Mia Tobin Power
Winner
The Louise Clancy Memorial Prize
One question defines David Lynch and Mark Frost’s TV series Twin Peaks: who killed Laura Palmer? In the Season Two episode “Lonely Souls”, Lynch and Frost reveal that Laura was killed by her father, Leland. This twist recontextualises the series of Twin Peaks so far and sets the tone for the remainder of the season, the prequel film, and the 2017 series. By reframing the mystery of Laura’s death and therefore the entire series around incest and patriarchal violence, Lynch and Frost highlight the importance of the concept of patriarchy to the story they want to tell. They represent patriarchy as a violent system by centering the story on the abuse and suffering Laura experiences at the hands of her father. This essay will explore how Lynch and Frost represent patriarchal violence in the series, focusing on their use of the double. I will analyse how the concept of the double informs the characters of Leland and Carrie Page, and how these characters embody the theme of patriarchal violence and its impact on its victim.
A useful framework for analysing Twin Peaks and its representation of patriarchal violence is Lenora Ledwon’s theory of the Television Gothic, defined as “utiliz[ing] familiar Gothic themes and devices such as incest, the grotesque, repetition, interpolated narration, haunted settings, mirrors, doubles, and supernatural occurrences” (260). Almost all of these tropes are present in Laura’s storyline alone, but this essay will focus on the series’s use of the theme of incest and the device of doubles. Ledwon later states that “[t]he domestic gone horribly wrong is the essence of the Television Gothic” (264). The tragedy at the heart of Twin Peaks centres around a domestic life that has been corrupted and perverted by the patriarch through his sexual abuse and eventual murder of his daughter. However, Lynch and Frost further complicate this tragedy using the character of BOB. BOB is a supernatural force and manifestation of evil who comes from the Black Lodge, the otherworldly site of all evil in the world. He possesses Leland, and at first seems to be the one responsible for Laura’s abuse and murder, rather than Leland himself.
Lynch and Frost frequently use doubles throughout Twin Peaks, which is one of the characteristics of the Television Gothic as defined by Ledwon (264). I will be using Lubomír Doležel’s theory of the double in order to analyse Lynch and Frost’s use thereof. Doležel defines three types, or themes, of double. The theme of the double features two versions of the same individual coexisting in the same world, which can manifest itself as “the same self…in two different bodies or two selves…in the same body” (Amer 141). This theme applies to Leland and BOB, who are represented throughout the series as two identities within the one body. Doležel’s Orlando theme applies to texts that have “one and the same individual marked by the feature of personal identity, exist[ing] in two or more fictional worlds” (qtd. Amer 140). This is a useful theory for interpreting the character of Carrie Page, an identical version of Laura from another universe who may or may not actually be Laura. Both of these manifestations of the double in Twin Peaks are associated with Leland’s patriarchal violence. Lynch and Frost use BOB, as Leland’s double, to depict the conflict between Leland as Laura’s father and as her abuser, while they use Carrie, as Laura’s double, to illustrate the traumatising effect of this form of violence on its victim.
Lynch and Frost’s use of Doležel’s theme of the double to connect Leland and BOB complicates the revelation that Leland is Laura’s abuser and murderer. From the moment they reveal that BOB is Leland, Lynch and Frost imply that Leland is conscious of his actions. For example, before he kills Laura’s cousin Maddy, Leland looks in the mirror and first sees himself, then looks back and sees BOB (“Lonely Souls” 39:10-39:13; 39:19-39:24). Similarly, throughout the scene that follows, Maddy intermittently sees him as Leland and as BOB. Lynch and Frost’s deliberate decision not to have this character present entirely as BOB when he kills Maddy implies that Leland is in part aware of and responsible for his actions. Later, when Leland is caught by the police and BOB leaves his body, BOB forces him to “remember” what he has done (“Arbitrary Law” 34:58-35:00). The use of the word “remember” once again suggests that Leland was conscious and in control of his actions. As he dies, Leland calls out, “Oh God. Laura. I killed her” (39:31-39:35). This realisation and acknowledgment of his guilt demonstrates that Leland and BOB are one; their actions cannot be differentiated from one another. Randi Davenport et al. describe this scene as “closely resembl[ing] the incest survivor’s Utopian fantasy of the father’s confession of guilt” (257). Leland acknowledges responsibility for his violence against Laura, and also acknowledges its severity. Thus, Laura and her suffering are seen in their totality, including the painful truth of her father’s responsibility. Davenport et. al’s use of the word “Utopian” suggests that this scenario is unrealistic and perhaps impossible. Therefore, Lynch and Frost’s depiction of Leland’s acceptance of his guilt is intended to provide victims of gender-based violence with catharsis. While in reality, abusers will likely never acknowledge the harm they have caused, Twin Peaks creates a world wherein the abuse victim’s suffering is validated. This scene thus implies that Lynch and Frost’s intention in their portrayal of incest and patriarchal violence is to present and acknowledge the victim’s perspective. Moreover, in Twin Peaks’ representation of patriarchy, the text punishes the abusive father, in that he dies and in that he is forced to reckon with his crimes before he does.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (FWWM) features a similar confession of guilt from Leland to that in “Arbitrary Law”. As he kills Laura, he says, “I always thought you knew it was me”, taking responsibility for abusing her for four years rather than blaming it on BOB (2:03:05-2:03:07). Both of these admissions of guilt provide Laura, the victim, with some form of catharsis, if in “Arbitrary Law” she is indeed listening as Leland believes she is. Although Twin Peaks focuses on the search for Laura’s killer, it eventually returns to the core of this murder mystery: seeing and believing the pain of a victim of this form of patriarchal violence. Throughout the series, Lynch and Frost attempt to balance a representation of domestic abuse that acknowledges its severity, with a representation of the victim’s point of view. They portray Maddy’s violent death on-screen, and reference horrific acts of sexual abuse through Laura’s lines of dialogue, for example, “He’s been having me since I was twelve” (FWWM 44:22-44:25). Meanwhile, they attempt a nuanced depiction of an incest victim’s point of view, but such a depiction has its complexities and controversies. As a result of the traumatising abuse she suffers, Laura becomes addicted to cocaine and has sexual relationships with many men, including men much older than her. Laura Plummer cites this behaviour in her argument that “Laura Palmer is merely reactive; she has no agency. She is only punished” (309). Herein lies the difficulty in Lynch and Frost’s representation of patriarchal violence: in attempting to demonstrate the effect of abuse on Laura through her behaviour, they open the series up to claims such as Plummer’s, that Laura “is never removed from her representation as object of desire and violence” (310). However, even if Laura’s behaviour and decisions are deemed socially unacceptable, they are her own; she has agency. Furthermore, FWWM centres on Laura’s perspective and gives her the subjectivity the original TV show denies her. It suggests that the audience’s experience of BOB may be influenced by Laura’s perception of him. Davenport et al. read the series’s distinction between Leland and BOB as one made by Laura because of the trauma she suffers; they describe it as “the need to see a devil in the place of her father” (257). This reading is supported by a scene from the middle of FWWM, wherein Laura discovers BOB’s identity. She comes home to an empty house, then runs out once she finds BOB lurking there. She hides in the bushes nearby, and soon sees her father come out of the house. The link between the two is now undeniable to Laura, and she cries as the narrative she has created to protect herself from the truth is shattered.
Thus, FWWM highlights what the original TV run sought to establish: Lynch and Frost double Leland and BOB in this way to explore the horrific nature of incest and domestic violence. BOB is used to represent the horror of a father’s sexual abuse and murder of his daughter. Since he is constructed throughout the show to be a manifestation of evil in the world, his part in these acts implies that they are among the most evil a person can commit. Laura’s experience of BOB and Leland as two separate people for most of the duration of her father’s abuse serves to represent the deeply traumatising and destructive nature of this form of violence. Robert Gordon Joseph writes that:
If the great reveal of Twin Peaks is that BOB is Leland, the great reveal of FWWM is that Leland is BOB, recontextualizing the demonic entity from an invading spirit to an embodiment of an evil already lurking within the patriarchy (9).
The abuse Laura suffers comes not from the outside world but from within the safety of her own home, from the patriarchal structure of family and from a father’s abuse of his patriarchal power. At the end of this storyline, after Leland’s death, Albert Rosenfield breaks BOB down to what he truly is, what he represents: “[t]he evil that men do” (“Arbitrary Law” 45:05-45:07). BOB represents the evil of sexual abuse and murder, and the power and capacity for evil granted to men by the system of patriarchy.
While Doležel’s theme of the double can be applied to the connection Lynch and Frost draw between Leland and BOB, his Orlando theme may be useful in analysing the character of Carrie Page, her relationship to Laura, and her thematic purpose in the text. In “Part 18” of Twin Peaks: The Return, in an attempt to find Laura and save her from her death, Dale Cooper crosses over into an alternate universe and finds the house of a woman named Carrie Page. Carrie is identical to Laura, but she claims not to be her. However, there are hints throughout their conversation that she is connected to Laura. For example, to tell Dale that she is not Laura, Carrie says that he has “the wrong house”, thus associating Laura’s identity with a house (34:27-34:29). This recalls the Palmer house, the site of Laura’s suffering and the destruction of her identity. However, when Dale mentions that Laura’s father was Leland, Carrie shows no signs of recognition, which is evidence of the fact that she is not actually Laura, but rather a separate individual who is merely physically identical to Laura. Her Southern accent also distinguishes her from Laura, who was from Washington. When Carrie invites Dale inside her house whilst she prepares to leave with him, he sees a dead man sitting in a chair with a bullet hole in his head. Carrie’s dialogue earlier in the scene implies that she has killed him, which in turn suggests that male violence haunts Carrie’s life as it does Laura’s, although Carrie does not have to die to be free of it, as Laura does.
