha Nochimson in Film Quarterly. It may be true that Cooper acts
differently during his prolonged confrontation with Earle. Perhaps
Cooper "began to run the wrong way" long before he entered the
Lodge. Earle's machinations in Twin Peaks brought back into
Cooper's mind his failings (Caroline's death; perhaps he even feels
somehow responsible for Earle's madness). Cooper's still-unresolved
self-doubt and self-fear over past events derails his giftedness.
By the time he is lured into the Lodge by Earle, he's just not
ready in the way he needs to be.

COOPER: "What goes around comes around."
TRUMAN: "Round and round."

Malcom, when speaking of Evelyn and her husband, speaks of a cycle
(her husband beats her, she breaks one of his possessions, he beats
her, etc.).

Gertrude Jobes' Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols says
that dwarves often steal corn. They also make rings (usually
connected to fertility).

The message to Major Briggs from someone in the Black Lodge, via
Sarah Palmer -- from the Log Lady's husband? Or from Josie?

There is something important about Pete Martell that we never
learned. In Access Guide to the Town, Pete is listed (along with
the Log Lady and Agent Cooper) as a member of the Twin Peaks
Theosophist Society. It is doubtful that any such group would have
appeared in the series. Rather, it is the subject of theosophy that
is important. An encyclopedia entry on theosophy reads: "Any
philosophical system starting with mystical belief in the pervading
force of infinite divinity (God) in the universe, with evil the
result of man's devotion to finite goals. The Neoplatonists and
Cabalists had theosophical systems, as did Jacob Boehme. More
specifically, theosophy is the movement fostered by Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky in the late 19th cent., based largely on Indian
philosophy and stressing the latent spiritual power of man, refined
by various transmigration of the soul and enlightened by occult
knowledge." A dictionary says that theosophy is "a religious system
proposing to establish direct, mystical contact with the divine
spirit." We can plainly see why the Log Lady and Agent Cooper would
be connected to theosophy. But Pete Martell? Of course, we must
remember that Pete Martell (along with Agent Cooper, an
unidentified woman in the diner, and maybe even Harold Smith)
experienced a shaky right hand. Perhaps Pete knew more about the
mysteries of Twin Peaks than he let on. The fool often has
knowledge others do not.

In the final episode, the again-sane Nadine Hurley seems afraid
upon hearing the name Mike. Does Nadine know something about what
lies beyond the fire? Is there a deeper meaning in her fear than
simply being confused after being hit on the head with a sandbag?

EARLE: "I tell you, they have not died. Our hands clasp, yours and
mine."

How does the Log Lady's warning -- "Shut your eyes and you'll burst
into flames." -- relate to the other fire references? The meaning
of the admonition is clear enough: Don't be blind to the truth. The
town does nothing to help Laura, hence Bobby's accusation -- "You
want to know who killed her? You did. We all did." -- at Laura's
funeral. "There is a sadness in this world," the Log Lady says,
"for ... we are ignorant of many beautiful things ... like the
truth." Ignorance equals shutting your eyes? Sadness equals
bursting into flames?

Does our ignorance arise from fear? Do we fear the truth,
especially if it is a self-truth? The town is afraid to admit
Laura's troubles because they reflect the larger troubles of the
town itself. Cooper fears his failures, and runs from them
(embodied by his shadow-self) instead of facing them down. "Look in
the mirror," the Log Lady tells us.

"These creatures" or "these ideas" that "introduce themselves," to
us, "but we swear we have met them somewhere before." The Log Lady
says, "Yes." As if to suggest we have met them before. Where? "Look
in the mirror," she tells us. "Some ideas," she says, "are
destructive, some are constructive." Some of them "can arrive in
the form of a dream." Dreams come from within. We speak to
ourselves in our dreams. These ideas -- they are our own. These
creatures -- we have met them somewhere before. In the mirror.

The Red Room is our collective dream. It is a place where what lies
within us comes out to play.

"Some ideas arrive in the form of a dream," says the Log Lady. As
Leland lays dying, he recalls to Cooper how BOB came to him in a
dream when he was a child, and asked him if he wanted to play.
Earlier, he tells Cooper and Truman that the long-haired man in the
wanted poster would flick matches at him when he was a child,
asking, "Do you want to play with fire, little boy?" James tells
Truman much the same thing, except it came from Laura: "Do you want
to play with fire, little boy? Do you want to play with BOB?"

PHILIP JEFFRIES: "Well now, I'm not goin' to talk about Judy. In
fact, we're not goin' to talk about Judy at all, we're gonna leave
her out of this. Who do you think this is there? I sure as hell
want to tell you everything, but I don't have a whole lot to go on.
Oh, believe me, I fought 'em. It was a dream. We lived inside a
dream. We lived above a convenience store. Listen and and listen
carefully. I been to one of their meetings. [unintelligible] I
found something. And then there they were."

Was Jeffries an agent? Or someone else somehow once involved with
the FBI? Cole says he's been gone nearly 20 years -- or is it 2?
How long did it feel to Jeffries?

During the ravings of Philip Jeffries, we see a shot of BOB and the
Little Man From Another Place walking away through the curtains of
the Red Room. Why those two together? They are also seen sitting
together at the green formica table.

MRS. TREMOND'S GRANDSON: "Fell a victim." Said as he seemingly
points in BOB's direction.

As Jeffries says "and then there they were," we see a shot of a
mask being pulled away to reveal the monkey's face -- a moment
earlier, it was the Grandson pulling the mask away from his own
face.

MRS. TREMOND'S GRANDSON: "The man behind the mask is looking for
the book with the pages torn out." Is BOB the man behind the mask,
or is Leland? One of them is the mask, one is the man behind the
mask. The Grandson is wearing a mask, white with a long nose --
which recalls the Jumping Man wearing white face paint and a long
nose. And the Grandson is seen holding some sort of stick/staff
thing, also seen in the possession of the Jumping Man.

There are two ways to look at it. One: Since BOB is who Laura is
seeing, he is the mask and Leland is the man behind the mask. Two:
Since BOB is the "wild man," from deep within us and the world, he
is the man behind the mask, and the normal-seeming Leland is the
mask.

LITTLE MAN: "With this ring I thee wed." Seemingly said to BOB, who
is sitting across the table from him.

