FABIAN GRUMBRECHT
Released in 2014, the Blu-ray boxed set Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery seems to turn what Linda Ruth Williams calls “the relative ‘completion’ of collectable DVD and video releases” (45) into actual completion. The boxed set includes the two previously released seasons1 of the TV series Twin Peaks (1990–91) and the two versions of its pilot, in addition to the feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) and a collection of deleted and extended scenes entitled “The Missing Pieces: Deleted/Alternate Scenes from Twin Peaks—Fire Walk with Me.” Supported by a large number of additional “Special Features” mainly assembled from the preceding releases of the series on DVD, the composition of The Entire Mystery goes beyond the “the seasonal box set [sic] … as a multiple-disc DVD package containing an entire season’s worth of episodes from a particular TV series” (Kompare 338).
This circumstance should not be reduced to the mere capacity of the Blu-ray Disc, given Matt Hills’ notion that a boxed set release of a TV series is generally prone to “valorising its texts by extracting them from conditions of (segmented) flow and converting them into symbolically bounded art objects” (58). Moreover, Derek Kompare points out that “while discs still ostensibly serve as functional copies of an original text, the additional features included on most DVDs amplify various elements of their central text, thus producing new media experiences” (346). In the case of The Entire Mystery, however, the media experience seems to be generated by the co-presence and interaction of previously available and previously unreleased material of the Twin Peaks franchise as it is contained in the boxed set. Whereas many boxed sets present “a television series as a sustained narrative experience” (Mittel) the way Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery presents the series, the feature film, the European/international pilot, and “Missing Pieces” seems to blur the boundaries between the TV series itself and the aforementioned other constituents in favor of a more overarching narrative experience.
In order to examine how the intertextual configuration of The Entire Mystery exceeds the “boxed aesthetic” (Mittel) or the “sense of text completeness” (Hills 58) associated with the release of a single TV series or its individual seasons on DVD or Blu-ray, this essay initially analyzes how the packaging presents its contents and supports their intertextual constellation. Subsequently, the relation between the “closure” (Williams 49) offered by the “Alternate International Pilot” and the U.S. version of the pilot, as well as the series’ second and third episodes, is analyzed. Finally, this essay focuses on the pivotal function of “Missing Pieces” within the boxed set regarding their (prominently advertised) status as a “feature-length experience” (CBS Home Entertainment), also paying attention to their title sequence and providing an exemplary comparison of the two different versions of the segment involving Phillip Jeffries in Fire Walk with Me and “Missing Pieces.”
The reason for focusing on examples taken from the TV series, the feature film, the two pilots, and “Missing Pieces,” instead of the various special features (such as interviews, documentaries, and promotional material) also included on the discs, is influenced and supported by the boxed set’s packaging. Considering that Jason Mittell points out that “the design of DVD sets has constituted a key site of extra-textual meaning [and] … [t]he packaging for these boxes help [sic] establish their meaning, both as an object to be owned and a narrative to be experienced,” the same can be detected in the case of the Blu-ray boxed set Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery. Instead of an “unfolding stack of trays” (Kompare 348) scrutinized by Kompare in the case of the first DVD boxed set of The X-Files, the packaging of Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery reveals a booklet-like design within the box. Illustrated cardboard pages which display images associated with Twin Peaks and contain the Blu-ray discs sporadically alternate with pages made of almost transparent paper which list each disc’s contents.
Three pages with a table of contents devoted either to the first season, the second season or the film Fire Walk with Me, respectively, have to be turned in order to access the Blu-ray discs. These three tables of contents establish a certain hierarchy by distinguishing between the numbered episodes, the two pilots, the feature film, and “Missing Pieces” on the one hand, and the unspecified “Special Features” on the other hand. The undifferentiated latter term is used repeatedly for each disc containing such features, but without giving a more detailed account of what they actually encompass. By contrast, the other constituents are explicitly identified, such as the “Original Pilot,” the “Alternate International Pilot,” “Twin Peaks—Fire Walk with Me Feature Film,” and “The Missing Pieces: Deleted/Alternate Scenes from Twin Peaks—Fire Walk with Me.” Hence, the fact that the other “Special Features” are not listed in a more detailed way seems to indirectly emphasize the difference between the presumably core elements of The Entire Mystery and the status of the special features as additional, accessory elements. Although the boxed set includes an example of a “library of special features, ranging from film trailers to behind-the-scenes promotional spots” (Hu 499), the tables of contents seem to present those features as subordinate to the central media texts (i.e., the episodes, the pilots, the film, “Missing Pieces”). Those constituents are indirectly distinguished from the elements subsumed under the term “Special Features”—including older material as well as the newly filmed (and partially in-character) interview “Between Two Worlds”—by the peritextual function of the boxed set’s packaging as it is generally discerned by Hills (54).
Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery may deliver a special case of what Paul Benzon describes—with regard to DVDs—as “a paratextual ‘aesthetics of more’ through special features: more scenes, more commentary, more documentation, more control, more options, seemingly ad infinitum” (92). Whereas the DVD is well-known for exceeding the “VHS’ storage capacity while greatly improving on its audiovisual quality … and structure[s] television releases around the season rather than the individual episode” (Kompare 347), the Blu-ray boxed set seems to take the next logical step. Combining the even greater storage capacity of Blu-ray with the distinct characteristics of the Twin Peaks franchise, the boxed set manages to compile episodes and two versions of the pilot as well as the feature film Fire Walk with Me and “Missing Pieces” on respective Blu-ray discs, also adding additional bonus features. Thus, the “‘aesthetics of more’” (Komapre 347) of this particular boxed set go beyond a focus that merely centers on one season or one TV series. Despite the fact that “taken from a certain perspective, … bonus material is all packaging—inexpensively produced goodies designed to boost the demand for the DVD in an age where Internet piracy has challenged the desirability of the bare-bones disc” (Hu 499), The Entire Mystery evaluates its bonus features in a special way. The promotional material, the interviews, documentaries, and less than ten minutes of deleted scenes from the TV series are—under the label “Special Features”—distinguished from “Missing Pieces,” despite the common practice of generally considering deleted scenes to be part of the bonus features. As a main selling point of the boxed set, the packaging includes explicit references to the compilation of deleted and alternate scenes on the box’s front and back cover, already foreshadowing the guidelines established by the tables of contents and menus within. As a consequence, the way the packaging presents “Missing Pieces” seems to intensify Brian Hu’s assumption that “deleted scenes on a DVD allow the main text (and the filmmaker’s rhythm and argument) … to remain intact while recovering the obtuse meanings within the excluded footage which may be irrelevant to the aesthetic or argumentative motivations of the filmmaker” (502). The collection of deleted and alternate scenes is described on the back of the box as a part of the overall “entire mystery” reflected by the boxed set’s title, alongside the TV series and Fire Walk with Me which “have been put together.” This circumstance highlights the pivotal status of “Missing Pieces” within the overarching Entire Mystery (i.e., the mystery presented by the boxed set as well as the boxed set itself), suggesting that this particular collection of deleted and alternate scenes—as an important selling point—may not necessarily be a potentially “irrelevant” (Hu 502) addition to a finished film or TV series.
Contrasted with Kompare’s reference to the way the design of the first seasonal DVD boxed set of The X-Files offers “additional layers of textuality for users to admire” (348), the packaging of The Entire Mystery seems to organize and emphasize the elements of textuality offered by the boxed set’s components. Nevertheless, its design still offers an example of the “aesthetic dimension of boxed sets” (Mittel) in the form of the aforementioned pictures of the box’s internal booklet, which include diegetic places as well as images from the title sequence (e.g., the Great Northern Hotel), recurring elements of the TV series or Fire Walk with Me (e.g., a slice of cherry pie or a blue rose), but also the paintings inside the Owl Cave and a photograph of Cooper and Laura inside the Red Room. Furthermore, the boxed set offers an obvious additional visual gimmick in the form of a shred of paper hidden behind a piece of cardboard at the bottom of the box. Whereas the latter is designed to look like soil, the piece of paper has the words “FIRE WALK WITH ME” written on it in red capital letters. This gimmick of the boxed set’s design calls attention to the TV series’ pilot, in which Cooper and Sheriff Truman inspect the abandoned railroad car where Laura was murdered. Apart from Laura’s necklace, they discover what Cooper identifies as “a torn piece of newsprint” with the aforementioned phrase written in blood. The gimmick hints at an object from the pilot, which may encourage the analysis of the latter’s two different versions as they are presented by the boxed set.
