Subject: Re: The Broken Heart Necklace!
From: rlr@toccata.rutgers.edu (Rich Rosen)
Date: 1990-05-20, 09:18
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <1990May19.072942.23320@alembic.acs.com>, csu@alembic.acs.com
(Dave Mack) writes:
>> >>I was working under the following assumptions:
>> >>1) That the Dr. Leydecker who runs the clinic has not been identified as
>> >>BOB Leydecker.
> > 
> > And I imagine a sharp guy like Agent Cooper would make sure that
> > the vet running the clinic is in fact BOB LYDECKER (dammit), not
> > his black sheep brother Napoleon Lydecker, ...

Who says he didn't?  Cooper has regularly known things that we didn't know that
he knew, only to have him reveal said things at crucial moments in an almost
offhanded way.  He might know very well that the Lydecker (OK, OK, OK...)
running the clinic is not named Bob (if that is the case), but he hasn't told
this to US (or to Harry and co.) just yet.

> > In a good mystery, the detective isn't some fumblebunny who isn't
> > even bright enough to check out the full name of a suspect. ...
> > But if you are [right], it means that
> > FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is an incompetent nitwit. For me,
> > at least, that would ruin the series.

As I said, Cooper may know full well exactly what it is going on here (with
regards to there being two separate Lydeckers, again IF that is the case), but
that fact (the fact itself and the fact that Cooper knows this) may not have
been revealed to the audience or to the other characters just yet.

In any case, I am sticking out the defense of this idea only as a possibility.
As I mentioned originally, I heard this idea from a friend who said he noticed
some wavering in the response of the clinic's receptionist to the question
posed to her about the identity of the person in the drawing.  (As if she was
saying that it wasn't the Dr. Lydecker she worked for at the clinic who was in
the picture, but...)  But this is the last time I go to the wall for someone
else's theory.  (And Mark, you can pass that on to Killer Ben...)

However, there are a couple of things I've been thinking about regarding
Cooper's deductive detective abilities.  First, I found Cooper's attitude
towards the Log Lady a bit presumptive, hypocritical, and ironic.  Eventually
he does come around to her, but initially his attitude is "Talk to a log?  What
a ridiculous idea, trying to solve a crime by asking a log a bunch of
questions!  Excuse me, I've got some rocks to throw..."

Second, Cooper's psychic abilities have played an important role in getting us
where we are with the mystery, but I wonder if Cooper himself is about to make
too many assumptions based on his own deductions and visions.  The shirt found
at the apartment ties Leo to the Renault brothers, and Cooper seems to be able
to identify the blood, but that shirt was placed there surreptitiously by
Bobby.  Yes, Leo and the Renaults *are* connected, so Bobby did "help" the
situation there, but I somehow get the feeling that Cooper himself may jump to
a conclusion based on faulty psychic input or bad assumptions that leads him to
suspect (or even arrest) the wrong person next week, possibly based in part on
Bobby's not-so-red herring.  Dave, such an occurrence might "ruin the series"
for you (as it sort of leads to a disappointing turn in Cooper's character),
but I would find such a turn of events most interesting.  Sort of a "Never
assume, even if you're psychic" message.

(I probably should have voiced these ideas in a separate article, since nobody
is probably reading these doppel-lydecker articles anymore; I admit that the
"Two Lydecker Theory" is possibly the most boring notion proposed in this
newsgroup so far... :-?)
--
"When you told your secret name, I burst in flame and burned..."
Rich Rosenrlr@toccata.rutgers.edu