Sarah Palmer's Reaction, Episode 17

Episode 17 (A Dispute Between Brothers, 2.010) of the original series begins at the Palmer residence three days after Leland Palmer's death.

Sarah sits in her living room, gathering strength before she is required to attend a gathering associated with her husband's funeral. Doc Hayward is on the sofa beside her with a sedative ready. She stops him before he injects her, saying she wants to be there. She wants to be there for her husband and daughter. Cooper sits across from her, attempting to prepare her for the trial of facing others after knowing death.

Director Tina Rathborne closes in on Sarah's face after we see Cooper's reaction to her decision to forego medication. Cooper continues to speak with Mrs. Palmer, but his hushed voice sounds as though it was recorded at another time. Sarah's reactions do not match with Cooper's words, in my opinion.

The televised version of the episode contains the following dialogue:

COOPER
Mrs. Palmer, there are things dark and heinous in this world. Things too horrible to tell our children. Your husband fell victim to one of them. Long ago, when he was innocent and trusting. Leland did not do these things. Not the Leland you knew.

SARAH
(a shudder of fear)
No. That man I saw. Long, dirty, disgusting hair.

COOPER
He's gone. Forever.

SARAH
So is everything I loved.

COOPER
Sarah, I think it might help to tell you what happened just before Leland died. It's hard to realize here *Cooper places a hand to her head* and here *Cooper places a hand to her chest* what has transpired. Your husband went so far to drug you to keep his actions secret, but before he died, Leland confronted the horror of what he had done to Laura and agonized over the pain he had caused you. Leland died at peace. In his last moments, he saw Laura. He kept saying how much he loved her, and I believe she welcomed him, and she forgave him.

The original scripted version:

COOPER
Mrs. Palmer, there are things dark and heinous in this world. Things too horrible to tell our children. Your husband fell victim to one of them. Long ago, when he was innocent and trusting. Leland didn't commit these crimes. Not the Leland you knew. 

SARAH
(a shudder of fear)
The man I saw. That disgusting long hair.

COOPER
He's gone. Forever.

SARAH
So is everything dear to me.

COOPER
Laura and Leland have gone from this life to the next. But they're with you always. Here ... and here ... (tapping his head and heart) The experience we have of people doesn't leave when they do. If you close your eyes, you can see Laura blowing out the candles on her birthday cake, Leland mowing the yard, shaving at the sink ... (Sarah closes her eyes) Those moments are yours. Always.

I believe Cooper's scripted dialogue was recorded at the time of filming. As such, it is a disservice to Grace Zabriskie's performance to alter the dialogue but keep her reactions. Sarah's expressions read as though she is reliving memories that bring her calmness and comfort. The way her eyes move under their lids, the way she seems to fade elsewhere in her recollections, does not reflect the expression one would have when being told their possessed husband confronted the horror of what he'd done to their daughter. That he'd raped and murdered their only child.

Sarah's face as Cooper says, "Before he died, Leland confronted the horror of what he had done to Laura and agonized over the pain he had caused you. Leland died --"

There is a noticeable change in sound after Cooper says, "Your husband went so far to drug you to keep his actions secret," indicating that this was a later addition to the ADR. I can't help but wonder if the dialogue was changed at David Lynch's request. The possibility of Leland drugging Sarah had appeared only once before, and that is in a Lynch directed episode (episode fourteen, Lonely Souls). We previously saw Leland in episode one (1.001, Traces to Nowhere) give Sarah a glass of water with the instruction to "take this now" before Donna Hayward paid a visit. In the script, a nurse administers the sedative because Leland had to be taken to see Dr. Jacoby, unable to cope with the plans for Laura's funeral. The scene involving the funeral plans was filmed. In it, Leland was simply told to rest. Jacoby is not mentioned. The conversation between Leland and the mortician is apparently meant to be humorous though I do not find it funny in the least.

In the David Lynch film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Leland is shown drugging an acquiescent Sarah. However, I believe the film resides in its own universe with its own vein of truth slightly differing from the truth presented in the series. There are too many matters of conflict for both to seamlessly mesh. That is not to say I discredit the dialogue that appears in the finished episode.

Cooper's scripted dialogue grants us a brief vision of happiness and domesticity within the Palmer home. It is not only an insight into the life of Sarah Palmer before everything changed, but a rare image of Laura experiencing a moment of normalcy, blowing out the birthday candles on her cake.

I do not read Sarah in the original series as a being containing the darkness of another entity. I see the possessed variation of Sarah as a creation remote to season three and the current canon.