The moment actually originates from the "European version" of the pilot episode. For contractual and financial reasons David Lynch followed up his television pilot by making an additional 20 minutes or so (much of it this dream sequence), added it to the end of the pilot episode to close out the story, and released it as a "movie" in the U.K. It creates closure (as much as any Lynch movie offers closure) and wraps up the story (well sort of) and is legendary for being the result of an accident on the set. The whole idea for BOB allegedly comes from stage hand Frank Silva being caught in shot in a mirror and the rest is history. This ending is much maligned despite being the inspiration for all that people obsess over when it comes to Twin Peaks. It truly is the burning heart of this mystery and the most satisfying aspect of the story.
And even if the ending and its disconnectedness is too much for you, the rest of the film works so well as that pilot is truly one of my favorite "movies" to ever be filmed. The haunting opening shot of Josie's face in the mirror (speaking to so much about what is to come although we don't know that yet), the finding of Laura's body and the incredible reactions to the news of her death, the arrival of Cooper (one of the best characters to be in any movie or TV series), and the creation of space... of place... of a world that is familiar yet out of reach. It is a gorgeous and terrifying thing to watch and I revisit it often.
The other movie in this canon is Fire Walk With Me, also much maligned, famously booed at Cannes. At the time I first saw it, it confounded me, it terrified me, it confused me, and it left me broken and battered a bit. I understand why people reject it outright for that, but I never could. There was so much richness to it, so much that changed how I understood films, that I also returned to it many times. Now it is in seeing these two "films" together that I understand a more complete vision here.
When watched together these two pieces (an opening and a closing... but which is which) create a mobius strip of a story which has within it questions/answers, problems/conclusions, pain/redemption. One leads to the next. Honestly you can start at almost any point, one story leads into the next, creating an endless loop of possibilities and view points. You can experience them with or without the TV series which inspired them.
For me Twin Peaks has always been about the evil lying just under the surface of Americana, the absurdity of it all and the horror of it. Specifically it's about male violence towards women and the pervasiveness of that evil. Much of Lynch's work explores this (Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive) but Twin Peaks is the magnum opus. It is a hero's journey, the hero debatably being Laura who is the one to truly triumph over the evil (which is why she has to die).
Laura is a fascinating character, often misinterpreted as the "bad girl" but perhaps more honestly the "everyman" trapped in dystopian America who overcomes it. There are those who try to "save" her, Donna, James, certainly Cooper, who face their own demons in that quest. But it always comes back to Laura, a victim who becomes so much more than what we think of when we think of a victim.
One of the things people struggle with in this story are its confounding aspects, the way time is played with, the way answers aren't complete, where logic is upended. There is debate about whether the evil is supernatural or symbolic. I originally weighed in on that debate but over time gave up on it. The beauty for me in Twin Peaks is the way it exposes the lack of need for their to be one truth over another. Is BOB the "evil that men do" or a an possessing spirit corrupting innocence? I don't think either are the answer. There is incredible truth in the tension between those ideas.
I think one should ask the question what does it all mean but the problem is in the kind of answer you expect. If you want Hercule Poirot to step in and walk you through the scenes to explain the who dunnit you've missed the point and joy of this sort of story. If you are willing to wrestle with the fact that there are going to be numerous interpretations of each moment, multiple understandings of events, and choices in how you want to understand aspects of this story today which you may choose differently tomorrow, then you've uncovered the wonder that is Twin Peaks.
I was a cinemaphile from the time I first was taken by my parents to the movies but my access to big "F" film was limited to what I could get on my VCR and TV or what I could sneak into at the local mall cinema. I was a child before Twin Peaks and I was an adult after. It brought to my TV film themes which I hadn't experienced yet and opened doors for me that have contributed to who I am as a film lover.
There are few movies which have offered me as rich and satisfying an experience as these two films. Lynch has described his 2017 return to Twin Peaks as an 18 hour movie and I imagine it will be, and I certainly hope it will be, like nothing I would expect it to be.
Twin Peaks/Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me
Starring: Kyle McLachlan, Sheryl Lee
Director: David Lynch
Writers: David Lynch, Mark Frost, Robert Engles
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