What is up with the Twin Peaks Intro?

By Janessa Wilson

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Trigger warning: vague mentions of sexual abuse and controlling dynamics, and (obviously) spoilers for the original Twin Peaks show from 1990

One of the most famous tv shows of all time, the beloved cult classic Twin Peaks has retained its popularity and has grown ever since its jaw-dropping pilot in 1990. The show follows Special Agent Dale Cooper on his mission to solve the murder of Twin Peaks’ homecoming queen Laura Palmer. With its original and offbeat pilot, the show filled a niche within TV that no show has matched ever since. With such a popular show, one of the more curious things about it is its surreal intro. A slow and melodic song plays in the background as a series of still shots slowly follow one another, shots of birds, factories, and of the nature around the town. With a show so focused on a murder with its wide cast of eclectic characters, why is the intro so peculiar and vague? Does it have any meaning, the bird, the river, etc.? Or is it just to admire the admittedly beautiful shots of the setting within the lovely Pacific-Northwest? Twin Peaks’ intro shows the sequence of events after Laura Palmer’s death and also shows the cause of her death, all through symbolic imagery that shows the town’s true nature behind its sweet small town facade.

The intro starts off with a shot of a bird, specifically a female Varied Thrush, and this bird is meant to represent Laura Palmer and introduce one of the contrasting themes in the show, innocence. Birds are often used to symbolize complex themes such as death, and are commonly seen tied to the afterlife and spirituality in general, as they are free from earthly constraints such as gravity (Fiveable). The audience is being told that she is dead before the show even begins. The show confirms this right after the intro, with the pilot opening up to the discovery of her body. 

The bird represents Laura’s journey to the afterlife, along with beauty and innocence. Laura is shown to be conventionally attractive through her popularity, along with having her symbolically win the title of homecoming queen. Her being designated homecoming queen shows how much power she has, but in the way that she has none. Her only ‘title’ is of a social hierarchy with no real power or say, it’s really just a symbol of her likeability among her peers and her conventional looks. In reality, she is just a young and innocent child, which the bird highlights as it is a common Thrush bird that is native to the area. She is an average teen that is conventionally pretty, who was a victim of sexual abuse from her father from a young age, and turned hypersexual from her father and other times she has been assaulted. The thrush bird represents Laura, but also all the other victims of the show, who are preyed upon for their beauty, youth, and innocence. At this point, Laura Palmer has already entered the afterlife and is free, and the intro continues on to show the way in which she has died.

The next few shots show in detail the Saw Mill, an integral part to the Pacific-Northwestern town Twin Peaks. The saw mill is meant to represent the violence and greed within the town of Twin Peaks, and how abuse controls the town. The saw mill is the main source of income for this town that is hidden away in the woods, with the mill constantly being vied for by the rich and powerful within the show, i.e. Ben Horne, the owner of the well renowned Great Northern Hotel and his lawyer Leland Palmer, and Catherine Martell, the supposed inheritor of the sawmill, showing that they all are complicit in the violence of Twin Peaks and encourage it if it fuels their greed. The mill, with its sharp blades being displayed being sharpened in detail in the intro, causes the death of trees, displaces animals such as the bird, and violently intercedes with nature and goodness. The supposedly homey and sweet small town Dale Cooper falls in love with is run on violence and greed and abuse, with hundreds of men being employed by the mill. The rich and powerful kill and abuse in order to keep their hold over the town, and do so because of their greed and horrible natures. 

