Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Laura Palmer's body is found wrapped in plastic beside the water, and Twin Peaks loses the schoolgirl almost everyone thought they knew. FBI agent Dale Cooper arrives to help Sheriff Harry Truman investigate, connecting her death with an earlier murder through a letter hidden beneath her fingernail. Her surviving companion, Ronette Pulaski, cannot explain what happened. Laura's diary, cocaine use and secret relationships gradually undermine her public image, while her parents, Sarah and Leland, struggle with grief that takes increasingly disturbing forms.
Cooper follows physical evidence but also trusts strange dreams: a red-curtained room, a woman resembling Laura, and figures called MIKE and BOB. Clues lead toward trucker Leo Johnson, Jacques Renault and One Eyed Jacks, the casino and brothel across the Canadian border. Audrey Horne investigates the perfume counter where Laura worked and secretly takes a job at the club. Elsewhere, Laura's friend Donna, her lover James and her lookalike cousin Maddy pursue their own suspicions about psychiatrist Lawrence Jacoby, using Maddy's resemblance to lure him away from his office.
The investigations collide with a scheme to destroy the local sawmill. Ben Horne conspires with Catherine Martell, while also plotting with owner Josie Packard against Catherine. Leo sets the mill ablaze with his wife Shelly trapped inside; Catherine reaches her, but their escape is left uncertain. Cooper's undercover approach gets Jacques arrested, only for Leland to suffocate the suspect in hospital. Audrey discovers that her first client at One Eyed Jacks is her own father. The season leaves Laura's murder unresolved, and Cooper's return to his hotel ends with an unseen gunman shooting him at the door.