Twin Peaks Pilot Notes

This post contains notes made during my most recent viewing of Twin Peaks (August 2019). There will be several moments copy-pasted from the script. Much of this is supposition. No great thought is applied. I have notebooks of notes, usually full of similar thoughts and questions. 

Warning: Contains spoilers for later episodes of the series and the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.  
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• Two moments that were meant to be inconsequential in the script seem to have been filmed and used for other purposes. The meadowlark may be the varied thrush we see in the opening credits. The traffic light may have become one of  many iconic images tied to the series. 
  
  In DARKNESS the sound of a meadowlark's song.
  FADE IN:
  THE MEADOWLARK
  The bright eye and beak of the bird, backlit by the first light of the rising sun
  
  Where Sparkwood Road meets Highway "21", a traffic light cycles from green to yellow to red.
  
  
• 
  David Lynch's reflection appears in the glass of the Sheriff's Department. 
  
  
  
  We can also see the reflection of the filming crew when Truman enters his police cruiser. 
  
  
  
  
  

• EXT. GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL - DAWN
  An imposing granite structure overlooks the city from high on White Tail
  Mountain, one of the Twin Peaks.

The Great Northern was originally meant to be on one of the mountains - the twin peaks. The mountains were in the pilot the source of darkness, the area that later became the woods. In the pilot script dated December 7th, 1988, Laura and Ronette were taken to a "mountainside cave" instead of the train car. One instantly thinks of Owl Cave and the image of a mountainside cave on Hawk's map in The Return. 

• EXT. PACKARD SAWMILL - DAWN
  A massive industrial structure on the south shore of Black Lake.

Does the Packard Sawmill's location near Black Lake indicate Laura's body may have originally washed ashore outside the mill - not necessarily The Blue Pine Lodge? Even in the series, Harry tells Lucy to have Doc Hayward meet him at the Packard Mill. "The dock right below the dam."

• GIOVANNA PASQUALINI PACKARD, a beautiful woman in her thirties, wearing a
  silk negligee, sits at a vanity table, combing her hair, lost in a dreamy state of
  mind. From outside, she hears Pete's pick-up drive off, turns to look out the
  bedroom's large picture window.

Is this what originally caused Josie to turn from the mirror instead of the front door closing?

• He (Pete) jumps across a gap of dark, oil-slicked water onto the
  edge of a cabled log-raft. He steps cautiously across the shiny, barkless logs,
  slowing as he approaches what it was that caught his eye ...

Connected to the scorched engine oil and mysterious liquid Margaret's husband found and jarred?

• They make their way down the wooden steps to the log raft. Waiting there are
  Pete, his wife Katherine and Giovanna Packard, wearing a coat over a brocade
  bathrobe, her beautiful hair and make-up in stark contrast to the harsh
  surroundings.

In this version, Catherine and Josie do go to the shore rather than stay near the house, looking onward.

• She (Sarah) goes into Laura's room. Notices for the first time that the window is open and
  the lace curtains are blowing in the breeze.

The window is not open in the series. Note that BOB often entered through Laura's bedroom window in The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. He also did so in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

• When we see the first close-up of the celling fan, it is accompanied by a high-pitched sound. It reminds me of a person running their finger along the inside of a frosted glass piece, as in a bowl. It's a light, cold, airy sound.
  
  
• In the series, we see fire before we hear Ben say, "Are they ready to sign?" Hinting that fire is connected to Ben. Leland is there as well of course, but it is Ben we hear.
  
  
• Leland's mouth is not moving when we hear his voice say, "You're not even going to mention that we have not as yet acquired access to the Packard land?"
  
  
• When Julie approaches Leland, she says, "Your wife is on the phone again." Did Sarah call  before on the same day? 
  
  
• Note the menacing black dog by a fireplace in the Great Northern.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• 
  

INT. BOBBY'S CAR - MORNING

Bobby climbs in behind the wheel and starts the car. They look around for a

moment, make sure no one is watching them, then kiss hotly.

