BOB's Light And Voice: FWWM
There are several moments in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me that see Laura Palmer bathed in white pulsating light. This light is never explained, though the film script seems to tie the light to BOB. It accompanies him as he speaks, though BOB's dialogue is mostly deleted from the theatrical edit.
One of the most horrific scenes in the film begins with Laura resting in bed. She sees a white, flickering light suddenly envelop her room, almost like an electrical storm, and she begins to stir and writhe, anticipating BOB's arrival. This seems to indicate she knows the light to accompany BOB.
 |
In the script, there are two scenes where Laura speaks to BOB on the stairs beneath the ceiling fan. I believe footage from the first stairway scene appears in The Missing Pieces, though it is heavily edited. At various conventions and festival appearances, Sheryl Lee has mentioned a scene in Fire Walk With Me she had difficulty performing.
From the 2011 Twin Peaks Fest Q&A,
"There was this scene in Fire Walk With Me in the staircase, where I come up the stairs, and there's a fan spinning, and BOB starts talking to me. And I was doing the scene and doing the scene, and we have these compasses within us as actors, like your instincts or your sixth sense, that can help you find the truth or the voice of that character. And we have these little buttons over here (she raises a hand beside her face) that are like our bullshit detectors. And mine was going, (she makes an alarm sound three times, opening and closing her fist) and I kept doing the scene and my, you know, alarms going off and going off, and I kept getting more, and more, more frustrated with myself. And it's just me by myself hearing voices, and I was just in this downward spiral creativity because I kept saying to David, "I can't find the truth. Something's missing. Something's not right. I feel like I'm lying." And he said, "No. No. It's fine." But I said again, "No. I really, I feel like I'm lying. And it's painful." And so, he says, "let's take a break. You go in your trailer and meditate for 20 minutes, and I'll go in my trailer and meditate for 20 minutes, and then we'll talk about what we discovered", and the scene was re-written after we each took our break. And we reconvened and talked about what we had discovered."
Ms. Lee states that the scene was rewritten, giving us a reason for the scene not matching the script, but the scene as it is presented in The Missing Pieces has obvious signs of digital manipulation. Laura's pupils rapidly increase and decrease in size. BOB's lines of dialogue are from other scenes in the script. The Missing Pieces also contain a short scene that suggests Laura is viewing a meeting above the convenience store. I believe this is also a recent creation - one made when the footage was revisited. The final cut of the film and a promotional still might suggest the tone of the original scene.
In issue #8 of Wrapped in Plastic Magazine, Frank Silva said the following when asked about deleted scenes from Fire Walk With Me,
"Another thing I noticed from the last time I saw it, is that Bob talks to Laura a lot. You hear Bob's voice talking to Laura: "I want to be you, I want to taste through your mouth" that kind of stuff. The first time I saw it I just heard it that one time when she's in the hallway, below the ceiling fan. I noticed that there was more stuff [where] Bob was speaking to Laura. I never picked up on that the first time I saw it."
The theatrical cut contains only one scene of BOB speaking to Laura, as Mr. Silva stated. We can see brief flashes of light at this time. The Missing Pieces elongates the same scene beneath the fan. The scripted scene below must be the one we partially see in The Missing Pieces because it is followed by Sarah asking Laura if she's seen her blue sweater.
118. INT. THE STAIRWAY - DAY
The fan turns slowly as Laura goes up the stairs.
BOB'S VOICE
Laura.
Laura's head snaps around.
LAURA
No... No, go away.
BOB'S VOICE
I'm glad you let me talk to you. You
used to not let me talk to you.
LAURA
Go away. I am not talking to you.
BOB'S VOICE
I want you.
My transcript of the scene as it appears in the film,
Laura ascends the stairs. She suddenly looks up, hearing something.
BOB
You see what we can do?
Laura
No. No.
(BOB breathes heavily.)
BOB
I want to taste through your mouth.
Laura's mouth slowly spreads in a grin as her unseeing eyes focus on the ceiling. Lights flash around her. Intense music is heard along with BOB's voice, his murmurs and yells reminiscent of a dog's bark.
The following is the second moment from the script with a scene under the ceiling fan. This scene may never have been filmed or was entirely omitted from the film.
184. INT. THE PALMER HOUSE, FAN AND STAIRS - NIGHT
THE FAN SPINNING
Then - THE FAN'S POV down on Laura entering the stairwell. We drift
down on Laura.
BOB'S VOICE
I want to kill thru you.
Laura stops cold on the stairway.
LAURA
(looking up)
No.
BOB'S VOICE
I want you to kill _for_me_.
LAURA
No. Never. You'll have to kill me.
BOB'S VOICE
I want you to kill _for_me_.
ECU: LAURA
Laura looking up petrified.
When Laura is at Party Land/The Pink Room she is aware of Donna being given a drugged beer, and actually encourages her to drink it. Laura parts from Donna and speaks with Ronette Pulaski and Jacques Renault. She becomes lost in the atmosphere, in a haze of sex and drugs and deafeningly loud music. In a booth with Ronette, her friend the same as wakes her, asking in disbelief if a partially undressed girl she sees is Donna Hayward. A white light overwhelms Laura. She is shaken from the spell and races toward Donna, pushing away Tommy, Buck's accomplice. Laura quickly, and with Jacques's aid, removes Donna from the building.
From the script,
Ronette looks over Laura's shoulder.
