“She was going up the stairs. Those stairs… right there.”
Screenshot of Grace Zabriskie as Sarah Palmer, from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.
© Lynch/Frost & Twin Peaks Productions.
Sarah Palmer, Twin Peaks’ grieving mother
When Sarah Palmer calls Laura for breakfast that terrible February 24, 1989, she finds her daughter’s bed empty.
Sarah Palmer is worried and calls up Betty Briggs unable to confirm if Laura is with Betty’s son Bobby Briggs, who left at 5 am for his morning run and football practice.
While Sarah is on the phone with her husband Leland Palmer who’s working at the Great Northern Hotel, she hears Sheriff Truman arrive to bring her husband the bad news: Their beloved daughter Laura Palmer is found dead.
After hearing the terrible news, Sarah Palmer has a nervous breakdown. Dr Hayward, a friend of the Palmer family, helps calm down the grieving mother with sedatives.
Sarah on Pinterest
Sarah Palmer’s story
Sarah Palmer, Laura’s mother
Sarah Palmer is a well-respected, loving mother. The whole town of Twin Peaks felt sorry for her when her daughter, Twin Peaks High school’s Homecoming Queen Laura Palmer, died.
From an early age though, Laura Palmer felt she couldn’t tell everything to her mother, who – she thought – wouldn’t understand.
When the young Laura couldn’t sleep, or when she had a bad dream, her mother would come in and sing “Waltzing Matilda” to her.
It’s not that Laura didn’t want her mother to sing to her, it was just that there was this strange man in her dream singing just that song in her mom’s voice. It frightened Laura so much she could hardly move.
Sarah Palmer, Leland’s wife
Sarah Palmer is married to Leland Palmer. Her husband is suffering multiple nervous breakdowns and remains unstable for a long time after Laura dies.
Sarah Palmer’s husband Leland obsesses about dancing and has Sarah worried on more than one occasion. At a Hayward family dinner party Leland bursts out in singing, just before fainting. Luckily Dr Hayward is nearby.
It comes as a complete surprise to the already devastated Sarah Palmer when her husband, Leland Palmer is arrested for the murder of Jacques Renault, a suspect in the murder of their daughter Laura.
Sarah Palmer, Maddy’s aunt
Maddy used to come over for a whole week when she was younger. While being cousins, Laura and she used to pretend they were sisters. Sarah Palmer brought them milk and cookies when they were camping out in a fortress they had built in the back yard.
The arrival of Laura’s cousin Maddy Ferguson is of great support to Laura’s mother after Laura’s death. The things about Laura that Sarah recognizes in Madeleine’s person come to her as a chock at first but, after the funeral, help her to deal with her daughter’s sudden death.
Leland and Sarah Palmer enjoy the last days of Maddy’s company drinking tea and listening to old Louis Armstrong records at Sunday breakfast.
Sarah Palmer sees killer BOB in Laura’s bedroom
Laura’s mother sees things. Sarah Palmer has a vision of the other half of Laura’s necklace being dug up by a gloved hand.
It happens again when Donna Hayward, Laura’s best friend, pays her a visit. When looking back on how she found Laura’s empty bedroom, Sarah Palmer remembers seeing a grey-haired man hiding behind Laura’s bed.
Sarah Palmer is so convinced the man was actually there, she has Leland call Sheriff Truman to make a sketch. To agent Cooper’s surprise, the man looks exactly like the man he himself dreamt about recently. A grey-haired man called BOB, the killer in Cooper’s dream.
Sarah Palmer – Quotes
“Laura, sweetheart, I’m not going to tell you again. – Yes I am. Laura!”
“Laura honey, are you downstairs?”
“Hu… It would have been around 9. Yes 9 … o’clock… pm. She came home from Bobby’s.”
“She was going up the stairs. Those stairs… right there. – Who’s upstairs?”
“I miss her so much. I miss her so much. Laura, oh Laura… my baby!”
“His hair was long. Filthy grey on grey, long hair.”
“I saw him, by the foot of Laura’s bed. He looked like an animal.”
“It’s night. A flashlight beam moves across the ground. Then a hand … a gloved hand lifts a rock and takes out a necklace. Broken in half, it was Laura’s”
“Leland, don’t ruin this, too!”
“I’m in the Black Lodge with Dale Cooper.”