Caemeron Crain
2. Sarah Palmer (Twin Peaks)
There are few moments in TV that stand out to me as starkly as when Sarah Palmer learns of her daughter Laura’s death. It’s a slow burn, as she calls up to Laura’s room to no response, then calls around trying to find her. And then she isn’t really told so much as she doesn’t need to be told, as she’s on the phone with Leland when the cops come to pay him a visit. She drops that phone and wails.
That might be my favorite scream in Twin Peaks. I know it’s weird to pick a favorite when it comes to such things, but damn! Grace Zabriskie kills it in this scene—she is a mother absolutely wrecked by the death of her daughter.
I don’t know that she was a good mother. If I had a nickel for every cigarette she smoked, I’d be dead. And you could certainly argue that she knew about the abuse her husband was perpetrating on their daughter, or at least suspected it.
But she strikes me primarily as a tragic figure. When she lashed out at the Truck You guy at a bar in Twin Peaks: The Return, I cheered. It’s not that he deserved to die necessarily, but “do you really want to f*ck with this?” All of this trauma and pain are wrapped up in Sarah Palmer, and it makes sense why that is the case.
I resist interpretations that would have her possessed from a young age if they imply she’s not responsible. But I do the same thing with Leland. These are arguments for another day or another place. The point here is that Sarah’s loss and her pain are palpable.
She’s not one of my favorite mothers in TV because we saw her mothering—though we did see some of that in Fire Walk With Me—but because of how we see her loss resonating. What does it mean to be a mother when your child is dead?
