"Want. Not need. If there's one thing you should know about me, Ray, it's that I don't need anything. I want."―Dale Cooper's doppelganger[src]
The doppelganger of Dale Cooper was a cold and ruthless being from the Black Lodge, created when the original Cooper was trapped in the Lodge in March 1989. The doppelganger escaped the Lodge, sharing his body with the malicious spirit BOB, and engaged in criminal activities across Earth for over two decades. Known associates in his crimes included Phillip Jeffries, Duncan Todd, the woodsmen, Hutch, and Ray Monroe.
In 2016, Cooper's doppelganger sought out a set of coordinates, likely to find the negative force Judy, while also trying to evade the original Cooper, who had by then escaped the Lodge himself and was looking to find him and BOB to send them back, and the FBI's Blue Rose Task Force, who had begun investigating him.
Biography[]
Creation[]
When the psychotic Windom Earle brought Annie Blackburn to the Black Lodge on March 26, 1989, her boyfriend, FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, followed him in, where he faced several spirits and supernatural beings, including the arm, the malevolent spirit BOB, and a number of doppelgangers of people he knew, possibly created just for him. When BOB took Windom's soul, a doppelganger of Cooper appeared and chased after his original self.[2]
Escape to Earth[]
Sharing his body with BOB, the doppelganger managed to escape the Lodge with Annie back to Earth in Twin Peaks, Washington, the town from which they had entered it, and was tended for his wounds by Doctor Will Hayward, who believed he was the original Cooper,[2] but sensed something off about him. After he was brought to the Calhoun Memorial Hospital, the doppelganger found the intensive care unit where Cooper's friend Audrey Horne was comatose after an explosion at Twin Peaks Savings and Loan, and raped and impregnated her in her sleep.[3] The next day, Cooper checked himself out of the hospital, without receiving medical clearance.[4]
Later that day, Major Briggs met with Cooper's doppelganger at his home, intending to entrust him with the continuation of Project Blue Book. Although he was unaware that this was a doppelganger, Briggs immediately realized something was not right, and left for the station to send a mayday signal. The following day, Briggs was apparently killed in an unexplained fire at the station, and the doppelganger left Twin Peaks soon after, going off the grid for years.[5][6]
Destined to return to the Black Lodge and be replaced by the original Cooper at 2:53 PM on September 25, 2016, Cooper's doppelganger manufactured a tulpa of himself, an insurance salesman named Dougie Jones, who he sent to live in Las Vegas, Nevada, with no idea of his true nature. At the appointed time, Dougie would be drawn back into the Lodge instead of the doppelganger and BOB.[7] With this contingency in place, the doppelganger spent years building a criminal empire through several connections across America, continuously wreaking havoc wherever he went.[1]
Criminal activities[]
Around 1992, the doppelganger visited Diane Evans, Cooper's secretary, in Philadelphia and questioned her about the FBI's activities since he'd left Twin Peaks. After he got the answers he wanted, he raped her and took her to a convenience store, where he manufactured a tulpa of her. Forcing the tulpa under his command and trapping Diane in the Zone, he sent the tulpa back to the FBI to await his instructions.[8][9]
"Cooper" spent the next twenty-five years engaged in various unknown activities, supposedly with Phillip Jeffries.[11][12] The two were linked to the murder of an FBI asset in Colombia, whose identity was divulged in good faith by Albert Rosenfield.[6] Cooper's doppelganger also formed a connection with the ethereal woodsmen, who could heal him and BOB when they were hurt[13][9] and killed on their behalf.[14] He also funded the creation of a glass box to be monitored at all times in a New York City skyscraper.[10]
Hunt for Judy[]
By 2016, Cooper's doppelganger had begun looking for a series of coordinates to interdimensional portals,[11][8] likely to locate the negative force known as Judy for unknown reasons.[12] He was involved in the murder of Ruth Davenport, a school librarian in Buckhorn, South Dakota, and framed the school's principal, William Hastings, for her murder. On September 22, after he was double-crossed by his associates Ray Monroe and Darya, the latter of whom he killed, the doppelganger contacted someone he believed to be Phillip Jeffries, who told him they had missed him in New York and that they'd be with BOB again when he was pulled back into the Lodge the next day.[11]
The doppelganger arranged to meet up with Hutch and Chantal Hutchens in a few days, and set out for Yankton Federal Prison, where Ray was incarcerated, to get his revenge.[11] While driving the next day, 2:53 arrived and Cooper's doppelganger was hit with a bout of nausea, crashing his car and nearly being transported back to the Lodge. Fortunately for him, his contingency was successful and the original Cooper returned to Earth replacing Dougie instead of himself. After he violently vomited up a poisonous substance, he passed out and was found and arrested by highway patrolmen.[7]
He was incarcerated in Yankton Federal Prison himself, and was visited by two of the original Cooper's allies, FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole and Agent Albert Rosenfield. "Cooper" claimed he had been working undercover with Jeffries since his disappearance and that he was on his way to debrief with Gordon when he had his car accident. His unnatural manner of speech and expression disturbed Gordon and Albert, and they labeled Cooper's reappearance a supernatural Blue Rose case, to begin investigation immediately.[6]
A day after their meeting, Cooper's doppelganger used his phone call to disrupt the alarms in the prison and activate a device in Buenos Aires.[15] The day after that, Gordon and Albert returned to the prison with Diane's tulpa, and had her to meet with the doppelganger. This led to a terse and threatening interaction between the two that forced "Diane" to tell them that he wasn't the real Cooper, but not divulge anything else she knew in order to maintain her cover.[3]
