Episode Studies by Clayton Barr
enik1138-at-popapostle-dot-com
Twin Peaks "There's a Body All Right"
Season Three, Part 7
Written by Mark Frost & David Lynch
Directed by David Lynch
Original air date: June 18, 2017
Hawk lets Sheriff Truman in on his
findings; Dougie and Janey-E come under attack by Ike the Spike;
Diane visits Cooper in jail.
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Warren Frost
(1925-2017), the actor who played Doc Hayward. He was also the
father of Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost.
Harry Truman (on the phone only, not seen or heard)
Doc Hayward
Deputy Andy Brennan
Twin Peaks farmer (unnamed)
The Jones' (mentioned only)
Mrs. Mueller (mentioned only)
Audrey Horne (mentioned only)
Lt. Cynthia Knox
Det. Macklay
Constance Talbot
Major Briggs (corpse only)
Colonel Davis
woodsman
Gordon Cole
Albert Rosenfield
Diane Evans
Diane's paramour (unnamed)
Agent Tammy Preston
Inspector Randy Hollister
Mr. C
Warden Murphy
Mr. Strawberry (mentioned only, presumed deceased as Mr. C refers
to him as "the late...")
Joe McCluskey (mentioned only)
Ray Monroe
Janey-E Jones
Anthony Sinclair
Bushnell Mullins
Rhonda
Det. T. Fusco
Det. D. Fusco
Det. "Smiley" Fusco
Ike the Spike
Evolution of the Arm
Beverly Paige
Beverly's housekeeper (unnamed)
Tom Paige
Jean-Michel Renault
Sweeping man at Roadhouse
Shelley Briggs
Heidi
Bing
Norma Jennings
Billy (mentioned only)
Didja Notice?
At the beginning of the episode, Jerry Horne appears to be
using an Apple
Iphone.
At 3:38 on the Blu-ray, three pages of
Laura's diary in evidence bags are seen on the table in a
conference room at the Sheriff's station.
The first page reads, "They've never
listened to my cries and I never wanted them to anyway. But
there is this - This came to me in a dream last night. 'My
name is Annie. I've been with Dale and Laura. The good Dale
is in the lodge, and he can't leave.
Write it in your diary.'
That's what she said to me."
The second page reads, "There I was with a
plastic pumpkin full of money and the clothes that Nancy
brought. She's bending my ear with all sorts of non-sense. I
can't make out what she's trying to say but I take it all in
as best I can.
I sure didn't need a mask today. Some Halloween!" Is
Nancy a reference to Nancy O'Reilly, Blackie's sister at
One-Eyed Jack's in the original series?
The third page reads, "The moon has been high in
the sky for hours now I can't sleep! It's 1:30 A.M. I'm crying so
hard I can hardly breath. NOW I KNOW IT ISN'T BOB. I KNOW
WHO IT IS. "
At 5:02 on the Blu-ray, Hawk flips the third diary page over
for the sheriff to read the back side. But what is on it is
what we already saw face-up on the table a minute ago!
Reviewing Laura's diary pages and her noting of a dream
about Annie Blackburn who told her, "The good Dale is in the
lodge, and he can't leave," with the sheriff, Hawk remarks,
"...if the good Cooper is in the lodge and can't come out,
then the one who came out of the lodge with Annie that night
was not the good Cooper." It is significant that it is Hawk
who is coming to this realization, as he is the one who told
Agent Cooper (way back in Episode
18: "Masked Ball"), regarding his people's legends of
the Black Lodge, "There, you will meet your own shadow
self. My people call it: The Dweller on the Threshold. But
it is said, if you confront the Black Lodge with imperfect
courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul."
The unnamed farmer in Twin Peaks who owns the truck Richard
Horne was driving when he ran over a young boy (in
Part 6:
"Don't Die") tells
Andy he wasn't driving the truck at the time and he can't
talk about it now at his place, so Andy agrees to meet him on a
logging road above Sparkwood and 21 in two hours, at 4:30.
Presumably, the farmer was scared that Richard would see him
talking to the deputy and enact revenge. At 4:30, Andy is
waiting and the farmer fails to show. We don't learn
anything more about it after this...did Richard find and
kill the farmer before the rendezvous? Or did the farmer
flee town?
At 9:11 on the Blu-ray, a small owl statue and a carving of
what may be corn stalks are seen in
Sheriff Truman's office on the shelf behind his desk.
Frank uses
Skype to have a video chat with Doc Hayward on his
computer.
