Gailbraithe

What do people think Evil Cooper is up to in a general sense? It feels to me like Evil Cooper is somehow tied up with Mr. Duncan and the anonymous billionaire behind the Glass Box. The reason I think they are all connected is because: Darlene and Evil Cooper both report to the Black Box in Buenos Aires. Mr. Duncan sent Ike the Spike to kill Darlene for failing to kill Dougie Jones. Mr. Duncan seems to work for the same mysterious billionaire that employed Sam Colby to watch the Glass Box. It seems like Evil Cooper is up to something quite grand and decidedly supernatural, and might even be the anonymous billionaire. If we assume that, as Cooper's doppleganger, Evil Cooper is some sort of inverse Cooper, then his goals might be the inversion of Cooper's goals. Cooper seems to desire a deeper and more meaningful connection to the universe so that he can be a better person and achieve more good in the world, which suggests Evil Cooper might have similarly lofty and spiritual goals, but twisted towards more evil ends. If we imagine Cooper as a sort of "white wizard," who uses his heightened intuition and deep spiritual connection to the universe in the furtherance of good (re: The Tibetan Method), then Evil Cooper would be a "black magician," using his heightened intuition and deep spiritual connection to the universe in the furtherance of evil. I don't think Evil Cooper has goals that are as base and small-minded as Leland, who only seemed to want to slake his lusts and hide his crimes from the world. In any other show, I would assume that Evil Cooper was plotting to open a gate to Hell or summon Cthulhu from the depths of ancient R'lyeh. In this show? No idea. But it's got to be something big...

Those are probably crew members, especially the three guys who are in the foreground. I was referring to the final scene of S2, when Evil Cooper slammed his head into the mirror in his hotel room at the Great Northern. It's certainly possible, I just find the idea stains credulity to the breaking point. I just find the "Evil Cooper used to be good at fooling people, but now can't even maintain the illusion for a few seconds" theory to be kind of...well, desperate. It sounds like grasping at straws to me, like a theory that doesn't explain the facts, but rather tries to explain the facts away. It took no time at all for Diane to realize that Evil Cooper is not Good Cooper, and I find it really hard to believe she wouldn't have noticed that he's this evil, soulless creature while he was raping her. I mean, yeah, sure, could be. Just strikes me as really bad writing if that's the case. Like way below what I'd expect from Frynch.

Hi DinerGirl! I don't think anything ominous is happening in this scene. I think it's just an issue of using non-professional actors and the vagaries of filmmaking. The final scene in the RR Diner consists of six shots: Here's a list of the shots: Shot Type of Shot A Stock Diner Footage B Scripted Scene C Norma Insert Shot D Scripted Scene E Norma Insert Shot F Stock Diner Footage Shots B and D were probably shot at the same time, with two camera rolling (one at the end of each aisle). This footage was not long enough to fill the necessary time, so it was padded out with the stock diner footage. The stock diner footage was shot at an entirely different time -- maybe even different day -- as the scene footage. The Norma insert shots were also probably shot at an entirely different time, and then cut into the scene to hide the cuts from the scripted scene footage to the stock footage. The extras change between the Stock Footage and the Scripted Scene Footage because they were shot at entirely different times, and it was impossible to get the same extras back, and some of them moved around. Most of these extras are just local non-professionals, probably weren't even paid. This is a pretty boring explanation for the vanishing extras, but it's probably a more likely explanation than time travel or multiple co-existing dimensions.

