And besides, who cares about me when this is a blog specifically for all things Twin Peaks, David Lynch, and his other amazing cinematic masterpieces, whether in film, television, or art? LOL
Slave to Love by Bryan Ferry... A song I've been listening to lately and can't help but think about the original series of Twin Peaks. So many cross-over lovers in the show that give it the soap opera vibes. We have Laura Palmer with her loving/manipulating grasp on most of the men we're acquainted with: Bobby Briggs, James Hurley, Ben Horne, Leo Johnson, and possibly Dr. Jacoby. There could've been more lovers we're not aware of on Laura's part, but we all know she's the one with the most conquests than the women in the show.
We have Ed Hurley with Norma Jennings when he's still married to Nadine Hurley. And when Nadine has memory loss and her brain has reverted to that of a high school girl, Ed takes full advantage of it to get with Norma. Selfish, it does so seem, but this is love in its most powerful way of blinding one or two people to their desires. It ends abruptly when the consequences catch up with them when Nadine has her memories all restored and Ed takes her back.
James Hurley is another victim of being a slave to love as well, including Donna Hayward. James was in love with Laura, but during his time with Laura, he was falling for Donna, and Donna was feeling the same for him. In the middle of something James thought was 'perfect', he finds another love right there in front of him all that time but tries to avoid it... until Laura dies. Seems pretty quickly he went running to Donna to cope with his sorrow, and Donna fell right into it with the same feelings and desires. And when Maddie, the look-alike cousin of Laura, dies, he blames himself and tears himself away from Donna and Twin Peaks as a whole. And when he's at the Marsh residence, he's all high on the love for Evelyn Marsh, the lady of the house. How quickly he is so susceptible to love over and over again, and each time resulting in something that haunts him and also brutally affects the lives of others.
As for Donna... she's just a girl in a dark patch in her life and was susceptible to it from being exposed to Laura's dark side. She probably thought James would keep her in the light after her friend's death. It did help, quite well actually, until Maddie came into town and caused James to almost ruin his relationship with Donna by becoming romantically drawn to Maddie. It was as if a reminder of Laura that caused more harm than good. Especially after she died at the hands of the same killer as her cousin.
Shelly Johnson's weakness in love all started with her relationship with Leo Johnson. As we all know, Leo was a nice and sweet guy before he married her, and afterward, treated her abusively and had her as if she was a maid he didn't have to pay. Shelly was deceived by the nature of a man she thought she loved, which is another thing about love: it can have the power of deception. She falls for Bobby Briggs, but this too starts out like a dream-come-true, the white knight fairy tale, she thinks of him until he starts thinking highly of himself with getting a bigger job by working with Ben Horne. He becomes so self-absorbed in his desire to gain power and begins shooing Shelly to the side as if unimportant to his goals... even though he thinks he's doing all this for her and not thinking of Shelly as more important than seeking a prestigious wealthy image.
Though Bobby Briggs is only a slave to love when it comes to Laura Palmer, he only becomes a slave to power and higher status. He doesn't qualify much for it, but he's still someone to consider for being involved with the greatest manipulator of the female spirit in the town of Twin Peaks.
We can not forget about Ben Horne. In the beginning, he's this guy we all know is bad business... and a slime-bag when it comes to young beautiful women. Laura was one of his loves and even displayed that love and fondness for her quite well. Even his daughter Audrey couldn't avoid noticing it with Laura's pictures in his office. At the end of the series, he is revealed to be the past lover of Eileen Hayward, who is no other than Donna's mother. The transformation he is willing to study and undertake to be a better self causes him to suddenly desire the woman he loved truly in the past, although she was married. Their relationship resulted in Donna's birth. A secret that was well-kept to the very end, due to Ben's desire to reveal the hardest truth by John Justice Wheeler's advice to ascend to become a better person. But instead of it doing good, it only made things worse. It ruined the relationship of the Hayward Family and might've done the same with the Horne Family. Love wouldn't seem much part of this explosion of events, but deep down inside, it is the seed that brought it all about. Without the birth of Donna, it would not have happened. Without love, Donna wouldn't have ever existed.
Audrey Horne... a girl with unrealistic desires and dreams, yet still captivates the power of love by the horns at its strongest. We'd think it would've been Laura, but really, Audrey is so naive that she is somehow the most susceptible to Love as a whole. And yet, she rises like a phoenix from the ashes after her realization that she could never capture Agent Dale Cooper's love and heart as much as she would like. After so much persistence to do so by helping him with his case, even risking her own life within the walls of One-Eyed Jacks, she ends her falling for a childhood friend John Justice Wheeler, who knew her father and worked for him and her father gave him an open opportunity to exceed in his aspirations of business. Her affair with him is cut short when John has to leave for Brazil to be the replacement for a friend who was murdered. Audrey's love still glows for him, no matter where he is and how long they'll be apart. Unlike the other women in the series, she strongly recovers hopes for the best in life and knows that love never ends when one has to leave, despite knowing when they'll return.
Special F.B.I. Agent Dale Bartholomew Cooper is probably the leading man being the slave to love. In the book My Life, My Tapes, we are revealed his conflict with the powers of love since his school years and college, way before his acquaintance with Caroline Earle, the wife of his agent partner Windom Earle. For those who haven't read the book, it's a must-read. It features all his tapes since Day 1 when he got the tape recorder as a gift from his father. Throughout the book, the loves he pursues are undeniably troublesome on Cooper's part, and we know he's a massive slave to the love he wants so much for a woman... or in fact proof of his lustful desires. When he got with a married woman, Caroline (just like James did with Evelyn Marsh), it was already doomed to the outcome that consequentially emerged. He loved her, indeed, but her death affected him so much that he refused to romantically attach himself to any woman who was attached to the cases he undertook. In his logic gained from this devastating experience, love led to death when they were too close to his profession. When he met Annie Blackburn, it was somewhat of a revelation to love to him... or lust once again. He fell too quickly for it to be love, as he did in the past before Caroline, but that could be just me. As from what was discussed in the book of his tapes, it seemed to me that Cooper was subconsciously revisiting his failures once again with Annie by falling into lust, but only this time leading him to the trap that would have him enclosed from our world for 25 years. Love or its sister Lust snared his heart, mind, and soul, and gave him nothing more than blindness to his passion to save everyone he loves and cares for.
BOB would be a slave to love as well, despite being only a merciless entity of the Black Lodge. His fondness and obsession with Laura Palmer is actually something to marvel at... at the same time being utterly shocking and terrifying. BOB doesn't know how to love, but he knows how it feels. And his love for Laura was so overpowering, that he wanted to be her... like an obsessed stalker in the movies wanting to be their attractive victim by taking their skins and wearing them. It's a sick and gross thought, truly, but Love has its extremes. We could assume that BOB had only lust for Laura's intoxicating prowess, but he had abusively loved her since she was 13 when she became a woman upon receiving her monthly cycle. This would seem strange... her essence of luring men upon puberty... her pubescent scent winning over BOB more than any human man in existence.
Thank you for reading this article. Much love to all Twin Peaks/Lynchian fans worldwide who read these articles and enjoy being part of this community. :)
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