Tuesday 13 June 2017

In a continuing analysis of Twin Peaks Season 3 - The Return -- we discuss episode 5 and 6

The engine of Twin Peaks is changing gear this week, like an angry Richard Horne racing carelessly through an intersection in his truck, with concrete plot resolutions happening. This week the Log Lady's cryptic message to Hawk 'Something is missing and you need to find it.. The thing that is missing has something to do with Agent Cooper... The way you will find it has to do with your heritage' has finally been fulfilled:


THE DIARY IS THE KEY
As I have discussed in previous posts in the pilot episode S1E1 when Cooper first handles the evidence in the Laura Palmer case, he has Laura Palmer's original diary in front of him and picks up a box of chocolate bunnies, famously stating; "Diane, I am holding in my hand a small box of chocolate bunnies." When Cooper examines the diary he turns to the last page and locates a cocaine bag with a key attached to it. In FWWM Annie appears to Laura in her bed saying 'The Good Dale is trapped in the Lodge and can't leave. Write it in your diary."

Those who have zoomed in on images of the diary have speculated that the writing contains the words 'Oh Annie' which pretty much seems to confirm the theories that these are pages from Laura Palmer's non secret diary, which have been ripped out.

For the first time in Season 3, disparate elements which have seemed endlessly elusive are starting to come together into a more concrete puzzle. Those who feared that the fate of Annie Blackburn was something which might be carefully dodged by the creators, now come to see that Cooper's cryptic cliff hanger 'How's Annie?' is becoming the central driving force of the narrative.
What we have now is a burgeoning force of mystery looming beneath the cursed ground of Twin Peaks. Hawk finding the diary does not solve the mystery but rather poses greater questions. We know that the Nez Perce depicted on the logo of the door manufacturing company is related to Hawks heritage. Readers of 'The Secret History of Twin Peaks' will know that Hawks ancestry descended from the Nez Perce tribe, who are tied very deeply into the Twin Peaks mythology. So it makes sense to begin our deeper analysis of the Hawk's heritage clue.
It is worth noting that the clue is revealed by a manufacturing label. In 'The Secret History of Twin Peaks' there is a document written by Hawk which contains his own lamentation that the native Americans themselves were responsible for building skyscrapers in New York, though they are not acknowledged for it. Given the new Season starts out in a Manhattan apartment inside a skyscraper owned by an anonymous billionaire, this represents the first union of broader ideas in the universe of the new season. We are being asked to analyse the state of America, from New York to Washington, from the past to the present.


In 'The Secret History' it is also worth noting that Hawk's Heritage in the Nez Perce tribe is linked to the black lodge, as various past members of the tribe were said to enter the black lodge, and have connections to the owl cave ring. Chief Joseph notes that the owl cave symbol looks like an owl in a discussion with William Clark. As I have previously summised, the owl cave ring also resembles 'The Odal Rune' which translates roughly to mean 'lineage' or 'inheritance', so there does appear to be an indepth awareness of the creators in this regard.
So as we are being pointed back towards Laura Palmer's diary, the inciting clue in the original run, we are also being asked to re-evaluate the Laura Palmer murder in a broader historical context.
It is clear that David Lynch and Mark Frost are doing their best to pick the scab off old wounds and dig as deeply as they can, back to the original mystique and mystery which drove the original series.
Meanwhile the tangent investigation in Season 3 surrounds the fate of Special Agent Dale Cooper. 
We have another convergent moment when we consider the scenes in the red room which occurred in Season 3 and during the film 'Fire Walk with Me' Phillip Gerard 'The one armed man' and the man from another place 'The arm' or 'the evolution of the arm' both asked Agent Cooper when presented with the Owl Cave Ring 'Is it future? Or is it past?'
There is an obvious time loop created by the moment when Annie's ghost says to Laura 'Write it in your diary' because in this moment the stability of the future is threatened to be changed. Just as Cooper dreamed of the red room before entering the black lodge, Laura dreamed of Agent Cooper and their fates remain entwined.

THE RING AND THE ARM
Both Laura and Agent Cooper have now both worn the ring. When Laura Palmer and Teresa Banks wore the ring their arms went dead. There is apparently an inexplicable connection between 'the arm', Mike, 'The evolution of the arm', Bob, Laura, Cooper and time. Even Cooper's doppleganger has an extraordinary moment where his arm seems to go numb before killing one of his accomplices:



There is evidently a connection made to Native American heritage earlier in the franchise, because both Laura's heart locket and the ring have been placed in mounds. Native American burial mounds appear across America and are a fundamental part of the landscape.


Let's quickly recap the history of the ring for those who haven't explored 'The Secret History of Twin Peaks':

Early American History:
-Chief Twisted Hair gives Lewis the ring from a pouch
- Lewis sees the Red Room meets with a silent man, and writes to Jefferson that he should have heeded his warning (Preston uncertain if Twisted Hair or silent man warns Lewis.) He destroys the native map, and keeps the ring
- Lewis investigates various supernatural elements at Jefferson’s behest
- Lewis is murdered by knife
- Mayor James Neely steals Lewis’s possessions from General James Wilkinson including the ring and his bloody (the blood of others) Masonic apron 
- Neely vanishes for months



Midcentury America - early 1980's
Douglas Milford observes Jack Parsons wearing the ring on 2 occasions over three years during field research on matters of national security regarding Jack Parsons for US Air Force’s Project Grudge (turned Sign)
- Project Sign is shut down and President Truman’s UFO team Majestic 12 begins working in secret. Milford begins work for Project Blue Book, a public operation. 
- Parsons dies in an explosion, murder by bomb or accident (L Ron believes the magician summoned a fire demon.)
- 1973 retired Milford subrosa invesitgator working for Nixon visits President, now in his second term, in Key Biscayne, Fla. Nixon has the ring
- Colonel Milford handpicks Briggs for Twin Peaks investigation, tells him some are chosen to learn more about the otherworldly forces that humans may never begin to understand, or are chosen for other purposes, good bad or ambivalent 


Twin Peaks era SHoTP
- Milford tells Briggs Cooper’s presence is important because of his association with his secret allies and that it raises the ante of their stated mission, and turned Twin Peaks into a hotbed of supernatural phenomena that Cooper himself experiences
- LPA activity in Ghostwood Forest singles Cooper out directly- clearly a fellow chosen one (chosen to learn more about the origin of all supernatural phenomena, or for other purposes.) 
- Briggs is abducted
- Milford dies (or is killed) three days later and Briggs scatters his ashes 
- Briggs secures the dossier they jointly created 
- During a dream, he has a breakthrough- he awakes with the awareness of how to proceed, making sense of what he learned during his abduction: he realizes that his new "control"/informed ally will be Cooper.
- He prepares his LPA mayday protocols when he learns Cooper is missing at Glastonbury- but stops when he learns Cooper is back, planning to share all he knows at LPA
- March 28, 1989 when Cooper recovers, they meet but Briggs knows something is wrong, that he misinterpreted his dream, and he proceeds with said protocols.


In FWWM 

- the ring is missing from Teresa's body. 
- the ring is found on the mound of dirt under the Chalfont's trailer by Desmond, who disappears
- In the convenience store "with this ring I thee wed"
- Mrs. Tremond gives Laura the photo, Laura dreams she enters it and sees MFAP and the ornate table with the ring
- In her Tremond photo-induced/Annie/ dream, MFAP takes the ring from the ornate table and shows it to her 
Cooper tells Laura not to take the ring and she 'wakes up' in her dream with the ring, but it's gone when she truly wakes up
- Laura flashes back to Teresa with the ring and MFAP offering her the same ring
- Mike brandishes the ring to Laura and Leland at the intersection and says "it's your father"




- Mike delivers the ring to the train car and Laura puts it on before BOB kills her
In The Missing Pieces
* In the script "JEFFRIES (cries) the ring... the ring" - shot of the ring on the table (intercut with Laura's strange smile)
- After Mike at the intersection, Leland flashes back to Teresa - we see that she wears the ring at the canceled date/blackmail set up with Ronette and Laura
- the ornate table appears again, with no ring. MFAP says: "Is it future or is it past?" Cooper notices there is no ring, MFAP says someone else has it now. 
*in the script, Cooper says that would indicate it's the future, and MFAP says "The later events have never been kept a secret.*
- Cooper is concerned for Annie, asks where he is and how he can leave. MFAP says "You are here. Now there is no place left to go but home"  
- Annie in the hospital bed is in a trance-state talking, as in Laura's dream. The nurse steals the ring from Annie. 

In Season 3 - The Return
- Briggs died (? as his prints have shown up 16 times in the 25 years since Cooper left Twin Peaks) in a fire at LPA
- The engagement ring of Janey E and Dougie Jones is in Briggs murdered body. In the original series the giant also took Agent Cooper's ring and returned it once the Laura Palmer murder was solved.
- Margaret tells Hawk something is missing and it has to do with his heritage, Hawk goes to Glastonbury
- Dougie Jones, a Las Vegas area resident, wears the ring, enters the Lodge when Cooper exits ("is tricked") 
- Mike asks "Is it future or is it past?"  
- Mike returns the ring to the ornate table.
Ok, so now that we have examined the ring, and Twin Peaks time loops, we need to jump around a little, before our full analysis of Season 3 episode 5 and 6. As David Lynch has said, it's time to 'Focus on the Donut. Not on the hole'

Season 1 begins with Josie staring into the mirror. We can say the series ends with the Black lodge, and the narrative is concerned with the Packard/Exchardt puzzle box which results in the explosion at the bank, the death of Pete Martell and Andrew Packard. There is a strange symmetry the way we begin with the introduction of Josie and the Mill, a plotline which is concluded by Josie dissappearing into a wooden doorknob.
Some have made assumptions that the mysterious figure in the Mauve Zone could be 'Judy' as mentioned by Phillip Jeffries in 'Fire Walk With Me' - who we know was originally written to be Josie's sister. Cooper travels into Dougie Jones' body through a power socket - in a scene reminiscent of Josie and the doorknob. The way Cooper arrives in Jade's apartment is reminiscent of the way he was laid out after being shot (by Josie) in the great Northern Hotel. This was the first instance, not including his dream, when Cooper interacted with the lodge spirits in the real world.
It is also worth noting that the sockets Cooper travels through from the Mauve room are '3' and '15' the numbers of his hotel room at the great Northern. But before we speculate on what all of this means, let's just remember that the Diary is key, and look at some other aspects of Season 1:
Phillip Gerard is becoming a central character in the new Season of Twin Peaks. Thus it is worth revisiting our first encounter with Phillip Gerard. Chronologically Phillip Gerard first appears in Fire Walk with me when he shows the ring to Laura and yells 'It's your father' at the corner of Sparkwood and 21. But he becomes of signifance in the original series by introducing us to Bob. When Agent Cooper shows Phillip Gerard the police sketch of Bob, Gerard comments;
'He kind of looks like someone doesn't he'.
To which Agent Cooper responds by asking him if he knows someone called Bob. Gerard replies:
'Bob Lydecker is about my best friend in the world. 'The best veterinarian in the world' 
Cooper then asks him how he lost his arm, to which Mike responds; 'car accident'. 

There are many car accidents occurring as a motif in the new season. We have Richard Horne killing the child in Episode 6, Mr C crashing his car, James Hurley is brain damaged during a motorcycle accident. We will return to the subject of car accidents later as we examine a certain Buick Roadmaster.