SHELLY

 I was thinkin' about you.

 BOBBY

 Yeah?

 SHELLY

 All night.

 (she caresses him intimately)

 BOBBY

 All right.

He steps on it and peels out of the parking lot.

This additional dialogue may have been filmed. The televised scene ends with their kiss.

• Audrey appears to blow smoke in Donna's hair as she passes her. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• James is drawing or writing on his desk when his name is called.
  
  
  
  
  
• The patches on the jackets worn by the officers who visit the school read "Washington State Patrol".
  
  
• Silence fills the schoolroom with the knowledge of Laura's death. A sound similar to that of electricity or wind. Edit: I've since read in Andreas Halskov's TV Peaks: Twin Peaks and the Modern Television Drama that David Lynch himself made the noise meant to sound like wind. 

• The students behind Audrey, Donna and James do not seem to react to the news of Laura's death. It is almost as if time has stopped.
  
  
• The pencil in James' hand doesn't appear to snap. He seems to push it through the grip of his fingers. We hear it fall to the floor. 

• Stair music plays in mute refrain at 28:49, as Sarah tells Sheriff Truman she saw Laura going up those stairs. This is when Sarah is under a sedative.

• Laura's video camera was on her closet shelf in the script. In the series, it's on a desk by her bed in a box.

• Stair music plays again with the first close up of Nadine at 35:30.

• Dale does not use a seat belt.
  
  
• 'Dale can't think of Ronette's name  - or doesn't care to mention it - but the tuna fish on whole wheat and the cherry pie are significant enough to recall and mention to Diane. He refers to Ronette, Laura and even Donna once simply as "girl". "James, step away from the girl."  "Doctor, how's the girl." "Any connection to the dead girl?"

• Note that in the script, Ronette was 'pulled off' one of the mountains, an area which housed evil. In the series, Dale refers to Ronette as the "girl that crawled down the railroad tracks off the mountain."  In the televised version, Ronette seems to be coming from the direction of the mountains.

• Dance of the Dream Man plays very quietly in the background as Cooper and Truman meet for the first time. 37:35 - 37:55. I can hear it in only one headphone.

• They enter an office, past a stationed POLICEMAN. Janek and his wife, MARIA PULASKI, and two of their other CHILDREN sit on a bench by the door. 
  
  The ending credits suggest this scene was filmed. 
  
  
• Ronette's mother's first name is later changed to Suburbis in the series.

• Ronette's parents were supposed to be outside her door in the script. The scripted scene is much like the scene from episode one (1.001, Traces to Nowhere) where Hawk spots Phillip Gerard/Mike going to the hospital morgue. 

• In the televised episode, Ronette's parents are absent and she is an open area not a private room.
  
  
• When Harry tells Dale there is no connection between Laura and Ronette, Dale shows disappointment. An indication that his previous case(s) with the culprit yielded such information.

• "Don't go there. Don't go there," Ronette's lines. Waldo's lines.

• Why does Dale speak to Diane before he has securely collected evidence? The tiny piece of paper from under Laura's nail is clasped between the tweezers and could easily be dropped and possibly never found again. Dale had to use a magnifier to see it.
  
  
•  

COOPER
Laura Palmer. Got here before the autopsy. It's the same thing, Diane, told you I had a feeling we'd see this again.

STEADMAN
What've you got there?

COOPER
Ring finger. Under the nail. Let's see what he
left us.  

• "Was she raped?" First thing Cooper asks.

"Several times," is Doctor Shelvy's answer.

"One perpetrator?" When Cooper asks this, he acts as though he knows what to look for. Truman takes note and even looks at him. It almost makes me wonder if an earlier draft or idea involved more than one previous victim. 

At another point, the script reads, "Cooper picks up left hand, looks closely at the wrists, sees the

distinctive wounds and a look of intense interest comes over him. He immediately

looks very closely at her fingernails." This seems to be another indication Cooper knew what to look for.

• Why didn't Cooper examine Laura's body more thoroughly? He seems to have only checked her nails.
  
