Author's Note: Without going through the tedious writing of yet another take on a potential 'season three' of Twin Peaks, I instead re-visit the beautiful closing scene of the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and decided to have a look on how it might not only resolve Laura Palmer's ultimate destiny, but also the fate of our beloved Special Agent. :)
"Coda"
It was night, and a small light illuminated before him as the curtains were drawn. Without hesitation, Dale Cooper calmly stepped through the red curtains at Glastonberry Grove. Unlike the last time he stood on this threshold, this was not a matter of pressing urgency, or a human life in any degree of mortal danger. And above all, Dale stepped into this strange realm with not a hint of fear.
Unlike the last time, the hallway lined with red curtains and the black-and-white zig-zag pattern on the floor was mostly dark. However, Dale knew that now there would be no haunting and persistent flashing light, or indeed, evil doppelgangers lurking around the corner. Much of the power of the White and Black Lodges had diminished as a result of the annihilation of BOB, and the subsequent departure of much of the other Black Lodge spirits from this plane of existence. Dale then paused, halting his steps for a moment, as he noticed a small, thin white light shining through the curtains leading into the room beyond. Continuing his steady pace, he passed into the next room.
If anything, the larger room was even darker then the hallway, but Dale could still make out the familiar details of the two couches and lamp. And then, he noticed her, her pitch black dress almost signifying her absorption into the dimly lit surroundings of the room.
""Laura...", he whispered.
The girl who had once been Laura Palmer sat with her back to him. Walking closer, Dale came up to her left-hand side, frowning as he noticed her staring straight ahead, not even acknowledging his presence nearby. Dale realised her face, indeed, her skin tone was more pale and washed out then the last time he had seen her. And above all, if it seemed possible, Laura seemed even sadder, her vacant expression indicating she was utterly lost in her own thoughts.
He reached out and tenderly laid a hand on Laura's left shoulder.
Laura then frowned, glancing up at him. The corners of her mouth tweaked as if she was trying to smile. "You came back... and you're different", she whispered, and Dale noted that she no longer talked in the strange, stilted speech of the Lodge residents.
He smiled down at her, "I did. I'm whole again, and thanks in no small part to you." True, Dale realised, his freedom from the possession of BOB, and BOB's monumental defeat, had been the result of a convoluted series of circumstances, but it would never have been possible if not for Laura. When Albert and his team combed the woods for the corpse of the late Windom Earle, they located a torn page of Laura's original diary undoubtedly cast aside by the possessed Leland Palmer on the night of her murder. And it was the cryptic clue within involving the account of a dream of Laura's with Annie Blackburn telling her 'The good Dale is trapped in the Lodge.' that ultimately led Dale's friends and allies to discovering the truth about BOB in their midst.
Dale could not be sure, but he sensed on some level that Laura understood. "I waited for you. Waited for you for so long.", Laura replied, her voice breaking, "I missed you. I missed talking to you. I missed you taking care of me."
He brought his hand up Laura's neck, and gently stroked her hair. At the time Dale could not fully understand it, but his brief encounter with the spirit of Maddie Ferguson, and her words "Watch out for my cousin." during his ill-fated rescue of Annie took on greater significance when he realised he would be trapped in this place for some time, while BOB roamed free in the real world inside his body. Following his imprisonment, Dale encountered Laura here briefly while she was alive, ableit in a dream state, as the dwarf tempted her with the Owl Ring that Dale quickly realised was the means by which BOB and the other Black Lodge spirits managed to grow in power and influence in the outside world. And not long after that, he met Laura in this room following her death - or rather, her very conscious spirit - restless and very much tormented and confused.
It was impossible to determine how time passed here, and indeed, who was to stay time even existed here in the Lodges? The dwarf once told Dale, 'Is is the future? Or is it the past?', which very much implied to him that the rules of time took on a whole other meaning here so far as he suspected. It might have been days, years, even eons... but Dale, long before he would recall Maddie's last words to him, took care of Laura, comforting her and finding a kindred spirit and friend as they both struggled to make sense of how they had come to be in this place.
But almost as suddenly as the moment BOB was removed from Dale's body and destroyed, Dale felt himself torn from here and returned to his body. And how Laura must have coped with Dale's sudden departure, and being left on her own, broke his heart.
If not for the Giant's most recent message to him, Dale was certain it was no longer possible to return to the physical representations of the Black and White Lodges. Garland Briggs had told him on his return to the real world that the end of the current lunar cycle ment the doorway at Glastonberry Grove would be forever closed, at least for another twenty-five years.
He leaned over and gently kissed Laura on the forehead, bringing his hand once again to her shoulder. He nodded at Laura, smiling sadly as his own voice began to break. "I've missed you too, Laura. I never imagined I'd see you again in this lifetime, but... I'm here to give you a proper farewell. BOB is gone for good, and now I've come to take you home."
