Twin Peaks is an American surrealist mystery-horror-drama television series created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 for a third season on Showtime.
Set in the fictional Pacific Northwest town of Twin Peaks, the series follows an investigation led by FBI special agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) into the murder of local teenager Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). The show's narrative draws on the characteristics of detective fiction, but its uncanny tone, supernatural elements, and campy, melodramatic portrayal of eccentric characters also draw from American horror and soap opera tropes. Like much of Lynch's work, it is distinguished by surrealism, distinctive cinematography, and offbeat humor. The musical score was composed by Angelo Badalamenti with Lynch.
The original run was followed by the 1992 feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, which serves as a prequel to the series. The success created a media franchise, leading to the release of several tie-in books, starting with The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. Under Lynch's direction, the show's 2017 revival included much of the original cast.
In the years following the first two seasons, the show gained a devoted cult following and was referenced in a wide variety of media, earning acclaim and various accolades including a Golden Globe Award and nominations for 27 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning two. Twin Peaks is considered a landmark turning point in television drama and often listed among the greatest television series of all time. The 2017 revival also received acclaim, and film journal Cahiers du Cinéma named it the best film of the 2010s.
Plot
Season 1
In 1989, local logger Pete Martell discovers a naked corpse wrapped in plastic on the bank of a river outside the town of Twin Peaks, Washington. When Sheriff Harry S. Truman, his deputies, and doctor Will Hayward arrive, the body is identified as high school senior and homecoming queen Laura Palmer. A second girl, Ronette Pulaski, is discovered as well, who is badly injured and dissociative just across the state border.
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate. Cooper's initial examination of Laura's body reveals a tiny typed letter "R" inserted under her fingernail. At a town conference, Cooper informs the community that Laura's death matches the signature of a killer who murdered another girl in southwestern Washington the previous year, and that the evidence potentially indicates the killer being from Twin Peaks.
Through Laura's diaries, local law enforcement alongside Agent Cooper discover that she had been living a double life. She was cheating on her boyfriend, football captain Bobby Briggs, with biker James Hurley, and prostituting herself with the help of truck driver Leo Johnson and drug dealer Jacques Renault. Laura was also addicted to cocaine, which she obtained through coercing Bobby into doing business with Jacques.
Laura's father, attorney Leland Palmer, suffers a nervous breakdown after her death. Her best friend Donna Hayward begins a relationship with James. With the help of Laura's cousin Maddy Ferguson, Donna and James discover that Laura's psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence Jacoby, was obsessed with her, but he is proven innocent of the murder.
Hotelier Ben Horne, the wealthiest man in Twin Peaks, plans to destroy the town's lumber mill along with its owner, Josie Packard, and murder his lover, Josie's sister-in-law and Pete's wife Catherine Martell, so he can purchase the land at a reduced price and complete a development project called Ghostwood. Horne's sultry, troubled daughter, Audrey, becomes infatuated with Agent Cooper and spies on her father for clues in an effort to win Agent Cooper's affection.
Cooper has a dream in which he is approached by a one-armed otherworldly being who calls himself Mike. Mike says that Laura's murderer is a similar entity, Killer Bob, a feral, denim-clad man with long gray hair. Cooper finds himself decades older with Laura and a dwarf in a red business suit, who engages in coded dialogue with Cooper. The next morning, Cooper tells Truman that if they can decipher the dream, they can find out who murdered Laura.
Cooper and the sheriff's department find the one-armed man from Cooper's dream, a traveling shoe salesman named Phillip Gerard. Gerard knows a Bob, the veterinarian who treats Renault's pet bird. Cooper interprets these events to mean that Renault is the murderer, and with Truman's help, tracks Renault to One-Eyed Jack's, a brothel owned by Horne across the border in Canada. He lures Renault back onto U.S. soil to arrest him, but Renault is shot while trying to escape and is hospitalized.
Leland, learning that Renault has been arrested, sneaks into the hospital and smothers him to death. The same night, Horne orders Leo to burn down the lumber mill with Catherine trapped inside and has Leo gunned down by Hank Jennings to ensure Leo's silence. Cooper returns to his room following Renault's arrest and is shot by a masked gunman.
Season 2 Episodes 1–9, completing the Laura Palmer arc
Lying hurt in his hotel room, Cooper has a vision in which a giant appears and reveals three clues: "There is a man in a smiling bag," "the owls are not what they seem," and "without chemicals, he points." He takes a gold ring off Cooper's finger and explains that when Cooper understands the three premonitions, his ring will be returned.
Leo Johnson survives his shooting but is left brain-damaged. Catherine Martell disappears, presumed killed in the mill fire. Leland Palmer, whose hair has turned white overnight, returns to work but behaves erratically. Cooper deduces that the "man in the smiling bag" is the corpse of Jacques Renault in a body bag.
Mike is inhabiting the body of Phillip Gerard. His personality surfaces when Gerard forgoes the use of a certain drug. Mike reveals that he and Bob once collaborated in killing humans and that Bob is similarly inhabiting a man in the town. Cooper and the sheriff's department use Mike, in control of Gerard's body, to help find Bob ("without chemicals, he points").
