Didja Know?

 

This episode re-introduces the character of Johnny Horne, played by a new actor, Erik Rondell. This is the third actor to portray the character. In the original series pilot, he was played by Robert Davenport and in subsequent appearances of that series, by Robert Bauer.

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

 

Mr. C

Gordon Cole

Agent Tammy Preston

Diane Evans

Albert Rosenfield

Colonel Davis (on phone only)

Lt. Knox

Hutch

Chantal

Agent Cooper

Warden Murphy (on phone only)

Duncan Todd

Janey-E Jones

Detective T. Fusco

Detective "Smiley" Fusco

Detective D. Fusco

Bushnell Mullins

Police Sergeant (unnamed, name badge looks like Bricberg)

Ike the Spike

J.T. (mentioned only)

Lucy Brennan

Deputy Andy Brennan

Sylvia Horne

Mary (possibly assistant to Sylvia Horne)

Johnny Horne

Betty Briggs

Bobby Briggs

Sheriff Frank Truman

Deputy Hawk

Major Briggs (mentioned only, deceased)

Detective Macklay

Bill Hastings

Ruth Davenport (mentioned only, deceased)

Phyllis Hastings (mentioned only, deceased)

George Bautzer (mentioned only)

Betty (secretary of William Hastings, mentioned only, reported killed in this episode)

Constance Talbot

Jerry Horne

Chad Broxford

Ben Horne

Beverly Paige

Ella

Chloe 

 

 

Didja Notice?

 

At 2:09 on the Blu-ray, the shot of the FBI Gulfstream jet has been flipped, as witnessed by the reversed tail number! I refuse to believe this is a mistake that Lynch allowed to slip through; he is meticulous about direction and editing. Is the shot another indication of strange warps and variations in space-time occurring?

 

At 4:26 on the Blu-ray, on the left shoulder of her overshirt, Chantal is seen to have a patch with a blue background and a red 1 and four stars. It looks similar to a flight patch worn by fighter pilots.

 

At 4:40 on the Blu-ray, Chantal pulls out a medical kit from a black van with South Dakota license plate DSX 636.

 

Diane has her fingernails painted different colors.

 

The truck Mr. C takes from the farm is a 1988 Chevrolet R-30 Crew Cab. It sports Dick Cepek radial tires.

 

At 7:02 on the Blu-ray, Mr. C uses an Alcatel One Touch cell phone.

 

At 7:25 on the Blu-ray, Duncan is seen to wear a tie with a diamond pattern, not too far off from the diamond pattern Dougie-Cooper was staring at on T. Fusco's tie in Part 7: "There's a Body All Right".

 

Hutch carries a Remington 870 short-barreled shotgun as he and Chantal see Mr. C off. He uses it to kill Mr. C's cell phone.

 

Chantal gives Mr. C a mini bag of Cheetos for the road. Cheetos are a corn-based snack, as they have been seen eating in previous episodes.

 

An establishing shot of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department building is shown at 9:53 on the Blu-ray. It was actually shot at a City of Glendale building at 140 N. Isabel Street, Glendale, CA, as discovered by the writer of the Twin Peaks Blog.

 

The Nevada flag is seen in the police department waiting room as Dougie-Cooper and Janey-E wait and Mullins is interviewed by the detectives.

 

Detective T. Fusco tells his brothers that there is nothing on Dougie Jones in any records prior to 1997. This may suggest that was the year the Cooper tulpa called Dougie Jones was created, probably by Mr. C.

 

The police sergeant tells the detectives Fusco that they just got a twenty on Ike the Spike. "Twenty" refers to a 10-20 in the 10-code of citizens band radio; 10-20 refers to one's location.

 

    When Dougie-Cooper notices the U.S. flag in the police waiting room at 17:08 on the Blu-ray, a subdued playing of "America the Beautiful" can be heard in the background. Possibly, he is reminded of his role in the U.S. government as an FBI agent.

    Dougie-Cooper's attention on the flag is broken by the walk of an attractive woman in red pumps in front of his gaze. He might be reminded of Audrey Horne and her red pumps from 25 years ago.

