Thanks for the honesty Jasper, I really appreciate that. Truth is I was a little nervous about sharing this theory because I thought I'd be scoffed, but hey, we can't have real discussions if we aren't honest about what we think, and if we are resistant to how others react. This forum is a great place precisely because we can go down these avenues of speculation and bounce ideas off of each other.Jasper wrote:To be completely honest, this just sounds kind of silly.
Agreed, reintegration is the key to the survival of either half.Jasper wrote:The doppelganger doesn't have a drop of good in him. Dougie-Coop has all of the good. Now, I will say that it's possible that the reintegration of the two could lead to normal Cooper, with the shadow self submerged deep in the unconscious. We do need an shadow component for a number of reasons, one being that we need to be able to understand and predict what evil humans might do. We also need to be able to go into a mode where we're less than angelic, purely for the sake of survival, which is something which societies ask of their warriors.
I'm not saying that Dale is good, I'm just saying that he's trying to do what's right. Without feelings, he's still up to something, there's a goal he thinks is the right aim, and he's doing everything he can to achieve it yet he cannot ascertain right from wrong on any sort of emotional level. He can't feel but he can reason.
Now, if he's merely a plain and simple "bad guy", if he's just The Big Bad Wolf, that goes beyond boring: that would be completely lacking any kind of tragedy. Hawk's explanation of the Dweller on the Threshold implied something much deeper. It seemed to me the idea was that one could go through their entire life trying to ignore their inherent darkness without confronting it or actually changing, while choosing to only show their inherent good. But this stifling or concealment of the dark side would only serve to allow its growth, and that a day would inevitably arrive when an individual would come face to face with what they've created, and either run in fear or stand tall knowing they've got the upper hand.
Cooper's demons were locked away and on the surface he was perfect, but the confrontation with the Shadow Self resulted in the destruction of his soul. This is why he is so corrupted, because he's been spiritually fragmented and emotionally destroyed. As Hawk warned, "Your soul will be utterly annihilated".
If sitting in a chair for 25 years before emerging to our world without memories is supposed to be the definition of the soul's destruction, I'm not buying it. There's got to be more to the story than "The Doppelganger is evil". Such interpretation implies that this entity is separate from Dale, and is simply evil for the sake of it. But isn't it an aspect of Dale rather than a separate being? Isn't it Dale with all his demons and none of his angels?
These are superficial elements of the physical body, and they reveal something wrong on the inside, but that doesn't mean that it can't be Dale Cooper.Jasper wrote:The shadow self is really only supposed to be one in the lodge/unconscious. When it emerged it seems to have emerged with its own physical form, the existence of which precludes the emergence of the good Coop in physical form. The doppelganger has impenetrable black eyes and a backwards fingerprint.
Interesting reply because he sort of contradicts himself in several ways. He says that Coop wasn't occupied by BOB, then that part of Coop was occupied by Bob, and then that there are two Coops and the one that emerged is occupied by BOB. Not a very conclusive answer although I can see how it can be interpreted to imply that there are two physical manifestations of Coop.Jasper wrote:Q:
So, was Cooper occupied by BOB in the script before you changed it?
LYNCH:
No, but Coop wasn't occupied by BOB. Part of him was. There are two Coops in there, and the one that came out was, you know, with BOB.
So to paraphrase, "Everyone has two sides, and he's up against himself". Seems like this one can be interpreted to support my theory, because being up against oneself does not necessarily imply two physical selves. We go up against ourselves on a daily basis in life, struggling to assert our willpower in order to do the right thing, or the most beneficial thing, rather than what's easier to do or what's the most instantly gratifying act to partake in. We become conflicted about what we want versus what we need! Urges well up inside of us and we must use our reason to quell our emotional desires.Jasper wrote:Q:
Why was Cooper possessed by Bob at the end? It seems like he's lost it.
LYNCH:
Well the thing is he hasn't been possessed. It's the doppelgänger thing, the idea of two sides to everyone, he's really up against himself.
The fact that Dale isn't concerned with needs says a lot. A conscientious person puts actual needs above base desires. But he's all about following urges these days.
In this particular case, two physical selves do eventually exist, but this wasn't always the case. Before Dougie was manifested we had Dale's body and mind in the world and Dale's heart and soul in the Red Room.Jasper wrote:Dale Cooper's body was able to emerge because of the existence of Dougie Jones. This is perhaps because Dougie provided raw organic material for Cooper to reformulate as if going through a Stark Trek transporter. Cooper's mind and/or soul lost something in the transfer (maybe his shoes/pin, and/or the Dougie sphere), but this is the real, physical Dale Cooper. He has Dale Cooper's haircut, suit, physique, and even his Great Northern room key. This wasn't supposed to be possible, but it was made possible.
I agree that he was able to emerge because he is essentially replacing Dougie Jones, and that Dougie was himself a physical clone of Cooper, but this still doesn't make the man in Vegas the "real, physical Dale Cooper". He's more of an exact recreation of the original. The fact that he emerged with his haircut, suit, physique, and Great Northern room key only only illustrates that it's how Dale went in.
How you go in is how you go out, right? So who's to say that when he emerged 25 years ago he didn't have a key to Room 315? It wouldn't make sense for him to have not emerged with that key when you think about it. Why two suits, two ties, two pairs of shoes, but not two keys? It wouldn't surprise me at all if Frank ends up learning that there's already an original 315 key laying around, perhaps even in Harry's possession.
Of course by exploring this line of thinking I'm going out on a limb, but given how matter of fact and shallow an "evil" bad guy sort of character would be in something that Lynch & Frost created, I'm still entertaining the idea.