Hi there Twin Peaks Rewatch people! This is my first post. I just discovered the podcast in the days after the debut episode, and of the six or seven TP podcasts I've listened to, Chris and Jake are my favorites and seem to enjoy the show on the same level I do. I am an OG TP fan -- I first really discovered David Lynch in 1989, while I was in the 8th grade, when two friends convinced me to watch Blue Velvet by citing Dune (one of my all time favorite movies) as another Lynch project. We were all so obsessed with the movie we actually shot our own completely terrible 40 minute sequel (with a completely unrelated plot and characters...) on VHS, and so naturally when Twin Peaks was announced we went completely insane. It is my favorite TV show of all time, and Lynch remains one of my top 3 directors of all time (the other two being the Coen Bros. and Peter Greenaway, but I will never tell anyone the order because I still don't know myself). So, intros out of the way, here's why I signed up: There are a lot of people speculating to the effect that Evil Cooper raped Diane or that Good Cooper had an affair with Diane. I have a lot of problems with these theories . I'd like to walk you through my reasoning and suggest an alternative theory that actually explains all of the facts as we know them. Here's what we know: Diane has cut her ties to the FBI and has an antagonistic attitude towards Gordon Cole and his minions. Despite this antagonism, Diane is willing to drop everything and fly with Cole to South Dakota to interview Cooper. Diane is clearly aware of the nature of Cole's work re: the Blue Rose cases. Something happened the last time Dale and Diane saw each other, which was at Diane's house. Diane recognized that Evil Cooper is not Cooper more or less the second she saw him. 1) The "Evil Cooper raped Diane" theory makes little sense to me, as it would suggest that Diane had met the Evil Cooper before, but if that were the case, then why would she be so visibly shaken by her encounter with Evil Cooper? Given how easily she recognized that this Cooper is not the Cooper she knew -- and how she makes it clear that it isn't just the passage of time or the change in appearance that is different, but rather his absence of a soul -- it seems utterly implausible that she had not only met Evil Cooper before, but been raped by him. Some people have responded to this criticism by suggesting that Evil Cooper may have been better at impersonating Good Cooper immediately after he left the Black Lodge, and then somehow lost the ability to impersonate him over the years, but I find this highly implausible. There's nothing to suggest it, and Evil Cooper even has to fake a serious head wound just to throw Sheriff Truman and Doc Heyward off his scent. I find it extremely hard to believe that Diane would drop everything and fly to South Dakota with Cole, who she clearly doesn't like, to help with Cooper if the last time she saw Cooper he had raped her. The only possible explanation I can see for Diane to go see Cooper in prison if Cooper raped her would be to confront her attacker and gloat over his imprisonment, but the scene between them doesn't have that tone. There's no anger in Diane when she confronts Cooper, only dread. Furthermore she is clearly devastated by the interaction with Evil Cooper because she has realized his heart (soul) is missing, and I find it difficult to believe that would be shocking to her if she had been raped by him. The "Evil Cooper raped Diane" theory is completely full of holes. It fails to explain Diane's reaction to seeing Evil Cooper, it fails to explain Diane's antagonism towards Cole and the FBI, and it fails to explain why Diane would be willing to help Cole regarding Cooper. The entire theory seems to rest on the belief that Twin Peaks is a Show About Rape, and that everything in the show must somehow connect back to rape and sexual violence. 2) The next theory I see floating around is that Dale and Diane had a romantic/sexual encounter before he left for Twin Peaks, and this is what she is referring to when she eludes to the last time they saw each other. However, this theory also suffers from several major problems. Dale Cooper is a genuinely good person, who is kind, compassionate and forthright. It is hard to imagine Dale being the love 'em and leave 'em sort, yet that is precisely what we have to accept if we assume that Dale and Diane had sex before Dale came to Twin Peaks. Let's go back to Season 2, Episode 1, when Dale is lying on the floor of his hotel room and dying (as far as he knows) from a gutshot and makes a dying confession to Diane. This is not the confession of a man speaking to a woman he loves in a romantic way. In fact, there is one line that makes this a cruel and mean-spirited confession if we start with the assumption that Dale and Diane have had a sexual relationship: Now, I believe that if you listen to Cooper's many notes to Diane over the course of the original series, it is clear that Cooper has genuine affection for Diane. He