Stopping Off At The Waiting Room

Amanda Harris, who is often depicted in the recurring theme of a portrait, enters a dreamlike otherworldly dimension called the Stopping Off Place, populated primarily by a man named Mr. Best who is a well dressed embodiment of Death, which is decorated with curtains, statues, candles, and art deco furniture. In the Stopping Off Place, Amanda is given the appearance of eternal youth before returning to reality to regain Quentin Collins her true love, or die. Later, Quentin enters The Stopping Off Place in to rescue Amanda. (DS)

Laura Palmer, who is often depicted in the recurring theme of a portrait, enters a dreamlike otherworldly dimension called interchangeably the Red Room and the Waiting Room, populated primarily with a well dressed dwarf known alternately as the Little Man From Another Place and The Arm, which is decorated with curtains, statues, and art deco furniture. In the Red Waiting Room, Laura retains her youthful appearance even twenty-five years after her murder while Agent Cooper grows old, himself having entered the Red Waiting Room to save Annie/Caroline. Laura, having shared dreams with Cooper and having kissed him and told him her deepest secret that her father killed her, it is implied that Cooper is Laura's true love. (TP)

The physics of The Stopping Off Place have overtones that are similar to the poem of the Dream Curse, both from Dark Shadows, and the poem of the Red Waiting Room from Twin Peaks. Amanda Harris is told by Mr. Best that the door to The Stopping Off Place is for entrance only, and that one may never leave by it. This echoes the witch Angelique's poem fragment, "One door leads to the point of return", and in Twin Peaks the One-Armed Man's poem fragment, "One chance out between two worlds." Mr. Best explains to Amanda that the Stopping Off Place is the first stage of death, a passing-through place, and calls it his "little hotel', complete with guest book and service bell. Mr. Best's analogy perfectly describes the Purgatory that is the Red Waiting Room in the Passion Play of Twin Peaks.

In Twin Peaks, the bellhop at the Great Northern is also a denizen of the Red Waiting Room. In Dark Shadows, there is a bellhop in The Stopping Off Place.

While there are several indistinct voices heard offscreen, the visible inhabitants of The Stopping Off Place have British accents, foreign to the accents of Collinsport Maine in Dark Shadows. The inhabitants of the Red Waiting Room all have accents foreign to the accents of Twin Peaks Washington--they speak backwards.

Robert Corbert's music from the scenes in The Stopping Off Place in Dark Shadows are similar to what Angelo Badalamenti employed in the final scenes of Cooper's decent into the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks. Both sets of cues employ bowed cello and double bass gratuitously.

"The Little Man From Another Place" and "The Stopping Off Place" both recall another "place".. Peyton Place.