We ARE gonna talk about Judy....

Judy, Judy, Judy! Blue Monkeys whispering seemingly unnecessary female names having nothing to do with plots? Is it a nod to Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz, a film which David Lynch is a big fan of and even used obvious parallels to in his film Wild At Heart? We may never truly find out the meaning of “Judy”. It is a plot device and name which has driven fans mad since Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1992. However, I believe (and hope) that we just might find out what this Judy business is all about in the 2016 incarnation of Twin Peaks on Showtime. I recently read an article by former editor/creator of Twin Peaks fanzine Wrapped in Plastic’s John Thorne which might shed some light on the Judy mystery.  Basically John postulated that Judy is actually Laura Palmer’s secret name or her other Red Room/otherworldly self. It would actually make sense not only in the film but in the Lynch universe if Judy were to turn out to be Laura Palmer. In the film when Judy is referenced by Phillip Jeffries (David Bowie), it occurs in Gordon Cole’s Philadelphia FBI office. When he mentions Judy, he does it in such a way that he seems to have already anticipated a question about Judy, almost according to a script. This would make sense since a few minutes before Agent Cooper was telling Gordon Cole about a dream he had. In the next few sequences it appears to Coop that the dream he was talking about is coming true before his eyes, a dream within a dream just like what occurred in the Winkie’s Diner scene in Mulholland Drive when Dan tells the psychiatrist of his dream. Right after talking about Judy, Jeffries points to Cooper and says “Who do you think this is there?” in what is most likely a reference to seeing Cooper in the Red Room/Lodge, guessing that the Cooper he is seeing is actually his evil doppelganger. One can only surmise that he had seen both Cooper AND Laura’s other self/parallel universe self and interacted with them. This would make sense in the context of Lynch’s following features like Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire. All of these movies involve a character who seems to have more than one self in parallel worlds. In Lost Highway Fred Madison is also Pete Dayon/Renee Madison is also Alice Wakefield; In Mulholland Drive Betty Elms is also Diane Selwyn/Rita is also Camilla Rhodes; In Inland Empire Nikki Grace is also Sue Blue.


So, why then can Laura Palmer not also be Judy??! When David Lynch filmed Fire Walk With Me, he said it was his most experimental film to date. Now obviously this could be for a number of reasons, considering how surreal the film was. But, I choose to believe that it was experimental due to the fact that Lynch started shifting his films into a new direction, with that direction being a split/almost incoherent narrative that shifts midway or at intervals during the film. This would also explain why people such as John Thorne also interpreted the first thirty minutes of Fire Walk With Me as a dream that Agent Cooper was having. This would obviously be a result of hindsight after observing what Lynch did in Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire.

So, I believe we are going to find out in the 2016 Twin Peaks “third season” once and for all who Judy is! I believe that person is Laura Palmer. The Red Room sequences and the film all seem to point in that direction. Mark Frost’s upcoming book “The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks” could possibly also shed some light on this before the show broadcasts. Mark Frost said in a recent interview that the new incarnation of Twin Peaks is going to stem from the central mystery of the first series. This would most likely have to do with Laura Palmer and her person or death in some way. In the “Between Two Worlds” feature on the Blu-Ray set which was released in July Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee in character) spoke of many questions which still need answering. The actors involved in this feature had no idea they were going to be handed scripted lines by David Lynch just as they arrived to shoot what they thought was just an interview. This obviously means Lynch had planned this to coincide with the fact that he and Mark Frost already knew they were bringing Twin Peaks back. So he needed a feature which would lead into the new series somehow. At the time we the viewers were most likely thinking it was probably going to be the last original thing shot for Twin Peaks. But in hindsight some of us felt there was just something that felt as though maybe Lynch was up to something. The vibe that this feature gave off certainly hinted at it, and now looking at what Laura Palmer said we can tell ourselves we should have known all along. I do not know how this whole Judy/Laura mystery will be handled (if it will at all), but Mark Frost did say that Fire Walk With Me is part of the canon of Twin Peaks and will certainly be taken into account in the new series. This is great news. Not only will we possibly be told the truth about Judy, but we may finally learn the fates of Agents Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak) and Phillip Jeffries (David Bowie) as well! As for the fate of Josie Packard and the wooden knob, I think that’s one mystery that should just stay where it is!