But for now a few more details on Gerard. 
Agent Cooper asks 'The arm you lost, did it have a tattoo?' 'What did it say?'
Mike cries and confesses 'it said ...mum'. The tattoo is of course an important part of Agent Cooper's original dream where Mike 'Was touched by the devlish one. A tattoo on the left shoulder. But then I saw the face of God, and he took the whole arm.'

Quickly returning to the aforementioned themes; The ring, the numb arm and Hawk's heritage; When we examine this poem in light of some scenes we see in Fire Walk with me, the little man asks Agent Cooper 'Do you know who I am?' and shortly responds 'I am the arm and I sound like this woo woo woo' He makes the cliche war call of Native Americans. Given the reference to cutting off the arm, there seems to be some hidden meaning about Christian colonialism versus native American tribes in America's foundation. 'Cutting off the arm' could perhaps be a symbol of the atrocities committed against Hawk's people. This seems to be backed up in Mark Frost's "Secret History' book, during the Nez Perce's chapter, where after being betrayed by white settlers Chief Joesph threatens that there will one day 'Come a reckoning'.
It's interesting that after the scene with Phillip Gerard in the original series, Hawk tracks Josie Packard outside the clinic. This was during the peak mystery building of the series. All the clues are leading to the centre at this point, and Josie, our first character introduction seems to be at the front of the mystery.

During this same episode, Cooper and Harry bring the vet files to the clinic and say Lucy 'find all the people who own birds', placing the LYDECKER clinic box on the boardroom table in scene's reminiscent of the case file searches in Season 3:
Later, the prime suspect Waldo will be shot in the same boardroom. A kind of paradise lost, of dying birds and fallen angels and guided clues. At this point Leo is the primary suspect in the Laura Palmer killing, the central mystery of the show will slowly unravel at this point. It's interesting as Frost and Lynch rebuild that mystery in the new Season, that our first journey outside the Sherrif station should be to meet the adorable Wally Brando, a lengthened 'Wal___do'. Probably irrelevant but nonetheless another interesting brush stroke by master clue builders Frost and Lynch:
The clues in the original series were an intricate tapestry of layers of clues, which built up around red drapes, leading ever onward to the disturbing finale in the black lodge:
 As clues were uncovered Agent Cooper moved closer and closer to the red drapes at the heart of the mystery:
 Eventually, with the discovery of Laura Palmer's secret diary, ripped to shreds by the recluse Harold, Cooper would find himself, like Hawk, Lucy and Andy in Season 3, burrowing through torn secrets trying to find that essential piece of the puzzle:
I just want to analyse a few more scenes from the original run before we discuss the new episodes, and be patient, for like this confounding season, the threads will all make sense in time:

When Cooper and the police visit the log lady's cabin, she tells them her first cryptic clue:
'The owls won't see us in here.'
'My husband is a logging man. He met the devil. Fire is the devil hiding in the smoke.'
Then after telling that the log saw two men, Jaques and Leo in the cabin with Laura and Ronette that there was footsteps of a third man at the scene. This intriguing clue, 'Who is the third man?' Is what will slowly draw us into the mystery of the inhabiting spirit Bob.

Then there is a scene just before Laura Palmer's killer is finally revealed as Leland Palmer. In this scene all the police are gathered in the lobby of the Twin Peaks Sherrif station. Gordon Cole says he is going to Oregon, then mentions pages of Laura's diary found near a bloody towel and train car.
Given that we know how David Lynch felt about the killers reveal in the original series (He wasn't happy about it), is it possible that this scene of Lynch walking off set was written in almost as a protest to the reveal.
 It certainly seems like Lynch was filled with regret over this moment, and he returns to this in Fire Walk with Me, flashing back in time to have Gordon Cole calling Chet Desmond in Oregon to discuss the Teresa Banks murder. Then he revisits the hollow/clueless briefing room, a location which in Season 3 has become the soil which the new mystery has to be planted in. Lynch appears to be trying to return to this lost paradise of mystery, and Laura's diary becoming the central focus appears to be the only way he can achieve this.
In Fire Walk with me we also have a moment with the Black lodge forces in his office in Philadelphia, we see the meeting above the convenience store, the owl cave ring, Agent Phillip Jeffries and Argentina -- all of which have now become a central part of the new narrative



Alright now... SEASON 3 Episode 5 'Case Files' and Episode 6 'Don't die'

let's leap to......

Las Vegas
The hit men who tried to kill Dougie Jones—who, unbeknownst to them, is now embodied by Dale Cooper—still haven’t realized that he’s not in the empty development house in Rancho Rosa. They’re getting worried since they put a device on his car outside. They place a call to a hustler-type woman named Lorraine, who tells them they need to get the job done. She focuses on the cell phone in front of her, worried about reaching their boss—who is only represented by a black call box.

The dialogue runs like this;
Thugs: 'We've just driven by --his cars still there'
Lorraine: 'Fuck Jean this was supposed to happen yesterday'
Jean: 'What do you want me to do?'
Lorraine: 'Fuck'
Jean: 'She's a worrier'

Lorraine is a fascinating character, who all we really learn about is that she is filled with dread and anxiety. She also comically seems to have her own theme song;


But we can't get our hopes up too much, because Lorraine will only last one episode before being brutally killed by a hired assassin, presumably sent by Mr Todd (But we'll examine the intricasies of the relationships later)

It is also worth noting that whoever Lorraine works for, the device she activates is the same one that Mr C later connects with during his one phone call, before it turns into a hunk of molten silver. Did Lorraine work for Mr C? More analysis later, but this connection to Argentina is important, and is of course relevant to Fire Walk With Me and the scenes with Agent Phillip Jeffries.


Lorraine types the word 'ARGENT' into her Blackberry before activating the device. I'll quickly note that as well as obviously alluding to Argentina--  'Argent' is the French word for Silver. There are an increasingly abundant amount of references to silver and gold made in the new season and we will be analysing these later in this post.
After Lorraine's thugs scope out Dougie's place, waiting for Dougie to activate the car bomb, Dougie's car is scoped out by some clueless carjackers in a dark vehicle.Later, when they do attempt to carjack Dougie's car they are of course destroyed. Whoever planted the bomb on Dougie's car is evidently different to the blackmailers who Janey E negotiates with in Episode 6. There is some speculation that Dougie could have been involved in the drug trade, possible with Jade, but this is pure speculation at this point.

After the explosion, the coroner comes and takes the bodies. This scene which again involves the mysterious junkie mother of the hapless child who keeps repeating '119' over and over again seems to be important, but I will return to analyse it later as part of the Dougie Jones/Ladder/Lucky 7 insurance plot.

The police will probably track down "Dougie" now, based on finding the license plate, and the FBI may come in to investigate the drug-association angle. It's possible this investigation might alert Cole and Albert about the double Cooper situation.

I'll analyse in more detail the nefarious characters and their relationship later, but it's worth noting here the possible relationship to the drug trade in these scenes with Lorraine and her goons. What connection might they have to Balthasar Getty's character 'Red' (The apparently magic drug dealer) who seems to be trafficking some Chinese designer drug called 'spark' from Canada, they are moving it down the Western coast of the US, through Twin Peaks and perhaps making its way into Vegas.
Meanwhile, also in Las Vegas.....

THE CASINO
At the casino, furious gangsters (Robert Knepper and Jim Belushi) watch the footage of Cooper winning. They assume the manager (Brett Gelman) is in on it, beat him within inches of his life and kick him out. 
These scenes really feel like a return to the old Twin Peaks aesthetic and the criminal underworld is frothing and boiling over with menacing proportions, although thus far the Las Vegas goons seem to have nothing to do with the other criminals except in wanting our brain damaged Agent Cooper AKA 'Mr Jackpots' for winning a lot of money.
Jim Belushi is fantastic in these scenes. Whistling menacing air out of his nostrils, in scenes reminiscent of the Leo Johnson/Hank/Jean Renault plots of the old seasons, Mark and Frost are slowly cultivating bigger and bigger fish, an arch web of super villains to bring their menace to the small logging town of Twin Peaks.
So Dougie Jones now has a lot of people gunning for him;

This brings us, to everybody's favourite cringworthy storyline...
THE DOUGIE JONES SHOW:
Jade sees that Dougie left his hotel keys in her car, The great Northern keys for room 315—she puts them in a mail box. As we wait to see what happens to these keys when the reach the Horne family, we can see many parallels to other key plots here, the safety deposit box key in Laura's diary, the key found in the Packard/Echardt lock box, and of course the fumbling about for the keys around Ruth Davenport's apartment block.

Meanwhile, at the end of the day, Dougie is enamored with a gun-slinging statue in the office courtyard, another echo of his former life.
In Rancho Rosa:
Dougie’s wife, Janey-E Jones (Naomi Watts), takes Cooper to work as Dougie since he’s still completely inept—and she’s clueless about why. He inexplicably cries when looking at their son, who wears a red hoodie and stares out from the car. Cooper wears Dougie’s green suit jacket that Janey-E dressed him in—it’s the exact opposite on the color wheel from bright red.

Cooper is visually and physically on the opposite end of the red of the room he’s been stuck in for 25 years. Plus, in in Lynch world, red objects tend to have significance. Once at work, we find out Dougie works in insurance, and Cooper follows one of Dougie’s coworkers carrying coffee like a dog. Agent Cooper's first sip of coffee seems to resucitate something of the old Cooper within him
When Cooper walks into the office, Anthony Sinclaire (Played by Tom Sizemore) whispers in Dougie's ear, indicating a prior friendship; 'I covered your ass pal. You owe me one' which echoes facts we will soon learn about Dougie and Anthony being involved in some sort of insurance fraud together.
In a moment of glorious awakening of Agent Cooper, Cooper breaks up the meeting by accusing Tony 'He's lying!'
Some quick thoughts about this scene before we later analyse the 'case files' scenes;
It appears from the conversation that Tony is covering up an arson obviously done for insurance money (It being an insurance company). Given other instances we have in the series of arson; (The Packard boat explosion, The mill burning, The bank explosion come quickly to mind) - not to mention Dougie's Car being blown up - this may be more relevant to the thickening plot than it first appears. Could Tony and Dougie have been involved with other characters committing Arson, such as Lorainne and her thugs, or perhaps even be covering for them?
More on this later. Meanwhile.... Frank loves green tea. He never knew.
At home, Cooper at least remembers that the folders his boss gave him are case files. He goes to tuck in Dougie and Janey-E's son, Sonny Jim, who appears swathed in a blue blanket in blue light. This character is almost always pulling focus whenever he appears. I’ll be keeping an eye on him, as well as the kid who lives in Rancho Rosa. The kids on Twin Peaks, often silent, are usually more perceptive than the adults.
Janey-E snoops, looking at the files. Apparently, Dougie didn’t pay off the loan sharks— whoops—because they dropped in a photo of Jade escorting him out of the Rancho Rosa house. Like a dope, he happily repeats, “Jade give two rides” to Janey-E. She sets up the meet with the bad guys herself, “in the park, at the corner of Guinevere and Merlin.” She’ll be the one with the red purse.
There are various clues that now point that Cooper is slowly waking up:

1) He keeps reaching for the officer/security guard's badge. His interest in the object might signify that Coop is remembering that he is a law enforcement officer.
2) Coop calls his work "case files" and identifies a criminal offense committed by Sinclair. "Case files" is probably an appropriate term for Dougie's work, but the fact that Dougie-Coop treated them as an object of forensic interest might be manifestation that Coop is trying to solve cases. He might be slow, but his mind is still working as an agent of the FBI.
3) Cooper recognises the gun on the statue, and spends some time looking at the statues shoes which calls to mind the scene in a previous episode where he lost his shoes.

