Just watched this. Though I had seen clips of it, I had never watched the whole movie. Thoroughly enjoyed it—I love quirky directors that have a vision, a story to tell, and the talent to tell it.
So, let me first acknowledge that the answers to these questions, with a director / writer like Lynch, could well be, “Because he wanted it to be ambiguous.” I think for directors like Lynch, telling his “truth” is less about airtight plots and more about visceral feeling. That said, I’ll still ask:
How did Dorothy end up nude and battered on Jeffrey’s porch? I realize Frank Booth is the batterer (what a great villain), but did he even know where Jeffrey lived? Was it to send a message? Did she just wander over there?
What exactly was the shit show that occurred at the end? Obviously it was some kind of process that went way sideways. The yellow man half dead, Dorothy’s husband shot, the well-dressed man shows up…what was going on? Why were they in Dorothy’s apartment at all? Why was her husband dragged there, bound, and shot?
What was up with the well-dressed man? Why did Frank have to disguise himself at all?
Any thoughts? And, again, I may well be overthinking a work that invites reflection and thought, but not on possible plot holes.
I don’t think there’s an explanation at all. What I’d like to know is why Jeffery and Sandy waited so long at the bar before going over and entering Dorothy’s apartment. The first time I watched the flushing-as-she-honks scene I thought it was super intense.
I saw this thread the other day, and I thought Wow! A thread I can actually answer! Then I remembered that it’s been about 15 years since I’ve seen the film…
Sorry it’s taken so long to re-watch it, but here’s my take.
That is, I think, all of a piece. Frank heard about the raid, either from his police radio or from the Yellow Man. Loose ends had to be tied up.
Frank had the Yellow Man help him haul the husband home to Dorothy, sans ear, and he broke things off with her in his own peculiar fashion, by killing her husband in front of her.
Frank then slammed the Yellow Man’s head into the TV set in a failed attempt to kill him and eliminate that potential witness. I’m sure there was a struggle in which Dorothy escaped. She was naked probably because Frank had gotten all rapey. Anyway, she left her trademark robe on a chair in the bedroom. Either drugged or with head injuries of her own, she made her way to her only friend, Jeffrey. (She saw his address on his ID card when she first met him.)
Frank was not at the raid on his apartment, but he didn’t warn his friends, knowing that they would be killed, and those loose ends would be gone.
Disguised as the Well-dressed Man, he made his way back to Dorothy’s apartment. Why? In search of more blue velvet is my guess. Or maybe to end Dorothy if she had returned home.
One clue that it was Frank who did the killings is that the husband was gagged with the blue velvet sash. Frank took it before going into the back bedroom to gun down Jeffrey. When he came out of the bedroom, he had the whole blue velvet robe, which points to Dorothy making a hasty, nude getaway when opportunity presented.
An unanswered question is where was the boy during all of this? He wasn’t at Dorothy’s apartment unless he was hiding in Jeffrey’s closet, so I assume that he was still at Ben’s place. Looks like Ben went down, too, because Dorothy and the boy were reunited at the end.
Another possibility is that the Yellow Man did all the killings at the apartment. He gagged the husband with the blue velvet sash to frame Frank, which is why Frank took it. Somehow, Dorothy was able to drive the Yellow Man’s head through the TV set. Then, naked, beaten, and freaked out, she left to find Jeffrey.
That she left the apartment would seem to point to the boy never having been there during the killings. I don’t think she would have left her son, even in her state.
No clear idea. I think it’s just what criminals do in Lynch’s world.
One question I still have is Who lost a human ear in that field? They what, had it in their pocket, and it just fell out?
It might have been meant as a message to Dorothy, but she apparently never got it because she was all freaked out about how They hurt his head when she was at Sandy’s place.
(Though if you watch the foreign version of Twin Peaks, the one with the circle of candles in the basement, you might just see that ear again…)
I read an excerpt from an interview with Lynch, and the severed ear was one of three intriguing thoughts he couldn’t shake (the original one, I think) that crystallized to form the foundation of the film. IIRC, he felt the ear as one of the entrances to the body was an important symbol.
The song was one of the other thoughts, specifically for the feel and era it evoked. Can’t recall what the third leg of the stool was.
