Post by Goziebozia on Jul 13, 2017 4:58:22 GMT
i realize that upon first glance, it may seem very strange of me to compare the Horne brothers and the Milford brothers. the former are close, best friends, and the latter fight like cats and dogs. Ben and Jerry are originally protrayed as both being total scoundrels, and Douglas and Dwayne seem much more innocent and normal, just cranky old men who have a grudge against each other.
before reading the Secret History, and comparing some of what's there to what's been shown of both Ben and of Jerry in the Return, i wouldn't have thought about it.. but there does seem to be something to it, if you give it some consideration.
in TSHOTP, you have Andrew Packard at a young age, who paints Dwayne as an upstanding, responsible and caring person who he's confident will go on to do great things in their community. (he is of course the brother who will go on to be mayor) Dwayne in turn paints Douglas as volatile, unreliable and an embarrassment. among many transgressions and fights, the latter Milford brother had flunked out of pharmacy school, and later been kicked out of the Boy Scouts, after an "unseemly incident" brought on by accusations that he made after spending a very weird camping trip in the woods, claiming he saw a "giant" and a "walking owl as tall as a man".
despite everyone Douglas knows, including his brother, dismissing this incident out of hand, during the conversation that Dwayne has with Andrew several months later, he ponders if maybe he judged his brother too harshly after seeing something strange firsthand in the very same woods.
the book goes on to track Douglas through the FBI and at no point do i feel as though the reader is meant to disbelief Douglas really saw something. not only that, compare what he described to s2 with Briggs in the woods, an image of an owl, and him relaying to the Sheriff and Cooper that he can't remember much "save one disturbing image: a giant owl"...
if you forget for a second, the Ben and Jerry we once knew, the scampy, scheming, best friends, think of only what we have seen of them in s3: Ben, finally being an upstanding citizen, keeping his nose clean, seeming disappointed and annoyed by his brother's antics and drug use; Jerry having been shown to have done absolutely nothing with himself so far other than lounge around Ben's office or hike into the woods, alone, unable to even discern if he's high or not and looking down at his own foot which is talking to him in a high, almost strained voice, as subs flash on the screen the same way they did in The Lodge scenes and in FWWM..
then you get two brothers that sound much more like Dwayne and Douglas, and you're left with two instances of really strange occurances in the woods for both Jerry and Douglas, the two who will not be believed by anyone because they're layabouts with poor judgement and are not nearly as put together or sound of mind as their brothers, both of who are heavily involved in the community and command a lot of power in the area. (one being the mayor for eons, and the other being described as owning half the town at one point.)
also, it's a small detail, but remember i pointed out that Douglas Milford flunked out of pharmacy school and was even kicked out of the Boy Scouts?
"Jerry graduated last in his class at Gonzaga University in 1974 and managed to pass the bar on his third attempt, followed by having his license to practice law revoked in Illinois, Florida, Alaska, and Massachusetts."
all this to say i really don't think that foot thing is just due to pot. it really seems like the comparisons between these guys could mean something.
just a thought -- in the original run, s2ep10 is called "Dispute Between Brothers" and it's here that we see the fight between Douglas and Dwayne. considering that some things have echoed the original series verbatim, with certain lines being reused, and the contrast of s1ep8 showing Cooper getting shot, and The Return ep8 showing DoppelCooper getting shot in the exact same place, i wonder if this week we'll see some kind of showdown between Ben and Jerry?
---i'm including the part of Secret History with the story Dwayne tells, and Andrew's thoughts about what was seen by his Boyscout troop. i suggest if you haven't already you read Secret History as quickly as you can, it's so interesting and fun to look into all this expanded universe!