LOG LADY: "When this kind of fire starts, it is very hard to put
out. The tender boughs of innocence burn first. And the wind rises.
And then all goodness is in jeopardy." Said to Laura Palmer, her
hand on Laura's forehead.

From The New Yorker (Dec. 17, 1990): "[Catherine] Coulson explained
that the log connects the Log Lady to her dead husband and to other
worlds."

If Twin Peaks is a myth, what is it telling us? That the world
spins on an axis of love and fear. That this life is filled with
things dark and heinous, and if we close our eyes to them then All
is lost. That there is both individual and collective
responsibililty. That we must face the Truth, most of all about
ourselves. 

The song Julee Cruise sings ("Questions in a World of Blue") is
clearly related to the rest of the film, and to the emotional state
of Laura Palmer during the scene at hand. To take a single example:
The word "blue" is significant. At the airport early in the film,
Lil's rose is blue. Consulting a few symbol dictionaries reveals
that a blue rose symbolizes the impossible, or the unattainable.
The color blue stands for truth -- questions in a world of truth?
The shifting patterns of the repeated close-up of a television
screen are blue, and relate to the occultish goings-on (the
impossible). After the encounter with The One-Armed Man in his
truck, Leland cries: "A man like that, coming out of the blue!"

Come to think of it, the mysterious poem essentially speaks of
trying to know the Truth, to recognize the All.

In the series, the Log Lady says that her husband was a logging
man. In Access Guide to the Town, it says he was a fire fighter.
Why the discrepancy?

The Log Lady's husband gave her the log on their wedding night. He
gave her the jar of oil ("an opening to a gateway") just before he
died.

It is important to notice that Dr. Jacoby eventually corrects
himself, saying that he smelled burnt engine oil not in the
hospital (when Leland killed Jacques Renault) but in the park
(where Jacoby was attacked). This means two things: 1) Leland, not
the BOB-possessed Leland, killed Jacques Renault; and 2) The heavy-
breathing man, the man who attacked Jacoby, was Leland -- in fact,
the BOB-possessed Leland. We saw him earlier, sitting in the dark
and looking rather evil, watching unseen as Maddy left the house to
go to the gazebo in Easter Park. He followed her, and hid in the
bushes to watch.

BOB can be "let in" in a couple of ways. Leland was taken as a
child, when BOB was "in" a neighbor at Pearl Lakes. BOB also came
to him in dreams. But BOB can also "take" you if you physically
visit the Black Lodge, as Cooper does in the final episode. But the
whole of the series and film suggests that the tale about the White
and Black Lodges related to Cooper by Hawk is not entirely true.
From what we have seen, death is a release from the trials and
travails of the material world and the influence of BOB. At the end
of the film, we do not see Laura having to confront the Dweller on
the Threshold. Instead, she is visited by an angel, who has not
gone away after all. It is only while in this earthly life that we
are subject to the ravages of what BOB and the Black Lodge
represent: Our baser selves. As Leland lay dying, he says he sees
Laura, beautiful and welcoming. Death is the passage out of a life
filled with things both dark and heinous. The confrontation with
the Dweller on the Threshold (shadow self) is one we live out in
this world, not in the next. The next world frees us from the bonds
of this confrontation: Laura sees the angel, Leland sees Laura --
and both are liberated. The concerns of this world have no relation
to the one beyond the wall of death. They are inextricably a part
of our earthly existence alone.

All of this has significance in the question of whether the Log
Lady's husband is actually dead, or merely in the Lodge.

"The fire I speak of is not a kind fire." Is it those things both
dark and heinous in the world? Does the peace and beauty and truth
and welcoming encountered by Leland and Laura lie "beyond the
fire"? Does "fire walk with me" mean a surrender to these things
both dark and heinous? Is the Lodge between two worlds? In a
Project Blue Book videotape, Windom Earle speaks of the Dugpas (or
is it Dugbas?), sorcerers who were seeking access to the powers of
the Black Lodge. Are they the magicians who "long[s] to see"? To
have the fire walk with you means to give yourself up to the
darkness, to surrender to our baser selves. To go "beyond the fire"
means turning to love, not fear? We can do this in our earthly
life. But it also exists naturally for everyone beyond the fire --
as Laura finds.

MIKE once said that BOB had been his familiar. This suggests that
MIKE was a magician of some sort -- perhaps the magician of the
poem, perhaps a Dugpa. The Dugpas were searching for access to the
power of the Black Lodge. The magician of the poem longs to see
through the darkness of futures past -- in other words, into the
All (a transcendent knowledge kept from mere mortals, perhaps
"beyond the fire"). Is this why MIKE speaks tells BOB to "give me
back all my pain and sorrow"? Did MIKE, as a Dugpa, open the
gateway into the Lodge? And now he works to undo what he has done?
Familiars are often spirit-possessed animals. BOB is our baser,
animalistic part. This might explain why, in the film, BOB and the
Little Man From Another Place are shown together. The Little Man,
being the Arm (MIKE's sinister energies which he abandoned when he
"saw the face of God and was purified"), is aligned with BOB, being
the darkness within us all (or at least being a parasite feeding on
that darkness should we let him in). But still the question
remains: Why, then, does The One-Armed Man throw the ring into the
traincar -- given Cooper's warning to Laura not to take it, which
suggests it binds one to the sinister force of the Little Man. If
BOB is just the darkness within each of us: The LIttle Man telling
BOB "with this ring I thee wed" suggests that the ring signifies a
bond between our own darkness and the Arm. So, again, why would The
One-Armed Man throw the ring into the train car if he is trying to
stop BOB? Laura's putting on of the ring weds her to evil,
presumably. Which then raises the question of why Leland is made to
kill her. If she finally surrendered to BOB and the Arm (through
the ring), why did she have to die?

Perhaps the poem can be divided into two parts. The first is about
the magician wanting to see through the darkness of futures past.
The second speaks of there being one chance out between two worlds,
which is to walk with the fire.

The Black Lodge/Red Room lies between two worlds: This one and the
next.

Cycles. Just as the Dugpas once worked to gain access to the power
of the Black Lodge, now the government is trying to do the same.
The battle that is drawing nigh is a recurring battle. The last
time (or a previous time), MIKE was involved -- and now, as a
possessing spirit, he fights against the terrible powers held
there.

