When the Giant suddenly appears in Room 315 at The Great Northern Hotel, he tells Special Agent Dale Cooper three things that will come true. Episode 2.001 was the first episode of the much-anticipated Season 2 that aired on September 30, 1990. Mark Frost and David Lynch collaborated on the script while Frost wrote the teleplay. Lynch served as director. While we know the Giant’s second clue as “The owls are not what they seem,” the original script contained something slightly different. For this Quotable Peaks article, let’s take a closer look at how this iconic phrase evolved during production.
QUOTABLE PEAKS – THE OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM
Throughout July 1990, four revisions were made to the episode 2.001 script. Revised pages were printed in different colors:
- July 7, 1990 – BLUE
- July 9, 1990 – PINK
- July 10, 1990 – GREEN
- July 24, 1990 – YELLOW
Each clue is worded slightly different than the broadcasted version:
CLUE #1
Broadcast: “There is a man in a smiling bag.”
Script: “The man in the smiling bag.”
CLUE #2
Broadcast: “The owls are not what they seem.”
Script: “The owls are not what you think.”
CLUE #3
Broadcast: “Without chemicals, he points.”
Script: “He points without the proper chemical.”
Can you imagine an alternate reality where we all said, “The owls are not what you think?”
I guess there is a reality where that is happening now (and they are also on Season 10 of Lynch and Frost’s wonderful and strange show). If only….
RADIO GIBBERISH IN TWIN PEAKS EPISODE 2.002
The Giant’s phrase would return in the following David Lynch-directed episode when Major Briggs visits Agent Dale Cooper in his Great Northern Hotel room. This script was penned by Harley Peyton and the broadcasted scene pretty much follows the script.
The one minor difference from the script is the time when the radio gibberish was received. In the script, Briggs says, “Radio waves and gibberish, Agent Cooper. Until Friday night. Saturday morning, to be exact.”
The broadcast version has Briggs saying, “Till Thursday night. Friday morning, to be exact.”
Similar to the revisions of the episode 2.001 script, this episode was revised four times throughout July 1990. Revised pages were printed in different colors:
- July 7, 1990 – BLUE
- July 11, 1990 – PINK
- July 13, 1990 – GREEN
- July 18, 1990 – YELLOW
In the script I have, scene 39A is omitted and it only describes Cooper answering Audrey Horne’s call from One Eyed Jacks
39A.OMITTED
39B.INT. COOPER’S HOTEL ROOM – NIGHT
FADE IN. The darkened bedroom. The phone RINGS. Cooper turns on a bedside light, answers it.
So 39A could have contained what appeared in Cooper’s dreams, where the phrase “The owls are not what they seem” were uttered as voiceovers by The Giant and Major Briggs.
With an out of focus image of Killer BOB on the screen, the Giant says the phrase, “The owls are…”
It cuts to pajama-clad Agent Cooper looking at Major Briggs … “…not what they seem.”
A washed out white image of pajama-wearing Cooper is shown when Major Briggs says the phrase, “The owls are not what they seem.”
The scene cuts to an image of Killer BOB crouched at the foot of Laura Palmer’s bed with a superimposed image of an owl placed on Bob’s face.
COOPER SAYS THE OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM
Agent Cooper says the phrase in episode 2.003 when explaining what The Giant told him to Agent Albert Rosenfield and Sheriff Harry S. Truman. The episode was written by Robert “Bob” Engles, with multiple version of this script were made between mid-July to early August 1990:
- FIRST DRAFT: July 17, 1990
- REVISED: July 20, 1990 – COMPLETE BLUE SCRIPT
- REVISED: July 24, 1990 – PINK
- REVISED: July 27, 1990 – GREEN
- REVISED: July 31, 1990 – YELLOW
- REVISED: August 1, 1990 – CHERRY
- REVISED: August 3, 1990 – GOLDENROD
By this time, the phrase was imbedded in Twin Peaks mythology and quickly became the go to phrase when describing something mysterious or strange (especially about the series).
OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM IN THE NEWS
Believe it or not, the almost exact same phrase was used in an article by Harry Bruce for the Toronto Star on February 13, 1969. Bruce was describing a walk in the woods and wrote the sentence, “I was wrong, however, for, like so many things in nature, owl pellets are not what they seem.”
It’s highly doubtful that the writers referenced this particular story but I found the discovery rather fascinating. Based on my research on Newspapers.com, this was the closest phrase ever used until September 30, 1990 when the season 2 opener was broadcast.
One of the first article I found was by Francesca Chapman for the Philadelphia Daily News on October 1, 1990. Since it’s a Philadelphia paper, she gives a nod to Temple University’s mascot, the owl. Numerous other reporters would repeat this particular clue from The Giant’s in their recaps and reports about the show.
Decades later, The Giant’s clue is still just as popular with Twin Peaks fans as when he first said it to Agent Cooper. My wife Katie is holding up a t-shirt from Snoqualmie Trading Post in Snoqualmie, Washington that includes this famous quote. It’s great when things crossover into the Real Twin Peaks.
