r/twinpeaks • u/HotStatistician3447 • 23h ago

Season 1 Pilot symbolism Spoiler

I’m sure this scene’s symbolism has already been discussed at length, but I noticed something as I was rewatching the pilot that I hadn’t really pieced together before.
When Cooper and Sheriff Truman are about to look in Laura’s safe deposit box, there is a stag head lying on the table. The bank employee mentions how it “fell down.” I feel like it could symbolize Cooper’s animus, and his ultimate downfall in saving/resurrecting or protecting Laura in The Return.

Also, on the wall behind Cooper where the stag head fell is the empty plaque with two antennae-like wires sticking out of the top. This plaque looks very similar to the symbol for Judy.

It seems like even from the first episode the cycle of suffering was set. No happy ending or knight in shining armor to save the girl.
Evil wins before we even go on Cooper’s journey.
It looms behind him as they find Ronette in Fleshworld, almost like it’s looking over Cooper’s shoulder.

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u/ThomasHiatt 23h ago

I don't think the writers had any concept for the ending of The Return or Judy when writing the pilot.

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u/Feisty_Ease_1983 18h ago

Ill go a step further with Im convinced there was no intent to solve Laura's murder and had absolutely no concept of even the first season at that point.

They had to remember what they pitched to ABC when they were called back to discuss greenlighting the pilot. They wrote just enough for that one show with no idea if it would even get picked up. Even the Red Room stuff was conceived and filmed by Lynch on the fly when ABC mandated they shoot an ending.

Too much of Twin Peaks was written on the fly and by many different people to find any links like this and if they do exist its because Lynch/Frost used stuff they filmed in the 90s to influence decisions in Season 3 not the other way around.

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u/rinkuhero 18h ago edited 13h ago

yeah i think people don't realize how much things are created on the fly. as an indie game developer, when you write your first line of code you have no idea where the game will end up. it's the same for tv shows. even bob himself was invented because of silva accidentally appearing in a shot, they turned that accident into a plot twist. i suspect that lynch knew that the father was the killer from the start, but ray wise himself didn't know, and lynch didn't know that he was going to make the father possessed by a supernatural entity until the silva incident

what a lot of people don't understand is this making it up as you go along makes it better, not worse. great art doesn't spring fully formed out of the mind of the artist, it gets its value from the process of developing over time

that's why there are a lot of plot threads that wind up getting abandoned, because sometimes they get boring and something else gets more interesting. if everywhere were fully designed from the start in some tome somewhere, there wouldn't have been so many dead ends, but it there also wouldn't have been so many spontaneous interesting scenes. it's artists that plan everything out from the start in minute detail that tend to create bad art.

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u/Feisty_Ease_1983 18h ago

I agree for the most part particularly because this show wasnt necessarily a traditional linear show. In most stories having a generalized end point is vital to keep continuity but Lynch and Frost wanted a never ending Soap Opera. They never wanted it to end. It was to be there meal ticket. While a few soaps managed this it was always going to be tough with such a weird concept.

With the killer aspect I know Lynch and Frost have spoken about it. They acknowledged that the killer being a demon was discussed but I do believe them when they said they didnt really have a single person in mind. When ABC demanded one they picked Jacoby, Ben Horne, and Leland as the three and only told those actors it was one of them. They even filmed Maddies death with all 3 guys to hide it.

However, when Sarah says, "Leland, dont you ruin this too!" at Laura's funeral I get very skeptical they didnt at least have a strong feeling it was Leland.

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u/rinkuhero 13h ago

yeah i think they wanted to include the supernatural element in the show in some way, because the one-armed man was in the pilot. i think it was always intended to be a murder-mystery with supernatural elements, but they didn't particularly have the idea of bob until later, and if something that big and iconic can come out of unplanned accidents, then the idea that they planned on judy existing and winning from the first episode seems especially unlikely. from what i remember, judy was originally going to be the twin sister of josie, played by the same actress, but that never materialized so they used the name for what became judy in the return

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u/Feisty_Ease_1983 7h ago

Yeah, I see Harold Smith as the early stages of the writers building Judy. That would place her origin probably sometime after the start of season 2.

Another tidbit is I think David Lymchs first gf or wife was named Judy.

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u/smoov_moov 16h ago

Great points except I love the infinite possibilities of too in "Don't ruin this too!"

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u/leviticusreeves 17h ago

That doesn't matter. FWWM and The Return employ backwards continuity, using the raw material of the older show to crystalise new meaning. Lynch and Frost did a remarkable job on The Return, going through the original show with a fine toothed comb and coming up with a decisive interpretation of the meaning of previously ambiguous material. You can see some of Frost's efforts in this direction in the Secret History.

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u/Material_Comfort_259 23h ago

Maybe not “Judy” but the embodiment of Evil obviously was, like BOB for example, there was much more evil in the world than just Twin Peaks. He had to have come from somewhere as well.

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u/Feisty_Ease_1983 18h ago

Given how BOB evolved over time its unlikely this scene was anything more than just intentional comedy. Not everything in this show means something.

The only argument I could see is maybe, and its a big maybe, is when they got around to consider what Judy looked like 25 years later they used this as inspiration.

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u/Material_Comfort_259 13h ago

That’s more or less what I’m saying, there was always an idea. Gestating in the minds of Twin Peaks’s creators and writers. Ideas that are later seen and make someone see the beginning in a whole new light.

I don’t think anyone had every single moment thought of from conception.

Like when people made David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti aware that their score also has Twin Peaks appear in the MIDI notation. A pattern appears and David Lynch says it was made to be.

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u/deadghostalive 15h ago

I think I read something along the lines of it had fallen off the wall in real life, set-designers or whoever is in charge of such things couldn't get it back up, so left it on the table, until a solution was found, meanwhile Lynch saw it on the table, and thought it would look good like that for the scene, so that's how it was used

That story might not even be true, but I sometimes see it used as another example Lynch making use of things that happened by accident to tell the story, I think he calls them 'happy accidents' or something like that, see also the flashing light, and Bob in the mirror

Have also seen it suggested as some sort of symbol of people losing their minds, or losing their head so to speak, which a number of characters did both in the going crazy sense, and literally losing their head sense

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u/bikibird 13h ago

It sort of reminds of that scene in Eraserhead after Henry has sex with the neighbor where he literally loses his head. I think the fallen stag head just symbolizes the town losing their collective heads.