Frozen

Episode 12 proves several times to be very frustrating for the viewer due to the stagnancy and powerlessness faced by some of its characters – notably Albert Rosenfield and Audrey Horne. Their incapacity to make things move faster or to have access to the information communicated to other characters in their scenes, along with the elongated tempo of the sequences in which they are involved, can be nerve-wracking.

Both Albert and Audrey seem to be facing an invisible wall that keeps them at a distance from the “action” taking place, unable to help advance it. They appear rooted in place, standing as trees, without any possibility to act upon what they witness besides using their voices. Interestingly, they are both associated with bucolic paintings, the sort that appear everywhere in season 3. It might be interesting at some point to collect all the frames with such paintings and think about their meaning (an omnipresent Arcadia?).

Could the painting under which Audrey stands have something to do with the drone shot over the Twin Peaks forest that follows Diane entering Ruth Davenport’s coordinates in her phone? And could this bird’s eye view of the Twin Peaks forest be related to the opening credits, with the drone shot over what could be Major Briggs’ facility in the mountain?

Also, should we link the end of Doctor Jacoby’s monologue to Audrey Horne’s first screen appearance, when he’s talking about being trapped in Hell? The fact that she does not move from the front of the chimney, inside which a fire burns, might indicate something of this nature.

Another static scene can be found when Dougie and Sonny Jim Jones go outside in their yard for a game of catch. Dougie appears unable to understand that he is supposed to catch the ball and remains standing still, facing his son across the yard. This outdoor garden motif is a recurring one in the works of David Lynch and the scene adds to an already long list of garden sequences in his filmography. In my book Twin Peaks: Unwrapping the Plastic I actually argue that the Red Room is a garden of sorts, a secret garden in which the process of individuation can securely take place.

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The opening scene of this episode, when Tamara Preston is asked to join the Blue Rose task force, takes place in a room reminiscent of the Lodges’ Red Room (red drapes). But the carpet is different, much closer to the one found in the Overlook Hotel (in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining) than to the usual chevron motif from the Lodges. Let’s hope that no big bad wolf haunts the corridors in which Gordon and his team are about to enter. Let’s rock!