Twin Peaks

So last time, I wrote about the ontological mystery and The Prisoner. But what is the spiritual successor to The Prisoner? Is it Persons Unknown? No, that was kind of stupid. Is it the Prisoner remake? No, aside from Ian McKellen, I heard it wasn't that good.

No, the spiritual successor to The Prisoner in my opinion was a television show from 1990-91 called Twin Peaks. And yet it was not an ontological mystery.

Twin Peaks: it's filled with secrets.

Why are the connected? How are they similar?

Well, that's easy enough to explain: both are Mind Screws where the show's identity is completely tied to its location. With The Prisoner, the location and the mystery were one and the same: where is the Village? How do you escape? With Twin Peaks, the location and the mystery are two different things, but they are intrinsically tied together. If Laura Palmer had not lived in Twin Peaks, would she have died? What was it about Twin Peaks that made it such a hotbed of danger?

Perhaps I should explain what Twin Peaks was about first. In the first episode, the body of Laura Palmer, prom queen, is found wrapped in plastic. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is quickly tasked with finding out who killed her, especially since he believes that this is the work of a serial killer. The show was directed by David Lynch and written by Lynch and Mark Frost, so it had Lynch's trademark quirkiness mixed with intense creepiness.

However, the central mystery of Twin Peaks is not what Twin Peaks is about. No, only part of each episode focused on Dale Cooper's investigation. The rest? The rest was about the citizens of the town. Each episode had multiple subplots focusing on affairs, secrets, and the like, including the ever popular Log Lady. (She carries a log around with her.)

Her log knows many things.

And then there was the magical realism aspect. You see up there where I said this show was a Mind Screw? Well, so far, all I've described has been a quirky murder mystery show. And yet, that's like saying The Prisoner was about a guy trying to get away from a village. It's just not right: while The Prisoner had increasingly dreamlike elements (culminating in the almost incomprehensible series finale), Twin Peaks isn't just dreamlike: it's nightmarish.

An example: in the Pilot, Laura Palmer's mother receives a vision of a man at the foot of her bed. This man turns out to be BOB (which stands for Beware of BOB), a malevolent spirit. BOB is the creepiest motherfucker you will ever meet ("Catch you with my death bag! You may think I've gone, but I will kill again!"). And then there is the other touches of strangeness that surround the town of Twin Peaks. In the second episode, Cooper has a dream that involves the Man From Another Place and a woman identical to Laura Palmer ("She's filled with secrets!"). One character's father is affiliated with Project Blue Book and tells Agent Cooper that he has received a message for him: THE OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM.

And there's the other connection to The Prisoner: the unexplained. Certain things are never explained in either show. In The Prisoner, the only thing that is explained at the end is who Number One is (well, sort of).

Not even what this gesture and "Be seeing you" meant.

And though on Twin Peaks, we did eventually learn who killed Laura Palmer, most of the other mysteries went unexplained. In fact, the end of season two ended on a huge cliffhanger, which was never resolved. (There was a movie that was supposed to clear it up, but it ended up being more of a prequel to the series and adding even more questions.)

Twin Peaks was another huge influence on my writing. From my love of dreams to my love of Mind Screws, this is where it came from.

And, so, to conclude:

Through the darkness of future past,
the magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds...
fire, walk with me.