In 1989, Special Agent Dale Cooper, having just solved the mystery behind Laura Palmer’s murder, disappeared from the small logging town of Twin Peaks. Neither the FBI nor the Twin Peaks PD knew where we went, and based on audiences’ witnessing of one of his last nights, whether it was even Cooper himself who left.
Over 25 years later, a strange dossier is found by FBI Agent Gordon Cole, containing the history of Twin Peaks and its residents all the way past its founding in the late 19th century. Assembled by an unknown archivist, Cole hopes that the mysteries hidden in the dossier will help him discover what happened to Cooper and how it pertains to the Laura Palmer case. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and even Lewis and Clark’s lives intermingled in both the founding of the town and its supernatural elements.
From the show, we are aware of the strange beings hiding in the shadows, most of whom work to help the town, while certain other beings thrive on death and destruction of the town’s residents. Yet there is so much more hiding in the forests. Andy Packard witnessed Sasquatch as a young scout, while several navy pilots from the town were witness to UFO sightings in the sky. Of course, most, if not all, of these sightings were covered up, only discovered later via journal entries and personal reports. Which, as all reports in the real world go, makes readers wonder what else may have been hidden by town authorities, and if these events could be linked to the Red Room.
Given the town’s extensive history, The Secret History of Twin Peaks (the book’s official title) brings up many real-life events in the process of detailing the spooky history. But in this alternative history, how much is real? The basic timeline of events already exists under an alternate timeline establish by possible time travel found in the events of Fire Walk with Me. The moon landing occurs on a different date in 1969, showing this immediately. Yet enough of the historical events found within question the differences such changes could create. With government documents and projects such as Project Sign in 1947, Richard Nixon’s involvement with L. Ron Hubbard and the origins of scientology, as well as with Jackie Gleason, and Project Black Book, there are too many photographs of original documents (whether or not portions have been faked for the sake of plot) to be simply historical fiction.
Along with these “facts,” the book ties up a few loose ends from the series’ original untimely end in season 2, explaining the outcome of the bank explosion, the whereabouts of Cooper after the final mirror incident (though we are still unsure which Cooper it is), and even detailing the lives of Norma Jean and Big Ed, and the Log Lady herself, Margaret Coulson.
While it may not be the perfect book about Twin Peaks we’ve been waiting for, it is a perfect refresher for the new season which premieres tomorrow night on Showtime. Will the clues presented in the book help viewers understand what happens next, or place everything in an even deeper shroud of mystery?