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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138
-at-popapostle-dot-com
Twin Peaks: The Stars Turn and a Time Presents Itself Twin Peaks
"The Stars Turn and a Time Presents Itself"
Season Three, Part 2
Written by Mark Frost & David Lynch
Directed by David Lynch
Original air date: May 21, 2017

 

Laura Palmer tells Cooper he can leave the Lodge soon; Hawk makes a night trek to Glastonbury Grove.

 

Read the episode summary at the Twin Peaks wiki

 

Didja Know?

 

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Frank Silva, the actor who played BOB in the original series. He died in 1995.

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

 

Bill Hastings

Phyllis Hastings (dies in this episode)

Detective Dave Macklay

George Bautzer

woodsman

Mr. C

Duncan Todd

Roger

Lorraine (mentioned only--presumed--Todd says "she's got the job", first appears in Part 5: "Case Files")

Ray Monroe

Jack (dies in this episode)

Darya (dies in this episode)

Betty (Bill Hastings' secretary, mentioned only)

Hawk

Log Lady

Agent Cooper

Mike

Laura Palmer (deceased, seen in Red Room only)

The Arm

Phillip Jeffries (may be an imposter in this case, heard on audio call only)

BOB (mentioned only)

Major Briggs (mentioned only)

Chantal Hutchens

Hutch (Gary Hutchens, mentioned only)

Leland Palmer (deceased, seen in Red Room only)

Sam Colby (seen in "flashback", deceased)

Tracey Barberato (seen in "flashback", deceased)

Bittner (glass box security guard, mentioned in "flashback" only)

Sarah Palmer

Chromatics

Shelly McCauley Briggs

Hannah

Renee

James Hurley

Freddie Sykes

Becky Burnett (mentioned only)

Steven Burnett (mentioned only)

Jean-Michel Renault

Red 

 


 

Didja Notice?

 

As the episode opens, it seems as if Bill Hastings, sitting in a jail cell, is hearing a strange mechanical hum in his head, which stops when the sound of Detective Dave Macklay putting the key in the outer door is heard. What is the hum? Why is Bill hearing it?

 

When Phyllis Hastings discovers Mr. C in her house, she seems to know him.

 

Anyone know what kind of pistol Mr. C uses (he says it is George's gun) when he shoots Phyllis? The pistol looks to have a stubby barrel.

stubby gun

 

At 7:19 on the Blu-ray, a number of real world casinos are seen on the Las Vegas strip: Treasure Island, Mirage, Harrah's, Caesar's Palace, Flamingo, Paris, Bellagio, Aria, Monte Carlo, MGM Grand, and Mandalay Bay. The Hilton Grand Vacations Club timeshare resort is also seen on the left. These are all real world casinos on the Vegas strip.

 

The train that crosses at 9:29 on the Blu-ray is a BNSF (Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway). Train cars seen on it belong to TTX and APL (American President Lines Ltd.)

 

The motel Mr. C is staying at with Ray and Darya is seen to be Bell's Motor Lodge Motel, an actual motel in Spearfish, South Dakota.

 

At 10:03 on the Blu-ray, notice that Mr. C appears to have been eating corn at the motel diner during his dinner with his gang.

 

Notice throughout the diner scene that the train seen seconds earlier can be heard be trundling past in the background.

 

    It is interesting to note that Mr. C emphasizes to Ray (and, hence, to the viewer) that he doesn't need, he wants. This might be read as the opposite of Agent Cooper's statement to Audrey in Episode 6: "Realization Time" when he comes back to his hotel room and finds her waiting in his bed:

Audrey: So do you want me to leave or what?

Cooper: What I want and what I need are two different things, Audrey.

   In The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, on page 127, BOB tells a 15-year old Laura, "I don't need anything. I want things."

 

Hawk is walking through the woods at night to Glastonbury Grove when the Log Lady calls him on his cell phone. He tells her, "Supposed to be something happening here tonight." Why does he think so? He arrives at the grove and does briefly see the red drapes appear and disappear, but nothing else happens. Why did he go there that night? What was his source of information?

