experiment model twin peaks

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Experiment - Twin Peaks 3 3D Model NoAI

Just a fan made version of ” experiment” from season 3 of Twin Peaks.

Custom made asset of an horrific creature made in Lowpoly which could fit well for a survival horror game, maybe ..

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Screen Rant

Twin peaks: the creature in the glass box & bob connection explained.

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What is the vicious monster that emerges from the glass box in Twin Peaks: The Return and how is it connected to evil entity Killer BOB? The first season of Twin Peaks was a groundbreaking television event, where co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost created a cinematic series filled with great characters, and a melding of genres, from eerie horror to cheesy soap opera and domestic drama. The show would later influence everything from The X-Files to Riverdale .

Unfortunately, the second season of Twin Peaks would be much troubled. The network forced the showrunners to reveal who killed Laura Palmer and once this mystery was solved, the show felt aimless. This led to a sharp decline in ratings and the show was ultimately cancelled on a major cliffhanger. The negative response that greeted Lynch's prequel didn't do the franchise any favors, with 1992's  Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me receiving mostly negative reviews and failing at the box-office. The movie followed the final week of Laura Palmer's life and was much darker than the series, which turned some fans off. Thankfully, modern reviews have recognized the movie as a powerful piece of work.

Related: How Dougie Jones Became The Best Character On Twin Peaks: The Return

It looked like the failure of the prequel marked the end of Twin Peaks , with Lynch once adamantly stating he would never come back to it. Working on a special edition Blu-ray of the show would soften that stance and he later directed all 18 episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return . The strange, almost experimental pacing of the series angered some viewers, but The Return received mostly rave reviews. David Lynch has never been a filmmaker to spell things out or overexplain and by the time the new series came to an end, it left plenty of questions unanswered.

One such question comes from the first episode of Twin Peaks: The Return , which features a subplot where a young man named Sam is paid to watch an empty glass box in a New York skyscraper. This is apparently funded by a billionaire but the purpose of watching the box is never explained. Series hero Dale Cooper - having been trapped in the Black Lodge for 25 years - phases through this box when Sam is out of the room and is gone before he returns. Sam brings his love interest Tracey into the room to look at the box, but while they're distracted by each other on the couch, a ghostly white figure appears in the box. It soon breaks out and slaughters them.

Like much of the events of Twin Peaks: The Return  what the glass box symbolizes or what the creature is are left to viewers to decode. Early reviews likened the symbolism of Sam sitting around watching a glass box waiting for something to happen to that of fans waiting for the show to return, which would a tongue-in-cheek joke on Lynch's part. The entity that emerges from the box is dubbed the Experiment, and this figure appears to be the same creature that's seen during the standout sequence of episode 8.

This episode of Twin Peaks features the explosion of the first atomic bomb, where the Experiment floats in darkness before spewing a long, disgusting trail of orbs - one of which contains the spirit of Killer BOB. BOB is the main antagonist of Twin Peaks and feeds off human misery, and his spirit has possessed Cooper's body for 25 years in the real world. The suggestion of this sequence is that the first atomic test summoned this creature from the other side and it birthed BOB into the world to feed on human pain. There's also speculation the Experiment is the evil being characters in the show refer to as Judy , which seemingly possesses Laura Palmer's mother Sarah to feed off her trauma in later episodes.

How this relates to the glass box is still unclear, though it's clearly connected to the world Cooper escapes from. Cooper's doppelganger is seen in a photo in front of the box in a later episode, so perhaps he set up the box as a way to trap the FBI agent if he ever escaped the Lodge. The act of watching seems to be important too so since Sam didn't see Cooper, maybe this allowed the agent to phase out again, and that's when the Experiment showed up hoping to catch him. When Sam and Tracey see it, it breaks out to feed on their fear. That's ultimately guesswork, however, like much of Twin Peaks: The Return . The only concrete things viewers can take away is that BOB was born from the Experiment and that Sam needed a better job.

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‘Twin Peaks’ explained: ‘Part 8’ takes an experimental journey through darkness

That’s what makes Part 8 so fascinating. If a viewer is hoping for forward movement in Agent Cooper’s story, or ready answers to any of the pestilential questions the show has raised, this episode provides neither. What it does offer is a stunning experiment in form, and perhaps even an origin story for the evils that plague the world of Twin Peaks .

A dark (but conventional) beginning

Part 8 begins with Cooper’s doppelgänger and Ray, fresh off their early release from jail, driving down a dark and winding road. No director makes the simple act of driving feel as sinister as David Lynch does. The world outside the car is pitch black, the headlights making a shallow cut in the darkness.

The doppelgänger learned in an earlier episode that Ray and his now-deceased compatriot Darya were working for someone else, with orders to kill him, and this knowledge hangs over the scene as Ray and the doppelgänger discuss some important information Ray has, and where Darya is at the moment.

The situation does not bode well for Ray, who pulls over in a clearing to take a piss, during which the doppelgänger approaches him with a gun, demanding the intel. Ray tampered with his gun, however, and produces one of his own, shooting him.

Because this is Twin Peaks , where simple resolutions are impossible, a swarm of shadowy men like the one who has been haunting those involved with the Garland Briggs murder case, appear from the forest and act as if they are devouring the doppelgänger’s body. Ray flees the scene, making a call to the long missing Phillip Jeffries, last seen in the Twin Peaks film,  Fire Walk with Me .

The doppelgänger isn’t dead, however. He wakes after the shadow men’s ritual — and a performance by Nine Inch Nails — and the episode veers suddenly into New Mexico, 1945. The detonation of a nuclear bomb is rendered in stark black and white, as the opening strings of Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima screech.

2017: A Lynch Odyssey

What follows is a lengthy — twenty minutes or so — odyssey through light and sound, as clouds swell and black spots flutter around the screen like flies. The sequence feels like an homage to the famous star gate sequence in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey , and it also provides a hint at the origin of Twin Peaks ’ most notable villain, BOB. At one point in the scene, a feminine creature resembling the apparition that appeared in the glass box in the first episode vomits forth a white stream containing eggs and a dark sphere with BOB’s face in it.

After the chaos, the episode returns to the metal building in the purple sea, which Cooper visited earlier . A woman in an ornate dress is there, as is the Giant, who watches the sequence of BOB’s creation on an old projection screen. He conjures a golden orb containing Laura Palmer’s face, which the woman embraces before casting it into the screen, where it appears to fall to earth.

Time skips forward to 1956, where one of the eggs from the previous sequence hatches — a grotesque creature, composed of pieces of a fly and a frog, crawls forth. In the nearby town, a host of those dark spirits from earlier appear. One makes its way to a radio station, killing the people within and broadcasting a bizarre message over the airwaves, the sound of which puts listeners to sleep.

What to make of this craziness? Despite the long stretch of experimental filmmaking, and the fact that much of the episode follows characters far away in time and space from the show’s regulars, it does seem to serve a large role in the overarching narrative of Twin Peaks , suggesting that BOB was created by mankind’s experimentation with nuclear weapons, or at least that those projects allowed him to cross into the physical world.

The spirits of the Black Lodge are an enigmatic folk, but this episode suggests that the Giant, who has been helpful to Agent Cooper throughout the series in his cryptic way, may be a sort of guardian angel, sending aid to the earth when BOB arrives.

Twin Peaks tries ’50s sci-fi

The nuclear angle is an interesting one. In an age where climate change and pollution are so prominent in the news, modern viewers may not be accustomed to the anxieties of the Cold War, when humanity feared that its ingenuity, rather than its vices, could be its undoing. Despite years of arms treaties, nuclear weapons remain plentiful , and Twin Peaks is stoking fears about an old, but still very present, threat. Given the presence of a prominent photo of a nuclear bomb in FBI director Gordon Cole’s office in Part 7 , nuclear annihilation seems to be at the forefront.

Lynch has never been a didactic storyteller, however, and Twin Peaks shows — rather than tells — the viewer the ferocity of the bomb. The show even uses a daring experiment in form to to do so. The 1956 sequence at first seems even less connected to the overarching narrative than the experimental film portion — at least those scenes featured figures like BOB and the Giant.

While the 1956 sequence does not immediately fit into the plot, it does accentuate the theme of nuclear peril through a twist in genre. The sequence, filmed in black and white, follows a small town invaded by dangerous creatures, years after a nuclear test nearby. It is essentially a ‘50s sci-fi horror film, like Them! or The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms . Lynch and writer Mark Frost perform their own take on the genre within this episode.

In a lengthy essay for the magazine Premiere in 1996 called  David Lynch Keeps His Head , David Foster Wallace tackles a common critique of Lynch’s films: That they are lacking a moral compass. Wallace contends that Lynch’s films actually do explore moral truths, resisting the popular and easy framework in which some people choose to be evil and instead suggesting that evil is a force as essential to the universe as gravity. As Wallace explains [Note: This section comes from a longer version published in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again :

People can be good or bad, but forces simply are …Evil for Lynch thus moves and shifts, pervades ; Darkness is in everything, all the time — not “lurking below” or “lying in wait” or “hovering on the horizon”: evil is here , right now. And so are Light, love, redemption…It’s not just that evil is “implied by” good or Darkness by Light or whatever, but that the evil stuff is contained within the good stuff, encoded in it.

The first nuclear test, in which human genius created a weapon that could destroy humanity, fits perfectly into that framework. The bomb represents humanity’s ingenuity and mastery of the world around it, but also its capacity for destruction, and it opens the door for BOB to enter the world. Although modern viewers may not appreciate the esoteric presentation, that’s part of the show’s beauty; Twin Peaks does not care for the conventions or constraints of television storytelling.

Want to get into ‘Twin Peaks,’ but not sure where to start? Consult our primer for the essential episodes. You can also check out our previous three explainer pieces below.

• Twin Peaks explained: Part 7
• Twin Peaks explained: Part 6
• Twin Peaks explained: Part 5

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If you're looking for an underrated show on Netflix that's worth watching this weekend, then we've got you covered. We've pulled together this list of the three of the best shows you can check out now, regardless of what you like in your TV shows.

There's a reason that crime is such a popular topic for fictional stories. The vast majority of people don't commit crimes regularly, and they're often fascinated by people who cross that line and break one of society's greatest taboos. Crime is also a vast genre that can encompass many different kinds of movies, and Max has one of the best lineups of crime-related titles around.

We've pulled together three crime dramas that are all worth checking out on the streaming service. Whether you want to be on the edge of your seat or follow detectives on the hunt, this list should have something for you. Good Time (2017) Good Time | Official Trailer HD | A24

The juice is loose this weekend. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, the sequel to the beloved 1989 comedy Beetlejuice, is set to make a mint at the box office this weekend, and it's not hard to see why. The Tim Burton-directed sequel has already received decent reviews, and as Twisters proved this past summer, nostalgia for pre-2000 movies is strong.

For those not charmed by Michael Keaton's "ghost with the most," there's always streaming. HBO and Max share a fantastic library full of recent hits like Furiosa and past gems like The Sopranos. Here are three movies that are worth your time and attention this weekend. The Upside of Anger (2005)

Sarah Palmer (The Experiment): Twin Peaks character profile

In the surreal and enigmatic world of Twin Peaks, one character stands out as particularly compelling and, at times, downright terrifying: Sarah Palmer, also known as The Experiment. In David Lynch's masterful creation, 'The Return,' Sarah Palmer's true nature is finally revealed, leaving viewers with an unsettling sense of both curiosity and dread. What lies beneath the surface of this seemingly mild-mannered woman, and what does her embodiment of The Experiment symbolize in the broader narrative?From the very beginning of the original Twin Peaks series, Sarah Palmer's character was enshrouded in tragedy. As the grieving mother of Laura Palmer, whose death served as the catalyst for the entire story, Sarah's fragile state of mind was evident. However, it is only in 'The Return' that the full extent of her darkness is unveiled. The mysterious and possibly malevolent entity residing within her becomes a focal point, unraveling the deeper layers of her character.One could argue that Sarah Palmer, in her embodiment of The Experiment, represents the dark underbelly of Twin Peaks itself. In a town that appears idyllic on the surface, filled with picturesque landscapes and friendly residents, Sarah's presence is a stark reminder that evil can lurk in the most unexpected places. Just as the serenity of Twin Peaks is disrupted by the murder of Laura Palmer, Sarah disrupts the façade of normalcy through her possession by The Experiment.The duality inherent in Sarah Palmer's character is a recurring theme throughout Twin Peaks. On one hand, she is a grieving mother, struggling to cope with the loss of her daughter. On the other hand, she is the vessel for a malevolent force, a harbinger of darkness and chaos. This begs the question: is Sarah herself to blame for her possession, or is it merely a consequence of the tragic events that have unfolded in her life?Lynch often explores themes of duality and the existence of hidden depths within seemingly ordinary people. In Sarah Palmer, he takes this exploration to new heights. By introducing The Experiment, a creature comprised of pulsating flesh and bodily fluids, Lynch juxtaposes the grotesque with the banal. This stark contrast serves to emphasize the underlying darkness that can fester within even the most unsuspecting individuals.One possible interpretation of The Experiment's presence within Sarah is that it represents the dark side of humanity's collective unconscious. Just as every person possesses the capacity for both good and evil, Sarah embodies the potential for malevolence that exists within everyone. Her possession by The Experiment is a visual manifestation of this internal struggle, a reminder that evil is not limited to external forces but can originate from within.Furthermore, Sarah Palmer's character could also be seen as a commentary on the effects of trauma and grief. The loss of a child is a devastating experience that can irrevocably alter a person's psyche. Sarah's possession by The Experiment could be understood as a manifestation of her unresolved grief, as her pain mutates into something far more sinister. This raises questions about the nature of grief itself and its potential to shape and deform one's identity.While some viewers may find Sarah Palmer's storyline in 'The Return' perplexing or unsettling, it is an integral part of the larger Twin Peaks narrative. Lynch's creative choices, including The Experiment's mysterious presence within Sarah, invite audience members to confront their own fears and examine the darkness that resides within both themselves and the world around them. Sarah becomes a symbolic vessel for these deeper explorations, challenging viewers to confront uncomfortable truths and the complexities of the human psyche.In conclusion, the character of Sarah Palmer, also known as The Experiment, in 'The Return' is a haunting and thought-provoking addition to the world of Twin Peaks. Through her possession by a malevolent entity, she symbolizes the hidden darkness that can exist within supposedly ordinary individuals, the duality of human nature, and the lingering effects of trauma and grief. David Lynch's multifaceted exploration of these themes challenges viewers to confront their own fears and examine the unsettling realities that can lurk beneath the surface of seemingly idyllic settings.

Freddie Sykes: Twin Peaks character profile

Ruth davenport: twin peaks character profile.

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Twin Peaks & David Lynch Forums

One & the same: judy/mother/experiment/sarah palmer.

FAN THEORY Judy, The Mother and The Experiment are the same entity. The 'extreme negative force' that birthed BOB and the Frog-Moth Eggs and Garmonbozia/Pain & Suffering (in Part 8). The Mother/Experiment follows Cooper (when he starts trying to leave the waiting room) through the   Glass Box in NYC and catches up with him in the Mauve Zone.  

This entity is represented by the Owl Cave Symbol as well as the slightly different symbol on Hawk’s Map, Mr. C’s playing card and in Major Briggs’s secret message.  

The clue “The Little Girl Who Lived Down The Lane” seems to be a reference to the little girl in Part 8 who swallows the Frog-Moth. (Note: Laura and Audrey did not “live down the lane” but this little girl did!) I think it’s very likely that this little girl in intended to be Sarah Palmer. The time frame and age certainly make sense.  

****Further proof that Sarah Palmer is the little girl (from Part 8) who 'lived down the lane' and is now inhabited by Judy/The Mother/Experiment. 

1)  When Sarah pulls her face off it shows us that she is possessed or inhabited by something ‘dark’ or a ‘negative force’ (opposite Laura’s light behind her face).  Because of this scene, this is the only character in Season 3 that we know for sure is possessed by an evil entity (besides BOB inside Evil Coop). The only female character we've seen be infiltrated by a seemingly evil or negative force (Frog-Moth birthed from Experiment's vomit and assisted by The Woodsmen, just as the Woodsmen helped BOB throughout this season) is the young girl in Part 8. 

2) In the original series & FWWM Sarah Palmer is the only person to see the White/Pale Horse (besides Dale Cooper when he’s shown this by The Giant/Fireman). Remember the Woodsman’s poem: “The Horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within ”.  

3) One of the only other times we see the Horse is in behind the curtains of the Waiting Room right after the Laura entity is wrenched away. This seems to be almost exactly what happens to Laura in Part 17 & 18 when Cooper is attempting to lead her home in the alternate FWWM timeline. This moment further emphasizes Sarah Palmer's involvement because her stabbing of Laura's picture seems to have a cause-and-effect on the Laura in 1989 with Cooper in the woods. 

4) The way she murders the ‘Truck-You’ guy at the bar is almost exactly the same way the creature in NYC murders the two lovers.  This definitely seems to be an extreme negative force. 

5) Phillip Jefferies (as a teapot) tells Cooper where he can find Judy and shows him the Owl Cave Symbol and the numbers 7-0-8 (which is the address of the Palmer house).

6) When Sarah Palmer speaks in a low deep voice in the Season 2 finale it’s implied that Windom Earle is speaking through her, but is this true? This manipulated Sarah Palmer voice seems to be the same one that calls Evil Coop in his hotel room near the beginning of Season 3 and tells him that he's going back into the Lodge. And is the same monstrous “Laura!” voice heard throughout the Original Series and the final moments of Season 3.  

SIDENOTE: It seems clear also that Audrey has been effected by the Lodges is now trapped their (and/or is possibly a Tulpa or has her own Tupla). We know that Diane interacted with Evil Coop and became trapped in the Mauve Zone as Nadio while her Tulpa ran free. If Evil Coop visited Audrey in the hospital a very similar thing could be happening with her. Dialogue about ’not feeling like theirselves’ seem to be similar between Diane and Audrey.  

Nope.  The Experiment and Mother aren't the same.  I posted screen grabs in an earlier episode's forum which shows significantly different anatomy.

Sarah bites the throat out of the trucker, the two in New York were mutilated, as if they'd been hacked about with a huge rotating blade.

Whatever is in Sarah could be The Experiment, Mother or something else entirely.

We can't really compare anatomy between the 'two' when the pale white creature we've SEEN has always been credited as The Experiment through Season 3. http://twinpeaks.wikia.com/wiki/Experiment

So the creature we've seen we know to be The Experiment every time. No need to compare screen grabs. 

"The Mother" is only verbally referenced in Part 3. I guess this leads credit to The mother being a different entity, but only if we don't take any of the context into account. 

Posted by: Dylan Gilbert 5) Phillip Jefferies (as a teapot) tells Cooper where he can find Judy and shows him the Owl Cave Symbol and the numbers 7-0-8 (which is the address of the Palmer house).

Where's the 7-0-8? I just rewatched the scene and only saw the symbol as it morphed into the 8 with the little bubble or stone in it.

Yes, I think this is true. I also think that given the Palmer House in the Carrie Page Universe was sold to a Tremond by a Chalfont that the old lady in the original series, Mrs. Chalfont/Tremond, is the same as Judy/Experiment/etc.

I am not sure Sarah Palmer is possessed in the 21st century though. She acts differently from the possessed.  Leland never rips his face off does he? I think 21st century Sarah is a Tulpa controlled by Judy/etc. and Sarah is in the Black Lodge. She even tells Major Briggs she is in the Black Lodge with Dale Cooper.

Posted by: Dylan Gilbert We can't really compare anatomy between the 'two' when the pale white creature we've SEEN has always been credited as The Experiment through Season 3. http://twinpeaks.wikia.com/wiki/Experiment So the creature we've seen we know to be The Experiment every time. No need to compare screen grabs.  "The Mother" is only verbally referenced in Part 3. I guess this leads credit to The mother being a different entity, but only if we don't take any of the context into account. 

I think the Atomic Bomb creature was credited as the Experiment and the New York creature was credited as Experiment Model (maybe a junior version lol)

Posted by: KingDaddyDog Posted by: Dylan Gilbert We can't really compare anatomy between the 'two' when the pale white creature we've SEEN has always been credited as The Experiment through Season 3. http://twinpeaks.wikia.com/wiki/Experiment So the creature we've seen we know to be The Experiment every time. No need to compare screen grabs.  "The Mother" is only verbally referenced in Part 3. I guess this leads credit to The mother being a different entity, but only if we don't take any of the context into account. 

That's the one.  Experiment Model and Experiment.  They are two different beings.  So, that invalidates my idea regarding Mother.  It doesn't, however, invalidate my remark about how the various people were killed.

Posted by: Dylan Gilbert   SIDENOTE: It seems clear also that Audrey has been effected by the Lodges is now trapped their (and/or is possibly a Tulpa or has her own Tupla). We know that Diane interacted with Evil Coop and became trapped in the Mauve Zone as Nadio while her Tulpa ran free. If Evil Coop visited Audrey in the hospital a very similar thing could be happening with her. Dialogue about ’not feeling like theirselves’ seem to be similar between Diane and Audrey.  

I don't know anything but figured I'd throw this into the thread. If Diane became Naido in the Mauve Zone maybe Audrey became American Girl. She was an all-American girl (more or less) back in the day. It adds a nice symmetry at least.

Posted by: Dylan Gilbert FAN THEORY Judy, The Mother and The Experiment are the same entity. The 'extreme negative force' that birthed BOB and the Frog-Moth Eggs and Garmonbozia/Pain & Suffering (in Part 8). The Mother/Experiment follows Cooper (when he starts trying to leave the waiting room) through the   Glass Box in NYC and catches up with him in the Mauve Zone.   This entity is represented by the Owl Cave Symbol as well as the slightly different symbol on Hawk’s Map, Mr. C’s playing card and in Major Briggs’s secret message.     The clue “The Little Girl Who Lived Down The Lane” seems to be a reference to the little girl in Part 8 who swallows the Frog-Moth. (Note: Laura and Audrey did not “live down the lane” but this little girl did!) I think it’s very likely that this little girl in intended to be Sarah Palmer. The time frame and age certainly make sense.     ****Further proof that Sarah Palmer is the little girl (from Part 8) who 'lived down the lane' and is now inhabited by Judy/The Mother/Experiment.  1)  When Sarah pulls her face off it shows us that she is possessed or inhabited by something ‘dark’ or a ‘negative force’ (opposite Laura’s light behind her face).  Because of this scene, this is the only character in Season 3 that we know for sure is possessed by an evil entity (besides BOB inside Evil Coop). The only female character we've seen be infiltrated by a seemingly evil or negative force (Frog-Moth birthed from Experiment's vomit and assisted by The Woodsmen, just as the Woodsmen helped BOB throughout this season) is the young girl in Part 8.    2) In the original series & FWWM Sarah Palmer is the only person to see the White/Pale Horse (besides Dale Cooper when he’s shown this by The Giant/Fireman). Remember the Woodsman’s poem: “The Horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within ”.   3) One of the only other times we see the Horse is in behind the curtains of the Waiting Room right after the Laura entity is wrenched away. This seems to be almost exactly what happens to Laura in Part 17 & 18 when Cooper is attempting to lead her home in the alternate FWWM timeline. This moment further emphasizes Sarah Palmer's involvement because her stabbing of Laura's picture seems to have a cause-and-effect on the Laura in 1989 with Cooper in the woods.    4) The way she murders the ‘Truck-You’ guy at the bar is almost exactly the same way the creature in NYC murders the two lovers.  This definitely seems to be an extreme negative force.    5) Phillip Jefferies (as a teapot) tells Cooper where he can find Judy and shows him the Owl Cave Symbol and the numbers 7-0-8 (which is the address of the Palmer house).   6) When Sarah Palmer speaks in a low deep voice in the Season 2 finale it’s implied that Windom Earle is speaking through her, but is this true? This manipulated Sarah Palmer voice seems to be the same one that calls Evil Coop in his hotel room near the beginning of Season 3 and tells him that he's going back into the Lodge. And is the same monstrous “Laura!” voice heard throughout the Original Series and the final moments of Season 3.       SIDENOTE: It seems clear also that Audrey has been effected by the Lodges is now trapped their (and/or is possibly a Tulpa or has her own Tupla). We know that Diane interacted with Evil Coop and became trapped in the Mauve Zone as Nadio while her Tulpa ran free. If Evil Coop visited Audrey in the hospital a very similar thing could be happening with her. Dialogue about ’not feeling like theirselves’ seem to be similar between Diane and Audrey.  

I agree with everything in this post.  This is the only viable explanation for everything we have seen in The Return and makes a lot of sense.

Posted by: Andrew Glasson Posted by: Dylan Gilbert FAN THEORY Judy, The Mother and The Experiment are the same entity. The 'extreme negative force' that birthed BOB and the Frog-Moth Eggs and Garmonbozia/Pain & Suffering (in Part 8). The Mother/Experiment follows Cooper (when he starts trying to leave the waiting room) through the   Glass Box in NYC and catches up with him in the Mauve Zone.   This entity is represented by the Owl Cave Symbol as well as the slightly different symbol on Hawk’s Map, Mr. C’s playing card and in Major Briggs’s secret message.     The clue “The Little Girl Who Lived Down The Lane” seems to be a reference to the little girl in Part 8 who swallows the Frog-Moth. (Note: Laura and Audrey did not “live down the lane” but this little girl did!) I think it’s very likely that this little girl in intended to be Sarah Palmer. The time frame and age certainly make sense.     ****Further proof that Sarah Palmer is the little girl (from Part 8) who 'lived down the lane' and is now inhabited by Judy/The Mother/Experiment.  1)  When Sarah pulls her face off it shows us that she is possessed or inhabited by something ‘dark’ or a ‘negative force’ (opposite Laura’s light behind her face).  Because of this scene, this is the only character in Season 3 that we know for sure is possessed by an evil entity (besides BOB inside Evil Coop). The only female character we've seen be infiltrated by a seemingly evil or negative force (Frog-Moth birthed from Experiment's vomit and assisted by The Woodsmen, just as the Woodsmen helped BOB throughout this season) is the young girl in Part 8.    2) In the original series & FWWM Sarah Palmer is the only person to see the White/Pale Horse (besides Dale Cooper when he’s shown this by The Giant/Fireman). Remember the Woodsman’s poem: “The Horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within ”.   3) One of the only other times we see the Horse is in behind the curtains of the Waiting Room right after the Laura entity is wrenched away. This seems to be almost exactly what happens to Laura in Part 17 & 18 when Cooper is attempting to lead her home in the alternate FWWM timeline. This moment further emphasizes Sarah Palmer's involvement because her stabbing of Laura's picture seems to have a cause-and-effect on the Laura in 1989 with Cooper in the woods.    4) The way she murders the ‘Truck-You’ guy at the bar is almost exactly the same way the creature in NYC murders the two lovers.  This definitely seems to be an extreme negative force.    5) Phillip Jefferies (as a teapot) tells Cooper where he can find Judy and shows him the Owl Cave Symbol and the numbers 7-0-8 (which is the address of the Palmer house).   6) When Sarah Palmer speaks in a low deep voice in the Season 2 finale it’s implied that Windom Earle is speaking through her, but is this true? This manipulated Sarah Palmer voice seems to be the same one that calls Evil Coop in his hotel room near the beginning of Season 3 and tells him that he's going back into the Lodge. And is the same monstrous “Laura!” voice heard throughout the Original Series and the final moments of Season 3.       SIDENOTE: It seems clear also that Audrey has been effected by the Lodges is now trapped their (and/or is possibly a Tulpa or has her own Tupla). We know that Diane interacted with Evil Coop and became trapped in the Mauve Zone as Nadio while her Tulpa ran free. If Evil Coop visited Audrey in the hospital a very similar thing could be happening with her. Dialogue about ’not feeling like theirselves’ seem to be similar between Diane and Audrey.  

I'm with both of you on this.

The Experiment and the Experiment Model may well be two different entities (this would make sense in reference to The Secret History) but I think they answer to Judy and Judy is sure as hell controlling Sarah now.

I did think I had seen the 7-0-8 come out of Jefferies' spout but doubted myself when I saw no references to it other than the 8.

N.B. I think the moving ball within the 8 from Jefferies is a reference to the temporal mobius strip that is taking place in the Palmer house (boxing show looping over and over).

But the 8 is not infinity - it's not on its side. That's key - it's a loop, not a endlessly continuing thread. And the loop was broken when Laura remembered.

My goodness it's set up nicely for a Season 4 (pretty please).

And another thing - Josie in the re-played S1 footage sans Laura wrapped in plastic - kinda sinister in this new context. In the Secret History she is 'Judy's sister'. I got the chills when I watched that scene.

Mr C was definitely trying to locate Judy through his long search for coordinates , and as has been pointed out elsewhere, when he is drawn up through the Vortex and into the Lodge where he is temporarily suspended in a cage, the Fireman shifts his next destination from the Palmer House to the Sheriff's Station .  He is being misdirected, to the trap that the Fireman has set for him in the person of the green gloved Freddie Sykes .  Had Mr C gone to the Palmer House he would have fulfilled his quest and met up with Judy , the negative spirit inhabiting Sarah Palmer .  I also suspect that the Mrs Chalfont who sold the house to the Tremonds could also be Sarah .  The way she kept house during the Return certainly reminded me of Mrs Tremond/Chalfont 's place when Donna Hayward first brought her Meals on Wheels dinner (with the unasked for creamed corn .)

Posted by: Dale Wittig Mr C was definitely trying to locate Judy through his long search for coordinates , and as has been pointed out elsewhere, when he is drawn up through the Vortex and into the Lodge where he is temporarily suspended in a cage, the Fireman shifts his next destination from the Palmer House to the Sheriff's Station .  He is being misdirected, to the trap that the Fireman has set for him in the person of the green gloved Freddie Sykes .  Had Mr C gone to the Palmer House he would have fulfilled his quest and met up with Judy , the negative spirit inhabiting Sarah Palmer .  I also suspect that the Mrs Chalfont who sold the house to the Tremonds could also be Sarah .  The way she kept house during the Return certainly reminded me of Mrs Tremond/Chalfont 's place when Donna Hayward first brought her Meals on Wheels dinner (with the unasked for creamed corn .)

Crikey, great shout on the Palmer house being in frame at the White Lodge when Bad Coop is caged up. This means the Fireman  does  know where Judy is, contrary to what I just said in another thread.

seriously though, if there is a 7-0-8 coming out of the tea pot I didn't see it after watching 3 times and this reveal would be very important as Gordon would say....you need to give us screen shots of each number.

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Erica Eynon

Erica Eynon is an American actress and dancer who modeled the experiment in the 2017 series of Twin Peaks .

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TWIN PEAKS BLOG

Documenting my 30-year fascination with David Lynch and Mark Frost's "Twin Peaks" and the 1992 motion picture "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me."

The Experiment

Twin peaks film location – top secret glass box.

In Twin Peaks Season 3, we’re introduced to a mysterious glass box that Sam Colby is paid to watch. This top secret experiment, funded by a unknown billionaire, was in a nondescript building somewhere in New York City. But like most things in Twin Peaks, things are always what they seem. In reality, the film location for…

• Vacant Peaks

Vacant Peaks – The Glass Box

Season 3 of Twin Peaks on Showtime opens with Sam Colby watching a mysterious glass box in New York City. This Vacant Peaks article takes a look at this location sans people in Parts 1, 2, 3 and 10. Interesting side notes – the image above is recycled at least six or seven times throughout the…

Favorites: Top Judy Theories

‘Favorites: Top Judy Theories’  is now available on Audio, read by author John Bernardy, exclusively for our Patreon supporters. For just $3 a month you will have access to our full library of Audio content, plus three new uploads every week. To sign up visit our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/25YL

Here at 25YLSite, we handle a lot of heavy lifting. Analysis, interpretation, deep discussion, introspective interviews…you name it, we’ve got it. “Favorites” takes a lighter approach to the material we normally cover. Each week, we will take you through a list of favorites—whether it’s moments, scenes, episodes, characters, lines of dialogue, whatever!—in bite-sized articles perfect for your lunch break, a dull commute, or anywhere you need to take a Moment of Zen. So, sit back and enjoy this week’s offering: John Bernardy’s favorite theories about Judy.

Here’s literally all we actually know about the character of Twin Peaks ’ Judy:

• Phillip Jeffries, when he appears in Fire Walk With Me (on February 16, 1989), says he’s not gonna talk about Judy. In fact, they’re not gonna talk about Judy at all; they’re gonna keep her out of it. In Part 15, however, Jeffries says DoppelCooper has met her before.
• Per Bob Engels in various interviews, Judy was going to be Josie Packard’s twin sister.
• Per Gordon Cole in Part 17, Judy is an extreme negative force (not evil) known as Jow Day, and there’s a plan made by Gordon, Cooper and Briggs to find (not kill) it.
• Per Tamara Preston in The Final Dossier , Judy is a Sumerian utukku demon known as Joudy, that—when mating with a male utukku—can bring about “the end of the world as we know it.”

Yet, in all of these instances, the name Judy is never actually attributed to a character. Hence we have the smorgasbord of theories revolving around the identity of Judy. Here are some of my favorites:

ANOTHER VICTIM OF BOB

This one’s a pre-Season 3 theory, and it’s officially outdated, but there’s a simplicity to it that I love:

• The Laura Palmer case is what led to Dale Cooper’s disappearance.
• The Teresa Banks case is what led to Chet Desmond’s disappearance.
• The Judy case is what led to Phillip Jeffries’ disappearance.

This definitely fits well with the formula that Judy is Josie’s twin sister, so it should be an automatic sign to throw it out, but it would also be the first instance of a set of three in Twin Peaks media, and we know well that Season 3 was all about themes of three . Considering where I think the state of reality’s gone in Season 3 , I find it noteworthy that this was Twin Peaks’ instinctual direction as early as 1992.

THE EVIL THAT WOMEN DO

Sarah Palmer as a host to Judy makes sense to me, as it’s the same formula as Leland Palmer being the host of BOB. There’s a simplistic balance to it that I could see being likely, but if you stretch out Albert’s line about BOB being the evil that men do, you could say the same for Sarah.

If BOB was personification of Leland’s most negative actions, Judy could be a personification of Sarah’s most negative actions. Sarah Palmer could have created Judy, as I’ve said before in a magical-realism way and Brien Allen has said in a more tied-to-the-plot kind of way .

THE WHITE HORSE

Laura Stewart explains here what looking away means in regards to Sarah Palmer, and she also brings up the white horse specifically in regards to “the horse is the white of the eyes.”

Lynch loves his symbols. I refer you to the traffic light, Bang Bang Bar sign, and ceiling fan, for just a few. The white horse surfaces as well, usually around extremely negative circumstances. And Gordon says Judy is an extreme negative force. If the horse really does symbolize looking away as the Part 8 poem suggests, it would help immensely in explaining why we never see Judy being officially noted on screen or in the credits. Even Naido and Ruby were credited with their names despite them never being said aloud.

The horse is what we’re looking at while Judy is just off to the side of the camera shot. Classic misdirection, in the most art-house way possible.

MAJOR BRIGGS

During the run of Season 3, fans were regularly saying that Judy was Gordon Cole and Phillip Jeffries’ code name for Major Garland Briggs , and even today there are reddit users who suggest the Judy that DoppelCooper is trying to find is the head of Major Briggs in the White Lodge.

Garland Briggs himself even says “Judy Garland?” when under the influence of haloperidol, as he responds to Dale Cooper calling Briggs by name. Earlier in Season 2, Briggs was abducted by the same force as the Log Lady, per their themed tattoos, and they are both tied to the forces of positive good, but Gordon is the one who coined Judy as the ultimate negative force and he’s supposed to remember the unofficial version , so it could be that Cole is “far away” himself with that detail. Or Judy’s just a red herring used as a lure to trap DoppelCooper.

This is the biggest stretch to name Briggs as Judy’s identity, but ‘Garland’ is a strong connection based on Lynch’s proclivity for referencing Wizard of Oz . And then there’s another under-the-surface meta-story relating to Judy Garland…I’ve heard it said that her treatment during the making of Wizard of Oz was less than stellar, and at minimum adjacent to abuse. If a horse can be a symbol of Judy, can Garland Briggs’ first name be imbued with the pain of a girl that was masked over by one of the most important fairy tales in all of film? Was Briggs then a reminder of pain under the surface, much as he was a reminder to Dale about the Blue Rose?

EXPERIMENT MODEL

Experiment, the egg spewing creature in Part 8, can be a personified Black Lodge much in the same way that BOB could be the personified evil that men do. It could also be a mature utukku demon—as we saw explained in The Final Dossier —laying eggs in our reality. There are regular theories that the frogbug hatched from one of those eggs is an immature Jumping Man. Considering “man” is right in its name, that could be the male utukku, making that comparable to Final Dossier’s Ba’al or Beelzebub. Experiment Model, as seen in the glass box in Part 2, could be the female utukku, making it comparable to Joudy.

I’ve made a case that Experiment Model goes from that glass box into Sarah Palmer by way of the glitching television , and that means combined with Sarah’s frogbug they form that smiling creature within Sarah. The hybridized creature inside Sarah makes the most sense to be the creature that can “end the world as we know it” purported in The Final Dossier. And that creature could be the entity that shifts the world to its more unrecognizable conclusion in Part 18, ending the world “as we knew it” and giving us a brand new one. It’s a strong case that Experiment Model is the literal Joudy from Final Dossier, but I still think that’s only one way to read things.

Laura Palmer’s Doppelganger

In the “truck you” scene of Part 14, the creature inside Sarah tells the bartender “sure is a mystery, huh?” with an intonation just like Laura Palmer. Gisela Fleischer made a case that its hand is Laura’s from a scene in Fire Walk With Me, and the smile is definitely reminiscent as well . That creature could quite possibly be Judy, and it could also be Laura Palmer’s doppelganger. And those two could just as easily be one and the same.

Much as Diane takes on the name Linda and Laura takes on the name Carrie in Part 18, I can get behind the idea that Laura’s doppelganger, unseen since the Season 2 finale , could take the name Judy.

While Laura is related to the golden orb , it’s possible that her doppelganger is related to an ultimate negative force. Doppelgangers, after all, are essentially the worst impulses of a person. In a season which focuses on  Dale Cooper’s need to assimilate his doppelganger , it would make sense that the entity inside Sarah Palmer could be the doppelganger of a dead girl in need of a body to enact its revenge upon the world.

So there we have it. So many plausible Judy identities, and I didn’t even name them all . Which one is your favorite?

Written by John Bernardy

John Bernardy has been writing for 25YL since before the site went public and he’s loved every minute. The show most important to him is Twin Peaks. He is husband to a damn fine woman, father to two fascinating individuals, and their pet thinks he’s a good dog walker.

i prefer the outdated theory that Judy is the case that leads to Phillip Jeffries’ disappearance. the whole Jowday retcon is something i’d like to assign to some kind of temporary alternate reality caused by Cooper’s messing with the timeline. maybe Jeffries doesn’t want to talk about Judy because where he’s been he’s seen enough to know she’s the smallest part of the story but in the Jowday universe she’s the reason the Blue Rose task force even exists.

Great theories. I tend to think that Lynch wants to reflect the reality (not very Lynchian!) that evil isn’t a well defined single entity or force. That evil appears in places you least expect it and means very different things to different people. We all struggle to define evil in our lives but – partly because there are no ground rules on how we perceive or define evil – we are all convinced that our interpretation is the correct one. Season 3 deliberately added to that definition & interpretative confusion.

I would like to know about the young lady who was walking with her boy friend and when she got in bed and fell asleep that bug went in her mouth and she swallowed it. We never saw her again.

According to Final Dossier, she’s extremely likely to be Sarah Palmer.

Lynch made his spokeswoman The Log Lady say that “Laura is the one” twice and that TP is the “story of many”, it’s not Cooper’s story at all and the shodow-self thing is something believed by Frost only, who knows his co-Author well enough to state that “David’s not psychological, he doesn’t even want to hear about it”, so it’s fair to exclude any Cooper-centric or psychanalytical approach on behalf on the One who’s got the final word on the work, Lynch being also the Director (which Frost is not). This said, Jowday is both an entity and a force, the Threshold where someone dwells, briefly or forever. “No knock, no doorbell”…”Jow” is a scottish word first used since the year 1515 AD to mean both “to knock” and “the toll of a bell”. Remember “little Denny Craig – when the bell rang, he never got up” and remember the doorway trespassed by a Little Boy (the second atomic bomb within the Manhattan Project after the one used in the Trinity Test) causing a reflection and Evil, off “Inland Empire”.

It’s valid to decide Lynch’s intrrpretation is your primary one, but I think Frost’s interpretation is still baked into the script and therefore still described in what Lynch directed even if it’s not Lynch’s conclusion (Lynch does a good job respecting the source material even when he does things his way, like how he still had Dale looking into the mirror at Bob even though he didn’t like that season 2 ending). I think the Season 3 Script is “the one” and there’s a Lynch interpretation and a Frost interpretation. And where I think the most Twin Peaks is is when they meet in the middle. I’m not intersted in discounting Lynch’s or Frost’s interpretation as one being more real than the other. You should check out my Navigating Two Worlds 5-parter here where I really go into that. https://www.25yearslatersite.com/2019/01/07/twin-peaks-navigating-between-two-worlds-part-1-of-5-electricity-nexus-22a/

Judy was Sarah Palmer from the start. Bob was Leland and Laura was the good force they were trying to destroy Cooper and Laura are the light. That’s why they are the last two seen in the series. Laura hears Judy or Sarah’s voice and she knows they are doomed to keep reliving it because Cooper brought them to another plane of existence. The Palmer house is like the black lodge but it’s in out plane of existence. Didn’t u ever notice that everyone was creeped out when they were to the Palmer except Cooper and the doctor. Two forces of good. I never read any of the books so I don’t know about a lot of the other things. That bug crawled in Sarah Palmer after the trinity experiment and that was Judy. She had just expelled BOB and went to find a host. Bob seemed this host out while being Leland which I assume was Bob when they got married.

