Dr. Jacoby, Flesh World, and Videotapes
During a recent viewing of Twin Peaks season one, episode one (1.001, Traces to Nowhere), my sister noted that the previously on recap pointed to Dr. Jacoby as a potential suspect for the then-unknown third person who accompanied Donna and Laura on their picnic. You can see this recap at the one-minute and thirty-six seconds mark on this YouTube compilation.
In the televised episode, we discover it was James Hurley who filmed Laura and Donna's picnic. The recap is a red herring. However, information from the scripts has made me wonder if an earlier idea may have involved Dr. Jacoby giving Laura her video camera and/or his possibly being a part of Laura and Ronette's Flesh World transactions. This hypothesis is not well-founded and is based mainly on speculation. I am hesitant to post it for this reason. Please know I view this post as a supposition.
The key that connects events in my mind is the mention of plain brown envelopes. They are tied to Jacoby, though one is later connected to the mail sent to Flesh World Magazine by Ronette Pulaski - or the mail that was sent on her behalf.
The script for season one, episode one (1.001, Traces to Nowhere) is the first to mention plain envelopes:
(of
Jacoby) He picks up his mail and sifts through it, continuing to dance.
He stops suddenly when he comes across a slightly bulky plain manilla envelope. He opens the envelope and finds a single audio cassette tape, without a case. Written on the cartridge are the words ...
"TO DR. JACOBY, WITH LOVE, LAURA"
Overcome
with amazement, he instantly turns off the stereo, punches eject,
removes the tape that was playing, inserts Laura's tape and hits play.
LAURA'S VOICE
(from the tape)
Hey, what's up, doc? Ha-ha ...
it's Thursday afternoon about
four o'clock and I'm so bored
I'm making you this tape on the
pretty little tape recorder you
gave me ...
We hear background noises on the tape; ambient sound from a department store.
Dr. Jacoby nervously starts eating malted milkballs from a bowl on his desk, crunching them in a single bite.
LAURA'S VOICE.
(CONTINUED)
... and as you probably already.
noticed, I'm gonna mail it to you in.
the ugly little plain envelope you gave
me ... for, what was the word you
used? confidentiality's sake' ... this is
kind of fun ... first, you're always
bugging me to tell you what my
dreams are -- let me tell you about this
one I had last night: it was a doozy ...
The
scene above was filmed but partially deleted. Laura's dialogue is different in the televised episode,
though there is a possibility that the scripted dialogue was recorded. Twin Peaks Archive was fortunate enough to view rough cuts of episodes six and seven (1.006, Cooper's Dreams and 1.007, Realization Time), containing different dialogue. Though they heard a cassette different from the one just mentioned (it was a different scene), the audio they described is closer to the dialogue in the episode seven script than what we hear in the televised episode. There is a chance the same applies here. In the commentary for the first season DVD, more than one source states that
the first season had months of post-production before the episodes were
set to air. There is a possibility ideas were changed. Why were the plain envelopes mentioned if they were of no importance? It almost seems like a clue that would have been of importance later in the series.
The deleted scene of Jacoby receiving Laura's cassette in the mail.
Another envelope is mentioned in season one, episode five (1.005, The One-Armed Man),
From the script,
He turns to the page in question. There's an
opened envelope between the pages, with a letter inside. Cooper
carefully removes the envelope.
TRUMAN
We traced that ad. Came into the magazine in a plain envelope, no name -
COOPER
Here's how it works. The magazine's a clearing house. Readers write letters in response to ads and send them into the magazine, then the magazine mails those letters on to the advertiser. No direct contact.
(shows him the envelope)
Ronette received her letters at this P.O. Box.
TRUMAN
That's a local zip code.
COOPER
My guess is this P.O. box will be registered in the name of Jacques Renault. Let's see who was writing to Ronette. Post marked Georgia.
Ronette and Laura may have taken a cue from Jacoby in employing the use of plain envelopes for their Flesh World transactions. There is also the possibility that an earlier, abandoned storyline saw Jacoby working with the girls. Jacoby knew both sides of Laura. There is no reason why she would she have to hide her connection to Flesh World from him.
Though thinking of Jacoby being involved in such a scheme may sound implausible, Jacoby does have a darker side to his character, an unscrupulous undercurrent that occasionally surfaces. This aspect of Jacoby is not always addressed, probably because of his charmingly eccentric personality and behavior. Like Ben Horne, we don't always want to see bad in a character who is otherwise likable. The scripts are, in my opinion, layered materials. They were rewritten many times, with new additions not always totally eradicating the past. Remnants remain in some scripts. Such as a character's name listed and given dialogue, though they do not appear again in the same scene. In many cases, the scripts were written as the episodes were filmed. Stories were bound to undergo some change. Mr. Lynch's amendments are well known.
In the scripts and The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, Jacoby is said to have given Laura a tape recorder to record cassette tapes for him. (The thought of a therapist giving their patient an expensive gift is in itself considered highly unethical by many.) There is always the possibility that in an earlier idea, Jacoby may have given or loaned Laura the video camera as well as, or instead of, the tape player with the hope she would record videos of herself for him. This comes to mind because of the previously mentioned introduction and how Jacoby is later a recipient of a videotape, tying to the notion he may have once somehow been connected to the camera. Or perhaps Jacques and Leo would use their cabin in the woods to film the young girls. It had a film camera aimed at an area with a backdrop. Even if the camera wasn't given by Jacoby, receiving videos from Laura may have been commonplace. It seems strange that the video camera has only one video we ever see and that is of Donna, James and Laura's picnic. As an aside, it feels like an missed opportunity. Sheryl Lee could have made other appearances as Laura on different tapes.
In The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, Laura mentions recording tapes for those who reply to her ad in Flesh World. "I told her [Ronette] to make a little ad, saying you'll send naughty
tapes, panties, and pictures for a simple fee . . . etc., etc."
James and Donna record a video of Maddy Ferguson posing as Laura to lure Jacoby out of his office. In the script, James and Donna were originally going to play portions of Laura's cassette over the phone for Jacoby. This seems to be why, though Maddy could have said anything on the phone as Laura, her lines match almost word-for-word with Laura's cassette tape. The dialogue for the original idea remained intact though actions were changed.
In season one, episode six, Donna and James deliver the videotape of Maddy as Laura to Jacoby's office in a plain brown envelope. They must have known he had Laura deliver her cassettes to him in similar envelopes, though the dialogue of her saying this was not heard on the cassette they listen to in the televised episode. Jacoby's eyes soften seeing the envelope and tape, almost as if in recognition.
Note that the film Lost Highway features the delivery of home-recorded VHS tapes in unaddressed manila envelopes. This indicates the idea, as utilized in Twin Peaks, may have been made by David Lynch. It is also interesting how video tapes are tied to pornography in Lost Highway. Alice/Renee is involved in such videos by means of Dick Laurent. A menacing character called The Mystery Man also records videos with a home video recorder and is connected to Dick Laurent. (Note how the title Mystery Man is tied to Jacoby in the Twin Peaks universe. Laura mentions him on a recording made for the doctor.)
It is indisputable that Jacoby's conduct was highly unethical. If he was so unscrupulous as to sleep with his clients, at least one of whom was underage, it is not too difficult to believe that he may have once been connected to other illicit deeds in an earlier concept of his character.
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