Please Help With a Long List of Questions About Twin Peaks

[Sooner Salesman]

I just finished watching “Twin Peaks” on Netflix, and I have a LOT of questions. I haven’t seen “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” yet. Please forgive me if any of these are stupid questions.

1. How exactly was Laura killed i.e. stabbed, strangled, beaten, etc?
2. Was Sarah Palmer psychic? (She saw a vision of Bob in an early episode)
3. How did Laura’s half of the necklace end up with Dr. Jacoby?
4. What was Agent Cooper’s dream sequence, where he’s visibly aged, with Laura and the short man supposed to mean?
5. Was there any significance to everyone liking coffee, donuts and pie?
6. Leo and Benjamin Horne were in together drug trafficking back and forth across the Canadian border, correct?
7. Why did Nadine try to kill herself?
8. Why was Hank in prison and what was the significance of his domino?
9. What did Leland Palmer’s hair turn white?
10. Was it ever known who the father of Lucy’s baby was?
11. Did Nicholas really kill his parents, if not, what was the significance of his character?
12. Explain the scene where Nadine woke up from her overdose.
13. How was Dr. Jacoby able to see the event of Jacque being suffocated when he was hypnotized if he wasn’t there when it happened?
14. Why couldn’t Harold go outside?
15. Explain the old woman and her grandson that Donna brought the meals on wheels to.
16. Why did Jean kill Blackie?
17. Explain the relationship between BOB and MIKE.
18. What happened to Audrey’s mother?
19. Why did BOB leave letters underneath the fingernails of his victims?
20. Where did Garland go when he was camping with Cooper and how/why?
21. What were the symbols on Garland and Margaret?
22. Why were people’s hands shaking in the episode toward the end?
23. Who was Sarah Palmer channeling from the Black Lodge when she was in the diner?
24. Why was Annie in a convent?
25. Did Leland die from hitting his head on the door of the interrogation room?
26. In one of the later episodes, there’s a scene where Bob is stepping out of space into the woods, what was happening there?
27. What was the significance of the oil?
28. Did Leo really want to help Shelly when Windom Earl said he was going to kill the winner of the Miss Twin Peaks contest?
29. What does “Fire Walk With Me” actually mean?

I’d appreciate any help with this questions about such a great show. Thanks!

[Jasper]

Watch the series again and this time pay more attention to the details. You'll be able to answer the bulk of these questions. I know it's difficult to catch everything the first time through with so much happening, but having a huge list of questions like this answered by others isn't really experiencing the show.

[Sooner Salesman]

Watch the series again and this time pay more attention to the details. You'll be able to answer the bulk of these questions. I know it's difficult to catch everything the first time through with so much happening, but having a huge list of questions like this answered by others isn't really experiencing the show.

I really don't want to re-watch the entire series. I'd appreciate if you could answer as many questions as you could.

[birchy]

For me one of the many magical aspects about Twin Peaks is that it is a show that relishes questions. And, like the saying goes, sometimes the questions are more important (and far more satisfying) than the answers. There's another saying too: Room to Dream. Sometimes, just sometimes, not having the answer allows a person the room to dream. Isn't that fun?

When I first saw the show I also had a laundry list of obsessive questions. Then I watched the show again. And then I forced everyone within a mile radius to watch the show. Seriously, I was the needy kid with the 50-cup capacity percolator in the trunk for impromptu TP marathons. I lugged around that VHS box set in my backpack, not leaving room for the required textbooks. But TP was my text, man!

I have to admit that your list of (29!) questions reads like a Twin Peaks Quiz for school. It gave me flashbacks. Ugh. Flashbacks that I had no desire to have. Is the show being taught in high school now? Maybe you can recreate the Red Room for extra credit. That'd be fun.

But, really, what the hell did happen to Audrey's mother? Where she'd go for vast swathes of episodes? And what happened to Audrey's brother? Where'd he go? Who really is Donna's daddy? What about Jacoby's wife? Where is she?

[thefifthlizard]

Agree about looking for detail but there are a few here i'll try to answer.

3. How did Laura’s half of the necklace end up with Dr. Jacoby?

At the end of the pilot, James and Donna bury the necklace in the gravel in the woods. Someone else is shown retrieving it. It is revealed in the following episodes that Jacoby followed them and dug it up.

6. Leo and Benjamin Horne were in together drug trafficking back and forth across the Canadian border, correct?

Leo and the Renault's were. I can't remember if Ben was involved in that but they were all associated with the mill plot.

8. Why was Hank in prison

IIRC he ran over someone, allowing himself to be convicted, therefore evading suspicion of his role in Andrew Packards supposed death (or something like that).

9. What did Leland Palmer’s hair turn white?

Not entirely sure but it may be significant that it occured after he killed Jacques Renault. It is probably connected to BOB.

10. Was it ever known who the father of Lucy’s baby was?

She deduces it as Andy in the second last episode.

14. Why couldn’t Harold go outside?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/agoraphobia

25. Did Leland die from hitting his head on the door of the interrogation room?

apparantly


Many of those other questions are very subjective and open to interpretation, like many things on Twin Peaks.

[Sooner Salesman]

Agree about looking for detail but there are a few here i'll try to answer.

3. How did Laura’s half of the necklace end up with Dr. Jacoby?

At the end of the pilot, James and Donna bury the necklace in the gravel in the woods. Someone else is shown retrieving it. It is revealed in the following episodes that Jacoby followed them and dug it up.

6. Leo and Benjamin Horne were in together drug trafficking back and forth across the Canadian border, correct?

Leo and the Renault's were. I can't remember if Ben was involved in that but they were all associated with the mill plot.

8. Why was Hank in prison

IIRC he ran over someone, allowing himself to be convicted, therefore evading suspicion of his role in Andrew Packards supposed death (or something like that).

9. What did Leland Palmer’s hair turn white?

Not entirely sure but it may be significant that it occured after he killed Jacques Renault. It is probably connected to BOB.

10. Was it ever known who the father of Lucy’s baby was?

She deduces it as Andy in the second last episode.

14. Why couldn’t Harold go outside?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/agoraphobia

25. Did Leland die from hitting his head on the door of the interrogation room?

apparantly


Many of those other questions are very subjective and open to interpretation, like many things on Twin Peaks.

Thank you for answering those questions. As for the others, I could re-watch the show again and still not figure them out.

[eyeboogers]

1. How exactly was Laura killed i.e. stabbed, strangled, beaten, etc?
Maybe you haven't seen "Twin Peaks:Fire Walk With Me" yet? mostly stabbed i guess.

2. Was Sarah Palmer psychic? (She saw a vision of Bob in an early episode)
Yes, or rather an intuitive.

4. What was Agent Cooper’s dream sequence, where he’s visibly aged, with Laura and the short man supposed to mean?
Watch season 3.

5. Was there any significance to everyone liking coffee, donuts and pie?
Doesn't everyone?

7. Why did Nadine try to kill herself?
Unrequited love.

10. Was it ever known who the father of Lucy’s baby was?
It's either Andy or Dick. Lucy decided in the end that she doesn't care. This will probably be answered in season 3.

11. Did Nicholas really kill his parents, if not, what was the significance of his character?
Maybe none, but the show is not over.

13. How was Dr. Jacoby able to see the event of Jacque being suffocated when he was hypnotized if he wasn’t there when it happened?
He was there, in the hospital after being attacked at the gazebo.

15. Explain the old woman and her grandson that Donna brought the meals on wheels to.
Again, watch the movie. They are part of the Black Lodge/White lodge crew.

17. Explain the relationship between BOB and MIKE.
Again, watch the movie. They are part of the Black Lodge/White lodge crew. Bob's physical form is that of a neighbour from where the Palmer family owned a summer residence when Leland was a child. The neighbours were named Tremond(or was it Chalfont?) just like the old lady and her grandson.

18. What happened to Audrey’s mother?
Nothing happened to her, you see her in the final episode.

19. Why did BOB leave letters underneath the fingernails of his victims?
He was spelling out his name. Why will be answered in season three (in the "Between Two Worlds" featurette on the blu-ray set, Laura Palmer says "There are many people here (where she is now) with no names".

20. Where did Garland go when he was camping with Cooper and how/why?
The White Lodge. We are not sure why.

21. What were the symbols on Garland and Margaret?
They have to do with the owl cave and probably the white lodge.

22. Why were people’s hands shaking in the episode toward the end?
Something (or someone) travelling through electricity and their hands are vibrating from being close to this specific type of current (watch the movie).

23. Who was Sarah Palmer channeling from the Black Lodge when she was in the diner?
I have been wondering that myself, does anyone know?

24. Why was Annie in a convent?
I think we only got half the story about that. Again this might be dealt with further in the future.

26. In one of the later episodes, there’s a scene where Bob is stepping out of space into the woods, what was happening there?
He was opening the door to the Black lodge.

28. Did Leo really want to help Shelly when Windom Earl said he was going to kill the winner of the Miss Twin Peaks contest?
Yes. He loves her in his own twisted way.

29. What does “Fire Walk With Me” actually mean?
Since parts of the series and certainly the movie are about the effects of incest, i think that partly relates to how people committing this crime were often abused themselves. I think that is what that story about Leland as a kid and the neighbor alluded to. Lynch also talked about similar subject matters in "Blue Velvet" where Dorothy Valens has that "Your decease in in my now" line. In that example it had to do with something about sex mixed with violence but I think that's another example of Fire Walking, of joining up with a practice that leads to destruction and the death of innocence. Remember BoB is a possessing spirit, something that hollows out the host and takes control. Just like people who have been exposed to great horrors and lose themselves. Fire Walk With me is an invitation to go down that path, it seems Leland somehow was too weak and agreed and Laura was strong and stayed herself (but only in dying). That's why there is an angel for her in the red room and Leland has to stay there.

[Ygdrasel]

> Explain the relationship between BOB and MIKE.


That is explained at multiple points in both film AND series. I think you really must need to rewatch...

[Ross]

I just finished watching “Twin Peaks” on Netflix, and I have a LOT of questions. I haven’t seen “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” yet. Please forgive me if any of these are stupid questions. I’d appreciate any help with this questions about such a great show. Thanks!

1. How exactly was Laura killed i.e. stabbed, strangled, beaten, etc?
While in the series Albert says none of her wounds were deep enough to kill, FWWM shows she was indeed stabbed.

2. Was Sarah Palmer psychic? (She saw a vision of Bob in an early episode)
Yes, she was "gifted".

3. How did Laura’s half of the necklace end up with Dr. Jacoby?
Jacoby had James' half, not Laura's- he followed James and Donna in the woods and dug it up (Mr's Palmer sees a glimpse of this).
There is a continuity mistake with the necklace though. When we first see that Jacoby had it, it has Laura's chain on it, which later switches back to James' cord (as it should be).

4. What was Agent Cooper’s dream sequence, where he’s visibly aged, with Laura and the short man supposed to mean?
This you must interpret for yourself. But many clues were spelled out by Cooper, Laura whispers the Killer's name, and finally, Cooper enters his dream world physically in the final episode. And hints that he will stay for 25 years.

5. Was there any significance to everyone liking coffee, donuts and pie?
Part of the show's charm.

6. Leo and Benjamin Horne were in together drug trafficking back and forth across the Canadian border, correct?
Leo and the Renault bros were. Ben had dealings with Leo (the mill fire) as well, so he was most likely involved somewhat as well.

