FAQ for
"Twin Peaks" (1990) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

The film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was released in 1992, a year after the series was cancelled. David Lynch was not ready to leave the town and its inhabitants behind, and came up with the idea of a movie prequel detailing the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer.

Although the fim is set almost entirely before the series, it is, however, meant to be viewed afterwards. The film assumes the viewer already knows who killed Laura Palmer, and about the existence and nature of the Black Lodge and its inhabitants. There is also clarification and expansion on the fate of Dale Cooper at the end of the series.

One of the most famous questions in television history was officially answered in the second season episode "Arbitrary Law." It was revealed that Laura's father Leland Palmer murdered her while possessed by a malefic being known as Killer BOB.The murder is the subject of the prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Whether BOB is an independent entity or a sentient manifestation of human evil (as speculated by Albert Rosenfield) is the topic of one of the show's lasting fan debates.

According to David Lynch, BOB, the disembodied spirit who is ultimately responsible for Laura Palmer's death, was not always intended to be in the show. Originally it was supposed to be Leland Palmer who was the murderer. The idea of BOB came about by accident. Frank Silva, who was working as a set dresser on the pilot was moving some furniture in Laura Palmer's bedroom and had moved a chest of drawers in front of the door. Someone jokingly warned him not to get stuck in the room and Lynch, who was standing nearby working on something else, had a vision of Silva locked in Laura Palmer's room. After finding out that Silva was also an actor, he decided to cast him in an as yet undetermined role in the show. On a whim Lynch filmed a panning shot of Laura's room with Silva hiding behind the bars of the foot of the bed. At this point he still did not know how he was going to use it. Later that day they were filming the scene where Laura's mother has a terrifying vision. They shot a shot where Mrs Palmer sits up bolt upright, terrified by what she's seen. Lynch was pleased by the performance but was informed by the director of photography that the shot was unusable because a crew member had been caught in the reflection in a mirror behind Mrs Palmer. When Lynch learned that the crew member was Frank Silva he was pleased and the idea of BOB as a malevolent spirit came about.

Also knowns as "MFAP", this is the name given to the red-suited dwarf who appears in the Black Lodge. Fans have also designated him as "The Little Man From Another Place." Although his backstory is never addressed within the series, the script for Fire Walk with Me indicates that he is the true form of MIKE, BOB's nemesis and the spirit inhabitating Philip Gerard, the one-armed-man. Indeed, during the film the character refers to himself as "the arm," presumably in reference to the arm that Gerard cut off, and in one scene stands next to Gerard where his amputated arm would have been.

Though MIKE'S inhabited vehicle, Gerard is seen identifying himself as BOB's nemesis. He may be able to do this as a result of cutting off his arm, therefore being able to supress or resist possession by MIKE.

However, the MFAP is not portrayed as being any more "good" than BOB, and indeed they seem to work together for much of the series. The film implies that he may have wanted Laura's soul for himself, ultimately forcing BOB to turn it over after Laura's murder, but again, it is also implied that they are colluding.

Twin Peaks takes place roughly over a four week period, in February and March of 1989. The date can be determined from the date of Ronette Pulaski's admission to hospital, as seen on her bedside chart in one episode. Each episode is meant to represent one day, although there are some exceptions to this; for instance in one episode the younger characters are seen at school on what would have been a Saturday. These may be seen either as mistakes by the writers, continuity errors or just creative choices.

The answer to this Dallas-spoofing cliffhanger was a rather odd one. Cooper was shot by Josie Packard, who, it was revealed, was once the henchwoman of a South African business tycoon named Thomas Eckhardt. Under Eckhardt's influence, Josie (ostensibly) arranged the murder of her husband Andrew (it was later revealed that Andrew found out about the plot and faked his own death). Even though Cooper was in town to investigate the Palmer murder, Josie, in a state of paranoia, believed that the presence of federal law enforcement officials would result in the revelation of her criminal past, and she therefore shot Cooper. In the episode "The Condemned Woman," Cooper and Truman come to arrest Josie at the Great Northern, where they walk in on her killing Thomas Eckhardt. Josie is then apparently killed by BOB, and her soul trapped in the knob of a dresser drawer.

Theresa was another one of BOB's victims; in the pilot, Cooper tells the people of Twin Peaks that she was found in Southern Washington a year earlier with the letter "T" wedged under her fingernail. This is all the information that the audience is given about Banks in the series.

In Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, the audience learns that Theresa Banks was a prostitute and 'Fleshworld' model who sometimes worked with Laura Palmer and Ronnette Pulaski. Unknown to Laura, Theresa counted Leland Palmer, her father, amongst her clientele, Theresa's resemblance to Laura attracting him in the first place. Leland becomes aware that Laura works with Theresa when she and Ronette are brought along for a sexual encounter. Leland bows out before Laura can see him, and Theresa is able to discern from his reaction that he is related to one of the girls.

After receiving confirmation of Leland's description with her occasional pimp, Jacques Renault, Theresa attempts to blackmail Leland. Bob chooses this juncture to murder Theresa; she, like Laura Palmer, ends up wrapped in plastic and thrown in the river.

This was never explicitly revealed onscreen. However, producer Mark Frost later revealed in an interview that Dr. Jacoby's attacker was 'the same person who killed Laura Palmer.'

Therefore, it had to be Leland, while possessed by BOB. This is strongly indicated by Jacoby's reference to smelling burnt engine oil, a smell associated with the killer.

This was a "series-within-a-series"; a television soap opera that characters could be seen watching. It featured in every episode of the first season except the pilot, but only occasionally in the second. The plots and events of "Invitation To Love" could be seen to spookily parallel those occuring in Twin Peaks itself.

This is a 113-minute long alternative version of the pilot episode of the series. It contains approximately 25 minutes of additional footage that actually resolves the story of Laura's murder somewhat differently to the series, though still in typical Lynchian fashion. This version was commissioned by the show's producers ABC Television so as to be shown in European cinemas in the event that the series wasn't picked up, hence the name. This way, the production wouldn't be a loss.

Due to wrangles with Warner Home Video, who retained distribution rights, for many years this "European Pilot" was the only version available for home viewing. In fact, the broadcast version was not released on DVD in the US until 2007.

The "European Pilot" is identical to the broadcast pilot up to the point that Sheriff Truman says, "It must have happened about this time, 24 hours ago." The action then switches to Sarah Palmer, asleep in her living room, having visions of herself looking for Laura on the morning of Laura's murder. Suddenly, she sees the face of BOB looking through the rails of Laura's bed. In the series version of the pilot, this is intercut with footage of a second, different vision: a gloved hand digging up Laura's locket, at which point the episode ends. The BOB footage would later be recycled in the series when Sarah has a vision of BOB in the presence of Leland and Dr. Hayward.

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What follows is a description of the remaining events of the "European Pilot." During Episode Two of the series proper, Cooper has a dream, which actually comprises of all of the events detailed below, as well as Sarah's vision of Bob's face. The episode ends with Cooper waking up and telephoning Sheriff Truman to tell him he now knows who killed Laura. Although the dream sequence itself only utilises some of the footage - mainly the One-Armed Man, BOB in the basement, and Cooper in the red-curtained room with Laura - Cooper gives a full account of his dream at the beginning of the following episode. The reason the footage was reused, whatever the context, was simply because David Lynch liked what he shot for the ending and wanted to incorporate it into the series.

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Sarah calls Lucy at her home and tells her that she suddenly remembered that Laura's killer was in Laura's room that morning, and that she saw his face. Lucy-- who is playing paddle ball while Andy practices the trumpet--tells Sarah that she's going to contact Sheriff Truman and Deputy Hawk (here referred to as"Tommy 'the Hawk' Hill") to come draw a picture of the killer. (An interesting detail, as it is well established in the series that Deputy Andy Brennan is the Twin Peaks Police Department's resident sketch artist.)

Next, we see Cooper asleep at the Great Northern. He receives a call from the One-Armed Man, who tells Cooper to meet him at the hospital. Immediately after Cooper hangs up, he's contacted by Sheriff Truman, with news of Sarah's vision.

Cooper, Hawk, and Truman convene at the hospital, where they meet the One-Armed Man--calling himself Mike--in the autopsy room. Mike tells a story about he and BOB being a pair of serial killers, using phrases such as "lived among the people" and "the species" to indicate that he and Bob are not human. Mike then says that he saw the face of God and cut off his arm, because it bore a tattoo that was a mark of "being touched by the devilish one." The deputies then show Mike two sketches, one of BOB, one of a little bald man. Mike correctly identifies the sketch of BOB, and then says that BOB has been living in the hospital's basement.

