Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier (Twin Peaks)

by Mark Frost


Publisher: Flatiron Books (October 31, 2017)

Hardcover, 160 pages   
 

“It’s right there on the front page: Laura Palmer did not die. So, fairly certain I’ve not misplaced my own mind, I go back and check the corresponding police records. They tell me this: Laura Palmer disappeared from Twin Peaks without a trace - on the very same night when, in the world we thought we knew, it used to be said she died-  but the police never found the girl or, if she had been killed elsewhere, her body or made a single arrest. In every subsequent mention in an edition of the Post, the case is still listed as an open and pending investigation.”

Thus ends the last chapter of the Twin Peaks file. I did say spoilers in the description right? If not, I meant to. Yes, this baffling end where the whole of Twin Peaks seems to become wrapped in a time\space fractal and rewrites history is the true conclusion of the story. This directly relates to Cooper and Diane entering the alternate world constructed (or dreamed) by Judy (or Joudy as the book names her- a rouge demon called “the mother of evils”). This also plays into a scene in the last episode of the original series, where in the Waiting Room the doppelganger of Leland Palmer appears before Cooper and states that he didn’t kill anyone.

We know that events in the Waiting Room, the Black Lodge, and presumably the White Lodge can re-write time. This is one of the speculations as to what is happening in Fire Walk With Me, that time has been rewritten to allow BOB to steal the garmanbozia (pain and sorrow) from Laura. This is due apparently to her putting on the jade owl glyph ring.

 

As to the exact nature of Laura Palmer, that is up in the air. We know her mother was in the area around the time of the Trinity atom bomb testing, which opened the door for the entities to invade the world, now known as the Roswell incident.  It is indicated that Laura Palmer’s life was intended as a trap to suck back in all those rouge spirits affiliated with Joudy, which is why so many spirits (or whatever) were attracted to her. This ultimate plan of the Fireman was subverted by BOB killing her, caused by her putting on the jade ring. She was supposed to disappear into the other dimensions around the Waiting Room and the Black Lodge. When Laura Palmer fulfilled her purpose, the world changed.

This plays into an underscored theme of the series, the nature of enlightenment. Throughout the series there have been several characters on the verge of grasping enlightenment, only to be prevented at the last minute by (what the book calls) “the Watcher on the Threshold”, a thing manifesting as the last threat for the person to overcome and it often results in failure. Three characters, Major Briggs, Phillip Jeffries, and Dale Cooper all come to the point of greater understanding - only to fail.

 

Apart from clarifying the ends of several characters who don’t appear in the series, or have very limited roles, the book itself adds little to the series. It mostly categorizes the action of The Return as would be discerned from the point of view of the FBI. No mention of Dougie or the gangsters from Vegas. As much of the material is garbled in and spread out, it puts things in linear order for easier digestion.

The most interesting speculation that I’ve seen here on the nature of the characters is that BOB didn’t possess Cooper, but the Cooper Doppelganger (which makes sense, considering the last scene of the original series) and is revived by the Woodsmen, after the Doppelganger is shot. I think had not the original actor of BOB, Frank Silva, died in 1995, the story would have gone much differently. In fact that was the biggest problem I had with the series, so many people who played characters from the Black Lodge had died off that the place felt empty.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

 

 

The Secret History of Twin Peaks: A Novel (Twin Peaks)

by Mark Frost

Publisher: Flatiron Books (October 1, 2016)

Hardcover, 368 pages

“I don’t know what happened to either Major Briggs or Agent Cooper at this point. There are files on Briggs, at both the FBI and the Air force, and on Cooper at the FBI, that are designated many levels above Top Secret. Out of my reach. I’ve taken my analysis as far as I can. My instructions are clear: I’m to turn over the dossier with any findings to the Director’s office and wait for their response. Deadlines are pressing.”

While this book claims to be a novel, it is not, in typical Twin Peaks fashion, presented in your standard book format. Thus don't expect a story with a thematic arc where the hero goes on a journey with exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and a resolution. That would be too conventional for Twin Peaks.

The book is presented as a dossier of Twin Peaks collected and written by someone who self identifies as “The Archivist” - assumed to be Major Garland Briggs. The dossier has fallen into the hands of the FBI and has commentary throughout by a Special Agent Tamara Preston - who is the assistant to Gordon Cole in Twin Peaks: The Return series.

This book came out some years prior to The Return series (and in anticipation of it) and thus does not go far beyond the series end where Cooper, possessed by Killer BOB, smashes his head into a mirror.

I was afraid that this book would be a rehash of the events of the first Twin Peaks series, and while there is a certain amount of that, it mostly focused on events prior to the series and just after it. In it we learn Audrey Horne survived the blast in the bank, that Lawrence Jacoby lost his medical certification following the events of the Laura Palmer case, and about a mysterious meeting between Agent Cooper and Major Briggs just after Cooper is possessed.

The book delves into the deep history of the place, beginning with secret excerpts from the Lewis and Clark expedition letters to Thomas Jefferson about a special assignment in the area that would become Twin Peaks. There Lewis comes back handling the jade ring with the owl glyph. This first appeared in Fire Walk With Me and appears liberally throughout the novel. The specific purpose is unclear. It’s linked to the Black Lodge and those who wear it seem to be doomed to a violent end, or at least an unfortunate one.

What I find very interesting is that a lot of the material is centered around UFO research conducted by Colonel Douglas Milford. This character appeared in the original series for only three episodes where he marries a much younger woman and dies in their honeymoon bed. According to the novel he was involved in Projects Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book- all Air Force projects designed to examine and/or disprove the UFO phenomenon. This has always been in the background of Twin Peaks, but it is spelled out in more detail in the book. Of the traditional alien types- the greys appear connected to the Black Lodge, while the nordic types seem attached to the White Lodge.

During Douglas Milford’s investigations many historic figures come into the picture. Richard Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower, Jackie Gleason, Aliester Crowley, Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard. I was gratified that the author made the obvious connections between the ideas Hubbard stole from Crowley’s Thelema philosophies for his self-help book Dianetics (and later on Scientology), while Crowley swiped the basic principles from the writings of François Rabelais, specifically Gargantua and Pantagruel. “Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law” was coined by Rabelais. Only his ideas were sarcastic and meant to be satire, while Crowley ostensibly took it all in another direction.

What also pops up is the fact that there are rival hidden factions in the government that are investigating this phenomenon, but not sharing the information with each other. There are hints that at least two different organizations have aligned themselves in some way with extra-human entities.

Despite my enjoyment of the book, I've a couple of bones to pick with it. Primarily that it does offer any insights into the nature of the Black Lodge or its denizens. It simply describes more incidents of their appearances over the past hundred years. Secondly, there are some inaccuracies in the retelling of events and characters in the first Twin Peaks stories, specifically in the saga of Big Ed and Norma. What is presented is completely different than what is told in the series. There are several inconsistencies with the character of Hank Jennings and his dealings with Jean Renault. Plus one character is described as playing “checkers, not chess” whereas in the series he is distinctly shown to be a chess whiz. Mark Frost, author of the book and co-creator of the series, says that these mistakes are intentional and coming from an unreliable narrator, but I don't buy that explanation. It seems more like he made a few mistakes and tried to cover it up with some BS.

In the end, there aren’t many answers given to the mysterious events in Twin Peaks. The white and black lodges, the man from another place, the giant (now known as the Fireman), Killer BOB, and all the rest are not mentioned. Perhaps there will be more in the next book Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier, which I will be reviewing next.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.