Origin stories are never one and the same, but Twin Peaks really took it about ten steps farther.

Exploring the true history behind Bob, Laura, and their connection to one another is not an easy task. Tackling that requires giving the audience enough information to piece it all together, or in this case, distract them by stripping it down to nothing except for some mysterious sequences. 

Twin Peaks Season 1 Episode 8 really relied on little to no dialogue and specific context clues to help piece together how Bob came to be, and where Laura would fit in all this. Turns out their history with one another didn't start in Twin Peaks, at least not with what was being hinted at.

Bob emerged, or came to be, around the time of the first atomic bomb testing. 

The footage during July 16, 1945 specifically focused on the bomb test being successful, and then Bob appearing from it. 

Knowledge of Bob's existence actually was immediate, with The Giant being made aware of it and trying to combat the evil that he must have known was coming.

Here is where my thinly structured theory forms, with Laura Palmer. 

She appears during the sequence with the golden egg being produced from The Giant, as a response to Bob appearing on Earth. It is very possible that Laura was created as the good that is meant to defeat the evil.

Perhaps even a parallel to Evil Cooper and Good Cooper?

Cooper, the one we know and love, needs to resurface to defeat the Evil Cooper doppelganger that is wrecking havoc. This ties him in with Laura and Bob, going back to the very beginning. 

Right off the bat Cooper and Laura seemed to share an understanding of some kind, from that first meeting in The Black Lodge.

This could trace back to Laura and Cooper, and also might hint at what we can expect to see next. 

For example: Laura was created to take down Bob, who was released from Evil Cooper in this episode. Does this mean the real Cooper found his opening to defeat Evil Cooper and Bob?

He was told to find Laura when he was still in The Black Lodge, another clue that might require some exploring. 

Was us experiencing the Bob/Laura origin story a set up for Laura to return to help get rid of Bob once and for all?

Is it even possible to bring Laura back? Going by what we have seen so far, maybe. 

Now about that chunk of time that was dedicated to a black and white film style story that might bring it around even more full circle.

The testing of the atomic bomb could have been the thing that started it all, and what is making everything else possible now.

The explosion made way for Bob, which made way for Laura, and possibly for Cooper as well. But what about those weird dirty guys that kept popping up, especially the guy who was looking for a light?

This is the water, this is the well, drink full and descend; the horse is the white of the eyes and dark within.

Man Wanting A Light

• Permalink: This is the water and this is the well. Drink full.

They could have formed then too, waiting until Bob was set to rise as well.

The first time he took over someone could actually have been that girl, when that toad thing crawled into her through. There could even be some importance in her identity, because some of the characters from Twin Peaks could have fit this description

That could be a bit off though, which is why we might need to focus on that group of weird guys and the way the radio was used to manipulate or kill the people that were listening. 

This main guy who wanted a light repeated a phrase over and over again, yet it is the use of the radio itself. Is this the original call back to electricity and how it is utilized in this revival? 

There was a focus on Cooper appearing back into the real world through electricity, but it has been used in other causes that couldn't have all been one big coincidence. 

All in all, things might actually start to make sense in the near future. 

At first, experiencing an episode like this that focused on no dialgoue and only sequence shots was frustrating. There are plenty of conclusions that can only be drawn if there is active focus on small detais such as The Giant levitating up and producing Laura through the gold.

There is no spoken confirmation, at least for the time being. And when there are characters that mean more going forward, it isn't always easy to spot them right away.

The black and white approach also created a different story, distancing itself from the horror stories we are being told in present time. It was another time period back then, it can't be observed the way we would do now because it was so out of the norm then.

Now it doesn't seem all that strange to see something possess a person or an evil spirit forming within an area. But back then in the 50's, this story was just beginning and Bob was only starting to grow into what he is known as now.

There was almost a sense of innocence that exploded just as the atomic bomb did, and nothing was ever the same after that because that is what sparked everything else from there on out.

But as always, I have to mention that for a show entitled Twin Peaks, we are not seeing much of it at all. Providing the audience with small clues like this time around is a start, but we are almost at the halfway mark and we only know so much.

The least that we can hope for is Evil Cooper being released of the Bob bubble being the reason for Cooper to finally be clued in again. There was a glimpse of that before, and Evil Cooper might get us to that point at last.

What did you think of this episode doing a little something different? Was the Bob/Laura origin story worth spending an entire episode on it? Where do you see things going from here? What other theories did you have about how all of this comes together? Let us know below.

And it is always worthy going back to maybe notice some moments that you didn't before, which is why you can watch Twin Peaks online right here on TV Fanatic.

Yana Grebenyuk was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in April 2021.