Here I am, watching Fire Walk With Me for the first time since Series 3. It’s a film I have watched more times than any other, but now it comes at me with new meaning. So what clues, if any, will we discover on this new journey?
First, we meet Chet Desmond, who is in the middle of an absurd sting operation involving a bus full of school children, two less than innocent-looking teenage girls and the bus driver. What’s going on here? Lynch only knows. Gordon Cole calls him from OR-E-GON and tells him to make his way to the airport there as he has a surprise for him.
At the airport, he meets Agent Sam Stanley for the first time, and Gordon introduces them both to Lil. She is a vision in vivid red/orange and wears a blue rose on her tailored jacket.
Chet understands what Lil’s code means and he explains to Sam in more detail on their car journey to Deer Meadow to investigate the murder of Teresa Banks. Of course, what he didn’t tell him about the Blue Rose, but we know all about that now. We could never have expected what secrets it was beholden. I am still of the opinion that Lil was to FWWM, what The French Woman was to series 3, i.e. a key, a set of clues. Lynch already gave us what we needed to know from Lil; we just had to work out the French Woman ourselves, which I did my best to here: Let’s Rock!
Chet and Sam arrive in Deer Meadow, and as Lil suggested, the Sheriff and his Deputy there are about as awkward and unhelpful as they could be to the FBI. It has been reported and theorised upon many times before that Deer Meadow was a dark mirror image of the charming town of Twin Peaks where the Sheriff’s Department were super welcoming and more than eager to help our hero Dale Cooper and his pals. Sheriff Cable and Deputy Cliff Howard are no match for the cool Agent Desmond and quickly give over the box evidence to him. There are no friendly nose tweaks in this town, more like nose breaks. But is this town the opposite of Twin Peaks, or has it just been inflicted with evil, much like Twin Peaks was by Series 3? The kids were all taking Sparkle, and people were getting very sick — did the same happen to Deer Meadow 25 years earlier? Even the Sheriffs station was taken by it — it was a world of Chad’s. Was this Judy’s presence infecting the town? If so, who was she inhabiting?
Chet Desmond is cool, calm, pretty unimpressed with everything though he compliments his new colleague Sam’s eye for detail. In Agent Coopers ‘My Life My Tapes’ he shows a particular annoyance for Sam Stanley. Chet has no qualms about showing a little violence to get his way. He is pretty much the opposite of Agent Cooper we knew back then, who was in awe of the smell of those Douglas Firs, who would persuade with his words, not his fists. You could say that together they would make one perfect Agent.
Sheriff Cable tells them that Teresa’s body is in the morgue out back and that “her death was a basic kill. Banks was a drifter, nobody knew her. Its 4.30 – we close at 5“. Chet replies that they have their own clock. Remember 430.
It has always been a mystery why the Teresa Banks murder was ever considered a Blue Rose case — knowing what we know now, does this make more sense? She was 17 years old, just like Laura Palmer, but other than that, she appears to have led an opposite life to her, though they both end up in the same position. Laura was loved by pretty much the whole town, and the entire town turned up to her funeral. Everyone missed her, unlike poor Teresa, who wasn’t even reported missing, and no one came to collect her body. Chet glances at her with such sadness. She was no Miss Twin Peaks or Miss of any town. So who was she? Why did she end up in Deer Meadow?
Her corpse is not beautifully bestowed with glittering sandy jewels upon death as Laura’s was. Her eyes and mouth wide open — preserving the horror of her last moments on her face. She was not at peace when her life was taken, unlike Laura, who wanted it. Teresa may not have been The One; she was one of many girls all over the world who live this traumatic and abusive existence before the sweet mercy of death claims them.
Teresa lived at the Fat Trout Trailer Park for a month before her death and worked as a waitress at Hap’s Diner. Her hands are dirty and there is a clean band where a ring was once worn that is not in the evidence bag. The band makes Sam look deeper, and he soon notices something under the ring fingernail of the left hand. A typed letter T.
