Every Green Object In Twin Peaks The Return Part 13
∆∆ Part 13: The Rancho Rosa logo preceding Part 13 of The Return has a bright green circle around the flickering white bulb against a dark grey cloudy sky. The green ring image reminds us of the green lighter ring in Mr. C’s car in Part 3, but we’ll explore that connection in another essay found here. What follows will be a catalog of instances of the color green found in Part 13 and the associations they inspire. This single color focus is not intended to reach a foregone conclusion, but rather to serve as springboard to learn about visual language and explore concordances with other esoteric systems.
∆∆ Part 13: Green glass. The bronze gunfighter statue establishes an opposition between his yellow/orange color and the pink and green combination of the Lucky 7 Insurance building. A triad of red balloons in between. A pair of green palms in the lower right corner.
∆∆ Part 13: Green cactus plant surrounded by yellow rectangles. Six people walk toward screen left in a conga line, alternating men in black and white and women in pink.
∆∆ Part 13: Another green plant, surrounded by blue rectangles. Green chair.
∆∆ Part 13: Jade lamp on the right of the sideboard behind Bushnell. Green plant against the wall to the right. Note that the green plant is not seen in the previous scenes in Bushnell’s office in Part 6 and Part 11. Green plants are growing in the yellow desert: the oasis. The theme of this scene is celebration, of “a wrong made right.”
∆∆ Part 13: Janey’s green sweater, matched with pink shirt. The combination of green and pink come to play in the Rancho Rosa logo for Part 16.
∆∆ Part 16: Atypical pink letters in the Rancho Rosa logo combined with green bulb. Connections we’ll explore in a future KPJK253 color cataloging.
∆∆ Part 13: Here is Sonny Jim playing on the gym set provided by the Micthum Brothers as a thank-you gift, and described by Cooper-Dougie as
“SEVEN HEAVEN.”
Here all the elemental symbols of the Tarot combine in the alchemical walled garden. In the right foreground, bisecting the top and bottom of the screen, is the white Wand of the porch post. The Wand symbolizes Fire and the Father. To the left of the Wand is the Cup, the red fountain, symbolizing Water and the Mother. Note the orb on top of the fountain recalls the tulpa-seed Dougie was reduced to in Part 3. The Sword is the golden light-up arch, symbolizing Air and the Son. The Disk is the green ringed trampoline, symbolizing Earth and the Daughter. The green ring of the trampoline is also on a square patch of green grass, so we have a symbol of the alchemical process of ‘squaring the circle.’
The alchemical marriage is also represented, the red fountain symbolizing the menstrual blood, the white post symbolizing the semen. Between the red and the white is the black disk of the trampoline, symbolizing the prima materia, the dark original matter. In his cyclical journey through the play set, Sonny Jim is seen returning again and again to the black disk, and it functions as a period of sorts, ending the sentence. Compare with Mr. C’s repetition of the phrase“starting position” in the sequence immediately following. Endings and beginnings: returnings.
The phrase “Seven Heaven,” the green garden, and the joy of the Jones family’s success all resonate with the seventh sephiroth on the Kaballah: Victory. But if we follow the Tarot sevens suit, we see that Victory is fleeting. The Seven of Wands, Valor, leads to Seven of Cups, Debauch, to Seven of Swords, Futility, to Seven of Disks, Failure.
The scene has an ominous undertone. The spotlight that follows Sonny Jim recalls other spotlights in Twin Peaks, in the Lodge, in the Roadhouse, in the Woods -- typically bad omens. The sound of running water is overlaid on top of the music, Swan Lake. In the ballet’s narrative, prince Siegfried falls in love with Odette, a princess he meets in the woods, but she is under the curse of Von Rothbart, an owl-like sorcerer, who transforms her into a Swan each day, so she only appears as a woman at night. The sorcerer tricks Siegfried into marrying his daughter, Odile, a black doppelganger for Odette. When Siegfried realizes Von Rothbart’s treachery, he and Odette commit suicide together. A doomed romance, with many parallels to the Cooper-Dougie-Janey story.
Another ill omen is in the shape of the white post Wand, similar in shape to the Germanic Rune Algiz, which is comparable to the English alphabet letter Z, and is known as the Life Rune, or Man Rune. A seemingly positive symbol, but the Algiz gains a sinister air, being strongly associated with Nazi Occultism, and contemporary white-power movements. We’ll see more Z’s and white-power symbols later in Part 13.
∆∆ Part 13: Green trees on top of Montana mountains. Note back in Part 3, we see Mr. C climbing a mountain in his effort to escape being pulled back into the Black Lodge.
∆∆ Part 13: Green trees, green grass. Note the power line poles are taller in the frame composition than the mountain ridge. The narrative has Mr. C. descending the green mountain to reach the tan road and white and grey building
∆∆ Part 13: Mr. C leaves a rectangle of green behind as he drives into The Farm’s grey garage.
∆∆ Part 13: One of The Farm baddies drinks from a green bottle. Mr. C asks, “What is this, kindergarten?” The drinking from bottles adds an infantile touch to an already childish scenario.
∆∆ Part 13: Another green bottle passes from right to left in the foreground, from Mr. C’s side to Renzo’s side. Note background baddie above Mr. C’s head drinks from a red bottle.
∆∆ Part 13: Background baddie third from left, above Renzo’s head, wears a green bomber jacket.
∆∆ Part 13: Right as Mr. C says “starting positions,” the green liner of the man’s jacket behind the long-haired baddie to the left of Mr. C forms the image of devil’s horns.
∆∆ Part 13: The green horns again when Mr. C says, “Starting positions’ more comfortable.” Note the Iron Cross around the long-haired baddie’s neck. An insignia of the German army, and used by the Nazis, the Iron Cross is taken up by biker culture and various White Power movements as a symbol of defiance. “Starting positions” here could refer to White Power concepts of “Blood and Soil.” With White Power symbols in both Dougie-Cooper and Mr. C victory scenes there is an equivalence between the two sides of Cooper. Good and Evil together as one. Combination of the Devil and the symbol of Christ repeats this equation.
∆∆ Part 13: The green devil horns appear again as Cooper says, “Let’s go back to starting positions,” repeating the phrase “starting positions” for the third time.
∆∆ Episode 2.22: Note the green devil’s resemblance to BOB and his position to the left of Mr. C. When we first see Cooper’s doppelganger in the Black Lodge 25 years earlier, BOB is also to the left. “Starting positions.”
∆∆ Part 13: The devil-horned baddie’s hair and beard give him a goat-like appearance. The word for ‘devil’ in Hebrew is ‘goat.’
The Thoth Tarot trump XV also portrays The Devil as a goat. The goat is known for climbing mountains, just like Mr. C.
∆∆ Part 3: Mr. C’s car up the mountain.
In the 15th century, the devil was considered green. A green horned devil is summoned in Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac heavy metal classic “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown.)” Green has said in an interview that the Green Manalishi, is “The Devil manifested as a wad of cash.”
∆∆ Part 6: Janey forms a finger-pointing “666″ with a $25k wad of cash.
∆∆ Part 3: Mr. C atop a mountain vomits yellow and green, while wearing a snakeskin shirt. In considering “starting positions,” let’s go back to Genesis and the Garden.
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? - Genesis 3:1
From “starting positions” at Malkuth, the Kundalini Serpent rises to Kether.
∆∆ Episode 2.22: More “starting positions” -- Mr. C, who famously doesn’t need anything, only wants, here, in his first few sentences on Earth, announces his need to attend to basic morning rituals.
∆∆ Episode 2.22: Instead of brushing his teeth, Mr. C pours out the tube of toothpaste, forming green snakes in the sink.
The traditional color of the seventh sephiroth of the Kabbalah is green. The Rancho Rosa logos for Parts 13 and 16 are also green. Combine with the green-horned devil and we have a green pyramid pointing straight to Kether the Crown. Now the Kabbalistic Death is in order ...
∆∆ Part 13: The baddie in the green bomber jacket is the last to leave the room.
∆∆ Part 13: The green ring. For deeper exploration of the Green Ring and the number 13, see here.
∆∆ Part 13: Green bottle, red bottle. Green reflected in the bald baddie’s belt buckle. Here Richard Horne observes his father Mr. C sacrificing Ray to the Black Lodge, foreshadowing his own fate.
∆∆ Part 13: The Devil theme continues. The Hebrew letter associated with the Devil Tarot is ‘Ayin,’ or ‘Eye’. Note how Ray’s paralyzed legs look like an eye with a devilish arched eyebrow. The shape of Ayin also resembles two legs upturned.
∆∆ Part 13: The green ring on Ray’s finger disappears as he dies.
∆∆ Part 13: The green ring falls to the floor inside the Red Room. The edit suggests that the Black Lodge is below the floor of The Farm, which is in the valley between mountains, just like the town of Twin Peaks. “Starting positions” again.
∆∆ Part 13: MIKE places the green ring on the black marble table, just as he did with Dougie Jones’ ring in Part 3.
∆∆ Part 13: The Fusco Brothers make dollar bets whether or not they can make a basket throwing away a key document linking the identities of Mr. C, Dale Cooper, and Dougie Jones. Here, in the eyes of base earthly law, human life is equated to one dollar.
∆∆ Part 13: Here Anthony discusses with Detective Clark how to best poison Dougie Jones. All here present work for Duncan, and by proxy, Mr. C. The green rectangle of ivy parallel to Anthony and Clark perhaps represents the single dollar they think life is worth. The trajectory points to a green glass window, flanked by twin palms. A white leafless tree stands in front of the right palm, with five branches extending, like a left hand has moved across to the right. This trajectory predicts Anthony’s actions as he moves from the left hand path of Severity and murder to the right hand path of Mercy and forgiveness.
∆∆ Part 13: Chantal and Hutch on their way to Las Vegas. Green signs for Provo and Orem, Utah. Straight on 189 South or exit right to I-15, doesn’t really matter as they with eventually take I-15 all the way to Vegas. 15, the devil’s number all the way to Sin City. Coincidentally, directly to the north of this point in the highway is a mountain range called Twin Peaks. Themes of coming down from the mountain, and the devil continue...
∆∆ Part 13: Dougie-Cooper passes through double pillars, leaving behind a great tree in the middle of a rotary, suggestive of the exit from Eden and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
∆∆ Part 13: Dougie-Cooper looks slightly up to his right. His field of vision is in between 2 and 3 of the five red spheres of the white mountain scuplture behind him. A horizontal line of greenery stretches across the screen behind Dougie-Cooper, and a vertical line of greenery in the form of double twin palms stretch up to his right. Dougie-Cooper’s right hand is emphasized in chiaroscuro. There is a subtle 253 encoded in this image.
∆∆ Part 13: Like the Silver Mustang Casino, the coffee shop has a green door. Green text reads “SZYMON’S FAMOUS COFFEES.” The text is David Lynch’s own handwriting. The ‘O’ is an image of a cherry pie with 18 red strokes emanating out from it, 9 long, and 9 short. The total narrative of Twin Peaks The Return emanates in 18 parts, 9 with single digit numbers, and 9 with double-digit numbers. The pie crust is a lattice of 4 horizontal strips and 4 vertical strips. We could call this squaring the circle, one of the goals in alchemy. The 4x4 lattice would make 25 square holes for the heat of the cherry interior to escape, except the four corners are blocked by the crust of the circular pie pan, making the number of red emanations 21. We saw in the KPJK253 rundown of Part 3, that the number 25 is a symbol for Cooper’s return, and at this point in the narrative, Part 13, we have 4 more parts to go before Cooper makes the titular return to Twin Peaks. The Z is in bold, but the second letter, perhaps signaling we are near completion, but not quite there.
The 21 squares of red emanating from the pie could represent the the 21 trumps of the Tarot, with the ‘O’ ring of the pie crust representing the 0 card, The Fool. Dougie-Jones is most certainly The Fool, stumbling onward to complete The Universe. If Cooper’s frustrated desire for a “damn good” slice of cherry pie is fulfilled, the four rectangles of cherry red caused by the two knife cuts will add 4 to 21, making the 25 needed for the “real” Cooper’s return.
SZYMON is polish for Simon. The combination of Simon and pies of course brings to mind the nursery rhyme, Simple Simon.
Simple Simon met a pie man, Going to the fair; Says Simple Simon to the pie man, Let me taste your ware.
Says the pie man to Simple Simon, Show me first your penny; Says Simple Simon to the pie man, Indeed I have not any.
Simple Simon went a-fishing, For to catch a whale; All the water he had got, Was in his mother's pail.
Simple Simon went to look If plums grew on a thistle; He pricked his fingers very much, Which made poor Simon whistle.
He went for water in a sieve But soon it all fell through And now poor Simple Simon Bids you all adieu.
Parallels to Cooper’s misadventures as the simpleton Dougie Jones in the “fair” of Las Vegas are obvious. But notice in this case, the pie man’s name is Simon. The opposition of the pie man and Simon in the nursery rhyme is now resolved, and they are one and the same. An example of Jung’s alchemical concept of the syzygy, the union of opposites. If we take word play even further, Szymon could be a “syzygy-monde,” or two worlds united.
Since alchemy is on the table, SZYMON brings to mind Simon Magus, alchemist hero, the first Gnostic, and first Christian heretic. Simon was an early Christian convert, but was rebuked by Peter for offering to pay the Apostles to teach him how to perform the laying of hands and granting of the Holy Ghost. Simon declared himself “God” and, by the aid of demons, attempted to fly, to be higher than God. Through prayer, the apostles forced the demons to release Simon and he fell, as pictured above.
We can see parallels between Cooper and Simon Magus. Cooper also had a great fall. Cooper is aided by demons to perform miracles. Lodge spirits guided Cooper to jackpots at the Casino, helped him identify Anthony Sinclair as a fraud and expose his criminal operation, and aided him in winning the favor of the Mitchum Brothers, who, in Part 17, will literally help Cooper to fly.
There are other sides to the Simon Magus story. Curious that Peter is also named Simon, and that Peter also denied Christ.
“Woman, I do not know him.” Luke 22:57.
And there is a third Simon, among the apostles, Simon Zealote. Cooper is nothing if not zealous. The triple biblical Simon is all shades of the triple identity of Dale Cooper - Mr. C - Dougie Jones.
[Another side note association: the occult b-movie classic Simon, King Of The Witches is perhaps relevant here. In the film, a dissolute Hollywood magickian is dispatched to find a man’s lost daughter, but instead only finds her trapped in a mirror otherworld -- echoes of Leland in the Red Room asking Cooper to “find Laura.”]
∆∆ Part 13: Greenery in the background to Dougie-Cooper’s left. Note the sugar containers are lined up parallel to Dougie-Cooper’s left wrist watch.
∆∆ Part 13: Green chair screen left as Dougie-Cooper is compelled to enter the green grid of SZYMON’S.
∆∆ Part 13: Green lamp above Dougie-Cooper’s head as he approaches the green (Formica?) counter top of the pie display.
∆∆ Part 13: Cooper perches sphinx-like before a single slice of cherry pie, while the orange-clad barista mirrors his stance. She asks “would you like some pie?” but might as well be asking him if he’d like some Pi, the number to unlocking the secrets of the circle, and The Return. Note to Dougie-Cooper’s left there is a black clock with flames extending upward from it, and to his right, a yellow coffee cup with flames extending from it. The SZYMONS FAMOUS CHERRY PIE sign in between the two, combines both black and yellow: the pie (or Pi) is the key.
∆∆ Part 13: A single green chair screen left again as Dougie-Cooper returns. Note the double orange chairs screen right, echoing the green vs. orange color scheme of the previous shot. Also note that Anthony is flanked in the background by twin sugar containers. Anthony’s dandruff flakes fascinate Dougie-Jones and also resemble sugar granules.
∆∆ Part 13: Green exit sign directly above Shelly, in light blue green uniform, in a symmetrically-composed and balanced shot. The pink ‘U’ of Shelly’s apron and the double pink arrows flanking her breast recall the design of the other worldly fireplace room with the double ‘I’-shaped lights and the ‘U’ shaped chair. So the Tarot III card is invoked, but the tableau more reflects Tarot VIII: Judgement, the 3+5, The spiritual female aspect plus the five-fingered hand of magickal work.
∆∆ Part 13: A green blanket the same shade as Shelly’s uniform is above Becky’s right shoulder. Shelly has to use judgement in dealing with her troubled daughter, a balance of severity and mercy.
∆∆ Part 13: In the next scene, another balance of severity and mercy occurs in the judgement of Anthony. The symmetry of the composition falls between Dougie-Cooper on the Severity side and Bushnell on the Mercy side, with a repetition of the green exit sign in the middle. Note the green exit sign is not in the center of the shot, but off to the right, toward the Mercy side. Note a green chair off to Bushnell’s right.
∆∆ Part 13: Green trees and mountains in the horizontal strip painting that bisects the RR Diner wall. Note that Ed sits below the valley between the two mountain ranges -- a depression, just like the one Ed’s spirits are in, as well as the situation of the town of Twin Peaks, both figuratively and literally. Norma, being Ed’s only hope sits below the mystical Ghostwood Forest, where the portals to the spiritual realms reside.
∆∆ Part 13: Norma’s business partner Walter shows her a graph of the profitability for the five various “Norma’s” restaurants. Walter informs her that her original diner is one of two that are not profitable. Looking at the graph, we see that the shortest two bars are red and blue, while the green, yellow, and grey bars are assumed to represent the profitable businesses. But the difference between the more profitable of the unprofitable diners (blue) and the least profitable of the three profitable diners (green) is comparable to the difference in profit between all the profitable diners, i.e., not that much. An example of typical businessman Walter getting hung up on the “narcissism of small differences.”
∆∆ Part 13: Nadine’s storefront with green and yellow “RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP” sign. Completely silent drape runners open and close over Jacoby’s golden shovel display, providing a tidy sexual metaphor for Nadine’s romantic desires for the lonely Jacoby.
In the real-world filming location for Nadine’s storefront in Snoqualmie, WA, we see it next to two boarded-up businesses. Researching the main drag of the town it seems like half the businesses are closed. No cars on the streets. Art imitates life. The recession is real in Twin Peaks.
∆∆ Part 13: Nadine drinks a green smoothie, looking after her health.
∆∆ Part 13: A green light is reflected on Nadine’s door as she opens it for Jacoby.
The green light is from the “NUTRITION CENTER” across the street in the real-world Snoqulamie, WA. Another symbol of health. Note the Masonic Theater upstairs above the bike shop next door. The secret society symbols are on stage above a store, just like at The Dutchman’s we’ll see in Part 15.
∆∆ Part 13: As Nadine explains her “tribute” to Jacoby, her extended right palm gestures below a another lit business sign from across the street. Nadine and Jacoby stand before a reflection of the town, just as their relationship is a reflection of the town. However eccentric, they are the town elders and shamen, healing the wounds of their community through gestures of love and care.
The sign above Nadine’s palm in the reflection belongs to Boxley’s, a jazz club and restaurant (now since closed.)
∆∆ Part 13: So now we move from the wholesome and healthy greens of the RR Diner and Nadine’s, to the isolated, self-destructive spiral worlds of Sarah Palmer and Audrey Horne. Green details in the labels for Sarah Palmer’s Bloody Mary makings. Recall the Tarot Seven of Cups: Debauch.
∆∆ Part 13: A green bottle of J&B scotch on the liquor cabinet at Audrey Horne’s .
∆∆ Part 13: Defeated, Audrey sits into a dark green chair. Recall the green chairs that Tulpa-Diane and Mr. C sit in before being defeated. Futility.
∆∆ Part 13: A green car parked outside the Roadhouse.
∆∆ Part 13: A backup singer screen right wears a green blouse, as James reprises his song “Just You.” James’ song is for Laura, Maddy, Donna, his lost love and life. James is “quiet now” after his accident, but “still cool.” And still the laughingstock of Internet cynics. Failure.
∆∆ Part 13: Affected by James’ song, Renee begins to cry, revealing green eye shadow.
∆∆ Part 13: Though the grid surrounding the pumps at Big Ed’s Gas Farm are more blue than green, we’ll discuss them here if only because they reveal another color anomaly. Yellow, white, and red pumps face outward.
∆∆ Part 13: In the reverse shot, as seen from inside the Gas Farm’s office, the white pump is in the center, below the “Strictly Cash” sign. Notice the pump to the left is yellow, but as seen from the other side in the establishing shot, that pump is red. The pumps could have alternating colored panels, but notice the “Strictly Cash” sign is translucent, and we cannot see the identical text on the other side side of the sign. Also, the “Frame Straightening” sign cannot be seen in the reverse establishing shot. Triple frames separate Ed from the road and they are not at all straight and the screen-reality of the Gas farm set exterior appears to be rotated around to face him. Ed is trapped in his interior world of depression and alienation, and far from the Path.
Ed’s tale to be continued in a future KPJK253 essay on Part 15 and The Devil.
The green color catalog continues in a future KPJK253 essay on Part 16.