Despite the fact that the international/European pilot was already part of the Definitive Gold Box Edition published in 2007 on DVD, the inclusion and co-presence of the pilot’s two versions (in the boxed set and on the same disc) seems to contribute to the comprehensive media experience established by the Entire Mystery. In order to assess this contribution, the actual relation between the two pilots has to be clarified. Especially the aforementioned way the pilots are referred to on the boxed set’s first table of contents provides a contrast to Williams’ claim that “the European release is … referred to in the context of ‘ancillary’ Peak paraphernalia, to be categorised alongside Julee Cruise albums or guide books to Snoqualmie, Washington” (49). Whereas the status of the “Original Pilot” is cemented by the table of contents, the “Alternate International Pilot” is also explicitly named and not lumped together with the unspecified “Special Features” of the boxed set. Thus, The Entire Mystery seems to present the European/international pilot as an actual alternative to the U.S. version, perhaps along the lines of the way deleted scenes on DVD or Blu-ray offer “a second perspective, no less true than the ‘correct’ take” (Hu 503). Overall, the difference between the two versions of the pilot themselves is established by the alternate ending of the international pilot, as Williams specifies regarding the latter’s broadcast on TV in Europe:
European viewers were privy to the curious experience of at first seeing a version of Twin Peaks which did offer some kind of closure, unavailable to U.S. audiences [and] concluded with the capture of Laura Palmer’s killer, wild-man BOB as a manifestly corporal being. Before the series itself ever wove its regular weekly course towards finding Leland guilty of his daughter’s murder, UK viewers of this chilling chunk of gripping television (which played out more like a completed mini-series than an ongoing saga) thought we already knew Who Killed Laura Palmer [49].
In order to find out how exactly the ending of the “Alternate International Pilot” actually contributes to the overarching mystery mentioned in the boxed set’s title, its intertextual relation to the “Original Pilot,” and the reutilization of the aforementioned alternate ending in episodes two and three of the TV series may be examined in a more thorough way.
Before BOB is finally confronted and killed in the international/European pilot, several events lead up to the confrontation with him. The sequence of Sarah Palmer having a vision may be perceived as the point of deviation between the two pilots. In the original version, the shots of Sarah lying on a couch in the living room and finally waking up are intermingled with (mainly point-of-view) shots of a character (whose face is not revealed) taking Laura’s necklace from the hiding place in the woods chosen by James Hurley and Donna Hayward earlier in the pilot. The diegetic sound of Sarah’s scream (while the reflection of BOB’s head can be seen in the mirror next to her head) overlaps with a shot of an unidentified character holding a flashlight and picking up the necklace with a gloved hand. Hence, the U.S. pilot ends with a cliffhanger based on two sources of suspense. Firstly, the viewers may be eager to find out the identity of the character who has taken Laura’s necklace. Secondly, the unexpected appearance of BOB’s reflection in the mirror can be seen as a less obvious and more concealed element of the cliffhanger. By including one more visually obvious and one less visually obvious trigger of suspense and anticipation, the ending of the “Original Pilot” therefore encourages the further reception of the TV series Twin Peaks and additionally rewards attentive viewers with the intensifying, enigmatic aspect of BOB’s appearance. This situation seems to correspond to a tendency ascribed by Jason Mittell to television’s more recent “complex narratives [which] are designed for a viewer not only to pay close attention to once, but to re-watch for depth of references, impressive displays of craft and continuities, and appreciate details that require the liberal use of pause and rewind” encouraged by DVDs (and Blu-ray discs).
Whereas the original version of the pilot includes a comparably short glimpse of the dark staircase in the Palmers’ house with the ceiling fan running at normal speed, the “Alternate International Pilot” includes a slowed down scene of Sarah descending the stairs as a part of the her vision, leading over to events not included in the “Original Pilot” at all. Strikingly, Sarah perceives BOB behind Laura’s bed whereas the theft of her daughter’s necklace is omitted entirely. This vision allows Sarah and her husband Leland to help the police create a sketch of BOB, which contributes to a succession of events occurring in the same night. The succeeding events develop as follows: Dale Cooper, who is shown to be asleep in his hotel room at the Great Northern Hotel, receives a nightly phone call. At first, the caller is only visible with his back turned to the camera and tells the FBI agent to meet him at the hospital for pieces of information regarding the murder of Teresa Banks. Immediately afterward, Cooper is telephoned by Lucy and learns about Sarah’s vision of her daughter’s murderer. Eventually, Cooper, Sherriff Truman, and Andy arrive at the hospital, where the anonymous caller turns out to be MIKE, who reveals his connection to his former companion BOB and recites his poem concluding with the line “fire walk with me.” Based on the information they’ve received, Dale and Harry find BOB in the hospital’s basement, where the latter readily confesses to the murders before MIKE shoots and kills him, only to die under mysterious circumstances, collapsing to the ground. Finally, a circle of candles on the ground of the basement goes out, leaving the FBI agent in the dark in a medium close-up before a dissolve leads over to the famous sequence of a visibly aged Cooper encountering the Man from Another Place and a woman the Man from Another Place identifies as his “cousin” in the Red Room.
Noticeably, the prominent caption “25 years later” explicitly dates this sequence at its start, whereas the sequence’s ending coincides with the ending of the European/international version of the pilot.
