From: jgp@zodmate.Rational.COM (Jim Pellmann)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks,rec.arts.tv
Subject: The Twin Peaks Finale Timeline/Commentary (part 2/5)
Date: 27 Aug 92 21:22:35 GMT
Followup-To: alt.tv.twin-peaks

[Start of File 2 of 5]
<----------------------------------cut here---------------------------------->

+    -- Bobby tells Shelly he wants to marry her.  Heidi arrives for work.

==============================================================================
*** Deja vu
==============================================================================

Repeated dialogue. The entire scene in the RR Diner, with the german
  girl we haven't seen since the pilot movie, repeating the same damned
  thing ("couldn't jumpstart the old man?" etc...) Weird. And we see
  Mrs. Horne again, too...
  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great of Lynch to bring back the old characters.  The German waitress, Sylvia
Horne, Leland (did anyone notice his hair changing color while talking to
Cooper?), Maddy, Laura (my, can that girl scream!), LMFAP and Ronnette.  Yea
for not bringing back James!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After Shelley makes her
remark about ``...jump starting your old man'', Shelley and Bobby say,
in chorus: ``AGAIN!''  This is not in the pilot (I checked).  There
seems to be a nice double entendre here: Shelley and Bobby teasing
Heidi for being late one more time; and the writers winking at the
audience and saying, ``Don't you feel a sense of deja vu at this
scene?''

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right after the penultimate episode, I posted a list of things that I would
like to see and not like to see. Most of them did come true. I was hoping to
see Sarah Palmer, Laura, Maddy, the Giant, and LMFAP. My biggest disappointment
in the show was that there was no Albert. Of course, there wasn't any logical
reason for him to be in the episode, I was hoping he'd show up anyway, perhaps
he'd feel compelled to be there from a dream or something. Thankfully,
preliminary reports pertaining to _Twin Peaks: The Motion Picture_ indicate
that Albert will be back. I thought it was a nice touch bringing back Ronette
Pulaski, too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A friend pointed out to me that much of
the last episode sort of answered or reprised elements from last
season's finale:

Last season, Nadine tried to commit suicide, leaving us with the
question of whether she would live or die and with the possibility of
Ed and Norma having a non-clandestine relationship.  This season,
Nadine, the old Nadine, finally returns, seemingly torpedoing Ed and
Norma's plans to marry (not to mention Mike).

Last season, Pete rushed into a burning building to save one Packard
(Catherine) and we were left uncertain as to their fate; this year
Pete accompanied another Packard (Andrew) to what seems like certain
death.

Last season, Audrey was in danger of discovery by her father, this
season she is in danger of death.  (Given the L shape of the vault,
it's just possible that she was shielded from the full force of the
blast.  Maybe.)

Last year Leo was shot by Hank---an even bigger bully than Leo---and
his fate was uncertain; this season Leo was booby-trapped by Windom
Earle---perhaps the biggest bully on the earthly plane in TP, and
certainly in the same kind of domineering relation to Leo that Hank
was---and is left hanging on by his teeth, literally.

And, finally, last season ended with the climactic scene of Cooper
getting shot, with the fade to black, and the body thump, leaving us
wondering for his physical well-being; this season ends with the still
more disturbing image of Coop confronting his Bob-self in the mirror,
leaving us in deep worry about his psychic/spiritual well-being.

[There's also the tantalizing scene of Major Briggs in the diner,
receiving the message that Cooper is in the Black Lodge, which is a
throw-away in a true finale, but a hint that the Major may play a role
in Cooper's rescue (redemption?) in a continuing series.]

It's one hell of a season finale; if only it could have had the
patented TP ``...To Be Continued''.

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

+    -- Leo still surviving

==============================================================================
*** Leo
==============================================================================

What will happen to Leo?  The guy is left hanging by a string.. (bad pun)
Were those tarantulas up there?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tarantulas don't usually bite people unless provoked.  Leo may survive.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     How conscious is Leo?  If fully, why doesn't he take advantage of the
fact and free himself, either getting the appropriate keys while Windom's
out or by brute strength?  What happened to the madman from the first
season?

     Kinda unexpected that even Leo would turn out to have a good side
("save Shelly...") at the end.  Maybe love IS enough after all.  =)  By the
way, Leo's been at Windom's hideaway for quite some time now -- he should
have longer stubble to show for it.  Unless Windom has been shaving him...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, when he comes to after being stung by all those spiders, he'll
either 1) return to the original Leo; 2) start showing a romantic interest
in high school wrestling jocks; 3) look in the mirror and see Dale Cooper;
4) open a chic little Lebanese restaurant out in the woods; 5) wander the
streets of Twin Peaks zapping himself with the Remote from Hell; 6) fart
twice and die.

It could happen!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been mentioned before that Lynch is making fun of the public.
This was never so clearly explained (at least to me) then through
the use of the spiders above Leo. The viewing public are represented
as the spiders in the cage, not being able to change their fate (i.e.,
not being able to affect changes in the show). The string represents
twin peaks (the show) and how at this time it is being held on by a 
thread. Leo kinda represents the balance the show is in, i.e., what
will happen in the future. It also represents a vision of the 
cliff hanger that Twin Peaks is known for.
Those are my thoughts anyway.

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

+    -- Jacoby brings Sarah to Mr. and Mrs. Briggs.  Sarah has a message for
+       Garland:  "I'm in the Black Lodge...with Dale Cooper.  I'm waiting
+       for you."

