 |
Twin Peaks
Episode 12:
"The Orchid's Curse"
TV episode
Written by Barry Pullman
Directed by Graeme Clifford
Original air date: October 27, 1990
|
Cooper discovers Audrey’s note;
Nadine has trouble with the refrigerator door; Andy gets the
results of his sperm test; the contents of Gerard’s syringe are
analyzed.
Read the 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.
The character of Tim Pinkle introduced in this episode is portrayed by David L. Lander, best
known for playing Squiggy on the 1976-1983 sitcom Laverne &
Shirley.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
Agent Dale Cooper
Deputy Hawk
Sheriff Truman
Robertson (grey-haired old man, mentioned only)
Two retired female school teachers (mentioned only)
Lucy Moran
Gwen (Lucy's sister, mentioned only)
Larry (Gwen's husband, mentioned only)
Gwen and Larry's baby boy (unnamed, mentioned only)
Bobby Briggs
Tim Pinkle
Leo Johnson
Shelly Johnson
Judge Sternwood
Sid
Leland Palmer
Sarah Palmer
Maddy Ferguson
Deputy Andy
Toad
Ben Horne
D.A. Daryl Lodwick
Harold Smith
Donna Hayward
Mr. Racine (Leo Johnson's defense attorney)
James Hurley
Ed Hurley
Nadine Hurley
Dr. Jacoby (mentioned only)
Mr. Tojamura (Catherine Martell)
Tojamura's assistant (unnamed)
Hank Jennings
Jean Renault
Audrey Horne
Blackie O'Reilly
Bernie Lentz (mentioned only)
Barney (mentioned only)
Tony the Tiger (mentioned only)
Nancy O'Reilly
Notes from the Log Lady intros
When cable channel
Bravo
obtained the rights to air reruns of Twin Peaks
in 1993, David Lynch directed all-new introductions to each
episode featuring the Log Lady, portrayed by original
actress Catherine E. Coulson. These intros also appear as
options on the DVD and Blu-ray collections of the series.
The teapot that reappeared in
Episode 11:
"Laura's Secret Diary" has now been
replaced with a sugar dish.
"Sometimes nature plays tricks on us and we imagine we
are something other than what we truly are.
Is this a key to life in general? Or the case of the
two-headed schizophrenic?
Both heads thought the other was following itself.
Finally, when one head wasn't looking, the other shot
the other right between the eyes, and, of course, killed
himself."
Didja Notice?
This episode takes place on Tuesday, March 7, 1989.
The nightstand next to Cooper's hotel room bed now has a
small statue of an American Indian on it.
Cooper wakes up in bed with the same
"mussed-up" hair he had when he woke up from his dream of
the Black Lodge in
Episode 2:
"Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer".
When Cooper finds the forgotten envelope from Audrey under
his bed, it again reads "My Special Agent", as it did in
Episode 7:
"The Last Evening", but changed to simply
"Agent Cooper" in
Episode 8A:
"May the Giant Be With You".
When Hawk dashes into the Sheriff's station, Truman says,
"Hey, I thought we lost you to the Kalispell woods."
Kalispell is a city in Montana. We learned in
Episode 11:
"Laura's Secret Diary", that the last
known tenants of the house neighboring the Palmer cabin at
Pearl Lakes had moved to Kalispell.
Lucy states that she is going on vacation to visit her
sister Gwen and brother-in-law Larry in
Tacoma.
Lucy's sweater has diamond-shaped designs on it.
Lucy tells Truman that a Can-Do temp girl is coming to fill
in for her at the Sheriff's station while she's away. Can-Do
appears to be a fictitious temp service.
At 5:25 on the Blu-ray, Bobby is reading the
November 1989 issue of
Shooting Times magazine, though the magazine title
is partially altered by white tape or something to disguise
it! It's also interesting to note that this issue somehow
arrived in Twin Peaks from the future, as the setting of the
episode is supposed to be March 1989! |
 |
 |
Mr. Pinkle refers to Leo's new body-lifting contraption as a
Porto-Patient. This appears to be a fictitious device
created for the show.
Bobby pretends to be a cousin of Leo's during Pinkle's
installation and demonstration of the Porto-Patient at the
Johnson home.
At 6:14 on the Blu-ray, the power belt on the Porto-Patient
contraption is seen to have the Dayco Durapower II brand
name on it.
Dayco is a manufacturer of industrial parts and
supplies.
When the Porto-Patient fails to engage properly, Mr. Pinkle
says to Shelly and Bobby, "... sometimes you’ve got to be
tough with these things. You got to hit it hard. A machine
is like a woman we always say at the machine shop."
Ironically, Shelly's husband Leo used to hit her before his
recent gunshot wound.
As Judge Sternwood brings the makeshift court to order at
the Roadhouse for Leland's bail hearing, notice the U.S. flag on his right and the
Washington state flag on his left. Notice also that Toad is
sitting in the back row of spectators eating a sandwich!
At 8:34 and 9:06 on the Blu-ray, a neon sign for "Beer
Genuine Draft" and Lägerbeer are seen hanging in the
Roadhouse. They are generic versions of the logos for
Miller
Genuine Draft (also seen in
Episode 11:
"Laura's Secret Diary") and
Löwenbräu beers. Two pinball machines and a dart board
are also seen in the background of this shot.
Truman tells the court that Leland Palmer's grandfather came
to the area more than 75 years ago.
At 12:05 on the Blu-ray, one of the books seen on Harold's
shelf is Firestarter, a 1980 novel by Stephen King.
Harold begins writing Donna's "living novel" in a Mead
Composition pad. The Mead Corporation was an actual company
at the time, now MeadWestvaco.
Harold tells Donna he grew up in
Boston.
When Harold takes a step outside his cabin door in an
attempt to take Laura's diary back from Donna, his right
hand begins shaking. This occurs to a few other characters
as the astronomical alignment that opens the Black Lodge
begins in
Episode 27:_"The Path to the Black Lodge".
Leo's attorney, Mr. Racine, states that Leo does not
currently have the perspicacity to take the standard CST
competency test due to his current condition. CST stands for
Competency to Stand Trial.
Behind the bar of the Roadhouse at 16:47 on the Blu-ray,
numerous liquor bottles are seen, most not clearly enough to
make out their labels. A bottle identifiable as
Jack
Daniel's whiskey is seen, as well as a couple small
bottles of
Perrier mineral water.
As Judge Sternwood takes a brief recess from court to
deliberate on the status of Leo Johnson with Cooper and
Truman, he orders the three them Black Yukon Sucker Punches,
prepared by Sid behind the Roadhouse's bar. This is a
fictitious alcoholic beverage, but fans have come up with
their own various recipes for it which you can find through
a web search.
Cooper tells the judge he's been in Twin Peaks for 12 days.
This is accurate, counting "today".
James suggests to his uncle that maybe Nadine should see Dr.
Jacoby, but Ed says the doc is in Hawaii recovering from his
heart attack. Jacoby had a minor heart attack after being
assaulted by an unknown assailant in
Episode 7:
"The Last Evening". His Hawaiian wife,
Eolani, visited him in the hospital afterward in
Episode 10:
"The Man Behind Glass".
Mr. Tojamura presents Ben with a cashier's check for $5
million drawn on Yoshita Banking Limited. This appears to be
a fictitious bank. Notice the check is dated March 7, 1989,
the same day.
At 21:28 on the Blu-ray, we see that Bobby is following Hank
as he enters the Great Northern. This is the beginning of
the subplot that sees Bobby trying to get a job working for
Ben Horne in later episodes.
As Cooper enters the Great Northern at 21:38 on the Blu-ray,
he is tooting a duck call instead of the self-whittled wood
whistle he liked to play with in earlier episodes.
At 22:16 on the Blu-ray, the phone on Ben's desk is seen to
be a
Panasonic VB-42210 Digital Business System phone.
During the phone call from Jean Renault to Ben for the
payoff on the release of Audrey, Jean says to leave the
payment "...across the border, five mile east of Grand Fork
on the road to Castlegar...there’s a bar called the
Colombian...behind it is a failed amusement park."
Castlegar, Canada is only about 30 miles from the location
of Twin Peaks, and Grand Fork is about 60 miles from TP. The
Colombian appears to be a fictitious bar in the area, nor is
there a failed amusement park along the route.
Greg Nesteroff of the Nelson Star newspaper
(BC, Canada) points out that the location "five mile east of
Grand Fork on the road to Castlegar" is actually "the
Advance Nursery and orchards off Highway 3."
For the payoff, Ben hands Cooper a briefcase filled with
stacks of $100 bills. Unlike the fake $20 bills seen paid to
Hank in
Episode 7:
"The Last Evening", the bills here look real!
As Donna instructs Maddy on accessing the hidden compartment
where Harold keeps Laura's secret diary, she tells her a
knob on the right-hand side of the bookcase opens the
compartment behind a row of fake books. But, at 12:09 on the
Blu-ray, it looks like the books concealing the hidden
compartment are real ones (a set of the
Encyclopædia Britannica to be exact).
At 25:15 on the Blu-ray, Jean spears a couple of
strawberries with his spring-loaded wrist knife as a
demonstration of what he plans to do to Cooper. But just a
second later, there is only one strawberry on the point of
the knife.
Jean plans to kill Audrey by an overdose of heroin. Notice
that heroine-addicted Blackie surreptitiously palms one of
the heroin baggies when Jean goes to answer the door.
Apparently the temp from Can-Do Temp didn't show up or left
early, because Deputy Andy is seen manning the receptionist
phone at the Sheriff's station in the latter half of the
episode!
When Andy calls for his test results, he learns that he had
oligospermia, but no longer does. Oligospermia is low sperm
count in the semen produced by the testes.
As Andy hangs up the phone at 28:08 on the Blu-ray, notice
that, in the background, Sheriff Truman is emerging from the
restroom, still in the process of zipping himself up! I
guess he doesn't bother to wash his hands after urinating!
At 28:27 on the Blu-ray, we see Cooper's hand-drawn layout
of One-Eyed Jacks.

Deputy Hawk reports that the One-Armed Man is staying at the
Robin's Nest motel on Highway 9. Robin's Nest motel appears
to be fictitious. There is a real world Highway 9 in the
western end of Washington, but not near the eastern side
where Twin Peaks is located. In
Episode 4: "The One-Armed
Man", the One-Armed Man was staying at the
Timber Falls Motel on Highway 12.
At about 29:54 on the Blu-ray, the large paper pad at the
receptionist's desk in the Sheriff's station has various
scrawls on it, including "Margaret Campbell", "Bernie Lentz Lives", the phone
number for Barney's Beauty Salon (223-1712), "Duckey Boys",
C
O O
P
E R, and a sticky
note reading "Call Tony the Tiger".
The reference to Margaret Campbell is
interesting. An actress by that name appeared in numerous
silent films from 1919-1930. She was sexually assaulted and
then bludgeoned to death by her own son in 1939. Might this
reference be a sublimnal clue to the killer of Laura Palmer
(her own father)?
The references to Bernie Lentz and Barney's
Beauty Salon are unknown; the 223 telephone prefix for
Barney's is one of the prefixes in the state of Washington.
"Duckey Boys" may be a reference to the Ducky Boys
Irish street gang active in The Bronx, New York, whose area
included the Twin Lakes of the
New York
Botanical Garden. Maybe Twin Peaks has a gang called by
this similar name?
