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Twin Peaks
Episode 8B:
"Answers in Dreams"
(42:42-end of the Season Two 90-minute premiere)
TV episode
Story by Mark Frost & David Lynch
Teleplay by Mark Frost
Directed by David Lynch
Original air date: September 30, 1990
Page last updated 1/6/2022
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Cooper confronts Jacoby about the
locket and Jacque’s death and receives another visit from the
Giant; Ed tells Nadine’s story; Major Briggs reveals a dream to
Bobby; Andy stands up to Albert.
(This episode begins with Agent
Cooper assigning Andy and Lucy to sort through issues of Flesh
World and ends with Ronette's nightmare of the death of Laura
Palmer.)
Read the
full 2-hour episode transcription at Glastonberry.net
Didja Know?
For the titles of the Twin Peaks TV episodes, I have taken
the unique approach of using both the episode numbers, which were
the only titles given the scripts by series creators David Lynch and
Mark Frost, and the translated German titles of the episodes that
were assigned when the series aired in that country. Frequent
readers of PopApostle know I like the aesthetic of actual episode
titles, but I also wanted to honor the simple numbering used by
Lynch and Frost, hence the expanded titles presented in these
studies.
This study is part two of the 90-minute season two premiere episode.
I have chosen to split the episode into two ~45-minute parts to
maintain the consistency of the 45-minute regular episodes of the
series. Part 1 keeps the title given to the whole of the 90-minute
episode
"May the Giant Be With You". I've
given Part 2 the title of
"Answers in Dreams".
Notes from the Log Lady intros
See
Episode 8A:
"May the Giant Be With You" for the
Log Lady intro of the 90-minute season premiere.
Didja Notice?
This episode opens
on Friday, March 3, 1989 and ends that night.
Dr. Jacoby tells Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman how he came
into possession of the half-pendant that had belonged to
James. As he tells it, the flashback scenes are from
Episode 0B:
"Northwest
Passage".
As Bobby enters Shelly's hospital room at 49:31 on the
Blu-ray, a woman's voice on the P.A. system says, "Dr.
Brackett call the operator." The closed captions show the
name of "Dr. Bradley" instead, but it sounds more like "Dr.
Brackett". If so, it may be an homage to the character of
Dr. Kelly Brackett on the 1972-1977 TV series Emergency!
As Bobby speaks to Shelly in the hospital room, notice that
he starts to play with the draw string for the privacy
curtain, an indication of his repeated tendency to fidget
with things.
Apparently the food isn't the only thing bad at Calhoun
Memorial Hospital...notice the face Albert makes drinking
the coffee there at 54:30 on the Blu-ray.
Big Ed tells Cooper that he married Nadine in some little
town in Montana out past
Great
Falls. He may be referring to the town of Belt,
population under 1,000.
Ed goes on to say that he and Nadine spent their honeymoon
at his father's old cabin "up in Eagle Pass." Though there are
also a couple of Eagle Pass's in Montana as well, he is
probably referring to Eagle Pass, British Columbia since he
refers to it as "up in". British Columbia is north of Twin
Peaks, which would normally be considered "up" in common
idiom. The two in Montana are southeast of Twin Peaks and
would thus normally be called "down".
At the hospital, Cooper tells Harry they'll all meet back at
the station because he's ready to lay the whole thing out.
Truman asks, "Rocks and bottles?" and Cooper responds,
"Chalk and blackboard will be just fine." But in the later
scene where he lays out the events leading to the murder of
Laura Palmer, he doesn't use the chalk and blackboard at
all (though it's possible he's the one who drew the map of
the town on the blackboard). Truman's "rocks and bottles" reference, of course,
goes back to Cooper's unusual deductive technique seen in
Episode 2:
"Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer".
At 58:11 on the Blu-ray, as Norma is saying goodbye to
Shelly at the hospital, the boom mic is visible in the
top-right corner of the screen.
As Bobby walks into the RR Diner, notice that his father's
bald head is visible in the reflection of the glass door as
he walks in! As Bobby walks past
the hat and coat rack, his
father's blue Air Force hat and overcoat are hanging on it.
Ten seconds later, the major notices he has sat down at the
bar and invites his son to join him at his booth.
In the diner, Bobby asks his father what it is he does
exactly for work and the major replies, "That's classified."
Presumably, Bobby has asked his Air Force father about this
before, getting the same answer! In later episodes, we learn
that Major Briggs is associated with the U.S. Air Force's
Project Blue Book, the military branch's official study of
Unidentified Flying Objects (though Project Blue Book ended
in 1970 in the real world).
The Secret
History of Twin Peaks gives us more insight
to the major's work.
At 1:05:24 on the Blu-ray, notice that a map
of Twin Peaks is drawn on the chalkboard in the conference
room of the sheriff's office. Who drew it? Cooper? It's his
meeting (he never refers to the map in the televised
episode, but in the original script he traces Laura Palmer's
location through the night of her murder, with Lucy pointing
at each spot on the map; notice that Lucy stands next to the
chalkboard with Cooper's extending pointer in her hands).
Another possibility for drawing the map is Andy; he is shown to be
the sheriff office's sketch artist in
Episode 4:
"The One-Armed Man".
The map is similar in layout to the
map on the back cover of
Twin
Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town. |
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Albert reports that blood on the "Fire walk with me" note
does not match Leo’s, Jacques’s, Laura’s, or Ronette’s,
going on to say that the blood type is AB-negative. But
Jacques' blood type was also found to be AB-negative in
Episode 5:
"Cooper's Dreams".
