Teresa Banks and Carrie Page
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2018 7:51 am
Lately, the character (or plot device?) of Carrie Page has reminded of Teresa Banks, the girl from Deer Meadow who was murdered one year before Laura Palmer.
There seems to be a few obvious similarities, but it never actually occurred to me until recently, when I was reading theories suggesting Dale Cooper was dreaming the Deer Meadow sequence in FWWM (or that Chet Desmond is some version of Cooper, or Desmond and Agent Stanley are both Cooper somehow). Those ideas never really appealed to me, but they are starting to make sense in light of the Odessa stuff in part 18.
When I look at the Carrie Page stuff, it almost feels like it doesn't have any connection with anything in Twin Peaks previously depicted. Cooper doesn't act like himself, Laura certainly doesn't act like herself. The geography is different, the music is different. There is a miniature white horse in Carrie Page's home, and the Fat Trout electrical pole (number 6) is outside her house, but the similarities might end there. She also has a portable medical toilet in her living room, which reminds me of Beverly Page's ailing husband, but which could also be just a coincidence.
The whole Odessa segment can feel like a strange outlier within the Twin Peaks experience, but when I notice how Carrie Page seems to echo Teresa Banks, I begin to consider the significance both characters might have for the greater narrative. At first glance, both women are waitresses. Both seem to earn low wages, and are involved in illicit or illegal activities (Teresa with prostituting and drugs, Carrie with a dead guy on her couch). Both are subject to FBI investigations (although Cooper/Richard might not be on an official investigation, at least not in the typical sense). Teresa Banks is dead, killed by a client who first chose to engage with her due to her resemblance to Laura Palmer ("you look just like my Laura", Leland Palmer says to himself in FWWM). Carrie Page is alive (we assume), sought out by Cooper/Richard due to her resemblance to Laura Palmer. Carrie Page is in some sort of bad situation, and jumps at the first opportunity to flee it. Teresa Banks was mixed up in a blackmail scheme that got her killed, and might have also been involved in drugs with the local police somehow, but could have just have easily jumped in a car with Cooper/RIchard were he to just show up at her front door one day.
As stated above, both women have the number 6 electrical pole outside their homes. They also both seem to come into contact with the Tremonds/Chalfonts, with Teresa living near them, and Carrie coming into contact with them after traveling with Cooper/Richard. Both women are touched by the Spirit World characters, and both are tied together by their resemblance to Laura Palmer. I personally don't see the resemblance between Teresa and Laura, but it's her perceived resemblance by Leland Palmer that makes her of interest to the story.
I don't think this says anything definitive about the overall Twin Peaks experience, but Teresa Banks and Carrie Page sort of bookend the overall narrative. Teresa is dead a year before the show, the FBI's first whiff of the show's overall mystery (Gordon Cole's long Blue Rose case history not included), and we close the show on Carrie Page, a person who is reminiscent of Laura Palmer at first glance, but who seems to have just as much (if not more) in common with Teresa Banks. I think there is some sort of thread that ties all three of these women together, perhaps one them is dreaming the other two's lives, or two of them are dreaming, or all of them are dreaming, or they are all fractured versions of the same character.
Perhaps Teresa Banks is they key to the whole story, her dead body being akin to the corpse in Diane Selwyn's apartment in Mulholland Drive, and Carrie Page is like the reconstituted Diane Selwyn at the end of MD, looking just like Betty Elms, with the suggestion that this is the real Diane and Betty was the dream. Perhaps Teresa Banks dreamt up Laura Palmer, and Carrie Page is what happens when she wakes up? I don't think transplanting the structures of other Lynch films onto Twin Peaks can definitively "solve" Twin Peaks, or is even fair to Twin Peaks, but looking at other Lynch projects can give us clues for how to approach Peaks.
This could also shed light onto the Cooper/RIchard character. Richard acts nothing like the Dale Cooper we knew in the original series, in fact, he's probably closer to the Mr. C character, although he's silent nature is more reminiscent of Dougie. But if Carrie Page echoes anything about Teresa Banks, then it's very possible that 'Agent Richard' possesses shades of Agent Chet Desmond. RIchard possesses Desmond's matter of fact way of speaking, his propensity for violence, his utter lack of humor. And if he is simultaneously investigating a case in 1988, 1989, and whatever year Season 3 and episode 18 takes place, he might very well ask "what year is this?".
I'm not saying that Teresa Banks and Chet Desmond are any more or less real than Dale Cooper and Laura Palmer, or Carrie Page and "Richard". Maybe some of these characters are dreaming or misremembering the others (and themselves), maybe not. Maybe "Richard" is an amalgam of Chet Desmond and Dale Cooper, and Carrie Page a mix of Teresa Banks and Laura Palmer, or maybe not. I don't have any definitive conclusions here, but I will say that the ending to Season 3 feels more like an ending when I view it in light of it's connections to Teresa Banks. It creates even more of a full-circle quality than Laura and the Palmer house does, and makes some of the looser ends of the story feel less... loose.