After watching Twin Peaks: The Return, I had a lot of questions, and since it’s a more recent release, or perhaps because it is so long and convoluted, there isn’t really an analysis I’ve read online that makes sense of the series the way I’ve been able to make sense of some of Lynch’s previous work, including Lost Highway and Mullholland Drive. But after sitting and thinking about it for a long time, I feel I’ve come up with at least an idea of where to dig.

The story was so complicated that I felt I had to search online just for clarification on a few points, and also because I watched it illegally and so completely missed part of an episode because I couldn’t find it anywhere online. But after reading a few pieces giving some summary information, I began to think about Lynch’s dream logic as it pertained to the piece. I feel a lot of the piece resembles Mullholland Drive – especially the scenes involving Dougie and his family, and especially since those both feature Naomi Watts. The way in which the Dream World is reflected through behavior and lighting is very similar in both movies. But thinking more about the logic of the dream, I just couldn’t get past the dense symbolism: the exchange of coffee cups, the red door and the red room, the Double R and Rio Rancho, the scenes of MacLachlan driving with different women over the same stretch of highway… it was all too much to process at first. But I began to think about the meta-ness of it all, if you will, and, bear with me, the way in which we, the audience, have become involved in the script, in the sense of a detective. Once Agent Cooper was called to the realm of the Black Lodge, he relinquished his duties as a detective, possibly to the audience. Now, we have become actively involved in the mystery; as David Lynch urges us to ask of ourselves, via the character of Gordon Cole, “who is the dreamer?” This, ultimately, is the question Agent Cooper, once he has “become” Richard near the end of the movie, asks of himself: is this really his reality, or is he just a character in someone’s sick story, destined to a complicated and unhappy end? And of course, this is the reality. Agent Cooper is the sick, gimpy plaything of David Lynch, forced to act out a stroke, rape the women he loves, and much else for his and our benefit; and if Lynch is perhaps the aforementioned “Judy,” the God who controls the destiny of Twin Peaks, then the audience are the characters in the Black Lodge, feasting on the “garmonbozia” of the actors’ and actresses’ distress and trauma. This read is supported by a scene near the beginning of the show, where a couple having sex in front of what looks like a staring camera (the portal behind the black box) is brutally annihilated, (possibly?) for the sick pleasure of the audience; this “sex and violence” trope has been used by Lynch all the way back since Blue Velvet, and it seems especially important in Twin Peaks, a series founded upon the idea that a teen girl was raped and brutally murdered, and that everyone, even perhaps vicariously or distantly, was involved, in much the way that Lynch’s audience involves themselves with morbidity in order to experience a sick sort of pleasure. The idea that “electricity” exists as a portal to another dimension also reminded me of the fact that I was watching this story on television, or at the very least on some device with the help of electricity… watching Cooper through the portal. Another scene that got me thinking was the bit during Episode 8 where the Woodsmen are running around outside the convenience store; it almost reminded me of a movie set in fast forward, with set designers walking around fixing it up. It’s as if Cooper has become aware that his life is just a movie, and he exists only for the sick pleasure of the audience. When he is in the Red Room, it is if he is on a talk show, on a stage surrounded by curtains – the curtains represent the physical boundaries of his existence. Just beyond these boundaries, the audience that Cooper can only imagine watches him and lifts no fingers to help. And the phrase near the end of the series, “see you at the curtain call,” suggests that his story will be over when the credits roll.

The little girl who loved down the lane is played by Joudai Foster. Just saying!

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‘Twin Peaks’: We Think We Just Saw the Birth of BOB

It all starts with a nuclear bomb

Major spoilers for episode 8 of “Twin Peaks: The Return.”

Besides being one long, Lynchian visual experiment, this week’s episode of the “Twin Peaks” revival also may have just given us the origin of just about everything — specifically BOB.

And it starts with a nuclear bomb.

A large, black and white photo of a mushroom cloud has been prominently featured in Gordon Cole’s office since the start of the season, but in episode 8, it came to life. A title card shows us that the explosion took place on July 16, 1945 at 5:29 a.m. History buffs will recognize this date as the moment of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon.

“Trinity,” as it was called, was part of the Manhattan Project, in which the United States developed nuclear bombs. The test was conducted in what is now known as the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, around 35 miles away from Socorro. As can be expected from the world’s first nuclear test, it awed the scientists involved.

These were the trials that eventually led to the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Subsequently, the composition that plays over this sequence in the episode is called “Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima” by Krzysztof Penderecki. A “threnody” is a song that’s composed to pay tribute to a dead person and when hearing the full arrangement performed for the first time, Penderecki, the only thing he could think of was Hiroshima.

The test site is now known as a historic landmark and is marked with an obelisk that looks similar to the tower that appears in the center of the endless purple ocean, which we see after panning into the cloud itself (although I might be looking too hard into things).

Also inside the cloud we see a white, feminine figure which is named in the credits as the “experiment.” It’s been floating around “Twin Peaks” since Part 1, where it appeared in a glass box in New York City before tearing apart two young people.

The destruction of one thing leads to the creation of another. At the Trinity test site, scientists found trinitite, a green-tinted residue. In “Twin Peaks” we see the creation of BOB.

Something that looks like an umbilical cord snakes out of the experiment. While many things which look like eggs float out, a floating bubble with BOB’s (Frank Silva) head also appears.

This is touched upon later when we go to the aforementioned tower, which houses a woman in vintage garb named Señorita Dido (Joy Nash) and the man we’ve come to know as The Giant (Carel Struycken). He watches a movie screen of the explosion and sees the BOB bubble. He then floats up to the ceiling, where a sparkling yellow cloud emerges from his head. A yellow bubble floats downwards, where Dido catches it. We then see the face of Laura Palmer in the bubble before Dido releases it into a gramophone, which in turn sends it down to Earth.

We cut to Aug. 5, 1956 outside an unnamed New Mexico town where one of the eggs hatches. A creature that looks like part frog and part fly emerges and slowly walks away.

Meanwhile, smoke-covered men that have been appearing this season (and which we now know are called Woodsmen) come out of the darkness and slowly walk towards the town. One descends onto a radio station, kills the two people manning the post, and hypnotizes the town into a slumber with a creepy poem he repeats over and over: “ This is the water. And this is the well. Drink full and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within.” What that means is anyone’s guess.

In another part of the town, a young girl listening to the radio falls asleep. Soon after, the creature jumps in through her window and crawls into her mouth.

So what does all this mean? Forgive yourself if you felt overwhelmed by this entire episode since there’s a lot to unpack. But from what we gather, David Lynch was depicting the birth of BOB and the central conflict of “Twin Peaks.”

There’s the symbolism behind the nuclear bomb, which can signal the end of one era and the beginning of another, or of death and birth. In this case, it looks like it was the birth of BOB, who sprung from the experiment. Those in the purple ocean tower were alerted to the situation, where they created a contingency plan — Laura Palmer.

We know from “Fire Walk With Me” that Laura was able to resist BOB’s advances to take over her body by putting on the ring. It’s unclear why BOB wanted to become Laura as well. In a familiar sounding scenario, BOB was seen climbing in through Laura’s window, just like the creature that spawned from the egg.

BOB is an entity of pure evil who feeds off the pain and fear of humans. Members of the Black Lodge, including MIKE, have been working to control BOB, signifying that he’s too dangerous for even the Black Lodge.

But when did Laura get released to Earth? The timeline is a bit off, although linear, straightforward time doesn’t exist in “Twin Peaks.” According to “The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer,” she wasn’t born until July 1971. And it’s unclear who the girl we see in the town is and what happened to her after the creature climbed into her mouth, so the incident might not be related to Laura at all. We also don’t explicitly know what the creature is. Given the apparent cooperation from a Woodsman, BOB would be the logical guess — but it’s also possible that it’s the Laura Palmer spirit sent down by Senorita Dido being implanted in Sara Palmer.

But there might be one connection. One Twin Peaks resident was stationed at White Sands during the time of the test: Douglas “Dougie” Milford, the publisher of the Twin Peaks Gazette. According to “The Secret History of Twin Peaks,” he was also at Roswell when the UFO crashed and later worked with the government — including Gordon Cole and Phillip Jeffries — on secret missions involving the sort of supernatural stuff that has always been at the center of “Twin Peaks.” Dougie was also involved with Project Blue Book (the U.S. government’s attempt to find the White Lodge), which you’ll recall Major Garland Briggs being a part of in the original series run. You can read more about Dougie Milford’s surprisingly complicated past here.

Let’s also not forget the convenience store that was shown in the middle of all this in an extremely trippy shot in which a number of Woodsmen could be seen milling around inside and outside it. Presumably this is the same convenience store that MIKE and BOB lived in, before MIKE “saw the face of god,” chopped off his own arm and dedicated his existence to stopping BOB. We also saw the store later, briefly, when the New Mexico girl found a penny in front of it before she and her friend walked to her house. What the store has to do with anything else that happens in the episode is unclear, however, because we don’t even know where it is — the title card for the part with the girl just designates the place as just the desert of New Mexico.

So this could all be connected and could actually make sense. We could also be reading too much into it. This is also only part 8, after all. We still have 10 hours to go before we see the series’ conclusion and hopefully learn the secrets behind “Twin Peaks.”

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Twin Peaks, decoded for novices and obsessives alike

Almost 30 years after its debut, Twin Peaks remains one of TV’s most fascinating experiments.

by Emily St. James and Caroline Framke

If you’ve never seen it, Twin Peaks isn’t what you think it is.

The show seems to have been filtered down to an essence of weird catchphrases and images over the 26 years it has been off the air. It’s “damn fine coffee” or a dwarf dancing in a red room. It’s the body of a beautiful young woman wrapped in plastic, or an FBI agent coolly dictating memos to an unseen “Diane” on a miniature cassette recorder. Above all, it’s super weird, right? Too weird for network TV, and even too weird for many of its die-hard fans.

But all of the above misses what made Twin Peaks such a lightning bolt when it debuted on ABC — a big, big broadcast network — in the spring of 1990. It misses what made the show such a critical and (brief) ratings sensation, what garnered it tons of Emmy nominations. It’s the surface of Twin Peaks , but not the core.

Twin Peaks changed television history, but almost had to die to do so. It’s one of the greatest TV series ever made, but also way more approachable than you might expect it to be from the years of hype. It’s weird, sure, but it’s also basically a primetime soap with a huge heart.

And now it’s coming back — or, if you’re a Twin Peaks fan, it is “happening again.” But it’s returning as a series that has so successfully permeated the culture that virtually every TV show on the air owes some debt to it. Can Twin Peaks thrive in a world where it’s not the oddball? Or did it gain so much of its power from the simple fact that it aired in 1990, on ABC, where no one would have ever thought to look for it?

No matter your level of Twin Peaks expertise, there’s always more to learn about this infamously intricate show. So please indulge us by allowing us to ruminate on some of the questions you might’ve been too embarrassed to ask, or that have piqued your curiosity about one of TV’s most fascinating experiments.

What is Twin Peaks ?

In its first life, Twin Peaks was a murder mystery primetime soap from the minds of Mark Frost and David Lynch that aired on ABC for two seasons, from 1990 to 1991. It dove full force into a small-town whodunit: Murder victim Laura Palmer was (naturally) the town’s most prized blonde teen, and she (naturally) turned out to be hiding some terrible secrets.

From there, things got a whole lot less typical. Special Agent Dale Cooper (the best Kyle MacLachlan there is) investigated the murder with Eagle Scout levels of enthusiasm and dedication that only felt more incongruous the darker Twin Peaks got (and whew, did it get dark ). The deeper he and the show got into the mystery, the stranger Twin Peaks revealed itself to be.

The series was full of actors who have since gone on to long-ranging careers — from MacLachlan to Ray Wise to Madchen Amick — and has inspired a fiercely devoted cult of fan followers who have made a sport of dissecting every shot for the potential secrets therein.

Isn’t Twin Peaks super weird?

Well ... yeah. There was really no other way for Twin Peaks to go, given that it’s the product of Lynch — a notoriously surrealist director — funneling his sensibilities through a broadcast network filter. (Or trying to, anyway.)

The world of Twin Peaks is as lush as it is stark, its inhabitants prone to talking in clipped monosyllables, tossed-off non sequiturs, or tangents whose points don’t reveal themselves until their very end, if at all. There’s some lady who walks around town holding a log for seemingly no reason; fans know her, fittingly enough, as “Log Lady.” There are hallucinations that may or may not be hallucinations, an infamous red room in which the dead come back to life (or DO THEY?), and even, eventually, literal demons.

But focusing on the “weird” of Twin Peaks ignores much of what the show actually is: a sardonic twist on the usual murder mystery procedural with a real sense of humor, besides. MacLachlan is a pure delight as Agent Cooper, the Type A FBI agent whose greatest loves are a cup of damn good and/or fine coffee and a fervent dedication to his job. The Twin Peaks locals cover a vast range, from femme fatale Audrey (who usually enters a scene to her own slinky theme music) to lovable doof Officer Andy. The humor is sharp and specific, not to mention integral to Twin Peaks ’ success. Without it, the show would’ve careened over the edge much sooner into frantically strange melodrama.

But more on that later.

What’s the deal with David Lynch?

Honestly, we could write an “[X] questions you were too embarrassed to ask” post entirely about Lynch — and maybe someday we will! — but we’ll try to keep this brief.

David Lynch is the writer and director behind such lauded (and controversial) films as Eraserhead , The Elephant Man , Dune , Mulholland Drive , and Blue Velvet. He is particular, insular, and relentlessly inscrutable. His work, methodical and aggressive, tends to be divisive. He inspires either total adoration — especially in the actors he repeatedly casts in his work, like Laura Dern — or complete confusion.

But his approach is like no one else’s, full of saturated colors and odd angles juxtaposed with sharp emotional climaxes, and never at the moment you might expect. One of the best descriptions of Lynch’s aesthetic came from the man himself, when he made a surprise appearance at the January 2017 Television Critics Association press tour for Twin Peaks. “ I only wanted to be a painter,” Lynch said, “and I got into film because I wanted to make paintings move, and one thing led to another...”

Lynch is also notoriously reclusive. When David Foster Wallace wrote a profile of the director on the set of Lost Highway in 1996, for example, he never even got to meet the guy. But Wallace still tried to define Lynch’s sensibility, or what makes a film “Lynchian.” After struggling to piece together an accounting of how the “macabre” meets “mundane,” Wallace basically threw up his hands and admitted that the paradox of Lynch’s filmmaking is that it’s purposely indefinable — but also immediately recognizable:

Like postmodern or pornographic, Lynchian is one of those Porter Stewart-type words that’s ultimately definable only ostensively — i.e., we know it when we see it. Ted Bundy wasn’t particularly Lynchian, but good old Jeffrey Dahmer, with his victims’ various anatomies neatly separated and stored in his fridge alongside his chocolate milk and Shedd Spread, was thoroughgoingly Lynchian.

You get the idea. Or maybe you don’t! Either way, that’s kinda the point.

What shows inspired Twin Peaks ?

Even though Twin Peaks was wildly original when it premiered, it didn’t come out of nowhere. In particular, the series traded on the cop show and the primetime soap, two established TV forms that viewers would have already known and loved. Indeed, it was the interplay between TV conventions and Lynch’s wildly imaginative dream logic that made the show as good as it was.

Twin Peaks aired on ABC, which underwent a mild creative renaissance in the late ’80s and early ’90s. The network, which had been mired in third place behind NBC and CBS for much of the ’80s, decided it could do worse than to start embracing the visions of creative producers. That impulse led to series both wildly successful ( Roseanne and The Wonder Years ) and creatively satisfying if not hits ( Thirtysomething and China Beach ). It also led to the network being the natural home for Twin Peaks when Lynch and Frost went looking for one.

And it’s important not to downplay Frost’s contributions to the series. The co-creator had worked for several seasons on the early-’80s cop show Hill Street Blues , another TV drama that changed the medium, this time by bringing the idea of serialized storytelling to the normally moribund police show (among other innovations). Frost knew exactly how to structure the investigation into the death of Laura Palmer to keep the plot moving forward, while still leaving room for the weird stuff. (Early Twin Peaks was also subtly influenced by a genre that became very popular in the ’90s: the serial killer thriller.)

Similarly, both Lynch and Frost were influenced by one of the dominant TV forms of the ’80s: the primetime soap opera (think Dallas or Dynasty ). What makes Twin Peaks so magnetic is the way it proceeds like a fairly normal small-town drama for much of its running time, but punctuates otherwise typical arcs with flashes of something else entirely — like a story about a love triangle being interrupted by a sudden, shocking vision of a dark horror from beyond time.

By both playing with and subverting the form of the primetime soap, Lynch and Frost invented, more or less, the idea of the “TV mythology” — the more complicated backstory that explains the world their characters live in. But it’s this quality that often leads to confusion over the duo’s intentions. Is the show meant to be campy? Or sinister? Is it a horror show? Or a broad comedy? Or a satire? Thanks to Twin Peaks ’ unique blend of influences, the answer to all of those questions is “yes.”

What notable shows were inspired by Twin Peaks ?

The television landscape of the past 25 years is littered with shows that tried to “do” Twin Peaks and failed utterly. You’ve never heard of most of them, because they ended after a handful of episodes, but the reason for their failure is simple: They boiled down Twin Peaks to what made it weird and missed the forest for the trees.

Yet the show has stood as a notable TV landmark all the same. First and foremost, it helped broaden people’s ideas about how television could be directed and shot. The long takes and static wide shots that Lynch favored, and the murderer’s row of other directors who stopped by Twin Peaks (including future Mad Men and Homeland director Lesli Linka Glatter and Diane Keaton, of all people), transformed the show into something that didn’t look at all like other TV series but could still be pulled off on a TV budget and time frame.

That visual inventiveness opened a door that everything from The X-Files to The Sopranos happily walked through. Indeed, Sopranos creator David Chase frequently listed Twin Peaks as an influence on his similarly groundbreaking series. As he said to Vulture in 2015:

The conversations, the speed of it, could be very laconic. I liked that, while I was watching it, I could have a somewhat spiritual feeling. Lynch calls it his unconscious, not his subconscious. But I think it goes right into the subconscious, and you feel that you’ve been there.

Twin Peaks also — along with CBS’s Northern Exposure , which debuted just a few months later — kicked off an appetite for quirky small-town dramas, one that led to everything from Picket Fences to basically all the programming on the now-defunct WB network (especially Gilmore Girls ).

And there are plenty of shows that looked at Twin Peaks ’ early experimentation with longform mystery storytelling, with an elaborate backstory for its characters and world, and with eerie shifts into dark, even horrific territory, and said, “I can do that!” The X-Files was the first obvious imitator (right down to casting David Duchovny, who had a small role on Twin Peaks ), but the two shows that have best captured this aspect of Twin Peaks without being slavish to it are probably the Damon Lindelof series Lost and The Leftovers , both of which play in the same messy, sorta spiritual playground.

The total number of TV shows influenced by Twin Peaks is incalculable. The show’s intoxicating blend of so many different elements means that even a comedy like Psych could do a full hour of Twin Peaks gags. But it’s easy to see its influence in a show like FX’s Atlanta , which often embarks on cinematic flights of fancy and indulges in a healthy dollop of surrealism with every episode. On its face, a half-hour sitcom about a would-be music manager in the South would seem to have very little in common with Twin Peaks , but the show’s influence is just that enormous.

Commercial break: try some damn good Japanese coffee!

There is absolutely nothing we can say about these commercials the Twin Peaks cast shot to air in Japan except to emphasize that they are absolutely real , and it would be in your best interest to watch them all immediately.

This is all well and good, but people hate Twin Peaks ’ second season, right? Why?

The answer to the first question is: yes and no.

What’s often surprising to people watching Twin Peaks for the first time is just how many of its most iconic elements — from the giant who offers Cooper clues in his dreams to the show’s scariest sequences to the identity of Laura Palmer’s murderer — aren’t introduced (or revealed) until season two.

Indeed, the season’s first nine episodes might be the strongest single stretch in the series’ 30-episode run, as Lynch and Frost inexorably unravel their central mystery, while also raising other questions about just what the town of Twin Peaks is and why so many weird things happen there. Episodes seven, eight, and nine detail Cooper figuring out who killed Laura, then chronicle the aftermath of that revelation. They’re devastating, terrifying, beautiful television.

And then the show sort of falls apart. Lynch and Frost get called away from Twin Peaks to attend to other demands, a new team takes over, and the loss of the Laura Palmer investigation as the show’s connective tissue means that Twin Peaks must become, in essence, a straightforward primetime soap, with occasional weird moments. It doesn’t really survive the transition, which leads to stuff like Cooper’s chessboard face-off with his former partner Windom Earle and, um, a character getting trapped in a drawer knob.

Yet these episodes are just bizarre enough to keep you going, even as you realize the series has lost a step. And as season two begins to wrap up, Twin Peaks clearly realizes that it needs to find a new unifying mystery to give the show a new center. The mystery it lands on is one that many other shows (notably Lost ) would similarly utilize: What’s the deal with this place, and why do so many weird things keep happening here?

It all culminates in a terrifying series finale that everyone involved in Twin Peaks seemed to understand would be the end of the show overall. Cooper finally gains admittance to the mysterious Black Lodge, located somewhere in the woods outside town (or on some other plane of existence altogether), Lynch returns to direct one last time, and Laura Palmer says she’ll see us all in 25 years. She was only off by one.

So season two is definitely a mixed bag, but the reputation that has come to define it is simply the fallout of a backlash against its defiance of TV expectations. In 1990, nobody had ever seen a series go so long without solving a mystery as Twin Peaks had gone without solving the mystery of Laura’s death. (Lynch and Frost had hoped to never answer the question until the series finale, a battle they eventually lost with the network.)

And really, how many TV shows have there been that felt like skyrocketing success stories in their first seasons, only for audiences to grow dissatisfied in season two? There are bad episodes — and even bad stretches of episodes — in season two, but it’s not so much worse than season one as to defy description.

This was just a particularly nasty case of a show’s backlash coinciding with a ratings swoon, leading to a “bad second season” narrative that would persist until the series finally became available on DVD in the 2000s.

There was a Twin Peaks movie too, right?

Yes. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me debuted in 1992 at the Cannes Film Festival , where it was booed. (Director Quentin Tarantino has said it proved Lynch had finally “disappeared so far up his own ass.”) It came out in the US later in the year, where it was mostly ignored.

This is too bad. Fire Walk With Me isn’t as good as Twin Peaks — and it really is mostly just the weird stuff, rather than the show’s unique blend of the conventional and the bizarre — but it’s a compelling prequel that deals with two of Lynch’s favorite themes: the collapse of American innocence and what happens when women attempt to define themselves in a world that would rather define them on their behalf. It is, in some ways, a dry run for Lynch’s 2001 masterpiece Mulholland Drive.

In Laura Palmer, he sees a kind of sad mirror of America, and he infuses her final days on earth with a sense of gorgeous, poetic tragedy. But if you were a fan of the non -Laura Palmer aspects of the series, you might find the movie wanting, as it eschews many cast members and reduces Kyle MacLachlan’s screen time ( reportedly at his request ).

Also, David Bowie is in it.

The movie is probably best viewed by Twin Peaks obsessives, especially if they’ve never seen it. One of the few things Lynch has allowed about the upcoming Showtime miniseries is that having seen Fire Walk With Me before watching it would be a good idea.

What do we know about the new Showtime miniseries?

Surprisingly little!

We know it will be 18 episodes long. We know pretty much everybody who’s starring in it (though we don’t know who many of the new actors, like Dern and Naomi Watts , will be playing). Most of the series’ original cast — with the notable exception of Lara Flynn Boyle, who played Donna — is returning. And Lynch and Frost have reunited to bring the world of Twin Peaks back to the small screen.

But other than that, we have a handful of cryptic trailers , some even more cryptic episode descriptions , and little else. Even Showtime president David Nevins has stayed mum on what to expect, saying to reporters at a press conference, simply, “It’s the pure heroin version of David Lynch.” That either has you on the edge of your seat in anticipation or absolutely horrified.

Does Twin Peaks “hold up”?

One of the most intriguing things about the famously inscrutable and odd Twin Peaks barreling right into our current media landscape is that many of the publications discussing arts and culture right now are obsessed with “figuring out” TV shows and movies that might otherwise prefer to stay ambiguous. Even something as seemingly straightforward as the final shot of the most recent season of Master of None has had multiple posts devoted to what “really” happened in it.

And if you wanted to, you could go back to the original Twin Peaks and dissect its politics, or its cultural footprint, or its use of tropes like the Beautiful Dead Girl. You could, in other words, hold the standards of the present against something from 1990, and you might even find the series wanting in that regard. Visuals that felt striking and original in 1990 — like that red-curtained room with the black-and-white zigzag floors — have been so thoroughly subsumed into the culture that they might feel, perversely, like copycats to those just watching Twin Peaks for the first time in 2017.

But what’s beautiful about Twin Peaks , what makes it “hold up,” is that it both allows for and resists both of the above readings. Any time you think you have the series pinned down, it slips away from you. It doesn’t want to be explained so much as it wants to be experienced. Lynch often talks about how much he likes to disappear into the world of Twin Peaks , and that feeling is conveyed, beautifully, to the audience. If you can’t lose yourself in it, you’re not quite watching it right.

In rewatching it for this article, I (Emily) kept finding myself sucked in by its rhythms all over again, even in episodes I knew weren’t that great. Is it imperfect and occasionally difficult to sit through? Sure. But that only made the series more impressive to me, on the whole.

There were artistically ambitious and cinematic TV series before Twin Peaks , and there were many after as well. But what still feels most radical about the show is how it lets you bring whatever you want to it, lets you read it however you like. Whatever escape you find in it is enough, the series insists. And that open-hearted generosity of spirit is why it endures. Which leads us to...

Twin Peaks is influential, but why is it important ? Why do I need to watch it?

Here’s another remarkable thing about Twin Peaks in 2017: In its examination of the crumbling edifice of Americana and all of the myths Americans have built up around their country, the show only becomes more vital with every passing year, as America’s influence slips a little more and some Americans become more and more obsessed with holding on to a dying way of life.

Think about it. Twin Peaks itself is a dying industrial town — a logging town, no less — that just happens to be positioned at the center of some massive supernatural battle between good and evil, where evil is represented as pointless destruction and good is represented as simple, gentle kindness.

Twin Peaks a show about what’s good about the United States, while also being about the dark things the country tries to keep deeply buried, and it never once calls attention to those aspects of itself, because it tells that story through the language of dreams. After all, aren’t the myths we tell about ourselves — the perfect small town, the beautiful homecoming queen, the virtuous law enforcement official, the devil himself — just dreams we’re trying to make reality?

Twin Peaks is important in 2017 because it’s always important, but also because right now, of all times, it feels vital to examine why we believe so strongly in some of these myths and not in others.

The reason Lynch is held up as an American auteur is both that his films feel like no one else’s (to the degree that “Lynchian” is now an adjective that many spell checks won’t flag) and that his concerns are so uniquely related to the particular strengths and pathologies of America itself.

Twin Peaks , then, isn’t a mystery to be solved. It’s one to attempt to understand. And every time you plunge through another layer of mystery, still another will be waiting for you.

You can find out who killed Laura Palmer, but it will only open up more questions, because, in the end, all that any of us are trying to understand is why we’re here, what we’re doing, and where we’re going next. Television peddles certainty. Twin Peaks knows many questions are unanswerable. Embrace the mystery.

Here comes a spoiler section. Turn back if you’ve never watched the original Twin Peaks but would still like to.

Can you tell me what i need to know to watch the new series in 350 words or less.

Leaving aside that you’ll probably miss a bunch of references and stuff, the basic “plot” of Twin Peaks is this...

When beautiful homecoming queen Laura Palmer is discovered dead, wrapped in plastic, the ripples of grief from her death consume the small town of Twin Peaks. The case indirectly brings FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper to town, and he promptly begins trying to solve the murder — which may have links to a serial killer — with the help of Sheriff Harry Truman . Cooper grills the locals (including the famous, mystic Log Lady ) but also uses a weird series of investigative methods that involve consulting his dreams to crack the case.

Meanwhile, the people of Twin Peaks are dealing with Laura’s death in their own ways. These include numerous characters, but most notably Laura’s friend Donna Hayward and her classmate Audrey Horne , as well as her two love interests Bobby Briggs and James Hurley . All of these characters have families, but for the purpose of this plot summary, we’ll primarily focus on Audrey’s dad, Ben , a local business magnate, and Laura’s parents, Leland and Sarah , who seemed to have the perfect American family until they didn’t. (Oh, and Laura’s doppelgänger cousin Maddy comes to visit.)

Eventually, Laura’s killer is caught (more on this below), but it becomes more and more obvious that Twin Peaks is a nexus for some sort of supernatural war, represented by the mostly good, one-armed spirit Mike and the horrifying, murderous Bob , who was instrumental in Laura’s death.

As Cooper digs deeper, he learns of a mysterious Black Lodge in the woods, which seems to contain the Red Room (populated by the Man From Another Place — a.k.a. the dancing dwarf — and the Giant , who visit Cooper in his dreams). In the series finale, he goes there, only to find himself possessed by Bob. We’ll see you in 25 years, Laura’s spirit says. And here we are.

Who killed Laura Palmer?

You really want to know? All right.

As revealed in the second season’s seventh episode, Laura was killed by her father, Leland, who had been abusing and molesting her for years. He was under the influence of Bob, and at times seemed as if he didn’t know what he had done while possessed by the spirit. And yet Cooper points out that Bob might just be a manifestation of the evil Leland was always capable of (even though enough people have seen Bob for police to be able to make a sketch of him).

The unraveling of this case is the most horrific and strangely poignant section of all of Twin Peaks . Like the best of Lynch, it pulls apart an American myth to reveal the dark, unpredictable heart at its center. No matter their facades, people are capable of great horror and great kindness. Through the answer to this mystery, Twin Peaks expresses that as best it can.

Twin Peaks returns Sunday, May 21, at 9 pm on Showtime.

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• Twin Peaks Finale: A Theory of Cooper, Laura, Diane, and Judy

I thought  Twin Peaks: The Return  went far deeper than the original series. I wrote this prediction before the premiere about how  Twin Peaks: The Return  would function:

I expect the new season to be about “Twin Peaks”–not the town, but the show itself. The new season will wrap itself around the old show rather than continuing the plot.

Still, I was expecting The Return  to wrap up with a bit more closure than it appeared to. Even though I was sure the end result would be closer to  Inland Empire   than the original show, I thought Frost’s presence as well as the sheer task of shaping 18 hours of material would require some sort of narrative arc simply to serve as an organizing principle. And it certainly seemed that way until the elliptical and incredibly desolate final episode, which I found viscerally disturbing like nothing else in Lynch’s oeuvre. (Even the three films of his I love, Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, and  Inland Empire ,  don’t move me like that final episode did; they’re more enveloping aesthetic experiences than emotional ones.)

The Curtain Call

The creation of the all-encompassing sense of dread in the absence of any clear rationale or narrative is an awesome achievement. It’s so powerful, particularly the “love” scene between Cooper and Diane, that it demands some attempt at an explanation. This is my best surmise of the kind of submerged material Lynch built episode 18 on top of. My account was inspired by this poster’s key observation that the alternate world of episode 18 was created not by negative entity Judy, but by the White Lodge itself as a trap for Judy.  It was the first explanation that began to hint at a reason for the peculiar, overwhelming pathos of the final episode, including the uncanny and unsettling sex scene between Cooper and Diane.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Neither the Doppelganger nor BOB is the primary antagonist of the season. Judy is.
• Judy is or is represented by the Experiment monster, the Mother, horned bug symbols (Jeffries says as much), the Jumping Man, the Chalfonts/Tremonds, and Sarah Palmer.
• Gordon Cole, Garland Briggs, and Cooper have had some kind of longstanding plan to deal with Judy, in partnership with Phillip Jeffries and MIKE.
• Twin Peaks: The Return has a symmetrical structure. For example, Cooper enters catatonic Dougie-state 2.5 hours in and wakes up with 2.5 hours to go.
• Black Lodge creatures, including Judy, are attracted to pain and sorrow, a.k.a. garmonbozia, and consume it.
• Electricity is a fundamental energy, like fire.

Electricity

Here is my best guess at the plan to deal with Judy, and the terrible costs associated with it. None of this is meant to be definitive, just an approximation of something I find compelling, and perhaps an approximation of what Frost in particular had in mind before Lynch started improvising over it.

“You are far away.”

The Fireman tells Cooper in the very first scene, “It is in our house now.” The “it” is Judy and her Black Lodge denizens. The Fireman is never more serious than he is here. This is a very, very bad thing, requiring desperate measures. He then gives Cooper three reminders: 430 [miles to the crossover into the alternate reality], Richard and Linda [Cooper and Diane’s alter egos], and “Two birds with one stone” [Cooper’s plan]. The timing of this scene is ambiguous. It may take place after Cooper electrocutes himself back into sentience in episode 15, but it’s more important that Cooper  remembers  it after that point, and knows what he has to do.

The trap has three key elements:

• The Cage: a pocket dreamworld created by the White Lodge, containing Odessa, Texas and Twin Peaks
• The Lure: Cooper and Diane
• The Bomb: Laura Palmer

“It’s slippery in here.”

With Phillip Jeffries as travel agent, Cooper goes back in time to rescue Laura Palmer on the night of her death. He tells her, “We’re going home,” in a funny and not terribly reassuring tone of voice. If “home” means the home of her parents, it is about the last place Laura would want to go. In fact, “home” is the White Lodge, where Laura originated in episode 8. Cooper takes Laura to the Jackrabbit’s Palace White Lodge grove. The sound the Fireman played for Cooper is heard just as Laura Palmer disappears, screaming as she does. This signals that the White Lodge has picked her up. Cooper is not especially surprised at her disappearance. He looks up because she has been pulled  up,  as she was from the Red Room in episode 2 (with the same fluttering noise).  Up  is the direction to the White Lodge.

“We’re going home.”

Sarah, acting under the influence of Judy, is infuriated by Laura’s disappearance and tries to smash her picture, but the scene keeps rewinding and the picture is invulnerable. This reality is becoming the “unofficial version” and Laura is “saved.”

The White Lodge does “save” Laura from death at her father’s hands, but that’s not Cooper’s purpose, which is why he seems increasingly dour after leaving the sheriff’s station. Laura is being put to use in the trap for the greater good, but not for her own good. She has still suffered a terrible childhood and adolescence full of abuse.  In Fire Walk With Me,  Cooper told Laura not to take the owl cave ring because Cooper’s plan requires Laura  alive . When Leland/BOB killed Laura, it messed up the plan.

If Cooper were primarily concerned with truly saving  Laura, why didn’t he rescue her from the past  years  before the night of her death, in order to spare her so much terrible abuse? Ironically, the tragedy of Laura Palmer is that  no one wanted her to die , yet everyone caused her to suffer—the revelation of episode 18 is that her tormentors now include Cooper among them. In The Return,   “Who killed Laura Palmer?” ultimately becomes the MacGuffin Lynch and Frost originally intended it to be. The question “Who killed Laura Palmer?” led both characters and viewers astray, distracting from the more important and more compassionate question, “Who—or what—is Laura Palmer?”

The White Lodge deposits 1989 Laura into a pocket dreamworld, which I’ll just call the Cage. We already saw the White Lodge use a cage to contain Mr. C briefly; that is a hint as to the nature of this dreamworld. It shapes itself around her. Laura then stays in the Cage for 25 years, living out a mostly uneventful life as Carrie Page in Odessa, Texas.

Odessa, TX, Pop. Pylon

Laura’s subsequent life as Carrie Page appears to have been better than her childhood, judging by what little we learn of her, but there is still a dead body in her living room when Cooper shows up. The Cage is, perhaps, Laura’s dream of the life she hoped to have if she could escape her childhood. By entering the Cage, she forgets much of what happened prior to entering it.

The Cage is not Judy’s domain. It is a White Lodge creation given shape by Laura’s own dreams. The jackrabbit is the symbol of Odessa. The Fireman knew of the Cage by the time Andy took his trip into the White Lodge: he showed Andy a picture of the #6 pylon  outside Carrie Page’s house . The Fireman is conscious of the plan and an accomplice to it.

Fireman-o-vision

“Laura is the one,” but why? When the Fireman sent the golden Laura orb down to Earth in response to the Trinity nuclear test, I and others worried that this might change Laura from a fully human survivor of abuse into some sort of magical chosen one, dampening the human element of the show. I now think that Laura is special, but she is special  because of her pain .  Laura lives through a horrendously dark youth. The psychic residue left by her abuse at the hands of her father and BOB is so tremendous that Judy makes the Palmer house her base of operations, either inhabiting or possessing Sarah Palmer. BOB was a garmonbozia glutton, and Laura was an everlasting gobstopper of garmonbozia, until she died (an outcome which BOB/Leland did not want). The Black Lodge consumes garmonbozia, but cannot generate it independently.

Why would the Fireman, portrayed as a positive figure, create such a martyr figure? I suggest that Laura Palmer was meant to function as a capacitor: storing a huge accumulated charge of suffering which could then be discharged at the precise moment. Laura’s immense suffering does not make her superhuman, but it makes her uniquely capable of serving a purpose in the Trap. In the right setting, this discharge could overload the circuits of a Lodge entity and destroy it altogether. To use another apt analogy, it would be like an atomic bomb reaching critical mass. But with fissionable material as substantial as Judy, you would not want to detonate it in our universe, or else it would take most of our world with it.

Judy’s Life-force

In the language of Hawk’s map:

• Laura is the highly-concentrated pure corn (of fertility) that becomes diseased black corn (garmonbozia) through suffering.
• Black Lodge beings consume garmonbozia to generate black fire/electricity (which smells like scorched engine oil).
• Judy is the powerful mother of corrupted fertility, capable of consuming unearthly amounts of garmonbozia to feed her immense black flame.
• Given sufficient black corn (i.e., fuel), the black fire will grow, consume everything, and burn itself out, like pouring gasoline on a fire. Or an electrical circuit overloading. Or an atomic bomb reaching critical mass.

Highly concentrated, highly flammable, but still too pure

Gold is the color of garmonbozia, and of Laura’s orb. As generated by the Fireman, she is super-infused with corn—she is highly potent fuel. But Judy will not feed on good, healthy corn. Only black corn will do. Leland and BOB had to take care of that corruption. When the Fireman freezes the picture on the shot of the BOB orb emerging from Judy, it is not because he sees BOB as the central threat (though at this point in the series, the viewer is supposed to think so). It’s because  BOB is unwittingly part of the plan to defeat Judy .

“There are some things that will change.”

Meanwhile, 25 years later, in the regular universe: the Fireman diverts Mr. C from Sarah’s house (Twin Peaks’ most negative location) to the sheriff’s station (Twin Peaks’ most positive location). Mr. C sought garmonbozia and so was drawn to Sarah Palmer, but he was being set up by Jeffries and Briggs all along. His plotline isn’t crucial to the Trap, which is why his defeat came so easily with the aid of a hastily-recruited English kid with a superpowered glove. He did some damage, but Cooper-as-Dougie was untouchable due to White Lodge management. Mr. C kept BOB fed with garmonbozia after Laura’s death, but that danger was fairly minimal compared to the apocalyptic threat posed by Judy, so that Mr. C didn’t even show up on Gordon and Albert’s radar until 2016, and Gordon is fairly indifferent when Mr. C escapes from prison. (Given Ray’s status as an informant and Gordon’s connections to Phillip Jeffries, it is easily possible Gordon was in on the escape plan.) Gordon is rather Machiavellian and callous when it comes to the suffering of others. He may have gone soft on Diane’s tulpa, but he’s not soft where it counts. The anger Diane’s tulpa felt toward Gordon and the FBI is real and justified.  She’s being used by them.

When the clock locks on 2:53, it signals the completion of  this world’s story, which will soon become the “unofficial version.”  As the Log Lady said, “The glow is dying…the circle is almost complete.” 2 + 5 + 3 = 10, “the number of completion.” Diane and Cooper, who have both traveled outside of this story, move on to the final act along with Gordon, who possesses some sort of special powers himself.

2:53 Sunday, October 2

In between leaving the sheriff’s station and going to the basement of the Great Northern, Cooper, Gordon, and Diane formulate the solution to a problem with the plan. (Gordon also gives Cooper a replacement FBI pin.) Part of the plan, which involves rescuing Laura from the past, is still fine. The problem is that after being deposited in the Cage in 1989, Laura makes poor bait, because once in the Cage, she forgets her childhood, and so Judy is not lured into the Cage. That task falls to Cooper and Diane. Cooper, having already made use of Laura in the Trap, is also going to sacrifice himself and Diane to it.

