I think if there wasn't a definitive BOB, there would still be some element of darkness, the flipside to a person.

Lynch always finds it in his work -and he was coming off of Blue Velvet. He's interested in duality and what's on the other side of scratching a surface. It would never have been just a conventional whodunit even if the killer had turned out to be someone like Donna.

The original topic of this thread was wondering if the directors knew the identity, right? Or if Lynch and Frost purposely inserted clues to the murderer? The writers and directors certainly didn't know -one talks about it in the second season where they were dangerously close in revealing the identity just through their direction, and had to be reigned in a little. But certainly clues were put in for Leland to be the killer -just like with Audrey, Bobby, Ben, Donna etc, etc -that's what made it work. There was successful doubt for everyone.

Yeah, there surely was the idea of duality in the killer's character from the very beginning, and based on that, the spirit business we are now familiar with started shaping after Lynch got his vision of Bob. 

And yes, maybe I was just over-interpreting some things with Leland. Many characters were intentionally portrayed as suspects & potential killers - and Leland was just one of them. Lynch & Frost were the only ones who knew.

Audrey, I agree with you about the fact that Lynch and Co littered the show with false clues, and at some point in the show, almost anyone could look like a suspect. That was the beauty of the show. People have mentioned Ben's longing gaze over Laura's corpse in the morgue, Audrey's smirk, Jacoby's coconut. In my original post, I was  just in awe in how much that scene gave away, but only after knowing what I know. It was also incredibly exciting to see something I'd never noticed before....on my 8th or 9th viewing! Just goes to show what a fantastic show Twin Peaks is!

 The moment I first mentioned, though, is particularly amazing. It says everything right there, much like the diary comment in the pilot. Simply amazing.

thanks, lelandloveslaura -wasn't trying to be harsh or anything.

I know we aren't friends or anything, but I feel like I know you better than the rest.

Agree with ya there!
 

"Ive got good news....that gum you like is going to come back in style!"

"I'm a WHOLE DAMN TOWN!"

There's even more scenes that give us hints about Leland that I didn't found mentioned in this topic.

I believe it's just before the comment about the diary in the pilot which was mentioned here before... Sarah asks who's upstairs and she gets the answer "your husband, and one of my men" from Truman if my memory serves me right. Then Sarah replies that she can tell from the sound of those footsteps that it isn't Laura... but then why didn't she recognize her husbands footsteps if she can recognize her late-daughters footsteps? I'd like to think that this has something to do with the fact that Leland is posessed.

And then there's also the scene when Leland visits the police station to tell that he knows the man from the posters (a.k.a BOB) that Andy managed to distribute after he encountered his problems with the tape. Leland lifts the paper up and it covers half of his face and he says "I know this man". When I watched the series second time and I saw this scene I just felt so amazed.

  It's the perfect "in your face" scene that comes in to my mind. The first time I watched the series I just couldn't figure out the killer and I kept thinking "who could it be?", and then when I re-watched it and saw this... I mean how different is this scene after you know certain things? The answer is right in front of our eyes and still you can't figure it out! Adding this to the context that how much back then the average tv wather was frustrated and how much the ABC pressured Lynch and Frost to gave solutions, I think that the scene is a great statement: "we have already showed you the answer, you just can't figure it out", perfect irony!