Third Day Theories: A Recap of the Latest Theories, Analysis and Predictions Generated from Season 3 Part 10, Laura Is The One

Welcome back, dear reader.  Another part that delivered confirming evidence on a few theories, but plot-wise didn’t really deliver a whole lot.  Black advanced a few pieces on the board, while White continues to position for future moves.  Beautiful day.  This calls for another theory (or two).

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Theory: Bad Cooper is the “anonymous billionaire” funding the NYC Glass Box project

Analysis: The image placing Bad Cooper at the Glass Box certainly means he was involved with the project in some manner, either funding it, building it or both. The Mystery Voice said he was missed in New York, and we really only have this one New York location that has been revealed on the show thus far.  Bad Cooper seems to have endless funding for his team’s expenses, like puppies, biscuits, and a lifetime supply of Cheetos.  He also has multiple cars stashed in different locations, expensive homes in tropical locations, and money to pay for multiple inept hit men in Las Vegas.  There’s also his use of magic tech that would seem to connect him to whatever combination of magic and technology is in use at the Glass Box.

The other person in that photo is a bald man in a lab coat. Probably Lynch being a bit blunt that this guy in the scientist behind the Glass Box.  Many are betting that this is Heinrich Viegel, mentioned as a co-author of Hastings’ “Search for the Zone” blog.  It is probably not coincidental that Dougie Jones was manufactured in 1997 *and* Hastings started his blog in 1997.  If Bad Cooper is responsible for the one, he may have also got the ball rolling on the other.

While we can’t be sure yet who this other character is, we have a good guess as to the actor. It looks a lot like actor Derek Mears, who is one of the announced cast members but has not yet been seen.  [Source: Steve Brumwell, “Twin Peaks (2017)” FB group]  There are also some rumblings that it may be musician Moby, since he was listed in the credits.  But that would be because he was in the Roadhouse musical performance in this Part, playing guitar.  I don’t think he’s also acting as an entirely different character as well.  Sorry.

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Theory: Diane is working for Team Doppelganger

Analysis: As we discussed last week, that awkward hug from Gordon was indeed an indicator that he was on to Diane being in cahoots with Bad Cooper. Now we learn that not only did Diane understand Bad Cooper’s cryptic message, she has even now replied back to him with information on what the FBI cohort is up to.  It doesn’t look good.

All of this makes me wonder if she wasn’t also the recipient for the “cow jumped over the moon” message, maybe as a tip off that the FBI would be calling on her soon. We never saw Warden Murphy give Gordon the scoop on Bad Cooper’s magic phone call (Murphy might be inclined to “forget” to mention it, but Gordon is not going to forget to ask).  Hopefully we’ll get a call back to that eventually, same as happened with the New York memory card images.

(Yes, I know everyone thinks that call signaled the Argentina box to self-destruct, or whatever it did. But if Loraine primed it with her page, how would Bad Cooper know he needed to call it with the second signal?  I think we were just shown a continuation scene that happened to fall after the prison phone call scene.)

Not convinced? Consider this.  Diane’s color scheme sitting on the morgue waiting room couch, where she got the text message, is white (hair), green (clothes) and red (shoes).  The same color scheme of Richard Horne’s piece of crap car.  Uh oh.

Presuming that Diane’s information is good, Team FBI is apparently adding Hastings to their roster and about to go off looking for “the Zone”. Perhaps the Buckhorn and Twin Peaks story lines do not converge in Twin Peaks, but rather in the Red Room / Black Lodge.  Maybe the Las Vegas story line as well, if it is some form of dream world and Good Cooper is actually still trapped in the Black Lodge.  That would be a twist.

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Theory: Albert is working for Team Doppelganger

Analysis: Speaking of serious twists, there’s more to consider this week supporting the theory that Albert may be one of the bad guys as well. Remember, this idea started with the phone call Bad Cooper made to someone he thought was Jeffries, but turned out to be someone else.  From the context of what was said, the Mystery Voice would seem to be MIKE.  But whose body is MIKE inhabiting these days?  Many think that voice sounded like Albert.  Not much to go on, but now we have had a few weird things happen around Albert that are starting to arouse more suspicion.

The big one in Part 10 was the vision of Laura crying that Gordon saw at his hotel door. When it cleared, Albert was standing there.  While that in itself is not necessarily damning, it is interesting that Gordon did not tell Albert what just happened, he kept it to himself.  Is Gordon purposely keeping information from Albert?  In the blue scene at the airport, when Albert confesses that he gave Jeffries information that may have aided Bad Cooper, Gordon laments and says “Albert” three times.  Was he feeling something wrong in Albert, same has he did in Diane later?

