Cheryl Lee latter
Laura’s story began for us all those years and episodes ago with the sound of her mother calling her name.
Sarah Palmer’s screams of despair and loss were a primal response to having her young torn from her. She already knew instinctively, from the first frantic calls of her daughter’s name throughout the house, that she was gone.
We began with a mother, and this is where we stand now, 8 episodes into season 3, with the mother of all evil.
The Experiment Model, born of destruction and violence, is the mother of darkness.
Her evil spawn, demons such as Bob, have been spewed out into the world to fill it with evil. Far from being the epitome of the evil that men do, Bob now seems to be one of many, his spirit pushed out in an embryonic sac to find his host. He is not the only one, but perhaps he is the worst.
On a high rock above wild waters, we find her counterpart, Senorita Dido, the goddess mother of the White Lodge.
While watching Bob’s entry into the world, ??????? takes action and releases golden stars, which at one point appear to take the form of a uterus.
Señorita Dido looks upset and concerned until Laura’s soul, residing inside a golden ball descends into her hands. With a kiss, she sends Laura off to her rebirth.
It seems the angels of the White Lodge can be sent back to counteract the evil that is threatening the world. These children of dark and light may be on a continuous cycle of life and death until the balance is resolved.
Laura may be the only one that can stop the evil that is Bob, save the town, and by extension, save Cooper.
Two things happened in episode one of the season that are still a mystery. Laura was torn from Cooper and from the Red Room, and we haven’t seen her since. Leland tells Cooper to find her. Shortly after, the Experiment Model burst from the glass tank into the world and is still unaccounted for.
Just as any mother will fight to the ends of the earth to protect their young, does the Experiment Model feel that same primal rage when her young is threatened? Did she burst into the world in a shrieking of glass and blood purely to defend her offspring, who now may be in peril?
Laura is returning in a golden light to our plane of existence, possibly the only worthy foe to the evil that is Bob. Where she will land, we don’t know, but it is important to remember that this is, and always has been, Laura’s story. Laura is the one.
Which brings me back to Sarah. During Laura’s life, she is in stasis, neurotic, unstable, powerless to control the battle going on around her. There is a scene in the Missing Pieces which implies that she has had a breakdown and is scared it is happening again. Laura is her strength and her support. Another Missing Pieces scene shows her trying to be stronger, to get Laura to open up to her. On her final night, Laura says goodbye to her, and pauses, waiting to be stopped, waiting for someone stronger than her to take her in her arms and protect her. But it never happens, and Laura goes off to her final and fatal meeting with Bob.
We have seen little of Sarah in season 3, but we see she is changed. She watches violence with rapt attention, loud and on a large screen. She is toughening up, desensitizing, steeling herself for the next hurt.
In the battle between darkness and light, a mother’s love may make all the difference when it comes to which side will win.
