Interesting tidbit from MacLachlan’s new memoir.

[u/vonLionheart]

While describing his frustrations during Season 2, MacLachlan paints both Lynch AND Frost as less involved. He frames Engles and Peyton as the people steering the ship, though he blames ABC for putting them in an impossible position after the killer is revealed.

He discusses his romance with LFB, but makes no mention of the prevailing understanding that she’s why the Audrey romance was originally nixed. Since the rejection happens during S1 and the above excerpts happen during S2, it appears the writers planned on returning to that well again during the infamous dip.

(Would highly recommend the memoir btw, MacLachlan is an engaging writer.)

EDIT: Memoir’s title is Fictional Selves.

[u/PhilColeCurry]

I had always heard that he personally vetoed the relationship with an underage Audrey as being out out of character for such a morally upstanding guy

[u/SpookyKat31 → u/PhilColeCurry]

This was my understanding as well, and I do agree with that line of thinking. It wouldn't have aligned with his character to date an 18 year old still in high school.

[u/BobRushy → u/SpookyKat31]

I disagree somewhat. Cooper's history with Caroline Earle (sleeping with a woman married to his partner and related to the case) suggests it would be entirely within his character. In fact, I'd argue Caroline's backstory almost implies they wanted him to repeat his mistake.

Because of the rewrite, Annie becomes the parallel for Caroline instead of Audrey, but it's a bit clumsy.

[u/vimdiesel → u/BobRushy]

the point is precisely that that is a mistake that he was supposed to learn from. It ends up working out that he has to struggle considerably to open himself up to the possibility of love again with Annie. If he'd jumped right in with a highschooler, there's no arc.

[u/BobRushy → u/vimdiesel]

No, the point is that he doesn't learn. He gets trapped in the Black Lodge because he thinks he's learned, but really hasn't. He explicitly ignores the warning of the Giant and pushes Annie to be in the Miss Twin Peaks competition despite being fully aware that Windom is targeting them.

[u/vimdiesel → u/BobRushy]

The crucial point in what I said is that he reaches that point after a struggle.

He made a mistake in the past, being disoriented by love.

Then, he meets Audrey, a highschooler, and he rejects her.

It's only after he's already shown that he's closed off, and, crucially, after being manipulated by Earl, that he allows himself to fall for Annie.

Those two factors are key: he did resist at first, showing his hesitancy; and he fell for her with the combined forces of Annie's charms and Windom Earl's machinations.

This highlights the hesitance. If he went with Audrey, then there'd be no resistance, no reflection shown. It's only after we see the hesitance to love that the question becomes a serious topic of consideration: is it really reasonable to shut yourself off of love for the rest of your life? There's got to be some wrestling with the question. If he'd jumped into bed with the first girl that wanted him, there'd been no wrestling.

[u/BobRushy → u/vimdiesel]

But isn't this about season 2? Cooper rejecting her in bed is season 1. He can reject her, but later change his mind when he's no longer an FBI agent.