Two men in suits face each other on a black-and-white zigzag floor in a smoky room of red velvet curtains, lit by a single lamp.

Original artwork, not a still

The Man from Another Place

That gum you like is going to come back in style.

— Twin Peaks  ·  1990

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

On first hearing it is a perfectly weird non sequitur, and that is the point. Twin Peaks hid its clues in nonsense that turned out to matter, and the gum remark is one: a throwaway line that later pointed at Leland. It became a fan shorthand for the show's dream logic, quoted whenever something absurd turns out to be a clue, and a favourite test of who has actually watched.

Context reviewed

In context

Spoilers for Twin PeaksShow the scene

The line comes from Agent Cooper's dream in the red-curtained Red Room, in the Twin Peaks episode written by Mark Frost and David Lynch and known as "Episode 2" or "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer" (first season, April 1990). After shouting "Let's rock!", the Man from Another Place sits down and tells Cooper that the gum he likes is going to come back in style. He adds that the girl beside him is his cousin, who looks exactly like Laura Palmer. Cooper later treats the dream as a clue, and fans noted that the gum matched Leland Palmer's favourite.

Sources (2)

Context reviewed

Share this quote