"What the hell?!"
The experiment was a supernatural being that seemingly created the sadistic inhabiting spirit BOB. In appearance, it was pale-colored with a feminine body, a gaping mouth, two small horns, and reversed thumbs.
Biography[]
Unleashing Evil[]
On July 16, 1945, following the first nuclear test at White Sands, New Mexico on Earth, a white figure known as "the experiment", floating in a dark void, expelled a stream of matter from its mouth, containing several speckled eggs, and the orb form of the malevolent spirit BOB. In response to this, a being known as the Fireman, created an orb containing the likeness of Laura Palmer, and sent it to Earth.[1]
On August 5, 1956, one of the experiment's eggs that had landed in New Mexico eleven years earlier hatched out a large bug-like creature, which crawled inside the mouth of a sleeping girl. The woodsmen also emerged that year, possibly having also been regurgitated from the experiment.[1]
Attack in New York City[]
Decades later, the evil doppelganger of FBI agent Dale Cooper, who was sharing his body with BOB, set up a glass box in New York City, meant to be monitored at all times to see if anything appeared. After the original Cooper briefly appeared in the box while traversing dimensions in September 2016, Sam Colby and Tracey Barberato returned from their break and began having sex in front of it. The experiment materialized, possibly in response to their sex, and broke out of the box, hacking the pair to pieces.[2][3]
The FBI's Blue Rose Task Force investigated this attack, which led them further in their wider investigation into Cooper's doppelganger. The Fireman also showed Andy Brennan, a deputy in Twin Peaks, Washington, an image of the experiment when informing him of the importance of their mission defeat the doppelganger and defeat BOB.[4][5]
Behind the scenes[]
The "Experiment" was a computer-generated character modeled by actress Erica Eynon. "Part 1" credits Eynon as "Experiment Model."
The experiment looks similar to the white naked figures from some pictures from David Lynch, notably those of his Distorted Nudes book, "Woman Thinking #2" seen in the Dark Splendor book and the Head Series from his "Small Stories" exposition.
It could be theorized that the people watching the glass box expecting something to happen are an allegory of the viewers watching the series, but that was reportedly not Lynch's original intention.[6]
In "Part 17," Gordon Cole discusses the entity Judy, possibly referring to the experiment itself.
In The Secret History of Twin Peaks, it is mentioned that after founding JPL, Jack Parsons conducted rituals at the Devils Gate in Pasadena in an attempt to call forth the goddess Babalon, also known as the Mother of Abominations, a key figure in the Thelema mythos. Later, the weekend before the 1947 Roswell Incident, in Jornada del Muerto, on the ground where the bomb was tested, he tried to open a second gate to bring forth the elemental entity known as the "Moonchild" using the Working of Babalon.
In addition, Douglas Milford recounts President Richard Nixon showing him and actor Jackie Gleason a bizarre figure, similar in appearance to the experiment, in an observation room at Homestead Air Base.
When directly asked about a connection between the Experiment and the figure shown to Milford, co-author Mark Frost acknowledged the possibility without confirming or denying it.[7] He reacted the same when asked if sex magic was partly the cause of its appearance in "Part 1," in the same vein as Jack Parsons' rituals.[7]
Appearances[]
- Twin Peaks – 2017
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Twin Peaks – "Part 8"
- ↑ Twin Peaks – "Part 1"
- ↑ Twin Peaks – "Part 2"
- ↑ Twin Peaks – "Part 3"
- ↑ Twin Peaks – "Part 14"
- ↑ David Lynch interview about Parts 1 through 4
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Mark Frost's AMA