TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN
Go to Twin Peaks Table of Contents for a note on the analysis.
PART FIFTEEN
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LINKS TO SECTIONS OF THE ANALYSIS ON THIS PAGE:
NADINE GRANTS ED HIS DIVORCE
NORMA AND ED, TOGETHER AT LAST
MR. C VISITS PHILLIP JEFFRIES ABOVE THE CONVENIENCE STORE - The confusion of Mr. C and Cooper / Judy has already been met / Richard is Audrey's son / A different time stamp for the "Las Vegas" message
STEVEN COMMITS SUICIDE
THE GREEN GLOVE SAVES JAMES - Possible connections for ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man"
THE WRONG DOUGIE JONES - And a girl with bunny slippers
THE DEATHS OF DUNCAN AND ROGER - French fries and Gordon's French woman
LOCKING UP FREDDIE AND JAMES
HUTCH AND CHANTAL HAVE A CONVERSATION
THE ELECTRICAL OUTLET - Sunset Boulevard and Gordon Cole / Connecting this scene to the one in which Albert first goes to Diane
MARGARET'S LAST CALL
ANNOUNCING MARGARET'S DEATH
AUDREY WONDERS WHO CHARLIE IS
RUBY'S SCREAM - What it means on one level, and how, through the axolotl, it connects with the Tleilaxu of Dune
NOTE: At this point, I'm going to change how I'm structuring the analysis, simplifying it as we move into the last few chapters, and blending commentary with description of the shots in a looser manner.
NADINE GRANTS ED HIS DIVORCE
Part fifteen begins with a lovely shot of the mountains outside Twin Peaks, rising over them. Then we see Nadine walking down the highway past a place with many autos in the parking lot, and in the lot behind some Atlas Van Lines trucks. Cut to a medium close-up of her. She's smiling, and carrying one of Jacoby's golden shovels. Cut away to so where she's going. Nadine is walking on the right hand side of the road, with the traffic, we are viewing now from her perspective and we see ahead a red truck pulling into the left hand lane, facing her. A sign is between that reads "Under 21 ZERO Tolerance". Cut back to viewing Nadine and we see she is still walking down the side of the road that should be with the traffic flow, left for us now, of course, and we have cars in the right lane coming toward us when they should be moving away from us. There is a sign for Interstate 90.
Nadine
Nadine has reached her destination. We see the mountains beyond as she walks up to Big Ed's Gas Farm. She calls out to him.
The Gas Farm
NADINE: Ed!
ED: Nadine?
NADINE: Ed, I've come to tell you something.
ED: Honey, where's your car? How'd you get here?
NADINE: I walked.
ED: You walked? What's with the shovel?
NADINE: That's what I want to talk to you about.
ED: It is?
NADINE: Yes. Ed, I've come to tell you I've changed.
ED: You have?
NADINE: Yes, and Ed, you know I love you so much.
ED: I know you do, Nadine.
NADINE: But I've been a selfish bitch to you all these years, and you've been a saint.
ED: What?
NADINE: Listen to me. I've known since forever you love Norma and she loves you. I kept the two of you apart because of my jealousy. And I manipulated you, Ed.
ED: No, no, you haven't, Nadine.
NADINE: Oh, no, you know it's true.
ED: I guilted you to stay, and you're so good you stayed and gave up your love. Oh, God, Ed, I want you to be free.
[sighs softly] I'm fine now.
You asked about this shovel. Well, I'm shoveling myself out of the shit. Have you been watching that show of Jacoby's? You know I have.
ED: Nadine Don't worry about me.
NADINE: Run to her. Enjoy the rest of your lives together. I am so happy just thinking of you two being happy. Ed, I love you and always will, but true love is giving the other what makes them happy. Jeez, you big lug, how beautiful is this!
ED: Nadine, I want you to think real hard about what you're saying because you're not making any sense. Honey, tomorrow, you're gonna wish you never said these things.
NADINE: Ed, I told you, I walked all the way here. I had plenty of time to think, turn back, but I didn't because this is how I really feel.
And you can thank Dr. Amp, our old friend, Dr. Jacoby. To me, he's about the only one around here telling it like it is. So, the gist of it is: Ed, you are free. Go and enjoy.
ED: Oh.
This is a change, and we may have the feeling that story lines are beginning to be wrapped up. The good things transpiring in Las Vegas seem to have filtered some in this direction. The last time we saw Nadine was in part 13 and she was meeting Jacoby again for the first time in years, they obviously fell immediately in love. The last time we saw Ed was at the end of part 13. It was Thursday night and he was back at the gas station after seeing Norma with Walter. After telling Bobby it was no good to eat alone, he was by himself, eating two cups of soup. He stopped and stared at the window as if perplexed, and we saw his reflection was acting independently of him. He had then burned something. We didn't know what it was. But the burning had felt personal, and it felt like some kind of letting go. Because of the proximity to his having seen Norma with Walter, the feeling was had that what he had burned could have to do with Norma. But what? What was it? We have no idea and it's impossible to make a guess.
Now Nadine's letting Ed go. Are all those years Nadine's fault, as she says? Couldn't Ed have divorced her? Yet he stayed on through guilt. It doesn't matter right now who was at fault. Nadine is cutting him loose, and cutting herself loose as well.
I'll note again that when Nadine is walking to Ed's, we note that the cars first go with the proper traffic flow that then suddenly change. This seems intentional, as with other reversals, the most obvious one being at the Buckhorn vortex when Diane saw the woodsman reversed from what the others had observed, and she also said she had seen the woodsman getting out of the car rather than in it. As Nadine walks to Ed's, we first see her without cars on the highway, then we see from her viewpoint and cars are moving in the proper lanes, then we see her again and the traffic flow is reversed from the proper lanes.
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NORMA AND ED, TOGETHER AT LAST
Well, Ed hops right to it. Again, a nice shot of the mountains of Twin Peaks, which also shows the T Mar RR Cafe at North Bend and Bendigo Boulevard. Ed's Chevrolet truck is pulling into the parking lot. Otis Reddings' "I've Been Loving You Too Long", plays. It was originally released April 19 1965.
Ed gets out of the truck, brushing off his jeans. He is sprucing himself up, one can tell, to go in and tell Norma he's free and they can get together. So, he still does have hope, and believes he has a chance over Walter--but I'm not confident that Walter is a serious contender for Norma's heart, I think Lynch/Frost are just playing with us in making Norma seem like she might be interested in him. "I've been loving you too long to stop now" is being sung as he enters and exuberantly waves at Norma.
