Twin Peaks S01E04: Rest in Pain

“Break the code, solve the crime.”

After taking his sweet time to get to it, Agent Cooper describes his dream to Sheriff Truman: the midget and Laura in the red room, one-armed Mike and killer Bob. And while it seemed clear that Bob admitted to the killing (or at least a killing) in the dream, Cooper says that Laura whispered her killer's name in his ear...but he forgot it. Was the name different from Bob?



Cooper does not seem to treat Mike and Bob (not to confused with Mike and Bobby, though I can't believe their naming is a total coincidence or a one-off joke by the writers) as completely literal figures. Whatever they are, they have direct ties to Laura's murder. I found the story of Mike cutting off his own arm to stop killing very intriguing – as though he is driven by forces and impulses well beyond his control.



“Invitation to Love”

The romantic moment Cooper shared with Laura in his dream seems to be crossing over into real life. Not in a creepy sort of way, but there is definitely an added layer of compassion and personal investment growing on his part, as seen in the morgue scene. I felt like I had seen a similar plot-line before, of an investigator falling for the victim who's death he is trying to solve.



While I never did figure out what sparked that connection, I did come upon an interesting parallel: a 1944 movie called Laura. IMDB synopsis:

Detective Mark McPherson investigates the killing of Laura, found dead on her apartment floor before the movie starts. McPherson builds a mental picture of the dead girl from the suspects whom he interviews. He is helped by the striking painting of the late lamented Laura hanging on her apartment wall. But who would have wanted to kill a girl with whom every man she met seemed to fall in love? To make matters worse, McPherson finds himself falling under her spell too. Then one night, halfway through his investigations, something seriously bizarre happens to make him re-think the whole case.

Weird! It's like something out of a David Lynch film.

Come at me, bro.

"You know who killed Laura Palmer? We all did.”

Bobby's anger issues and juvenile disregard for all authority make him a hard character to like. But, in this one scene at least, his shortcomings allow him to say things in front of the whole town that may hold a lot of truth – and that connect to what we have discussed in the last couple posts. He calls out all the “good” people of Twin Peaks as being hypocrites who looked away and did nothing when they all knew Laura was in trouble. To maintain the friendly and charming exterior, has the majority of Twin Peaks been willfully ignoring a darker reality?

This is in fact confirmed a couple scenes later, as Sherrif Truman reveals there is a “presence” haunting the woods around them, something they have faced for generations. “A price we pay for all the good things.” And, it would seem, only a small group of Bookhouse Boyz are privy to this information, tasking themselves with protecting the town...

Play us off, Log Lady: