Sarah Palmer

[Mr. Reindeer]

So, let's discuss Sarah, arguably the most powerful character in TR despite her limited screentime. The consensus is that she has Judy/Mother/Experiment/"Babalon" inside her. So what does this mean for her character? What does it say about the themes of abuse and repression that Bob/Leland portrayed? Did she have this entity inside her way back in 1989? Did she have more culpability in Laura's rape and murder than just being in passive denial? Or did this entity enter her after Laura's death, feeding on her grief and (particularly) her rage?

Personally, I don't think the original series supports a reading of Sarah as demonically complicit in Laura's suffering. However, there is a documented psychological phenomenon in some father-daughter abuse cases of the mother becoming jealous of the daughter as interloper, and therefore resenting/punishing her. I guess the Judy plot could play into this theme, if the Judy possession was part of the Lodge spirits' long game with Laura. Sarah stabbing Laura's iconic homecoming photo is an even darker companion piece to the "Pennsylvania 6-5000" scene, and somewhat supports this reading (Leland's scene shows he was in love with Laura, Sarah's scene shows she hates her for it); but again, I don't believe the original series supports this being the case, at least circa 1989. Sarah seems very much willfilly blind, not an active participant in Laura's grief.

And then there's the whole New Mexico/frogmoth thing. It's tempting to believe this girl is Sarah. But if so, the frogmoth hatches from an egg vomited by Judy, so presumably isn't Judy herself (unless there's some sort of "Son of God"/Jesus-type identity overlap at play -- her spawn contains her energy/self). Plus, I associate the frogmoth with Jumping Man because of the beak...and, if Sarah is indeed 1956 Girl, the association between frogmoth and Jumping Man seems to be supported by the CREEPY AS HELL superimposition of Sarah's face on Jumping Man. But then, of course, Jumping Man dresses like a MfAP doppel, but Pierre Tremond also wore Jumping Man's mask, and the monkey wore the mask, and the monkey whispers "Judy".......aaaand I'm lost. There's a lot to unpack here.

We see in the bar scene that Sarah almost begs the trucker to leave her alone, like she is trying to avoid being provoked because she doesn't like what she will do. So she seems to be divided to some extent, bloodthirsty but trying to fight the impulse. She mostly seems to contain it by staying in the house, sedated by booze and watching bloodsport on TV. This brings us back to the classic Leland/Bob quandry, still left deliberately vague in TR: is this possession (boring), parasitism, symbiosis, or something else entirely?

I have no answers, but I'm very interested in what everyone else thinks! Feel free to also use this thread to just gush about how fucking amazing and underrated Zabriskie is. "I can still make the happy face!"

[Cappy]

I feel like something in Sarah is addicted to her own pain and trauma. I imagine the shock of losing Laura, Leland, and learning the truth, coupled with her own sense of guilt for not speaking up would have a deeply traumatic impact on any individual. I think that she doesn't know how to feel anything except for her own pain. I am not sure if she is being possessed by Judy/The Experiment or the Jumping Man, but when she peeled her face off my first thought was that the awful blackness wasn't anything supernatural, just her emotional interior, empty and blackened.

At the close of ep. 17, when she attacks Laura's picture, I think she felt Cooper's attempt to save Laura. Sarah has only known how to live with the pain caused by Laura's abuse and death, and she's been living with it for so long that it's completely consumed her. Her identity at this point is synonymous with her feelings of loss and guilt and loneliness. Laura being saved would destroy the person that Sarah has become, and even though having her daughter back would be the thing she wants the most, it would also completely shatter the person she's spent the past 25 years becoming. She reacts violently, possibly even with mystical recourse, assuming she had a hand in snatching Laura away from Cooper.

[The Jumping Man]

I was just thinking about how this is almost a meta commentary on season two - the way the show completely abandoned her after Leland's wake. It's as if the town abandoned her at that moment, too - they didn't want to think about her and everything she would remind them of, and she was left alone in that house, easy pickings for the Black Lodge/Judy. In fact, the next and last time we see her in the original series, it looks like they've already got their hooks in her ("I'm in the Black Lodge with Dale Cooper"). So imagine 25 more years of that. For me, it's one of the most powerful parts of The Return: the townspeople didn't learn their lesson from ignoring the truth about Laura Palmer, and left her mother open to the same darkness.

[Terence]

Seeing as the season is over & no other connection has been made of that girl that the frogmoth went into in 1956 id say everyone is going to agree it was Sarah Palmer.