==============================================================================
*** Sarah
==============================================================================

Who "channeled" through Sarah to give a message to Major briggs and what
was he supposed to do with it? We didn't see him for the rest of the show.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I noticed that the voice of Bob in Mrs. Palmer as she said to Briggs "I'm in
the black lodge with Cooper" was exactly the same as the "power" voice in Dune.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>      I noticed that the voice of Bob in Mrs. Palmer as she
>>      said to Briggs "I'm in the black lodge with Cooper" was exactly
>>      the same as the "power" voice in Dune.
>
>   I thought that it was not Bob or Windom Earl (neither of which would
>   make sense to be sending a message to the Major).  Rather, I think it
>   was Cooper saying "I'm in the black lodge with Windom Earle" - I
>   definitely heard two parts to the name, and the second part was "er..."

I had assumed it was Laura, saying she was in the Black Lodge with
Cooper.  Since most of Mrs. Palmer's visions, etc., seemed to be
related to things happening to Laura (and at that point I don't think
we had actually SEEN Laura yet) I just figured that a ghostly voice
coming from Mrs. Palmer would be Laura's.

Any other votes?  Annie?  The Dwarf?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>Since Major Briggs APPARENTLY passed his test (facing the Black Lodge and
>reaching the White Lodge as he said previously that he believed this 
>is what happened to him during his dissapearance?), he is the logical
>choice to go in after Cooper's good self (assuming BOB is in control of
>Cooper's evil doppleganger.).

Suppose...maybe the Major is *just* as posessed as Coop...
Anyone want to follow up on that idea?  Perhaps the message Sarah
Palmer delivered to him was one of "OK, time for you to begin Phase III
of operation 'Life-Force-Sucking-Owls' - go after the Log Lady..."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>The "voice that Sarah Palmer speaks" was that of Windom Earle.

>What makes you so sure? 

Well, I'm hearing impaired. Not deaf, just hard of hearing enough that
I need to use a Closed Caption Decoder to understand most of what's said on
a TV. Twin Peaks did have closed captions.

The people who actually type in the captions do so from a printed script of
the show as part of the original video recording process. Sometimes when a
character speaks, his/her voice will have an unusual aspect, and this will be
noted on the captions, as "gasping" is used below, for example:

(gasping)"We've got to get out of here"

In this case, it said:

(voice of Windom Earle)"I'm in the Black Lodge with Agent Cooper."

That's where I'm coming from with my statement that Sarah's voice was that
of Windom Earle's.

One advantage of this is that I get (i.e., read) *every single* word of a
TV show. If any of you folks have some segment on the tape where you can't
figure out what was said because of background music or something, let me
know and I'll watch my tape and check it out for you.

What this *means* is something else. It certainly points out that WE had
some power to inhabit other people in a manner similar to BOB.

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

+    -- Cooper and the little man from another place sitting in the red room.
+       LMFAP:  When you see me again, it won't be me.  This is the waiting room.
+               Would you like some coffee?  Some of your friends are here.
+       Laura:  Hello Agent Cooper.  {winks, snaps her fingers}  I'll see you
+               again in 25 years.  Meanwhile... {presents her hands}
+       Great Northern room service waiter:  Hoo! Woo, woo, woo, woo {with hand
+               in front of mouth--the "Indian noise"}  Hallelujah!
+       LMFAP:  Hallelujah!
+       GNRSW:  Coffee.  Coffee.  Coffee.  Coffee.  Coffee.  Coffee. {sets down
+               solid coffee for Cooper}
+       Giant:  One and the same.
+       {LMFAP rubs his hands.  Cooper picks up his coffee - it's liquid.  When
+               he's about to drink, it's solid.  LMFAP continues rubbing his
+               hands.  The coffee's liquid.  LMFAP continues rubbing his
+               hands.  The coffee's viscous.}
+       LMFAP:  Wow, Bob, wow.  Fire walk with me.
+       {Fire.  A scream.  Strobe effect.  Cooper walks to the other room.
+               Identical furniture but empty.  Back to the original room.}
+       LMFAP:  Wrong way
+       {Cooper goes back to to the other room.  LMFAP babbles excitedly. Then:}
+       LMFAP:  Another friend.
+       {Maddy enters wearing a black dress identical to Laura's.  LMFAP
+               continues to babble, ducks behind a chair.}
+       Maddy:  I'm Maddy.  Watch out for my cousin. {can't see whether her eyes
+               are white}
+       {Cooper goes back to the original room.  It's empty.  Then:}
+       LMFAP (shadow self):  Doppelganger
+       Laura  (shadow self):  {presenting hands}  {angrily}  Meanwhile
+               {screams, climbs up on the chair}
+       {Back to the other room.  Empty, but Cooper is bleeding from his stomach.
+       There's a trail of blood on the floor-- Cooper follows it back to the
+               original room.  Caroline and Cooper on the floor bleeding.  No,
+               it's Annie.  Annie gets up.}
+       Cooper:  Caroline?  Annie?  Annie?  Annie?  Annie?  Annie?  Annie?
+       {Cooper goes back to the other room.  Annie/Caroline is standing there,
+               wearing the black dress from the pageant}
+       Annie:  Dale.  I saw the face of the man who killed me.
+       Cooper:  Annie...the face of the man who killed you?
+       Annie:  It was my husband.
+       Cooper:  Annie?
+       Annie:  Who's Annie?  It's me, it's me, it's me.
+       Cooper:  Caroline?
+       {Annie changes to Caroline (shadow self), in Caroline's dress}
+       Caroline (shadow self):  You must be mistaken.  I'm alive.
+       {Laura (shadow self) screaming, then turns into Windom Earle.}
+       {Annie, in pageant dress, appears off to the side, vanishes}
+       Earle:  Dale Cooper.  If you give me your soul, I'll let Annie live.
+       Cooper:  I will.
+       {Earle stabs Cooper.  Fire.  Rewind.  BOB appears, grabs Earle}
+       BOB:  {to Earle}  Be quiet.  Be quiet.  {to Cooper}  You go.  He is wrong.
+               He can't ask for your soul.  I will take his.  {a spout of fire
+               appears over Earle's head, and his head slumps forward}
+       {Cooper's shadow self enters as Cooper leaves, crouches beside BOB, and
+               laughs with him}
+       {Cooper exits into the hallway}
+       Leland (shadow self):  I did not kill anybody.
+       {Cooper's shadow self chases Cooper and catches up to him.  BOB laughs.}
+ 
+ 
+    Night
+    -- Cooper and Annie are back
+    -- Will tends to Cooper in his bed.  Annie's at the hospital and will be
+       okay.  Cooper gets up, "I need to brush my teeth."  In the bathroom,
+       BOB has Cooper ram his head into the mirror.  "How's Annie?!"
+ [End of timeline]

