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"FIND LAURA 101"

“Find Laura,” as a series of informal Reddit essays, presents a dense network of ideas at a rapid pace. When I tried to expand this theory further into “The Return,” it was just too much to keep track of, so I started writing this guide instead.
This page is intended to be an organized summary of Lou Ming’s ideas. At key points, I have temporarily added my own thoughts for the sake of coherency and completion. When I have more material, these will be split off into a separate piece of writing. My additions will be displayed in this color, for clarity.
You can use the Table of Contents with the “Find” or “Search” function in your browser to get around quickly. I hope to add clickable points to this page in the future!

CONTENT WARNING: This page discusses the distressing, life-altering effects of parental abuse, parental neglect, sexual abuse, drug addiction, mental illness, and prostitution. If you are not interested in reading about these subjects, please click HERE to be redirected.

Find Laura 101
Version 1.0
- utilizes Find Laura, FWWM, Missing Pieces

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. FUNDAMENTALS
II. CHARACTERS
III. PRIMAL SCENES
IV. QUANTUM PHYSICS AND ELECTRICITY
V. NUMEROLOGY
VI. MAJOR RECURRING MOTIFS
VII. MINOR RECURRING MOTIFS
VIII. DEAD ENDS?
IX. THOUGHTS, QUESTIONS, MISCELLANEOUS
X. LIMITATIONS

I. FUNDAMENTALS

These are some of the key principles underlining “Find Laura.”

ESSAY STRUCTURE



TWIN NARRATIVES

“Find Laura”, at its core, argues the existence of two narratives within “Twin Peaks.”
1. One is the surface or top-level narrative:
2. The other is the hidden, unconscious narrative that tells us the truth:

"FIRE WALK WITH ME"

Lou Ming hinted at the idea that the "real" chronology of "FWWM" isn't quite what is presented to the audience. For example: the scenes with Philip Jeffries and the F.B.I take place earlier in the film than the scene with Laura and the Haywards, yet the latter is an abstraction of the former.
Close readers may notice that I described the revelation of BOBs identity in the final third of “FWWM” as if it started off Laura Palmer’s spiraling breakdown that made up the preceding hour and a half of the film. I have strong reason to believe that this is the case, but that is outside the scope of this page and will have to wait for a later time.


TWIN PEAKS

Laura Palmer really did grow up in Twin Peaks, and this town is the main stage for her inner psychodramas.

II. CHARACTERS

“The fates of the characters that are drawn into this pattern are seemingly determined not by their position … but by who is the recipient of the information.” - Lou Ming, "Find Laura" Part 3C

RESIDENTS OF TWIN PEAKS

In the fashion of "The Wizard of Oz", many of the residents of Twin Peaks “really existed” in Laura’s life, but her memories and images of them are taken and re-purposed for something inside of her Dream.

Theresa Banks
Inside: Theresa Banks was either a trial run or a repeat of Laura Palmer’s train car murder fantasy, depending on the “true” chronology of “FWWM.” Both of them are blondes that have sexual contact with Leland, both of them learn about his identity, both of them are murdered by him to protect this identity, both receive a letter under the nail, both are wrapped in plastic and disposed of in a river.
The major difference seems to be that Theresa Banks was killed with blunt force trauma to the head, and Laura Palmer was violently stabbed. This illustrates the subtle difference of their purposes inside the Twin Peaks Dream; Theresa Banks displays the Losing Your Head motif as a symbol of Laura Palmer’s disintegrating sanity, but Laura Palmer’s murder by penetration is, forgive me, an abstraction of her being raped and what she discovers during the act.

Outside: Theresa Banks was probably a real person that Laura knew of and/or worked with. Even if we assume that Leland’s motel flashback is something Laura completely imagined, and even if we assume that Ronette does not truly exist at all, Jacques still mentions that Theresa called him. The interesting part of that particular conversation is that Jacques doesn’t confirm or mention that she was killed. If anything, the way he says “… she called me” suggests a disagreement or confusion about the fact.
Logically, if Laura Palmer was never actually murdered because Leland/BOB is not a killer, it follows that Theresa Banks was not murdered either.