When Andy loses his temper with Albert during the meeting,
he calls him "Albert Roserfeld".
At 1:13:24 on the Blu-ray, in the bottom left corner of the
screen, there appears to be a book about owls sitting on the
table in the Great Northern lobby.
Ben has a Navajo rug on the floor of his office.
The youngest Hayward daughter, Gersten, says she got the
highest scores in math and English for the midseason term,
just like her older sisters, Harriet and Donna, did before
her.
At the dinner with the Haywards and Palmers, Harriet Hayward
reads a poem she wrote about Laura. Poetry writing must be a
hobby or passion for her, as we saw her writing a different
poem in
Episode 0B:
"Northwest
Passage". The poem is presented below:
It was Laura.
And I saw her glowing.
In the dark woods, I saw her smiling.
We were crying, and I saw her laughing.
In our sadness, I saw her dancing.
It was Laura,
Living in my dreams.
It was Laura.
The glow was life.
Her smile was to say it was alright to cry.
The woods was our sadness.
The dance was her calling.
It was Laura.
And she came to kiss me goodbye.
During Harriet's recital, Gersten plays an original piece by
the actress, Alicia Witt (as revealed in her interview
appearing in
The Blue Rose
magazine #14, September 2020).
After the recital, Gersten plays Mendelssohn's
"Rondo Capriccioso, Opus 14", a notable piano piece by
German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847).
During the dinner, Leland sings "Get Happy". This is a 1930
song with lyrics by Ted Koehler and music by Harold Arlen.
Dr. Hayward uses smelling salts from his medical bag to
revive Leland when he faints during his musical performance.
Upon revival, Leland states he is okay and that he feels
happy. Then he says, "Begin the Beguine." This is actually
the title of another song, written by Cole Porter in 1934.
At 1:26:00 on the Blu-ray, the lamp on the nightstand in
Cooper's hotel room is different yet again...the built-in
clock is gone! Notice also that Cooper appears to have
another glass of warm milk sitting on the nightstand.
In his recording to Diane as he is about to go to sleep,
Cooper reflects that he hasn't had any real sleep in three
days and that studies conducted on American G.I.s during the
Korean War show that sleep deprivation "is a one-way ticket
to temporary psychosis." I've been unable to find any
reference to legitimate "studies" of sleep deprivation
during the Korean War, but the North Koreans are known to
have subjected American P.O.W.s to sleep deprivation in
attempts to brainwash them. Studies since then have shown
that sleep deprivation can lead to symptoms similar to
psychosis, a mental loss of contact with reality.
At One-Eyed Jacks, Audrey seems to pray to Special Agent
Cooper rather than to God.
Audrey's forgotten note is seen under Cooper's bed. How did
it get there? He had set it on the phone stand in
Episode 7:
"The Last Evening" and it was there at the
beginning of
Episode 8A:
"May the Giant Be With You".
At 1:31:20 on the Blu-ray, a shadow can be fleetingly seen
at the end of the supposedly empty hospital hallway.
As Ronette has a flashback to the night of the murder, a
freeze-frame of BOB seems to show blood smeared on his lips.
(The screengrab below is slightly brightened to show the
red.)
In Ronette's flashback, BOB seems to make ape-like grunting
noises (or is it the hoot of an owl?) after killing Laura. Listen:
ape-like grunts
Freeze-framing at 1:32:52 on the Blu-ray, as he screams in
rage, you can see the fillings in Killer BOB's teeth!
This final scene of the episode depicts BOB killing Laura.
The Laura death scene in
Fire Walk With Me
depicts it mostly with Leland as the killer.
BOB is depicted here wearing a denim jacket with the arms
cut off (as also seen in Cooper's dream in
Episode 2:
"Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer").
But in the same scene in
Fire Walk With Me,
he is wearing a full denim jacket (as seen in most of his other
appearances).
How is Ronette able to have a flashback of BOB killing Laura
when, in
Fire Walk With Me,
it is shown that Leland/BOB shoved her out of the train car
before Laura was killed?
The end credits of this episode dedicate it to the memory of
Kevin Young Jr. According to some sources, this was the son
of the man who played Toad (occasionally seen in episodes as a patron
in the RR Diner) and the boy had died in an
accident that year.
Instead of the usual homecoming photo of
Laura Palmer, the end credits show Gersten Hayward playing
the piano and the music is of her playing as well. In her
interview appearing in The Blue Rose magazine #14,
September 2020, the actress, Alicia Witt, reveals the piece
is "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" released in 1929 by artist
Pinetop Smith. It is referred to only as "Hayward Boogie" on
the Twin Peaks (Season Two Music and More)
soundtrack album.
Gersten does not appear again until season three's
Part 11:
"There's Fire Where You Are
Going". Her time in between is
mentioned in The Final
Dossier.
Unanswered Questions
Did Andy and Lucy find any more pictures of Laura or Ronette
in the Flesh World back issues as they were
assigned to do by Agent Cooper? It's never revealed.
Memorable Dialog
maybe she allowed herself to be killed.wav
a smell like scorched engine oil.wav
a real
treat.wav
I shot out Nadine's eye on that honeymoon.wav
jelly
donuts.wav
that's classified.wav
a real three hanky crime.wav
I don't like the way you talk smart.wav
nasty
business.wav
a
secret vice.wav
the last person standing.wav
God help her miserable soul.wav
brain
damage.wav
that's confidence.wav
you're
a bicep.wav
special
agent.wav
the things I tell you.wav
better to listen.wav
BOB.wav
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