The Entire Twin Peaks Timeline Explained
It's no secret that David Lynch's surreal mystery series "Twin Peaks" is often heralded as one of the greatest shows ever created. Since the series first premiered back in 1990, "Twin Peaks" has earned an staggering amount of critical acclaim and a diehard cult following that has persisted through three decades.
Set in the remote town of Twin Peaks, Washington, the story of "Twin Peaks" begins with the murder of a local teenager named Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) and sprawls into a supernatural epic that pits the town's residents against extra-dimensional spirits and unimaginable horrors. Despite all the praise the series has received, the convoluted story of "Twin Peaks" can still be incredibly hard to follow. The series' use of alternate timelines, dimensions beyond time and space, and frequent flashbacks can make it nearly impossible to puzzle out what's happening.
Couple that with the surrealist nature of the series (which defies explanation at the best of times, and seems like a bad trip at its worst) and fans should be forgiven for not knowing the exact order in which this story plays out. If you're still confused about the exact timeline of the series, here's everything you need to know about the maddening story of "Twin Peaks" — and how that whole saga might have been rewritten in the series finale.
BOB is born during an atomic bomb test
To begin the surreal epic that is "Twin Peaks," we have to go all the way back to the creation of BOB (Frank Silva), a malevolent spirit who feeds on suffering and acts as the overarching villain of the series.
In Episode 8 of "Twin Peaks: The Return," we learn that BOB was born when the first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Through dreamlike images of the bomb, the audience is transported to a black void where a supernatural entity known as "the experiment" (Erica Eynon) regurgitates a stream of primordial "eggs." One of these eggs contains the face of BOB, while another spotted eggs breaks away from the stream.
Seemingly in response to this event, the supernatural beings Senorita Dido (Joy Nash) and the Fireman (Carel Struycken) create a golden orb with the face of Laura Palmer, which Dido kisses before sending down to Earth. This bizarre origin story can be seen as the start of the battle between good and evil in "Twin Peaks," with BOB and Laura Palmer representing each of the two warring sides.
The Frog-Moth comes to life
The next major event in "Twin Peaks" occurs in 1956, when a creature known as the "Frog-Moth" is born, and mysterious entities called "woodsmen" begin terrorizing people across New Mexico.
"Twin Peaks: The Return" Episode 8 reveals that the speckled egg that broke away from "the experiment" actually landed in the New Mexico desert. This egg hatches on August 5, 1956, birthing a grotesque amphibian-insect hybrid that David Lynch refers to as the Frog-Moth. Shortly after the creature is born, we see a woodsman (a malevolent being who looks like a bearded lumberjack) entering the KPJK radio station. The woodsman murders the receptionist and forces the station's DJ to broadcast a cryptic message that puts listeners to sleep.
We then see a young girl (Tikaeni Faircrest) asleep on her bed, listening to the broadcast. While she sleeps, the Frog-Moth climbs through her window and forces itself down her throat. While we could speculate for years about what exactly is going on in this sequence, it seems to show how the evil born from the atomic bomb has started to infect the world of "Twin Peaks."
BOB possesses Leland Palmer
We don't get a specific date for this event, but sometime between 1945 and 1988, BOB begins possessing Leland Palmer (Ray Wise), the father of Laura Palmer. In "Twin Peaks" Season 2, we learn that BOB lived next to Leland's family vacation home in Pearl Lakes, and that BOB possessed Leland when he was just a child.
We know very little about BOB's activity prior to this possession, outside of the fact that he works alongside the possessing spirit Mike (Al Strobel) — who also feeds on pain and fear like BOB, until he has a divine revelation and decides to change his ways. After Mike turns against him, Bob spends the next few decades near the Grand Northern Hotel in Twin Peaks, where Leland and his family are living.
Again we only have sparse information about what BOB was up to during this time, though at some point he sets his sights on Laura Palmer, intending to use her as his new human host in place of Leland. In "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," BOB begins possessing Leland and forcing him to sexually abuse Laura from the age of 12 on, which drives Laura to heavy drug use as she grows older.
