Non-Exist-ENT
One of my favorite moments in the series so far is the spine-tingling shot of the shocked, coal-faced man in black occupying the third cell of Buckhorn Jail two doors down from poor Bill Hastings. The camera lingers on him just long enough to terrify us before the figure dissipates into nothing--nothing, that is, but the figure's spectral head, which then floats off into the ether, assuring that none of us will ever get a good night's rest again. This image has puzzled me more than just about any other (with the notable exception of the "Alien Ace" that Mr. C. shows to Daria just before he kills her, but I'll get to that later), because I couldn't locate a precedent for it anywhere in the series. As I pondered who this could be, the hat suddenly stood out; I thought to myself, "He looks vaguely like he's wearing a mountain man get-up, sort of a Daniel Boonish sort of thing." No sooner had that thought crossed my mind than I remembered all the Lewis and Clark stuff at the beginning of Frost's The Secret History of Twin Peaks. That led to an excited Startpage search of "Lewis and Clark", which brought up a bunch of photos of clean-shaven 19th-century-ish men, necessitating a much dicier search of "Bearded Lewis and Clark", which brought up--among many other treats--the following shot of some guy who played Lewis (maybe Clark?) in Manifest Destiny: The Lewis and Clark Musical Adventure. "Bingo!," I thought, reaching for my trusty Photoshop Mix app in order to create the following piece of compelling forensic evidence... Hot on the heels of this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, it occurred to me that there must be some connection between South Dakota and Lewis and Clark, so back to Startpage. In nanoseconds, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a hit for the Lewis and Clark Recreation Area in...where's that you say?...NONE OTHER THAN YANKTON, SOUTH DAKOTA where our man Ray is allegedly doing time in the big house for weapon smuggling. Coincidence? I doubt it! Something tells me headless specter Lewis has some unfinished business in Yankton. What do you think?
4 Comments
Electric Chimp
5/24/2017 05:47:30 pm
Might this be the same character as or a nod to FWWM's "the woodsman" in a rocking chair from above the convenience store? Illustrative of BOB-like possession scenarios by other Another Place denizens.
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Jim
5/25/2017 11:28:07 am
Attempt #2: I was struck by this as well, and it generated a couple thoughts. The first was my immediate reaction, in that this was another Another Place occupant, ending a possession stint having committed gristly acts that the possessee does not remember except as detached yet deeply resonant sinking-feeling dread. Once caught and the memory membrane begins to rupture, the possessor returns to Another Place with Garmonbozia. The second is re: the woodsman in FWWM's Another Place above the convenience store. The same spirit? Connected to Lewis & Clark era? Or merely the negative aspect of the Log Lady's husband?
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Excellent. There's no doubt that the dark visitor is there as a harbinger of Hastings' imminent unraveling, but I hadn't considered the possibility of a departure with a bellyful of fresh Garmonbozia. I also hadn't thought about the potential woodsman connection. This is one of my favorite features of Twin Peaks: the endlessly fecund underdetermination of it all. So many resonant possibilities, all of them interesting to ponder, none of them obviously enough the correct one that it would discourage consideration of the others.
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Mr. RoqueMonitoring the situation from a well-designed chair somewhere in Grand Rapids, MI Archives
August 2021
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