Twin Peaks has a history of electrifying interrogation scenes. Think of the one with the One-Armed Man deprived of his chemicals or Leland Palmer’s final scene. Gordon Cole’s confrontation with “Cooper” locked up in South Dakota towards the end of Twin Peaks Part 4 is arguably the most startling one to date. After the meeting, Gordon Cole tells Albert Rosenfield, “I don’t think he greeted me properly, if you take my meaning. Something is very wrong.”
Maybe the FBI Deputy Director is talking about the total absence of their usual snap-and-point greeting, but there’s definitely something else going on. First off, note that the conversation is loaded with duplication and mirroring. It starts and ends with Mr. C’s thumbs up, mirrored by Cole at the end. And several times, Cole basically repeats the captive’s words and vice versa.
Mr. C: “It’s yrev, very good to see you again, old friend.”
Gordon Cole: “It’s very, very good to see YOU again, old friend.”
Mr. C: “Gordon, I really, really missed spending time together.”
Gordon Cole: “Yes, Coop. I too have missed our good times together.”
Mr. C, using a lower-than-usual voice, even repeats himself at a certain point, which could be the result of a head injury from the car crash. But the biggest clue that something is “very” wrong is well-hidden right at the beginning of the interrogation. As Reddit user Sully620 first pointed out, Mr. C’s greeting contains a mirrored word; he doesn’t actually say, “very, very good,” but “yrev, very good.”
By (accidentally?) pronouncing the word “very” backwards, he exposes himself as a doppelgänger from the Black Lodge. Gordon Cole, Albert Rosenfield and Tammy Preston however, are not yet aware of this strange way of speaking, but it seems like at least Cole picked up on it.
This video courtesy of Weird Cinema confirms the observation.
Have you spotted Easter Eggs like this, or come up with an elaborate theory? Please share or send an e-mail.
Fire walk with 
Here’s a clue friendo: we are all trapped in a box of “Cooper” vomit because we pined for Season 1…..and avoided the warnings inherent in Season 2 and Fire Walk …. So we are destined to be disappointed if not bored silly…..take a letter to Rod Serlng: “I will never run away from home again”
I take it you’re not a Lynch fan, or familiar with his work in anyway. Run back home to your predictable banalities.
Well said ogima!
Ogima? Chief?
Feihc.
Amigo=Friend in spanish ?
My buddy and I think that Bad Coop actually had at least a portion of Good Coop inhabit him at 2:53pm. Thus the slow talk and Good Coop mannerisms.
Nibbling at the pap of stale ideas
Actually… The ‘low voice’ seems to be cause everything Mr C says is backwards. That “yreV” at the start might be the only word he said forwards, if that makes sense.
That makes absolute sense… that should be the reason why he talks and answers so slowly…
I thought that Mr. C didn’t greet Gordon by stating the time and date and that’s what gave him up.
“Gordon, it’s 10:10 AM on February 16th. I was worried about today because of the dream I told you about.”
Good catch, maybe correct. Are you a former first data pos employee from Georgia?
I think the slow talking/low tone and repetitions are probably due to Bob/Cooper being weakened by throwing up all his garmonbozia or by the return of the Good Cooper in the ‘real world’.
Being weakened, he acts a lot less like a human and more like a spirit of the Lodge, hence the backwards words and the repetitions (which is a characteristic of the lodge inhabitants, they tend to repeat themselves).
I believe Bad Cooper is trying in imitate Good Coop mannerisms and way of talking, but Gordon and Albert know the real Coop (and FBI procedures, hence the ‘he did not greet properly’, probably) to fall for it…
The forward/reverse communication is intriguing as it applies to the red dress blind woman in episode 3. Her whispers and staggered movement patterns are a mystery but I’m curious about the door bang bangs sounding a bit like morse code amplified. Could this be the sounds we hear from the giant’s phonograph? And the white light shining through the banging door – could this be Major Briggs morse coding from the White Lodge? Anyone know morse code?
Someone did an analysis of the recording played by the giant. The sound was coins dropping from the casino.
If Mr C did something to give himself away and Cole picked up on it, that’s not an audience Easter Egg, that’s a clue that might be integral to the story.
True!
This easter egg is definintely spotted correctly, as it’s made it into the German version. In the dubbed version Mr C. wants to say the German word “wirklich” – but pronounces it “chilkriw”. Which proves that, yes, this backwards pronounciation is yrev intentional.
The low, flat voice coming from “Mr. C” is very similar to the voice that Mr. C speaks to on the briefcase communicator. It wasn’t Phillip Jeffries as Mr. C thought, but another that wants to be reunited with Bob in the Black Lodge. I’ve heard the low flat voice before in the show and it came from Philip Gerard. I think Mike has taken control of Mr. C
Excellent catch on the “YREV, VERY” that I definitely missed the first time through (and I confess on the second rewatch!). Puts Cole’s disbelief that’s evident in his facial expression from the ‘very’ beginning of the interrogation into broader perspective.
Amazing! Confirmed and explained in Episode 7 — it’s the “spiritual” finger / word! Think about THAT, Tammy!
In ep. 7 of season 3, it appears that Philip Jefferies image is on both good and bad Cooper’s left ring fingerprint. Other prints seem to have images too but not so clear. Then again, “some people think I’m strange.”
If we remember the criptic language in number of sylabes maybe Mr. C didnt answer properly. As a doppelgänger this mixing of Coop and Bob remember all what Coop was and made.