I haven't check but it seems correct. Moreover I think that scene is somehow the key to everything that happens next. I had a Moebius' strip vibe while watching that 8 floating. A rewatch is sure needed!

My initial thoughts on the figure 8 is that it is some kind of time navigation device.  It shows the dot where they currently are on the time loop.  Cooper has requested to go back to a date in the past so the device is flipped, the curve is traversed until it arrives at 23rd Feb 1989. They are then transported there (via electricity).  

Perhaps some significant event is the crossover point, maybe the death of Laura Palmer or the atomic bomb detonation?  Some significant event that the two time loops intersect on?

Posted by: Jim Lenton

My initial thoughts on the figure 8 is that it is some kind of time navigation device.  It shows the dot where they currently are on the time loop.  Cooper has requested to go back to a date in the past so the device is flipped, the curve is traversed until it arrives at 23rd Feb 1989. They are then transported there (via electricity).  

Perhaps some significant event is the crossover point, maybe the death of Laura Palmer or the atomic bomb detonation?  Some significant event that the two time loops intersect on?

8 is also the infinite number ... no beginning and no end.... and it appears to be the reality of the world Coop or Richard - however you want to look at it - is caught within.  The continuous loop of laura palmer now that he has changed history?

Posted by: Jim Lenton

My initial thoughts on the figure 8 is that it is some kind of time navigation device.  It shows the dot where they currently are on the time loop.  Cooper has requested to go back to a date in the past so the device is flipped, the curve is traversed until it arrives at 23rd Feb 1989. They are then transported there (via electricity).  

Perhaps some significant event is the crossover point, maybe the death of Laura Palmer or the atomic bomb detonation?  Some significant event that the two time loops intersect on?

8 is also the infinite number ... no beginning and no end.... and it appears to be the reality of the world Coop or Richard - however you want to look at it - is caught within.  The continuous loop of laura palmer now that he has changed history?

February 23rd 1989, Laura Palmer's last diary entry:

“Cloudy. Sort of giddy. Not even cautiously optimistic. Day eighteen. Eight o'clock. Asparagus for dinner again. I hate asparagus. Does this mean I'll never grow up????????? Nervous about meeting J tonight.”

Here's another thing about that 8. In the scene with Phillip Jeffries, when he shows us the number 8, there is a black bar inside the 8 that slides up and down along the bottom curve of the 8. 

Of course, since it had been forever since seeing "Fire Walk With Me", I had to watch it again. Sure enough, in the scene where Laura and Bobby are in the woods together, the first thing you see is the flashlight shining on the trees, but it is made to look just like the number 8. Even the shadows of the trees inside the light match up pretty well with the sliding black bar inside Jeffries number. 

Instead of a new thread, I want to list my questions regarding Jeffries here. Feel free to contribute.

1) Is he a captive, a guest or a 3rd possibility? If you say captive, how come both good and bad cooper can give him a visit? 

Can we call it a neutral ground? How 

2) When Bad Coop came to visit there were woodsmen around, they let him thru the convenience store and remember there was a door locked (unlocked by a reverse-speaking woman) but when good Coop came no one was there. Why is that? Does this indicate anything... like he is not a captive?

3) Was he really the one talking to bad coop in the first episode telling him “you are going back in tomorrow and I’ll meet Bob again.”? Mr. C asked this insistingly but he was reluctant to give a direct answer. If it’s Jeffries, isn’t it weird for him to meet Bob “AGAIN”?

What does he have to do with BOB, again? Whoever he is, sure sounded like MIKE there. But we never saw MIKE interact with bad Coop, did we?

4) He despises Bad Coop, he knows he is not the real coop but pretends he bought it and sends him to a trap location. Does that mean he still works for the good guys? Any event that we could interpret that way?

5) There may be someone... he says. Who may he be referring to?

I've been thinking about some of these things - really they deserve a rewatch. 

The news on this site is that Bowie was offered the part and turned it down, and that Lynch describes the vessel as a "machine" (not a tea pot). So the part, meant for a human, was turned into a machine.

In my reading, Jeffries has attained some kind of other state - he did not seem a captive so much as a spirit. He resides in the motel that is accessed through the convenience store (ie Lodgeworld) but it's interesting that Dale doesn't have to be admitted that way. It could be because MIKE is showing him the way, or because, with Bad Coop smashed, he now has the courage to navigate Lodgeworld freely.

 In terms of #3, I think the implication is that this isn't really Jeffries. It sounds a lot like something MIKE would say. I think MIKE is pulling the strings in a lot of what we see. That addresses #4, too - he is still FBI and working with MIKE to defeat Judy and BOB. That tracks with what Gordon tells us in Ep17, along with the implication that Gordon knows Jeffries's fate. (Only hitch in this is that BOB doesn't seem to know who Judy is either!) 

I'm not sure it all makes any ultimate sense.

Also Jeffries saying "it's slippery in here" would mean he had some physical presence. 

Posted by: Peter Stevenson

Also Jeffries saying "it's slippery in here" would mean he had some physical presence. 

I took that statement to be figurative, meaning that Cooper should be careful as he moves into that reality.