"Maybe that's all BOB is," says Albert. "The evil that men do." And
as we know from Shakespeare, "The evil that men do lives after
them."

To move beyond the fire is to see beyond fear. Fire is fear and the
things both dark and heinous it unleashes from within us. What lies
beyond the fire? The All. What lies beyond fear? Love. "I'm talking
about seeing beyond fear," says Cooper. "I'm talking about learning
to look at the world with love."

"Fire," says the Log Lady, "is the devil hiding like a coward in
the smoke." This too connects fire with fear and evil things.

Corn: The fertility of the earth; awakening life; life springing
from death; abundance. To steal the corn, then, is to steal life --
to interrupt life's cycle.

According to the J.C. Cooper book, the left side is the sinister,
dark, illegitimate, inward-looking aspect. It represents the past.
The right side is the future, outward-going principle. The side of
honor. In Christianity, at the Last Judgment the sheep are on the
right hand and the goats on the left. The Little Man From Another
Place is The One-Armed Man's left arm. At the end of the film,
Laura sits at the right side of Cooper (the savior-hero).

Also according to the J.C. Cooper book, "the ring is equated with
the personality, and to bestow a ring is to transfer power, to
plight a troth, to join the personalities." The One-Armed Man
bestows the ring unto Laura in the train car. But for what reason?

The number six, according to the J.C. Cooper book, is equilibrium.
"It symbolizes the union of polarity." Also: Love, health, beauty,
chance, luck. Perfect balance. A "6" appears on the telephone pole
in the Fat Trout trailor park that Agent Desmond seems to take as
a clue -- it turns him around toward the trailor of Mrs. Chalfont,
where he finds the ring and disappears. To the Chinese, there are
six senses -- the mind being the sixth. The telephone pole, of
course, is connected to "wires in the air."

Again according to the J.C. Cooper book, the black dog is "sorcery,
diabolical powers, the damned." It also "has the qualities of a
fire-bringer and master of fire." An image of a black dog barking
appears in the road confrontation between The One-Armed Man and
Leland Palmer. In flashback (not long after), we see Leland fleeing
a motel where he has just seen Laura. Mrs. Tremond's Grandson hops
around the parking lot in a circle, wearing the mask. The
soundtrack speaks: "The black dog runs at night." A black dog
brings misfortune.

The One-Armed Man, possessed by MIKE, speaks of BOB having been his
familiar. Familiars are often in the form of animals (spirit-
possessed animals). Whenever this was, could MIKE's familiar have
been a black dog?

So, MIKE was some kind of magician in search of a source of evil
power. Having found it, he and BOB -- his familiar, possibly in the
form of a black dog -- killed together. Eventually, MIKE saw the
face of God and was purified. He cut off his left arm (his sinister
and evil side, whose energies now reside in the Black Lodge, in the
form of the Little Man From Another Place), and devoted himself to
stopping BOB -- and atoning for his past deeds. This is why The
One-Armed Man tells BOB to "give me back all my garmonbozia (pain
and sorrow)." But he says this apparently in relation to what has
been done by BOB/Leland. How are these deeds specifically the fault
of MIKE?

Collective responsibility and action. "You want to know who killed
her? You did. We all did." The town could have saved Laura. The
people around Leland could have saved him when he was a child. "The
best thing in our lives and we did it together." What happens if we
ignore the truth? "Shut your eyes and you'll burst into flames."

Mrs. Tremond's Grandson is dressed like an FBI agent: Black suit,
dark tie, light shirt, etc. "Behind all things are reasons." This
included?

JACOBY: "The problems of our entire society are of a sexual
nature." Dancing can be a symbol of fertility. Fire can represent
the libido, sexual fertility, forbidden passions. A forest can
speak of fertility as well. A monkey can symbolize sexual desires.
The orchid has sexual connotations. The pine can represent
virility. A ring can symbolize the female genitals, as well as
(again) fertility). "Twin peaks" is (among other things) a sexual
joke.

According to A.E. Abbot's Encyclopaedia of Numbers, the number 6
indicates "that man's spiritual path lies in the balance of the
spiritual and the physical, the external and the transitory. It
represents harmony, proportion, co-operation, and implies order and
harmony brought to manifestation."

Harold Smith, shut-in and raiser of orchids, says that he "grew up
in books." He gathers people's stories into a "living novel."
According to the J.C. Cooper book, the orchid can represent "the
scholar in seclusion."

GIANT: "One and the same." Martha Nochimson, in her Film Quarterly
piece, says that this is the Giant telling Cooper that he and the
Little Man are "one and the same." But to me it seems as if he is
saying that he and the Old Waiter are "one and the same." After
all, the Giant appears right in the exact spot where, a split
moment before, the Old Waiter was standing. They are dressed
similarly. And one often appears in the same location as the other.

"I am my own judge," the Log Lady tells us. This is what happens to
Cooper in the Lodge. He judges himself. His fate is entirely in his
own hands: Face his shadow-self (love); or run from it (fear). It
is the choice we all face. The long confrontation with Earle brings
into sharp focus Cooper's unresolved feelings of past failure. In
essence and effect, Cooper was running from his shadow-self from
the moment Earle arrived in Twin Peaks.

The Log Lady's introductions continue to leave open the question of
whether the evil in Twin Peaks comes from within or without. Ideas
that introduce themselves, speaking so strangely (like in the Red
Room). Ideas that arrive in the form of a dream. Creatures who
introduce themselves, but we swear we have seen them before. In the
mirror. All the characters in our dreams. Just aspects of
ourselves? In truth, BOB may indeed be an external force. But he
cannot do as he pleases. We must let him in. How? He takes
advantage of our weakness if we fail to face ourselves. If we fail
to face the truth. "Shut your eyes and you'll burst into flames."

The Log Lady knows in her heart if the answers to her questions are
correct. Not in her mind, but in her heart. The seat of
"understanding (as opposed to reasoning)."

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines a
myth as "a traditional, typically ancient story dealing with
supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a
fundamental type in the world view of a people, as by explaining
aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology,
customs, or ideals of society."

"Have you ever seen," the Log Lady asks us, "something startling
that others cannot see?" Few people saw the startling somethings
that were the true mysteries of Twin Peaks.

