Subject: Whose Blood?/Agent Cooper
From: bl0r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Barton Lipman)
Date: 1990-05-11, 06:56
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

Two quick comments on last night's episode and some of this morning's
posts.

1.  I can't believe that the blood on Leo's shirt could possibly be
Jacque's.  Jacque appeared in two scenes after Shelley found the bloody
shirt.  Remember that she found the shirt in his truck when he came back
the morning Laura's body was found.  Jacques tended bar that night at the
Roadhouse and ran away from the bar in the episode before last when
he got the red light signal.  At that point he called Leo to get him
out of town.  The only way I can imagine it being Jacque's blood is if
he was cut by Laura or Ronette during the rapes/murder and bled on
Leo.  However, there seemed to be too much blood for that.
2.  It seems to me that Agent Cooper continues to turn into a
regular person with each passing episode.  In the movie and the
first couple of episodes, he was a wonderful combination of geekiness
and brilliance.  He never seemed to make a mistake and always caught
on to what was happening two steps ahead of everyone else.  Recall
things like the way he immediately knew Bobby hadn't killed Laura,
the way he knew that the videotape was made by a biker (from the
reflection in Laura's eyes -- a detail no one else noticed), the way
he picked up on Truman and Josie.  By contrast, in the episode a week
ago, we have him bursting in on the one-armed man and looking like an
idiot.  Perhaps the one-armed man is doing a good job of bluffing, but
he sure made it seem as though Cooper had blundered.  True, we get the
damn fine detective work of impounding the vet's records when he
finds out that the convenience store next door sells twine.  But
we also have two other blunders last week:  letting Bobby get away
from Jacques' apartment and not realizing that it would be sort of odd
for Leo to leave a blood-stained shirt at Jacques'.  Now this week,
Cooper immediately assumes that the blood is Jacques' (a theory I
hope I convinced you is necessarily mistaken).  Why doesn't he wonder
why Leo would leave the shirt at Jacques' if it has Jacques' blood
all over it and Leo's initials on it?  On top of that, he nearly
blows the interview with the log lady, getting his hand slapped by
her (a funny scene, but out of character for him) and then having to
have Truman essentially lead him through the "interrogation."  It
was a fun episode (yes, the ending was great), but it seems to me
that we're losing Agent Cooper here.

Bart