TheTruth Behind Major Briggs and Project Blue Book

I chose to write about Major Briggs to try to prove that he has some of the same special “gifts” as some of the other characters in Twin Peaks. I will prove that Major Briggs has special gifts such as; those of, Laura Palmer, Sarah Palmer, Maddy Ferguson, the Log Lady, and Agent Cooper.

Major Briggs was working of a secret project for the government called Project Blue Book. It was later revealed that Project Blue Book's main focus was of the Black and White Lodge along with other unworldly events and phenomena’s.

During the second season Major Briggs is abducted and taken to the white lodge for several days. This is not the first time in the series that major Briggs was taken to the white lodge. According to “Lodges” (http://www.sheepproductions.com) “Major Briggs is being used by the white lodge spirits in an attempt to infiltrate the black lodge. [...] From time to time Major Briggs is abducted by the white lodge spirits [...] and it seems he is being sent into the black lodge.”

I started to ponder the gift given to Major Briggs when he had the vision of his son Bobby that was given to him by the white lodge. This is when I realized that he is working for the white lodge because the black would not send such a beautiful vision. This is not the only known thing sent to Major Briggs by the white lodge.
One of the other occurances was a message recieved, while monitering the woods. The message was for agent Cooper warning him against the owls, which symbolize the black lodge and BOB.

Major Briggs had both visions and coded messages from the white lodge. The other characters with special gifts, all had visions of their own, yet Major Briggs was the only one with a pure enough heart that was used by the white lodge.

Brettanie B.

http://www.sheepproductions.com/tps/explanations/lodge.htm

Nothing Is What It Seems

Things do not always seem as they appear, especially in the case of David Lynch’s television series Twin Peaks. Even one of the central quotes in the series illustrates this, "The Owls are not what they seem." I argue that the orderliness of life in Twin Peaks is an illusion that hides the extreme disorder lying beneath the surface. On just a quick glance through the town of Twin Peaks, one would think of it as the perfect “Andy Griffith” type small town. But as soon as Laura Palmer’s dead body washes up on the shore, we quickly realize there must be more going on than what is seen on the surface. As Agent Cooper and Sheriff Harry S. Truman investigate her murder, they uncover little by little that the entire town is full of secrets, immorality, and disorder. For instance the drug ring run by the Renault brothers and Leo Johnson, the adultery that seems to be running rampant in the town, and not to mention Ben Horne and all of his dealings. So this seemingly peaceful and innocent town is actually very immoral and corrupt. Lynch also uses this technique with several of the characters. One great example of this is Josie Packard. For the entire first season Josie appears to be an innocent victim to the dealings of Ben Horne and Catherine. But as we find out later on, she is actually in on the plan to burn the mill and is helping Ben double-cross Catherine. The most shocking part is not the fact that the town is corrupt, but that few people take notice or desire to do anything about it. As J. P. Telotte notes in his article, “The Dis-order of Things in Twin Peaks,” “Everyday at the Sheriff’s Office we see row upon row of neatly stacked donuts, ‘a policeman’s dream,’ as Agent Cooper calls it. Similarly at the Double R Diner the bottles of mustard and ketchup are gathered together each morning awaiting the customers of that day” (Telotte 162). It would seem that even if the world was coming to an end, the inhabitants of Twin Peaks would just go about there lives like they always have.

Telotte, J.P. "The Dis-order of Things in Twin Peaks." Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks.

Caleb J.

The Virtue and Despair of Laura Palmer

In my opinion, a person who is saint like is someone that is wholly committed to virtuous deeds. In the Twin Peaks series, the public perception of Laura Palmer drastically changed throughout the development of her murder mystery case. In the beginning of Twin Peaks, Laura’s image was one of purity and virtue. Laura concealed the double life she led by hiding her mischievous acts under her charitable public image. Her intentions were to promote the good for the community, but Laura lacked self-respect because she was involved with drugs and other scandalous activities. Some would say that Laura’s good will, and victimization overpowered her less virtuous nature. In the article “The Canonization of Laura Palmer”, Christy Desmet states that “Laura’s spirit transcends the paradoxes of her earthly existence” (97). Did Laura’s charitable actions and circumstances of death lead her to become a saintly figure; or does the revelation of her secret life and involvement with drugs and sexual promiscuity defame her of a saintly image? I argue that, she does not portray a saintly image because her charitable acts and mischievous lifestyle are equally relevant. For someone to be considered saintly they must be devoted to persistent virtue through all walks of life.

Chris S.

BOB, Bobby, MIKE, and Mike.

Writers generally use a variety of names in books, television shows, and movies so the audience can easily tell them apart. David Lynch on the other hand, uses similar names such as BOB and Bobby, MIKE and Mike. He also uses characters who look alike, Laura Palmer and Maddy Ferguson, her cousin have an extreme resemblance.

MIKE and BOB were once partners and Mike and Bobby are close friends. Why would David Lynch use the same names for the two pairs of men? It’s because they have something more in common than their names.

Bobby is the alter ego of BOB because what Bobby is BOB isn’t and what Bobby feels BOB doesn’t. Bobby, an adolescent name, is young and in love. As a teen he wants everything but doesn’t want to give anything up and carries almost no responsibilities. He wants to take care of Shelly and save her from Leo even though he was also seeing Laura Palmer at the time she was brutally murdered. Bobby is relatively good according to Twin Peaks’ standards and we as the audience learn a great deal about him. Laura Palmer, who was being victimized by BOB, victimized Bobby in return.

BOB, a more mature name, uses his position as a spirit or entity to manipulate people by feeding off of their fears. BOB is evil and is very mysterious in Twin Peaks. He has a limited amount of appearances in the series and we know almost nothing about him. No one knows why he kills or motivates him to do the things he does.

David Lynch uses the same names for each of these characters because they are the same person. One is an entity, and the other is human. They both have a friend named Mike, and Lynch doesn’t even use another form of the name Mike as he does with Bobby and BOB meaning that Mike is only there to serve one purpose, to be Bobby’s partner, making him a necessary but insignificant character. Robert, being the root of both names, is the name BOB chooses to use as his calling card after killing someone, because Robert is both Bobby and BOB.

Korynne W.

The Woods Hold Many Mysteries

I believe that the Log Lady's husband's spirit may be contained in the log she carries around with her. Although not much is mentioned about her husband, other than he was a lumberjack who died in a fire. Her husband's spirit may be housed in the log and he could be sending messages to her that only she could hear. With the log's connection to the spiritual world, it could give her hints as to what is happening in Twin Peaks and she would deliver these cryptic messages to Cooper. In season two of Twin Peaks Josie’s soul gets trapped in a log at the time of her death as well, so it doesn’t seem too unlikely that the “Log Lady’s” log may house her husbands spirit.

Ellis J.

http://www.2000revue.com/community/topic.cfm?topicid=4053&page=1

Soul Murder

Many people assert that BOB is the representation of the evil that lurks inside of everyone; I argue that BOB is a symbol of a more specific kind of evil, incest or childhood sexual molestation. Many characters in the series commit crimes and participate in immoral acts, but BOB does not possess them while they engage in their sinister activities. Ben Horne is perhaps the most corrupt citizen of Twin Peaks; he is aware of his actions and has no remorse for his numerous sins. Ben has his hands in nearly every criminal activity in Twin Peaks, but we never see Ben under BOB’s control. Other particularly nefarious characters include Leo Johnson, Jacques Renault, and Hank Jennings. All these men are low life scum, their lives a series of one malevolent deed after another. However, BOB is not involved in any of these characters’ crimes.

BOB is only shown to possess Leland Palmer, Laura Palmer, and Agent Cooper. Laura had been sexually abused by her father, and as a boy, Leland was molested by his grandfather’s neighbor, BOB. Was Agent Cooper also molested as a child? In his essay, “Introduction: Twin Peaks’ Interpretive Community,” David Lavery discusses the book The Autobiography of F.B.I Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My tapes. Lavery observes that the book provides a great deal of backstory on Agent Cooper. Lavery goes on to recount a quote from the book about a vision Copper had as a child: “man who I have never seen…trying to break into my room. He kept calling my name and said that he wanted me.” Copper’s vision has similarities to what Laura experienced with BOB. BOB had entered Laura’s room through a window every night for five years to molest her, and BOB had told her “he wanted to be her.” Not only did BOB want to sexually possess Laura he also wanted to possess her soul. In the book Treating the Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse, by Jody Messler Davies, Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea, and Mary Gail Frawley, the authors discuss psychoanalyst Leonard Shengold. Shengold used the phrase “soul murder” to describe the psychological damage of repeated sexual abuse in childhood. Shengold maintains, that using fantasies of a sadomasochistic nature, victims attempt to distance themselves from their traumatic memories. It doesn’t matter if BOB is an external demon gaining control of his victims, or a sick fantasy in the victim’s mind, he is the representation of the "soul murdering" aspect of childhood molestation .

Treating the Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse http://books.google.com/books?id=Mxn-Xro7m1MC

Full of Secrets
http://books.google.com/books?id=m6mjuWXrqb8C

Lela C.

The Gap Between Seasons

The two main characters of Twin Peaks were the murdered Laura Palmer and the police force out to catch her killer, so naturally audiences assumed that Twin Peaks would be a detective story. I argue that Twin Peaks did not follow the normal narrative structure of a detective story, becoming a continuous serial that did not have a planned end. In Peaks and Valleys of Serial Creativity, Marc Dolan postulates that "a detective story therefore achieves closure when the detective(s) has filled in the story leading up to the plot's beginning." The plot literally began with Laura's murder, so the logical conclusion to Twin Peaks would be resolving the crime and coming to a solid conclusion where all plot threads are tied up and accounted for. Instead, Twin Peaks went on to exhaust all its major plot hooks and crime clues too early, and was eventually replaced by the supernatural. The plot threads involving Leo Johnson, the Renault brothers, the Roadhouse and One-Eyed-Jacks were all closed by the end of the first season, and, as Dolan puts it, "the investigation into Laura Palmer's murder was no farther along than it had been back when Cooper addressed the town meeting in the pilot." With every possible clue having been used by the end of the first with the investigation team no closer to catching Laura's killer, Twin Peaks had not progressed anywhere, and was forced to go from an episodic serial, where plots go on for episodes but are ultimately addressed and concluded, to a continuous serial, where plots are exhausted and new plots are introduced to prolong the series. This gave the second season a much more infinite feel to it, with no central plot or direction.

Andrew R.

The Attraction to Twin Peaks

In the small town of Twin Peaks everyone knows everyone else. It is small town, USA. The characters are relatable to the viewers. In the beginning the characters appear good and wholesome. In her article "Family Romance, Family Violence and the Fantastic in Twin Peaks," Diane Stevenson describes this idea when she states that “the normal is defined in the terms of the white, middle-class, heterosexual, patriarchal, nuclear family”. In the Hayward family there are the loving daughters, the homemaker mother and the doctor father. Viewers can relate to at least one character in the series. The attraction to the show grows as the viewers grow with the characters. David Lynch entraps the viewers with the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer. Then he brings them in closer by revealing the lives of the cast which in itself creates another mystery. And you come to realize that everyone isn’t what they appear. Many of the characters are cheating on their spouses or significant others. At least three of the towns people have killed others. The show represents everyday people and the struggles that they go through in life. The only real difference is that the show is more extreme and supernatural, it stretches reality past the boundaries. The show is cult worthy because it reaches out to all different types of people.

Tanisha H.

Gender Performativity of Harold Smith

In Twin Peaks, the character Harold Smith commits suicide and leaves in his note that he is a “lonely soul” (Lavery 230). Harold is noticeably more feminine then all the other male characters in Twins Peaks. According to Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, Harold aligns himself with the female gender role. Kristin M. Stelmok from the University of Maine describes the theory of performativity as “categories of gender and sex are merely performances which gain their authority through reiterative practice.” Since Harold is kept inside from his apparent agoraphobia, he has no need to “perform” a male gender role. He is however exposed to the kind hearts of the volunteers in the Meals on Wheels service in Twin Peaks. These characters from the Meals on Wheels program (i.e. Laura Palmer) become a part of his life in a very interesting way. He absorbs these feminine characters through their stories of the outside world. Laura Palmer visits Harold frequently since she is a part of the Meals on Wheels program, and they begin to have a friendship. Laura tells Harold her life story since he is very curious about the occurrences outside of his house. Once Laura dies, he keeps her diary and reads it to gain a better understanding of Laura and the female gender. Since he is coped up in his house he essentially becomes genderless in a “performativity” world. When Donna starts to visit Harold he shows off his wonderful garden to her, trying to win her affection. He doesn’t know that she is just playing him to get to her best friend’s diary. He however is much like the orchid in his greenhouse. He absorbs the lives of others, and wants to be a beautiful flower like an orchid. This is evident when he takes notes on Donna, when they strike a deal so Donna can read parts of Laura’s diary. He wants to absorb the lives of women, since he wants to be a symbol of pure beauty like Laura and Donna. As soon as Donna betrays Harold, he kills himself because has nothing left to absorb. He describes himself as a “lonely soul” since no one is around to observe his external beauty, and no one wants to share their life with him, so he is truly a lonely orchid with no purpose but to die.

A Tragicomedy of Gender Performativity and Patriarchal Subversion in One Act. December 16, 2005. University of Maine. November 24,2008. http://www.umaine.edu/victorianlinks/Salome.htm

Lavery, David .Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995. 203.

Charles S.

Laura Palmer's Spirit

Laura is first described as a sweet girl who helps her community. She helps with Meals-on-Wheels and she also helps Audrey Horne’s brother. Her spirit seems to affect everyone in the community and seems to have some negative affect with everyone she had come in contact with. I am going to argue that Laura Palmer made sure when she was murdered that her spirit would still affect people in the small town of Twin Peaks. The moods and emotions from everyone who knew Laura Palmer was all different. No one in the community knew that she was living a good and evil side. Her boyfriend Bobby knew that she needed help but she seemed to have so much power over him that he did not help her. Even after she was murdered he was still be affected by her spirit. For example, at the funeral when James shows up there is a huge scene that disrupts the whole funeral service. Jim Jerome states in his article The Triumph of 'Twin Peaks "Laura was a model of innocence but linked to cocaine and X-rated singles network." This was not discovered untill she was murdered and when it was, her secret life seemed to have impacted many people.



Kimberly H.

The Spirit Of Laura Palmer

I fell down some stairs...