Overall, the scenes after Sarah Palmer’s vision which are not part of the “Original Pilot” can generally be divided in two categories emphasized by the co-presence of the two pilots and the whole television series as parts of The Entire Mystery: some scenes are used exclusively in the “Alternate International Pilot,” while others also appear at pivotal moments in episodes two and three of the TV series. The former category includes examples such as Lucy’s telephone conversation with Leland Palmer or BOB’s death at the hands of MIKE. By contrast, the latter category seems to emphasize how transplanted and reused fragments taken from the European/international pilot contribute to the TV series’ plot. An especially vivid case of re-editing and re-appropriation seems to be given in Cooper’s dream at the end of episode two, “Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer.” Two differences from the European/international pilot are especially conspicuous. The dream sequence begins by showing the aged Cooper in the Red Room and the Man from Another Place with his back turned to the camera, yet it does not include the caption referring to the prolepsis of “25 years” prominently displayed in the “Alternate International Pilot.” Furthermore, the Red Room sequence in the second episode is interrupted by the appearances of MIKE and BOB, which alternate via dissolves, further alternating with shots of a sleeping Cooper, underlining the fact that Dale encounters those two characters in his dream. Viewers who are familiar with the European pilot are able to realize that references to the diegetic positions of the two Black Lodge inhabitants in the hospital and to their interaction with Cooper, Truman, and Andy have been erased. Instead, the editing employed in episode two evokes the impression that MIKE contacts Cooper within his dream by letting the former’s utterances overlap with shots of Dale and BOB in a voice-over.
Consequently, it becomes apparent that despite the undisputed fact that the European/international pilot does not follow the plotline of “BOB [being] implicated as the demon who drives Leland to filicide” (Williams 49), the boxed set’s inclusion of both the former and episode two seems to offer the possibility of an intertextual variant of the “operational aesthetic” (Harris 84) as a concept described by Neil Harris and attributed to TV series by Mittell. Mittell points out that specifically the availability of TV series in the form of a boxed set intensifies this concept:
Having control of when and how you watch also helps deepen one of the major pleasures afforded by complex narratives: the operational aesthetic. Deriving from Neil Harris’ analysis of P.T. Barnum’s public entertainments, the operational aesthetic takes pleasure in marveling at how a cleverly crafted bit of entertainment is put together, highlighting a meta-appreciation of a hoax or contraption. I extend this concept to the act of watching narrative television, as viewers simultaneously immerse themselves in a fictional world and step back to consider how the story is constructed—in essence, it is taking pleasure in both a story and its telling. The random access control of DVDs greatly enhances and enables viewers to engage the operational aesthetic, allowing pausing, rewinding, and slow-motion close study to ferret out narrative clues from twisty mysteries like Lost and Alias, and replay past moments to highlight exemplary moments of narrative construction.
Whereas Mittell refers to Harris’ concept regarding “complex narratives,” The Entire Mystery seems to establish a foundation for a special type of “operational aesthetic” because the co-presence of the second episode and the “Alternate International Pilot” within the boxed set indirectly enables the viewer to reconstruct how fragments from the European/international pilot are re-used in the second episode of Twin Peaks. Thus, a comparison between the appearances of MIKE and BOB in the two aforementioned media texts may lead to a form of “meta-appreciation” (Mittel) of the way the footage is reedited and reutilized. In this case, the act of “marveling at how a cleverly crafted bit of entertainment is put together” (Mittel) depends on the intertextual relation between the non–U.S. pilot and episode two and is facilitated by their availability on the same disc within the boxed set.
On the level of plot, one might argue that Williams’ distinction between the “‘proper’ form … [of the] ‘real’ series” (49) on the one hand and the European/international pilot as an example of “‘ancillary’ Peak paraphernalia” (49) on the other hand might come across a bit one-sided in the light of the Blu-ray boxed set.
In episode three, “Rest in Pain,” Cooper talks to Sheriff Truman and Lucy in the dining room of the Great Northern Hotel about his dream of the Red Room and also refers to events which are not displayed in the dream sequence near the end of episode two, starting with Sarah Palmer’s vision:
Harry, let me tell you about the dream I had last night…. You were there. Lucy, so were you…. In my dream, Sarah Palmer had a vision of her daughter’s killer. Deputy Hawk sketched his picture. I got a phone call from a one-armed man named MIKE. The killer’s name was BOB…. They lived above a convenience store. They had a tattoo: ‘Fire walk with me.’ MIKE couldn’t stand the killing anymore so he cut off his arm. BOB vowed to kill again, so MIKE shot him…. Suddenly it was 25 years later. I was old, sitting in a red room. There was a midget in a red suit and a beautiful woman. The little man told me that my favorite gum was coming back into style and didn’t his cousin look exactly like Laura Palmer, which she did…. She’s filled with secrets. Sometimes her arms bend back. Where she’s from, the birds sing a pretty song and there’s always music in the air. The midget did a dance, Laura kissed me and she whispered the name of the killer in my ear…. I don’t remember [the name].
