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