MovieChat Forums > Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) Discussion > Incest-Rape.

Incest-Rape.

posted 7 years ago by Bobby Briggs Briganza (485)
6 replies | jump to latest

In my view, this is what Twin Peaks is about.

Unspeakable acts were committed that destroyed a young woman's life. While it's not true that it's the only bad thing that ever happened in Twin Peaks, a seemingly idyllic small town, it was one of the more heinous. Innocence was lost, completely. Human trafficking, dirty deeds, etc., yes. But from the perspective of Laura Palmer, the repeated rape by her father was the horror of horrors. Next in line to the tragedy was Sarah Palmer, who somehow was incapable of acting and sat by as her daughter was raped.

The only constants of TP are Laura's scream and Sarah's guilt-driven insanity.

Most of what we see is a dream. Maybe it's two dreams—Laura's and Sarah's. Point is, everything we see doesn't need to make sense. There are connections...threads...as in dreams, but there doesn't have to be any logic beyond the repetition of of stimuli: names, numbers, images. I could go on, but I already feel like a pretentious douche.

Anyway, to make my point redundant: Figuring out what "happened," like why a guy named BOB was farted out of a nuclear explosion and how a green glove could destroy him, is irrelevant when its all dream imagery of a girl raped by her shitty dad.

[–] keybored (2654) 7 years ago

I also wondered about Sarah being one of those shitty mothers who blames the daughter for the father raping her, and hates her for it, during the scene where she is attacking Laura's photo.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

If we strip Twin Peaks to it's core, we get a girl that was raped and killed by her [possessed] father and a community that suffers her loss, while her mother is consumed by guilt.

If we take all the supernatural elements out of that action, we get a father that was raped as a boy who does it to his own child while the three of them in their household maintain the appearances of normalcy towards the town.

This is in consonance with the "hidden reality" in Blue Velvet. All appearing to be sweet and dandy, but truly rotten in its core.

As a viewer of Lynch stuff, I try not to think while watching it. I admire the "dream-like" imagery and they work better if not thought upon. The problem is that the dream-like imagery is in relation to a plot that had previously been set.

Another point of interest is that in the old series, only some special people could see the Lodges and their inhabitants [specially Cooper, because he is a "special" Agent]. The same is true for this Season, except now, other characters are also able to see the supernatural elements [such as Gordon, Albert, Andy, The Sheriff, Hawk, Diane, Bobby and the random characters from episode 8 who were in contact with the Woodsmen].

Cooper had that advantage of being a sort of sensitive. He perceived the supernatural elements and resolved Laura's crime with the aid of them. It emphasized how "special" Cooper was.

By keeping the Supernatural elements restricted to a few characters [namely the lead character] all the stuff surrounding the Lodges and whatnot felt ethereal and out of reach. Needless to be explained and visually compelling and dreamy-like.

By giving the Lodges and whatnot a backstory [the Experiment, Bob, Fireman, Miss Dido, Naido, etc] it grounds those mystical elements and takes the mystery in which they operated away. It makes them a commonality in need of being explained to make sense with the plot.

[–] Bobby Briggs Briganza (485) 7 years ago

Laura's father was not possessed in the real world.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

Hence why I said "if we take all the supernatural elements out of that action"

[–] Bobby Briggs Briganza (485) 7 years ago

OK yes, I get what you're saying. I guess I'd say that if we were talking TP "at its core" then we would have removed all supernatural elements (already), yet you said "at its core.... [possessed]", which is what I was responding to. Anyway, I think we're basically on the same page.

[–] TwistedAcrobat (1725) 7 years ago

yes, I put the word in brackets just as extra info to what was going on it the series/movie. I agree that TP could be done without any sort of supernatural elements and we'd still get a pretty dark story. The supernatural in it is fun though.