Although the episode provides a brief flashback and visually impressive recap during Dale’s report by cutting to a scene from the dream sequence showing the Man From Another Place’s “cousin” kissing the older Cooper and whispering in his ear, no audiovisual material from the “Alternate International Pilot” is used. Viewers who are unfamiliar with the European pilot might be intrigued by the FBI agent’s account of the events which are not shown in the second episode. Consequently, the co-presence of the “Alternate International Pilot” and the third episode within the boxed set might prompt viewers to trace the events mentioned by Cooper in relation to the actual scenes of the pilot and also contribute to the “fannish activity … and … speculations” (Jenkins 66) of Twin Peaks fans. In addition to that, viewers might feel challenged to make sense of Dale’s account of his dream in relation to the two versions of the pilot because this particular connection serves as an intriguing, mysterious element within the intertextual framework established by the boxed set The Entire Mystery.
Whereas the boxed set’s first Blu-ray disc includes the two versions of the pilot as well as the first couple of episodes, the ninth and penultimate disc of The Entire Mystery contains the feature film Fire Walk with Me as well as “Missing Pieces.” The latter’s aforementioned presentation as important selling point of the boxed set is based on an anticipation that can be traced back to the 1990s. As David Lavery points out, the “rough cut of Fire Walk with Me was, according to reports, over five hours long. The question of when/where/how the unseen footage would be made available … keep[s] cult followers continually teased by the prospect of a still open ‘Blue Rose’ text, … like those designated by Gordon Cole’s impossible flower, impossible to decipher” (11). Now that a collection of deleted and alternate scenes has been published in conjunction with the film and the TV series, it is finally possible to examine the previously unreleased “Missing Pieces,” too.
Primarily referring to DVD releases of films, Hu emphasizes that “bonus materials such as the deleted scene reveal more than the profit-maximizing inclinations”(499). Instead, Hu suggests that especially the availability of deleted scenes on DVDs lends itself to an investigative and analytical approach, which may generally be applicable to Blu-ray discs:
Deleted scenes challenge cinema’s inclination to render objects, characters, and voices invisible. The DVD, being an interactive medium, allows the user to actively recover and interpret scraps on the editing floor, and while studios still determine which scraps to make visible…, potentially, DVD is a medium of interrogation, questioning the hegemony of film’s linearity of time, and a technology of recovery, making visible what is (often justifiably, often nefariously) excluded from the filmtext [499].
And yet, it has to be taken into consideration that the situation of “Missing Pieces” differs from Hu’s focus on films published on DVDs which include deleted scenes as “bonus materials” (11). Having been released as an explicitly underlined and advertised part of a Blu-ray boxed set, the previously unreleased scenes from Fire Walk with Me are not presented as mere “scraps” (Hu 11) but rather function as the elements which contribute to the overarching mystery referred to by the boxed set’s title and go beyond a relation to the feature film. Moreover, the special status of the scenes left out of the final cut of the film is intensified by a claim made by David Lynch in an interview. According to the director, those scenes belong to the film but were cut due to commercial constraints and because they were not completely essential in terms of plot (248–49). This notion may support the assumption that, just like “the Lynch feature film that gave new nuances to their previous accounts of Laura Palmer’s life and death” (Jenkins 67), “Missing Pieces” reveals certain aspects about the wide-ranging mystery of Twin Peaks which are, in turn, not foregrounded in the final cut of Fire Walk with Me. Consequently, the collection of deleted and alternate scenes may not only complement the film. It is particularly striking that the “Missing Pieces” are not available as mere parts of a director’s cut or as a bunch of isolated fragments. Therefore, Hu’s notion that “by leaving the deleted scenes separate, the act of reconstruction makes evident the cinema’s exclusionary unconscious while allowing for an active recovery of the invisible” (501) is not completely applicable to the previously unpublished scenes from Fire Walk with Me. They are also left “separate” but are not restricted to a potential “active recovery of the invisible” (Hu 501) in relation to a feature film only. Instead, “Missing Pieces” serve as a component of the boxed set The Entire Mystery and are therefore not limited to Hu’s notion.