Doc Hayward remarks that he used Skype just the other day to
diagnose Mrs. Mueller's eczema. Eczema (also called
dermatitis) is a skin disease that causes itchiness, rash,
and red skin.
Doc Hayward is seen wearing a
baseball-style cap with "got trout?" emblazoned on the
front. There are a number of caps with this slogan available
for purchase from retailers, though I've not been able to
find the particular design he wears here.
Doc Hayward reveals that Audrey Horne was in a coma in the
intensive care unit at the hospital after the explosion at
the bank at the time Cooper was taken in after emerging from
the Black Lodge. Hayward saw Cooper leaving intensive care
just before he disappeared for the next 25 years. This leads
to the impression that this evil Cooper (Mr. C) may have
raped Audrey while she was in a coma at the hospital,
resulting in her pregnancy which resulted in the birth of
Richard nine months later (as also hinted at in
The Final Dossier).
Doc Hayward makes a joke that he caught two brown trout in
his pajamas, "How they got in my pajamas, I'll
never
know." He is borrowing from an old joke made famous by
Groucho Marx (1890-1977), "One morning I shot an
elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll
never know."
At 12:57 on the Blu-ray, Det. Macklay has a
Dell
monitor on his desk.
While Lt. Knox is investigating the mysterious corpse of
Major Briggs, a Woodsman walks past the morgue.
At 16:52 on the Blu-ray, a framed picture of an ear of corn
is seen on the wall of Gordon Cole's office. Is it meant to
represent garmonbozia? Just how knowledgeable of otherworldly
forces is Gordon?
Gordon seems to be whistling the tune of the 1997 song
"Engel" (Angel) by German industrial metal band Rammstein.
Lynch also used Rammstein's work in his 1997 film Lost
Highway. Is Engel/Angel meant to remind us of the
angels seen in Fire Walk
With Me? Or possibly of Robert Engels, the
co-writer of that film? Mr. Engels has been widely quoted in
the fan press as stating that there was an alternate
timeline element in the film. Perhaps Lynch is trying to
remind us or make us cognizant of that?
Gordon tells Diane that he gave up tobacco. Notice
throughout this season that Gordon's teeth are pretty badly
stained, possibly from smoking. Of course, the worse part of
smoking is that it can lead to lung cancer, which is
probably why he quit.
When Diane serves Gordon and Albert some coffee at her
apartment, Gordon sips it and says, "Damn good coffee."
Agent Cooper was also known to utter this phrase in the
original series.
The jet plane Gordon, Albert, Tammy, and Diane take to South
Dakota is a
Gulfstream IV G450.
The footage of the plane seen in the episode is from
an advertising video for the plane, with Mt. Shasta
(California) in the background. If the plane is coming from
Philadelphia, where Gordon and Albert's FBI office is
located, they wouldn't be passing a mountain in California!
I suspect we're not supposed to notice this.
The footage that appears in the episode has
apparently been modified to show light reflecting off the
windows of the craft in a pattern that many observant fans
think may be a code...as yet unbroken. The video links below
show the original advertising footage and the modified shot
seen in this episode.
Advertising footage
Episode footage with "code"
On the plane, Albert hands Diane two mini bottles of liquor,
saying to her, for himself, "Judge not lest ye be judged."
This is a line from the so-called The Mote and the Beam
parable related by Jesus Christ in the Biblical Gospel of
Matthew.
Gordon counts out Mr. C's opening words at the prison on
Tammy's ten fingers, "I'm very, very happy to see you again,
old friend," and pointing out her left ring finger (the
first "very", spoken by Mr. C as "yrev" in
Part 4: "...Brings Back Some Memories")
as the spiritual mound or spiritual finger. I've been unable
to confirm the left finger as being considered the
"spiritual mound" per se, though it is considered the finger
of the true self in palmistry.
Albert shows Tammy a photo of Mr. C outside his mansion near
Rio. He
goes on to say by the time they checked it out it
belonged to some girl from Ipanema. Ipanema is a
neighborhood in south Rio; there is also a popular song
called "The Girl from Ipanema" (1964) by Stan Getz and João
Gilberto. The website
Welcome to Twin Peaks discovered that Mr. C's mansion is
actually a Miami, Florida mansion that was once owned by
notorious gangster Al Capone; the photo of Mr. C outside the
mansion is actually a manipulated version of a photo of
Capone's niece there.
Mr. C at mansion
Dierdre Marie Capone
at mansion
The site identified as Yankton Federal Prison at 23:48 on
the Blu-ray does not appear to be the actual Federal Prison
Camp, Yankton.
