David Lynch’s 22 Strangest ‘Otherworld’ Characters
18. Tremonds/Chalfonts: Twin Peaks/Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Do you see creamed corn on that plate? With his critically lauded television serial Twin Peaks, Lynch created the clearest images of the otherworld that these surreal characters inhabit: The Black Lodge and The White Lodge. These spaces are never fully explained, although they are generally considered to be worlds of purest evil and purest good, respectively. It has been argued, in fact, that successive films like Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire are in some way connected to these places. Two of the most fascinating characters to emerge from the Lodges are Mrs. Tremond/Chalfont (Frances Bay) and her grandson Pierre (Austin Jack Lynch/Jonathan J. Leppell). The Tremonds are first introduced during the shows second season, when Donna Hayward (Lara Flynn Boyle) delivers their meals-on-wheels. Aside from the fact that Pierre is a magician that makes his grandmothers unwanted creamed corn disappear, and that Mrs. Tremond knows their neighbour Harold Smith (Lenny Van Dohlen) has connections to Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), little else is revealed about them including why they inexplicably disappear several episodes later. They do not appear again until the film, Fire Walk With Me, when (this time as the Chalfonts) they seem to be trying to rescue Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) from her impending doom and Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) from his entrapment in The Black Lodge. Pierres Pinocchio-esque mask and Mrs. Chalfonts gift of a picture that would look nice on your wall do little to clarify their intentions, however. What do the Tremonds/Chalfonts actually know? And what is their motive? Perhaps the returning series of Twin Peaks will explain things further