As Nickerson observes "the most significant Gothic convention at work ... in TP is that of the double" (Nickerson, 275).. In the town of Twin Peaks doubling seems to be a common structural pattern.³³ In fact, the Soap Opera world consists of such an enormous abundance of doubles that it would require an extra study. At this point, it appears to be more significant to merely observe the 'metaphysical doubling' in the Black Lodge.

The actual entrance of a sphere that formerly existed solely in the detective's Red Room dream leads to a reversal of Cooper's positive merging with Laura. Now we encounter a dubious, or even evil, double of Laura, as well as of other TP characters. The common motif of doubling has an uncanny connotation in the Black Lodge. Here, the doubles appear before Cooper with vacant eyes, suggesting an existence as 'shadow selves'. Cooper's vision is blinded. One could think of Irwin's comments on the classical detective's concealed mind once more. Retreating into the self-absorbing experience of the secluded mastermind merely leads to a "victimizing" of the "masculine-coded rationality. It ends by reducing rationality to a narcissistic, selfdestructive game of no-difference" (Irwin, 70). In a way, Cooper, through entering the subconscious sphere of the Lodge in a wrong mental state, rationalizes in accordance with conventional detectional rules. Trying to find the ONE chance out between two worlds, Cooper employs the worst of all possible approaches: he isolates himself from the entities and emotional encounters in the other sphere of the Lodge, and thus retrieves to a regressive attitude comparable to the Gothic hero.

In this state, Cooper also experiences a return to the qualities of the rational traditional detective. However, where the classical detective entombs himself in his own mind, Cooper chooses the Black Lodge to seal himself of from the experience of the Other. In this fragile condition, Cooper is attacked by BOB, a force whose brutishness seems completely opposed to Cooper's goodness. Nochimson declares that "phallic energy is a continuum with BOB on one end and Cooper on the other"(154).³⁴

I have described the relation between the detective and the murder victim above. Yet, it should be noted that since the beginning of the classical detective story there has also been a significant relationship between the detective and the killer. In fact, the detective and the murderer can be seen in a doubled relation:

The doubled relationship of the detective to the criminal is another commonplace ... Dupin does what ... Dorian Grey, Henry Jekyll ... cannot do: he confronts his double and survives`, indeed, for the moment at last, triumphs. The detective, unlike the Gothic protagonist, can confront his double without anxiety. He can live comfortably with the fact that he has within him the potential to become something monstrous that he belongs, in part, to the world that he opposes. this acceptance of his own doubled identity frees the detective's powers of understanding and analysis. Thus, he cannot be enthralled by the images of fear and desire he encounters because he accepts that he has both fear and desire when he looks over the edge of the abyss. (Day, 53f.)

Cooper enters the Black Lodge, which can be regarded as BOB's power center, in a mental state that appears like a fusion of the traditional detective's logic and the Gothic hero's fear. The will to control and to take charge is applied to BOB who masters the rules in the Lodge. Instead of letting go, as he did in the Red Room dream, Cooper is trying to hard, in his attempt to become a questing hero during his visit in the Lodge. The quest, however, is not to find his inner self, but to rescue another subject, i.e. the conventional heroine Annie Blackburne. Thus, during the chaotic and confusing goings-on in the Black Lodge, BOB attacks Cooper with his own ugly double and "the fragmentation of the self destroys the identity it was meant to preserve"(Day, 26). Cooper appears to merge with the 'Killer BOB', yet not momentarily, as in the case of the classical detective, but for an infinite time:

In TP the abnormal wins out but it stakes its claim at the very heart of the normal, in the body and soul of Agent Cooper, so that in the end normal and abnormal are seen to merge indissolubly. (Stevenson, 74)

The ending of TP appears as disastrous, as it is the merger of Cooper with his shadow self. He is, in the black lodge, overtaken by an alternate version of himself ... that merger of the morally superior Cooper with the depraved and chaotic BOB is a gesture of firm, if disturbing closure. (Nickerson, 275)

Smashing his head into the mirror, Cooper bloodies his forehead, just like Leland did right before his death.³⁵ Both Leland and Cooper seem to go mad over the realization that evil has taken control over their mind and their body. It appears as though this time there would be no one to guide Cooper 'into the light'. Instead, the latent double relation between detective and killer has turned into an almost perfect symbiosis. The sign BOB/Leland has been replaced by the sign BOB/Cooper. The initial question of 'Who killed Laura Palmer?' had been replaced by the question 'Where is BOB?' after the solution of the murder mystery. In the end the question of 'Who is BOB ?' can finally be answered: BOB is Agent Cooper.

³⁵ Carroll suggests that this action mimics "the most feared of the evil savage's practices - the scalping ritual." (Carroll, 291)