About five or so years ago I was thinking about TWIN PEAKS and, specifically, how the show ended on such a wild cliffhanger only to be followed up by a movie that addressed none of those lingering plotlines. Could there be a way to look at it differently? I was thinking about the image of Laura at the end of FIRE WALK WITH ME, angelic and seemingly comforted by the "good" Dale Cooper and I thought, what if the only story being told was Laura's all along? What if Dale Cooper's journey was about her redemption? It kind of satisfied this unresolved feeling in me to write this down. I could now live with the fact that the story would never continue...
So, I'm posting this just a few hours before the new episodes start as a way of honoring this old way of understanding the story. This was never meant to be shared publicly, just some notes to myself. Now you know, I can be very pretentious when talking to myself. GET OVER IT!
Hope you enjoy!
TWIN PEAKS is, at it's core, a show about the human mind coming to know itself.
The story begins with the death of Laura Palmer, as it must. She is, on the surface and to many who claimed to know her, the ideal, two-dimensional archetype of the beautiful blonde prom queen. It is this that dies, because, in truth, Laura Palmer not only lives as a character throughout the series, but deepens, matures and grows as it continues. The light that was the prom queen dies so that we can come to know the Shadow.
Her death was the only way for us to welcome Special Agent Dale Cooper who represents the proper frame of mind for such an exploration into the deep subconscious. He approaches the mystery with both a sense of wonder and respect. He exudes an unflappable, almost childlike, optimism while, at the same time, seeming to understand fully the horrors and suffering of the world. He is the Buddha who participates joyfully in the sorrows of the world. Every day, he says, give yourself a gift -- in his case, it was a cup of terrific coffee -- because, you see, death and great suffering will come. So enjoy the gift you give yourself, and really do make sure you sincerely enjoy it.
Sheriff Truman is the old guard, the dim-witted ego who means well, but doesn't understand any of what Cooper has come to know. It is only because of the circumstances -- Laura's death -- and the knowledge that he is utterly unprepared to deal with the investigation, that he welcomes Cooper. He is us, the waking mind, suspicious and marveling at the dreamer.
The characters and most of the drama of the show play as an almost parody of a soap opera and in this world, dreams, symbols, communications from outer space and even logs are all taken with the same seriousness as any traditional, tangible clue. This is because Twin Peaks does not exist in the real world. It is a town hovering on the edge of dreaming with characters drawn from the familiar and infused with new and surprising depth of emotion. Anyone who's grown up watching TV will recognize them, but the surprise comes with the exaggerated forms they take. This exaggeration forces you to look again, closer and with new eyes at these archetypes and the longer we look, the more we realize that these people are not what they appear to be -- to us or to themselves.
The owls are not what they seem.
And so, like Charles Marlow, Twin Peaks takes us on a journey into the heart of darkness where we find ever abstracted symbols and raw terrors. We meet the Shadow and are overcome by it. But ultimately we find hope, because, whatever fate meets Agent Dale Cooper personally, his journey was a success. His investigation was a path to enlightenment that, in the end, saves the soul of Laura Palmer. Cooper looks into the deepest, blackest parts of her shadow and loves her anyway. In so doing, he gives her permission, finally, to love herself. Once freed from the chains of judgement and fear, she rises like an angel up to Heaven.
"Fire walk with me" -- and who walks with fire? Shadows.