  
• The letters are under the 'ring' finger.
  
  
• Dale uses Laura's body as a table. 
  
  
• Cooper's behavior and appearance is briefly unnerving and sinister while in the morgue. 
  
  
  
  
  

• "It reads (his voice lowers, as though there is a cut) asparagus for dinner again. I hate asparagus. Does this mean I'll never grow up?"
  
  In the script:
  "Cloudy. Sort of giddy. Not even cautiously
  optimistic. Day Eighteen. Eight o'clock.
  Asparagus for dinner again. I hate asparagus.
  Does this mean I'll never grow up?"
  
  This dialogue is in the actual prop diary, which also contains additional dialogue from the script. You can read the page here.
  
  
• Harry says, "Mr. Cooper, you didn't know Laura Palmer." He refrains from calling him agent at this moment. 
  

• The state troopers are outside the train car with the dogs because the dogs have trailed Ronette's scent.
  
  
• We hear thunder when Andy is outside the train car calling Lucy. It is almost overwhelming from 48:54 to 49:04. A low, foreboding sound. It is raining and we'd previously heard thunder, but I have to wonder if the sound is meant more as a sound effect to enforce a sense of dread.

• James Hurley sits on a rock. His eyes red, his face torn with grief. He holds a small envelope in one hand. His other hand holds something protectively in a closed fist.
  
  What was in the envelope?

• Disturbing sounds before the train car is shown. One sound reminds me of the animalistic cry in The One-Armed Man's Theme.
  

• "Diane, here's something we haven't seen before." (Said of the dirt mound.) If there was only one other victim, why would he use these words? Also, in a later script, Teresa Banks is said to have had a dirt mound as well. I understand that in Fire Walk With Me, Agent Desmond discovers a mound beneath Teresa's trailer, but with his disappearance so goes his knowledge. The trailer and the mound beneath are nowhere to be seen by the time Agent Cooper arrives. 

• "Sheriff," Dale says, handing his flashlight to Truman. He takes his recorder out of his jacket pocket. "Diane, it's 4:10 in the afternoon at the scene of the crime. Here's something we haven't seen before, a mound of dirt approximately a foot and a half in diameter. On the top is a gold necklace with a gold heart - correction - half a gold heart. At the base of the mound of dirt is a torn piece of newsprint, written with the words, which appear to be in blood, Fire Walk With Me. Sheriff, you and I have got to find out who has the other half of that heart." The last part, after Sheriff, sounds added. Is the newsprint from an issue of Flesh World?
  
  
• Johnny Horne has bandaging on his leg. 
  
  
  
  
  

• Her husband, LEO JOHNSON, a lanky, sinewy, pallid man of thirty, pomaded hair, wearing a torn t-shirt, dirty jeans and white socks, his heavy boots nearby on the floor. He holds an open bottle of creme de menthe.

Leo's description is slightly different than that of actor Eric da Re. Strange how so much of his clothing and appearance is described when other characters do not receive the same attention. This reminds me of the image of a man standing beside his truck in Fleshworld. It is supposed to be Leo, but it doesn't look like him. Did they originally have someone else in mind for the role?

• (Leo when he finds the cigarettes in the ashtray)
  
  SHELLY
  Okay -
  
  He holds up a hand and silences her instantly.

Holding up a hand to silence someone reminds me of Cooper. How he silenced Trudy and Audrey.

• The entire sequence after Doc Hayward leaves Donna's room is not in the script. It goes immediately to Lucy.

• Julee Cruise only sings The Nightingale in the script, not Falling as she does in the series.

•                     NORMA

        Watch your back, Eddie.

Norma doesn't audibly say this to Ed when he rises to defend Donna at the Roadhouse. She does mouth, "Watch your back."

• (When James and Donna bury Laura's necklace)
  She senses that this act is about what just happened between them. With the heel of his boot, Jones digs out a shallow trench.

Was James originally named Jones? Eckhardt's assistant is named Jones.