Major Garland Briggs
Inside: Major Briggs began to suspect that something was wrong with “Cooper” after his possession at the end of Season 2 and was apparently killed in a fire shortly afterwards. For him, merely suspecting that something had happened to the Good Father figure was enough to have him banished to the deeper parts of Laura Palmer’s subconscious.
In “The Return,” he is essentially an abstraction of the train car scene and what it represents. He finds horrible knowledge about who the Father Figure really is, his head is separated from his body, his head which contains this knowledge is vanished into an incomprehensible delusion, and his cold, numb corpse is left behind to not only take a ring but literally internalize it.

Outside: in “The Missing Pieces,” Laura sees and hears Major Briggs reading from the book of Revelations when she goes to visit Bobby. This probably contributed to her internal image of him as an enigmatic, powerful figure.


Laura Palmer
See the “Twin Narratives” section under “Fundamentals”, as well as “Scapegoating/Splitting” under “Major Motifs.” There are three Laura Palmers in “The Return.”

Ronette Pulaski
Inside: Ronette’s purpose inside the Twin Peaks Dream is to be the Knowing-Living half of the scapegoat motif that we see in the train car scene. As one of the few characters that can perceive BOB, she’s burdened with knowledge of the murder and sent away.
In “The Return,” Ronette is abstracted into American Girl.

Outside: Ronette Pulaski was probably a real person that Laura worked with, but we never hear from the real her.

The F.B.I AND RELATED AGENCIES

 In general, the F.B.I and Blue Rose Task Force represent Laura Palmer’s “higher mind.” This part of her wants to heal and re-integrate, but is confused and derailed by trauma. On the sliding scale of awareness, the F.B.I and its agents are in the middle, or scaling slightly higher. None of these characters exist outside of the Dream.

Denise Bryson
Laura Palmer’s anima and animus, integrated and in balance with one another. Her off-screen promotion in “The Return” may be a sign of progress for Laura Palmer.
Contrast: the disturbing mixed-sex motifs throughout “The Return,” such as The Experimental Model or Ruth Davenport’s head discovered over a man’s body. These may represent an unbalanced anima and animus, or an unhealthy view of sex and gender roles.


Gordon Cole
Lou Ming explicitly names Gordon Cole as a personification of the Bad Transformer in “Sidebar B.” He is an abstraction of mental gymnastics and denial. This is shown to the audience in the form of communication problems: difficulties with hearing, VOLUME, and what seems to be a uncontrolled compulsion to twist the simplest facts into bizarre symbols and guessing games.


Special Agent Dale Cooper
Dale Cooper is Laura Palmer’s internal image of a positive father figure and her own desire for salvation through a guardian angel. He is positive intention. His original purpose is to solve her “murder” by discovering the truth behind it. He failed; his transformation into Mr. C at the end of Season 2 is a symbol of Laura Palmer’s continued belief in BOB.

In “The Return,” his purpose is given to him as killing Two Birds With One Stone. One “bird” is to mend the shattered mind of Laura Palmer, presented to us as preventing her murder. The other “bird” is to end her belief in BOB, presented to us by killing him; this is actually shown to us twice, first through Freddie with his green glove and second as the dead BOB-figure in Carrie Page’s living room.
Dale Cooper never destroys BOB himself because his role is to be a Good Father figure, and the act of murder would bring him too close to the role of Bad Father BOB.


Special Agents Desmond and Stanley
If Theresa Banks is a trial run or repeat of the train car murder, then Desmond and Stanley have a similar relationship to the splitting/scapegoat motif. One of them is sent away with a dead body, the other finds some hidden knowledge and is vanished.


Philip Jeffries
Lou Ming defines Philip Jeffries in Part 2G as “the personification of a moment when Laura nearly spoke up … in the Hayward living room.” He also suggests a genesis in the scene where Leland “chickens out” at the Red Diamond motel; if Laura had caught a glimpse of her father there, that may have been the first moment of questioning and doubt about his character as a Good Father, and this is why Transformed!Jeffries is later hidden away in that same motel.

He is “the missed moment, the suppressed knowledge … its personification.” Notice his introduction in the Palm Deluxe scene, the first that anyone’s seen of him in two years after “Finding Something” and being disappeared; he walks from a long, unseen hallway, through open red curtains (→ a pathway from and through Laura’s briefly opened subconscious) and out from under an archway (→ the hidden knowledge represented by Laura’s hidden diary, here taken out and set free.)



Tammy Preston
Lou Ming writes that Tammy Preston is a stand-in for Laura Palmer herself, based on the photo evidence in the Congressman’s Dilemma.
One Laura becomes Laura and Ronette → One photo of a blonde woman becomes a photo with a blonde woman and a brunette (that looks identical to Tammy)
One can argue that Tammy is intended to be a stand-in for Ronette based on this, but her role in the hidden narrative simply does not match up: Lou Ming also writes that in order for Tammy to have a seat at the table, five agents are dismissed from the room. This calls to a 5-3-1 Sequence, with Tammy occupying Laura’s role as “carrying five characters in her head” in the Dirty Fingernails → Convenience Store abstraction. This also ties the concept of Tammy Preston to the concept of re-unification. 5 characters resolve into 1.

With these concepts in mind, I would like to temporarily add my own thoughts here as they relate to Carrie Page and Tammy Preston.
Tammy Preston may be a “test run” of Carrie Page. Both characters are representatives of Laura Palmer herself, both are related to themes of re-integration, both of them share a final initial, they are never seen together – in fact, Tammy is never seen again after Cooper leaves for Texas - and both of them have a unique ability to process new information in a dreamscape that’s been built from the same materials for 25 years.

”SUPERNATURAL” ENTITIES

 These enigmatic characters are some of the most highly abstracted parts of Laura’s mind.

BOB
See the “Twin Narratives” and “Twin Peaks” subsections under “Fundamentals.”
The abuse of Laura Palmer began at a young age. She couldn’t make sense of the fact that her father was a loving parent during the day that became a monster at night, so she rationalized it by convincing herself that a man was breaking into her room. As she grew older, her rationalizations became more complicated. Was this some sick agreement between her parents and this man? Was he paying them? Was it some kind of experiment? Was he threatening them?
After Laura discovered that her attacker had been her father the entire time, this coping mechanism was no longer sufficient. She couldn’t accept that her father would knowingly do these things to her. Her desperate rationalizations became full-blown delusions. Laura Palmer’s wounded mind became convinced that BOB was actually a demonic entity that could climb inside people, make them act, and then leave again with no memory of the event.


Mr. C
Mr. C is the fusion of BOB and Dale Cooper’s doppelganger/shadow self. Lou Ming writes that his goal in the Twin Peaks Dream is to undermine love in all its forms: he allows Sam and Tracey to be murdered by taking out the bouncer at the cabin that is entangled with the security officer in New York, he ruins the Hastings’ marriage in a way that’s almost retroactive just by arriving, and by killing Dougie Jones he seeks to destroy the Jones’ nuclear family unit as well.
He is the Negative Intent to Dale Cooper’s Positive Intent. He’s the Black Fire personified. He’s an abstraction of Laura Palmer’s self-sabotaging desire to live in the familiar comfort of negativity, delusion, and consumption.


The Arm/LMFAP
Lou Ming defines him in Part 3A as being “the part of Laura’s psychosis ‘reaching into’ her reality.” He also occupies the “Laura” seat in the Convenience Store scene. He is also connected to the #6 Power Pole via the whooping noise audio cue.
His removal from MIKE is an abstraction of the Splitting motif. Therefore, when he is temporarily reunited with MIKE at the end of “FWWM,” this is an abstracted form of Laura Palmer as a whole.


Senorita Dido
There’s not many notes on her in “Find Laura,” only that she’s given a filtered, comfortable, insulated view of reality by The Fireman. This ties her to being a representation of Laura Palmer herself.
Her seclusion in the Theater and role as a passive but entertained observer recalls Red Room Laura sitting in a flickering TV glow at the end of “FWWM.”
If the Fireman is a director of the Twin Peaks Dream, perhaps Senorita Dito is intended to represent us as the audience.


The Giant/The Fireman
Curiously, this character was only known at The Giant in the original series’ run, but by “The Return” he makes it clear that his title or name is The Fireman.
The Fireman is a well-intentioned, protective, paternal force for Laura Palmer. As the Grandmother gives Laura Palmer a painting to teach her to disassociate and escape her trauma, it is the Fireman who creates a safe, insulated version of reality for Senorita Dito.
Grandmother → Grandfather
Painting for Laura → Filtered view of the globe for SD
Dissociation → Denial
At the same time, The Fireman seems to want Laura Palmer to heal, even though he is forced to speak in strange riddles and work through the actions+prescribed destinies of other characters.
With this in mind, perhaps The Fireman is also a personification of the Bad Transformer as Gordon Cole is – and this suggests that The Fireman, in turn, is a director of the Twin Peaks Dream in the same way that Gordon Cole directs the F.B.I as well as literally being played by director David Lynch.


Grandmother and Magician
Lou Ming defines The Grandmother as a well-intentioned, protective, maternal force for Laura Palmer. It is her that gives Laura Palmer the wall painting and teaches her to disassociate through it. This may sound like a negative thing on first reading, but by teaching her this skill, The Grandmother has reduced Laura Palmer’s dependency on extreme sexual behavior and dangerous drugs.
The Magician may simply represent the sort of magical thinking that Laura Palmer needs in order to keep believing in things like BOB. His transporting the creamed corn in front of Donna’s eyes is a repetition of the garmonbozia scene at the end of “FWWM.”


Jumping Man
The Jumping Man is visually tied to Sarah Palmer several times throughout “FWWM” and “The Return”, to the extent that their faces are literally superimposed over each other. It’s probably the closest we’ll get to a straightforward definition of any of these characters! The Jumping Man is Laura Palmer’s view of her mother; not malicious, but completely useless - only capable of squawking, smoking, and hopping impotently.


Naido
Naido is described in Parts 3A and 3B as being an abstraction of Laura Palmer herself as she re-enacts the Primal Scene for Dale Cooper. More specifically, she’s an abstraction of Ignorant Dead Laura; her Knowing Red Room counterpart is American Girl. After Naido falls away, Major Briggs’ disembodied head passes by, extinguishing stars as he goes and telling Cooper only two words: BLUE ROSE.
This not only tells us that Blue Roses are related to the idea of wiping away the stars (→ collapsing possibilities), but it also suggests that the re-enacted “death” we just witnessed was a falsehood.


American Girl
American Girl is introduced to the audience after Naido “dies.” She is an abstraction of Ronette Pulaski and a counterpart to Naido. We also see a Blue Rose on the table when AG is introduced. This could be a sign that the reality we’re seeing repeated here – the murder of Laura Palmer that brought Cooper to Twin Peaks – never truly existed. It can be taken as a hint that Ronette herself never really existed, but this seems unlikely.

American Girl is an abstraction of Ronette Pulsaki, one of the original Knowing Scapegoats.
She is also a counterpart to Naido, who is an Ignorant Dead Scapegoat.
Logically, we can conclude that American Girl is also a Knowing Scapegoat.


Other

 Characters that don’t currently fit anywhere else.

Dougie Jones
In “Primal Scenes” below, we discuss the idea that when one character touches another’s face, it’s a repetition of the night Laura discovered Leland on top of her instead of BOB. In the Twin Peaks Dream, this becomes a symbolic gesture that precedes a similar drastic change in identity. If we work backwards from there, we can see that the creation of Cooper!Dougie is an inverse of that particular Primal Scene. Like the jackpot winnings motif, the replacement of Dougie Jones seems to be Laura Palmer’s attempt at recasting the truth as a good thing to be found. To study the symbolism a little further, one can’t help but notice that Dougie Jones (Father Figure) created a nuclear family debt that can only be resolved with jackpot winnings (re-unifying Laura Palmer and remembering the truth about her father).


Cooper!Dougie
Cooper!Dougie’s purpose in the Twin Peaks Dream is to resolve problems and heal wounds. The question is: why does he do this through inaction? Why does he act like a baby?
Lou Ming writes that his “empty shell” nature is that of a sponge. Cooper!Dougie absorbs all the pain and negativity he encounters, leaving behind only the good, and eventually he carries all that negativity to an electrical outlet to be blasted away. His lack of awareness also makes it more difficult for Mr. C to find, predict, and stop him.

III. PRIMAL SCENES

“Primal Scenes” are traumatizing events from Fire Walk With Me that we see repeated and abstracted throughout the Twin Peaks Dream. Lou Ming defines five of them in Part 4C.
Remember, these “abstractions” are deeply symbolic, they are “a visualization of how the abuse and the revelation [about the abuse] was seen, felt, and experienced by Laura” (Part 3B).

1. DISCOVERY OF LELAND → TRAIN CAR MURDER

SCENE:

Laura uses cocaine to stay awake and aware during BOB’s ritualized sexual assault of her. She perceives BOB on top of her and demands to know who he is. She touches his face. To her horror, in front of her very eyes, BOB seemingly transforms into her father. She screams, and the scream is echoed as her mind tears in two.

ABSTRACTION:

The train car murder-fantasy itself is an abstraction of this revelation.

EMERGENT THEMES:

Throughout “The Return”, one character touching another’s face precedes a drastic change in identity. Mr. C touches Jack’s face before changing cars, Jade touches Dougie’s face before he becomes Cooper!Dougie, Diane touches Cooper’s face while they have seemingly unwanted, uncomfortable sex and literally wake up as two different people the next day.
This scene also creates the recurring visuals involving shadowy bars, as if jailing or being jailed.

2. HAYWARD'S LIVING ROOM → PHILIP JEFFRIES

SCENE:

Laura abandons her Meals on Wheels duties and runs home in a panic. There, she sees BOB going through her things on the inside, but sees her father leaving the house on the outside. Confused and distraught, she runs to Donna for comfort.

ABSTRACTION:

This scene is abstracted into the character of Philip Jeffries. See his entry under “Characters” for more detailed information.

EMERGENT THEMES:

Laura Palmer almost felt safe enough to speak up in this scene, until the phone rang.
In the Twin Peaks Dream, ringing phones are then associated with being silenced before the truth can emerge. When Cooper pleads with Laura to not take the ring in “FWWM”, he’s speaking in double meanings: don’t take the jewelry (→ blame yourself and repeat the cycle of abuse), and don’t answer the phone (→ allow yourself to feel silenced and unable to get help.) Later in “The Return,” Mr. C is summoned away from learning about Judy from Transformed!Jeffries by a ringing phone.

3. DIRTY FINGERNAILS → ABOVE THE CONVENIENCE STORE

SCENE:

Laura is called home from the Hayward’s to find her father sitting at the table. He notices her broken heart necklace and enters a seething, jealous rage. He bullies her into washing her hands, sobbing, while Sarah protests impotently in the background.

ABSTRACTION:

This is abstracted into the “meeting” that Philip Jeffries describes in the F.B.I office. Notice in the extended “Missing Pieces” version of this scene that BOB (→ Leland) can only sit with his eyes closed until Jumping Man (→ Sarah) looks away. Only then does he awaken with the “fury of his own momentum.”

EMERGENT THEMES:

This is called the “5-3-1” Sequence. It’s one of the more subtle and complex motifs in this analysis.
The motif starts with five characters.
These five characters are observing three others – always a pair of characters plus one.
These three characters are observing one character, object, or concept.
5 – 3 – 1.


In this primal example, we have 5 “supernatural” beings on Laura/LMAP’s side of the table. These are all abstractions of her viewpoints and thought processes, observing the 3 characters (Leland and Sarah + Laura) through her eyes, and these 3 characters observing the 1 mystery; the unspoken sexual rivalry that fuels this exchange in every direction, between Laura and Sarah as well as between Leland and an imagined “Lover” of Laura’s.
More examples will be added here later!

4. CAR RIDE → SCORCHED ENGINE OIL

SCENE:

Laura and Leland are confronted by an angry truck driver. Leland revs the engine to cover his shouts, filling the air with the smell of burning engine oil. Laura, in her deteriorating mental state, misunderstands his shouted words and hears them as the truth that she’s desperately trying to escape: IT’S YOUR FATHER!
We never hear what the truck driver is “really” saying, but Leland’s reaction suggests that it’s something wildly profane.

ABSTRACTION:

I’m weighing the idea that this scene is abstracted into MIKE’s appearance at the train car, but this idea needs much more analysis and this sentence is practically just a placeholder right now.

EMERGENT THEMES:

For Laura, the smell of scorched engine oil is tied forever to the hidden knowledge – “IT’S YOUR FATHER!” The smell triggers sharp and instant recollection, as it often does for people in real life. This upsetting event also gave Laura an unforgettable image of the truck driver, and he is integrated into her Twin Peaks dream as Philip Gerard/MIKE.

5. JAMES' VISIT DAYTIME → SPARKWOOD AND 21ST NIGHTTIME

SCENE:

James comes to check on Laura during the day. He clearly cares very much for her, and for a moment she seems to consider asking for help, until she notices her father watching them.

ABSTRACTION:

this visit is abstracted into a nighttime meeting at Sparkwood and 21st. If we look at this scene with numerology in mind, we see that this abstraction occurs at the conjunction of Spark-Wood and 2+1=3. Perhaps this location represents a final crossing point where Laura Palmer, all of Laura Palmer, had the opportunity to spark a fire with the intention of choosing love and healing with James - or with the intention of pain and negativity by fleeing into the woods to chase her own fantasy murder.

In “The Missing Pieces,” there’s an interesting extension to this scene that features Leland and Laura eyeing each other from her hiding place in the bushes before James arrives. This seems to be an inversion of her staring into the woods later on, further supporting the idea that what she’s seeing there is one of the Father Figure characters.

EMERGENT THEMES:

If “FWWM” follows a Mobius Strip sequence in the fashion of “Mulholland Drive” and “Inland Empire”, the daytime version of this scene probably reflects that crossing-over point where the end of the film dovetails and loops back into the beginning.
See the “Fire Walk With Me” section under “Fundamentals;” this idea will get its own space in a later writing!

IV. QUANTUM PHYSICS AND ELECTRICITY

Lou Ming writes that the basic principles of quantum mechanics make up some of the rules of Laura Palmer’s Dream. Physicists and electricians forgive me, as all of the concepts described below are HUGE over-simplifications of the science involved.

90 degree turns: alternating current electricity is generated by a spinning magnet. The 90-degree turns of the chevrons in the Red Rooms, as well as Cooper’s turns as he navigates through them, are suggestive of this magnet; the magnet spins, generating the ELEC-TRI-CITY needed to power the Bad Transformer that is Laura’s traumatized, delusional mind. These visual 90 degree turns may also be a visual clue that we are watching an abstraction of these “Cooper Leaves The Red Room” scenes. The rotation of the Junkie Mom around her table as her son exits the front room is an example of this.
This motif is particularly hard to spot. I may find more examples on further analysis.

Double-Slit Experiment: the double-split experiment appeared to demonstrate that light can behave as a wave and a particle at the same time by projecting light onto a screen through a set of bars. This motif comes through most clearly in Jade Gives Two Rides scene; traveling in a little golden Jeep (→ photon) with bars on the front, Jade and Dougie (who is also making 90-Degree Turns, see above) seemingly pass through multiple timelines or possibilities until they can both arrive at the casino unharmed. This concept also appears in the split carpet patters at the Silver Mustang casino; one side has wave shapes, the other stars and particles.

Entanglement: in quantum physics, to say that a pair of particles is “entangled” means that an action on one particle will instantly affect the other, no matter how far apart they are. This entanglement is broken when a measurement is made. In “Find Laura,” the actions performed in one locale of the dreamscape can create reactions in other parts. A simple example is in S3E1: when Mr. C knocks out the bouncer at the cabin in the woods, the security guard in NYC also vanishes.

Probability: in quantum physics, every sub-atomic particle is essentially a bubble of potential outcomes that collapses when an observation is made. In “Find Laura,” the truth can only be brought to the front of Laura’s consciousness when all other possibilities are eliminated. This manifests in three ways:

V. NUMEROLOGY

David Lynch enjoyed numerology and number games. Those of you who watched his weather reports may recall that he pulled a random number at the end of each one.
Numerology Rules: One: unity, wholeness. The positive forces in Laura’s mindscape want to end her dissociative fugue and mend her psyche into one being, one identity.

