The Babysitter scene
I hate to gush about a TV show, because it makes me feel really insipid. Oh I love this show so much I have to BLOG about it, it feels pathetic in a stay-at-home-mom way that just makes me cringe. At least it’s not about Oprah.
I was watching Twin Peaks last night and I got to the episode (ep. 14 or 15) when Ben Horne is in jail for Laura Palmer’s murder and his brother Jerry comes to visit. There are bunk beds in Ben’s cell and Jerry says, Ben remember? Me on the top bunk, you on the bottom bunk and Louise Dembowski dancing on the hook rug with a flashlight? Then the scene changes and this Angelo Badalamenti 50’s-rock music starts playing and it’s about a minute of this girl in bobby socks dancing slow-mo with a flashlight and it’s one of those moments from childhood that is so wonderful and sweet it makes your heart swell. Ben and Jerry pause and look off in the distance sighing and smiling, thinking of an easier time. Then Jerry says, Lord, what’s become of us? And we’re back in the jail cell with two men who aren’t nearly as successful as they think they are.
It is one of my favorite scenes from the series and I had completely forgotten about it. It is the antitheses of the whole Twin Peaks series and David Lynch’s filmmaking philosophy. In jail for murder, flooded by this great memory. Aching for a simpler time, for a chance to go back and make things right. Having no choice but to move ahead toward your doomed fate. All of Lynch’s characters are doomed on Twin Peaks. All of them. Every single one. Even my beloved Agent Cooper.
I used to think that the whole world was like that. That no matter what we did, we were doomed, more specifically damned. But we aren’t. There is an abundance of love in my life and with the slightest effort I can open my mind and receive it. We all can. No matter how bad your day, there is a moment of love waiting for you. Be open. Be ready.
