MovieChat Forums > Twin Peaks (2017) Discussion > Agent Phillip Jeffries

Agent Phillip Jeffries

posted 7 years ago by Apis (1624)
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Recapitulation of what is known about agent Phillip Jeffries for future reference (from Fire Walk With Me movies):

He is played by David Bowie. We first see him (in FWWM The Missing Pieces) when he enters a hotel Palm Deluxe in Argentina. He asks the receptionist if there's miss Judy staying in the hotel. Receptionist answers "a young lady left this for you" and gives him an envelope. Jeffries goes upstairs to his room accompanied by a bellhop who's carrying his luggage, but disappears somewhere along the way.

Next we see Jeffries (in both FWWM and FWWM The Missing Pieces) appearing out of nowhere in the FBI building, visibly shaken, and walking into Gordon's office. Cooper and Albert are also present there. Jeffries says "I'm not gonna talk about Judy. We're gonna keep her out of it." Gordon asks him "Where have you been? You've been gone for two years."

Jeffries tells them: "I found something in Seattle at Judy's (the information where the meetings are). I've been to one of their meetings. It's above the convenience store. They sat quietly there for hours." Then we are shown the meeting. Man From Another Place and Bob are there, also the old lady (Mrs Tremond) and her grandson who Donna once met when she was delivering Meals on Wheels, and some other people. They are talking about Garmonbosia and the usual nonsense talk.

Then Jeffries says "The ring... the ring..." and also "1989!" (when he realizes it's not 1987 anymore and he somehow lost two years) and vanishes again from Gordon's office.

We then see Jeffries (FWWM The Missing Pieces) appearing again in that same argentinian hotel and the bellhop is asking him "Oh my God, Mr Jeffries, where did you go?"

[–] Apis (1624) 7 years ago

Jeffries has also been mentioned a couple of times in season 3 (I don't feel like searching for those references, so I'll just copypaste this part):

In the premiere episode, Ray Monroe says to Darya on the phone that he "got another call from Jeffries. You have to hit Cooper if he's still around tomorrow night." After Evil Cooper plays this recording for Darya and subsequently kills her, he calls who he thinks is Jeffries and has the following conversation:

Jeffries: "I missed you in New York. I see you're still in Buckhorn."
Evil Cooper: "And you're still nowhere, is that correct?"
Jeffries: "You met with Major Garland Briggs."
EC: "How did you know that? Phillip?"
Jeffries: "Actually, I just called to say goodbye."
EC: "This is Phillip Jeffries, right?"
Jeffries: "You're going back in tomorrow and I'll be with BOB again."
EC: "Who is this?"
------
The next mention of Jeffries is when Gordon and Albert arrive in South Dakota to see Agent Cooper (it's actually Evil Cooper). He tells them that he's been working undercover all these years with Jeffries and that he was just about to contact them when he had his car accident. Albert and Gordon obviously think this sounds super fishy (because it does), and Albert reveals that years ago Jeffries called him, saying that Cooper was in trouble and urgently needed to know the identify of the bureau's man in Colombia. A week later, that man was killed.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

Thank you for all this!

So Jeffries also lost time, 2 years passed on earth and no time at all passed for Jeffries in the lodge.

Major Briggs headless body was said to be in it's mid 40's, and he was just killed recently by evil Cooper. But Briggs should be in his 70's, so he was in the lodge for 25 years and did not age at all, meanwhile 25 years passed on earth.

But good Cooper was in the lodge for 25 years as well, but he DID age. he came out in Dougie's place and he looks 25 years older.

Why did Cooper age normally in the black lodge, but Jeffries and Briggs did not?

[–] keybored (2660) 7 years ago

The answer probably lies with Dougie as he is the only different factor.

[–] Apis (1624) 7 years ago

I just got an idea... what if Major Briggs also had a doppleganger? One of them aged and one of them didn't. In this episode they mentioned fingerprints a lot (regarding Cooper 1 and 2, but maybe the same can be applied to Major Briggs?) and that aroused my suspicion. We kinda know that Briggs wasn't in Black Lodge for 25 years, if Evil Cooper said that he just met with him in the telephone conversation with Jeffries. But Briggs that Evil Cooper met might've been a doppleganger, and the real Briggs might've been in Black Lodge all that time.

As for Jeffries, we don't know if he aged or not, cause two years isn't enough time to notice if one aged. So, it's impossible to tell in Jeffries' case.

