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| BOB, the primary antagonist of Twin Peaks. |
If you've ever seen Twin Peaks by David Lynch, then you will recognize the face of this man. Twin Peaks is a mystery show with supernatural elements produced in the 1990s (at least the first two seasons and the movie) featuring the small, titular town of Twin Peaks. The narrative centers around the murder of a local girl named Laura Palmer, which leads to the arrival of outsiders and upheaval in the local community. The show is about the "evil that mean do," the dark urge it believes to lurk within us.
BOB is a sort of demiurge-- he is of an evil place, and does evil in turn. He appeals to human, hedonistic desires such as sex, violence, and drug abuse. Those who can see him are described as doomed. To exist in our plane, however, BOB requires a vessel. In this case, he makes use of Laura's father, Leland Palmer. It is revealed that in this way, he killed Laura Palmer, seeking to become her and make use of her young body and energy to further spread his evil. He connects deeply with Christian ideas about possession and the dark urge of sin lurking within us all; exploiting and condemning those who "fly too close to the sun" to a terrible death.
That being said, interestingly, the show does not necessarily blame those who fall victim to his possessions. Laura Palmer was simply a troubled youth who sought respite from the high expectations placed upon her in hedonism- as many do. Even for Leland, it is open to debate how much of his actions towards Laura (murder and other unspeakable things) were truly him. The show deliberately creates an uncomfortable ambiguity in this.
One of my absolute favorite shows! I like that while BOB is truly evil, his actions are not entirely his own; they are also somewhat the fault of the people he's possessing. Twin Peaks hides the nature of its story behind the idea that it cannot be that simple. Agent Cooper even finds out who killed Laura early on, but cannot remember due to his own nature to seek out something further. BOB, I think, is an excellent representation of how, yes, there is something supernatural here, but there is also a very clear story of abuse that everyone in the show refuses to acknowledge.
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