DOugie JOnes

Agent Cooper’s alter-ego is the damaged soul of Twin Peaks: The Return

UK Broadcast Sky Atlantic, Mondays

There are two characters at the heart of Twin Peaks: Laura Palmer, the murdered homecoming queen whose spirit still lingers over the town, and Dale Cooper, the FBI agent sent to solve the crime. Where Laura was used as the engine of the original story, Twin Peaks: The Return is all about Coop.

Or, rather, multiple Coops. So far (eight episodes in at the time of writing) we’ve seen no less than four iterations of the character. “Classic” Cooper, trapped in the Black Lodge; his evil doppelgänger, here on Earth; Dougie Jones – a shabby, tackily dressed simulacrum created by Evil Coop as a way of avoiding being pulled back into the Lodge; and, finally, Real Coop inhabiting Dougie’s life after he comes back into our reality through a power outlet. Still with us?

Kyle MacLachlan makes each of these characters distinct, but Dougie is his finest work. After spending US Broadcast Showtime, Sundays

so long in another reality, Cooper is virtually mute and unable to control his corporeal form. He pees himself. He stumbles rigidly from place to place. His only dialogue is mimicked from those around him.

At first it’s funny. Episode three’s sojourn to a casino is comically odd, with Coop repeatedly bellowing at slot machines. But the longer the arc goes on, the sadder it becomes. With the spirit of the man he was trapped inside, it’s hard not to be reminded of someone suffering from dementia. MacLachlan’s performance is amusing, but it’s also sincere and heartbreaking.

We have to assume that Classic Coop will be back. But we’ll never forget the bewildered man blundering his way through a life he doesn’t understand, staring sadly at icons of his past and wondering what happened. In a way aren’t we all a bit Dougie Jones? Will Salmon