WAS this merely a throw-away scene, intended to amuse and/or exasperate?
My first thought was "one more thing interned to remind him of his past (throwing balls at bottles). THEN I thought it might be significant that SONNY JIM was pushing him out the door to engage in this activity, me believing, as I do, that Sonny Jim is something other than "real", and may be trying to help him remember.
The ball hits Dougie. And that's IT!
Anyone think this scene is anything more than another "WTF" moment part 12?
'Fraid not.
Or maybe a few seconds were stuffed in there so that the opening credits wouldn't be a complete fib for this episode. It was, after all, all we got of any of the Coops.
It's only there to assure us that he's still the same, despite last week's cherry pie. And some comic relief, of course...
Time will tell, or not.
I'm content with the scene being all there was to it, but if there's more than meets the eye, fantastic.
Although I am wondering why Coop reacted even less than he normally does. I was expecting him to reach up and touch his shoulder, or turn to look at the ball on the ground. But he just kinda nodded at his shoulder. Maybe the restaurant scene did change something in him.
(Hey, look, I'm doing conspiracy! Is it working??)
For all the lengthy scenes this episode did more shorter scenes and tighter cutting between them than any other. Cut to Dougie and Sonny Jim, cut to Miriam in intensive care, short scene at the fat trout trailer park, Jerry escaping the woods etc.
Almost spurred on by Diane's "Let's Rock", these tighter cuts and shorter scenes gave a sense of the disparate threads coming together.
To tell the truth I don't agree with the conventional wisdom that Cooper is gradually waking up. He has responded to triggers pretty well since his emergence from the electrical outlet (seeing the Sycamore street sign, for instance) and was capable of expressing himself other than by echo on his first morning back ("He's lying...", albeit with a bit of stimulus from - probably - Red Room forces). I think it's only ever momentary and it's mainly our wishful thinking that there he is very slowly emerging.
I think that when (if) we see him return it will be the result of a major event.
I think that Kyle MacLachlan has to appear in every episode. His name is so prominently displayed during the closing credits, to have him gone for a week would be... odd.
So, we get him, if only for 30 seconds, with no lines, standing there while a ball is thrown at him and he doesn't react.
Sonny Jim was deflated when he realized that his "Dad" was not going to retrieve the ball that he had just ignored and missed. This scene appeared before the one where Ben says that Richard grew up without a father.
Sonny Jim was deflated when he realized that his "Dad" was not going to retrieve the ball that he had just ignored and missed. This scene appeared before the one where Ben says that Richard grew up without a father.
There's also Ben's bike story, and Warden Murphy's son. So:
* the father who isn't all there (Dougie)
* the father who was never there (Richard's)
* the father who was there (Ben's)
* the father who's no longer there (Murphy)
Cooper can only become Cooper again if the two Coopers merge.
Ask yourself: why does Mr. C go through all of this hassle to get Coop killed? He is a pretty efficient killer himself. It's because he CAN'T kill him by himself.
Even if they get close enough to each other, I suspect fireworks or some black magic happening.
Like when Mike sensed immediatly when Bob was around...
I loved this scene. I thought it was really sweet that it was the son teaching his Dad how to play catch. Well, trying to anyway...
To tell the truth I don't agree with the conventional wisdom that Cooper is gradually waking up. He has responded to triggers pretty well since his emergence from the electrical outlet (seeing the Sycamore street sign, for instance) and was capable of expressing himself other than by echo on his first morning back ("He's lying...", albeit with a bit of stimulus from - probably - Red Room forces). I think it's only ever momentary and it's mainly our wishful thinking that there he is very slowly emerging.
I think that when (if) we see him return it will be the result of a major event.
I agree. We see "flashes", and then it is back to blankness. It seems, at this point, that we are looking for things to converge on 10/1. Whenever that is in all of our convoluted possible timelines.
Sonny Jim was deflated when he realized that his "Dad" was not going to retrieve the ball that he had just ignored and missed. This scene appeared before the one where Ben says that Richard grew up without a father.
There's also Ben's bike story, and Warden Murphy's son. So:
* the father who isn't all there (Dougie)
* the father who was never there (Richard's)
* the father who was there (Ben's)
* the father who's no longer there (Murphy)
Well done, Laura's father is no longer there either.....
This part of my post in another thread but seems apt to also place it here since others are drawing similar conclusions: "I interpreted Coop and Sonny Jim playing catch as another thing that we can cross off the list of ways that Coop might wake. I thought to myself, "Nope. That didn't work either. Moving on . . ." It also served to remind me that the cherry pie, while drawing out a little bit of Dale at that specific point in time, had little effect on his condition over all. Not to mention, it was another scene that emphasized the father and son theme going on in the episode."
To tell the truth I don't agree with the conventional wisdom that Cooper is gradually waking up. He has responded to triggers pretty well since his emergence from the electrical outlet (seeing the Sycamore street sign, for instance) and was capable of expressing himself other than by echo on his first morning back ("He's lying...", albeit with a bit of stimulus from - probably - Red Room forces). I think it's only ever momentary and it's mainly our wishful thinking that there he is very slowly emerging.
I think that when (if) we see him return it will be the result of a major event.
I agree, and I think there's a statement being made there.
You can put Kyle MacLachlan in a black suit and feed him coffee and pie, but it doesn't bring Dale Cooper to life. There's more to it than assembling the right pop culture symbols associated with the old show. I think it's part of the commentary Lynch and Frost have been making about how we experience television, and on the nature of reboots, relaunches and fan service.
Fire walk with