Maddy Ferguson
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Madeleine "Maddy" Ferguson is a fictional character in David Lynch's 1990 American TV series Twin Peaks. She is portrayed by Sheryl Lee.
Maddie first appears near the end of the first season, when she travels to Twin Peaks from her hometown of Missoula, Montana. She comes to help her aunt and uncle, Leland and Sarah Palmer, overcome the loss of their daughter, Laura, who had been murdered. Though Maddie seems to be a few years older than Laura, she quickly befriends Donna Hayward and James Hurley, Laura's closest friends, and helps them in their investigation into Laura's death. Maddie, innocent and sweet, stands in stark contrast to Laura, whose personal life is steeped in sex and deception.
Because Maddie is played by the same actress who played Laura, the two characters look identical, excluding Maddie's black hair and bookish glasses. Maddie even remarks that she and Laura used to pretend they were sisters. At one point, Maddie even appears in a blonde wig in order to lure out one of the suspects.
Like Laura's mother and Laura herself, Maddie has premonitions, including one of a bloodstain on the floor of the Palmer's living room and another of BOB, a demonic entity plaguing the town. Eventually, the identity of Laura's murderer is revealed in the episode "Lonely Souls," when Maddie is herself murdered by Leland Palmer in a violent recreation of Laura's murder. Maddie's death shortly leads to Leland's arrest.
[edit] Relevance in Lynch's work
The notion of pairing similar or identical women with contrasting hair colors and personalities is one that arises frequently in Lynch's work. While the Laura Dern and Isabella Rossellini characters in Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart are the first instances of this, Maddie and Laura are perhaps the most dramatic, as they nicely emphasize Lynch's theme of a polarized world: light and dark, good and bad, innocence and sexuality.
Other pairs in this trend include Patricia Arquette's characters in Lost Highway and Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring's in Mulholland Drive.
Duality is a strong feature in Twin Peaks, as implied by the name.
[edit] Notes
- Maddie's name is apparently drawn from the main characters of the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo, Det. Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) and Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak). The plot of that film involves a woman assuming an alternate identity by changing her hair color from blonde to brunette, and also her identification with a dead relative.
- Maddie's name also recalls a character in the Edith Wharton novel Ethan Frome: Mattie Silver. The two are described similarly. Furthermore, Mattie also meets a violent end — though not precisely a death — after moving in with her older relatives during an emotionally tense period.
- Maddie hails from Missoula, Montana, which is also the hometown of Twin Peaks creator and director David Lynch.
| Twin Peaks |
|---|
| Episodes | Actors |
| Characters |
|
Main Characters |
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Andy Brennan | Bobby Briggs | Donna Hayward | William Hayward | Ben Horne | Audrey Horne | Ed Hurley | James Hurley | Norma Jennings | Shelly Johnson | Catherine Martell | Pete Martell | Lucy Moran | Josie Packard | Leland Palmer | Harry Truman |
|
Recurring Characters |
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Annie Blackburn | Garland Briggs | Denise/Dennis Bryson | Gordon Cole | Windom Earle | Thomas Eckhardt | Maddy Ferguson | Tommy "Hawk" Hill | Jerry Horne | Nadine Hurley | Doctor Lawrence Jacoby | Hank Jennings | Leo Johnson | The Log Lady | Man from another place | Evelyn Marsh | Andrew Packard | Sarah Palmer | Albert Rosenfield | The Renault brothers | Harold Smith | Dick Tremayne | BOB |