    His gaze is then taken over by an electrical wall outlet, which may remind him of his entry back onto Earth through an electrical outlet in Part 3: "Call for Help" and may also be a premonition of how his mind will finally come back after sticking a fork in an electrical outlet in Part 15: "There's Some Fear in Letting Go". 

 

At 18:20 on the Blu-ray, T. Fusco's car appears to be a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The vehicle parked next to it is a 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid.

 

At 18:39 on the Blu-ray, Ike the Spike has a bottle of what appears to be Evan Williams bourbon.

 

As the detectives' car pulls into the parking lot of Ike's motel at 18:58 on the Blu-ray, a very brief glimpse of a store called Little Paris can be seen across the street. This is an independent men's fashion store across the street from the motel filming location on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

 

During some down time at the sheriff's station, Lucy and Andy are shopping online for a new chair and ottoman set on the website of Canworth Furniture Designs. This appears to be a fictitious company. Possibly, the new chair is intended for the study they plan to make out of Wally's old room, which he bequeathed them in Part 4: "...Brings Back Some Memories".

 

The title of the episode, "This is the Chair", is from a line of dialog  in it by Betty Briggs about Major Briggs' chair, where he hid a message for Bobby, Truman, and Hawk. But the title may also refer to the decision by Lucy to buy the red chair that Andy likes instead of the beige chair she insisted to him she wanted. If so, what would be the meaning of Lucy's decision in regards to the title? It's ambiguous why she chose to buy the opposite chair of the one she said she wanted after Andy leaves the choice up to her. Did she tell him the beige chair because she knew he would first insist he liked the other, then would capitulate, letting her have what she wanted? She does look pretty satisfied with herself after adding the red chair to her online cart. On the other hand, many say that marriage is about each person making the other person happy before themselves; the interaction between Andy and Lucy would support this contention...Andy says she can buy the one she likes and she then chooses to buy the one he likes, each seeking to make the other happy. Are Frost and Lynch making a comment about the basis of lasting love?

 

At 23:06 on the Blu-ray, Sylvia Horne calls out to someone named Mary. Possibly, Mary is an in-home assistant to Sylvia, helping to care for Johnny. We never see this Mary.

 

When Johnny Horne runs around his mother's house and smashes into a wall, he apparently knocks down two framed photos. One appears to be of Whitetail Falls (next to the Great Northern) in Twin Peaks (really Snoqualmie Falls). The other is of Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969), 34th President of the United States; it would seem that Johnny's mother is a fan of Ike.

 

At her house, Betty Briggs is seen to use an Apple laptop.

 

At 26:05 on the Blu-ray, a copy of the Twin Peaks Post newspaper can be seen on Betty Briggs' living room coffee table.

 

The layout of Betty Briggs' home is completely different from that seen in the original series and in Missing Pieces. It's possible she lives in a different house now, but kept her husband's chair which has his message hidden in it.

 

Visible on the bookshelf behind Betty at 26:40 on the Blu-ray is Essays of Yesterday and Today, a book of essays for juveniles edited by John A. Lester from 1944, and Here is Your War by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist known for his war reporting, Ernie Pyle from 1943.

 

Detective Macklay reveals that Hastings' secretary (called Betty in Part 1: "My Log Has a Message for You") was killed when her car exploded the day after Hastings' wife, Phyllis, was murdered.

 

After a sarcastic remark by Albert, Gordon apologizes to Macklay and Knox, saying, "Apologies in advance for Albert." He made the same apology to two FBI agents in South Dakota in Part 4: "...Brings Back Some Memories". 

 

At 28:54 on the Blu-ray, Diane receives the same text message that Mr. C typed into a heater phone in an earlier episode. Except, it's not quite the same; uppercase versus lowercase, plus a comma. Why the difference? Did the text not come directly from Mr. C's phone, but through an intermediary?
Mr. C's original message	Text message received by Diane

 

This episode reveals that Bill Hastings and Ruth Davenport had been writing a blog about a strange alternate dimension with which they claimed to have come into contact. Hastings tells Agent Preston that he met a major who was hibernating there and he is able to identify the major as Briggs from a photo. The blog is called The Search for the Zone and there is a real world version of it published on the web as a metacontextual promotional site for Season Three: The Search for the Zone. The site itself says it was last updated November 2015, but in this episode, Albert mentions a blog entry by Hastings from "about one week ago"...which is generally considered to have been September-October 2016 from other dates presented in the season and in The Secret History of Twin Peaks and The Final Dossier.

