Killer BOB

Killer BOB (or simply Bob) (played by Frank Silva), is a fictional character from the television series "Twin Peaks" and the show's primary antagonist. He is a demonic entity who feeds on human pain and suffering. He possesses human beings and then commits acts of rape and murder in order to feast upon the fear and suffering of his victims.

Character

Bob (played by Frank Silva) is a demonic entity from the Black Lodge, a realm of pure evil which exists on an alternate plane of reality. He spends most of his time on earth possessing human beings, although he also travels in the form of an owl. While possessing humans, he commits horrible acts to elicit pain, fear, and suffering from those around him; these feelings, which Black Lodge residents refer to collectively as "Garmonbozia," act as a form of nourishment.

Bob first appears on the series at the end of the second episode, in which FBI agent Dale Cooper has a dream in which he learns that identifying Bob will help him solve the murder of Laura Palmer. In the dream, Cooper learns that Bob was once a serial killer who committed his crimes with an accomplice named Mike, who later repented and killed his old partner. In the dream, Cooper also learns that Sarah Palmer had a vision of Bob on the morning after Laura's death; this turns out to be true, and Cooper sends Andy Brennan to make a sketch of Bob; Sarah and Cooper both identify the man in the resulting sketch as the person they saw in their respective dreams/visions.

At the beginning of the second season, one of Bob's intended victims, Ronnette Pulaski, awakens from a coma induced by her torture at Bob's hands, at which time she identifies Bob as Laura Palmer's killer. Cooper and the Twin Peaks Sheriff department canvass the town with wanted posters of Bob, using Andy's sketch; Leland Palmer, Laura's father, identifies the man in the poster as "Robertson," and says that he lived near his grandfather and used to taunt Leland when he was a child.

It is later revealed that Bob is in fact possessing Leland, and has been possessing him ever since Leland first met him as a child at his grandfather's house. Under Bob's influence, Leland molested, raped, and finally murdered his own daughter; he additionally raped and murdered a prostitute named Teresa Banks, whom Bob/Leland thought looked like Laura, and tortured and murdered Madeline Ferguson, Leland's niece, who bore a striking resemblance to Laura. Following each of these murders, Bob/Leland placed a type-written letter beneath the left ring finger of each of the victims, to spell out "ROBERT."

Following Madeline's murder, Cooper correctly determines that Bob is possessing Leland, and tricks him into walking near an open holding cell at the Twin Peaks' sheriff's department. Cooper and the sheriff's deputies throw Leland into the cell and lock him in, at which time Bob makes his presence known, taunting Cooper before forcing Leland to commit suicide.

In his dying breaths, Leland makes obscure references to the man at the lake molesting him as a child ("He came inside me") before stating that he never knew when Bob was in control of his body (a statement apparently added in due to the series' being on primetime network television; see the entry on Fire Walk with Me, below).

After Leland dies, Cooper engages in a philosophical debate with Sheriff Truman and Albert Rosenfield over how real Bob was, and whether or not Bob was in fact a physical incarnation of Leland's repressed personal demons. Although the men cannot agree on a unifying idea, they do come to the conclusion that Bob is a manifestation of "the evil that men do."

Following Leland's death, Bob takes the form of an owl in the woods outside Twin Peaks, and isn't seen again for several episodes. He briefly resurfaces when Sheriff Truman and Cooper attempt to arrest Josie Packard; Bob apparently kills Josie by feeding on her overwhelming sense of terror, before mocking Cooper and casting Josie's soul into the wood of the Great Northern Hotel. He briefly appears again in a cameo near the end of the series, as a cosmic event causes an opening in the fabric of space and time that separates Earth from the Black Lodge.

In the final episode, Cooper ventures into the Black Lodge to apprehend his former partner, rogue FBI Agent Windom Earle, who is attempting to harness the power of the Lodge for himself. When Earle tries to strike a bargain with Cooper in which Cooper will sell his soul to Earle in exchange for Earle not murdering Cooper's lover, Annie, Bob appears, causing time in the Lodge to reverse to the moment before Cooper agreed to sell his soul. Bob informs Cooper that the Black Lodge is his domain, and thus Earle has trespassed by coming into it and demanding Cooper's soul for himself. As a punishment, Bob kills Earle, taking Earle's soul for himself. Cooper attempts to flee, but Bob traps Cooper in the Lodge, exiting in the form of a doppelganger of Cooper. The series ends with Bob examining his new body in a mirror.

Fire Walk with Me

The movie "" retconned several elements of Bob/Leland's backstory.

In the film, it is revealed that Leland had some degree of culpability in the sexual assault of his own daughter; he is aware that it is happening, and shifts between the personalities of a distraught father and eager sexual predator. The film also reveals that, while possessing Leland, Bob only kills girls who look like Laura.

The film also fleshes out the backstory between Bob and Mike/Man from Another Place. Bob worked for/with Mike/Man from Another Place, collecting garmonbozia for the inhabitants of the Black Lodge. However, Bob went rogue and began keeping the garmonbozia for himself. He is ordered to turn over garmonbozia to the Man from Another Place, a duty which Bob fulfills by turning over the pain and suffering Laura Palmer experienced at the moment of her death, embodied by her blood. This dispute is still ongoing at the time the series begins, giving reason for Mike/The Man from Another Place's willingness to help Cooper identify Bob's host and imprison him, as a punishment to Bob for his disobedience.

Character history

The impetus for the series "Twin Peaks" was the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer. When production began on the pilot, series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost had decided that the murderer would be revealed as Leland Palmer, Laura's father. During the filming of a scene in the pilot taking place in Laura's room, Frank Silva, a set dresser, accidentally trapped himself in the room prior to filming by inadvertently moving a dresser in front of the door. Lynch had an image of Silva stuck in the room and thought that it could fit into the series somewhere, and told Silva that he would like for him to be in the series. Lynch had Silva crouch at the foot of Laura's bed and look through the bars of the footboard, as if he were "trapped" behind them, and filmed it, then had Silva leave the room and filmed the empty room; after reviewing the footage, Lynch liked the presence that Silva brought to the scene and decided that he would put him somewhere in the series. [http://odeo.com/blog/2006/04/david-lynch-killer-bob-was-happy.html The Odeo Blog: David Lynch: Killer Bob Was a Happy Accident. Retrieved January 5th, 2008.] ]

Later that day, a scene was being filmed in which Laura Palmer's mother experiences a vision which frightens her; at the time, the script did not indicate what Mrs Palmer had seen to frighten her. Lynch was pleased with how the scene turned out, but a crew member informed him that it would have to be re-shot, because a mirror in the scene had inadvertently picked up someone's reflection. When Lynch asked who it was, the crew member replied that it had been Silva. Lynch considered this a "happy accident," and decided at that point that the unnamed character to be played by Silva would be revealed as Laura Palmer's true killer.

Notes