by Kevin J. Browne

Created on: February 13, 2009   Last Updated: February 23, 2009

The Images of Twin Peaks

The television series "Twin Peaks," created by David Lynch is one of the strangest and most complex efforts to make a run at entertaining the prime time viewing audience. An important aspect of the series is the imagery used to connect the various elements in the story. In this paper I am concerned, not with the story itself or an interpretation of it, but rather, these images. There is a good case to be made for the argument that these images are symbolic and have meaning beyond their obvious aesthetic import. While it is possible to argue for this proposition, I do not intend to do so here. My only concern is to enumerate the important images and draw connections between them.

The most potent image, and in the end perhaps one of the most symbolic, is fire. Ironically, we see very little of this image throughout the series. While we do not see very many instances of fire there are many references to it, and the appearances of it are rendered more important because of their scarcity. The first time we see fire is at the Great Northern Hotel. It recurs several times as part of the ambient setting at the Hotel. Fire becomes more important when F.B.I. agent Dale Cooper finds a note in the abandoned train car where Laura Palmer was killed. The note reads "fire walk with me." This is also a line in the poem recited by Mike: "Through the darkness of futures past the magician longs to see/one chance hops between two worlds/fire walk with me.'

The Log Lady, whose husband was killed in a fire, reminds us of the power of fire which "is the devil hiding like a coward in the smoke." Later she warns Agent Cooper: "Shut your eyes and you'll burst into flames." Fire radically affects the course of events in Twin Peaks when Leo Johnson sets fire to the Packard Sawmill. After Maior Briggs returns from his disappearance we see the fire image and become aware for the first time that perhaps fire is not simply a recurring image but a powerful symbol as well. We see this same image of fire in the Black Lodge when Bob appears. This, like many appearances of fire, is a particularly sinister image. This sinister aspect is uniquely exhibited in an appearance of fire in the reflection of Thomas Ekhardt's sunglasses in the Great Northern Hotel.

Reflections provide us with a clue to another recurring image in the series; mirrors. The series begins and ends with reflections of characters in mirrors. The first person we see in Twin Peaks is Josie Packard. But we do

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