7. Why did Nadine try to kill herself?
Mentally unstable. And her drape runner patent was rejected.

8. Why was Hank in prison and what was the significance of his domino?
He hit/ran over someone to (somehow) shift suspicion off himself for Andrew's murder (a boat "accident", in which Andrew didn't actually die)

9. What did Leland Palmer’s hair turn white?
Somehow connected to his possession.

10. Was it ever known who the father of Lucy’s baby was?
Biologically, no (not yet). Although Lucy does choose Andy as the man to help raise it.

11. Did Nicholas really kill his parents, if not, what was the significance of his character?
Most fans would say it has no significance whatsoever. It was there for Andy & Dick to explore fatherhood responsibilities. And proved how self-absorbed they both were.

12. Explain the scene where Nadine woke up from her overdose.
Jacoby & Doc Hayward explain her strength as increased adrenaline. Plus she believes she is 18 again.

13. How was Dr. Jacoby able to see the event of Jacque being suffocated when he was hypnotized if he wasn’t there when it happened?
Jacoby WAS there in the hospital when Leland killed Jacques.

14. Why couldn’t Harold go outside?
Agoraphobia.

15. Explain the old woman and her grandson that Donna brought the meals on wheels to.
They are Lodge denizens. We see them again in FWWM.

16. Why did Jean kill Blackie?
He wanted full control of One-Eyed Jacks. Plus he was in love with her sister Nancy.

17. Explain the relationship between BOB and MIKE.
They killed together. Later Mike decided he wanted to stop Bob.

18. What happened to Audrey’s mother?
Nothing- she is there in the final episode. The writers were obviously not that interested in exploring her. We must assume she was around and not seen.

19. Why did BOB leave letters underneath the fingernails of his victims?
The signature on a demon self portrait.

20. Where did Garland go when he was camping with Cooper and how/why?
The White Lodge most likely. As to why...

21. What were the symbols on Garland and Margaret?
Connected to the Lodges.

22. Why were people’s hands shaking in the episode toward the end?
Most likely because the Lodge doors were open.

23. Who was Sarah Palmer channeling from the Black Lodge when she was in the diner?
Not 100% sure on this, could be Windom Earle.

24. Why was Annie in a convent?
In high-school she had an bad incident with a boy, leading her to try to commit suicide. After that she probably found religion as a way to save herself. And to find a safe place for herself in the world.

25. Did Leland die from hitting his head on the door of the interrogation room?
Yes. Whether this was all Leland, or Bob is the question.

26. In one of the later episodes, there’s a scene where Bob is stepping out of space into the woods, what was happening there?
Opening the door to the Lodge.

27. What was the significance of the oil?
It is connected to the Lodges, and is in the circle in Glastonberry Grove. Burnt oil can be smelled many times when Lodge denizens are near.

28. Did Leo really want to help Shelly when Windom Earl said he was going to kill the winner of the Miss Twin Peaks contest?
I believe so. A connection to his old (pre-captive) life.

29. What does “Fire Walk With Me” actually mean?
Most likely the Lodge spirits walking in our world.

[StealThisCorn]

I think what is most amusing about this list is how different some of the answers to the same questions are from different users on this very board. It also seemed like there were some assumptions/theories being presented as fact but maybe that's just everyone giving their individual take on some points?

What this shows, however, is that some of these questions are really open to interpretation. Maybe in Season 3 Lynch/Frost will drop further hints but even then it will probably still be murky because that's how Lynch likes to present things. So really you should give it some time and rewatch everything again and see what more you get out of it.

As to how Laura was killed though, remember that in Episode 1, Dr. Hayward says what killed Laura was "loss of blood". Numerous shallow wounds, none instantly fatal like a main artery. This is more or less confirmed by all later scenes of Laura's murder, such as in the film. The film understandably truncates this experience to a series of frightening flashes of Leland bringing the knife down and Laura gushing blood. But presumably Leland/BOB tortured her with a knife to break her down and she simply expired eventually from losing so much blood.