Twin Peaks Usenet Archive

Subject: Various points gleaned from reviewing the TP extant TP episodes
From: boyajian@ruby.dec.com (Cisco's Buddy)
Date: 1990-05-03, 07:48
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks,rec.arts.tv

OK, in the process of taking notes to construct a timeline of events, I
reviewed the episodes up through last week's (4/26). Since I've just
managed to type in the timeline, I thought I'd wait until tonight's
episode runs and add that to the file and post the timeline this weekend.

In the meantime, here are assorted observations that I made, taking into
account some of the points and questions that have been made here on the
net. Some of these points I've made in earlier articles, some of them are
confirmations of things that other people have noted. 

Episode #0 (4/8)

-- (James to Big Ed about Laura) "She was the one."  The one James was
   seeing in secret or the one Renault was selling the drugs to?

-- "Diane" must be a real person (rather than just a name Cooper gives
   to his recorder). In his first entry, he says of the Lamplighter,
   "Diane, if you get up this way, that cherry pie is worth a stop."
   An odd thing to say if Diane wasn't a real person.

-- Cooper got to Twin Peaks awfully soon after Ronnette was found! He had
   to have driven up from Spokane -- it's the only place close enough and
   large enough to have an FBI office. Is there an FBI office in Spokane?
   Seattle I'd believe (we already know there's an OCB set-up there :-)).
   I suppose Cooper could've caught a hill-hopper from Seattle to Spokane
   (is there an airport there?) and driven up from there to Twin Peaks.

-- Someone noted some time back that Cooper didn't check both hands on
   Ronnette or Laura, but only the left hand. Someone else claimed that
   this wasn't odd, given that (we can assume) the "T" was found under
   a fingernail on Theresa Banks' left hand, and the "R" under a finger-
   nail on Laura's left hand. It actually *is* odd, since Cooper checked
   Ronnette before Laura and found nothing on the left hand. With only
   one previous instance to go by, Cooper couldn't just assume that the
   letter would always be in the left hand.

-- Cooper must be in *some* kind of real-time contact with Diane. His
   dictation after finding the letter under Laura's fingernail is "Diane,
   give this to Albert and his team. Don't go to Sam. Albert seems to have
   a little more on the ball." As Albert calls Cooper the next day, Diane
   must've gotten Cooper's message and contacted Albert as requested.

-- The One-Armed Man is definitely missing the left arm in all of his
   appearances. When Hawk first spots him [in Episode #1], it looks like
   he's missing the right arm, but that's because Hawk (and we) see him
   in a mirror.

-- "Kitty got a new collar."  Some people think this is significant, and
   might have something to do with Leo Johnson (whose truck is the "Big
   Pussycat"). I think this is a red herring, and refers to nothing more
   significant than perhaps her pet cat was given a new collar. That entry
   in the diary was written on 2/5 *of the previous year*, and thus is
   possibly unrelated to the events now in progress.

-- On the other hand...at the Town Meeting, Cooper starts off by saying,
   "One year ago, almost to the day... the body of a young girl named
   Theresa Banks was found..."  If "Kitty got a new collar" is a reference
   to Leo, it's possible that the year-old entry in Laura's diary might
   refer to the Banks murder, which may be another pointer toward Leo as
   the perp. On the other other hand, Cooper says "almost to the day",
   i.e. circa 2/24/88. Laura's diary entry was on 2/5/88. The 18-day
   difference seems a little imprecise for Cooper.

-- The guy who took Donna to the woods to see James after the Roadhouse
   fight was Joey Paulsen, later revealed to be one of the Bookhouse Boys
   (he and James were watching over Bernard Renault at the Bookhouse).

-- Some people were confused about who gave the necklace to whom. Donna
   said to James, "The necklace you gave Laura..." indicating that James
   gave the (whole) necklace to Laura, who then broke off the right half
   and gave that back to James.

-- Intriguing point: Though Janek & Maria Pulaski were given credits in
   the end titles cast list, we never see either of them in this episode
   except for a distant shot of Janek leaving the Mill. One might assume
   that they were left on the cutting-room floor.