Cooper takes another trip through the Red Room, similar but different from the path he took in episode two. He has crossed over into the new “official version.” The doppelgangers are gone, because they were not created in this version. More subtly, Laura is missing from the initial “Is it future or is it past?” scene with MIKE. The camera focuses on the empty chair where Laura sat in the first iteration. When we do see Laura, after Cooper speaks to the Arm, it is in fact  Cooper’s memory of the first trip . We don’t see Cooper sit down or stand up, and the whole scene is abbreviated. The Laura Red Room scene in episode 18 is a flashback prompted by the Arm, to remind Cooper of his mission. Laura herself is sealed off in the Cage, and has been for many years.

“You don’t know what it’s going to be like.”

Cooper exits via Glastonbury Grove and meets Diane in the official version. We do not hear them speaking of the plan, but we know they aren’t certain what they will find in the Cage, and that Diane is nervous, while Cooper is resolute but joyless. They drive a rickety 70s-vintage car because they do expect to find a world stuck in 1989 or even earlier, because they will be entering Laura’s dreamworld. They enter a mysterious, empty world, and arrive at a motel with 80s-era fixtures: a rotary phone, CRT television, and old-fashioned locks. They check in and have disturbing, passionless sex.

“Turn off the light.”

This is where a symmetry with episode 1 comes in. I take the Experiment to be either Judy or an avatar of Judy. Sam and Tracey appeared to draw the Experiment to them by having sex (sex is almost always bad in Lynch films), whereupon the Experiment brutally slaughtered them at the height of their fear. Diane and Cooper now reenact this summoning ritual in order to draw Judy into the Cage. They both know this is the plan; while they both care for and love each other, this act of sex is anything but an act of love.  Both are joyless. Cooper is dispassionate throughout, but remains focused on Diane with an expression of restrained concern. Diane tries to be affectionate but collapses into terror and tears, covering Cooper’s face and staring up at the ceiling.

None of this is unexpected to them. This was the plan all along. The suffering that Diane (and to a lesser extent Cooper) endures is a product of her having sex with the man who raped her. She knows it is going to be a traumatic experience: she sees her double outside of the motel because she is already dissociating at the prospect of having to sleep with Cooper, even though he’s not  that  Cooper. Cooper tells her to turn out the light in the hopes of sparing her some of the trauma, but it’s an empty gesture. He is guilt-ridden with the sins of his doppelganger. Their trauma helps lure Judy, but it is also what keeps them alive. Sam and Tracey were killed because they weren’t generating enough garmonbozia, so the Experiment mauled them to death to feast on their terror. But like Laura, good garmonbozia generators are worth keeping alive, so Judy does not kill Diane and Cooper. She enters the Cage to the tune of the Platters’ “My Prayer,” which also heralded Judy’s arrival by way of frog-bug in episode 8, but she leaves Diane and Cooper alive—or at least Cooper.

The disturbing nature of Diane and Cooper’s sex stems, ultimately, from two people violating every instinct of humanity, compassion, and love they possess in pursuit of an abstract greater good. In particular it stems from Cooper using  Diane—with her consent, admittedly—as a means to an end in a brutally inhumane fashion. Cooper rarely had to choose between duty and instinct prior to now; they always pointed him in the same direction. Now they are completely incompatible.

The unnerving, pervasive desolation of this Cage dreamworld is a product of its being shaped by (a) Laura’s own traumatic history, (b) Judy’s malevolent influence, and (c) Cooper and (to a lesser extent) Diane’s horror at the task they are undertaking.  Nothing  good will come of anything in the Cage dreamworld. Any beneficial effects will be to the other world, which is of little emotional comfort to the people now stuck in the Cage. But the oppressive desolation may only add to the combustibility of the Laura-Judy garmonbozia megabomb.

Richard and Linda

The dreamworld is remade overnight due to some combination of (a) Judy’s presence, (b) Cooper and Diane’s presence, and (c) the Cage being shut. The world outside updates itself to the present-day, including Cooper’s car. Andreas Schou points out that Cooper’s car turns into the identical model that Mr. C was driving in episode 3 during his 2:53 car crash, indicating the assertion of the darker side of Cooper’s personality as well as Judy’s increasing influence over the Cage.

Cooper and Diane’s lives are rewritten as Richard and Linda’s. They are still the same souls, but their memories have been smeared and corrupted, as Carrie Page’s have been. Diane dissolves into Linda and leaves Richard, not knowing exactly what has going wrong but knowing she cannot face Richard anymore. (It is possible, on the other hand, that Judy simply consumed her, as Diane’s suffering was far greater than Cooper’s.) Cooper, who has a stronger will than Diane or Laura, hangs on to his past self, but when he reads the letter he knows he has sacrificed the person he cares for most in the world, Diane, to his plan. Diane may have been a willing accomplice, but the responsibility ultimately falls to him, and he is devastated. None of them were going to get out of the Cage alive, but Cooper is still devastated by Diane’s trauma and disappearance. He is very nearly broken by it, unable to enjoy coffee and closer to letting his dark side out than he ever has been before. The events of the first two seasons were child’s play next to this.

Once in the Cage, Judy takes up residence in a familiar place of pain: the Palmer residence in Twin Peaks. That’s unlikely to be the extent of her influence. She leaves white horse totems outside the diner and inside Carrie’s house. Judy may recognize Carrie as Laura, or at least as a rich supply of garmonbozia. Perhaps she leaves the #6 electrical pylon in place next to Carrie’s house to harvest garmonbozia, just as it harvested garmonbozia from the dead boy in episode 6. Perhaps it’s already siphoning a bit of garmonbozia as a result of the dead body in Carrie’s living room. Perhaps the events of Carrie’s last three days off work are a result of Judy’s malevolent influence newly suffusing the Cage.

Two familiar friends outside the new motel: the Evolution of the Arm and the Fireman (echoing the White Lodge’s standing lamps).

Exiting from a different motel than the one he checked into, Cooper remembers his task and joylessly goes about it, though he starts to lose track of himself. He focuses his mind on a single task: bring Laura to Sarah Palmer (who is Judy). He knows that Carrie Page needs to remember her horrible life as Laura in order for her to function as a bomb. She doesn’t. He still sees the Cage to be unreal, so he ignores the dead man in her living room, and is fairly callous with the people at the restaurant. They drive down very dark highways to Twin Peaks. Who knows how much of the rest of the world is even filled in? The world is not just disenchanted but empty: when they stop at the Valero gas station, there is no traffic at all until they start the car to drive again. The world only seems to exist immediately around them.

A totem of Judy’s presence

Some familiar things remain in the Cage. Twin Peaks will exist because it remains in Laura’s memory. They pass by the RR diner, which no longer has the RR2GO sign because neither Laura nor Cooper had any knowledge of it. Cooper  thinks  that Sarah Palmer will be living in the Palmer house and that Sarah will shock her into remembering. When they get to the Palmer house, he’s baffled that there is no record of the Palmers living there. Who else  could  be living there, if this world was shaped by Laura? The answer is Judy.  The names Tremond and Chalfont stir vague memories in him, but the Cage is confusing him as well. He may well have forgotten about Diane by this point. Judy’s influence may be corrupting things as well. The Cage has been closed to make certain Judy cannot escape.

“I’m Special Agent Dale Cooper. What is your name?”

Cooper paces, confused, trying to hold on to his thoughts. “What year is this?” he asks, as one might ask one’s self in a dream. This stirs something in Laura, some knowledge of the Cage’s unreality, and it is enough so that Judy calls out to her in Sarah’s voice. At this point, Laura  does  remember, and she knows what she needs to do as well.  It is possible that she has full knowledge of her role in the Trap. The collective weight of her past returns and she lets out a tremendous, violent shriek, discharging all her suffering within the confines of the Cage. The bomb explodes.

Discharge and detonation

The lights in the Palmer house overload and blow out. The electricity stops. The screen goes black and the scream dissolves into an echo and fades away. Judy is destroyed along with everything else in the Cage. The plan worked. “It” entered our house at the very beginning of episode 1 and exited at the very end of episode 18. The daughter’s trauma, caused by her father, destroys her mother.

Not coincidentally, Laura, Cooper, and Sarah Palmer are the three characters who have seen the white horse.  The Log Lady said, “Woe to the ones who behold the pale horse.” All three are destroyed in the blast.

Power surge

Meanwhile: Leland, possessed by BOB, went on doing his thing after Laura disappeared off the face of the planet the night she was supposed to have died. Gordon remembers “the unofficial version” where Laura died, but he knows it was the right call and is not too bothered. Most of Twin Peaks:  Fire Walk With Me happened. Most everything else didn’t—which has implications for a lot of what happened in  The Return . Mr. C and Richard Horne never existed in the “official version”…but neither did Douglas Jones (in any of his three incarnations) or Sonny Jim, the son who needed a sunny gym. Cooper sacrifices not only his own self and his true confidante Diane, but also his two children. The Oz-like fairy tale of Las Vegas and the noir nightmare of Buckhorn become the unofficial “dreams” of their respective Coopers.

The fairy tale

The fairy tale “wins” out over the noir in episode 17 (the previously untouchable Hutch and Chantal die easily as soon as they enter Dougie’s sphere of influence), but the resulting world “loses” out to the remade “official version” in which none of it happened. This hauntingly evokes Franz Kafka’s parable, “On Parables”:

A man once said: If you only followed the parables you yourselves would become parables and with that rid yourself of all your daily cares. Another said: I bet that is also a parable. The first said: You have won. The second said: But unfortunately only in parable. The first said: No, in reality: in parable you have lost.

In reality, Cooper wins—but he is no longer part of reality. He became a parable. He joins the ranks of Philip Jeffries and Chet Desmond, more legend than reality.

(This rewriting of history, however, may set up a Mobius-strip time loop in which the two versions oscillate, but I find that much less interesting than the horrible compromise Cooper has to make to make the Trap work, and what it does to our conception of his character, and particularly the impossibility  of his character.)

And that leaves two speculations. First, the stone was Laura Palmer, and the two birds were Judy and BOB. (Cooper only hit one bird, since BOB was only wiped out in the “unofficial version.”) Second, Laura’s spirit (not necessarily Laura herself) whispered something like this to Cooper in episode 2: “You will use Diane and me to lure Judy into a trap where we will all die.” Or, “We are the dreamers who will die in our dream.” Or maybe something as simple as, “You will kill me.” In keeping with the symmetrical shape of  The Return , Laura whispers to Cooper 80 minutes in, while Cooper “saves” Laura with 80 minutes remaining.

One last thought: anyone who could come up with such a cruel plan, no matter how beneficial, must have a very serious dark side. Cooper lost this dark side when his doppelganger was created in the Black Lodge. His soul was, if not annihilated, at least dis-integrated. Cooper’s shadow self was reintegrated with him the moment the doppelganger burned. Cooper  needed  his shadow self because of the darkness of his task. Dougie-level goodness alone is not sufficient to defeat Judy. I believe, in fact, that the controlled possession of his shadow self was necessary for him to open the curtain out of the Black Lodge that he was blocked from exiting in episode 2.

Integrated souls only.

With his doppelganger on the loose, he could not exit the Black Lodge via Glastonbury Grove, only through a bizarre White Lodge bypass mechanism operated by Naido. He bounced off the curtain. In episode 18, he easily opens it with a wave of his hand. With the doppelganger re-integrated into his self (and perhaps with a bit of his Dougie-ness lost), he is now a master of the Black Lodge  and  the White Lodge. (All references to doppelgangers are absent during his second trip through the Red Rooms.) But with his shadow self comes the heavy weight of guilt and sin that pervades Cooper throughout the final episode. He carries his doppelganger’s crimes with him, so that they too may cruelly serve the greater good.

“Meanwhile.”

UPDATE (9/8/2017):  I appreciate all the great feedback below. I tried to restrict my thoughts to what I thought were the central puzzles around the ending, but here are a few other stabs at other pieces. I’m less certain on all of these, but I also think that their resolution is less critical to the coherence of  The Return . For all its visceral impact, the finale felt incomplete to me in the absence of some greater explanation, and so I was driven to seek one. I hope there will continue to be other attempts to explain the whole story, all its twists and turns.

Audrey:  Many have pointed out parallels between Audrey’s situation and the Cage’s dreamworld (which, in Charlie and the Arm’s terminology, would be Audrey and Laura/Carrie’s “stories”). One significant parallel is the retro furnishings: like the first iteration of the motel, Audrey’s house has a rotary phone and nothing I could see that’s more recent than the 1980s, if even then. This suggests she too is in some kind of isolated dreamworld, though probably not the Cage. Perhaps Mr. C stashed her there sometime after Richard grew up (Ben says Richard never had a father, but not that he never had a mother), or perhaps the trauma of raising Black Lodge baby Richard had enough of an effect to send her there. Audrey and Laura both become generic “little girls who live down the lane,” though Audrey struggles against this new story until she finally breaks through.

But when she wakes up, where is she? Lynch’s use of a totally white background is, as far as I know, unprecedented for him, which makes me hesitant to guess, but her clothes do make it look like she is in an institution. The “reality” of the Roadhouse is liminal; it’s the one location that seems to stand in between all the worlds of the show, so the Roadhouse may allow her to transition back to some other world. (The sound of electricity in the background does match up with other instances of cross-world travel.) Maybe she’s awakening from catatonia? I haven’t found enough clues to justify a particular interpretation of her awakening. The uniqueness of the all-white background may indicate that her fate is unknown or open-ended. ( Update : Mark Frost’s  Final Dossier states that she ended up in a private mental care facility.)

Mr. C:  Mr. C asks Jeffries  who  Judy is, but he does know  what  Judy is—the entity of evil on the Ace of Spades. He wants Jeffries to tell him  who  Judy is  now,  and asks if Judy wants something from him. By this point he is suspicious of Jeffries (who tried to have him killed) and may be playing dumb as well. He may be wondering if Judy wants BOB  from him, as BOB is her child, and it’s implied Mr. C would rather not give him up. Or maybe he is trying to return BOB to his mother in exchange for something, and he is inquiring to find out whether Judy is interested. Mr. C’s ultimate plans with Judy remain unclear to me—I suspect it involves the annihilation of the good Cooper so that he can live out his days with his Woodsmen entourage—but he does want to find her. But due to the combined efforts of Jeffries and the Fireman, he is diverted from being delivered to Judy at Sarah Palmer’s house and instead ends up at the sheriff’s station, where the forces of good are arrayed against him and easily defeat him.

Jay Rubenstein raises the intriguing possibility that Mr. C was the one to formulate the original Judy plan with Briggs, which he then took to Gordon after killing Briggs. The timing on this is plausible, though it requires Gordon not to have recognized anything wrong with Mr. C. In this event, the plan was flawed from the start since Mr. C surely had bad intentions, and it took the intervention of the Fireman, Briggs, Diane, and Cooper in order to set the plan aright while Gordon and Jeffries remained in the dark. If so, Mr. C’s phone call in episode 2 could indeed be from Jeffries, but a Jeffries who has finally figured out that Mr. C is not Cooper—hence Mr. C’s surprise and his attempts to ingratiate himself with Gordon while in Yankton prison.

MIKE:  MIKE’s motivations were muddled even before  The Return . The one constant is that he always opposes BOB, but in  Fire Walk WIth Me,  MIKE appears far less altruistic, fighting BOB because he wants garmonbozia rather than out of the goodness of his heart. In  The Return , he seems far more benign and takes orders from Cooper, but this may also be out of necessity, self-interest, or a desire to preserve the status quo. But why did MIKE give Laura the ring? I think there is an answer that works within the scope of  Fire Walk With Me , which is that the ring would take Laura (and her garmonbozia) away from BOB and bring her to the Black Lodge, where MIKE resides. MIKE was not in on any greater plan at that time, and from his perspective BOB was the biggest problem.

Had Laura not taken the ring, she would have been possessed by BOB, and perhaps  she  would have eventually served as a host for Judy (as Laura is highly fertile with corn, and thus a far better mother candidate than Sarah). Maybe this was the original plan: after Judy possessed Laura, she could be easily recalled to the White Lodge, contained, and detonated somewhere safely. Laura’s death solves the Black Lodge’s BOB problem, but by the time of The Return , Judy is a much bigger problem for everyone—from the perspective of the Black Lodge, she’s a garmonbozia robber baron. This is highly speculative, however, and I’m skeptical of attempts to reconcile  Fire Walk With Me  too closely with  The Return , because MIKE’s apparent character changes so drastically.

Girl (1956):  I agree with the common sentiment that if any character we’ve seen is the 1956 girl, it’s Sarah Palmer. The timing matches up, but some other corroborating evidence would be nice. ( Update:  Mark Frost’s  Final Dossier  confirms that it’s Sarah Palmer.) But what’s also interesting is  why  the girl is picked out by Judy’s frogbug. My sense is that she is chosen because of the combination of sexual excitement and shame she is feeling, and the link of those feelings to garmonbozia. The shame stems not only from allowing the boy to kiss her, but also because the boy is not white: both factors which would have caused anxiety in many a fair-skinned 1950s teenage girl.

Red:  I have no idea what is up with Red. Sara Tomko and Filippo Malatesti suggest he may be Mrs. Chalfont/Tremond’s magician grandson. Perhaps his question about a singular hand (not hands) is his way of telling Richard to examine his spiritual finger on his left hand? Richard is a horrible human being, but he was doomed to be that way from conception. ( Update : in light of the following comments on the diary, I now think the case for his being Tremond’s grandson is quite strong.)

“Have you ever studied your hand?”

Appendix: The Cage and the (Carrie) Page

“I leaned over and whispered the secret in his ear.”

After a good deal of reflection, I’m now convinced that Laura Palmer’s diary is considerably more central to The Return than it initially appears. I believe the diary is the Cage.

Consider the following:

• The focus on the missing pages of the diary, by the Log Lady herself no less.
• Hawk’s conspicuous statement that only three out of four missing pages are located, and that Leland surely hid them.
• The diary passed through the hands of Mrs. Tremond and her grandson, both strongly identified with Judy.
• The impossibly tangled chronology of the diary.
• The Tremond/Chalfont connection at the Palmer house in the final scene.
• Carrie Page’s surname.

There is no hint given as to the contents of the missing page. But I think we’ve already been given it. It’s the page Donna got from the “fake” Mrs. Tremond in the original series (ep 2.9):

February 22nd. Last night I had the strangest dream. I was in a red room with a small man dressed in red and an old man sitting in a chair. I tried to talk to him. I wanted to tell him who BOB is because I thought he could help me. But my words came out slow and odd. It was frustrating trying to talk. I got up and walked to the old man. Then I leaned over and whispered the secret in his ear. Somebody has to stop BOB. BOB’s only afraid of one man, he told me once. A man named Mike. I wonder if this was Mike in my dream. Even if it was only a dream, I hope he heard me. No one in the real world would believe me. February 23. Tonight is the night that I die. I know I have to because it’s the only way to keep Bob away from me. The only way to tear him out from inside. I know he wants me. I can feel his fire. But if I die he can’t hurt me anymore.

This is the last page of the diary. Leland didn’t take it. Harold Smith ripped out this last page and sealed it in an envelope, while mutilating the rest of the diary. How it got into Mrs. Tremond’s mailbox is quite a mystery, since Harold was an agoraphobic shut-in. Mrs. Tremond sent Donna to Harold in the first place, so we can surmise that she played a large part in engineering that entire sequence of events, including Harold’s suicide, and I suspect Harold was in thrall to the Black Lodge to some great extent. As to why the page was passed on to Donna, I’m not certain: perhaps it was a trap for Cooper (in which case it worked).

Chateau Tremond

The time sequence in Fire Walk With Me goes something like this:

• Feb 16: Laura finds at least two pages missing (two loud tearing sounds), gives diary to Harold, saying BOB took them. “You made me write it all down. He doesn’t know about you.”
• Feb 17: Tremond/Chalfont gives Laura the red wallpaper painting that acts as gateway to Red Room. (Note: same wallpaper as in Dutchman staircase room in The Return.)
• Feb 17: Tremond/Chalfont’s grandson (dressed as Jumping Man) tells Laura that “man behind the mask” is looking for “the book with the pages torn out.”
• Feb 17: Laura has ring dream with Annie, writes page about Good Cooper being trapped in the Lodge.
• Feb 21: Laura has Red Room dream (ep 2.9)
• Feb 22: Laura writes final page above about Cooper Red Room dream (ep 2.9).
• Feb 23: Laura writes remainder of final page about how she’s going to die (ep 2.9).
• Feb 23: Leland kills Laura, with the torn pages in his possession. (Harold still has remainder of diary.)

Even within Fire Walk With Me , the chronology is so muddled as to be incoherent, requiring Leland to have torn out pages that Laura only wrote after giving the diary away because she found those same pages torn out. Tremond’s statement on its own is paradoxical: the man behind the mask (BOB) is looking for the book which he himself already found and tore the pages out of. I don’t think there is a resolution per se to this confusion. Rather, I just want to use it to point out that the diary is special and temporally abnormal, especially after it falls into the Black Lodge’s hands. This doesn’t mean there are multiple realities. There is only one official reality and only one Laura Palmer. It just means that the diary is closer to the Red Room and the Black Lodge than it is to “reality.”

But it’s that final page (and specifically the February 22 entry) which is most important, since it contains the central scene of Twin Peaks : Laura “Full of Secrets” Palmer whispering a secret to an older Cooper in the Red Room. Not only is it the first and only interaction Cooper and Laura ever properly have prior to the end of The Return, but it also describes the final image of The Return : the credits roll over the shot of the older Laura whispering to the older Cooper.

The Red Room is central enough to the entire show that a diary page describing it is serious business. And it is anachronistic and temporally stretched: is it future or is it past? When Mike asks that question, it’s to say, “Is this dream right now future or is it past?” Even after Cooper changes the past, that dream remains , except that Laura (and the doppelgangers) are no longer in the dream.

The Whole Sick Black Lodge Crew

(I have been tempted by the theory that the mysterious sound that the Fireman plays for Cooper, and which is heard immediately prior to Laura’s disappearance after Cooper “rescues” her in the past, is the sound of Laura unlocking her diary in Fire Walk With Me . Unfortunately, it’s not the secret diary, which has no lock. It’s her datebook where she stashes cocaine.)

After Cooper changes the past by “rescuing” Laura, the Black Lodge is in possession of the diary. Leland has three of the pages, but Judy could presumably recover these rather easily. That diary, as a chronicle of Laura’s trauma and abuse, is the most significant indicator remaining of Laura’s pain. It’s probably glowing with garmonbozia. Laura, however, is gone.

As for the fourth page, it was never removed, but bear in mind, the dream has changed . Regardless of causality, Laura is no longer in the Red Room dream in the new version, future or past . There’s no way she can write about it at any point in time. Leland says “Find Laura” because Laura is gone  from the entire scope of the Red Room experience.

We saw her being removed. Laura’s first appearance in The Return,  after she re-enacts the kiss and whisper with Cooper, ends with her being pulled up and somewhat to the right, as she screams. This is followed by a vision of Judy’s white horse, previously seen exclusively by Sarah Palmer. Laura and the white horse are only finally united in Odessa in the final episode. Now, this is my interpretation, but the jagged direction of Laura’s movement is not unlike a page being torn out of a book.

Laura being ripped from the Red Room.

Her scream, again, is identical to the one given when she disappears after being “rescued” by Dale, accompanied by the Fireman’s gramophone sound. So I propose that what Cooper does over the course of The Return, with the assistance of MIKE and the Fireman, is rip Laura Palmer from the story of Twin Peaks, and more specifically from the Red Room. Through unspecified White Lodge machinations, Laura then becomes Carrie Page, the missing “page” of this chronologically screwed-up diary. Disconnected temporally and causally from the conventional world, the diary becomes sufficiently isolated (sufficiently “secret,” if you will) to serve as the Cage. (Perhaps the diary, too, is pulled from “reality” along with Laura.) All that’s left is to lure Judy into it.

The final episode, like the diary, is temporally unmoored. Cooper and Diane serve as the catalyst to summon Judy and detonate the garmonbozia mega-bomb within the pocket world of the diary. As Carrie Page, Laura is the dreamer who lives inside the dream she wrote in her own diary. There were many dreamers over the course of the series, frequently sharing each other’s dreams: Dale Cooper, Phillip Jeffries, Gordon Cole, Audrey Horne, William Hastings, Bradley Mitchum, and others. But ultimately, the dreamer who matters the most is Laura, and her dreams and her diary possess the same nature. Laura is the one.

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7 September 2017 at 18:06

Amazing you have had the imagination to think this complicated plot to this conclusion. I have enjoyed it immensely. I had no idea this was even a possibility until I read your theory. Will have to go back and see this through another set of eyes. Cheers

7 September 2017 at 19:50

This is one of the best analyses I’ve seen so far for the finale. It’s not the same conclusion I ended up coming to, but I like yours as well. I especially like that you hit on and emphasized the cyclical pattern repetition found throughout The Return.

7 September 2017 at 20:11

A lifetime of reading Gene Wolfe prepared David for this moment.

7 September 2017 at 21:26

I personally disagree with your theory. There’s no indication Judy has been destroyed. ( That’s an incredible leap of faith from the symbolism of lights going out.) There’s also no indication that the people surrounding Cooper and Laura aren’t “real” people. (Cooper doesn’t care about them because he’s starting to act more like Mr. C, not because they aren’t real)

That said it was a very creative interpretation and the show probably defies any definitive interpretation.

7 September 2017 at 22:19

This is very suggestive and perceptive, and I think that seeing Odessa as a cage-reality is excellent and persuasive. However, it just doesn’t seem likely that Carrie is surrounded by symbols of Judy/Black Lodge/evil unless she were put in that environment by them. On the other hand, I don’t understand Cooper taking her to the Palmer household unless that was some part of the plan given to him by the Giant. So I’m still at a loss. I do agree with the previous poster, too, that in this show, good things are usually shown to us as good (with a golden orb, for example), and bad things are shown to us as bad (with creepy music/symbolism). Much as I would like to see a good ending in the finale, I just think that if that’s how it was, it would be a lot more obvious than what certainly seems like a shriek of terror. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s not possible, just that I’m not convinced that it’s the most likely explanation. Cool, though!

7 September 2017 at 23:13

This is the most comprehensive response to the conclusion I have read thus far, and so I applaud you. I still have many unanswered questions concerning Audrey, MIKE, etc. but this creative analysis helps shine a light on possibilities I had not thought of myself. I prefer this to the “Judy wins,” theories floating around.

7 September 2017 at 23:23

Agreed – very creative but I just don’t see a positive, victorious read of the ending. Film is an emotional medium above all – yes, even for the surrealist Lynch, he has said as much – and there’s not “good” going on there.

8 September 2017 at 00:49

Very nice analysis, but in my opinion you’re potentially missing some key points. One is that the noise in the White Lodge in the beginning is more likely the sound of Judy, not the sound of the White Lodge. Likewise, it’s probably Judy who plucks Laura up in 1989. My suspicion is that The White Lodge didn’t create the Odessa reality, but knew that it was where Laura would “land”. Similarly, I think Odessa is closer to “our” reality and the end sequence might symbolize Laura waking up, which wouldn’t destroy Judy but outmaneuver her. Lastly, I’ve read a theory that it’s doppelganger Coop who’s in the motel with Diane and I think this theory holds a lot of weight when you really think about it.

8 September 2017 at 01:04

Brilliant interpretation Agent Auerbach! This definitely narrows it down for me.

8 September 2017 at 01:28

I really really liked this theory. Kudos for catching the symmetries in the timeline.

8 September 2017 at 03:10

C[arrie P]age!

8 September 2017 at 03:39

Sheer brilliance! I feel as if you threw me a lifevest just as I was going under! Thank you!

8 September 2017 at 04:10

A very insightful analysis! Do you have any thoughts on the creature that enters the young girl in the 1950s? Is it Judy taking hold of Sarah, as many surmised?

That was just brilliant mate!

8 September 2017 at 04:39

By far the most complete and consistent theory I’ve heard. Very impressive!

8 September 2017 at 05:18

Great work. Fascinating.

8 September 2017 at 06:12

“However, it just doesn’t seem likely that Carrie is surrounded by symbols of Judy/Black Lodge/evil unless she were put in that environment by them.”

But it gets more likely if you think of them as “leading symbols” placed by the White Lodge in order to help Cooper and show him he’s on the right track. After all, how could Cooper find so easily the Odessa-Laura in a reality he doesn’t know well? He certainly needed some clues; matter of fact, after he leaves the motel, he’s driving but he looks hesitant about his destination. When he finally spots the Judy’s Diner, he knows he has to go there to track down Laura.

8 September 2017 at 06:48

This is incredible work. Thank you.

Do you take requests? I’m interested in theories on the original Dougie, the overweight one in the green suit: how did he come about? And how did he end up with Dianne’s half-sister? Did Dianne’s doppelgänger engineer it?

8 September 2017 at 07:13

This is an impressive reconstruction, I’m with you on more than one point, althought I’d disagree on several ones. In spite of this, I’m still speculating a bit on the question’s side, rather than on the answers’..

I agree that he’s rescuing Laura from the murder’s night, by walking her to the White Lodge (her “original” home), but I’m not sure of what really happens to her.. we hear both the sound the Giants pointed at, in their first conversation (“Agent Cooper, listen to the sound”), followed by a bloody curling scream.

Moreover, and apart from this, I would associate the Black Corn to Mr.C, instead of Laura, since when fire it’s consuming him at the beginning of the 18th episode, it’s spreading out black smoke.. I don’t know if this is philologically correct or coherent with the Twin Peaks universe (I admit.. I’ve really learnt little of it), but iirc that is what Hawks and Truman were talking about.

I beg you pardon again, but you didn’t notice or missed to report that also Mr.C was looking for Judy. Indeed.. thinking carefully about it, this is what he WANTS, as he told Daryia before killing her. Moreover, for most of the story he’s blindly following or looking for coordinates to a place (or “the place”), but little more. He wasn’t even headed to the White Lodge, nor to the Sheriff Station (“what place is this?”), so.. were the coordinates a mean to mislead his pursuit? Are we sure that his story comes to an end in the Black Lodge? Anyway, the Cooper who walks out of the Black Lodge is clearly another person, even Diane hesitate in recognizing him a second time (or is she tricked again?). Then they actually reach a place near the high tension towers, at 430 miles, full of electricity, which he *senses* to be correct. What are his intentions at this point?

The sex scene sadly speaks for itself.. and more importantly he looks bewildered when he reads of “Richard and Linda” in the message, like he’s forgot what the Giant said him. The rest of the events really feel like a disgregating dream, with him posing one question after another without any kind of resolution or like he was the ghost of himself. Could be the hartbreak with Diane?

Temporarly, I agree with you again, it’s highly probable we’re in the past.. the furniture, the RR, the car.. speaking of the car, who’s the car following him and Carrie on the road to Twin Peaks?

I don’t have an answer as well for the last minutes. For the moment I’m just ok with a metalinguistic interpretation, which can be independent from the story’s events flow, with the characters of the show that collapsed into our world, which makes it the most exciting, yet terrifing finale at the same time.

8 September 2017 at 08:31

This is a brilliant theory and I will not be able to see it any other way from now on. My only hope is that the others we see in Twin Peaks, WA existed and had similar lives. No Coop would certainly change Audrey’s life…

8 September 2017 at 09:08

Problem: DobbleCoop/MrC didn’t know who or what Judy is, hence why he kept asking Jefferies at the Dutchman’s. Yet Mr C is the dark self of Cooper, so should already know all about Judy (via memory inheritance/recall) as according to Cole he, Cooper and Briggs were orchestrating a plan to combat Judy. This suggests Cooper knew/knows all about ‘Judy’ yet his doubleganger doesn’t, despite being able to recall Cooper’s past memories.

My original take on Jefferies flipping out at Copper and refusing to talk about Judy whilst Cooper was there was because Jeffries knew Cooper’s fate and didn’t want his evil double know about Judy.

MrC was looking for Mother/Experiment yet seemed confused about this Judy. This seems to be a big disconnect.

8 September 2017 at 09:22

Also note at the gas station on the way to the Motel, the same car passes twice on the left of the road, not on the right. As a Brit I overlooked this until I remembered drivers in the US drive on the right not the left as the footage was showing….

I also believe the telegraph poles are very important. In my opinion they’re all the same telegraph pole (same seiral numbers, and of course 3 x 6) but in three different realties. One outside Carrie’s house in Odessa (as also shown to Andy), One in the Fat Trout in Deer Meadow (Carl Rod, Chalfonts/Tremmonds, Chet Dresmond dissappearing) and one in or near Twin Peaks (junction of the boy getting run over and Mike and Leland’s confrontation in Fire Walk with Me) Carl Rod again witnessing this nearby. This could also explain their different physical variations.

If this is true we have to consider that at least three different realties/timelines are running in synchronicity, but not necessarily in sequence to the audience.

8 September 2017 at 10:12

Great! I agree with Your explanation but I feel Your theory didn’t put enough attention on Audrey storyline (mostly because of what the Arm told Coop: «Is this the story of the little girl who lived down the lane? Is it?» that is also what Audrey asks of Charlie when he threatens to end her story) and on the fact that the house owners names are Tremond/Chalfont….

Then, for reaching perfection, You should tie this theory with the mysterious things happened in FWWM, like the disappearance/appearance of Chester Desmond and Phillip Jeffreis.

P.S.: what you think about my theory about Red being the older Mrs. Tremond’s Grandson? They both do magic tricks…..

8 September 2017 at 12:33

It’s all very credible. Apart from one thing. If pain and suffering is what keeps ppl alive (so to speak) why was Hastings killed? Apart from Laura and Leland he seemed to me to be one of the most tortured souls in that reality.

8 September 2017 at 12:58

That car in which Cooper and Diane drove through the desert landscape and through the 430 portal looks to me more like 1960 or older, with its bench seats, no seat belts, oversize steering wheel and shift on the steering column. If so, it is possible that they actually drove through a portal and into not Texas but New Mexico or at least within radio range on the very night of the “got a light” event; that we heard the Platters song not twice but once, and that the young girl was entered by that bug thing at the same time as Cooper and Diane were similarly entranced in the motel room (after the camera left them). The next morning, Cooper, now alone, awakens in the present. We next see him entering Odessa but how far did he drive before he got there?

The Chalfont- Tremond team are known by us to be lodge spirits, magicians, shape-shifters, tricksters. They were out to capture Laura earlier, with that painting for example. The woman we saw at the door was Mrs. Chalfont again. I think it’s likely that when Cooper and Laura appeared at the front door, quick action was taken inside that house; that the sound of Sarah’s voice may have been part of their plan, and some sort of confrontation did take place but I am not so sure what the plan was, on either side. The sudden shutdown and then seeming disappearance of the house as Laura began to scream seemed to me to be a Mayday operation, as the house and all its inmates disappeared Tardis-like, or maybe Rocky-horror-like. Laura unbeknownst to herself is not an ordinary mortal but is a being of great power, and is the only person who can confront the lodge spirits and prevail. The confrontation between BOB and Laura in FWWM if I understood it was: Bob wants to possess Laura and her power, but if he cannot possess her than he must kill her. She slips on the ring, he can not possess her, so he kills her. It really is chess, isn’t it? BOB was a major piece, now gone from the board, but the game is not over yet.

Cooper and Laura may be gone for good. Or they may be temporarily or permanently stranded in some alternate reality. Diane may be waiting for Cooper, as Diane, outside the pocket-reality, expecting him to get out eventually. Laura is probably in some basic way un-killable though perhaps immortal only within the lodge. Cooper is a man, a good man, who has had the hubris to become involved with the immortals. A hero-quest indeed!

8 September 2017 at 13:08

I have wondered whether Carl Rodd could be an avatar of the Giant, like the old waiter, dispensing kindness in humble ways. That odd reverie in FWWM when he said that he has been places, and now just wants to stay where he is…

8 September 2017 at 13:19

This. is. FANTASTIC.

There’s only one really major hiccup I can think of, off the top: if Coop doesn’t want Laura to take the ring, and Coop and MIKE are in on the same plan, why does MIKE bring the ring to Laura in FWWM?

Prior to The Return, FWWM establishes the ring as almost solely associated with MIKE. My reading was always that by giving Laura the ring, MIKE was binding her garmonbozia to him (“With this ring I thee wed” says the Arm to BOB”)—such that BOB can no longer accomplish his previously stated desire of inhabiting Laura as he had done with Leland, causing him to murder her instead. (After she puts on the ring, Leland screams, “Don’t make me do this!”)

Then Leland is brought to the Lodge full of blood, and MIKE and the Arm speak as one to BOB: “I want my garmonbozia.” BOB responds by casting the blood to the floor, and we see the Arm eating creamed corn in extreme close-up.

I realize it’s likely (almost certain) that The Return’s mythology was not yet conceived during the making of FWWM, and that it is being retroactively laid over by Lynch and Frost—but I can’t help thinking that this throws a notable wrench into this fascinating, otherwise startlingly consistent interpretation.

8 September 2017 at 13:44

This was a great read. Thank you.

8 September 2017 at 14:04

For a die-hard TP fan trying to make sense out of the Return, this was really useful. Thank you!

8 September 2017 at 14:05

Ya cracked it. You got every little thing that bugged the heck out of me but I wasn’t quite quick enough to piece together. I would like to hear your continuing analysis as you work through it bc I bet there’s more turning around in that rock-tumbler brain of yours.

8 September 2017 at 14:09

So you think Coop and Diane heard the “drink deep and descend” chant over the radio? I like it!

8 September 2017 at 14:23

PRARIE CAGE (Odessa’s known for Jackalope taxidermy, who only mate during lightening storms; who – as rabbits – have occult ties to the worlds above and below, and witches; the myth of which is based on a virus that causes horn-like protrusions that look like black corn; the inverse of which is Adesso, “Now” in Italian.)

8 September 2017 at 14:26

Really good. Never thought to put so much emphasis on the cage. But I hope Judy is dead. Your theory makes sense to me she is now Thank God. The Giant. The White Lodge and it’s players.

8 September 2017 at 14:33

Oh my gods! Is Lynch a Gene Wolfe fan? One of my very favorite authors!

8 September 2017 at 14:37

Let us all now sit and marvel that the creation under discussion is entitled “Twin Peaks”. Like most of Lynch’s oeuvre, it has always been about the dilemma, the nightmare, the predicament, even the opportunity of Duality.

8 September 2017 at 15:04

Having endured 18 episodes of mind numbing tv for it to end with “What year is it?” made me smile the same way the film Birdy ended with “What?” I’m not a David Lynch expert by any stretch of imagination, and the wagging.org explanation above makes my brain ache even more. But just to say, when the Blu Ray box set comes out, I might just buy it and sit in a dark room with huge amounts of coffee to watch the whole 18 hours again in one go and let it sweep over me for what it is – crazy creative tv popcorn made by Agent Cole’s alter ego. That’s all folks

8 September 2017 at 15:53

yeah. Twin peaks ended at season 2. The return was crap and should be erased from history

8 September 2017 at 16:00

Thank you, this is a fantastic and thought-provoking summation and analysis. Really excellent work, and beautifully illustrated.

Personally, I think the story could and should continue, because, to quote The Elephant Man, “nothing ever dies.” Whether or not Cooper has been traveling in, or must now begin, his soul’s journey through the Tibetan “Bardo” state (as some have theorized), I deeply hope that this iconic character’s next challenge, mystery, and/or life are still waiting for him, and that he is not obliterated or caught in an existential hell with no exit.

To me, the golden Laura-orb seems to contain something more like honeyed “Ambrosia.” Perhaps Garmonbozia and Ambrosia are the two distinct material states of this “thought-energy,” depending on the intention behind it. They are expressed most purely by humans as “Fear” and “Love,” the latter being the source of The Fireman’s power- but there remains, as always, the possibility of both in the finale.

In horror, the last shot of Cooper back in the Lodge suggests that he may be caught in an endless Möbius strip, living and reliving these events for all eternity. However, a more hopeful theory stems from what you suggest, that Cooper and Laura’s sacrifice has successfully short-circuited the negative feedback loop of this all-encompassing victim-perpetrator double-bind between Judy and Laura. With this challenge met, perhaps he can now “move on,” or, when “the stars turn and time presents itself,” again return to our world, at least in some form.

Season 4 in 2020!

8 September 2017 at 16:37

Might the young girl who swallows the frog/bug have been Sarah Palmer, perhaps in Odessa, TX?

8 September 2017 at 16:48

Very interesting analysis. I think you have some good insights even if I don’t agree with all of them. I disagree that the white lodge created the alternate reality for a couple of reasons. One was that Cooper had to go to Jeffries to find out where Judy and Laura were. If the Fireman had created it, he wouldn’t need to go to Jeffries. The other is the scream when Laura was ripped away from Cooper in the forest and the black lodge. My interpretation was that both of those moments are linked and are Judy pulling Laura away to hide her in the alternate reality. All of the scenes of people and tulpas being pulled to the black lodge have been violent, whereas people going to the white lodge simply disappear quietly. I think Judy intended for Laura to forget who she was so she would be less of a threat. It was a risk for Cooper and Diane to cross over to the alternate reality, which seems to me an indication of it being created by Judy. In FWWM, the intent was not to get garmonbozia from Laura, it was for Bob to possess her. Laura chose to be killed rather than possessed. So I’m not clear on what the goal was in bringing Laura to the house. I don’t think it was some kind of garmonbozia bomb. My impression was that Cooper was losing himself and Judy snatched Laura away again once she started to remember.

