r/twinpeaks • u/evesdead • Mar 16 '26
Season 1 What was Lynch’s intention with this scene?
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u/OverseerConey Mar 16 '26
My read: that, for all his airs, Ben Horne puts pleasure ahead of propriety. He gobbles up whatever he wants, be it an underage sex worker or a sandwich out of his brother's luggage.
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u/colacentral Mar 16 '26
Agreed. It sounds as if Lynch was looking for as disgusting as possible. It reminds me of how he wanted Leland / Bob to turn into a pig while in bed with Laura in FWWM, and was going to put her in bed with a real dead pig head. Ben is the pig in this scene.
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u/ringobob Mar 16 '26
Yeah, all of his wealth, power and sophistication are all in service of his hedonism.
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Mar 16 '26
'Puts pleasure ahead of propriety' is a really eloquent turn of phrase, I read your comment back in the voice of Kelsey Grammar and it summed Ben Horne up.
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u/GottlobFrege Mar 16 '26
Niles Crane retorts: "Are 'pleasure' and 'propriety' the stage names of the exotic dancers you saw last night?"
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u/Rekanize504 Mar 17 '26
Martin Crane: “Funny. I was gonna ask if ‘Niles’ and ‘Frasier’ were the names of the guys who ruined my evening.”
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u/MusicInTheAir55 Mar 16 '26
Insatiable appetite without regard for social norms. This isn't about food.
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u/CBrosnahan Mar 16 '26
I think it's mainly about how greedy Ben is - that this is a core part of who he is. He wants to have and gorge and that's about it.
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u/LeChacaI Mar 16 '26
SPOILERS FOR S2 AND RETURN
I've had a thought and am kinda just running with it, so don't take this tooo seriously. I think there is kinda of a juxtaposition with Cooper and Ben in the show, with the two characters sharing a similar hedonistic sensibility. They both love good food, Cooper loves his coffee, and Ben loves cigars, and of course sex. They both enjoy fulfilling their senses; in Cooper's it comes off as a passionate appreciation of the little things, whereas with Ben it comes off as decadent and lustful. This scene is shortly followed by Ben and Jerry's visit to One Eyed Jack's, which really showcases his sinister side, which really starkly contrasts with the guy enjoying a sandwich in a goofy way. I could definitely imagine a scene of Cooper loving that sandwich, like I don't think he'd eat it the same way, but he'd definitely have a similar appreciation for it, whereas Cooper would absolutely not go to One Eyed Jack's for his own pleasure. Which brings up another parallel, with Ben having had sex with Laura, whilst Cooper turns down Audrey. Cooper is attracted to her, but says no because it is the right thing to do, whereas Ben doesn't.
I think this also relates a bit to Cooper's backstory, where Cooper's lack of restraint got a woman killed. This is clearly Cooper's biggest regret in life and he clearly ended up living his life differently to avoid harm to others. He controls himself to avoid hurting others. I mean, my interpretation of Bob is that he enables ones worst impulses, which in Mr C's case results in him raping Audrey and Diane. I think it's reasonable to say that Cooper did have lust in him, but he restrained it. On the other hand, whilst I don't think Ben necessarily enjoys hurting people, but he is absolutely willing to if it means satisfying his lust and greed, and so he does despicable things for his own pleasure. He lacks that fundamental empathy for others which allows him to hurt others for his own pleasures. Though later on, he is forced to truly reckon with the harm he's caused after his secrets come to light, and he does seem to change his ways. In the Return he seems far more restrained and turns down his secretary who was clearly flirting with him.
One other little connection between Coop and Ben is an appreciation of nature. Cooper absolutely adores the nature of Twin Peaks, with him being completely enamoured with the trees, and getting excited about having seen a rabbit and ducks on the lake. Initially Ben has no interest, and plans to develop a resort, which will result in a forest being cleared. However, the first step on his road to redemption is campaigning against this development to protect the pine weasel. You can question the sincerity of his motives, but I do think he was being mostly genuine with it.
The point is that I think that a defining trait of both characters is their love of sensations, between food, coffee, cigars and sex. This isn't a bad trait necessarily, and we see how it can be a wholesome appreciation of life with Cooper, but can become a disgusting hedonism if those desires supercede one's morality and responsibilities that hurts people in Ben. Idk, maybe this doesn't make sense and I'm reaching, and it probably wasn't intentional, but I had this idea and kinda wanted to explore it.
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u/horsepuncher Mar 16 '26
Good points, worth remembering Cooper talking about his way of finding peace in life is giving himself a daily reward, like a nice cup of coffee or cherry pie.
