What is the general take on 'Who killed Teresa'?

[Snailhead]

Watching Episode 18 at the mo. The Twin Peaks Post headline states 'LELAND PALMER LAID TO REST' with a subheading of 'Town Mourns.' Other than the headline, the story is given equal space next to 'Milford Marries A 5th Time.' It begins to make me wonder whether news of Leland's culpability was suppressed. Coming from the UK, I'd expect to see headlines like 'Paedophile Local Killer Buried!' with the subheading of 'Leland Palmer Laid To Rest Next To Daughter He Brutally Murdered' with sidehelpings of 'How Many People Did Local Child Molester Kill?' and 'Child Rapist Now Linked To Four Murders!' and, to cap things off, 'HE Killed Laura Palmer!'

Instead, the whole town seems to have developed collective amnesia!

This is something I hope is addressed in the new series. There is so much potential for the characters to reflect, 25 years later, on this peculiar collective amnesia, as you describe it.

[Gabriel]

This is something I hope is addressed in the new series. There is so much potential for the characters to reflect, 25 years later, on this peculiar collective amnesia, as you describe it.

Given the repetitions of scenes, such as that with Heidi in the final episode, I have wonder whether some kind of strange 'reset' started to affect the town while Coop was in the Black Lodge. At this rate, I wonder whether Laura's death was about to be undone. Sheryl Lee mentions in the inlay for my season one DVD box set that she was supposed to be returning as a redhead in season three.

I remember reading about one of the Peyton Place films somewhere (Twin Peaks riffed heavily on the Peyton Place films and TV shows and characters – it was openly discussed as a new Peyton Place in the UK prior to release) that had a character who was the spitting image of a dead character walking into town. I have to say, if the original Twin Peaks season three had jumped ten years into the future, as had apparently been discussed, and it had opened with a beaten, amnesiac character played by Sheryl Lee staggering across the bridge the same way Ronette did, it would have been a great season opening after the film had been released between seasons.

[claaa7]

This is something I hope is addressed in the new series. There is so much potential for the characters to reflect, 25 years later, on this peculiar collective amnesia, as you describe it.

Given the repetitions of scenes, such as that with Heidi in the final episode, I have wonder whether some kind of strange 'reset' started to affect the town while Coop was in the Black Lodge. At this rate, I wonder whether Laura's death was about to be undone. Sheryl Lee mentions in the inlay for my season one DVD box set that she was supposed to be returning as a redhead in season three.

I remember reading about one of the Peyton Place films somewhere (Twin Peaks riffed heavily on the Peyton Place films and TV shows and characters – it was openly discussed as a new Peyton Place in the UK prior to release) that had a character who was the spitting image of a dead character walking into town. I have to say, if the original Twin Peaks season three had jumped ten years into the future, as had apparently been discussed, and it had opened with a beaten, amnesiac character played by Sheryl Lee staggering across the bridge the same way Ronette did, it would have been a great season opening after the film had been released between seasons.

but at the same time it's kind of risky to never actually let characters die on your show, it can take away a lot of suspense... i know Buffy and Angel did that over and over again, main character dies, they find a magic way to get character back to life. suspense = zero

[Gabriel]

but at the same time it's kind of risky to never actually let characters die on your show, it can take away a lot of suspense... i know Buffy and Angel did that over and over again, main character dies, they find a magic way to get character back to life. suspense = zero

It's not something I'd choose to do. Having had both family and friends die (two friends in the space of 17 days last summer) I know the gut punch it delivers and the older I get, the more I dislike deaths of characters being reversed. That said, another character played by the lovely Sheryl Lee wouldn't go amiss and the alien/spirit world seen in Twin Peaks is some kind of other realm in its own right!

At least Buffy and Angel never resurrected Joyce – although not that many characters were resurrected really. Joyce was the one character who truly grounded the series and her death was real in a way that would have destroyed the show. Buffy's return was at a terrible cost to her and Willow and, indeed, neither really entirely recovered. In fact, particularly in Angel, most of the characters stayed dead.

[underthefan]

I totally agree about how lame these TV character resurrections are and how they lower the stakes for the shows. Case in point, Game of Thrones. (SPOILER ALERT!) I was really affected by Jon Snow's death and found it really moving. And then the whole marketing machine kicked in (creators: "he's dead. he's so dead. couldn't be deader.") and all that nonsense only to resurrect the character in the most tedious, groan-inducing way imaginable that cheapened both the character and the show, and killed the stakes. I know I'm in the minority on this point, and everyone in the world loves that Jon Snow is back, but I will never look at the show with the same interest again.

[tmurry]

Coming from a comics background, I look at these resurrections in a more eternal recurrence, mythopoetic way. Death of a beloved character has real impact but some of the meaning accrues from a never ending cycle of death and rebirth as a part of an eternal pattern. I think TP supports this pretty well - the character of Laura never leaves us but haunts everything and her image keeps intruding. The "dead parent" (like Joyce or Uncle Ben or Mufasa) is better to stay dead in narrative about the development of the young protagonist, but most symbolic laden characters reach a more sublime resonance by dying and coming back. Now, cheapness of the execution and overuse of the trope is another issue, and comics especially suck at this. But killing a character for "stakes" can be just as hollow. Who cares if Coulson came back to Agents of Shield after dying in the Avengers - that was a chicle, resonance-checkbox Whedon death if ever there was one. Maybe you pass a point and you've seen it all and life and death as a manipulator of emotion and generator of suspense seams inherently cheap except in rare circumstances.

[haveimooed]

I totally agree about how lame these TV character resurrections are and how they lower the stakes for the shows. Case in point, Game of Thrones....

People, spoilers! Come on, can't you at least warn that GoT spoilers are following.

[underthefan]

I totally agree about how lame these TV character resurrections are and how they lower the stakes for the shows. Case in point, Game of Thrones. I was really affected by Jon Snow's death and found it really moving. And then the whole marketing machine kicked in (creators: "he's dead. he's so dead. couldn't be deader.") and all that nonsense only to resurrect the character in the most tedious, groan-inducing way imaginable that cheapened both the character and the show, and killed the stakes. I know I'm in the minority on this point, and everyone in the world loves that Jon Snow is back, but I will never look at the show with the same interest again.

People, spoilers! Come on, can't you at least warn that GoT spoilers are following.

Oops, my bad! I just assumed people already know about it since it's been a year ago and widely publicized. I will amend my previous post to include a warning.

[rkrammes]

Let me apologize in advance. I just signed up and it appears the conversation has moved on from the original topic.

My take on Bob is that when he "possesses" people he is performing a version of the function of the Black Lodge which is to expose the shadow self of the individual. Inside the Black Lodge we see that Leland's shadow self and Bob are separate individuals but act similarly. I think his primary job is to collect pain and suffering to feed those that live within the Black Lodge. We also see him perform a secondary job which is calling Cooper to the Black Lodge on his quest for perfection. The wrinkle I see in this theory is that it seems Bob is in a bit of trouble with the others in the Black Lodge. I believe he is not supposed to kill but I don't know how he would be responsible for that if it was only the shadow selves of his vessels that are doing the killing. Other than that, it would explain how indeed It was Leland that did all those terrible things but at full capacity he never would have acted on those impulses.


Maybe I'm way off or since I haven't read through this forum yet I could just be stating what is obvious I don't know.