8 September 2017 at 17:38

“Gordon Cole, Garland Briggs, and Cooper have had some kind of longstanding plan to deal with Judy, in partnership with Phillip Jeffries and MIKE”

I don’t see how Jeffries and especially Gerard are Judy’s adversaries. MIKE is carrier of her Ring and butler of her Lodge; Jeffries is her prisoner. On the stairs we see Jumping Man/Sarah. The leads to Judy are obscure; Cooper follows Laura and saves her (much as he can). She’s ripped up by Judy. Laura to Cooper: “You mustn’t have interfered, it is happening again.” Leland, sorrowful: “Find Laura.” Cooper meets Diane. Diane is another Black Lodge agent (the hair, the nails), maybe the same “tulpa” reincarnate, sent to contain Cooper but failing due to her emotional entanglement with him again. She disassociates to the extend of becoming “Linda”. Cooper/Richard is unstoppable in finding Laura, yet his quest for Judy leads them to Laura’s house. He has forgotten all about “home” (the White Lodge). It is strange that Dale is asking Jeffries for the date before Laura died, and the latter tells him: “Here is where you find Judy”; then cutting to Laura’s house. Sarah’s torment (in the present) might have been caused by the realisation Laura is no longer with her. A karmic bond has brought Cooper to Laura, and Laura back to Sarah/Judy… and the story begins anew in 1989, for Cooper at least. Perhaps without Laura who’d never make it back Home.

8 September 2017 at 18:01

Not that I’m 100% convinced of this theory but this ending would only be happy for the real world. In this dream world theory it was a bleak ending despite saving the world because Diane was overcome with her grief, Cooper resurrected Laura to rub her nose in her terrible past and everyone inside that dream world provably collapsed with it.

Again, I like this theory but I’m not saying I’m convinced all the way either, however happy music wouldn’t fit an ending where half the main characters die and leave behind an altered timeline that is only hopefully less evil.

8 September 2017 at 18:05

This theory isn’t a full out happy ending though. The ominous tone fits this theory because they are removing a great evil force from the world but sacrificing themselves in the process and Diane was so overcome with grief she won’t even be there for it. I think this folly justifies the dark tone still, although I don’t necessarily believe there is one single explanation I do like this idea.

8 September 2017 at 18:45

What if the “explosion” is triggered by the shock that a lifetime of PTSD all brought back in an instant would deliver?

8 September 2017 at 19:46

Hastings had to be killed because he knew too much. Diane arranges for his assassination by the Woodsman after telling Mr. C that he was leading Gordon and Albert to the site.

8 September 2017 at 19:47

Does that figure-8 embroidered wall covering in Richard’s hotel room (on the wall next to the bed when he wakes up alone) have any bearing on this theory? I’m sure someone has mentioned that, but I haven’t seen it discussed yet. Great theory by the way.

I love this theory, much moreso than Steven is Mrs. Tremond’s grandson. “Magic motherfucker!”

8 September 2017 at 19:49

Adding to the point of Gordon being Machivillian, I feel that his “hearing problems” might be a form of PTSD from the weight of guilt sacrificing others and fighting extremely dark forces. When there is Sharp, loud noises Gordon experiences pain. Also, he feels these symptoms greater around dark forces e.g. Around Dark Cooper in the prison visit and Diane’s doppleganger when his agents have to shoot her and he is rendered powerless. He is comparmentilizing through his device and through managing difficult experiences.

8 September 2017 at 20:55

My take is that DobbleCoop/MrC knows *what* Judy is (even Hawk knew something about the symbol), but doesn’t know exactly *who* Judy is currently being hosted by or where he can find her. And that Dale never really knew until after the DobbleCoop split in the finale of Season 2. Whatever plan Dale, Jeffries, Briggs and Gordon had planned has already started to fall apart, or has already unraveled, by the time Season 3 starts.

8 September 2017 at 21:24

This is excellent. I also just read a theory about parts 17 and 18 being meant to be watched in sync with each other. That theory very closely matches a lot of what you have here but I like your theory better. There are some unmistakable things that line up though when the two parts are viewed in sync. May be worth a read to see if if fits your theory?

8 September 2017 at 22:36

The Return seen as a palindrome is a great one, especially with recurring ones already such as BOB and MOM. “Phillip” is so close to being another.

8 September 2017 at 22:54

MOM BOB MOM!

9 September 2017 at 00:09

Well, the story’s over, so usually that means the bad guy has been defeated.

9 September 2017 at 00:45

Red seems to be a dark magician! Aka Mrs Tremond’s grandson 25 years later still hanging around the RR aka the meals on wheels location with Shelly, whom he met in the parking lot 25 years earlier when he and his grandmother brought the photo of the door to Laura. Just a thought! I agree with this whole article!!! Wonderful!

9 September 2017 at 00:55

Personally, I interpreted Red to be another Black Lodge spirit or evil doppelganger set free in the world, very similar to Mr. C. Unlike Mr. C, Red’s story happens to be very tangential to the events of The Return, but like Mr. C, he’s engaged in all kinds of shady enterprises, of which we only catch some brief glimpses.

9 September 2017 at 00:59

“The daughter’s trauma, caused by her father, destroys her mother.” is literally the point of the very first Twin Peaks episode. :D

9 September 2017 at 01:01

Couldn’t the black fire also be Mr. C because we see him like that after being defeated?

9 September 2017 at 02:16

Why would it be doppleganger coop in the hotel with Diane when the doppleganger was Mr C who was defeated? Coop was split into two upon first entering the black lodge. Mr C was his shadow self while Dougie was his good side. When he goes back through he merged into one, sort of this complete coop..Once they cross the 43o mark I tend to agree with the article above but it’s ambiguous, which is disappointing.

9 September 2017 at 04:46

Hi all! Really great theory! I dont’ know about one thing still. What was that radio what shrinked into a small tiny radio at one the first episodes? Mr. C phoned to it and it shrinked somewhere.:D Audrey was in an asylum in real world i think, but she had visions may be because of her trauma of her life or because of the drugs she got.

9 September 2017 at 08:23

This might be what Frost had in mind, but tbh it is totally irrelevant. As u said Lynch improvised all over it. This is Lynch’s show, and for Lynch (as is always the case) coherent macrostructures and diegeses are besides the point, and the force of his work resides in the inextricability of cognition and causality from sensuous particularity, as a corrective (in semblance) of the rationality alienated from particularity which predominates extra-aesthetically. The whole exist solely for the parts, so if you’re busy trying to work out how the parts exist for the whole you’re busy destroying the truth-value of his work.

9 September 2017 at 10:43

Smart and fun analysis! You made my day and helped me to hold on to feeling immersed in the show for another week.

9 September 2017 at 13:35

I was going to say the same thing about the car. I kind of wanted to ask the age of the writer, but didn’t want to age myself, but that is NOT what cars looked like in the 80s. It resembled my mom’s old 67 Chevelle. I’m sure that’s not what it was. It just reminded me of it.

9 September 2017 at 15:03

Great comment. Gene is the master.

9 September 2017 at 15:31

This entire theory is predicated on a supposition for which there is literally zero evidence, whatsoever, of: the idea that destroying Judy is, for reasons that are totally unexplained, an apocalyptic event. This isn’t just a minor detail in the overall theory, this is the entire foundation for why the alternative universe in episode 18 exists and it’s pure conjecture that, if true, means that Lynch and Frost are both deeply incompetent story tellers. Fun theory I guess, but completely groundless.

9 September 2017 at 16:14

I’m not sure how much more apocalyptic you can get than an entity who is equated with the atomic bomb.

9 September 2017 at 16:10

Thank You for this awesome, detailed analysis of your very exciting theory! And also thanks for sharing that Reddit-thread, I´ve been trying to figure out this stuff too much on my own and frying my brains in the process :)

After watching S3 finale twice I came to the conclusion that Judy is indeed in Sarah Palmer and that two birds with one stone meant both saving Laura and destroying Judy somehow in other timeline/parallel universe but that it failed in the end for Coop and Diane that made the trip when everyone else was “saved” in that reality they left behind (where Laura lived).

This made me pretty sad camper and reading this excellent theory and buying into it makes the end much nicer, they finally pulled it off as the electricity peaked and cage blew up although they had to Laura with them too. I dind´t realize Laura as a weapon but as an entity that just needed to be saved, goodness was left to the world and so on, and I pretty much got that reset of Coop´s and Diane´s relationship all wrong.

Started to watch the series from the beginning by the way immediately after finale viewings and I can recommended it highly to everyone. Very interesting to watch dynamics of Palmer´s and especially Sarah – her consciousness seems to be shifting from that catatonia (which was all I remembered) to being perfectly clear (and malevolent) and she´s going on and off from the possession or Judy-mode in many scenes like when raging for the first time to grieving Leland.

9 September 2017 at 17:14

See, I saw it slightly differently. I thought Carrie’s resemblance to Laura was completely coincidental, and that she was dangerous to Judy simply because she was a member of my extended family, and therefore deeply dysfunctional in a way that even the Black Lodge had yet to contemplate.

9 September 2017 at 19:30

And what about Hawk?

He knows important things and the messages he gets from Margaret seems to imply that he will be an actor in the upcoming events. But nothing at all happens with him.

9 September 2017 at 19:43

What about the similarities between Carrie and Audrey? Carrie is looking for someone (asks Cooper if he’s found him) just like Audrey is looking for Billy. Audrey is waiting for the phone to ring, Carrie’s phone is ringing off the hook. (We saw earlier that Mr. C exited the convenience store using a phone). Carrie doesn’t know where Washington or Twin Peaks are, Audrey doesn’t know where the Roadhouse is. Audrey doesn’t know who she is just like Carrie has forgotten she’s Laura Palmer. Audrey chokes Charlie on the couch, There’s a dead man on Carrie’s couch. Audrey puts on her coat ready to leave, just like Carrie does.

9 September 2017 at 20:05

Good observations. I’ve always had the feeling that the Audrey vignettes are crucial – mostly because they seem so disconnected from the rest of the story!

9 September 2017 at 20:24

My only thought about Red is he might be connected the Tremond’s grandson (who’s connected to the Jumping Man) — he does ‘magic’ like him (remember when he made garmonbozia go from the grandmother’s plate to his hands in that scene with Donna in the original show?)

I don’t think Cooper is as altruistic as you are claiming. At the heart of it I feel like it’s Cooper wanting to erase his and Mr. C’s past mistakes. If Laura never died he never would’ve went to Twin Peaks and met Bob and got trapped in the Lodge. Sure Cooper wants to erase all the hurt he and his doppelganger have caused others, but it’s also his way to trying to cope by making it like it didn’t happen because he doesn’t know how to deal with the enormity of the crimes. His attempt at facing what he did to Diane (trying to remember during the sex scene what happened, but he’s basically trying to go into the memory of when he was Mr. C so there’s a disconnect) seemed to have failed, so he’s trying to go back and erase all of it like it didn’t happen, not just to release her burden but his as well.

Also it’s interesting Cooper couldn’t ‘wake’ up until Mr C killed his son, like that was a living reminder of what he had done.

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane… maybe the arm was trying to say Cooper needs to make it ‘right’ with Audrey, but Cooper thought he meant Laura, or took it to mean Laura because that’s how he wanted to see it. If Laura never died he wouldn’t have to deal with all those uncomfortable emotions of everything that transpired and everything would be okay.

I also question how ‘real’ Diane actually was in these last two episodes. Her bright red hair and black and white nails looked just like the lodge.

9 September 2017 at 20:40

Wouldn’t the 1956 girl be consistent with Sarah Palmers age? Plus, the bug (antenna) consistent with Judy? Taking human form maybe? While he men were chanting about a white horse (white of the eye with BLACK inside)

9 September 2017 at 20:43

All of this and Gordon’s office art of the bomb and of Kafka! Metamorphosis! Bug! It’s all connected! Gordon knows everything! … well he did write and direct most of it

9 September 2017 at 20:44

Congratulations on a stellar entry. :D Easily my favorite working theory thus far and one I’ll take with me to the Final Dossier. By the way, on Judy being drawn to sex–Are you familiar with the work of ufologist John A. Keel, author of The Mothman Prophecies? More than once, he expounded upon the number of reasons ‘Big Hairy Monsters’ like Sasquatch accost young lovers. My feeling is that Mark Frost in particular was influenced by Keel in building Twin Peaks while Lynch approached it through meditation. Thanks so much for sharing. :)

10 September 2017 at 00:06

To be clear, you are saying they made Laura suffer so much because eventually she’d release so much garmonbozia it would overload Judy?

10 September 2017 at 02:54

Well this is probably about as good an explanation as I’ve seen and that we’ll get, barring Lynch/Frost spelling it all out. I like how it juxtaposes with the theory flying around about the 2 Roadhouses (as evidenced by the differences in seeing the neon sign normally, and seeing it reflected in water). If that’s the case then the water-reflection version of the Roadhouse could exist in the Cage as part of Laura/Carrie’s repressed memories. It contains all the melodrama from the previous seasons that would have been part of Laura’s memories of it. Audrey being a part of it could be her getting sucked into it from wherever she is (some mental ward presumably) or possibly dreaming about it. And the moment when Laura screams, shattering the world is the moment she ‘wakes up’. This would presuppose that she’s somehow able to view the Cage or, as she alluded to in her Twitter post ‘be the dreamer’ (she posted a pic of herself with the caption ‘Who is the dreamer?’).

This is a very unformed thought. It presupposes that Sherilyn Fenn is somewhat privy to deeper details of the script and plot, and we know that Lynch and Frost kept that from most everyone except for Kyle.

Anyway, Kyle did say before the season aired that ‘everything would be resolved’ (paraphrasing) by the end, so this probably means if there is a season 4, it would be something totally different. I think as it is, it ended perfectly, if horribly. I got that same feeling as I did seeing the end of season 2… total dumbfounded bewilderment, yelling at the screen ‘IS THAT IT??’. Well played Lynch and Frost, well played.

10 September 2017 at 03:33

I believe Hawk to be a White Lodge ‘deep undercover agent’. He knows much but says little. He is at the very least associated with a tribal understanding of the Lodges. He knew that one shouldn’t speak of the little devil symbol as Judy, presumably so it wouldn’t attract any undue attention. He saw the red curtains at Glastonbury Grove. His relationship to Margaret is interesting. If you read the Secret History of Twin Peaks you get much more information on her that is significant. She herself is likely a White Lodge agent, what with her abduction and emergence with the same symbol that Briggs showed up with (one that Karl from the Fat Trout also bears). It wouldn’t surprise me if Andy had one too, as he was drawn into the Lodge and given information that ultimately helped the plan along.

10 September 2017 at 07:17

If that’s the case wouldn’t Judy actually be Laura’s mother?

10 September 2017 at 10:59

Why Mr. C put the Owl Ring on the Ray’s body finger? Thats how ring returned in to the Black Lodge. He could save it for himself and he could save his own life by that. Because they eventually killed Mr. C and transfer him back to the Lodge with exactly that ring.

10 September 2017 at 11:14

10 September 2017 at 16:31

One thought re: Mr. C is that he wants to enter “The Cage” and kill Carrie before the plan can be executed. This assumes a sort of four-dimensionalism about the time travel loop but that doesn’t seem out of bounds. I wonder if (on your picture) rather than thinking of Audrey’s circumstances as parallel to Laura’s it makes more sense to think of them as parallel to Diane’s. Cooper had romantic feelings for both of them and it could be the case that the sex ritual requires such feelings to exist (which is why the experiment just killed the casual sex couple in the first episode). When Mr. C assaulted both women it could be that was trying to exploit these feelings to perform the ritual himself (but failed because he isn’t capable of such feelings nor even of minimal empathy), or that he was trying to close off the possibility of Cooper performing the ritual with them. Diane was somewhere before she emerged from Naido. I still tend to think she’s coming from the timeline where Laura wasn’t killed and so Cooper didn’t leave for Twin Peaks and instead had a love affair with Diane. I think this because Diane’s tulpa explicitly tells us she had only kissed Cooper once before Mr. C assaulted her, and the dynamic between Cooper and Diane after she emerges from Naido strongly signals that they have a sexual relationship. That interpretation isn’t compatible with elements of your story, but as an alternative, it’s possible that Diane was trapped in a limbo like Audrey is before being extracted by the Fireman and informed of the plan.

11 September 2017 at 00:25

Good points. I still am uncertain about Mr. C’s exact motives. He says that he “wants” Judy. What does it mean to want Judy? Her power? Her maternal protection? Something else?

10 September 2017 at 18:05

Diane is Audrey’s tulpa. Audrey is trapped in the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s station, where she overhears from the others the details she tells Charlie. Audrey is the dreamer, and it’s possible that most of the season is her PTSD dream world attempting to cope with her rape by Cooper.

Clues: Last episode confirmed that Diane (or her tulpa) was raped by Mr. C. Richard Horne is confirmed as the child of Audrey Horne and Mr. C. Many have theorized that DoppleCoop raped Audrey to conceive Richard. It could be that Diane is actually describing Mr. C’s rape of Audrey.

Diane, before disappearing, says “I’m not me” and “I’m in the Sheriff’s station”. Audrey says several times in her “hallucination” with Charlie that she feels like she’s somewhere else “and like I’m somebody else”.

The details Audrey tells Charlie are details about other people in the jail of the Sheriff’s station. Ie, she says she had a dream about seeing Billy “and he was bleeding from the nose and mouth”. The drunk in the sheriff’s station is bleeding from the nose and mouth. Audrey’s dance sequence at the Roadhouse is interrupted by a man screaming “that’s my wife”, which is what started the fight between James, Chuck (“certifiable”) and the guy with the magic glove in the previous episode. James and his superstrong friend then get locked up.

Audrey always fantasized about helping Cooper crack the Laura Palmer case, and witnessed him recording messages to Diane.

Diane wears the same kind of red heels that Audrey changes into in S1E1 when she gets to school.

Diane and Audrey both smoke cigarettes.

Tulpas don’t have to resemble their creators, they can look like anyone, ie, whatever the dreamer imagines. It’s possible that Audrey is “trapped” in the sheriff’s station like Josie was trapped in the wooden knob of the Great Northern. Unable to escape, she wishes for Cooper to rescue her, and dreams up Diane the tulpa to help find Cooper.

But I think there’s another layer at work here. Like in FWWM, where Lynch walks back some of the black lodge mythology in a way that makes it seem like Laura’s fantastical escape from the horror that her father raped her. As Cooper says, “is it easier to believe that a man raped and murdered his own daughter?”

A la Lost Highway / Mulholland Dr (the latter of which was supposed to be an Audrey spinoff), much of the season – the “two Coopers” – is merely a psychological breakdown / dream state Audrey has created to reconcile her rape at the hands of someone she cared for. In her fantasy, the “good” Cooper that she pined over in the original series must come back to defeat the “evil” Cooper who raped her. In this world, Cooper’s good and bad sides literally become personified in Dougie/Cooper and Mr. C. In this fantasy, Mr. C destroys Richard, symbolically “undoing” the evil offspring of the rape. But the reveal is that there has only been one Cooper this entire time – hence why the timelines do not line up and suggest that Mr. C’s journey happens before Dougie/Cooper’s. Audrey, trapped in the black lodge or something like it, uses the black lodge entities to urge Cooper’s good side to “wake up”. He then sets off for the Sheriff’s station to find Audrey and make amends for his crime.

10 September 2017 at 18:06

I like this theory very much but I think it must be mixed with a (long) dream of the real Cooper in the Black lodge (and therefore it’s even more complicated).

Indeed, the “real” Cooper has no FBI Pin when he enters the Sherif Station (Part 17) and just after the “Bob killing scene”, when he walks with Diane and Cole to enter the room with the “315 key”, he has the FBI pin (and then till the end of Part 18). Moreover, this room most surely can’t be opened with this key in the real world (it’s not his ancient room when he was at the Hotel in 1989).

Can somebody help me to understand ?!

Many thanks,

10 September 2017 at 18:16

One of the things I’ve noticed about Season 3 is how scatterbrained and disorganized it was, with quite a lot of cameo appearances. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of goodness in there, but the plot was pretty messy and not in the normal Lynch ‘it’s a puzzle’ way.

I got the feeling that there once was a very coherent and tight story, but as Lynch said yes to so many of his friends for roles in the show, the adaptations became more and more unwiedy. We wound up with plot lines that didn’t seem to connect to the world. Frank’s wife and suicidal son, Wally Brando, armpit burger flipper, the drooling guy in the jail, etc etc.

So the most glaring aspect of this is Audrey Horne, but her footprints are all over the show anyway. The coma mention, her son being Dale Cooper’s son (and then murdered in an apparent theme of parents betraying children), and other things.

I believe that the story arc Diane portrayed actually came out for her to replace the Audrey arc in order for an actress with better skills, more star power, and a better relationship with Lynch, to get a leading role that was actually intended for the character of Audrey Horne. Just think how much more satisfying the show would have been had Diane remained the classic unseen character (perhaps even forgotten) and Audrey’s reveal was in that early episode, in that bar, saying Fuck You to the FBI, her hatred representing her abandoned dream of being an FBI agent and her rape by Evil Dale which produced her son Richard. She’s then deputized, realizing a long held dream. We later learn she’s a doppleganger of Audrey and get the real deal Audrey around the same time Dale snaps out of it. Their love is finally requited for real, they have those long driving scenes in the finale, only these satisfy an arc from almost 30 years ago.

Probably Dale’s murder of Audrey and Dale’s son would have had far more significance and impact. Far far less justifiable is a sense that maybe Janey E was going to be played by Sheryl Lee (with zero memory of Laura), and her recovery in front of her real house was brought on by Dale… making it a lot more feasible that she would travel with him across the country. I feel like the Carrie Paige character is extremely poorly thought out, not even knowing where Washington State is, having a forced accent.

I think Laura Dern and Naomi Watts are awesome actresses, but I also think they were given enormous roles over the actual Twin Peaks story lines of Laura Palmer and Audrey Horne, which didn’t move that much… maybe three minutes worth. Had they instead lived out most of the season I think this season and this finale would have an entirely different feel.

While the Laura one is just a stab in the dark, I strongly believe the Audrey one is accurate and reflects a lot of the buzz about Audrey finally getting to complete the arc leading to Dale that was screwed up in Season 2, and really the whole role Diane wound up playing.

10 September 2017 at 22:26

I agree with you on quite a bit of your theory, but there is an important point that I believe is wrong because you’ve based it on an incorrect observation.

The sound we hear when Laura is ripped away from Cooper and also when Cooper and Carrie visit the Palmer house is not representative of the White Lodge, it is representative of Judy.

In the first episode, first scene and first few lines of the series spoken by The Giant/Fireman, he makes it a point to let Cooper know what Judy sounds like, (not the lodge) by saying the following:

“Agent Cooper. Listen to the sounds.”

From the gramophone comes the eerie ratcheting sounds over and over again.

“It is in our house now.”

The Giant/Fireman, in an attempt to show Cooper that Judy is in fact “in their house now” is playing him the sound that identifies her, Judy. Not the White Lodge. This is straightforward, IMO, based on the context of the conversation and dialogue in which the sounds are introduced. The Giant/Fireman is identifying Judy for Cooper.

This means Judy was the entity that ripped Laura away from Cooper after he saved her and also was the entity that most likely created and placed her in the alternate dimension. It is still possible that the White Lodge knew this would happen after Cooper saved her though, and thus had prepared for it by letting Cooper know about 430.

11 September 2017 at 02:58

Thank you to have created this blog and developed your theory about season 3.

Thank you to all the other Twin Peak fans to react and give their ideas.

I would like to give a feeling I had concerning the death of Billy, the Mr. C and Audrey’s son.

(1) Phillip Jeffries wants Mr. C to be killed. I think that Ray received his order to kill Mr. C from Jeffries. Ray failed because Mr. C was saved by Woodmen.

(2) Phillip Jeffries gave some coordinates to Mr. C when they met in the gas station. For me, Jeffries prepared a new trap to kill Mr. C. The coordinates he gave to Mr. C are the coordinates of the trap.

(3) Mr. C suspects Jeffries to be the guy who wants to kill him but he is not completely sure of his betrayal. He looks for Judy and the coordinates that Jeffries gave him could be the good ones. He goes to the place corresponding to these coordinates with Billy to be sure that Jeffries wants to kill him.

(4) Because, he is not completely confident in Jeffries and anticipates a trap, he asks Billy to go to the location indicated by Jeffries. Mr. C does not want to kill Billy but he sacrificed him to verify if this is a trap or not. The death of Billy confirms the trap. The death of Billy does not touched Mr. C because Billy is just an instrument for him to reach his goal.

11 September 2017 at 04:29

Great analysis – a few points.

Do you agree that chronologically (at least outwith the Lodge worlds) the show ends with the clock in the sheriffs station hitting 2.53 and reality resetting itself? The return of Diane and the superimposed Cooper suggesting they have returned from their mission. Wouldn’t this invalidate your theory that Cooper and Diane were on a suicide mission?

Is it possible that throughout the entire series we’ve been watching disconnected scenes from different realities/timelines? Perhaps the timeline we’re used to as well as an alternate ‘Laura was never murdered’ stream? This would explain the shifting backdrop in the RR Diner, and some of the more outlandish incidents that were never addressed (the exorcist kid, the hit and run, Reds magic – also odd Roadhouse happenings such as The Nine Inch Nails and James Hurley headline the Roadhouse). I feel there’s much to uncover here and the apparently random nature of the storytelling might reveal a deeper purpose. Did the altered realty lead to the good stuff like Nadine, Norma and Ed or the bad stuff like the drug outbreak and the kids death?

Finally, where does this leave The Final Dossier? Which timestream will it be addressing? Will be fascinating to see if we’re tracking a world which no longer exists/never actually happened.

11 September 2017 at 07:22

I agree with the article almost completely, and having read a few different theories around the internet it’s pretty much the conclusion I’d arrived at. I see it as ultimately a successful, rather than ‘happy’, ending because despite the suffering of Laura, that was the plan all along. Even before she was born she was placed in that reality by the Fireman, she was never just a normal person.

So regarding Audrey: How does the White Lodge conjure up an alternative reality, or cage as you put it? Does the Fireman just click his fingers and there it is, or does it require someone to produce that reality through a dream, and was Audrey that dreamer? Was the final scene of Audrey waking up in episode 16 actually the final scene of the story, occurring just as the electricity blows in the Palmer house and her role in the plan is complete? Unfortunately this would make more sense if she was desperate to find ‘Richard’ rather than ‘Billy’, because it seems that subconsciously she knows that a certain person needs to return in order for her to wake up. However one thing that does tie this up is “the story of the little girl who lives down the lane”. In episode 8 we see what we assume to be Sarah Palmer as a little girl being walked home down a lane before Judy inhabits her. Audrey’s role is to either keep the Twin Peaks world going, or produce a cage world for Judy, depending upon which (if either) you see as ‘reality’. The evolution of the arm says the same thing to Richard/Cooper just before he leaves the black lodge to remind him which part of the plan he is now enacting.

11 September 2017 at 11:31

I totally agree with your last paragraph. I think the major problems with trying to connect all the dots between Season 1,2, FWWM, and The Return is, as you said, there was no overall mythology or plan conceived at the time.

It’s been widely known that Lynch and Frost’s original intent for the show/story evolved and adapted to the whims and demands of network execs. So, to me, it seems as if the mystical/metaphysical/mythological element of the show was created as they went along in Season 2. After the show was axed, FWWM was made to expand upon the mythological/mystical aspect as a last ditch effort by Lynch to make something “cohesive” for the audience.

Furthermore, in the intervening years between FWWM and The Return, Lynch became more and more influenced by spirituality and New Age beliefs. These ideas certainly began seeping into his creative output. So by the time the fan fervor for another go around into the world of Twin Peaks came to a boil, I have no doubt that the intent for the story once again morphed to become a vehicle for Lynch’s wild isms.

This is all to say that there are some wide disconnects at play here (how IS Annie, by the way???), and the connections that do occur between the original series, FWWM, and The Return sometimes seem overly strained. And from these strained connections we get these theories and explanations that, more often than not, are grasping at straws. One issue I have with the explanation in this article (and even one of my own theories about the bug-swallowing girl in ’56 and Sarah-Palmer-as-Judy) is that if Sarah Palmer is The Mother/Experiment/Judy/whatever, and BOB possessed Leland, how did they not recognize each other all of those years as husband and wife?! And why is BOB, now as Mr C, questing for something that was right under his nose as Leland? Why bother with your daughter when your wife is what spawned you in the first place??? Because, Lynch and Frost weren’t thinking that far ahead, that’s why.

It’s inconsistencies like this that blow holes in every explanation I’ve heard so far, even mine.

But hey, it cool because it’s art. It’s entirely open to interpretation and it’s allowed to be incongruous and amorphous. And I mean that in the most sincere way.

11 September 2017 at 11:47

Where is there a reference to MOM? There’s The Mother, but no MOM.

If anything, Twin Peaks is about dualities and opposing forces; yin and yang, black and white, good and evil, not the same thing backwards and forwards.

Hell, the duality concept is even right there in the name of the show: Twin Peaks. Two opposing forces, separate but equal.

11 September 2017 at 12:22

This is the water And this is the well – the water is the message and the well is the messenger Drink full and descend – follow the messenger’s words The Horse is the white of the eyes And the darkness within – literally speaking, the white and dark parts make an entire eye which sees; an all-seeing eye. The Horse is the all-seeing eye. Figuratively speaking, the eye is, and sees, both the white (pureness) and darkness (evil) within mankind/life/existence. In other words, a Judge. Judge Judy?!?!?

The message being delivered is that something is coming to pass judgement on us all, starting 11 years after the first test of the atomic bomb (which signaled man’s promethean attempt to steal fire and knowledge from God).

What implications this has to the greater narrative, I’m not sure. But it fits in line with one of the overarching themes of The Return: technology may be mankind’s greatest downfall.

11 September 2017 at 12:40

I’ve taken a week to think about the finale now, and your analysis really helped me feel more comfortable with it, after an initial deep distaste (comparable with my initial reaction to Mulholland Drive. For what it’s worth (and because I don’t have a community where I regularly share thoughts about TP), I thought I might add a few comments here.

One of the things that I felt was missing from the finale was a resolution of the Fireman’s rather dire warning to Cooper that “It is in our house now”. I imagined that we would see some sort of confrontation between Black Lodge entities (or possibly Judy herself) and the Fireman or Dido within the setting of the White Lodge (or at least what I imagine to be the White Lodge). In this piece, Mr. Auerbach suggests that the house in question is actually the Palmer house, and I have to agree. In this case, and given what we know of Laura’s origin in the White Lodge, apparently formed from the thoughts of the Fireman, could it be that through their spiritual connection, Laura is speaking to Cooper through the Fireman? The assertion that the Palmer house is “our house” points me in that direction.

To go further, if Mr. Auerbach is correct in his assertion that there is a symmetry to this season of Twin Peaks, then the “It is in our house/Richard and Linda” message from the Fireman in the White Lodge is matched at the other end of the series with Laura whispering to Cooper in the Black Lodge. As a big fan of Mark Frost’s Secret History, I was reminded of the repeated comparison of mysteries and secrets in that novel. The Fireman’s statements to Cooper initially seem inscrutable, but they provoke wonder and speculation that can eventually lead to a greater, while Laura’s whispered message is truly obscured to us.

That’s all I got.

11 September 2017 at 12:42

“a greater understanding” that should read, in the last sentence.

11 September 2017 at 14:15

One question, When Dale becomes Richard and Diane Linda, Dale still calls Linda Diane and introduces himself to Mrs Tremond as Dale Cooper. How then do Richard and Linda fit?

11 September 2017 at 14:57

“it just doesn’t seem likely that Carrie is surrounded by symbols of Judy/Black Lodge/evil unless she were put in that environment by them”

I think those symbols are breadcrumbs put there by the Fireman to help keep Cooper on mission as he loses his sense of self to the Cage.

11 September 2017 at 17:11

I think the answer to your criticism is that Sarah wasn’t always possessed by Judy, or perhaps not to the conscious level in which we see her in The Return. The death of her daughter then her husband surely helped open her up to the seed that had been planted in 1956, if that girl was indeed her.

11 September 2017 at 17:15

Once again, I believe this is a key element Auerbach gets wrong by confusing the sound coming through the gramophone with the sound of the White Lodge, when it’s really Judy. The Fireman makes it a point to say “It is in our house now”, after playing those sounds. That means every time they’re heard Judy is up to something. This includes Laura being taken from Cooper after he saves her, and at the very end before Sarah calls Laura’s name.

11 September 2017 at 17:24

1. FWWM – Ring is offered as last resort in case Mike’s human ‘property’ (i.e. Laura a major source of garmonbozia) in danger of being possessed by Bob. It is a ‘unvoidable mark’ of ownership. It also transports the spiritual essence (?) of the human property to Mike’s realm if the human property is destroyed/ murdered by Bob out of frustration). Perhaps it was inevitable that Bob would go for possession. Cooper doesn’t want Laura to take the ring as he knows that it is a death sentence when BOB is about.

2. The Return – Now that Cooper has some degree of influence over Mike especially now Bob is out of the equation (in our present world) he can take a shot at saving Laura by stopping her having to ever murdered (in 1989 by BOB) by taking the ring. Perhaps Mike is now part of a two lodge alliance against Judy.

3. Original Series – Laura was murdered by BOB without any mention of a ring being involved.

Perhaps she would have been murdered that night (by BOB in Leland or Leland on his own volition or both) with or without ring.

11 September 2017 at 17:47

One possibility is that The Giant knew Judy would intervene to put Laura in a pocket dimension after her death was averted. Maybe that was part of the set up and why he told Cooper to remember 430, Richard and Linda, and 2 birds 1 stone. The Giant knew where to send Cooper and Diane and so it follows that he knew where Laura was going to be, regardless of if the White Lodge or Judy put her there. This is more speculative, but maybe in order to defeat Judy, Laura/Page had to be near the “source” of Judy’s power or entity which The Giant knew would only be possible if Judy felt threatened by Laura’s continued existence. Its also possible that The Giant had a back up plan to defeat Judy if Judy intervened by preventing Cooper from taking Laura home in the past. I personally think it was an elaborate trap by The Giant aided by Cooper and Diane etc. with varying degrees of knowledge, to get Laura within striking distance of Judy and remove her influence from “our house”.

11 September 2017 at 18:01

I like your theory that Diane and Cooper were in New Mexico during the “got a light” event. Is it possible that the purpose of Diane and Cooper having sex was to bring Laura into this reality from the White Lodge? That’s why it had to occur and was part of The Giant’s plan? Would this match up with The Giant sending Laura’s golden orb into existence? Maybe Laura whispered “You and Diane are my parents” to Cooper.

11 September 2017 at 22:22

Sounds good, but why was Laura pulled out of the Red Room prior to Coop attempting to leave the first time (I read Laura’s whisper in part 18 as a flashback to part 1, after Coop notices that her chair is now empty). Laura seemed to be floating in limbo during the time between when she was yanked from the Red Room and when Coop went into the woods to “save her”: Gordon saw a vision of her (through his hotel door) living out another scene of FWWM (when she finds out Leland = BOB). I took all this to mean, that Judy yanked Laura out of the Red Room to put her in her own pocket/shadow world where Laura would have to continually relive her the traumatic events of her life. This may have been why Jeffries “flipped” the “8”/representation of time, to indicate that he sending Coop to an alternate/shadow reality (this would also explain why Coop wore his label pin in the FWWM scenes, which he only seemed to where in “alternate dimensions”). Coop and the white lodge then might have intervened to pull Laura from Judy’s cage to one of their own making.

11 September 2017 at 23:37

Hi all, please excuse any typos as I’m writing on my tiny cell phone. I believe I got good grasp on Audrey’s situation, it’s the sub plot that has had me thinking the most because it seems (by the way it is treated) that there has to be some meaning there, anyway:

Roadhouse Audrey is a tulpa, created by Mr. C the same way he created Diane’s tulpa, after raping them. And, just like the real Diane, Mr. C takes Audrey into the Dutchman’s and blinds her. Audrey’s tulpa has the same foul-mouthed speaking Diane’s tulpa has, and seems as confused about her existence as Diane’s tulpa during her “I’m not me” bit.

The fistfight scene at the roadhouse, after Audrey’s dance, is an echo of the fight going on at the sheriff station between Freddy and BOB, BOB is beaten and Naido is rid of her eye covering skin revealing the real Diane.

Same thing with Audrey, BOB is beaten so the real Audrey awakes. David Lynch shows us Audrey looking at her reflection just as a way of transmitting the idea that Audrey can now, and finally after a long time, see. Where she is at (white background) remains unexplained because that and what happens next doesn’t really matter, probably a slow return to her normal life.

I believe these two awakenings are happening at the same time but, like many other things in Season 3, shown at a different time. Diane and Audrey are back after BOB is defeated then Cooper contines with his quest and this piece above by Mr. Auerbach makes total sense to me and I want to thank him for sharing such wonderful and complex insight.

12 September 2017 at 00:19

Red? Lets talk about Green- (and Gold) This is pure pattern observation. 1)Green is the color of the hotel key tag for the Great Northern. The key is gold (brass but gold colored). 2)In the insufferable scene with the discovery of the body – it happens that Ms Green has the ‘key’ to the apartment the whole time. 3)The ‘cockney’ has a green glove that is the key to defeating Bob. 4)In the green of the forest, is a gold (key colored) pool. Through which, one enters the White Lodge. 5)Mr ‘C’ is shot in the green chair. 6)The gold shovel is the key to getting oneself out of the ‘shit’. -And the number ‘6’ is also associated with gold.

12 September 2017 at 00:54

In S2 E15 Donna, Coop and Andy went to Mrs Tremond’s house expecting to see old Mrs Tremond but the door was open by Mrs Tremond’s daughter. She gave Donna a missing page from Laura’s diary, which described a dream. Coop said that he had had the same dream, which Andy said was impossible. Was this the first sign that both Richard/Coop and Carrie were trapped in the same dream?

12 September 2017 at 01:58

12 September 2017 at 03:11

! Brilliant

12 September 2017 at 08:06

Best analysis I’ve ever read of TP3. I hope you’re wrong and Cooper is not dead. I was convinced that it was bad Cooper at Judy’s and sleeping with Diane. He had the eyes, he made the faces, and he only spoke in monotone clips. Real Cooper is plopped in the Red Room saying gee willickers or something, Doughie goes back to Vegas. I think both good & bad Cooper are in pursuit of Laura and maybe good Coop just finds her first.

12 September 2017 at 15:38

She is of course also a missing Page :)

12 September 2017 at 16:21

12 September 2017 at 16:58

The thing I still don’t get in the whole TP universe, is the Black Lodge. Coop is helped by the Arm/Tree and Mike, but if Judy is a denizen of the Black Lodge, how are they related to Judy? It seems inherent that the Black Lodge would ‘oppose’ the White Lodge, but BOTH seem to be helping Cooper? How is the Black Lodge a ‘good’ entity given everything we’ve seen in the past?

Are the woodsmen, convenience store people, judy, etc. an offshoot of the Black Lodge that turned evil?

The whole thing doesn’t really make sense to me.

12 September 2017 at 18:26

The Man from another Place described the red room as the waiting room. Hawk said (in series two I think) you have to pass through the Black Lodge to get to the White Lodge. It appears that Laura is able to rise from the Black Lodge waiting room to the White Lodge but obviously reappears. Bob and Mike used to both feed on garmonbozia until Mike saw “the face of God” and cut off his arm to get rid of the tattoo also worn by Bob. Mike tries to stop Bob from killing Laura and then helps the good Coop. I’m not sure why the arm changed sides between FWWM and S3.

12 September 2017 at 18:39

the desert highway location with the power lines 430 miles away from somewhere seemed very familiar to me. is this the same location that Mr. C was driving in episode 3 when he wrecked the car? he was in a huge hurry to get there or get past there. electricity was building up. the time in his car was 2:53. in episode 18, Cooper checks his watch…i’m guessing it was also 2:53. in episode 3, Cooper was looking down on the roadway from up above inside the Black Lodge. it seemed like some sort of plan was unfolding, but the doppleganger of the evolution of the arm “attacked” Cooper, and it appeared he was sent to some kind of non-existent universe with Naido and Judy. i think earlier on, I assumed that Cooper was trying to “trade” places with Mr. C by jumping thru the portal at the same time Mr. C was driving by, but the doppelganger arm interrupted somehow. however, given that Mr. C’s wreck might have been at the same location where Cooper and Diane crossed over makes me wonder if there’s more to this earlier moment. it might tie into the final episode somehow. we don’t really “know” what was supposed to happen with Mr. C and Cooper. Mr. C was “nervous” about it. the doppelganger arm intervened. did Cooper become non-existent after the arm attack? or would he have become non-existent if he jumped? is Odessa non-existent?

12 September 2017 at 18:56

This is where Mike explains why Mike is opposed to Bob (S2 E06)

12 September 2017 at 18:57

Sorry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIzimmrDtTg

12 September 2017 at 19:37

You sound like an undergrad in thrall to auteur theory. Don’t presume to tell people where the ‘force’ of TP resides; a work this rich (and collaborative) can stand multiple interpretive approaches. And it’s dodgy to speak of ‘truth-values’ in relation to an artist who problematises single, fixed meanings. Also, your language is laughably overwrought; your point is simple enough that less elevated language would suffice.