Now during a black lodge vision with the case files he has taken home we are dumbfounded as Cooper appears to scribble on his homework like a child:
But like everything in Twin Peaks, nothing is as it seems here. The ladder Cooper draws on the pages evidently incriminates Dougie and Tony in some fraud, as the scenes with Dougie's boss later reveal.
But perhaps there is another layer to this which is that the creators are reminding us 'Don't be distracted. Look at the clues. Make sense of it.'
The idea of missing case files ties into a theory I have regarding Windom Earle and 'The Secret History of Twin Peaks' but I will expand upon this later.
While the Dougie scenes remains gruelling for some, there is an element to these scenes which points at a genuine overlaying mystery.
Cooper circles Anthony's name a few times where it appeared in standard-form insurance filings—nothing directly incriminating about his name being on the paperwork as an agent. He also put markings beside the names of a pair of detectives and marked up a "fatality report". Again, nothing directly incriminating without further connections.

Before we get past the Dougie Jones stuff, and into the more interesting aspects of these new episodes, heres a quick fun diversion noted by some ardent fans, although almost impossible they could be deliberate, the names
'Dougie
Janey E
Sonny Jim'

-are infact direct anagrams of;
'Josie
Judy
My Annie gone'

Deliberate? Hard to believe, but a brilliant coincidence, absolutely!

LYNCH’S INFLUENCES
I think it's worth taking a really quick look at Lynch's influences to put the Dougie stuff in perspective for those who are having a hard time with it. Season 3 of Twin Peaks is turning out to be a total roller coaster through Lynch's prior work and his influences. There are always borrowed motifs working through Lynch's filmography. Just look at this clip from eraserhead to see the gestation of Twin Peaks, the red room, and the 'evolution of the arm':

For those who know Lynch's favourite filmakers, like Felini and Jaques Tati - the Dougie scenes will make sense when comparing to the fantastic Tati film 'Playtime'
 The office set for Jacques Tati's Playtime anticipated the dominance of office cubicle arrangements by some 20 years.
 It's not secret that there is an underlying commentary on the modern world in these scenes, from expectation, to the monotony of everyday living and the office enviroment, marriage, fidelity, childhood, parenting. There are a million themes being explored in these seemingly pointless scenes.
 
 Lynch's surrealist roots can be hard to place sometimes, and often times the feeling with Lynch, when getting frustrated with the apparent random placing and senselessness of scenes is to disregard the whole piece as rubbish, and to deny any logic at work at all.
 But the truth is, Lynch often operates on a highly lateral and logical framework. Sometimes the frame is just too well disguised to make it out. But the intrigue is deliberate.
Look at all of Lynch's inspiration, his origins as a painter and you can appreciate Lynch's unique visual language, and the profound effect these scenes can have on your subconscious mind. They may make you scream with frustration at times, horror at others, but like Francis Bacon, his imagery always fascinates and confounds:
Some motifs of Bacon's like the cube, and the disfigured body seem to have been translated perfectly into life in Twin Peaks season 3. For those who found the grotesque image of Major Briggs body, with the decapitated head of Ruth Davenport - too over the top or gore for gore's sake, it is worth noting that sometimes horrifically, truth is more disgusting than fiction when life imitates art:

But now...let's move on from Dougie and return to the scenes of the black lodge:
Where One Armed Mike wanders around the Red Room trying to find… you guessed it, Cooper.
“You have to wake up. Wake up,” Mike says, coming out of the fireplace, speaking to Cooper. “Don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t die.”
Or is Mike telling us, the audience to wake up?

Let's return to Agent Cooper's moment of truth; 'He's lying'

The slow realisation through Dougie's clues 'Agent' and 'Case Files' may seem simplistic, but are they in fact messages from the creators that we ought to concern ourselves with why the Windom Earle case files are missing from the Secret History dossier? I have previously outlined my case for why I believe Cooper's doppleganger may in fact be a container for Windom Earle's soul:
1) There is a bonsai tree in the manhattan apartment owned by the billionaire
2) Mr C is obsessed with finding coordinates for something, in the same manner he was looking for the black lodge in Season 2, is he now looking for the white lodge?
3) Windom Earle was obsessed with playing cards, utilising the King, Queen and pawn's for his chess game, and now Mr C is obsessed with an Ace of Spades card
4) Windom Earle holed out in a cabin in the woods, much like Mr C holds out in a motel, they had a similar briefcase computer and Mr C's violent MO is more similar to Windom Earle than it is to Bob's (Bob's crimes are usually sexually motivated, he crowns his crimes by placing a letter under the finger nail of the ring finger, marrying Mike's Owl Cave ring. Windom is known to commit brutal murders, decapitating limbs and to play games with his victims.)
Cooper also seems to be receiving magical insight from the black lodge in these scenes, as he did as 'Mr Jackpots' in the casino, 25 years in the black lodge have enhanced his supernatural abilities, but at the same time there seems to be a melancholic reflection on intuition, old age and work.
THE LUCKY 7 INSURANCE FRAUD
When we first observe Cooperworking on the case files, he appears to be scribbling nonsense with a pencil. However on closer observation, he is clearly circling his colleague Anthony Sinclair's name and his own name.
Later in the episode his boss wants to see him; his colleague, Anthony, looks nervous. 
It becomes clear that Dougie and Anthony were involved in some insurance scam involving arson.
At first Dougie's Boss is furious:
'What the hell are all these childish scribbles? How am I going to make any sense out of this?'
But Cooper responds with what appears almost like a subtle command; 'Make sense'.
While still in full Dougie mode, this is another hint of the astute Agent Cooper beneath the surface, and perhaps also a hint to the audience that they too have to make sense of the situation.
Dougie's boss also has a complete turnaround at this point, almost comically so;
'Dougie. Thankyou. I want you to keep this information to yourself. This is disturbing to say the least. I'll take it from here. But I'll need your help again. You've certainly given me a lot to think about.'


The ladder motif that Cooper draws on the form, is also seemingly repeated in the scene outside Jade's house, when the police use a ladder to climb onto the roof and read Dougie's numberplate.
Opposite the woman who keeps repeating '119' and is probably herself addicted to the Chinese designer drug 'spark', is shown again.
THE LADDER
Some really quick notes on the ladder and 119 at this point, before returning to the subject when we look at the scenes with Duncan Todd in Las Vegas.
Just before the red box appears on Duncan Todd’s screen, you can read the following sentence in the third paragraph of the email ‘To understand how income statements are set up, think of them as a set of stairs’. This is obviously a direct link to the ladder in these scenes. Exactly what it means is hard to decipher at present. I think it is also important to remember the callback to 119, when the police car pulls up outside Bill Hastings house, the police car is marked 119. We know that cars and number codes are increasingly important in Season 3, and given the incident at Sparkwood and 21 with Richard Horne's truck, they are ever important. There is some dire warning here if it can be understood.
There is a curious undercurrent of numerology in the new season. I'm sure someone could have fun playing with the so called 'magical' relationship of letters and numbers through these clues.
Numerology is any belief in the divine, mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value of the letters in words, names and ideas. It is often associated with the paranormal, alongside astrology and similar divinatory arts.
In one method, numbers can be assigned to letters of the Latin alphabet as follows:
  • 1 = a, j, s,
  • 2 = b, k, t,
  • 3 = c, l, u,
  • 4 = d, m, v,
  • 5 = e, n, w,
  • 6 = f, o, x,
  • 7 = g, p, y,
  • 8 = h, q, z,
  • 9 = i, r,

Good luck with that. Meanwhile Is there any particular reason why the footage of the woman screaming '119' is exactly the same as a footage in a previous episode which was shown during earlier time periods of Dougie and Jade?
Also are the fact that the woman has playing cards on her table connected with the strange Ace of Spades card Mr C has? Are the fact that there scratches on the card connected to Ike the Spike? We'll examine these topics later in the post
There are a lot of tributes in the new Twin Peaks season, including casting a lot of the known Twin Peaks rip off Oliver Stone's 'Windy Palms' which cast both Jim Belushi and Ernie Hudson. There are also actors from Lynch's entire filmography and strange re-unions such as Diane's reveal as Laura Dern, Kyle Machlachlan's sweet and innocent girlfriend in Blue Velvet.
As i've mentioned in previous posts, just as Twin Peaks the original run was a parody of soap opera's, borrowing many tropes and plots from old Hollywood classics, Twin Peaks season 3 is rife with references to modern television, and the show's Twin Peaks influenced; from the X files to Fargo, Stephen King to The Soprano's, 'The Return' does not fail to place itself in the context of contemporary filmography.
It is also incredibly faithful to it's own mythology, already calling back to it's many convoluted plot points and minor details. In these latest episode fans finally discovered how the arch villain 'Bob' would be handled after the death of Frank Silva.
Cooper sees Bob appear in the mirror, saying; 'You're still with me thats good'.
Given the fact that Mr C is already a doppleganger, unlike Leland Palmer, this also seems to suggest something about this character? Clearly he is not Bob, but someone that is WITH Bob.
In an earlier conversation between Mr C and Phillip Jeffries, Jeffries remarks that soon he 'will be with Bob again', this desire also helps suggests that Mr C could in fact be Windom Earle's soul inside Cooper's doppleganger. Don't forget, although Bob anhilated Windom Earle's soul in the finale - Bob also anhilated Cooper's soul, and he remains alive. So anhilation of the soul in the black lodge does not necesarily equate with death. Bob gained control of Windom Earle, but might not have killed him, he may merely have displaced Windom's soul into the doppleganger body. Remember in the black lodge sequences Windom Earle also inhabits Laura Palmer's doppleganger. He may even be all of the dopplegangers including the arm, given that Bob is not intrinsically linked with the dopplegangers.
STEPHEN AND BECKY

Finally we get some extended stay in Twin Peaks, as we are reunited with Mike Nelson (Gary Hershberger). Once the short-tempered pal of Bobby Briggs and underage boyfriend of Nadine, former drug dealer Mike is now a responsible adult, and able to sneer down his nose at wastrel Steven Burnett (Caleb Landry Jones) in a brutal job-interview.
Nonetheless, scrawny cocaine addict Steven puts a positive spin on events to his wife Becky (Amanda Seyfriend), who could well turn out to be this season’s Laura Palmer: another troubled, beautiful girl, mixed up with all the wrong people and too many drugs.

To support Steven’s habit, Becky has been borrowing money from her mother - none other than our old friend, Double R waitress Shelley (Mädchen Amick), who shared her woes with the diner’s owner Norma (Peggy Lipton). We still don't know wether Becky's father is Bobby, Red or someone else entirely.
Becky's powerful delivery of 'Did you take all of that today?' really sets up the desperation in these character's lives and the 'Love how you love me' scene is an amazing depiction of the rose tinted glasses of youth;
The focus on Becky leaving the RR diner, is very reminiscent of the scenes in FWWM when Laura Palmer encounters the Chalfonts/Tremonds and is scared off doing her Meals on wheels rounds. Given that Becky is delivering bread from the RR, the imagery which draws to mind Laura, and the evocation of lovestruck, drug induced dream world bears to mind so much Laura we are right to worry about the trouble Becky could be getting herself into;

The return of the iconic traffic lights at Sparkwood and 21 are given new depth being drawn to the esoteric energy of electricity and the pole from Fire Walk with me; The lodge spirits are active and there is an ominous warning in the air 'IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN!'
 Whenever we encounter symmetry and dopplegangers in Twin Peaks we know to sense danger and impending threat.
 Location is sacred in Twin Peaks, and genius loci draws energy towards it, from the corner of Sparkwood and 21 to the space under the fan in the Palmer house. The connective tissue of Twin Peaks is acting as a conduit to negative energy, drawing forces toward some terrible inevitable conclusion.
We can return to the car crash and Richard Horne later. But let's keep looking at Becky and Stephen.
Stephen is a hopeless character, he is obviously a terrible force in Becky's life but we can't help but feeling some empathy towards him, unlike Richard and other nefarious characters Stephen seems afflicted by some inner trauma or malady. He seems hopelessly addicted and unable to help himself.

If you add the pieces together here, there's another convergence to notice.
In an earlier scene in the Roadhouse with Balthasar Getty, the new Renault brother and James Hurley a connection is made between 'Red' (Balthasar Getty) and Shelley. Red points and clicks at Shelley, which may indicate that they are in a relationship? The irony of course here is that whilst Shelley worries about her daughter being dragged into drugs and debt, it is Red who is reponsible for moving the drugs into Twin Peaks. There can be no coincidence that Getty's character's name is also evocative of the red room motif. His magic trick may be an hallucination by Richard Horne, or it may be evidence that Getty is himself an entity from the Black Lodge.
What exactly is this designer drug 'Spark' that many residents of Peaks seem to be indulging in? And what relationship does it have with the dark energies in the woods?

Well... we know someone who certainly cannot answer this question, but can provide an elusive bit of comic relief:


DR AMP
The slow build up to the mystery around the gold shovels is apparently solved in Episode 5
In the first episode, psychiatrist-turned-recluse Dr Jacoby bought some shovels. In the third, he painted the shovels gold. In the fifth, after countless speculation and over the top reddit forums over the symbolism of the gold shovels the question was finally answered;

Jacoby, it transpired, has become a guerilla shock-jock, broadcasting a rickety TV show from his shack in the woods. “This is Dr Amp, doing the vamp for liberty, climbing the ramp for justice, and lighting the lamp of freedom!”
As Jacoby, Tamblyn is clearly having the time of his life. His paranoid rant “The fucks are at it again! The same vast global conspiracy!” smoothly transitioned into a sales pitch. “This is your shiny gold shovel. Two coats, guaranteed! Shovel your way out of the s--- and into the truth! Only $29.99, plus shipping.”


We cut to his viewers, who turned out - charmingly - to be two of the most endearingly unhinged characters from the original show. Eyepatch-wearing wrestler Nadine (Wendy Robey) was hooked, while marijuana-farmer Jerry Horne was clearly on Jacoby’s wavelength, chuckling at the broadcast between tokes. 

Given the previous relationship between the Horne family and the Twin Peaks prostitution/drugs racket/arson plots, and what we now know about Jerry and the drug trade, is it possible that Jerry could be the centre of some of the disparate plots? Loraine and the arson attempt on Dougie, Lucky seven insurance arson scams, Red and the moving of 'spark'. I wouldn't be at all surprised if these two characters were more involved in the goings on that as appeared on the surface.

As the speculation over who Richard Horne connects to, some have noticed that he resembles very much Jerry Horne, could Richard be the son of Jerry and one of the One Eyed Jack's girls?


While others believe the smoking, mysoginist 'Rebel without a cause' to be Audrey's son;
It's easy to get sidetracked on subplots we don't know the answer to yet. But let's try and refocus on the central cases of the show for the moment;

THE ONGOING INVESTIGATION
Let's recap the death count so far, and let's be honest, the bodies are piling up;
So far we have;

1) Phyllis Hastings: shot in the eye by Mr C
2) Daria: Shot by Mr C
3) Jack (Associate of Ray and Daria) Killed by Mr C
4) The car jackers blown up in Dougie Jones car (Set up by Lorraine's goons)
5) Lorraine: Killed by Ike the spike (Probably sent by Mr Todd)
6) Ruth Davenport (Head found in apartment, body missing, killer unknown)
7) Major Briggs (Body found in Ruth Davenport's apartment
9) The child at Sparkwood and 21
10) Sam and Tracey in the Manhattan apartment

The murder's committed by Mr C are pretty straightforward, though we don't fully now the purpose of killing Phyllis Hastings yet, or framing Bill Hastings. When Bill Hasting says he dreamt he was in Ruth Davenport's apartment, we can gage from his reaction that he was lying and probably was having an affair with Ruth, which explains his fingerprints. However it does seem likely that Hastings didn't commit the brutal murder, and we assume they were carried out to some degree by Mr C. Perhaps the mysterious maintenance man Hank, who's got some shady dealings going on with the building manager’s brother, Chip, and a man named Harvey, who he speaks to on the phone after the cops get the keys from Marjorie (who had them the whole time) -- was somehow partly responsible for moving the body parts into the room. He does appear to be nursing something in large garbage bins. Where is Ruth Davenport's body?
What was the hunk of flesh found in Bill Hasting's trunk and who put it there?
We haven't yet discovered the fate of George, Phyllis' lover who will by now have been framed for Phyllis' murder. Nor are we yet to understand the nature of the lodge spirit who may have possessed Hastings, who some compare to the loggin man in Fire Walk with me:
Picking up on what we learned in Episodes 5 and 6

North Dakota
The cops have made progress on the murder in Buckhorn. To recap, Ruth Davenport’s severed head was found in her bed, but accompanied by a different, male body. Constance Talbolt (Jane Adams) has figured out that the man starved to death, but she found a ring inside his stomach: "To Dougie from Janey-E". For the audience, it’s a clue that Bob had something to do with the murder, and may explain partly why Cooper ended up in Dougie’s body. Bob is still in Cooper’s body, held in a local prison. He has flashbacks to when he inhabited Cooper’s body and begins to morph back into himself in the mirror. “You’re still with me,” he says. “That’s good.”
Agent Tammy Preston goes over some old files, and starts to figure out the Cooper who was last seen in Twin Peaks might not be the guy in that cell; their finger prints don’t match. Later when Bob/Cooper asks for a phone call, he’s fully aware that he’s being watched and dials a number that sends the jail into a panic mode with strobes and sirens. He calmly hangs up. All he says is, “The cow jumped over the moon,” possibly a reference to his bucking his fate to return to the Red Room. Or it's nonsense. Or both.

There are some interesting details to do with the murder of Sam and Tracey. Tamara Preston notes that the security guards have dissappeared and cannot be found. Curiously the guard who was monitoring who went in and out mysteriously dissapeared before Tracey entered. Does this suggest that Tracey was the one who removed the guards somehow? Or was the plan of the billionaire always to kill Tracey and Sam. It remains unclear but some of the details don't quite sit right here.
It's entirely unclear what the centre of this mystery is now, and I think that is entirely the point. We are being born into a convoluted plot like Twin Peaks Season two, and until something ties all of these sparse mysteries together we must remain confounded for the time being.
In the original run, one of the major clues centred on finding that Laura and Ronette had been involved in pornographic and prostitution rackets through One Eyed Jacks and Flesh World. Interestingly this series has yet to depict any form of prostitution or sex trafficking, given the repetition of themes in Twin Peaks old and new, one wonders if this dark aspect of the world's underbelly will eventually come into focus again?
The web of Twin Peaks spans far across the America's now, and it's time to take a closer look at;

ARGENTINA

New Locations: Arlington, VA, and Buenos Aires
These short setups clearly have something to do with the supernatural, secret surveillance and, in a broader sense, how Cooper traveled out of the Red Room and into the real world. In Arlington, some Pentagon types have been looking out for “hits” and get one in Buckhorn, so off they go. 

In Buenos Aires, we go inside a decrepit, attic-type space where there’s a black call box. It’s the one that Lorraine the hustler in Vegas called. In the last real scene of the episode, it rings and shrinks down into a tiny silver object—a lot like how Dougie exploded then shrunk into a tiny metal ball inside the Red Room
GOLD AND SILVER

Now seems then, like a good time to analyse the depictions of gold and silver in the new series.

There are multiple mentions of silver in Season 3 including;
1) The Silver Mustang Casino (The iconic white horse that appears is also known as a silver mustang)
2) Nevada’s licence plate says ‘The Silver State’
3) Argentina means ‘Lands of Silver’
4) Twenty five years in the waiting room marks a silver anniversary
5) In the movie industry the cinema screen is known as ’The Silver screen’ and red drapes are associated with cinema
6) The word ‘ARGENT’ typed on Lorraine's blackberry means silver in French
7) Mr C seems to convert the strange box in Argentina into a nugget of gold or silver


GOLD
1) Dougie Jones is transformed into a gold ball
2) Jacoby/Dr Amp is selling gold shovels
3) Jade’s jeep is yellow (close to gold)
4) A gold anniversary is 50 years (Unsure if relevant)
5) Denver Bob and Wayne Chance discover Owl Cave while searching for gold

((We are given an outline on the activities of Denver Bob and some other criminal type looking for gold. We are told that they found gold in a stream, and have a map but can't find the gold mine itself. There is a very strange description of a horrible sight viewed by the miners, of four legged platforms made of timber, two of which had bodies on top who's eyes had been 'picked clean by vultures'. The pair find owl cave and draw the map to the black lodge which they find on the cave wall, and therefore we know has origins over a century ago. Denver Bob runs off leaving his gear and apparently dissapears, perhaps finding the black lodge, however we do not know wether this character has any link with Bob, the mysterious spirit who probably murdered Laura Palmer.
A spencer rifle with D.B carved on it is found, and agent Preston notes that Wayne Chance was probably the other guy involved in the quest for gold))

The meaning of any of this remains utterly elusive.
Although I will say, for those who follow my blog, that it ties heavily into ideas which I have found on this strange website:

http://www.falseprophet-hq.com/
There are multiple references to Twin Peaks on this site, and it has previously been linked to a countdown to the new season.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will note a short article entitled BLACK LODGE SECRETS. This makes reference to the original script for the season finale of Twin Peaks, where it is noted that in the original script, before Lynch altered it; Agent Cooper was going to be appear as a young boy, before being given a key by his father in the lobby of The Great Norther Hotel, I can't help but notice huge parallels to this and the plot of Sonny Jim, Dougie and they 315 key to the great Northern, the 3 and 15 in the Mauve zone and transforming through the electric socket.

