TV Rewind: Twin Peaks

By Eric Hughes

October 19, 2011

Civil War reenactment nightmares are the worst.

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Funnily enough, by revealing its central mystery, Twin Peaks has puffed a little shape into what otherwise felt like a mishmash of secrets and crazy.

From an episode ago, we know Bob inhabits Leland’s body, and that through his human hands, Bob cornered Maddy and killed her. We also know that Bob continues to inhabit Leland’s body, because a few times in “Episode 15,” Leland stood in front of a mirror and saw Bob’s sinister face smirking back at him.

I think it important that we know that Bob is still in Leland, because it establishes that Bob doesn’t transition to another vessel simply because his container kills someone. Instead, I think it has more to do with the health of the vessel. So long as it remains a killing machine, Bob survives, since he subsists on raw fear.

Put Leland in danger, though, and maybe then Bob moves on to someone new.

There, then, is a radical idea. What if Bob was inhabiting Laura the night she died, and then latched on to Leland before Laura was offed? I mean, our one-armed friend, Gerard, has said he spends his days, now, tracking Bob, armed with the whimsical idea of quashing him. Perhaps Gerard played some significant role the night Laura died we just haven’t tapped yet.

Obviously, Twin Peaks still murks in trippy questions, but I feel like the Leland reveal turned a corner for the young show. We are actually getting somewhere. And these questions, if anything at all, seem healthy and good.

Despite Leland acting as Bob’s current home, I’m not convinced we know Leland “killed” his daughter. From what Gerard has said about Bob, I was under the impression that Bob could jump from person to person as often as he liked. Consequently, we don’t really know his timeline, nor what makes him vulnerable to the point of jumping vessels. Granted, in Twin Peaks’ world, we’re only a few weeks removed from Laura’s murder, so it’s likely - maybe - that Bob has been inside Leland since “Pilot.” Yet the thing is we just don’t know.




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For sanity’s sake, it might make sense to believe Leland was behind Laura’s murder. That way, the focus remains on the here and now - which is that Leland killed someone, and no one is really on to him.

That’s because law enforcement has its sights on Ben, owner of One-Eyed Jacks and apparently a prominent player inside Laura’s other secret diary. He also doesn’t have much alibi to lean on the night Laura went down, so that’s not good.

At the same time, a possible conflict of interest has sprung up for Agent Cooper, which we were reminded of at the end of “Episode 15.” As he dictates the day’s events into his recorder for Diane, Audrey - Ben’s daughter - springs into the room, wanting to know whether there’s truth to the news that Cooper and Harry had her father accused of murder. Audrey, as you know, has had her eye on Cooper since season one, and all Cooper has had to say - despite a look that says something else - is that he’s unable to pursue anything romantically while an investigation is ongoing.

Now that Audrey’s father is law enforcement’s guy, I wouldn’t expect Cooper to speak to Audrey’s feelings. Not now, anyway. But from an earlier scene, Cooper clearly has someone else in mind for the murder of Laura Palmer, but silences his thought when Harry tells him to - in the face of hard evidence.

I wouldn’t expect Cooper to sacrifice his job and title for lowly Audrey - he loves his work too much, and has yet to really expose any feelings for her, even remotely - yet I do find it interesting that the guy police are pursuing is the father of a girl who’d jump Cooper’s bones if he told her to. It can’t be coincidence.

For the first time, really, Harry – the town’s sheriff – seems to be leading the investigation. And his search is totally led by fact, not by dreams and otherworldly things that Cooper has depended on from the beginning. It’s a bizarre turn for the show that, I think, speaks more to a possible power struggle between Harry and Cooper than anything else.

And now that yet another young person has been washed up ashore dead – Maddy, Laura’s cousin - the supposed conflict couldn’t be at a worse time. I'm curious to see what law enforcement make of her death - she was staying with Sarah and Leland, anyway. Perhaps the find will open up the door to a pursuit for Leland.


     


 
 

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