 

When Hawk arrives at Glastonbury Grove, some backwards sounds can be heard behind the music. When played forward, it sounds like someone banging on a sheet of metal or a metal door. The sounds continue for several more seconds as the scene fades into the Red Room. Is the banging the same as that later heard on the metal door in Part 3: "Call for Help"? Listen: Glastonbury Grove sounds and Glastonbury Grove sounds reversed

 

The statue in the Red Room looks slightly different from the one seen in the original TV series. The statue is taller and the figure's hands are posed slightly differently. Notice also, that the zigzag floor pattern is shifted 90 degrees from the original series to the current one. The floor pattern in particular seems it must be intentional. Is this a different Red Room? A Red Room in a different universe or alternate timeline?
original red room statue new red room statue
Original red room New red room

 

In the red room, Cooper is wearing a different lapel pin than we've seen before. A more close up view later in the episode gives the distinct impression the pin is the seal of the FBI.
Cooper's lapel pin Cooper's pin (close-up) FBI seal
Cooper's lapel pin Lapel pin close-up FBI seal

 

Mike (the spirit form of the One-Armed Man) is in the Red Room with Cooper and seems to act as a sort of guide to Cooper there and back on Earth later. Here, he asks Cooper, "Is it future or is it past?" The Dwarf asked the same thing of Cooper in "Missing Pieces".

 

Mike appears to have dyed his hair brown. His hair had more white in it 25 years ago in the original series.

 

Mike also tells Cooper, "Someone is here." In Part 1: "My Log Has a Message for You", the Fireman told Cooper, "It is in our house now."

 

Laura wears a black dress in the Red Room that is similar to the one she wore in Episode 29: "Beyond Life and Death", but now she also wears a large brooch at the point of the V-neck.

 

In the Red Room, Laura removes her face to show Cooper the bright white light behind it. In Part 14: "We Are Like the Dreamer", Sarah Palmer also removes her face, revealing a black void inhabited by a hand and a large, grinning mouth.

 

Laura gets up from her chair and whispers something in Cooper's ear and he seems shocked to hear it. Then she suddenly gets pulled up out of the room. Was she pulled out for violating a rule in what she told Cooper? Even at maximum volume, it is very difficult to understand what Laura says and whether she is speaking in reverse (as she was when she was seated) or forward. The closest I think anybody has come to deciphering it, I think, is johnmosloskie on the forums of the Welcome to Twin Peaks website. He thinks she is speaking forward in her whisper and the words sound something like:

"Electric is Carl's house."
"We are not here."
(Cooper gasps)
"Listen to the heart."

Laura's whisper (turn it up loud to hear it): Laura's whisper 

 

At 22:06 on the Blu-ray, Cooper sees a white horse behind the drapes in the Red Room. The white horse appeared previously in Episode 14: "Lonely Souls" and Fire Walk With Me (in those cases, both in the presence of Sarah Palmer). 

 

This episode reveals that the Arm (Mike's severed arm), also known as the Dwarf or the Man From Another Place, has evolved into what appears to be a small sycamore tree with a lump of flesh mounted on the top and electricity constantly playing along its trunk and branches. The flesh lump has a mouth and it is able to speak, though the voice does not sound at all like that of the Arm (formerly portrayed by Michael J. Anderson, who did not return for the new series). The voice actor here is not credited.
the Arm as the Dwarf the Arm as tree
The Arm as the Dwarf (Man From Another Place) The Arm evolved into a sycamore tree

 

At 25:18 on the Blu-ray, Mr. C and Jack are storing what appears to be Mr. C's Mercedes-Benz S-Klasse Coupé (seen in Part 1: "My Log Has a Message for You") in a rental storage unit. The car Mr. C is now driving is a 2003 Lincoln Town Car.

 

After they lock up the Mercedes, Mr. C places the fingers of his right hand over Jack's jaw and kneads the skin over and over before the scene cuts. By the end of the scene, Jack almost seems to be transfixed or mesmerized by the action. Later, we learn from Mr. C that he has killed Jack. Why was he kneading the skin of Jack's face? Is that some supernatural method of killing he has?