As for why Cooper aged while in Black Lodge, maybe keybored guessed it correctly.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

"We kinda know that Briggs wasn't in Black Lodge for 25 years, if Evil Cooper said that he just met with him in the telephone conversation with Jeffries."

I assumed that Briggs had just come out, after 25 years in, and evil Cooper beheaded him and placed him with that woman's head. The date of Cooper recently seeing him matches up with the date that the coroner said he was killed, and we know that evil Cooper was involved in that weird murder case to frame the school principal.

I assumed Jeffries had not aged because he didn't know it had been two years. It was just hours for him.
"They sat quietly there for hours"

[–] Apis (1624) 7 years ago

Yeah, that makes sense. But I thought that once you're inside the Black Lodge, you can't just leave... unless your doppleganger takes your place in Black Lodge. Why would they let Major Briggs just walk away after 25 years?

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

I dunno maybe he found some escape hatch or something? Maybe he got the ring off?

[–] Apis (1624) 7 years ago

I just remembered one more information that got me thinking there was a Major Briggs' doppleganger. When Lieutenant Knox walks into Buckhorn police station where the Brigg's body is kept in the freezer, she later contacts Colonel Davis and tells him "It's not just fingerprints this time, it's a body." Which means they've been finding Briggs' fingerprints before. If Briggs was in the Black Lodge, who was leaving the fingerprints?

One more thing: when the phone call between Knox and Davis is taking place, there's a strange individual walking down the police station corridor. Camera focuses on him, but we don't see his face. Just an observation, cause this person might be significant later in the series.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

YES! That weird shadowy figure in the hallway, like a person with long hair or a hooded coat. She kind of looked at him but then didn't seem too alarmed, but to me he looked like some horror movie figure in the background. Who the hell was that?

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

he's a woodsman!

[–] Apis (1624) 7 years ago

Yes! And we saw him before. I've been rewatching the first episodes, and there was the same woodsman (glad we have a name for those creatures now) sitting in a cell next to that school principal who got arrested for leaving his fingerprints all over the apartment where the female head/Briggs' body was found. He sits in a cell, and then floats up and disappears into thin air. That particular woodsman seems to be haunting Buckhorn police station.

[–] keybored (2660) 7 years ago

Cooper wasn't in the Black Lodge though. He was in the waiting room. Where he went when he saw Brigg's head talk to him is anybody's guess but it never stated it was the Black Lodge where that happened - it was just some other dimension for now.

Good Laura went to the White Lodge and Bad Laura went to the Black Lodge.

[–] Apis (1624) 7 years ago

Maybe that's the answer to the question: why did Good Cooper age? Because he was just in the waiting room and not in Black Lodge itself. Maybe one stops aging only if he's in the actual Black Lodge?

How do we know he was just in the waiting room? I missed that clue.

[–] keybored (2660) 7 years ago

Because he doesn't appear to have gone anywhere else until they told him he could go, but we did see good and bad Laura leave and their different styles of exit.

Would like to know how Brigg's head ended up in the Black Lodge (if that is what it was) as he was a good man.

[–] krl97a (5619) 7 years ago

Not sure about that. I read that a script from the original series called it the "Black Lodge/Red Room", and Lynch has responded to multiple recent interviewers asking him about Cooper's escape from the "Black Lodge" with affirmatives (e.g. "yes", "sure") and no corrections. I always took the "waiting room" comment to be referring to that particular room at that time (which may or may not be connected to other realms), not to the whole place.

[–] keybored (2660) 7 years ago

The dimension he visited may possibly be the Black Lodge (but it hasn't stated in the show that it was so far) and he was in the waiting (red) room for 25 years until the point he was told he could leave.

[–] krl97a (5619) 7 years ago

The Red Room may be part of the Black Lodge, and he may not have been in that one room for 25 years anyway. It never said he was stuck sitting in that one chair the whole time. The episodes building up to the season 2 finale were about entering the Black Lodge. He entered the Black Lodge to follow Windom Earle and save Annie. I think he entered the Black Lodge because that's the way I've seen it and talked about it for 26 years, lol. Apparently so do most media observers, along with the script itself, and Lynch hasn't disputed that as far as I know.