How did Gordon know that this case was going to be a Blue Rose case? He knew not of the letter under the fingernail. Her murder was nothing out of the ordinary — maybe we can assume now that Phillip Jeffries gave him this information? Blue Roses do not exist in the real world; they are unnatural, as Tammy Preston would later inform us. We know now that the first Blue Rose Case was that of Louis Duffy, she or at least her Tulpa, who spoke the words, “I am like the blue rose” at the moment of her ‘death’ before disappearing completely before the eyes of Gordon Cole and Phillip Jeffries. There was no disappearing body here. There must have been something that caught Gordon’s eye? Perhaps it was a vision.
Or did Teresa Banks have a Tulpa? Did no one miss her or come to claim her body because her family already thought she was dead? Or were her family unknowingly living with a Tulpa in their midst, in the town where she originally lived. Maybe playing the role of Prom Queen and enjoying the attention of High School boys?
At Hap’s Diner, a stark contrast to the warm and welcoming atmosphere of Norma’s RR, we meet Irene. She tells Chet and Sam that Teresa was a nice girl, though always late and only worked there a month. So Teresa had arrived in town not long before her murder. Irene thought she had a little problem with nose candy, just like our Laura. Interestingly Irene also states that she thinks Teresa’s death is what you would call ‘a freak accident‘. She comes back a little while later when she remembers that “once for a few days before her time, Teresa’s arm went completely dead. Her left arm, it was numb, she couldn’t use it“. Of course, we know that wearing the owl cave ring when you are alive will make your arm go numb. Why? Is it slowly killing you or maybe pulling you into the Lodge? If you wear it at the time of death, it will take your soul to the Black Lodge, that is for sure — we saw that happen to Ray Monroe and the doppelgänger of Agent Cooper – Mr.C. And now we know exactly what happened to Laura Palmer and why the Good Dale told her not to take it in her dream. For taking the ring entrapped her there, in this continuous loop.
We don’t know if Teresa was wearing the ring at the time of her death; it was certainly removed before her body was washed up wrapped in plastic. We can assume maybe then that Teresa’s soul also ended up in the Black Lodge, we just never came across her in the multitude of identical rooms. Or perhaps she was spared. Maybe she had an angel waiting for her.
At the Fat Trout Trailer Park, the original I should add, we meet the dear Carl Rodd. (More poignant than ever watching him in all his glory in the week of Harry Dean Stanton’s death, God rest his soul — what a brilliant man). The door to his management trailer is emblazoned with the words, ‘DO NOT EVER DISTURB BEFORE 9 AM…..EVER’. And for the first time, I noticed that the notes left on his door by tenants address him as Rod. One note reads, “My cat is gone, Millie“, another, “my fridge does not stay cold“. Poor Carl, clearly a man who has to deal with the problems of the world that have absolutely nothing to do with him and rightly so, he’s a little agitated. I feel you, Carl, I feel you.
Chet and Sam realise that they have knocked before 9 am and get their badges ready in case of a showdown. Carl is not happy but quickly calms upon seeing who they are. He tells them that Teresa’s trailer was “more popular than Uncles Day at the whorehouse”
At Teresa’s trailer, the camera pans around and focuses on a plug socket. It was overlooked before, but now we know BOB requires electricity. He used the ceiling fan at Laura’s house — and we know that Cooper used the socket to travel. All this time, we never knew that shot was so important to the story. Carl is a much angrier man here than the Carl we know in Series 3, yes, possibly because he’s been awoken early, but also because he’s still young and the passage of time hasn’t calmed him yet.
After the three of them share a damn good cup of Good Morning America, their spirits rise a little. That is until a curious woman turns up at the door. Leading up to this, we see a shot as if from the perspective of someone travelling up to Carl’s door, but in darkness. The woman holds an ice pack over her right eye and walks holding a cane. When Carl notices her, he appears to become entranced. She peers around the trailer — Chet asks her if she knows Teresa Banks. She starts to shake nervously and then backs out of the trailer. She has definitely seen something and has the bruises to prove it. Her face was dirty like Teresa’s. Chet turns back to Carl, who is also sporting a wound. He has a plaster over his right eye. Still entranced, we see a vision of the electricity pole and hear the Native American war cry, which now seems to be a constant link between all the places reached by BOB and, more so, Judy. Carl’s eyes well with tears, he takes a drag on his cigarette and says, “See I’ve already gone places. I just wanna stay where I am“.