Along with greed and capitalism, the saw mill also represents the abuse Twin Peaks enables. The intro juxtaposes the bird with the sawmill in order to show the cause and effect of the two, and to highlight the show's main themes of duality. The bird isn’t shown again after the sawmill, showing the sawmill is responsible for its absence. The violence of the mill directly correlates with the violence on the bird, specifically Laura Palmer. Laura is a victim of sexual abuse, with the source of most of her abuse being from capitalist greed. She is illegally made into a sex worker at One-Eyed Jack’s, a club over the border in Canada run by Ben Horne and her father, who have both abused her. She was coerced into working there through her day time job at a department store, also owned by Ben Horne. Through her abuse and work as a sex worker, she often prostitutes herself with other men and have had sexual relations with men from the age of twelve as a direct result of her abuse. The innocent bird has been hurt and hurt again by the violence and greed of the mill, with no power to deny or escape their fate. The intro is showing the source of the bird’s absence and pain and explicitly shows its true violent nature, which directly causes Laura’s death. The intro continues on to show other important facets of the show, continuing to parallel the show’s narrative and themes.

The intro continues on to show the infamous waterfall after they show the mill at Twin Peaks, the one that is directly shown to be beside The Great Northern Hotel. 

This sequence of images mimicks the series of events in the show. After Laura’s death, her body is disposed of into the river, which the intro has shown thus far. The bird representing Laura, the mill showing the cause of death being greed and abuse that she has faced, and now the waterfall showing the aftermath of her body. Showing the waterfall and transitioning to the river is intentional, as the waterfall is tied to the Great Northern, just like her murderer, who is her father. Then the river is shown and focused upon, which besides Laura’s discovery, the river is not a focal point within the show unlike other natural facets of the area, such as the forest. The river is being focused on now to tell the story of Laura’s death. The intro is directly showing who murders her and how she was disposed of, a natural cause and effect similar to a waterfall falling into a river. The river is focused on for several moments unlike the waterfall which was shown briefly. That’s because the waterfall is only shown to connect her murder to the Great Northern. The focusing on the river is meant to show Laura’s journey post mortem as she spent the entire night in the river after her death, and wasn’t found until morning. Some may argue that these shots may be atmospheric, generic wide shots, but the concluding frame of the intro confirms that this is meant to represent Laura’s path after her death. 

The intro ends very briefly on a shot of the river bank, with two ducks resting upon its shore. Laura’s final destination is the riverbank, which is why this is where the intro ends. She has already been linked to birds earlier within the intro. After floating through the river, she has now concluded her journey. Birds are tied to the afterlife, and specifically people’s journeys to the afterlife after death. This intro is showing Laura’s soul being transported similarly to her body, and now the intro concludes as this is where her journey ends. The show starts with her body being found, and continues on after this conclusion. This final shot determinedly shows the symbolism of the intro as it concludes where Laura’s body has finally rested.

Twin Peaks’ intro shows Laura Palmer’s journey after death and also shows the cause of her death, all through symbolic imagery that shows the town’s true nature behind its sweet small town facade. Twin Peaks is a show all about duality, the duality of nature vs. man, evil vs. good, facts vs. spirituality, and the intro encapsulates all of those themes and more. Beyond just basic symbolism showing how Laura died and what caused it, it shows the essence of all the themes within Twin Peaks and what the show is at its essence. It doesn’t matter that Leland was the killer over Bobby or Ben, or that Bob chose to possess Leland of all the men in the town. Laura’s death was a result of a society that is fueled by sex and greed and violence and was failed by those that enable them. Leland just happened to be the one of many that “Bob” could have possessed. Leland could have been any of the men in Twin Peaks that was controlled by sin, which is why the show was slow to reveal the killer. Twin Peaks as a whole killed Laura Palmer, putting one man behind the trigger reduces her death to just one man, when it was a result of every person who failed to help her and all of those who abused her. In the words of Bobby Briggs to conclude, “You damn hypocrites make me sick! [...] All you good people. You wanna know who killed Laura? You did. We all did, and pretty words aren’t gonna bring her back so save your prayers.”

Works Cited

“Bird Symbolism: Symbolism in Art Class Notes.” Fiveable, Sept. 2025, fiveable.me/symbolism-in-art/unit-5/bird-symbolism/study-guide/eOpxngLxl311O2WP. 

“Pilot.” Twin Peaks, written by Mark Frost and David Lynch, directed by David Lynch, ABC, 1990.