The circumstance that “Missing Pieces” can, like most deleted scenes on DVD and Blu-ray, be accessed independently of a film calls attention to their explicitly advertised composition as a “feature-length experience” (CBS Home Entertainment). In most cases, “we are not expected to watch all of the deleted scenes consecutively (there is no ‘play all’ option), but rather we’re expected to, as if researchers in a library, browse and choose by topic and speaker” (506). By contrast, the unreleased scenes from Fire Walk with Me are not only accessible via a “‘play all’ option” but have been also edited and accumulated to resemble a film whose composition and presentation contrast with the much more common availability of deleted scenes in the form of single snippets or fragments which are “not linear” (Hu 500). Of course, this general structuring of deleted scenes has to be differentiated from the common option of DVD and Blu-ray discs to select certain chapters of a film or of a TV series’ episodes. The peculiar feature-length condition of “Missing Pieces” is already marked before the deleted/alternate scenes themselves set in by the prominent use of the title sequence (which frames the whole collection along with the closing credits). Hence, this initial interlude to the “Missing Pieces” may deserve a closer look.
Whereas the opening credits of Fire Walk with Me are dominated by “an extreme close-up of a television tuned between channels, which is then smashed” (Williams 53), the title sequence of “Missing Pieces” is characterized by a notably different visual approach, utilizing a succession of three short segments linked by dissolves as well as a particular display of the title. The title sequence begins with a quick fade-in, revealing how the camera approaches the portrait of Laura Palmer which is positioned in the trophy cabinet of Twin Peaks High School. Instead of presenting the title right from the start, the sequence includes a gradually displayed announcement. In the upper half of the screen the sequence’s first caption in capital letters (“WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE”) appears, only to fade away right before the fade-in of the caption “ARE MISSING PIECES” in the bottom half of the screen. The latter disappears just like its predecessor during the process of approaching Laura’s portrait and is succeeded by phrase “DELETED OR EXTENDED SCENES” before the first dissolve sets in, leading to the captions’ disappearance and leading over to the second segment. After the scene focused on Laura’s photograph in the trophy case, a slope covered in trees and fog is visible in an extreme long shot, presumably showing the diegetic landscape surrounding Twin Peaks. Following the appearance and disappearance of the word “FROM” in this segment, the next dissolve starts simultaneously with the presentation of the caption “TWIN PEAKS” and reveals the Black Lodge’s interior by letting the camera approach the red curtains while gliding over its floor. In this third and final segment, the phrase “FIRE WALK WITH ME” completes the title before the caption and title sequence fade out successively.
According to Lavery (10) and Williams (53), the opening credits of Fire Walk with Me evoke an anti–TV stance in favor of cinematic feature films. By contrast, the title sequence of “The Missing Pieces” seems to underline the connections between and affiliation of different plot elements of Twin Peaks across individual media formats such the TV series, the feature film and the “Missing Pieces” (as a Blu-ray-only publication) themselves within the boxed set.
By using several dissolves, the title sequence seems to connect three exemplary sources of secrets and mystery within the Twin Peaks franchise. Firstly, the segment displaying Laura’s portrait may allude to the difference between her public facade and her secrets, which are uncovered in the course of the investigation of her murder. Secondly, the diegetic woods surrounding the town within the diegesis harbor certain secrets, be it in case of the abandoned railroad car (regarding Laura’s murder) or in case of places such as Glastonbury Grove or the Owl Cave (regarding the Black Lodge). Thirdly, the Black Lodge itself appears as the source of supernatural secrets, which are interrelated and connected with the aforementioned diegetic places and Laura’s plight. Instead of a divisive approach to the contrast between, for instance, television and cinema (or Blu-ray and non–Blu-ray features), the use of dissolves and the consequential brief overlap of the scenes used in the title sequence stress the connection between major constituents of The Entire Mystery. Moreover, the successive revelation of the collection’s full title within an announcement seems to avoid a subordination or marginalization of “Missing Pieces” as mere leftovers or “scraps” of minor relevance. Their status as “Deleted and Extended Scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me” is acknowledged, but their function in the context of the boxed set seems to be stressed by the announcement preceding “TWIN PEAKS” and “FIRE WALK WITH ME” as the last captions in the title sequence. The visual similarity of these final captions to the display of the full title in the feature film itself—albeit against a different background—seems indirectly to legitimize the previously unreleased scenes as significant constituents of the boxed set.
The intertextual relation between “Missing Pieces” and Fire Walk with Me within the framework of The Entire Mystery is highlighted in an especially salient way by the two different portrayals of Phillip Jeffries’ appearance in the FBI headquarters. Concerning the sentiment that parts of the TV series and the feature film tend to offer “baffling enigmas, creating a cosmic labyrinth where WKLP [the issue of ‘Who killed Laura Palmer?’] was simply the opening to a maze that led toward the Black and White Lodges” (Jenkins 66) the encounter of Phillip Jeffries with Dale Cooper, Gordon Cole, and Albert Rosenfield serves as an integral part of the mystery surrounding the Black Lodge and its connection to the occurrences in Twin Peaks as well as the investigation of the FBI. A comparison of the two versions of Jeffries’ appearance reveals three different strategies of utilizing footage in the feature film and the collection of previously unreleased scenes. In the first case, a certain amount of footage is not visible in “Missing Pieces” and is therefore only part of the sequence shown in Fire Walk with Me. The second example refers to footage which appears in a re-edited, shortened, and layered form in the feature film, whereas the collection of previously unreleased scenes includes a longer version. Finally, the third type of footage is not visible in Fire Walk with Me, being exclusively displayed in “Missing Pieces” instead.