-- Question for the episode: Why were Truman and Cooper on a stakeout at
   the Roadhouse? We know that Big Ed (and presumably Joey Paulsen) were
   staking out Jacques, but why were Truman and Cooper there? Did Truman
   perhaps just tell Cooper that he was working on another case (Jacques)
   and Cooper came along for the ride? They didn't really have any reason
   to believe (that I could see) that Donna, Bobby, or Mike would show
   up there.

Episode #1 (4/12)

-- Leo's truck is definitely the "Big Pussycat", not the "Pink Pussycat".

-- Leo called Mike's house "yesterday" (Friday) looking for the other half
   of the money. Bobby saw Leo "the other night", the night Laura died.
   Someone thought there might be a missing day here, but there is no
   inconsistency. Now, someone else brought up the fact that if Bobby saw
   Leo on Thursday night, that he should've known that Leo couldn't not
   have been in Butte as Shelly told him Friday morning, and thus Bobby
   shouldn't have been surprised to see Leo home then. This is true, but
   it could be that even though Bobby knew Leo was not in Butte, he still
   could've believed that Leo was on the road. Leo seems to have an idea
   that it's Bobby who's screwing around with Shelly, and might've told
   Bobby that he'd be on the road in order to throw Bobby off, and maybe
   catch him and Shelly in the act.

-- When Hawk releases James into Ed's custody, Hawk and Ed exchange the
   "Hi Sign" (the brush across the temple). James says to Ed, "Gonna need
   a hand from the Bookhouse Boys. Somebody's gotta watch my back [because
   of Mike & Bobby]." Ed replies, "Already got it covered."  First mention
   of the BB's.

-- One definite inconsistency crops up. At the Town Meeting the previous
   night, Truman tells Cooper that Andrew Packard died "last year". At
   Josie's on Saturday, he tells him that Packard died "a year and a half
   ago", which would've been the year *before* last.

-- Shelly went to work in the morning (after hiding Leo's blood-soaked
   shirt). She's still on duty in the early evening when Truman and Cooper
   talk to the Log Lady. Quite a long shift (but not as long as Lucy's
   on Friday -- Lucy was in just after dawn when Pete called to report
   finding Laura's body, and she was still there at midnight when Cooper
   and Truman sit down in front of the "policeman's dream"). I wish my
   underlings had such dedication. :-)

Episode #2 (4/19)

-- The deflated football definitely *landed* on Bobby's car as he and Mike
   reach it. It wasn't already sitting on the hood. Leo must've tossed it.

-- On Cooper's blackboard, the "R" and "T" appeared circled just after
   Cooper is shown circling the "J".

-- Audrey's comment about "He [Audrey's father] used to sing to her [Laura]"
   would seem to suggest that she saw (through one of her peepholes?) Laura
   and Ben together, possibly fornicating?

-- Here's the missing day. It's Sunday night at this point, and Catherine
   asks Pete, "What did that FBI man want up here today?" Pete's answer was,
   "...He talked to Josie mostly. I had a problem with a fish. Took a liking
   to my percolator."  Cooper (and Truman's) talk with Josie, and Pete's
   piscatorial problem was on Saturday, not earlier on Sunday.

Episode #3 (4/26)

-- Madeleine (played by the same actress who plays Laura) shows up right
   at the point when Leland is watching "Invitation to Love", in which one
   actress plays two lookalike roles. I'm not convinced this indicates
   anything significant, but it just another example of the "double" motif
   that runs through the show. Some people have suggested that Madeleine
   is really Laura in disguise and that it was really Madeleine that was
   killed. This is doubtful as they look different enough (Madeleine has
   dark hair and Laura light) that the corpse would've had to have been
   "doctored" to pass for Laura -- doctored well enough to fool *everyone*
   (including her regular physician) and pass a reasonably thorough autopsy.
   (If Albert was thorough enough to detect particles of pumice on the back
   of her neck, he surely would've been able to detect that the hair had
   been dyed.)

So, now we get to see what Episode #4 brings us...

-- "I've got compassion running outta my nose, pal. I'm the sultan of sentiment." --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA) UUCP: ...!decwrl!ruby.enet.dec.com!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%ruby.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM