I cherish how muchTwin Peaksconfuses me.
Sometimes key moments are built from throwaway bits of long-ago plot.
Sometimes scenes seem purposefully obtuse, requiring clarity from a scene that won’t happen until many hours later.
The Showtime revival has mysteries, and we could have guessed that.
to “What’s wrong with this town?”
So, of course,the revival’s two-hour premiereback in May launched a fusillade of enigma missiles.
(LocalTwin Peaksscholar Jeff Jensen has put forward the possibility that episode 8 is about Elvis.)
But the joy of the series isn’t just the mystery.
It’s the frustrating impossibility of knowing whatisa mystery, and what isn’t.
Characters introduced for no apparent purpose become important several episodes later.
Other characters whoseemlike they should be important have barely appeared.
(Where’s Audrey?
Oh,theres Audrey, talking about Billy and Angela and Paul and Chuck.)
An old man spraypaints his shovels gold: Is he burying something?
A dude spends two minutes sweeping the floor of an empty bar: Um, metaphor?
Most TV dramas now have trended epic, fantastical, a series of punctuated big events.
Even the smallest, most throwaway moment becomes imbued with tremendous power.
Which brings me to someone who is either the least important or most important character in this whole season.
Let’s call him the Insurance Man.
That’s not his real name, of course.
The end credits call him “Man in Suit.”
You might not even remember him.
Compared to all that, what happens in this scene seems hilariously minor.
Eternal receptionist Lucy sits at her desk.
A man walks in.
“Hello, I’d like to see Sheriff Truman,” he says.
“Which one?”
And when the man doesn’t respond, she says again, “Which one?”
“Sheriff Truman isn’t here?”
the man says, answering a question with a question.
“Well, do you know which one?”
“It could make a difference.”
“Uh, no, ma’am,” says the man.
He looks confused…and scared?
“One is sick, and the other one is fishing,” Lucy explains.
“Uh…” the man says.
Literally, out loud, a comic-book expression of befuddlement.
“It could make adifference,” Lucy says again.
The man finally seems to settle on a key subject: “It’s about insurance.”
Lucy looks at the man.
Her expression is blank, or maybe it’s searching; it’s hard to tell with Lucy.
“I’d like to see Sheriff Truman,” the Insurance Man says again.
Lucy stares at him again, perplexed, sensing something wrong.
“I’ll leave my card, and call in another day,” says the Insurance Man.
He hands over his business card.
If you listen closely, he seems to audiblygulpbefore his quick exit.
“What the heck just happened?”
is a common response to a scene onTwin Peaks.
But what a reintroduction!
So take a closer look at this strange Insurance Man.
He asks Lucy for Sheriff Truman but seems completely undone by her questions.
His facial reactions seem wildly out of line with the information passing between them.
But this seems to add further confusion.
Seriously,lookat this guy!
He has the face of a man hearing bad news from a doctor, practically flop-sweating.
Not “I’m here to sell him insurance,” not “I’m an insurance salesman.”
Is this an oddly helpful, buried explication of the journey we are about to take through the season?
And like the Insurance Man, we received some strange news: There are two Dale Coopers.
But one thing keeps drawing me back to this scene.
“Man in Suit” says, “It’s about insurance.”
The Lucky 7 Insurance Agency.
is actually taking place somewhere in the middle of the story.
Who could that be?
It would have to be someone who doesn’t know therearetwo Trumans.
This person would say, “Walk in there and ask to see Sheriff Truman.
Deliver him this message, and only him.”
The Insurance Man will run outside and explain that there seem to betwoSheriff Trumans.
(Sheriff Trumen?)
This would be confusing to anyone.
But it won’t be confusing to the man in the car.
He’s on the run from the law (who believe he is his dark murderous doppelganger.)
And that business card that the Insurance Man leaves for Lucy?
I predict we’ll see it again soon.
The card will say “Douglas Jones, Insurance Agent.”
With any luck, Sheriff Frank Truman will call him.
