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“Episode Five” begins with Agent Cooper rudely awaking to the sweet sounds of a rowdy business junket of Icelanders. They’re in town as potential business replacements for the Norwegians, whose deal with Ben, as you remember, was botched by Audrey in “Pilot.” And boy, do they enjoy singing in the early morn!

Why the quirk ended up in the story isn’t clear to me yet. Perhaps Lynch wanted a fun way to distinguish the Icelanders from the Norwegians. Perhaps he wanted to steep the cold open with a touch of comedy. Or, perhaps he wanted an excuse to wake up Cooper early so we could enjoy him enjoying another pot of coffee.

At the table, his server offers him an odd well wish before her departure: “I hope the herring holds out.” The offhanded comment didn’t figure in to what they’d been talking about at all, and I can’t decide whether to read the interaction as a wink by the writers’ room to viewers following the exchange – and the show itself – with any sort of closeness.

I mean, right off the bat in TV Rewind, I decided Leo Johnson was the show’s official red herring, and that he couldn’t be Laura Palmer’s killer because it would be too obvious. He was the sole baddie established in “Pilot,” and for Lynch to show his hand that early would be totally disappointing. The comment, then, was a vote of encouragement for me to keep fighting the good fight. Perhaps Leo is my red herring!

Cooper gets his coffee fill and then joins Harry and co. at Jacques’ to gather more clues. While there, they learn that the blood on the shirt they discovered an episode ago is type AB- – or, not a match to Laura. Cooper, a step ahead, is certain it’s a match to Jacques. Sure enough, we find out moments later that Jacques is, well, AB-.

Add it to the list of Things Cooper Strangely Knows Before Anyone Else in Twin Peaks. I mean, hell, I don’t even know my own blood type…

The idea I rolled with early on was that Cooper’s an alien. And as scary as it is as a critic to write something so silly, I haven’t come across much that contradicts that standing. If anything, plot development keeps pointing to an awareness in Cooper that seems so, um, otherwordly. And until I get tossed a thing or two that dismisses my argument, I’ll continue reading his strange kernels of brainpower, eccentric behaviors and extreme needs for coffee and donuts as mightily significant.

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