 

Mr. C and Darya are staying in room 6 of the motel.

 

At 27:27 on the Blu-ray, as Darya is laying on the bed, she has her left leg arched at the knee and her right leg out straight. Just a second before this camera angle change, her legs were posed in the opposite manner.

 

At 29:29 on the Blu-ray, the liquor bottle on the nightstand in Darya's motel room appears to have "bourbon whiskey" printed on the label, but I can't make out the brand name.

 

On the audio recording of Ray and Darya that Mr. C plays, Ray tells Darya he's calling her on a burner. A burner is a prepaid cell phone designed to be used for only a brief time and then discarded in order for the user to maintain anonymity and prevent tracking.

 

On the recording, Ray and Darya do refer Mr. C as "Cooper", so it would seem the doppelganger has been using the identity of the man of whom he's a physical duplicate.

 

In the "live" phone call, Darya says, "He's coming. I have to get off the phone." But in the recorded phone call Mr. C plays back to her, she says, "He's coming. I gotta get off the phone." Is the difference in phrasing intentional?

 

Mr. C tells Darya that tomorrow he's supposed to get pulled back into "what they call the Black Lodge". Who is "they"?

 

Mr. C shows Darya an altered ace of spades playing card from a Pavilion brand card deck. The altered image on the card is later seen again on Major Briggs' note about Jack Rabbits Palace in Part 9: "This is the Chair". Pavilion is a real world brand of playing cards.

Mr. C's playing card

 

At 35:43 on the Blu-ray, the television in the motel room is an "old" cathode ray tube set from Sony.

 

In the motel room, Mr. C sets up an audio communications device from a briefcase and contacts someone whom he thinks is Phillip Jeffries, but may not have been. When Mr. C meets with Jeffries in Part 15: "There's Some Fear in Letting Go", Jeffries does not recall the conversation. The imposter Jeffries is not revealed in the course of the series. In the book Conversations With Mark Frost by David Bushman, Frost says, "It was someone pretending to be Phillip Jeffries to gain access to more information about someone else's location. I'll leave you to guess who that might be."

 

The computer inside Mr. C's briefcase is seen to have the Microsoft Windows symbol along the right edge of the screen.

 

Mr. C appears to have an illicit account to log into the FBI database (presumably, any account Agent Cooper may have had back in 1989 would have been disabled after his disappearance). We see part of what he types in as the login ID, "kdhgw". 

 

   The FBI map Mr. C looks up on his computer connection shows the location of the city of Buckhorn, but without many identifying labels around it. From the location seen on the map and the southeastern position of the real world Rapid City seen, the road lines near the Buckhorn marker suggest it is located northwest of the Interstate 90/South Dakota Highway 34 junction in South Dakota.
   The other locations appearing on the maps are genuine.
Buckhorn on map South Dakota map

 

Mr. C pinpoints Yankton Federal Prison as the one in which Ray must be incarcerated. In the recorded phone message between him and Darya, Ray said he was in federal prison in South Dakota. Yankton is the only federal prison in the state (actually called Federal Prison Camp, Yankton, a minimum security prison).

 

Chantal is staying in room 7 of the motel.

 

When Mr. C walks into Chantal's motel room, a number of opened junk food snack packages are seen strewn around, most notably a box of Cheez-It crackers. A half-obscured box of Nutter Butter sandwich cookies (another a real world brand) is also visible. Packages that may be Cheetos, Funyuns, and Hostess Ding Dongs are also seen, as well as a bottle of Yoo-hoo.

 

The Arm tells Cooper, "253. Time and time again." The time of 2:53 plays an important role throughout the season.

 

    At first, the armless statue is no longer seen stationed at the end of the curtained hallways in the Black Lodge as it was in episodes of the original series. However, the statue appears again there as Cooper tries to make his way out of the Black Lodge just a bit later in the episode. Possibly this is meant to indicate that he was deeper inside the Lodge at first and then, when he sees the statue, it is an indication that he is close to the exit back to Earth.

   Not long after this, the statue seems to warp into the Arm/tree and warn Cooper of non-existence, presumably meant to suggest Cooper will not "exist" on Earth if he leaves before the doppelganger (Mr. C) returns to the Black Lodge.