What's even weirder about this website. Is the word KEY is emphasised. If you click on the key you are taken to another layer of the website. Clicking on the teseract shape which prompts 'ENGAGE WITH MONITOR ONE' and you are drawn to a page of Twin Peaks references.
Among the clues here are 'TO GET TO LEVEL TWO YOU MUST FIND THE SILVER KEY':
http://www.falseprophet-hq.com/level2/

A link to the key in Laura Palmer's diary:
http://imgur.com/a/YgLAE

A weird video about the evolution of consciousness entitled 'MOON KEY', which includes loads of symbolism about silver keys;
https://vimeo.com/29918125

Then finally a short story by H.P.Lovecraft entitled 'THE SILVER KEY';


To be honest the real reason why I am fascinated with this website is because of these strange events which have happened to me lately and this weird internet cult I found out about, but i'll delve more into that later. For now, let's stay focussed on Twin Peaks:

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

Returning to the subject of Argentina and silver;

I think there are some interesting connections to be made to Agent Dale Cooper, Special Agent Phillip Jeffries, their transition to the black lodge and number puzzles.
In 'Fire Walk With Me' we are introduced to Jeffries, as he transitions through the black lodge and seems to be aware of Cooper's doppleganger.
When Phillip exits the lift, the number 7 is prominent, a number which has featured in The Return, such as the name of Dougie Jones company 'lucky 7 insurance'. Numbers also feature in Fire Walk with me. The number 7 appears on an electric box near the Tremond trailer, and the number 6 appears on the electric pole which features in Episode 6 of The Return;
 6 and 7 are also the numbers on the doors in the motel of Darya's and Chantal's room respectively.
The numbers on the electric poles, doors and the 15 and 3 on the electrical sockets all seem to be the same font. The connection remains unknown but seems to be related to entry ways to the black lodge.
So who really are Mr C and Agent Jeffries? How powerful are they and their dopplegangers and just how do they relate to the lodges. This needs further analysis
MR C
I find an interesting parallel between Mr C's threat; "Should I call Mister Strawberry? No I don't think Mr Strawberry is taking calls.' To The Secret History of Twin Peaks, when Mark Frost makes note of a secret cabal known as Aquarius operating in league with federal beaurau's. Whilst the book outlines the fact that agents of Aquarius are known by bird names, and Mr Strawberry isn't a bird name, the use of aliases remains significant.

Nixon tells Milford the creatures have bases underground in Nevada, Washington State, New Mexico and Pine Gap Australia. Milford asks Nixon who he can trust, to which Nixon responds : 'There's a man at the FBI, the one I told you about.'
Milford replies : 'I have his contact' 
Nixon then says: 'They all have code names, by the way, the ones at the top of Aquarius. Birds, I hear the caretakers name is Raven. (Then a loud knock is heard). Can we assume Raven or some other of these mysterious bird named men are to make an appearance in Season 3? Is Cooper 'the owl'?
Is Gordon Cole the man that Milford contacts at the FBI? And what really is a blue rose case?

The number called by MR C:
I'd bet that the script called for Kyle MacLachlan to mash a bunch of random buttons in the scene where Mr. C makes his phone call from jail, and that the numbers aren't meant for us to know and/or bear no significance. But just for fun and to satisfy his curiosity, one redditor slowed down the video and wrote out which buttons he pressed:
16 (pause)
1235789 (pause)
(We hear a tone difficult to identify, then what sounds like one pulse of the busy signal tone pitched up.)
3135378912315 (The camera cuts away here mid-sequence, and he presses some 8-12-ish more numbers off-screen.)
Miscellaneous observations:
  • The sound of the phone buttons sometimes overpowers the beeps themselves, especially when he starts to hammer them out towards the end of the sequence.
  • I believe the beeps are the standard DTMF tones pitched up 2 octaves. I don't have a good copy of the audio or the time/know-how to isolate them and analyze their frequencies, so I'm not 100% sure.
  • If this were a normal phone number, it would fall in the US/Canada country code (1). 612 is a Minneapolis area code. However, I don't think either of those things really matter because he dials 9 digits (rather than the normal 10 or 11) before getting some kind of tone responses, which I think means he reached some other kind of system.
  • For what it's worth, Argentina's country code is 54.
Again, the numbers probably mean nothing. But it makes for interesting speculation

PHILLIP JEFFRIES

From Bobby we learn that Cooper met with Major Briggs, and that he died in a fire at the station - probably Listening Post Alpha. It seems likely that the body in Ruth Davenports house is Briggs, but how his body winded up there remains a mystery.

In episode 2, during Mr. C's conversation with Jeffries he also mentions that Mr C met with Briggs (when on the timeline isn't stated implicitly, but Major Briggs has been dead for quite some time.)

C: Phillip? You're late.
J: Couldn't be helped. I missed you in New York, but I see you're still in Buckhorn.
J: And you're still nowhere, is that correct? You met with Major Garland Briggs.
C: How did you know that? Phillip? 
J: Actually, I just called to say good-bye.
C: This is Phillip Jeffries, right? 
J: You're going back in tomorrow, and I will be with Bob again.

In the book, the last we know of Briggs is that he shared the dossier with Cooper. In season 3 Mr C claims in a conversation with Gordon Cole:

"Gordon, I've been working undercover all these years, working primarily with our colleague Phillip Jeffries.
I need to be debriefed by you about this work, Gordon.
I will tell you the whole story, all its twists and turns, and I was going to do so.
I was on my way to present it to you.
I was a little bit behind schedule when my car veered over across the road, and I had my accident."

It's been noted that Mr C makes a curious exchange; 'It's Yrev Very good to see you again Gordon.'
To which Gordon Cole responds 'It's very very good to see you again Coop' (Some have even gone so far as to suggest that Cole is acknowledging the black lodge speak, and cite it as evidence that Cole is himself attune to black lodge forces.

Mentions of Jeffries, possibly voiced by Scott Coffey in the show, in TSHoTP:

2. The DOJ declassified communication Doug Milford enlisted Gordon Cole to satisfy Dwayne Milford and the town about LPA/SETI ARRAY/Blue Pine project construction, using the false story about Reagan's SDI aka "star wars," signed by Cole and Agent Jeffries.  
It's interesting to note, that during season 2 of Twin Peaks Agent Cooper receives various files, including the files of Josie Packard from Interpol. During this period Gordon Cole is clearly seen to give the files about Windom Earle to Agent Cooper aswell, however for some reason these files are missing from the dossier. When Dougie picks up on 'case files' is this what we are being alerted to?
Clearly there is more going on with these blue rose agents than we thus far now. Even Albert appears to be implicated during some of these scenes.


3. Thus far, Preston deduces Cole as Nixon's trusted contact in the FBI in Milford's journal entry. In this conversation with President Nixon, Nixon mentions Gleem Aquarius/Wise Men/Study Group (MJ 12) started in 1966, who gave the 90% "horseshit" UFO cases to Milford and took the cases that "popped" themselves, and shut down Blue Book because they had made contact multiple times and were engaging in highly covert ops and coverups "they'd sooner drown the cat then let it out of the bag"-- that the group is reverse engineering alien technology found at Roswell, a crash in 1949 and another in 1958-- also that there are rumors of bases, vast complexes, in Nevada, Wash. State and elsewhere. *** In episode 4 we learn that Albert gave Cooper information about Jeffries***

I authorized Phillip [off the radar for years] to give Cooper some information.
This was years ago, Gordon.
He called me. I know.
I thought Cooper was in trouble At least that's what Phillip said.
"Urgent," he said.
Cooper needed this information urgently.
I told Phillip who our man was in Columbia.
A week later, that man was killed.

4. Preston's footnote says that she's troubled by this revelation in the dossier about her superior officer, and can only find mention of him in FBI files that "he trained at Quantico with Cole where they graduated as the top two agents in their class of 1968." In 1987, he vanishes on assignment in Buenos Aires, reappeared in 1989 in Philadelphia, which is consistent with FWWM and TMP and disappears again. She must requisition classified deputy director files to learn more and expresses concern for her job safety if she shows anyone the journal entry. ** In episode 4, Preston asks who Jeffries is, and gets shut down by Cole for wearing the wire she had been instructed by Cole to wear.**


 While we are on the subject of Cole, a quick diversion which I will analyse later. There is documentation in The Secret History concerning receipt for a purchase of a BUICK ROADMASTER

In 1947, July 14 Douglas Milford apparently purchases a Buick roadmaster as suggested by the receipt, which is in blue typography and may well be forged as suggested by the I's for 1's. The Buick was apparently sold by one 'Bob J Hart', wether this is related in anyway to the serial killer 'Bob' or the mysterious denver Bob in any shape or form, we currently do not know.

In the 1948 Kenneth Arnold article Agent Tamara Preston notes that the following anecdote could be Milford; "Dahl said that the morning after his initial meeting with us, a man in black had shown up at his door. Claiming to be some government official investigating the Maury ISLAND incident-.....acccompanied to coffee shop. Dahl described the man as of average height and average appearance. They drove there in the mans brand new black Buick sedan.'
Also noted here is that the black Buick roadstar pulls up outside Milford's house with a redhead inside, who we presume is Parson's second wife Marjorie Cameron. Given what we know of the fate the Milford Brother's with the red haired Lana, it's hard not to make some connection here, and ponder on the inference of the demonic red haired woman. A picture of 'The whore of Babylon' follows on the left page, which is black and white, and notably between two owls.
 There is a strong connection made between cars and the black lodge in The Return. Doppleganger Cooper crashes his car, and throws up almost entering the black lodge through the cigarette lighter.
It has been noted that Gordon Cole and Mr C drive the same car. Is that a Buick roadmaster?
What about the fact that Albert Rosenfield screams 'Car sick!' as the car screeches to a halt, in a direct parallel to the way Mr C screeches to a halt and is himself car sick. Surely there is something been drawn to our attention here, and I think it has to do with the Buick roadmaster and it's connection to the black lodge.

5. Preston also sees Jeffries name on a "erased document recovered from a secure serves in the FBO's Philadelphia office" searching for Sam Stanley and Chester Desmond, the names mentioned by the Archivist regarding the Teresa Banks investigation, along with Cole, Windom Earle, Cooper and Albert on an otherwise blank page from an unknown computer. Stanley was placed on leave for a breakdown, according to Preston, after Desmond's disappearance. ** 
The black lodge seems to have utterly infiltrated the FBI and Gordon Cole's blue rose division. How many have been corrupted? I'm intrigued to see where this is all leading...

There are a lot of new characters in this season, and breaking down their relationship seems difficult but important:


I just thought it might be helpful to put all the pieces on the table at once. This is operating under the assumption that anyone involved with the Black Box are working for Jefferies, as Jefferies is the only character we know of with a definite connection to Argentina, outside of Judy, for whom all information is speculative and has not been menitoned this season.
So far the people we know of that are connected to (but not necessarily working for) Jefferies are:


  • Lorraine - Works in an office somewhere, contacted by the two Nevada Hitmen and sent a message to the box in Argentina. Killed this episode by Ike the Spike. Exact location unknown, likely Las Vegas Nevada because of the dice decoration on her desk.
  • Gene and Jake - Two hitmen operating in Las Vegas Nevada. They seem to report only to Lorraine.
  • Tommy and Jimmy - Collect the money from Janey-E. It's unknown where in the hierarchy they are or who they report to. It's possible they aren't connected at all and Dougie has/had two sets of hitmen after him, but we don't have evidence of that yet.
  • Darya and Ray - Under orders from Jefferies to kill Dopplecoop.
  • Buella and Otis - Were hosting Ray and Darya. Unknown if they actually know anything about Jefferies, but worth mentioning. More likely to be working for Dopplecoop.

