POLL: The Nature of Audrey's Situation

[Audrey Horne]

Also of note, so far both of Audrey's scenes have been without location establishing shots. We've have establishing shots for almost all of our scenes... All the Peaks locations- Great Northern, Sheriff Station, Double R, jacoby's trailer, Nadine store, Big Ed's gas farm, Carl's trailer park, Palmer House, the Road House. Even with new characters and new locations, it has typically started with a screen title of the city and state, and an establishing exterior. Even Dougie/Cooper our main protagonist that we should be keeping the closest tabs on ... His location is brought back by the red suburban door or office space. Not so with Audrey.

We are to surmise there are dark woods outside, that's about it. But if the situation is merely to play coy with whether she is in a loveless unhappy marriage or being treated psychologically, why not establish her exterior location? To me, the absence of such a shot is because it does not match our preconceived idea of the interior location.

[Snailhead]

^ Excellent point! I hadn't thought about that, but it has definitely contributed to the uncanny quality of her scenes.

[Novalis]

Also of note, so far both of Audrey's scenes have been without location establishing shots. We've have establishing shots for almost all of our scenes... All the Peaks locations- Great Northern, Sheriff Station, Double R, jacoby's trailer, Nadine store, Big Ed's gas farm, Carl's trailer park, Palmer House, the Road House. Even with new characters and new locations, it has typically started with a screen title of the city and state, and an establishing exterior. Even Dougie/Cooper our main protagonist that we should be keeping the closest tabs on ... His location is brought back by the red suburban door or office space. Not so with Audrey.

We are to surmise there are dark woods outside, that's about it. But if the situation is merely to play coy with whether she is in a loveless unhappy marriage or being treated psychologically, why not establish her exterior location? To me, the absence of such a shot is because it does not match our preconceived idea of the interior location.

Brilliant observations, and a fascinating line of reasoning.

[chromereflectsimage]

Audrey's black shirt with glitter/sparkles on it looks like the night sky, kinda like the non-existent space Cooper was in before he went to the purple sea.

[Framed_Angel]

Also of note, so far both of Audrey's scenes have been without location establishing shots. We've have establishing shots for almost all of our scenes... All the Peaks locations- Great Northern, Sheriff Station, Double R, jacoby's trailer, Nadine store, Big Ed's gas farm, Carl's trailer park, Palmer House, the Road House. ..We are to surmise there are dark woods outside, that's about it.

I hadn't noticed lack of establishing shot and that's spot-on.
I did notice especially with the Part 13 scene, the curtains drawn on the windows. Lack of any view to the outside. In fact other than the pair referring to "how late it is" there's no visual way to establish what time of day it is, as when you have some indication from windows (such as the sheriff's office conference room, or RR Diner or even where Sarah Palmer's darkened living room is framed in the background by underlighting and lamps but you can tell it's probably night or almost)~

[Wonderful & Strange]

Also of note, so far both of Audrey's scenes have been without location establishing shots. We've have establishing shots for almost all of our scenes... All the Peaks locations- Great Northern, Sheriff Station, Double R, jacoby's trailer, Nadine store, Big Ed's gas farm, Carl's trailer park, Palmer House, the Road House. Even with new characters and new locations, it has typically started with a screen title of the city and state, and an establishing exterior. Even Dougie/Cooper our main protagonist that we should be keeping the closest tabs on ... His location is brought back by the red suburban door or office space. Not so with Audrey.

We are to surmise there are dark woods outside, that's about it. But if the situation is merely to play coy with whether she is in a loveless unhappy marriage or being treated psychologically, why not establish her exterior location? To me, the absence of such a shot is because it does not match our preconceived idea of the interior location.

Brilliant observations, and a fascinating line of reasoning.

Yes, this is good evidence for the coma scenario. If she's stuck in her head, then it would make sense not to show an external location.

Although it could be that Lynch doesn't want to show an external space because it would possibly reduce the possibilities he wants us to imagine at this point. For example, if she's being treated by a shrink as I currently believe, then showing the exterior would likely clue us in that she's in some kind of institution.

Also, if she was stuck in her head, Lynch could have included an external location to confuse us purposely. Since he didn't, he are caught up in the mystery of where she is.

[Wonderful & Strange]

Also of note, so far both of Audrey's scenes have been without location establishing shots. We've have establishing shots for almost all of our scenes... All the Peaks locations- Great Northern, Sheriff Station, Double R, jacoby's trailer, Nadine store, Big Ed's gas farm, Carl's trailer park, Palmer House, the Road House. Even with new characters and new locations, it has typically started with a screen title of the city and state, and an establishing exterior. Even Dougie/Cooper our main protagonist that we should be keeping the closest tabs on ... His location is brought back by the red suburban door or office space. Not so with Audrey.

We are to surmise there are dark woods outside, that's about it. But if the situation is merely to play coy with whether she is in a loveless unhappy marriage or being treated psychologically, why not establish her exterior location? To me, the absence of such a shot is because it does not match our preconceived idea of the interior location.

Brilliant observations, and a fascinating line of reasoning.

Yes, this is good evidence for the coma scenario. If she's stuck in her head, then it would make sense not to show an external location.

Although it could be that Lynch doesn't want to show an external space because it would possibly reduce the possibilities he wants us to imagine at this point. For example, if she's being treated by a shrink as I currently believe, then showing the exterior would likely clue us in that she's in some kind of institution.

Also, if she was stuck in her head, Lynch could have included an external location to confuse us purposely. Since he didn't, we are caught up in the mystery of where she is.

