What Dr. Jacoby Heard: Alternative Dialogue on Laura's Cassette

While reading scripts, I came across information that regards different versions of Laura's last cassette tape for Dr. Jacoby. This post also covers alternate dialogue from a rough cut, and Jacoby once having heard the message that later appears in the form of a diary page.

The script for episode one (1.001, Traces to Nowhere) has additional dialogue from Laura in the form of a cassette she made for Dr. Jacoby. The scripted recording is different from what we hear in the final episode, but that does not mean the alternate dialogue was not recorded.

Twin Peaks Archive shared details of a rough cut of episode 7 (1.007, Realization Time). The cassette Donna, Maddy, and James listen to in this cut contains dialogue that better matches the episode script and the cassette from episode one. 

The rough cut as transcribed by Twin Peaks Archive:

Laura:
Hey, what's up, doc? It's Laura Palmer in case you haven't guessed. It's Thursday the twenty-third, and I'm so bored. Actually, I'm in kind of a weird mood. I just know I'm going to get lost in those woods again tonight. Remember me telling you about the mystery man? Well, his name is... well I don't think I want to tell you that yet. But I think I'm going to see him tonight. Little Red Corvette. I'm gonna tell James I can't see him anymore. He's so good to me, it makes me wanna scream. I know if I stay with him that I'm just gonna wanna drag him down. Makes me sick. Someday I might tell you all my secrets. Thank you for trying to help me, Lawrence. Etcetera, etcetera...

Televised Version:

Laura:
"Hey, what's up, Doc? It's Laura, in case you haven't guessed. It's Thursday, the 23rd, and I'm so bored. Actually, I'm in kind of a weird mood. God, James is sweet, but he's so dumb. And right now, I can only take so much of sweet. Hey, remember that Mystery Man I told you about? Well, if I tell you his name then you're gonna be in trouble... He wouldn't be such a Mystery Man, but you might be history, man. I think a couple of times he's tried to kill me. But guess what? As you know, I sure got off on it. (Laughs) Isn't sex weird? This guy can really light my F.I.R.E, as in red Corvette. Uh-oh, here comes Mom with milk and cookies. Later, Lawrence. Bye-bye."

In the episode, James states, "Jacoby didn't kill her. He was trying to help her." James is guessing this based on the dialogue we hear. However, in the rough cut, Laura explicitly says, "Thank you for trying to help me, Lawrence." After hearing the tape, Donna rushes to James. Embracing him, she apologizes. He says, "It's okay. I'm glad I heard her say it. I might have gone my whole life." In the televised episode, James only hears Laura say that he's sweet but dumb. If we take into account what Laura says to James the last time she sees him, in Fire Walk With Me, one would think what she says would not come as a surprise. 

Note that in both cuts, Laura mentions a red Corvette. In the rough cut, Laura seems to further tie the Mystery Man to Leo Johnson by saying she thinks she's going to see him tonight. In the televised episode, she seems to tie fire to Leo Johnson. She also says she thinks the Mystery Man tried to kill her, which wouldn't be a question if tied to the third man, BOB.

The cassette Jacoby listens to in episode one has Laura speaking with more emotion than in the cassette James, Maddy, and Donna listen to in episode seven. It was either an alternate take or Sheryl Lee had to record another version. 

Episode One

"Hey, what's up, Doc? It's Laura Palmer, in case you haven't guessed. I'm making you another one of these tapes. Which, as you already know, I've mailed to you in one of the envelopes you gave me. It's Thursday, the 23rd, and I'm so bored. Actually, I'm in kind of a weird mood. God, James is sweet, but he's so dumb. I should have met you a long time ago, Dr. Jacoby, because, right now, I can take just so of sweet. I just know I'm going to get lost in those woods again tonight. I just know it. Remember me telling you about that Mystery Man? Well..."

Episode Seven

"Hey, what's up, Doc? It's Laura, in case you haven't guessed. It's Thursday, the 23rd, and I'm so bored. Actually, I'm in kind of a weird mood. God, James is sweet, but he's so dumb. And right now, I can only take so much of sweet. Hey, remember that Mystery Man I told you about? Well, if I tell you his name then you're gonna be in trouble... He wouldn't be such a Mystery Man, but you might be history, man. I think a couple of times he's tried to kill me. But guess what? As you know, I sure got off on it. (Laughs) Isn't sex weird? This guy can really light my F.I.R.E, as in red Corvette. Uh-oh, here comes Mom with milk and cookies. Later, Lawrence. Bye-bye."

