I feel like I’ve been waiting my entire life to write this article. Today, the planets Jupiter and Saturn will be conjunct in the night sky. Long time Twin Peaks fans have been mimicking Windom Earle signing about this conjunction since episode 2.020 (#27) first aired on April 18, 1991. It is by far one of my favorite Windom Earle moments from the second season. In honor of today, I take a closer look at this scene in another installment of Quotable Peaks.
CONJUNCTION CONJUNCTION
I first realized that December 21, 2020 would be the day that Jupiter and Saturn meet while jokingly responding to fellow Bookhouse Boy Jeremy Homan on Twitter last December.
Earthsky.org offers a great explanation about this celestial meeting:
“If you’ve been following Jupiter and Saturn over the last several years, you may now notice that these planets were not so close together in recent times. Due to the movements of the planets in their orbits, Jupiter and Saturn are slowly drawing into alignment with each other. This is because of the relative speeds of their orbits.
According to Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion, planets move faster in their orbits if they are closer to the sun. Conversely, the further a planet is away from the sun, the slower it moves.
Jupiter is quite far from the sun at five astronomical units, and a ‘year’ on Jupiter is as long as 12 Earth years. So Jupiter is seen passing through the zodiac at the leisurely rate of one constellation to the east per year. This is why Jupiter was passing through Libra last year and is now in Scorpius in 2019.
Saturn is nearly twice as far from the sun as Jupiter, 9.5 astronomical units, and thus the Saturn ‘year’ is 29.5 years in length. Saturn therefore requires more than two years to move through a single zodiac constellation.
At this rate, Jupiter ‘catches up’ with Saturn after a span of years. About every 20 years, Jupiter and Saturn line up in a rare planetary conjunction. When that happens, Jupiter and Saturn are lined up with each as seen from the sun.
The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will occur on December 21, 2020. At that time, these planets will line up quite close to the sun, as seen from the Earth. They will be low in the sunset sky.”
It’s something I can’t wait to see in the (hopefully) non-cloudy night sky.
IF JUPITER AND SATURN MEET QUOTE FROM TWIN PEAKS
This episode was penned by Harley Peyton and Robert Engles between January-February 1991. There were multiple revisions with various colored pages to indicate the script changes.
- First Draft: January 30 ,1991
- Revised/General Distribution: February 5, 1991
- Revised Scene #’s: February 5, 1991 – Blue
- Revised: February 8, 1991 – Pink
- Revised: February 11, 1991 – Green
- Revised: February 11, 1991 – Yellow
- Revised: February 15, 1991 – Cherry
- Revised: March 12, 1991 – Goldenrod – Reshoot of Sc. #8
This particular scene appears toward the end of the script and includes an unused establishing shot of Earle’s cabin exterior at night.
The scene opens just after Audrey Horne and Pete Martell are seen at the airport. Leo Johnson is shaking uncontrollably.
The shaky camera cuts to Major Briggs tied up on the cabin floor, his face contorted from drugs Earle injected in him earlier.
In the background, we hear Earle signing his dialogue to the tune of “O Tannenbaum.” Interestingly, the script calls for Earle to say, “If Jupiter and Saturn meet.” It seems Kenneth Welsh dropped the “If” during one take. The subtitles don’t show that word either.
Earle’s singing continues with “Oh, what a crop of mummy wheat.” Welsh also substitutes “crop” for “cop.”
The camera cuts back to Leo who is still shaking before panning over to Earle seated behind a desktop computer.
SUPERNATURAL SONGS BY WILLAM BUTLER YEATS
Windom’s sing-song couplet was originally penned by Irish poet Willam Butler Yeats. The lines appear in Yeats epic poem “Supernatural Songs,” a 12-poem set that he wrote between 1933-1934 which “explores, among other things, the similarities and differences between pagan and Christian ideologies.”
The particular poem – “Conjunctions” – is the tenth poem in this set and contains two additional lines Earle doesn’t say on screen.
If Jupiter and Saturn meet,
What a cop of mummy wheat!
The sword’s a cross; thereon He died:
On breast of Mars the goddess sighed.
An analysis of this poem published in 2007 offers some insight into the couplets:
Harold Bloom, who wrote about Yeats in 1970, states that the first couplet [is] founded on the horoscopes of Yeats children (416).
Jack David and Dr. Paul Cohen further explain that such a reference to Greco-Roman astrology, in line 1, is contrasted to a reference to mummy wheat in line 2, which refers to Egyptian wheat recovered from mummies’ graves [. . .] (Vendler).
The pair continues with the second couplet that references Jesus death on the cross, and ends with [o]n breast of Mars the goddess sighed, which invokes an image of Mars and Venus in repose after sex. Vendler comments that Jesus is represented as simply one cultural counter or anthropological index among many. This placement is emphatically anti-supernatural, in the usual Christian sense of the word.Â
WINDOM EARLE FIGURES IT OUT
The thing I love about Kenneth Welsh’s performance as Windom Earle is that he expertly delivers paragraphs of dialogue. It is a real treat to see him on screen. The script continues with Earle explaining how he figured out what the Owl Cave painting really is – a map to the Black Lodge.
There is some visual exchange mentioned between Earle and Leo but we don’t see that on screen.
I love the early 1990s quality of this computer screen image.
The drawing is from Owl Cave (reprinted in this Japanese Souvenir Booklet from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me)
It appears Earle is referencing a hardcover book. It could be a similar book found at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department conference room where the gang was trying to decode the drawing.
He could have also used one of these books that we see earlier in Episode 2020.
The top book under the remote shocker is “Amateur Astronomer’s Handbook” by J.B. Sidgwick published in 1981. I ordered a used copy from eBay but I’m thinking it could be one of the hardcover books.
Oh I love him so much!
Earle digitally sends away the Owl Cave image which I assume was a computer program executed to make the drawing appear smaller.
He is so focused on finding the entrance. Just look at those piercing eyes!
A MAP TO THE BLACK LODGE
The scene ends with Earle explaining how the Owl Cave image is really a map to the Black Lodge.
On the computer screen, Earle calls up a “Twin Peaks – Recreation and Tourist Guide Map.”
The map reminds me of the map found on the back of the Twin Peaks Access Guide to the Town which was also printed in this Japanese Souvenir Booklet from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
I don’t recall seeing the original version of this recreation map but it has to be out there somewhere.
The two maps line up and a red line flashes through the town, assuming it’s meant to indicate a match.
The pure delight on Windom’s face is everything! This is how I look when I discover something new about my favorite show.
The camera stays on the computer screen as the image is focused. The Owl Cave image moves slightly into place.
The scene ends with a zoom into Windom Earle laughing. The camera blurs before cutting back to Agent Cooper at the Roadhouse with Annie.
The script mentions something we don’t see:
Leo holds his hands to his ears, pained by sound only he can hear. The vibrations reach a fever pitch and… the computer SPUTTERS and goes BLACK. CAMERA MOVES RAPIDLY TOWARDS THE DARK SCREEN…
The script also cuts to montage of scenes from the woods at night including Josie Packard in the drawer pull. It ends with the familiar Killer BOB reaching out from the entrance to the Black Lodge in Glastonbury Grove.
DONT FORGET MISS TWIN PEAKS WAS THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF IT. JUPITER AND SATURN MEET EVERY 20 YEARS