[Audrey Horne]

My point is that if it is merely being treated in reality, why muddy it with an exterior that does not match? If her mind does not match her actual location, it adds too many layers. If the intent of Lynch and Frost were to set up that she is married and then surprise, she's role playing with a doctor I feel we'd still get an exterior... I'd doubt they'd want to add a third speculative layer to that. (I'm getting wordy without making a clear point... but my instinct says dream/other world/coma).

Whatever the case, I think most importantly is her mind does not match her physical state. I think when coming together to revisit the show, Lynch really took note of his material, that his stuff were the things that really excited him. Okay, what do we do with Audrey, let's look at her last scene... "I intend to STAY here... Environment.... And THE GHOSTWOOD development upon it."

Her last sentence before the bomb... "Maybe you should call the sheriff too... Ask for Agent Cooper!"

I feel Lynch is more interested in dream states, connection between body and mind, and would be more interested in the personal exploration of this than straightforward therapy. Especially cinematically.

I could see Lynch jotting down these snatches of her lines and sprinkling them through her subconscious. "I'm tired of waiting for the phone to ring." ("Did you call the Gazette yet? ...maybe you should call the sheriff too."). Charlie even mentions a sheriff. She could be on a loop from her last conscious moments before the explosion. And names like Tina, Chuck, Paul are nurses, or names she hears in orderlies daily conversations.

[Saturn's child]

A couple of details to add that may be relevant:

* The song playing during the Double R switcheroo ("Has anyone seen Billy?") is 'Sleepwalking'...

* The 'slice of life' Roadhouse convo that follows Audrey's first scene parallels Audrey & Charlie's convo. I'll jot down some appropriate quotes on my rewatch, but it seemed some of the relationships between Audrey's newly mentioned characters & the new names mentioned in the Roadhouse mirror one another.

[tresojos]

i know this is a strecht and probably said before, but audrey says shes in ghostwood. and the explosion that left her in coma state was protesting ghostwood develpoment

[Novalis]

i know this is a strecht and probably said before, but audrey says shes in ghostwood. and the explosion that left her in coma state was protesting ghostwood develpoment

I don't necessarily think that's a stretch. One of the possibilities that keeps occurring to me is that Audrey is dead and trapped in some kind of limbo afterlife, although no other character's dialogue has gone anywhere near to corroborating this and might even weigh against it. Still, the blast at the bank must have done some damage.

[Dreamy Audrey]

I noticed the absence of exterior shots and think this could be important, we're probably not supposed to know (yet) what is outside her house. As of now we don't know where Audrey is, the only clue that she could be in Twin Peaks is the mention of the Roadhouse. But it's possible that a later episode reveals that they are not in Twin Peaks and were talking about a different Roadhouse or that Audrey is in a coma/dream/delusion/lodge/on drugs and there is nothing outside.

Her sentence "It's like Ghostwood here" is also interesting. In Part 12 Charlie said "There's thousands of square miles of woods out there, Audrey." Ghostwood is the name of the forest around Twin Peaks, so Audrey could just be saying that she feels like she is in a forest, like she is lost and cannot find her way out, which is why she doesn't know where the Roadhouse is. But, the last time we saw Audrey 25 years ago, moments before the explosion, she was concerned with the stop Ghostwood campaign, and if she went into a coma after that, I don't think it's a stretch to assume this might occupy her thoughts. It seemed at least like a weird word choice, similar to some of the things she said in Part 12 ("homework").

There are a couple of other interesting things:

Audrey is always stopped from action/leaving. In Part 12, Charlie was stopping her from leaving with excuses and distractions (blocked doors, 'it's late...dark...miles of woods', 'wait, I'll call Tina'). Now she is apparently free to go, the door behind her is open, Charlie tells her where she wants to go and that he'll take her there, but suddenly she is not sure anymore if she wants to go and she sits down.

Audrey is asking for help a few times. In Part 12, she asks Charlie to go with her and to help her find Billy. Now she asks him for advice: What is she supposed to do? Where is the Roadhouse? She wants to stay and wants to go, which will it be? And finally: "Charlie, help me". (This reminds me of DougieCoop's "Call for help")

Charlie says: "If I didn't know any better, I would swear you were on drugs." Maybe that's exactly what's going on. If she is still in the hospital, she might be on medication. Or maybe she is kept prisoner by EvilCoop (or someone else) somewhere and subdued by drugs. Or she is a junkie and on Sparkle.

[Audrey Horne]

I don't think she's dead because of the "contract" conversation. "Haven't I been good to you? Haven't I always been good to you?" indicates, to me, that Charlie has kept her alive all this time. And when she threatens to break the contract it is because his means has not been fast enough for her to wake up. I would think it wouldn't make much sense if it was about moving on from a limbo to a heaven or hell based on the character atoning for past sins.

Even though it wasn't a Lynch directed episode, I always thought the essence of Audrey was during the funeral when the priest talks about Laura and it cuts to Audrey's face during the dialogue: "most of all, Laura was impatient. Impatient for her life to begin, for the world to catch up to her dreams."

[Snailhead]

I really hope that she's not in a hospital / talking to a psychiatrist. That seems like the least appealing scenario for me. I'd much prefer it to be either a coma, dream / purgatory or even just a very weird reality. The whole "surprise! it's all in her head and she's in an asylum" seems like it'd be a little cliché. That being said, if she is a mental patient after all, I'm sure it will turn out to be interesting.

[Ross]

Thinking about Audrey's situation, I'm a little surprised at how much importance it may actually have- even if Sherilyn's role itself isn't major. If Audrey is indeed still in a coma, it links her and Cooper is a really big way, as she and Cooper will have both spent the past 25 years in limbo. Its a situation I hadn't really considered prior to her scenes. Add in her possible/probable role as Richard's mom, and Audrey becomes a key figure in this, linked to Cooper in a way that surprises me.