12 September 2017 at 19:43

That was a reply to OJ Da Jucheman btw. Really loving reading everyone’s thoughts!

12 September 2017 at 20:09

Any ideas about the strange events of Episode 11? The situation with the strange child firing the gun through the window at the RR diner, the young cop Jesse’s weird behavior, and particularly the vomiting child who emerges from the darkness of the car.

12 September 2017 at 21:45

I find myself wondering if there is deeper significance with Sarah Palmer freaking out about the jerkey in the store (ep 12). She stares at the jerkey, then while paying, in a more casual fashion, mentions that she does not recall seeing it before. She eventually asks the cashier if she was around when the jerkey was brought to the store, mentions that the room seems different, and that men are coming, and that something happened to her. This seems to both link her to the 1956 girl, and also suggests that Sarah is aware that there can be shifts in reality (as experienced in the finale).

When Hawk pays her a visit at home, there are similarities with the finale – dialogue occurs at the door, but no entry. There is a strange sound that prompts Hawk to ask if anyone else is there, but Sarah deflects and says that it is just “something in the kitchen”.

Not sure how this plays into your theory – just interesting.

12 September 2017 at 22:51

Fascinating post, but some trouble with the timeline: Judy-as-Sarah becomes enraged *after* Cooper saves Laura but *before* she disappears in the woods. Is it possible that Judy/Sarah whisked Laura out of Cooper’s hand as he was leading her to the gateway to the White Lodge, and stuck her in the alternate universe — as the white horse statuette on her mantel suggests Judy’s presence? If so this creates real problems with the idea that the plan is executing according to schedule.

13 September 2017 at 03:01

It wasn’t just Jerky she responded to but Smoked Turkey Jerky. Laura describes herself as long gone like a Turkey in the corn in FWWM. Smoked = black fire, perhaps?

13 September 2017 at 12:12

13 September 2017 at 16:24

‘Native American peoples saw the turkey as a sacred bird because their great abundance provided a source of good meat. It gives its life so others may live. The turkey symbolizes the harvest bounty and honoring of the Earth Mother.” Maybe it represents the white lodge.

13 September 2017 at 22:35

Series 1 episode 1, the lights in the morgue keep flickering and there’s an electrical sound as Dale examines Laura’s body.

13 September 2017 at 22:52

That’s after Mike gets out of the elevator with Dale and the Sheriff.

14 September 2017 at 13:03

Stay in 1989

14 September 2017 at 13:55

Yes very good theory, one of them anyway. I believe this is to be the message: Evil always tries to eliminate good. Good always tries to undo evil. Eternal cycle of the evil trying to eliminate Laura and good trying to save her. What Coop tries to achieve is re-unite Sarah and Laura? Why? Because Sarah’s suffering will end and hence Judy will go back to where it came from and stop doing evil. I do not believe Judy or Laura can be destroyed .

16 September 2017 at 03:55

Morning thought: Billy is the Dreamworld where Audrey lives… Lynch said: Billy’s another story. It’s the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks. To listen in to two or three characters talking about what’s going on in their lives in Twin Peaks was the thing. They’ve all got their problems, and they’re dealing with them.

19 September 2017 at 12:53

The Roadhouse storyline is the doppleganger of the Soap Opera from the original seasons.

16 September 2017 at 06:09

In the original series Mike had “MOM” tattood on his arm (the one he took off)

16 September 2017 at 12:39

In the second episode when Mr C is talking to who he believes is Jeffries. The voice is distorted like it has static and pitch lowered. You can tell it is not Jeffries since the voice doesnt have the same accent. If you were to take Sarah Palmer’s voice and lower the pitch, it would sound like the voice on the phone but with some distortion. Now the next part where the voice on the phone mentions New York goes back to when Mr C was in New York probably checking in on the box. I’m thinking the box was meant to contain Judy but it failed (I’ll explain further down). Mr C still thinks it is Jeffries until the voice states “You met with Major Briggs” which Mr C asks how he knew that and then starts questioning if the person he is speaking with is Jeffires after the voice tells him that the real reason for the call is to say goodbye. The voice then says “You are going back in tomorrow and I will be back with BOB again”

The reason I believe it is Judy is that I do not believe when the Trinity test happened that the expulsion was intentional from The Experiment. The Experiment is floating and convulses as it releases it’s “vomit”

The Experiment is where BOB came from and it would make sense that it wishes to be whole? who knows but it was with BOB previously. The only other person who would wish to be with BOB again might be MIKE/The Arm if we are to believe that their intentions of being good was a deception.

I do not think that Judy can differentiate between good or bad Cooper. The inability to tell which is which could explain why Judy chased good Cooper.

This would also open up to the possibility that there is a hierarchy of spirits in the lodges. I do not believe the doppelgangers to be the same as BOB, MIKE, and Judy. The doppelgangers could probably be similar to a Tulpa but represent something more like a duality. It could very well be the dark side of Cooper torn out of him in the black lodge and allowed to grow thanks to BOB.

So why the box? Mr C wants to prevent going back into the lodge and keep BOB with him but Judy would get in the way of that. The Arm’s doppelganger helps out Mr C by trying to get rid of good Cooper. I suspect that the end goal is something much more sinister because the pursuit of black lodge entities is to collect Garmbozia to sustain themselves and Mr C is not really going about to terrorize people, he is on a mission. If you look at the amount of Garmbozia that comes up from Mr C, it’s a lot compared to the amount Dougie Jones expels, and Dougie wasnt evil, but in comparison it should have filled the car if they were merely out to get more Garmbozia.

Why doesnt Mr C know Judy? It’s quite simple, when Jeffries mentions the name back in FWWM it seemed to mean a normal person and not an evil powerful entity. It might be just the confusion that Mr C has based on the memories from FWWM.

17 September 2017 at 10:53

I love that theory that Red is Mrs. Tremond’s grandson! That makes total sense to me.

17 September 2017 at 11:09

Brilliant. What a beautifully useful and insightful comment. I’m sure Lynch and Frost were making i all up as they went along right ?

17 September 2017 at 13:12

17 September 2017 at 16:17

I’m impressed too. I like the coherence of the explanation and the attention paid to details. In other words, we should not expect Season 4… Sad as it is (to some extent), it’s also the most reasonable solution.

18 September 2017 at 00:12

Hi ! I’m amazed. Your thoughts are nothing but brilliant ! I’m absolutely convinced that they are exactly what Lynch and Frost meant. Congratulations !!!! Just one single question, not important to the finale,but I am very curious about it: why do you think Cooper have stayed 25 years in the Lodge ? Why the plan took so long to be executed ? Thank you so much for your explanation !

19 September 2017 at 03:15

19 September 2017 at 09:04

@Matt, I liked your theories, too. They complement Auerbach’s theory (which focused more on the finale).

19 September 2017 at 17:54

An interesting reading, thanks!

I don’t find the “discharge and detonation” concept to be convincing. You don’t want to detonate anything in a place called “Cage” (as in, C(arrie P)age), something like a “Safe” would be required :) Besides, Cooper provides a replacement for him to Sonny Jim, which means he doesn’t think Sonny Jim is going to be erased from reality any time soon. It’s unlikely an entity like Judy is meant to be permanently destroyed by any means at any point, because it looks like some form of eternal primordial darkness. So if the “Cage” idea is true, then the trap is meant to exactly cage the victim(s), not really kill them.

Now the interesting part. “Why would the Fireman, portrayed as a positive figure, create such a martyr figure?” My opinion is, we can’t be sure the Fireman is portrayed as 100% positive figure. I mean, he is a good spirit who obviously opposes bad spirits (aka “Fire”), but it can’t be that simple. Technically the Fireman is still an inhabiting spirit, since he clearly has a living host in season 2. And I’m pretty sure when Mike talks about “parasites”, he actually refers to ALL the spirits, not just the evil ones. They all like/are able to feed on human emotions, it’s just some have rather simple and violent tastes, while others have developed way more complex and peaceful ones. Competing for hosts, curiously, seems just as important and exciting for them as feeding itself.

I don’t think we should assume the denizens of the White Lodge have any inherently good intentions and compassion for mankind, even if they are helpful. We should rather suspect both the Black and the White Lodge inhabitants can see themselves as chess players and the world of the living as their chessboard. The Game (an important theme of the series) is probably their ultimate goal. That would explain Mike’s own behavior perfectly: the evil spirits probably had too many easy wins in a row, so he switched teams just to spice things up. So maybe a supposedly “good” spirit could easily pull off exactly the same thing saying something like “Yay, I saw the face of Satan finally!”.

The importance of the competitive aspect of the feeding process also means neither bad nor good spirits are motivated to win the Game permanently, defeating an opponent once and for all. Sure, Mike wants to stop Bob, but does he want to stop him for good? Every time the White Lodge is close to a victory, it would probably want to leave some kind of a loophole in the world to make it possible for the Black Lodge to have a comeback. We know the White Lodge guides their mortal allies (or pawns?) with only cryptic messages. Is it because they are unable to do it another way or is it because they don’t want to make the Game way too easy and simple?

On the other hand, we have Laura Palmer, somehow designed(?) in the spirit world (apparently). From the Game perspective, it would be logical to conclude she was another chess piece, introduced as a response to an opponent’s move (doesn’t matter if the move was the appearance of Bob or Judy herself). She was an actual human at least at some point, and after a certain threshold she clearly became more a spirit rather than human, even before her death. What is important though, is the fact she made a conscious decision to reject her human form for the sake of the other living persons. That probably wasn’t really a part of the plan for the forces of good, since human Laura was probably considered a valueable asset if they cared so much to personally “design” her.

But even more important is the fact that she transcended to a spirit from a human. Other spirits, who’s origins “cannot be revealed”, can only obtain experiences from the living. Laura had not just full, but even overwhelming mortal experience, which is mentioned specifically multiple times. She doesn’t have to be parasite like the rest. That means she can’t be manipulated, lured or distractad by a faint smell of human emotions, which potentially makes way more independent than the other characters of the spirit world. Plus, she must still have at least some compassion for the mankind. At the end of season 2 Annie menitions a native american legend about souls of the dead becoming guardian spirits for the earth. That could be a hint: a spirit can only be a reliable ally for the living if he him/herself was a living person once. Sure, we also have major Briggs’ spirit form, but what if he can be manipulated because he’s too attached to his son? Is he strong enough? Did he really earn his place in the spirit world by a strong act, like self-sacrifice, or did they grant him his position and a good fate for his relatives in an exchange for full cooperation?

Maybe nobody in the Lodges really expected Laura to go as far as getting herself killed and sacrificed for the safety of the lesser, from their point of view, figures. Maybe they made a small mistake designing her and/or didn’t realise all the implications immediately. However, both Lodges got stuck with a new supernatural figure that seemed to have both possibility and motivation to intervene in spirit affairs purely for the sake of mortals. What if Laura wanted to insist on stopping the Black Lodge influence on the human world once and for all, which would ruin the Game and the fun? Can we be sure that the Fireman didn’t plot against Laura out of fear he wouldn’t be able to control her, which would be even more humiliating for him as her designer (that fits the theme of Laura being betrayed by her father/creator)? And what if his phrase about “two birds in one stone” doesn’t refer to Bob and Judy but rather to Laura and Judy?

In that case, it doesn’t really matter who constructed the Cage – the White Lodge or Judy herself. In either case, the cage scenario would benefit both Lodges as Laura had become their primary target. Judy, while being a considerable threat, was more important as a plausible excuse for the White Lodge to trick their human allies into isolating Laura, potentially the most reliable supernatural defender of the living. The Lodges would actually want Laura to be alive eternally inside her prison world, alongside with an unkillable embodiement of darkness, to make sure she (or both) could never become a potentially unruly force. Spirits must’ve considered Laura the main threat for the sole reason: Judy can be manipulated, Laura – can’t. Mortals, however, were blinded by the existential fear of Judy (resisting fear – another significant theme), so they agreed to execute the plan while failing to realise they can lose more than they gain.

The seeming “perfectness” of agent Cooper appears to have a completely different meaning in this context. He is perfect IN HIS OWN EYES, and the Fireman abuses his noble, but naive intentions, feeding on his sense of duty and honor in the process. That’s what any true spiritual parasite would do, except an evil one would do it way less subtle. The british boy is being used essentially the same way, only in a more crude manner. That, by the way, is the perfect case of a direct harm to mortals, caused by an intervention of a supposedly good spirit: the boy is blinded by his naive and noble comicbook hero power fantasy, so he kills and mutilates people who likely don’t deserve it.

Same goes to agent Cole and the rest of FBI “blue rose” team, maybe aside from the newcomer Tammy. Pay attention to how the portals to the other worlds look like generic “vortexes in the sky” to them. Previously red drapes worked fine, but now it’s just seems like a reference to a standard cliche from pretty much any cheap sci-fi/fantasy story out there. The White Lodge influences these people in such a way they relive their nerdy fantasies of being undefeatable saviors of the universe, even at a cost of a tremendous sacrifice, while, in fact, they just do the dirty job for supernatural masters without asking questions. Cole probably starts to suspect something shady when he “goes soft”, but as a rule the theme of questioning higher authority doesn’t even exist!

Finally, Aubrey’s “awakening” may signify that at some point she’s supposed to somehow show to Cooper and the rest of the human team (or just to the audience) what a big mistake was made. Maybe Dr. Jacoby is also supposed to help her with this task (his “fuck the government” and “dig yourself out of shit” themes).

19 September 2017 at 20:30

Your mention of chess makes me want to revisit the Windom Earl episodes.

20 September 2017 at 07:29

Kinda felt like expanding a couple of points a little bit.

The Fireman seems to feed specifically on the sense of duty. Let’s check his direct subjects: – The British boy, a naive person, considers himself a superhero who must fight villians to save the world. While being recruited by the Fireman, he encounters a person who is absurdly obsessed by the idea of following the rules, to the point of starting a fight over a single glove. – Andy Brennan, a naive person with a pure and undiluted sense of policeman’s duty. – Agent Cooper, has a psychological trauma, extremely concerned about fullfilling his duty because he failed it in the past. – The old man waiter, the Fireman’s primary host. It’s not quite obvious, but maybe he doesn’t help agent Cooper in the first episode of season 2 just because he’s clinically obsessed with his waiter’s responsibilities to the point he can’t comprehend a person is bleeding out in front of him? Seems to form a pattern, doesn’t it.

The opening episode suggests the pure white light is associated with Laura Palmer herself. Audrey “wakes up” in pure white light. So probably it was Laura who kept Audrey under her influence all along, hence the tying line “a story about a girl” in Audrey’s episode. Laura saw the betrayal coming, so she prepared a backdoor. Audrey gets pulled out of her “dream” as soon as Laura’s spirit form vanishes. Audrey is a mischievous and disobedient character, so she’s unlikely to fall under the Fireman’s control. She also has a strong bond to agent Cooper, so she is more capable to influence him than others. In other words, she’s a good candidate to execute a backup plan for Laura’s return from the Cage, which may be the final glimpse of hope Lynch is willing to provide for now.

21 September 2017 at 03:24

Hello! Thank you for such a great explanation. It realy seems very close to the true author plot if the one really exists. I’m not English spoken so probably some nuances in show and in your explanation I don’t understand correctly. There are a lot of questions but let me begin with first one. Cage is parallel or dream world and it is destroyed with Judy and all other habitants, isn’t it? So there is another world, the ‘real’ one which is saved thanks to Cage operation.Yes? So Coop returned to Jane is in the real world? And there he could see all of the company from Sheriff’s? It is a sort of happy end though there is no more our old beloved Cooper, isn’t it?

21 September 2017 at 14:22

Mark Frost put the kybosh on that theory.

21 September 2017 at 14:42

Hello Paul, may you provide a link to read the comment of Mark Frost.

21 September 2017 at 19:17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3w2rXUlaXs 4:40 in. It wasn’t Frost, it was Sabrina Sutherland who debunked it.

22 September 2017 at 09:44

In my opinion, this theory has a massive flaw. It ignores the duality of Laura Palmer’s nature completely. I’m pretty sure that duality was the main point of her character in the original series. Laura didn’t have purely black mortal experience, it’s heavily implied that her experience was polar to the extremes. There were moments of great love, compassion and friendship in her life, as well as moments of unspeakable pain and sorrow. She is supposed to be both the gifted one and the damned one at the same time, while this theory assumes she’s only the damned one. It’s an unnecessary and quite drastic simplification.

That, plus a set of rather arbitrary speculative rules about how magical explosions should work. Nonetheless, many interesting ideas and observations.

22 September 2017 at 14:30

I agree. Fascinating theory. I don’t “like” the idea that all of TP seasons 1 & 2 “didn’t happen” but don’t really see a way around it with Cooper “saving” Laura from death that night. The disappearance of her plastic-wrapped body was just too on-point for me to see it otherwise. I WANT those two seasons to be “real,” but you make an awfully good case for the opposite. Very well written.

22 September 2017 at 23:26

Season 1 & 2 still happened in another stream of time, but not the stream we were in at the end of Season 3.

24 September 2017 at 02:46

Interesting observation! That name kept catching in my mind, seemed out of place. I said it out loud in my mind, and listened. Still, I missed what you saw/heard. Nice!

24 September 2017 at 02:50

25 September 2017 at 07:10

The idea (which seems totally plausible/obvious now) of Lynch reading Gene Wolfe has exploded my mind and I thank you.

25 September 2017 at 14:51

It sounds perfect to me. I just add Red character is linked with Judy, he is for me, the Magician (Tremond/Chalfond grandson) with all it implies. He is looking for an opportunity to see (or exit) between two worlds. A big open ending with a very important role. And Audrey maybe is trapped like Laura was in Carrie Page identity. Once her son Richard dies she seems to awake. She must be locked in some place, waiting for a resolution. Another big open ending, with Sarah Palmer nowhere and so on. I imagine this ending you give us and it is optimistic and sad in both ways. Judy is defeated, Coop sacrificed is own live (Diane too). And Laura is used like an instrument for a great purpose, so Yes, she’s the one. If Lynch (and Frost) write themselves a 4th season It will be very very difficult to fit in. Thank you all, Mr Auerbach first.

26 September 2017 at 11:41

Why are there two Richards? Is Richard Horne really cage Richard’s child?

I’ve assumed that cage Richard is an identity that has been in the cage all along, but Agent Cooper seems to have “been” him before. Evidence: He’s much more familiar with the change at 430 than Diane is, and he retains the knowledge that he is Cooper. More evidence: He’s initially confused by the note, like “Why is she calling me Richard?” So, if he’s “been” there before, could he have knocked Audrey up, and is she sealed away in a cage, too?

26 September 2017 at 16:39

“Fell a victim” said Tremond/ChalfonT’s grandson. So, he is an important person in the Convenience Store. Now I imagine Red is this character. And Jumping Man is the same for me. We can see him going downstairs in chapter 18 after Coop is going upstairs (if I remember well).

27 September 2017 at 13:19

Well the Jumping Man does wear red.

27 September 2017 at 21:43

Thank you for this theory, even though I don’t quite agree. I myself am still busy and not quite done with all of it, but there are some urgent matters I haven’t encountered here or anywhere else I will simply mention and won’t, for now, elaborate on: – The thimble above the fireplace, used to protect the ‘spiritual’ finger – The bouncing ball above the fireplace; the navy-guys using them in the Great Northern lobby (S02E07) while MIKE seems to be losing it. – Odessa meaning ‘full of wrath’ and also relates to Odyssey – The type of house Sarah Palmer lives in is called A White Dutch Colonial, which might be called a ‘Dutchman’ – When Jao Dei (or however it’s spelled) is called an ‘ancient’ evil it seems very unlikely it came into existence during the quite recent ’45 bombtest – Assuming the year Dale questions is one in the 80’s and given Laura’s age-appearance it might indicate in this reality Laura was the teenage girl infected with the mothfrog, especially considering the fact names, bodies and inhabitants seem to be mixed differently

28 September 2017 at 12:05

Cars pass on the left on American highways. The left lane is the passing lane.

1 October 2017 at 17:50

Mike tells Leland/BOB in FWWM that “You stole the corn! I had it canned above the store!” In an interview somewhere, Lynch said earlier that BOB and Mike come from a planet of corn and that BOB stole a can of corn from Mike. Mike and Philip Gerard, Leland and BOB have different reasons and motives for the same actions. More Twin Peaks dualities.

1 October 2017 at 18:19

To me the most convincing explanation of the supernatural characters in Twin Peaks was a piece in the old Wrapped in Plastic zine that compared them with the forest spirits in Washington Irving’s stories. They may feed on human emotions (e.g. garmonbozia), but they are not necessarily always good or evil in their intentions toward mankind. They are tricksters who amuse themselves with their interaction with humans in whatever manner strikes their fancy. “He is BOB, eager for fun.” Certainly that seems true of the Arm/Mike Anderson in the episodes up to this one. He is the devilish arm that Mike removed.

Also, I always assumed that the White and Black Lodges were one and the same, it was just a matter of how one entered it.

(As long as I’m spouting my own interpretation of the unexplained in Twin Peaks, I’ll add that I have always assumed that Margaret was channeling her late husband through her log, which trapped his spirit much as the drawer pull trapped Josie’s. For that matter, Margaret’s husband was said to be a fireman. Could he have been THE Fireman?)

We can toss out pretzels of exegesis until our brains hurt, but we must remember that Lynch is first and foremost a surrealist and the logic of dreams is what guides much of his work. In dreams there can be multiple reasons for singular events, multiple identities for single beings (or multiple beings with the same identities), time and space can move in any direction at any speed, etc. My way of dealing with Lynch’s films is just to fasten my seat belt and go for the ride

1 October 2017 at 19:41

Great analysis!

7 October 2017 at 18:36

True. A clue?

7 October 2017 at 18:59

I mean, the suit of Jumping Man is red. So, he is Red.

8 October 2017 at 23:04

Is anybody else re-watching the original series? Remember what the creepy insurance rep tells Shelly and Bobby after they bring Leo home in the wheelchair? They’re advised to childproof the electrical sockets.

Cough cough Dougie…

I haven’t figured out exactly how they’re connected, but I feel like Lynch doesn’t put easter eggs like that in his stories without reason.

11 October 2017 at 13:19

This is an interpretation that is compelling (though likely not “the answer”) but perhaps overly optimistic…consider the main conclusion that Judy is destroyed by Laura in the cage…if you are on the right track here, it’s much more likely that Judy is an entity which can not be destroyed (the mother of darkness/evil as an ethereal concept would naturally be as eternal as light/good) BUT perhaps Judy could be removed from our world by creating an alternate dimension for the evil to exist in. Perhaps this idea is that “our world” can only be free of evil if evil goes elsewhere…whether it be a dream world, or alternate dimension or even alternate universe I think misses the point. It may not be so much a cage or trap as a distraction for Judy, so Judy stops messing with our world…

I also want to add something about the “frogbug” that most seem to view as Judy (invading or planting itself in who most surmise to be Sarah). If the young girl in 1956 is Sarah (which I am not convinced of personally, but I do agree it would be the most obvious conclusion to reach) then we must consider that the strange bug that enters her mouth is the seed for Laura. Just as the frogbug invades the 1956 girl, she has been entranced by the same radio broadcast that has folks all over town dropping like flies. It would make sense that the “this is the water, this is the well” speech going out over the radio is like a hypnotic spell cast by Judy through the filthy woodsman. All those people entranced by the broadcast would then in some way be possessed by Judy…the strange bug that comes from an egg (reminiscent of the “Laura orb” we see the fireman send to earth) may have simply been timed to invade the girl just as Judy possesses her. This would fit in with the notion that Laura has power over Judy.

But really, who knows…like the strange mystery of existence, it’s quite a wonder to contemplate. Live with the question…

11 October 2017 at 14:28

I don’t think it’s farfetched at all to think that the lights going out is a leap of faith. Electricity has always been synonymous with evil and the Black Lodge in this universe. The symbolism of the lights blowing out is certainly not a coincidence.

23 October 2017 at 13:56

Nice! Someone else pointed out the name Carrie Page is reversed with the first letter of Carrie and the end of Page is Cage. Also, I thought that the part where Coop puts the guns in the hot oil after asking where the Fry Basket (another cage) should be placed. The guns in the hot oil would be another metaphor for putting Laura/Carrie into this world to overload and overpower Judy with her pain. The more I think about it, the sex scene has to be a calling to bring Judy. That’s what called Judy in New York. And the Parson’s ritual in The Secret History had a connection to Marjorie Cameron – who’s look Diane has copied with the red hair and oriental dress. Google it. Anyway… sometimes I think myself in circles, but your essay helps.

25 October 2017 at 07:31

I think someone has mentioned that Linda/Diane’s red hair is taken from Marjorie Cameron’s character in “The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” by Kenneth Anger. That film also features a gold colored orb, which then shrinks to the size of a TP “seed”. A character then swallows it and is transformed.

26 October 2017 at 15:43

I love this theory! Going along with the theory that Judy is inside Sarah Palmer, I think when the fireman saw the explosion and then the frog/cicada bug go in the little girls (Sarah’s) mouth I think his immediate answer to that was to send Laura to Sarah. Hoping that by giving birth to a girl would help Sarah keep her humanity so evil couldn’t take over completely.

1 November 2017 at 21:30

Hi David, wonderful analysis!

I’d like to point out something that I think definitely supports the idea that the 1956 girl is Sarah Palmer. It might seem extremely silly, but we know how important numbers and dates are for Lynch and Frost.

Sarah Palmer smokes Salem cigarettes, as we see in the grocery store. (I have not rewatched the original series in a while, and can’t remember if her cigarette brand is ever alluded to then.) We also know that smoking is always a sign in Lynch’s work of a greater darkness beginning to infuse with the person.

Salem cigarettes first went on the market in America in 1956, the same year the evil-ish bug-thing enters the girls mouth.

1 November 2017 at 23:44

From The Guardian’s report of Aleister Crowley’s 1934: “Black Magic” Libel Action. I thought the last couple of sentences were interesting.

“When Mr. Crowley’s evidence was concluded Mr. Justice Swift asked him to tell the Court “the shortest, and at the same time comprehensive, definition of magic which he knew.”

Mr. Crowley: Magic is the science of the art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will. White magic is if the will is righteous and black magic is if the will is perverse.

Mr. Justice Swift: Does that involve the invocation of spirits? – It may do so. It does involve the invocation of the holy guardian angel who is appointed by Almighty God to watch over each of us.

Is it in your view, the art of controlling spirits so as to affect the course of events? – That is part of magic. One small branch.

If the object of the control is good then it is white magic? – Yes.

When the object of the control is bad what spirits do you invoke? – You cannot invoke evil spirits. You must evoke them and call them out.

When the object is bad you evoke evil spirits? – Yes. You put yourself in their power. In that case it is possible to control evil spirits or blind spirits for a good purpose as we might if we use the dangerous elements of fire and electricity for heating and lighting, &c.”

12 November 2017 at 10:52

Your theory is the greatest one, so much evidence in favor of it and sheer beauty/tragedy of it. Do you have more thoughts on it after release of Final Dossier? We’d love to read. Lelands “Find Laura” sounds even more in sync with the theory after reading the book

28 November 2017 at 14:49

This seems correct to me. Laura is the dreamer in Odessa (Laura is the one), Judy enters the trap of that dream world and when Laura wakes up to her true self the dream world / alternate reality is cast into non existence. Cooper is thrown into non existence by the Arm´s Doppelganger in episode 3 and finds Naido / Diane in a room built around a bell in which something is banging to get out (Judy). Those bell shaped structures seem to be alternate universes as shown in episode 8. So is that Cooper´s fate – trapped with Judy in the non existent realm?

3 December 2017 at 10:42

Hi, amazing article, than you so much. I’ve only just seen the finale but I have to say that the Return was one of the most profoundly haunting works I’ve seen in quite a while. First viewing I’m watching on an instinctual level, only catching a portion of the clues. I find myself agreeing with your ideas on the trap and the nature of it, but not entirely about the nature of the Cage and the by-product destruction of the good and bad generated in the journey. However, thinking too hard about it at this point is causing me to have a nosebleed, so I’m going to go and read some Jeeves & Wooster instead.

This I will say, whether or not a true comprehension can be formed of the dream-logic of Lynch & Frost’s story, Twin Peaks: The Return is an incredibly brave, strange work that echoes our own times. When I think of it I think of the endless roads, the night-time emptiness of the fly-over states, the suffering in little box houses, the scrabbling for moments of compassion and tenderness, the helpless feeling of being in a world where even the moods and whims of man are incomprehensible. Twin Peaks: The Return I hold to be the true reflection of our times, much like Willy Vlautin’s realist books and music that convey the same atmosphere from a different angle.

Thank you for writing such a deeply thought-out article. I don’t agree with all of it, but I certainly appreciate all of it.

28 December 2017 at 02:52

Fantastic essay

3 January 2018 at 23:54

I’m too tired to read every comment, but. Given symmetry, I think that the *only* thing that Laura could’ve whispered in Dale’s ear is that she saw the face of the man who killed her; and it was him. The first time, he’s shocked/horrified – perhaps he hasn’t fully thought through how this will play out? In the end scene, when she whispers in his ear, I believe he’s more sanguine/relaxed – by then he understand how the game was played and Laura was communicating something like forgiveness to him.

27 February 2018 at 22:51

I agree with this amazing theory 110% except for the actual end. I do not believe they “won”. Lynch seems to be more of an existential film maker in his later years. My belief is that they almost succeeded but…it is an infinite existential Nichean mobius loop that can not be broken. It’s reality finally hitting Coop and Laura within the dream world they live in or wish to create. Life has suffering and trauma. Coop has not succeeded being the “white knight” hero symbol. Laura does suddenly remember the truth of her trauma. She was dreaming (Coop too) a different ending to what Bob/Judy had done to her. The scream is awakening from the denial of what occurred to her. Coop was trying to be the stereotypical FBI characterization of the “hero” who saves the day. He also is shocked into doubt about his final mission goal. He can not change the past, its traumatic memory remains, even when Laura was living as another character-Carrie Paige. So, no matter what they do, the trauma remains. It can not be erased. Maybe Judy is defeated but Laura was not saved in the end, because she couldn’t escape the trauma that was done to her. She could not erase it, no matter what Coop tries. He in the end is an enabler and has failed. The music and haunting image that ends the episode, brining us right back to where the 2 main tragic characters originally met and met again in 25 years, are once again at the point within the 2 timelines catapults these 2 stories of Coop and Laura. These 2, who will be stuck in an ongoing möbius loop trying again and again to change what can not be changed, ends in a somber but tragic tone. The clue to this ongoing loop of suffering for both, is shown by Jeffries to Cooper with the infinity symbol “8” in the smoke. Jeffries literally moves the point in time Coop can enter, to once “try again” to save Laura and defeat the evil within the world of TP. However, as mentioned, he fails to change the fate of Laura. I believe the statement of “what year is this” reflected how many times he has tried before within the möbius loop to save Laura. To me the blackout of Laura’s house is not the defeat of Judy, but the cross back into the loop of Laura’s story (and Cooper) and impending trauma to be replayed once again. I think Lunch is trying to tell us that abuse and trauma can not be eradicated and that the characters (and audience watching) must come to terms with the evils in our world that let such things occur. He’s asking us to wake up from the dreamworld and accept reality.

If greatly differ from what suggest (a happy ending), I differ greatly because I think Lynch would not wish to devalue Laura’s trauma and have us believe Laura’s suffering does not need to occur due to magical thinking (hero saves the day). He’s a strong supporter of PTSD and trauma support and resolve. If you rewatch the end with this in mind, and watch his ongoing themes within his last 3 films, he has been experimenting with möbius loop logic for quite sometime (Mullhullund Drive, Lost Highway), and those main characters, no matter how much they try to change the traumatic event -always fail.

4 March 2018 at 01:28

“WE LIVE INSIDE A DISEASED NUT-SACK”

6 March 2018 at 07:29

If you look at the packaging of the jerky closely you can see a semblance of the Judy silhouette in the logo. A beast (in this case a steer,) with two protruding horns facing forward. Assuming Sarah is inhabited by Judy and has seen her any similar looking image might cause the panic we see her experience.

6 March 2018 at 10:53

I think the bulls head looks very similar to the owl cave symbol on the ring.

10 March 2018 at 13:37

The “cage/bomb” theory is a wonderful interpretation, and I can fully get behind this. The one thing I might add is that the beautiful ending to FWWM that many have felt was negated by the “new” ending, can still exist following the closing events of “The Return,” especially if this interpretation or one similar to it is embraced. If Coop and Laura are indeed destroyed in the “cage” universe when Laura’s scream detonates the bomb, the scene at the end of FWWM could very well occur *after* their sacrifice and the defeat of Judy. In effect, they could both “wake up” in the Red Room after their deaths, with Coop, now content with his success and the completion of his mission, there to comfort Laura and help her realize what her sacrifice has accomplished. Laura, who is still grieving in the immediate aftermath of her confrontation with Judy, finally understands, and thus can also finally see her angel, which returns because she has accomplished her ultimate purpose and can be at peace at last.

12 March 2018 at 14:03

What do you think about what Mark Frost said in an interview with digitalspy: “For the last episode, I guess some people were frustrated and others were satisfied. I remember some people feeling the same way about the last episode of The Sopranos years ago to some extent. I happened to love that ending – I thought it was perfect and beautifully constructed. What it said to me was Tony might be dead or if he doesn’t die in that moment he might as well be, because he’s going to live the rest of his life consumed by that feeling of impending doom that David Chase created so beautifully in those last few minutes. His life was going to be purgatorial, whether he was going to survive or not. It was only a matter of time before something like that befell him. For me that felt like a perfect way to end the series, and I think with time people will look at this and maybe they’ll come to a similar conclusion.”

5 July 2018 at 01:55

I went back and re-watched the last episode… could find no evidence of Judy entering the “cage” during the sex scene except the song you mentioned. If Lynch’s only clue to viewers that this was happening is that one song, then I think it’s a rather impossible expectation. Also could find absolutely no mention or indication whatsoever of a “trap” or a “cage”. While I like this interpretation, I have trouble accepting it. I think it’s kind of like a conspiracy theory… a clever narrative assembled from somewhat arbitrarily-chosen, random bits by a strong pattern detection faculty.

23 July 2018 at 09:37

Hey! Late to the party here. I like this idea very much about Red, however he says something like “I like it here” when he’s f**king with Richard, indicating that he’s new to the area and may stay awhile.

2 August 2018 at 18:44

Truly amazing but I strongly believe the truth is in the eye of the beholder. Lynch opened so much doors for us to enter to come to a conclusion that almost any theoryn can make sense. At least to the eye of the beholder. Which makes Twin Peaks undoubtedly the best series ever. But, your theory is one of he best yet!

18 September 2018 at 19:48

Hi David. I liked this theory when I read it last year, but wasn’t convinced that Judy was destroyed. I didn’t see any evidence that that was the case. I also wanted an explanation for the sex scene with Diane, which seems critical. I needed about a year of thinking and rewatching to come up with my own interpretation. I’ve finally done so, and you can read it here:

https://cinematicdetective.wordpress.com/2018/09/17/a-cry-for-compassion-twin-peaks-season-three/

It’s long and looks as Season Three as a whole. But I do focus on Part 18 as well. Let me know what you think!

5 October 2018 at 07:36

I can’t shake the feeling that TP is a story of an incompetent agent failing to uncover the real murderer of Laura, and being murdered himself in the process by the end of season 1. Completely disconnected from the terrible times citizens of TP were coping with his ever cheerful mood. He thinks very highly of himself and his Special Agent badge, always perfect haircut and never passes on taking time for his own pleasures like having a cup of black coffee. Solving murder comes second to him and his unprofessional approach to investigation shows, like silly method of identifying suspects by tossing rocks. Make me think we viewers, just like citizens of TP, were all fooled in believing Cooper to be a great detective.

After he got killed in the end of season1 things become really strange with evil spirits and lodges coming to life while these were only part of Cooper’s imagination and dreams during the first season. He died and is now reliving his own hell trying to figure out where he done wrong in life. He was never supposed to save Laura, as much as he would like to be that super hero that travels through time and fights off ancient evil, because Laure was already dead before he arrived to TP. He might be in some sort of purgatory reliving the investigation of Laura’s murder until he finally realises that he has to save himself from his self centric ego/attitude. Both Mr.C and Dougie share one same trait…. both completely lack empathy, one being evil and other good they are disconnected from other people’s feelings.

Just some rumbling, I’m most definitely wrong. :)

5 October 2018 at 16:01

That would have been a great twist and would have explained why some of the second series was so bizarre. Unfortunately Mark Frost seems to have confirmed in his books that the events of season 2 were real. Unless I dreamed it.

7 November 2018 at 18:56

If you read The Secret History of Twin Peaks, watch “Lore” season 2 episode 6 on Amazon Prime. In it Jack Parsons and Aleister Crowley have an imaginary conversation that is based on actual letters between them. ‘

Parson explains how he summoned an evil entity while playing with black magic as a kid and had summoned a woman in red while firing a test rocket after performing a Thelema ceremony.and believes he did that by opening a portal into another universe, “a window into the multiverse”.

Crowley replies “these three beings, you, your scarlet woman and your devil, the Great Mother Nuit, has opened a door at your knocking. All you have to do is walk through it. Find your scarlet woman, She is the tool you need to open your free will.

In the Twin Peaks scenario Parsons would be Cooper and the Crowley would be the Fireman. The Fireman is telling Cooper how to exercise his free will by saving Laura.

If you look at the room key, he number 315 corresponds in Judaism to a verse of “Pirkei Avot” which states that “all is foreseen, and freedom of choice is granted. The world is judged with goodness, but in accordance with the amount of man’s positive deeds.”

So good Coop defeats bad Coop, finds his scarlet woman and goes through the door. He becomes the Coop he wants to be and saves Laura. But does he? I guess we’ll never find out.

23 January 2019 at 14:34

And another Full House/Who’s The Boss fan weighs in.

23 January 2019 at 14:37

They clearly stated in that episode that took place in New Mexico, and yes… that was indeed a teenage Sarah Palmer.

15 March 2019 at 22:34

I was thinking it’s doppel ganger Diane that she sees. They’re still in the lodge. She faces it with courage. Or maybe Dale Cooper is a dream to Richard.

8 April 2019 at 06:49

Great piece of work! But it needs updating, you should try watching parts 17 and 18 in sync. This is an indication that after Diane disappears in part 18, she reappears in part 17 in place of Naido. That’s why Cooper is ecstatic when she sees Diane. He understands then that their plan has succeeded.

8 April 2019 at 10:45

That theory made sense until Coop introduced himself at the Palmer house as Agent Dale Cooper.

8 April 2019 at 10:48

Has anyone watched the series backwards yet? Maybe there’s a demonic , or thelemic message :)

10 May 2019 at 09:55

Worth every moment spent reading your analysis. Thank you!! Confirmed some hopes and gave me new ones. What a satisfying puzzle Lynch has given us. Huzzah to what you’ve given us to help chew on it further!

9 June 2019 at 10:48

I enjoyed reading your theory. I have listened to the ‘sounds’ many times and I believe the sound is saying “ We live inside a dream’ over and over again. It fits and would make sense. Just an opinion

9 June 2019 at 13:45

That is brilliant. I’m going to investigate this further. On first glance, I wonder if it matches up with Jeffries saying the phrase in FWWM, because Cooper doesn’t put a pause between “live” and “inside” as the sounds do.

It’s a beautiful theory regardless, so I sort of want it to be true.

10 June 2019 at 00:53

Further investigations: the timing doesn’t match up with Cooper or Jeffries saying it. And from looking at the waveforms, they don’t seem like human speech–they’re too simple and each sound decays too rapidly.

However: the accent patterns of the words do match up, as you observed: we LIVE inSIDE a DREAM. So none of this invalidates the potential link. But I don’t think the sound is a human voice.

28 September 2020 at 12:59

Great job and really good read! I love your analysis. I wonder how it lines up with Tim Kreider’s essay “But Who Is The Dreamer.”

6 June 2021 at 15:59

Some random musings: The letting go, the cathartic shriek, the explosion of Laura is a direct counterpoint to the devouring nature of Judy. Personally, I’ve had to battle my libido, most recently with a (possibly narcissistic) man who wildly needed my attention and psychically implanted himself in me (a Bob-like gaze and sex drive). He wanted to be with Judy I’m sure – inside Judy, devoured by her, unloading all his garmonbozia as a gift. Narcissistic men are incestuous without exception, having a love-hate relationship with the mother figure whom they ultimately crave to become. Bob wants not just to be with, but to BE Judy. Every female, or everyone he seduces and enters, is Judy, which of course includes first and foremost Laura with whom he craves to merge. I doubt the thesis that it was Cooper who sacrificed Laura, which sounds suspiciously male-centric and ignoring the postulate that “Laura is the One”. It’s Laura’s natural feminine and authentically motherly choice to divorce herself from Bob by dying. She thus annihilates Judy, the devouring mother principle, along with Bob. By dying she gives birth to something else, something we’re yet to see. I’m optimistic about the explosion creating a new world and another story. Oh, I almost forgot my personal story. :) I learn to relinquish my desire for the narcissistic man, whom by the way I didn’t start desiring until I realised he was terminally ill. I withheld Thanatos, my devouring libido, not so much controlling it but realising this man must have been my shadow. I now have to let him go; I never meant to be devouring mother. Through writing to him I discovered one unifying thing within myself: compassion.

