When Laura is murdered, however, Leland's psychological foundations begin to crumble, and it is gradually revealed that extreme dysfunction, including incest, lies beneath the Palmer family's idyllic surface.

The arrival of his niece-in-law[1] Madeline "Maddy" Ferguson, who looks almost exactly like Laura (both roles are played by Sheryl Lee), is of great help to him in learning how to deal with his daughter's death.

It is eventually revealed that, as a boy, Leland met a strange neighbor who turned out to be a demonic entity named BOB (Frank Silva), who would possess him throughout his life.

The changes in Leland from this point help Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) to finally identify him as BOB's "host".

The prequel film Fire Walk With Me, which depicts the last week of Laura's life, reveals that BOB had begun raping her when she was 12 years old while possessing Leland.

He then appears in the Black Lodge, where he meets The Man From Another Place (Michael J. Anderson) and MIKE (Al Strobel), BOB's former partner in murder.

Due to time alterations following Part 17, it is said that Leland committed suicide on February 24, 1990, one year after his daughter's disappearance (she was never confirmed to have been murdered in the changed timeline).

Oliver Machnaughton of The Guardian called a scene where Leland confronts Laura over dinner in Fire Walk with Me "one of the most upsetting, uncomfortably effective portrayals of parental maltreatment in all of cinema," stating that Wise "balances the loving, sympathetic father versus the abusive control freak.

"[8] Sean T. Collins of Rolling Stone stated that "you'd have to turn to James Gandolfini to find a performance of fatherhood as nuanced, heartbreaking, and horrifying as Ray Wise's portrayal of the Palmer family patriarch.