As we approach the 30th Anniversary of Twin Peaks on April 8, I’m examining various aspects of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s incredible Pilot Episode. While studying the original script when the show was titled “Northwest Passage,” I discovered one of the most iconic lines spoken by Pete Martell is missing. Here’s a closer look at this scene which reveals even more mysteries.
DIFFERENT OPENING TO TWIN PEAKS
The scripted version of the pilot written by David Lynch and Mark Frost has a different opening scene which includes the Packard Sawmill. We unfortunately never see the “distant tug shepherds” at work.
EXT. PACKARD SAWMILL – DAWN
A massive industrial structure on the south shore of Black Lake. Sawdust and steam shoot out of funnels and pipes. A distant tug shepherds a logjam towards the sawmill gates. A piercing steam whistle signals the end of the night shift.
The scene cuts to the Blue Pine Lodge, home to the Martell family and Josie Packard. We won’t see Pete’s truck until late in Season 2.
EXT. THE PACKARD RESIDENCE – DAWN
Outside the huge log house, called Blue Pine Lodge, PETE MARTELL, a late-middle- aged man, sets some fishing gear in the back of a pick-up, then goes inside.
INSIDE THE PACKARD’S KITCHEN
The on-screen action picks up with Pete passing through the Packard’s kitchen while Catherine Martell reads her morning newspaper.
INT. BLUE PINE LODGE KITCHEN – DAWN
Pete grabs a thermos of coffee and an apple, kisses his wife, KATHERINE
PACKARD MARTELL, a sturdy, weathered woman, mid-fifties, fully dressed, at the table, newspaper and coffee in hand. She doesn’t react to the kiss. Pete exits.
Missing in the script are Pete’s dialog – “Gone fishin'” – and he doesn’t kiss “Katherine.” We see Pete, however, holding his Stanley thermos and tackle box. Look carefully and you’ll spot an apple on the counter.
Interestingly, Catherine Martell was spelled “Katherine” in the opening credits for the Pilot. By Episode 1001, her named was changed to the spelling we recognize.
PETE MARTELL DISCOVERING LAURA PALMER
In the episode, Pete exits the kitchen and makes his way to a dock to cast his line.
EXT. SAWMILL DOCK – DAWN
Pete lifts his fishing gear from the pick-up end walks out onto the dock to drop a line.
We won’t see Pete cast his line until Part 17 in Season 3. It’s doubtful this would have been the same dock that would have been used in 1989.
CUT TO:
Upon hearing a foghorn in the broadcast episode, Pete remarks, “The lonesome foghorn blows.” This dialogue is not found in the script.
Pete spots a body, wrapped in plastic near a giant log on the shore. The script offers some different action which mentions a dock. This will be important later.
PETE
He’s about to cast out his line when his expression changes; he sees something horrible. He sets his tackle and makes his way down a wooden stairway to a landing at water level. He jumps across a gap of dark, oil-slicked water onto the edge of a cabled log-raft. He steps cautiously across the shiny, barkless logs, slowing as he approaches what it was that caught his eye …
Pete does approach the body but it’s after he sets down his gear on the ledge and walks down the shore.
CUT TO:
A WOMAN’S BODY
Face down, lying on the log raft, cut, bruised, broken and lifeless.
PETE
Shaking, he turns to go for help.
At this point in the script, we would have had the intro credits which are pretty wild and I would have loved to see:
MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE – DAY
Highway “21”, empty, running up between the twin peaks. A flying wedge of motorcycle riders driving Harley’s ride into view; seven young men, all between seventeen and twenty-one, clean-cut, wearing black leather jackets. With MAIN TITLES and MUSIC over, we see the gang ride through various parts of the city.
END TITLES
PETE MARTELL CALLING SHERIFF TRUMAN
After the opening credits, we return to Pete making a phone call to the Sheriff’s Department. This is an important part in the script as it explains statement made by Sheriff Truman later in the broadcast episode.
EXT. SAWMILL DOCK – DAWN
Pete, the middle-aged man, hurriedly punches in a number on a pay phone at the end of the dock.
PETE
Lucy, put Dan on the horn.
Pete places a call at a pay phone at the sawmill dock. But there is no payphone and no dock. In the broadcasted version, he calls from the Blue Pine Lodge kitchen.
He also asks Lucy to speak with “Dan.”
The script describes Sheriff Harry Truman in a scene that is similar to the broadcast version.
INT. SHERIFFS OFFICE – DAWN
SHERIFF DAN STEADMAN, rugged, early forties, pours his first cup of coffee, as the dispatcher, LUCY MORAN, turns to him from the switchboard.
LUCY
Sheriff, sounds like Pete Martell up at the Mill.
To be honest, I have no idea at what point the Sheriff’s name changes from Steadman to Truman. But I’m glad it did.
The script continues:
Steadman punches line one and picks up the call.
STEADMAN
Sheriff Steadman … now hold on a second, Pete, where? … you stay right there, I’m on my way.
He hangs up, grabs his hat and coat and heads for the door.
The script only contains Truman’s reaction and omits Pete’s now famous line, “She’s dead, wrapped in plastic.”
The action in the scene, however, with Harry telling Pete to stay where he is was shot. Granted, I love this shot as we see a hidden David Lynch sporting headphones in a reflection on the window.
ROUST THAT ANDY
The scene concludes with Sheriff Truman speaking with Lucy Moran. The script is similar:
STEADMAN
(to Lucy)
You better get Dr. Hayward, tell him to meet me up at the Packard Mill, the dock right below the dam – and roust that Andy out of bed, tell him to get his butt up there now.
LUCY
What is it?
STEADMAM
We got a body up there. You don’t say a word to anybody till you hear from me.
Steadman exits.
Here’s interesting dialog that finally explains a mystery. Truman says to meet Dr. Hayward and him “at the Packard Mill, the dock right below the dam.” But we never see a dock, a dam or the Packard Mill.
It makes me wonder then, if the scenes at the Sheriff’s Department (shot at the former Weyerhaeuser Sawmill office in Snoqualmie) were shot before the scenes at Kiana Lodge in Poulsbo.
This could explain why we never see any of the things that Sheriff Truman mentions to Lucy. Changes could have been made on the fly at Kiana and the crew never returned to Snoqualmie to reshoot scenes based on those changes. Most folks probably wouldn’t have noticed these dialog changes anyway (but clearly I have plenty of time at home these days).
THE GREEN GLOVE
I close this article with a step into an alternate reality based on a passage from David Lynch and Kristine McKenna’s “Room to Dream.” On page 500, Lynch recounts a story about casting Jake Wardle, who plays the green-glove wearing Freddie Sykes in Season 3. During the story, he mentions the green glove.
“I had the green-glove idea from long ago and originally Jack Nance was going to wear it, and that would’ve been a whole different thing.”
Granted, we may never know if the green glove was originally destined for Pete Martell in Twin Peaks. But this fantasy image above shows what it could have been like. Wouldn’t that have been something?