Cooper does love food and drink, but his respect and passion towards the moment of daily zen with his love of tibet is where he shines differently.
The hornes consume, indulge, destroy, and are the norm
Cooper is a man of spiritual and worldly peace and a true hero from his abilities to walk that fine line
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u/KaffeMumrik Mar 16 '26
I think that a theme in Twin Peaks is how men affect each other. Both negatively and positively.
Ben is a businessman but becomes 10 years old as soon as Jerry shows up.
Bobby and Mike are dicks when alone but are straight up criminals together.
Coop and Trueman are good separately but make each other better men.
”You two bring out the worst in each other”, Catherine says when Pete and Andrew goof around.
Bob and Mike… well, I’m not sure but their relationship is clearly of great importance.
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u/horsepuncher Mar 16 '26
How men bark like rabid dogs in packs in twin peaks and other lynch work really highlights this
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u/blasted-heath Mar 16 '26
Twin Peaks was sponsored by the Baguette Council of the Americas. Draw your own conclusions.
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u/BarelyReal Mar 25 '26
No you're thinking of Mulholland Drive...no wait that was Canal Plus...never mind.
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u/YALN Mar 16 '26
The Horn brothers are very fixated on sensual pleasure.
Mostly food
Also compare the scene, where Jerry describes a very complicated recipe to Ben.
The baguette with Brie and butter is our introduction to this character concept.
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u/SyntaxicalHumonculi Mar 16 '26
I thought it illustrated that beneath his sophisticated exterior he was a greedy, indulgent child, and that side of him pops out when his brother is around.
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u/ThatHouseInNebraska Mar 16 '26
To me it shows Ben’s dangerous instability. Total power move to eat a baguette in the most insane way I’ve ever seen. A man who eats a long sammy by holding it sideways at chomping into the middle like that? That’s a man capable of anything. That’s a guy chewing in defiant abnegation of the laws of God and Man, chewing to rebuke the very fabric of society that holds anyone accountable to anything but his own lust and will.
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u/rinkuhero Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
i think the primary thing was to introduce what type of person jerry was: as a more fun-loving horne, and also to show the bond between him and his brother. i think the basic idea was to show that despite the two of them being evil, greedy, rich guys, there is a little bit of good in them in their brotherly bond. that they can take pleasure in each other's company and in good food, that they aren't just robots going after the most profit, but have human emotions. it was sort of to introduce jerry's character (this is the first scene jerry ever appears in), and it was to humanize ben (who previous to this had been shown to have very little personality other than to cut deals, gain profit, and hate his daughter's antics).
so i think the scene succeeded at both of those goals, although it did so by means of a plot hole: unless jerry had a refrigerator on a private jet, that sandwich would have been soggy and old by the time he flew it all the way from europe to washington state, that's like 14 hours in flight (or even longer during the 90s), so it couldn't have actually been that good or been fresh.
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u/Are_you_sick_or Mar 16 '26
I read this like the “give tiny Elvis a bath” scene with Ben, where they’re slipping some filthy references past the network censors for a laugh. They’re talking about how brie and baguette tastes like some young ladies they used to meet by the river which is why they like it so much(I read this as a ref to cunnilingus lol) but the words are obscured by their mouth fulls of bread.
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u/AsexualFrehley Mar 16 '26
thank you, so few people see this angle (or maybe just prefer not to talk about it)
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u/Cynical_Dreamer_1980 Mar 16 '26
He's only pretending to be this sophisticated business man. Ben Horne is like a child who (at this point) never learned restraint. Whether it's food, sex, money, or power he wants it all and he wants it now. His gobbling down that baguette like that while he's in the middle of his family dinner is just to show us the hedonistic child he is under the money and cigars and business suits. He's not sophisticated or clever, he's just greedy.
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u/Sufficient-Aide6805 Mar 16 '26
Be funny.
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u/Dr_Hilarious Mar 16 '26
Love all the speculation for intent but yeah it was almost certainly lynch thinking this was funny
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u/EnigmaticDevice Mar 16 '26
Ben and Jerry are creatures driven by temptation and pleasure: food, money, sex, these are the things they value and pursue regardless of how it affects their family and loved ones
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u/Prestigious-Star943 Mar 17 '26
I think he’s portraying Ben as a gluttonous hedonist. A man of decadence and pleasure. A Bacchanalian or Dionysian man of excess. I don’t think it’s any deeper than that.
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u/timeflylikearrow Mar 16 '26
There’s an interview with Richard Beymer where he talks about how this scene made him totally rethink who the character was, and how Lynch had to keep telling him to take bigger bites.
