I have a question about Mike and Bob,who are they actually?Had they always been spirits,or they had been human beings,who had died and turned into spirit forms,we see the scene when Leland talks to Cooper about a long-haired man,named Robertson,who used to play with him,when he was a little boy.Isn't it strange that this man(Bob)Leland talks about, hasn't changed yet,and Leland recognised him on the drawing.WHO IS BOB IN FACT AND WHAT IS HE ?Is Bob Robertson his whole name?We know the letters under the fingernails-R O B T-which show his name,so I think that maybe Bob was alive in the past and after that turned into immortal spirit.I think that nothing and nobody can stop Bob,as love and fear still exist on this world,he will never die,even his name proves it-BOB backwards is again BOB,which means the evil is endless,only if everyone is fearless and doesn't feel love(like BOB),may be then he can die,but this is impossible!I've also heard that Bob used to be Mike's servant,who was helping Mike to collect fear for him(garmonbozia),but then Bob became very powerful and unstoppable and Mike was afraid of that and thought that Bob didn't need him anymore and for this reason he wants to stop Bob now.I've read this in an article,what do you think about this theory?

i've never seen BOB as a human.  after all, mike says they are "inhabiting spirits".  i've always seen the spirits from the lodges as being neither good nor bad, except for BOB.  i kind of see them as something like how the greeks viewed their gods....powerful, sometimes benevolent, sometimes cruel, always with their own agenda; which seems to be gathering garmonbozia, in the case of the spirits from the lodges.  BOB i see as kind of a rogue.  like maybe the spirits have something of a gentleman's club.  they all kind of do their own thing, but all come together and agree on how the food is split up.  and perhaps BOB just decided to go it on his own, and went a bit out of control, and now the rest are trying to reign him in.  as forwhy leland would have seen the same BOB when he was a kid....it is mentioned repeatedly in the series that only certain people can see the spirits, and each in a different way.  coop sees them in dream, mrs. palmer in visions, laura and ronnette face to face, and so on.  i suppose it depends on how "sensitive" to such things each person is, and how the spirits choose to reveal themselves.  also, remember that hawk tells stories about how these lodges and spiritis have always been in the woods. 

The way I see it, BOB is not human.

When Leland "met" the man who looked exactly like BOB, he was meeting the man who was possessed by BOB at that time. If you remember the "gifted and the damned" see BOB's true face.

I see...So Bob has always been an evil spirit...Well is Bob Robertson his name?(because he was trying to spell this name by the letters under the fingernails)

or just spelling out the full name "robert"

I think you're trying to find a literal explanation for something that is only a feeling.  Bob is as much the Owl as the physical form of Frank Silva or Ray Wise.  I tend to think that Lynch would like us to feel just as much that Bob is, as Albert says, "the evil that men do" although he also likes to hint that he's more supernatural and otherly-worldly than that.  That's all part of the duality of Lynch's work.

I just thought in the beginning that Bob was a human who turned into spirit,but as you all say he's not a human,but I don't think he's the evil that men do,like Albert said!Even Laura said "BOB IS REAL"I was just wondering where he came from...when and why.

I was just wondering where he came from...when and why.

well, it's really hard to know for sure with soemthing like that. There is nothing in the show or movie that gives any real hint either way.

Perhaps BOB was once human, and became a spirit. Perhaps he has always been one. I guess this is one of those places where you have to fill in the gaps yourself, and come up with your own story.

We do know from the show that the Black/White lodges have ancient origin, and so surely the spirits who dwell within them have been around. But maybe after some time, an old spirit steps down, and a new spirit takes his place. Who knows for sure?

Yeah,you are right,everyone has to come up with his own story.I think this was the idea of Lynch,he just likes open ended stories;)

Even Laura said "BOB IS REAL"I was just wondering where he came from...when and why.

Yes, Laura said that but you've got to remember that if someone is crazy and says he sees green people jumping around, he probably says those green people are real. That doesn't prove them real but it doesn't prove that those couldn't be real either.

I believe Bob really could be "the evil that men do" and somehow visible to some people. Just like Mrs. Chalfont/Tremond says in the meeting scene in the script of FWWM: "Why not be composed of materials and combinations of atoms?" They can be spirits but why not they could be partly visible and look like us human beings at the same time.

Really very very strange...yes,that could be possible.Bob was real only for Laura,like Mike said:"This is his true face,but only few can see it..." the gifted and the damned.Laura was one of these.And Agt Cooper,too.

I'm amazed of Lynch's mind and ideas!Just great!

