David Lynch finally admits “owls are not what they seem” was a direct reference to Temple University

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In an interview this weekend, film director, musician, and painter David Lynch let it slip that the famously mysterious “the owls are not what they seem” proclamation from the second season of his 1990-91 hit series Twin Peaks was a deliberate reference to Temple University.

“Back when I was living on Aspen Street,” Lynch admits, “I used to look out our rear window at the lights from Temple a few blocks to the northeast. It seemed like another world, a place both wonderful and strange when compared to the sick, twisted, violent, fear-ridden, decadent, decaying neighborhood where Peggy and I lived at the time.”

It seems memories of that time were on his mind when he and Mark Frost were writing the Season 2 scripts, and the reference crept in almost without Lynch realizing it.