Ben Horne - Role On Series

Role On Series

At the start of the series, Ben is recruiting foreign businessmen to invest in his plans for Ghostwood, an elaborate country club that would take the place of Twin Peaks' scenic Ghostwood Forest. His plans are interrupted when Laura Palmer, the daughter of Ben's lawyer, Leland Palmer, is found murdered. The murder both puts Leland out of commission and gives Audrey the opportunity to paint Twin Peaks as a dangerous place, frightening away her father's potential investors.

As the first season progresses, Ben attempts to juggle his various personal and business problems in light of Laura's murder. While putting on a brave face and acting on behalf of the stricken Palmers to retrieve Laura's body and transport it for burial, Ben's vulnerability is revealed when Cooper confronts him with knowledge of his affair with Laura.

Following Laura's funeral, Ben pours all of his energies into obtaining the Packard Saw Mill land, some of the most valuable real estate in Twin Peaks. He hires local drug runner Leo Johnson to burn down the mill with Catherine trapped inside, and then obtains the services of hitman Hank Jennings to murder Leo so that no one will ever know the two worked together. Ben's plan goes terribly awry, though: The mill doesn't completely burn; Catherine's body is never found, which prevents Ben from collecting on her life insurance policy (a matter further complicated by Catherine having made an intentional clerical error to foil Ben in the event of her death); Leo survives being shot by Hank; and Audrey is kidnapped by the staff of One Eyed Jacks, who intend to use her to extort Ben for millions of dollars while simultaneously enacting a hostile takeover of the business. Ben begrudgingly gives Dale Cooper the requested ransom money, then hires Hank to trail Cooper, kill everyone involved in retrieving Audrey, and bring back Audrey and the money himself. Ultimately, Cooper himself rescues Audrey and returns to Twin Peaks with both her and the money intact. The matter allows Cooper to see Horne's darkest side when he learns that Horne was going to use the crisis as an opportunity to have Cooper murdered, as Ben disapproved of Audrey's crush on him.

Shortly after Audrey's safe return, a misunderstanding in a clue provided to Cooper by MIKE leads to Ben being arrested for the murder of Laura Palmer. With Leland simultaneously under indictment for murdering the man he believed to have killed Laura, Ben is left with the incompetent Jerry as his lawyer, his only advice being, "Get another lawyer." Simultaneously, Catherine Martel re-surfaces, alive and well, having survived the fire. Posing as a foreign investor, she first arranges for Ben to purchase the Mill Land and Ghostwood from Josie with a bogus check, and then blackmails him into signing over Josie's 50% to her in exchange for an alibi as to his whereabouts the night Laura Palmer was murdered. Desperate, and stunned at having been conned, Ben signs over his deed to Catherine, who then renegs on her promise to provide him an alibi. Ben is left trapped in jail, where he begins to break down and reminisce about his childhood.

Eventually, Ben is used as a pawn to draw out the real killer; Cooper brings him to a meeting of suspects at the Roadhouse, which is also attended by the Great Northern's elderly room service waiter. The waiter, under the influence of The Giant, identifies Leland Palmer—under the influence of the demonic spirit BOB—as Laura's killer. In order to trap Leland, Cooper lies and tells everyone that he has positively identified Ben Horne as the real killer, and then gives Leland permission to accompany Ben to the jail to act as his counsel. Leland/BOB, unaware of the ruse, accompany Cooper and Ben to the jailhouse; just as Cooper and Sheriff Truman are about to lead Ben into an interrogation room, they hold him back and throw Leland/BOB inside, trapping him. The revelation shocks Ben, who can only mutter "Leland..." before he is allowed to go home.

The series of traumatic events breaks Ben, who slips into a deep depression before ultimately suffering a nervous breakdown and a psychotic break. Ben becomes convinced that he is a Civil War general, leading the South in a victorious campaign against the Union. His psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence Jacoby, theorizes that Ben is at least partially aware of reality, and that his fantasy is an attempt to reverse his recent misfortunes and start anew; if he can lead the Confederacy to victory, i.e. "rewrite the past," he can then rewrite his own past and have a fresh start. Jerry, Audrey, and Bobby Briggs, under Jacoby's direction, serve to enable Ben's fantasy up to a surrender of the Union at Appomattox. Ben suffers a blackout, from which he awakens with a desire to atone for his past sins, whilst simultaneously seeking peaceful revenge on Catherine. To meet both of these ends, Ben launches an environmentalist campaign to prevent Catherine from re-building the mill or building anything in Ghostwood; he learns that the forest is the habitat of an endangered species, and manages to get the majority of the town on board to block any of Catherine's real estate developments. He makes a genuine attempt to atone for his past crimes, gives up smoking, and begins building a close relationship with Audrey (to whom he begins to teach the family business, with the intention of one day passing on the Great Northern and Horne's to her).

As part of his "new life," Ben attempts to make amends with Mrs. Hayward, with whom he had an affair seventeen years ago, an affair which produced Donna Hayward; Ben wants to both make up for his indiscretions with Mrs. Hayward and get to know the daughter he never had. In the series finale, Ben comes to the Hayward home to reveal everything to a heartbroken Donna. Enraged, Doc Hayward, Donna's father, punches him, resulting in Ben splitting his head open on a piece of fireplace equipment.