In Part 9, many were hanging on to the discrepancies in the “dinner table” text message as evidence that Diane was not directly working for Bad Cooper, at least not to her knowledge. The message Bad Cooper sent was in all lower case and had no punctuation, whereas the one Diane received was in all caps and had punctuation.  I initially wrote that off as just an effect of Bad Cooper’s techno magic.  But consider also that his phone showed page 2 of 2, meaning there is potentially another page 1 of 2 to that message we did not see.  A lead-in that might have been, for instance, instructions to some middle man to send Diane the following message, and then that middle man modified the message as he or she relayed it to Diane’s phone.

If Bad Cooper has one mole inside the FBI team, he could have two.  Maybe Diane is there to distract Gordon from scrutinizing Albert too much even.  Though maybe Gordon knows more than he’s letting on and is also using Diane, either with or without her knowledge, to hook the bigger fish, Albert.

Gordon and Albert have been the Cooper and Harry of this season, it’s just so hard to believe Frost and Lynch would utterly annihilate that dynamic just for a good “gotcha” moment. And now with Albert even finding a love interest in Constance, the Buckhorn coroner?

Apologies in advance for Albert.

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Theory: Richard Horne is Audrey’s son.

Analysis: In Sweden the closed captioning says that Sylvia is Richard’s mother’s mother. Their language apparently does not have a generic term for grandparent.  While the CC has not always been the most reliable thing this season, I think we can safely confirm that Audrey is indeed Richard’s mother. [Source: Niklas Harkonen, “25 Years Later” FB group]

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Theory: There are alternative timelines at work here.

Analysis: We talked last week about the timelines for Buckhorn, Las Vegas, and Twin Peaks all being in sync now. I just want to fill in a little bit more of the details, and maybe throw in a twist at the end.

The puzzle piece that made the picture clear was Hastings stating that he was 43 to Tammy. We’d previously been told somewhere that his birthdate was Aug 15 1973, placing that interview somewhere after Aug 15 2016.  Banker boxes in the Las Vegas police station were also seen labeled Jan 2015 thru Mar 2015, definitely nixing any ideas about the timeline being in 2014.

Here’s a list of some of the dates we know and/or can derive. This is by no means intended to be a complete list:

Date                Day     Event
16 Sep, 2016   Fri        Date on “Congressman’s Dilemna” evidence (9/16)
19 Sep, 2016   Mon     Date on Briggs’ morgue drawer (9/19, est. date of death?)
21 Sep, 2016   Weds   Mr C fingerprint sheet (9/21, date of arrest?)
22 Sep, 2016   Thurs   Bill and Ruth brought back military coordinates to Briggs (last Thurs)
22 Sep, 2016   Thurs   Briggs dies / Ruth killed
24 Sep, 2016   Sat       Bill Hastings arrested / Phyllis Hastings killed (shot by Mr C)
25 Sep, 2016   Sun      Betty, Hastings’ secretary, dies in a car explosion
29 Sep, 2016   Thurs   Tammy interviews Hastings (9/29, signed on Briggs photo)
29 Sep, 2016   Thurs   Bobby opens Briggs’ message capsule (2 days before 10/1)

A couple more dates of interest that we’ve gotten a glimpse of:

• The American Girl in the Mauve Zone had a watch that showed a date of “1”, weekday of “Sat”, and of course 2:53. Oct 1 2016 would be a Saturday. But that’s in the future for the events we are seeing in the “real” world!
• Andy’s Rolex, shown while he is waiting on his meeting with the Farmer, shows a date of “10”. Assuming Andy knows how to operate his watch, this scene would either be way in the future or way in the past.

In Part 10, we had two more small bits of timeline evidence. The news channel in Las Vegas showed an “Extended Forecast” starting with a Thursday high of 110 and Thurs-Fri overnight low of 92.  This would line up with the 2016 timeline.

However, the postage on the letters Chad flipped through showed 49 cents [Source: u/Billiardly on r/twinpeaks]. Rates increased to 49 cents (from 46 cents) starting in Jan 2014, but they did go back down to 47 cents for a period from April 2016 to January 2017.  While it might not have been all that uncommon for folks to just keep using their purchased 49 cent stamps during that interval, the stamps we see clearly are actually Post Office cancelations, inked directly onto the envelopes (the other stamps look to be “Forever” stamps, but don’t quote me on that).  Personally, I don’t believe in accidental continuity errors on this show.  While we may have anchored Twin Peaks firmly on Sep 29, this might not be 2016.

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Theory: Miriam was in on Richard Horne’s drug ring.