ED: Norma, everything has changed. I just spoke with Nadine. She's given me my freedom.
NORMA: Ed, I'm I'm so sorry. Walter's here.
Nadine has smiled, happy, but Lynch/Frost throw in the prospect of a reversal in good fortune as Walter has entered right behind Ed. We *know, know, know* that Norma was happy to hear Ed's announcement. We *know, know, know* that this is just a little hiccup to bring in some plot tension as she goes and sits down with Walter, he asking her if she had gotten his flowers. Poor Ed, devastated, sits at the counter. He orders, from Shelly, a cup of coffee and a cyanide tablet.
Over to Norma and Walter at their booth.
NORMA: So I asked you to stop by because I have something to tell you.
You're changing the name to Norma's Double R.
WALTER: I knew you'd come around.
NORMA: No, actually, um, I'm exercising my option for you to buy me out.
WALTER: What? Is this a joke?
NORMA: No, you heard me, Walter.
WALTER: But why?
NORMA: Family reasons.
WALTER: I thought you told me you didn't have any family?
NORMA: No, I have a wonderful family. And I want to take care of them. I just spread myself too thin, worrying about all these diners. I want to spend more time at home.
WALTER: Norma, I respect your decision, even if I don't understand it. I'm just sorry you're not going to be part of what is going to be a great success.
NORMA: Oh, and I know it will be, and I wish you the best of luck, Walter. But I looked at my contract. I'm gonna keep the Double R as agreed, and you're gonna buy my shares of the other franchises.
WALTER: Soon to be seven. Seven diners full of happy, satisfied customers.
NORMA: And I'm happier with just one.
WALTER: For the record, I'd just like to say, you're making a huge mistake. And I believe you're going to regret it.
Walter stands to leave. Slow zoom in on Ed as Walter passes behind him and exits. Ed waits. You sense he feels that Walter is gone. Norma's hand rests on his shoulder. Ed asks her to marry him. Norma kisses him and says, "Of course I will." Shelly, looking on, is on the point of tears, smiling.
Ed and Norma
Cut back outside to the peaks, and then the clouds moving over the peaks, then a wonderful shot of the clouds falling, falling, falling.
A lot of people are going to be crying at home with what feels like a wrap-up to the long saga of Norma and Ed. I was never a great fan, I didn't care too much for Ed, but Lynch/Frost do a beautiful true-true-true love job with this scene, with great editing to Otis Redding singing. Music does a lot to help with stirring the emotions and it certainly works in this case.
As it turns out, Norma had called in Walter for the purpose of separating herself from the franchise, and likely putting a stop to any relationship. Because she has the Twin Peaks family to take care of, and she wants to concentrate on them.
This is a woman who, we feel, will have no regrets.
Bye-bye, Norma! Bye-bye, Ed! I don't think we'll be seeing you again. And as this story line is finished, we likely won't be seeing Nadine again either, or Jacoby. Bye, Nadine! Bye, Jacoby!
It's a sweet good-bye. Happy resolutions. They don't feel as in jeopardy of fragmenting into dream dust as the story of Janey and Cooper-Dougie in Las Vegas.
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MR. C VISITS PHILLIP JEFFRIES ABOVE THE CONVENIENCE STORE
Abrupt shift to gritty, scratchy sound design, and the electric hum that often speaks to no good, as we view, in the night, the black-and-white utility lines Andy had been shown by the Fireman, that vision having occurred between the Lincoln woodsman and the girl running across the schoolyard. Cut to a view of the road and the sound of wind. We are shown Mr. C as Penderecki's "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima" begins, which was the choice of music for the Trinity bomb scene. Mr. C pulls off to the right side of the road at the convenience store we'd seen in part 8 after the bomb's explosion. It's a traveling place that can go anywhere, and is now in the northern woods. Mr. C gets out and follows a woodsman up the side stairs to the second floor that isn't there. They both disappear in crackling static.
The Convenience Store
They enter dark woods and through these pass into the room with the rose-flowered wallpaper that had been in the picture that Laura was given to put on her wall in Fire Walk with Me. "I'm looking for Phillip Jeffries," Mr. C tells a woodsman who sits as a guardian beside a door. The woodsman starts an old radio/turntable that flashes a bright light. We see the white face of the red-suited Jumping Man with the long nose. The woodsman cuts off the radio/turn table. Some sort of leap has been made that will enable the rest of their journey. Another woodsman enters. The seated woodsman bangs a long cane on the floor.
Guardian Woodsman
Mr. C follows the other woodsman into a dark area, beyond which we can see a door and stairs within. Again, they briefly pass through forest, then Mr. C and the woodsman enter the area with the stairs and ascend. Gordon had a glimpse of this stairway at the vortex in Buckhorn, not long before Bill Hastings' lost his mind and brains. The woodsman Mr. C now follows is the one who ate Hastings' brains.
Stairs
At the top, they enter a room to the right, and Mr. C crosses and opens a door that leads to the motel where Teresa Banks, Ronette and Laura prostituted themselves, where Leland had seen the magician boy in the mask of the Jumping Man. It's the Red Diamond City Motel, also known as the Blue Diamond City Motel. Mr. C passes between two woodsmen and goes to room #8. It is locked. A woman in a nightgown and dirty pink robe approaches, saying, in Red Room speech, "I'll unlock the door for you." As she passes before Mr. C, her face, in silhouette, is an unnatural matte black so that no features can be seen other than the profile. She has a prominent adam's apple. With the prominence of her nose, is she a version of the Jumping Man?
Motel
The Key
Unlocking the Door
The woman leaves and Mr. C enters the room that is barely illuminated by a flickering florescent ceiling fixture. On the wood-paneled wall opposite the window we see only a radiant heater. A doorway appears that gives way to a dark, monochromatic area with a vaulted ceiling much like we had seen in the mauve room section with Naido, and afterward with the American Girl, when there had been a blue rose on the table. A large metal bell-shaped instrument rests in the room, with a nozzle and a spherical bubble seeming to emanate from the nozzle. It resembles a retort, part of an alembic, an alchemical still.
JEFFRIES (speaking from the alembic): Oh, it's you.
MR. C: Jeffries.
JEFFRIES (relieved): Thank God.
MR. C: Why did you send Ray to kill me?
JEFFRIES (sounding at first disbelieving): What? I called Ray.
MR. C: So you did send him? Did you call me five days ago?
JEFFRIES: I don't have your number.
MR. C: So it was someone else who called me?
JEFFRIES: We used to talk.