If we are all feeling confused about the complex character plots in the new season, perhaps it will come as consolation that people were just as confused back in the original run, just look at this ancient internet thread of people discussing the plot twists, and elements which could easily be the same aimless speculation we are making in 2017:



  • Duncan Todd - Tells Roger to hire an unknown woman, likely Lorraine. Works for and fears an unknown man, most likely Jefferies. While these connections are not stated at first, we know an envelope that Duncan had in episode 6 is given to Ike the Spike in the same episode with Lorraine's photo, who Ike then kills. Lorraine knew the person she was working for would want revenge for failing to kill Cooper. We (probably) know she was working for Jefferies because of her message to the box. Based in Las Vegas. Based on his conversation with Roger and how he looks at the envelope in episode 6, I believe it is most likely that he is not loyal to Jefferies, but is forced to work for him because of some perceived threat by Jefferies.
  • Roger - Works for Duncan, sent by him to hire a woman who is likely to be Lorraine given what we know at present. He seems to know about Jefferies, but does not answer to him personally. Also in Las Vegas.
  • Ike the Spike - A hitman sent by Duncan to kill Lorraine, and likely has Dougie (Cooper) as his next target (once he fixes his spike, I guess.) Presumably based in Las Vegas as well.
  • Dopplecoop - Not working for Jefferies, in fact they seem to be at odds presently, but they know about each other, and Jefferies tried to have Dopplecoop killed. Based on the conversation Dopplecoop has with the person who may be Jefferies, it's possible they were working together up until very recently. Albert's confession to Cole also hints at this.
  • FBI Agent Albert - Not presently working for Jefferies, as far as we know. "Years ago" Albert says he was contacted by Jefferies and that Jefferies wanted Albert to tell him about "Their man in Columbia" so that Jefferies could pass that information onto (Dopple)coop, who needed it urgently. A week later, that man died.


We are introduced to a new Renault brother - Jean-Michel Renault - who I have no doubt will be involved with the drug trade to Twin Peaks, possibly the middle man between Red and the high school, perhaps involved with illicit sex trafficking as well. There is no evidence thus far to confirm this. The Renaults historically have a lot against Agent Cooper too, so perhaps this Renault has come to Town to also track and kill Cooper. Another potential enemy on the hit list against Dougie Jones.
There appears to be no direct link yet betwen Lorraine, Mr Todd, Jeffries and the Casino mafia men yet. But time could alter this situation.
Totally irrelevant, but what is this strange statue we see? Is that the Bell from Philadelphia in Fire Walk with me to the left?


  • Duncan is given some sort of message by means of a red square slowly appearing on his work computer, that disappears when he presses a button on his keyboard. He then knows to reach into a safe of some sort, and retrieves (only touching it with a tissue protecting his hand, possibly to hide his prints) an 8.5x11 envelope with a single black dot, which is later given to Ike the Spike. Its unknown whether the photos of Dougie and Lorraine were in the envelope prior to Duncan retrieving it, but I suspect the implication is that they were.
  • What does it all mean? I'm not sure yet, as Cooper said, "Make sense of it." The main points I think are interesting right now:
  • As I said above, the conversation Dopplecoop has with Maybe-Jefferies has some interesting implications. The statement by Jefferies, "You're late," and Dopplecoop's reply of "Couldn't be helped," seems to indicate that possibly up until that very day the two were working together. We know that as far as Dopplecoop knows, Jefferies is "nowhere," possibly the space that Cooper was falling through or somewhere similar. The voice on the other does not confirm or deny this, so it may not be true any longer. The fact that Dopplecoop's meeting with Garland Briggs was supposed to be secret from Jefferies seems to suggest that Jefferies would not approve of this. His knowledge of the meeting also seems to be what makes Dopplecoop question if who he's talking to is actually Jefferies, and maybe it's not. While we know David Bowie is not listed in the cast and was likely to ill to appear, the voice Dopplecoop is speaking to does not seem to resemble the Jefferies of FWWM in any way, not even an attempt to sound similar. Also of note is the statement, "And I will be with BOB again." Since we know BOB is still within (but a separate entity from) Dopplecoop as of episode 5, the implication seems to be that Jefferies cannot be with BOB until Dopplecoop returns with BOB to the lodge, and that this is something Jefferies wants. It would explain why he would want Dopplecoop killed.
  • Based on the evidence above it would seem it's not Dopplecoop who's trying to kill Cooper via hitmen, but rather Jefferies instead. Why Jefferies would want both Coopers dead is unknown.
  • The Jefferies we are being presented with this season, even outside of that phonecall with Dopplecoop, is very different from the Jefferies of FWWM. It may be that this Jefferies is also a doppleganger, or that he has become incredibly warped by his time in, well, whereever.

We have been introduced to Richard Horne, and Carl Rodd's ride mentions his wife Linda. Could this be Richard and Linda that the giant warns Cooper about?

RICHARD AND LINDA

We may not yet know who exactly Richard Horne is, but boy are we primed that he is a plain evil bastard. He possibly could be corrupted by wealth and power, we see him bribe a police officer, and in the secret History of Twin Peaks we learn that the Horne family got reach in league with the Packards building the Bijou Opera House (A location which we are yet to see in the film)

We still haven’t been reintroduced to Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn), but as the credits rolled in Episode 5 we learnt that the episode’s vilest character shares her surname. Richard Horne (Eamon Farren) is pure evil. To make this clear, he was pictured smoking under a “no smoking” sign. To make this clearer, he then seemingly bribed the Bang Bang bar’s bouncer, passing him a cigarette packet stuffed with banknotes. To make this even clearer still, Horne then grabbed a girl called Charlotte by the throat and threatened to rape her – a scene which felt like exploitative overkill.

In Episode 6 we learn that Richard Horne is involved with 'Red' and the Chinese designer drug 'Spark' (Probably dealing in Twin Peaks like Bobby in the original run, perhaps even dealing to Becky and Stephen. There is some very strange conversation between Getty and Farren:

'Have you ever studied your hand?' Says Red, bearing to mind the theme of the arm.

'We move the sparkle right down from Canada' he continues (Mimicking the drug trade in the original series)
'This little town's a pushover... sheriff here is like 70 years old' replies the devilish Horne
'Did you ever see the movie the king and I' Says Red oddly
(It seems noteworthy that Leland sings 'getting to know you' from the king and I in the original run)

Red pisses off horn calling him kid, to which Horne retailiates 'don't call me kid'. Later his spewed rage whilst driving will echo the collision with the child.

Then there is the bizarre coin toss scene:



'This is you. This is me. Heads I win. Tails you lose' 
Whilst this obviously evokes the black lodge magic as seen with the Chalfont grandson, echoed in Laura's diary when Laura mentions that during meals on wheel the grandson flips a coin from Laura's ear. "On the way out of Harold's, Mrs. Tremond's grandson, Pierre, saw me and came up to me and pulled a gold coin out of my ear and walked away. "
Jack Parsons is also noted in TSHOTP as doing magic tricks with coins.


But I don't have much more to say on this at this point. However
What IS interesting. A seemingly meaningless plot could have more relevance than we think. During the diner scene we are introduced at the Double R Diner, to a woman named Miriam who indulges in pie as Shelley works her shift. Earlier, during the scenes at the sherrif station; We learn that there’s been an overdose at the high school: a boy named Dennis Craig overdosed. During the scene with 'red' Getty's character also mentions that if Richard Horne has any trouble he can sell the stuff through 'Marjorie' or 'Miriam'. Could this be the same Miriam we see here at the diner?
That could completely altar the exchange between Miriam and Richard on the road. We presume that Miriam has just witnessed the accident, and Horne is scowling her as a material witness, but it could also be possible that the two know each other from previous rendezvous as related to the drug trade.
A distraught and extremely high Richard drives home in his truck, screaming. Meanwhile, Carl Rodd, owner of the Fat Trout, in Oregon, gets a ride to Twin Peaks. Remember, the Fat Trout is where Teresa Banks lived and where Agent Chester Desmond disappeared in Fire Walk With Me

 In the park, Carl sees a woman playing with her son. Horne is still barreling into town in his truck—and, in a climax that feels inevitable, speeds into the woman’s son in a hit-and-run.
Carl hears the commotion and sees the killed boy, held by his screaming mother—and watches as a green ghostly light leave the boy’s body. We hear that same surging in the wires. Richard tries to wash off his car in the woods; cleaning the blood in scenes highly reminscent of Leo Johnson.

There are clear connections made to the eletricity of the Black lodge. Is it worth noting that the number 6 is between 3 and 15 the sockets which Cooper travels through?
PAIN AND SUFFERING
Garmonbozia is a physical manifestation of pain and suffering, which is what the spirits from the Black Lodge feed on. In its non-physical form, it is simply pain and suffering.

In episode 6, when the boy is killed by the car, there is a lot of pain and suffering. And we all hear the crackling sounds from the power cord above them. Electricity is another element that is important in the Twin Peaks universe. Which is why one gets the impression that the spirits of the Lodge were feeding on the tragedy of the accident. 
IKE THE SPIKE
Heidi, the hustler from the last episode, asks her guys, “What do mean he wasn’t in the car? Three bodies?” regarding the explosion in Rancho Rosa. But the assassin is already there, and kills her mercilessly with the pick axe. He bent it killing someone. He gets very sad about this. 

An interesting thing to note about Ike's spike:
We can confer that from Mr Todd's envelope, that Ike is working for Mr Todd. Therefore if we eliminate the lackeys, the main powers we have who thus far answer only to themselves are: The unknown billionaire, Phillip Jeffries, Mr C and the Casino gangsters.
Ok so before I tie up all these loose threads and make some conclusions, i'll just highlight some relevant themes which probably need to be explored:

MAGIC
The element of magic is extremely important in the new season. Dougie Jones utilitses black lodge magic to predict/manipulate the Casino Machines and to discover the arson fraud in the lucky seven insurance scam. Jacobys light beam of truth, may jump across time and shine on Anthony Sinclair during the 'He's lying' scenes, although this can't be confirmed, there seems to be little other explanation for the strange light which appears on Tony.
There seems to be another parallel between Red's magical coin toss, and Hawk dropping the coin to make the Nez Perce discovery in the bathroom. Whatever this means, is completely impossible to gage, and could be nothing more than elusive Lynchian symbolism.

FIRE  --- -   
Fire has always been an important part of Twin Peaks. The idea of fire and explosions eminating from some evil place plays out everywhere. In Frost's SHOTP book it mentions 'The night of the burning river' where the entire area of the town was on fire. 
After the climax of the mill burning and Season one violent cliffhangers Dr. Hayward notes, “We haven't had this much action since the Elk's Club fire of 1959."
Of course the season Two finale ends with it's own plethora of Explosions and impending doom, The Miss Twin Peaks concert is ripped with pulsating lights and explosions on the path to the black lodge, and there is of course the explosion in the bank.
Now there seems to be a slow weaving of an explosive power coming from above, an electric energy causing the explosion of Dougie's car, a monster in a box above New York, and the tragic running down of a young boy. Where is it all leading? "The magician longs to see..."

LEMURIANS
In the Secret History we are related how Ray Palmer, the editor of Amazing Stories claims secret knowledge of a 'progenitor' race of beings called 'Lemurians' who seem to be another central focus of the Twin Peaks mythology along with giants and UFO's. The alien in the glass box could be one example of the Lemurian/owls, as could be Bob and any other number of evil forces/dugpa. The Lemurians were noted as a hostile race in mythology the polar opposite to the friendly and benevolent Atlantians.



CARL RODD AND ALIENS
Milford witnesses three children abducted in gladstonbury grove, (Carl Rodd, Maggie, and Alan Traherne (deceased)) Margaret Lanterman's medical report in 1947 uses 1's and not I's which suggests it is not forged, strange in itself given that it seems to provide the wrong information about her abduction mark. The abduction marks lead to Owl Cave and eventually Gladstonbury Grove. Is the strange light Carl Rodd witnesses when the child dies related to alien energies? 
When Laura Palmer and Madeline Ferguson were murdered there was a hostile spotlight which appeared and a horrible droning sound which seems similar to the depictions of alien abductions, this coincided with the presence of Bob, for instance after Josie dies and he appears saying 'COOP! What happened to Josie????'

