Well, after being completely mindblown like all of us, the initial question came to my mind, sort of philosophical one.
During all those long years we used to think of BOB as a source of all evil as even confirmed by Abert saying something like: maybe BOB is evil men do. But what we witnessed last night, BOB is actually created( or at least activated?) by evil human actions. Also, such a bad bad human accomplishment like atomic bomb wasn't created by some lonely possessed maniac, it was big world wide governement project, involving bunch of scientists, Nobel prize laureates who used their hard earned skills and talent to do what? To create the worst massive destruction- genocide tool to date? Where are you going, world?
"I've become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds" - is a quote from the Bhagavad-Gita, attributed to American physicist Robert Oppenheimer (considered the "father" of the atomic bomb) on July 16, 1945. There's an interesting article here about the meaning of that sentence in the context of Hinduism. It's a very interesting read and a serviceable (if definitely not exclusive) key to the interpretation of some of the symbolism in TP.
Hinduism has a non-linear conception of time ("Time is a flat circle" as Rusty Cohle would put it) thus destruction and creation (death and life, but -- in a broader sense -- also "good and evil") are part of the same cycle.
This would also support the interpretation that we didn't witness the BIRTH of BOB -- or, to be precise, not the "first" birth (the primeval origin) of BOB: as soon as he's "extracted" from Mr. C we see the circle re-cycling.
Considering the Lodges as a 'timeless' place, where future, past and present are "All in One and One in All", this would make perfect sense: BOB is "the evil that men do" and it was ALWAYS "born from the bomb", way before the atomic bomb ever existed and after the atomic bomb will be long gone.
(Other random connections: the concept of time as "All in One, One in All" is the very definition of the deity Yog-Sothoth -- around which H.P. Lovecraft built his pantheon of Cosmic Horrors;
the Advent [or "coming" or "birth"] of BOB is -- to a degree - remindful of how Stephen King describes the arrival of the titular monstruosity (which, incidentally, shares more than one conceptual resemblance with BOB and the Lodge dwellers) in his 1986 novel "IT )
I need someone who's more eloquent to poke in my brain and get out what I think but what you said about the born of the bomb is sorta what's in there.
I think there's almost a (very) vicious cycle happening in terms of BOB, Laura and Cooper in that all three are linked in time to cause the actions we see to happen over and over again.
BOB is born of the Bomb.
Laura is created to stop BOB.
Cooper's mother is pregnant via the frog-moth to become a doppelganger for BOB to be shot causing the whole thing to start again.
Then again this theory will probably change after episode 9 as all my thoughts have after each.
Haxan, this is very interesting what you're written, worth checking!
As for the theory it's obvious that evil has been existing since probably the very beggining but maybe the nuclear weapon explosion was sort of catalyst to activate these particular deamons- from above the convenience store.
Yeah, I know this sentence from Oppenheimer- devastating. So what's the stage of our human condition? Maybe BOB is just an excuse, people do not really need to be possessed to commit horrible acts.
HAXAN I couldn't have said it better.... IT is BOB! so many things are exactly the same....such alike minds King and Lynch...such geniuses....amazing
I do believe the secret and final understanding of the series rely exactly in the fact that time is a cycle...
And I believe Laura can be saved.....I believe that is the ultimate target....
HAXAN I couldn't have said it better.... IT is BOB! so many things are exactly the same....such alike minds King and Lynch...such geniuses....amazing
I do believe the secret and final understanding of the series rely exactly in the fact that time is a cycle...
And I believe Laura can be saved.....I believe that is the ultimate target....
Are you saying that Leland telling Cooper to find Laura meant finding Laura in the time before she became corrupt, so she could grow up differently to be the one to defeat Bob?
Häxan, Ella, and Moonchild :
I've read Häxan's linked Oppenheimer article and I'm curious if you all agree to the content, unrelated to Twin Peaks.
Isn't the writer criticizing Oppenheimer for feeling bad about the deaths in Hiroshima-Nagasaki? Basically saying : kill if you have to kill, life's suffering is illusion and everyone gets reincarnated anyway.
Big Bang -- BOmB -- BOB --- Bang Bang
Angela,I think he was roaming in Twin Peaks looking for a new host until he found...we know who. I need to rewatch ep( great BTW) of Leland's death when he says something like "Oh Leland, you were a good vessel.."
As i'm trying to understand how BOB possessing people works, do we know what happened to him exactly after leland killed himself? What really happened to BOB then? Shouldn't it be more or less the same as what happened when Mr C got shot??
Bob made Leland to hit his head on the wall/door, then he left Leland's body, i think what happened with Evil Coop is different, 1st because he is a doppleganger and 2nd because Ray maybe shot him to death while Bob was inside him
As i'm trying to understand how BOB possessing people works, do we know what happened to him exactly after leland killed himself? What really happened to BOB then? Shouldn't it be more or less the same as what happened when Mr C got shot??
Bob made Leland to hit his head on the wall/door, then he left Leland's body, i think what happened with Evil Coop is different, 1st because he is a doppleganger and 2nd because Ray maybe shot him to death while Bob was inside him
but do we know where did bob go after he left Leland's body? was he allowed to just go back to the lodge? did he want to? Are rules different for dopplegangers?
Maybe this is irrelevant but I'm trying to make a little sense out of all this and see if "the rules" where the same all along.
So... the nature of evil. It seems to me that this is (and remains) what TP is about. I keep thinking about that recent scene of Cole whistling in his office with the backdrop of the nuclear blast behind him on the wall.
Perhaps Lynch's bigger point here is: in the '40s we (our species) created something so heinous that to this very moment we don't fully realize (or accept) its' full meaning or potential... for 70-odd years we've simply been "whistling past the graveyard" as we've dodged one bullet after another ('62 Cuban missile crisis, a number of "command and control" errors) that might have resulted in nuclear catastrophe. And that, of course, isn't to mention the twin horrors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Is it simply a matter of time until we unleash this "evil" upon ourselves again?
As i'm trying to understand how BOB possessing people works, do we know what happened to him exactly after leland killed himself? What really happened to BOB then? Shouldn't it be more or less the same as what happened when Mr C got shot??
Bob made Leland to hit his head on the wall/door, then he left Leland's body, i think what happened with Evil Coop is different, 1st because he is a doppleganger and 2nd because Ray maybe shot him to death while Bob was inside him
but do we know where did bob go after he left Leland's body? was he allowed to just go back to the lodge? did he want to? Are rules different for dopplegangers?
Maybe this is irrelevant but I'm trying to make a little sense out of all this and see if "the rules" where the same all along.
As Ella said above, Bob after leaving Leland was roaming to find a new person to possess. As for if he likes being in the BL, i dont think so.
I dont know if there are other rules about the dopplegangers, i just assume in the case of Leland it was Bob's choice to leave him, in the Evil Coop's case he was gunned down by Ray, so that's why the Woodsmen appear and tried to fix him.
Good point with Gordon whistling song of the band named RAMMSTEIN which is America's airbase. Song's name is Engel so... It's not just a reminder that Lynch used to like this band and hire them to use their music in Lost Highway...
Fire walk with