Why does Cooper tell Laura not to take the ring?
Doesn't the ring end up saving her in some way? Bob would have possessed her if she wasn't wearing it, right?
shareThat's a great question!
I think there's a couple of explanations. I mean, obviously you could go by the notion that Coop just isn't sure. There are plenty of times he's shown as having imperfect knowledge, and plenty of times it's shown that something seeming benevolent/malevolent has turned out to be the opposite. So maybe Coop was wrong.
But I prefer the notion that somehow what happened to her as a result of taking the ring and dying was a sacrifice on her part to save her body, and save herself from becoming a BOB incarnation, technically saving the lives of the people BOB would take from within her flesh. And if it's a sacrifice on her part, it makes sense for Coop, perhaps via normal intuition or perhaps by some Lodge-endowed instincts, to realise that it won't be a happy result for her, being "wed" to the MFAP. And perhaps this is why she gets her twenty five years of **--MEANWHILE**<runs to camera and screams in your face>...
Perhaps without the ring, she would've been like Leland in the Lodge, just pottering about seemingly placid? Though I still think that, by this metaphysic, should she have failed to take the ring she would be denied her eventual redemption... So I guess I still look at Coop telling her not to take it as a mistake or failure in the end, but something he urged her to do out of feeling she would suffer as a result.
Does any of this ring true at all?
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I thought Cooper was telling her not to take the ring because if she did, she would die.
Ironically, by taking the ring she finds peace. She no longer has to deal with fear, abuse, and BOB can no longer hurt her. She was able to remain Laura to the end, rather than become possessed by murderous BOB.
If we take the warning at face value, it's because Cooper knows that if Laura takes the ring, Bob will kill her, as he will no longer have any use for her. There may also be an element of self-preservation here -- maybe Cooper thinks that if he can warn Laura not to take the ring in the past, she won't die, and therefore Cooper won't be drawn to Twin Peaks to investigate her murder and become trapped in the Lodge.
Another interpretation is that Cooper's warning is actually an illusion performed by Bob / the Man from Another Place. The idea being to plant the seed of doubt in Laura's mind about the ring, so that she doesn't take it when given the chance. Maybe the Lodge inhabitants assumed the form of Cooper because he and Laura share a connection out of time, as they are both destined to welcome each other to the Lodge.