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And just like that, without any warning, really, we just may know Laura Palmer’s assassin.

To say I’m a touch surprised would be an understatement. Hell, I about thought we’d have to linger to the very end to find out who ridded Laura from town. Fortunately, I think, we won’t have to do any such thing.

I wouldn’t expect many of you to be reading this without having seen this episode – or the show – before. Nevertheless I’d be remiss if I failed to attach a neat little disclaimer to this post. Beginning with the next paragraph, I’ll be discussing at length the identity of Laura Palmer’s murderer. Trust me: the reveal ruins Twin Peaks’ central mystery if you’ve yet to get there yourself.

So… it’s less about the identity of Laura’s killer anymore and more about whether or not the dude gets caught. That’s because by the end of “Episode 14,” we witnessed Leland Palmer – Laura’s dad – suck the life out of Maddy in the confines of his own home. All the while his wife, Sarah, laid passed out on the floor by his feet, apparently exhausted by fatigue, fright, a mix of the two or something else entirely.

As we learned in a previous episode, Bob is less a being, and more a transient parasite that latches himself on human hosts to feast on their fears. That Bob is what Leland sees when he looks in the mirror means Bob has transitioned to him. This much we know. And as Leland does his dance with Maddy, Bob comes alive, making mouth love to his female prey.

Bob, Leland or the two of them together eventually smash Maddy’s face against the wall and then wail a pair of relentless fists on her body as she lies totally vulnerable on the ground. It’s hard to watch, really, and this thing aired on television – not cable, but broadcast – more than 20 years ago.

Where I am with this is what’s to be inferred by the sequence. Has Leland been Bob’s host for the entirety of Twin Peaks’ run, or has he only been Bob’s host in the short term? Having Leland as Bob’s murder vessel from the get-go certainly makes things nice and easy, but I don’t know that it’d be accurate.

Instead, I’d like to think Leland has been Bob’s Earthly body since around the time of the season two premiere. (Or, maybe, in the season one finale when Leland murdered Jacques with his bare hands). Keep in mind Leland opened the season with a shock of white hair that couldn’t be explained. Perhaps Bob as his keeper had something to do with that.

If this is true, then we really aren’t any closer to Laura’s killer, but merely know who would’ve killed her had she died the same night as Maddy in “Episode 14.”

What I don’t want to do, though, is pass off a moment of real significance as nothing. We very well may have observed a total Twin Peaks game changer – on the order of the season two premiere – and are poised, now, to spend the rest of the series watching what will come of Leland.

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