Special Agent Dale Cooper wakes up at a hospital in Twin Peaks Part 16 on Showtime. He quickly departs with Janey-E and Sonny Jim in a 2015 BMW M4 F83 Convertible heading to meet the Mitchum Brothers at the Silver Mustang Casino.
This episode aired on August 27, 2017, and I immediately recognized the street where this scene was shot – 5797 Woodley Ave near SuihoEn: The Japanese Garden in Lake Balboa, California.
I visited the Japanese Garden in April 2012, so the landscape looked quite familiar (plus one scene contained a hanging banner advertising the garden). A beautiful stop in Los Angeles, the garden has served as a film location for several Star Trek episodes including one of my favorites, “Justice” from the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
But let’s take a closer look at the route “really good driver” Cooper took to the Silver Mustang Casino.
Cooper and family leave the hospital just as the FBI Agents from the Las Vegas field office arrive. The location is actually Valley Presbyterian Hospital located at 15107 Vanowen Street, Van Nuys, California.
Cooper exits through a gated parking area just as the FBI agent arrive through a main entrance.
This is the Google street view of the hospital. Notice the trees are the same as seen in the image with the FBI cars arriving.
Valley Presbyterian Hospital is relatively close to Woodley Avenue. Most likely, the scene with Janey-E at the hospital, Cooper’s drive with his family, and the scene with Janey-E’s “99-percenters” speech at the park were shot around the same time.
Once the scene cuts to Cooper driving on Woodley Avenue, the magic of editing takes over.
There are approximately eight cuts in this scene. You can see the order of the scenes in the image above. Scenes 1 and 5 show the car being followed heading south on Woodley Ave. The car dialog scenes (2-4, 6-8) were then shot heading north on the road. This gives the appearance the the road was much longer than it actually is.
Here is a comparison of episode images versus Google street view captures:
