MOW = Mysterious Old Woman

Carl sees her, stops smoking his cigarette and says,

"I've already gone places. I just want to stay where I am."

What is your interpretation of this statement and it's relationship to the appearance of the woman with the ice pack on her eye?

Does he look scared?

Or pensive? Did she jog some unconscious memory?

Carl is an emotional and sensitive guy- but do you think there is some supernatural element at work?

(Please don't link me to someone else's 'be all, end all' theory. I want fresh ideas.)

I always took that as maybe Carl had been to the lodges, if not for real, at least in dreams.  Carl seemed rather frightened, besides, I would have loved to see him shooting the shit with TLMFAP! lol

I always take his attitude as one of fear. It's like he's afraid of saying too much. Almost as if the MOW is warning him off somehow.

I thought that he seemed scared too.  I wonder if she was a Chalfont or something and also why her face was so dirty.  Was her hot water out too?

Sorry if you want fresh ideas, but my thoughts on this are the same as usual...

Carl and that woman *know* something is really wrong in Fat Trout's, something really strange is going on (Teresa's death, the Chalfonts presence, the ring,...), but of course it's just a feeling, they don't know about the Lodges... Why Bobby and Donna were sad at the Roadhouse when Maddy died? Same reason, they felt something... So when the woman shows up scared and leaves, Carl is shocked for a moment and then he says that line, which IMO simply means that he loves his simple, boring life in Fat Trout's and that he doesn't need or want anything unusual in there, he's seen too much shit in his life already.

So no, Carl hasn't been in the Lodges, hasn't been in prison, that woman is not his wife and he doesn't beat her, what is going on is as simple as saying that he's very afraid, but doesn't know (and doesn't want to) why...

it's a fucking dream, isn't it?

Isn't everyone shown who lives in the trailer park kind of beat up?  Suffering from some sort of physical impairment?  Carl is clearly recovering from being beaten, and of course, the Hot Water Lady is not in great health.  I never figured out what it meant, but it always seemed to me that the residents of the trailer park were in physical danger.  So I do think that Carl was scared.  Why?  Who knows! 

Ignoring the dream theory for a minute, I thought the scene was just meant to emphasise the intense desolation of the Fat Trout trailer park.

The line seems a bit out of place though. I think some lines/scenes might have been cut here. The script adds a sequence with Deputy Cliff that isn't in the movie. Dunno if it was ever filmed.

Stanton's line was allegedly improvised though...

I think that rumor came from Chris Isaak, but I checked with my authoritative sources and they are 100% that the line was scripted

Doesn't that scene occur when we hear the sound of "the arm" in the electrical wires? It could be that Mike and/or Bob are making their presence felt right then and causing some kind of disturbance in Carl's brain. Like triggering random or subconscious thoughts to come out verbally. I dunno. The ugly-lady-suddenly-appearing-and-upsetting-everyone motif was pretty common in Lynch's '90s films.

Isn't everyone shown who lives in the trailer park kind of beat up?  Suffering from some sort of physical impairment?  Carl is clearly recovering from being beaten, and of course, the Hot Water Lady is not in great health.  I never figured out what it meant, but it always seemed to me that the residents of the trailer park were in physical danger.  So I do think that Carl was scared.  Why?  Who knows! 

 Good point.  I wonder if the sherriff's department was terrorizing the trailer park or if the Chalfonts whooped some ass and then moved along.  Although most trailer parks that I have visited have some seriously impared people living there.

Doesn't that scene occur when we hear the sound of "the arm" in the electrical wires? It could be that Mike and/or Bob are making their presence felt right then and causing some kind of disturbance in Carl's brain. Like triggering random or subconscious thoughts to come out verbally.

 

I like that he. He is somehow aware of the presence of a spirit (in the woman, who disappears, maybe, into the telephone pole.) Unsettled, a little afraid, I guess.

Doesn't that scene occur when we hear the sound of "the arm" in the electrical wires? It could be that Mike and/or Bob are making their presence felt right then and causing some kind of disturbance in Carl's brain.

 nice one. goes along with the 'Bobby, you killed Mike' line. as Deputy Cliff's presence around was in the script. but did Laura ever know about Mike? did she write about him in her diary? can't remember.

I think maybe she just heard the voices, came to investigate, not knowing who they were but seeing the trailer gone missing and is thinking "I'm watching you, you know" to all three of them bbut Carl analyses that as her just analysing him ..

Isn't everyone shown who lives in the trailer park kind of beat up?  Suffering from some sort of physical impairment?  Carl is clearly recovering from being beaten, and of course, the Hot Water Lady is not in great health.  I never figured out what it meant, but it always seemed to me that the residents of the trailer park were in physical danger.  So I do think that Carl was scared.  Why?  Who knows! 

 Good point.  I wonder if the sherriff's department was terrorizing the trailer park or if the Chalfonts whooped some ass and then moved along. 

Lol that's just what I was thinking! :D   Obviously there's the scene with Chet.  For all we know Leland/BOB could have been sent to beat/investigate the ppl in the trailer park or it could have been the Sherriff Cable.  Obviously he gets off trying to intimidate people.

 

If we get those deleted scenes, maybe we'll find out!!

Samantha

I have a more realistic interpretation. Carl has a past with authorities, and when they asked the lady about Teresa Banks, he uttered that line because he speculated that there was going to be an interrogation, and he wanted no part in it.