• Barking from Bobby and Mike is not in the script. Remember that Dana Ashbrook said Lynch wanted a feral howl. It sounds as though the barks were altered to sound strange and amplified.

• Doc Hayward asks if they want forensics to come in. Harry says no, she's been in the water - but later Albert comes to Twin Peaks. After reading what very little I did about forensics in cases of a body found in water, there is no reason why forensics were not needed. Since Laura's death was recent, the idea of disregarding forensics seems unrealistic.

• Shouldn't Albert have arrived with Cooper? Surely another FBI Forensics expert could have come if Albert was busy.

• Why bring Andy to the scene of the crime instead of Hawk?

• As FWWM plays out, it does not seem as though Ronette was raped. The script of the film says otherwise.

• Ronette says, 'don't go there' when Cooper touches her - Cooper- when she was previously unresponsive. Is it because he is special or because he is a man and his touch conjures memories of the men who hurt her?
  

• When Jacoby said he was 'seeing Laura' it was meant as a doctor but also may have been meant sexually. When I first watched the episode, I automatically assumed he meant the latter.

• Harry mentions scraping Laura's nails after Cooper's looked under Ronette's nails. It sounds almost as though the dialogue was added.
  
  
• Why wouldn't the Sheriff's team have found the paper under the nail?

• Dale seems detached, thinking only of mystery.

• Why did Laura keep the cocaine and safety deposit key in the public diary? Why not hide them elsewhere, as she did the tapes for Jacoby?
  
  
• At 1:21:08 the sound of wind is thick and howling, akin to what would be used in a scene involving frigid temperatures. 

• The smile fades from Doc Hayward's face after talking to Donna in the car. Was he thinking about Laura or perhaps going to say more?
  
  
• At 1:22:07, when James says, "Donna, she said something about a guy getting killed" his words are backed by a deep, ominous note in the score, pressing the importance of this fact.

Notes for International Pilot:

• Lucy actually refers to Hawk as "Tommy "the Hawk" Hill.
  
  
• Interesting percussion at 3:01

• Cooper stops Harry from shooting BOB as Mike runs into the room.
   
• "He wants to see you and he wants to see you in this particular room",  Andy says to Cooper of Philip Michael Gerard. Why is that?
  
  
• Philip says to not turn on the overheads, the fluorescents don't work. He thinks the transformer's bad. Cooper looks at him calmly. It's almost friendly. "We know that," he says and Gerard nods. As though, "Yes. Of course you do." Philp then asks, "Wasn't Laura Palmer here earlier?" Does that mean Laura affects the lights? Does Dale? Is Philip stating that he can feel her close by? 
  
  
• BOB asks if Mike is with Cooper and Truman. When they say he isn't, BOB is disappointed, saying, "I so much wanted to sing with him again." We then hear the sound that accompanied the bird The Man From Another Place conjured behind the curtain. BOB recognizes it as Mike. His eyes search the room for him hearing it, "Mike. Mike," he calls. BOB asks Mike if he can hear him. BOB begins to either sing or recite a rhyme. The candles flicker. Mike enters, hearing him. The sound stops with the end of BOB's rhyme.
  
  
• When BOB sings the lyrics, "Heads up" you can hear what sounds like a piano key. 

• BOB's hands are filthy, covered with dirt.

• Mike reaches for his arm that isn't there after shooting BOB. As though that phantom arm feels BOB's pain.

• Truman feels helpless. He tries to aid Philip as he sees him in pain, but Cooper remains oddly unemotional. He stands stoically to the side. Unmoving. Stiff.

• 17:42. An odd note I don't recall in the magic sound while Mike rubs his hands together. It is as Laura touches the side of her nose. It makes me think of a bird call. That sound comes back, that bird sound, at 18:38
  
  
• 17:49. The little man seems to cross his eyes - almost like Annie - as he rubs his hands together in a trance - the conjuring of magic. 
  
  
• The Man From Another Place seems to gain something from touching Laura's hand. He's asking her for help. The way I read it is that he cannot accomplish the task without her help.