Before You Watch
Consider the title because it will come up in the show with a context you may be unaware of—just before she died, Laura Palmer met a shut-in named Harold Smith in the course of her charity work, delivering Meals-On-Wheels to people who can’t get out of their house for whatever reasons. She left him her diary before she died. There are two missing pages…
Pay attention to Leo’s catatonic state in his episode.
Audrey will confront her father about his low-down, dirty ways. Come back. Let’s discuss.
Pay attention to the drama in the RR Diner scene where Ed Hurley brings his wife, Nadine Hurley (the one with the eye patch), into the diner to meet the woman he’s been in love with since high school, Norma Jennings.
Something big happens in this episode. Let’s see if you can spot it. Hint: It takes place when one character says, “It is happening again.”
All James wants is love. Has he found it?
Note when the music goes away in this episode. How does it make you feel? How is the absence of music related to what is happening on screen? `
Watch how Cooper reaches for his ring finger after the killer is revealed to the viewer. His hands cover his heart almost as if gesturing for protection.
After You Watch
On Harold: Harold and Laura developed a passionate love for one another that was likely not physical, though filled with no lesser fire than sweaty sex. There are intimacies beyond the flesh in this world, and Laura Palmer and Harold Smith congressed passion together on a deeper level than their sexual organs.
Laura Palmer loved and trusted this damaged man so much that she bestowed her diary upon his charge because she knew he would protect it to the end of his life. Unfortunately, that end came at the end of a rope when Harold Smith hung himself, passing the possession of Laura Palmer’s Diary into the hands of the Twin Peaks Sherriff’s Department under the command of the Special Agent in charge and his boss, a Deputy Director in the FBI.
EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENT: READ LAURA PALMER’S DIARY!
Here is a link to purchase this is Audible. Also, check your local library and get the audio version. It’s narrated by Sheryl Lee, who played Laura Palmer and created this character from this book. This diary was published during the interim between the first and second seasons of Twin Peaks and was written by David Lynch’s daughter, Jennifer Lynch (a young person herself when she wrote it). To truly understand the suffering of Laura Palmer, you need the information and experience in this book. It will help you understand what happens as we advance into a complex but powerful and hilarious narrative of experiencing a man’s mind and moral compass falling off a cliff.
On Leo: Some soap opera shit put him in this position where Bobby and Shelley are caring for Leo, who has become a vegetable in need of constant care. Remember this catatonic state because it won’t be the last time we encounter it, but the next time, we’ll be inside the head of the person experiencing it. It’ll blow your fucking mind if you can ride this journey out with me.
On Audrey and Her Gross Daddy: Ben Horne is a fucker. And he’s a dirty fucker. This man is absolutely a forebearer of today’s modern grifting elite. He puts the pedo in dirty pedo. Ben and his brother are into some dark and dastardly shit, including child prostitution and money laundering. Their relationship with the Reneau family puts them complicit with all kinds of heinous shit, including murder. Needless to say, this is a turning point in their relationship. It will have some emotional bearing on the “people” we meet again in The Return.
We discover that Ben Horne slept with underage Laura Palmer. He admits this to his daughter, laying himself bare and morally naked before her judgment. She seems to take a kind of mercy on him, though one filled with shame and judgment. About Laura, he tells Audrey, “I loved her,” while he is visibly moved with shame and sorrow.1
On Norma, Ed, and Nadine: This is a decades-old love triangle with many hurt feelings, shame, deep love, and affection. You can feel the drama pulling from every angle. This is real pain and trauma here. It’d be nice if something happened to heal all this hurt someday.
If You Want to Ride? Ride The White Horse: What is its significance? You’ll see it again, so you need to understand how you feel about it. Where does it fit in what you think and feel about Twin Peaks?
Ummm, What Is Happening Again? We may think the Giant is talking about another murder happening again. Still, I believe he is referring to a new cycle of infection, where BOB leaves his current host to find another to infect. Much of what happens after it’s revealed that Leland Palmer raped and murdered his daughter is about BOB deciding who he will infect next. If you’re asking, “What is BOB?” I can offer my opinion. That’s all it is. Okay, buckle up.
The metaphysical entity BOB and a cast of other psychic demons and angels operate in the realm of psychic energy before it converts to the energy of matter and the natural universe. This realm is closely related to the fugue states between being asleep, awake, and dreaming. These beings exert massive influence on any host they infest.
TRIGGER WARNING: Don’t Read this bullet if You Have Sensitivities to Sexual Assault - The latest host of this demon BOB was Leland Palmer, who is just about spent up. He had one murder left in him (his niece, who looks a lot like Laura Palmer except her arms bend back), and that human vessel of Leland Palmer is used up for good. The next human vessel was supposed to be Laura Palmer because she was so beautiful and perfect on the surface. She could manipulate those around her with a mastery few ever accomplish in life, would have been a holy terror on Earth, an Anti-Christ capable of breathing in sorrow and meting out suffering like trees breathe in CO2 and exhale Oxygen in a jungle. Instead, Laura possibly allowed her life to be consumed by her own father’s inability to stop at just raping her since she was a child. The demon BOB laughs while he rapes.2
What do you think BOB represents?
Cooper Will Be Chosen As Bob’s Next Victim: I’d rather you know it now so you can know the darkness we are headed into. As if to confirm the affliction, the kindly old waiter comes over to offer Cooper his (and, by witnessing the exchange, our) condolences.
Next class, the aftermath of Leland Palmer’s Dirty Life and Crimes…
Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
Ben’s statement about how much he loved Laura (despite sexually assaulting her as a minor) is a metaphor for how the Baby Boomers treated the natural world. “I loved her but I had to have all of her.” It's a brutal accusation, but one I unfortunately find morally true.
Can you believe this was aired on network television just after Prime Time!?
[Podcast] Week 4: 'Twin Peaks Movie Club on Substack