Analysis: Now sure, we all feel really bad for Miriam, the cute, pie-loving school teacher who was brutally assaulted and probably killed (though she was still breathing when we last saw her) by Richard Horne. But let’s review a few things we think we might know about Miriam.

Twin Peaks has a drug problem at the school. A student just recently died of an overdose in a classroom even.  Miriam is a teacher, though granted an elementary school teacher.  She has been recently leaving big tips at the RR Diner, more than she ought to.  She clearly knows Richard, not just knows of him.  She alone of all the witnesses was able to clearly identify him, and he apparently could also identify her.  Deputy Chad even knows her on a first name basis, when Richard relays to him why he has to intercept her letter.

So yeah, Miriam might not have been all that innocent, though no one deserves what happened to her. Well, except for Richard himself.

While we’re on the subject, we should also mention that Chad may not have intercepted Miriam’s letter to the sheriff after all. A detailed look at the letter he swiped shows that return address says it was from a Miriam Hedges, not Miriam Sullivan, as she has been listed in the credits.  It also was addresses generically to Twin Peaks Sheriff Station, not directly to Sheriff Truman.

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Theory: Briggs planted Dougie’s ring on his own body.

Analysis: Let’s start out by saying that it is highly unlikely that the ring was planted in Briggs’ body *after* he was dead and/or lost his head. Hard to swallow something in either condition, and forcible planting of the ring after the fact would undoubtedly have left some indications detectable by Constance.

It also doesn’t sound like Briggs was killed, per se. Hastings describes him floating up bodily, saying “Cooper, Cooper”, then his head is gone and it was beautiful.  I’d hazard a guess even that him saying “Cooper” was voicing a destination where he wanted to go, directing his disembodied head to float by and say “blue rose” to Cooper in non-exist-ent realms.

Briggs ascended and left his body behind. Assuming he knew that would happen, he becomes the most likely candidate for planting a clue on said body.  How did he come by the ring?  I have no idea.  But he had time to prepare between Hastings first and second visits.  Heck, if he’s time travelling, he has all the time in the world to pull this off.

Of course, we may not yet have the full story of what happened from Hastings. It’s a tad confusing, at best.  Certainly Ruth was killed, and we’re definitely being led to believe it was by Bad Cooper, given the gunshot wound to the head matching Phyllis’.  Bad Cooper also apparently “met with” Major Briggs, probably referring to a recent meeting, not the one 25 years ago.  This could have been an actual meeting, not a metaphor for killing Briggs.  Because if Bad Cooper was present at Ruth’s murder, he wouldn’t need to be searching for the coordinates still, he’d have them (in the form of Ruth’s body, where they are written on her hand).  Maybe Team FBI will go to the Zone and find Ruth’s missing body, and with it the coordinates (if Bad Cooper didn’t realize they were right there within his grasp).

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Speed Round:

• Cooper sleeps with Caroline, she’s killed.  Cooper sleeps with Annie, she’s kidnapped.  Now Cooper has slept with Janie-E.
• A voice can be heard saying “Laura?” during Cole’s vision of her. The closed captions attribute this to Sarah Palmer, and it seems to be from the pilot when she is calling Laura down for breakfast. The scene used for that vision is from FWWM, when Laura is asking Donna if she is her friend, after she has discovered that her father is BOB.
• In the scene where Tammy walks up to Gordon’s hotel room door, she is in slow-mo and then there is a weird shock wave effect around the door knob. [See https://m.imgur.com/WA4NYci for a good screen capture of this.]
• The Log Lady saying “Laura is the one” does, as she indicates, bring us around full circle in the story. She ended the Log Lady intro to the Twin Peaks pilot with the same line, “Laura is the one”.
• The pose Mullins struck at the end of his interview with the Detectives Fusco was very reminiscent of Lil at the airport in FWWM, with one hand in her pocket indicating the Deer Meadow police were hiding something, and one hand making a fist indicating they were also going to be belligerent and aggressive. That’s only mildly interesting until you realize that the musical cue they’ve been playing for the detectives is none other than the Deer Meadow Shuffle. [Source: Red Room Podcast]
• Time on Bad Cooper’s phone said 11:09 when he sent the text message, but Albert says Diane received msg at 11:13. [Source: u/__deepspace___ on r/twinpeaks]

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As always, please reply below with your own comments and corrections, or give me your own well thought out theory. You can catch me on various Facebook groups, such as “Twin Peaks (2017)” or our own “25 Years Later” page, on the Reddit r/twinpeaks forum, or email me at catnapspirit@gmail.com.  See ya next week.

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