MR. C: Yes, we did.
Black-and-white of Jeffries' appearance at the Philadelphia office. He stands facing Cooper.
JEFFRIES: Well, now, I'm not gonna talk about Judy. In fact, we are not gonna talk about Judy at all.
Back to Mr. C in the motel room.
MR. C: 1989. You showed up at FBI headquarters in Philadelphia and said you'd met Judy.
JEFFRIES: So, you are Cooper?
MR. C: Phillip. Why didn't you want to talk about Judy? Who is Judy? Does Judy want something from me?
JEFFRIES: Why don't you ask Judy yourself? Let me write it down for ya.
Numbers appear in the bubble, emerging from the nozzel of the alembic. Mr. C writes them down.
MR. C: Who is Judy?
JEFFRIES: You've already met Judy.
MR. C: What do you mean, I've met Judy? Who is Judy? Who is Judy?
Jeffries
Jeffries no longer responds. The wall closes up. Mr. C answers the phone and is immediately transported to the telephone box outside the convenience store.
Five days ago? Five days ago? In the episode prior this we had happenings that had occurred on Saturday 10/1. But Mr. C asks if Jeffries had called him five days prior, a call that had occurred after Mr. C killed Darya, which was presumably on Sunday. Jeffries says that he doesn't have Mr. C's number, so he wasn't the one who made the call. But Jeffries moves on from there to reminding how they used to talk and we have a flashback to Jeffries appearance at the FBI Philadelphia office, after having disappeared, and his telling Cooper that they weren't going to talk about Judy, just before Jeffries had exclaimed to Albert and Gordon, of Cooper, "Who do you think that is there?" This was the first time we'd seen Cooper split, be in two places at once. He had been worried about that day because of a dream. He had run back and forth between the hall and a monitor until he had finally observed himself, on the monitor, standing in the hall, just as Jeffries came from the elevator and passed down that hall, seemingly oblivious of the second Cooper, and the Cooper who had observed himself on the monitor ran from it to follow Jeffries into the office. What was it about that moment, observed in a dream, that caused the split? Had the dream cozied up to reality and dovetailed with it? Had Cooper a premonition, and that premonition, at least for a moment, stands alongside Cooper's present tense? Why had this moment occurred with Jeffries' reappearing after many years, and he's unquestioningly unaware of that time having passed until he sees a calendar, at which point he reappears on the Buenos Aries hotel stairway only moments after he had originally disappeared. Personally, at the time of the airing of The Return, I had thought Jeffrie's' initial disappearance was when he had checked into the hotel, that this was not on the day of his appearance in Philadelphia but sometime beforehand, that his initial disappearance had coincided with his vanishing from the stairway, and that after his appearance at the Philadelphia office, realizing what year it was, he had gone back in time and reappeared on the stairway and subsequently disappeared again. Frost's book, after fact of The Return, clarifies Jeffries had been observed that day at the hotel, so I was in error.
This seems a strategic moment to which Jeffries and Mr. C have returned, when Cooper had split at about 10:10, had been aware of that split, and Jeffries had intimated a split in Cooper when he questioned who he actually was.
In place of that question, the flashback over, at this alternate world of the Diamond City motel, after Mr. C mentions that day in Philadelphia, Jeffries asks, "So, you are Cooper?" Mr. C doesn't respond to this. He asks who is Judy, not knowing, and Jeffries begins to give him the coordinates where it seems he might be able to meet her. We see 485514 then cut back to Mr. C who finishes writing them down. These are the same coordinates that Mr. C has been seeking? Where he hoped to find the thing that he "wanted" rather than "needed"? The same coordinates gotten from Betty by Ray? The same coordinates on Ruth's arm that she had gotten for Briggs? These turn out to be the same coordinates where Mr. C can meet the mysterious Judy?
Did Briggs really need those co-ordinates or, anticipating what would happen, had he had them retrieved and brought to him, knowing they would eventually be found by the FBI?
When Mr. C is told he's already met Judy, the phone rings. We may think this is likely Judy calling. But as Mr. C is transported to the outside telephone box, after answering the call, we realize that this might not have been Judy after all. This may have simply been a means of ending the meeting and removing Mr. C.
Jeffries. He's been referred to as being "nowhere", and also at the "Dutchman's", which we associated with the story of the Flying Dutchman. Is Jeffries really in the retort, or is it a kind of transmission device for him. It's curious that he isn't more knowledgable about Mr. C, if he guesses he is Cooper. Or does he simply understand the Mr. C is a part of Cooper, as his doppel.
As Mr. C exits the phone booth, who is there waiting for him but Richard, gun in hand and trained on him
RICHARD: I recognized you back at the farm. You're FBI.
MR. C: How do you figure that?
RICHARD: 'Cause I seen your picture in your fancy FBI suit. Don't come any closer.
MR. C: Where'd you see that picture?
RICHARD: My mom had it.
MR. C: Who's your mom?
RICHARD: Audrey Horne. And your name's Cooper.
Mr. C distracts Richard by spitting on the ground, then strikes him and takes away the gun. As Richard lies on the ground, he gives him two solid kicks for good measure.
MR. C: Don't ever threaten me again. Get in the truck. We'll talk on the way.
Mr. C types into his cell: Las Vegas?. And sends it out. The time is 9:34. They climb in the truck and drive off. The convenience store disappears.
It was back in episode 12 that Diane had received the message "Las Vegas?" with a time stamp of 19:28 (7:28). I had postulated it was Friday evening, though this had trouble fitting in with the traffic jam pile-up of scenes. It seems to be Friday here, based on Mr. C asking if Jeffries had called him five days beforehand, but who knows? We also have the problem of the time stamp being off by 2 hours and 6 minutes. We can't reason that this is because it was sent through an intermediary, as Diane is receiving the message before Mr. C supposedly sent it out. We are certainly, and have been, dealing with multiple time lines.
Time and time again.
And no one knows it.
Or perhaps Cooper and a few others are aware. Perhaps Mr. C is aware. Perhaps all those who who have a Red Room side are aware.
Richard and Mr. C united! We have been waiting for this, for confirmation that Mr. C is Richard's father. We don't have it yet but for the first time we are given confirmation that Audrey, indeed, is his mother. She was fond enough of the memory of Cooper that she kept a picture of him, which likely means she doesn't suspect Mr. C is Richard's father. Richard only knows that Cooper is FBI and he appears to have resented him in his "fancy" FBI suit. He has no reason to suspect that Mr. C is his father. But Cooper is of interest to him. He's a mystery. He's from his mom's past. He's powerful. Authoritative. All Richard has seen and knows of Mr. C is that he won at the Farm and killed Ray. Bad guy Richard never had a dad and he's going to be looking for one in bad guy Mr. C. We might think that as Mr. C doesn't kill him that means that Mr. C is fullly aware that Richard is his son.
