Laura Speaks

Ominous scene in the Presidio of San Francisco. Photo: J. Waits

I love getting reacquainted with Twin Peaks after all these years. Each week, I’ll be sharing thoughts on each episode and a photo inspired by Twin Peaks that I’ve taken on one of my pandemic walks in San Francisco. If you haven’t watched season 1, episode 2 yet, be warned that there are spoilers in this post.

In the second episode of season one, our understanding of Laura Palmer grows as not only do we see more of her, but we hear from her for the first time. Those sounds of Laura are in the context of relationships. We hear her in James Hurley’s flashback, with a sweet, lovey dovey voice as she gives him half of her heart necklace.

But at the end of the episode, creepy Dr. Jacoby (played by Russ Tamblyn - who interestingly was in some classic teen films from the past, including Peyton Place, High School Confidential, and West Side Story) pops in a cassette tape from Laura. We hear part of it and she sounds completely different, as she reveals another side of herself, a darker side, where she talks about her boredom and disparages James by calling him sweet, but “dumb.” She expresses fear that she will get lost in the woods again and mentions a mystery man.

As far as our visions of Laura this week, they are all a bit ghostly and macabre. Sarah Palmer conjures Laura’s visage in Donna’s face. And the autopsy photo shows a disembodied Laura, with just her face encircled in plastic, like a head on a platter. It’s a disturbing juxtaposition with some of the oddities in this episode, like the fish in the percolator.