As an evident example of the first category, Jeffries’ arrival at the other agents’ office is preceded by a scene in which Cooper approaches his superior Cole in order to mention the date and time of the day (“10:10 a.m. on February 16th”) as well as an unspecified “dream” which seems to be related to that point in time. When Jeffries appears in the hallway leading to the office, Cooper detects that he himself seems to be simultaneously positioned in front of the surveillance camera filming the hallway and in front of the surveillance monitor located in the adjacent control room. At the end of the segment—i.e., after Jeffries has suddenly disappeared—Dale and Gordon check the surveillance tapes in order to verify Jeffries’ brief visit to the FBI headquarters. Consequently, the segment in Fire Walk with Me is framed by the mysterious, unexplained aspects related to Cooper’s utterances and his appearance on the surveillance tapes, which are neither replaced nor restricted by “Missing Pieces.” Likewise, the sequence used in the latter does not include the sight of the white mask with a pointy nose worn by Mrs. Tremond’s grandson. When the boy’s appearance in a run-down room along with other Black Lodge spirits is intermingled with Jeffries’ appearance in the FBI headquarters, Fire Walk with Me exclusively displays how the grandson lifts his mask in order to reveal the face of a monkey. Given the circumstance that the boy also wears the mask during his interaction with Laura Palmer later in the feature film, the mask’s appearance serves as an intriguing visual element which the collection of previously unreleased scenes neither contains nor alters.
It has to be noted, however, that Fire Walk with Me and “Missing Pieces” each offer an individual portrayal of the whole appearance of the characters associated with the Black Lodge in the segment marked by Phillip Jeffries’ arrival at the FBI headquarters. The inclusion of the “Missing Pieces” in the boxed set reveals that the approach employed in the feature film marks the second strategy of utilizing audiovisual material. In Fire Walk with Me, Jeffries’ arrival in the office triggers—after his reference to a woman named “Judy”—periodic flashes of static before a quick dissolve reveals the aforementioned run-down room occupied by Black Lodge spirits such as the Man From Another Place, BOB, Mrs. Tremond, and her grandson. Simultaneously, Jeffries’ cryptic utterances (e.g., “We live inside a dream” or “It was above a convenience store” or “I’ve been to one of their meetings”) are still audible via voice-over. Right before his sudden disappearance from the office, Jeffries is shown talking to the other three agents in short fragments alternating with bursts of static, but his utterances in those fragments are inaudible. By contrast, the segment belonging to “Missing Pieces” completely separates the meeting of the Black Lodge inhabitants from Jeffries’ subsequent visit to the office instead of intermingling them. In addition to the respective independent enigmatic nature of both versions of the sequence, their availability as parts of The Entire Mystery can—like the aforementioned co-presence of the two pilots—be perceived as a factor which “contribute[s] to the centrality of the operational aesthetic, providing viewers with insights into the craft and construction” (Mittel) of the film and the collection of previously unreleased scenes. But while the succession of the Lodge spirits’ meeting and Jeffries’ visit deviates from the shorter, layered, and more concise approach used in the film, each version does not diminish the respective enigmatic nature of its counterpart. For example, a viewer familiar with “Missing Pieces” may detect that the medium close-up of a screaming Jeffries in Fire Walk with Me, which is combined with a layer of static and another layer showing a bird’s eye view of a compartment of the Black Lodge left by BOB and the Man from Another Place through a curtain, is taken from an otherwise deleted scene set in Argentina. The mystery of the agent’s disappearance and its underlying factors, however, remain.