Has anyone else felt a strong similarity between Carrie Page and Teresa Banks? And to a lesser extent, between Richard/Cooper and Chet Desmond?
There seems to be a few obvious similarities, but it never actually occurred to me until recently, when I was reading theories suggesting Dale Cooper was dreaming the Deer Meadow sequence in FWWM (or that Chet Desmond is some version of Cooper, or Desmond and Agent Stanley are both Cooper somehow). Those ideas never really appealed to me, but they are starting to make sense in light of the Odessa stuff in part 18.
When I look at the Carrie Page stuff, it almost feels like it doesn't have any connection with anything in Twin Peaks previously depicted. Cooper doesn't act like himself, Laura certainly doesn't act like herself. The geography is different, the music is different. There is a miniature white horse in Carrie Page's home, and the Fat Trout electrical pole (number 6) is outside her house, but the similarities might end there. She also has a portable medical toilet in her living room, which reminds me of Beverly Page's ailing husband, but which could also be just a coincidence.
The whole Odessa segment can feel like a strange outlier within the Twin Peaks experience, but when I notice how Carrie Page seems to echo Teresa Banks, I begin to consider the significance both characters might have for the greater narrative. At first glance, both women are waitresses. Both seem to earn low wages, and are involved in illicit or illegal activities (Teresa with prostituting and drugs, Carrie with a dead guy on her couch). Both are subject to FBI investigations (although Cooper/Richard might not be on an official investigation, at least not in the typical sense). Teresa Banks is dead, killed by a client who first chose to engage with her due to her resemblance to Laura Palmer ("you look just like my Laura", Leland Palmer says to himself in FWWM). Carrie Page is alive (we assume), sought out by Cooper/Richard due to her resemblance to Laura Palmer. Carrie Page is in some sort of bad situation, and jumps at the first opportunity to flee it. Teresa Banks was mixed up in a blackmail scheme that got her killed, and might have also been involved in drugs with the local police somehow, but could have just have easily jumped in a car with Cooper/RIchard were he to just show up at her front door one day.
As stated above, both women have the number 6 electrical pole outside their homes. They also both seem to come into contact with the Tremonds/Chalfonts, with Teresa living near them, and Carrie coming into contact with them after traveling with Cooper/Richard. Both women are touched by the Spirit World characters, and both are tied together by their resemblance to Laura Palmer. I personally don't see the resemblance between Teresa and Laura, but it's her perceived resemblance by Leland Palmer that makes her of interest to the story.
I don't think this says anything definitive about the overall Twin Peaks experience, but Teresa Banks and Carrie Page sort of bookend the overall narrative. Teresa is dead a year before the show, the FBI's first whiff of the show's overall mystery (Gordon Cole's long Blue Rose case history not included), and we close the show on Carrie Page, a person who is reminiscent of Laura Palmer at first glance, but who seems to have just as much (if not more) in common with Teresa Banks. I think there is some sort of thread that ties all three of these women together, perhaps one them is dreaming the other two's lives, or two of them are dreaming, or all of them are dreaming, or they are all fractured versions of the same character.
Perhaps Teresa Banks is they key to the whole story, her dead body being akin to the corpse in Diane Selwyn's apartment in Mulholland Drive, and Carrie Page is like the reconstituted Diane Selwyn at the end of MD, looking just like Betty Elms, with the suggestion that this is the real Diane and Betty was the dream. Perhaps Teresa Banks dreamt up Laura Palmer, and Carrie Page is what happens when she wakes up? I don't think transplanting the structures of other Lynch films onto Twin Peaks can definitively "solve" Twin Peaks, or is even fair to Twin Peaks, but looking at other Lynch projects can give us clues for how to approach Peaks.
This could also shed light onto the Cooper/RIchard character. Richard acts nothing like the Dale Cooper we knew in the original series, in fact, he's probably closer to the Mr. C character, although he's silent nature is more reminiscent of Dougie. But if Carrie Page echoes anything about Teresa Banks, then it's very possible that 'Agent Richard' possesses shades of Agent Chet Desmond. RIchard possesses Desmond's matter of fact way of speaking, his propensity for violence, his utter lack of humor. And if he is simultaneously investigating a case in 1988, 1989, and whatever year Season 3 and episode 18 takes place, he might very well ask "what year is this?".
I'm not saying that Teresa Banks and Chet Desmond are any more or less real than Dale Cooper and Laura Palmer, or Carrie Page and "Richard". Maybe some of these characters are dreaming or misremembering the others (and themselves), maybe not. Maybe "Richard" is an amalgam of Chet Desmond and Dale Cooper, and Carrie Page a mix of Teresa Banks and Laura Palmer, or maybe not. I don't have any definitive conclusions here, but I will say that the ending to Season 3 feels more like an ending when I view it in light of it's connections to Teresa Banks. It creates even more of a full-circle quality than Laura and the Palmer house does, and makes some of the looser ends of the story feel less... loose.
Has anyone else felt a strong similarity between Carrie Page and Teresa Banks? And to a lesser extent, between Richard/Cooper and Chet Desmond?