This is probably a silly question, but I was under the impression that Leyland was poisoning Sarah on the nights that he planned to abuse Laura.  Do you think thats true? Doesnt he give her a mug of milk or something on the evening before we see BOB rape Laura? Could it have been drugged? Surely otherwise Sarah would hear the cries of her daughter? Or was she really just ignoring the fact that it was happening?  Was she on medication that would help her sleep anyway?

Its all pretty vague in my mind admittedly (i have lent my DVDs to a friend so cant watch em!)

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Yeah, Leland was poisoning Sarah. Right before Maddy is murderd, we se Sarah crawl down the stairs and she feels very dizzy. Then she sees a white horse ("white horse" = heroine), and falls asleep.

After Coop & Co. have solved the case, Cooper are telling Sarah right before Leland's funural that he was giving her drugs so she wouldn't notice what he was doing. 

Both Laura and Sarah were drugged or drugged themselves in order to close their eyes to the horrible truth. To me, it isn´t so important weather Leland did this or not.

Ditte 

Yea, I think it's in the movie where we see Sarah drinking the milk Leland brought her and she stops drinking but Leland lifts the glass back up to her lips.

There's also the symbolism of a white horse being the horse Death rode on. So like a lot of things in Twin Peaks it could have dual meanings. 

 

I don't think Sarah was aware that she was being drugged... In the film she begins to drink the milk, stops and Leland insists, that's a plot device to show us he drugs her, not that she knows. I think there's a similar scene in "Lost" and other places...

Now, it's obvious that she was completely blind about, as she puts it in the series, what was going on in her house; we see that in the dinner scene. She probably *knows*, sees the mood changes in Leland, notices something not quite right in her daughter, but is in denial...

Got up early, found something's missing/ My only name/ No one else sees but I got stuck/ And soon forever came

The movie does show us the Palmer family life. Sarah must have suspected something, and she was obviously very afraid. She was just mentally broken by Leland, too weak to resist, and the drugs gave her an easy escape.

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I need someone really bad. Are you really bad?

Cooper clearly says, in episode 17, "your husband went so far as to drug you to keep his actions secret."  Can you really dispute this? 

In my opinion, the notion of the white horse in any way symbolising or suggesting heroin needs to be put to rest.  There is nothing in the show or the movie that indicates Palmer heroin use.  What's more, it seems more likely that the horse is some sort of spirit that comes to Sarah once she's been drugged.  The use of the black lodge inhabitant spotlight effect would seem to support this, in my mind.

Also, Loola, by "poisoning," do you mean intending to kill or harm?  I think that is how it is usually meant when one is said to poison another.  I think that "drugging," as others have used it here, is a more accurate term because I doubt that Leland or BOB wanted to harm Sarah through the act.  In fact, if they did want to harm her, I think something a little more violent than poisoning would be the preferred method, given the track record.  :)

Ah yes, I definitely meant drugging rather than poisoning, for sedation purposes only. :)
 

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Uh Loola. Btw I´m sorry. I don´t even know where you´re from. Just me, taking pride in protecting the new members

Ditte 

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Hard street drugs also don't seem the style of either a suburban dad or an evil spirit (BOB never gave Laura drugs...) and I may not party like I used to but- who puts heroin in people's drinks?  Rohypnol or GHB, maybe. 

I've posted this on the old board(s) before but still think it's a valid point: Lynch is no stranger to Jungian symbolism. A white horse in a dream can symbolize "a meeting with our feelings about death" (Tony Crisp, Dream Dictionary)  Either Sarah's psychic nature is telling her that death is near or she's slipping into a death-like sleep.  Trying to fight off the effects of sleeping pills and the like  can cause your brain to do some weird sh*t.  

The Celts (relevant to TP because of the Glastonbury thing) revered white horses for superstitious reasons (Something about the goddess Epona and a white horse.) It was a symbol of power in war for the Anglo-Saxons, especially King Alfred. Maybe the horse is a lodge spirit that protects Sarah when BOB is doing his nasty business. (We only see it twice, but it seems reasonable that BOB would drug Sarah, turn on the ceiling fan, go outside and re-enter through Laura's window.)

Got up early, found something's missing/ My only name/ No one else sees but I got stuck/ And soon forever came