Twin Peaks paved the way for provocative serialized drama on television back when it premiered in 1990, but after the show revealed the main killer, it lost steam and was canceled after season 2. However, at that point in the show, revealing who killed Laura Palmer was only one part of the storyline, so why did it destroy the entire series?
Twin Peaks centers around the question of who killed Laura Palmer. The series begins with the discovery of Laura's body wrapped in plastic along the riverbank outside of Twin Peaks, a small logging town in the Pacific Northwest. From there, many odd things begin to unfold, including eerie dream sequences and supernatural events. A host of oddball characters are introduced as Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) comes to the town to investigate Laura Palmer's murder.
The first season of Twin Peaks had a huge viewership, with an audience of 34 million people tuning to watch at the height of the show's success. Nevertheless, after executives at ABC pressured the show's writers to reveal who killed Laura Palmer in the middle of season 2 for sweeps week, the show's viewership began to plummet. Although part of this has to do with the meandering quality of season 2, with the mystery of Laura's killer solved, many viewers no longer had any reason to watch the show. This proved unfortunate because it turned out that Laura's killer was only one small part of the mystery surrounding Twin Peaks, and the show was canceled on a cliffhanger.
Interestingly, David Lynch knew that revealing who killed Laura Palmer would spell the demise of Twin Peaks. It was the central question around which the show was based. Nonetheless, Twin Peaks was a major hit and it drew the attention of too many television executives and writers. Lynch watched helplessly as season 2 fell apart, and there was little he could do about it.
Many viewers tuned out after discovering in the middle of season 2 that Laura's father, Leland Palmer, killed Laura while he was possessed by the evil spirit known as Killer BOB. Despite providing the big answer to the show's question, which Lynch didn't want to reveal, this information actually offered more questions about Twin Peaks. As an example, by the end of season 2, Agent Cooper knows that if Killer BOB is not stopped, he will kill again. He continues to pursue the mysteries surrounding the Black Lodge and its denizens—this could have fueled many more seasons. Instead, season 2 ended with Agent Cooper's soul trapped and Killer BOB laughing maniacally with Cooper's evil doppelganger.
It's unfortunate that so many bad episodes in season 2, combined with the untimely revealing of Laura Palmer's killer destroyed the original series. However, Twin Peaks: The Return, which premiered on Showtime in 2017, was able to pick up where the original series ended and continued to explore the surreal mysteries that make Twin Peaks so compelling, including what really happened to Laura Palmer. Hopefully, there will be a season 4 green-lit in the future, as the show proved that it's so much more than its central mystery.
