The Fourth Secret: Ten Things We Love About Dale Cooper

The detective hero falls into a few quickly identifiable types: There is the tough guy, like Mike Hammer or Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op; the systematic police that shows up on Law & Order or CSI; and of course there is the brainy “Great Detective” embodied in Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot. And then there is Dale Cooper.

In a forest of investigator protagonists, FBI Agent Dale Cooper is an oak among evergreens (Douglas Firs, specifically). Herein we run through the top ten (pre-season three) moments that we find wonderful and amazing about our special agent, and comment on their importance and meaning to the two of us at least, and possibly to you as well. As the man himself says, “I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange” (S2E18)