Laura frowned again, and looked away from him as she noticed a strange energy building up on the far side of the room. Her eyes widened as both she and Dale were suddenly bathed in an angelic light.
There above them, floated an angel. Laura's own.
Dale smiled warmly at his friend, as Laura began nodding, fully understanding the significance of what was taking place. Indeed, how many times had she told Dale about her angel, how it had seemingly left her before she had been killed? Only now, with the sinister forces behind the Black Lodge vanquished, her angel could come here and guide Laura's spirit to it's proper place. The Giant had said, "Laura is still lost, and you must help her to go home.", and for once the implict meaning behind one of the mysterious entity's messages was instantly clear to Dale.
Tears welled up in Laura's eyes, nodding in understanding, and she then laughed loudly and happily, as the angel floated before them. For a moment, Dale thought he could see a deeply content older woman, with all the happiness and joy that comes with living a long and deeply fulfilling life - the real Laura Palmer that had been denied even that much in her lifetime.
Dale removed his hand from his shoulder, and then proceeded to reach over and take her hand. Almost in a daze, Laura stood up from the couch and proceeded to the far side of the room with him, towards the angel.
Laura then seemed to remember Dale was here, and turned to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling widely at him. "Thank you!", she shouted, hugging him. Dale held her close, tears welling up in his eyes.
She held her grip on him, standing back as she gazed into his eyes. She gently stroked his chin with her right hand, "Don't be sad Dale... this isn't the end. Even someone as smart as you, believing in all that mystic Tibet stuff, knows that this can't be the end. We'll meet again..."
He nodded, chuckling a little at the 'mystic Tibet stuff' comment. He brought his right hand to the side of her face, "I know, Laura. And thank you, for helping me find my way home."
Laura smirked, flashing him that familiar seductive smile. "Well, I might see you sooner then you think..."
Dale narrowed his eyes, recalling an earlier encounter with Laura in this place, or at least some aspect of her, "Twenty five years?"
The young girl shrugged, as the angel floated down to the ground beside them, and the heavenly chorus that followed it threatened to drown out their words. Laura leaned her face close to his, "A part of me. A part of me that will always remain here, thinking of you. But you'll understand why when the time comes."
And then, she pulled him toward her, and passionately kissed Dale Cooper for the last time. And maintaining the contact for the all-too briefest of moments, Laura stepped back from him towards the angel. Maintaining her attention towards him with an expression of deep love and sincere affection, Laura then closed her eyes as the angel reached out and touched her head. In a searing flash of angelic light, both Laura and the angel disappeared. But then Dale could hear a man's voice crying, "Laura! Laura! Oh Laura, my daughter! It's really you!", suddenly followed by an echo of Laura's voice, crying out happily, "... Dad!"
Dale wiped the tears welling up in his eyes as he turned toward the room's exit. "Welcome home, Laura... and Leland.", he muttered, smiling a little.
He then suddenly stopped as he noticed another familiar figure standing just before the curtains of the room, grinning widely at him. The dwarf. But above all what he noticed about this being was that he was now dressed in a white suit, replacing his former red clothes.
"The customers have all gone home", the dwarf said. He waved his hands around him, indicating to the darkened room, "New manager in charge."
Dale frowned, but nodded, quickly understanding. The dwarf was the representation of Mike, BOB's former superior, that had rejected his killing ways when Mike claimed to "see the face of God." Was the dwarf thus a representation of a redeemed Mike, or an aspect of Mike that wanted to achieve something better? Dale was not sure. But perhaps with BOB and the other Black Lodge spirits gone, the Red Room would now become the focus of more positive spiritual energies... from the White Lodge perhaps? It would certainly be interesting returning again someday.
"Open for business in twenty-five years!", the dwarf giggled happily.
Dale nodded, smiling, "That you are, little friend. I'll be sure to see you then."
The dwarf nodded up at him, taking a step backward as he clicked his fingers and vanished.
Dale glanced around the darkenened Red Room once again, before departing behind the curtains.
He grinned widely as he closed his eyes and breathed in the air of the fresh Douglas Firs. It was always the pleasant little details of this town that had stayed with him the most, be it the incredible trees of the woods, and naturally Norma's fine cherry pie of the Double R Diner, or even the awkward, slightly bewildered voice of Lucy on the intercom in the Sheriff Station. He then opened his eyes to find to his pleasant surprise that it was now a clear, sunny April morning.