The exclusive footage of the segment used in “Missing Pieces” seems to employ the unused scenes of Jeffries in Buenos Aires as a counterpart to the aforementioned frame around his visit to the FBI headquarters in the feature film. Instead of Cooper’s focus on the surveillance system, “Missing Pieces” portrays Jeffries’ arrival at a hotel in Buenos Aires as well as his sudden return to that hotel in a scorching flash (after his equally sudden disappearance from the FBI headquarters) as bookends of the segment. Jeffries’ stay at the hotel and his brief conversation with the receptionist about “Judy” seem to deepen the mystery already established by his utterance of the unseen woman’s name in Fire Walk with Me instead of providing a possible solution. Moreover, “Missing Pieces” seems to intensify the portrayal of the Black Lodge inhabitants, e.g., by showing how a visibly enraged BOB screams the line “I have the fury of my own momentum!” while sitting at a table with the Man from Another Place, who mentions the Lodge spirits’ travels “between the two worlds.” Even the connection between the Black Lodge and Laura’s plight is visually emphasized in a scene not available in Fire Walk with Me. A close-up of Laura’s dazed face—taken from another deleted scene showing Laura being addressed by BOB’s disembodied voice at her home—is superimposed over a shot taken by the camera moving away from the red curtains.
As a result, the two versions of the exemplary segment from Fire Walk with Me and “Missing Pieces” seem to complement each other in their mysteriousness as parts of the boxed set The Entire Mystery. The relation between those two components of the boxed set seems to exceed Hu’s film-centered observation that “deleted scenes on a DVD allow the main text (and the filmmaker’s rhythm and argument) … to remain intact while recovering the obtuse meanings within the excluded footage which may be irrelevant to the aesthetic or argumentative motivations of the filmmaker” (502). Instead of the distinction between a main text and mere deleted scenes, the components of the boxed set seem to suggest that for a full grasp of the Entire Mystery, the viewer should also be familiar with “Missing Pieces.” The sentiment that a deleted scene may provide “a second perspective, no less true than the ‘correct’ take” (Hu 503) supports the way the two versions of the segment dealing with Jeffries’ appearance do not lose their enigmatic tendencies. Hence, they exemplify how the episodes of the TV series, the film, the two pilots, and “Missing Pieces” interacts with each other as constituents of the overarching Entire Mystery instead of providing a solution.
All in all, the boxed set’s packaging and the intertextuality between the TV series, the two pilots, the film Fire Walk with Me and the “Missing Pieces” contribute to the all-encompassing narrative experience centered on the boxed set’s titular mystery spanning the intriguing elements which the investigation of Laura Palmer’s murder and its connection to the interaction with the Black Lodge generate in the episodes, the feature film, the pilots or the deleted/alternate scenes. The aforementioned individual media texts do not forfeit their own respective enigmatic aspects, also enabling the viewer to discern different utilizations of footage and stylistic choices because of their co-presence. Hence, The Entire Mystery exemplifies how a “box set [sic] functions as a multilayered textual experience distinct from television” (Kompare 349). The boxed set is not restricted to the TV series or marked by devaluation of Fire Walk with Me, the “Alternate International Pilot” or the “Missing Pieces” but underlines the intertextual interaction between the previously released and previously unreleased constituents instead. This most recent configuration of audiovisual media texts belonging to the Twin Peaks franchise and its focus on the overarching enigma seem to correspond to the assumption of fans mentioned by Henry Jenkins that “Twin Peaks would be ‘full of secrets’: that it would provide fodder for their speculations for years to come” (66). Thereby, the boxed set not only explores the possibilities allowed for by the higher storage potential of Blu-ray discs when compared to DVDs but also seems to implicitly stress the relevance of the boxed set despite the circumstance that “the experience of a Netflix renter circumvents the boxes altogether” (Mittel) and despite the possibilities of streaming. Emphasizing the legitimacy of the boxed set and the legacy of Twin Peaks alike, The Entire Mystery may not be reduced to a mere strategic repackaging stirring up anticipation for the series’ planned third season.
1. The two seasons were published on DVD in 2001/2002 (season one) in the U.S. and Europe and in 2007 (Season Two), respectively.
“Alternate International Pilot.” Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery. Directed by David Lynch. Written by Mark Frost and David Lynch. 1990. Los Angeles: CBS/Paramount, 2014. Blu-ray.
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“Episode 2.” Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery. Directed by David Lynch. Written by Mark Frost and David Lynch. 1990. Los Angeles: CBS/Paramount, 2014. Blu-ray.
“Episode 3.” Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery. Directed by Tina Rathborne. Written by Harley Peyton. 1990. Los Angeles: CBS/Paramount, 2014. Blu-ray.
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Mittell, Jason. “Serial Boxes.” Just TV (blog). 20 Jan.2010. Accessed 4 Mar. 2015.https://justtv.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/serial-boxes.
“Original Pilot.” Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery. Directed by David Lynch. Written by Mark Frost and David Lynch. 1990. Los Angeles: CBS/Paramount, 2014. Blu-ray.
Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery. Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. Los Angeles: CBS/Paramount, 2014. Blu-ray.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Directed by David Lynch. 1992. Los Angeles: CBS/Paramount, 2014. Blu-ray.
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