Leland Palmer murders Teresa Banks
In February 1988, Leland Palmer commits his first murder while possessed by BOB, killing a prostitute named Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley) who happens to be friends with Laura. In "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," Leland decides to hire Teresa after seeing her picture in the call girl magazine "Flesh World" and deciding she looks exactly like his daughter.
After a one night stand at the Red Diamond City Motel, Leland calls Teresa again and organizes a night with two other prostitutes. Leland eventually backs out when he realizes one of the other girls is none other than Laura herself, who has been working as a call girl for the pimp Jacques Renault (Walter Olkewicz). Teresa realizes who Leland Palmer really is and attempts to blackmail him, inadvertently unleashing the wrath of BOB in the process. BOB then possesses Leland and forces him to beat Teresa to death with a metal pipe, before wrapping her body in plastic and dumping her in a river.
The similarities between this murder and the later killing of Laura Palmer eventually lead FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) to investigate the mysterious goings-on in Twin Peaks, and the malicious activities of BOB.
Philip Jeffries materializes inside FBI headquarters
After the body of Teresa Banks washes up in Deer Meadow, Washington, the FBI sends agents Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak) and Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland) to investigate, both of whom work alongside Dale Cooper.
This investigation is still ongoing when Dale Cooper visits the FBI headquarters in Philadelphia on February 16th, 1988, where he witnesses the bizarre reappearance of a missing special agent named Philip Jeffries (David Bowie). Jeffries was the leader of the Blue Rose Task Force, a department of the FBI which specializes in supernatural activity, who had mysteriously vanished during an 1986 assignment in Buenos Aires. More than two years after his disappearance, Jeffries inexplicably appears inside FBI Headquarters, rambling about the supernatural being "Judy" and a meeting between malevolent spirits.
While Jeffries rambles in front of Cooper and the other agents, Cooper is granted strange visions of other mysterious entities like BOB. Jeffries abruptly vanishes from the headquarters and appears in the stairwell at Hotel in Buenos Aires, burning the wall behind him and screaming in agony before disappearing once again. Directly after this, Cooper learns that Agent Desmond has gone missing from Deer Meadow, and he heads there to join the search.
Leland kills Laura Palmer
Leland Palmer's next murder occurs in 1989, when BOB finally sets his plan in motion to inhabit Laura Palmer's body. On the night of February 22, 1989, BOB possesses Leland and sexually assaults Laura, who flees the next day to a remote cabin with Jacques Renault, Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re), and Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine).
On the night of February 23, 1989, Leland arrives at the cabin to find the foursome engaging in group sex and cocaine. Under BOB's influence, he abducts Laura and Ronette and brings them to an abandoned train car in the woods, telling Laura that he wants to possess her. The spirit Mike arrives at the train car in time to give Laura a ring once worn by Teresa Banks, which seemingly prevents BOB from inhabiting her body. His plan foiled, BOB makes Leland stab Laura to death.
Leland dumps Laura's body in the lake, where she is discovered on the morning of February 24, 1989 by a sawmill worker named Pete Martell (Jack Nance). The discovery of Laura Palmer's body occurs in the opening moments of the premiere episode of "Twin Peaks," and serves as the inciting incident for the epic saga of weirdness that follows.
Dale Cooper arrive in Twin Peaks
As previously mentioned, the murder of Laura Palmer attracts the attention of FBI agent Dale Cooper, who arrives in Twin Peaks after discovering the similarities between her murder and that of Teresa Banks.
Cooper discovers a letter "R" under Laura's fingernail, which lines up with the letter "T" that was placed under Teresa's nail (both of which were cut out from a Flesh World magazine). Throughout February and early March 1989, Cooper's investigation uncovers much of the evil strangeness that inhabits Twin Peaks, and he slowly begins to paint a complete picture of Laura's life. Cooper initially tracks down and arrests Jacques Renault based on evidence he gathered in a dream, which also leads him to the cabin where the murder was initially committed.
After Renault is murdered by a possessed Leland Palmer, Cooper turns his attention to the affluent Twin Peaks socialite Ben Horne (Richard Beymer), owner of the casino/brothel One Eyed Jacks and father of series staple Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn). Although Ben is certainly a worthy suspect (since Laura worked as a prostitute at One Eyed Jacks, and he confessed to loving Laura more than his own daughter), he too is ultimately killed by the real murderer, Leland Palmer.