The One-Armed Man and the Little Man From Another Place ask BOB to
"give me back all my garmonbozia (pain and sorrow)." BOB takes the
blood from Leland's floating body and shoots it onto the floor of
the Red Room, which absorbs it. We see a mouth sucking up creamed
corn from a spoon. Important: Earlier, we saw a whole bowl of corn
on the formica table. But here it is only a spoonful. The return of
the stolen corn (stolen by BOB) is not yet fully achieved.

In the series, Donna witnesses Mrs. Tremond's Grandson performing
a magic trick with creamed corn. This is the same scene in which he
speaks (in French), "I am a lonely soul" -- words which later form
the entirety of Harold Smith's suicide note. Donna takes Harold's
use of these words as a clue and goes with Agent Cooper to the
Tremond house (where, of course, the resident knows nothing about
what Donna is talking about). This bolsters the idea that Harold
knew of the mysterious forces in Twin Peaks. Who knows what
information resides within all those books he was keeping of
people's lives.

Is the Little Man From Another Place in fact the MIKE that
possesses The One-Armed Man? Or just the sinister energies of the
once-living MIKE? Of course, the actor who plays the Little Man is
named Michael (for whatever that's worth).

GIANT: "It is happening again." JULEE CRUISE: "The world spins."
COOPER: "What goes around comes around." THE ONE-ARMED MAN: "The
golden circle."

Mrs. Tremond and Mrs. Tremond's Grandson speak normally in the real
world, but strangely above the convenience store. BOB speaks
normally after Josie dies, but strangely when he takes Earle's soul
(in the Lodge). The One-Armed Man speaks normally in the real
world, but strangely in the Red Room. Earle speaks normally in the
real world, but strangely in the Lodge. But Cooper speaks normally
in both places.

The Log Lady speaks of "eyes that have no soul." In the Lodge, at
the end of the series, Cooper encounters a number of dopplegangers
(including his own) whose eyes are completely white.

DAVID LYNCH (on Twin Peaks): "It's like sex and it takes time."

DAVID LYNCH (on Twin Peaks): "The thing is about secrets."

LOG LADY: "Where does creamed corn figure into the workings of the
universe? What really is creamed corn? Is it a symbol for something
else?" Here, we have the first confirmation that Lynch intends for
some things to merely symbolize other things. Mrs. Tremond asks
Donna if she sees "any creamed corn on that plate." There is
creamed corn on the plate. Mrs. Tremond asks the same question
again. There is no longer any corn on the plate. Instead, it is in
the cupped hands of Mrs. Tremond's Grandson (but only for a
moment). He's studying magic. The disappearance of the creamed corn
in this scene represents the fact that the corn has been stolen (by
BOB).

As Cooper dreams about the fact that "the owls are not what they
seem" (told to him by the Giant, and later by the signals Major
Briggs shows him), we see BOB, at the foot of Laura's bed, the
image of an owl projected upon his face. Much later, after leland
dies, after Truman asks where BOB is now, we see an owl flying out
of a bright, white light.

While talking to Albert about ancient Asian history, Cooper speaks
of his belief that events of the past are very much related to
those of the present. The golden circle. The battle continues.
Circles and cycles.

Cooper realizes that Truman and Hank Jennings were once close
friends. In fact, they grew up together. Hank was a Bookhouse Boy,
one of the best. How much do the Bookhouse Boys really know about
the mysteries of Twin Peaks (and, therefore, how much does Hank
know)? What made Hank change from one of the best to one of the
worst?

COOPER: "Buddhist tradition first came to the land of snow in the
5th Century A.D. The first Tibetan king to be touched by the dharma
was King [unintelligible]. He and succeeding kings were
collectively know as the Happy Generations. Now some historians
place them in a watersnake year, 213 A.D. Others in the year of the
water ox, 173 A.D. Amazing isn't it? The Happy Generations."
ALBERT: "Agent Cooper, I am thrilled to pieces that the dharma came
to King Ho Ho Ho, I really am, but right now I'm trying hard to
focus on the more immediate problems of our own century right here
in Twin Peaks."
COOPER: "Albert, you'd be surprised at the connections between the
two."

MRS. TREMOND'S GRANDSON (to Donna): "Sometimes things can happen
just like this." He snaps his fingers. Mrs. Tremond takes the cover
off of her plate. 
MRS. TREMOND: "Creamed corn. Do you see creamed corn on that
plate?" Donna looks at the plate. There is creamed corn on it.
DONNA: "Yes."
MRS. TREMOND: "I requested no creamed corn. Do you see creamed corn
on that plate?" Donna looks again at the plate. There is no creamed
corn on it.
DONNA: "No." The creamed corn is is the cupped hands of Mrs.
Tremond's Grandson.
MRS. TREMOND: "My grandson is studying magic."
DONNA: "That's nice." Mrs. Tremond's Grandson folds his hands on
his lap. The corn is gone.

LOG LADY: "You wear shiny objects on your chest."
MAJOR BRIGGS: "Yes I do."
LOG LADY: "Are you proud?"
MAJOR BRIGGS: "No, achievement is its own reward. Pride obscures
it. Cream?"
LOG LADY: "My log had something to tell you. Do you know it?"
MAJOR BRIGGS: "I don't believe we've been introduced."
LOG LADY: "I do not introduce the log. Can you hear it?"
MAJOR BRIGGS: "No, ma'am, I cannot."
LOG LADY: "I will translate. 'Deliver the message.' Do you
understand?"
MAJOR BRIGGS: "Yes, ma'am, as a matter of fact I do."

COOPER: "How long were you and Hank friends?"
TRUMAN: "We grew up together. Hank used to be a Bookhouse Boy. Back
then, Hank was one of the best of us."

LELAND (looking at the police sketch of BOB): "I know him. My
grandfather's summer house, on Pearl Lakes. He lived right next
door. I was just a little boy. But I know him."

JERRY: "Is this real, Ben? Or some strange and twisted dream?"

MAJOR BRIGGS: "Well, I may reveal this much. Among my many tasks is
the maintenance of deep space monitors, aimed at galaxies beyond
our own. We routinely receive various communications. Space garbage
to decode and examine. They look something like this. Radio waves
and gibberish, Agent Cooper. Till Thursday night. Friday morning,
to be exact."
COOPER: "Around the time that I was shot."
MAJOR BRIGGS: "The readout took us by surprise. Row after row of
gibberish, and all of a sudden, 'The owls are not what they seem.'"
COOPER: "Why did you bring this to me?"
MAJOR BRIGGS: "Because, later in the morning, 'Cooper. Cooper.
Cooper.'"
COOPER: "My God."

