I adore twin peaks because people talk about how opaque it is but like windom earle asked major briggs his greatest fear and the answer was "the possibility that love is not enough" and that's it that's the show. Love wasn't enough.
Not only that love wasn't enough, but that it was what fed the darkness in the woods.
Love is not enough, you have to break the cycle. Fix your hearts or die.
Twin Peaks is a show that tells you exactly what it's about like every three episodes but people don't see it because there's a horse in the living room.
Twin Peaks is a show that features the main dead character dead-eyed in the afterlife screaming the world "doppelganger" and features her identical cousin dying an identical death at the hands of the same killer; the dead main character's two boyfriends have two different girlfriends, one of whom is perfect and prim and has a family with a dark secret at the center of it that has been kept quiet and is slowly poisoning the relationships in the house, and one whose husband has isolated her in the woods where she's kept in line with the constant threat of (sexual)violence and people look at this and go "what is that show even about there's a weird giant, it's impenetrable."
Twin Peaks is a show about the toxicity and continual inward pull of domestic violence but because it's presented like a soap opera with a jazz soundtrack and has a cast of exclusively the most beautiful people alive in 1991 that gets overlooked in favor of the drama of which of the extremely beautiful people are going to end up abusing one another.
What if the town of Twin Peaks dehumanized Laura. What if it made her the perfect blonde homecoming queen, who helped people through meals on wheels and was sharp in all her classes and beloved by all, admired for how pretty and kind she was in between shifts at the department store and time spent helping the disabled. What if Laura had a boyfriend who was *so nice* that she didn't know what to do with him.
What if the town of Twin Peaks dehumanized Laura. What if it made her a sex worker, using - and selling - drugs after school and driving down to roadhouse bars on weekends to get fucked by big strong men. What if Laura had a boyfriend who loved to be high with her and loved her body and the loud sound of fear she woke up inside of him.
What if Laura's *nice* boyfriend then dated the straight-a daughter of the town doctor, destined for a private college and pink cardigans and pearls. What if Laura's scummy boyfriend dated the high-school dropout waitress who was married to the guy running drugs.
What if the *nice* boy came from a broken home and started dating a girl from a good family. What if the scummy guy came from a picture-perfect family and started dating a girl in an abusive family.
What if everybody in town is laura and killed laura and loved laura and watched as she burned herself out because they didn't know the big secret, but they knew something was wrong and weren't able to act because they were so busy keeping up appearances.
laura ran away from help. laura was begging for help. laura was a sacrificial lamb. laura was the agent of rot. laura was a madonna. laura was a whore.
laura needed sanctuary. she needed protection that she was too hurt to ask for, she needed a place to go where she wouldn't get hurt worse.
What laura got was love (donna loved her, james loved her, bobby loved her, maddie loved her, sarah loved her, and even leland loved her) and love was not enough.
