Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

 

Gordon Cole

Albert Rosenfield

Tammy Preston

Phillip Jeffries

Agent Chet Desmond (mentioned only, missing since 1989)

Agent Cooper

Diane Evans

Jerry Horne

Sarah Palmer

Victoria (clerk at grocery store)

Oscar (bagboy at grocery store)

Kriscol

Carl Rodd

Sonny-Jim Jones

Hawk

Miriam Sullivan

Ben Horne

Beverly Paige

Sheriff Frank Truman

Richard Horne (mentioned only)

Harry Truman (mentioned only)

Hutch

Chantal

Warden Dwight Murphy

Warden Murphy's son (unnamed)

Lawrence Jacoby

Nadine Hurley

Audrey Horne

Charlie

Billy (mentioned only)

Tina (on phone only, unheard)

Paul (mentioned only)

Chuck (mentioned only)

Abbie

Natalie

Angela (mentioned only)

Clark (mentioned only)

Mary (mentioned only)

Angela's mother (mentioned only, deceased)

Trick 

 

 

Didja Notice?

 

At 1:42 on the Blu-ray, we see that the FBI team is staying at the Mayfair Hotel in Buckhorn. The scenes were shot at the real world Mayfair Hotel (now an apartment complex, not hotel)...in Pomona, CA. O'Donovan's Restaurant is seen on the ground floor as well.

 

As the episode opens in an elegant meeting room of the hotel, notice that Gordon is waving some kind of device around the room. It is presumably meant to detect listening devices.

 

The meeting room is draped in red curtains, giving it something of the feel of the red room of the Black Lodge. Did Gordon choose this room specifically for that reason? Does he even know about the red room?

 

Albert remarks that Gordon stocks the FBI Learjet with wine from his own cellar. Apparently, Gordon is a bit of a wine connoisseur.

 

As introduction to the Blue Rose task force, Albert tells Tammy that the U.S. Air Force shut down Project Blue Book, an investigation into UFOs, in 1970. This is true.

 

Albert goes on to say that, a few years after the end of Project Blue Book, a joint task force of the FBI and the military formed the Blue Rose task force, named after a phrase uttered by a woman in one of the unresolved cases of Blue Book, "which suggested these answers could not be reached except by an alternate path we've been traveling ever since." Is he saying that the phrase "blue rose" is what suggested that answers must be reached by an alternate path? Possibly, he is referring to the fact that a blue rose does not exist in nature due to certain genetic elements of the genus Rosa. White roses have been dyed blue throughout the history of human civilization and portrayed as symbols of love and prosperity or even royalty. In art and literature, the blue rose often symbolizes a quest for the unattainable, the impossible, or a mystery.

 

Albert mentions that Tammy was on the Honors List at George Washington High School, the Dean's List at MIT, and was at the top of her class at Quantico. There a number of high schools called George Washington in the U.S., so hard to say which one she attended. MIT is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Quantico, Virginia is the home of the FBI's training academy.

 

Tammy officially joins the Blue Rose task force in this episode.

 

    Gordon and Albert temporarily deputize the retired Diane back into the FBI to help investigate what happened to Cooper. Before she accepts, she thinks on it for a moment and backwards-sounding music previously associated with the Black Lodge (in Fire Walk With Me) plays. Then she nods agreement and says, "Let's rock." The phrase "let's rock" was also said by the Dwarf in Episode 2: "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer" and seen written in blood (or lipstick?) on the windshield of a car after Chet Desmond's disappearance in Fat Trout Trailer Park in Fire Walk With Me. Was Diane (whom we will eventually learn was a tulpa) receiving telepathic instructions from Mr. C or the Black Lodge as to how to answer?

    After Diane gives her affirmative answer, Gordon knocks his fist on the wooden coffee table in front of them. Was he doing it for luck? The tradition of knocking on wood is meant to symbolically show that one does not wish to tempt fate into doing the opposite by stating that something good is about to happen. The custom may have derived from German folklore, where supernatural beings are said to live in trees and could possibly be invoked for protection by knocking on the tree. Does this also tie into the forest around Twin Peaks (Ghostwood Forest)?