When I first watched TWIN PEAKS I thought of it as a clever allegory about a man who rapes and murders his daughter and that, whilst the mystical Bob side of it was intriguing, Leland was ultimately schizophrenic and like Norman Bates in "Psycho" or Robert De Niro's character in "Hide and Seek" had no idea of his actions when under the influence of his alter ego.

However, there is one moment in "Fire Walk With Me" where it's made apparent that Laura doesn't know that Leland is Bob, she suspects that he might be, but the very fact that she doesn't know for sure, means that when Bob comes to her she sees him as Frank Silva, not Ray Wise.  This could be used as evidence to suppose that Laura also suffers from mental illness, of course.

when Bob comes to her she sees him as Frank Silva, not Ray Wise.  This could be used as evidence to suppose that Laura also suffers from mental illness, of course.

 Yes,it's true...but remember that scene in FWWM when Bob comes into her bedroom through the window and begins to kiss her,at first Laura sees him as Frank Silva,and at the end she sees her father(Ray Wise) and starts screaming.From this moment she knows that Bob had inhabited her father.

P.S.Oh,my God...did Laura and Leland(inhabited by BOB) make sex that night?Poor Laura:(this was her own father!!!

That scene takes place after the one I'm referring to where Laura is out on the grass and watches Leland leave, after popping home at lunch time.

This is my point, that up until then, I had imagined Laura knew that it was her father all along and that the Bob element was all in Leland's mind.  Lynch makes it clear in FWWM that Laura saw Bob initially, or maybe her own psychosis and drug habits meant she wasn't always able to see or remember clearly in the past.

P.S.Oh,my God...did Laura and Leland(inhabited by BOB) make sex that night?Poor Laura:(this was her own father!!!

Yes, and he's been "having" her since she was twelve.

And referring to the script:

"Bob appears in her window and enters the room. Bob moves down on top of her. His hand moves between her legs. Laura fights with all her might to keep staring at his face. To know it. To unlock it. Her hands go up. She holds his face... squeezes it as he moves on top of her. Slowly, what she always knew deep inside of her becomes clear. BOB BECOMES LELAND. She screams and passes out into hell."

She either wouldn't accept the fact that it was her own father or because of her being "gifted" she wasn't able to see beneath "the evil that men do" and only saw the origin of the power that makes people do such things as raping their own children.

Yes,I heard this phrase of Laura,which she told to Harold in FWWM:"He's been having me since I was twelve",I didn't know what this "having" means.

But Laura was talking about Bob.And in her diary she describes all the bad things he had forced her to do.Just a few days before her death she realises that Bob is actually in her father's mind and actions.In her diary she writes somewhere on the last pages:"I know who Bob is".I believe Leland loves Laura,but it is Bob who makes him do those disgusting things to his own daughter.When Leland dies in Cooper's hands,he sees Laura,in the light...He says that he was weak and let Bob inside him.He also says"They wanted Laura,but she was strong"She didn't give up,she didn't let BOB in.And she chose death instead of letting him posess her.This is very powerful scene,I was so sorry for Leland,but this scene shows how much he loves her.

Yeah, Leland is a tragic character.

I believe in the real world those who sexually abuse their children also love them very much... until their lust (bob) takes over. Leland himself might have been abused when he was a child himself. He "accepted" Bob inside of him. He was forced to accept his future of getting lust control his life. That almost happened to Laura. She almost accepted the same thing. Or actually her life was controlled by lust already but she almost accepted the "ultimate evil" take control.

Leland couldn't stop it. He was so young back then. It's always a tragedy when someone loses his innocense at such a young age. The best strategy for Bob is to try to "open" people in their early age. When someone grows up with someone constantly trying to affect on his/her sexuality and feelings it rarely does anything good to his/her future.

  The best strategy for Bob is to try to "open" people in their early age. When someone grows up with someone constantly trying to affect on his/her sexuality and feelings it rarely does anything good to his/her future.

 Yeah,I completely agree with this!This is his best strategy.Leland couldn't stop him,but Laura resisted!Although FWWM and TP's endings were very sad(especially FWWM's end),Laura and Cooper are the moral winners!

Hello. A newbie here. Just finished watching the series for the third time and felt like talking about it. While I realize lifting old posts isn't the best way to start, this topic is something I've been wondering about.

If Mike and BOB were never human, then when did they live above a convinience store? Whose arms where the tattoos "Fire Walk With Me" on? Cooper explains his dream in episode 3, where he says that Mike couldn't stand the killing anymore, so he cut his arm off. BOB wowed to kill again, so Mike shot him.

Seems weird Mike would just shoot BOB, if they were both just spirits at that point, habiting some bodies.