Discussion of the Black Lodge sequence is divided into the following topics:

*** Annie
*** Cooper at the mirror
*** Doppelgangers
*** Giant/Senor Droolcup
*** Glastonberry Grove
*** Inconsistencies
*** Laura Palmer
*** Pathetic theories
*** Room configuration
*** What it all means
*** Windom Earle

==============================================================================
*** Annie
==============================================================================

A couple people have said that Annie was dopplegangized at the time she entered
the circle of trees (they said, "Look closely at her eyes").  I did look
closely at her eyes, and, to me, they look quite a bit different from the
dopplegangers' eyes we see later in the BL.  The dopplegangers' eyes are
clearly glazed over to the point that the irises can't be seen; Annie's irises
can still be seen after she enters the tree circle.  I think that she has been
enchanted or entranced, not dopplegangized.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Annie is kidnapped from the pagaent,, and a few scenes later we see
Norma happily hanging out with Big Dumb Ed. Dont you think she would be 
a tad worried about her sister? Also Shelly  didnt seem to worried about
her. Dont tell me no one noticed she had disappeared??

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The words that Annie was reciting while WE was dragging her into the grove
were not the 23rd Psalm, as suggested earlier, but the 141 Psalm (A Prayer
for Preservation from Evil).  The part I was able to identify matched the
last verse from the King James version: "Let the wicked fall into their own
nets, whilst I withal escape."  However I couldn't make out all of what she
was saying, so she may have quoted other passages too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who cares how Annie is?  What the *%#$ happened to Josie???

==============================================================================
*** Cooper at the mirror
==============================================================================

I went to see the finale at a friend's house in Beaverton, Oregon,
about 190 miles south of the Double-R Diner.  As you know, the finale
featured many lights out, flashing lights, strobe lights, etc. scenes.
Well, we got to the point of anti-Coop saying he needed to brush his
teeth (about 3 minutes from the end) and BOOM!, a large explosion,
and the neighborhood was plunged into darkness.  Voices drift across
the patio from elsewhere in the neighborhood, "It must be BOB!"
After about 30 seconds, I begin to think it might very well be BOB,
'cause I am about to miss the ending of the whole series after watching
it for two years.  Well, the Major must have been looking out
for us, because in about another 30 seconds, the power returned leaving
us with the image of those two headbangers, BOB and anti-COOP, at the
mirror.  Maybe love (or the Bonneville Power Administration) is enough.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was kind of disappointed in the ending.  Here is the great and evil Bob
and the worst thing he can do is squeeze the tube of toothpaste from the
middle.   ;-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For Cooper to
have been trapped by BOB, it would mean that he still hasn't learned
from his experience with Caroline, and also that he is weak.  We've
heard Hawk (perhaps an expert on spiritual strength) say that Cooper is
strong and we've also learned from his experience with Audrey that
Cooper can separate his logical thought from his love.  --perhaps if
Cooper had confronted his "dweller on the threshold" instead of
running in fear.

Did Cooper end up failing because of what we saw as "fear" while in the
Black Lodge?  In addition to the dweller conflict, when Laura was screaming, 
he ran away and found himself bleeding-- was this a result of his fear?
During this scene, the bleeding reminded me of "... it's not so bad as long 
as long as you can keep the fear from your mind..."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>For Cooper to
>have been trapped by BOB, it would mean that he still hasn't learned
>from his experience with Caroline, and also that he is weak. 