CONCLUSIONS:

Laura Palmer's diary is the key. The experiences in Twin Peaks are made relevant through the eyes of Laura Palmer. The Secret History of Twin Peaks, can be viewed as the map which points to the origin of the evil spirit Bob, which manifested in many people in Twin Peaks as 'The evil that men do' and has resurfaced 25 years later.

There are many paralels to what is happening now, and what happened to Dougie Milford in 'The Secret History of Twin Peaks'. It may even be possible that the character Dougie holds some tie to Douglas Milford who we know wore the owl cave ring at his death bed. He may himself have been erased. He allegedly purchased a Buick roadmaster which is connected to the entry way to the lodge.

In TSHOTP Mayor Milford says 'Andrew was like a younger brother to me. Like the brother I never had.' 
Agent Tamara Preston notes this is a 'curious statement from somebody who definitely had a younger brother' which hints at something that is very hard to discern.
Is it possible that Dougie Milford is being erased? As Annie has apparently been erased?

There was a great deal of speculation surrounding the inconsistencies in TSHOTP and how these could be tied to parallel dimensions and the like. The introduction of the Annie message in Laura Palmer's diary seems to confirm that alternate dimensions and possible dual timelines may well be at play. We know that there is confusion surrounding Norma's mother in TSHOTP as she appears as a different character to the one in the series. Annie Blackburn seems to be lost as to where the Blackburn name originates, Ilsa Lindstrom and Vivian smith niles AKA Mt Wentz are given two different identities.



Some more interesting facts from TSHOTP
Hanks father is named Emil. Hanks mother Jolene was a hardworking hash-slinging waitress at the Double R for 35 year. The Hurleys had been Packard Sawmill employees for two generations - Ed's uncle lost two fingers there. Norma's father Marty Lindstrom had worked for the railroad for many years, before retiring to an unassuming diner in the heart of Twin Peaks

With Ed out of the picture (Saigon) Hank who'd gone out with Norma briefly during junior year--began circling his prey. Hanks own mother Jolene had been one of the original double R waitresses, and he's worked there himself all through high school--where Norma was pulling shifts on the weekends 

Norma lost her dad in 1978. Her mom came back to work at the diner afterward, and Norma loved working side by side with her--with hanks absences--but Ilsa never got over losing Marty. Ilsas health declined and she passed suddenly one night in her sleep in 1984.
Einer Jennings saw a UFO At Sparkwood and 21 where Laura jumped off the bike and ran into the woods.
The Jacoby family moved in 1939 from Twin Peaks to Pearl Harbour , where the father Richard was stationed in the Navy. The next year Richard returned to Twin Peaks with the older son, Robert, while the younger Lawrence remained in Hawaii with his mother Esther who shortly after the divorce officially changed  her name to Leilani.
We know that there is probably a two dossier situation going on with TSHOTP, with information being tampered with. I think the evidence doesn't get clearer than in Agent Cooper's file 'THE PACKARD CASE FILE' which mainly charts the Josie Harry relationship, gives misleading facts about who was with Josie when she died. I believe there are probably parts missing from this dossier in regards to Windom Earle, as no doubt Cooper would have been making notes on the Earl case at this time. Many of these questions may not be answered until we read 'The Final Dossier' but here is an interesting fact for those with interest. 

Go to P215 of TSHOTP and you will see that this is marked Chapter Two of the Packard case file. Then turn to p218 and it is marked Chapter One. It seems that the document has been re-arranged and has parts missing from it, this fact appears to confirm this.

Will Josie and Judy be connected in the new season? Will it be explained 'What happened to Josie?' and 'How's Annie?' Are the strange characters in the Mauve zone somehow connected to all of this?

More facts from TSHOTP:
Hawk - "my old man worked thirty-five years in the field for Packard in way hairier circumstances
'We built the skyscrapers in New York too'
Frank Truman hired Hawk.
TP 'Hawk was a full blooded Nez Perce whose parents left their reservation years earlier - just before the Hanford nuclear site came online"
"His father Henry was a fearless, legendary tree-topper. Henry tree topped for the Packard Mill his entire career"

Some other things which continue to bug me:
- Why does Gordon Cole say about Shelly 'Kind of reminds me of the babe without the arms' 'Venus de milo' 'her name was Milo' - mimicking the Venus in the black lodge? Also why does Windom Earle's poem by Shelley 'What is all this sweet work worth if thou kiss not me' seem to echo the scene with Cole kissing Shelley?
-Why is Annie Blackburn, an outer towner the first to mention that the tattoo looks like the one in owl cave
-Why does Major Briggs already know what the Owl cave map looks like when Andy is drawing it
ple tint
-There is a scene in the old series when Ben Horne is talking to Jerry about Robert Kennedy - making the point that his brother was always there.
-Why does Dr Jacoby need a brother called Robert who died before the first series even aired? Is there a connection between the Robert's and Bob?
-What were in Eileen's letters to Ben Horne? We never saw them in the series.
-Gordon Cole says 'Coop I'm bringing you the classified version of the Windom Earle dossier' but why does it not show up in SHOTP - 
-Why was Earle using haliperidol?
DIANE
In Episode 6 we are left with the cliffhanger of our first ever introduction to Diane.
FBI agent Albert is on the phone with Gordon: he’s undercover and on his way to Max Von’s Bar, a dark and old-school watering hole. At the bar, he meets a woman with white-blond hair named Diane. It’s Laura Dern. What will she have to say about Cooper's old files and tapes?
MAX VONS BAR
Albert Rosenfield delivers a great line outside of Max Von's bar: 'Fuck Gene Kelly, you mutherfucker' - referencing, of course, singing in the rain:
Some have had a thought that the bar's name may be a reference to the actor Max Von Sydow, who we've seen in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal and The Exorcist, as well as David Lynch's Dune.

It's also possible that the bar is named after Max Von Mayerling, Erich von Stroheim's character from Sunset Boulevard. SB is a big influence on Lynch, and it even has a character in it named Gordon Cole.

TYING THREADS TOGETHER

For those not familiar with the Chekhov's gun theory, it is a dramatic principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed (but who knows in this case, Lynch likes to mess with the audience); elements should not appear to make "false promises" by never coming into play.
"If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there."
Here is a list of things that could be relevant, or just red herrings meant to throw us off.
  • "Remember 430. Richard and Linda. Two birds with one stone."
  • Phyllis (dead) & William Hastings' (Matthew Lillard) storyline
  • The (presumed) body of Major Briggs (sans head) with Dougie's ring in the stomach
  • Dougie with the green ring from the black lodge (first seen in FWWM) - how/when did he get it, when was he "manufactured"
  • The glass box in NY (what is it looking for, why, and who is the mysterious billionaire)
  • Hitmen (who hired whom and why)
  • Agent Preston
  • Mr. Strawberry (who should I call?)
  • Red, The Magic Drug Dealer
  • Diane.
PENDING RESOLUTION
  • The Great Northern Hotel key is on it's way back to Twin Peaks after Jade (who gives two rides) dropped it in the mailbox
  • Deputy Hawk found what is presumed to be Laura's diary pages in the stall door at the Twin Peaks Police Station
  • The (presumed) body of Major Briggs (sans head)
  • Becky & Steven - we know they love cocaine, and kids in Twin Peaks are dying of drug overdoses
  • Richard Horne - is a dick. Jesus, Audrey, I hope he's not yours.
  • Ike the Spike - Hired assassin
RESOLVED?
  • Druggie Mom (ONE, ONE, NINE) & her kid --presumably only there so we know what happened to Dougie's car, or perhaps there will be more from them. She doesn't really seem to serve a purpose.
  • Gene Kelley - fuck that motherfucker (I love Albert. I just added this one for fun)
Make sense of it.

When Dougie and Jade drive by a street sign that says “Sycamore” it seems to register with him. The entrance to the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks is inside a circle of Sycamore trees, and perhaps his memory is trying to surface. If this reality is indeed a fake one, and Mike's warning to Cooper 'Wake up' is a real one, then it may be we are dealing with two realities, one real and one fake. With that in mind it's hard to make sense of anything.
However I think a good way to draw some kind of temporary conclusion is to return to the issue of location. As Hawk says in the teasers for Season 3 'Location sometimes becomes a character...it's almost like being inside a moving painting'.

Let's return to the Sherrif station, where the mystery of Laura's diary is becoming deeper into focus. During that early half of Season two, a map of the Town inexplicably appears on the black board during one scene, though it is never explained why the map is drawn, or for what purpose. Later the owl cave map will replace it, which will lead to the finale in Gladstonbury grove.
One youtuber has made some interesting connections pulling apart the owl cave map:
But what about the location of Twin Peaks? What are the nation wide clues leading us to learn about this small Washington town.
Some people have made some interesting maps of where they believe Twin Peaks would theoretically reside:
One of the biggest differences between seasons 1 & 2 and season 3 is arguably the use of different locations all over the map.


Let's take a look at some of the more important locations which are developing:


LISTENING POST ALPHA
In 1984 Gordon Cole and Agent Jeffries write to Douglas Milford and confirm government construction project on upper slopes of blue pine mountain. Major Briggs says it is state of the art radar and weather forecast technology, directly related to Reagans Star Wars program. Actually it's 'listening post alpha' according to the archivist. Agent Tamara Preston evidently thinks that the Milford contact is Gordon Cole
Sam had built two houses on blue Pine mountain where the government listening post was to be installed. Was his murder intentional?

COOPERS COORDINATES
Mr C demands Darya tell him who hired them but Daria doesn’t know, only Ray does. Host Cooper wants to know if anyone has told them coordinates or locations.
“Tomorrow I’m supposed to be pulled back to the Black Lodge,” he explains. “But I’ve got a plan for that one.” What location is he looking for? He later downloads information about Dakota Federal Prison where he winds up, possibly looking for Ray who he plans to murder.

Nevada - This state is mainly famous for three things - all of which relates to Twin Peaks:
  • Las Vegas
  • Area 51
  • Nuclear tests
Las Vegas: This place explores Coopers "talent" for being lucky which has been a recurring character-trait throughout the first seasons - also the insurance company Dougies works at is called Lucky 7. Vegas is also a manufactured city, just like Dougie is manufactured. Lastly, Vegas is known for it's connection to the criminal underworld/mafia (as witnessed in Ep 5 in the casino) which makes it a good "hub" storytelling-wise as it can be easily connected to other storylines (drug epidemic in TP, international network of hitmen, etc.).

Area 51: I think this place has massive importance in season 3. A well known nickname/codename for Area 51 is Dreamland. Dreamland is the title of a book found in the librarian's apartment. Dougies co-worker also says "off in dreamland again eh Dougie?" at one point. The general mythology of Area 51 is also closely related to Blue Rose investigations and Major Briggs (search for supernatural phenomena and aliens, highly classified investigations, etc.).

Nuclear tests - Nevada has been used for nuclear bomb testing more than any other location on earth, namely 928 times. Gordon Cole has a giant poster of a nuclear bomb exploding in his office. Bombs are sort of a recurring motif in Twin Peaks with the explosion in the final episode in season 2 and the car bomb in this season. And most importantly, there have been rumors (potential spoilers ahead) that there will be a nuclear explosion in the new season 

South Dakota is known for:
  • Indian Heritage
  • Mount Rushmore
  • Black Hills Mountain Range
Indian Heritage - South Dakota is a state known for its dense Native American history (Nevada has quite the history as well, by the way). Several of the Indian Wars took place in South Dakota, most famously the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. "Indian Heritage" is also literally the title of a book in the librarian's apartment in Buckhorn. Louis & Clark's travels also went through the South Dakota (and ended up in Washington).