We seen Judy vomit out these eggs along with BOB.
That frogmoth was a larva type thing basically seeing as it hatched from a egg & by planting itself in young Sarah.

She was guaranteed or marked to be possessed by Judy later in life be it while Laura was alive or after that or maybe when this Judy/mother of all evil/extreme negative force broke out from that glass box.

Then you would have to think was Laura sent from the Fireman to oppose this evil in Sarah Palmer by been her child.but to think these Lodge spirts//entities can make a birth of a person to happen does seem to be abit crazy if that is what their powers can do also..

Maybe the essence of this opposing force was sent from the Fireman to Sarah no matter what kind of child she had be it male or female just as long as she gave birth.

Now this part could be a wild theory but think of the facts to go along with it.

The white pale horse that Sarah has seen in the first two seasons & film could be a manifestation of Judy.
Like a sign of the Mother of All Evil is around not actually being the horse per say.

The horse appears to her when BOB through Leland was doing something awful.
BOB did come from Judy as we know so the thing that spawned BOB probably shows up also in the form of a horse when something terrible is being done by BOB.

Like that saying goes Behold A Pale White Horse from it brings!

Originally of course the horse appears when Sarah was drugged by Leland but maybe also that hows she sees it by being drugged because that frogmoth from Judy is in her..

Yeah i also know the white horse appeared in The Black Lodge in part 2 when Dale was walking around when he was leaving.but maybe the horse can show up anywhere it pleases..

Then as has been well pointed out in part 18 theres horse shoe shapes seen for that matter one around Carrie Pages/Laura Plamers neck.then an actually horse above her fireplace with the blue plate behind it.

More horse sign & connectings.
Part 8 the Woodsman going into the radio station saying hes poem about horses & white of the eye.

When the same woodsman leaves the station a horse roaring out in the distance can be heard & these Woodsmen were created of course along when BOB was released into our world..

You have the Sliver Mustang Casino haa ahh.

All these things have to be connected to the same source
& meaning behind them thats for sure..

[Mr. Reindeer]

Yes, Episode 29! I mentioned that in posts after Part 14, but somehow totally forgot it when making this thread! We've speculated for years who is talking through her: MfAP? Earle? Is it possible that's our first glimpse of Judy?

This is probably grist for a separate thread, but as OP I reserve the right to go off-topic in my own thread. Is this when Briggs first encounters Judy? Gordon says in Part 17 that he, Garland and Coop had a plan re: Judy, which doesn't feel super consistent with the original series to me. But we know DoppelCoop visited Garland post-Episode 29 and told him some stuff that caused Garland to flee to his station where he (kinda) died. Is it possible Garland became aware of Judy through Sarah and contacted Gordon, and DoppelCoop then learned of this through his conversation with Briggs and manipulated the situation to his advantage, contacting Gordon and proposing a plan that would serve his own interests? Gordon does indicate in Part 17 that he's no longer sure about the plan.

[Terence]

But lot of things have basically being retconned from the first 2 seasons & the film going into the new season..

I reckon there is alot of new things taking on new meaning that was not meant years ago.

Like this whole plot with Cole, Cooper & Briggs tracking down this Judy/extreme negative force that was hardly meant to be happening in the 2nd season?..
Or maybe they could be doing this Judy search well before Dale Cooper came to Twin Peaks.


Or this stuff with Sarah herself being taking over by Judy that would hardly have happened if the 3rd sesson was made in 1992..
Or maybe of course many things could have happened much the same way if season 3 was made in the 90s.

Then again every & all storys from any medium do bring new ideas going forward & were not meant to be that way at first especially with TV shows that have many seasons made years later from when it started..

But with the return of Twin Peaks alot of retconning had to be done seeing as it was trying to continue a story 25 years 1/4 century later..

But luckly & amazingly for Twin Peaks alot of these changes turned out to be great ideas for whatever had to be changed with it being actor deaths or other things changed with the story.

[Terence]

Yes, Episode 29! I mentioned that in posts after Part 14, but somehow totally forgot it when making this thread! We've speculated for years who is talking through her: MfAP? Earle? Is it possible that's our first glimpse of Judy?

This is probably grist for a separate thread, but as OP I reserve the right to go off-topic in my own thread. Is this when Briggs first encounters Judy? Gordon says in Part 17 that he, Garland and Coop had a plan re: Judy, which doesn't feel super consistent with the original series to me. But we know DoppelCoop visited Garland post-Episode 29 and told him some stuff that caused Garland to flee to his station where he (kinda) died. Is it possible Garland became aware of Judy through Sarah and contacted Gordon, and DoppelCoop then learned of this through his conversation with Briggs and manipulated the situation to his advantage, contacting Gordon and proposing a plan that would serve his own interests? Gordon does indicate in Part 17 that he's no longer sure about the plan.