Weak! Smeak!  Coop wasn't weak he sacrificed himself for Annie's life.
Remember WE asking Coop if he would give him his soul for Annie's life.  Coop
without hesitating agreed.  Only thing it was a trap.  WE couldn't take Coop's
soul, but BOB could.  At that point Coop was trapped.  He may have blundered,
but I refuse to beleive he was weak.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who thinks that 1) Coop's twin as bob got out and
Coop is still trapped inside the lodge, or 2) bob has taken over
Coop's body?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I noticed that, just before Coop and Annie re-appeared in Glastonbury
Circle, one of the Coops caught the other one in one of the red
rooms.  I hope this meant the the Coop who reappeared is a
conglomerate of the two, doing internal spritual battle for control. 
That would explain why Coop (the good one) smashes his head against
the mirror on realizing that he is harboring Bob.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So did Cooper really let BOB in when he agreed to surrender his soul in
return for Annie's life (even though BOB said WE couldn't make that exchange,
he didn't say *he* couldn't!)?  Or did the doppelganger Cooper merely overpower
Dale and make it back to physical reality in his place?  I wonder if TP would
have taken this particular plot twist if Lynch et al hadn't needed a bang-up,
shock ending for the series climax?  If the show picks up again in some form,
will Coop struggle from within against BOB, or is the good Coop still back
in the Lodge?  Will the good Coop only appear in visions and through owls?
Will he really have to wait 20 or 25 years to escape?  Will he age in the
meantime?  Aaaaggghhh... I don't want the show to be over!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I thought that the "...in 25 years..." quote referred to what we saw in
the first dream-- Cooper was an old man, 25 years in the future sitting
with the LMFAP and Laura.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as Coop mentioned brushing his teeth, I thought bathroom,...
mirror,... BOB!... NO!  I didn't read any of the Rolling Stone articles with 
the predictions until after 6/10.  I'm sure that you too would have guessed 
what was going to happen even without having read the predictions.  I think 
it was intentionally obvious.  Lynch could have gotten Coop in front of a 
mirror in a much more subtle way, but instead used a rather obvious 
approach.  The whole time Coop was walking to the bathroom and squeezing
the toothpaste, I was saying to myself "No, not Coop. No...", yet was 
still shocked when he smashed his head against the mirror.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>What about Cooper saying "I Will" to Windom Earle's request to him
>about trading his soul for Annie's life?  Is THIS why Bob now has
>Cooper?  Note that Bob popped right in at that point, but mentioned
>that Windom had overstepped his "authority"...Hmmmm......

Yes! As a netter noticed (try saying THAT five times fast!), WE did not 
have the authority but BoB DID! I think Coop really lost it when he *ran* 
from his darker side instead of confronting it. When it caught him, it 
overpowered him and replaced him in the real world.

The combination of these two things ("I will" and running/being caught) 
caused Coop to fail the "test"

By the way...

I knew...i KNew....I KNEW!...Annie was going to get Coop in trouble. I KNEW 
IT !!!!

COOP drop ANNIE!! (you should've done it along time ago bud)

Now we have CooBob to deal with.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>What about Cooper saying "I Will" to Windom Earle's request to him
>>about trading his soul for Annie's life?  Is THIS why Bob now has
>>Cooper?  Note that Bob popped right in at that point, but mentioned
>>that Windom had overstepped his "authority"...Hmmmm......
>
>This may have been a test of Cooper's love for Annie-- I guess he 
>"passed" this part?  Although he failed otherwise.

I think he "passed" this part by reacting with love rather than fear.
Later, when he runs from doppelganger-Laura and his own doppelganger,
he fails because he's reacting with fear.  I think.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>What about Cooper saying "I Will" to Windom Earle's request to him
>about trading his soul for Annie's life?  Is THIS why Bob now has
>Cooper?  Note that Bob popped right in at that point, but mentioned
>that Windom had overstepped his "authority"...Hmmmm......

I'd like to point out that Cooper didn't SELL his soul, he SACRIFICED
it to save Annie.  Pretty powerful stuff, that, at least in classic
epic literature.  That's why I believe it's not Cooper that Bob's
possessing, but, as many have pointed out, the doppelganger, and it
won't take much effort for Cooper to break free and put Bob back in
the Black Lodge.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IMHO, Cooper and the BOB/Coop are one and the same.  His double caught
up with him in the Lodge.  They are both in the bathroom brushing their
teeth (well gee, kinda, sorta).  The key will be to extract BOB/Coop from 
Cooper.  I guess he has to wait 25 year until the Lodge is open again. (?)

It's just too depressing to have to leave Twin Peaks thinking that there
aren't any good guys.  What a pessimistic view of the world!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does BOB now control Cooper's soul?  I think that Cooper assenting to take
Annie's place granted BOB the authority to release Cooper's dark side.  (I
think that Coop's doppleganger did not appear until after this scene.)  Cooper
failed to defeat (or refute, disable or unconjure) his dark side (so far).  I
think that it is this dark side that has been released into the world and that
the "good" Coop is still wandering the halls of the Lodge.

This scenario scares me a little more.  Cooper must have witnessed some pretty
awful examples of human behavior as an Agent of the FBI.  There must have been
times when he wished he could go outside the law to punish a criminal.  When
his normal, good self  is in control, such impluses are dismissed.  But with
the good interred in the Black Lodge the bad is free to act out all not only
all his revenge impulses, but could recreate and re-enact many of the horrors
he had witnessed professionally.  Brrrrrrh.  Kind of turns Cooper into a
Hannibal Lector type, only scarier.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really enjoyed the (sigh) last episode last night.  I had a
slightly different take on the Cooper possession by Bob than has,
so far, appeared in this group.  

I saw the whole Windom Earle arc revealed as a ruse by BOB to get
Cooper to go into the Black Lodge.  Cooper, not WE, was BOB's real
target.  After all, it was Cooper, not WE, who posed a genuine
threat to BOB.  BOB waited until Cooper surrendered his soul to
WE, (a BOB minion) then dismissed WE and claimed the offered soul
for himself.  This was the permission that BOB needed to possess
Coop.   So Love doesn't conquer all....

