From: UnoJ
Subject: Re: Comments from 2nd viewing
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 20:29:53 GMT

In article <rhaller-130992102212@rhaller.cc.uoregon.edu>
rhaller@oregon.uoregon.edu (Rich Haller) writes:
>Another explanation is that the ring was good and it was the 'bad' Cooper
>in her dream telling her not to take it.  It might be argued that it has to
>be the good Coop because that is the one in the lodge, but don't forget
>that Leland/BOB enter the lodge at the end of FWWM, so Coop/BOB could also.
> That said, I'm not as happy with this theory as I would like to be.
>
>At my third viewing, I tried to look very carefully at the rings. Mainly, I
>concentrated on whether they all had green stones.  The answer is yes, and
>I am pretty sure they also all had the owl cave symbol.
>
>Also, the comments of MFAP to Coop at the end of the shooting script (they 
>don't appear in the movie) indicate there is only one ring. See below:
>#	Cooper:  {looking at table}  Where is the ring?
>#	MFAP:  Someone else has it now.
>#	Cooper:  That would indicate that it's the future.
>#	MFAP:  The later events have never been kept a secret.
>
>Now take a look at what follows immediately (at least in the post).
>Annie's is a different ring. It is the one that his mother gave Coop and it
>is a plain gold band, not one with a green stone.  So we have at least two
>different rings, Coops and the one we first see on TB's finger in the
>picture but we later see in the dream sequence on the table that Coop
>refers to.

Well, interesting consolidation of ring references. I still like the
idea that the ring with the owl symbol is the link between the Lodge
(either the room above the conveneince store, the red room or the room
in Laura's painting/dream sequence) and our own physical world. Not
a transportation device, but a link. It enables restricted intercourse
between the worlds, although to what extent it might be volontary I am
not sure about.

>
>#	Cooper:  Where am I?  _And how can I leave?_
>#	MFAP:  You are here and there is no place to go...
>#	  {shouts}  BUT HOME!  {laughs uncontrollably}
>#   -- Nurse attends to Annie.
>#	Annie:  My name is Annie.  I've been with Laura and Dale.  The good
>#	  Dale is in the lodge and he can't leave.  Write it in your diary.
>#      The nurse slides the ring off of Annie's finger.  She goes to
>another
>#      room and puts it on.
>#   -- Truman and Doc tend to Cooper, who says he slipped and hit his head
>on
>#      the mirror and that it struck him as funny.
>#   -- Laura is sitting on Cooper's lap in the red room

TB had the ring; unfortunately we don't know how far she was involved
with Leland as Bob. From the movie it appears that she did end up
blackmailing Leland and thus was murdered by him. At the time of her
death though the ring is nowhere to be found and agent Desmond may
have sniffed something fishy. He finds it and probably disappears
because of it. Next the ring is in the LMFAP's hands, he seems to offer
it to Laura. Cooper, right next to him, warns her not to take it.
The Lodge-Coop in the red room of _Fire Walk With Me_ gave me the
impression of being good, so I am assuming that his intentions were
sincere towards warning Laura. The ring next surfaces in the OAM little
finger....and then he tosses it (we never really see him throw it, but
I believe it's safe to infer that he did) to Laura in the train car
scene. Laura puts it on and reappears next to Coop while the ethereal
_The Voice of Love_ is playing in the background.
I think that Lynch is taking the symbolism of the Owl ring, the fire
ring and of "fire walk with me" and rolling it all into one big 
complex glob. The fire ring appears in the European version and 
hidden in the movie. As I pointed out before, it may signify a gateway
to the Lodges: Bob built the candle ring in the basement of the European
version, maybe to try to escape from being hunt down. He did not possess
the ring and had to resort to that. There may be a ring of fire
constantly burning in the Lodge, hence the mysterious comings and goings
of the old lady and her grandson. That would give real significance
to "Fire Walk With Me": fire as a means of transportation.
Very puzzling is the dichotomy shown towards the ring by two of
the actors who are supposedly helping Laura: Coop warns her not to
take it (perhaps he thinks that she is not ready for it yet) but
the OAM tosses it to her and off she goes on her raod to salvation.

>
>-Rich Haller
>
On an unrelated note, one of the most annoying continuity faults
was that the OAM obviously knew that Bob resided in Leland. In the
series though he wasted everyone's time by having every resident
brought before him one by one. Fainting right when Ben showed up
was a cheap touch, too.


         UnoJ



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