AUDREY: episode 2.05
Since it's been so long (too long) since I've explored this topic, and in trying to find my voice again in my jumbled writing, this episode provides the perfect opportunity to experiment and get up to speed.
Audrey is barely featured and utters only one line '"Heard my prayers." However, despite this, much of the installment revolves around her with Cooper crossing the border and rescuing her from her captors.
What is interesting is we can take the time and look back at themes that have been developed and reinforced culminating with her being saved.
I choose to look at this episode of Twin Peaks as strengthening arch types and paying homage to Hitchcock's
Notorious as well as fairy tales and even Shakespeare.
In the 1946 film
Notorious, Ingrid Bergman's Alicia is a carefree "party girl"whose scientist father is under indictment for aiding the Nazi regime with the development of a new bomb. Alicia declares she is only interested in "good times"and only needs the friendship of a drink; she secretly harbors great patriotism and love for America and scorn for her father. With this knowledge, the FBI courts her to infiltrate a possible Nazi safe house in Brazil owned by one of her former "playmates"Sebastian (wonderful Claude Rains). Convincing her to go through with the dangerous plot is Cary Grant's Devlin, a dashing, calm and collective yet emotionally detached FBI agent. Alicia's yearning for his love and approval to see her as more than a spoiled, selfish woman, coupled with her primary compassion for humanity, puts Alicia thoroughly in danger.
The similarities are obvious between
Notorious and this arc to Twin Peaks, right down to the names of its leads 'Alicia/Audrey and Devlin/Dale. Mark Frost, Harley Peyton and Robert Engles have talked before about their love and influences of an auteur like Alfred Hitchcock 'as well as Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges among others. (The inclusion of Madeleine Ferguson into the series 'a hybrid name of Vertigo's two central characters- is the most obvious example.)
And
Notorious itself is steeped in a world that examines human nature and one's duality- a notorious bad girl publicly who harbors more courageousness and moral obligations than her seemingly virtuous contemporaries. Hitchcock uses a basic blue print of fairy tales to examine this, as does Twin Peaks- the girl journeying into the forest of darkness with the dream that a young prince's love will one day be enough. I'll examine both by going through the Peaks narrative.
Episode 2.05 opens with Cooper finally finding Audrey's note under his bed. It is a wonderful moment. Cooper's quirky charm and glee, coupled with the snappy music of Dance with the Dream man give it life and a jolt with the expectation that an exciting adventure is underway. If we look at it in basic terms, the knight/prince (Cooper) has solved the riddle to the castle of the captive princess (Audrey). Cooper couples the tangible note (
I've gone North. Jack may have the answer. Love, Audrey) with the ethereal. "The Giant was right, I did forget something." Here Audrey's breadcrumbs are intertwined with the Magician's (The Giant) celestial clue.
It recalls the surreal moment when Audrey prays to Cooper as it is cut between Cooper's slumber and the Giant's warning, "You forgot something." That moment presented a disrupt in reality 'is Cooper dreaming of Audrey or vise verse? Are dreams telepathy? Lynch wisely chose to intermingle the two scenes suggesting Audrey is linked to Cooper and the Twin Peaks world beyond the tangible world plane. With Audrey's safety not a concern in the outcome of the Laura Palmer case, it seems the Giant's statement carries importance.
I've established Cooper as a knight. A knight and an Agent seem plausible in this world. Audrey is an obvious version of a captive princess. I think it's also reasonable that if Twin Peaks is the kingdom than the Great Northern is its castle. It sits high on a mountain top looking down upon the town. Benjamin Horne fits all the principles of The King. He "owns half the town." He has all the power and makes the rules. He has an oblivious queen (Sylvia) and a Confidant Adviser (Leland). A court jester in Brother Jerry. And a potential damaged Hamlet heir to the throne (Johnny Horne). Through the dark forest and in another world, we have the lair or fortress of One Eyed Jacks. Here a witch (Blackie) holds the princess. The King needs the Knight to reestablish order. The Knight/Prince working independently of the King's motives, solves his own quest riddles, along with the help of his trusty Man-in Arms (Truman) and the Knights of the Roundtable (The Bookhouse Boys). "I know where Audrey is."
Audrey as princess is an apt metaphor, yet it doesn't diminish her as simply Damsel in Distress, or the Object that Must be Rescued. (In movie terms, said character is usually referred to as The Girl.) Audrey's own journey has been established. Many fairy tales, once the surface has been scratched, move beyond a basic parable for children. Audrey has referred to herself as Little Red Riding Hood. Riding Hood can easily be seen about the rite of womanhood: a virgin traveling into the forest encounters the wolf who means to eat her. The red cape can be viewed as the hymen and the wolf as dangerous man (But that sounds like another entry for another topic!). In other entries, I've explored Audrey has yearned to enter the adult world. Her early posturing has masked innocence. Her exposure to a world beyond the easy chess board of her village has been met with stark darkness and nightmares. Her potential rape and corruption comes in the form of a needle used for heroin. In this episode, it culminates that the princess has been damaged yet retains her virtue. That she in dressed in soft pink and clutches to a heart-shaped pillow reinforces her fight to remain virginal for the Prince/Knight.