Two: two/duality litters the Twin Peaks Dreamscape, echoing Laura Palmer’s mental split into two versions of herself. A very short list: there’s two Lodges, two women in the Mauve Zone, two characters named “Mike,” two coats of gold paint on the shovels, two names for the Giant/Fireman, and the Red Room’s tendency to split one person into two. In “Fire Walk With Me”, doubly repeated lines are a big clue that we’re watching an abstraction inside Laura Palmer’s mind.
Maybe some day I’ll write down the entire list just to see how long it is.

Three: may be associated with Laura Palmer as a whole; her consciousness is split into Red Room Laura, Dead Laura, and Odessa Laura/Carrie Page. To win a jackpot (remember the truth,) all three pictures (identities) must be aligned. In the original series’ run, each episode represented a single day, with the following exceptions of three-day time periods: (Laura dies → 3 days pass → Maddy arrives) (Leland revealed as BOB → 3 days pass → Leland dies) (Leland dies → 3 days pass → story resumes).

Five: associated with the Silver Mustang and Mr. Jackpots scenes. Cooper!Dougie is given five dollars by Jade, the casino advertises a 5-jackpot bonus, the first slot machine is “fives and sparklers.” 5 is also the start of the 5-3-1 Sequence. As the number halfway to 10, it’s possible that 5 is intended to be the number of progress and incomplete but steady healing.

Six: the #6 Utility Pole is defined in Part 3A as a power source for the BOB delusion.

Seven: there are seven huckleberries in the muffins, and Philip Jeffries exits the elevator on the seventh floor.

Ten: the number of completion, often represented as time coordinate 2:53. When numerology is applied, “ten” really means “one” (1 + 0 = 1). Thus, they have the same meaning; the healing and re-unification of Laura Palmer. It’s also worth nothing that J, a letter that featured prominently in the first season, is also the tenth letter of the alphabet.

VI. MAJOR RECURRING MOTIFS

These are recurring images, themes, and events that I think are the most revealing of the hidden narrative. Items may be moved from "major" to "minor" motifs (and vice-versa) as I continue to analyze and revise this work.

The Arch

A visual symbol of two lights on opposite ends beneath an archway. This is an abstraction of Laura Palmer’s dresser under the alcove, with her secret diary hidden behind it. In her Twin Peaks Dream, this arch becomes a symbol of the hidden knowledge/undeniable proof.

Bad Transformer/Flashing Lights

The Bad Transformer is Laura’s broken, traumatized mind as it tries to interpret the world around her. It is mental gymnastics and magical thinking. It twists simple facts into dense metaphors and abstractions to keep her conscious mind at a comfortable, insulated distance from the undeniable proof.

The concept of the Bad Transformer is introduced in the pilot episode. As the lights flicker and flash over Laura Palmer’s body, the attendant mishears the question he is asked and apologizes for the “bad transformer.” This elegantly ties all three ideas together in one short scene: flashing lights, a Bad Transformer, and communication issues. The transformer is brought up again by MIKE in the international release of the pilot episode.

Lou Ming explicitly defines Gordon Cole as being a personification of the Bad Transformer.
Flashing lights in themselves are a Lynchian motif that appears throughout Twin Peaks and in several of his other works. These are always tied to themes of trauma, sorrow, and escapism.

Blue Roses

Blue Roses are described in Part 3B. They are a tell that the place it appears in is a falsehood - an unstable, manufactured reality that will soon collapse under its own ridiculous and improbable nature.

The Experiment/Experimental Model/Sex Confusion

The Experiment is the vicious being seen in the glass box that murders Sam and Tracey.
Its name and mixed-sex characteristics suggest that The Experiment is related to Laura Palmer’s early rationalizations of the abuse: “This is an experimental agreement between Mom, Dad, and BOB.” It seems to be lured towards the Sam and Tracey by their sexual passions, and this may be a reflection of Laura Palmer’s fear of being “caught” during the abuse.

The Glass Box itself is explicitly defined by Lou Ming in 2B as “the knowledge of the identity of the abuser, as realized by Laura in FWWM.” Notice that it also sits under an Arch motif.
This theme of nightmarish mixed-sex characteristics appears throughout The Return; Ruth Davenport’s head left with Gordon Cole’s body is another example, and the “strange woman” that gatekeeps the otherworldly motel is played by a man.

Contrast: the character of Denise Bryson, representing Laura’s balanced anima and animus. Denise is a positive, competent character that is off-screen promoted to a higher position by “The Return.”

Jackpots

Throughout “Twin Peaks,” the buried truth about Laura’s father was abstracted into her dreamscape as hidden objects or secrets that cause characters to die or disappear upon discovery. Jackpots and winnings are Laura Palmer’s subconscious attempt to restage this discovery of the truth as a good, desirable thing.

This motif is naturally related to the gold minor motif, as well as the number 3. To win a jackpot from a slot machine, one has to get all three pictures to match. To win a jackpot in the Twin Peaks Dream by forcing Laura Palmer to remember the truth about her father, one has to realign and match all three of her internal personas.
There’s also a connection here between jackpots, the letter J, and the number 10. See “Numerology.”

Losing Your Head

A recurring visual motif where heads are destroyed and severed. This is a straightforward abstraction of Laura Palmer spiraling and losing her mind over the course of “FWWM.” This frequently appears with the Scapegoat motif, as they essentially represent the same series of events.
Losing Your Head comes up multiple times and is a pretty easy motif to spot. This is a short list of examples:

Pieta / The Transfer

Lou Ming refers to this position as The Pieta, as it resembles the work of Michelangelo. I think of it as “The Transfer” to avoid confusing it with religious imagery.

The Transfer is a recurring position between two characters, in which one thing is traded for another.
For Laura, this probably has its roots in the Hayward’s Living Room Primal Scene; note the way that Doc Hayward clasps Laura’s hand as he gives her the “secret message.”
For the audience, we first see this position in the Red Room dream of the original series’ run.

Ring (Jewelry) / Eating Gold

Defined clearly in Part 2B, the ring represents guilt and the cycle of abuse. To “take the ring” is to blame yourself for being abused and to rationalize abusing others; after all, you obviously did something to deserve it, so your intended victim probably did something too.

In “The Return” the ring makes several appearances and gains a lateral abstraction as well. From there, the idea is abstracted further into the idea of “swallowing the gold (→ suppressing your idealized and healthy qualities) to access a more comfortable reality.”

Scapegoating/Splitting

In the ritual of “scapegoating,” there are two kid goats. One is cursed with the sins of a community and sent into the wilderness, and another is sacrificed to God.

Even in the months and years leading up to the events of “Fire Walk With Me,” Laura Palmer had come to see herself not as a whole person but as a 100% Good Laura and a 100% Bad Laura that happened to inhabit the same body. Good Laura was Daytime Laura, the picture-perfect homecoming queen, runner of the Meals on Wheels program and bubbly private tutor. Bad Laura was Nighttime Laura, the selfish drug-addicted teenage prostitute.

When Laura Palmer discovered her father on top of her that night, this internal split got even worse.
In the Twin Peaks Dream, we are shown this in the form of a Dead, Ignorant Laura that can never see the truth, and a Living, Knowing Laura that was made to carry the truth and exiled to the Red Room.
This is a complex motif, but it’s an important one that we see abstracted and repeated multiple times. The formula is something like this:

A traumatic incident occurs. One character stays and has no clue what happened. Another character leaves, alone with the knowledge of what occurred.

Spot The Difference

In “The Missing Pieces,” we see a game that Dale Cooper and Diane play with each other to keep his wits sharp. She makes subtle changes to her surroundings while Dale isn’t looking, and waits to see how long it takes him to notice it.
In “The Return,” this game is played with the audience instead. In S3E1, during the conversation about insurance, the contents of Lucy’s desk change when the camera cuts away-and-back.

But when does this tell us about the hidden narrative?
More examples may emerge on further analysis.

Thresholds

A recurring scene in which one character is seeking something and approaches another with a gift or offering to access it. The seeking character is rebuffed, but the offering is left behind.
This is an abstraction of the scene between Laura and Harold in “Fire Walk With Me.”

VII. MINOR RECURRING MOTIFS

These are repetitive ideas and symbols that are worth noting, but aren’t as revealing of the hidden narrative. Items may be moved from “minor” to “major” motifs (and vice-versa) as I continue to analyze and revise this work.