Dale Cooper successfully tracks down Laura's killer
As Dale Cooper's investigation into the murder of Laura Palmer stretches into late March 1989, Leland Palmer becomes wracked by guilt and fits of hysteria — which many people attribute to the loss of his daughter, but which is likely caused by BOB.
BOB makes Leland commit one final murder near the end of the month, killing his niece Maddy Ferguson (Sheryl Lee) who is identical to Laura. The murder of Maddy casts doubt on the earlier conviction of Ben Horne, causing Dale Cooper to re-assess the evidence he's gathered. Eventually he connects the dots and tricks Leland into following him to the Sheriff's office, where he locks Leland inside an interrogation room as BOB rages and screams.
With BOB in control, Leland confesses to Laura's murder and has another hysterical fit in the interrogation room, dying by suicide in a final petty act of revenge from BOB. As he dies, Leland experiences a brief moment of lucidity, where he recognizes what he's done and sees a vision of Laura. The morning after Leland's death, Cooper and his investigators debate whether BOB was really in control at all, and where he might have disappeared to after leaving Leland.
Dale Cooper's old partner seeks revenge
Just three days after the Laura Palmer case is closed, special agents Preston King (Gavan O'Herlihy) and Roger Hardy (Clarence Williams III) arrive in Twin Peaks to suspend Dale Cooper from the FBI. They claim that Cooper's suspension is due to his cavalier methods and his involvement with Jacques Renault, citing a missing shipment of cocaine that was meant to be recovered during a sting investigation.
To make matters worse, Cooper's former partner Windom Earle (Kenneth Welsh) escapes from a mental hospital at an unspecified time during Cooper's investigation. We learn that Cooper previously had an affair with Earle's wife, and that Earle murdered her in cold blood after discovering her infidelity. Following his suspension, Cooper is forced into a deadly game of chess with Earle –- with Earle murdering somebody every time Cooper takes one of his pieces. Earle also frequently sends Cooper pieces of his wife's clothing, taunting his former partner as he scrambles to fix his rapidly collapsing career as an FBI agent.
Earle's campaign of vengeance reaches its pinnacle near the end of "Twin Peaks" Season 2, when Earle kidnaps Cooper's love interest Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham) and brings her to the extradimensional hell known as the "Black Lodge."
Dale Cooper is trapped inside the Black Lodge
While one might assume that Windom Earle only journeys to Twin Peaks to torment his former partner Dale Cooper, we learn in Season 2, Episode 20, that his true reason for visiting the town is to uncover the Black Lodge.
Earle is a former member of Project Blue Book who is assigned to investigate Twin Peaks, Washington, where he becomes obsessed with two extra-dimensional realms called the White Lodge and the Black Lodge, said to be hidden somewhere within the woods of Twin Peaks. Earle figures out how to enter the lodge and flees there with Annie Blackburn in tow, forcing Cooper to follow him into the Lodge and rescue her. Cooper passes through dreamlike halls of the lodge and encounters doppelgangers of many "Twin Peaks" characters, before ultimately confronting Earle deep within the lodge.
In an act of selflessness, Cooper promises to give his soul to Earle in exchange for Annie's safety, which inadvertently angers BOB. BOB appears inside the lodge and claims Earle's soul instead, killing Earle in the process. BOB then traps the real Dale Cooper inside the lodge, possessing a doppelganger of Cooper and escaping into the real world.
Dale Cooper escapes the Black Lodge 25 years later
Dale Cooper spends the next 25 years trapped inside the Black Lodge, while his doppelganger (known as Mr. C) runs amok and commits numerous atrocities under the possession of BOB.
In September 2016, Mike and The Man from Another Place tell Dale that he must return Mr. C to the Black Lodge in order to be free again, and Dale exits the lodge to find himself in the midst of a mysterious purple sea. Cooper encounters several extra-dimensional spirits before entering a device that is supposed to swap places with Mr. C, theoretically returning the doppelganger to the lodge. Unfortunately, the device makes Cooper swap places with a man in Las Vegas named Dougie Jones (Kyle MacLachlan), a duplicate created by Mr. C to prevent this exact plan from succeeding.