When Carrie and Dale travel to Twin Peaks and reach the Palmer house, an unfamiliar woman answers the door, who claims not to know of Laura’s mother, Sarah Palmer. The idea that anyone could live in Twin Peaks and not know of the tragedy of the Palmer family, especially someone who lives in their house, is inconceivable, and therefore unsettling. When Carrie and Dale leave, Dale asks himself, “What year is this?”, accepting that his attempt to find and save an alternate version of Laura has failed (54:00-54:02). His attempt to save Laura in “Part 17” also fails, after he travels back to 1989 to try to rewrite the story of her final night. In “Part 18”, immediately after Dale wonders what year it is, he hears Sarah calling Laura from inside the house, as she did the morning after Laura’s death, before she knew what had happened to her. Upon hearing this, Carrie begins to scream, and the lights burst inside the Palmer house, as her scream echoes and the screen fades to black. Hearing her mother’s call for her, which signifies her death, causes Carrie to remember that she is Laura, or to become aware of Laura’s suffering. In trying to save Laura, Dale in fact re-traumatises her.
The implication that this is a different year, neither 1989 nor 2016, suggests that Laura’s story is a cycle that she is forever trapped in because of the atrocity of Leland’s violence. Even though the end of FWWM sees Laura finally free from her father in the Black Lodge, this ending to Twin Peaks: The Return asserts that she can never truly be safe. Thus, Lynch and Frost represent this form of patriarchal violence as so severe that it has scarred this character and this universe. Dale’s multiple failed attempts to help Laura suggest that it is futile to try to save her because her fate is inevitable; the damage from Leland’s patriarchal violence has been done. The question of whether Carrie and Laura are an example of Doležel’s Orlando theme of the double depends on one’s interpretation of the character of Carrie, and whether one believes she is a version of Laura from another world who is missing her memories. Regardless, she serves to underline Lynch and Frost’s exploration of the destructive nature of patriarchal abuse and violence. Leland’s violence against Laura is so horrific and breaks so many boundaries that this woman, who is either an alternate version of Laura or a separate individual who is connected to Laura in several ways, can be deeply traumatised by a single signifier of her abuse and murder.
These two examples of Lynch and Frost’s use of the double in the Twin Peaks series serve to illuminate their representation of patriarchy, specifically their representation of patriarchal abuse and violence. The doubling of Leland and BOB, as two identities in the one body, is used to represent the extreme horror of a father’s acts of incest and violence. Since this doubling can be read as an attempt on Laura’s part to protect herself from the devastating truth about her father, it can be seen to “giv[e] a face to the change that comes over someone engaged in this act [of domestic violence], the ‘dual personality’ so many accounts [of incest victims] refer to” (Bainbridge and Delaney 644). The doubling of Laura and Carrie illustrates the scarring effect of incest and abuse, in that these two characters are connected across time and space by the trauma of Leland’s violence. Lynch and Frost attempt, through a medium of popular entertainment, to bring a hidden truth of everyday life into the spotlight. By engaging with what Ledwon calls the Television Gothic, by bringing a supernatural element to the deaths of Laura and Maddy, Lynch and Frost elevate their deaths and make them of cosmic importance. By insisting upon the importance of these young women’s deaths, they challenge the normalisation of femicide in society. They represent the violence of patriarchy to demonstrate that the lives of these young women, and their victimisation by the patriarchal system, matter.
Works Cited
Amer, Miquel Pomar. “Experiment(ing) on the Double with Julian Barnes.” Amaltea, vol. 3, 2011, pp. 139-150.
“Arbitrary Law.” Twin Peaks, written by Mark Frost, Harley Peyton, and Robert Engels, directed by Tim Hunter, American Broadcasting Company, 1990.
Bainbridge, Jason Graham and Elizabeth Delaney. “‘Murder, Incest and Damn Fine Coffee’: Twin Peaks as New Incest Narrative 20 Years On.” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, vol. 26, no. 4, 2012, pp. 637-651.
Davenport, Randi, et al. “The Knowing Spectator of Twin Peaks: Culture, Feminism, and Family Violence.” Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 4, 1993, pp. 255-259.
Joseph, Robert Gordon. “Lincoln the Woodsman: Native Americans and Obscene Patriarchs in Frost and Lynch’s Twin Peaks.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 25 Sep. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2022.2124096.
Ledwon, Lenora. “Twin Peaks and the Television Gothic.” Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 4, 1993, pp. 260-270.
“Lonely Souls.” Twin Peaks, written by Mark Frost, directed by David Lynch, American Broadcasting Company, 1990.
Lynch, David and Mark Frost, creators. Twin Peaks. American Broadcasting Company, 1990.
--. Twin Peaks: The Return. Showtime, 2017.
“Part 17.” Twin Peaks: The Return, written by David Lynch and Mark Frost, directed by David Lynch, Showtime, 2017.
“Part 18.” Twin Peaks: The Return, written by David Lynch and Mark Frost, directed by David Lynch, Showtime, 2017.
Plummer, Laura. ““I’m not Laura Palmer”: David Lynch’s Fractured Fairy Tale.” Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 4, 1997, pp. 307-311.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Directed by David Lynch. New Line Cinema, 1992.
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