Everyone travels down to the basement, where BOB is kneeling over a circle of burning candles arranged around a mound of dirt. (BOB's costume is different here than it was in the series--instead of a denim jacket and jeans, he wears a leather vest with no shirt on underneath and has a tattoo on his shoulder reading "FIRE WALK WITH ME.") BOB recites a poem about his "death bag," and then says, "You may think I've gone insane, but I promise you, I will kill again!" (This is the same thing he says in the interrogation room - through Leland - in Episode 16). Mike then charges into the room and shoots BOB to death. BOB dies; suddenly, Mike clutches his chest and says to BOB's corpse, "Wait until you get yours," then dies. Cooper stares at the two men's bodies and says, "Make a wish." A gust of wind comes out of nowhere and blows out BOB's candles.

The scene then cuts to the red-curtained room, with the caption "25 Years Later." Cooper, with gray hair and covered in wrinkles, is sitting across from Laura Palmer and the Man From Another Place. The Man From Another Place tells Cooper that his favorite gum is going to come back in style, and that "Laura" is actually his cousin. Cooper asks "Laura" if this is true, to which she replies that she knows she looks like Laura Palmer, "but sometimes my arms bend back." The Man From Another Place then tells Cooper that he and "Laura" are from a place where there is always music and birds singing. A strobe light turns on in the ceiling, jazz music begins to play, and the Man From Another Place begins dancing. "Laura" walks to Cooper and tells him something that the audience cannot hear. Cooper and "Laura" then watch the Man From Another Place dance; and as he dances, the credits roll.

Yes. But to remain canonical to the series proper, the viewer should stop watching immediately after the scene in which Sheriff Truman says "It must have happened about this time, 24 hours ago." This scene occurs about 90 minutes after the episode begins. The only material missing is the added footage of Sarah's other vision, of the locket being dug up by a gloved hand.

(In the 2010 DVD release, the extra scenes are on a separate title)

Yes it does, with the fates of some characters left very much in the balance:

Audrey Horne, Pete Martell and Andrew Packard are all caught in a bank explosion; Leo Johnson is left with a cage of deadly spiders suspended over his head in Windom Earle's hideout; following a revelatory confrontation, Ben Horne is violently pushed into a fireplace by Doc Hayward, receiving a head injury and falling to the floor, apparently dead or at least unconscious, and Nadine Hurley regains her memory and once again confronts Ed and Norma about their relationship.

Most alarmingly, though, the final scene sees Cooper seemingly possessed by the evil presence known as BOB. Of all of these cliffhangers, this one is at least given some closure in the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, despite this being a prequel to the series (see the film's IMDb FAQ for an explanation).

And it should also be noted that in the final scene, at the Great Northern Hotel, Cooper wakes up in bed and asks Truman where Annie is. Doc Hayward, standing on the other side of the bed, tells him she's in the hospital, and then glances at Truman and looks down, shamefaced. If Ben Horne was dead, it is very likely that the Doc would be in custody. As it is, we can guess that Ben is in the hospital as well.

Interestingly, the shooting script for the episode did not contain all of these cliffhangers. During the filming of the first season finale, Frost and Lynch, fearful that the show would not be renewed, decided to place every character in peril, so that no matter what characters a fan happened to like, they would have a vested interest in seeing the series renewed. Facing another cancellation, Lynch decided to replicate this formula, and at the last minute made the fates of some characters ambiguous so as to give the episode additional cliffhangers. In the script, Ben Horne was to have been shoved into a coffee table instead of the fireplace, and only received a minor injury; the scene was supposed to have ended with Dr. Hayward helping Ben up and apologizing. Likewise, deputies were to have found Leo, who would have inadvertently tripped the cage of spiders onto himself. A strange departure from both the script and the screen is that, in the script, Catherine Martel was also supposed to have been inside of the bank when it exploded.

The definite answer to at least one of these cliffhangers has since been revealed: Had the show been renewed, Audrey would have survived the explosion, with the intention of Lynch spinning her off into her own series. The script for the "Audrey" pilot would ultimately become the first hour of Lynch's movie Mulholland Dr.

In 1993, US cable TV channel Bravo acquired syndication rights for the series. To this end, David Lynch scripted and shot introductory sequences for every episode, featuring actress Catherine Coulson as her character Margaret Lanterman, aka The Log Lady. Sitting at home, holding her log, Margaret would offer cryptic musings on the episode the viewers were about to watch. These introductions lasted from an average of 20-30 seconds up to several minutes each.

They are included in the Gold Box DVD collection, where the viewer can choose to watch the episodes with or without the Log Lady's introductions.