Notorious too uses the same devices. Alicia's bad girl public image only leads her potential rescuers to dismiss her need for help. Her alcoholic past is used by Sebastian and his mother as a means to thwart any suspicion that she is being slowly and systematically poisoned. Like Audrey's discovery by Blackie, Sebastian's findings that he has a Mata Hari in his den are grounds to do away with her by poison. Devlin's intuitions are also independent of the normal FBI channels, and he steps outside his jurisdiction to retrieve Alicia. He must put aside his conflicts of Alicia's past, and trust his instincts that she is in mortal danger and worth saving.
Notorious' climax takes place with Devlin entering the Lair/Fortress and finding Alicia confined to a bed, incapacitated. With danger all around them, Devlin hovers over the drugged and struggling Alicia and chides his misgivings and professes his love. He lifts her up and carries her out, navigating the dangers of the lair to safety. Cooper too will do as much. Infiltrating the Lair (One Eyed Jacks), he leans over the drugged Audrey. When the Witch's goon (Nancy) states the situation, "Is not my idea you're nothing but meat on a hook to these people,"an unusually shaken Cooper barks "Shut up." The implication being that his compassion for Audrey is greater than Policeman and Victim.
Presented in a two shot of both actors, Audrey and Cooper are shown in the same position as Alicia and Devlin. But also it evokes images from countless fairy tales. Prince Charming awakening Snow White from her slumber comes to mind. In this instance, the Witch has substituted a poisoned apple with a hypodermic syringe.
Cooper softly tells Audrey, "I'm going to take you out of here." Slipping in and out of a haze (or a dream or nightmare), Audrey is able to see the Knight and know she is safe. Her statement is solely, "My prayers." Since entering the adult world, Audrey has prayed for her Special Agent to show her the path, and despite the ordeal, she continued to pray. She held onto the heart-shaped pillow of innocence by her side and didn't succumb. The person she once told Donna "might be the man of my dreams"has emerged from dreams and prayers and led her out of the Dark Forest. The Witch has been defeated. The Princess has been saved by the Knight. However, the Wolf of Jean Renault still looms.
This is an interesting episode to explore the motifs brought in before. One Eyed Jacks does hold a dark and mysterious other world 'sort of a tangible Red Room 'with its red curtains and labyrinth passages of corridors. Audrey did mention telling Emory a bed time story casting herself as its star, "Red." Audrey working outfit selected by Blackie differs from the other girls. Hers is distinctly virginal and childlike with its billowing white and soft pinks. It recalls Snow White and Alice in Wonderland. She's even attended to by a Grim-like hunchback. That she seems to be in an enchanted sleep waiting for the Prince is a form of innocent protection too.
This episode ends with Audrey finally being taken out of One Eyed Jacks and back to Twin Peaks. And that is a thrilling prospect. Audrey spent the first season investigating, gathering her info, mainly in hopes that the FBI man will lead her to "a life full of mystery and international intrigue." She was a dreamer. Now her investigation led her to a world of deeper corruption and experiencing things she never thought possible. While she encountered the Wolf and Witch in Jean Renault and Blackie, there are bigger monsters out there. She has to return to the Castle of the Great Northern to face the real Big Bad Wolf in her father, Benjamin Horne- previously he had threatened to "Huff and puff and blow your house down!" She returns to the real world with greater insight. Her father in no longer a vile man, but a complete monster. Even her relationship with Special Agent Dale Cooper will have to change. While her virtue has stayed intact, her innocence has been lost to a degree.
*While we know now how the series progresses (or crumples), it's interesting to see how rife with possibilities there were for Audrey. The triangle between Cooper, Audrey and Ben is at its peak, and the power struggle between father and daughter will soon be reversed. Audrey knows about One Eyed Jacks' ownership, about Laura, and about Ben and Catherine's plot to take down the mill. She is holding all the cards. Also, this episode would have seemed even more brilliant if behind the scene politics hadn't deterred the Cooper/Audrey relationship. Twin Peaks had so many instances of mirroring, duality 'well, twinning, that it seemed there would have been endless comparisons how Cooper saves Audrey from One Eyed Jacks and then must save her from the otherworldly Red Room. The two being different and the same. Oh, well.