However, I also don't see this as the end.  I think that Cooper's soul
is trapped inside the black lodge awaiting a rescue by a contingent of
the Bookhouse Boys (Briggs, Harry, etc.).  Also, Annie is (I think)
still alive.  She could be the one who frees Cooper.  Earlier in the
show when Cooper was dictating a memo to Diane he remarked that Annie
(Love) had liberated him from his self imposed prison of solitude.
And she did escape from meeting her own "dweller on the threshold" in
the Black Lodge.  Maybe she now possesses the strength and power to go
back in and free Coop.  Maybe Love does conquer all....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It just occurred to me.  No, I'm lying.  It occurred to me the
first time I watched the last show (I've watched it 3 times
since ... ) perhaps Special Agent Dale Cooper has been
evil since the beginning.  Perhaps he has been a host to BOB
for longer that we think ...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Those of you who are so upset that Bob possessed Coop, take heart,
it may be only the doppleganger. Coop may still be in the lodge,
because someone sent the message to Briggs through Sara Palmer.
If all else fails, go back and watch "Darth Vader goes to heaven!"
from the end of Star Wars III. Happy ending!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for Coop's present situation.  The LMFAP did say "doppleganger"
before WE, BOB and the evil Coop appeared.  My feeling is that Dale
is trapped in the Black Lodge, while his doppleganger is free to
roam the material plane.  I think it will be up to the Major (and
Annie?) to rescue him.  (I also think Truman is not up to the task.)

  As for Annie, did she make it out of the BL?  She didn't look to
good laying next to Coop in the clearing.  Perhaps she did die, and
Truman lied to spare Coops feelings upon his recovery?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>   As for Coop's present situation.  The LMFAP did say "doppleganger"
> before WE, BOB and the evil Coop appeared.  My feeling is that Dale
> is trapped in the Black Lodge, while his doppleganger is free to
> roam the material plane.  I think it will be up to the Major (and
> Annie?) to rescue him.  (I also think Truman is not up to the task.)
> 

I agree that Coop is trapped in the Lodge and his doppleganger is roaming
the material world.  As for his rescue, I think that Albert is the likely
choice (with the Major's help).  If the way to overcome evil is through love,
Albert will be the one to do it.  Albert has said his philosophy of life
is based on love (remember the "...Sheriff Truman, I love you." scene?).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Western religions, evil always requires cooperation.  In _The
Exorcist_, little Linda Blair gets possessed because she plays with
the Ouija board and opens the door to the Devil.  That was terrifying
because it presented the possibility that actions and not intentions
could consititute cooperation.  TP had the chance to explore the other
possibility; namely that even a very good, strong and uncooperative
man could lose his soul to an evil power.  Unfortunately, Coop's saga
in the Black Lodge was a bit murky, and it isn't clear at all what
happened to allow Coop to be possessed by BOB.  As other posters have
pointed out, it looked like Coop did everything right.  I don't even
buy that running for the exit was the wrong thing.  Coop had gotten
what he'd come for - Annie's life.  He wasn't running from BOB, just
running out of the situation.

So the question remains: How did Coop's evil doppelganger win out?
And if Coop cannot stand up to BOB, then who can?  It's a chilling
thought.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     When Coop said "I have to brush my teeth," I knew what was up... yup,
predictable but damn frightening.  The way Coop reflexively 'attacked' Bob
by butting his head into the mirror seemed to indicate that Coop himself
(the same Coop who asked "How's Annie?" when he woke up, the human part of
Coop that is still there even though Bob is sitting atop his soul) saw Bob
in the mirror and knew who he was and what that meant.  Is Coop now aware
that he is being possessed by Bob?  If he's aware of it, can he fight it?
Seems to me that unless Bob is always dominant in Coop (which would most
likely, well, be noticed around town ;-) ), when Coop's human side is in
control of his body he has a chance to do something.  So WILL HE????

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Perhaps that's it.  BOB wants Cooper locked in the rubber room (as opposed to
the red room), just as Cooper had gotten Windom sent to the mental ward years
earlier.  Divine irony, as BOB would see it...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A show of hands... how many paused at the bathroom door after watching the
finale?  "Mmmm... I don't think I need to brush my teeth tonight, nope,
definitely not tonight...."  Eeeek!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three cheers to Daniel Mittleman, whose posting I quote in full:

From: dmittleman@misvax.mis.arizona.edu (Daniel Mittleman)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Subject: a possible ending - but not all the steps to get there
Date: 13 Apr 91 13:00:47 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona - MIS Department

Fiona, I have no idea what it is you are looking for, but here are some
ideas I had yesterday..

I have this idea for a final scene, but only sketchy details of what
might come before it.

Sketchy details:

It seems to me that Windom Earle will manage to create a situation for
Cooper where Earle has the ability to unleash all of the forces of the
Black Lodge on the world.  Doing so would cause untold death and
destruction.  Cooper has the ability to stop Earle, but because of the
situation Earle has created, doing so was cost the life of Annie.  In
the climax Cooper decides to save the world, Annie is killed, Cooper is
a hero, but is left inconsolable and despondent.

Final scene:

We are just inside the doorway of Cooper's room at the Great Northern.
We see Cooper in a profile view sitting in a wooden chair at his
desk/dresser staring blankly into the mirror in front of him (not wholly
unlike the opening scene with Josie).  The room is dark and warm and
woody.  The camera angle slowly moves towards Cooper circling around
behind him.  Very haunting TP music picks up in the background.  As the
camera comes around behind Cooper we can see his reflection in the
mirror.  It is Bob smiling and laughing back out at him.  The picture
fades to black.  "Lynch/Frost" appears on the screen.