Scoutmaster Milford, looking off into the woods, now told me a story about a camping trip his younger brother Douglas had taken in the same location six months ago.
before reading the Secret History, and comparing some of what's there to what's been shown of both Ben and of Jerry in the Return, i wouldn't have thought about it.. but there does seem to be something to it, if you give it some consideration.
in TSHOTP, you have Andrew Packard at a young age, who paints Dwayne as an upstanding, responsible and caring person who he's confident will go on to do great things in their community. (he is of course the brother who will go on to be mayor) Dwayne in turn paints Douglas as volatile, unreliable and an embarrassment. among many transgressions and fights, the latter Milford brother had flunked out of pharmacy school, and later been kicked out of the Boy Scouts, after an "unseemly incident" brought on by accusations that he made after spending a very weird camping trip in the woods, claiming he saw a "giant" and a "walking owl as tall as a man".
despite everyone Douglas knows, including his brother, dismissing this incident out of hand, during the conversation that Dwayne has with Andrew several months later, he ponders if maybe he judged his brother too harshly after seeing something strange firsthand in the very same woods.
the book goes on to track Douglas through the FBI and at no point do i feel as though the reader is meant to disbelief Douglas really saw something. not only that, compare what he described to s2 with Briggs in the woods, an image of an owl, and him relaying to the Sheriff and Cooper that he can't remember much "save one disturbing image: a giant owl"...
if you forget for a second, the Ben and Jerry we once knew, the scampy, scheming, best friends, think of only what we have seen of them in s3: Ben, finally being an upstanding citizen, keeping his nose clean, seeming disappointed and annoyed by his brother's antics and drug use; Jerry having been shown to have done absolutely nothing with himself so far other than lounge around Ben's office or hike into the woods, alone, unable to even discern if he's high or not and looking down at his own foot which is talking to him in a high, almost strained voice, as subs flash on the screen the same way they did in The Lodge scenes and in FWWM..
then you get two brothers that sound much more like Dwayne and Douglas, and you're left with two instances of really strange occurances in the woods for both Jerry and Douglas, the two who will not be believed by anyone because they're layabouts with poor judgement and are not nearly as put together or sound of mind as their brothers, both of who are heavily involved in the community and command a lot of power in the area. (one being the mayor for eons, and the other being described as owning half the town at one point.)
also, it's a small detail, but remember i pointed out that Douglas Milford flunked out of pharmacy school and was even kicked out of the Boy Scouts?
"Jerry graduated last in his class at Gonzaga University in 1974 and managed to pass the bar on his third attempt, followed by having his license to practice law revoked in Illinois, Florida, Alaska, and Massachusetts."
all this to say i really don't think that foot thing is just due to pot. it really seems like the comparisons between these guys could mean something.
just a thought -- in the original run, s2ep10 is called "Dispute Between Brothers" and it's here that we see the fight between Douglas and Dwayne. considering that some things have echoed the original series verbatim, with certain lines being reused, and the contrast of s1ep8 showing Cooper getting shot, and The Return ep8 showing DoppelCooper getting shot in the exact same place, i wonder if this week we'll see some kind of showdown between Ben and Jerry?
---i'm including the part of Secret History with the story Dwayne tells, and Andrew's thoughts about what was seen by his Boyscout troop. i suggest if you haven't already you read Secret History as quickly as you can, it's so interesting and fun to look into all this expanded universe!
Scoutmaster Milford, looking off into the woods, now told me a story about a camping trip his younger brother Douglas had taken in the same location six months ago.
Although both brothers had worked with the Boy Scouts for years, Douglas no longer served as a scoutmaster. Scoutmaster Milford told me the reason was that Douglas had recently been asked to leave the scouts after an unseemly incident--having to do with said camping trip--which Scoutmaster Milford said highlighted a “lamentable defect” in his brother’s character. It was no secret among scouts that the Milford brothers had a complicated relationship, so I listened and asked no questions.
Earlier that year, Douglas came back from said camping trip with a wild story about having encountered what he called a “giant” in the forest. Given that Douglas had always been prone to “fanciful and chronic exaggeration,” this latest example of a “tall tale” was discounted by Dwayne and everyone else.
That provoked greater protestations from Douglas, including an even more outlandish claim that on the same trip he’d also come across a “walking owl” that he told Dwayne was nearly as “tall as a man.” Douglas also swore he’d captured photographic evidence of both creatures, but it turned out the film in his camera had been prematurely exposed. He blamed this on the darkroom at the Milford family pharmacy, suggesting that it was Dwayne’s fault for improperly mixing the chemicals.
Douglas also said having the pictures didn’t really matter because he had a photographic memory--which Dwayne confirmed; his brother does have near total recall--and remembered every last detail. In the weeks that followed, Douglas would sometimes vanish from home for days. Dwayne believed his brother might have been sneaking up to these woods again.