Wow yeah thats actually cool & interesting to think, it could have being actually DoppelCoop after talking to Briggs then contacts Gordon about the plan to seek out this Judy thing.That Gordan was talking about in part 17

Only thing is DoppleCoop would not be able to talk to Gordon in person about this matter because Gordon would know it was not the real Dale Cooper for sure like he did in the prison.

Also DoppleCoop could in no way though known this Judy was in Sarah Palmer because if he did wouldn't he have gone to Sarahs house years ago?

[powerleftist]

People are claiming that Sarah ate the frog-insect and at the same time they are claiming that she is Judy. Pick one, both are incompatible.

[N. Needleman]

No, they're not. Sarah was never Judy. But Judy may have infected Sarah as a child, and gestated for decades. Sarah is a host.

[powerleftist]

No, they're not. Sarah was never Judy. But Judy may have infected Sarah as a child, and gestated for decades. Sarah is a host.

Experiment spitted many eggs. There was nothing special about that particular one.

From Frost's book, there is no indication that Sarah has ever lived in New Mexico. Besides, that latin (?) girl does not look like Sarah at all.

My theory on Sarah has always been that she had gone through so much suffering though her life that eventually she turned into a monster, by herself. The last shot of her smashing Laura's portrait invalidated my theory, though.

[N. Needleman]

No, they're not. Sarah was never Judy. But Judy may have infected Sarah as a child, and gestated for decades. Sarah is a host.

Experiment spitted many eggs. There was nothing special about that particular one.

Did you see another insect? I didn't. How did we know?

From Frost's book, there is no indication that Sarah has ever lived in New Mexico.

Frost's book has many inaccuracies.

Besides, that latin (?) girl does not look like Sarah at all.

She wasn't Latin.

I think she's the host, you don't. YMMV.

[Panapaok]

Not sure if the girl with the frogmoth is Sarah because I don't think that Sarah always had 'Judy' inside her. Remember, she said "something happened to me" to the check-out girl at the grocery store. I think that after Judy went through the glass box and materialised in our world, she started parasiting Sarah, hence she started watching incredibly violent animal documentaries (Judy has been established as bloodthirsty).

[Soolsma]

I consider the Jumping Man to be one of Judy's most important agents and that he's fulfilling her will by inhabiting Sarah. The one frame of Sarah's face when we first see that very distorted shot of the Jumping Man and the Frog Moth also having a pointy nose has pretty much assured me of that. It was surely a very deliberate and specific hint left by Lynch, very late in the process. What struck me was the similarity between how the Arm's doppelganger smashed Cooper down in to non-existence, and the way Sarah smashed Laura's painting, seemingly also pushing her out of (regular) existence.

[Mr. Reindeer]

From Frost's book, there is no indication that Sarah has ever lived in New Mexico.

Frost's book has many inaccuracies.

Also, as far as I can recall, it doesn't say she's NOT from New Mexico. The fact that the book doesn't explicitly state this isn't an argument against it being true.

Besides, that latin (?) girl does not look like Sarah at all.

She wasn't Latin.

Yeh, the actress's name is Tikaeni Faircrest. Not to stereotype, but that doesn't sound like a Hispanic/latino name, nor does the actress have that appearance. The poster may be conflating her with the male actor in those scenes, who is Cuban/Mexican/Ecuadoran.

Not sure if the girl with the frogmoth is Sarah because I don't think that Sarah always had 'Judy' inside her. Remember, she said "something happened to me" to the check-out girl at the grocery store. I think that after Judy went through the glass box and materialised in our world, she started parasiting Sarah, hence she started watching incredibly violent animal documentaries (Judy has been established as bloodthirsty).

True, but "something happened to me" doesn't indicate a timeframe. At its simplest face value, I took it to mean "my husband raped and murdered my daughter."

[Soolsma]

Frog Moth could also have left the New Mexico girl and headed for Sarah later. Maybe Sarah saying ''men are coming'' was indeed referring to the Woodsman, who then once more aided in the Frog Moth inhabiting a human being. Maybe the Sarah we saw freaking out in the store was just her old visionary self, sensing something bad is about to happen. What we see afterwards when she's talking to Hawk could be when the damage is already done, while the Woodsmen are still inside her kitchen.