 

    At 8:07 on the Blu-ray, several brand names are seen in the grocery store (identified as Keri's Handi-Mart by the checker's name badge) where Sarah is shopping: Nestle, Big Red soda, Mrs. Cubbison's stuffing, Heinz, Ocean Spray, Del Monte, Arrowhead water, Princella, Skippy peanut butter, Colgate, Crest, Bic, Advil, Old Spice, Lubriderm, Barbasol, Gillette, C&H, Betty Crocker, Martinelli's apple cider, Scotch tape, and Carmex. These are all real world brands.

    A large number of liquor brands are seen on the liquor shelf as well, too many to list, but they all appear to be real world brands. Sarah purchases Mr & Mrs T bloody mary mix and Smirnoff vodka, as well as a carton of Salem cigarettes, again, all real world brands.

    Sarah also asks about a new brand of jerky behind the checkout counter; it is Albatross brand. This appears to be a fictitious brand. Possibly the brand name is meant to make us think of the albatross hung around the neck of the mariner in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1798 poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", a symbol of carrying a burden of bad luck towards others.

    Keri's Handi-Mart is a fictitious business as far as I can tell.

 

The checkout display at the grocery is seen to be made by Acer.

 

Sarah's cash total at the checkout stand comes to $133.70. But we saw in her cart only a handful of items! Two bottles of bloody mary mix, three bottles of Smirnoff vodka, a carton of Salem cigarettes, and one or two other items should not come up to that much!

 

When Sarah begins to have a breakdown at the store, she seems to be talking to herself at times, telling herself to leave, even addressing herself as "Sarah". Or is it a possessing being who is addressing her? By the end of the season, it is strongly hinted that she has Judy inside her.

 

The trailer next to Carl's trailer at Fat Trout Trailer Park is a Medallion. This is a real world RV trailer model made by Mckenzie.

 

At 13:16 on the Blu-ray, the shadow of a bird is seen flying over the Jones family house. Was it an owl?

 

At 14:28 on the Blu-ray, Hawk knocks on the door of Sarah's house. But there is a doorbell button clearly visible next to the door. Why doesn't he ring the doorbell?

 

While Hawk is talking to Sarah at the door of her house, sounds are briefly heard from inside and Hawk asks if someone is in there with her. She denies it, saying it was just something in the kitchen. The sound is like dishes shifting in the sink or something. What was it? Was Sarah alone or not? Maybe the bag boy from the market is there, delivering her forgotten groceries as he suggested doing earlier. Or could there be two Sarahs living there?? The real Sarah and a tulpa?

 

At 16:31 on the Blu-ray, Miriam Sullivan's hospital room has a Spacelabs Healthcare diagnostic monitor mounted above the bed. Spacelabs was founded in Washington state to develop cardiac monitoring systems for NASA astronauts in 1958, but has long since branched out to manufacture medical equipment for hospitals and other facilities.

 

When Sheriff Truman tells Ben that his grandson is to blame for the hit-and-run of a little boy in town and then the attempted murder of the witness Miriam Sullivan, Ben laments Richard's character, saying, "That boy has never been right." This is another hint that Richard is the son of Mr. C.

 

Ben tells Beverly about an old secondhand Schwinn bicycle his father gave him when he was a boy. Schwinn Bicycle Company is a real world manufacturer of bicycles.

 

Ben's story about the bike from his father is likely meant as his commentary on Richard's never having a father in his life. Possibly, Ben also feels guilt at not being more of a father figure himself to Richard (though we don't actually know how much involvement Ben had in Richard's life growing up).

 

Gordon has a liaison with a French woman in his hotel room before being interrupted by Albert. It seems a bit odd that a French woman (who apparently doesn't speak English) is in Buckhorn, South Dakota, even given Gordon's explanation that she is there visiting a turnip farmer friend of her mother whose daughter had gone missing. Is there a particular reason that a French woman should appear here?

 

When Gordon asks the French woman to wait for him downstairs at the bar, she responds, "Oui, mon cheri." This is French for "Yes, darling." After she puts her high heels on and waves one leg in front of him, Gordon says, "Tres chic." This is French for "Very stylish."

 

After taking a sip of Gordon's wine, the French woman says, "Tres bon." This is French for "Very good."

 

Gordon tells Albert there are more than 6000 languages spoken on Earth today. This is roughly accurate according to linguistic scholars.