Dale strolled away from the circle of trees, following the path that took him out onto the road where he left his car. He shook his head at the mildly amusing sight he found waiting for him. The sleeping form of Audrey Horne in his passenger seat, leaning against the window, her breath allowing for a large amount of condensation on the window. Himself and Audrey had unintentionally renewed their strange friendship in light of recent tragic events in both their lives; for her, the revelation that John Justice Wheeler was a scheming and ambitious businessman who had deliberately arranged an old friend's murder in Brazil, and saught Audrey's assistance in arranging another such murder of her father to gain control of the Great Northern. For Dale, meanwhile, it was his spiritual imprisonment and the death of Annie, but not thankfully, by the hand of BOB. Directly anyway.
Dale gritted his teeth as he walked around the driver's side, struggling to quell the onset of emotions that would again threaten to cause him to break down in a fit of rage. Using a calming technique, he opened the driver's door and sat inside, gently shutting the door so as not to awake the other occupant.
He stared at Audrey for a moment, pondering the fate of his late girlfriend. Annie had not been out a hospital a week, and still was deeply troubled from her abduction by Earle, when she had been closing up the Double R Diner for the night. Dale, or rather BOB in the guise of Dale Cooper, decided to use it as the opportunity to strike, (under the pretense of a late night romantic rendevous).
As Dale suspected from the moment he met her however, Annie was 'gifted', in the sense that moments before she died, she saw BOB for what he was. In her haste to escape however, she tripped and severely cracked her head off the Diner's counter. But so great was Annie's urging to warn someone that her mind reached out to someone else long-suffering from torment from BOB - Laura Palmer - though prior to when she had been killed. Warning Laura to write what she had learned in her diary, Annie too, had helped to bring about Dale's freedom from beyond the grave. But the fact it had been done through her death brought about by BOB recalled another thing that Dale remembered her saying in the Black Lodge when he went to save her from Earle's clutches.
"I saw the face of the man who killed me", he muttered. He had felt Annie's death while in the Lodge too, but was unaware of how it happened, though BOB was sure to use his influence on the Lodge to make Dale feel the full pain and torment of losing a loved one. (No doubt BOB was furious he was unable to draw power from Annie's pain and suffering having not intentionally caused it). Luckily, much liked how Dale had come to help her, Laura got him through the worst of it.
At that moment, Audrey Horne stirred. She opened her eyes and looked outside the front-view window to find it was morning. She looked over at Dale and smirked.
"Taken to staring at poor, defenceless high school girls, Special Agent? And what would your superiors have to say about that, not to mention the fact I was in your car all night?", she teased.
Dale looked away toward the front-view window, grinning in embarassment despite himself. "You know Audrey... I was just thinking... I could really go for some food! A fine breakfast! Sky's the limit!"
Audrey rolled her eyes, laughing as she shook her head. "Well, I don't know what my father might think when he sees you and me strolling into the breakfast room... what about calling into the Double R?"
Dale glanced at her thoughtfully, "Well, Norma's still away on her honeymoon, Shelley's getting set up in our Philadelphia offices with Gordon... let's hope Heidi can still deliver a fine cherry pie! I hear she's been out of the waitressing game for a while!"
Audrey beamed at him, and then slightly yawned as she leaned her head against his shoulder. Dale started up the engine and drove out onto the road. At least despite the entirety of his time in the Lodge, Dale Cooper could count on life in the town of Twin Peaks to be consistently eventful. To the amazement of all, Norma Jennings and 'Big Ed' Hurley had eloped and left Twin Peaks for an unknown amount of time several days after Nadine's suicide that occured around the same time as Annie's funeral, both determined to move forward from the tragedies in their lives; Shelly Johnson had moved out to Philadelphia to work as Gordon Cole's assistant in the FBI offices, something that Dale imagined Gordon took little objection to, even though Shelly's hiring was to make life easier and certainly a lot more quiet for those working under him.
It was a new direction Shelly certainly needed after she, and the rest of Twin Peaks, learned of Bobby Briggs' criminal ways, of the drug deals with her late husband Leo, and Bobby's murder of the Sheriff Deputy of the town of Deer Meadow. The specifics of the latter was something Dale was still unclear on, but he was determined to learn all he could and do his best to help Garland and Betty as they tried to track Bobby down. (He had only skipped town the day before Dale was freed from the Lodge).
He looked down at Audrey for a moment, and smiled contently to himself. And then there was Audrey Horne, an 18 year-old high school student (though now former, as much as Dale could gather), whose affectations he had previously rejected, though not without regrets in his more private moments, particularly following her kidnapping. And what was to occur now that they had grown closer and more affectionate with each other in light of all that had happened to them? But maybe something would grow between them, and maybe it would not. The happenings in the town of Twin Peaks just had that way of surprising you.
Dale drummed his finger-tips on the steering wheel, before clicking his fingers and pointing forward. "The Double R Diner it is then! Not a bad way at all to kick start my three month vacation!", he said, as the car picked up speed through that long and familiar twisting road.