We’re Loving Strangers
Audrey Horne (Sherylin Fenn), is one of the central characters in Twin Peaks, and for much of the first two seasons, she is one of the investigative characters. Unlike many of the others, though, she has different motivations and goals that partly stem from core aspects of her character: her longing to be valued for herself and her desire to leave Twin Peaks.
There will be some spoilers for the first two seasons of Twin Peaks.
Daddy Issues
Just like Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), everyone in Twin Peaks thinks they know Audrey Horne; she’s the poor little rich girl, the weird girl, the mischief maker. To some extent, these judgments are true, but they represent pieces of her, not the whole. Her tense relations with her father Ben (Richard Beymer) are evident immediately, and it is implied she’s been a troubled girl for several years almost certainly because of this cycle of his neglect and disappointment, her acting out to get his attention, leading to his neglect and disappointment. Laura Palmer’s death provides Audrey with a chance to be active in something totally new and unexpected. Her choice to engage in her own surreptitious inquiry is selfish on many levels, but it also blends with her fascination with Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan).
A Damn Fine Cup of Coffee
Audrey’s attraction to Cooper is immediate and revealing of her true wants as a character. He is a smartly dressed handsome stranger in a dangerous profession, and he is completely unlike anyone else she knows. A major reason for her snooping, manipulation, and tracking connections between her father and Laura is that she hopes to impress Cooper with her intelligence, improvisation, and investigatory skills, which are admirable. Even when she knows she is in over her head and held captive at One Eyed Jacks, she presumes that she’ll managed to find a way to escape and earn Cooper’s respect and affection through her daring and shrewdness, so much so that she even anticipates future adventures with him where they will end up in similarly dangerous situations. In these vulnerable moments, she openly expresses her desire to be seen and valued not as the daughter of a rich and powerful man but for her own qualities.
Her crush on Cooper exposes her desire for what she craves: an authentic life of adventure that takes her to different places for new and sometimes perilous experiences. Her attraction is not only to him as a man but also what he represents. She wants to be with him, but she also wants to be like him. It is to Cooper’s credit that he recognizes this, at least in part, and offers her acceptance and guidance toward loving and recognizing herself. Audrey would benefit much more from deeper self-awareness than she would from a relationship with him.
Private Jet
Jack Wheeler (Billy Zane) is an echo of this interplay in the latter half of season two. Audrey has matured some because of revelations brought about by the investigation into Laura Palmer’s murder and because she been instrumental in helping her father recover from a prolonged psychotic episode. Through these experiences, she has at least partial mended some of her other relationships and taken on increased responsibility. She is much more guarded when Jack arrives to give moral and business support, but his easy charm and sincerity do win her over. In many ways, he is a lot like Cooper: a sensitive, self-directed adventurous sort with (private) resources who is constantly traveling. As with Cooper, her attraction to him is in no small part because she wants to have his life in additional to him being a good-looking stranger. The idea that there can be a thrilling life away from Twin Peaks resonates with her, and there is clearly something symbolic in her choosing to make love to him on his private jet—a means of perpetual escape.
Love Thyself
Both instances of Audrey’s romantic attachments reveal bedrock desires of her character beyond her personal, amorous tastes. Not receiving the attention or affection she desires, in the early episodes, she misbehaves and acts out. Her behavior shifts as her attraction to Cooper deepens because in him she sees not only a handsome man but also a distant image of herself or who she would like to be. The same is true, though to a lesser extent, with Wheeler. Her relationships with these men are also a search for a way of becoming her truest self.