The Big Picture

• Fire Walk With Me reframes key events in Twin Peaks from Laura Palmer's perspective, exploring themes of trauma and evil in depth.
• Lynch's prequel answers lingering questions from the series, highlighting the town of Twin Peaks as complicit in Laura's tragic fate.
• The film delves into Leland Palmer's internal struggles and Laura's heroic final moments, emphasizing the battle between good and evil.

The abrupt cancellation of the second season of Twin Peaks left anxious viewers scratching their heads and screaming at the television. That’s it? Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is now evil, possessed by the spirit of BOB? It was a grim way to end the series at the time, but David Lynch has never been interested in giving the audience the exact answers that they wanted. Any fan that went into Lynch’s 1992 spinoff film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, looking for a resolution probably should have known better. Lynch's prequel focuses on unpacking the mythology of the Twin Peaks story by examining the fundamental battle between good and evil at its center.

What Is ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me’ About?

Fire Walk With Me sparked a negative response from both critics and audiences when it initially debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992. Rather than wrapping up the fate of Cooper and the other beloved characters from the show, Fire Walk With Me served as a prequel to the series itself that reframes events that were only alluded to. The events are familiar if you know what happens in Twin Peaks; they’ve just never been shown from Laura Palmer’s (Sheryl Lee) perspective. There are a few brief scenes at the beginning that set up the two FBI investigations that the series revolves around, but the majority of the film follows Laura Palmer during her last days.

Fire Walk With Me allowed Lynch to go to even darker places than the most shocking moments on the show were allowed to go, becoming one of the strongest works in the entire franchise. The freedom of the feature-length format allowed Lynch to create a disturbing analysis of trauma, guilt, and suffering as Laura’s torment is shown in depth. The trademark humor that had attracted so many viewers to the series was entirely absent. Fire Walk With Me isn’t just an investigation into who was responsible for Laura’s death; it analyzes the nature of evil itself.

‘Fire Walk With Me’ Answers Unanswered ‘Twin Peaks’ Questions

Before Laura shows up, Lynch shows two key scenes that answer a few lingering questions that the viewers had. It’s an act of evil that draws the FBI to Twin Peaks in the first place; the murder of Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley) brings FBI agents Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak) and Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland) to the Twin Peaks border town, Deer Meadow. Dear Meadow is essentially a “bizarro” version of Twin Peaks. Instead of the friendly Twin Peaks police officers like Sheriff Harry Truman (Michael Ontkean) and Deputy Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz), you get the rude, corrupt Sheriff Cable (Gary Bullock) and Deputy Cliff (Rick Aiello). The office is run down, the coffee is cold, and the murder of Teresa Banks isn’t an anomaly like Laura’s death; it’s just another case for the lazy sheriff’s department to shelve.

Yet, this is another investigation that leads to more questions. In the Twin Peaks series, the investigation into Laura’s murder revealed sordid facts about the residents of the town, but it also exposed moments of beauty. None of that hope can be found by prying into Teresa's death. Desmond and Stanley are drawn to the impoverished Fat Trout Trailer Park run by Carl Rodd (Harry Dean Stanton) and discover a mysterious ring underneath one of the decaying trailers. Desmond doesn’t learn anything from his discovery; he disappears shortly after placing the ring on his finger. This was Lynch’s way of suggesting there are some forms of darkness that humans were not meant to deal with.

When there is a glimpse of some familiar FBI agents, Lynch puts the familiar Twin Peaks characters in a state of tension and anxiety. Cooper’s dreams offered fun anecdotes throughout the series, as they were often idiosyncratic, and borderline silly. Here Cooper is unusuall stressed out and incompetent. Cooper insists to FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole (Lynch) that he had a dark premonition. Soon, their regional office is visited by an enigmatic guest: Gordon’s former partner, Agent Phillip Jeffries (David Bowie). Bowie’s “otherworld”-like quality is rather disturbing, as his arrival sparks a rift between two worlds that weren’t meant to interact. Jeffries is clearly traumatized. He’s not the man that Gordon remembered. Bowie’s extended rant about the evil spirits that he’s seen suggests he’s been driven mad by the knowledge that he should not have been privy to. This segment ends as abruptly as it begins; fans had to wait 25 years later for Twin Peaks: The Return to wrap up Jeffries’ arc.

‘Fire Walk With Me’ Analyzes Laura Palmer’s Burden

Lynch famously didn’t want to solve the mystery at the heart of Twin Peaks. Fire Walk With Me doesn’t change what happened in the series, but it suggests that it was more than just the spirit of BOB (Frank Silva) possessing Laura’s father, Leland (Ray Wise), that killed her. This is a town that took advantage of Laura’s kindness, preyed on her weaknesses, and ignored her suffering. It was the town of Twin Peaks that killed Laura, and Lynch shows how each of the show's characters plays a part in the week of her death. Fire Walk With Me shows Laura’s prostitution at The Roadhouse, which was only hinted at in the series. She struggles to balance her life as she’s haunted by dreams of BOB and the Black Lodge. Laura’s personal relationships crumble as she becomes increasingly erratic by the pressure that she’s under. Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) was never the best boyfriend, and he chooses to abandon Laura when he realizes she’s past the point of reason. Laura can see the darkness that is coming and warns her best friend Donna Hayward (Moira Kelly) to not be like her. Laura has nothing to apologize for, but she’s still able to protect those that she cares about.

While he is almost completely defined by his trauma in the series, Fire Walks With Me shows that Leland wasn’t quite as loving as he had appeared. Leland isn’t strong enough to resist the temptation of evil. He’s hostile towards Laura at every turn, shaming her for her romances and humiliating her in public. It’s revealed that Leland had attempted to sleep with Teresa but discovered that Laura was working for Teresa’s pimp, Jacques Renault (Walter Olkewicz). He can’t reveal his knowledge to Laura without exposing himself, so he holds a resentment towards her that she doesn’t understand. It’s Laura’s goodness that ultimately dooms her. Laura and her fellow prostitute, Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine), are captured and brutalized by Leland (under the direct influence of BOB) in an abandoned train car. Laura attempts to help Ronnette and gives her time to escape with Mike (Al Strobel). Even if she can’t end her own suffering, Laura is capable of one last act of heroism.

Twin Peaks shows the ways that evil exploits good. The presence of darkness makes the integrity of truly selfless people like Laura and Cooper stand out even more in comparison. On its own, Fire Walk With Me is a depressing amendment to Laura’s journey, but it was necessary for the series to examine its central mystery from the perspective of its victim. The Return at least found a way to cope with evil in the ways that it rewrote the mythology of the show, as it examined how the town itself is tied to America's darkest moments. Laura can never be truly rescued, but that doesn’t mean that Cooper will stop trying to save her. While by no means an easy watch, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is a powerful embodiment of the beauty, darkness, and existentialism that is critical to Lynch's work.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is streaming on Max.

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