The Good Doctor
Warren Frost as Doc Will Hayward from “Traces to Nowhere”
As we continue our rewatch of Twin Peaks there will be no shortage of characters with dubious morals, shifting allegiances or who are simply evil. “Doc” Will Hayward, as portrayed by Warren Frost, is none of these things. If there is a character in Twin Peaks who unfailingly waves the flag of Lawful Good, it is Doc Hayward. I wanted to highlight Doc Hayward early in this journey because I think it is important for viewers of the show to have a baseline for what goodness looks like in the world of Twin Peaks.
To me, there are a couple of moments in “Pilot” and “Traces to Nowhere” that illustrate how firmly this character is rooted in good. Late in the pilot episode, there is a conversation between Doc Hayward’s daughters Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) and Harriet (Jessica Wallenfels). Donna, breaking curfew, needs transportation to meet James Hurley at the Roadhouse. Harriet agrees, but requests that Donna return her bicycle with air in the tire. Shortly thereafter, Harriet spills to her father that Donna has snuck out of their home. Eventually, Doc Hayward picks up his eldest daughter from the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department, and his sharpest admonishment to Donna is that they will need to pick up Harriet’s bicycle and fill the back tire with air.
It’s an almost banal interaction between father and daughter, one that most scripted entertainment would invariably pass over, but this small scene tells the audience almost everything you need to know about Doc Hayward. First, it is notable for what doesn’t happen. I remember my mother once caught me shoplifting from the Kitsap Mall when I was a kid. She was apoplectic, breaking into full-on nuclear histrionics including driving 30+ minutes to the mall to have me return the merchandise. She also made a point to show me gifts she had purchased and made me watch her return them. Oh, lots of yelling and screaming was involved. It was overkill. Now, Donna hasn’t committed any crimes, but she did lie to her father, asked her sister to cover for her, and does not care that the town made a very reasonable decision to enact a curfew after discovering the homecoming queen brutally murdered not 24 hours prior. This is the stuff that can cause a parent to hit that nuclear button.
Not Doc Hayward. Frost plays the scene calmly, warmly yet clearly relieved that his daughter is ok. What is Doc Hayward most worried about? That Donna keep her promise to her sister. He does not get angry or fly off the handle into the land of punishment overkill. I love when TV shows take the time to demonstrate what good parenting actually looks and sounds like. Too often on TV there is contrived drama between parents and children. Doc Hayward doesn’t need to know anything more than knowing his daughter is safe, and all he asks of Donna is to keep her promises.
I also really like the scene in “Traces to Nowhere” when Doc Hayward mentions that he could not bring himself to perform Laura Palmer’s autopsy. He notes that he delivered Laura into the world, a detail that the young Laura notes with a point of pride in her Secret Diary (as written by Jennifer Lynch). Clearly, the pain Doc Hayward feels in her loss is an echo of the pain that so many in the town of Twin Peaks have already felt—I’m thinking of the tears shed by Deputy Andy and the principal at Twin Peaks High School. The Doc doesn’t cry, but he cannot bring himself to usher out the body he helped bring into this world.
These little moments reaffirm the small-town values that Twin Peaks champions (while also simultaneously deconstructing them). It’s the type of town where if you borrow someone’s lawn mower, you top off the gas tank. If you borrow your sister’s bicycle, you put some air in the back tire. It’s a place where, in the words of Agent Cooper to Albert Rosenfield, life and death “have meaning”, and a full forensic examination is not seen as illuminating but a desecration.
Doc Hayward is always an avatar for these good old small-town values. I like that Frost keeps the character the same from episode 1 to episode 30—one of the few characters in Twin Peaks where what you see is what you get. I think there is also a good chunk of truth in his performance. Warren Frost is the father of series co-creator Mark Frost (something so obvious I did not make the connection between the two men until researching this past rewatch), and the father/daughter Doc and Donna share is undoubtedly rooted in experiences father and son shared. In Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks, author Brad Dukes highlights Frost’s background as a theater professor and artistic director for the Chimera Theater (wow what an appropriate name for an actor famous for his role in Twin Peaks) in St Paul, Minnesota, and many of the cast members (especially the young adults) mentioned how Frost was always willing to work with them to improve their performances by running lines or workshopping scenes. He was the Cast Dad.
Frost died in 2017 at the age of 91 after a long illness. The man lived a life of a true mensch, both on screen and off.
P.S.: Mom, if you’re reading this, I understand your reaction to my shoplifting as a young boy, but I still think you way, way overreacted. It was 30 years ago, and it is funny what you remember from being young. I still love you and think you did an awesome job as a parent.