 

The van used by Hutch and Chantal to stake out Dwight Murphy's house is a 1996 Chevrolet Express.

 

Jacoby, as Dr. Amp, tells his listeners that the vermin of the giant multinational corporations are awaited in the ninth level of Hell. This refers to the ninth circle of Hell reserved for those who are treacherous in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, the first part of his 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy.

 

At 36:59 on the Blu-ray, the books Four Quartets by T.S. Elliot and Happy Times are seen on the mantel next to Audrey. Four Quartets is a book of four poems about the interlinked themes of humankind, time, the universe, and the divine.

 

Charlie refers to himself as Audrey's husband. Oddly, Charlie does not seem terribly upset that Audrey openly admits to being in love with Billy and having an affair with him. He even agrees to help her find Billy when the man goes missing.

 

Audrey tells Charlie that she saw Billy in her dreams last night, bleeding from the nose and mouth. In Part 14: "We Are Like the Dreamer", a very messed up man in a jail cell at the Twin Peaks sheriff's station is bleeding from the mouth (though not the nose, as far as I can tell). Is this man Billy? Is Billy "missing" because he's been arrested?

 

When Audrey sarcastically tells Charlie to look into his crystal ball to find Billy, he responds, "Come on, Audrey. You know I don't have a crystal ball." But he does, in fact, have a crystal ball paperweight on his desk.

 

What is the "contract" that Audrey has with Charlie? She threatens to renege on their contract if he doesn't call Tina and help her find Billy.

 

During Audrey and Charlie's argument about whether they should go to the Roadhouse, great emphasis is made on how they each must have their jacket if they are going to leave the house for the evening. True, Washington can get quite chilly at night. But the attention on jackets continues between the two in ensuing episodes. Might "jacket" be a reference to the 2005 American psychological thriller film The Jacket, about a wounded Iraqi war veteran in a mental institution who learns to slip through time while tied into a straightjacket and manages to alter the past. Considering the time slips/alterations of this season of Twin Peaks, as well as what seems to be Audrey's impaired mental state and possible incarceration in a mental health facility, the connection is worth considering.

 

Is the Chuck mentioned by Audrey, who told her that Tina was the last person to see Billy, the same Chuck who is the husband of Renee (seen later in Part 15: "There's Some Fear in Letting Go")?

 

After Tina tells him something virtually unbelievable on the phone, Charlie hangs up and looks intensely at Audrey, but doesn't say a word to her, despite Audrey's demands. What did he learn from Tina? Is it something about Audrey? 

 

At 48:53 on the Blu-ray, the city of Twin Peaks is showing on the wrong side of the Columbia River on the map on Diane's phone, at least as compared to the map seen in Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town.
Twin Peaks on Diane's GPS	Twin Peaks overview map from Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town

 

The instrumental played by the band at the Roadhouse at the end of the episode is "Saturday" by the Chromatics.

 

At 50:05 on the Blu-ray, Abbie and Natalie are seen to be drinking Heineken beer. Possibly, this is a nod by Lynch to Jeffrey Beaumont's taste for Heineken in Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet; Beaumont was played by Kyle MacLachlan.

 

When Trick joins Abbie and Natalie at their booth at the Roadhouse, he wants to go to the bar to get a beer and asks if they need beers too. They both say yes, but we can see through the glass of their Heineken bottles that both are still nearly full! I guess the girls just wanted to take advantage of Trick getting them a free beer!

 

At 52:54 on the Blu-ray, Ruth Radelet of the Chromatics is seen playing a Gretsch guitar.

 

At the end of the episode, as the camera switches to shots of the Chromatics playing on stage, a subtle sound of static is heard in the background of the music. Why is it there? Is it meant to suggest electrical interference, as in forces from the places beyond interacting with the Earthly world? 

 

Unanswered Questions

 

Who is Billy? We never see him. Audrey claims that he is her lover in an extramarital affair. Possibly, the name is sort of an in-joke reference to actor Billy Zane, who played Audrey's love interest John Justice Wheeler in the second half of season two of the original series.

 

Memorable Dialog

 

ignore the strange man.mp3

the Blue Rose task force.mp3

let's rock.mp3

after all these years.mp3

6000 languages.mp3

sometimes I really worry about you.mp3

I don't have a crystal ball.mp3 

 

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