Violence has been one of the main elements in all of David Lynch's works. It is no secret to anyone that there is a great amount of violence in Twin Peaks. Drug dealing, murder, and kidnapping can be seen in nearly every episode. What you also see is people being punished for these actions, but there seems to be one big exception to this rule. In all the cases of domestic violence or domestic unrest the police seem to lack the same involvement as they do with all the other cases of criminal actions. For example, in Twin Peaks Shelly is beaten by her husband Leo on a regular basis. Isn't it funny how the police do not even try to intervene even though everyone seems to be aware of it? The police do not even stop by once and say, "Hey, if you could stop beating your wife that would be great." And because there was no attempt to help out the Johnsons's situation Shelly ends up shooting Leo to protect herself. Another example is the fact that Leland Palmer was sexually abusing his daughter,Laura, and ultimately ended up killing her. If the police would have been involved sooner then it is safe to say Laura probably would not have been murdered. The amazing thing is that these are not a fictional scenarios, this is what happens in American households on a regular basis. Domestic violence is a terrible thing, but it is even worse when it is not reported. A national survey conducted by the Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence found that only one-fourth of all physical assaults against women by intimates were reported to police. Some of the reasons for why they are not reported are women are scared of the repercussions that might face them from their abuser, embarrassment, or they just might think that no one really cares about them. This is exactly what happens in Twin Peaks. There are many cases of domestic violence that can be seen in Twin Peaks that are not reported for the same reasons they are not reported in real life. The domestic violence in Twin Peaks can be positively correlated to domestic violence in America.

-Asa D.

Here's the website where I found my statistics and information:
http://www.acadv.org/index.htm

What's the Focus?

David Lynch created a very complex series revolving entirely around the murder of Laura Palmer.  Initially, when discovered, Laura's death was the focal point for the entire series.  However, by the end of the series, the viewer's focus seems to shift from "who killed Laura?" to "what good is left?".  By this I mean that Laura's death loses some importance.  Instead of wondering who killed Laura and why, the viewer, by the end of Twin Peaks is left thinking merely about how screwed up the entire town is.  

Each character has his or her own unique flaw.  Many of which are extremely rotten to the core and down right disgusting.  The concept of lust within Twin Peaks is outrageous.  Each character deals or acts upon their inner lust.  Whether it be Big Ed cheating on his wife, Shelly cheating with Bobby, Leland molesting his daughter or Cooper dealing with the moral dilemma of sleeping with Audrey, each character deals with lust in some fashion.  There is literally no character that does not have something wrong with them, which takes away from the depravity of Laura's death.  It is almost as if you become happy for Laura being killed, merely because she is released from the bondage that is Twin Peaks.  Personally, by the end of the series, I could have cared less about the fact she died.  I was more intrigued with the concept that the adultery, lust, cheating, lying, and degradation of society within the town of Twin Peaks was going to continue no matter what.  As NexusSeven, a writer for the BBC, writes "...despite being the basic storyline of the show, it is only one of many plot lines. One of the glorious aspects of Twin Peaks is the fact that the town really feels like an organic entity, in that all the characters, no matter how minor, have genuine depth and fully realised motivations and plot lines.", he basically states that the series not entirely focused on solving Laura Palmers murder.   Solving Laura's death did not solve any other problem other than finding the killer.  The root of evil lies within each member of the town and not within one particular person.  Therefore, discovering Leland as the murderer still leaves the audience in a cliff hanger because the question of "what will change?" still remains.  I believe David Lynch did this on purpose almost as if to demonstrate that the severity of an evil deed is in the eye of the beholder. 

Andrew M. 

Laura Palmer No Saint in Twin Peaks

In the series Twin Peaks, David Lynch provides his viewers with intriguing characters that keep the viewers; especially myself wanted to know "What happens next?” In the series Twin Peaks Laura Palmer is presented to be this wonderful person and beacon of purity and light. I argue that Laura Palmer is no saint that Twin Peaks heed her to be. Laura was not only a false symbol of a saint but she was a person with major psychological problem that even she doesn’t even know about. In the article, “The Canonization of Laura Palmer,” Christy Desmet explains that “Laura is represented as a typical middle-class teenager; in the course of time, she is shown to be sexually promiscuous, dependent on drugs, and plagued with psychological problems” (93). I argue that Twin Peaks chooses to look past Laura’s flaws and hold her up as martyr instead of facing the reality and seeing that she was just a dreadful person.

Jimmy M.

A Return to Normalcy

Although it appears that a great deal occurs in Twin Peaks throughout the show very little actually changes. In the end most characters remain in the position that they were originally in just under different circumstances. Ed Hurley remains bound to Nadine and is forced to act in a way that he does not actually feel regardless of her ridiculous transformation, a change in which she becomes someone who is frequently too happy and naive for her own good, just like she was before. Leland murders Laura but she seems to continue to live in the physical embodiment of Maddy and the new personality that Donna picks up. Even when Maddy is murdered and Leland commits suicide nothing has really changed from when the show began as the threat of BOB still exists. Leo Johnson continues to prevent Bobby and Shelly from having a meaningful relationship, whether it is by coming home early from a trip or by constantly scaring them by talking after he falls into a coma. Everything in Twin Peaks returns to a state of normalcy no matter what happens. In "The Dis-order of Things in Twin Peaks," Telotte points out that despite all of the death and drug dealing that goes on in Twin Peaks "At the Sheriff's Office we can find arrayed on a table row upon row of neatly stacked donuts." Even the environments and set layout of Twin Peaks remain impossibly professional.

Paul C

RED LIGHT, yellow light, green light, Go.

One of the most interesting symbolism, I found, David Lynch used in Twin Peaks was the lone ever-red stop light that was always swaying in the breeze as it hung from electric cables. As the series progressed, it occurred to me that the symbolism of this omniscient stop light was Lynch's way of conveying to the residents of Twin Peaks and the audience that they need to stop and truly open their eyes as to what is going on. For the residents, it implicated that even though their town personified a glimpse of the idealistic and everyone would like to think "that will never happen to me", the thought and state of mind do not rule out the possibility that all is not well at home. In Fire Walk With Me, when Laura fell off of the bike at the red light James knew something was bothering her and asked her once what the matter was, and when she told him not to worry about it he stalls at the green light, watches her walk into the woods, and then speeds off even though the stop light had turned red, completely ignoring the sign. From what I got from that seen, I think Lynch purposefully had the light turn red perhaps to encourage James to stop and be a little more aggressive in finding out why Laura was now behaving this way because at first "Laura is represented as a typical middle-class teenager; [however], in the course of time, she is shown to be sexually promiscuous, dependent on drugs, and plagued with psychological problems"(Desmet 93). Instead of pursuing the reason for Laura's actions, James over looks her behavior, probably figuring that she'll get over it soon enough, and most likely attributes it to her just being a teenager trying to find herself by experimenting with drugs and having illicit sex.

As for the audience, the same theory applies. When someone's personality abruptly changes, if they start to do drugs and start to hang out with shady characters, yes, sometimes they are looking to try something new but it is also a possibility that acting this way because they find it is the best way to deal with the turmoil that is going on in their lives, and for some, it is their cry for help; they are waiting for someone to stop and listen. It has been mentioned in numerous publications over the years that "[m]ost of the violent crimes that do threaten our well-being are not committed by psychopathic, predatory strangers lurking in urban shadows. Instead, those we trust most- relatives, intimate friends, and acquaintances- are much more likely to be the perpetrators" (Kappeler and Potter 35). Even with these known facts, the residents of Twin Peaks still refused to wholly acknowledge the fact that Leland sexually abused and murdered his daughter; many found it easier to place the blame on someone or something, BOB, and make them the scapegoat rather than accepting that something so heinous could happen in their apple pie town by one of their own.

David Lynch used the red light and its symbolism as a means of communicating to the masses that when someone or something is no longer the way they used to be or should be it is because there was a catalyst for that change, whether it be good or bad. Therefore, it should never be nonchalantly dismissed, and even if you should find out that there is nothing amiss, at least you will never have to wonder what if. In Laura's case, the residents of Twin Peaks were so engulfed by their "never us" mind set that no one bothered to stop at the red light and truly observe the traffic.