Donna befriends an agoraphobic orchid grower named Harold Smith whom Laura entrusted with her second, secret diary. Harold catches Donna and Maddy attempting to steal the diary from him and hangs himself in despair. Cooper and the sheriff's department take possession of Laura's secret diary and learn that Bob, a friend of her father's, had been sexually abusing her since childhood and she used drugs to cope. They initially suspect that the killer is Ben Horne and arrest him, but Leland Palmer is revealed to be Bob's host when he kills Maddy.
Catherine has returned to town disguised as a Japanese businessman, having survived the mill fire, and manipulates Ben Horne into signing the Ghostwood project over to her. Cooper begins to doubt Horne's guilt, so he gathers all of his suspects in the belief that he will receive a sign to help him identify the killer. The Giant appears and confirms that Leland is Bob's host and Laura's and Maddy's killer, giving Cooper back his ring. Cooper and Truman take Leland into custody. In control of Leland's body, Bob admits to a string of murders, before forcing Leland to commit suicide. As Leland dies, he is freed of Bob's influence and begs for forgiveness. Bob's spirit disappears into the woods in the form of an owl and the lawmen wonder if he will reappear.
Episodes 10–22, new characters and storylines Cooper is set to leave Twin Peaks when he is framed for drug trafficking by Jean Renault and is suspended from the FBI. Another FBI agent, Denise Bryson, comes to Twin Peaks to help him. Renault holds Cooper responsible for the death of his brothers, Jacques and Bernard. Jean Renault is killed in a shootout with police, and Cooper is cleared of all charges.
Windom Earle, Cooper's former mentor and FBI partner, escapes from a mental institution and comes to Twin Peaks. Cooper had previously been having an affair with Earle's wife, Caroline, while she was under his protection as a witness to a federal crime. Earle murdered Caroline and wounded Cooper. He now engages Cooper in a twisted game of chess during which Earle murders someone whenever a piece is captured.
Investigating Bob's origin and whereabouts with the help of Major Garland Briggs, Cooper learns of the existence of the White Lodge and the Black Lodge, two extra-dimensional realms whose entrances are somewhere in the woods surrounding Twin Peaks.
Andrew Packard, Josie's husband, is revealed to be still alive while Josie Packard is revealed to be the person who shot Cooper at the end of the first season. Andrew forces Josie to confront his business rival and her tormentor from Hong Kong, the sinister Thomas Eckhardt. Josie kills Eckhardt, but she mysteriously dies when Truman and Cooper try to apprehend her.
Cooper falls in love with a new arrival in town, Annie Blackburn. Earle captures the brain-damaged Leo for use as a henchman and abandons his chess game with Cooper. When Annie wins the Miss Twin Peaks contest, Earle kidnaps her and takes her to the entrance to the Black Lodge, whose power he seeks to use for himself.
Through a series of clues Cooper discovers the entrance to the Black Lodge, which turns out to be the strange, red-curtained room from his dream. He is greeted by the Dwarf, the Giant, and Laura Palmer, who each give Cooper cryptic messages. Searching for Annie and Earle, Cooper encounters doppelgängers of various people, including Maddy Ferguson and Leland Palmer. Cooper finds Earle, who demands Cooper's soul in exchange for Annie's life. Cooper agrees but Bob appears and takes Earle's soul for himself. Bob then turns to Cooper, who is chased through the lodge by a doppelgänger of himself.
Outside the lodge, Andrew Packard, Pete Martell and Audrey Horne are caught in an explosion at a bank vault, a trap laid by the dead Eckhardt.
Cooper and Annie reappear in the woods, both injured. Annie is taken to the hospital but Cooper recovers in his room at the Great Northern Hotel. It becomes clear that the "Cooper" who emerged from the Lodge is in fact his doppelgänger, under Bob's control. He smashes his head into a bathroom mirror and laughs maniacally.
Season 3
The third season takes place 25 years after the cliffhanger ending of season two, and also expands on narrative elements introduced in the prequel film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, released after the second season. Cooper remains trapped in the Black Lodge and prepares his return to the world. For the previous two decades, Cooper's evil doppelgänger has lived in Cooper's place and works to prevent his own imminent return to the Black Lodge with the help of various associates. Meanwhile, the mysterious murder of a librarian in Buckhorn, South Dakota attracts the attention of Cole and his colleagues, while a message from the Log Lady (Catherine Coulson) leads members of the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department to reopen investigations into the events surrounding the 1989 murder of Laura Palmer and Cooper's subsequent disappearance.
Season 3 of Twin Peaks was announced on October 6, 2014, as a limited series that would air on Showtime. David Lynch and Mark Frost wrote all the episodes, and Lynch directed. Frost emphasized that the new episodes were not a remake or reboot, but a continuation of the series and film, and the passage of 25 years is an important element of the plot. The third season is also known as Twin Peaks: The Return and Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series.
Most of the original cast returned, including Kyle MacLachlan, Mädchen Amick, Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, and several others. Additions included Jeremy Davies, Laura Dern, Robert Forster, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Amanda Seyfried, Matthew Lillard, and Naomi Watts.
Series overview
Cast
Main cast