ALBERT: "Senor droolcup has, shall we say, a mind that wanders."
Speaking of the Old Waiter at the Great Northern Hotel. Hawk once
told Cooper of his belief in "a dream soul that wanders."

The image of a ring of fire was originally meant to appear at least
twice in the film, but didn't make it for technical reasons.

The sound of the revolving ceiling fan resembles the sound of the
owl's beating wings.

According to J.C.J. Metford's Dictionary of Christian Lore and
Legend, the owl "stood for the Devil who ensnares souls." Also:
"Black dogs are the familiars of witches." Also from Metford:
Michael "defeated Lucifer when he revolted against God." Michael
"rescues souls from Limbo." Still from Metford: Limbo is "the
outskirts of Hell" where "the Just of the Ancient Law awaited their
release by Christ." When Cooper first physically arrives in the Red
Room (in the last episode of the series), the Little Man From
Another Place tells him that "this is the waiting room." The Red
Room is neither this world nor the next, but a place "between two
worlds." It is Limbo.

"Is there a bigger being walking with all the stars within?" A
reference, most likely, to the Giant. Is he part of Cooper? Or
maybe his "spirit guide"? Hawk believes in several souls. Is the
Giant Cooper's "dream soul" that wanders to the land of the dead?

Harold Smith looks furtively toward Mrs. Tremond's house as he's
letting Donna in.

Does Teresa Banks have one green eye and one blue eye? If so,
what's the significance?

ANNIE (to Laura): "My name is Annie. I've been with Dale and Laura.
The good Dale is in the Lodge and he can't leave. Write in in your
diary."

Not only is Mrs. Tremond's Grandson dressed like an FBI agent, he's
dressed strikingly like Gordon Cole.

"The Black Dog Runs at Night" plays when we see Mrs. Tremond's
Grandson wearing the mask and holding the stick. When Laura is
given the picture, and when Leland is leaving the motel where he's
just seen Laura and Ronette.

News from the Jobes book, on the number six. "Abundance, beauty,
connubiality, consideration, harmony, interference, liberty, love,
marriage, mercy, peace, pleasure, polarity, reciprocity,
reliability, spirituality, symmetry. When debased, entanglement,
seduction, strife, vice. Pythagorean number of life and good
fortune. By sporting men considered to be unlucky.... Deity
attributes: justice, love, majesty, mercy, power, wisdom. By
mystics called the Teacher. It's nature is cooperative, and it
controls artists. Under its influence are a blend of the intellect
and emotional. Equalizing in effect. Corresponds to the color
blue.... It produces a character that is considerate, idealistic,
optimistic, peace-loving. In a name or cycle denotes the need to
assume a responsibility other than one's own." Interesting that it
corresponds to the color blue.

BEN: "What's the greatest gift that one human being can give to
another? The future."

========================================

THE POSSIBLE SYMBOLOGIES OF TWIN PEAKS
(Drawn from: J.C. Cooper's An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of
Traditional Symbols; J.C.J. Metford's Dictionary of Christian Lore
and Legend; and Gertrude Jobes' Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore,
and Symbols.)

ANGEL: spiritual influence acting upon the earth; messenger of God;
saintliness; sweetness

BLUE FLOWER: spiritual happiness; magical or special powers

BLUE ROSE: the impossible; faithful unto death; martial honor

CIRCLE: perfection; eternity; heaven; unity; limitlessness; a
cyclic process; the ultimate state of oneness; never ending
existence; a monogram of God; protection

DANCE, DANCING: the act of creation; a process; the desire for
escape; the passage of time; fertility; release from disagreeable
circumstances; war; victory; orgy; grief; joy; gratitude; sex;
protection; black magic

DUALITY: ambivalence; the physical and spiritual nature of all
things

DWARF: hidden forces of nature; the Father Spirit; the unexpected;
the unconscious; the instincts; ignorance; inferiority;
abnormality; possessor of supernatural powers; unpredictability

FINGER SNAPPING: disdain; peremptory command; the beginning or end
of an idea, cycle, process

FIR: fervor; power; patience; choice; elevation; constancy;
immortality; regeneration; fidelity; purity; regal beauty; pride;
fire; sun; hope; the androgyne; the elect who are in heaven; those
who excel in patience

FIRE: spiritual energy; the libido; fecundity; creation;
destruction; purification of evil; the soul; the creator god;
essence of life; the sun; authority; power; spiritual enlightenment
and zeal; sexual fertility; martyrdom; regeneration; forbidden
passions; war; the torments of Hell; Pentecost

FIRE, FLAME: transformation; purification; the lifegiving and
generative power of the sun; renewal of life; impregnation; power;
strength; energy; the unseen energy in existence; sexual power;
defence; protection; visibility; destruction; fusion; passion;
immolation; change or passage from state to another; the medium for
conveying messages or offerings heavenward

FLAME: transcendence; the Holy Spirit; wisdom; the soul; the
supreme deity; charity; love; religious zeal; martyrdom

FOREST: the female principle; the Great Mother; the unconscious;
danger; mistakes; problems; the obscurance of reason; fertility;
enchantment; hunting; the home of outlaws, fairies, supernatural
beings

GIANT: the unconscious; the forces of dissatisfaction; everlasting
rebellion; despotism; evil; impending evil; the Terrible Father;
Universal Man; the father principle; quantitative simplification;
man before the Fall; the id; tyranny; protector of the common
people

HEART: love; will power; romantic love; love as the center of
illumination and happiness; love of God; the seat of true
intelligence; understanding (as opposed to reasoning)

INCEST: longing for the union with one's self; individuation;
corruption or perversion of the natural order

LEFT SIDE: associated with the past; the sinister; the repressed;
the illegitimate; the abnormal; involution; death; the unconscious;
introversion; the magical; the moon; clumsiness; awkwardness

MASK: dissimulation; ambiguity; equivocation; possesses a magic
quality; indication of what the wearer would like to be;
protection; hypocrisy; hollowness; attribute of the
personifications of Deceit; Vice; Night

MIRROR: imagination; thought; unconscious memories; consciousness;
self-consciousness; self-realization; the ego; introspection;
truth; wisdom; fertility; love; the soul; virginity; reflection of
one's inner self, feelings, or emotions; attribute of the
personification of Truth (especially a hand mirror)

MONKEY: sexual desires; imitation; maliciousness; unconscious
activity; the baser forces; pettiness; the sanguine temperament;
lasciviousness; flattery; hypocrisy; melancholy; pride; idle
foolishness; attribute of the personifications of Idolatry,
Dissimulation, Inconstancy, Avarice

MUSIC: order; harmony; a general restorative; related to fertility;
harmony arising from chaos; the harmony of the universe; will;
mockery; generally indicative of the prevailing atmosphere
(chaotic, erotic, somber, etc.)

ORCHID: The orchid is named from the Greek word for a testicle,
orchis, because its twin bulbs resemble testicles. French
vernacular calls it testicule de pretre, "priest's testicle." In
England it was "dog's stones." The Romans called the orchid
satyrion and said that it grew from semen spilled on the ground by
copulating satyrs, or else that the flowers grew from the scattered
pieces of a satyr's son named Orchis, who was sacrificially killed
and dismembered. Naturally, with all these associations with male
sexuality, the orchid came to be regarded as a potency charm. Pliny
said that holding the roots in one's hand would arose sexual
desire, and that the flower should be given to rams and billy goats
when they are "too sluggish." Parts of the orchid plant were common
ingredients in love potions. When a man gave a woman an orchid as
a gift, in the language of flowers he expressed his intention to
seduce her. Is it then so strange that in our own society the
orchid has been considered the most desirable of floral gifts?

PINE: immortality; longevity; virility; victory; grief; endurance;
pity; philosophy; gloominess; punishment; associated with Saturn,
Capricorn

RING: continuity; wholeness; marriage; an eternally repeated cycle;
delegation of authority; a contract; union; the female genitals;
power; bond; slavery; fertility; female love; authenticity;
justice; legitimacy; invisibility; mourning; eternity; partakes of
the symbolism of the circle

SYCAMORE: abundance; variety; curiosity; wisdom; love

TATTOO: a rite of entry; declaration of allegiance to what is
signified by the mark; a "turning point" in a man's life; has
magical properties; a cosmic activity; protection; sacrifice;
mystic allegiance; counter-magic; adornment

TWELVE: universal order; salvation; perfection; completeness;
holiness; harmony; power; justice; temperance; beauty; grace;
mildness

TWIN MOUNTAIN PEAKS: duality

TWINS: two opposites that have a complementary function
(life/death, sunrise/sunset, etc.)

WHITE HORSE: innocence; intellect; reason; celestial knowledge; the
Divine Word; the conquering Christian; the pure and perfect higher
mind; the hero's steed; imagination; dawn; manhood

WILD MAN: primeval force; the primitive, instinctive, baser part of
the personality; the unconscious in its perilous and regressive
aspect

WOOD: wisdom; mother; life and death; celestial goodness in its
lowest corporeal plane

========================================

THE MYSTERIES OF TWIN PEAKS AS REVEALED BY THE LOG LADY
AND SOME RUMINATIONS ON WHAT HER REVELATIONS MIGHT MEAN



PILOT

Welcome to Twin Peaks. My name is Margaret Lanterman. I live in
Twin Peaks. I am known as the Log Lady. There is a story behind
that. There are many stories in Twin Peaks. Some of them are sad,
some funny. Some are stories of madness, of violence. Some are
ordinary. Yet they all have about them a sense of mystery. The
mystery of life. Sometimes the mystery of death. The mystery of the
woods, the woods surrounding Twin Peaks. To introduce this story,
let me just say it encompasses the All. It is beyond the fire,
though few would know that meaning. It is a story of many, but it
begins with one. And I knew her. The one leading to the many is
Laura Palmer. Laura is the one.

[Important here are the references to mystery. Life and death. It
"encompasses the All," as every myth must do.]


EPISODE 001

I carry a log, yes. Is it funny to you? It is not to me. Behind all
things are reasons. Reasons can even explain the absurd. Do we have
the time to learn the reasons behind the human being's varied
behavior? I think not. Some take the time. Are they called
detectives? Watch, and see what life teaches.

[Important here is that "behind all things are reasons." The
statement that "some take the time" can be seen as a criticism of
the failure of the audience to adequately apply themselves.]


EPISODE 002

Sometimes ideas, like men, jump up and say, "Hello?" They introduce
themselves, these ideas, with words? Are they words? These ideas
speak so strangely. All that we see in this world is based on
someone's ideas. Some ideas are destructive, some are constructive.
Some ideas can arrive in the form of a dream. I can say it again.
Some ideas arrive in the form of a dream.

[Important here is that "all that we see in this world is based on
someone's ideas." But are they someone else's ideas, or our own?
The mention of "a dream" not only refers to the dream at the end of
this episode, but to the connections between dreams and the real
mystery. Much later in the series, the dying Leland recalls that
BOB came to him in a dream and asked him if he wanted to play.]


EPISODE 003

There is a sadness in this world, for we are ignorant of many
things. Yes, we are ignorant of many beautiful things. Things like
the truth. So sadness in our ignorance is very real. The tears are
real. What is this thing called a tear? There are even tiny ducts,
tear ducts, to produce these tears should the sadness occur. Then
the day when the sadness comes, then we ask, "Will this sadness
which makes me cry, will this sadness that makes me cry my heart
out, will it ever end?" The answer of course is yes. One day the
sadness will end.

[Bobby tells the townspeople gathered for Laura's funeral that they
all killed her. By pretending there was nothing wrong with her,
they share responsibility for her death. The assurance that "one
day the sadness will end" could refer not only to simple emotional
grief, but to the passage out of this life's travails -- as happens
to Laura in the film.]


EPISODE 004

Even the ones who laugh are sometimes caught without an answer.
These creatures who introduce themselves, but we swear we have met
them somewhere before. Yes? Look in the mirror. What do you see? Is
it a dream? Or a nightmare? Are we being introduced against our
will? Are they mirrors? I can see the smoke. I can smell the fire.
The battle is drawing nigh.

