There are those in Twin Peaks who seem to have been touched by the White Lodge, and to hold powers of healing and intuition that others don’t.
The two people that most seem to be gifted in this way are Margaret Lanterman and Carl Rodd. Both are spiritual guardians within the town, with an otherworldly sense for those in trouble.
It is perhaps no coincidence that both experienced a strange abduction as children near the site of Glastonbury Grove. In 1947, Dougie Milford witnessed the children being taken by a bright beam of light emitting from a dark object. Both the children and the object disappeared. They were all found by Andrew Packard the following day, having no idea that so much time had passed.
It appears that these events may have happened in preparation for the evil that would begin to consume the town 40 years later.
Margaret went on to have a difficult life, plagued with tragedy, but always wanting to help in her own brusque way. She accepted her place as the local eccentric, knowing all the time that she could guide those that needed her.
Laura was brought to Margaret by a dream when she was very young, and the two built a friendship that lasted right up until Laura’s death. Margaret tried to warn Laura the week of her murder that ‘all goodness is in jeopardy’, but Laura was too far gone to stop anything by then.
Carl Rodd ran the trailer park where Teresa was murdered. It could be he was placed there to stop things, to protect her, but wasn’t aware of the very real threat of Leland in her life. We see in FWWM that he is very afraid of something. That particular scene was in fact a beautiful insight into his character, and a wonderful introduction to the man we see in such poignant moments in Season 3.
The third child, Alan Treherne, is a bit of an enigma. He moved to LA to work as a sound technician in films. He suffered from PTSD and at some point attended a support group for UFO survivors.
It may be that we are to believe this particular abduction was a one-off event. Three young children spirited away and marked forever with the same tattoo, and marked with a particular Fate.
Have any others been prepped to be future guardians of the town? Did others sit and watch films with The Fireman to instruct them to be healers or emissaries of the White Lodge? Did these children time-travel as we are to believe Briggs and Jeffries did? Did they see their own futures and know what they had to do?
Andy was taken there because he was innocent and pure at heart, just like the children. Are there other candidates for this same innocent state? Laura Stewart posed the idea that maybe Johnny Horne had a brush with the Lodges as a child, and that is the explanation for his isolated state (We Need to Talk about Johnny). Or perhaps a young Annie had experiences that affected her always? It does seem that part of her always belonged to the Lodges.
If Margaret was well-placed to protect Laura, and Carl Rodd to watch over Teresa, perhaps there was a third victim that was allocated to Alan? It would be interesting to know if the Owl Cave ring ever infiltrated his life, but maybe him moving away from Twin Peaks broke that spell. Although it is important to remember that the Lodges were able to contact Cooper in Vegas, so maybe nowhere is out of their reach.
It could be that Alan Treherne escaped his fate. There could have been another town somewhere, with another blonde girl wearing the ring, and no-one there to warn her about the fire.