Twin Peaks Explained: What Laura Whispers to Cooper

Me trying late at night to make sense of what has happened in Twin Peaks finale brought me to some interesting conclusions. In this essay, I suggest a very simple and understandable explanation of entire show and what the heck had happened.

First of all, let us look at characters/creatures and locations to clear up the plot.

Judy is the Mother of all Evil, aka the Experiment, the embodiment of the concept of Evil itself.

BOB is a new “vehicle” of Evil to bring more darkness to our world. Judy spews him out when the Trinity Test happens.

The Black Lodge is the residence of all evil entities. Or some call it The Red Room — just the waiting room, not exactly the Black Lodge but the entrance to it.

Convenience Store is where all the rebel entities like BOB reside.

White Lodge is where the good creatures live and fight for good.

Now the situation is like this: BOB does not want to obey Judy and wants to become the most powerful. He leaves the Black Lodge and moves to Convenience Store where he resides with his helpers or some fans also call them “fallen angels”. For him the main helpers of course are the woodsmen. Judy is not happy about BOB and sends Mike to defeat him. This explains why Mike is not 100% cooperating with Coop, because they have different goals. First, in the form of Leland, BOB kills the first obstacle: Laura. Then, in Cooper aka Mr.C. body, he starts his true mission: find Judy. So he starts the experiment of the glass box in NY, looks for the coordinates, etc.

Theosophy. Reincarnation.

It is not a secret David Lynch carefully creates his universe where he places the characters, bends time, and most importantly has a very strong basis of the story. Lynch and Frost have a very particular cultural background which is theosophy. Theosophy is in simple words is some type of philosophy that concerns mysteries of life and nature, particularly of the nature of divinity and the origin and purpose of the universe. Theosophy teaches that all religions contain elements of the “Ancient Wisdom” and that wise men throughout history have held the secret of spiritual power. Those who have been enlightened by the divine wisdom can access a transcendent spiritual reality through mystical experience. Mainly, because Lynch practices transcendental meditation he based his theosophy knowledge on Hinduism, the belief in reincarnation and karma. That is why, one of the wisest characters in the series — the Log Lady says: “Death is just a change. Not an end”. Not to mention, many characters after death appears to be in Red Room or Black Lodge which strengths the idea of theosophy.

Monism. Good and Evil are the same.

Surely, theosophy is only one way to look at the series. I believe, monism has to play a huge role in the series. Monism is opposite to dualism and while many people tend to look at Twin Peaks only through the dualism prism, I believe monism is the view Lynch originally used for his concept. Basically, dualism states that humans have a dual nature — one part mental and the other physical. Monism, on the other hand holds that only one type of nature exists — mind and body are connected. Therefore, the difference and the dualism of Evil and Good can be only formal: Black and White Lodge are just different manifestation of the same original “force” which is the basis of all existence. So in fact, both good and evil wants to destroy the evil that got out of control. And that is a very interesting philosophy to look at. I think Lynch wants to say that the world will always have both good and evil, and they will balance each other unless there is someone like BOB will try to ruin the balance and try to make the evil more powerful than the good. Both Good and Evil will try to stop this, having one goal in common to defeat the evil, but different motivation.

So finally, do Evil and Good Coop succeed in destroying Judy ?

My theory is based on the philosophy of monism and theosophy, therefore the answer is “no” for both of Coopers.

Mr. C. is fooled by the Giant and is destroyed by Freddie. Giant found Freddie and destined him to kill BOB.

Agent Cooper cannot save Laura and cannot bring her to Judy at all or Sarah Palmer. The Giant created Laura and sent her to the world. The Giant would hope that Sarah who had been possessed by the bug (Judy) will become balanced when she has Laura. Evil and Good will live by the side, however Laura has a double life where she does drugs, drinks and works as a prostitute meaning that the evil side overlap the good side of her. As we learn later, the balance is ruined by BOB.

Coop who tries to save Laura actually trapped into the infinite cycle. The symbol representing Judy is turned by Jeffrie’s into the symbol of infinity, an eternal loop that cannot be escaped, or changed. This meaning that Coop can try to kill Judy using Laura as many times as possible, however if he saves Laura that means he never appered in Twin peaks on the first place, meaning that there will be the parallel universes in which Laura is not Laura but some other person. The voice of Judy/Sarah in the end reminds Laura of her destiny, however she knows because of Cooper created paradox she will never be able to destroy her mother. Mainly, not in the fault of Coop but in the fault of BOB who killed her. On the other hand, this means BOB actually helped Judy by killing her enemy who is Laura, which brings me to conclusion what Laura whispers to Cooper: “My mother killed me”.