Twin Peaks: what did it mean?

[StudentMI]

I thought I’d start this thread for any Twin Peaks fans like myself who still wonder, what the heck was that?

BTW who is Judy?

 

[StudentMI]

Still the scariest thing I’ve ever seen

 

[RogueSemicolon]

Having been years since I last watched Twin Peaks, I cannot give you any satisfactory answer from my poor memory to the great mysteries evoked in the series, but I think I can touch upon a few of the wider themes that echo in my mind as I recall shuttered frames and uneasy feelings and emotions that the series has elicited in me.

Laura seems to me a tragic figure corrupted by an evil that first inflicted itself on her father and mother (each in different ways) and directly down to Laura through a childhood of sexual abuse that deprived her of hope and love and sent her spiraling into an adolescence of self-destruction. This is made most apparent in the final episodes of Season One and the movie Fire Walk With Me, when the facade of happiness that Laura evinced in public was torn away to reveal the hurt and depravity in which the evil had afflicted her. I’ll never forgot when, in the movie, Leeland entered Laura’s bedroom at night with the intention to rape her, that Leeland would shift away between himself and Bob, the demon who possessed him, and crawl onto her bed with a sick, carnal desire for her as if he was a predator strutting over to his helpless prey in order to devour her: how terrifying and isolating Laura must have felt at the sight of such undisguised evil from a man who cannot see in himself what he was doing to his own daughter, whom he professed to love . . .

Laura’s life and death represents the insidiousness of evil to plant itself in even an ordinary small town in America among a close-knit people, who love and care for each other but are oblivious to the silent pleas of help from suffering victims. Laura’s death shocked the community because she seemed so popular and happy that it’d be unthinkable for anyone to want to harm her within the safe boundaries of their community. The series, then, explores the way a community tries to mourn for her and grapple with their own guilt for failing to recognize the evil that groped in the shadows and how those closest to Laura were complicit in her death.

Perhaps the episode of the atomic bomb conveys the cosmic birth, within American culture, of an evil hidden from the sight of people who refused to acknowledge its possibility and its devastating effects, not just on individuals, who suffered in isolation, but within themselves and those around them, who, by turning a blind eye, helped an evil infiltrate their towns and perpetuate itself in silence.

 

[StudentMI]

Perhaps the episode of the atomic bomb conveys the cosmic birth, within American culture, of an evil hidden from the sight of people who refused to acknowledge its possibility and its devastating effects, not just on individuals, who suffered in isolation, but within themselves and those around them, who, by turning a blind eye, helped an evil infiltrate their towns and perpetuate itself in silence.

That’s an interesting interpretation. I myself was reminded of the comic book The Invisibles which featured the bomb tests as an important plot point in the series. I just was amazed by that entire episode. At the end I believe I stood up and applauded. He took Showtime for a ride and made an art film out of it.

 

[StudentMI]

but I think I can touch upon a few of the wider themes that echo in my mind as I recall shuttered frames and uneasy feelings and emotions that the series has elicited in me.

It’s definitely interesting how different scenes imprint themselves on our memories. A few of the ones for me:

*The David Bowie convenience store scene.
*The monkey. That darn monkey.
*Bob behind the dresser.
*Sarah Palmer, Hawk and the mysterious sounds in the kitchen.
*The masked man descending the stairs.
*Got a light?
*The doppelganger of Laura Dern (blink and you’ll miss it)
*The final scene with the man off camera.

 

[RogueSemicolon]

Indeed, I was utterly perplexed and astonished at the daring artistry and ambition of this episode in particular, eschewing a coherent narrative structure for . . . I don’t know how to describe it. An allegory of the cosmic struggle where evil is awakened and impregnates itself in society, leaving in its wake a nuclear fallout we’ll see for generations to come? It’s perhaps a language onto itself, a new way to express in film a quiet devastation we can scarcely admit is real, something we can begin to see at a glance from an oblique angle, shocking us awake from our stupor, leaving us open to reflecting on the wreckage apparent all around us if we’d only dare to apprehend it.

We could perhaps see Cooper and Laura as trapped in an interminable cycle through time, destined to go on and repeat itself until goodness finds a way to break the evil at its source and free Laura from her tragic fate.

 

[StudentMI]

We could perhaps see Cooper and Laura as trapped in an interminable cycle through time, destined to go on and repeat itself until goodness finds a way to break the evil at its source and free Laura from her tragic fate.

As sad as it may seem, when I first saw the final episode I thought despite this attempt to rescue her via time travel her pain echoed throughout eternity. That despite it all it was always that faint echo of ‘Laura, Laura’ under the sinister fan.

I think bringing her mom into it in The Return was perfect as it expanded on the initial point of the original series, in my eyes. Seeing Sarah Palmer just waste away was some of the hardest stuff I’ve ever seen on TV. It may not be for others but for me it was.

The entire surrealist nightmare of the series is what haunts me. Bob isn’t the evil we do, it’s the force behind the evil we do. And there’s some ever present dream world waiting to exert it’s influence. Honestly, it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. Only seeing the Return somewhat alleviated the fright.

 

[RogueSemicolon]

As sad as it may seem, when I first saw the final episode I thought despite this attempt to rescue her via time travel her pain echoed throughout eternity.

Agreed, it was deeply unsettling to hear Laura’s primal scream as she sees her house, ripped out of the context of her past selfs and the people who once inhabited it, and walk away, only to realize the pain reawaken within her once again at the instinctive recognition of her past and the trauma intrinsic to it. It’s inescapable. We’re left to question whether it’s possible for man to break the cycle of evil he started. If not, where does that leave us?

 

[RogueSemicolon]

In watching Mulholland Dr. and Twin Peaks, I felt that David Lynch accomplished instilling in the audience a near ever-present sense of unease caused by disrupting our sense of what to expect and even question what it is we’re witnessing. We’re given little time to be comfortable. The films defy our expectations through suffocation, until we’re left unconscious, vulnerable, and seeing a glimpse of reality at discord with what we want to see and believe.

 

[Vico]

…
BTW who is Judy?

Josie Packard’s twin sister Jowday.

 

[Irishmom2]

Confession:

I recently tried watching Twin Peaks. I remember people talking about it and saw it was available on Roku.

I don’t think I even finished the first episode.
It’s me. I just didn’t “get it.”

 

[CTBcin]

Confession:

I recently tried watching Twin Peaks. I remember people talking about it and saw it was available on Roku.

I don’t think I even finished the first episode.
It’s me. I just didn’t “get it.”

You definitely have to get a couple of episodes in before things start falling into place. But at the same time, it gets weirder and weirder.

But yeah, that’s David Lynch for you.