15 September 2021 at 01:53

Fantastic explanation, Makes me realize (and remember) how confused I was when I watched it.

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The Entire Twin Peaks Timeline Explained

It's no secret that David Lynch's surreal mystery series "Twin Peaks" is often heralded as one of the greatest shows ever created. Since the series first premiered back in 1990, "Twin Peaks" has earned an staggering amount of critical acclaim and a diehard cult following that has persisted through three decades. 

Set in the remote town of Twin Peaks, Washington, the story of "Twin Peaks" begins with the murder of a local teenager named Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) and sprawls into a supernatural epic that pits the town's residents against extra-dimensional spirits and  unimaginable horrors. Despite all the praise the series has received, the convoluted story of "Twin Peaks" can still be incredibly hard to follow. The series' use of alternate timelines, dimensions beyond time and space, and frequent flashbacks can make it nearly impossible to puzzle out what's happening.

Couple that with the surrealist nature of the series (which defies explanation at the best of times, and seems like a bad trip at its worst ) and fans should be forgiven for not knowing the exact order in which this story plays out. If you're still confused about the exact timeline of the series, here's everything you need to know about the maddening story of "Twin Peaks" — and how that whole saga might have been rewritten in the series finale.

BOB is born during an atomic bomb test

To begin the surreal epic that is "Twin Peaks," we have to go all the way back to the creation of BOB (Frank Silva), a malevolent spirit who feeds on suffering and acts as the overarching villain of the series.

In Episode 8 of "Twin Peaks: The Return," we learn that BOB was born when the first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Through dreamlike images of the bomb, the audience is transported to a black void where a supernatural entity known as "the experiment" (Erica Eynon) regurgitates a stream of primordial "eggs." One of these eggs contains the face of BOB, while another spotted eggs breaks away from the stream.

Seemingly in response to this event, the supernatural beings Senorita Dido (Joy Nash) and the Fireman (Carel Struycken) create a golden orb with the face of Laura Palmer, which Dido kisses before sending down to Earth. This bizarre origin story can be seen as the start of the battle between good and evil in "Twin Peaks," with BOB and Laura Palmer representing each of the two warring sides.

The Frog-Moth comes to life

The next major event in "Twin Peaks" occurs in 1956, when a creature known as the "Frog-Moth" is born, and mysterious entities called "woodsmen" begin terrorizing people across New Mexico.

"Twin Peaks: The Return" Episode 8 reveals that the speckled egg that broke away from "the experiment" actually landed in the New Mexico desert. This egg hatches on August 5, 1956, birthing a grotesque amphibian-insect hybrid that David Lynch refers to as the Frog-Moth. Shortly after the creature is born, we see a woodsman (a malevolent being who looks like a bearded lumberjack) entering the KPJK radio station. The woodsman murders the receptionist and forces the station's DJ to broadcast a cryptic message that puts listeners to sleep.

We then see a young girl (Tikaeni Faircrest) asleep on her bed, listening to the broadcast. While she sleeps, the Frog-Moth climbs through her window and forces itself down her throat. While we could speculate for years about what exactly is going on in this sequence, it seems to show how the evil born from the atomic bomb has started to infect the world of "Twin Peaks."

BOB possesses Leland Palmer

We don't get a specific date for this event, but sometime between 1945 and 1988, BOB begins possessing Leland Palmer (Ray Wise), the father of Laura Palmer. In "Twin Peaks" Season 2, we learn that BOB lived next to Leland's family vacation home in Pearl Lakes, and that BOB possessed Leland when he was just a child.

We know very little about BOB's activity prior to this possession, outside of the fact that he works alongside the possessing spirit Mike (Al Strobel) — who also feeds on pain and fear like BOB, until he has a divine revelation and decides to change his ways. After Mike turns against him, Bob spends the next few decades near the Grand Northern Hotel in Twin Peaks, where Leland and his family are living.

Again we only have sparse information about what BOB was up to during this time, though at some point he sets his sights on Laura Palmer, intending to use her as his new human host in place of Leland. In "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," BOB begins possessing Leland and forcing him to sexually abuse Laura from the age of 12 on, which drives Laura to heavy drug use as she grows older.

Leland Palmer murders Teresa Banks

In February 1988, Leland Palmer commits his first murder while possessed by BOB, killing a prostitute named Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley) who happens to be friends with Laura. In "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," Leland decides to hire Teresa after seeing her picture in the call girl magazine "Flesh World" and deciding she looks exactly like his daughter.

After a one night stand at the Red Diamond City Motel, Leland calls Teresa again and organizes a night with two other prostitutes. Leland eventually backs out when he realizes one of the other girls is none other than Laura herself, who has been working as a call girl for the pimp Jacques Renault (Walter Olkewicz). Teresa realizes who Leland Palmer really is and attempts to blackmail him, inadvertently unleashing the wrath of BOB in the process. BOB then possesses Leland and forces him to beat Teresa to death with a metal pipe, before wrapping her body in plastic and dumping her in a river.

The similarities between this murder and the later killing of Laura Palmer eventually lead FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) to investigate the mysterious goings-on in Twin Peaks, and the malicious activities of BOB.

Philip Jeffries materializes inside FBI headquarters

After the body of Teresa Banks washes up in Deer Meadow, Washington, the FBI sends agents Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak) and Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland) to investigate, both of whom work alongside Dale Cooper.

This investigation is still ongoing when Dale Cooper visits the FBI headquarters in Philadelphia on February 16th, 1988, where he witnesses the bizarre reappearance of a missing special agent named Philip Jeffries (David Bowie). Jeffries was the leader of the Blue Rose Task Force, a department of the FBI which specializes in supernatural activity, who had mysteriously vanished during an 1986 assignment in Buenos Aires. More than two years after his disappearance, Jeffries inexplicably appears inside FBI Headquarters, rambling about the supernatural being "Judy" and a meeting between malevolent spirits.

While Jeffries rambles in front of Cooper and the other agents, Cooper is granted strange visions of other mysterious entities like BOB. Jeffries abruptly vanishes from the headquarters and appears in the stairwell at Hotel in Buenos Aires, burning the wall behind him and screaming in agony before disappearing once again. Directly after this, Cooper learns that Agent Desmond has gone missing from Deer Meadow, and he heads there to join the search.

Leland kills Laura Palmer

Leland Palmer's next murder occurs in 1989, when BOB finally sets his plan in motion to inhabit Laura Palmer's body. On the night of February 22, 1989, BOB possesses Leland and sexually assaults Laura, who flees the next day to a remote cabin with Jacques Renault, Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re), and Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine).

On the night of February 23, 1989, Leland arrives at the cabin to find the foursome engaging in group sex and cocaine. Under BOB's influence, he abducts Laura and Ronette and brings them to an abandoned train car in the woods, telling Laura that he wants to possess her. The spirit Mike arrives at the train car in time to give Laura a ring once worn by Teresa Banks, which seemingly prevents BOB from inhabiting her body. His plan foiled, BOB makes Leland stab Laura to death.

Leland dumps Laura's body in the lake, where she is discovered on the morning of February 24, 1989 by a sawmill worker named Pete Martell (Jack Nance). The discovery of Laura Palmer's body occurs in the opening moments of the premiere episode of "Twin Peaks," and serves as the inciting incident for the epic saga of weirdness that follows.

Dale Cooper arrive in Twin Peaks

As previously mentioned, the murder of Laura Palmer attracts the attention of FBI agent Dale Cooper, who arrives in Twin Peaks after discovering the similarities between her murder and that of Teresa Banks.

Cooper discovers a letter "R" under Laura's fingernail, which lines up with the letter "T" that was placed under Teresa's nail (both of which were cut out from a Flesh World magazine). Throughout February and early March 1989, Cooper's investigation uncovers much of the evil strangeness that inhabits Twin Peaks, and he slowly begins to paint a complete picture of Laura's life. Cooper initially tracks down and arrests Jacques Renault based on evidence he gathered in a dream, which also leads him to the cabin where the murder was initially committed.

After Renault is murdered by a possessed Leland Palmer, Cooper turns his attention to the affluent Twin Peaks socialite Ben Horne (Richard Beymer), owner of the casino/brothel One Eyed Jacks and father of series staple Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn). Although Ben is certainly a worthy suspect (since Laura worked as a prostitute at One Eyed Jacks, and he confessed to loving Laura more than his own daughter), he too is ultimately killed by the real murderer, Leland Palmer.

Dale Cooper successfully tracks down Laura's killer

As Dale Cooper's investigation into the murder of Laura Palmer stretches into late March 1989, Leland Palmer becomes wracked by guilt and fits of hysteria — which many people attribute to the loss of his daughter, but which is likely caused by BOB.

BOB makes Leland commit one final murder near the end of the month, killing his niece Maddy Ferguson (Sheryl Lee) who is identical to Laura. The murder of Maddy casts doubt on the earlier conviction of Ben Horne, causing Dale Cooper to re-assess the evidence he's gathered. Eventually he connects the dots and tricks Leland into following him to the Sheriff's office, where he locks Leland inside an interrogation room as BOB rages and screams.

With BOB in control, Leland confesses to Laura's murder and has another hysterical fit in the interrogation room, dying by suicide in a final petty act of revenge from BOB. As he dies, Leland experiences a brief moment of lucidity, where he recognizes what he's done and sees a vision of Laura. The morning after Leland's death, Cooper and his investigators debate whether BOB was really in control at all, and where he might have disappeared to after leaving Leland.

Dale Cooper's old partner seeks revenge

Just three days after the Laura Palmer case is closed, special agents Preston King (Gavan O'Herlihy) and Roger Hardy (Clarence Williams III) arrive in Twin Peaks to suspend Dale Cooper from the FBI. They claim that Cooper's suspension is due to his cavalier methods and his involvement with Jacques Renault, citing a missing shipment of cocaine that was meant to be recovered during a sting investigation.

To make matters worse, Cooper's former partner Windom Earle (Kenneth Welsh) escapes from a mental hospital at an unspecified time during Cooper's investigation. We learn that Cooper previously had an affair with Earle's wife, and that Earle murdered her in cold blood after discovering her infidelity. Following his suspension, Cooper is forced into a deadly game of chess with Earle –- with Earle murdering somebody every time Cooper takes one of his pieces. Earle also frequently sends Cooper pieces of his wife's clothing, taunting his former partner as he scrambles to fix his rapidly collapsing career as an FBI agent.

Earle's campaign of vengeance reaches its pinnacle near the end of "Twin Peaks" Season 2, when Earle kidnaps Cooper's love interest Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham) and brings her to the extradimensional hell known as the "Black Lodge."

Dale Cooper is trapped inside the Black Lodge

While one might assume that Windom Earle only journeys to Twin Peaks to torment his former partner Dale Cooper, we learn in Season 2, Episode 20, that his true reason for visiting the town is to uncover the Black Lodge.

Earle is a former member of Project Blue Book who is assigned to investigate Twin Peaks, Washington, where he becomes obsessed with two extra-dimensional realms called the White Lodge and the Black Lodge, said to be hidden somewhere within the woods of Twin Peaks. Earle figures out how to enter the lodge and flees there with Annie Blackburn in tow, forcing Cooper to follow him into the Lodge and rescue her. Cooper passes through dreamlike halls of the lodge and encounters doppelgangers of many "Twin Peaks" characters, before ultimately confronting Earle deep within the lodge.

In an act of selflessness, Cooper promises to give his soul to Earle in exchange for Annie's safety, which inadvertently angers BOB. BOB appears inside the lodge and claims Earle's soul instead, killing Earle in the process. BOB then traps the real Dale Cooper inside the lodge, possessing a doppelganger of Cooper and escaping into the real world.

Dale Cooper escapes the Black Lodge 25 years later

Dale Cooper spends the next 25 years trapped inside the Black Lodge, while his doppelganger (known as Mr. C) runs amok and commits numerous atrocities under the possession of BOB.

In September 2016, Mike and The Man from Another Place tell Dale that he must return Mr. C to the Black Lodge in order to be free again, and Dale exits the lodge to find himself in the midst of a mysterious purple sea. Cooper encounters several extra-dimensional spirits before entering a device that is supposed to swap places with Mr. C, theoretically returning the doppelganger to the lodge. Unfortunately, the device makes Cooper swap places with a man in Las Vegas named Dougie Jones (Kyle MacLachlan), a duplicate created by Mr. C to prevent this exact plan from succeeding.

Realizing that the real Dale Cooper has escaped, Mr. C enacts a series of assassination attempts against Cooper using the connections he's built up over the last 25 years. Cooper manages to thwart all of these attempts, and makes his way back to the town of Twin Peaks to finish what he started in 1989.

Dale Cooper confronts his doppelganger

Following a brief prison sentence and subsequent escape in Montana, Mr. C arrives in Twin Peaks on October 2, 2016, the same day that the real Dale Cooper returns to town. The two Coopers both make their way to the Twin Peaks Sheriff's station, where the doppelganger meets Frank Truman (Robert Forster) and the high-pitched receptionist Lucy Moran (Kimmy Robertson). The real Cooper calls ahead to Lucy to explain the situation, and when the doppelganger attempts to pull his gun, Lucy shoots him first. Cooper arrives to find a group of "woodsmen" trying to revive the doppelganger's body, while the spirit of BOB exits the corpse in a black orb and begins attacking everyone in the station.

The orb is subsequently broken apart by security guard Freddie Sykes (Jack Wardle), apparently destroying BOB. Cooper follows this act by placing Teresa Banks' ring (the same ring that once foiled BOB's plan to possess Laura Palmer) on his doppelganger's finger. This causes the doppelganger and the ring to vanish and reappear in the Black Lodge, earning Dale Cooper his long awaited victory over BOB.

Dale Cooper creates an alternate timeline after his battle

Although one might assume that Dale Cooper would take some time to rest, he instead decides to go back in time to try and prevent the death of Laura Palmer.

Immediately after his fight with the doppelganger, Cooper, Diane Evans (Laura Dern), and FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole (David Lynch) enter a mysterious door in the furnace room of the Grand Northern Hotel, which transports them to a supernatural convenience store. Inside the store they find the long-lost Philip Jeffries (now trapped in the body of a tea kettle), who agrees to send them back to February 23rd, 1989. Cooper arrives back at that date and successfully leads Laura away from Jacques Renault's cabin, averting her murder by Leland Palmer. As he leads her away from this fate, Laura mysteriously disappears and Cooper is transported back to the lodge, where Mike asks, "Is it future or is it past?"

Cooper eventually leaves the lodge and reunites with Diane Evans, and the two of them drive through a portal at the end of a distant road. The portal transports them to what is apparently an alternate timeline where nobody has ever heard of Laura Palmer, and Cooper meets a waitress named Carrie (Sheryl Lee) who looks identical to Laura but has no memory of Twin Peaks. This time-bending conclusion to "Twin Peaks" opens up the possibility of alternate realities and alternate timelines, and suggests that perhaps Laura Palmer being saved has altered the very fabric of the universe.

Inconsistencies in the timeline

Because the final scene of "Twin Peaks" shows how inconsequential time is within the series (implying that Dale Cooper's quest to save Laura Palmer essentially creates an entire new continuity), it shouldn't surprise viewers to learn that the "Twin Peaks" timeline has some major inconsistencies.

Most of these inconsistencies pop up in "Twin Peaks" tie-in novels like "The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" and "Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier." The diary erroneously places the events of the original series in 1990 and slightly alters the timeline of BOB's possession of Leland. "The Final Dossier" is even more inconsistent, changing the age of Annie Blackburn, retconning the date of Caroline Earle's death, and placing several other events at different points on the timeline. Like the diary, this oddly inconsistent novel is considered to be canon, having been written by series co-creator Mark Frost himself.

The dossier also explains more clearly that Laura Palmer's murder case remains "unsolved" and that nobody in the town seems to recall that she was ever missing in the first place. When asked about it, the townsfolk just look slightly dazed, and there is no information about Laura Palmer after February 23rd, 1989. One could certainly interpret these inconsistencies as facets of the new timeline that Cooper created, particularly in the case of Laura Palmer. At the end of the day, however, they simply prove that the "Twin Peaks" timeline is convoluted and ever-changing, much like the surreal nature of the series itself.

DEM modelling of surface indentations caused by granular materials: application to wheel–rail sanding

• Open access
• Published: 06 September 2024

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• Bettina Suhr 1 ,
• William A. Skipper   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8315-2656 2 ,
• Roger Lewis 2 &
• Klaus Six 1  

The presented surface indentation model is one step towards building a DEM model for wheel–rail sanding. In railways, so-called low-adhesion conditions can cause problems in traction and braking, and sanding is used to overcome this problem. Sand grains are blasted towards wheel–rail contact, fracture repeatedly as they enter the nip and are drawn into the contact and then increase adhesion. Research on this topic has mostly been experimental, but focussed on adhesion enhancement measurement. Thus, physical mechanisms increasing the adhesion are not well understood. Previous works involved experiments and DEM modelling of single sand grain crushing tests under realistic wheel–rail contact pressures of 900 MPa, focusing on sand fragment spread and formation of clusters of solidified fragments. In the experiments, indents in the compressing steel plates were also observed, which are also observed on wheel and rail surfaces in railway operation. These are now modelled by adapting an existing surface indentation model from literature to the case of surface indentations caused by granular materials. Two test cases are studied, and experimental spherical indentation tests for model parametrisation are presented. In a proof of concept, the mentioned single sand grain crushing tests under 900 MPa pressure are simulated including the surface indentation model. This work contributes to DEM modelling of wheel–rail sanding, which is believed to be a good approach to deepen the understanding of adhesion increasing mechanisms under sanded conditions.

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1 Introduction

The motivation for this work is to develop a DEM model for sanded wheel–rail contacts. In railways, sanding of wheel–rail contacts has been used for several decades to overcome so-called low-adhesion conditions. Low adhesion, i.e. an adhesion coefficient below 0.1, negatively influences traction and braking behaviour of railway vehicles in service and can cause safety issues in the worst case [ 1 , 31 ]. The maximal adhesion coefficient (AC) limits the transferable tangential force in the contact. In general, the wheel–rail contact is characterised by extremely high normal contact stresses, with a maximum in the range of 1 GPa and higher, accompanied by extremely high tangential stresses. The contact condition has a large influence on the AC. Under dry conditions, the AC is around 0.35 or higher [ 17 , 18 ]. Under some contact conditions, low adhesion occurs, e.g.  damp (wet) contact conditions [ 30 ], (‘wet rail’ phenomenon) or when the rail surface is contaminated with leaves [ 1 , 26 ].

Under low-adhesion conditions, the AC can be increased by spraying sand from a nozzle towards the wheel–rail contact, see Fig.  1 . Some particles are expelled and some are entrained into the contact. The entrained particles fracture repeatedly and influence the adhesion, also changing the roughness of wheel and rail. While sanding does increase the AC under low-adhesion conditions, it can also lead to increased damage on both wheel and rail [ 6 , 7 ].

Scheme of wheel–rail contact sanding [ 23 ]

Sanded wheel–rail contact

Wheel–rail sanding is a field of active, but almost purely experimental, research [ 19 , 20 ], e.g. measuring adhesion coefficients (ACs) under different contact conditions (dry, wet, ...) applying different sands or other particles. In general, modelling of the wheel–rail contact is a wide field of research in tribology, see [ 4 , 8 , 10 , 22 , 27 , 29 ] for review articles as well as recent works. In particular, research works on developing numerical models considering local effects in the wheel–rail contact region during sanding are very sparse and focus on electrical isolation [ 3 , 33 ], or particle entrainment efficiency [ 5 , 9 ].

Despite the active research in this field, the physical mechanisms causing the change in ACs under sanded conditions are not yet well understood. Simulation models can help to increase this understanding, when they include the relevant features of the sanding process. When entering the contact, sand grains will fracture repeatedly and some of their fragments will be expelled. The amount of sand in the contact determines whether the metal surfaces are (partially) separated or not, allowing for different mechanisms of load transfer, see left part of Fig.  2 . Under high loads, sand fragments solidify and form clusters, which indent into wheel and rail surfaces (affecting roughness) [ 23 ]. This could increase adhesion via form closure effects, or the sand powder could solidify and partially cover the rough wheel–rail surfaces, increasing the effective contact area and thereby increasing the AC. The role of water is also unclear.

Two very recent and very different approaches aim at modelling the wheel–rail sanding process. In [ 32 ], adhesion enhancement in sanded wheel–rail contact is simulated using a 2D FEM model. The sand grains are modelled as triangles connected by so-called Cohesive Interface Elements allowing for particle breakage. Sanding under traction and braking conditions for differently sized sand grains of circular or ellipsoidal shape are simulated. The wheel–rail contact is set to be frictionless and only contacts involving the sand fragments are frictional with a coefficient of friction of 0.5. As a result, the model does not compute adhesion, but the adhesion enhancement caused by frictional contacts and interlocking of sand fragments. In traction simulations, this adhesion enhancement increased with increasing number of sand fragments and adhesion was generally higher than under braking conditions. In braking simulations, more elongated particles gave the highest adhesion enhancement. Under traction conditions, sand fragments passed the wheel–rail contact, while under braking conditions they were pushed to the end. These effects qualitatively matched observations made from experiments. For comparison of adhesion, no experimental data were available.

In [ 23 , 24 ], the authors of this study started to build a DEM model of wheel–rail sanding. As a preparation, single sand grain crushing tests of two types of rail sands under dry and wet contact conditions were conducted, [ 23 ]. In initial breakage tests and tests under a realistic wheel–rail load of 900 MPa sand fragments spreading behaviour was studied to understand what amount of sand fragments might be expelled from wheel–rail contact and what amount might stay inside and influence adhesion. One type of rail sand used in Great Britain, called GB sand, showed high fragment spread under dry conditions and low spread under wet conditions. On the contrary, rail sand used in Austria, called AT sand, showed low fragment spread both under dry and wet conditions. In the high-loading tests under wet conditions for both rail sands, large clusters of solidified sand fragments formed. High-resolution 3D scans of these sand clusters and the supporting steel plate, showed indents in the steel plates caused by sand clusters in prior tests. This confirms that form closure effects depicted schematically in Fig.  2 might play a role in adhesion increase. In [ 24 ], a DEM model of the conducted sand crushing tests was developed and parametrised. For both types of rail sand and both dry and wet contact conditions, a good agreement between experiments and simulations was achieved regarding the sand fragment spread and formation of clusters. As a first step, in [ 24 ], the steel plates were modelled as undeformable plate objects.

This work presents the next step, where the steel plates will be represented as plastically indentable surfaces. The modelling approach is sketched in Fig.  2 b.

In general, the steel plates could be modelled as elasto-plastic solids using the Finite Element Method in a coupled DEM-FEM approach. Such couplings are used in numerous applications in geomechanics, compare [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 25 , 28 ] to name only some. The main reason to use DEM for modelling the solid’s surface is the possible future use of this model. It allows extending the model with additional physical effects, which are easier modelled with DEM than with continuum methods such as FEM. One important model extension would be the consideration of so-called third body layers (3BL). Such layers consist for example of sand fragments or sand powder clusters, wear debris detaching from wheel and rail surfaces, and other naturally existing or artificially introduced substances. 3BL interact with rough wheel and rail surfaces and affect the frictional behaviour of them. The wear process itself can be included in a numerical model, by considering the initiation and the further propagation of multiple cracks leading to the detachment of wear particles becoming part of the 3BL. Such processes would be hard to include in a (X)FEM or coupled FEM-DEM model but are easier implemented in a pure DEM model.

Works in the literature that model surface wear in DEM are rare. The studies of Pham-Ba and Molinari [ 15 , 16 ] work at a very small length scale: With roots in Molecular dynamics (MD), a coarse-graining was applied that achieved to use particles of the size of 10 times the atoms they replaced. While these models have considerably lower computational costs than using MD directly, still their computational costs are too high for the aimed application of wheel–rail sanding.

The work of Capozza and Hanley [ 2 ], was an ideal starting point for this study. In [ 2 ], a surface indentation model was developed, where plastic wear of a surface caused by an indenter sphere was studied. The surface was modelled by a regular hexagonal grid of non-overlapping spheres, the indenter sphere meets the surface under normal or oblique impact or under scratching conditions. When the stress at a surface sphere is higher than its given hardness H , then the surface sphere is moved, similar to an ideal plastic material law. The surface spheres are always displaced vertically, i.e. normal to the surface plane, to maintain the regularity of the surface grid. The developed model has a rather low computational effort and as it contains only one parameter, H , it is easy to parametrise.

However, the model is formulated for indenter spheres being larger than the surface grid spheres. In this case, there is only one contact between the indenting sphere(s) and each surface sphere. In contrast, when the surface is indented by a granular material, a surface sphere can be in contact with several spheres from the granulate.

In this work, the model from [ 2 ] will be extended such that the surface can be indented by a granular material under vertical loading. As an additional novel aspect, this work systematically investigates the influence of the surface grid’s properties in two test cases with purely elastic and elastic-(ideal)-plastic behaviour. Finally, the application of surface indentation under a crushing sand grain at wheel–rail load is new.

This paper is organised as follows: In Sect.  2 , the original surface indentation model from [ 2 ] is summarised and adaptions for indentations by granular materials are presented. In the following section, the influence of the surface grid is discussed for two test cases: the normal impact of a sphere on the surface grid and the normal compression of a granular material constrained by side walls on the surface grid. For both test cases, the purely elastic behaviour is compared to the elastic-(ideal)plastic behaviour leading to surface indentations. Section  4 contains experimental results of spherical indentation tests on a commonly used rail steel. These results are used to parametrise the hardness of the steel plates in the adapted surface indentation model. The parametrised DEM model is then used in Sect.  5 for a proof of concept: combining the surface indentation model and the previously developed model for sand breakage, single sand grain crushing under realistic wheel–rail load is simulated. Finally, the last section contains conclusions and an outlook on future work.

2 Adapted surface indentation model

To consider the experimentally observed plasticity effects on the upper and lower plates in the high-loading sand crushing tests, i.e. development of indentations/ roughness, the surface indentation model presented in [ 2 ] has been taken as a starting point and adapted for pure vertical loading by a granular material.

For convenience, the model published in [ 2 ] will be summarised first and then the adapted model will be presented. As already mentioned, the work described in [ 2 ], studied plastic wear of a surface by an indenter sphere and considered shallow indentations. The developed model could simulate surface indentations under normal or oblique impacts as well as scratching of a surface. The surface was modelled by a regular hexagonal grid of N spheres of radius \(r_s\) . The surface had the area A and thus the area of each surface sphere was given by \(a_s=A/N\) . The surface was assigned the hardness H and it was indented by an indenter sphere of radius \(R_p\) . The indenter’s deformation was neglected because the indenter’s hardness was assumed to be higher than that of the surface. The indentation depth h was restricted to \(h \ll R_p\) such that surface cracks could be neglected. Contacts between surface spheres were ignored and contacts between the indenter sphere and a surface sphere used the Hertz–Mindlin contact law. The resulting contact force was used to calculate the pressure on the surface (for each surface sphere separately). If the pressure was below the surface’s hardness, the surface remained unchanged and thus the surface spheres did not move. For pressures above the hardness, the positions of surface spheres were adapted to represent the indentations occurring. In this model, the surface spheres were displaced only vertically, i.e. in z -direction. The surface spheres were not displaced laterally to ensure the regularity of the surface grid. Clearly, when a surface is indented, its area increases. Thus, when a surface sphere i was moved to model the indentation, also its area \(a_i\) increased, see [ 2 ] for a detailed explanation and a graphical illustration. The equations of the described model are summarised in the box below.

The model described above considers one indenter in contact with the discretised surface. Therefore, each surface sphere has only one contact with the indenter. In contrast, when the surface is indented by a granular material, a surface sphere can be in contact with several spheres from the granulate. Both situations are visualised in the drawing of Fig.  3 . The surface indentation model is adapted to take into account multiple contacts. At first, all contact forces are calculated using the Hertz–Mindlin contact law. This includes contacts inside the granular material and contacts between the granular material and surface spheres. Contacts between surface spheres are again ignored. For the flow condition, all K contact forces (normal and tangential) of a surface sphere i are summed up vectorially. In this work, the surface is oriented perpendicular to the z -axis. Therefore, the z -component of this sum is used to calculate the pressure acting on this surface sphere. If the flow condition is met, then the surface sphere is displaced. To do so, the relative velocities between the surface sphere and all K contacting spheres are calculated. The maximum of the z -component of these relative velocities is used to calculate the displacement distance analogously as in the original model. Alternatively, it would also be possible to use, for example, the mean value of the relative velocities. However, the use of the maximum of the relative velocities prevents the “fastest” granular sphere from entering too deeply into the surface sphere. For the small indentation depth considered in this work, the increase of surface area as formulated in [ 2 ] is negligible. Therefore, the area of the surface spheres is constant in the adapted model. As the aimed application of the model involves the application of normal forces only, the tangential direction of the indentation model is not considered here. The adapted model is summarised in the box below:

Schematic visualisation of contact situations. Left: large indenter contacting surface grid, one contact per surface sphere. Right: granular material contacting surface grid, multiple contacts per surface sphere

3 Test cases and surface grid influence

In this section, two test cases will be studied together with the influence of the used surface grid’s properties. These grids are used to model a solid’s surface. Thus, they are the numerical discretisation of a continuous body and they also introduce a certain surface roughness by their geometric description. While [ 2 ] focused on model development using only one surface grid of non-overlapping spheres, the influence of different surface grids should be investigated due to the before mentioned reasons. At first, several surface grids will be constructed and their characteristics will be shown. These grids will be used in all considered test cases. The first test case is the normal impact of a large sphere on the surface, both the purely elastic response and the plastic response using the adapted surface indentation model will be considered. The elastic–plastic case allows for a comparison with the results of [ 2 ], checking the influence of the changes made to the model and the use of overlapping surface grids. The second test case will be the normal compression of a granular material on the different surface grids. Again, the purely elastic and the plastic behaviour will be studied.

For all DEM simulations in this work, the software YADE [ 21 ] was used. It is open source and utilises the soft contact approach together with explicit integration in time.

Properties of the constructed surface grids using four different radii and three overlap factors ( ov )

3.1 Surface grid construction

The used surface grids are regular hexagonal grids of spheres generated with Yade’s grid generator [ 21 ]. The function yade.pack.regularHexa() is used to generate grids of touching spheres of a given radius. Grids of touching, i.e. non-overlapping, spheres are considered too rough for approximating a smooth surface. The surface representation gets smoother, when the grid spheres overlap, i.e. the spheres are grown with the multiplicative overlap factor ( ov ) after the generation. A visualisation of the overlap factor can be seen in Fig.  4 a for a 1D drawing. This figure also shows the two studied grid properties: the height difference hd and the opening angle \(\phi \) of the grid.

In this work, only one layer of spheres is generated and the dimensions used are length=width=1 cm. The constructed grids have four different radii of the surface spheres, \(r_s= 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.15~\hbox {mm}\) , and three different overlap factors, \(ov=1.5, 2,3\) . Figure  4 b shows the properties of the 12 constructed grids. The first subplot shows the number of spheres in the grid, N , which increases with increasing ov and decreasing \(r_s\) . The middle subplot shows the area per surface sphere \(a_s=1~\text{ cm}^2/\textrm{N}\) . The lowest subplot shows the height difference hd . It decreases with increasing ov and decreasing \(r_s\) . The opening angle \(\phi \) depends only on ov (and is independent of \(r_s\) ). Its values are stated in the lowest subplot of Fig.  4 b.

3.2 Elastic normal impact of indenter sphere

In this subsection, the elastic normal impact of an indenter sphere on the constructed surface grids is studied. The indenter radius is \(R_p=1~\hbox {cm}\) , and the contact parameters of the Hertz–Mindlin model are given in Table  1 . The indenter sphere approaches the surface with \(V=60~\hbox {m/s}\) and the resulting path-force curves are shown in Fig.  5 . Results for a simulation where the indenter sphere impacts a plane are also shown (according to Hertzian theory). The surface grids represent rough surfaces rather than the smooth surface of the plane. Initially, the indenter is in contact with only one surface sphere, and the equivalent radius, \(R^*\) , in the Hertz contact law is approximately equal to \(r_s\) . On the contrary, when the indenter contacts the plane, \(R^*=R_p\) . Initially, the resulting force is lower in the case of indenter and surface grid compared to indenter and plane. This changes soon, as the indenter gets into contact with additional surface spheres. The number of contacting spheres depends on the surface sphere radius \(r_s\) and the overlap factor ov . Over the complete impact simulation, the response of surface grids is much stiffer compared to the plane case, which of course does not make sense physically because, in reality, plastic deformations would occur locally reducing the overall stiffness. This will become clearer in the next subsection, where the elastic–plastic behaviour of the surface is studied.

Path-force response in normal indent simulations using different surface grids

3.3 Plastic normal impact of indenter sphere

In this subsection, the plastic indentation of the surface is studied when impacted by the indenter sphere. Due to the choice of \(R_p\) and the material parameters of Table  1 , the results can be directly compared to those obtained in [ 2 ], Sec. 4.1, where a grid of non-overlapping spheres was used. Also, a theoretical estimation of the indented volume for this test case was derived. Neglecting the effect of elastic deformation, in [ 2 ] the following estimation was obtained:

where V denotes the indenter’s initial velocity, m its mass, and H its hardness. The corresponding indentation volume, \(I_V\) , can be calculated from simulations using the positions of the surface spheres:

where \(z_i(t)\) is the z -coordinate of surface sphere i at time t .

The available results from both theory and simulation allow to investigate the influence of the surface grid as well as the influence of the changes made to the model, i.e. adapted computation of the flow condition and the neglect of the increase in surface area.

Indentation volume \(I_V\) resulting from normal impact with different velocities V and surface hardness H

Figure  6 shows indentation volumes for varying V and constant surface hardness \(H=1.7~\hbox {GPa}\) , Fig.  6 a, and for constant \(V=45~\hbox {m/s}\) and varying H , Fig.  6 b. Simulated indentation volumes are plotted, calculated by eq. ( 11 ), for all 12 surface grids. For comparison, also the estimated indentation volume calculated by eq. ( 10 ) and the simulation results obtained in [ 2 ] (using a non-overlapping surface grid) are given. The results show similar trends in both cases of Fig.  6 . For smaller indentation volumes, \(I_V<20 \text{ mm}^3\) , all surface grids give similar results, and the results are in good accordance with the results from [ 2 ] and theoretical estimation. For larger indentation volumes, differences depending on the surface grid can be seen. While the agreement with the simulations of [ 2 ] is still given, the results are now lower than the theoretical estimation. The observed differences between the surface grids depend only on the overlap factor ov and not on \(r_s\) . With increasing ov values, the simulated \(I_V\) decreases. In this test case, there is only one contact per surface sphere with the indenter. Thus, the flow condition simplifies to \(\left[ F_n \right] _z>a_s H\) . The computation of \(F_n\) involves only the surface sphere’s radius \(r_s\) and is independent of ov . On the contrary, the calculation of \(a_s\) involves both \(r_s\) and ov , which explains the dependency of the results on ov . Despite the differences that occur, it is important to note that for small to moderate indentation volumes, little differences can be seen between the 12 surface grids. From the adaptations made in the model, two are relevant in this test case: in the flow condition, the z -component of the contact force is used, and the increase of the surface spheres’ area is neglected. Due to the good agreement of the results with those of [ 2 ], both changes are justified.

3.4 Elastic normal compression of granular material

In this subsection, a granular material is studied under normal compression on the surface grids. As a first step, only the elastic behaviour is studied and compared to the case of compression on an ideal plane. The intended application of this model is the indentation of sand grain fragments on the steel surface, as in sanded wheel–rail contacts. Therefore, information from previous works by the authors was used for the choice of material parameters and particle size distribution. In [ 24 ], the crushing of two different types of rail sand was simulated in single grain crushing tests. The rail sands were named GB and AT according to their applications in Great Britain and Austria. In this work, the same sand types will be used as granular material with the material parameters from [ 24 ]. Table  2 gives the material parameters for both sand types and steel (surface spheres). In [ 24 ], single grain crushing tests under a realistic wheel–rail load of 900 MPa were simulated. The granular material used in this work had the same particle size distribution obtained from the final state of these simulations, see Fig.  7 for GB sand.

Particle size distribution curve of granular material used in simulations

Setup of granular compression on surface grid

Elastic compression test: granular material on surface grid and ideal plane

In the chosen setting, the granular material is compacted in a box of 3 mm \(\times \) 3 mm side length, see Fig.  8 . This is the approximate size of a cluster of solidified sand fragments forming in compression tests of GB sand. The mass of one initial sand grain of GB sand is filled in the box with a plane bottom, which results in a number of approx. 15,000 spheres representing the sand grain fragments. The grains are generated in a loose cloud above the box and are left to settle under gravity using a reduced coefficient of friction of \(\mu _r=0.01\) . Afterwards, the sample is compacted by a plane until 10N and is left to settle again. In the simulated compression tests, the generated granular sample is located above a surface grid and then compacted by a plane until a loading path of 0.22 mm was reached. The resulting path-force curves for the 12 surface grids used can be seen in Fig.  9 a together with the simulation result belonging to a bottom plane. In contrast to the setting of the elastic indentation of a large sphere, here only a moderate difference between the results of a bottom plane and the surface grids can be seen. The reason for this behaviour is related to the equivalent radius used in normal force calculation in Hertzian theory, \(\frac{1}{R^*}=\frac{1}{R_1} + \frac{1}{R_2} \) . When the granular spheres contact the bottom plane, the equivalent radius is equal to the granular sphere’s radius. When a granular sphere contacts a larger surface sphere, the equivalent radius approximately equals the smaller granular sphere’s radius. Deviations are caused by cases of granular spheres being of similar size as surface spheres and cases, where a granular sphere is in contact with more than one surface sphere. In Fig.  9 a, the lowest resulting force belongs to the largest surface spheres and the lowest overlap, i.e.  \(r_s=0.25~\hbox {mm}\) , \(ov=1.5\) . With both decreasing \(r_s\) and increasing ov , the number of surface spheres in contact with the granulate increases, which leads to higher resulting forces. Thus, the highest resulting force belongs to \(r_s=0.05~\hbox {mm}\) , \(ov=3\) .

The contact between the surface spheres and the granular material is further characterised in Fig.  9 . In Fig.  9 b, histograms are shown of the number of contacts per surface sphere. The four subplots contain the histograms of the three considered overlap values ov for each considered surface sphere radius \(r_s\) . As expected, higher overlap values result in lower numbers of contacts per surface sphere, and larger values of \(r_s\) result in higher numbers of contacts per surface sphere. The peak values in the histograms belonging to \(r_s=0.05~\hbox {mm}\) are 3, 3, and 2 for the overlap values \(ov=1.5, 2, 3\) . For the largest radius considered, \(r_s=0.25~\hbox {mm}\) , the corresponding peak values were 40, 26 and 14 for \(ov=1.5, 2, 3\) , respectively.

Plastic compression test: granular material on surface grid

Furthermore, the normal direction of all contacts between surface spheres and granular material is studied in Fig.  9 c. Here, histograms of these normal directions are shown, where a vertical contact is represented by \(90^\circ \) . Expectedly, the highest overlap value and the smallest radius give the smoothest surface representation and thus the narrowest histogram with a pronounced peak at \(90^\circ \) . With reducing ov and increasing \(r_s\) the modelled surface is rougher, which leads to broader histograms with a plateau instead of a peak at \(90^\circ \) . In the elastic case, the minimal/maximal possible angles are limited by the grid’s opening angle, \(\phi \) , which depends only on the overlap ov .

3.5 Plastic normal compression of granular material

Next, the same granular compression test is considered, where the surface grid is allowed to deform plastically. The hardness \(H=5~\hbox {GPa}\) was chosen for the simulations of these tests.

Figure  10 a shows the path-force curves belonging to the 12 surface grids as well as the development of the indentation volume \(I_V\) and the yielding area \(A_y(t)=\sum _{j=1}^N y^i_V(t) \,a_s\) . At first, the contacts of granulate and surface spheres are mostly in the elastic range, with some yielding contacts. In this phase, differences in the resulting force develop between the grids, as it was seen in the previous subsection. The amount of yielding contacts can be seen best from the yielding area. It shows huge differences between the grids, due to the different elastic response and the flow condition influence discussed in Sec.  3.3 , \(F(r_s) > a_s(r_s, ov) H\) . As a result, the grid of smallest spheres with the largest overlaps ( \(r_s=0.05~\hbox {mm}\) , \(ov=3\) ) reaches the phase of almost pure yielding before the grid of largest spheres with the smallest overlaps ( \(r_s=0.25~\hbox {mm}\) , \(ov=1.5\) ) shows severe yielding at all. In this last phase of mostly yielding contacts, a massive increase in the indentation volume \(I_V\) is seen, which is enforced by the external load and thus similar for all surface grids.

In Fig.  10 , the analogous plots as in the purely elastic case are shown. The histograms of the number of contacts per surface sphere, shown in Fig.  10 b, have their peaks shifted towards smaller contact numbers. For \(r_s=0.25~\hbox {mm}\) , these peak values are 32, 17, 9 (elastic case: 40, 26 and 14) for the overlap values \(ov=1.5, 2, 3\) , respectively. Also, these peaks show a higher count compared to the elastic case, while the overall number of contacts between granulate and surface spheres decreased compared to the elastic case. Thus, due to the plastic deformation of the surface grid, contacts with the granulate are reduced, and more of the surface spheres have a lower number of contacts with the granulate compared to the purely elastic case.

