Just as the characters of Peyton Place and Dark Shadows were anything but one dimensional, each having their own weaknesses and strengths, so also "in a town like Twin Peaks, no one is innocent." In fact, many of the people who aid Cooper in his quest to solve the murder of Laura Palmer and decipher the mystery of the Black Lodge's incubus Killer Bob have character flaws which make them nearly as vulnerable as Truman and Hayward: Deputy Andy Brennan's duties are hampered by his uncontrollable compunction, Deputy Tommy "The Hawk" Hill is terrified of spiders, FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield is unable to effectively communicate with the local Twin Peaks law enforcement without inviting violent retaliation from the Sheriff himself (perhaps another vulnerability on Truman's part), and the list goes on. None of these weaknesses (with the possible exception of Truman's temper although this is arguably what changes Albert's demeanor later on) however truly hamper Agent Cooper's investigation as much as the acts of Sheriff Truman and Doc Hayward.
If Twin Peaks is indeed a Passion Play patterned around the mythological circumstances surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ as I ascertain, then Doc Hayward and Sheriff Truman are the two key figures in Cooper's companionship which inhibit his investigations the most and ultimately allow him to succumb to the powers of the evil Black Lodge. Perhaps Albert as well, however certainly Hayward and Truman are in effect a duo Judas to Cooper's Christ.
Doctor Hayward as Judas
Early in the Laura Palmer murder investigation, for no reason whatsoever Hayward is assisting the search of suspect Jacques Renault's apartment. He tells Cooper that the blood found on a piece of evidence, Leo Johnson's shirt, was not Laura's blood type because it was AB Negative. Cooper then inexplicably exclaims that he is certain that it was Jacques' blood on Leo's shirt after all, to which Hayward and Truman share an interesting glance. This is the first interesting glance that Truman and Hayward share in the series, the second of which occurs in the final moments of the series finale once Cooper has been replaced by his doppleganger. Hayward then receives a phone call, to which he reports to Cooper that Jacques Renault's blood is AB Negative. Days later in the investigation, thanks to Agent Rosenfield and his forensic team it is determined that there was a "Third Man" other than Jacques Renault and Leo Johnson present at Renault's cabin on the night of the crime, and that the note written in blood left in the train car of the crime scene which read "Fire, walk with me" was type AB Negative which he states didn't match the blood type of Laura, Leo, Ronette Pulaski (the other would-be victim), or Renault, and that the blood soaked towel found five miles down the tracks was soaked in AB Negative as well.
Albert's federal-level forensic revelation is at direct odds with Hayward's local-level forensic evidence, and the manner of his immediate attitude of professional and verbal condescension towards Twin Peaks law enforcement coupled with Sheriff Truman's physically violent reaction is already enough to doubt the local law enforcement's credibility. However, Truman takes the idea of a lack of credibility even further a few days later in an act of deliberate obstruction occurring at the moment when Killer Bob is allowed to strike again, this time murdering Laura's cousin Madeline Ferguson.
In probably the greatest blow to Cooper's investigative progress, Hayward hinders Rosenfield's autopsy by prompting Cooper to force Albert to relinquish Laura Palmer's body to her family on the day of her funeral. If Albert had been allowed to continue his examination of Laura's corpse, he would have discovered that she actually died from internal bleeding (via several shallow cuts as reported) due to the botched abortion of her incestuous fetus, which in turn is used to possess Cooper after his maturation in the Purgatorial Red Room which symbolizes Lil the Dancer's womb. This action implies that Hayward in addition to Truman was clandestinely undermining Cooper's investigation in order to bring about the Antichrist. This is made even more evident when immediately after the funeral, Cooper is introduced to the Bookhouse Boys by Truman. Through the same conversation Cooper begins an investigative tangent in pursuit of Twin Peaks and Canadian drug runners which leads him away from the Laura Palmer murder case, culminating with his losing his badge after the Dead Dog Farm fiasco; and a tangent reminiscent of that which his Parallel Time dreamself Agent Desmond follows in misinterpreting the Blue Rose as a code for drugs rather than as revealing Lil's relationship with Laura and Leland's aborted fetus in Fire Walk With Me. It is never explained how drugs were planted in Cooper's vehicle when he was stripped of his badge, but given that between the time Bobby Briggs planted cocaine in James Hurley's gas tank and Truman "discovering" it in a greatly reduced amount, it is simply a matter of inductive reasoning to deduce that the drug plant was one of many ways in which the Bookhouse Boys, the Renault brothers, the Sheriff's Department, and citizenry were working together with the singular aim of bringing Cooper down from the safety of his FBI pedestal to where he could be inhabited by Bob.
Sheriff Truman as Judas
Truman again assists in attempting to delay the apprehension of Leland Palmer who is possessed by Bob in a pivotal exchange of dialogue occurring immediately after Benjamin Horne is mistakenly charged with the murder if Laura Palmer. Ignoring all sense of hierarchy in a state of agitated determination, Truman tells Cooper that he is in effect taking over the investigation and charging Horne. Just as he had previously announced Jacques Renault to be the primary suspect to which Doc Hayward conveniently chimed in to confirm, Cooper had just prior to the arrest suggested Benjamin Horne to be the new prime suspect, and following suit Truman conveniently claims to also believe Horne is the perpetrator, and charges him with the flimsy excuse that he is weary of Cooper's mystical revelatory approach to crime detection. Defying all professionalism and seemingly forgetting he himself is a local small town Sheriff and Cooper is a federal law enforcement agent who at their first meeting made it clear that "when the Bureau steps in, the Bureau is in charge," Truman like Hayward seemingly attempts to hinder Agent Cooper's investigation in a move out of step with the way their characters are generally presented but completely in step with the motivations of the incubi of Twin Peaks.
When Agent Cooper rescues his love Annie Blackburn from the Black Lodge at the cost of his soul, it is Hayward and Truman who greet Cooper's doppleganger to his new life as Bob. Undoubtedly by the time Cooper awakes in his room at the Great Northern Hotel, the kindly doctor's violent attack on Benjamin Horne the night before has been completely disregarded by Twin Peaks local head lawman, as they welcome their fellow Bookhouse Boy to the ranks of those who inhabit in the One-Armed Man's words, "the large house, made of wood, surrounded by trees, a house filled with many rooms, each alike but occupied by different souls night after night..", The Black Lodge.
The betrayal of Cooper by Truman and Hayward as Judas are not a series of unresolved plot elements of a soap opera that was cut down in the primetime of life, but rather a necessary element in the Passion Play that is Twin Peaks. The incubi and succubi who act through Truman, Hayward, and many other inhabitants of Twin Peaks achieve their goal in the end of the series by bringing about the emergence of the Antichrist.
In the Genesis/Revelation to the series, Fire Walk With Me, Agent Cooper as his Parallel Time dreamself Agent Desmond experiences a much more blatant example of inhospitably and interference in the acts of the Deer Meadow Sheriff's department, centering around the missing Owl Cave Ring of Killer Bob victim Teresa Banks, parallel dream acts which serve as a forewarning/reminder of Cooper's deliverance to the Black Lodge by the Bookhouse Boys and the Twin Peaks Sheriff's department.
No comments:
Post a Comment