Jess lanai

I love twin peaks.

If you have not seen twin peaks do not read this. Watch twin peaks first.

If you have watched twin peaks but you’ve only watched it once don’t read this. You haven’t had the time to form your own theories.

These are my theories.

These are my very first initial ideas.

It’s going to be messy and chaotic. But I’m hoping if I write about what I think on twin peaks enough I’ll eventually form my very own solid, tangible and coherent theory on what the hell happened in twin peaks.

It won’t be like anyone else’s theory. Nor will it necessarily be even remotely correct. The goal is not to be correct.

The goal is to get a read on my first reactions. Reactions are quick. Very quick. And they are insanely complex.

Deciphering them is difficult.

Even more difficult is being able to relate them to any kind of actual reality. But the first step is to at least make them coherent.

Thus I’ll start with my very first initial instincts on twin peaks. The really raw stuff where my thoughts and feelings were way outside my control and I had no time at all to slow them down or reflect on them. I just had them.

I’ll start by clarifying that I am not a David lynch fan. I’m sure I’m about to become a major David lynch fan. But I had not one clue who he was before I saw twin peaks.

I’d only heard his name in my film days when I was around all the film people that went on and on about directors.

David lynch was a name a heard a lot.

So the name stuck with me.

It was a very long time ago that I watched the first two episodes of twin peaks.

I believe I was on a vacation of some sort or I was visiting a friend or I had just moved into a new home. Or was in the process of moving out of a home. It was something to do with being in a new place or leaving a place.

I was pretty intrigued by the first two episodes. But something happened where I stopped watching and forgot to make a note of the name of the show.

So anytime I tried to watch the show again I couldn’t find it.

Then a few months ago I saw someone on social media talking about how twin peaks is the best show of all time, I saw a lot of people agreeing.

So I got intrigued and I started watching it. I realized the moment I saw the dead girl in the bag that it was my long lost show that I saw at some point in my twenties and never got to finish.

I thought it was just going to be a very charming murder mystery type show with really great characters and that was why people kept going on about how great it is.

Because the character of Cooper was very instantly striking for me. I wanted to keep watching the show just for him.

The turns the show took were of a very deep shock to me.

I had not one clue in all the world that that was where the story was going. I had no idea that the show was about anything it was actually about.

If you haven’t seen twin peaks and you would like to, I advise you do so with zero knowledge what the show is about.

Go in blind. And stop reading this. Not that what I say will make any sense anyhow. But don’t read it anyway.

Honestly I missed a lot at the very beginning of twin peaks. Because anytime I got a little bored I tuned out.

Places I tuned out was the romance between Josie and the sheriff. Super boring.

James Hurley and Donna were also insanely boring. I totally tuned them out and just did my food prep during their parts.

My first clue that there might be something funny going on, that something was a tad off, was Leland.

Because his grief was odd. The dancing thing was odd. It hit a little red flag. Not that I thought he was the bad guy. It just red flagged me. I thought maybe the show was just weird.

Like maybe the show itself was trying too hard to display Leland’s grief and the mother’s grief too. It was just very campy and weird and off beat a bit.

I still had no idea the show was anything more than a murder mystery but I thought maybe it was over hyped and not going to be as good as everyone said it was.

Then the log lady came around. And I was like, okay. This show is just a bit goofy is all.

Then all the weird stuff started to happen.

And honestly I wasn’t yet sure what to make of all the weird stuff. The dreams, the whole Bob and Mike thing. I don’t remember forming any theories at that point.

I was more like, what the hell is this show I’m watching? And what do they have against owls? I thought owls were like, good omens, what’s the deal with that?

I got most invested in the owl thing. Like are the owls aliens? Are they evil spirits? What the fuck is wrong with owls?

Now the reveal of Leland I did not see coming. Two seconds before Laura whispered ‘my father’ into Cooper’s ear I’d figure it out. Literally seconds before. Which I was very impressed by.

