Theories

Writing this section was the basis for me doing this website. I love books/movies/TV shows/etc that are so though-provoking, you can barely contain yourself from going googling yourself to death. TP is like that for me. David Lynch is weird and quirky, no doubt, but I know that there is a method to the madness. Figuring out that method has been what has kept me such a diehard fan for the last 10 years.

Below are my own theories on the weirder stuff in TP. Just suggestions and thinking out loud.

The Lodges.

Probably the hardest concepts to deal with in all of Twin Peaks. The Lodges are the dwelling places of souls/spirits. The Black Lodge is bad, and the White Lodge is good. You enter them when the time and place is right: when the planets are aligned. The White Lodge is accessible through Owl Cave, and the entry for the Black Lodge is through Glastonbury Grove in the woods. Laura and Major Briggs went to the White Lodge, BOB is from the Black Lodge. However, the two are linked by the Waiting Room ("This is the waiting room," says the dwarf. Its also referred to as the "Red Room" in the scripts.)

The poem David Lynch wrote, which is quoted elsewhere in the series for the line "fire walk with me," reads, in another line, "one chants (or 'chance', its up for debate) out between two worlds". So, there is something between two worlds. Is it our world and the spirit world? Yes-- and the Lodges are this place.

The Waiting Room has been up for much debate, and in fact even David Lynch has admitted to not knowing exactly what it is! People think: 1) The WL, BL and Waiting Room are all the same; 2) The BL and Waiting Room are the same; or 3) The Waiting Room is a 3rd place between the WL and BL. I think that the Waiting Room, while not the same as the Black Lodge, is part of it; it is at least physically located within it.

The evidence for this is threefold. (1) when Cooper finally gains entry to the Black Lodge in the last Epsiode, the decor is the same as the room which has previously been referred to as the Waiting Room, but we know it is the Black Lodge because (2) When Windham Earle talks through Sarah Palmer to Major Briggs, he says "I am in the Black Lodge with Dale Cooper." And (3), in the script for FWWM, the directions for the last scene say that it takes place in "The Waiting Room/Black Lodge". So, the waiting room is a place in the Black Lodge, where a person, or soul, waits before being accepted to one of the Lodges, which are conceptually equivalent to Heaven and Hell, I think. As Hawk says (see below), depending on your courage you will go to perfection (WL) or your soul is annhilated (BL). Moreover, the Waiting Room is the only place where both ALL spirits, good and bad (we see the Giant and BOB there) can meet, as well as a place where mortals and spirits can meet. That is the significance of the Waiting Room.

The fact that spirits live in the Lodges, or are "from them" is another matter. I guess, sometimes, souls just don't always pass on to heaven or hell. Notice we never actually see either of the Lodges except for the Waiting Room; we always see the spirits here. This has been present in other movies and books and stuff, where people can't go to heaven until they finish up their business on earth or whatnot. More likely, the spirits have probably already been to their respective places (BOB to hell, The Giant to heaven) and were returned to do stuff in the non-spirit world. For the White Lodge residents, this means trying to protect people from the evils of the Black Lodge. For the Black Lodge residents, this means trying to "get" other people's souls, and as BOB did with Leland, to make them do bad things (like kill people) so that this soul will also eventually go to hell and thus hell will surpass heaven in, er, manpower. So these spirits hang out in the Red Room, doing their duties in the mortal realm. See the discussion on souls and spirit inhabitation for more.

These are things people have said about the Lodges, which may help explain them:

- Epsiode 18, Hawk: "Cooper, you may be fearless in this world, but there are other worlds. My people believe that the White Lodge is the place where the spirits that rule man and nature here reside. There is also a legend of a place called the Black Lodge, the shadow self of the White Lodge. Legend says that every spirit must pass through there on the way to perfection. There, you will meet your own shadow self. My people call it, 'the dweller on the threshhold.' But it is said, if you confront the Black Lodge with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul."

- Episode 26, Major Briggs: As he tells Andy how to draw the petroglyph (which ends up being a map to the Lodges), and Andy asks him how he knew that, the Major says, "I dreamed it, or saw it, somewhere." (just proof that he went tp the White Lodge when he disappeared).

- Epsiode 26, Windham Earle: "Once upon a time, there was a place of great goodness, called the White Lodge. Gentle fawns gamboled there amidst happy, laughing spirits. The sounds of innocence and joy filled the air. And when it rained, it rained sweet nectar that infused one's heart with a desire to live life in truth and beauty. Generally speaking, a ghastly place, reeking of virtue's sour smell. Engorged with the whispered prayers of kneeling mothers, mewling newborns, and fools, young and old, compelled to do good without reason. Heh-heh! But, I am happy to point out that our story does not end in this wretched place of saccharine excess. For there's another place, its opposite: a place of almost unimaginable power, chock full of dark forces and vicious secrets. No prayers dare enter this frightful maw. Spirits there care not for good deeds or priestly invocations; they are as like to rip the flesh from your bone as greet you with a happy "Good day! And if harnessed, these spirits in this hidden land of unmuffled screams and broken hearts would offer up a power so vast that its bearer might reorder the earth itself--to his liking! Now! This place I speak of--is known as the Black Lodge. And I intend to find it." - Episode 27, Windham Earle, in his Project Blue Book report: "They can access a secret place where the cultivation of evil proceeds in an experimental fashion, and with it, the furtherance of evil, resulting in power. This place is tangible, and as such it can be found, entered, and perhaps utilized in some fashion. The people have many names for it, the chief among them being the 'Black Lodge'".

Souls and spirit inhabitation.

The soul is a big thing in Twin Peaks. First of all, if we assume the White and Black Lodges to be the conceptual equivalents of Heaven and Hell, then obviously only your soul will pass on to these places. So, how does this happen with BOB and the Lodges?

It seems to me that everyone has two selves: the good and the bad. We reside on Earth with our good selves, and our bad selves reside elsewhere; in the spirit world. In Twin Peaks' case, they reside in the Black Lodge.

"Doppelganger" is a German word roughly meaning 'double' or 'duplicate person'. It is defined as "a spiritual or ghostly double or counterpart; esp., an apparitional double of a living person; a cowalker" (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)). Mythology and customs across the board involving doppelgangers say that if you see your doppelganger, your death is imminent. In other words, if you see your bad self, you (or your good self) will die.

Hawk says as much when he explains the Lodges to Cooper: "Cooper, you may be fearless in this world, but there are other worlds. My people believe that the White Lodge is the place where the spirits that rule man and nature here reside. There is also a legend of a place called the Black Lodge, the shadow self of the White Lodge. Legend says that every spirit must pass through there on the way to perfection. There, you will meet your own shadow self. My people call it, 'the dweller on the threshhold.' But it is said, if you confront the Black Lodge with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul."

Thus, you will meet your "shadow self," "doppelganger" or bad self in the Black Lodge. And consistent with legend, if you do not have perfect courage, then this meeting will destroy your good self. I, Twin Peaks, in the Lodge, the doppelgangers are differentiated by their pupil-less eyeballs and their backwards-speech.

Thus, we have two selves, a good one in our bodies and a bad one in our doppelgangers. In Twin Peaks, at least, people can be inhabited by another spirit: that is, a spirit can displace souls from their bodies and replace it with its own. This is half of what BOB does.

The other half of what BOB does is with the bad self that resides in the Lodge. Thus, he takes to the Lodge the person whose soul he has displaced, where he/she will inevitably meet his/her shadow self. It would make sense that BOB would choose people whom he assumes do not possess the courage to resist or survive this. The result is the good selves are annihilated and BOB (and the other bad spirits), for lack of a better term, get off on this. Your bad self takes over your place in the world, with BOB as the soul inside. He is free to do what he wants in the non-spirit world. This is what he did to Leland, and this is what happens to Cooper.

This is supported by a few more things. One is the dialogue between BOB and Windham Earle in episode 29. Earle says, "If you give me your soul, I'll let Annie live" to Cooper. BOB appears out of nowhere, furious. He says: "He is wrong. He can't ask for your soul. I will take his." This suggests that only BOB, or another spirit capable of inhabiting your body, is allowed to take/displace souls. Logical enough.

Moreover, there is the matter of weightlessness, which indicates the lack of a soul. When Josie died, of fear from BOB, Cooper later finds out that her body only weighed 65 pounds. Also, in FWWM, there is a scene near the end when the Dwarf asks BOB for his "garmonbozia." Leland is suspended in the air above them (see picture below). Leland is suspended as such because it is the bad Leland, who has returned to the Lodge to give the garmonbozia (pain and suffering) that he has just acquired from killing Laura. With BOB outside the body, there is no soul, and thus he is light enough to float like that. Same thing with Josie: when she died, her soul was not there, causing her to weigh much less. I think more than anything, the weightlessness is a Lynch device to convey to the viewer the lack of a soul, more than a statement on the actual weight of a soul.

But where does your good self go when the bad one is on Earth? Hawk tells us you get annihilated, which is probably not exactly true in the sense that it is destroyed forever. In episode 16, when BOB leaves Leland's body, Leland is suddenly filled with remorse, regret, and love for Laura, which are emotions that only a good soul could experience. Further, Cooper's "look to the light, Leland," is suggestive of Christianity and near-death experience tales which tell us that heaven is a bright beautiful light. So, presumably Leland had to gain his good self back enough to go to heaven. The same is true for Laura and Cooper. At the end of FWWM, they are together in the White Lodge, which means that they, too, were redeemed enough to "pass through to perfection" (as Hawk says). Once BOB leaves your body, your good self can escape the Lodge and return. At this point, though, your body and soul are annihilated to a point-- nobody who was inhabited by BOB lives. So your soul is redeemed in terms of goodness, but you don't get a second chance at life.

So how does this all happen? Thats a good question. I think if the good self was a good person, like Cooper and Laura and Leland, then the good soul is preserved somewhere-- probably the Waiting Room. If you were bad, like Earle, your soul is probably gone for good. After all, BOB destroyed Earle but did not inhabit him. He's gone. But let it be known that the good souls are not detroyed forever. So, if you meet your doppelganger, there's hope for you yet. In Tibetan Buddhist fashion, which we know is alive in well in Cooper, this means live a good, peaceful life without anger and violence.

Space/Time.

Twin Peaks is wrought with anachronisms, which make a lot of scenes and concepts more difficult. If you just accept the fact that time does not happen, or is not perceived to happen, as it should in Twin Peaks you will live longer.

One example of this is the 1950s feel of Twin Peaks, which I think Lynch used as a very obvious clue to the viewer as to the irregularity of time in Twin Peaks. It is evident in the clothes people wear, the lack of anything definitively 80s or 90s, the cars people drive, James Hurley's James Dean, etc. But the year is referred to many times as being in the 1990s, so we know thats when it is.

The less obvious/more troublesome examples are things such as Annie in Laura's bed in FWWM. Obviously, Annie did not move to Twin Peaks until after Laura died. Morover, she is in Laura's bed in the appearance that we last saw her in, which was coming out of the Lodges, and she tells Laura that she has been with Laura and Dale, and that "the good Dale is in the Lodge and he can't leave". But Dale did not go into the Lodge until the final episode-- how can Annie be here, before anything, telling Laura thats that what happened?

Another example is the whole dream thing and final scene in FWWM with Laura and Cooper. Cooper is in the Red Room with Laura at the end of FWWM, after she is killed. But Cooper and Laura have never met, and he is not in Twin peaks until after she dies. How can he be here with her? Similarly, in Episode 2, Cooper has a dream in which Laura whispers to him the identity of her killer. In the dream, Cooper is 25 years older, which is a future event, but it is about Laura's death, which was in the past. In epsiode 16, Donna finds a page of Laura's diary in which Laura recalls a similar dream, about a man (Cooper) who would help her. This dream was for the future, and it came true. Moroever, Cooper eventually solves the murder based on evidence but primarily because he remembered the dream and this time, he heard what Laura said. So, his dream also correctly predicted the future (about a past event), and with the help of someone talking to him who only lived in the past.

