Cooper the Killer

[ghostwood]

Many have noted the thematic continuity among Twin Peaks and Lynch's later films, particularly Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire; they all deal, to some extent, with "women in trouble"who use complex fantasies to mitigate their psychological pain. In Mulholland Drive, we learn that "Betty,"the bright-eyed starlet who helps "Rita,"the mysterious amnesic, is actually the ideal fantasy-self of Diane Selwyn, who in reality engineered the murder of Camilla Rhodes, whom "Rita"symbolizes. In the fantasy, Betty investigates Rita's missing identity, making phone calls and house visits, even sacrificing a potential romantic and professional relationship with Adam Kesher on Rita's behalf; Betty acts as a faithful detective. This obviously echoes the role of Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks (and Jeffrey Beaumont in Blue Velvet, but I'll focus on Twin Peaks). The implications of this parallel are strange and shocking: Cooper, like Betty, represents the real murderer, and the story of Twin Peaks becomes the fantasy that exonerates him by casting him as the hero-detective instead of the villain. Now I don't ascribe this intent to Lynch or the other Twin Peaks writers, nor do I subscribe to it completely myself. Nevertheless, there are some other interesting elements that make such an interpretation worthy of consideration:

1) The ending of Episode 29: Cooper is revealed to be (inhabited by) BOB, the mirror image of the negative, murderous force.
2) The kiss in the Episode 2 dream sequence: Laura kisses Cooper in the dream, just as Rita embraces Betty. In each case, perhaps, the killer transposes the crime completely through fantasy ("I didn't kill her; she kissed me.").
3) Occurrences of impossibility: Cooper and Laura have the same dream ("But Agent Cooper, that's impossible.""I know, Andy."); the name "Cooper"emanates from the woods of Twin Peaks; Cooper's great "intuition"; such things suggest the possibility that all of Twin Peaks is a fantasy.
4) Cooper's inability/unwillingness to remember the killer's name in Episode 3: Cooper awakens from his dream with knowledge of who killed Laura Palmer; he calls Sheriff Truman but, for some reason, decides that "it can wait"; the next morning, he casually forgets; seems that he might be hiding his own culpability by repressing the knowledge of his own crime; he even admits that the answers to the crime lie within his own mind, a code waiting to be broken ("Break the code, solve the crime"); how could he know such things if he were not the murderer or a witness?
5) Cooper is suspended from the FBI midway through Season 2: this might be another instance in which a fantasy element mirrors something from reality (in reality he was suspended/arrested for the murder of a young girl; in fantasy he was suspended for trying to save a girl [Audrey]).
6) Jean Renault's speech about how Cooper brought the evil into Twin Peaks; perhaps in reality he is the evil, corrupting force.

Again, I'm not offering this as the "right"way to interpret Twin Peaks but merely as an interesting perspective that allows for fun speculation.

[giospurs]

That's a really interesting theory. I don't really believe it but if the evidence was slightly more conclusive (only slightly as you wouldn't want to make it obvious or force it on people) then it would completely change everything we'd seen with Cooper. The idea of this almost sole presence of good, fighting against the weird world of TP inhabited by so much evil, actually being the villain is so chilling, which is part of the reason the end of TP in ep. 29, works so well.

[Jerry Horne]

Well, it would explain how Cooper arrived in Twin Peaks so quickly!

[Evenreven]

It's a nice post with some interesting thoughts, but I would like this perspective a lot more if we didn't know that the killer was Leland. Or does he dream that too? What about Fire Walk with Me? Did Coop kill Teresa?

I do like the idea that Coop - as much as Leland - is the force that makes the whole town come apart, though. It's suggested both by Jean and Josie. Granted, they're either mad or desperate, but still. And Coop did bring baggage to town he didn't tell Harry about.

[leopheard]

Excellent theories there.

I know it's nothing like or as good as TP, but the series 'Dexter' is also kinda like this. He's a nice guy, likeable character, but just so happens to be a serial killer. That's the dilemma the viewer/reader faces and a conflict arises. That's what I like about his character in that.

[Jerry Horne]

Recall Jean Renault's speech to cooper about coop "bringing evil with him."

I've always thought that was a very interesting thing he said. How about what Lynch said in 'Lynch on Lynch':

"I've got to say this one thing about that scene - where Annie suddenly appears in Laura's bed. This is before Laura has been murdered, and before Coop has come to Twin Peaks. Annie appears, filled with blood, and wearing the exact same dress that she's wearing when she was in the The Red Room with Cooper in the series - in the future. She says to Laura, 'The good Dale is in the Lodge. Write it in your diary.' And I know that Laura wrote that down, in a little side space in her diary. Now, if Twin Peaks, the series, had continued, someone may've found that. It's like someone in 1920 saying, 'Lee Harvey Oswald', or something, and then later you sort of see it all. I had hopes of something coming out of that, and I liked the idea of the story going back and forth in time"

We know that time in the 'Red Room' is out of sync with our world, with a person possibly able to spin out at different times. So, going along with this theory and what Jean said, maybe in fact there was only Coopers/BOB's influence? At the end of the series, maybe Cooper has come full circle with his partner and Doppelganger (BOB). Cooper has not brought evil with him, because his shadow self, with the help of the timeless Black Lodge, HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE EVIL IN THESE WOODS.

Well, it's fun thinking about anyway.

[garethw]

An interesting theory.

I've always found the giant's response to Cooper asking "Where do you come from?" interesting. He shakes his head and answers, "The question is, 'Where have you gone?'"

In some ways it suggests that the whole of the 2nd season is a rather long bardo dream with some really bad writing. Maybe that's why the first and second season are so different in quality - heh, it's actually a clever plot device.

Maybe Coop was supposed to awake in the shower like that 80's soap - Dallas, I think?