Philip Jeffries is the Strangest Mystery in Twin Peaks

 

Credit to Does Phillip Jeffries think that’s Mr. C? : r/twinpeaks

Philip Jeffries is by far the strangest character in Twin Peaks. And that’s coming from a show that is known for it’s strange characters, but Philip really takes the cake here among the main cast. He is played by David Bowie, and he portrays an FBI agent that that worked on the Blue Rose case, that apparently investigated the strange supernatural connections that were somehow linked to Laura Palmer’s death. 

He appears only in one scene throughout the entire series, which is the prequel movie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. We watch Dale Cooper in the FBI headquarters, attempting to do something weird with the cameras inside of the building. He tells two other FBI agents, Gordon Cole and Albert, about a strange dream that he had, and it had something to do with Philip Jeffries. 

Dale Cooper keeps on checking the cameras, and he eventually sees something quite eerie on the camera. He sees himself standing there, and he runs to Gordon, about to warn him. At this moment, Philip shows up. 

He attempts to describe how he ended up in the Black Lodge, claiming that he had seen the evil supernatural entities hanging out in a room, and then he mentions a powerful entity known as Judy, but he refuses to talk about her. Philip falls on a chair, and then he suddenly disappears, freaking out the three men who had witnessed this odd spectacle. 

His fate is left unknown for the longest time, until he returns in Twin Peaks: The Return. Only this time, he is no longer a person. He has now transformed into a human shaped tea kettle, but he can still talk. Plus, he now lives in an abandoned convenience store. 

How Philip turned into a tea kettle is the biggest mystery to me, but since this is Twin Peaks, we just roll with whatever is going on in this baffling plot. 

My theory is that this was either a punishment for Philip by either the Red Room or the Black Lodge, or maybe he had chosen this, to aid or warn whoever he would come across. 

Philip communicates with both Mr. C, Cooper’s evil doppelganger from the Black Lodge, and Cooper himself. He mentions Judy again, but both of them wanted to find her for different reasons. Mr. C wanted to ask Judy to help him stay on Earth forever, while Cooper wanted to find Judy to somehow save Laura Palmer in a different timeline. Judy also came off like a warning to Cooper, since she is considered to be a very dangerous entity from the Black Lodge. 

Despite all of this strange stuff that was going on with Philip Jeffries, and what he became later in the final season, my question is…what was the true purpose of Philip Jeffries?

Credit to The Long Lost Phillip Jeffries — Explained! « The Little White Mask Blog

Philip Jeffries appeared to be a sort of warning to everyone who wanted to interact with the Red Room or the Black Lodge in some way. I think that either one of these supernatural realms, or both of them decided to have Philip be their scapegoat. Since he had seen way too much of both realms, they decided to take him away for good. 

This explains why he suddenly vanished from the FBI headquarters, and I mean literally vanished before the eyes of all three men, Dale Cooper, Albert, and Gordon Cole. And what’s crazy, is that this is the last physical appearance we ever get of Philip Jeffries in Twin Peaks. 

I think these supernatural realms purposely had Philip give out his warning to these men before he was taken, by whoever decided he needed to be taken from Earth. 

Why they made the decision to turn him into a tea kettle…is beyond me. 

Philip Jeffries, like many FBI agents, never deserved such a messed-up fate. The Black Lodge, including the Red Room, always gave out the worst punishments to those who found them, and man, none of the FBI agents ever really got a happy ending. 

The question is…who really got the worst end of the stick?