There's potentially a version of reality where we never got this film. Where we either just got a Season 3 right after season 2, or where Frost's vision of a direct sequel won over Lynch's insistence on a prequel. But I cannot for the life of me imagine a version of this story without FWWM at it's centre, without it putting Larua Palmer at the beating heart of everything like it does. It is harsh and brutal and unforgiving, but it NEEDED to be a part of Twin Peaks. Who Laura Palmer was, and the tragedy of what was done to her, was always more important than the mystery angle. Season 2 of the show lost sight of that, but FWWM rightly re-centers her.
A version of the film that more closely resembles The Missing Pieces might have gone over better with audiences at the time, something that has more familiar faces, more of the small-town comfort of the series. But the lack of that familiarity is a huge part of what makes the film endure in my eyes; it didn't give audiences what they wanted, but it gave the story what it needed. It reaffirms the beating heart of Twin Peaks, and expands on what Twin Peaks can, and should, be. Laura Palmer you are Everything to me