Carl Rodd, we know now has shall we say, an intuition. He may have acquired this skill when he was taken, like Margaret Lanterman, as a child by owls in Ghostwood Forest. They both returned with similar ‘tattoos’, the same as Major Briggs. All three of them have been touched by and now work with The White Lodge. This must have been the place they all travelled to. It would be interesting to find out whether Andy and Freddie now bear the marks of ‘abduction’. The Fireman required their services. Carl saw the soul of the little boy killed by Richard Horne in the hit and run accident leave his body and disappear into the electricity cables. Was this the Black Lodge claiming garmonbozia, or was it a metaphor — we are all made up of energy, electricity if you like, and when we go, we join the rest of the energy spinning throughout our planet. We’ve got to go somewhere right?
Carl shows Chet to Deputy Cliff’s trailer — Chet thinks that the Deputy is in some way involved with Teresa’s murder — we later find out that he was helping bring Cocaine in across the border from Canada. So yes, he was in some way involved, certainly with Teresa’s habit, but not her death. He sees the electricity pole, which makes him notice another trailer, the lights left on and underneath it lies the owl ring on a mound of dirt. He reaches to take it and is gone, never to be seen again, lured to his probable demise by The Arm.
The immediate shot after Chet’s disappearance is of a bell. With Jeffries now appearing as a kettle type machine, I can’t help but wonder if we’ve seen Chet again in some shape or form.
In Philadelphia, outside the FBI Headquarters, we see Agent Dale Cooper. He approaches the desk of Gordon Cole and tells him, “Gordon, its 10.10 am on February 16th. I was worried about today because of the dream I told you about“. Gordon nods. Cooper stands in front of the CCTV camera, goes to and from the surveillance room checking the screens. At that point, the lift marked seven opens and out steps Phillip Jeffries. Agent Cooper moves from in front of the camera into the surveillance room. This time his image remains on the screen, and he sees Jeffries walking down the corridor. In horror, Cooper runs to alert Gordon. Gordon introduces the long lost Phillip Jeffries to Cooper.
Jeffries utters the infamous lines, “Well now, we’re not going to talk about Judy, in fact we’re not going to talk about Judy at all, we’re gonna keep her out of it“. The Jumping Man’s grotesque image appears as Jeffries points at Cooper, asking, “who do you think that is there?” We are at the Convenience Store now. The Arm shows us a bowl of garmonbozia. “It was a dream, we live inside a dream,” Jeffries tells the Agents. “Fell a victim“, says the Grandson, pointing at BOB. With this ring, I thee wed — The Arm laughs as he holds up the owl ring for us to see. “Electricity“. The Grandson wears a mask, peeps from behind it, then covers his face, lifts the mask again, and his face is replaced with a monkey’s.
Can we make any more sense of this scene now? Why didn’t Jeffries want to discuss Judy? Was it because Cooper was around and he didn’t trust him? Does she have a place in Seattle? Yes, he could’ve meant the general area, Twin Peaks and Deer Meadow being in the vicinity, but where? How did he know she was there? Did Jeffries visit the Fat Trout or Laura’s House? Teresa died on February 9th, Jeffries arrived on February 10th — he must be the reason why she became a Blue Rose case. We know Gordon had been secretly in touch with Jeffries; it’s fathomable that Jeffries tipped him off to Teresa’s murder while on the hunt for Judy. Jeffries can move quickly from place to place and time to time. At some point, he no longer needed a human body to do this—the Evolution of Phillip Jeffries.
His hunt for Judy led him to Argentina. We may never learn why he thought she may have left him a message at the hotel there. Was he in contact with her? What form did she take then? Did he sell his soul to the devil? Can he be trusted? When Cooper asks what year it is at the end of Part 18, does he realise he’s been tricked? Did Jeffries help Judy escape? Argentina still holds some mystery. That black box that turned into a silver nugget upon Lorraine’s ARGENT text — another inanimate object containing a spirit? But of whom?
Back then, the Woodsmen were not blackened, but I don’t think this means much. It was probably just a new stylised idea that really worked in Series 3. The whites of their eyes made them far scarier. Their relationship with BOB was not clear at this time. Now we know they have a way of resurrecting BOB’s host when caught in a sticky situation, at least in the case of Mr C — whether they could do that on a normal human is unclear — they certainly did not bring back Leland Palmer from the dead. The Arm at this time was still in partnership with BOB. Knowing now that Judy was likely BOB’s mother, what does this make The Arm or MIKE? Was he created similarly or something else entirely? His evolution turned him into an electrified branch with little more than a brain. He never leaves the Black Lodge, as far as we are aware; only MIKE does that in the guise of his host Phillip Gerrard. Was MIKE once a bad seed vomited up by an entity like Judy or even Judy herself?