This is all a brainstorm - additional comments and suggestions are
welcome.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most of the things I noticed during the finale have already been mentioned
by the rest of you except for one (small) thing. Did anyone else besides me
see Cooper's first line after waking up in his hotel room with Truman and
Doc Hayward standing over him ("I wasn't sleeping!") as a message directly
from David Lynch to the viewing audience that he wasn't going to cop out
with a Wizard of Oz-like ending? As soon as I say Cooper in bed with Truman
and Doc standing over him, I thought, "Oh, no! The whole thing's been a
dream!". Then, as if on cue, Lynch seemed to be saying directly to me that,
no, it wasn't a dream.

==============================================================================
*** Doppelgangers
==============================================================================

>   Alternatively, the Leland evil form existed as a seperate entity in
> the black Lodge and was obviously kin to the evil Dale form. Perhaps
> this is the Lodge's representation of possession by Bob.

Hawk said that your spirit had to visit the Black Lodge and overcome your
evil self before it could proceed to the White Lodge.  Sounds like everyone
has an evil self in the Black Lodge; you don't have to be possessed by BOB.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Watch out for my cousin" might have well have been a fortelling of
what was to come, the doubles...  the "dopplegangers", the opposites.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   The MFAP said that he'd show up again as someone else -- who?

What he said was closer to: ``When you see me again, it won't be me.''
I think that what he meant was that each successive apearance of the
LMFAP was merely someone who looked like him: doppelgangers (und
treppelgangers, usw).  Note that this happens with Laura.  The first
Laura we see, who says she won't see Cooper for 25 years, has clear
eyes, while Laura/Bob, has glazed eyes.  This seems to be a
distinguishing mark of the doppelgangers.  Also, the only Leland we
see has glazed eyes, and the anti-Cooper also has glazed eyes.  Still,
the whole XXX Lodge sequence leaves open the question of what happened
to those who have died and exactly whose side the supernatural
entities are playing on---except for Bob, of course, who remains
unchanging in his Bobhood.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> "Wow, BOB, wow!"

Since no one has pointed out the obvious, I will: this is a palindrome 
that is also vocally palindromic, when spoken in the Lynchian double-
reverse technique. Only other one I can think of is "Madam, I'm Adam."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's "mom, pop, mom" upside down.

The twin-peak theme is expressed in the dual points of the W/M, and in
the double W's of "wow", and in the double-wow's of the palindrome.

Just as the double-W's of "wow" represent the twin peaks with the town
of TP between them, the palindrome as a whole represents the twin
"wow"s of the lodges with the mundane world between them--and Bob is
in the place represented by the mundane world.

The reversed-ground version of "mom, pop, mom" is "pop, mom,
pop"--Donna's dilemma.  And the two "pop"s are the "horns" (i.e.,
peaks) of the dilemma.

I can keep this shit up all day.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doppelgangers. Coop's dark side escapes. As did Leland's (that's why the
other Leland is in the lodge, and "didn't kill anyone")... Laura's light side
escaped, leaving her dark side in the lodge. Sound somewhat right?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>* Doppelgangers. Coop's dark side escapes. As did Leland's (that's why the
>other Leland is in the lodge, and "didn't kill anyone")... Laura's light side
>escaped, leaving her dark side in the lodge. Sound somewhat right?

We've known for some time that in order to reach the White Lodge, one must
first travel through the Black Lodge, and in the process meet and overcome
one's doppelganger. Coop is about 75% of the way there. Now, all he has to
do is overcome his evil side, and he'll be in. I personally was kind of
disappointed by Coop's actions in the Black Lodge. In order to defeat the
evil, he needed to have overcome his fear and fought back with love, not just
for Annie, but for life, the world, his friends, and his enemies. Remember,
"Fear is the mindkiller." Instead, all Coop does is run back and forth between
the two rooms. And he didn't overcome his fear. Of course, I would be afraid
too if I had a doppelganger of Laura Palmer screeching at you. Yow! I don't
think that the evil Laura or Leland or LMFAP were real. Remember, LMFAP
said, "When you see me again, it will not be me." There seemed to be four
entities in the Black Lodge with Coop. They are: Windom, Annie, BOB, and
Coop's doppelganger. My theory is that the evil LMFAP was actually BOB (he
walked and sounded similarly), Carolyne was probably Windom, evil Laura was
probably Windom (using frame advance on a vcr, one can see Windom's face
in between flashes of the strobe light when the evil Laura is coming at Coop),
and Leland was probably BOB too. Illusion *is* one of evil's major weapons.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Things to do while procrastinating at work:  I looked up
doppleganger in the Britannica, where it said (this is from a fried
cortex) a doppleganger (which means "double goer") is a spiritual double
that all humans and animals have.  It is not a ghost, but an "apparition"
or a "wraith".  And if you happen to _see_ your doppleganger, it means
your death is imminent.  The moment good Coop turned around in the hallway
and made eye contact with bad Coop was a moment of significance.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This may already have been mentioned, but in the final episode of The Prisoner,
"Fall Out", the hero (#6) meet his own evil doppleganger (#1).

==============================================================================
*** Giant/Senor Droolcup
==============================================================================

I didn't understand why the Giant/SDC were in the waiting room.  I
suppose that the waiting room was neutral territory for Black/White
lodgers? 

From Major Briggs' discussion after returning from his disappearance,
they (the Air Force?) were still looking for the White Lodge.  This
would mean that if the Giant were part of the White Lodge, then he 
shouldn't have been in the waiting room, right?

If the Giant was previously helping Cooper and tried to stop him from
encouraging Annie to enter Miss Twin Peaks, (..."this is all I'm
permitted to say,"...) I would think that he was a "good guy."
The Black and White Lodges must also be "one in the same" I guess--
coexisting in the same place/time (whatever that is)?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, there seem to be two strains of interpretation here about what
the Giant's ``One and the same'' means:

(1) Since we see the Waiter bring the coffee and the Giant go back, it
is the Waiter and the Giant that are ``One and the same''.  (This is
what I took it to mean.)

