Spiraling into my Favorite Twin Peaks Scene

Sewer grate covers in San Francisco 2021. Photos by J. Waits

My absolute favorite scene in Twin Peaks so far takes place in season 2, episode 4 (“Laura’s Secret Diary”). Not only was I mesmerized watching it during my first rewatch, but I also find myself flashing back to it as I walk around San Francisco. More on that later.

If you haven’t watched Twin Peaks through season 2, episode 4, stop reading and binge watch those 12 episodes now. I would hate to spoil them for you! Then come back and read this post.

The moment that I love is the opening sequence of “Laura’s Secret Diary” (S2, E4). Best viewed in a dark room at night, it’s an incredible series of shots paired with nightmarish sounds. It begins with a black screen and what sounds like screams. If we listen carefully we can hear “Daddy? Leland” being repeated as we view something resembling a nest. There’s beeping, like on a hospital monitor, then darkness and other eerie sound effects. The image is panning out of something that eventually appears to be circular. One gets the sense that it’s a tunnel or that we are looking into a dark place. As the camera continues to rotate, it now looks like perhaps the eye of an owl with black at the center. As the circling continues, we see another hole next to the first eye-like shape. As the camera pans out, we see more holes, and now it’s like we are viewing a strange crater-filled planet. The beeping gets louder and faster and then the shot dissolves into another shot and we see a close up on acoustic wall tiles that are full of tiny holes. We hear a loud hospital monitor sound and then a sustained tone, like a flatline. Sheriff Truman yells, Leland!” and we see an angled shot of Leland’s face. It’s like he’s in a trance. The camera shifts and we see Leland straight on. The beeping stops and Sheriff Truman reads him his rights. “He Killed My Laura! I killed him,” Leland cries.

This is my favorite piece of film in Twin Peaks so far. The shot sequence really messed with me, as I thought I was looking at one thing, and then another, and then an entirely different object. I still don’t know for sure what I was really seeing and if it was a singular thing (a dusty hole in an acoustic tile) from many different perspectives or if it was a series of Leland’s memories or moments or flashbacks.

Throughout Twin Peaks we’ve seen references to owls and outer space, so it’s curious that we see hints of both in Leland’s imaginings here. It also has visual reference points to a few things that Damon brought up in our discussion of “The Last Evening” (S1, E8), as we have seen multiple close ups on eyes so far, including Laura’s eye in a video, a crow eye, and Dr. Jacoby’s eye. The rotating nature of the eye shots also calls to mind Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (which I have delved into previously), which has a number of parallels with Twin Peaks.

I’m really drawn to this scene because it plays tricks on the viewer and confuses our sense of perspective. It distorts reality and by the end makes us think that we were tunneling through a dusty wall tile. But are we? Was Leland fixated on the dust bunnies in the tile, taking him back to the moment he murdered Jacques? Or is he seeing more than just that night? Regardless, I sense that we are seeing through Leland’s eyes, which makes for a very wild ride.

In much the same way that the holes in the wall tiles take Leland on a trippy flashback, I’m transported to this sequence of Twin Peaks when I spy certain sidewalk grates in San Francisco. Vintage sewer vent covers are everywhere and many of them are speckled with tiny holes in a variety of patterns. Like the acoustic tiles on Twin Peaks, they aren’t always symmetrical and something about the off-centered nature of them brings to mind the same unease that comes from watching this dizzying scene. My mind wanders as I scrutinize the grate holes, wondering what lurks beneath the surface.