Cooper's doppelganger then arranged a private meeting with Warden Murphy, and blackmailed him into letting him and Ray go free that evening, along with a rental car and a gun.[3] The two discussed going to the Farm, a base for a group of criminals, before they drove to a secluded area. When the doppelganger began inquiring Ray about the information he was supposed to have, Ray shot him dead point blank. The woodsmen then appeared from thin air, tearing him apart, rubbing blood all over him, and briefly removing BOB to help heal the doppelganger, all before Ray's eyes. He drove away screaming, just before "Cooper" was fully revived.[13]
The next morning, the doppelganger made his way on foot to meet up with Hutch and Chantal, who cleaned him up, gave him a new phone to communicate with Diane's tulpa, and obeyed his instructions to hunt down and kill Warden Murphy.[16] "Cooper" then made his way to the Farm, where he killed the residing criminals' leader Renzo to get at Ray. When the doppelganger interrogated him, Ray revealed that he and Darya had been hired by Jeffries to kill him, likely to get at BOB, and to put the ring on his finger when the job was done. After Ray gave him the coordinates and Jeffries' whereabouts, Cooper's doppelganger killed him before heading out.[17]
He soon reached a convenience store, where a woodsman led him up to a room above it. Another led him to a motel, where he met with Jeffries, who appeared to him as a machine emitting steam. Cooper asked him about sending Ray to kill him, but learned that it was not Jeffries, but the person who contacted him at the motel. He then recalled Jeffries' appearance at the FBI headquarters in 1989 and asked him about the identity of Judy, prompting Jeffries to insist that he had already met Judy.[12]
A phone began to ring and the doppelganger soon answered it, causing him to be transported outside the convenience store, in a phone booth. Richard Horne stood nearby, aiming a gun at the doppelganger, commenting that he knew his identity as an FBI agent, as his mother, Audrey Horne kept a photo of Cooper. The doppelganger disarmed him and took him along to his next destination.[12]
They reached a field near the location of two sets of coordinates he had been given. The exact location was atop a rock, so the doppelganger – claiming to be too old – had Richard take a tracking device to the rock. Richard climbed onto the rock, following the device's beeps was electrocuted until he disintegrated. Cooper looked on, saying, "goodbye, my son," before returning to the truck and sending a text that read, ": - ) ALL."[8]
He soon arrived at an opening that took him to the Fireman's home. Inside, he was caged and then transferred outside the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department, where he was welcomed by Deputy Andy Brennan, who took him to Sheriff Frank Truman.[9]
Truman then received a call from the original Cooper and skeptically looked at the doppelganger, who then reacted, drawing his gun. He managed to fire a shot through Frank's hat as he himself was shot and killed by Lucy Brennan.[9]
BOB was removed from the doppelganger and was broken into pieces by Freddie Sykes. The original Cooper then placed the ring on the doppelganger's hand, transporting him back to the Lodge,[9] where he burned.[18]
Behind the scenes[]
Dale Cooper's doppelganger was portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan, who also portrayed the original Dale Cooper and Dougie Jones. MacLachlan did not try to mimic Frank Silva's BOB character beyond mirroring his movements in the final scene of "Episode 29."[19] MacLachlan suggested the black contact lenses for the doppelganger.[20]
The shooting script for the third season lists the character's name as "Cooper's Double".[21] Co-creator David Lynch does not give a nickname to the character and merely calls him Cooper's doppelganger.[22]
The doppelganger's haircut was made to try to mimic Anton Chigurgh from No Country for Old Men, but the clothing was chosen by Lynch himself, discarding jewelry accessories.[20] The snakeskin shirt might be a reference to Sailor's jacket in Lynch's Wild at Heart which the character described as "a symbol of [his] individuality and [his] belief in personal freedom".
Trivia[]
- Cooper's doppelganger's prison ID number at South Dakota Federal Penitentiary was 75425.[6]
- The doppelganger's left ring finger print or at least the corresponding text is horizontally flipped.[6]
- The doppelganger was listed as living in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.[6]
Appearances[]
- Twin Peaks – season 2
- Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces
- Twin Peaks – 2017
- The Secret History of Twin Peaks (Mentioned only)
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Twin Peaks – "Part 1"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Twin Peaks – "Episode 29"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Twin Peaks – "Part 7"
- ↑ Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier
- ↑ The Secret History of Twin Peaks
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Twin Peaks – "Part 4"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Twin Peaks – "Part 3"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Twin Peaks – "Part 16"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Twin Peaks – "Part 17"
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Twin Peaks – "Part 10"
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Twin Peaks – "Part 2"
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Twin Peaks – "Part 15"
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Twin Peaks – "Part 8"
- ↑ Twin Peaks – "Part 11"
- ↑ Twin Peaks – "Part 5"
- ↑ Twin Peaks – "Part 9"
- ↑ Twin Peaks – "Part 13"
- ↑ Twin Peaks – "Part 18"
- ↑ MacLachlan interview for Hollywood Reporter
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 MacLachlan interview for Entertainment Weekly
- ↑ Impressions: A Journey Behind the Scenes of Twin Peaks
- ↑ Lynch interview about Parts 1 to 4