My surface reading has always been that he's kind of stunned and ashamed.  Ashamed of the state of his life and surroundings, and stunned that the curtain on it has been suddenly, harshly pulled back in front of the investigators (due to the weirdly sad nature of the woman's intrusion).  His line is a defense against their inner judgement -- I've had a 'real' life, and I'm here now by choice, so don't pity me.

The buried reading for me says that he's had his experiences in the other world, and not necessarily as a willing or confident adventurer, such that he prefers his low-key existence and its solvable "hot-water" problems.

Incidentally, would he be the Ben Horne doppelganger?  I'm not sure I've ever considered that question before...

Incidentally, would he be the Ben Horne doppelganger?  I'm not sure I've ever considered that question before...

Damn that's a good point, I've never even considered that before. The Fat Trout Trailer Park as the dream version of the Great Northern. Hmm... Guess I won't be getting any work done today, I'll be pondering this too long.

I noticed early that most of the images from Twin Peaks seemed to have to do with insectivores and insect food sources. The persistent trees, home to endless burrowing beasties. The Fat Trout Trailer Park and its image of a rainbow fattened by endless flies and nymphs (pupal dragonflies). Woodpecker masks and endless supplies of sweets, like cherry pie and donuts washed down with overly sweetened coffee, all set before not-yet-sexually-active members of a colony that seem to mate once and then have the male partner die off. Come to think of it, bees only visit one flower at a time so endless cherry pie does have ts parallel. Even Ben Horne's re-enacting his variant end of the Civil War can be seen as warring ant colonies battling over disputed territory.

So I've always pondered the trailer park as a metaphor for insects in the chrysalis changing from pupal eating machines into their various species short-lived adult forms. The trailers are then either eggs or the chrysalis. This makes BOB a spider and the "wrapped in plastic" experience being caught in BOB's web and being prepared for eventual arachnid consumption. The Great Northern is an infected tree with larvae that can be harvested by the grandchild who wears a woodpecker mask. Laura's sexual activity can be seen as a trigger for the spinning of her chrysalis with chemical triggers extending the process. Laura being taken away by the angel is her bursting free of the cocoon and fluffing her wings.

When I first saw the movie, I thought he was referring to having been in jail.

I'm watching the movie again, and I have revised my view a bit... There's too much fear in him for my surface reading to carry.  I think the scene was more single-minded than I was insisting upon, and that it's focusing on Carl's awareness, as the old woman appears, that it is now evident to the investigators what kind of case they're dealing with.  He knows it just got deeper, and wishes it hadn't.

(I also think it matters less, because I'm sold on the dream theory now, so there's less demand for me to justify the intensity of the fear level.  The final argument for me is the pristine condition of the T under Teresa's fingernail.)

Something I didn't notice before from that scene:  when Desmond is talking to the old woman, Sam is looking intently at Carl's reaction, not at the new person who has entered the trailer...

Incidentally, would he be the Ben Horne doppelganger?  I'm not sure I've ever considered that question before...

 Well that fits. Both rent living space out to the weary travelers of the day.

I noticed early that most of the images from Twin Peaks seemed to have to do with insectivores and insect food sources. The persistent trees, home to endless burrowing beasties. The Fat Trout Trailer Park and its image of a rainbow fattened by endless flies and nymphs (pupal dragonflies). Woodpecker masks and endless supplies of sweets, like cherry pie and donuts washed down with overly sweetened coffee, all set before not-yet-sexually-active members of a colony that seem to mate once and then have the male partner die off. Come to think of it, bees only visit one flower at a time so endless cherry pie does have ts parallel. Even Ben Horne's re-enacting his variant end of the Civil War can be seen as warring ant colonies battling over disputed territory.

So I've always pondered the trailer park as a metaphor for insects in the chrysalis changing from pupal eating machines into their various species short-lived adult forms. The trailers are then either eggs or the chrysalis. This makes BOB a spider and the "wrapped in plastic" experience being caught in BOB's web and being prepared for eventual arachnid consumption. The Great Northern is an infected tree with larvae that can be harvested by the grandchild who wears a woodpecker mask. Laura's sexual activity can be seen as a trigger for the spinning of her chrysalis with chemical triggers extending the process. Laura being taken away by the angel is her bursting free of the cocoon and fluffing her wings.

Interesting observation GFT.  Also, the beings in the owl cave map have insect or cocoon-like features, IMO...

This might sound crazy and I might be over-analyzing this scene, but I have ALWAYS thought that in that moment where he was looking at the old woman that something happened (as noted by the buzzing wires) and he was inhabited by a spirit.

My interpretation and opinion of this was that he was maybe saying something that Theresa Banks herself said when she was living at Fat Trout, before she died. The whole, "I've already been places, I just want to stay where I am," seems like something she might have said to defend why she was living away from family, isolated in Fat Trout Trailer Park - like a justification for the lifestyle she was in. It makes sense to me that people would ask her why she had chosen to live there, and why she was estranged from her family, etc...

The other reason that I think this is what is happening (and I could be way off) is because to me, Carl's mannerisms suddenly turned a little more feminine than they were right before the lady showed up. He went from a generally brash attitude complete with vulgarities and profanity and did a complete turn around - he became more subdued and quiet - his voice took on a more innocent and defensive tone, and he looked almost like a deer caught in the headlights. His hand even moved in a more delicate/feminine manner when he took a puff on his cigarette.

I just didn't feel like it was something that CARL was actually saying - it seemed to me that it was something that someone else was conveying - and I think that this was Theresa, since at the time they were in HER trailer and trying to find information about her.

 That's just my take on it... like I said, I could be way off. :)