My theory is that this is because the space/time continuum has gone wrong or is interrrupted by the presence of the Lodges and spirits in Twin Peaks. In other words, for the spirit world to inhabit the mortal world, space and time had to do some rearranging. In Epsiode 26, when the group of law enforcement officers are looking at the petroglyph, a strange thing happens. Cinematically (so we the audience, not the police officers, see), the blackboard turns into a shot of the character Death (hooded figure with scythe), then the camers zooms into his body, which fills with the landscape of deep, starry, space. Very strange, but its presence marks the importance of space in Twin Peaks. Perhaps the most conclusive evidence is the whole idea of how one enters the Lodges. In Episode 28, Cooper enlightens the rest of the police to this notion. First, at one point, he is discussing with Truman how he saw BOB when Josie died. However, BOB appeared very suddenly; in Cooper's words: "as if he slipped in through some crevice in time." Moreover, when Cooper finally figures out that the petroglyph is a map, it has everything to do with space and time. In short, in Cooper's words, "you have to be in the right place at the right time." This simple expression is more complicated in Twin Peaks. Cooper explains to Truman that time and space are together in a continuum, and that there are points in time: a shooting star, in Cooper's example, exists at one point in time but over a continuum of space. In order to gain entry to the Black Lodge, these points in time and space must be precise: Jupiter and Saturn have to be aligned, which of course happens at only one point in time and one point in space, and as such this occurence is very rare.

Owls.

In Twin Peaks, several people (The Log Lady, Major Briggs, The Giant) say "the owls are not what they seem." I believe an owl is the body the spirits inhabit when not in a person. There are several things to support this: - First, Sarah Palmer sees a vision of BOB, then the face of an owl superimposed over his; - The Log Lady tells Cooper that there are owls in the roadhouse, right before Cooper goes there and sees the Giant; - Then, after Leland dies, the cops are in the woods. Sherriff Truman says, "if BOB was real, then where is he now?" And then the camera zooms up to a large owl; - and finally, Major Briggs sees an owl right before he disappears. And the messages that Briggs brings to Cooper, "the owls are not what they seem," which he thought came from deep space, actually came from the woods, where the Black Lodge is.

The one thing I do know about it is that owls play a huge part in Native American and other cultures' mythology. Here is a sampling of that:

Roman mythology: In early Rome a dead Owl nailed to the door of a house averted all evil that it supposedly had earlier caused. To hear the hoot of an Owl presaged imminent death. The deaths of Julius Caesar, Augustus, Commodus Aurelius, and Agrippa were apparently all predicted by an Owl. "...yesterday, the bird of night did sit Even at noonday, upon the market place, Hooting and shrieking" (from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar")

In Old English folklore, folklore surrounding the Barn Owl is better recorded than for most other Owls. In English literature the Barn Owl had a sinister reputation probably because it was a bird of darkness, and darkness was always associated with death. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the poets Robert Blair and William Wordsworth used the Barn Owl as their favourite "bird of doom." During that same period many people believed that the screech or call of an Owl flying past the window of a sick person meant imminent death.

Other (relevant) cultures:
- Africa, West: the messenger of wizards and witches, the Owl's cry presages evil;
- Celtic: the Owl was a sign of the underworld;
- Middle East: the Owl represents the souls of people who have died un-avenged;
- Sumeria: The goddess of death, Lilith, was attended by Owls;
- Tangiers: Barn Owls are the clairvoyants of the Devil.

Of course, I picked these cultures out because they fit with my theory. In many cultures, owls are good, sacred, revered, and helpful. But in Native American mythology, especially of those tribes in the Northwest (where Twin Peaks is located), the beliefs are more in tune with owls being sinister and associated, in some way, with death:
-To an Apache Indian, dreaming of an Owl signified approaching death.
- Native Northwest coast Kwagulth people believed that owls represented both a deceased person and their newly-released soul.
- The Kwakiutl Indians were convinced that Owls were the souls of people and should therefore not be harmed, for when an Owl was killed the person to whom the soul belonged would also die.
- To the Mojave Indians of Arizona, one would become an Owl after death, this being and interim stage before becoming a water beetle, and ultimately pure air.
- According to Navaho legend, the creator, Nayenezgani, told the Owl after creating it "...in days to come, men will llisten to your vioce to know what will be their future."
- California Newuks believed that after death, the brave and virtuous became Great Horned Owls. The wicked, however, were doomed to become Barn Owls.
- In the Sierras, native peoples believed the Great Horned Owl captured the souls of the dead and carried them to the underworld.

All over the world, then, the belief persists that 1) owls mean impending death, especially if you hear its call; and 2) owls have something to do with the souls of people. I think this is what is meant by "the owls are not what they seem"-- they are not merely owls, but they are the carriers of other souls. Much like BOB can inhabit the bodies of mortals, such as Leland, when he is not inside a person he inhabits an owl.

I think that owls' hooting as a warning is also taken up by Lynch; owls seem to hoot all the time in Twin Peaks, especially right before a character does something important. The most significant example of this is when when Major Briggs disappears from the woods, Cooper reports "hearing an owl." The Feds seem satisfied only when they hear this answer, as if it were the answer they were seeking. Since Briggs most likely went to the White Lodge, and since Briggs and these agents are working on Project Blue Book (which involves the Lodges), it is as if it made sense that and owl would be heard before Briggs went to the Lodge. Although Briggs did not die, the call of an owl signaled his disappearance to the Lodge. Its something to think about. Isn't it all something to think about. That's the beauty of Twin Peaks.

Angels.

In FWWM, there are numerous "sightings" of angels. First, Laura is looking at her painting in her bedroom of the angels and the child, and one of the angels disappears. She is high on cocaine at this point, but I think it is truly symbolic. Later, while she and Ronette are in the train car, an angel appears over Ronette. Her hands are suddenly un-tied and she can escape. Then, after Laura dies, she is in the Red Room with Cooper and another, different angel is there for her.

In the Bible, it is said that everyone has a guardian angel to look after them. They are with you always and try to take care of you. I believe that the angel that disappeared from the painting was Laura's angel, who came back for her to help her get to the White Lodge (from the Red Room). Laura's soul, terrorized in the Red Room, would finally be at peace in the White Lodge (hence Laura's laughing; she knows it too). Ronnette's angel came for her earlier, in the train car, to save her from getting killed. I think that Laura's angel probably would have come for her then, too, but Laura's desire to die prevented it.

Creamed Corn.

This is my interpretation, of someone else's ideas. I got this from a guy who writes to the Twin Peaks Online Newsletter I get . . .so thanks, mystery guy. Its the best, most plausible explanation of the corn I have heard yet. Basically, the corn is the physical representation of the spirits of the Black Lodge's need for pain, fear, etc. The spirits live on fear and pain, and Lynch chose to show it to the viewer as creamed corn. This is one of those things (especially to non-Lynchians) where even though the "logic" behind an idea is sound, it's still weird. Creamed corn? It's an odd choice, although a food item makes sense, since it is representing what feeds the spirits. If you watch TP (especially FWWM) with this in mind, some of the weirder scenes make more sense.

First,when Josie died, Cooper said that he felt BOB and The LMFAP appeared because they were "drawn to her fear." It was also said that fear was the only way to get into the black lodge/red room. In FWWM, there is the scene in the red room after Laura is killed when the complete Mike (Gerard with his "arm") tell BOB that they want all their garmonbozia. In the movie, the caption reads "(pain and sorrow)," but it is written in the FWWM director's cut as "(corn)." That's why, after BOB throws Leland's blood (which is the reality of Laura's murder) onto the lodge floor and it disapears, there is the image of the LMFAP eating corn (the pain and suffering of Laura's murder, which they live on). Also, in FWWM, there's the scene when Leland and Laura are driving and they are confronted by Mike, and Mike yells, "YOU... STOLE...THE CORN!!! FROM THE CAN!!!" I think Mike is yelling at BOB for killing Theresa, and taking her "corn" (and not sharing, perhaps). It would also explain why Mrs. Tremond (who is a White Lodge inhabitant) did not want the creamed corn when Donna tried to give it to her (via "Meals on Wheels").

Scorched Engine Oil.

The smell of scorched engine oil is noticed by several people. Dr. Jacoby smelled it before he was attacked by Leland, and while Jacques is being murdered. Maddy smells it in the Palmer house before BOB kills her. And in FWWM, Laura smells it when she and her father are driving and are confronted by Mike. Cooper's coffee turns to oil in the Black Lodge. I believe this is the characteristic smell of BOB and/or the Black Lodge spirits. This is supported by the fact that the pond out side of Glastonbury Grove, the entrance to the Lodge, has the same smell.

Shaking Hands.

In episode 27, several people's hands start to twitch/ shake. Some people think it is related to how in FWWM, both Theresa's and Laura's left arms went numb before they were killed. However, it is the right arms of people that shake in the series. I believe that the shaking means the presence of BOB. Right before anyone's hands start to shake, we see the entrance to the Black Lodge, and BOB's hand reaches out, and he says, "I'm out!" Also, in FWWM, BOB's right hand starts to shake when the Dwarf asks him for his garmonbozia.

The White Horse.

On at least 2 occassions, Sarah Palmer hallucinates and sees a white horse. Some people have said that it represents Laura's pet pony, but I don't think so (her pony was not really mentioned in the series, only in her diary. And in her diary, she describes her horse as red and brown, not white). A white horse has been knbown to symbolize heroin, which might have something to do with the drugs Leland is giving Sarah. My own personal opinion is that white horses also symbolize death (Germanic mythology). This seems appropriate since Sarah sees it just before Maddy is killed. Also, the Log Lady's introduction for the episode of Maddy's death supports this- she says, "woe to those who behold the pale horse." Christianity also supports this view. The Book of Revelations, Chapter 6, Verse 8, reads: "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."

Diane.

Diane is who Agent Cooper talks to when he talks to his tape recorder. Since we never see her, there has been speculation that Diane is the name Cooper has given the recorder. However, I think, as do most people, that she is his secretary at the FBI, as she sends him stuff (e.g., ear plugs) and does other things only a real person could do.

The Log Lady.

Her husband gave Margaret the log on their honeymoon, and since the day he died she has talked to it. I think, and I think Margaret knows, that the soul of her husband resides in it, since it seems to tell her important/true things. It seems her husband had something to do with the Lodges, or at least knew about them. He dies very suddenly, and moreover, the night before he died, he brought Margaret oil from Glastonberry Grove and said that the oil is "a gateway". This could explain how his soul is in a log (or, as much as could be explained in TP; see spirit inhabitation).

I also think it was no accident/convenience that the Log Lady was chosen to do the intros for Bravo, later to be included on the Ultimate DVD collection. I think she is the seer of TP. They are always weird enough that people dismiss them as crazy instead of paying attention to them. I know I'd run in the opposite direction from anyone talking to a log. Lots of people in TP have psychic-type abilities (Cooper, Sarah Palmer). Cooper definitely uses his for good and I think the Log Lady is his counterpart. She's rather underused in the series and absent in FWWM for all this, but who knows what would have happened if the series continued. . .

These two mysteries are only present in FWWM, not the series, but they are still curious and provide some interesting interpretations on things in the series:

The ring.

The ring seems to belong to Theresa Banks, because we first see it on her finger in the pictures of her in her trailer. However, I doubt it belongs to anybody, as it seems to turn up wherever needed, and different people possess it. Indeed, Agent Stanley wonders where the ring is during the autopsy, as it has disappeared from her finger. It shows up many times throughout the rest of the movie, most notably when Mike is yelling at Laura and her dad in the car and later she recalls him wearing it on his little finger. It shows up again when she is offered it in her dream and Cooper warns her against taking it.

I think that the ring is a symbol of death, and moreover, that it is used as a sort-of weapon against BOB (only sort-of because you're still going to die, but it's better than what BOB does to you). Once you put it on, BOB cannot use you as a vessel so he has to kill you; both Theresa and Laura had it on before they were killed. In FWWM, Cooper tells Laura in her dream, "don't take the ring, Laura, don't take the ring!" and she doesn't put it on. But she does put it on in the train car where she is killed, after Mike throws it in-- probably in an effort to "save" Laura. He understood the ring's power/function, and since he was otherwise powerless to stop BOB, he threw the ring in so that Laura would put it on. It is obviously better to die than to be BOB's henchman. I think in the end, Laura too understood and that is why she put it on; Cooper says in the series that Laura wanted to and was ready to die. She even wrote in her diary, the page that is given to Donna, that "tonight is the night that I die;" she said this even though she knew that BOB really wanted to be her. So somehow she expected to die instead, and so willingly put on the ring when given the chance.

Moreover, after she does so, Leland/BOB screams "NO! Don't make me do this!" and then he kills her. This is evidence that Laura's putting on the ring made him do something he didn't want to do (i.e. kill her; he instead wanted to be her).

The Blue rose.

This is one of the mysteries that plague Peakers, mainly because it occurs only in FWWM and in such small, but seeminly meaningful ways, that it is hard to conceptualize about it. Here is my attempt.

It first comes up when Gordon Cole sends Lil to meet Agents Desmond and Stanley and explain the case to them; she is wearing a blue rose pinned to her dress (above). Desmond says to Stanley, "did you notice what was inned to her dress?" "A blue rose?" says Stanley. "Good," says Desmond, "but I can't tell you about that." Later in the movie, Cooper notes to Diane that "this is one of Gordon's blue rose cases." And finally, Desmond tells Stanley that he is going to check out the Fat Trout Trailer Park one more time. Stanley says, "one thing has been bothering me-- the blue rose. You're going back to look for the blue rose, aren't you?" I hate to simplify David Lynch, because I think everything he does has meaning. I think the blue rose has meaning, too, but maybe just not as much as other people try to think. I think the blue rose was just an attempt to distinguish the Theresa Banks case; e.g., Gordon uses the 'code word "blue rose" for cases he wants his agents to pay special attention to. In his works, Jung (the psychoanalyst/psychiatrist) expressed a belief that blue roses were very mysterious.

Of course, the question remains what it is about the cases that warrant them being designated as blue rose cases; this is the question of "what" Desmond was going back to find.

This is what I have trouble answering. I have a few thoughts, but I don't think they form a coherent answer. Anyway, blue roses are in and of themselves very unique and special. They do not occur naturally in nature, but must be created. In fact, roses do not even contain the DNA for pigments that can make the color blue, so for roses to be colored as such technicians must use pigment from, most often, carnations. This provides the rationale for why Lynch chose a blue rose rather than anything else for his special cases.

As for why these cases are special, I have random thoughts as well. In Tennesse Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie," the main character, whose name (coincidentally?) is Laura, has a disease called pleurisy. When a man asks her what the disease is called, she says "pleurosis" and he thinks she said "blue roses." For the rest of the play, then, he calls her "blue roses". The thing is that Laura feels very unique-- specifically, she feels ugly and undesirable and that no one would want to be with her, which is why she spends all her time with her glass animals. In effect, she has created for herself a safe world, apart from reality, where she can exist. This reminded me of Laura Palmer, who on the outside was an innocent sweet schoolgirl, but who had to create another world for herself full of prostitution and drugs. This was partly because she liked them but mainly, because it was a place where she could escape the harsh reality of her father and BOB's torments and being the girl that all of that was driving her to be. I imagine Theresa Banks, who was only 17, had a similar situation.

I also think that this duality of worlds, of reality and non-reality, parallels the duality of both the spirit and mortal worlds of Twin Peaks and also of the White/Black Lodges. But I hesitate to say that Gordon Cole knew about the Lodges when it took everyone else so long to figure it out. But I think it was just more something Lynch wanted than to actually attribute it to the character of Cole. I would also like to say that it is not weird of me to use "The Glass Menagerie" as an example when you think of the hundreds of other allusions and references in "Twin Peaks;" and I'd also like to support my theory by saying that Lynch once said that "the line between reality and fantasy has never really been there for me".

In that case, I would venture to say that the "blue rose" is a code word for cases involving something else-- another world, another reality, another existence, be it actual (like the spirit world) or not (like the dual lives of the girls, which of course were influenced by the presence of the spirit world). It is interesting that when Agent Desmond went back to find the blue rose, he disappeared-- did he "find" another world? Moreover, what he did find before he disappeared was the ring, which, as described above, had a function involving the spirit world.

Electricity.

Electricity is a TP mystery that you don't really think much about until you really think about it, you know what I mean? It's not out there like the Lodges. In any case.

In FWWM, we see an electricity pole (see picture below). While this is what we see, what we hear is an Indian whooping noise. This is the same noise that the Dwarf makes when he says "I am the arm. And I sound like this!" With that sound, this pole and the Lodges/spirits are connected.

At other times in FWWM, we see a flickering blue light. At one point, Laura talks to it: "Who are you?" At another point, it talks to her, in BOB's voice: "I want to taste through your mouth."

My theory is that the Lodge spirits travel through electricity when they are not in a human being or an owl. It's how they get from here to there. I think they inhabit owls when they need to be in one place, and they are not in a human. So, BOB went to an owl after he left Leland, because he needed somewhere to go. But otherwise, when the spirits travel, and need to get around, they use good old electrical currents. So, BOB couldn't talk to Laura while he was trying to inhabit her; this would have been Leland saying things (or a talking owl I suppose, which is slightly worse than talking electricity as a cocaine-induced hallucination). So, he reached her through the electricity. Quite logical.