Twin Peaks Bob is an interdimensional entity from the
Black Lodge, a realm which exists on an
alternate plane of reality. While "possessing" humans, he commits horrible crimes to elicit pain, fear, and suffering in those around him. In a series of promotional trading cards issued for
Twin Peaks, his birth date is listed as "From the beginning of time", and his "accomplishments" are listed as "I have survived as long as man has been on earth." During his investigation of
Laura Palmer's (
Sheryl Lee) murder, FBI Special Agent
Dale Cooper (
Kyle MacLachlan) first learns of Bob's existence in a vision, in which he encounters another entity named
Mike (
Al Strobel). 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 (
Phoebe Augustine), 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.
Leland Palmer (
Ray Wise), 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. It is later revealed that Bob is, in fact, possessing Leland, and has been ever since Leland first met him as a child at his grandfather's house. Under Bob's influence, Leland sexually abused his own daughter for years, and finally murdered her. Leland is also under Bob's control when he murders Leland's niece
Maddy Ferguson (Lee), who looks just like Laura. Upon learning the truth, Cooper lures Bob into a trap by tricking Leland into allowing himself to be questioned. Under interrogation, Bob takes control and taunts Cooper before forcing Leland to bash his head repeatedly into the wall, sustaining fatal injuries. 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 Harry Truman (
Michael Ontkean) and
Albert Rosenfield (
Miguel Ferrer) 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". Cooper sees a vision of Bob taunting him shortly after Josie Packard (
Joan Chen) has a sudden heart attack as he tries to arrest her. It is implied that Bob caused the heart attack by flooding her body and soul with terror, literally frightening her to death. In the final episode, Cooper ventures into the Black Lodge to apprehend his former partner, rogue FBI Agent
Windom Earle (
Kenneth Welsh), 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 sparing Cooper's lover, Annie Blackburn (
Heather Graham), Bob appears and reverses time in the Lodge 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 inside of a
doppelgänger of Cooper. The series ends with Bob maniacally laughing alongside the doppelgänger in a mirror.
2017 revival The 2017 revival explores Bob's origins in "
Part 8", showing that an orb bearing his face was created or unleashed upon the world by the Experiment during the
first atomic bomb test in 1945. The appearance of Bob's orb is witnessed by
The Fireman (
Carel Struycken), who creates an orb bearing the face of Laura Palmer in response. In the present, Bob continues to inhabit Cooper's doppelgänger ("Mr. C") and appears as an orb inside of his body. If the doppelgänger suffers a fatal injury, a group of Woodsmen dig Bob out of his body and Bob returns to the doppelgänger when he is revived. After the doppelgänger is shot and killed by Lucy Moran (
Kimmy Robertson), Bob is again removed from his body, but quickly finds himself confronted by Freddie Sykes (Jake Wardle), who was given a supernatural glove by the Fireman, which is the only thing that physically can harm Bob. The two fight, which ends with Freddie killing Bob by shattering him into pieces when he transforms into his 'orb' form. == Conceptual history ==