I'll add that Evil Coop specifically said he was supposed to be pulled back into the "Black Lodge" (though he had a plan for that), and that Dougie, the decoy who took his place and experienced what was supposed to happen to Evil Coop, was pulled into the Red Room (aka the Black Lodge).

[–] keybored (2660) 7 years ago

The Red Room is a waiting room from which you go either to the Black or White Lodge.

Elementals from either Lodge can appear there but the room itself appears neutral. Good and Bad Laura were there, as were Bob And Leland. The One Armed Man is still there and helping Cooper, alongside the Evolved Arm (and it's evil Doppelganger).

[–] krl97a (5619) 7 years ago

Where are you getting that from? Because media writers and apparently Lynch himself don't necessarily agree with you. Even if the "waiting room" is neutral, it doesn't mean that all those red rooms we've seen Cooper walk back and forth through are part of the waiting room. The Black Lodge is a place of evil, but there's nothing that says good beings can't enter and even dwell there. Remember, Annie said Cooper was in the "lodge". She didn't say "the waiting room".

[–] keybored (2660) 7 years ago

Seems pretty clear to me that the Red Room isn't either of the Lodges because it has both good and bad people there and the two Laura's departed in totally opposite ways - one to the White Lodge (Good Laura, who sees the angel) and one to the Black Lodge (Bad Laura, who disappears screaming).

Annie didn't know anything about Black or White Lodges and probably just repeated something she heard about being in the Lodge. There was only one Lodge Wyndham Earle wanted to enter.

It has never been said in TP that it is the waiting room but it serves that purpose as the story goes, unless it flips between being either the Black/White Lodge at any one time. It makes more sense to be a waiting room to decide which Lodge to go to.

[–] krl97a (5619) 7 years ago

So to be clear, you're just speculating. Maybe you're right and maybe you're wrong, but they haven't said that Cooper wasn't in the Black Lodge.

[–] keybored (2660) 7 years ago

Yes I am saying it is speculation on my part as to what seems to be the case. We know there is a White (good) and Black (bad) Lodge, but other than the 'waiting room' which appears to be neither of them as good and bad people have both been there, the only other place we have seen is the weird dimension place, which may be the Black Lodge because it wasn't very nice and that is where Bob was supposed to go to, but on the other hand, Major Brigg's head was there and we know he has been to the White Lodge.

[–] krl97a (5619) 7 years ago

We've also certainly seen beings pass through or even just send messages from one realm to another, so just because we see a "good" or "bad" person in a place (e.g. Briggs) doesn't necessarily mean that's a good or bad place.

[–] Apis (1624) 7 years ago

Jeffries tells them: I've been to one of their meetings. It's above the convenience store.

Well, in today's episode (episode 8) we were shown a convenience store. I wonder if it's the same one Jeffries was talking about? At first the convenience store was empty, then we see electrical charges (there is always electricity involved when people travel between our world/Black Lodge), and then the spirits start to appear and walk around the convenience store. The funny part is: there is no "above" the convenience store, the store is a one storey building.

[–] Popcorn Kernel (2368) 7 years ago

When Ray drives away after shooting evil Cooper, he makes a phone call to PHILLIP!
Is Ray undercover working for Jeffries?
he says he saw something in Cooper- which was Bob's face.
So did Bob leave that body and if so, what kind is controlling it now?

[–] Apis (1624) 7 years ago

I have no idea what's controlling Evil Cooper's body now, but I hope we don't get another zombie-type Cooper on the show. Two of those would be too much.

[–] TinaKimo (888) 7 years ago

LOL, I don't understand the zombie acting. When Bob was in Leland, he didn't act like a zombie.

[–] krl97a (5619) 7 years ago

The Philip thing isn't new. He mentioned "Jeffries" wanting Cooper dead I think in his call with Darya that the evil doppelganger overheard, causing him to murder her.

[–] keybored (2660) 7 years ago

Wonder if Jeffries is good or bad then? Does he know Evil Cooper has to die for Full Cooper to come back and that is why he wants him dead?

[–] krl97a (5619) 7 years ago

I'm not sure Evil Cooper has to die for Cooper to regain his full memories and faculties, if that's what you mean. Mike implied he had the ability to "wake up". I'd certainly prefer a confrontation between the two with each at his full power (with the good Cooper winning of course).

Jeffries is still a huge mystery. I'm hoping they actually show him directly at some point. They recast Donna in the movie. No reason they can't recast a character whom Bowie only played for one scene.