[Is the use of the word laugh related to the previous mention of
sadness? Or is it a reference to those people who give a knowing
laugh, certain that they have figured things out, only to be
"caught without an answer" after all? The "creatures who introduce
themselves" are surely the same as the earlier ideas that introduce
themselves. Which makes us wonder if these creatures aren't, after
all, merely part of ourselves. "Are we being introduced against our
will?" Is BOB, after all, only "the evil that men do?" And the
proclamation that "the battle is drawing nigh" reflects the
possibility of a coming mythological confrontation between good and
evil, love and fear.]


EPISODE 005

I play my part on life's stage. I tell what I can to form the
perfect answer. But that answer cannot come before all are ready to
hear. So I tell what I can to form the perfect answer. Sometimes my
anger at the fire is evident. Sometimes it is not anger, really. It
may appear as such, but could it be a clue? The fire I speak of is
not a kind fire.

["All the world's a stage." But for whose play? Here the Log Lady
reinforces the truth of her importance. But who is not ready to
hear? People in the show, or those watching? How is her anger a
clue? If it's not anger, what is it? Remember: "Fire is the devil,
hiding like a coward in the smoke."]


EPISODE 006

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yet there are those who open
many eyes. Eyes are the mirror of the soul, someone has said. So we
look closely at the eyes to see the nature of the soul. Sometimes
when we see the eyes, those horrible times when we see the eyes,
eyes that...that have no soul, then we know a darkness. Then we
wonder, "Where is the beauty?" There is none, if the eyes are
soulless.

[Earlier, we are told that the sadness in the world comes from our
ignorance of many beautiful things like the truth. So truth is
beautiful. And beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Is truth to be
found there also? If there is no beauty where the eyes are
soulless, then is there also no truth there? Those who open many
eyes -- are these eyes their own, or those of others? Are they
those who see with many eyes, or those who open the eyes of others?
"Shut your eyes and you'll burst into flames." In the last episode,
Cooper encounters a number of dopplegangers whose eyes are
completely white -- soulless?]


EPISODE 007

A drunken man walks in a way that is quite impossible for a sober
man to imitate, and vice versa. An evil man has a way. No matter
how clever, to the trained eye his way will show itself. Am I being
too secretive? No. One can never answer questions at the wrong
moment. Life, like music, has a rhythm. This particular song will
end with three sharp sounds, like deathly drumbeats.

[This seems to be another suggestion that we pay close attention.
Also, that "one can never answer questions at the wrong moment"
recalls that the perfect answer "cannot come before all are ready
to hear." It is something of another admonishment aimed at those
viewers who became impatient. Life, music, and this series all have
rhythms. And they cannot be rushed. "Don't search for all the
answers at once. A path is formed by laying one stone at a time."
Cooper will hear these words in the next episode.]


EPISODE 2.001

Hello again. Can you see through a wall? Can you see through human
skin? X-rays see through solid, or so-called solid, objects. There
are things in life that exist, and yet our eyes cannot see them.
Have you ever seen something startling that others cannot see? Why
are some things kept from our vision? Is life a puzzle? I am filled
with questions. Sometimes my questions are answered. In my heart,
I can tell if the answer is correct. I am my own judge. In a dream,
are all the characters really you? Different aspects of you? Do
answers come in dreams? One more thing. I grew up in the woods. I
understand many things because of the woods. Trees standing
together. Growing alongside one another, providing so much. I chew
pitch gum. On the outside, let's say of the ponderosa pine,
sometimes pitch oozes out. Runny pitch is no good to chew. Hard,
brittle pitch is no good. But in between these exists a firm,
slightly crusted pitch, with such a flavor. This is the pitch I
chew.

[She knows in her heart if the answers to her questions are
correct. The heart. The seat of understanding (as opposed to
reasoning). "I am my only judge," she says. As Cooper will be his
own judge in the Lodge. As we are all our own judges. Once again,
she leaves open the question of whether these ideas or creatures or
characters that come to us in our dreams are external or internal
forces. The lesson to learn from trees that stand together,
providing so much? "The best thing in our lives and we did it
together."]


EPISODE 2.002

As above, so below. The human being finds himself, or herself, in
the middle. There is as much space outside the human,
proportionately, as inside. Stars, moons, and planets remind us of
protons, neutrons, and electrons. Is there a bigger being walking
with all the stars within? Does our thinking affect what goes on
outside us, and what goes on inside us? I think it does. Where does
creamed corn figure into the workings of the universe? What really
is creamed corn? Is it a symbol for something else? 

[Finding ourselves in the middle. Pitch that is in between runny
and hard. "One chance out between two worlds." The tensions between
love and fear inside us all. Here, we find the first confirmation
that one thing can symbolize something else.]


EPISODE 2.003

Letters are symbols. They are building blocks of words, which form
our languages. Languages help us communicate. Even with complicated
languages used by intellgent people, misunderstanding is a common
occurance. We write things down sometimes -- letters, words --
hoping they will service in those with whom we wish to communicate.
Letters and words, calling out for understanding.

[Letters and words. Letters under the fingernails of BOB's victims.
Words on the pages of Laura's secret diary. Misunderstanding, not
only among the citizens of Twin Peaks, but among the viewers of
Twin Peaks.]


EPISODE 2.004

Miscommunication sometimes leads to arguments, and arguments
sometimes lead to fights. Anger is usually present in arguments and
fights. Anger is an emotion, usually classified as a negative
emotion. Negative emotions can cause severe problems in our
environment, and to the health of our body. Happiness, usually
classified as a positive emotion, can bring good health to our
body, and spread positive vibrations into our environment.
Sometimes when we are ill, we are not on our best behavior. By ill
I mean any of the following: physically ill, emotionally ill,
mentally ill, and/or spiritually ill.

[The subject of anger is raised again. The relationship between the
inside world and the outside world, their interplay. Emotions and
the well-being of both worlds.]


EPISODE 2.005

Sometimes nature plays tricks on us, and we imagine we are
something other than what we truly are. Is this a key to life in
general, or the case of the two-headed schizophrenic? Both heads
thought the other was following itself. Finally, when one head
wasn't looking, the other shot the other right between the eyes
and, of course, killed himself.

[Is this more suggestion that BOB is simply "the evil that men do"?
That we may think we are not in control, but in fact we are?]