Realizing that the real Dale Cooper has escaped, Mr. C enacts a series of assassination attempts against Cooper using the connections he's built up over the last 25 years. Cooper manages to thwart all of these attempts, and makes his way back to the town of Twin Peaks to finish what he started in 1989.
Dale Cooper confronts his doppelganger
Following a brief prison sentence and subsequent escape in Montana, Mr. C arrives in Twin Peaks on October 2, 2016, the same day that the real Dale Cooper returns to town. The two Coopers both make their way to the Twin Peaks Sheriff's station, where the doppelganger meets Frank Truman (Robert Forster) and the high-pitched receptionist Lucy Moran (Kimmy Robertson). The real Cooper calls ahead to Lucy to explain the situation, and when the doppelganger attempts to pull his gun, Lucy shoots him first. Cooper arrives to find a group of "woodsmen" trying to revive the doppelganger's body, while the spirit of BOB exits the corpse in a black orb and begins attacking everyone in the station.
The orb is subsequently broken apart by security guard Freddie Sykes (Jack Wardle), apparently destroying BOB. Cooper follows this act by placing Teresa Banks' ring (the same ring that once foiled BOB's plan to possess Laura Palmer) on his doppelganger's finger. This causes the doppelganger and the ring to vanish and reappear in the Black Lodge, earning Dale Cooper his long awaited victory over BOB.
Dale Cooper creates an alternate timeline after his battle
Although one might assume that Dale Cooper would take some time to rest, he instead decides to go back in time to try and prevent the death of Laura Palmer.
Immediately after his fight with the doppelganger, Cooper, Diane Evans (Laura Dern), and FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole (David Lynch) enter a mysterious door in the furnace room of the Grand Northern Hotel, which transports them to a supernatural convenience store. Inside the store they find the long-lost Philip Jeffries (now trapped in the body of a tea kettle), who agrees to send them back to February 23rd, 1989. Cooper arrives back at that date and successfully leads Laura away from Jacques Renault's cabin, averting her murder by Leland Palmer. As he leads her away from this fate, Laura mysteriously disappears and Cooper is transported back to the lodge, where Mike asks, "Is it future or is it past?"
Cooper eventually leaves the lodge and reunites with Diane Evans, and the two of them drive through a portal at the end of a distant road. The portal transports them to what is apparently an alternate timeline where nobody has ever heard of Laura Palmer, and Cooper meets a waitress named Carrie (Sheryl Lee) who looks identical to Laura but has no memory of Twin Peaks. This time-bending conclusion to "Twin Peaks" opens up the possibility of alternate realities and alternate timelines, and suggests that perhaps Laura Palmer being saved has altered the very fabric of the universe.
Inconsistencies in the timeline
Because the final scene of "Twin Peaks" shows how inconsequential time is within the series (implying that Dale Cooper's quest to save Laura Palmer essentially creates an entire new continuity), it shouldn't surprise viewers to learn that the "Twin Peaks" timeline has some major inconsistencies.
Most of these inconsistencies pop up in "Twin Peaks" tie-in novels like "The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" and "Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier." The diary erroneously places the events of the original series in 1990 and slightly alters the timeline of BOB's possession of Leland. "The Final Dossier" is even more inconsistent, changing the age of Annie Blackburn, retconning the date of Caroline Earle's death, and placing several other events at different points on the timeline. Like the diary, this oddly inconsistent novel is considered to be canon, having been written by series co-creator Mark Frost himself.
The dossier also explains more clearly that Laura Palmer's murder case remains "unsolved" and that nobody in the town seems to recall that she was ever missing in the first place. When asked about it, the townsfolk just look slightly dazed, and there is no information about Laura Palmer after February 23rd, 1989. One could certainly interpret these inconsistencies as facets of the new timeline that Cooper created, particularly in the case of Laura Palmer. At the end of the day, however, they simply prove that the "Twin Peaks" timeline is convoluted and ever-changing, much like the surreal nature of the series itself.