Richard has said his mother "had" a picture of Cooper. Does this mean she's past tense to him?
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STEVEN COMMITS SUICIDE
Day. We fly in over a Twin Peaks forest to the sound of the wind and of falls cascading down the mountain. We are then in what seems the deep interior of the forest, mysterious with the sound of creaking trees and birds. Yet now there appears a man (Mark Frost) walking down a path with his black and white Boston Terrier.
Cut to Gersten sitting with Steven at the base of a huge tree.Steven has a gun. This is not good. He's high as can be. Gersten cradles him, trying to soothe him. This isn't good at all.
Steven and Gersten in the woods
GERSTEN:
Why?
STEVEN: There is no why. I did do it.
GERSTEN: No. No, she did it. She did it.
STEVEN: I can't. No. I did it.
GERSTEN: No. No, Steven. Steven, stop it. You didn't do anything, okay? You were fucking stoned. What the fuck did she give you? Give me the gun, okay?
STEVEN (he refuses): Are you gonna come up with me?
GERSTEN: No. No, and you're not going either.
STEVEN: Look at me. I'm a high school graduate. I'm a high school graduate.
GERSTEN: Oh, fuck.
STEVEN: You see this, yeah?
GERSTEN: No. No. Stop it, don't do that.
STEVEN (loading bullets): I'm gonna get this thing in.
GERSTEN: What? No don't, no.
STEVEN (loading the gun and pointing at his temple): I'm gonna put this thing here. Right through here.
GERSTEN: No. No, Steven. No.
STEVEN: It's It's gonna end it.
GERSTEN: No.
STEVEN (gazing at a tree that goes out of focus): And when I, when I see you come up...but I may not even see you there, I mean, I mean, I mean gone. Where will I be? Will I be with the rhinoceros? The lightning in the bottle? Please.
GERSTEN: It's okay. It's okay, okay.
STEVEN: Or will I be completely, uh, like, like turquoise? I feel something. Fuck. Fuck. This is the end. I got a duty to do. Do whatever you want. I liked fucking you. Did I tell you? I liked it a lot. I liked to get down and fight with you and fuck. Just so you know that I like your cunt. Like, sometimes, it's so amazing. You're making me cry. Stop it, cunt.
The man with his dog walks up on the scene of Gersten sobbing, hugging Steven who holds the gun. Steven, seeing the man, says, "Shit", and attempts to hide the gun. Gersten leaps up and runs behind the tree to hide.
The man hurries away. As Gersten hides behind the tree, frightened, we see that she has a skeleton key hanging on a chain around her neck. We hear Steven's gun cock and go off. He has likely shot himself, though we don't see it and so have no proof that he hasn't missed. But the gravity of the scene of such that Steven is undeniably dead. She pulls at her hair, her face, frantic, not knowing what to do. We're given a view of the trees above. The percussive soundtrack over this is active, mysterious, ominous, but the woods are still.
The man with the dog enters Carl's trailer park from the rear. He, Gersten and Steven weren't that deep in the woods after all. They were close to the trailer park. The man calls to Carl, who is carrying a shovel. The man points the woods. He points to Becky and Steven's darkened trailer and says, "He lives in that trailer right there."
Steven. We don't know whether to feel sorry for him or not. We don't know what he's done. Gersten insists he's done nothing. She believes that "she", meaning Becky, has given him something.
He is talking about going "up", to the afterlife or the other side, and he's just now realizing that he has no idea what it will be like. He's realizing, "I have taken it for granted I will know others up there by physical features, but what if there are no physical features by which to distinguish anyone?"
When he says "I'm a high school graduate" it is the story of initial hopes had and encountering instead failure. This is what he had going for him and he's realizing that's all he had and it's not enough. It's terrible. It's horrible not that he's only a high school graduate, but that this is the measure of him as a human being, that this accounts for any value he has as a human being.
We have to wonder what he was like originally, for Becky had insisted he was going through a tough time, and Shelly heard from her friends that everyone loved Steven.
In the story of Becky and Steven and Gersten we've the the bright hopes of love and then the inability to cope with profound failures. Lynch/Frost richly paint, in just a few scenes, how these individuals desperately want love in their lives--love beyond the physical (despite how Steven phrases his love for women)--the spiritual dimension that for them will supply meaning. The heaven on earth love. "I love the way you love me" played as Steven and Becky rode in their car and she was drugged up but she was in that state of profound bliss and magic. She had escaped, for the moment, the terrible gravity of earth and their hardships.
I'm taking it for granted that Steven's realizing the hope he was sold on his high school diploma ended up being all he amounted to in the world and it didn't mean much. We're talking a fundamental failure of self-value, one that is already severe, and the drugs have profoundly exacerbated these losses despite having provided initial release from them. A large part of the fundamental failure of self-value is shown with the high school diploma having become a hallmark of whether a person holds value in society and for themselves.
Whatever Steven believes he has done, it seems bad enough that we wonder if it has to do with Becky. Did he kill her? But Gersten insists he hasn't done anything. She also says he was stoned. So did he do something and she's distinguishing between the real Steven and the one on drugs as the person who did whatever it was? We are kept in the dark about this. She also believes that he has been given a drug that has him out of his mind and the viewer is inclined to believe Becky must have given it to him. We may reason it is likely the same drug that Jerry had somehow taken due both their worlds going out of focus in the same way.
With Lynch/Frost it's really how the questions are posed. We don't know ever full situations so that we are having to go on small slices packed with details that engage the viewer in confronting hard questions in a different way, with all the ambiguities and conflicts. And often these small slices are filled with absurdities. The viewer is not led down a path with a set emotion to pick up and eat (and even when a set emotion is fed, the viewer is often in the position of calling the circumstances into question). Thus the viewer has to go through a full range of emotions and questions, rather than being fed a specific couple of which they are confident intellectually, knowing that is what they were supposed to feel.
When the rhinoceros was mentioned I flashed to Ionesco's play. Some of the characteristics of the main character could have a correspondence with Steven. However, in that play, the rhinocerous stands for fascism. Daily, the individuals in the town metamorphosis into rhinos, so I don't think this has to do with the Ionesco play. Instead I think back on the woman who showed Mr. C to the motel room door in the prior scene, and how she had a fairly large nose, this accentuated in profile.