A The 206 area code for Gwen and Larry is in the
Seattle/Tacoma area of the state. "Tony the Tiger" is
probably a playful nickname of someone named Tony in the
Twin Peaks area, based on the animated mascot for Kellogg's
Frosted Flakes cereal.
A note with two phone numbers under the heading of
"Gwen and Larry," (206-555-1666 and 206-555-28--) is clipped
to the larger pad with an
ACCO
plastic paperclip.sticky note with the words, "(C)all Harry
Payton 're' Nickey" is seen stuck to the large paper pad.
This may be a reference to series writer Harley Payton and
the upcoming character of little Nicky Needleman.
Some kind of hardcover notebook (or something) with
an embossing tape title "Pulse Transkiss" is also seen on
the reception desk!
Dialog between Jean and Blackie suggest that they were
lovers before Nancy entered the picture.
The story Donna tells Harold during the second session of
her "living novel" is one that Laura also told in her diary,
as related in
The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. Here,
Donna substitutes the Roadhouse for the Bookhouse and says
only that the young men they met were "about 20 years old", not
22 as Laura wrote. Donna adds she fell in love for the first
time, with Tim, that night but never saw him again.
At 36:02 on the Blu-ray, an owl observes Cooper as Truman
moves in to take down the guard outside One-Eyed Jacks and
Cooper eyes the bird strangely, probably remembering the
Giant's warning, "The owls are not what they seem."
When Truman takes down the guard outside One-Eyed Jacks, he
appears to punch him in the groin and squeeze his testicles
to subdue him before bashing his head against the door!
At 36:35 on the Blu-ray, a sign inside One-Eyed Jacks reads
"Future Tiberian Baths, Pardon Our Mess!" This may be a
reference to the natural hot spring baths in the Israeli
city of Tiberias, world-renown, especially in Roman times,
for their alleged healing powers. Any baths at the brothel
would probably be intended as more like a sensual bath than
healing.

As Cooper and Truman walk through the hallway of the
brothel, notice that the closed doors to the rooms have a
picture of a playing card on them. These may be meant to indicate that the
room is for the use of the specific 52 Pick-Up girl who
wears the corresponding card designation.
At 38:37 on the Blu-ray, notice that Jean uses a playing
card as a drink coaster.
Perhaps because he's acting as a Bookhouse Boy on the
One-Eyed Jacks raid instead of as Sheriff, Truman is seen
packing a
Colt Python .357 Magnum instead of the usual Smith &
Wesson Model 10 (though he also carries it in
Episode 23:
"The Condemned Woman").
When another guard stops Cooper and Truman in their tracks
at gunpoint (holding a
Beretta
92FS) as they're about to exit the brothel with the unconscious
Audrey, Hawk saves their hash by throwing a knife into the
man's back, felling him instantly. But isn't that kind of a
harsh way to take the guy down? Didn't Hawk have a gun so he
could have just told the guy to drop his weapon?
Hank calls Ben on a portable phone and tells him there's
been gunfire at One-Eyed Jacks during Cooper and Truman's
rescue of Audrey. But there was no gunfire during the
rescue, only some punching and a couple of knifings!
At 45:25 on the Blu-ray, a couple of book titles are visible
in Harold's bookcase as Maddy is seen standing next to it:
Popular Science and Science Year.
Popular Science is probably a compilation of articles
from the magazine of the same name. Science Year is
an annual publication of assorted science articles published
by World Book, Incorporated.
Notice that the hand garden fork Harold holds as he
confronts Maddy and Donna already has his blood on it before
he has even scratched his face with it! Notice also that the
actor accidentally brushes one of the prongs against his
cheek, leaving a "blood" drop there before he actually
begins to gouge his face with it.
Memorable Dialog
Diane, I am now upside-down.wav
a machine is like a woman.wav
I grew up in books.wav
there's things you can't get anywhere.wav
keep your eye on the woods.wav
you love a good steak.wav
I'm a whole damn town.wav
the ultimate secret.wav
Back to Twin Peaks
Episode Studies