Regarding the contact normal directions shown in Fig.  10 c, the effect of the plastic deformation is harder to quantify. Overall, the shape of the histograms is more peaked around the vertical contact of \(90^\circ \) . However, there are a few contacts with normals below \(45^\circ \) or above \(135^\circ \) . They belong to surface spheres at the edge of the box, where the spheres are only partially yielding. These cases did not occur in the elastic case, where the minimum and maximum angles in Fig.  9 c were limited by the surface grid’s opening angle \(\phi \) .

Finally, a brief comparison of the computational times of these simulations is made. All simulations run on an Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6254 CPU @ 3.10GHz processor. For a fixed grid sphere radius \(r_s\) , the number of grid spheres also increases with increasing overlap ov , compare the upper subplot of Fig.  4 . For grids with the largest grid sphere radius, \(r_s=0.25~\hbox {mm}\) , the number of grid spheres lies between roughly 900 and 4,000, and the computational times ranged between 17 and 20 h. For grids with the smallest grid sphere radius, \(r_s=0.05~\hbox {mm}\) , the number of grid spheres lies between roughly 25,000 and 100,000, and the computational times ranged between 23 and 28 h. While the differences in computational time are clearly dominated by the number of grid spheres, the onset of yielding contacts also plays a role, which differs for the different grids, see the description above.

3.6 Summary of grid influence

After the analysis of the surface grids’ influence on the simulated test cases, it has to be decided, which grid should be used. Due to several advantageous properties, the grid ( \(r_s=0.15~\hbox {mm}\) , ov= 2) is considered from now on. With 4810 surface spheres, it combines a moderate computational effort with a suitably smooth surface representation regarding hd and \(\phi \) , see Fig.  4 . Moreover, the chosen approach aims at describing the surface as a continuum, which means that each surface sphere should have several contacts with the granulate. This demand is met, compare Fig.  10 b, and the chosen grid also shows a moderate yielding behaviour, compare the lowest subplot of Fig.  10 a.

Spherical indentation tests: Alicona scans of indentation depth and indent’s diameter

Spherical indentation tests: examples of cut through measured point cloud and maximal indentation and indent’s diameter for all load levels

4 Experimental indentation tests and parametrisation

For the parametrisation of the hardness H in the developed DEM model, spherical indentation tests were conducted on a typical rail steel called R260. These tests were conducted using a servo-hydraulic test machine. A flat specimen made of rail steel was placed into a bottom holder with a stainless steel (AISI 440C) ball bearing of 8.73 mm diameter, fixed into a top holder. The flat specimen and ball bearing were brought into contact, and normal loads were applied at the following levels: 100, 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7500 N. For each load level, one repetition was conducted to check the quality of the measurement.

After the indentation test was complete, the indent was analysed using an Alicona InfiniteFocusSL 3D optical profilometer. The Alicona captured a 3D scan covering a 3.66 mm \(\times \) 3.66 mm area (vertical resolution of 500 nm). Further post-processing of the image conducted using in-built software yielded an image coloured by the indentation depth, see Fig  11 a for an example. Also, a picture of the indent used to visually measure the intent’s diameter was taken, see Fig  11 b for an example. Finally, with the Alicona a.txt file of the measured point cloud of the indented surface was saved. These point clouds were centred around 0 and rotated such that the indentation was parallel to the z -axis. Cutting through the post-processed point clouds allowed visualisation of the indent’s shape in 2D, see Fig.  12 a for some examples. Here, the surface roughness can be seen at the unindented area, i.e. the edge area of the steel plate. In this area, \(R_q\) values were calculated, which had a median value of \(2.8~\mu \hbox {m}\) . In this area, the z values lay mostly between \(\pm 10 \mu \hbox {m}\) . The indentation depth was calculated as the minimum z value in the neighbourhood of 0. The calculated indentation depth and the visually measured indent’s diameter are shown in Fig.  12 b for all load levels. The indentation depth plot shows error bars with the mentioned \(\pm 10 \mu \hbox {m}\) . This is especially important for the two lowest load levels, as for 100 N nearly no indent and for 500 N very small indentation depth is calculated. A linear relationship between the applied normal load and indentation depth can be seen. The agreement of the two measurements taken at each load level is high, with the exception of test 2 at 2000 N and test 1 at 5000 N, see Fig.  12 b. For high loads in Fig.  12 a, a slight lateral flow of the material can be seen, i.e. material is accumulating at the edge of the indent. It should be noted that this effect is not included in the DEM model.

In addition to investigating the indented steel surface, also scans were taken of the ball bearing intermittently to ensure large-scale plastic deformation was not occurring. The generated measurement data are freely available at zenodo.org, see [ 34 ].

Spherical indentation tests: Comparison of experimental and simulation results

Single sand grain crushing for GB and AT sand with indented steel plates of \(H=2.5~\hbox {GPa}\)

For the parametrisation of the DEM model, simulations of the indentation tests were conducted, using different values for the hardness H . The used surface grid is ( \(r_s=0.15~\hbox {mm}\) , \(ov= 2\) ), and the material parameters for the steel surface and the indenter sphere are the same as given in Table  2 . In the simulations, the steel surface is not moving, while the indenter sphere moves with constant velocity. When a load level is reached, the maximal plastic indentation of the surface grid and the diameter of the formed indent at the surface grid are saved. The load is further increased until the highest load level is reached. These simulations are conducted with several hardness values H and their results are compared with the experimental measurements at each load level, see Fig.  13 .

The measured maximal indentation depth was in good agreement with simulations using \(H=2.5~\hbox {GPa}\) , especially for loads above 2000 N. With increasing hardness values, the simulated surface starts to deform at higher loads. In all cases, the same linear relationship between applied load and indentation depth as in the experimental results can be seen. Due to the good agreement between measured indentation depth and the results of the elastic-(ideal)plastic simulation model, it seems that hardening of the steel does not play a role in these tests. Considering the indent’s diameter, simulations with \(H=2~\hbox {GPa}\) showed the highest agreement with the experiments. As the diameter was measured visually from the photo taken by the Alicona, these values were considered less precise. Therefore, the steel surface of R260 rail steel will be simulated using \(H=2.5~\hbox {GPa}\) .

5 Proof of concept: application to wheel–rail sanding

The aim of the work presented here is to do one step towards the development of a DEM model for wheel–rail sanding. In previous works [ 23 ], a single sand grain was crushed between two hardened steel plates under a realistic wheel–rail load of 900 MPa. Two types of rail sand were investigated, and two contact conditions: dry and wet contact. Under wet contact conditions, both types of sand formed clusters of solidified sand. Although hardened steel plates were used to minimise plastic deformation, after testing, indents of approx.  \(40\mu \hbox {m}\) depth were seen in Alicona scans. In [ 24 ], a DEM model for these single grain crushing tests was developed, where the steel plates were considered undeformable. A good qualitative agreement between experiments and simulations could be achieved regarding the formation and size of clusters of solidified sand. However, there was a problem with very high overlaps of sand fragments, which was caused by the extremely high applied stress and the rigid steel plates used in these simulations.

In this section, the model developed in [ 24 ] will be combined with the surface indentation model developed in this work. As no experimental data are available yet for direct comparison, this effort is seen as a proof of concept.

Single grain crushing tests of GB and AT sand under 900 MPa load are simulated under wet contact conditions. The full details of the method can be found in [ 24 ]. The material parameters for sand and steel for the Hertz–Mindlin contact law are given in Table  2 , and the parameters of the sand breakage model, including cohesion, are chosen as in [ 24 ]. The steel surfaces are modelled with the surface grid ( \(r_s=0.15~\hbox {mm}\) , \(ov= 2\) ), and the parametrised hardness \(H=2.5~\hbox {GPa}\) is used. During the simulation, the sand fragments fracture repeatedly and form clusters of solidified sand. The steel plates remain undeformed while the majority of breakage events take place. For both types of sand, the plastic indentation of the steel surface does not start before more than 95% of all sand fragments have a size below the breakage limit and are thus considered unbreakable. Only in the last part of the simulation, the occurring stresses are high enough to indent the steel plates. The final state of the simulations for GB and AT sand can be seen in Fig.  14 . In Fig.  14 a, a cut through the indented steel plates enclosing the formed sand cluster is shown for GB sand. Figure  14 b and c shows a top view of the formed sand cluster and the indented steel surface, coloured by the indentation depth, also for GB sand. The analogous figures for simulations of AT sand can be seen in Fig.  14 d, e and f, respectively. In simulations of both sand types, at the final state there is contact, and thus load transfer, between the two steel plates. At 1.54 mm, the initial diameter of the GB sand grain is larger than the one of the AT grain at 1.25 mm. The size and height of the formed cluster differ between the sand types, which leads to different maximal indentation depths and indentation volumes of the steel surfaces. For GB sand, the formed cluster has an approximate length of 5 mm, the maximal indentation depth is 0.16 mm and the indentation volume of the bottom steel plate is \(1.25~\hbox {mm}^3\) . For the AT sand, the formed cluster has a length of approximately 2 mm and the maximal indentation depth is at 0.23 mm higher than for GB sand. Due to the smaller initial grain size of AT sand, the indentation volume of the bottom steel plate is \(0.71~\hbox {mm}^3\) and thus lower than for GB sand.

As mentioned above, the model developed in [ 24 ] using rigid steel surfaces suffered from very high particle overlaps. These high overlaps are now considerably reduced. For quantification, the overlap between two particle’s is divided by the smaller particles radius, called overlap ratio, i.e. at a value of 2.0 the smaller particle would be completely enclosed by its contact partner. In a simulation of GB sand without the surface indentation model, 80% of all contacts have overlap ratios below 0.45. This value reduces to 0.3 in the simulation with the surface indentation model. For simulations of AT sand, the overlap ratios are even higher (as for the smaller initial grain, local stresses are higher). The value is 0.73 for rigid steel surfaces and reduces to 0.34 for the simulation with the surface indentation model. Still, these overlap ratios are still higher than in usual DEM simulations taking into account elastic material behaviour. This is to be expected, as under the extremely high stresses, the material behaviour is much more complex, e.g. formation of solidified clusters. The used elastic contact model with the very high cohesion values is seen as a substitute until physical effects are understood better and allow for a more detailed modelling.

The simulated indentation depth is clearly higher than the 0.04 mm seen in the experiments conducted in [ 23 ]. However, these experiments were conducted with hardened steel to minimise indentations on the surfaces as much as possible. As a comparison, hardness measurements of the hardened steel and the R260 rail steel used in this work were taken. Taking the average from five measurements per steel type, the hardened steel has a hardness of 765 Hv, while the R260 steel has a hardness of 316 Hv. Taking the ratio of these values, 765/316=2.42, and assuming a linear relation between the measured hardness and the model parameter H , gives approximately \(H=6~\hbox {GPa}\) for the hardened steel plates. Again, simulations for AT and GB sand are conducted with \(H=6~\hbox {GPa}\) . At the final state, the maximal indentation depth is 0.08 mm for GB sand and 0.19 mm for AT sand. In the simulations of GB sand, the steel plates are not in contact, thus the load is solely transferred through the sand cluster. This can be related to the larger surface area of the cluster, thus causing lower local stresses when compared to AT sand. The simulated maximal indentation depths are still higher than the experimentally observed values. Most likely, the assumed linear scaling between measured Hv values and the model parameter H could be inappropriate. However, differences between simulations and experiments could also originate from physical mechanisms not included in the model or general model deficiencies.

6 Conclusions and outlook

This work deals with DEM modelling of a surface indented by a granular material. The application of this topic is wheel–rail sanding. This process is frequently used in railways to overcome low-adhesion conditions, while the physical mechanism of adhesion increase is not well understood. A DEM model can help to deepen this understanding. As a preparation, in [ 23 ], single sand grain breakage tests under realistic wheel–rail load, 900 MPa, were conducted on two types of rail sand under dry and wet contact conditions. The sand grains fractured repeatedly and, dependent on the sand type and contact condition, formed clusters of solidified sand fragments. These clusters indented the hardened steel plates used in the tests. In [ 24 ], a DEM model of these tests was developed and parametrised. The steel plates in the crushing tests were modelled as undeformable in [ 24 ].

This work presents the next step, where a solid’s surface can be indented by granular material. An existing surface indentation from the literature [ 2 ], was adapted for indentations by a granular material under normal load. The indented surface is modelled in DEM as a regular hexagonal grid of spheres, and the influence of grid discretisation is investigated in two test cases: normal impact of a spherical indenter on the surface and normal compression of a granular material on the surface. After the optimal grid is chosen, the DEM model is parametrised using spherical indentation tests on a typical rail steel R260. Simulation results are in good accordance with the indentation depth calculated from measurement data.

In a proof of concept, the single sand grain crushing tests under realistic wheel–rail load from [ 24 ] are combined with the new surface indentation model. Simulations of GB and AT sand show differences in the size of formed clusters, maximal indentation depth, and indented volume. No measurement data are available for a direct comparison of the simulated indentation of the steel plates. The model of [ 24 ] using rigid steel surfaces had a problem with very high particle overlaps. Combining [ 24 ] with the surface indentation model considerably reduces the observed overlaps.

The obtained results are an important step on the way of building a DEM model of wheel–rail sanding. Planned next steps are to study the shearing behaviour of the two types of rail sand in a small-scale shear box test.

Data availability:

The datasets analysed during the current study are openly available in the zenodo.org repository, see [ 34 ].

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project P 34273: DEM modelling of adhesion in sanded wheel–rail contacts. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.

The publication was written at Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH in Graz, Austria. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support within the COMET K2 Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action (BMK), the Austrian Federal Ministry for Labour and Economy (BMAW), the Province of Styria (Dept. 12) and the Styrian Business Promotion Agency (SFG). The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) has been authorised for the programme management.

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Suhr, B., Skipper, W.A., Lewis, R. et al. DEM modelling of surface indentations caused by granular materials: application to wheel–rail sanding. Comp. Part. Mech. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40571-024-00816-w

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Human Smc5/6 recognises transcription-generated positive DNA supercoils

• Aurélie Diman   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2158-4802 1 , 2 ,
• Gaël Panis 1 , 2   na1 ,
• Cédric Castrogiovanni   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3219-7306 3 , 4   na1 ,
• Julien Prados   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8546-241X 5 ,
• Bastien Baechler 1 , 2 &
• Michel Strubin 1 , 2  

Nature Communications volume  15 , Article number:  7805 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Gene expression
• Transcription

Beyond its essential roles in ensuring faithful chromosome segregation and genomic stability, the human Smc5/6 complex acts as an antiviral factor. It binds to and impedes the transcription of extrachromosomal DNA templates; an ability which is lost upon integration of the DNA into the chromosome. How the complex distinguishes among different DNA templates is unknown. Here we show that, in human cells, Smc5/6 preferentially binds to circular rather than linear extrachromosomal DNA. We further demonstrate that the transcriptional process, per se, and particularly the accumulation of DNA secondary structures known to be substrates for topoisomerases, is responsible for Smc5/6 recruitment. More specifically, we find that in vivo Smc5/6 binds to positively supercoiled DNA. Those findings, in conjunction with our genome-wide Smc5/6 binding analysis showing that Smc5/6 localizes at few but highly transcribed chromosome loci, not only unveil a previously unforeseen role of Smc5/6 in DNA topology management during transcription but highlight the significance of sensing DNA topology as an antiviral defense mechanism.

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Smc5/6 silences episomal transcription by a three-step function

Introduction.

The Smc5/6 complex belongs to the ring-shaped Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) family complexes, which also includes the well-characterized cohesin (Smc1/3) and condensin (Smc2/4) 1 . These multi-subunit complexes, highly conserved in eukaryotes, are made of SMC heterodimers associated with a unique set of non-SMC-proteins (designated Nse1 to Nse4 in the case of Smc5/6). Powered by ATP, they entrap DNA molecules and contribute to chromosome architecture and dynamics 1 , 2 . While the roles of cohesin and condensin in fundamental chromosomal transactions have been clearly established, the cellular functions specific to Smc5/6 remain to be clarified 1 , 3 . The Smc5/6 complex has been linked to a wide range of cellular processes 4 , 5 such as DNA replication 6 , DNA repair 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , telomere maintenance 11 , and homologous recombination 12 , 13 . More recently, it has been identified as an antiviral factor targeting the hepatitis B virus (HBV) 14 , 15 . The binding of Smc5/6 to the circular HBV DNA genome impedes viral gene transcription and, thus, infection. To counteract the restriction activity of the complex, HBV expresses HBx, a protein that targets Smc5/6 for ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation 14 , 15 . Smc5/6 restriction activity is not limited to HBV. Several studies have documented the ability of Smc5/6 to inhibit the transcription and/or replication of other human pathogenic viruses. These include human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 , 17 , herpes simplex (HSV-1) 18 , Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) 19 , unintegrated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) 20 , Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) 21 and polyomavirus (SV40) 22 . The hallmarks of these viruses are the expression of inhibitory proteins antagonizing the Smc5/6 restriction activity and the maintenance of their genomes as a chromatinized extrachromosomal circular DNA within the nucleus of the infected cell 14 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 .

We previously reported that, as long as it remains extrachromosomal, the transcription of any reporter gene is silenced by Smc5/6. This occurs independently of the DNA sequence or the type of promoter used 14 , 23 . However, random chromosomal integration of the reporter gene safeguards it from Smc5/6-mediated restriction 14 , 23 . As shown by a recent structure-function analysis of the complex, extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) restriction is a property unique to Smc5/6, since neither cohesin nor condensin are involved 24 . The three-step restriction process involves the binding of Smc5/6 to ecDNA, their localization to Promyelocytic Leukemia Nuclear Bodies (PML-NBs), and subsequent transcriptional silencing through a yet unknown mechanism 24 . Since entrapment of ecDNA by Smc5/6 is a prerequisite to its restriction activity, we investigated and characterized the DNA substrate requirements for Smc5/6 binding in human cells.

In vitro studies revealed that both yeast and human Smc5/6 complexes possess an affinity for DNA tertiary structures featuring crossed DNA helices, such as plectonemes and catenated DNA templates 25 , 26 . These structures commonly arise during DNA replication and/or transcription processes and are typically resolved by topoisomerase enzymes (Top1 and Top2) 27 . In yeast cells, the accumulation of unresolved topological tension during DNA replication, caused by the depletion of Top2, leads to a significant increase in the binding of Smc5/6 to chromosomes 28 .

Nevertheless, despite the intricate link observed between DNA supercoiling and Smc5/6 binding, the specific nature of the DNA structures recognized by the complex within cellular environment remains unclear.

Using several extrachromosomal reporter gene constructs in combination with chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) in non-transformed immortalized human retina pigment epithelial cells (hTERT-RPE1), we show that ecDNA discrimination by Smc5/6 is not based on DNA uptakes route. Instead, the circular nature of the ecDNA is essential for Smc5/6 recognition since a linear extrachromosomal construct escapes both Smc5/6 binding and restriction. We also find that the transcriptional process itself, and not the RNA polymerase II transcription machinery, is implicated in Smc5/6 recruitment onto ecDNA. Modulation of DNA topoisomerase activity provides evidence that Smc5/6 binding depends on the accumulation of transcription-driven topological constraints. More specifically, by conducting additional topological characterization of the ecDNA, we find that in vivo, Smc5/6 binds to positively supercoiled DNA. Our comprehensive genome-wide analysis further confirms that the chromosomal association of Smc5/6 is also conditioned by transcription and the presence of positive DNA supercoils. Collectively, our data suggest a previously unsuspected role for Smc5/6 in the management of DNA superhelical stress generated during transcription and indicate that transcription-driven topological stress could be harnessed as a host defence mechanism against invaders.

Smc5/6 restricts extrachromosomal DNA of both endogenous and exogenous origins

Since Smc5/6 restriction activity selectively operates on ecDNA templates introduced into cells either by transfection or viral transduction, we asked whether a chromosome-derived DNA circle would be detected and restricted by the complex 14 , 23 . For this purpose, we established a stable human cell line carrying an excisable chromosomal reporter construct that is not expressed when integrated into the chromosome (Fig.  1A ). The construct was engineered such that upon Cre recombinase expression, using a self-excising lentiviral vector 29 , the split Gaussia luciferase ( GLuc ) gene ( GLuc -Nter and GLuc -Cter) flanked by two LoxP sites, embedded within a splice donor and acceptor sequences from an artificial intron, will form a circular ecDNA molecule. After transcription, the LoxP -containing intron is spliced out and a functional GLuc mRNA is formed. To monitor Cre-mediated excision, a green fluorescent reporter ( GFP ) gene was inserted at the 3′ end of the construct while the constitutive EF1α promoter lies at the 5′ end. Upon excision, this configuration brings the GFP gene under the control of the EF1α promoter. Visualization of GFP-positive cells therefore provided a rapid and simple assessment of the recombination events (Fig.  1B ). Excision efficiency, as well as extrachromosomal circle formation, were further quantified by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). Using three primer sets spanning the construct (Supplementary Fig.  1A ), we showed that whereas the signal for the GFP coding region did not significatively change upon Cre-mediated excision (primer pair #G), as expected, the junction amplified by the primer pair #L almost completely disappeared. This coincided with the appearance of a new DNA junction, amplified by the primer pair #E, consistent with the generation of recombination-dependent extrachromosomal circles (Supplementary Fig.  1B ). Measuring luciferase activity, we showed that GLuc gene expression from the excised extrachromosomal circle increased in a Cre-dependent fashion following Smc5/6 complex degradation by HBx. Transduction in the same cells of an extrachromosomal reporter construct of exogenous origin expressing a Cypridina luciferase gene ( CLuc ) delivered thanks to an integrase-defective lentivirus (IND64A) showed a similar increase in luciferase activity but independently of Cre expression as expected (Fig.  1C ). Similar results were obtained using two other cellular clones (Supplementary Fig.  1C ). Overall, these results demonstrate that Smc5/6 restricts ecDNA independently of its origin.

A Schematic depiction of the genome-integrated construct used to generate extrachromosomal [Gluc circle ] and a chromosomally expressed GFP gene upon Cre/ loxP -mediated excision. The yeast DNA stuffer is depicted in blue. B Live-cell representative images of Cre/ loxP -mediated excision in hTERT-RPE1 cells containing the genomic excisable [Gluc circle ] construct were co-transduced with lentiviruses containing either no gene insert (Mock) or HBx, plus or minus the Cre recombinase. Nuclei were visualized with SiR-DNA. Scale bar, 100 μm. Data are representative of three independent experiments. C hTERT-RPE1 cells containing the genomic excisable [Gluc circle ] construct (excised ecDNA) were co-transduced with lentiviruses containing either no gene insert (Mock) or HBx, plus or minus the Cre recombinase, together with an integrase-defective lentiviral Cypridina luciferase ( CLuc ) reporter construct (exogenous ecDNA). The luciferase assay was performed 2 days post transduction. Luciferase activities are relative to their corresponding mock, which were set to 1. Data are means ± SEM of 3 independent experiments. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Smc5/6 preferentially binds and restricts circular DNA templates

The preferential entrapment of circular DNA molecules, in vitro, by the purified budding yeast Smc5/6 complex 25 , 30 , prompted us to ask whether a linear ecDNA would be detected by the human Smc5/6 complex in a cellular context. To answer this question, we modified an existing linear bacterial vector called pJazz®-OK 31 and made it suitable for reporter gene expression in mammalian cells. The GLuc gene under the control of a cytomegalovirus promoter (CMV) was cloned into the vector (Fig.  2A , upper panel). The covalently closed hairpin ends of the plasmid prevent its concatenation and its integration into the cellular chromosome. Taking advantage of two restriction enzyme sites (BssHII) present at both ends of the linear plasmid, we generated its circular counterpart, thereby allowing a direct comparison of the two constructs without any sequence bias (Fig.  2A , lower panel). Luciferase assays following transient transfection with either the circular or linear reporter constructs revealed that the circular DNA template was more strongly responsive to HBx compared to the linear template, which showed only weak stimulation (Fig.  2B ). Furthermore, and as expected, despite similar transfection efficiency as measured by qPCR analysis (Supplementary Fig.  2 ), the basal expression level of the linear construct approximated those measured for the circular DNA template in the presence of HBx (Fig.  2B ). We then examined whether the reduced stimulation of the linear reporter reflected a defect in Smc5/6 binding. ChIP experiments demonstrated, that indeed, Smc5/6 failed to stably associate with the linear ecDNA (Fig.  2C ). Hence, linear ecDNA escapes Smc5/6 entrapment and silencing.

A Schematic illustration of the linear pJAZZ®-derived vector with its terminal DNA hairpin loops, containing a mammalian expression cassette. The CMV promoter drives the expression of the Gaussia Luciferase gene. The BssHII restriction sites used to convert the linear vector into its circular form are also indicated. B hTERT-RPE1 cells over-expressing the HA-tagged version of Smc6 were transiently transfected with either a circular or a linear Gaussia luciferase reporter plasmid and then transduced with lentiviruses containing either no gene insert (Mock) or HBx. Luciferase activities were measured 2 days later and are presented as relative luminescence units (RLU). Data are means ± SEM of 3 independent experiments. Statistical analysis was performed using the two-sided Student’s t -test. C hTERT-RPE1 cells (No HA) or hTERT-RPE1 cells over-expressing HA-tagged version of Smc6 were transiently transfected with either a circular or a linear Gaussia luciferase reporter plasmid and then transduced with lentiviruses containing either no gene insert (Mock) or HBx. Anti-HA ChIP was performed 2 days later. The data are expressed as a percentage of input. Data are means ± SEM of 3 independent experiments. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Smc5/6 binding to extrachromosomal DNA requires transcription but not RNA polymerase II

Chromosomal association of Smc5/6 has been reported to prevent accumulation of replication-induced DNA supercoiling 32 . Since the extrachromosomal reporter plasmids used in this study do not replicate, therefore excluding a role for replication in Smc5/6 binding, we investigate whether the topological stress induced by transcription promoted Smc5/6 loading onto ecDNA. We performed time-course experiments using two well-known transcription inhibitors. Cells were treated either with Actinomycin D (ACTD), which intercalates into the DNA helix thereby impeding the progression of the RNA polymerases 33 , or with Triptolide (TPT), which inhibits the transcription initiation step and induces proteasomal-dependent degradation of the RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) 34 . Both inhibitory treatments suppressed RNA synthesis, as confirmed by the reduced incorporation of the uridine analogue 5-ethynyluridine (EU), into newly transcribed RNA molecules (Supplementary Fig.  3A ) 35 . Using anti-Smc5 and anti-Nse4 antibodies, we further confirmed by western blot analysis that none of the treatments alter the stability of the Smc5/6 complex, in contrast to what is observed upon HBx expression (Fig.  3A, B ). ChIP experiments using HA-Smc6-expressing hTERT RPE-1 cells, showed that transcriptional arrest resulted in a specific dissociation of Smc5/6 from ecDNA while the level of histone H3 remained stable (Fig.  3C, D ). In contrast, in DMSO-treated cells, the binding of Smc5/6 appears to be stable over time (Supplementary Fig.  3B ).

Western blots showing Smc5 and Nse4 levels in protein extracts of hTERT-RPE1 cells over-expressing HA-Smc6 treated for the indicated times with ( A ) 10 μg/ml Actinomycin D (ACTD) or ( B ) 10 μM Triptolide (TPT). Protein extract of GFP-tagged HBx expressing cells was used as a control for Smc5/6 complex degradation. *: Non-specific Nse4 band. Smc5 was used to assess the integrity of the Smc5/6 complex because only a small fraction of the overexpressed HA-Smc6 is assembled into the Smc5/6 complex that binds DNA and is consequently degraded by HBx 14 , 24 . hTERT-RPE1 cells (No HA) or HA-Smc6 hTERT-RPE1 cells transduced with an integrase-defective lentiviral luciferase reporter construct and treated with ( C ) ACTD or ( D ) TPT for the indicated times before anti-HA ChIP experiment (blues bars) or anti-H3 (pink bars). qPCR primers amplified the extrachromosomal Gluc . Data are expressed as a percentage relative to the input normalized to their corresponding 0 h time point set to 1 and are means ± SEM of 3 independent experiments. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons. E Experimental design depiction (left panel). Immunofluorescence staining of HA-Smc6 hTERT-RPE1 cells expressing T7 RNA polymerase with a nuclear localization signal (NLS) (right panel). Nuclei were stained with DAPI. Scale bar, 50 μm. F – H HA-Smc6 hTERT-RPE1 cells expressing or not the T7 RNA pol, co-transduced with lentiviruses containing either no gene insert (Mock) or HBx, together with an integrase-defective lentiviral construct carrying a GFP gene controlled by a T7 promoter and an IRES (Internal Ribosome Entry Site). Cells were treated with 10 μM Triptolide (TPT) for 24 h prior to anti-HA ChIP experiments. Three extrachromosomal regions - T7 promoter ( F ), IRES ( G ), GFP ( H ) - were tested and compared to their respective minus T7 RNA pol values. Data are expressed as a percentage relative to the input and are means ± SEM of 3 independent experiments. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Since Smc5/6 association depends on transcription, we explored if the nature of the RNA polymerase II machinery was important for the recruitment of the complex to ecDNA. An extrachromosomal construct carrying a GFP reporter gene under the control of the bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase promoter was transduced in cells overexpressing a T7 RNA polymerase carrying a nuclear localisation signal (NLS-T7) (Fig.  3E , left panel). The nuclear localization of the T7 RNA polymerase was confirmed by immunofluorescence microscopy (Fig.  3E , right panel). Since it was previously reported that RNA pol II can drive transcription from a T7 promoter in mammalian cells 36 , cells were treated for 24 h with TPT prior to ChIP experiments. TPT is known to block RNA Pol II transcription while transcription driven by T7 RNA polymerase remains unaffected. Induction of transcription by the T7 RNA polymerase resulted in a twofold increase in the recruitment of the Smc5/6 complex to ecDNA (Fig.  3F–H ). Altogether, those results highlight the notion that Smc5/6 binding is transcription-dependent but preclude that the recruitment occurs through interaction with the RNA pol II transcription machinery.

Smc5/6 detects transcription-induced topological structures that are substrates for topoisomerases

Several studies have found that both the human and yeast Smc5/6 complexes, have a marked preference for DNA tertiary structures such as plectonemes that arise upon accumulation of DNA supercoils 25 , 26 . Our data indicating that circular DNA, as well as transcription, are required for Smc5/6 binding (Figs.  2 and 3 ) prompted us to investigate the potential role of DNA topology in Smc5/6 recruitment to ecDNA. We hypothesized that Smc5/6 dissociation upon transcriptional arrest was due to the activity of topoisomerases (Top) which function to dissipate transcription-generated supercoils 27 . Concomitant knock-downs of Top1, Top2A, and Top2B was performed to prevent any functional compensation of Top2A by Top2B 37 , 38 . Western blot analysis failed to detect Top2A in hTERT RPE-1 cells under our experimental conditions (Fig.  4A, C ), but successful detection and knock-down validation was achieved in COLO320DM cells which exhibited higher Top2A expression levels (Supplementary Fig.  4 ). As expected, the simultaneous siRNA-mediated knock-down of Top1, Top2A and Top2B (Fig.  4A and Supplementary Fig.  4 ) in combination with transcription inhibition, prevented the dissociation of Smc5/6 from the ecDNA as shown by ChIP (Fig.  4B ). Furthermore, c-Myc overexpression, which has been shown to stimulate Top1 and Top2 relaxation activities through the formation of the “topoisome” complex 39 , led to Smc5/6 detachment, an event that could be counteracted by concomitant Top1, Top2A and Top2B siRNA-mediated depletion (Fig.  4C, D ). Finally, to induce a targeted supercoil DNA relaxation of the ecDNA molecules, we overexpressed the myc-tagged DNA topoisomerase 1B from Vaccinia virus fused to a NLS (Myc-NLS-vTopIB) (Fig.  4E, F ). This enzyme specifically recognizes the 5′-(C/T)CCTT-3′ DNA sequence 40 , 41 present at three different locations over the ecDNA. ChIP experiments performed in these cells revealed a reduction in Smc5/6 ecDNA binding (Fig.  4G ) without an alteration in Smc5/6 complex stability (Fig.  4F ). Altogether, these results point towards a DNA topology-dependent association of Smc5/6.

HA-Smc6-expressing hTERT RPE-1 cells transduced with an integrase-defective lentiviral luciferase reporter construct transfected with non-targeting control siRNA (siNTC) or with siRNAs against topoisomerase 1 (siTop1) and topoisomerases 2A and 2B (siTop2) before treatment or not with 10 μM Triptolide (TPT) prior to ( A ) Western blot analysis and ( B ) ChIP experiments using anti-HA (siTops: siTop1 and siTop2). ChiP data are expressed as a percentage relative to the input normalized to the siNTC alone (or not treated with TPT), which was set to 1. Data are means ± SEM of 3 independent experiments. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons. C , D HA-Smc6-expressing hTERT RPE-1 cells co-transduced with lentiviruses containing either no gene insert (Mock) or encoding the c-Myc gene, together with an integrase-defective lentiviral luciferase reporter construct were transfected with siNTC or with siTop1 and siTop2. C Western blot and ( D ) ChIP using anti-HA were performed after 3 days (siTops: siTop1 and siTop2). The ChiP data are expressed as a percentage relative to the input normalized to the siNTC alone, which was set to 1. Data are means ± SEM of 3 independent experiments. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons. E Immunofluorescence staining of HA-Smc6-expressing hTERT RPE-1 cells transduced or not (NT) with lentiviruses encoding a N-terminal 3xMyc-tag-NLS topoisomerase 1B from vaccinia virus (Myc-NLS-vTop1B). Nuclei were stained with DAPI. Scale bar, 50 μm. F , G HA-Smc6-expressing hTERT RPE-1 cells expressing or not Myc-NLS-vTop1B, transduced with an integrase-defective lentiviral luciferase reporter, were co-transduced with lentiviruses containing either no gene insert (Mock) or HBx. F Western blots using an anti-Myc confirmed the expression of Myc-NLS-vTop1B with no impact on Smc5/6 complex integrity as demonstrated by Smc5 protein levels. G ChIP with anti-HA were performed after 3 days. ChiP data are expressed as a percentage relative to the input normalized to no Topo1V mock, which was set to 1. Data are means ± SEM of 3 independent experiments. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

The genome-wide association of Smc5/6 depends on the DNA topological stress generated by transcription

Having shown that the accumulation of topological constraints due to transcription is responsible for the recruitment of Smc5/6 to ecDNAs, we asked if our results could recapitulate the Smc5/6 binding pattern on a genomic scale. Although Smc5/6 ChIP-sequencing (ChIP-seq) data are publicly available for S.cerevisiae 28 , 42 , Schizosaccharomyces pombe 43 , and Mus.musculus 44 , to our knowledge, there is no such data reported for the human complex. Therefore, to gain more insights into the genome-wide Smc5/6 DNA-binding profile, we generated ChIP-seq data from HA-Smc6 and compared them to untagged Smc6 control cells. Our ChIP-seq results confirmed the ChIP-qPCR results with a 63-fold enrichment of reads mapping on the extrachromosomal GLuc ORF in the HA-Smc6 samples (Supplementary Fig.  5A ). In addition, we identified a total of 41 binding sites for Smc5/6 throughout the human genome with a significant 2.5-fold enrichment compared to the no HA control cells (Fig.  5A DMSO and No HA). To test if the chromosomal association of Smc5/6 was also transcription-dependent, we performed ChIP-seq experiments following TPT treatment. In agreement with our observations previously made on ecDNA (Supplementary Fig.  5A ), transcriptional arrest largely abrogated Smc5/6 binding on chromosomal DNA (Fig.  5A TPT). Surprisingly, the Red Fluorescent Protein reporter gene ( RFP ) present in the HA-Smc6 construct integrated into the chromosome also displayed Smc5/6 transcription-dependent binding (Supplementary Fig.  5B ) but was not restricted by the complex, as previously reported 14 . To investigate in more detail the chromosomal relationship existing between Smc5/6 and the transcription process, we also performed ChIP-seq for RPB1, the largest RNAP II subunit 45 , under the same experimental conditions. Heatmaps of the Smc5/6 bound-regions and RNAP II binding sites within 4 kb around the Smc5/6 peak summit (Fig.  5A, B ) revealed a colocalization between the Smc5/6 enriched-loci (78%) and the heavily bound RNAP II regions (Supplementary Fig.  5C ). Comparison with publicly available RNA-seq profiles for RPE-1 cells 46 , confirmed that those regions corresponded to hyperactive transcription sites (Supplementary Fig.  5D ). Based on our previous observations, we decided to compare our Smc5/6-seq results with the published genome-wide mapping of Top1 47 and Top2 activity 48 . We found that the Smc5/6 bound-regions overlapped with the Top1/Top2 bound loci along the transcription units, suggesting the presence of DNA supercoils at those loci (Fig.  5C ). Interestingly, careful analysis of the Smc5/6 bound-regions identified a statistically significant enrichment of Smc5/6 downstream of the highly transcribe genes as exemplified by the depicted genomic regions (Fig.  5C ). Altogether, these results suggest that the chromosomal binding of Smc5/6 could depend on DNA topological stress generated during transcription and accumulating at the 3′ends of highly transcribed genes.

A Heatmaps of the ChIP-seq read depth around 41 identified Smc5/6 complex binding sites: in hTERT-RPE1 cells (No HA) (left panel); hTERT-RPE1 cells over-expressing a HA-tagged version of Smc6 treated either with DMSO (middle panel); and 10 μM Triptolide (TPT) (right panel) before HA-ChIP. Cells were transduced with an integrase-defective lentiviral luciferase reporter construct (GLuc). Rows represent Smc5/6 binding sites ±2 kb around the peak summit, ordered by chromosome number and according to the presence or absence of RNA Pol II as determined by RPB1-ChIP-seq ( B ). Peaks statistically detected using MACS2 software analysis (2.5 fold enrichment, 0.05 q -value) are depicted. Color scale represents the ChIP-seq normalized read depth (RPM) row-scaled identically across the 3 samples, with mapped reads virtually resized to 1 kb-length and looking at each genomic position for the amount of overlap between forward- and reverse-stranded reads. B Heatmaps of RNA pol II ChIP-seq peaks in hTERT-RPE1 cells over-expressing a HA-tagged version of Smc6 treated either with DMSO (DMSO), 10 μM Triptolide (TPT) or the corresponding input (NT), before RPB1-ChIP. Cells were transduced with an integrase-defective lentiviral luciferase reporter construct (GLuc). Rows: RNA pol II binding sites ±2 kb around the Smc5/6 peak summit, ordered by chromosome number and according to the presence or absence of RNA Pol II as determined by the RPB1-ChIP-seq results. Color scale represents the ChIP-seq normalized read depth (RPM) row-scaled identically across the 3 samples, with mapped reads virtually resized to 1 kb-length and looking at each genomic position for the amount of overlap between forward- and reverse-stranded reads. C Integrative Genomics Viewer (IGV) track screenshots from 2 representative genomic loci. Red line: Smc5/6 peaks location identified by MACS2. Tracks 1 to 3 (No Ha, DMSO, TPT) represent Smc5/6 ChIP-seq data for the corresponding samples, and tracks 4 to 6 (Input NT, DMSO, TPT) represent RNA pol II ChIP-seq data for the corresponding samples. The subsequent tracks, Top1 (GSE212468) 47 , RNA-seq (GSE89413) 46 , and Top2 (GSE136943) 48 depict publicly available data obtained for hTERT-RPE1 cells. Scales refer to the signal range in individual genome tracks.

Smc5/6 associates with positive DNA supercoils in human cells

To gain further insights into the chirality of DNA supercoiling recognized by Smc5/6 in vivo, we analyzed the topology of circular DNA extracted from human cells using two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis followed by Southern blotting and hybridization with a specific radiolabelled DNA probe (Supplementary Table  3 ). By comparing the migration patterns of samples run in parallel on gels in the absence or in the presence of chloroquine, it becomes possible to distinguish between positively and negatively supercoiled DNA 49 , 50 . Chloroquine intercalates into DNA, altering the supercoil density and electrophoretic mobility of circular DNA molecules. When exposed to chloroquine, a circular DNA that is initially negatively supercoiled will lose superhelicity, leading to a decrease in its mobility. In contrast, a DNA circle that is already positively supercoiled will acquire further positive superhelical turns, resulting in increased compaction and faster migration through the gel 49 . To help us in the interpretation and identification of the different topological forms adopted in vivo by a covalently closed circular DNA, we conducted a comparative analysis between the topological profiles of extrachromosomal circular DNA recovered from cells and a similar DNA circle generated in vitro, which is known to be negatively supercoiled (Fig.  6A panel 1 and 2) 51 . As illustrated in Fig.  6A panel 3, the migration pattern of the DNA molecules retrieved from cells, located at the lower right end of the 2D gel arc, suggested that in vivo DNA circles consist in two distinct populations of supercoiled DNA molecules (Fig.  6A panel 3 red triangle and blue line). The increase in electrophoretic mobility (Fig.  6A panel 4) observed in the presence of chloroquine indicates that both DNA populations are positively supercoiled, with the upper one (red triangle) being slightly less positive than the lower one (blue line). Interestingly, while intermediate negatively supercoiled topoisomers are observed for the in vitro generated circles (Fig.  6A panel 2), no intermediate topoisomers were seen for the DNA circles retrieved from cells (Fig.  6A panel 4). This suggests a high intracellular level of superhelical density for these molecules indicating they could be hyperpositively supercoiled. These findings strongly indicate that, in vivo, the circular DNA molecules recognized by Smc5/6 are predominantly positively supercoiled.

