The Tremonds
Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2020 8:14 pm
DAVID BUSHMAN: “Did you ever have a strong sense of who the Tremonds and Chalfonts were?”
MARK FROST: “No. I have to say they seemed a little obscure to me.” (Page 138)
The Tremonds were first introduced in TSDoLP based on the outline/notes Frost gave Jennifer Lynch about second season plans. Jen Lynch on Mrs. Tremond in a 2006 DVD interview: “Mrs. Tremond is sort of the perfect example of someone who might be forgiving of someone like Laura, and Laura I think wanted to live as long as Mrs. Tremond.” In TSDoLP, Mrs. Tremond is only mentioned in passing as a stop on the Meals on Wheels route, and the grandson (named Pierre in the book) pops up once as Laura is leaving Harold’s. He pulls a coin from behind her ear and she pours her guts out to him about Bob.
The Tremonds make their first screen appearance in Episode 9. In Harley Peyton’s script, they seem to be distinctly mortal. Mrs. Tremond is an elderly bed-ridden invalid. Her grandson performs a magic card trick for her repeatedly, but when he serves her food, a card slips out of his sleeve, demonstrating that he doesn’t actually have supernatural powers. As in the final episode, Mrs. Tremond expresses a disdain for creamed corn, adding, “We detest yellow food.”
David Lynch seemingly added the supernatural element to the pair in the filmed version of Episode 9, and especially when he and Bob Engels brought them back in FWWM, where they finally emerge as full-fledged Lodge spirits (and their creamed corn fixation becomes central to the mythology).
So who are they? What is their allegiance? What is their motivation? These are tough questions to answer about any of the Lodge spirits (except maybe Bob), but the Tremonds are particularly slippery. In fact, as we shall see, we may not even know their real names, but I’m going to use “Tremond” for the sake of simplicity.
They seem to have some association with Bob. Leland mentions the suspiciously-named Chalberts living on one side of his family’s Pearl Lakes summer house when he was a kid, at the time when Bob (masquerading as Robertson) lived on the other side and first went inside Leland (impliedly raping, then inhabiting, him).
FWWM sees them consorting with the Black Lodge crew (Bob, MfAP, Woodsmen, Jumping Man, and an Electrician) at the convenience store. The only thing either of them says is the grandson pointing (at Bob?) and saying, “Fell a victim.” The grandson is seen putting on the Jumping Man’s mask, and when the mask is removed again he has become the capuchin monkey (who later on in the movie notably whispers, “Judy,” as MfAP is eating Laura’s garmonbozia).
The grandson is again linked to the Jumping Man (and Bob) when he pops up at Red Diamond City Motel, leaping around wearing the Jumping Man’s mask and carrying his stick while Leland runs away from his scheduled dalliance with Teresa, having unwittingly set up a foursome involving his own daughter. (I’m not sure of the shooting sequence, but the Jumping Man may actually have been born from the grandson creatively. On the Blu Ray, Mike Malone claims he found the Jumping Man’s stick on the ground when they were shooting this scene, indicating that this location scene preceded the studio scenes with the Jumping Man, who is not in the script.)
Although never seen, Carl claims that a family named Chalfont owned a trailer in Fat Trout in Deer Meadow which draws Chet’s attuned supernatural spidey-sense while investigating Teresa Banks’s murder. Chet finds a mound beneath the trailer much like the one Leland/Bob would later leave after Laura’s murder, with the Owl Cave ring on top. Production documents indicate that Leland actually murdered Teresa in the Chalfonts’ trailer, and freeze framing the movie appears to support this. We know the Black Lodge spirits seem to let Bob do their dirty work so they can feast on the spoils (garmonbozia), and a pattern is emerging of the Tremonds being chillingly complicit in his crimes.
Subsequently, Cooper shows up to Fat Trout to investigate Chet’s disappearance. He is also drawn to the same plot of land, but the trailer is now gone (their function having presumably been completed). Carl notes that, improbably, the plot was previously also inhabited by another set of Chalfonts, establishing their M.O. of parasitically taking over the living spaces and identities of families with distinctly French surnames!
We next see them approach Laura with a painting while she is preparing her Meals on Wheels run. It’s left somewhat ambiguous, but Laura doesn’t seem to recognize them. The grandson once again wears Jumping Man’s mask, and strangely seems to act counter to Bob’s interests, letting Laura know that “the man behind the mask” is looking for her diary (perhaps this is because Bob has gone rogue and the Tremonds, like Mike, are trying to reign him in).