At the Fat Trout, an exasperated Carl Rodd shows yet another member of law enforcement around the park — he explains to Agent Cooper the last known movements of Chet Desmond. Cooper apologises for waking him. Carl says it was ok as he was having a bad dream anyway. Cooper does not head for Deputy Cliff’s trailer where Carl Rodd had guided him to. Instead, he notices a spot where a trailer once was. Carl explains that an old woman and her Grandson lived in the missing trailer. Their names were Chalfont, and funnily enough, the people who rented the space before were also called Chalfont. Two Chalfont’s. Weird huh?
So what exactly do the Chalfont’s do? It appears they have lived in Deer Meadow for a period, taking on the name of the previous occupants. They did this to Mrs Tremond in Twin Peaks. Now in Series 3, a new Mrs Tremond, perhaps a child/grandchild of the original, lives at the Palmer house, and before Mrs Tremond, it belonged to Mrs Chalfont. So does that mean that the old woman and her Grandson took on that house in the wake of Laura’s saviour? In the world where Laura dies, her mother Sarah continued to live alone in the Palmer house. This is what we saw during Series 3. There she and Judy lived unhappily together for up to 25 years. We don’t know precisely when Judy took over Sarah. It could have been soon after the deaths of Laura, Maddy and Leland; she was most ripe for the picking then you could argue — but 25 years of anguish, guilt and abuse of alcohol and cigarettes may have made it even easier. Whatever the case, we know from the scene in the store that Judy talks to Sarah, encourages her to stay calm in public — she’s most definitely in control, and it feels like she knows her well — just like BOB did with Leland.
Now we know that Sarah was the New Mexico girl. She swallowed the frogmoth, and that’s what is inside her, growing like a parasite. She may have been one of many who consumed a certain kind of evil like Leland did when he allowed BOB in that Summer at Pearl Lakes just as he was about the go through puberty, just like the New Mexico girl. The Sexual Magic puts to sleep innocence and awakens the beast.
Senorita Dido sent the golden orb of Laura to Sarah Palmer, where she lay dormant until she met Leland, and they together created her. Leland already having BOB on board at that time could mean that Laura was created as a mix of pure goodness and pure evil. Laura had to fight a never-ending battle with herself. Suicide by murder was her only choice, it was the fight of good against evil, and at the moment of death, she chose good.
The Chalfont’s up and leave the Fat Trout once their work there is done. They likely led Chet to his death and recovered the ring. Teresa was killed in their trailer, not in her own, so it seems they were working with BOB. Agent Cooper checks out Chet’s car. “Let’s Rock” is painted in lipstick on the windscreen. This has always been a hint that a woman was responsible for his disappearance. Was Judy herself the one to take Chet? We never saw Chet don the ring; we can assume as an FBI Agent that he would have taken it for evidence with no intention of putting it on. So no, it was a trap. He was probably killed right at the moment he reached for the ring, which could have been placed on his finger, whisking him away forever, and the ring returned to the Black Lodge.
Fast forward one year, and we meet up with Laura and Donna, going through their daily routine at High School. Laura meets up with James in a secret storeroom and tells him she’s long gone, like a turkey the corn. He tells her he’ll never leave her. He lied.
Bobby Briggs meanwhile kisses the glass of the cabinet holding her prom picture. When he finally finds her, she’s mean to him but quickly changes her demeanour when she realises he is the supply to her cocaine fix. She puts him under her spell; she’s mastered the manipulation of men down to a tee now. This is the darkness in her that she’s embraced, learned to control.
Laura and Donna talk back at Donna’s home. Donna gushes about how sweet and gorgeous James is. Donna asks her, “Do you think if you were falling in space you would slow down after a while or go faster and faster?” Laura answers as if she knows the truth already, “Faster and faster and for a while you wouldn’t feel anything. Then you’d burst into fire. Forever. And the angels wouldn’t help you, because they’ve all gone away“.
Laura returns home, goes to write in her secret diary and finds that pages have been ripped out. She shakes with fear and flees to the home of Harold Smith. She tells him that BOB has ripped the pages out. Harold tells her that BOB is not real. “BOB is real, he’s been having me since I was 12. He comes in through my window at night. He’s real, he’s getting to know me now. He says he wants to be me or he’ll kill me. FIRE WALK WITH ME. ME!” Her face changes to pale white, black lips. The Black Lodge was starting to take over her then. It may have already been inside her. She leaves Harold with her diary. She tells him, “I don’t know when I can come back, maybe never“. Being a shut-in, Harold cannot find it in him to chase after though he wishes so hard that he could.
Laura stands in her stairwell looking up at the ceiling fan – the conductor of evil into her home. She hears BOB’s words, “I want to taste through your mouth“. She’s finding it more and more difficult to resist. The Fireman would have been watching all this happen. Wouldn’t he have put in place something to protect ‘his child’?
Laura takes plates of food to her car, ready for the meals on wheels. Norma asks Shelly to help her as Heidi has a nosebleed. Shelly doesn’t want to—of course, we know why, because Shelly is also seeing Bobby Briggs and would not want to hang out with ‘the other girl’, but Norma doesn’t let her off easily. They pack the car up together when suddenly Laura sees the old woman and her Grandson beckoning her over. The Grandson wears a white plaster mask over his face. The old woman offers her a framed picture of a doorway we know very well now. “This would look nice on your wall“, she says. The Grandson whispers from behind the mask, “The man behind the mask is looking for the book with the pages torn out. He is going towards the hiding place. He is under the fan now“. Laura runs and tells Shelly that she can’t do the meals on wheels today. We don’t know if Shelly can see the old woman and her Grandson. She looks in their direction, but maybe only because Laura is looking that way. Why do the old woman and her Grandson tip her off? Are they really trying to help her? It’s hard to say which side they are on. Why were they so keen to lead her to the Convenience Store? To lure her into the darkness? Mr C led Diane to the same place, and there he kept her trapped and made a Tulpa of her. Was this The Tremond/Chalfont’s plan for Laura? Did they succeed?
Laura returns home, up the stairs under the ceiling fan, and into her bedroom, where she sees BOB looking for her diary. She runs in terror and lays on the lawn under the hedge of her front garden, still having the picture in her arms. She sees her father leave the house, and there it is. The moment of realisation that BOB is her father.
Laura runs to Donna’s house and cries breathlessly to her on her doorstep, “Donna are you my best friend?” This is the vision that Gordon Cole had of Laura over 25 years later. As if he were in tune with past happenings. He would never have seen this happen before; this was not a memory.
Leland waits at the dinner table for Laura to return home. He asks her how Donna is, how school is, then tells her to sit down. He sees the half heart necklace she was given by James, which creates a menace in him. He tells her that she didn’t wash her hands before she sat down and inspects them for cleanliness. He picks the fingernail that he will later insert a paper letter underneath. He questions where she got the necklace, telling her that Bobby didn’t give her that. He pinches her face. Sarah gets upset and tells him not to do that; she doesn’t like that. Leland says, “How do you know what she likes“. This we assume was BOB talking; he knew exactly what got Laura going. How could Sarah possibly have not known what was going on here? Did she have an inkling? She just ignored it as she couldn’t bear to learn, to confront what was happening? Out of fear? That is evil in itself.
Night arrives, and BOB finally leaves Leland. BOB’s disappearance washes over his face. Sarah sits at her mirror, chain-smoking, already a wreck of a woman. Leland, traumatised by the faint recognition of his earlier behaviour, goes into Laura’s room to tell her he loves her so much. After he kisses her goodnight, she looks up at her picture on the wall of an angel feeding children around a table. Then she remembers the picture that the old woman gave her is still lying on the lawn outside.
She brings it in and puts it on her wall. She lays in bed looking at it, then drifts off into a dream. She moves through the doorway, where the old woman beckons her to move in further; she points to another room where the Grandson stands, his face darkened by shadow. He clicks his fingers, and the room is lit up like a flame. The red curtains of the Black Lodge appear, the chevron floor and the golden shell table. Upon its marble top sits the owl ring. Agent Cooper appears, and The Arm speaks to him. “Do you know who I am? I am The Arm and I sound like this“. He makes the Native American war cry we have heard at the electricity pole at the Fat Trout. This appears to be the noise of electricity or a new version of fire if you like. Since his evolution, the noise he makes has changed — quite probably because it could be considered offensive to Native American’s that something evil would take on this call. The Arm picks up the ring and holds it out to Cooper — Cooper breaks the fourth wall and looks directly at the camera and says to Laura, the dreamer— “Don’t take the ring Laura, don’t take the ring“. This was good advice, if only she had listened. Laura wakes in her bed, and her left arm is numb. She looks at the door to her bedroom, and then over her shoulder, at a bloodied Annie Blackburn is lying in her bed, wearing the same dress that she was ejected from the Black Lodge in. The dress of Caroline Earle. “My name is Annie. I have been with Dale and Laura. The Good Dale is in the lodge and he can’t leave. Write it in your diary“.
Thankfully, Laura remembered to do this, and Hawk finds those diary pages stuffed inside the Sheriff’s station restroom door panel. Now time-wise, this doesn’t quite make sense. BOB had already ripped out the pages to Laura’s diary before Annie sent her the message. Harold was in possession of the diary now. As far as we know, Laura could not return to Harold to write anything more in her diary, but it is possible that she did. If this is the case, then it may further evidence my thoughts that Harold Smith did not take his own life as it appeared. Donna and Maddy tried to take the diary from his home and he left the sanctity of his home briefly; his hand started to shake. It was almost as BOB had caught him on his radar, finally knew where to find him. Maybe BOB paid a visit to Harold’s place, he ripped that diary into pieces, most of which was left behind for Hawk to piece together, but maybe, just maybe, he took that vital clue with him that day. The Grandson being aware of what Harold would write in his suicide note gives further credence to this. “Jai une am Solitaire“. I am a lonely soul.
Laura pans away from Annie back to the door — when she looks back, Annie is gone. She realises she has the ring in the palm of her hand. When exactly did she decide to take it? She opens the door to her room, and the stairs are quiet. She looks back over her shoulder — she sees herself looking back in the picture of the doorway. The house is now a doorway to the Black Lodge. She’s living inside a dream. Has she already stepped inside? Has she already been replicated? Did the real Laura ever leave? Was this the Fireman’s plan all along, to keep her safe by keeping her inside a dream? We saw her face of pure white. She always said she was dead, yet she lived. She always said she felt like she knew Laura — so was this the real Laura all along? Was it a Tulpa of her that remained in the outside world, the body that was found? If there was only one out there, would the Tulpa body have disappeared, or would it have remained as it was the only one out there?
In taking the ring in her dream, did her soul enter the Lodge at that point? When her Tulpa wore the ring at the moment of death, was that soul transported back to the Lodge too? Was that the mistake that needs to be fixed?
Laura in our world is now is dark of spirit. It’s like she has made her decision to die already. Her mood is solemn, and she is rude to Donna. She goes to the Roadhouse, where she bumps into The Log Lady. “When this kind of fire starts, it’s very hard to put out,” Margaret tells her while holding her forehead. “The tender bows of innocence burn first, and the wind rises and then all goodness is in jeopardy“. Laura takes her words to her heart and looks at her reflection. The ethereal voice of Julee Cruise rings out. “Questions in a World of Blue”. Julee Cruise is herself the image of the blue rose pinned to Lil’s jacket, all lit up in blue with the bright red background. Laura is moved by her performance, the voice of her angel. Donna has followed her to the bar, much to Laura’s distress. Unwittingly Donna has snapped Laura back into her bad self, and maybe just because of Donna’s presence, she decides to go ahead and take on two men who want to fuck the Homecoming Queen. Donna is not deterred and decides to join them.
For a moment here though, there’s something else in Laura. She grabs one guy, “You want to go all the way huh? you gonna do it to me?!” She says through gritted teeth. There’s an air of whatever is inside Sarah Palmer here. If Laura were to peel off her face right now, I am not sure whether we would have seen the light or the face of evil.
Donna steps up to help her friend out, show some solidarity. Laura pushes her as far as she can, but Donna keeps up, downs a shot and kisses the second guy to show she means business. They arrive in Canada in a backroom. The Pink Room. There Jacques Renault joins them. “Hey slow pokes, guess what! There’s no tomorrow. Know why baby, cos it’ll never get here. I am not Jacques. I am the Great Went”. “I am the muffin“, replies Laura. At Laura’s request, Buck spikes Donna’s drink. As the drugs hit her system, she watches Laura dance topless.
Then like a vision enters Ronette Pulaski. The American Girl. One of the few to have seen the true face of BOB. Laura tells her she hasn’t seen her since their time at One Eyed Jacks. Ronette asks, “What else did we do together?” Laura shakes her head, Ronette says, “I remember“. They talk to Jacques about Teresa. She’s been dead a year. “She was going to get rich, she was blackmailing somebody,” Jacques tells them that Teresa asked about their fathers.
Laura mid sexual encounter with Ronette and Buck clocks Donna in an encounter of her own, but this is way out of character for Donna. Laura’s face is bathed in a white-blue light, a flash of love overcomes her, she runs to save her friend from becoming like her. She does not want her friend’s innocent bows to burn like hers did so long ago.
The next morning the two girls talk at Donnas house. Leland comes to collect Laura and sees the pair embracing. It reminds him of seeing Laura and Ronette together at the Red Diamond Motel. On their journey to meet Sarah, they are followed by an erratically driving Phillip Gerrard. Two elderly people stagger slowly at the crossing. The car is stuck behind a logging truck whilst they wait — this is the same crossing where Richard Horne killed the little boy 25 years later.
Phillip drives around the waiting traffic to face Leland, who is revving his car engine in a panic. “You stole the corn! I had it canned, over the store!” He tells Leland that the threads have been torn and tells Laura that it’s him, it’s her father. He shows her the owl ring on his finger then speeds off. Leland pulls up at the motor garage across the road. He remembers his time with Teresa Banks, of telling her she looked just like his Laura. He tells her next time that they should party with those two girlfriends she talked about, of course he was not aware that those girls were Laura and Ronette. He covers Teresa’s eyes with his hand and asks her, “Who am I?” “I don’t know”, Teresa replies, “That’s right“. There are echoes of the sex scene between Cooper and Diane/Richard and Linda in Part 18 of series 3.
Laura’s calls bring him back to reality. She asks her father who that man was; he seems familiar to her. Has she met him before? Only in the Black Lodge, as far as we know, but that is after her death — does she remember her time in the Black Lodge or Coopers attempts to rescue her time and time again? Leland remembers the time he went to party with Teresa and her friends. He saw Laura and fled, giving the money planned for the orgy to Teresa as he ran. The Grandson wearing the mask jumps around excitedly, enjoying the pain Leland, without BOB, must have felt at the realisation that his daughter was selling herself to men, older men, like him. But he was just as bad as those men. After all, he, without BOB, was paying for sex with a girl the same age as his daughter. He even recognised that they looked similar. This right here is the story of thousands upon thousands of little girls and the evil that men do. Can we ever really know for sure who struck the fatal blows? BOB or Leland?
Back home, Laura sits in her room, remembering the ring she saw on the crazed man’s finger. She had seen it in her dream and also on the ring finger of Teresa Banks. Electricity flashes in her room. She asks, “who are you really?“.
Leland/BOB remembers murdering Teresa. Presumably for blackmailing his host body or maybe also because he was jealous of anyone else having sexual activity with Laura. He wanted her all for himself.
Laura and Bobby get wasted in the woods, waiting to land the coke deal of a high school kids lifetime. They are both so high that they have no hold on reality anymore. Bobby senses someone in the woods. Its Deputy Cliff, from Deer Meadow. He has a large bag of glory for them, but it’s not going to end well. As Cliff hands the coke to Laura, he starts to draw a weapon, but Bobby is quicker to the draw. He shoots him three times. The last bullet goes through the head. After Laura’s initial shock, she becomes hysterical, telling Bobby that he killed Mike, his friend. Bobby despairs with Laura, and after a pathetic attempt to cover the body, they flee, Laura laughing. Now she’s high and drunk, but this kind of thing would shock the most cold-hearted souls into seriousness. Not Laura, no, she’s seen so much trauma, felt so much pain that even murder is laughable now. She doesn’t care what trouble she might be in. She knows her life is almost over anyway, if this is the real Laura at all now.
