What about Ronette Pulaski? What's her story?

[RBinPerson]

So, okay, what's Ronette's story? How come *she* was also a high school student involved in drugs, prostitution, and swinging? We don't know much about her, do we. Her dad works at the sawmill. I doubt he sexually abused her as she grew up, as Laura's papa did. So how come she was in the same spot as Laura? What led her there?

RB

[boyfromstorm]

that is an excellent question. i had never really even thought about this until i read your post.

upon reading it, my memory recalled a scene from fwwm; laura and ronnette see each other and embrace. laura says, "haven't see you since i was thrown out of one-eyed jacks," which, at least to me, implies that though they have crossed paths before they have led distinctly different lives.

clearly, ronnette was not a popular girl. she was not the homecoming queen. since her father was a woodsman, clearly her family was not as prominent as laura's. her disappearance and subsequent rediscovery were nowhere as shocking to the community of twin peaks as that of laura's death. i do understand the natural emotional elevation of murder over disappearance, but one would think that the conjunction of two violent acts would cause an even greater panic among the denizens of the small town. however, the citizenry's imagination is captivated only by laura's murder. while revisiting the series i thought how strange this was. only the police and ronnette's parents seem to be playing very close attention to her.

my interpretation of the series leads me to believe that laura's problems were created and fostered by various forms of external and internal abuse. if i had to guess at what frost and lynch were intimating in concerns of ronnette, i would say that her problems had a lot to do with self-esteem. she is very much a mystery.

it is a very very interesting question.

[GeekBoyEric74]

Since Ronnette was apparently a "nobody" from a blue collar family, no one really is shocked by her private life. However, Laura was the Homecoming Queen, the Meals on Wheels girl, the tutor to the needy. It's the equivelant of finding out that the person you thought was Gidget was really Heidi Fleiss, as opposed to finding out that same information about someone you didn't know at all. Also, in the overall story of Twin Peaks, Ronette ( much like Teresa Banks ) is a victim of bad circumstances. Ronnette was really just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The story isn't about her, it's about Laura, which is why she gets so little screentime I think.

[sloclub]

Actually you may be reading too much into the story here. You hit the nail on the head when you note that Laura was murdered and Ronette was not. Murder is the big crime that gets you the big time and naturally that is where police attention, and therefore most people's attention will go. Plus if you work out what happened to Laura, you will know what happened to Ronette. It's not that Laura came from a wealthier family, or that she was more popular. It's just that she's dead.

Think it through in terms of story. If Coop spent a lot of time with Ronette, and who's to say he didn't, it might be interesting to some people. But if Coop becomes obsessed with a dead teen ager and goes all Edgar Allen Poe on us, that's more interesting to us as an audience.

[imhotep]

The diary reveals some things about her doesn't it?

[Gozu]

Didn't she also work at Horne's Department store like Laura had done? It's been a while since I watched the series but wasn't there some kind of link between girls working at Horne's Department Store, then ending up at One Eye'd Jacks? Thus the reason how she became involved in it all?

[Annie]

Welcome, Gozu, you are correct. She worked at the perfume counter, which seemed to be a direct line to getting hired at One-Eyed Jack's. I think she was needed as a "partner in crime" for Laura, since Teresa was dead (or not thought of yet.)

[Agent Sam Stanley]

It's been a while since I read Laura's diary, but I remember Laura mentioning she saw Ronette once at a summer camp or something when she was a kid. They were at the locker room changing clothes and smiled at each other. Laura also said she was the first girl she saw fully undressed at that age, not counting Donna.
She remembers that episode when she sees Ronette at a party at Leo's house, coming out of the bathroom.
They probably became close, since Ronette was getting cocaine from Leo and Jacques, just like Laura, so they were always meeting each other on several occasions.
I remember also, Laura saying in her diary that she felt much more close to Ronette than to Donna, since she couldn't always tell Donna what was going on with her. Ronette was kind of a Donna replacement for Laura's dark side, I think.

[They-Shot-Waldo!]

Especially after FWWM, it's a shame we didn't see more of the actress. Ronnette was, after all, "the one that got away". Maybe not as a main character, but as a sideline supporting one like the Log Lady or Phillip Michael Gerrard - would have been interesting seeing how she might have adjusted to normal life. A definite missed opportunity.

[appleavengergrl]

According to the diary, Laura first discovers Ronette's involvement with drugs at one of Leo's parties, the same night she first tried coke. Laura recalls seeing Ronette naked when they did a costume change during a school play. To me the implication is Ronette was in with Leo's crowd before Laura was, and obviously them both partying with Leo and Jacques (Jacques calls the girls his highschool sandwich) working at the perfume counter and then Jack's leads them to unite. I'm not sure where Teresa fits in to all of this, as we know from FWWM Ronette and Laura are the "girlfriends" Leland requests to party with, and when he realises who they are, chickens out and runs off. Teresa wasn't, as far as I know, a Jack's girl. It's never really clear how Laura and Teresa hook up except I think Jacques is a connection there, given Teresa called him to ask about the girls' fathers. But I digress. I love Ronette's character but it's true it's never fully explained why she ends up in the same scene as Laura. If I were a fanfic writer I'd love to do a back story for Ronette. Maybe it's because she's an outcast, that she falls into the drugs and sex parties with Leo. My favourite scene of hers would have to be when her angel comes in the traincar to free her. The tension of that moment is palpable, especially when Leland attacks her while she tries to escape. IMHO I believe Ronette is saved since she never really belonged in that world the way Laura believed she did. Ronette is almost the angel in hers and Laura's relationship, (she's a little less daring than Laura, and almost seems to follow Laura's lead when they're with Jacques and Leo) but Laura mentions her in the diary as a better confidant than Donna since she's in the same bad scene and someone Laura can be more frank about sex with than Donna. Laura doesn't want Donna tainted by her nighttime activities, but Ronette was already in the scene, and someone Laura could depend on. In the end Ronette gets a raw deal: she's raped and forever scarred by the events in the traincar, and seems to have no real salvation at all. The last mention of her in the series is when she smells the burnt engine oil, confirming Coop's suspicions the smell represented Bob's presence. This is literally a cameo appearance, we barely see her face. I would have loved to have seen more of her in the last ep.

Poor Ronette.

[adammunkay]

I believe that had there been a season 3 we would have seen her a bit more.