The painting inspires Laura to dream that she enters it, beckoned on by the Tremonds. The wallpapered area she enters appears to be Black Lodge-adjacent (in TR, it is accessed from the convenience store, leads to the Dutchman’s—which notably looks just like Red Diamond City Motel—and is primarily associated with the Woodsmen). Indeed, in her dream, it leads her to the Red Room...but, again, the Tremonds’ motivation almost seems to be to help out our heroes. The painting gives Laura access to Cooper (even though he seemingly gives her bad advice, saying not to take the ring), and also leads to her writing the diary entry about the good Dale being trapped in the Lodge.
In Episode 9, the Tremonds, through means unknown, seem to take over the residence of the real Mrs. Tremond for some period. Donna delivers food through Meals on Wheels, and Mrs. Tremond is very disturbed to see creamed corn. Is this because she is reformed, as Phillip Gerard allegedly is, or is it simply that ordinary creamed corn disgusts her in comparison to real garmonbozia? It’s never quite clear if Laura was delivering Meals on Wheels to these two or to the real Mrs. Tremond, but it seems to me these two are only in that apartment for Donna’s sake. They point her to Harold, and Laura’s diary.
I have to say, although the two have disturbing ties to both Jumping Man and Bob, and their parasitic habit of taking over other people’s homes is alarming, they actually seem to have a largely benevolent track record. Most of their on-screen actions benefit the human characters. Perhaps they are sort of a balancing force? Mrs. Tremond does look kind of uncomfortable throughout the convenience store meeting in FWWM.
Finally, we come to Part 18. A completely different-looking, younger woman named Alice Tremond, along with her presumed husband, is living in the Palmer house in whatever reality Laura/Carrie Page has been taken to, seemingly (maybe?) controlled by Judy. She says the house was owned by a Mrs. Chalfont before them. Given how ambiguous this reality is, it’s really tough to know what to make of the Tremond presence here, other than it clearly echoing the recurring theme of them occupying other people’s houses. They may have been called on by Judy to take over Sarah’s house and prevent Dale from awakening Laura, but it’s also possible that Dale just miscalculated and ended up in a time/universe where Sarah doesn’t live in that house.
Given all of the above, I really can’t decide if they’re malevolent, benevolent, or somewhere in between. They’re certainly Black Lodge-adjacent, and one of the more fascinating aspects of the mythology IMO, because of how obscure they are (to use Mark’s word). I’m interested to hear others’ thoughts.
MARK FROST: “No. I have to say they seemed a little obscure to me.” (Page 138)
The Tremonds were first introduced in TSDoLP based on the outline/notes Frost gave Jennifer Lynch about second season plans. Jen Lynch on Mrs. Tremond in a 2006 DVD interview: “Mrs. Tremond is sort of the perfect example of someone who might be forgiving of someone like Laura, and Laura I think wanted to live as long as Mrs. Tremond.” In TSDoLP, Mrs. Tremond is only mentioned in passing as a stop on the Meals on Wheels route, and the grandson (named Pierre in the book) pops up once as Laura is leaving Harold’s. He pulls a coin from behind her ear and she pours her guts out to him about Bob.
The Tremonds make their first screen appearance in Episode 9. In Harley Peyton’s script, they seem to be distinctly mortal. Mrs. Tremond is an elderly bed-ridden invalid. Her grandson performs a magic card trick for her repeatedly, but when he serves her food, a card slips out of his sleeve, demonstrating that he doesn’t actually have supernatural powers. As in the final episode, Mrs. Tremond expresses a disdain for creamed corn, adding, “We detest yellow food.”
David Lynch seemingly added the supernatural element to the pair in the filmed version of Episode 9, and especially when he and Bob Engels brought them back in FWWM, where they finally emerge as full-fledged Lodge spirits (and their creamed corn fixation becomes central to the mythology).
So who are they? What is their allegiance? What is their motivation? These are tough questions to answer about any of the Lodge spirits (except maybe Bob), but the Tremonds are particularly slippery. In fact, as we shall see, we may not even know their real names, but I’m going to use “Tremond” for the sake of simplicity.
They seem to have some association with Bob. Leland mentions the suspiciously-named Chalberts living on one side of his family’s Pearl Lakes summer house when he was a kid, at the time when Bob (masquerading as Robertson) lived on the other side and first went inside Leland (impliedly raping, then inhabiting, him).
FWWM sees them consorting with the Black Lodge crew (Bob, MfAP, Woodsmen, Jumping Man, and an Electrician) at the convenience store. The only thing either of them says is the grandson pointing (at Bob?) and saying, “Fell a victim.” The grandson is seen putting on the Jumping Man’s mask, and when the mask is removed again he has become the capuchin monkey (who later on in the movie notably whispers, “Judy,” as MfAP is eating Laura’s garmonbozia).
The grandson is again linked to the Jumping Man (and Bob) when he pops up at Red Diamond City Motel, leaping around wearing the Jumping Man’s mask and carrying his stick while Leland runs away from his scheduled dalliance with Teresa, having unwittingly set up a foursome involving his own daughter. (I’m not sure of the shooting sequence, but the Jumping Man may actually have been born from the grandson creatively. On the Blu Ray, Mike Malone claims he found the Jumping Man’s stick on the ground when they were shooting this scene, indicating that this location scene preceded the studio scenes with the Jumping Man, who is not in the script.)
Although never seen, Carl claims that a family named Chalfont owned a trailer in Fat Trout in Deer Meadow which draws Chet’s attuned supernatural spidey-sense while investigating Teresa Banks’s murder. Chet finds a mound beneath the trailer much like the one Leland/Bob would later leave after Laura’s murder, with the Owl Cave ring on top. Production documents indicate that Leland actually murdered Teresa in the Chalfonts’ trailer, and freeze framing the movie appears to support this. We know the Black Lodge spirits seem to let Bob do their dirty work so they can feast on the spoils (garmonbozia), and a pattern is emerging of the Tremonds being chillingly complicit in his crimes.
Subsequently, Cooper shows up to Fat Trout to investigate Chet’s disappearance. He is also drawn to the same plot of land, but the trailer is now gone (their function having presumably been completed). Carl notes that, improbably, the plot was previously also inhabited by another set of Chalfonts, establishing their M.O. of parasitically taking over the living spaces and identities of families with distinctly French surnames!
We next see them approach Laura with a painting while she is preparing her Meals on Wheels run. It’s left somewhat ambiguous, but Laura doesn’t seem to recognize them. The grandson once again wears Jumping Man’s mask, and strangely seems to act counter to Bob’s interests, letting Laura know that “the man behind the mask” is looking for her diary (perhaps this is because Bob has gone rogue and the Tremonds, like Mike, are trying to reign him in).
The painting inspires Laura to dream that she enters it, beckoned on by the Tremonds. The wallpapered area she enters appears to be Black Lodge-adjacent (in TR, it is accessed from the convenience store, leads to the Dutchman’s—which notably looks just like Red Diamond City Motel—and is primarily associated with the Woodsmen). Indeed, in her dream, it leads her to the Red Room...but, again, the Tremonds’ motivation almost seems to be to help out our heroes. The painting gives Laura access to Cooper (even though he seemingly gives her bad advice, saying not to take the ring), and also leads to her writing the diary entry about the good Dale being trapped in the Lodge.
In Episode 9, the Tremonds, through means unknown, seem to take over the residence of the real Mrs. Tremond for some period. Donna delivers food through Meals on Wheels, and Mrs. Tremond is very disturbed to see creamed corn. Is this because she is reformed, as Phillip Gerard allegedly is, or is it simply that ordinary creamed corn disgusts her in comparison to real garmonbozia? It’s never quite clear if Laura was delivering Meals on Wheels to these two or to the real Mrs. Tremond, but it seems to me these two are only in that apartment for Donna’s sake. They point her to Harold, and Laura’s diary.
I have to say, although the two have disturbing ties to both Jumping Man and Bob, and their parasitic habit of taking over other people’s homes is alarming, they actually seem to have a largely benevolent track record. Most of their on-screen actions benefit the human characters. Perhaps they are sort of a balancing force? Mrs. Tremond does look kind of uncomfortable throughout the convenience store meeting in FWWM.
Finally, we come to Part 18. A completely different-looking, younger woman named Alice Tremond, along with her presumed husband, is living in the Palmer house in whatever reality Laura/Carrie Page has been taken to, seemingly (maybe?) controlled by Judy. She says the house was owned by a Mrs. Chalfont before them. Given how ambiguous this reality is, it’s really tough to know what to make of the Tremond presence here, other than it clearly echoing the recurring theme of them occupying other people’s houses. They may have been called on by Judy to take over Sarah’s house and prevent Dale from awakening Laura, but it’s also possible that Dale just miscalculated and ended up in a time/universe where Sarah doesn’t live in that house.
Given all of the above, I really can’t decide if they’re malevolent, benevolent, or somewhere in between. They’re certainly Black Lodge-adjacent, and one of the more fascinating aspects of the mythology IMO, because of how obscure they are (to use Mark’s word). I’m interested to hear others’ thoughts.