In the cold light of day, James pulls up outside Laura’s house on his bike. He sees that she’s on something again. Leland/BOB watches jealously from the doorway. That night he gives Sarah her drugged milk. It’s almost as if she knows what’s in it — she has to drink it, wouldn’t even put up a fight or say she wasn’t thirsty. He wouldn’t do this every night; she knew what was happening, I am sure of it. Sarah sleeps and dreams of a white horse in her bedroom. She knows this vision; it comes to her every time BOB comes to take her daughter. Laura is in bed, and BOB creeps through the window. She cannot resist and welcomes him into her. But this time, she sees her fathers face and lets out a terrifying scream.
The following day she cannot contain her disgust with her father and the shame of herself. She tells her father to keep away from her. He doesn’t understand, but BOB appears, and he knows that she knows who is he is now. She goes to school and has the longest day grieving for what her life has become, her addiction and self-abuse. This will be the last day she will attend school. The last day she will sit in that chair, and she knows it.
She spends some time with Bobby. He knows she doesn’t really love him, she only wants the blow, and he’s ok with that. He understands her better than anyone.
She goes home and arranges to meet James. Her angel disappears from her bedroom picture. She knows her time is up and what she has to do. She sneaks out of her window onto the back of James’ bike. Leland/BOB watches irate from the window.
From this point, we see what we saw in Part 17/18 of Series 3, then shown in black and white. James and Laura are in the woods. Laura has changed now succumbed to her fate. She mimics James and slaps him. He tries so hard to pull her good self back, but he can’t. She sees something in the distance and screams — we now know what she sees is Dale Cooper, hiding in the woods. She tells James his Laura disappeared; it’s just her now. The darkness overcomes her again. He tries to kiss her, but she does not allow him anymore. She doesn’t want goodness to infect her anymore. At the junction of Sparkwood and 21, she jumps off his bike, embraces him one last time. The good Laura cries out that she loves him, but it’s not enough; she runs off into the woods. James lets her go; he leaves her despite telling her he never would.
This time in the forest, Agent Cooper does not take her hand and leads her to safety. Instead, she meets up with Leo, Jacques and Ronette and they visit a cabin in the woods where the men bind her and Ronette; they do not want this. Waldo, the myna bird, is restless. Leland lurks at the window, and Laura begs to be untied. Jacques ventures outside and is knocked out by Leland. Leo goes to find him, sees he’s been attacked and runs away, leaving the two girls to fend for themselves, a true coward.
Leland enters and takes the two girls, bound and screaming, to an abandoned train car. MIKE runs through the forest, trying to stop them; he can smell BOB. He’s close behind but not close enough to save them. The Arm laughs in the Black Lodge for the feast he is about to devour. Ronette prays for her angels to come. Leland shows Laura her ripped out diary pages and tells her, “I always thought you knew it was me“, then BOB growls, “I thought you knew it was me, I want you“.
Laura watches as Ronettes prayers are answered, and her angel appears to her. It’s almost as if the goodness inside her brought them forward for her. Ronettes hands fall loose from the restraints. MIKE arrives at the train car; Leland notices Ronettes escape and punches her, and throws her out of the train car. At that exact moment, MIKE throws in the owl ring, which Laura takes. Her fate is sealed. She chose for her soul to end up in the Lodge. This is what The Arm wanted. To feast upon the pain and sorrow of the souls reaped and sent to the Lodge. BOB wanted to take control of Laura, and he would have claimed her for himself. Instead, MIKE/The Arm won. They got their garmonbozia, absorbed through the floor of the Lodge and turned into creamed corn. MIKE may have seen the face of God, but he still joins forces with his Arm at feeding time. They take Leland’s pain and sorrow at taking his daughter’s life.
Laura is transported to The Lodge. She sits while Dale Cooper reassures her, and her angel comes. Giving her life to save Ronettes may have saved her soul. I’d like to think that this is the ultimate ending, the final curtain call. The one where Coop works out what he has to do to save her. She laughs because it was so simple. Just don’t take the ring, Laura. Your white light will obliterate BOBs fire. The Fireman knows precisely how to extinguish that flame.