Mount Rushmore - It was the first thing on Albert Rosenfield's mind when Gordon told him they're going to South Dakota. I can see why Lynch likes this monument. It's sort of a cheesy, but also very unique and uncanny monument. I think it's the combination of raw nature (desert rock) and human interference (the carving of the rock) that makes it strange.

Black Hills - Now THIS is where it gets interesting. The Black Hills is where Mr. C first pointed to on a map of his and later crashed his car. One can't but be reminded of The Black Lodge when hearing "The Black Hills". But even more strikingly, I found this book quote on a blog article about the Sacred Black Hills:
"According to Oglala Lakota cosmology, their ancestors descend from the spirits of the sky – the star people. Their fundamental spiritual and cultural self-understanding stems from recognizing the connection between the stars and the land. As Sundstrom explains, “the falling star myth cycle clearly illustrates a belief in a dual universe, wherein star people in the sky and humans on earth occupied analogous and sometimes interchangeable roles

Similarities between Native American mythology and Twin Peaks have been talked about since the show first aired. I did find it very interesting, though, that Mr. C chose the Black Hills where there is historical precedent of people believing in star people in the sky and humans on earth occupying analogous and interchangeable roles.
Stars are a recurring motif in the show - recently the Log Lady told us
"the stars turn and a time presents itself"
It also briefly reminded me of Major Briggs' head floating among the stars a few episodes back. All this "Indian heritage"-talk is obviously also very relevant to the plot at the sheriff's station in Twin Peaks where Hawk is trying to make sense of what the log has told him regarding "his heritage".

Another thing worth mentioning about the Black Hills is this quote from the same article:
"Although the land has been logged, mined, paved and developed in recent years, Corbin states that the Lakota continue to worship the Black Hills as Paha Sapa – “the heart of everything that is.”

That ties up most of my thoughts on the series for now, we got some more episode titles for the coming episodes, so this seems like a good way to conclude my rambling:

7 - There’s a body alright
8- Got a light
Part 9: This is the chair. (July 9, 2017)
Part 10: Laura is the one. (July 16, 2017)
Part 11: There’s fire where you are going. (July 23, 2017)
Part 12: Let’s rock. (July 30, 2017)

What's gonna happen next?

'Make a wish...'
As I wind up i'm going to try and explain the weird events which have been occurring in my life adjacent to all this purposeless speculating;
 Anyone who's been following my blog will know of the tangled web of mystery that has consumed my life lately. Anyone late to the party, you can peruse my stories along with further Twin Peaks speculation in my old entries:

http://onechancetwinpeaks.blogspot.com.au/2017/05/twin-peaks-season-3-has-finally-arrived.html

http://onechancetwinpeaks.blogspot.com.au/2017/01/im-writing-this-blog-for-anyone-else.html

http://onechancetwinpeaks.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/after-purchasing-secret-history-of-twin.html
 Basically to recap, I got in contact with somebody called Randolph who was obsessed with the story of a Saturn worshipping cult who gained notoriety online. Through a book club I joined, I actually met some of the members of this cult, a girl named Lucy who I have developed an attraction towards.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine name Michael (A practicing freemason) had a psychotic break and unleashed a whole load of his own fears and anxieties upon me, which in turn triggere my own episode and got me holed up for a short period in Bourkeley institute for mental corrections.
 Since then loads has happened, but the most outstanding of these events is that one of the members of the book club I was a part of Mina, has apparently gone missing.

Known to be a fairly reliable person and I am extremely worried because she has completely abandoned all forms of social media and has not been seen by anyone.

I met up with Mina not long before she dissappeared in Kings Cross, and she showed me these curious symbols spray painted down on Ward Street which resembled the markings which 'The Cult of Saturn' allegedly painted around the place in 2012. If anyone is interested in the actual cult, you can read up on them here:
https://hubpages.com/politics/trailofdeceit

When Mina and I last met, she took me to a bookstore in Newtown called 'Dead Tomes' where she made me borrow a book called 'The doorway to Saturn' and I have since read the book cover to cover but cannot ascertain exactly why she had me do so. I believe that it has something to do with her dissapearance. I have since been in communication with Lamarch, who works at 'Dead Tomes' book store and was himself a member of the cult. I've learned a lot about the cult from Lamarch, but he remains unconvinced that Mina is missing, saying that she is a strange person who is known for incronguities of character, and probably just turned off her phone and went for a bush holiday.
I wasn't satisfied with this, so I decided to go around to Mina's house. I knew where she lived because she told me. It's a small terrace house in Paddington, number 13 Macarthur Street. I was surprised to see that the grass on Mina's lawn was heavily overgrown, and the place was quite run down. There were bald patches of paint on the walls, and lots of it had chipped and peeled away. It obviously hadn't been painted in years, and I wondered why Mina's parents had let the place get so worn down.

I spent about half an hour out the front of Mina's house, banging on the door, really pounding on the door, but no one answered. I walked around the overgrown path leading around the side of the house too. Looking in the windows it seemed pretty clear that no one was home. It didn't look much like a domestic place, and I could see band posters posted around the walls, 'Misfits' 'Bauhaus', they were definitely Mina's posters, and there was almost no stuff inside her house. There was a television and a stack of DVD's and a playstation. The old couch looked like something off of council clean up. It looked a lot more like a share house than a family home. I don't know why but I had assumed Mina lived with her parents. I'm sure she said it was her parents house.

When I got back to the front of the house, I noticed there was a strange aboriginal woman wearing a bandana staring over the fence at me from the house next door. 'Whaccha doin boy?' she yelled out to me. I told her I was looking for my friend Mina and asked the strange old woman if she had seen her.
The woman was quite evasive at first, not really answering my questions. Eventually I decided to make her trust me and I showed here a selfie me and Mina had taken of ourselves beneath the Kings Cross coke sign. After that, she seemed to believe me that I was Mina's friend and told me more information. I asked her if Mina lived with her parents, and the Aboriginal woman said that Mina's parents had died, I guess that explains why she didn't want to talk about it. She said she hadn't see Mina or anyone come in or out of the place for over two weeks.... except for a guy with a 'worn face' who was wearing a black suit, she said the guy checked Mina's letterbox then drove off in a blue convertible. Other than that she said no one had been in and out of the house since I last saw Mina. I found that very strange, but I thanked the woman and she dissappeared inside her dark house. 

As I was leaving I noticed something in the aboriginal woman's garden which really triggered a panic attack. Retrospectively I can see that I was just being hyper sensitive, however it was something which really brought back the psychotic episode I had on marijuana that day. In the aboriginal woman's yard there were some small statues next to what looked like a tomato patch; A yellow leprachaun and an orange gnome. They were really sloppilly painted, like the old woman had painted them herself, and the paint had peeled and faded in the sun. But the bizarre thing is that I had hallucinated those EXACT figurines in my crazy trip in the aparment before I was hospitalised.

Logically I can work around it. I know the brain tries to make these connections sometimes and they are just co-incidences without real meaning.

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

Anyway, a couple of days later I was thinking Mina as I was walking home. I just finished a work contract and so i've got too much free time right now to fret and worry about things.

I wondered down to the Golden Goose, to get myself a drink. Mina and I had been drinking there the last time we met up, and I couldn't help but start thinking about all those events in my mind.


Anyway, I won't bore you with the details of my inner monologue, but what was crazy that did happen that day, is that I had left the side entrance on Kellet Street to have a cigarette, and as I was gazing into nothing, I noticed a man come down enter through the drapes at Maggie's brothel opposite The Golden Goose. Suddenly I realised it was the same Korean man that I had seen that day Mina and I went to the bookshop-- the man Mina had mentioned was following her!

Feeling paranoid, I tried to shelter my face and look downward as the Korean man entered the brothel, hoping he wouldn't see me. 

Quickly I finished my cigarette and went back into Gerry's, sitting at a table facing Kellet Street and carefully watching the entrance to Maggie's brothel.
I waited for half an hour, until the Korean man left. Then pressed by some bizarre impulse, I resolved to go in and ask the owners about the man. I went into Maggie's, into the ambient purple light of the waiting room. There was no one around so I sat down in the customer chair, and shortly an attractive Thai girl wearing a traditional blue dress came out and asked me in a thick, cute accent if I wanted to fool around. I asked her if I could speak to the management, but she just said 'Managema busy' and then 'Come you play with me.' Confused as to how to approach it, given it was the middle of the day I wondered if maybe there was only one girl working today, I took a chance and asked herl 'Do you know the name of the man who just came in here? He dropped his wallet as he was leaving?' The girl gave a look of recognistion, not detecting my ruse at all 'Asian guy?' she asked, and I nodded; then she launched straight into information about the guy; 'Oh sure. That's Kim Seung. He's a regular here. You can just leave it here, we'll give it him, no problem.' 'I don't feel comfortable doing that' I said cunningly, 'Can you give me his address so I can drop it off in his letterbox?' The Thai girl didn't hesitate 'Oh sure. Here let me get for you.' Seductively bopping along the Thai girl made her way over to the front counter, leaning over and shuffling through some filing cabinets on the other side. Eventually she pulled out a manilla folder, and turned to a file, writing something down on one of the Maggie's napkins, she handed it to me.
'Thanks I said'
The girl bopped her head, and leant seductively on her hand. She was drop dead gorgeous and I felt a warm glow in my lower body, 'You sure you don't want to come play me?' she asked.

As desirable as she was, I curteously turned her down, pocketed the napkin and made my way out of Maggie's.
Of course you can imagine, I staked out the address of the Korean man, but when I went the first time their didn't appear to be anyone home.
Obviously i'm really worried about Mina. There's just so many strange things happening in my life right now. My mind can't stop thinking over the rings, and why Brad emailed his ring to Mina?
Lucy hasn't been talking to me, but I plan on talking to her in the book club tonight. I know her and Mina are good friends, so I think she might at least believe me about this whole things, even if no one else will.
I'm also going to sit down and really analyse this book that Mina made me borrow 'The Doorway to Saturn'. It's such a weird book, and seems like a pretty obscure publication, there's lots of interesting things in here, which relate to the mythology of Twin Peaks, and to things I have noticed in life.

Mina highlighted a bunch of the passages in the book for some reason. I'm going to pull it apart and post more about it my next post, hopefully Mina will turn up before then and this whole thing will turn out to be me getting over zealous and worried about nothing. I really hope so.

In the meantime some quotes from this weird book;

'Six from sun, a corner tower, labrynthine winding roads;
Hydrogen gates, moving player pieces upon game boards,
There is a convergence, at 811. From A-ring to D-ring, geometric, aclhemic,
Thy mass, containing 99.9% at a radius reached of 0.01 g/cm3,
The city grid, pentaclion stands above the gateways,
Unhallowed truth that guides towards rustic gate unlocked,
The feeder comes, on Saturnalia, meeting gravity's reach,
On Aeon upon Aeon, human dominion calls to scale,
The vast infinitude of Uranus lifeforms, Y'guth intertwined,
Rotational markings in the Sanvire's code, which rings through electric cables.'

What the fuck am I reading?
Keep you posted.

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