 

The shirt Leland is wearing in the Red Room has the same stripe colors/pattern as the one he was wearing when he died in Episode 16: "Arbitrary Law" and appeared in the Black Lodge in Episode 29: "Beyond Life and Death", but his tie and sport coat are not quite the same.

 

When Cooper "falls" out of the Black Lodge through space, he is seemingly captured, briefly, by the glass cage in New York seen in Part 1: "My Log Has a Message for You", and is then sucked out again, just moments before the glass box apparition (Judy?) appeared in that same episode. It later seems that Mr. C was the billionaire who set up the glass box, so if Sam Colby had stayed at his post as he was supposed to, he would presumably have seen Cooper enter the box and possibly was supposed to trap him there in some manner.

 

The Palmer house exterior seen at 47:57 on the Blu-ray is the same house seen in Fire Walk With Me, not the exterior in episodes of the original TV series.

 

At 48:01 on the Blu-ray, Sarah Palmer has a bottle of Mr & Mrs T bloody mary mix on her coffee table as she watches a violent nature documentary on TV. Her interest in televised documented violence may be related to her "possession" by an otherworldly evil being (possibly Judy) as seen in Part 14: "We Are Like the Dreamer".

 

Sarah is suggested to be a chain smoker and alcoholic. Her chain smoking was previously hinted at in Fire Walk With Me.

 

The band that performs at the Roadhouse (Bang Bang Bar) at the end of the episode is the Chromatics. They perform their song "Shadow".

 

At 49:24 on the Blu-ray, the Chromatics drummer, Nat Walker, can be seen playing Ludwig drums.

 

At 49:41 on the Blu-ray, a generic "Beer On Tap" neon sign is seen at the Roadhouse in the style of the Miller Beer emblem. 

 

I don't know if it's just a coincidence, but at 50:00 on the Blu-ray, as James and Freddie are walking into the Roadhouse, the two women standing at their right (screen left) look a bit like the characters of Rita and Betty from David Lynch's 2001 film Mulholland Drive! This is especially interesting in that near the end of Mulholland Drive there are two women seated in Club Silencio that look like Laura Palmer and Ronette Pulaski!
Betty and Rita in Mulholland Dr. Rita and Betty at the Roadhouse
Betty and Rita in Mulholland Drive Rita and Betty at the Roadhouse
Laura and Ronette at Club Silencio
Laura and Ronette at Club Silencio in Mulholland Drive

 

James' friend, Freddie Sykes, is wearing a green rubber gardening glove at the Roadhouse. The glove is explained in a bizarre way in Part 14: "We Are Like the Dreamer".

 

At 50:14 on the Blu-ray, Shelly has a can of Rainier beer in front of her at the Roadhouse.

 

Shelly tells her friends that Becky married the wrong guy. In later episodes, we learn that Becky is Shelly's daughter with ex-husband Bobby Briggs.

 

When her friends spy James at the bar, Shelly says that he was in a motorcycle accident and is quieter now. The accident is discussed briefly in The Final Dossier.

 

Shelly comments, "James is still cool. He's always been cool." The line sort of sounds like Frost and/or Lynch trying to convince TP fans that this is the case, since many fans have complained over the years since the original series that James was boring and was involved in lame subplots.

 

    At 51:11 on the Blu-ray, spigot handles for beer taps of Reed Pale Ale and MacDuffy's Classic Scotch Ale can be seen at the bar. These appear to be two fictitious brands.

   An additional member of the Renault family is seen tending bar. He looks like an older Jacques Renault (being portrayed by the same actor), but Jacques was killed way back in Episode 7: "The Last Evening". The closing credits give the character's name as Jean-Michel Renault.

 

Memorable Dialog

 

you follow human nature perfectly.mp3

mind your own business.mp3

I want.mp3

something happening.mp3

a time presents itself.mp3

I have coffee and pie for you.mp3

is it future or is it past?.mp3

hello, Agent Cooper.mp3

you can go out now.mp3

I am the Arm.mp3

James is still cool.mp3

 

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