An inhabiting spirit, he possesses human beings and then commits acts of rape and murder in order to feast on the suffering of his victims.

Silva, a set dresser on the pilot, was given the role of Bob after a reflection of his face in a mirror was accidentally captured by the camera during filming.

"[4] During his investigation of Laura Palmer's (Sheryl Lee) murder, FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) first learns of Bob's existence in a vision, in which he encounters another entity named Mike (Al Strobel).

In this vision, Cooper learns that Bob was in life a serial killer who raped and murdered young women, with Mike as his accomplice.

Under interrogation, Bob takes control and taunts Cooper before forcing Leland to bash his head repeatedly into the wall, sustaining fatal injuries.

[11] Cooper sees a vision of Bob taunting him shortly after Josie Packard (Joan Chen) has a sudden heart attack as he tries to arrest her.

[13] The 2017 revival explores Bob's origins in "Part 8", showing that an orb bearing his face was created by the Experiment during the first atomic bomb test in 1945.

After the doppelgänger is shot and killed by Lucy Moran (Kimmy Robertson), Bob is again removed from his body, but quickly finds himself confronted by Freddie Sykes (Jake Wardle), who was given a supernatural glove by the Fireman.

[2] Later that day, a scene was being filmed in which Laura's mother experiences a terrifying vision; at the time, the script did not indicate what Mrs Palmer had seen.

Lynch considered this a "happy accident", and decided that Silva's unnamed character would be revealed as Laura's true killer.

[2] At the 2013 Twin Peaks Retrospective at USC, Phoebe Augustine, who played Ronette Pulaski, recalled being afraid of Silva as she noticed him standing out among the crew while filming her scene on the railroad tracks in the pilot episode.