Around the dinner table, the conversation was lively. Thank you but for now, the forum has been archived.
Is the doppelgänger Cooper BOB? I know BOB is on the other side of the mirror at the end of the original series, but the long-haired Cooper of The Return seems to be acting more like a human gangster or something and not a Black Lodge demon. BOB would scream and go crazy when he killed through Leland, but Evil Cooper just shoots people left and right with a straight face. Do you think the doppelgänger is its own being or BOB is just acting differently?
I am now more convinced that Bad Coop isn't Bob but doppelganger, but what I liked about that first theory is how different Coop acts comparing to Leland. It's just because they are different people. Leland is a middle guy leading regular small town life. He's got job, wife and kid. What he is able to do is secretely using and abusing underage prostitutes including his own daughter... When he kills he acts maniacally and after that he's fooling around, singing and dancing, he's happy when tricking the police.
Cooper on the other hand is much smarter, more intelligent, got better possibilities and even officially does something valuable (as after episode 4 we don't know exactly what). He kills with cold blood and he's surrounded by accomplices.
These are the reasons why I actually still like the Bob-as-Coop theory even if it's less legitimate.
This is evil Coop, the doppleganger of real Cooper
Leland was possessed by Bob and trying to fight it and resist Bob
2 very diefferent situations
I've put a (quite long and rambling, apologies) post with ideas on Bob/Doppel-Dale/Dougie here:
Summed up I came to the conclusions (rightly or wrongly) that either:
1) Bob and the doppelgangers are working together. Possibly the doppelgangers are created by Bob. Bob hitched a lift and was possessing Doppel-Dale.
My basis for this was seeing Bob & Doppel-Dale side by side laughing at the end of series 2. And then seeing Bob as the reflection of Doppel-Dale (only seen before in people Bob had possessed).
I don't think Bob & Doppel-Dale are still working together now if this is the case.
OR
2) Bob and the doppelgangers are the same entity. Bob no longer has the form we've seen before, he maintains an ethereal presence and the doppelgangers are physical manifestations of him. It is heavily implied that Bob was having an effect on the Black Lodge (The Evolution of the Arm shouts Bob three times and the place is seen to shake).
Questions I still have include:
Why did Dougie have the ring which prevents Bob from possessing the wearer?
Why do Doppel-Dale and Dougie appear to vomit their Garmonbozia before being pulled into the Black Lodge? (Or in Doppel-Dale's case resisting being pulled in).
I totally agree that doppelgangers are somehow connected to Bob, that he might be their creator hence the confusion about Bad Coop ' s identity. But who sets up the rules of Lodges if he still has to obey them? Like return after 25 years?
Coop vomited his evil, I still don't understand why Dougie vomited, but it looks like there wasn't garmonbozia in it?
I think signs indicate Bob is inhabiting Mr. C. There's the most obvious, which is Cooper smashing into the mirror with Bob's reflection, a telltale sign. The fact that Mr. C has let his hair grow long and wild to conjure up similarities to Bob isn't an accidental or coincidental choice by the director, since unlike real life, everything in a movie/show is deliberate and often carefully curated. On the phone, Phillip Jeffreys says he's taking Bob with him which seems to hint that he's taking Bob away from Mr. C and now going to be inhabited by Bob. And the way Mr. C's communication style is so objective oriented and awkwardly inauthentic is reminiscent of Leland when he was possessed. It's more like Bob himself at those times wearing Leland as a mask than something from Leland himself and it's the same with Mr. C, especially in the prison scene. The horrifying demonic music that introduced him was also very Bob-like and his first appearance on camera conjured up the posture of Bob.
Something about the scene with Otis, Beulah, and the other people in that cabin was similar to the scene in FWWM with Bob, MFAP, and the Tremonds. And he's connected to foul murders and seems to have disembodied a dog.
We don't know exactly what the doppelgangers are or what the rules surrounding their existence are. I don't think it's supposed to be answered clearly on a technical basis. But there's enough there to show that whatever else Mr. C is, he's very Bob-like and is probably a vessel of sorts for him right now.
Fire walk with 