At 30:53 on the Blu-ray, Andy's watch is seen to be a Rolex
Oyster Perpetual Date, an expensive watch! The date on the
watch is the 10th. The date of the 10th does not match with
any dates we've seen in the season so far...has Andy not
bothered to set the correct date on his watch? Possibly, the
conflicting dates are meant to make us think of alternate
timelines in Twin Peaks.
And why would Andy have such an expensive
watch?
The revolver Warden Murphy holds on Mr. C looks like it
might be a
Smith
& Wesson Model 19.
Starting at 36:59 on the Blu-ray, during the Jones'
interaction with the LVPD detectives, Dougie-Cooper seems to
stare at one of the detectives (T. Fusco)...possibly at the
man's tie. The tie has a diamond pattern on it; is Cooper
remembering the diamond of the Owl Cave symbol?
The pistol wielded by Ike the Spike against Dougie-Cooper is
a
Beretta model, possibly a Beretta 84FS Cheetah.
At 41:25 on the Blu-ray,
Equinox gym is seen in the background, outside the
building for Lucky 7 insurance. The actual location is at 207 Goode
Ave., Glendale, CA.
Beverly is seen to live at 16832, but the street name is not
seen or mentioned.
The music playing at the Roadhouse as a man sweeps the floor
and Jean-Michel Renault answers the phone behind the bar is
"Green Onions" (1962) by Booker T & the M.G.'s.
The sweeper at the Roadhouse appears to be sweeping up a
bunch of cigarette butts...but Richard was told
smoking was not allowed there (in Part 5: "Case Files"). And
it's not like we saw a bunch of people smoking in the Roadhouse
in previous episodes. So, what do the cigarette butts (or
the act of smoking) really represent? Death? Recall that
Gordon told Diane earlier in the episode that he quit
smoking.
Jean-Michel Renault tells the person on the phone that the
Roadhouse has been owned by the Renaults for 57 years.
The car Mr. C is given for his release from the prison is a
2003 Buick Century with South Dakota license plate UTD 643.
The music playing in the RR Diner at the end of the episode
is "Sleep Walk" (1959) by Santo & Johnny.
It is interesting to note that the scene at the RR Diner
seems to be occurring at prime dinner hour, given the large
number of patrons, yet the previous scenes take place at
1:00 a.m. (Mr. C's release and closing time at the Bang Bang
Bar/Roadhouse). Is the flow of time different in Twin Peaks?
A man (called Bing in the end credits) runs into the RR and
asks if anyone's seen Billy. He allows only about one second
to pass for an answer before he races out again.
After Bing leaves, Shelly looks a bit
confused for a few seconds, looking around at the patrons of
the diner. It would be reasonable, of course, to think that
she was merely befuddled by Bing's rapid coming and going.
But a close observation of the diner scene reveals that 1)
patrons there have seemingly suddenly disappeared entirely
or changed
seats/positions, 2) new diners appear, 3) Heidi has
moved from one part of the diner to another, 4) objects in
the diner have vanished/moved (coffee cup, sugar dispenser)...all in the span of seconds.
Is
the timeline changing around the town and Shelly somehow has
a brief inkling of it? We will see in
Part 17: "The Past Dictates the Future"
that Cooper successfully prevents Laura Palmer's murder in
the past, altering the known Twin Peaks timeline,
as projected at the end of
The Final Dossier.
Is this scene in the RR an indication that time is already
altering from Cooper's future meddling? (In the book
Conversations With Mark Frost by David Bushman, Frost
is asked about this scene and whether it suggests a
dimensional shift or something and Frost responds only
"That's probably overthinking it." Maybe so, but, on the
other hand, Frost has admitted not always being aware for
the reasons, if any, Lynch shoots scenes or alters a written
scene the way he does, so maybe Lynch decided he wanted to
make an oblique reference to a dimensional shift since
altering the timeline is part of the story of Season Three.)
Patrons disappear,
others appear, patrons at the left booth switch positions,
sugar dispenser is gone
Patrons disappear,
others appear,
Tear line on the top of
Norma's receipt is different
Unanswered Questions
What is the hum Beverly and Ben hear at the Great Northern?
It is never revealed, though first James, then Cooper hear a
similar hum coming from behind a door in the basement of the
hotel.
Is it the hum that some fans have
associated with the spirit of Josie Packard, possibly
trapped in the wood of the hotel? If so, why is she/it so
active now?