A Upper part: Schematic showing migration patterns in 2D gel electrophoresis of positively/negatively supercoiled circular DNA with/without chloroquine. Rel: relaxed, OC: open circular, *: topoisomer bands. Lower part: Southern blots of 2D gels on the control circles generated in vitro (panels 1 and 2) and on the circles recovered from cells (panels 3 and 4) with (panels 2 and 4) or without (panels 1 and 3) chloroquine. Blue line: main supercoiled population migration front. Red triangle: slightly less positively supercoiled population. B Heatmaps of GapR ChIP-seq peaks in hTERT-RPE1 cells No HA (left panel) or hTERT-RPE1 cells over-expressing a HA-tagged GapR at low (Low); and high levels (High). Cells were transduced with an integrase-defective lentiviral luciferase reporter construct (GLuc). Rows: GapR binding sites ±2 kb around the Smc5/6 peak summit, ordered by chromosome number according to the presence or absence of RNA Pol II as determined by the RPB1-ChIP-seq results. Peaks statistically detected using MACS2 software analysis (≥1.5-fold enrichment, ≤0.05 q -value) are indicated by a filled box on the right panel. The color scale represents the ChIP-seq normalized read depth (RPM) row-scaled identically across the 3 samples, with mapped reads virtually resized to 1 kb-length and looking at each genomic position for the amount of overlap between forward- and reverse-stranded reads. C Integrative Genomics Viewer (IGV) track screenshots from 2 representative genomic loci. Dark blue line: GapR peaks location identified by MACS2. Track 1 to 3 (No HA, Low GapR, High GapR) represent GapR ChIP-Seq data for the corresponding samples. Red line: Smc5/6 peaks location identified by MACS2. Tracks 4 to 5 (No HA, DMSO) represent Smc5/6 ChIP-seq data for the corresponding samples. Tracks 7 to 8 (Input NT, DMSO) represent RNA pol II ChIP-seq data for the corresponding samples. The subsequent tracks, Top1 (GSE212468) 47 , RNA-seq (GSE89413) 46 depict publicly available data obtained for hTERT-RPE1 cells. Scales refer to the signal range in individual genome tracks. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

To examine the genome-wide relationship between Smc5/6 binding and positive DNA supercoiling in human cells, we performed a GapR-seq analysis by expressing GapR-HA at either low or high level in hTERT RPE-1 cells (Supplementary Fig.  6A ). GapR, a bacterial nucleoid-associated protein from Caulobacter crescentus , has been shown to preferentially bind overtwisted DNA generated during transcription, not only in bacteria 52 , 53 but also in yeast 53 , making it an in vivo sensor for positively supercoiled DNA 53 . The comparison of the heatmap generated for RNA Pol II bound loci, sorted by fold enrichment (from highest to lowest), alongside the GapR peaks identified in cells expressing either a low or a high level of GapR, reveals a positive correlation between RNA Pol II and GapR enrichment at those loci (Supplementary Fig.  6B ). This suggests that in human cells, as it was reported in both yeast and bacteria 53 , GapR occupancy is strongly associated with transcriptional levels and its binding indicates the presence of transcription-generated positive DNA supercoiling. We generated heatmaps of GapR enrichment surrounding the Smc5/6-bound regions, and found that, about 50% of all Smc5/6 peaks in cells with high GapR expression and 12% in cells with low GapR expression, had significant neighboring GapR enrichment (1.5-fold with a  ≤ 0,05 q -value) within 4 kb (Fig.  6B ). These observations suggest the presence of positive supercoiled DNA in the vicinity of the Smc5/6 bound-regions. Additionally, compared to no HA control cells, a threefold to fourfold enrichment of reads mapping on the extrachromosomal GLuc in the GapR-HA samples was observed (Supplementary Fig.  6C ). Collectively, these findings strongly indicate that in vivo, Smc5/6 recognizes positive supercoils both on chromosomal and ecDNA.

The unexpected discovery that Smc5/6, besides its crucial role in maintaining genome stability, also acts as a transcriptional repressor that specifically targets ecDNA, raises an important question 14 , 15 , 23 : How can a host genome architectural factor distinguish between chromosomal and ecDNA inside the nucleus? As a first step towards elucidating the mechanism that makes Smc5/6-mediated transcriptional suppression specific to ecDNA, we characterized the DNA requirements for Smc5/6 binding. Using an excisable reporter construct, we showed that the Smc5/6 complex does not discriminate ecDNA molecules based on their chromosomal or non-chromosomal origin. Since Smc5/6 possesses the ability to restrict chromosome-derived DNA circle, it suggests that Smc5/6 recognition is not influenced by specific chromosomal DNA features such as specific DNA modifications. This aligns with recent findings showing that Smc5/6 has the ability to restrict EBV, HPV, and KSHV. These viruses have ecDNA genomes that replicate simultaneously with the host genome, thus being packaged with chromatin resembling that of the host chromosome 16 , 17 , 19 , 21 . Instead, it likely depends on certain structural characteristics of the DNA it interacts with. Indeed, we have shown that Smc5/6 preferentially targets circular ecDNA molecules while linear ecDNA escapes Smc5/6 topological entrapment. These results are consistent with in vitro pull-down experiments demonstrating the salt-stable binding of the budding yeast Smc5/6 complex to circular, but not linear, DNA templates 30 , 54 . We hypothesized that the helical topology of DNA could be a critical determinant for Smc5/6 loading. A linear DNA molecule can dissipate topological stress simply by spinning around its own helical axis, whereas a covalently closed circular DNA accumulates high levels of superhelical tension, building-up higher-order DNA structures such as plectonemes 55 . The transcribing RNA polymerase is a potent generator of DNA supercoils 56 . According to the twin supercoiling domain model, the torque imposed on the DNA continuously generates negative supercoils behind and positive supercoils ahead of the RNA polymerase 57 . Our results showing that the transcription process itself, rather than components of the RNA pol II transcription machinery, is responsible for Smc5/6 recruitment onto circular ecDNA suggests an involvement of the DNA superhelicity. Supporting the DNA topology-dependent association of Smc5/6, we show that preventing supercoil removal by knocking down cellular topoisomerases counteracts the detachment of Smc5/6 observed after transcriptional switch-off. These findings were corroborated by the demonstration that Smc5/6 affinity for circular ecDNA was decreased upon reduction of their supercoil levels induced either by stimulation of endogenous topoisomerase activity or by overexpression of a viral topoisomerase. Biophysical experiments conducted with the purified complex showed the preferential binding of Smc5/6 to structured DNA such as plectonemic substrates 25 , 26 . However, discrepancies persist among these in vitro studies. So far, they have encountered challenges in establishing a clear preference of Smc5/6 for DNA supercoils based on their chirality 25 , 26 . To date, due to the technical limitations in monitoring DNA supercoiling in vivo, the DNA characteristics required for Smc5/6 recruitment have only been inferred based on the genomic loci where Smc5/6 binding occurs 28 , 58 . Here, by cross-comparing the ChIP-seq data for Smc5/6 and GapR, a bacterial protein proposed to probe DNA-positive supercoiling in vivo 52 , 53 , we observed that GapR localized in the vicinity of Smc5/6 binding sites. This correlation suggests that positive DNA supercoiling is present within these regions, as previously suggested for yeast cells 53 , 58 . Using DNA topology assay, we directly assessed the supercoiling state of the ecDNA bound by Smc5/6 and showed that in vivo, Smc5/6 preferentially binds to supercoiled DNA with positive handedness (Fig.  6A ). Our 2D-gel analysis also revealed the presence of a second population of DNA circles displaying a reduced level of positive supercoiling. This reduced level of positive supercoiling might find its explanation in a recent study which demonstrates that, under specific conditions, the yeast Smc5/6 complex can negatively twist DNA during loop extrusion 59 , 60 . It remains to be determined whether these observations also apply to the human complex. Additionally, the lack of intermediate topoisomers for DNA circles isolated from cells, in contrast to those generated in vitro, implies a high intracellular level of superhelical density. Based on previous findings 24 , we hypothesized that ecDNAs could be confined in a condensed state within subnuclear compartments, such as PML-NBs, which have previously been shown to be essential for Smc5/6-mediated extrachromosomal restriction 61 . This would align with previous studies correlating Smc5/6 binding to chromatin compaction, leading to the formation of a repressive chromatin structure that ultimately silences extrachromosomal gene expression 20 , 25 , 26 .

Unexpectedly, our ChIP-seq analyses revealed a genome-wide interdependency between topological stress accumulation due to transcription and Smc5/6 binding at multiple, but nevertheless a restricted number of DNA loci. This suggests that the Smc5/6 complex is required in specific transcriptional scenarios because not all the transcribe loci were bound by the complex, but only those with elevated transcriptional levels. Therefore, we envision a model (Fig.  7 ) in which the very high transcriptional output of certain genes leads to an abnormally high level of DNA supercoil accumulation, generating DNA secondary structures that ultimately result in the recruitment of the Smc5/6 complex. Moreover, since Smc5/6 has been proposed to not only bind but also stabilize DNA plectonemes 25 , we advance a scenario in which Smc5/6 would trap and gather the excessive buildup of positive supercoils generated in front of the transcription machinery. The Smc5/6-mediated local plectoneme containment could either prevent supercoil propagation, which could inhibit subsequent transcription at neighboring genes, or promote the effective interaction between the DNA secondary structures and the topoisomerases or a combination of both. Collectively, our data suggest that by sensing and monitoring the levels of DNA torque in vivo, Smc5/6 might act as a topological insulator inhibiting the diffusion of transcription-induced positive supercoils. Since in yeast cells, Smc5/6 has been recently proposed to organize 3D positive supercoiled DNA loops generated by transcription 58 , it would be interesting to investigate in human cells the impact of Smc5/6 depletion on long-range DNA interactions as well as global genome transcription. Moreover, given that Smc5/6 binding requirements appear to be similar for chromosomal and ecDNA, uncovering the molecular events that drive the Smc5/6-mediated transcriptional repression towards ecDNA may provide insight into whether the Smc5/6 complex’s restriction activity differs from its role in regulating chromosomal DNA transcription, or if they are both interconnected facets of the same process. Future studies should aim to address the interplay between DNA supercoils, Smc5/6, and topoisomerases in order to fully elucidate the functions of the Smc5/6 complex in transcription regulation in human cells.

Upon transcription, the superhelical tension generated by the transcribing RNA polymerase II will be more significant on a covalently closed circular DNA molecule compared to a linear one, independently of the promoter strength. This will lead to the recruitment of Smc5/6 and to the topological DNA entrapment of the circular DNA while the complex will translocate along the linear DNA. On the chromosomes, an equivalent amount of superhelical tension can only be reached under conditions of a high transcriptional output, which also results in Smc5/6 recruitment. Based on previously reported data 25 , 26 , we hypothesize that, on chromosomes upon DNA entrapment, Smc5/6 stabilizes the plectonemic DNA structures formed. By preventing supercoil spreading, Smc5/6 would therefore act as a topological insulator and/or facilitate the resolution of such DNA structures. The same DNA entrapment on extrachromosomal circular DNA leads to ecDNA recruitment to PML bodies and restriction 24 .

In summary, our findings identified an unexpected function of the Smc5/6 complex in managing DNA superhelical stress arising from transcription, along with its preferential binding to positive DNA supercoils in human cells. Moreover, these results unveiled a previously unsuspected role of DNA topology sensing as a key defense mechanism against viral and other extrachromosomal genetic threats.

Cell culture

The hTERT-RPE1 (non-transformed immortalized human retina pigment epithelial cells) (ATCC; CRL-4000) (kind gift from P. Meraldi), human embryonic kidney cell line HEK 293T/17 (ATCC; CRL-11268), human adenocarcinoma epithelial cells HeLa (ATCC; CCL-2) and the human colon cancer carcinoma COLO320DM (kind gift from H. Y. Chang) cells and their derivatives, were grown at 37 °C under 5% CO 2 in high glucose DMEM (Gibco; 41966029) supplemented with 10% FBS (Gibco; 10270-106), 1% penicillin/streptomycin (Sigma; P0781-100), 2 mM L-glutamine (25030024), 1 mM sodium pyruvate (11360070), and 1% MEM non-essential amino acids solution (11140050) (all from ThermoFisher).

To generate the hTERT-RPE1 cell line over-expressing the HA-tagged version of Smc6, hTERT-RPE1 cells (ATCC; CRL-4000) were transduced with pCDH-CMV-3xHA-Smc6-EF1α-RFP lentiviral vector. One month post-transduction, positive RFP cells were fluorescence-activated cell sorted, and used for further experiments.

To obtain the hTERT-RPE1 clones with a chromosomally integrated excisable [GLuc circle ] construct, hTERT-RPE1 cells (ATCC; CRL-4000) were transduced with a lentiviral vector (System Biosciences #CD511B) encoding the excisable reporter construct (see details below). Two weeks post-transduction, single-cell clones were isolated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting in 96-well plates and expanded for two more weeks before screening. GLuc and GFP expression, before and after Cre recombinase expression, was used as screening criteria for each clone.

Transfections and treatments

siRNAs transfections were performed following the manufacturer’s instructions for 72 h with 20 nM siRNAs using either siNTC or siTop1A, siTop2A, and siTop2B (Supplementary Table  1 ) (Horizon Discovery Ltd). Opti-MEM (ThermoFisher; 31985070) and Lipofectamine™ RNAiMAX (ThermoFisher; 13778150) were used.

For plasmid transfection, cells were transduced with the appropriate lentiviruses 24 h prior transfection and seeded at a density of 6 × 10 6 cells in a 10-cm dish. Cells were then reverse-transfected with 3 µg of reporter plasmid using Lipofectamine™ 2000 (ThermoFisher; 11668019) following the manufacturer’s instructions. Analysis was performed 48 h later.

Actinomycin D (Enzo Life Sciences; BML-GR300-0005) and triptolide (Sigma; T3652) were used as indicated on the figures.

Plasmids and constructs

The lentiviral vector pWPT (Addgene #12255) was used to expressed either Mock (empty), GFP-HBx, or HBx alone 14 . pCDH-CMV-MCS-EF1-Puro (System Biosciences #CD510B) was used to express HBx in case of experiments done in presence of Cre recombinase. The Cre recombinase was expressed from the pLOX-CW-CRE (Addgene #12238). pCDH-CMV-MCS-EF1α-RFP lentiviral vector (System Biosciences #CD512B) was used to clone the human codon-optimized, chemically synthesized (System Biosciences) Smc6 gene sequence under the control of the CMV promoter which was further 3×HA-tagged. The secreted GLuc and the secreted Cypridina luciferase (CLuc) used as reporter were either expressed from pCDH-CMV-GLuc-EF1α-copGFP or pCDH-CMV-CLuc-EF1α-RFP, respectively, when delivered as ecDNA using an integrase-defective (D116A) lentiviral vector (System Biosciences #CD511B).

The excisable reporter construct was generated through several steps. A first segment containing the split GLuc gene sequence (GLuc-Nter aa 1 to 49 and Gluc-Cter aa 50 to 186), obtained from pCMV-GLuc(M60I) and separated by a chimeric intron (splicing donor and acceptor sequences both from pCI-neo, Promega; E1731) with an embedded inverted LoxP site, was amplified using several rounds of overlapping PCR with primers pairs (MS2330-MS2340), (MS2341-MS2333), (MS2342-MS2343), (MS2344-MS2345), (MS2346-MS2347), (MS2342-MS2347) and cloned into the BamHI and XbaI sites of pCMV-empty to generate pCMV-GLuc(Nter)-donnor-LoxP-acceptor-GLuc(Cter).

A second fragment containing the EF1α- LoxP -copGFP sequence was amplified using several rounds of overlapping PCR from pCDH-CMV-GLuc-EF1α-copGFP with primers pairs (MS2414-MS2415), (MS2416-MS2417), (MS2414-MS2463) (MS2348-MS2417), and (MS2414-MS2417) and cloned into the SpeI and PstI sites of pCDH-CMV-GLuc-EF1α-copGFP to generate pCDH-EF1α- LoxP -copGFP.

A unique NotI restriction site was added in the LoxP site sequence to facilitate further cloning steps.

The LoxP -copGFP form pCDH-EF1α- LoxP -copGFP was cloned in the NotI and PstI sites from pCMV-GLuc(Nter)-donnor- LoxP -acceptor-GLuc(Cter) to generate pCMV-GLuc(Nter)-donnor- LoxP -copGFP.

In parallel a 3 kb DNA sequence from the budding yeast MDN1 gene, later called DNA stuffer, was PCR amplified and cloned into the XbaI and MluI sites of pLVX-CMV-GLuc(M60I) to generate the pLVX-CMV-GLuc-DNAstuffer.

The LoxP -acceptor-GLuc(Cter) from pCMV-GLuc(Nter)-donnor-LoxP-acceptor-GLuc(Cter) was cloned in the NotI and XbaI sites of pLVX-CMV-GLuc-DNAstuffer. The GLuc(Nter)-donnor- LoxP -copGFP generated from pCMV-GLuc(Nter)-donnor- LoxP -copGFP was further cloned in the MluI and PstI sites from this newly created construct to generate pLVX-CMV-GLuc- LoxP -acceptor-GLuc(Cter)-DNA stuffer-CMV-GLuc(Nter)-donnor- LoxP -copGFP.

To generate the final lentiviral construct pCDH-EF1α- LoxP -acceptor-GLuc(Cter)-DNAstuffer-CMV-GLuc(Nter)-donnor- LoxP -copGFP, the LoxP -acceptor-GLuc(Cter)-DNAstuffer-CMV-GLuc(Nter)-donnor- LoxP -copGFP obtained after partial digestion of pLVX-CMV-GLuc- LoxP -acceptor-GLuc(Cter)-DNA stuffer-CMV-GLuc(Nter)-donnor- LoxP -copGFP was cloned in the NotI and PstI sites of pCDH-EF1α- LoxP -copGFP.

The linear pJazz mammalian expression vector was obtained by cloning the CMV-GLuc-EF1α-copGFP cassette from pCDH-CMV-GLuc-EF1α-copGFP into the SpeI and NotI sites of pJazz®-OK (kind gift from M. Brochet). Its circular counterpart was obtained after digestion with BssHII and self-ligation.

To generate the NLS-T7-polymerase lentiviral vector, the DNA fragment corresponding to the NLS-T7-polymerase sequence was PCR amplified using the primer pairs (5′-CGAACCCTTGGATCCGCCACCATG-3′ and 5′-GCCGCGGCCGCACCGGTAGGGATCG-3′) from the pcDNA3.4-T7pol plasmid (kind gift from G. Kudla) 62 and cloned into the BamHI and NotI sites of the pCDH-CMV-MCS-EF1α-RFP lentiviral vector (System Biosciences #CD512B). The T7 promoter-IRES-GFP reporter lentiviral construct was generated by PCR amplification of the corresponding DNA fragment from the pUC19-T7-pro-IRES-EGFP plasmid (kind gift from G. Kudla) 62 using the primer pairs (5′-CGGATCGATTGTAAAACGACGGCCAGTGAATTC-3′ and 5′-CGGTCGACTTAAAGACAGGCCTTACTGGCTGAATAGA-3′) and cloned into the ClaI and SalI sites of the pCDH-CMV-GLuc-EF1α-copGFP lentiviral vector (System Biosciences #CD511B) from which the CMV promoter was previously removed.

To generate the c-Myc expression vector, the c-Myc sequence from the pCDH-Puro-cMyc plasmid (Addgene #46970) was cloned into the XbaI and NotI sites of the pCDH-CMV-MCS-EF1α-RFP lentiviral vector (System Biosciences #CD512B).

The Myc-tagged DNA topoisomerase IB from vaccinia virus fused to a NLS (Myc-NLS-vTopIB) sequence was chemically synthesized and cloned in the sites XhoI and XbaI of the pLVX-CMV-MCS-PGK-Puro lentiviral vector (BioCat GmbH).

The GapR protein, tagged with HA (GapR-3xHA), derived from Caulobacter crescentus , was codon-optimized for expression in human cells. It was chemically synthesized and cloned into the EcoRI and BamHI sites of the pLVX-CMV-MCS-PGK-Puro lentiviral vector (BioCat GmbH).

All the primers used are listed in Supplementary Table  1 . Phusion High-Fidelity DNA polymerase (Thermo Scientific; F530L) was used for all the PCR reactions. All the restriction enzymes and T4 DNA ligase were from NEB.

Lentivirus production and titration

Briefly, 4.5 × 10 6 HEK 293T/17 cells were plated in a 10-cm dish and transiently transfected 16 h later using the calcium phosphate method with 15 μg lentiviral vector plasmid, 10 μg of packaging plasmid psPAX2 (Addgene plasmid #12260), and 5 μg of envelope plasmid pMD2G (Addgene plasmid #12259) to produce VSV-G pseudotyped recombinant lentiviruses. To produce integrase-defective lentiviruses, the plasmid p8.9NdSB (king gift from J. Luban) which encoded a catalytically inactive integrase point mutant (D116A) was used in replacement of the psPAX2. 8 h post transfection the culture medium was changed. Two days later, supernatants containing the viral particles were collected and filtered through PVDF 0.45 μm filters (Merck-Millipore; SLHV033RS) before storage at –80 °C. The titer of lentiviruses expressing GFP or RFP was estimated, by fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis of GFP-positive or RFP-positive cells after infecting HeLa cells for 4 days with serially diluted viral supernatants.

Luciferase reporter gene assay

Luciferase activities were measured 2–3 days after reporter transfection or transduction. Briefly, 5 µL of cell culture supernatants were mixed with 50 µL of Luciferase assay buffer (100 mM NaCl, 35 mM EDTA, 0.1% Tween® 20, 300 mM sodium ascorbate in 1× phosphate-buffered saline) containing as substrate either: 4 μM coelenterazine (Biosynth AG; C-7001) in case of GLuc or 1 μM vargulin (NanoLight; 305) for CLuc. Luminescence was measured in triplicates in a 96-microplate luminometer (Glomax; Promega).

Western blotting

Cell lysis was performed in 2% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) (Sigma; 71729) in water, and the lysates were denatured at 95 °C for 5 min. Protein concentrations were estimated using the Pierce TM BCA Protein Assay kit (Thermo Scientific; 23225). Equal amounts of proteins (30–50 μg) were separated on 8–18% SDS-PAGE gradient gels and electroblotted onto nitrocellulose membranes (Amersham; 10600003). The membranes were blocked in 5% (w/v) non-fat dry milk—PBST 0.1% [Phosphate-buffered saline (ThermoFisher; 14190094) supplemented with 0.1% Tween® 20 (Sigma; P1379)] for 1 h and incubated overnight with primary antibodies at 4 °C in 5% milk—PBST 0.1%. The membranes were then washed thrice with PBST 0.1% for 10 min, and incubated with secondary antibodies for 1 h at RT. The membranes were finally washed thrice with PBST 0.1% for 10 min. Detection was performed with SuperSignal West Pico PLUS chemiluminiscent substrate (Thermo Scientific; 34580) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Images were acquired with the ChemicDoc XRS luminescence imager from Bio-Rad. The primary and secondary antibodies used are listed in Supplementary Table  2 .

ChIP and quantitative PCR

ChIP analysis was performed using chromatin extracted from about 5 × 10 6 HA-tagged Smc6 expressing hTERT-RPE1 or HA-tagged GapR-expressing hTERT-RPE1 (Low expression = single lentiviral transduction; High expression = double lentiviral transductions) cells cultured in a 10-cm diameter dish. Cells were harvested with trypsin-EDTA and collected by low-speed centrifugation 500 ×  g for 5 min. Cells were rinsed once with PBS, resuspended in DMEM, and fixed with 1% formaldehyde (Sigma; 47608) for 10 min at RT before quenching with 330 mM glycine 5 min at RT and then 15 min on ice. After two further washes with ice-cold PBS, cells were resuspended and lysed for 10 min at 4 °C in 1 mL Cell Lysis Buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 85 mM KCl, 0.5% NP-40) supplemented with EDTA-free protease inhibitor cocktail (Roche; 4693132001). The nuclei were collected by centrifugation at 500 ×  g for 5 min at 4 °C and washed once in the same buffer. Nuclei were resuspended in 500 μL Nuclei Lysis Buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 1% NP-40, 0.5% sodium deoxycholate, 0.1% SDS, protease inhibitor cocktail) and incubated for 10 min at 4 °C. Chromatin was fragmented by sonication 3 × 10 s at 60% duty cycle, with 30 s on wet-ice between sonication cycles, using a microtip-equipped SLPe sonifier (Branson Ultrasonics ™ Sonifier™, Brookfield, USA). The sonicated samples were centrifuged at 16,000 ×  g for 10 min. The supernatants were collected and 50 µL (1/10) was set aside as input controls. The rest (450 µL) was diluted with 1500 μl ChIP Dilution Buffer (0.01% SDS, 1.2 mM EDTA, 1.1% Triton X-100, 16.7 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8), 167 mM NaCl) supplemented with protease inhibitors and mixed with 50 μL Dynabeads™ Protein G (Invitrogen; 10009D) coupled either to 3 μg anti-HA antibody (Invitrogen; MA5-27915) in case of HA-Smc6 analysis, 5 μg anti-RPB1 (8WG16) (Covance; MMS-126R) for RNA pol II, 2 μg anti-H3pan (Diagenode; C15410324) or 4 μg anti-H3.3 (Diagenode; C15210011). After overnight incubation at 4 °C on a rotating wheel, the beads were washed twice with 1 mL Cell Lysis Buffer, twice with high-salt buffer (50 mM HEPES-KOH (pH 7.5), 500 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1% Triton X-100, 0.1% sodium deoxycholate), once with LiCl buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 1 mM EDTA, 250 mM LiCl, 1% NP-40, and 1% sodium deoxycholate) and once with TE buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 1 mM EDTA). To elute immunoprecipitated chromatin fragments, beads were incubated for 10 min at 65 °C in 400 μL freshly prepared elution buffer (1% SDS, 0.1 M NaHCO 3 ). DNA crosslinks were reversed by overnight incubation at 65 °C with 0.6 M NaCl and 80 μg proteinase K (Eurobio Scientific; GEXPRK01-I5). Samples were extracted once with Phenol—chloroform—isoamyl alcohol (Sigma; 77617), once with chloroform (Reactolab SA; P02410E16), ethanol precipitated and then resuspended in water. The input DNA samples were treated identically. The recovered DNA were quantified by real-time PCR using the KAPA SYBR FAST qPCR Kit Master Mix (2X) Universal (Roche; SFUKB) and the Bio-Rad CFX96 Real-time PCR System. The values shown in the figures are the ratios between the ChIP signals and the respective input DNA signals. The oligonucleotide primers used are listed in Supplementary Table  1 .

ChIP-Seq DNA was purified as it was described in ChIP and Quantitative PCR paragraph. ChIP-seq were performed in biological monoplicat. ChIP-enriched DNA were used to prepare libraries and processed with the Illumina TruSeq ChIP kit according to manufacturer specifications. Library molarity and quality were assessed with the Qubit (Thermofisher Scientific) and Tapestation (Agilent Technologies—DNA High sensitivity chip). Libraries were sequenced on a HiSeq 4000 and a NovaSeq 6000 Illumina sequencers for SR100 reads. Bioinformatics processing: sequenced reads were aligned to the human genome (build GRCh38.p13 downloaded from ENCODE) augmented with GLuc_episomal DNA sequence. We used the “mem” command of the software BWA (v0.7.17) for the alignment [BWA] 63 , and convert the output into sorted BAM with SAMTOOLS v1.10. ChIP-seq peak calling was performed with MACS2 (v2.2.7.1) 64 command “callpeak” and parameters “--format BAM --gsize hs --SPMR --keep-dup 1 -- q value 0.05 --nomodel --extsize 1000” [MACS]. MACS2 is employed to identify peaks of HA-Smc5/6 by comparing DMSO or TPT conditions to the No HA reference condition, to detect RNA pol II peaks by comparing DMSO or TPT conditions to the Input (NT) condition, and to detect GapR-HA peaks by comparing GapR Low or GapR High conditions to the No HA reference condition.

Coverage computations and visualizations were done using scripts in R programming language making use of Bioconductor package. The code consisted in loading Smc5/6 peaks detection of MACS2 and retain those with a q -value ≤ 0.05 and a fold enrichment ≥2.5. Smc5/6 peaks were annotated with genes (taken from GENECODE v41 GTF) located within a 10 kb region of the peaks and curated manually. GenomicRanges R package and findOverlaps() method is used in this process. Then, Smc5/6 peaks and RNA pol II peaks were merged and reduced (R method GenomicRanges::reduce()) to determine genomic regions where they overlap (findOverlaps()). The ChIP-Seq alignment results of GapR (Low or High) were then juxtaposed with previously identified Smc5/6 and RNA pol II peaks. GapR peaks detected using MACS2 with a q -value ≤ 0.05 and a fold enrichment ≥1.5 were also indicated.

Transcriptomic expression for RPE1 cell line was retrieved from GSE89413 46 , and we consider FPKM normalized values of each gene to sort them by expression. We matched genes with Smc5/6 peaks by names.

To produce the heatmaps, we resized the ChIP-Seq mapped reads to 1 kb length, and compute at each genomic position the amount of overlap between forward-stranded and reverse-stranded reads (=2.min(fwd,rev)) normalized as read-per-million. A similar scaling factor is then applied to each gene of all condition so gene profiles can be compared from one gene to the other.

DNA extraction and qPCR

Cells were lysed in DNA lysis buffer (100 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 10 mM EDTA, 1% SDS) and briefly sonicated. Samples were extracted once with Phenol—chloroform—isoamyl alcohol (Sigma; 77617), once with chloroform (Reactolab SA; P02410E16), ethanol precipitated and then resuspended in water. The recovered DNA were quantified by real-time PCR using the KAPA SYBR FAST qPCR Kit Master Mix (2X) Universal (Roche; SFUKB) and the Bio-Rad CFX96 Real-time PCR System. The oligonucleotide primers used are listed in Supplementary Table  1 .

EU labelling

Transcription inhibition was monitored through EU incorporation into nascent RNAs using Click-iT RNA Alexa Fluor 488 Imaging Kit (Invitrogen; C10329) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Briefly, after treatment as indicated in figure legends, hTERT-RPE1 cells seeded onto glass coverslips were incubated with 1 mM EU for 1 h. The cells were fixed with 3.7% formaldehyde in PBS for 15 min at RT and then permeabilized with 0.5% Triton X-100 for 15 min at RT. Incorporated EU was labeled by Click-iT reaction according to the manufacturer’s instructions for 30 min at RT. The cells were washed with PBS before mounting the coverslips with VECTASHIELD containing DAPI (Vector Laboratories, H-1200). Immunofluorescence images were acquired on an Olympus DeltaVision wide-field microscope (GE Healthcare) equipped with a DAPI/FITC/TRITC/Cy5 filter set (Chroma Technology Corp.) and a Coolsnap HQ2 CCD camera (Roper Scientific) running Softworx 6.5.2 (GE Healthcare). 3D images were deconvolved using Softworx 6.5.2 (GE Healthcare). Fixed cells were imaged with a 40× NA 1.35 oil objective in 0.2 µm Z-stacks.

Live-cell imaging and immunofluorescence

For live-cell imaging of the hTERT-RPE1 cells containing the genomic excisable construct [GLuc circle ], cells were seeded in a glass bottom height-well µ-Slide Ibidi chamber (Ibidi; 80826) and co-transduced with lentiviruses containing either no gene insert (Mock) or HBx, plus or minus the Cre recombinase for 48 h. 4 h prior live-cell imaging, the culture medium was replaced by Leibovitz L-15 medium (ThermoFisher; 21083) supplemented with 10% FBS and 1% penicillin/streptomycin and containing 25 nM SiR-DNA (Spirochrome; SC007). Cells were acquired on a Nikon Eclipse Ti-E wide-field microscope (Nikon) equipped with a DAPI/FITC/Rhod/CY5 filter set (Chroma Technology Corp.), an Orca Flash 4.0 CMOS camera (Hamamatsu), and an environmental chamber using NIS software (Nikon). Z-stacks were imaged with z-slices separated by 2.5 µm, with 50 ms exposure per z-slice in the GFP and Cy5 channels using a 40× NA 1.3 oil objective and 2 × 2 binning.

For fixed-cell imaging, hTERT-RPE1 cells over-expressing HA-tagged version of Smc6 and either T7 RNA pol or Myc-NLS-vTop1B or hTERT-RPE1 cells expressing GapR-3xHA were grown onto acid-etched glass coverslips. Cells were fixed with 3.7% formaldehyde for 15 min before permeabilization with 0.5% Triton X-100 for 15 min followed by blocking for 1 h in PBS supplemented with 3% BSA. The final dilution of primary antibodies was 1:100 for anti-T7 RNA Polymerase (Creative Diagnostics; CABT-B8990), 1:10 for anti Myc-Tag (DSHB; 9E 10) and the anti-HA (Invitrogen; MA5-27915) was used at 2 µg/mL. Secondary antibody conjugated with Alexa Fluor 488 either goat anti-rabbit IgG (Invitrogen; A-11008) or Alexa Fluor 488 donkey anti-mouse IgG (Invitrogen; A21202) were used at 1:400. All antibodies were diluted in PBS supplemented with 3% BSA. Primary and secondary antibodies were applied for overnight and 60 min, respectively. Immunolabelled cells were washed with PBS before mounting the coverslips with VECTASHIELD containing DAPI (Vector Laboratories; H-1200). Immunofluorescence images were acquired on an Olympus DeltaVision wide-field microscope (GE Healthcare) equipped with a DAPI/FITC/TRITC/Cy5 filter set (Chroma Technology Corp.) and a Coolsnap HQ2 CCD camera (Roper Scientific) running Softworx 6.5.2 (GE Healthcare). 3D images were deconvolved using Softworx 6.5.2 (GE Healthcare). Fixed cells were imaged with a 40× NA 1.35 oil objective in 0.2 µm Z-stacks. Alternatively, fixed cells expressing Myc-NLS-vTop1B were visualized with a Plan Apo 40x (NA 1.3 Oil DICIII) objective in 0.2 µm Z-stacks on a spinning disk microscope (Nipkow Disk) Zeiss Cell Observer.Z1 equipped with a HXP120 fluorescence wide-field visualization lamp and with a CSU X1 automatic Yokogawa spinning disk head. 512 × 512 pixel images were acquired with an Evolve EM512 camera and Visiview 4.00.10.

Two-dimensional agarose gel electrophoresis and Southern blot for DNA topological analysis

Extrachromosomal DNAs were extracted from ~40 × 10 6 hTERT-RPE1 cells containing the genomic excisable [Gluc circle ] construct co-transduced with lentiviruses expressing the Cre Recombinase for 48 h. To enrich for ecDNA, DNA was prepared using the PureLink™ HiPure Plasmid Midiprep (ThermoFisher; K2100-05). Cells were resuspended in 15 mL of Resuspension Buffer (R3) and lysed in 15 mL of Lysis Buffer (L7) before precipitation in 15 mL of Precipitation Buffer (N3). After centrifugation for 10 min at >12,000 ×  g the supernatant was directly precipitated with isopropanol and centrifuged at 18,000 ×  g for 1 h at 4 °C. The pellet was washed in 70% ethanol before resuspension. As control, comparable negatively supercoiled circles with sequences identical to the ecDNA circles recovered from the cells were prepared in vitro using the Cre Recombinase (New England Biolabs; M0298S). Briefly, 250 ng of the plasmid used to generate the cell line with the excisable chromosomal reporter construct was incubated with Cre for 30 min at 37 °C. The reaction was terminated by heating at 70 °C for 10 min. For two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, we used 1.4% (w/v) agarose gel in TBE buffer (90 mM Tris-borate, 2 mM EDTA), gel migration was performed at 2 V/cm at 4 °C in a cold room using recirculating buffer for 2 × 24 h. The first-dimension electrophoresis was carried out in absence of intercalating agent. The second dimension was carried out at a 90° angle with respect to the first dimension with or without a 2 h soaking in chloroquine 7.8 µg/ml (Sigma; C6628). Second-dimension electrophoresis was performed in TBE buffer supplemented or not with chloroquine (7.8 µg/ml). After electrophoresis the gels were washed twice for 15 min in 0.125 M HCl, rinsed for 5 min in water, and washed for 30 min in transfer buffer (0.4 M NaOH containing 0.6 M NaCl). The DNA was transferred onto Hybond-N+ membrane (Amersham™ Hybond™-N+; RPN303B) in transfer buffer for 16 h and neutralized 15 min in 0.5 M Tris-HCl (pH 7.0), 1 M NaCl, before UV crosslinking at 1200 µJoules (x100) (standard autocrosslink setting) using the Stratalinker (Stratagene UV 1800). The membrane was pre-hybridized (5 X Denhardt’s, 45 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 1 mM EDTA, 1 M NaCl, 10% Dextran sulfate 500, 1% SDS and 100 µg/ml salmon sperm DNA) at 65 °C in hybridization oven (Big S.H.O.T III™ Hybridization Oven; Boekel Scientific) for a minimum of 3 hrs. Hybridization was performed at 65 °C for 16 h in fresh hybridization buffer containing the G-50 purified random-primed [α- 32 P]dATP probe (Supplementary Table  3 ) labeled with the DecaLabel DNA Labeling Kit (ThermoFisher; K0622). After hybridization, the membranes were washed at 65 °C three times for 5 min in 2× SSC and 0.1% SDS and twice for 15 min in 0.1× SSC and 0.1% SDS. The membranes were directly exposed to a Fuji BAS-IP MS 2040 E imaging plate (Cytivia; 28-9564-74) and the images were acquired on a Typhoon™ FLA 7000 biomolecular imager (Cytiva; 28-9558-09).

Statistics & reproducibility

The statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism 8 (GraphPad). The statistical tests employed are described in the figure legends. Minimum of three independent biological replicates were performed in all experiments. Exception for ChIP-seq presented in Figs. 5 and 6 ( N  = 1). All Western blot images are representative of two biological repeats. No statistical method was used to predetermine sample size. No data were excluded from the analyses; the experiments were not randomized; the investigators were not blinded to allocation during experiments and outcome assessment.

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the  Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

All deep sequencing data used in this study are available in the GEO database under their respective accession code ChIP-Seq for HA-Smc6, RPB1, and GapR-HA [ GSE231328 ], the ChIP-Seq data for Top1 [ GSE212468 ], Top2 [ GSE136943 ] and RNA-seq [ GSE89413 ]. Any additional information required to reanalyze the data reported in this paper is available from the lead contact upon reasonable request.  Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

This paper does not report original code since it is based on implementation of publicly available software.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Patrick Meraldi (University of Geneva) and Howard Y. Chang (Stanford University) for sharing the hTERT-RPE1 and the COLO320DM cell lines. We thank Grzegorz Kudla (University of Edinburgh) for sharing T7 RNA polymerase plasmids and Mathieu Brochet (University of Geneva) for sharing the pJazz®-OK vector. We thank the iGE3 Genomics Platform of the University of Geneva for ChIP-Seq data ( https://ige3.genomics.unige.ch ) and the Flow Cytometry facility of the University of Geneva. We thank Yves Mattenberger, William Kelley, and Dominique Belin (University of Geneva) for their advice and the helpful discussions regarding Southern blot and DNA supercoiling. We are especially thankful to Fedor Kouzine (Center for Cancer Research, NCI, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda) for his valuable advice, insightful discussions, and assistance with interpreting the results of two-dimensional agarose gel electrophoresis for DNA topological assays. We thank Fabien Abdul, Sari Kassem, and the members of the Viollier laboratory (University of Geneva) for critical discussions. We are most grateful to Joseph Curran and Dominique Belin for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation 310030-149626 and 310030-175781 to M.S.

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These authors contributed equally: Gaël Panis, Cédric Castrogiovanni.

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Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva 4, Switzerland

Aurélie Diman, Gaël Panis, Bastien Baechler & Michel Strubin

Geneva Centre for Inflammation Research (GCIR), Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva 4, Switzerland

Department of Cell Physiology and Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva 4, Switzerland

Cédric Castrogiovanni

Translational Research Centre in Onco-hematology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva 4, Switzerland

Bioinformatics Support Platform, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva 4, Switzerland

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Conceptualization of the project A.D. and M.S. A.D. designed and carried out all the experiments. A.D. G.P. and J.P. analyzed and interpreted the ChIP-Seq data. C.C. acquired and analyzed all the microscopy data. B.B. performed the western blots shown in Figs.  3 C, D, 4F and S4A . M.S. acquired the funding. A.D. and M.S. analyzed the data. A.D. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.

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Diman, A., Panis, G., Castrogiovanni, C. et al. Human Smc5/6 recognises transcription-generated positive DNA supercoils. Nat Commun 15 , 7805 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50646-w

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50646-w

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