Agent Cooper, Oh How We've Missed You
David Lynch's temporarily-resurrected season of Twin Peaks has done what viewers of Sex and The City may have thought impossible: reminded the world that Kyle MachLachlan is, indeed, cool. Also an outstanding actor, but let's focus on the cool part for a minute.
In its current incarnation on Showtime, Twin Peaks tells the maddening, frustrating, and delightful story of the man formerly known only as FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (our hero, Mr. MacLachlan) who now exists in his Good Cooper form as the phenomenally lucky yet utterly discombobulated Dougie Jones, as well as the most evil of evil doppelgängers, Evil Cooper. Being a David Lynch joint, Twin Peaks has multiple other storylines loitering about, any of which may be connected to the overall plot or may be just another intriguing narrative cul-de-sac. Fifteen (out of eighteen) episodes in, however, it's increasingly apparent that we're moving toward a standoff between Mr. Jones and Mr. Evil Cooper and the ultimate demise--either in the traditional form of death or a more creative Lynch-ian direction--of one or the other.
We haven't yet seen Dougie Jones/Good Cooper in the same frame as Evil Cooper, and maybe that proximity will highlight similarities that are not evident in casual comparison. But until then, it's entirely possible to forget that the same actor is playing both characters, much less that they are supposed to be exact replicas of one another. It's not just their hair and wardrobe, with Dougie being clean-cut and wearing Good Cooper's familiar uniform of black suit, black tie, white shirt, and Evil Cooper sporting a perpetual five-o'clock shadow and a ne'er-do-well tousled 'do highly suggestive of criminality and general lewd intent. His heavy biker boots and leather jacket make the point if nothing else does. It's MacLachlan's ability to transcend the crutches of props and lighting to project an entirely different physicality. In one character, he is entirely the disoriented clean slate of Dougie Jones. In the other, he has the confidence and quiet swagger of the evil denizen of an alternate dimension that he plays. The only clear behavioral trait that the two share is the paucity of movement and willingness to underplay that characterized the original Agent Cooper. When given an opportunity to communicate through large gestures or obvious expression, MacLachlan resists and more effectively tells the same story through smaller, but ultimately more powerful, efforts.
The other characteristic both Coopers share is an innate coolness. Dougie Jones/Good Cooper stumbles innocently into his coolness, charming showgirls, mobsters, and his own wife without having any apparent personal awareness or even personal agency. The viewer gets a sense that Evil Cooper might welcome his coolness, particularly when toying with a backwoods crime boss instead of immediately using his supernaturally-enhanced strength to win at arm wrestling. On the other hand, maybe Evil Cooper would shoot the poor sucker who dared consider him long enough to even think he might be cool, one shot, execution style, right between the eyes.
Either way, it's Kyle MacLachlan dancing to David Lynch's dulcet tones that give both men their coolness. After watching him simper, waffle, and hide behind his chin in other roles, it's a pleasure to see him back in the black suit. It's also nice to see that rumor of his return has spread beyond Twin Peaks' relatively small viewership; Ugg recently made him the leading face of their fall ad campaign. No one wants to see him in a pair of oblong sheepskin boots. But he's a natural in their new line of slightly off-center classics.
Now would someone please get the man a slice of pie and hot black coffee?
