"Find Laura" 101

"FIND LAURA" 101

I adore "Find Laura," but it's not very easy to undestand. As a series of informal Reddit essays, it presents a dense network of ideas and symbols at a rapid pace.
This page will be an attempt to present the main ideas of the theory in a format that's easier to understand, as well as related esoteric subjects (ex. numerology.)
"TWIN PEAKS" IS A SHOW WITH EXPLICIT AND MATURE THEMES. IF YOU AREN'T INTERESTED IN READING ABOUT THESE, CLICK HERE TO BE REDIRECTED.

PREVIEW: I've decided to upload the "Fundamentals" section of my first draft. Please enjoy. :)

Find Laura 101
Version 1.0
FUNDAMENTALS
These are some of the key principles underlining “Find Laura.” STRUCTURE

These essays are a scene-by-scene analysis of The Return, with occasional steps into “Fire Walk With Me”, or key episodes of the original series’ run.
None of the books are considered relevant.
Of the first two seasons, only episodes directed by David Lynch himself are considered relevant. This is because “Find Laura” is an analysis concerning abstraction, inner spaces, and symbolism; these are all Lynch’s major contributions to the series, and running themes in much of his work in general.

TWIN NARRATIVES
“Find Laura”, at its core, argues the existence of two narratives within “Twin Peaks.”
1. One is the surface or top-level narrative:

Laura Palmer was sexually abused for years by a man who climbed into her bedroom at night. She eventually discovered that this man was actually a predatory evil spirit that lived in her father’s body.
The town of Twin Peaks has portals to other worlds, conspiracies on local and federal scales, trapped spirits, small-town charm, mysterious beings, a soap opera’s worth of infidelity, and local legends that might be true.
Laura Palmer feared that BOB wanted to live on in her body and possess her to do evil things, so she allowed herself to be murdered by him.
Dale Cooper bent the laws of time and space in an attempt to rescue her from her own murder in a classic tale of heroism and hubris.

2. The other is the hidden, unconscious narrative that tells us the truth:

Laura Palmer was sexually abused for years by her father, but as a child she had developed a belief that a man named BOB was breaking into her room at night. When she found undeniable proof that “BOB” was never real – her rapist had been her father the entire time - it triggered an extreme mental breakdown and week-long drug binge.
As a result of this breakdown, Laura Palmer’s delusions got much worse; “BOB” was no longer a mortal man but a demon that possessed and forced her father to do these things.
Laura Palmer’s death was a suicidal fantasy and a metaphor for her mental processes as she spiraled from these revelations about her father. Her mind broke into two pieces; one half of her clung to the idea that her innocent father was possessed by a hungry evil spirit, and the other half took the undeniable proof that he wasn’t and buried it in the deepest, most unreachable parts of her mind.
“The Return” is about a rare opportunity for Laura Palmer to realize the truth about her father, re-unite the split halves of her mind, and begin healing. We never see what this opportunity is or what comes of it; in fact, we never see anything conclusive about these unseen 25 years of Laura Palmer’s life.

TWIN PEAKS

The only glimpses we get of the “real” Twin Peaks are in “Fire Walk With Me.”
Recall how David Lynch himself described BOB as “an abstraction in human form.” Aside from some scenes in FWWM, everything we see and everyone we meet in this series is an abstraction of a thought, feeling, impulse, or desire in Laura Palmer’s mind – even if that abstraction is based on someone or something that she knew in “real life.”
There are NO supernatural beings or events in Twin Peaks.