The angels will return, and when you see the one that's meant to help you, you will weep with joy.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
dir. David Lynch

man. if Twin Peaks/FWWM highlighted in a thousand ways that everyone knew something was wrong with Laura and no one did anything to help her, The Return sure is doing the same thing with Cooper. I’m rewatching episode 4 and it’s hitting me again that most of the halfway perceptive people interacting with him sense there’s something wrong, and a couple of people even suggest there’s something really wrong, but no one does anything about it. People help him in small ways, but also in the kind of way that means they don’t have to go too far out of their comfort zones to do anything about the situation. they help him only far enough so that they don’t have to deal with him anymore, even if their concern appears pretty genuine.

one of the things Lynch did early on in the original series was this juxtaposition within scenes where he is provoking (or almost daring) the audience to laughter, but if you look underneath, your impulse to laugh is something you should question. The pilot does this a lot with the characters who cry, especially Andy and Sarah and Leland. But if you’re at all self aware, you realize any impulse to laugh is due to your own discomfort at the situation, at the strong emotions, and at how truly awful the situation is. Your laughter is an attempt to escape that awful reality, and a way to avoid empathy, to avoid feeling what the characters are feeling. 

Andy’s compassion is what causes him to cry at the scene of a brutal murder, but even Harry is frustrated and impatient with him, because it gets in the way of police business.

But ultimately Andy’s compassion is why The Fireman chose to speak to him in episode 14.

the return is doing something similar with Cooper, embedded in Dougie Jones’ life. The jackpot scenes are absurd on one level and horrifying on another, as Cooper tries and tries to call for help, then confronts the concept of going home, except it’s clear he doesn’t know where home is or how to get there, and no one takes his calls for help seriously. 

i doubt any of this is a new thought. just working things out.