Admittedly, any sympathy I have currently for Steven takes a dive when he reduces Gersten to a "cunt", even though it was one he liked, and even though he is so out of his head he is scarcely responsible for what he's saying, his critical faculties gone.
We don't know what he believes he's done, but we do know he kills himself for it. Whatever he has or has not done. It's difficult to tell but he may have believed that Gersten might kill herself as well, but by the end he is telling her that she can do whatever she wants. We know that Gersten will not kill herself.
Thus ends the story of Steven. His cinema gravestone reads, "I'm a high school graduate."
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THE GREEN GLOVE SAVES JAMES
The neon of the Bang Bang Bar. Inside, the MC announces, "Next, on the Roadhouse playlist, is one of our favorites. 'Sharp Dressed Man' by ZZ Top." On a sign behind him, he raises the volume level from 0 to the red zone.
ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man" plays.
Clean shirt, new shoe, and I don't know where I am going to
Silk suit, black tie, I don't need a reason why.
They come running just as fast as they can
'Cause every girl's crazy about a sharp dressed man...
Freddie and James approach Renee who is seated at a booth with her husband, Chuck, and another couple.
JAMES: It's good to see you, Renee.
CHUCK: You got a death wish? 'Cause I'll fucking kill you.
Don't talk to my wife. Ever!
JAMES: I was, I was just saying, I was try, I was just trying...
CHUCK: To what?
JAMES: I try, I was just trying to be polite. I, I like her.
Oh, sigh. James. Chuck beats James down to the floor as Renee stands and yells for him to stop. Chuck lands punch after punch, and his friend kicks James. Which is when Freddie intervenes.
FREDDIE: You better stop this.
SKIPPER: Fuck you, punk!
With no effort at all, Freddie's green gloved hand knocks Skipper out so powerfully that the record skips. He then punches Chuck out. Again, the record skips then the music resumes. Renee kneels next to Chuck pleading with him to talk to her.
JAMES (helped to his feet by Freddie): Hey, anybody, these guys are really hurt. Dial 911 now!
FREDDIE: I tried not to hit them too hard, James, honest.
JAMES: It's okay. Thanks, by the way. I am so sorry, Renee. I did not mean for this to happen. I really didn't.
RENEE: Chuck, baby, talk to me.
JAMES: Oh, God. His eyes don't look right.
Continuing with the theme of infidelity, Chuck hammers on James for being friendly with his wife. Because, after all, James likes her. That's all the reason Chuck thinks he needs.
This would be, presumably, the night of 10/1, James' birthday, after Freddie had told James the story of the green glove and James going down into the furnace room and hearing the ringing tone. Did he look behind the door? We don't know. Instead, Lynch/Frost, skip their story line to the Bang Bang, where Freddie damages Chuck, who we are to assume is the same "certifiable" Chuck who stole Billy's truck the week before but had returned it. Then Billy went missing. As we can see, Chuck is "certifiable" in hi violence.
The ZZ Top song may be a confusing choice, considering the majority of the other musical selections, but it ties in with Richard's description of Cooper in his fancy FBI suit, whose picture Audrey had kept, and Audrey had been crazy about Cooper. The idea of the "well-dressed" man goes back to Blue Velvet, in which this is the title Jeffrey gives to a man who Yellow Jacket meets. Spying on Frank Booth, Jeffrey saw him enter his apartment building with Gordon. Later, outside the apartment building, he saw Gordon then greet-and-meet with the Well-Dressed Man. They had gone to a place and looked out over a murder scene. As it turned out, the Well-Dressed Man was Frank Booth in disguise. We were never given a reason, in Blue Velvet, why the Yellow Jacket Gordon acted as if he didn't know the Well-Dressed Man. If he didn't actually recognize him or for some reason they were making a show outside of Booth's apartment building of not knowing one another.
The ZZ also refers us back to part one and the murders of Sam and Tracey. Both times she showed up at the Manhattan glass box penthouse she was carrying to-go coffee cups marked with a ZZ brand and a black dot. The ZZ, at that point, reminded of the zigzag Red Room floor. It may be that the ZZ of ZZ Top is also intended to remind us of the Red Room floor.
Audrey, considering Chuck's behavior at the Bang Bang, and Richard's behavior at the Bang Bang, may have good reason for not wanting to go down there without protection. Where's the bouncer??
THE WRONG DOUGIE JONES
Night again. We're back to Las Vegas, and what is a beautiful aerial of the city seeming to spread out forever into the surrounding desert. A green building shows most prominently on the right. Then we're in the FBI office of the frustrated, volatile Randall Headley. Agent Wilson enters and announces, They're here, sir. Douglas Jones and his wife, Jane, ready for questioning.
We already have a difficult time imagining that this might be the right Douglas Jones. It's too quick, and very little in Twin Peaks world is resolved quickly. There are things that may happen suddenly out of the blue. But little is resolved quickly.
Headley asks, He give you any trouble? Wilson replies, Uh, no, no.
Um, but the kids aren't too happy. We know that Dougie Jones and Janey have one child. Kids-z? Plural? Kids-z?! Headley shouts. Wilson races in the opposite direction as Headley opens the door and we see a family in their pajamas. Our attention is so attracted to the little boy, the youngest of four children, screaming on the floor, that we may not notice the one little girl in her bunny ear slippers, standing in a quiet, staged pose with her hands meeting at her stomach forming an inverted triangle.
Not the right Douglas Jones
She is so cute.
It's a hilarious moment.
As I've noted, ZZ Top may bring in the ZZ of the zigzag floor, and I wonder if Headley's pronunciation of "Kids-z...kids-z?!" does the same. We are permitted to see this Douglas Jones in a reflection in the door that seems intended to remind us of doppels. Still, though there are 23 Douglas Jones in Las Vegas, there is only one Cooper-Dougie.
Headley closes the door on the screaming child and exits, calling for Wilson.
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THE DEATHS OF DUNCAN AND ROGER
FRENCH FRIES AND GORDON'S FRENCH WOMAN
As long as we are in Las Vegas, we might as well return to the office of the long-suffering Duncan, who we for some reason kind of like but for whom we don't have much sympathy as he carries out the murderous orders of Mr. C as his intermediary. He calls in Roger.
ROGER: Yes, sir?
DUNCAN: Roger, have we heard from Anthony?
ROGER: No, sir.
DUNCAN: Well, find him for me. Now.
We know what's up with Anthony. Anthony is no longer serving Duncan. He's gone over to the good side.
Chantal enters behind Roger and shoots Duncan dead, blasting away half his face. Then she shoots Roger in the chest. I may be wrong, but the way that he falls doesn't seem quite normal, reminding of when Phyllis was shot and things went briefly wonky, as if you could feel the involvement of an otherworldly force in the murder.
Chantal, who is sharply dressed in a black suit and red-soled Christian Louboutin shoes, turns to exit the office, calling Hutch and addressing him affectionately, Hi, hun, like it's any other individual leaving the office at the end of the day and checking in to see what their significant other wants for dinner. She's interrupted by Roger wheezing, not quite dead. Oh, shit, she says, because this is a nuisance. She tells Hutch to hold on and returns and finishes the job on Roger, off screen. She then goes back to the phone call, saying, Yeah, one down, one to go. Yeah, French fries! And extra ketchup.
Nadine
I always want extra ketchup as well.
Where have we seen these shoes before? The black Louboutins with the red soles? On the French woman in Gordon Cole's hotel suite. Chantal is a French name as well. As if to punctuate the association, Chantal remarks on the French fries.
Now the efficient Chantal and Hutch will go after Cooper-Dougie, and perhaps his whole family. But we know they can't succeed in that mission. Cooper-Dougie has to, we reason, wake up at some point and face off with Mr. C himself.
Which may make one wonder why Mr. C, if he's a guy who gets things done, didn't go down to Las Vegas and go after Cooper-Dougie personally. Is he afraid to do so?
It was in the scene with Gordon and the French woman that Albert went to Gordon's room to tell him about Diane having received the Las Vegas message. That was, according to Mr. C's convenience store scene, on Friday. Which is what I had proposed back at part twelve, that the meeting with the French woman was on Friday. But we still have the kink with Diane receiving the message with a different time stamp and it was impossible to tell what day it was on.
I'm going to assume that Duncan and Roger are killed on 10/1, as best as we can tell in Twin Peaks world.
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LOCKING UP FREDDIE AND JAMES
Night. The Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department. Down in the jail cells we are shown again the bloody man, who is as bloody as ever. He doesn't look right at all. What's he doing here? Bobby and Hawk enter with James and Freddie. Hawk tells Bobby to put Freddie in 9 and he locks up James in cell #7.
HAWK: Put him in eight.
CELL #4: Put him in eight.
CHAD: What'd that gloved freak do now?
HAWK: Shut up, Chad!
CELL #4: Shut up, Chad.
FREDDIE: What's he doing in the cell?
BOBBY: Don't pay any attention to him.
JAMES: Hawk, are those guys okay?
HAWK (he and Bobby leaving): Both in intensive care.
CELL #4: They're both in intensive care.
JAMES (taking notice of Naido): What the hell?
CHAD (screaming in response to Naido's chattering and Cell #4's echoing of it): Shut up!
CELL #4: Shut up!
Naido
Plot-wise, what the purpose of the altercation at the Bang-Bang serves is to get James and Freddie in jail. We know that dangerous people want Naido, and we may possibly reason that Freddie has ended up in the jail cell where he can, if the plot demands it, protect her. With that green-gloved hand of his, if Naido was put in any danger, he could rip out the jail cell door and protect her. We may, in fact, reason that Mr. C would be interested in seeing her dead. But why?
We've been invited, by Lynch/Frost, to believe that Cell #4 is possibly the missing Billy. But everyone would know if Billy had ended up in jail. We have the problem of this guy down there pouring blood continuously and no one is taking care of him. Hawk and Bobby ignore him like he's not there instead of checking on him. Because Cell #4 is repeating everything that's being said, and had repeated what Chad said, it only seemed that Freddie might have been wondering who the sick man was, when he asked, "What's he doing in the cell?" Bobby had replied, "Don't pay attention to him," which the viewer could take as referring to this sick man as well, but it instead is likely that Freddie was questioning why Chad is in jail, and Bobby is saying to ignore Chad.
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HUTCH AND CHANTAL HAVE A CONVERSATION
Night. A back street in Las Vegas. Hutch and Chantal sit in their van eating burgers.
HUTCH: The government does it all the time. People get paid for it, too, just like us.
CHANTAL: Damn right. Two-faced fucks.
HUTCH: So-called Christian nation. Might as well be "thou shalt kill." "Show no mercy. "Forgive no one." Fuck 'em in the ass. It's a nation of killers, killing all along. Killed damn near all the Indians, didn't they?
CHANTAL: Yeah. But my fun's over when we actually kill someone. It's no fun torturing a corpse. I haven't got to torture anybody in a fuck of a long time, Hutch.
HUTCH: I know. Just hadn't worked out lately.
CHANTAL: It's fucked. You know I hate it when you get me these little ketchup packs.
HUTCH: I'm sorry. It's all they had.
CHANTAL: Did you get me dessert?
HUTCH: You know I did.
CHANTAL: I love you, Hutch.
HUTCH: I love you, Chantal. Beautiful night.
CHANTAL (observing out the windshield): Mars.
Chantal and Hutch are like us in that they sit around dialoguing about the government and America's genocidal history while eating burgers. As with other loving couples, they express their affection in small ways, by attending to what the other person enjoys. Hutch has made sure that Chantal will have dessert and that little touch is an expression of his love for her. They recognize the beauty of the night, and Mars. They're not ignornat of these things.
Hutch is rationalizing their jobs. But then Chantal has to go and alienate an audience that may see Hutch's point by bringing up how it's all about torture for her, that's where her enjoyment in her job lies. They are different from the majority.
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THE ELECTRICAL OUTLET
Night. An exterior shot of the Jones' red door, following after Chantal's remark on the red planet. Cooper-Dougie seated at the table, Janey brings him a nice slice of chocolate cake that he addresses in typical Cooper-Dougie fashion, dedicated to the job of enjoying it but having difficulty getting each bite to his mouth. Adoring, Janey kneels by his side.
JANEY: Here you go, Dougie. Is it delicious?
COOPER-DOUGIE: Delicious?
JANEY: Oh, Dougie. It's like all our dreams are coming true.
COOPER-DOUBIE: True.
Yes, Janey, it is like all your dreams are coming true, and it's nice but also very troubling.