Davia G.

Desmet, Christy. “The Canonization of Laura Palmer.” Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks. Ed. David Lavery. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995. 93-108.

Kappeler, Victor E., and Gary W. Potter. The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice. Long Grove: Waveland Press, Inc., 2005.

The Battle Between Good and Evil

When it comes to the topic of good versus evil, most of us readily agree that evil always overpowers good. Where this agreement usually ends, however is on the question of what is considered good and what is considered evil. Whereas some are convinced that the concept of evil is shaped by moral upbringing, others maintain that evil is also shaped by society. However in Twin Peaks the concept of evil is shaped by neither. I argue that the foundation of Twin peaks is based on every character's personal battle between good and evil. Evil seems to be masked behind a warped sense of reality created by Lynch where good and evil becomes the underlying contributors to the recurring murders and the revealing of secrets. According to Christy Desmet, Lynch always has a thematic obsession with the fine line between good and evil. Lynch tests his television viewers by twisting their sense of morality to where what is considered good becomes evil and what is considered evil becomes good.

Monica B.

The Reality of Twin Peaks

For the majority of this semester we have been debating the intentions of David Lynch in creating the television series Twin Peaks. I think Twin Peaks is a reflection of the increasing use of drugs throughout mid-town America. The town of Twin Peaks was conveniently located near the Canadian border making obtaining illegal drugs seemingly effortless. Leo Johnson and Jacques Renault are the main sources for bringing the drugs into the town. There is not conclusive evidence to prove who all was involved in using drugs but it becomes evident that a large majority of the population of Twin Peaks was using some type of drugs by their hallucinations, mainly of Bob, and erratic behavior.


Dmitri G.

Adultery (cheating for unmarried couples) in Twin Peaks

Throughout Twin Peaks there was an over occurring theme of adultery. I will explain why I think David Lynch decided to have the towns people committing adultery. I believe that the adultery theme is a way to dilute the audience’s negative feelings toward Laura. David Lynch wants the audience to sympathize with Laura Palmer. If it wasn’t for the disloyal relationships throughout Twin Peaks the audience would see Laura as a whore.

Throughout the series some of the characters who committed adultery were seen as good, law abiding, citizens. Big Ed was one of the “Book House Boys,” and helped with solving the murder. He cheated on his wife with Norma, who was also married.

David Lynch uses adultery to help eliminate boundaries. When watching Twin Peaks, viewers perception of good and evil are skewered. Angela Hague related philosopher, Robert Carse ideas about “Infinite Games“ to Twin Peaks. Carse describes infinite game as a game in which boundaries are constantly being broken. Infinite games tend to try to prevent an ending.

Hague stated in her article “Infinite Games: The Denaturalization of Detection in Twin Peaks” that “the crimes had to expand outward in order to prevent any real solution.” Basically, Hague is saying that the crimes had to spread out away from Laura’s murder so that when the murder was solved you were still left in the dark about other Twin Peak issues.

Travis R.

Suicide or Murder

Harold Smith, was one of the more mysterious and complex characters in the T.V. series Twin Peaks. Thought by other to have killed himself in season two episode 15, when his body was found by officer Hawk, hanging from the ceiling of his green house. Every one assumes he takes his own life due to the physiological problems associated with him, but I propose the idea that he was murdered.
Think about it, in the film Fire Walk With Me we’re introduced to Harold through Laura. She confides in him all her secrets in one of his living journals including all the secrets of Bob, but she tells him that Bob does not know about him. So it is say to say that since Harold is a hermit and does not venture from his home Bob would not have seen him while in his owl form. So Harold much like the Log Lady is protected while in his own home. This protection was violated in the series when Harold is tricked by Donna Hayward to follow her out side. she tells him her feelings and then playfully runs out side soon as he crosses the door to follow he collapses in what appears to be fear as if he felt bobs presences. Much like Philip Gerard who can sense bob in the air around him I believe that Harold fells this same presence. Remember Bob promised to kill again, so what if the victim is the unlucky Harold? As Reece Goodwin writes "we have two logical arguments which suggest that Harold Smith was killed by BOB. Add this to the facts that he swore he would kill again, and that BOB had not finished spelling out his name under people's fingernails, and the pieces gradually begin to fall intoplace. But what would they have discovered if they had looked under poor Harold's fingernail...?"

by Charles Roy

The Disillusionment of Twin Peaks

In Twin Peaks, there is a young woman named Laura Palmer that is killed. Viewers are led to believe that the town of Twin Peaks is a perfect little town where everyone is happy and it is a perfect town. Although, there it is seemingly just Bob in the guise of Leland that is responsible for Laura’s death, I believe that the entire town is responsible for Laura’s death because they refused to accept that their town wasn’t perfect and that something like this could happen. Twin Peaks wants to believe that it is a perfect town even though it was plagued with problems of high school prostitution, drugs, incest, and constant adultery. These problems were all ignored so that everyone could go on and live in the “perfect” town of Twin Peaks. Laura was unhappy with the way things were in Twin Peaks. This unhappiness is visible in how she writes that no one really knows who she is in Twin Peaks even her best friend Donna. If the town’s people had noticed that she was unhappy, they could have stopped Bob and saved Laura’s life. Leland’s wife could have stopped Bob if she had stopped herself from getting drugged with opium. The town of Twin Peaks is also just caught up within itself. The people are always caught up with there own personal problems to notice what is going on with the town’s greater problem. They couldn’t see that people were getting taken advantage of, especially Laura Palmer. Laura was being taken advantage of by Leland/Bob, Ben Horne, and Leo Johnson. The town could have stopped this if they could see. Yet they could only see what they wanted to and they only wanted to see a “perfect” town.

By Austin N.

Karma in Twin Peaks

Karma is a belief that what goes around comes around. I believe that David Lavery used this idea to portray no bad deed goes unpunished. For example, Leo Johnson abusing and degrading his wife Shelley Johnson at the beginning could be his karma that got him shot and paralyzed. In my opinion Lavery purposely made Leo’s attitude cocky and arrogant throughout the series so that when he was in a comma, depending on Shelley, he would learn to be humble, and treat others with the same respect he would want to be treated with. The same goes for Benjamin Horn, who ended up in jail for something he did not do, but it was the price that he paid for all the dirty schemes that he committed in the past, and for the crimes he had planned for the future. Catherine Martell blackmails Horn in the same way that he did others, giving him want he deserved.

Sixto V.

Leland Palmer - An American Gangster

The television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch, is a drama combining the central themes of a murder mystery and a romance novel into a scandal ridden, almost fantasy-like program, setting place in the small, seemingly quiet town of Twin Peaks. Late into the second season, viewers are exposed to the dark side of the character Leland Palmer. Leland, up to this point, had been able to hide his psychopathic outbursts behind his family and career. When it is finally revealed that he carries the killer-spirit BOB, it comes as a shock to the people of Twin Peaks. The way Leland Palmer carefully orchestrated each cold-blooded murder he committed was disgustingly intelligent. If he had not been caught, Leland would have gone on to live the life of a common gangster, taking away more lives when the town had their eyes shut.
America has always been fascinated with iconographic films of gangster life. Films such as Scarface and The Godfather scored huge box office numbers and reproduction sales. The reason for this lies in the heightened macho-ism of your average male. Gangsters have everything a man could want – money, power, and respect. Histories most notorious thugs have controlled cities, states, and even countries depending on where you place the distinction. Leland Palmer became a financial success working as a right-hand man for Benjamin Horn. His helpful attitude and congenial disposition earned him the respect of his friends and colleagues. The only piece missing for Leland was power, and the only way to satisfy this hunger was to kill.
In his 2006 article The Making of an O.G.: Transcending Gang Mentality, Tom Kerr writes that individuals join gangs because they seek natural leaders. Thought these leaders may not be contributing to a common good as most individuals would hopefully visualize a leader, gangsters follow the money, the notoriety, and the power, among other superfluous things they lust in their misunderstood lifestyles. Like the men who became the top gangsters of their time, Leland Palmer needed more in his life to feel he had achieved something. This satisfaction sadly came with the murder of two young women. Leland felt he was on top of the world, but as every gangster should tell you, the top will be the same place from which you fall.

- Derrick C.
http://faculty.ithaca.edu/tkerr/docs/OG/

A Dead Main Character

Twin Peaks' plot is centered around a character who is dead. I believe that, although Laura Palmer is dead throughout the show, her absence makes Twin Peaks more interesting. When Laura palmer was living most of the town thought she was a good girl. There were only a select few who knew the real Laura Palmer. As the show continues Agent Cooper and the rest of his team reveal that Laura Palmer is not actually what she seems. She was involved in many dangerous things and got herself into situations that ultimately led to her death. Laura’s problems makeup the plot line and create out of the ordinary circumstances that make the show impossible not to watch. What made the show even more interesting was the ongoing question of, who killed Laura Palmer? The answer to this question was left unanswered for almost two full seasons making the show addicting. In the essay “Who Killed Laura Palmer”, McDonnell D. asserts, “It is a darker than dark comedy-drama-mystery, a story of unending intrigue whose eight episodes span eight days in the life of outwardly-sedate logging town in the US Pacific north-west. It begins with the murder of an attractive high school student named Laura Palmer but jumps off at constantly-jarring tangents, leaving the viewer confused and off-kilter but quite possibly spellbound.” The show captivates viewers because no one seems to truly know who killed Laura Palmer. As the show continues Agent Cooper and the rest of the town find out more about the girl Laura Palmer really was. These events made the show more interesting and hard not to watch.

Kara G.

Benjamin Horne

Ben Horne is a business mogul who owns "The Great Northern Hotel", department store "Horne's" and the casino/brothel "One-Eyed Jacks". He is well-known and respected person in the town of Twin Peaks.
I see him as a successful and capable businessman but also as a bad and dishonest person. Ben Horne would do whatever it takes to make more money and to expand his business empire, including killing the people that stand in his way. His biggest threat was Catherine Martell, the owner of the Packard Saw Mill, so he burned down her mill with her inside it.
He doesn't show any positive emotions, not even towards his daughter Audrey who he loves very much.
I think Benjamin Horne is the only one from Twin Peaks who would fit in today's world.
He is cold, heartless and emotionless, just like the world we are living in.

Nikola K.

BOB

In the series of Twin Peaks David Lynch portrayed different characters as having Dissociative identity disorder; this is having two personalities or being schizophrenic. Leland Palmer is the perfect example of this. The alternate identity of Leland, and for all intensive purposes, BOB is the demon that possesses him. BOB is the incarnation of evil in Twin Peaks. BOB is a manifestation of the thought that evil is, in some sense, not a part of ourselves, but that it preys on us, eats our soul, and possesses us. In Twin peaks the good and the bad are two separable entities, two modes of reality, existing, as it were two forces. What is so scary about BOB is that he is not motivated by anything. He is, in a way, "abstract". He is simply driven to do evil. David Lynch portrays BOB as a force that can’t be stopped and a force that can affect us all; the good and evil in all of us, the way it does Cooper in the second season. This is what I believe Lynch was trying to portray with BOB.

~Devin M.

Twin Peaks and Misogyny

It is awfully apparent that David Lynch was drinking “misogynist punch” when he wrote the television “masterpiece” known as Twin Peaks. Throughout the entire series there are more than enough instances of women being emotionally and physically abused for three seasons of network television. Warren Goldstein emphasizes in his article “Incest for the Millions: Saying No to David Lynch” that “[a] couple of Saturday nights ago as Leland Palmer [was] beating his niece to death, I turned off the television and said goodbye to “Twin Peaks” and David Lynch…[t]hat scene, remarkable for its prolonged, calculated, almost loving gruesomeness, was the final straw” (Goldstein 741). This is a sentiment highly noted especially among feminist critics. I, for one, believe that there is just one too many scenes of father-daughter incestuous implications, women being bonded and tortured, and women being abused with soap in sock mechanisms. Perhaps, Lynch did mean well. However, like Warren Goldstein I would have had to turn off the television.

Andy B.

The Owls are not what they seem

David Lynch’s Twin Peaks is an ominous tale but it has spiritual implications delivered throughout the show. The allegation that was stated many times: once by the Giant, another time by Man From Another Place, and a further time by the Log Lady, was “The owls are not what they seem”.
Owls are usually thought of as representing wisdom and knowledge. The owl is known to be a bird that understands all of life’s secrets. In the Native American folklore of the Yakama Tribe, the owl is viewed “as a powerful totem. Such taboos or totems often guide where and how forests and natural resources are used and managed…” (Owl Pages). The owls act as a guide, making sure everything has a task and is in order. In Cooper’s dream you can see a shadow pass along the back wall. The shadow appears to be in the shape of a bird, in all probability an owl. I believe the owl was placed in this scene to symbolize the journey Cooper has to go on to find out who killed Laura. The owl was leading Cooper to find answers. Another example of using the imagery of owls is in the scene where Leland dies and BOB is expelled from his body. After the expulsion, an owl is seen flying through the forest. The owls know that BOB is not a natural being so when he is near they guard their forest and direct him away from it. The owls seem to be the watchers of the forest, the decision makers between right and wrong, natural and supernatural. The owls lead the characters to find truth.
- Rebecca B.



http://www.owlpages.com/articles.php?section=Owl+Mythology&title=Owls+Lore+Culture&page=3

A brief psychoanalysis of the Log Lady

The Log Lady is a unique character in Twin Peaks. She could have similar psychic powers that Sarah Palmer possesses. The Log Lady is somehow able to offer advice to Agent Cooper referencing the evil realm. I feel that the Log Lady has a connection with the black/white lodges because of her late husband. I think the log is an outlet for her suffering related to the death of her husband. The log is usually referenced when questions pertaining to evil need to be solved. In her article, “Double Talk in Twin Peaks”, Alice Kuzniar explains that “The Log Lady transmits what she hears, but she does not interpret.” which implies that the Log Lady is a messenger between good and evil.
I feel sorry for the Log Lady because she is misunderstood to most inhabitants in Twin Peaks. I feel confident in stating that the log symbolizes her late husband. Perhaps the log was present during their final moments together as man and wife. I admire the Log Lady for continuing to be a law abiding citizen after someone she loved dearly was taken away from her. Maybe the Log Lady appears different because she is one of the few women in Twin Peaks that isn’t deceptive.
- Jason R.

David Lynch and Our Perceptions

I believe that the most important point in Twin Peaks that David Lynch was making was not about an evil spirit or about the underlying darkness in the woods. Twin Peaks is about American society and the way viewers perceive women and families. In the article titled “The Knowing Spectator of Twin Peaks: Culture, Feminism, and Family Violence” by Randi Davenport, Hobart Smith, and William Smith, they point out that Twin Peaks differs from many other shows in that it talks about sexual abuse and adult male aggressors instead of ignoring what is going on in families in real life. Today, we are all so used to seeing a woman victimized and abused. No one really thinks twice about it as if we have been desensitized. Lynch takes a different approach and shows this victimization in a raw brutal way that most viewers are not so used to. The attacks on Laura and Maddy were hard to watch, even for a seasoned horror movie enthusiast. By presenting such horrifying entertainment on mainstream television, Lynch makes people think about women and the fact that they are placed in this helpless role more often than not. The attacks also bring up the perception of family. In Twin Peaks, families are not perfect (even though they may try to give off that façade). They are all dysfunctional and the most evil things come from the family. This is the society that Lynch knew we all needed to see because that is the real world. Families do horrible things to each other and to women, despite what many other television shows want viewers to see.