I got the impression that Mike and BOB were people at some point, who had been touched by spirits of the black lodge, and were killing as a result. Mike repented and cut of the tattoo, and killed BOB. He thought killing BOB would stop him, but instead it set him free from his body to inhabit others. Mike died later, and became an inhabitin spirit as well. The one armed man did lose his arm in a car accident, and had "Mom" as a tattoo, Mike just inhabited him since he was the correct shape.

Of course, this leaves is slighty unclear how BOB was Mike's familiar and why does he still seem to have power over him. Maybe Cooper was drawing conclusions from his dream before he understood the nature of the creatures.

It is also quite possible that Lynch & co didn't really know where they were going with Mike and BOB at the point when they filmed the first episodes.

--
Vesa 'wtw' Ahola [email protected]
Honk if you love peace and quiet.

 While I realize lifting old posts isn't the best way to start

Why not? I think it's much better than starting new threads about the same thing, especially if you have something interesting to add. And you asked good questions.

Unfortunately I tend to think that what you've written in the last paragraph of your post is closest to truth in this case...

Anyway, BOB as we see him later is very unlikely to ever have been just a human in my opinion. MIKE from FWWM as well.
But on the other hand some things revealed in Season One suggest that indeed (the shooting of BOB most of all). The only other convincing explanation I can think of is that whatever appeared in Cooper's dream was only a representation of how things really were with BOB and MIKE, and not the exact picture of the supernatural level.

While I realize lifting old posts isn't the best way to start

Why not? I think it's much better than starting new threads about the same thing, especially if you have something interesting to add. And you asked good questions.

Well, true. It's just that you sometimes see newbies pick up several topics without adding anything worthwhile to them. I was trying to say I don't intend to do that.

I kind of liked the idea of BOB being a human twisted and evil enough to be accepted by the black lodge as one of them. That would also make it possible for Cooper to become of the the white lodge spirits, as he is good enough.

Also, Leland and BOB have different apperances, while Mike looks the same in both personalities. I think it's around when they decided to use Mike more than just a short appearance they got a bit lost with the nature of the inhabiting spirits.

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Vesa 'wtw' Ahola [email protected]
"If you want to know what god thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to."
- Dorothy Parker

or just spelling out the full name "robert"

It's obviously a purely theoretical topic, but I wonder what would have happened if BOB had finished "writing" Robert? 

Maybe he would have started spelling it again and...again... :)

Wezz the Warlock,welcome to the board,i liked your thoughts about BOB and Mike,and I also like the idea of BOB being once a twisted human and then touched by the evil BL spirits.This way the BOB/Mike plot makes more sense to me...I've been always wondering about that!

Maybe he would have started spelling it again and...again... :)

Wezz the Warlock,welcome to the board,i liked your thoughts about BOB and Mike,and I also like the idea of BOB being once a twisted human and then touched by the evil BL spirits.This way the BOB/Mike plot makes more sense to me...I've been always wondering about that!

Then again, if BOB was originally human, and a serial killer, he did seem quite calm when he was in Leland. Sure, couple of murders, but he was in Leland for decades. If he was a spirit who wouldn't care if his host got caught, I would imagine he would have killed a lot more.

Maybe he did, but the link between Teresa Banks and Laura Palmer was the letter under the fingernail. Did he sometimes kill without levaing a letter as a clue? And why?

I know that's overanalyzing, and the answers don't exist, but BOB is a cool character and fun to think about.

--
Vesa 'wtw' Ahola  [email protected]
"May you live in interesting times, and attract the attention of important people."
- A chinese curse

Maybe he would have started spelling it again and...again... :)

Wezz the Warlock,welcome to the board,i liked your thoughts about BOB and Mike,and I also like the idea of BOB being once a twisted human and then touched by the evil BL spirits.This way the BOB/Mike plot makes more sense to me...I've been always wondering about that!

Then again, if BOB was originally human, and a serial killer, he did seem quite calm when he was in Leland. Sure, couple of murders, but he was in Leland for decades. If he was a spirit who wouldn't care if his host got caught, I would imagine he would have killed a lot more.

Maybe he did, but the link between Teresa Banks and Laura Palmer was the letter under the fingernail. Did he sometimes kill without levaing a letter as a clue? And why?

I know that's overanalyzing, and the answers don't exist, but BOB is a cool character and fun to think about.

Yes,BOB is a very cool character,and to me he's the base of the whole story about Twin Peaks.We may never know the answers we're looking for,but surely Teresa's murder was the first one with a letter under the fingernail,i don't know if BOB had killed anybody before Teresa,maybe no,maybe yes...everyone should fill the gaps with their own answers...