Janey goes to the kitchen. Cooper-Dougie reflects on the salt and papper shakers on the table, the bell-like shapes of which might remind him of the bell-shaped transformer/generator he had seen when with Naido, though we may doubt he has any memory of Naido. For some reason he moves one over next to the long quadrangle of the television's remote control. He returns to his cake, but his attention is drawn back to the remote control. He punches one of its buttons. Goes back to the cake. Again, he punches a few more random buttons on the remote. He returns to the cake, then punches another random button and is startled when the television comes on.
The movie that plays is Sunset Boulevard.
DEMILLE: Good-bye, Norma. We'll see what they can do.
NORMA:
I'm not worried. Everything will be fine. The old team together again. Nothing can stop us.
DEMILLE: The old team. Yeah. Good-bye, dear.
NORMA: Good-bye, Mr. DeMille.
WILLIAM HOLDEN: How'd it go?
GLORIA: It couldn't have gone better. It's practically set. Good he has to finish this picture first. Mine will be his next.
DEMILLE: Get Gordon Cole. Tell him to forget about our car. Tell him he can get another old car someplace.
Sunset Boulevard
The name "Gordon Cole" does what coffee and cherry pie couldn't. Riveted, responsive, Cooper-Dougie freezes the frame on Demille. He studies it. We hear an electric hum. Cooper-Dougie looks down at the wall outlet. He actually seems to be hearing the hum, the crackle of the electricity, from the outlet. He gets down on his hands and knees, fork in hand, and crawls to the outlet. He's going to finish what was done incompletely the first time, or give himself a shock that's necessary for waking him up fully.
Cooper-Dougie approaches the outlet
He tries to push the tines of the fork in the outlet. They won't fit. He sticks the other end of the fork in.
The kitchen is illuminated a high bright white, Janey turning to the living room. She screams. Cooper-Dougie, who should probably be dead from the strength of the shock he's received, either manages to pull the fork out of the outlet or simply falls back. The house goes dark. Sonny Jim calls down from upstairs, Mom, what was that?!
It's your dad, Sonny Jim, having done something all parents worry their children will do, which Janey probably worried you might do and so put plastic plugs in all the electrical outlets, when you were small, to keep you from electrocuting yourself. I did this with my son but, as he crawled about, the plugs only attracted his notice, and I had to chase him down a couple of times as he crawled around pulling the plugs out of the sockets. Just like how he used to crawl over to the oven and pull himself up and blithely, easily pop off the plastic child protectors on the gas knobs.
I've already discussed Sunset Boulevard a little back in the section where Albert finds Diane at the Max Von Bar. That scene followed the one where Phillip Gerard appeared to Cooper-Dougie by the fireplace in the living room, pleading with him to wake up, to not die. We may have been reminded of that scene as Cooper-Dougie crawled over to the electrical outlet beside the fireplace.
The reason I had brought up Sunset Boulevard to do with the Max Von Bar was because I reasoned it referred to Sunset Boulevard, in which Swanson plays Norma Desmond, an actress trying to make a comeback, her fantasies ever encouraged by her butler, played by Max von Mayerling, a famous director who had previously worked with Gloria Swanson. In that film, Norma gets a call from a Gordon Cole, who works with DeMille. She reasons DeMille wants her for a picture. She goes down to the studio, where she is remembered from years before and happily welcomed. Norma believes the old team will be together again but that's not the case, DeMille has no intention of doing a film with her. DeMille learns that Cole had called Norma hoping to use her fancy old car in the film on which they're working. That's the reason for DeMille saying Cole can get an old car from somewhere else.
Everything had been dream perfect for Janey, but now Cooper-Dougie has gone and shocked himself. We know this is the end of Cooper-Dougie. He will become Cooper again. What will this mean for Janey and Sonny Jim and their storyline?
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MARGARET'S LAST CALL
Night. An exterior shot of Margaret's house in the woods. Inside, we see her on the phone. Then cut to Hawk in his office.
LUCY (on the intercom): Deputy Hawk? Deputy Hawk? Margaret Lanterman's on line one.
HAWK: Okay, Lucy.
A close-up of Hawk's phone, line one flashing. I think we are intended to reflect back on Andy's vison of the phone and its flashing line one, but it was on a different desk.
During Margaret and Hawk's conversation we have cuts between the two individuals. Margaret trembles, holding her phone, weak.
HAWK: Margaret, what can I do for ya? Hawk.
MARGARET: I'm dying.
HAWK: I'm sorry, Margaret.
MARGARET: You know about death, that it's just a change, not an end.
Initially, Margaret was holding the phone. But this changes. When we return to her, she is no longer holding the phone. We'd heard a creaking during a cut to Hawk and it was likely her placing the receiver down in its cradle.
Margaret
MARGARET: Hawk. It's time. There's some fear, some fear in letting go. Remember what I told you. I can't say more over the phone. But you know what I mean, from our talks, when we were able to speak face to face. Watch for that one, the one I told you about, the one under the moon on Blue Pine Mountain. Hawk. My log is turning gold. The wind is moaning. I'm dying. Good night, Hawk.
HAWK: Good night, Margaret. (He hangs up the line.) Good-bye, Margaret.
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ANNOUNCING MARGARET'S DEATH
A half moon. Then the conference room at the sheriff's department. Frank sits at the conference table, alone, looking at pictures of fish on a laptop. Bobby opens the door and enters. Lucy and Andy follow him in. Lucy wears the same sweater as she had on 10/1 Saturday morning.
FRANK: What's up?
BOBBY: Hawk intercommed us, told us to meet him here.
HAWK (having entered by means of another door): Margaret Lanterman passed away tonight.
LUCY: The Log Lady's dead?
Announcing Margaret's death
Frank takes off his hat. Andy holds Lucy's shoulders, supporting her. The camera returns to the woods and Margaret's house, passing over the trees. The light goes out in her window.
Storylines continue to be wrapped up. Margaret is gone in an artistic not a realistic ending to her story. We don't know if there is a blurring of boundaries with the deaths of Catherine Coulson and Margaret, but it feels as if there are, and that this may be a reason for why the death of Margaret is treated in this rather fantastic, fantasy fashion. No emergency services involved, called to her house by Hawk. No hospital. There is the insistence that death is a change, not an end. Goodbyes are said. The light in Margaret's cabin goes off. There will be many people crying, at home, who loved Margaret, who loved Catherine Coulson as Margaret. One wonders just how difficult it might have been for Catherine to play this scene. Or if it was. One wonders if there was a breaking of the fourth wall, and Catherine was speaking, within Margaret, of her own fear of letting go. One wonders at the conversation Lynch or Frost or both might have had with her in preparation for this scene, how it was planned, clearing it with her if she was going to be all right with it.
Within this fiction, Margaret's goodbye seems, in part, blurred with Catherine, and as such is a real-life touchstone for the viewer, and perhaps all involved, as a final communion with her that goes beyond fiction. The viewer is given the opportunity to say goodbye as well.
On the purely fictional level, perhaps the most mystical voice of the town takes its leave after Cooper-Dougie likely shocks himself back to being Cooper, before we will likely find him back at Twin Peaks. For we know he must return to Twin Peaks. He must find his way there from Las Vegas.
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AUDREY WONDERS WHO CHARLIE IS
Charlie and Audrey have made it to the front door. Charlie has on his coat. Audrey has her red jacket draped over her arm.
AUDREY: I'm just tired of waiting for the phone. Billy hated that place, but, oh,
you got your coat on.
CHARLIE: Of course I do. We're going out. We're going to the Roadhouse. I will need my coat.
AUDREY: Yeah, well, yeah, I just...You're really something, Charlie. What the hell.
CHARLE: Put your coat on, Audrey. It's already late and I'm so sleepy. Let's go.
AUDREY: Would you just stop complaining? God, what a pain in the ass you are. I mean, can't you just do something for someone else without ruining it by continually complaining? You're such a whiner, it's like being with a sick dog.
CHARLIE: Are you gonna put your coat on or talk me to death right here, on the threshold?
AUDREY: You know, when Billy and I go places, he never speaks to me the way you do, Charlie.
CHARLIE: Yes. Well, I am Charlie and he is Billy.
AUDREY: And I like Billy better.
CHARLIE: Sensational. Now, are you gonna put your coat on or shall we stand here all night?
AUDREY: Here you go again. You can't stop for one fucking second.
CHARLIE: Audrey, seriously, in one fucking second, I'm taking my coat off and staying in for the night. You're the one that wanted to go to the Roadhouse, not me.
AUDREY: It's impossible. I mean, I see it right before my eyes, but I never really saw it before. It's absolutely fucking impossible.
CHARLIE: What is it now, Audrey?
AUDREY: You, Charlie, it's you. I-I-I just never really saw you before the way I'm seeing you now. Like I'm meeting a different person. Who are you, Charlie?
CHARLIE (taking off his coat as he goes back into the living room): Okay, off comes the coat.
AUDREY (attacks him on the sofa, screaming, her hands at his neck): How can you be like this? I hate your fucking guts! I hate you! Do you know how much I fucking hate you?
Audrey loses it
Audrey, last we saw, had been having a crisis as to who she was, that she didn't feel like she was herself. She was in Ghostwood. Now she hones in on Charlie as being the one who is different, she has never really seen him before. Who is he? She doesn't know. Who is he? But she knows to hate him enough that she rushes in to attack him physically, screaming at him how much she hates him. This reminds of Richard and his choking the woman at the Bang Bang, and of how he had attacked his grandmother. But it's different. And though how Audrey behaves would be abusive in real life, we're not buying that it is "real life" for our Audrey character. Something is wrong. This is artificial. The 1940s environment is artificial. Audrey's situation is artificial. What world is she inhabiting?
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RUBY'S SCREAM
The exterior of the Bang-Bang Bar. Inside, The Veils play "Axolotl".
I'm glowing bright obsidian, Axolotl amphibian
Un-elemental chemicals got me growing six black tentacles
A little nightmarish, a little maudlin
Good golly, and go get that kid some laudanum
Salvation's more than I can afford
Who needs the devil when you've got the lord?
Two bikers have come up to stand beside a lone woman, Ruby, sitting at a booth who does her best to ignore them. They want the booth. I'm waiting for someone, she says.
They pick her up from her seat and put her on the ground and occupy the booth.
Oh my soul Losing control
Who built this heart?
Oh my God.
Now sister Maggie's coming in fleet-foot
Baby's got a belly full of black soot
I got the feeling I better just stay put
Ah she'll love you better than any real man could
An accidental amphibian
I'm growing giddy as a Gideon
Another head for the chopping board
Who needs the devil when you've got the lord?
Oh my soul Losing control
Who built this heart? Oh my god
Oh my soul Losing control
Who built this heart?
Oh my God
Oh my soul
Who built this heart?
Ruby has slowly crawled, through the legs of the audience, to the foot of the stage. She starts screaming, those screams becoming a part of the music.
Ruby
Cut to the credits running over a largely desaturated version of the motel where Mr. C had his meeting with Jeffries. The episode is dedicated to Margaret.
This scene is one of my favorites. The abuses and horrors of fifteen episodes have built up to this anguished scream seeming to represent the unfairness of everything. Ruby is everyone who has been walked upon, walked over, bullied, personhood ignored. It is in that area of the bar that we've had Richard choke a woman, and Chuck beat up James. It's in that area of the bar that we have heard stories of drug use, and imprisonment. Stories that are generally cynical and seeming to lack in compassion for one's self or others. Ruby's perfunctory humiliation results in her crawling to the front of the stage where her scream, her frustration and anger and pain, is covered by the music and becomes part of the music.
Lynch possibly brings in Dune with Axolotl. It is an amphibian, though some think confuse it with a walking fish. It is able to regrow limbs, which Wikipedia gives as the inspiration for the Tleilaxu axlotl tanks in Frank Herbert's Dune. The Tleilaxu are described as xenophobic and isolationist, genetic manipulators who (from Wikipedia) "traffic in biological products such as artificial eyes, gholas, and 'twisted' Mentats, the Tleilaxu are a major power in the Imperium. The race is ruled by a small council of Tleilaxu Masters, whose genetically-engineered Face Dancer servants have the ability to mimic any human." The Face Dancers are shape-shifters who can perfectly mimic humans. A Mentant is a humanoid that perfectly mimics a computer. Gholas are called such, probably after golems, as they are first resurrected then cloned human, and through "specific stresses" can be made to recall memories of the original.
Dougie was "manufactured", so has something of Lynch's work on Dune, and the idea of the ghola, gone into him? Cooper appears to be "himself", having been exchanged for Dougie, but he has just put himself through a terrific shock in order, we know, to be able to access his full self. Ruby's scream is one of terrible frustration and the denial of her as a person, but Lynch/Frost have also chosen to overlay that with the idea of the Axolotl, which brings in the ghola, and the shock each must undergo to retrieve memory. We even have Ruby crawling, like Dougie-Cooper to the outlet. Though rephrased, in a different context, she is meant to refer back to him.
Approx 10,300 words or 20 single-spaced pages. A 130 minute read at 130 wpm.
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