Vanessa Q.

The Two Sided Mirror: Who really killed Laura Palmer?

In the series Twin Peaks, David Lynch brings forth intricate characters, characters that have something about them that everyone can find something in them they relate to. In the case of Laura’s murder Lynch created a character that is so complex, I don’t think anyone can find to which side they relate to the most. Leland is portrayed as this wealthy, powerful, professional man; a man that doesn’t look like can do anything wrong because he is there to help people that are trouble, hence his profession being a lawyer. Instead of just creating this one surfaced man, Lynch went above and beyond to create a twist, a supernatural form to Leland’s character, BOB. Now the question of who really murdered Laura crosses my mind. Who did it, Leland or BOB? Aren’t they the same person? Well I argue that they are the same person and that both are at fault for the murder of Laura. In her article “Family Romance, Family Violence, and the Fantastic,” Diane Stevenson contends that “BOB the criminal drifter [residing] in Leland is [telling] us that Leland harbors the criminal inside him, that the incestuous and the murderous are to be understood as part of his psychological make up; that BOB the demon [possessing] Leland is [telling] us that anyone could be so possessed that the incestuous and murderous do not arise from inside but are constructed from [the] outside” (75). Thus, meaning that BOB and Leland are one person and not two, also that what Leland did was not done because of revenge or anger. The side of anger, murder, jealousy, revenge and hatred are all portrayed by BOB’s character. Leland, in my opinion, really did want to commit this murder. Even though he was possessed, as Stevenson argues, BOB needs to be accepted as Leland’s psychological make up. Therefore, they are both at fault for the murder of Laura.


~Artmarie B.

Knights of Twin Peaks

David Lynch, creator of Twin Peaks, has managed to incorporate a heroic situations into his show. In Twin Peaks, there is a hero, a villain, and a hostage that need to be rescued. I am trying to argue that Twin Peaks show knights rescuing damsels in distress. The male characters are usually the knights and the women are the damsels in distress. In "A Feminist Reading of Twin Peaks," Diana George insisted that "the series is chock full of good guys" (114). George argues that men gets to play the good and bad guys while the women play the victims in Twin Peaks. In some of the episodes of Twin Peaks, there are situations where the good guys had to rescue the women that were in situations they could not get themselves out of.
The first rescue situation deals with Truman and Cooper rescuing Audrey. The knights were Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman, and Audrey was the princess that needed to be rescued. Audrey Horne was trying to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer. Her investigation led her to One Eye Jack where the situation got more complicated. Audrey did manage to get pieces of information but she was captured and she needed someone to rescue her. In that point she becomes the damsel in distress. Audrey called Agent Cooper for help and he complied. Cooper and Truman went to One Eye Jacks to perform a rescue operation. With minor complications, they managed to rescue Audrey. This rescue operation shows that the knights managed to rescue the princess.
The second situation occurs when James had to help Donna and Maddie. Like the previous situation the male character is the hero and the female characters were the ones in trouble. Donna and Maddie tried to snatch and grab Laura's diary that Harold was holding. However, things did not go as planned. Enraged by this betrayal, Harold trapped Donna and Maddie. Donna and Maddie had no idea how to get out of that sticky situation. James managed to get them out of the situation by tackling Harold to allow the women to escape. This rescue act is another example of how men become the women's knight and shining armor.
Despite of those situations, Twin Peaks is mostly a detective show. The show tries to focus on solving the case. In most of the episodes of Twin Peaks, the authorities are trying to solve Laura Palmer's murderer. However, there are times in the show where the male characters distract themselves to help others. They do these distractions to avoid consuming themselves in solving the Laura Palmer's case. When female characters get into trouble, the male characters will try to rescue them. Male characters will do anything to protect the female characters.
Twin Peaks shows an interesting way of how the men go out of their way to save the women. This TV show creates the typical image of heroes. The situation of men rescuing women confirms that the men are the ones that can get the job done. Those rescue situations and the men's willingness to protect women illustrate that the men are usually the heroes and women are the damsels in distress. David Lynch knows how to incorporate those parts into Twin Peaks.

Alexander C.

The Two Sides of Leland Palmer

There are scenes where it is as if Leland Palmer has two sides. One side of Leland shows the loving and caring father he is towards Laura and how much he loved her, and another where his love for her turned incestuous resulting in anger and jealousy. The scene when Jacques Renault was lying in bed in the hospital, and Leland, after hearing Jacques Renault is the potential killer of Laura Palmer, drives to the hospital and suffocates him with a pillow. During this time Leland is not under possession of Bob, which leads me to believe that Leland does have two sides to him. Leland killed Jacques Renault in an attempt to cover up his own crime. His logic in this action is that he would be shown as a killer but only because he had loved Laura so much that he wanted revenge. This would cause the citizens of Twin Peaks to not suspect him to be the killer of Laura. In her article “Family Romance, Family Violence, and the Fantastic,” Diane Stevenson speculates that “When Laura Palmer’s father dies in the series Twin Peaks, there is a kind of reconciliation between his two sides as the loving and protective father appears for the first time to confront the incestuous and abusive father.”This further speculation attest that Leland is a double sided man and who had loved his daughter and wanted to protect her; he could not protect her from himself.

John L.

Denial of the Dark Side: Parallelism Between Twin Peaks and Freud’s Seduction Theory

David Lynch incorporated many instances of parallelism in Twin Peaks. One thing that I noticed while watching Twin Peaks was that the people of Twin Peaks dismissed Leland’s actions as an imaginary person named BOB. It seems obvious that the people in Twin Peaks don’t want to admit that someone could do such evil. The reaction of denial in Twin Peaks is very similar to society’s reaction when Freud released his controversial Seduction Theory. I believe that Lynch draws parallels to the reluctance in Twin Peaks to accept the evil sides of man to society’s response towards Freud’s Seduction Theory. It is important for scientists to study psychoanalysis of incest, because it is in fact, prevalent in society. Denial prohibits progress towards rehabilitation. In 1896 Freud released his theory regarding incest and sexual development. Essentially, he claimed that there was an underlying incestuous desire between fathers and daughters and mothers and sons. There was extreme criticism and opposition to Freud. Even though he had support for his claim, society did not want to accept that such evil was present in their society. Lynch shows the reluctance of the characters within Twin Peaks to accept the darker side of man. Agent Cooper was given all the clues of the murderer, and they fit Leland’s description perfectly, yet he didn’t think Leland could do such evil to his own daughter. In “The Canonization of Laura Palmer,” Christy Desmet asserts that “After Leland’s confession and suicide, Agent Cooper bluntly asks Sherriff Truman whether he would prefer to believe that BOB worked through Leland or ‘that a man would rape and murder his own daughter.” Sherriff Truman did not want to accept the fact that a man could rape and murder his own daughter. He would rather believe that an imaginary person named BOB committed the evil crimes. This denial of the dark side parallels the controversy following Freud’s Seduction Theory debut regarding psychoanalysis of incest.

James O.