EPISODE 2.006

Sometimes we want to hide from ourselves. We do not want to be us.
It is too difficult to be us. It is at these times that we turn to
drugs, or alcohol, or behavior to help us forget that we are
ourselves. This of course is only a temporary solution to a problem
which is going to keep returning, and sometimes these temporary
solutions are worse for us than the original problem. Yes, it is a
dilemma. Is there an answer? Of course there is. As a wise person
said with a smile, "The answer is within the question."

[It remains unclear if BOB is an outside or an inside force.
Problems which keep returning, the golden circle, it is happening
again. The answer is within the question. It is within the
questioner.]


EPISODE 2.007

A poem as lovely as a tree: "As the night wind blows/The boughs
move to and fro/The rustling/The magic rustling that brings on the
dark dream/The dream of suffering and pain/Pain for the victim/Pain
for the inflicter of pain/A circle of pain/A circle of
suffering/Woe to the ones who behold the pale horse."

[Is this earthly life a dream of suffering and pain? Laura's was,
but she was released from it in death. Circles. Only Sarah Palmer
has seen the pale horse, so far as we know.]


EPISODE 2.008

Food is interesting. For instance, why do we need to eat? Why are
we never satisfied with just the right amount of food to maintain
good health and proper energy? We always seem to want more and
more. When eating too much, the proper balance is disturbed and ill
health follows. Of course, eating too little food throws the
balance off in the opposite direction. Then there is the ill health
coming at us again. Balance is the key. Balance is the key to many
things. Do we understand balance? The word balance has seven
letters. Seven is difficult to balance, but not impossible if we
are able to divide. There are, of course, the pros and cons of
division.

[Balance. Inside and outside. Runny and hard pitch. Love and fear.
BOB feeds on fear, and the pleasures, as we feed on food. But it is
our fear, and our pleasures, which draw him out into the world. So
it is up to us to maintain the balance of our lives. Creamed corn
is food. Did stealing the corn upset the cosmic balance? Why the
number seven? The numbers six and twelve appear in the series and
film, but seven? And just what are the pros and cons of division?]


EPISODE 2.009

So now the sadness comes, the revelation. There is a depression
after an answer is given. It was almost fun not knowing. Yes, now
we know. At least we know what we sought in the beginning. But
there is still the question why. And this question will go on and
on until the final answer comes. Then the knowing is so full, there
is no room for questions.

[The sadness, the depression. Once we learned the answer to the
question -- "Who killed Laura Palmer?" -- too many thought there
was nothing left to learn, no mystery left to unravel. But there
was still the question why, a question that will go on and on, like
the golden circle. "Then the knowing is so full, there is no room
for questions." As Laura has no more questions at the end of the
film.]


EPISODE 2.010

Complications set in. Yes, complications. How many times have we
heard, it's simple? Nothing is simple. We live in a world where
nothing is simple. Each day, just when we think we have a handle on
things, suddenly some new element is introduced and everything is
complicated once again. What is the secret? What is the secret to
simplicity, to the pure and simple life? Are our appetites, our
desires, undermining us? Is the cart in front of the horse?

[Cooper has solved the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer, and is
to leave Twin Peaks. But the world has other plans, plans which
force him to remain. But, of course, he must remain, for it is
there that he will fufill his destiny.]


EPISODE 2.011

Is life like a game of chess? Are our present moves important for
a future success? I think so. We paint our future with every
present brush stroke. Painting. Colors. Shapes. Textures.
Composition. Repetition of shapes. Contrast. Let nature guide us.
Nature is the great teacher. Who is the principal? Sometimes jokes
are welcome. Like the one about the kid who said, "I enjoyed
school. It was just the principal of the thing."

[Repetition. Circles. If nature is the teacher, is Cooper the
principal? The principle of the thing is to not let our desires run
away with us. But we enjoy what our desires bring. So we would not
enjoy such a principle, or the principal who would show us.]


EPISODE 2.012

Is a dog man's best friend? I had a dog. The dog was large. It ate
my garden, all the plants and much earth. The dog ate so much earth
it died. It's body went back to the earth. I have a memory of this
dog. The memory is all that I have left of my dog. He was black,
and white.

[Was her dog the dog of Dead Dog Farm? Or the black dog of the
film? Or something else entirely? Does she ask if a dog is man's
best friend to impy that it is not? Her dog was black and white.
Like the chessboard. Like the twin lodges.]


EPISODE 2.013

My husband died in a fire. No one can know my sorrow. My love is
gone. My dearest friend is gone. Yet, I feel him near me. Sometimes
I can almost see him. At night when the wind blows, I think of what
might have been. Again, I wonder why. When I see a fire, I feel my
anger rising. This was not a friendly fire. This was not a forest
fire. It was a fire in the woods. This is all I am permitted to
say.

[She feels her husband near her. Her log is always near her. It was
not a forest fire, but a fire in the woods. This seeming
contradiction can only be a clue.]


EPISODE 2.014

The heart. It is a physical organ we all know. But how much more an
emotional organ. This we also know. Love, like blood, flows from
the heart. Are blood and love related? Does a heart pump blood as
it pumps love? Is love the blood of the universe?

[The heart. Understanding, as opposed to reasoning. If love is the
blood of the universe, what is fear?]


EPISODE 2.015

A death mask. Is there a reason for a death mask? It is barely a
physical resemblance. In death the muscles, so relaxed. The face so
without the animating spark. A death mask is almost an intrusion on
a beautiful memory. And yet, who could throw away the casting of a
loved one? Who would not want to study it longingly? As the distant
freight train blows its mournful tone.

[Clearly, it is the mask of Caroline she speaks of. But could she
as well be speaking of the white mask of the film? And what are we
to make of the freight train?]


EPISODE 2.016

A hotel. A nightstand. A drawer-pull on the drawer. A drawer-pull
on the drawer of a nightstand, in the room of a hotel. What could
possibly be happening, on or in this drawer-pull? How many drawer-
pulls exist in this world? Thousands. Maybe millions. What is a
drawer-pull? This drawer-pull -- why is it featured so prominently
in a life or in a death of one woman who was caught in a web of
power? Can a victim of power end in any way connected to a drawer-
pull? How can this be?

[Why the word "drawer-pull" instead of "handle"? At any rate,
clearly the linkage between Josie and the drawer-pull is connected
to the linkage between the log and Margaret's husband. Was he a
victim of power?]