RONETTE
Shit, is that Donna Hayward?
Laura looks across the rug through dancing legs and sees Donna's head
tilted way back with some NEW COWBOY on top of her.
136. CONTINUED: (2)
CLOSEUP: LAURA'S FACE
Seeing Donna.
BOB'S VOICE
SEE WHAT WE CAN DO TO
DONNA?
LAURA
(screaming)
NO! GOD, NO...
The white light we see is again tied to BOB's scripted dialogue.
My theory is that BOB was working through Laura's clothes. Donna had previously tied around her waist a jacket belonging to Laura. Though barely audible (it was not given subtitles) Laura rips her jacket from Donna's waist and tells Donna not to wear her things. The next day, Donna asks Laura about the previous night and if Laura was mad at her for wearing her clothes. Laura tells her, "All my things have me in them. I don't want you to be like me." This is one theory as to how BOB's words, "you see what we can do to do Donna" can make sense. More is written about this theory here.
Another scene with unexplained white light occurs after Laura recalls the faces of those she's seen wearing the Owl Cave ring. In the theatrical cut, we see Laura look toward the ceiling and seemingly speak to herself, asking, "Who are you? Who are you really?" We see a flashing light on the ceiling, but the scene is without BOB's dialogue.
The same scene from the script,
162. INT. LAURA'S BEDROOM
LAURA
(to herself)
The same ring...
Laura is jolted by Bob's Voice.
BOB'S VOICE
That's not important. I will tell you
what is important. The fan will soon be
starting.
LAURA
Who are you? Who are you REALLY?
BOB'S VOICE (continued)
I am the One who wants to breathe thru
your nose and taste thru your mouth.
Notice that this is when BOB is scripted as saying the line he says in the hallway in the film and The Missing Pieces. "I want to breathe thru your nose and taste thru your mouth." The other dialogue could have easily been removed in the editing process. The "I" sounds separate from the "want." It doesn't flow as it would naturally in speech. Another line, "You see what we can do" was said in the dialogue concerning Donna at Party Land.
It is interesting that when BOB refers to himself as, "the One" the word is capitalized, as though a title, bringing to mind that Laura has also been deemed, "the One." What we hear as we see the ceiling in the finished film is the static of electricity.
When Laura begs Jacques to not tie her up, Ronette attempts to help before she is restrained by Leo. BOB/Leland has been watching from the window, and a flashing light fills the room. Laura's eyes briefly search the room and then land on the window, almost as if she knows to look for him. This is perhaps because of the light known to accompany BOB.
Each time BOB speaks to Laura, it seems to take her by surprise. She usually looks up as though BOB is speaking to her from the ceiling, the dancing light representing him. This makes me wonder if, in a few scenes where Laura seems to be looking at the picture of the angels on her wall, she may have once held a dialogue with BOB instead.
Judging by the remoteness and closeness of the shots containing the painting, and the absence of angels in the script, there is a possibility that the angels were a late addition to the film. Though there is no accompanying light, you'll notice that when she speaks in these moments she usually looks to or directs her question to the same corner of the room as she does with BOB. The close-shots of the painting details seem odd, misplaced. This idea may seem ridiculous, but it's included in this post because there is a chance it could be a possibility.
In The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, Laura mentions a light that pours from BOB's mouth and eyes.
From page 73 of the diary,
"He knows this because the place is miles from any source of light other than that which pours sometimes, so clearly in my memory, from his lips and eyes - the very light stolen from within me."
Though
perhaps unconnected, there is an image of a being similar to BOB or the
woodsmen of season three pictured in the Welcome to Twin Peaks: Access Guide to the Town. Perhaps the whites of his eyes are lights.
In episode 14 (Lonely Souls, 2.007), a white light appears to exit BOB's mouth. Though we see BOB interposed with Leland, Leland seems to be gaining some control, crying as he holds Maddy's body. BOB throws back his head, the light escapes, and he seemingly gains full power over Leland as his next move is to murder Maddy. The way he says, "Leland says you're going back to Missoula, Montana!" makes it sound as though it is BOB speaking through Leland as a puppet.
Note that the white lights leaves in a long, almost cloud or spirit-like form. Then, as it reenters, it seems to become a small white orb near BOB's ear.
Is the white light we see in episode 14, BOB absorbing Leland and/or Maddy's pain? Is it BOB reasserting power? 
In episode 16 (2.009, Arbitrary Love), after Leland dies, Cooper, Albert, Harry, and Major Briggs question BOB's existence. Harry says, "If he was real. If he was here and we had him, trapped, and he got away ... where is Bob now?" After the question is asked our view changes to someone's perspective, a being moving quickly through the underbrush of the woods. We see a bright white light of a crevice or portal, and a brightly lit owl emerge from the heart of the light, suggesting, in my opinion, that we're seeing BOB as he possesses or takes the form of an owl. The answer to Harry's question. BOB is real and he escaped.
In the next episode, episode 17 (2.010, Dispute Between Brothers), we see white light accompany Major Briggs' disappearance from the woods. A cloaked figure is seen by Cooper with this light.
There are many instances of flashing lights in Twin Peaks, most notable, however, is the light of the Black Lodge. The angels that appear to Laura and Ronette are also oddly accompanied by flashing light. The light at times seems tied to electricity. What this means is impossible to know for certain.
Comments
Post a Comment