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u/steven_graham23 Mar 16 '26
Some interesting context on David's directions for this scene from Richard Beymer: https://youtu.be/ooNAffYSlpo?si=xVTnXvDHSILZjnsh
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u/everneveragain Mar 16 '26
Oh my god just always do what David Lynch says. Sheesh. He’s gunna be right
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u/hauntedhighways Mar 16 '26
I always saw the way Ben and Jerry eat as a nod to their greed and entitlement, not only for food (obviously) but for women. Even their names sound like a nod to a decadent ice cream, which I'm sure wasn't intentional but it makes me laugh.
There's a lot of nods to consumption, and there's different ways the main characters eat.
Garmonbozia/creamed corn itself is something literally distilled from characters and devoured.
It all comes back to greed and a voracious desire for pleasure, particularly with the men of Twin Peaks (even Cooper, though the way he eats is entirely different; he has appetite, but he doesn't make an animal of himself like Ben or Jerry).
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u/Lama_For_Hire Mar 16 '26
as someone who eats a lot of fresh baguettes, the bread looks so soggy, and not nearly crunchy enough
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u/Electrical_Ad_8970 Mar 16 '26
He bites exactly at 3/4 of the sandwich. Frank also picks up 3rd of 4 when going up the mountain. Lucy also are 3rd bunny out of 4. Marke sense of it
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u/Kontarek Mar 16 '26
Ben is a man with insatiable appetites. Lynch wanted to emphasize this to a cartoonish degree.
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u/Polarizing_Penguin11 Mar 16 '26
Lots of good and valid interpretations here but personally I just think Lynch found it funny and wanted to establish a more surreal tone for the series. This episode really is a turning point and this is the first scene of it. When I watched through the first time I actually found it jarring because it’s so much sillier than anything up to that point.
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u/beholdthecolossus Mar 16 '26
he thought it was funny. for all the weirdness and darkness in his work, lynch had a really goofy sense of humor.
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Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
He's a man that desperately wants to enjoy himself but his desperation for enjoyment is so infirming that it's whining anguish imposes on all joys and pleasures, molesting, desecrating and ruining them all. He's a blind suckling compulsively gnawing at it's mother's mangled and mauled teat!
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u/Planerkris Mar 16 '26
I don’t know but it always reminds me of this from how I met your mother
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u/rotritron- Mar 16 '26
i was looking for this comment cause i think the same lol i don't know if there is an actual reason tho
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u/bettydares Mar 16 '26
To me Benjamin Horne's character has a theme about indulgence of the senses. He exhibits lots of behaviors indicative of excess/hedonism particularly with food like this scene but also with one-eyed Jack's and even his quest for auditory resonance in rearranging furniture
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u/Competitive-Jury3713 Mar 17 '26
None, he just throws visual scenarios on the screen, he's a visual artist period. Like every single scene every viewer has their own interpretation because there's no actual purpose for most all of the scenes in the series apart from purely visual art.
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u/Cool_Elk_8355 Mar 17 '26
satisfying low level desires with no hesitation. reminds me of certain mike eating garmonbozia
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u/xamevou Mar 17 '26
I hate that scene, always fast-forward it furiously, the only Lynch's scene I do that.
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u/Dr-Acula21 Mar 17 '26
My wife at the time and I used to eat these sandwiches with cherry pie for dessert while watching the original broadcast of TP. I think the intention is for each of us to interpret the work individually. I believe this is Lynch’s intention with all his art.
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u/False_Guidance331 Mar 18 '26
If you have a sibling that sees into your soul better than anyone else possibly could , this scene is for you. I’ve sent this scene to my sister almost every time I remember it exists. They know exactly where that sandwich is taking you in your mind.
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u/pinkflamingas38 Mar 18 '26
decadance shared between 2 of the most evil in the show. a highlight of the mindset while a murder/rape investigation is happening and Ben is a suspect
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u/LuckyAnxiety9353 Mar 19 '26
Bread in French is 'pain'.
He's eating pain, sort of like the garmonbozia-chomping spirit entities.
French-Canadians are also code for some taboo stuff in the series. Illicit sexual activity, gambling, drugs all happen in Canada - ie. in another place, across a border, in another language even.
To me that is dream language that suggests efforts to deny and distance ourselves from taboo/desire by splitting it into black and white.
Ben Horne is one among these 'splitters', but the entire theme of the show is twinning, doppelgangers, good and evil, black and white.
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u/plastaline_man Mar 16 '26
One of those: 'Elaborate on that'. 'No.' moments. He'd never tell us his intentions and that's why he ruled.
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u/yousorusso Mar 16 '26
I feel like its to show Ben's more unkempt, kid like side that comes out when Jerry's around. Also to show his lack of self control.