10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 3
6. ...By Playing (At Least) Three Different Characters
The good Cooper emerged not into Mr. C's car, but the living room via power outlet (!) of a third clone named Dougie Jones.
It is confirmed by Philip Gerard (interestingly, he is not credited as MIKE) that Mr. C created Dougie for the purpose of evading the Lodge. That purpose was literally extinguished when Dougie's head popped into a plume of smoke. We didn't see much of the character, save for some brief interactions with an escort named Jade and a morbidly hilarious scene in the Lodge. It was almost a shame; MacLachlan played these scenes, brilliantly, like a sad-sack Coen Brothers dimwit ("Dunno. Feels funny," "I feel...weird").
What's also interesting about these brief scenes are the echoes of Fire Walk With Me. Dougie is wearing the owl cave ring and his arm becomes numb, like BOB murder victim Teresa Banks, before he expels the sickly contents of his stomach onto the floor.
The real Dale Cooper, almost annihilated after a quarter of a century in the Lodge, unwittingly assumes his identity. His psyche has been scorched, with only a series of coincidences - or interventions - leading him to a Las Vegas casino through Jade, who wants rid of her john but interestingly is the only person to guess that something is amiss in him ("I think you've had a little stroke or something").