Fire Walk With Me: The Dark Heart of Twin Peaks
It's a place both wonderful and strange, but also of great tragedy.
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Twin Peaks is a TV show famous for many things; Special Agent Cooper and his love of black coffee and cherry pie, eccentric towns people including a lady who carries and communicates with a wooden log, a love of visual non sequiturs and jazz, and being a melding of almost every popular drama genre and it's conventions. Possibly it's most discussed features are its supernatural elements, most frightfully embodied by the demonic entity Killer BOB. Said to be from a alternate dimension of evil known as The Black Lodge, BOB possesses human souls and inhabits their bodies to commit acts of rape and murder, seemingly feeding off the pain, fear and sorrow he creates. It's said that BOB has possessed local lawyer Leland Palmer, and while under his control, had Leland commit the multiple acts of murder; in one scene BOB takes full control, even speaking as himself through Leland. This is backed up by MIKE, another spirit who possesses travelling shoe salesman Philip Gerard, who seems to confirm their status as demons that inhabit people. While the presentation of these elements is visually surreal and oblique, and multiple spiritual and logical suppositions are discussed within the show, the commonly accepted interpretation of BOB is a literal one; he may not be from our plane of existence, but he does exist.
But there is another more metaphorical interpretation of BOB, subtly suggested in the series and more thoroughly explored the film Fire Walk With Me, that he represents the 'demon' inside of sexual abusers, and the horror its affect has on victims and abusers. In his dying moments, Leland Palmer becomes briefly lucid, free of BOB's possession, and speaks of their history. Leland says BOB was his neighbour during his childhood holidays, who threatened and intimidated him, who 'entered his dreams' and 'came inside him'. The implication seems that BOB sexually abused Leland and the psychological damage created an emotional 'demon' inside of him, leading to the horrors inflicted on Laura. It's a harsher reality than the given supernatural take, barely referenced beyond Agent Cooper's “is it easier to believe a man sexually abused and then murdered his own daughter?” comment, and undoubtedly one network TV would have been uneasy about addressing too directly.
It may also be the part of the reason David Lynch's movie prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, was poorly received by fans and critics. Without the restraints on content imposed by TV networks, Lynch was able to paint a bleak portrait of the final days of Laura Palmer, as years of trauma drive her to self destruct, and the extent of her abuse suffered, only vaguely hinted at previously, is laid bare in visceral fashion. People expecting the same quirky, playful tone of the show must have been shocked by hopeless, despairing portrayal of suburban America, all safety ripped from the domestic environment and replaced with a palpable sense of dread. The deeper Laura sinks in her descent, the closer the supernatural entities seep into her life, her demons literally and metaphorically catching up to her, and before long reality is difficult to separate from her nightmares; they become one and the same. The imagery becomes more unpleasant and grotesque, and the implications of it unnerving; occasional flashes of a monkeys face during the Black Lodge scenes suggesting a primal evil, one that has the potential to exist in us all. Given what that evil has driven Leland to do, it's no wonder viewers and critics were so perturbed.
It almost feels like Lynch is laughing at those same people too; the movie begins with a sledgehammer pulverising a TV set (an unsubtle allegory of what's to come) before introducing the town of Deer Meadow, the cruel mirror image of Twin Peaks. Where the police were friendly and helpful, Deer Meadow's are petty and obstructive; where 'Peaks townsfolk seemed kind hearted, optimistic and possessed age-defying beauty, Deer Meadow's inhabitants are depressive, dispondant and physically haggered. Lynch's works show a fascination with exposing the dark parallel lines that run beneath the surface, and Fire Walk With Me is this for Twin Peaks; it arguable whether Peaks' as a place actually needed this, or whether the audience would want to see it, but its the process Lynch took to show just what lies at the heart of Laura Palmer's story. And while it may have sank the franchise for 25 years (it was a box office bomb and the critical response devastated Lynch), Fire Walk With Me remains an essential part of Twin Peaks' make-up, the heart of darkness that represents its emotional core.
About the Creator
James Giles
Writer, confessed geek and pop culture enthusiast, loves film, TV and video games. Blogged and written for various websites on all the above.
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