10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 3
7. Kyle MacLachlan Is In The Midst Of A Career Performance...
Kyle MacLachlan is entering into a bravura performance in The Return thus far.
We've seen little of his true self; he has been passive in the Red Room, taking in the various clues offered by The Giant and Laura Palmer with a serene calm. He has been terrifying as Cooper's Lodge doppelgänger - both measured, brutal killer and sexual deviant, a stark and upsetting contrast to the man who refused Audrey Horne's advances on moral grounds as a younger man.
Lynch and Frost's dialogue has helped add nuance to a sobering, at first irreconcilable performance. He told criminal associate Ray "Now might be a good time to learn how to mind your own business" in the premiere. "Now might be a good time" was a trademark Cooperism in the original series; he advised Andy Brennan that "Now might be a good time to learn" to use a weapon in it. Linking Coopers both good and evil through dialogue is a interesting choice. It suggests the doppelgänger is as much an extension of Cooper as a replacement, creating shades of grey and dismantling any risk of veering too far into genre territory.
He doesn't depend on those words. His physical performances as both Coopers have been incredible, and in Part 3, he assumed a third identity.