WOW BOB WOW: Professor Moriarty and the Doppelgänger Syndrome (Another Entry in Our Twin Peaks/ Sherlock Holmes Series)

"Anybody here watching the new Twin Peaks?"

--- Dave Vanian of The Damned

Paradise Rock Club Boston MA

May 24 2017

Apparently, A LOT of people are watching Twin Peaks: The Return!  Our blog series of the Twin Peaks/ Sherlock Holmes connections has been highly successful, and we already have a steady stream of readers for a blog that is not even a month old.. We had been responding to every one or two episodes of the new Twin Peaks with insights on Sherlockian connections; however, we are now far enough along to make broader statements about the show and the Sherlock Holmes canon. The blog series will continue in a slightly different format. We won't comment on every episode, but we will have an entry when we feel we have a Holmesian correlation which cannot be ignored. For today's entry, Brian comments on the Professor Moriarty of Twin Peaks: The Return. 

WOW BOB WOW

As far as I can tell, Professor James Moriarty is the first example in literature of the hero’s evil opposite.  The archetype has become a modern cliché for the majority of superhero movies --- Iron Man vs. Iron Monger, Superman vs. General Zod, Hulk vs. The Abomination, etc.  --- but Moriarty is the template upon which this is founded.  Many series have used this plot as an easy way to create an interesting villain for the main hero to overcome; in fact, the character of The Master in Doctor Who was deliberately created to give the show a Holmes/Watson/Moriarty dynamic with The Doctor/The Brigadier/The Master.

With Twin Peaks’ co-creator Mark Frost being an avid Sherlockian, surely there must be a Moriarty of the Pacific Northwest.

The villain Professor Moriarty bids adieu to Sherlock Holmes in this illustration by Sydney Paget for the story The Final Problem. If Agent Cooper is the Sherlock Holmes of Twin Peaks then who is the Professor Moriarty?

Much has been made of all the Sherlock Holmes references in the original run of Twin Peaks.  Many believe that the character of Special Agent Dale Cooper is a modernized take on Holmes himself, with Sherriff Harry S. Truman assuming the role of Dr. Watson.  Logically, this would mean that Coop’s arch enemy from Season Two, the psychotic Wyndham Earle, would have to be the Moriarty of the Twin Peaks universe, right?

Well…

True, Wyndham Earle is cerebral and cunning.  Both Moriarty and Earle were respected for their scientific knowledge – Moriarty’s papers on asteroids and binomial theorems earned him a mathematical chair at a small university, while Earle’s genius was recognized not only by the FBI but by the United States Air Force, who put Earle to work on Project Blue Book.  But that’s where the similarities end.  Professor Moriarty is a criminal, true – but nowhere in the canon is it ever stated that he is an insane criminal.  Wyndham Earle has clearly gone ‘round the bend, driven mad by his forays into the Black Lodge.  Earle relishes torture and murder for their own sake, feeding on the fear of his victims.  In many ways, Wyndham Earle would be more at home in the works of H.P. Lovecraft than any of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Now, however, it seems that Sherlockian fans of Twin Peaks have finally got their Moriarty in Dale Cooper’s evil doppelganger.  Here we see the professor’s influence --- intelligent, amoral, and every bit as evil as our hero is good.  We get a sense in this current story line that Evil Coop has spent the last twenty-five years building his own criminal empire; ruling the underworld of the Midwest through sheer terror.  As Holmes described his archenemy, “He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson.  He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city…”  Moreso, Evil Coop’s driving purpose is to stay out of prison and especially stay out of the Black Lodge --- like Moriarty, who took action against Holmes only when he was “…in positive danger of losing my liberty”, and then pursued Holmes with a ruthless vengeance.

Could The two Coopers have their final confrontation at the falls of Twin Peaks?

If Evil Coop is truly based on Professor Moriarty, then we have a showdown to look forward to.  Keep in mind that the Great Northern Hotel has been popping up more and more as the current season progresses – a building situated directly above a waterfall.  The opening credits focus not on a sawmill as the prior seasons did, but instead we soar directly over a waterfall.  With Evil Coop on the loose and Dougie Coop slowly but surely recovering more and more of his faculties, is it too much of a stretch to assume that the two Coops will soon be dueling to the death under the shadow of the Great Northern Hotel? 

And if so, who is Colonel Sebastian Moran?

--- Brian Belanger

Coming up next: The connection between the supposed errors of Sherlock Holmes and the errors of Twin Peaks. Are they errors? If not, what do they mean?

Belanger Books is a small press owned by artist Brian Belanger and author Derrick Belanger specializing in new Sherlock Holmes books, Children's books, Steampunk, and genre specific anthologies.  Some of our books have been #1 bestsellers in their categories on Amazon.