Log Lady: Spiritual Messenger

Twin Peaks is full of spiritual and mystical signs throughout the series. I believe the log lady is a representation of the good found inside the woods surrounding Twin Peaks. Completely opposite from the spiritual character, BOB, the log lady gives counsel in her own weird way to various characters in the television series. For example the beginning of some of the episodes show the log lady giving her outlook to the problems found in Twin Peaks. The log she carries around could represent the woods that hears and sees all of the wickedness that goes unnoticed by most of the Twin Peak’s inhabitants. The log lady could then be one of the links between the spiritual world and the natural world.

Eric K.

hawk's different outlook

Throughout Twin Peaks, Hawk was the only character to me that understood what was going on with the evil spirit BOB. Hawk is a Native American that thinks differently about situations that happen in Twin Peaks. He is almost the spiritual leader among the people in the town. When Hawk talks to Cooper about the difference between the Black Lodge and the White Lodge, he is talking about heaven and hell. Hawk states while talking with Cooper about the Black Lodge, without "imperfect courage" it "will utterly annihilate your soul" just as Angela Hague says in Infinite Games: The Derationalization of Detection in Twin Peaks. Was he possibly making that statement because of BOB? Seeing that BOB is an evil spirit or demon, if your not strong in your courage or faith he is going to take over you. Although Hawk is the spiritual leader, he also is a sort of guardian angel to Cooper and Sheriff Truman. When they go storm One Eyed Jacks to save Audrey Horn in episode 12, they find themselves in a little over their heads. Hawk comes to the rescue by killing the henchmen and help Cooper, Truman, and Audrey get out alive. Hawk's different outlook throughout Twin Peaks is the best understanding of what's going on with the murders. He always gets the job done and is there when he is needed.

Brandon B.

Mike, Bob, and The Ring

Since no one has done this one yet, I thought I might throw my two cents in with a "Mike Vs. Bob" theory. I have noticed that Mike is referred to as "the only one that Bob fears." Has anyone thought about why Mike is the only one that Bob fears? He certainly hasn't done anything that would provoke fear. Lynch portrays him as an opposing force to Bob and that his purpose is to stop Bob from killing, but I believe that we are being led astray. For one thing, if he really is on the good guy team, he's failing badly at it. In FWWM, he even had Leland/Bob caught in the car and all he did was yell at him. What did he yell? "You stole my ...!" I found out later what Bob stole without even realizing it. Follow me on this one: in chronological order for the viewer first we see Chet Desmond find the Owl Cave ring (not Coopers ring, the green/blueish ring) on a mound of dirt in the trailer park that Theresa Banks lived in, then we see the picture in Theresa's trailer of her with the ring on. Next, we have Mike wearing the ring while harassing Leland/Bob and Laura in the car.
Laura then has a dream about the ring (noting with interest that Cooper told her not to take it.) and then starts to put things together. After that, we see the ring next when Mike throws it in the train can while Leland/Bob is killing Laura. When she puts it on, I also note with interest that Leland/Bob says, "Don't make me do this!" I initially took this as Leland telling Bob not to make him do it, but later realized that it could also mean that Bob didn't want to have to kill her after he (it, whatever) spent all those years trying to posses her.
If we put these facts in chronological order according to the show (Theresa having the ring, then being killed by Bob, then the ring being found by Chet etc.) then a pattern emerges. Leland/Bob was seeing Theresa (perhaps even planning on killing her all along, who knows?) but once she started wearing the Owl Cave ring then Leland/Bob kills her. One might also notice that Theresa's arm went numb before she was killed; this could be linked to Mike having taken his arm off, and the MFAP being "the arm," but I won't get into that here.
Once Bob has killed Theresa and presumably places the ring on a dirt mound, the next time it is seen is when Chet Desmond finds it during his investigation. Here, I noticed the first thing that made me think that Mike might not be the happy camper we think he is. Chet picks up the ring, and then mysteriously dissapears. We never find out what happened to Chet, but the next time the ring shows up is on Mike's hand while he yells at Leland/Bob. Starting to pick it up now? Having watched the movie and the series I (we if the reader has also watched them =P) have the foreknowledge that Mike and Bob feed off of Garmonbozia (read pain and suffering so we don't loose those who haven't watched it). When Mike is yelling at Bob, he is actually pissed because Bob stole his Garmonbozia, marked as his because Theresa was "wed" to him with his ring. Later, when Mike throws his ring in the train car with Laura and she puts it on, Bob is then denied his potential host because she is now "wed" to Mike. At the end of FWWM, Bob meets Mike and his "arm," symbolized by the MFAP, and demands his Garmonbozia.
I think that Mike's goal is not to stop Bob, per sey, or to stop him from killing, but to keep him from obtaining Garmonbozia and/or claim it for his own.

sorry for the massive block of text guys, but the point is in there. I don't have any extraneous sources atm because I'm in the library and don't have any of my stuff with me, but I'll try and post something later that backs me up.

Donna's Change and Suspisions Good or Bad?

Watching Twin Peaks from beginning to end I noticed a colossal change in the characters. Donna Hayward’s attitude, actions, and just overall appearance is the one that I found transformed the most. I question whether Laura’s death had a part in Donnas change from the “good girl” to a mischievous shady woman. It seemed that Donna always followed in Laura’s footsteps so when Laura was murdered did Donna feel entitled to somewhat take her place? In the first episodes she told her mother the guilt she felt about falling in love with James, but after time it seemed that the guilt died. When she visited James in the jail cell even he questioned the person she was becoming. I also believe Harold’s death was partially Danna’s fault. She became interested in him only after she found out he was the keeper of Laura’s second diary. Donna was so focused on figuring out every detail of Laura’s death some of her actions became suspicious. Henry Jenkins’s Do You Enjoy making the Rest of us Feel Stupid?: alt.tv.twinpeaks, the Trickster Author, and Viewer Mastery supports this idea as well.

Lying and manipulating people became her way of life. Donna got what she wanted in the end just the way Laura always did. I see this behavior as good and bad. The good being Donna wanting to find the mystery of her best friend’s death and the bad as a twisted way of payback and jealousy Donna felt towards Laura.

Shannon C.

Did anyone notice the welcome sign?

I brought this up in our first writing assignment, but I want to get other's opinions on it. During the intro to the show the welcome sign is always shown. the population for Twin Peaks, as shown in every episode, is 51,201. That extra one person in the city just doesn't fit the sign. I've googled images of different city welcome signs and none that I saw ended in one. This is what I think. I think the extra one person in the population is supposed to represent BOB's presence in the city. BOB is a spirit, meaning he can be anywhere at anytime. He has been inhabiting Leland for at least forty years throwing the population off. Maybe this is a warning to anyone that comes to the city telling them that something is there that should not be there.

You might ask, "Well what about MIKE? He's a spirit that is not supposed to be there. Shouldn't that make the population 51,202?" Mike doesn't pose a threat to anyone anymore, it's quite the opposite. MIKE's purpose in "life"vis to prevent BOB from killing again. It's said many times during the series that MIKE is the only person that BOB fears. Since MIKE is no longer a threat to people, there is no warning that is needed to his presence.

Here is the explination for the population. According to the Internet Movie Database the population of Twin Peaks was supposed to be 5,120 but ABC wanted the figure to be increased 10-fold making the population 51,201. I'm not that good at math but isn't 5,120 multiplied by ten 51,200? That doesn't the extra one person. What are your opinions on this matter?

Je'Ray B.

Join the dark side! Lynch's allegory of darks and lights.

In the town of Twin Peaks, nothing is ever as it seems. After the first few episodes this becomes blatantly obvious to the viewer. But, if one proceeds to really investigate David Lynch’s series, Twin Peaks, it also becomes obvious that he presents us, the viewers, with an allegory. In his writings, David Lynch, skews the traditional representations of dark and light. Dark, which is usually associated with evil, is associated with good. And light is associated with evil. I feel this is an important concept to observe as a viewer because it not only helps you further understand Lynch’s writings, it helps one too look beyond the surface meanings of every situation offered to Twin Peaks viewers.
The first, and most apparent situation that led me to realize darks and light in Twin Peaks were skewed, were the hair colors chosen for Laura and Madeline. Laura has blonde hair, which is usually characterized with good. While Madeline is a brunette, which leans more toward evil, based on theories of light and dark. After viewing the first season it is easy to see Laura, although initially presented as the iconic character, has the evil tendencies; Whereas Madeline, only entered Twin Peaks to comfort and restore normalcy, relating her with good.
Another hairy situation is Leland’s hair. Before Bob took complete control over Leland his hair was a dark brown color illustrating he still had some good left inside of him. He still had a grasp on Leland. Once Leland kills Jacques Renot out of revenge, it is obvious he no longer has a grasp on the inner Leland and Bob has completely enveloped him. Ironically enough the next morning his hair is as white as snow showing he is now completely enslaved by Bob.
Although there are countless examples, the last I will present you with, is the lights and darks in The Black Lodge. For example, the entrance to the Black Lodge, the ultimate place of evil is a white powder. The shadow selves in The Black Lodge are the evil sides of each character, yet the eyes of the shadow selves are the lightest of blue. The floors in the lodge are black and white zigzags. Which I believe is Lynch’s subliminal way of hinting at this allegory, and there is a strobe light flashing dark and light as Cooper views the room. In Angela Hague’s article “Infinite Games: The Derationalization of Detection in Twin Peaks,” Hague notes “A flashing strobe light illuminates one side of his face and then the other, alternately showing his face in light and dark, an image that reinforces the black/white dichotomy that the subsequent scenes will undermine.” In her excerpt Hague validates David Lynch clearly undermines the traditional division, and association of dark and light with characters and situations in Twin Peaks. I promise you there are so many more small details I could go on all day. Re-watch the series with this perspective and you will pick up on things you never did before! –Sydney P.

BOB: Real or Imaginary?

BOB is either a real demon that takes possession of a person's body or an imaginary scapegoat - an excuse and cover up for the horrors of incest and rape. I hold that BOB is not necessarily a real demon but an excuse meant to cover up that secret evil that lurks in the back of everyone's personality.

What can I attribute the fact that Laura and her mother both "see" BOB to? I believe this is a defense mechanism that could be employed by actual victims of incest too horrified by the truth. Instead of recognizing your father as your abuser, attach some false identity to him. BOB as a part of everyone's personality is in line with Lynch's prevalent them of duality, and this is supported in many articles, such as Diane Stevenson's Family Romance, Family Violence, and the Fantastic in Twin Peaks.

The demon eventually "takes over" Agent Cooper’s body. I see this as less of an actual transference of some spirit and more as proof that the evil does lurk in the back of everyone's mind. Cooper, the ever well-intentioned gentleman, is no less subject to these dark forces than Leland or the one-armed man.

- Michael P.

Laura Palmer's murder: A mystery...or a plot device instead? -- Amanda F.

After seeing all of these Twin Peaks episodes, we learn that there are many different things going on in this small logging town. Because of the numerous circumstances that are happening around the time of Laura Palmer's death, I think her murder was not just a mystery but also a plot device for David Lynch to progress the story into more of a drama than for it to be a mystery. Most of these occurances happen after the beginning of Laura Palmer's investigation. It is almost as if we would never known that Josie Packard made a deal with Hank Jennings or that Ben Horne was helping with the cocaine passage from Canada, unless Laura died.
Believe it or not, Laura's murder was never intended to be solved. Creators David Lynch and Mark Frost only gave identity to the murderer because of insistence from critics and the audience itself. The intent of an unresolved murder was to show the darker, more realistic version of the world. Isn't it true that some murders just aren't solved? This concept is also more of a plot device because you learn of the people who are connected with Laura's murder, and you also learn the scandals that they hide in their lives. For example, Laura knew Ben Horne, not just as a lover, but she also mentored his son, Johnny. With the (innocent) connection of Laura and Ben Horne through Johnny Horne, we learn of Ben's true motives: to collect the money from a burnt down sawmill, and using the property to create a suburban neighborhood.

An author by the name of Jeff Lester of LazyBastard.com (yes, that's the website's name), reinforces this idea saying that, "From the time that I first read about Twin Peaks, I always suspected that Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost, had no interest in revealing who actually killed Laura Palmer. The mystery was a plot device that would allow Cooper to investigate the secret life of the town itself, and a device that would allow Lynch to linger over the mystery of objects". To hang over the mystery of objects can also include the mystery of objectives as well. What does Josie want to accomplish by dealing with Hank Jennings? Why does Catherine Martell withold evidence of Ben Horne's innocence for Laura's murder? We are left only to ponder each character's motives, and Laura's murder simply seems to have been the reason we wonder. --- Amanda F.

If Laura were Dorothy in THE WIZARD OF OZ. . .

Twin Peaks initially appears to be a series that centers around a character who is absent. However, if one deconstructs her rest (I have recently been inspired by a student's use of Derrida's poststructuralist "deconstruction" theory), we find there is a plural oppositional narrative of unrest in Shelly, Audre, and Donna. There is an intertextuality between the resting and absent Dorothy (Laura Palmer) and her unresting and present counter-parts: the scarecrow, the tinman, and the cowardly lion.

In their series, Twin Peaks, David Lynch and Mark Frost, aptly weave a Wizard of Oz narrative into the lead female characters. In a 2005 article, Michael Vass points out that one thing that "distinguishes Lynch's approach from that of postmodernism is that Lynch does not seem to consider cinematic styles and genres as fixed modes of representation that construct various notions of a Real to which we can never have direct immediate access" (par 8). It is this lack of stability that allows for the inconhesive reference of the present work in Twin Peaks to the prior work being referenced, such as Wizard of Oz, that allows Dorothy to be absent. Lynch's allusions to Oz in Wild at Heart, also made in 1990, and in actual televisions spots for the Twin Peaks series are evidence enough that Oz was on, at least, Lynch's mind.

Intertexual narratives between Twin Peaks' leading female characters can be traced back to the order of introduction for the scarecrow, the tinman, and the cowardly lion in Oz. Dorothy encounters the scarecrow who wants a brain first, and, likewise, the Twin Peaks viewer is introduced first to Shelly the waitress, who is obviously in want of a brain. She is one of the most flat and undynamic characters in the series, for she never grows and she never changes. Next, the viewer meets Audre, snooty and indifferent, as she ducks into her Daddy's limo to go to school. She is more than cool. Audre is cold. When Laura's death is announced over the school intercom, Audre smiles. Unlike the character of Shelly, however, Audre does grow a heart. Finally, the viewer meets Donna next to her school locker. She veils all of her endeavors to "solve" Laura's murder, which have unpleasant consequence for everyone she touches, as a need to solve the crime because only she and James "loved" Laura. However, her cowardice is fully realized as her inability to admit that she's simply a meddlesome girl when her subterfuge results in Harold's suicide. She must finally admit that she could have told Sherriff Truman that Harold had the diary; therefore, it was never necessary to violate him to the extent that she did for the purpose of stealing the diary. Finally, after Leland's molestation of her in the Palmer livingroom, she is too cowardly to tell even James.

Next question: who is the Wizard?

Benny