David lynch and mark frost played me perfectly. I’m sure I realized what was happening at the exact moment they intended the audience to realize it. And I’m also fairly certain I had the exact emotions they intended to give the audience.

It felt very obvious and also very defeating. A strange mixture of satisfaction and grief. Because I had found Leland to be a very likable character as well. And the opening scene of the show his grief had been very effective. I teared up a bit.

It made his behavior make perfect sense. And it was also devastating because he’d seemed like one of the good guys.

From there the show gets weird.

Honesty I did tune quite a lot out. Lots of it was boring.

But upon watching the full show I now think all those times that I tuned out were where all the answers to what was happening can be found.

So I need to rewatch the show.

But my impression from just freshly finishing the show is not much. I don’t really have much of a clue what the hell was going on.

Honestly no idea.

But a few things stuck with me.

Diane is one of them. I don’t think Diane is real. I thought that the very second Cooper started talking to her on his little recorder. It was my first thought. That she was someone that passed away a long time ago but cooper still talks to her. I do think that’s what lynch and frost intended people to assume.

But the weirder the show got the more I don’t think Diane is a real person in general. That’s my feeling.

Lucy and Andy were very odd. I think a lot of what was happening has a lot of clues in Lucy and Andy.

The theme of partners and brothers and then sisters and love triangles was very prevalent throughout the entire show.

That really struck me.

The line Lucy uttered when she said ‘I understand how cellphones work now’ gave me the strongest feeling of intuition. She said that after seeing two coopers. I feel like the answer could be just in that line as well.

Obviously there’s a lot of correlation between Mike and bob and bad cooper and good cooper.

I have no clue whatsoever on the Judy stuff. But I think it has to do with a mother thing. I think that because there’s a few mother daughter relationships that are left very strange and dark.

Norma and her mother. Norma’s sister and her stuff.

Shelly and her daughter. Her daughter’s relationship with the boyfriend. I know there is something extremely obvious in all that that I’m missing but might understand on a second watch.

Obviously another big mystery is Audrey. And the mystery of the dancing. Audrey seems to be answer the question to the what the dancing is about. But figuring out what the hell happened to Audrey and her very mysterious son who might be coopers son is very hard. I have no clue.

Also the horse thing. The horse is the white of the eyes and the dark within. To me that relates to the who is the dreamer thing. And being able to decipher the order of things.

The fact that the horse shows up to Laura’s mom and then Laura’s mom is totally bonkers in the last season made me think that the horse is an indication of the main perception being present.

So like Lucy’s comment on how she understands cell phones for example. That she finally understands the person doesn’t have to be in a single location to make a call. That they can move through space with the phone and still be connected.

I interpreted the white horse as being an indication that there is time and space. The person is where they are calling from. To mean, they aren’t remembering or seeing something in a dream, they are really there.

That was just my own interpretation of the white horse though. Not even interpretation, I haven’t even started interpreting yet. It was my first initial impression before I put any thought into it.

The thoughts that just hit before I spent anytime trying to think or guess or decipher.

I’m going to rewatch twin peaks and write out all my thoughts and then maybe develop a theory. After I develop my own theory I will look at the real theories of people that have studied David lynch and actually have a good idea of what they are talking about.

Then I will see how far off I was.

But once again it really isn’t about being right.

It’s about practicing staying in my own internal thinking and theorizing from there before I let any outside ideas in.

And the reason for that is number one is just straight up fun.

And number two it exercises my own problem solving. Instead of looking up the answer to the riddles I try to solve them myself with my own ideas. No matter how off or limited they are. Because when I go over everything myself first, later I’ll be more able to see where my blind spots are.

And next time I try to solve a riddle I’ll know more how to think outside my own patterns of thinking, because I was able to notice my patterns of thinking.

And thirdly the reason I’m rewatching twin peaks and writing about my theories is because I want to be a writer and I was so impressed with twin peaks. I want to study it.