 

Constance Talbot and Albert exchange the following sarcastic humorous remarks about Bill Hastings at the morgue in Buckhorn:
	Albert: This from the principal of your local high school. Constance: Not to mention, marble champion of the sixth grade. Albert: When did he lose his marbles? Constance: When the dog got his cat's-eyes.
Cat's-eyes are a type of marble in a collection of marbles for the game of marbles.

 

Albert appears pleased with Constance Talbot's ability to meet him for sarcastic comments. Notice also, that Gordon seems to be amused by the mutual allure between the two. In the following episode, Part 10: "Laura Is the One", Albert and Constance have dinner together at a restaurant and Gordon and Preston look on from a distance approvingly.

 

At 34:47 on the Blu-ray, Chad is eating his lunch from three microwaveable containers. One appears to be a bowl of creamed corn!

 

At 34:58 on the Blu-ray, Lucy is wearing different clothes than she was earlier (during the chair discussion with Andy). Is it now the next day?

 

At 35:37 on the Blu-ray, the cover of the magazine Chad is reading gives the appearance of a gun magazine titled Lock N' Load. As far as I can tell, this is a fictitious magazine.  

 

The note that Major Briggs has left for Bobby and the Sheriff has two triangles drawn on it, presumably representative of the twin peaks of Twin Peaks. Notice the odd playing card symbol on the defaced ace of spades that Mr. C carries is also drawn above the triangles.     A second slip of paper is found with the note; it is a cut-out of a page of data received from the radio telescopes maintained by Briggs at Listening Post Alpha, similar to the one he showed Agent Cooper in Episode 9: "Coma", that had Cooper's name repeated in it. The original page had Cooper's name at least three times, maybe more, but the slip shows only the first two complete; a bit of the third "Cooper" can be seen at the edge. Notice the data surrounding the Cooper names is mostly different from what was on the page Briggs showed Cooper, so it would seem to be from another instance of the radio telescopes receiving the name.    Sheriff Truman says the first date on Briggs' note (showing 10/1 and 10/2) is "two days from now". That would make the current date September 29.
Briggs' notes
Original Cooper data (from Episode 9: "Coma")

 

Bobby tells Truman and Hawk that Jack Rabbits Palace is a place where he and his father used to go when he was a kid where they would make up stories, calling it "our make-believe world". Could this be a clue that everything we are seeing is make-believe?

 

The police station seen at 40:38 on the Blu-ray is supposed to be in Buckhorn, South Dakota, but the seal of the state of California is seen in the upper mid-left of the facade. To the right of it is the seal of the city of Los Angeles. The facade identifies it as Police Station No. 11, which is the original Highland Park Police Station, built in 1925-26. It is now the Los Angeles Police Museum.

 

At 46:53 on the Blu-ray, Hastings signs and dates the page of mug shots, one of which he identifies as "the major". The date he writes appears to be 9/20, yet earlier, Sheriff Truman seemed to indicate it was 9/29. Is the story being told out of order in relation to different locations?

 

The instrumental piece played at the Roadhouse at the end of the episode is "Human" by Hudson Mohawke. After that, the song "A Violent Yet Flammable World" (2007) is performed by Au Revoir Simone; this band also performed in Part 4: "...Brings Back Some Memories".

 

Ella drinks a Rainier beer at the Roadhouse.

 

Ella and Chloe make vague reference to "zebra" and "penguin": "You know that zebra's out again?" and "Have you seen that penguin?" It seems likely these are references to some kind of designer drugs available in the area. Both animals are noted for their black and white coloring. Could these drugs offer a taste of the Black Lodge and White Lodge? Is that why the drug dealer Red is able to do the bizarre magic trick with the dime in Part 6: "Don't Die", because he is in touch with one or both of the lodges? 

 

Unanswered Questions

 

Why does Ella have a rash on her underarm and torso area?

 

Memorable Dialog

 

try to keep your voice down.mp3

I don't appreciate your language.mp3

Cooper flew the coop.mp3

this is the chair.mp3

what happens in season two.mp3

apologies in advance.mp3

I am not your foot.mp3 

 

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