Twin Peaks
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I recently watched my Twin Peaks boxed . I started out with the flawed, but good, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which I believe was a commercial and critical failure, but is essential to Twin Peaks canon and mythology. I wanted to write down a few thoughts on this great show
Twin Peaks, in case you aren’t cool enough to know, is the story about a murder investigation of a promiscuous drug-taking Homecoming Queen named Laura Palmer. This investigation is conducted by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper. Cooper, as well as all the rest of the cast, seem to dress and behave in a slightly anachronistic fashion reminiscent of the late 1950s.
On the surface, Cooper seems to be all right, but he is truly an odd person, which the denizens of Twin Peaks seem not to notice or care about. A true epicurean, he takes the moment to savor each sip of coffee which he orders “black as midnight on a moonless night” as well as cherry pie. This is a wonderful characteristic to have, but this isn’t what sets Agent Cooper apart from everyone else. Cooper is a kind of de facto mystical shaman. His methods of crime investigation are not rooted in any kind of scientific method, but gut feelings and mystical experience.
Agent Cooper fulfils the role of the traditional shaman in that he goes to the Underworld, usually in dreams, but sometimes spontaneously, looks around, and brings back information that will help the community. The FBI probably wouldn’t really tolerate this technique, but nobody in Twin Peaks seems to question Cooper. They just consider his methods kind of “wacky” but he has the authority of the FBI behind him. In modern society, we have plenty of people who fulfill the role of the shaman, but usually members of the FBI, with the exception of people involved in Behavioral Analysis and Profiling, are not one of them.
In our “real world” of Western Society, the shaman, magician, witch doctor and really all of the clergy, have been by replaced by the psychologist, Usually, the psychologist will travel to the Underworld of the patient’s mind, and try to bring back information that could help. This is perfectly socially acceptable, and has a veneer of “science” to it, but is more akin to Agent Cooper’s mysticism than science. There is even a new kind of alchemy going on in the discipline of psychiatry. We scoff at medieval alchemists and hermetic traditions speaking of the four different “humors” in the human body, but when we are told that we have a “chemical imbalance” we swallow pills of a dubious nature, to take care of that. In the future, when we are able to scan more accurately for actual chemical imbalances, we will see how close psychiatry in particular is to voodoo. Twin Peak’s own representative of the New Clergy of Psychology, Dr. Jacoby, is a very mercurial character indeed, and we’re not sure who’s side he is on.
Often Agent Cooper calls on the aid of Agent Albert Rosenfield, who more closely fills the role of skeptical scientist. Agent Rosenfield is so cold and clinical, that even though he is of immense value, his lack of emotion hinders the investigation. Cooper is better aided by Sheriff Harry S. Truman, Deputy Andy Brennan, and Deputy Hawk. Of these official investigators, Deputy Andy and Deputy Hawk are actually better helpers to Cooper in a mystical sense, where Sheriff Truman is rooted in the real world.
I always thought Deputy Andy is actually akin to the “idiot knight” Percival. Someone who is not very worldly, intellectually bright, or emotionally strong but comes to us in such a position of innocence, and in that way is invaluable. Watching the series again, it is Deputy Andy who unwittingly points the investigation in the right direction.
Deputy Hawk shares his bit of knowledge about his people’s belief in the “black lodge” and “white lodge” which is the place that Cooper has to go to solve the crime.
My favorite character is Paige, who in the first and second seasons was unrepentant in her bitchiness and sheer cruelty to her “friends.” A great episode is when Paige decides to ostracize Ashley. Who later becomes the school's token "goth." During Ashley’s year book picture a single tear drops on her cheek because of Paige’s odious behaviour. Paige reminds me of many girls I was attracted to in High School. She does have a softer side, when Emma gets her period for the first time, Paige, who is no stranger to her reproductive organs, offers comforting advice in the Girl’s Room. In the last season, Paige is a victim of a sexual assault at a party. Since then, the writers have toned her character down so she is not the villian she once was.