The next month Douglas brought this incident up at a Regional Scoutmaster Council in Spokane, interrupting the proceedings and demanding that unless the scouts launched an all-out investigation into the matter he would bring it before the National Scoutmaster Council. Dwayne tried to calm down his agitated brother, but sadly the evening ended with Douglas decking Dwayne with a right cross, at which point he was removed, kicking and shouting, from the Scout Hall.
This was followed by the council passing a unanimous motion to strip Douglas of scoutmaster rank and expel him from the organization. The resulting “brouhaha” brought deep consternation to the eastern Washington scouting community--not to mention within the Milford family--and all there agreed to strike it from the minutes of the meeting.
Scoutmaster Milford then confessed to me that since this episode, he and his younger brother had barely spoken. He told me Douglas had always been the “black sheep” of their family, showing no interest in the family business and flunking out of pharmacy school in Yakima, but sucker-punching his brother in front of twenty-three members of the senior regional council represented a new level of rebellion. Since that incident, Dwayne said that his brother’s life had continued to spiral downward; Douglas was now managing a pool hall down by the river flats on the wrong side of town, where he’d “shacked up with a fallen woman,” and I think I have a fair idea of what he meant by that.
But now, after what we’d witnessed ourselves, Scoutmaster Milford wondered if he’d judged his brother too harshly, and it was clear this weighed on him. Either that or, he said, maybe Douglas had followed us into the backcountry and staged the incident for spite, which, he allowed, “I wouldn’t put past him.”
I said that unless Douglas had figured out a way to broad jump 15 feet 12 times in a row while wearing size 22 shoes, I didn’t see any way he could have staged what was in front of us.
Earlier that year, Douglas came back from said camping trip with a wild story about having encountered what he called a “giant” in the forest. Given that Douglas had always been prone to “fanciful and chronic exaggeration,” this latest example of a “tall tale” was discounted by Dwayne and everyone else.
That provoked greater protestations from Douglas, including an even more outlandish claim that on the same trip he’d also come across a “walking owl” that he told Dwayne was nearly as “tall as a man.” Douglas also swore he’d captured photographic evidence of both creatures, but it turned out the film in his camera had been prematurely exposed. He blamed this on the darkroom at the Milford family pharmacy, suggesting that it was Dwayne’s fault for improperly mixing the chemicals.
Douglas also said having the pictures didn’t really matter because he had a photographic memory--which Dwayne confirmed; his brother does have near total recall--and remembered every last detail. In the weeks that followed, Douglas would sometimes vanish from home for days. Dwayne believed his brother might have been sneaking up to these woods again.
The next month Douglas brought this incident up at a Regional Scoutmaster Council in Spokane, interrupting the proceedings and demanding that unless the scouts launched an all-out investigation into the matter he would bring it before the National Scoutmaster Council. Dwayne tried to calm down his agitated brother, but sadly the evening ended with Douglas decking Dwayne with a right cross, at which point he was removed, kicking and shouting, from the Scout Hall.
This was followed by the council passing a unanimous motion to strip Douglas of scoutmaster rank and expel him from the organization. The resulting “brouhaha” brought deep consternation to the eastern Washington scouting community--not to mention within the Milford family--and all there agreed to strike it from the minutes of the meeting.
Scoutmaster Milford then confessed to me that since this episode, he and his younger brother had barely spoken. He told me Douglas had always been the “black sheep” of their family, showing no interest in the family business and flunking out of pharmacy school in Yakima, but sucker-punching his brother in front of twenty-three members of the senior regional council represented a new level of rebellion. Since that incident, Dwayne said that his brother’s life had continued to spiral downward; Douglas was now managing a pool hall down by the river flats on the wrong side of town, where he’d “shacked up with a fallen woman,” and I think I have a fair idea of what he meant by that.
But now, after what we’d witnessed ourselves, Scoutmaster Milford wondered if he’d judged his brother too harshly, and it was clear this weighed on him. Either that or, he said, maybe Douglas had followed us into the backcountry and staged the incident for spite, which, he allowed, “I wouldn’t put past him.”
I said that unless Douglas had figured out a way to broad jump 15 feet 12 times in a row while wearing size 22 shoes, I didn’t see any way he could have staged what was in front of us.
