Laura Palmer

Laura Palmer is a fictional character in the Twin Peaks franchise and the primary focus of the series. She is portrayed by Sheryl Lee and was created by the series creators David Lynch and Mark Frost. She first appears in the ABC original series Twin Peaks. A high school student whose death is the catalyst for the events of the series, Palmer is the protagonist in Lynch's prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), which depicts the final week of her life leading up to her murder. Laura also appears in the novels, Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), and a variety of merchandise based on the series.

Laura (played by Sheryl Lee, who also played her cousin Maddy Ferguson) was well known and loved in Twin Peaks; she volunteered at Meals on Wheels, was her school's Homecoming Queen, and was (apparently) the darling of her parents, Sarah (Grace Zabriskie) and Leland (Ray Wise). However, the series gradually revealed that Laura led a double life: she was a cocaine addict, a victim of child sexual abuse, a fetish model, and briefly, a sex worker at One Eyed Jacks, a casino/brothel just north of the Canada–US border. Officially involved with Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook), the high school football team captain, she was also engaged in a secret relationship with James Hurley (James Marshall). She also had sexual encounters with other Twin Peaks citizens, such as businessman Ben Horne (Richard Beymer) and trucker/drug dealer Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re).

The discovery of Laura's body in the pilot episode of Twin Peaks brings Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) to investigate her death. Her murder and its effect on those around her propel the first season and the first eight episodes of the second season. Laura remains a prominent character afterward, as her death exposes many secrets related to her, and also, in some cases, unrelated, such as the Packard mill conspiracy. Laura also appears in Cooper's dreams, offering cryptic clues as to the identity of her killer.

Laura's first diary is uncovered in the first episode, but her 2nd secret diary is not recovered until later. The secret diary contains passages suggesting that she had been sexually abused by a malevolent entity named Bob (Frank Silva) since she was a child. In her diary she referred to Bob as a friend of her father's.

In the prequel/sequel Fire Walk with Me, Laura's spirit makes the transition to the afterlife when an angel appears to her, showing that her nightmare is finally over.

During the second season, the identity of her murderer was revealed: her father, Leland, who had sexually abused her for years while being possessed by Bob. Before his death in police custody, Leland tells Cooper and the others that he had not been aware of his own actions during the times Bob possessed him. As Leland dies, Laura appears before him in a vision, and it is implied that she forgives him and welcomes him to the afterlife.

Laura appears inside the Black Lodge during the series finale, as both herself and an evil doppelgänger version.

Sheryl Lee reprised her role as Laura in the 2017 revival. In "Part 2", Laura Palmer removes her face to reveal a mysterious white light emanating from within her body. She is shortly whisked away by an unseen force. In "Part 8", a glowing orb containing Laura's portrait is sent to Earth in 1945 by the Fireman and Senorita Dido, shortly after the creation of Bob during the testing of the first nuclear bomb.