speaks to her as one would to a close and dear friend, sharing his fears, his dreams, his innermost thoughts. Diane is also a beautiful woman. It would take a truly misogynistic neckbeard to deny that Laura Dern is an attractive woman. Thus if Cooper had a sexual relationship with Diane, then he would have "made love to a beautiful woman for whom he had genuine affection." So to then list making love to a woman for whom he has genuine affection as one of the things he regrets having never done in a dying confession to Diane would be unimaginably cruel and thoughtless -- traits we would never associate with Dale Cooper. Let's pretend he had died on that hotel room floor, his last message to Diane would be "Hey Diane, remember when we had sex? Yeah, I either had no affection for you or I think you're unattractive. Burn!" That seems unimaginably cruel for Dale Cooper. Additionally, Cooper is clearly free of romantic entanglements when he arrives in Twin Peaks. This is made obvious from his interactions with both Audrey Horne and Annie Blackburn. Again, Cooper does not seem like the sort of man who would causally use a good friend for sex, and we have to assume that if Dale and Diane hooked-up immediately before Dale was sent to Twin Peaks, then Dale would have deflected Audrey's attentions with a simple "Audrey, I can't return your affections, I'm already involved in a relationship. I'm sorry." Finally, if Diane's bitterness was over Dale loving and leaving her, this would not sufficiently explain her clear antipathy to Cole and the FBI. Why would she blame Cole and his crew or the FBI for Dale being a cad and a heel? It's clear that Diane has quit the FBI and wants nothing to do with Cole and the gang, so any theory must naturally account for this fact. 3) However, I do have a theory that explains all the facts: Dale and Diane are very good platonic friends, an extension of their professional relationship. They have genuine affection for each other, but do not have any romantic interest in each other. They have never had a sexual encounter. Diane is aware of the nature of Cole's work re: the Blue Rose cases. Diane may, in fact, have been the original Tammy Preston, serving a similar role in Cole's group. Like all of Cole's agents, Diane had a strong sense of loyalty to Cole and his mission, but this changed following the disappearance of Agent Phillip Jefferies, Windham Earle's psychotic break and confinement in a psychiatric facility, and then the disappearance of Agent Chester Desmond. Diane began to develop concerns over Cole and his obsession with the Blue Rose cases, coming to believe that Cole was willing to endanger and sacrifice his own agents in pursuit of a greater understanding of the Blue Rose cases. She began to lose her faith in Cole. Shortly before Dale left for Twin Peaks, Diane asked Dale to meet her at her home. There she confided her doubts in Cole to Dale, and her fear that he would suffer the same fate as Jefferies and Desmond. Dale, whose loyalty to Cole was rock solid, brushed off Diane's concerns. They fought about it, and Diane extracted a promise from Dale that he would not do anything stupid or dangerous -- that he would not allow himself to become another victim of Cole's obsession. Dale was subsequently lost to the Black Lodge, another victim of the Blue Rose case. This caused Diane to break with the FBI and with Cole. It explains Diane's antagonism towards Cole, his minions and the FBI: She blames Cole for Cooper vanishing, and has come to see Cole as a kind of cult leader, recklessly endangering the agents under his command to feed his obsession with the Blue Rose case, and blames Cole's minions and the FBI for empowering him. She feels hurt and betrayed by Cooper, who promised her he would keep himself safe, hence her reaction of "Good!" when she finds out Dale is in a federal prison, but she still cares for Cooper and is concerned for his well-being, which is why she agrees to help Cole despite her reservations. Her real antipathy is towards Cole, which is why we get "Fuck you, Gordon!" and "Fuck you, Albert!" and even "Fuck you, Tammy!" (This fuck you didn't seem to be a result of anything Preston did, except being Cole's lackey). Her real resentment is towards Cole, but this spills over in resentment towards those agents who are still loyal to Cole and enable his obsession (i.e. Albert and Tammy). However, once she realizes Cooper is different, she also realizes that Cole is likely Cooper's only hope, which is why her attitude towards him shifts so dramatically. She doesn't want to tell Cole about "that night" because "Well, Gordon, I told Dale I think you're a dangerous lunatic and that your obsession was going to get him killed or worse, which is exactly what happened, but now I need your help." So instead she says they'll have a talk, and follows it up with what? "Cheers to the FBI," said with no small amount of scorn, Because as much as she hates the FBI, she knows they're Dale's only hope. So that's my theory. What do you think?