Killer BOB - Character Arc

Character Arc

Killer BOB is a demonic entity from the Black Lodge, a realm of pure evil which exists on an alternate plane of reality. He spends most of his time on Earth possessing human beings, although he also travels in the form of an owl. While possessing humans, he commits horrible crimes to elicit pain, fear, and suffering from those around him; these feelings, which Black Lodge residents refer to collectively as garmonbozia, act as a form of nourishment. Physically, garmonbozia takes the shape of creamed corn, which is referenced in the series when Laura Palmer’s best friend Donna takes over Laura’s “meals on wheels” route and accidentally serves the Tremonds creamed corn. In the film Fire Walk With Me, MIKE accuses Laura's father Leland of stealing the corn he had canned “above the store”. Secondly, garmonbozia refers to “pain and suffering”. BOB, and possibly MIKE or other inhabitants of the Lodge, feed on garmonbozia, as it is mentioned by name and/or description throughout the series and movie by Mike, Bob, the Tremonds, and The Man from Another Place.

Dale Cooper first learns of Killer BOB's existence in a vision, in which he encounters another entity named MIKE. In this vision, Cooper learns that BOB was in life a serial killer who raped and murdered young women with MIKE as his accomplice; MIKE eventually repented, removing his left arm in order to be rid of the tattoo that he shared with BOB. At the beginning of the second season, one of BOB's intended victims, Ronnette Pulaski, awakens from a coma induced by her torture at BOB's hands, at which time she identifies BOB as Laura's killer. Cooper and the Twin Peaks Sheriff department canvass the town with wanted posters of BOB, using Andy's sketch; Leland Palmer, Laura's father, identifies the man in the poster as "Robertson", and says that he lived near his grandfather and used to taunt Leland when he was a child.

"When Leland talks about knowing Bob as a child and says this was someone who invited me to play and I invited him in, there's a certain classic type of vampire myth that comes into play when a soul that invites something into it to take part in its life cannot then refuse it anything. That's a myth that goes way back before pre-Christian times and that's one possible explanation... the other is that Leland is just completely whacked out of his mind"

Mark Frost describing Killer BOB's psychic power, from the book Twin Peaks Behind-the-scenes: An Unofficial Visitors Guide to Twin Peaks

It is later revealed that BOB is in fact possessing Leland, and has been possessing him ever since Leland first met him as a child at his grandfather's house. Under BOB's influence, Leland molested, raped, and finally murdered his own daughter. Cooper later determines that BOB is possessing Leland, and tricked him into a trap, in which BOB responds with taunting Cooper before forcing Leland to commit suicide. In his dying breaths, Leland states when he was a child he saw BOB in a dream and invited him inside, before stating that he never knew when BOB was in control of his body. After Leland dies, Cooper engages in a philosophical debate with Sheriff Truman and Albert Rosenfield over how real BOB was, and whether or not BOB was in fact a physical incarnation of Leland's personal demons. Although the men cannot agree on a unifying idea, they do come to the conclusion that BOB is a manifestation of "the evil that men do".

Following Leland's death, BOB takes the form of an owl in the woods outside Twin Peaks, and isn't seen again for a while. In the final episode, Cooper ventures into the Black Lodge to apprehend his former partner, rogue FBI Agent Windom Earle, who is attempting to harness the power of the Lodge for himself. When Earle tries to strike a bargain with Cooper in which Cooper will sell his soul to Earle in exchange for Earle not murdering Cooper's lover, Annie, BOB appears, causing time in the Lodge to reverse to the moment before Cooper agreed to sell his soul. BOB informs Cooper that the Black Lodge is his domain, and thus Earle has trespassed by coming into it and demanding Cooper's soul for himself. As a punishment, BOB kills Earle, taking Earle's soul for himself. Cooper attempts to flee, but BOB traps him in the Lodge, exiting in the form of a doppelganger of Cooper. The series ends with a maniacally laughing BOB examining his new body in a mirror.