(2) Since the Giant says ``One and the same'' as he sits down beside
the LMFAP, he means that the two of them are ``One and the same''.  I
personally disfavor this, although I did think, when I saw the two of
them sitting side by side that this answered Albert's question to Coop
about the Giant: ``Any relation to the dwarf?''

Goddamn deictic statements where the speakers don't deict properly!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Well, there seem to be two strains of interpretation here about what
> the Giant's ``One and the same'' means:
> 
> (1) Since we see the Waiter bring the coffee and the Giant go back, it
> is the Waiter and the Giant that are ``One and the same''.  (This is
> what I took it to mean.)
> ...

I would also like to believe the first, but my initial reaction was the
opposite.  When the Giant said that I immediately pictured the big and little
figures in the petroglyph.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the BL, did Cooper's coffee turn to OIL ??

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beverages, potions, whatever, they're important in many myths.  When the 
coffee froze, it seemed a logical result of the freezing of time.  But when 
it turned viscous, it could have been time picking up steam again -- or was
it oil?  The oil of the gods is _burnt_ -- as are the offerings to the gods.
What would have happened if Coop had _drunk the oil?_

Or was it just pancake syrup? :)

==============================================================================
*** Glastonberry Grove
==============================================================================

According to the Access Guide, Glastonberry Grove has 12 Great Firs,
not 12 Sycamore trees.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't believe I didn't find the important location on the petroglyph/map.
Sitting right there next to the circle of trees is a sign that looks almost
like a yin/yang symbol, though the black and white halves are not
intertwined in this one.  The Black Lodge and the White Lodge.  It actually
even looks sort of spatially correct for the two sides that Cooper kept
running between; I wonder, now, if the show was consistent about one of
those rooms belonging to the White Lodge and the other belonging to the
Black Lodge?  Guess I'll have to rewatch it!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Sitting right there next to the circle of trees is a sign that looks almost
> like a yin/yang symbol, though the black and white halves are not
> intertwined in this one.  The Black Lodge and the White Lodge.  It actually
> ...

I can see how you interpreted the symbol this way, but doesn't it look
more like a small well of water?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>  Glastonbury the legendary burial place of King Arthur who sought the Holy
>>  Grail aka the Cup of Christ (Arthur, the Once and Future King, who goes
>>  away but will return at the times of greatest need and peril -- yet more
>>  death and re-birth symbolism)

>  I'm angry that they dropped an extremely interesting plot line (KING ARTHUR 
>  !!) they mentioned it and then * POOF * they dropped it.  Maybe 
>  spanning from England to Twin Peaks was too much?  not for me.

No, bringing in a King Arthur plot would have been a lame, unoriginal way of  
tying things up.  TP didn't need something like that to make it work.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why are they calling the Black Lodge/White Lodge Glastonbury?
It's not an Indian name and it's certainly not a Tibetan name.
It's Avalon.  It's where King Authur, the once and future king,
is buried. There really is a Glastonbury Isle and it's the legendary
site of Avalon - just down the road from Camelot.  Funny thing is
that Glastonbury (and the King Authur tale itself) is a 
disguised story about a mythical fight for the soul of a
Celtic people between Christianity and paganism 
(Marion Bradley, The Mists of Avalon).  Not quite
the same thing as good vs evil, but close.  In the King Arthur tale,
Arthur himself chooses neither Christianity nor paganism, he is
neutral.  When he is re-born (hence the title - the once and the future king)
perhaps he will choose one or the other.  (Witches, of course, hope
he will choose paganism.)  Glastonbury, in short, is
paradise, a location for death and rebirth, reincarnation.  
Obviously, Lynch has a bad case of symbol diarrhea, but
it's fun.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe I am reading some of this in, but the finale seemed to be using
a whole bunch of imagery borrowed from Arthurian legends and even
Adonis myths.  The presence of the 12 rainbow trout, the 12 sycamores,
the name of the grove (supposedly the burial place of King Arthur),
and the wound in Cooper's side are all elements of what someone has
termed "fisher-king" archetypes as found in grail stories, the Golden
Bough, etc.  Supposedly what happens is that the knight, in this case
Cooper, finds entrance into some separate place representing the
psyche (?) and is there presented with 3 questions.  He doesn't have
to even answer them in most cases, just be a righteous guy, and he
gets the grail which he then applies to the king's wound restoring the
king and the land.  Since Cooper becomes wounded I would guess that he
is the "arthur" figure and that he is either going to have to
restore himself (from inside the Black Lodge ?) or someone is going to
have to do it for him.  If Lynch holds true to arthurian legends it would
be a child without a father, or maybe even a child Annie might have(?).

It's been a while since I studied this stuff, but the imagery was
obviously there.  Re-read Catch-22 for another use of the Fisher-king
archetype in a modern setting.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>   Since Cooper becomes wounded I would guess that he
>>   is the "arthur" figure and that he is either going to have to
>>   restore himself (from inside the Black Lodge ?) or someone is going to
>>   have to do it for him.  If Lynch holds true to arthurian legends it would
>>   be a child without a father, or maybe even a child Annie might have(?).

>Actually, since the writers brought in King Arthur at this late date,
>I would have to give that role to Windom Earle (in a twisted sort of
>way).  Caroline could be Guinevere and that would make Cooper be
>Lancelot.  I don't think Cooper wants to be King of anything; his
>character is much better suited to the role of the knight of
>exceptional ability, very close and loyal to the King, but at the same
>time the secret lover of the Queen.  Having killed off the first Queen
>(Caroline), Windom Earle has to pursue Cooper and set up another Queen
>for him to love, refusing to let go of that triangle relationship.

Actually, if you continue this line of reasoning it would explain
Coop's lack of success in the Black Lodge. Lancelot was unable to
succeed in the quest for the Grail because of the impurity inherent
in his consumated love for another man's wife. That is why the need
for the Galahad and Percival figures in the Arthurian legends.

Perhaps it is Albert's form of non sexual love that is needed to
win through to the White Lodge and save everyone.

In any case, I agree that to date the parallel's to the Arthurian
legends are a little strained.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>before he can again encounter the Grail and restore the Fisher King
>and the wasteland that the King's land has become.  [Well--so maybe
>Cooper SHOULD have asked what was in that cup of coffee.  Maybe it
>could have healed all those wounds that we kept seeing on people...
>The Holy Grail as a cup of coffee?  In Twin Peaks, it wouldn't
>surprise me.   Hmm...]

AH YES, IT'S ALL CLEAR NOW... THE FISH IN THE COFFEEPOT... AND DON'T DONUTS
COME IN BOXES OF TWELVE?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>   A bunch of posts in the past few weeks here have made reference to the
>   myth of the Fisher King. What is this, and where does it come from?
>
>   I'd been wondering about it since I saw it here, and have since stumbled
>   across another reference to it in the liner notes to a Sting album, which,
>   however, was not particularly informative.

The Fisher King is a major figure in the legendry surrounding the Holy
Grail, which is (by most interpretations) the cup that Jesus used at
the Last Supper, carried into Europe by Joseph of Arimathea.  This cup
appears in a vision to King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table
and the knights decide they will go off on a quest to find the actual
Grail.  This is generally taken to be the first sign of the breakup of
the Round Table.  The full basic story can be read in Bulfinch's
Mythology (almost certainly available at your college library).  The
interesting part about the story in Bulfinch is that the Grail was
given over into a line of kings to protect it, but the requirement was
that they live lives of perfect purity.  This worked fine until one
Grail King had impure thoughts about a female pilgrim whose robe
loosened as she knelt before him.  After this he was called "Le Roi
Pescheur", or the Sinner King.  Well, in French "Pescheur" for sinner,
is very close in sound to "Pecheur" for fisherman, and so the name
eventually became the Fisher King.

There are many variants on this legend from different traditions.
The elements that have generally shown up in later allusions (T. S.
Eliot's "The Waste Land" springs to mind) center around the fact that
the Fisher King is wounded in the "thigh" (a euphemism for saying that
he's impotent) and at the same time his lands are unable to bear
fruit.  The people are starving.  Fertility can only be restored by
the arrival of a pure knight, who in different versions has different
requirements made of him, and if this knight does what he's supposed
to do, the Fisher King's wound will be healed (presumably by the
Grail) and the land will come back to life.  In the Parsifal legend,
the knight fails on his first try and has to have a number of
adventures before he can try again, but he is eventually successful.
In the Galahad legend (which is quoted in Bulfinch), the pure knight
Galahad has a fairly easy time of it, although his father Lancelot is
not able to see the Grail because of his involvement with Queen
Guenevere.

Jessica Weston wrote a book in the 1920's called "From Ritual to
Romance" in which she ties in the symbols of the Grail legend with
ancient fertility rites mentioned in Fraser's "The Golden Bough".  It
is worth reading if you're interested in the theme of restoring energy
to something that's spiritually or emotionally dying.  I do remember
reading somewhere that later scholarship has shown her theories to be
wrong, but I don't know whether this was anthropological, literary, or
mythological scholarship.  I also don't know if there is a particular
source which has succeeded it as the definitive thought-provoking book
on the Grail Legend.

I'm sure this is More Than You Ever Wanted to Know about the Fisher
King, but perhaps it will clarify the Sting reference for you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How quickly do sycamores grow?  The ones in Glastonberry Grove seemed
awfully small to me.  Perhaps they are about 20 years old.  This 20
year thing keeps recurring.  Norma won Miss TP 20 years ago.  I take
it that Leland became LeBoBland in that time scale, and Coop meets
Laura again in 25 years.  All timed with the conjunction of Jupiter
and Saturn.  Maybe every 20 years the circle is destroyed and it
regrows.  Hence the presence of the circle in the petroglyph, and the
changing species of trees.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>How quickly do sycamores grow?  The ones in Glastonberry Grove seemed

Sycamores are very fast growing trees.  Those in the Grove couldn't
have been 20 years old - I would guess about 4-5.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Was Glastonbury Grove the site of Bob's sudden appearance at the end
of the penultimate episode?  The puddle which reflected the red curtains
did look like the 'well' in the center of the circle of trees.  But Bob
certainly seemed to be safe in the Black Lodge again for the final episode
(well, *most* of the final episode... ;-) ).  So why did Bob pop into the
real world and then go back to the Lodge?  Lynch ad-libs again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Funny how no one ever noticed the red curtains before... :-) (But they're
silent... I KNEW Bob was in Nadine!)

<----------------------------------cut here---------------------------------->
[End of File 2 of 5]
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I lived in my head mostly."                | Jim Pellmann (jgp@rational.com)
"That's not a bad neighborhood."            | RATIONAL
"There were some pretty strange neighbors." | Santa Clara, California