What is possessing Sarah Palmer in revival series Twin Peaks: The Return? Twin Peaks took the world by storm during its first season, with the David Lynch / Mark Frost created series offering viewers a truly unique blending of tones and quirky characters. There hadn’t been anything like it on TV before, and it became a pop culture sensation. Sadly, its popularity quickly waned during its second season and it was canceled, while the 1992 prequel film Fire Walk With Me was met with unjustly savage reviews.

The show only grew in estimation in the years that followed, however, and its impact on the television landscape could be seen in the likes of Lost. Lynch and Frost eventually came back to their most iconic creation with 2017 miniseries Twin Peaks: The Return, which saw most of the original cast come back for a show that somehow managed to meet, subvert and exceed expectations all at once. The miniseries was a blend of thriller, comedy, existential drama, satire, horror and everything in-between.

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Twin Peaks: The Return also caught up with Sarah Palmer, played by Grace Zabriskie. Sarah was the mother of Laura Palmer, the teenager whose tragic murder kicked off the entire saga. Sarah was emotionally devastated by Laura’s death, and famously had a terrifying vision of the entity BOB in her house shortly after. The show eventually revealed it was her husband Leland – under possession by BOB – who killed Laura, and he had been sexually abusing her for years. Twin Peaks: The Return featured a subplot with Sarah, revealing her to be a lonely alcoholic, and in episode 14 it’s revealed she’s being possessed by an unknown entity.

In this Twin Peaks: The Return episode, she’s approached by an aggressive trucker and after he refuses to leave her alone, she removes her own face to show a creature beneath. It smiles before Sarah puts back on her face and bites his throat out. Naturally, fans have debated this scene at length, speculating on just what is possessing Sarah Palmer. Many believe it to be Judy, the ancient, malevolent being who feasts on human pain and in episode 8 is revealed to have come into the world through a nuclear explosion.

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Judy also spawned BOB, the being who caused so much trauma in Twin Peaks. It would make sense Judy would make its home inside Sarah, as her suffering over her daughter’s abuse and murder would be profound, but the show never confirms either way if it is Judy. Notably, the creature smiles with Laura’s smile before killing the trucker, suggesting it could be Laura’s own evil doppelganger possessing her.

It’s also possible this creature has been with Sarah Palmer her whole life. In Twin Peaks: The Returns’ standout episode 8, a hatchling creature resembling a frog with wings is seen crawling inside the mouth of a young girl. This happens in 1956 after the Woodsman broadcasts a message over the radio, and many viewers seem to believe the young girl was Sarah. Twin Peaks: The Return has also made the link that fear and despair often travels over the airwaves, and in this case, the Black Lodges entities may have literally hatched within Sarah from a young age, which in this case, nurtured the dark entity possessing her and feeding off her pain.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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