You can hear both tapes in the video above. 

The script almost seems to suggest the dialogue from episode one, as heard by Jacoby, was at one time present on the cassette heard by James, Donna, and Maddy, judging by the large space of omitted dialogue seen in the photo of the script below. 

Laura's dialogue above matches with the message from the cassette from episode one, which preceded her dream of the Black Lodge. 

In the script for episode one, the cassette Jacoby listens to has additional dialogue that is very compelling, as a similar recounting of the same dream will appear much later in the series.

                             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 ...

    

He reaches into his desk and takes out a pair of headphones, which he puts on.

    

LAURA'S VOICE (CONTINUED)

I was in this strange room and there was this

little man and this other older man I'd never seen

before either, but they both seemed to know me

... there was music ... and I was telling all my

secrets to the older man ...

He plugs the headphones in and we no longer hear her voice. As he listens and chomps on the milkballs, his face registers a whole gamut of emotions.

In the aired episode, Jacoby seems to react to more than the dialogue we hear later, "Hey, remember that Mystery Man I told you about? Well, if I tell you his name then you're gonna be in trouble... He wouldn't be such a Mystery Man, but you might be history, man."

The only draft that is widely available of the episode seven script has Laura deliver wandering, repetitive dialogue, that, as Twin Peaks Archive shared, was later rectified.

The entire cassette recording from the script for episode seven:

                                            LAURA'S VOICE
Hey, what's up, doc? Ha-ha ... it's Thursday afternoon about four o'clock and I'm so bored I'm making you another tape on this pretty little tape recorder you gave me ... and as you probably already noticed, I'm gonna mail it to you in one of the ugly little plain envelopes 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 ...

24. OMITTED

25. INT.    HAYWARD DINING ROOM - NIGHT (23 CONTINUED)

A phone rings. Laura stops the tape. The phone's answered somewhere upstairs. She starts the tape again. 

                                     LAURA'S VOICE
                                          (emotional)
... I don't know ... I'm nervous about meeting James tonight ... I don't know what to tell him, how to explain it to him ... he's been so sweet, so kind to me, no one's ever been so nice to me before ... James ... I have to tell him, I'm going to see him tonight, I have to tell him, don't you think that's right? ... I can't see him any more, because it's like I told you, he's so good to me I can't stand it, it makes me want to scream sometimes ... he doesn't know what I'm like, what I'm really like or what I really want ... and I know if I stay with him any longer I'm going to want to drag him down ... all that .... goodness ...

James inhales sharply, as it struck by a blow. Donna, tears silently falling, moves to turn off the tape. James stops her. Madeleine watches the two of them, wide-eyed.

                                      LAURA'S VOICE
                                         (CONTINUED)
... it  ... I want to get crazy again. It's like you told me once; bad habits are like a magnet ... and I want to be pulled down ... (hums) ... "little red corvette" ... I wish I could talk to you more in person ... I think if we can talk more someday I might tell you all my secrets ... thank you for trying to help me, Lawrence, et. cetera, et cetera ... 

Note that Laura was written as humming Prince's Little Red Corvette. 

This dialogue Jacoby hears in the script for episode one is similar to the contents of the message later found at the Tremond apartment in episode 16 (Arbitrary Law, 2.009), 

                                                DONNA
                          (reading with sadness, disbelief)
February 21st. Last night I had the strangest dream. I was in a red room with a small man dressed in red and an old man, sitting in a chair.

Cooper reacts. He had the same dream. Laura, the midget, forgotten secrets whispered in his ear.

                                              DONNA
                                        (CONTINUED) 

I tried to talk to him. I wanted to tell him who Bob is because I thought he could help me. But my words came out slow and odd. It was so frustrating trying to talk. I got up and walked over to the old man. Like I was going to kiss him. Then I leaned over and whispered the secret in his ear. I told him everything. (beat) Somebody has to stop Bob. Bob's only afraid of one man. He told me once. A man named Mike. I wonder if this was Mike in my dream. Even if it was only a dream, I hope he heard me. No one in the real world would believe me.

It is unknown why the writers decided to omit the dialogue detailing Laura's dream of the Black Lodge and change her form of communicating the message from a cassette recording to a page from her diary.