Just some thoughts I've compiled with regards to when exactly Secret History takes place in relation to The Return. Here I've placed arguments in favor of it taking place before and arguments in favor of it taking place after.
Before (The Secret History is 2016, The Return is sometime after that):
- TP mentions in Secret History that Agent Cooper skipped town in the early 90s, and has not been seen since. If The Return takes place in 2014, then we know for a fact she has seen him, which would mean the Return would have to be after Secret History. This early 90s date also puts the doppelgänger’s departure during that time period, which the show claims happened right after he returned from Glastonbury Grove, and when Major Briggs was killed.
- Of course, Mark Frost has had a couple of issues with dates and stuff in TSHTP, so we’ll have to wait on that front.
- TP mentions in her notes (on pages 312-313) that Jeffries has been missing since 1989, and that she has some basic information on him. In Part 4, she asks who Phillip Jeffries is, and when Albert simply says he’s a former agent of the FBI, she expectantly listens, as though she’s been waiting to find out more about him after seeing his name in the dossier.
After (The Return is 2014, The Secret History is still 2016):
- TP mentions in her notes (on pages 312-313) that Jeffries has been missing since 1989, and that she has some basic information on him. In Part 4, she asks who Phillip Jeffries is, and when Albert simply says he’s a former agent of the FBI, she expectantly listens, as though she’s never heard the name before.
- It goes both ways.
- Agent Preston mentions she has been taken off active duty once she finishes the first dossier. She’s definitely working at the start of The Return: in fact, she’s already investigating a different murder.
- Cole’s opening letter mentions the dossier was recovered from a murder scene under active investigation and may be related to Cooper’s investigation. We’ve been getting vague hints that the murder of Ruth Davenport had something to do with the Black Lodge and may have been committed by the doppelgänger. There’s also a fan theory (though I myself am doubtful about it) that the unknown body belongs to Major Briggs. Was the dossier recovered in Ruth Davenport’s apartment? Will the investigation continue after the season is over?
- Or, and I shudder to consider this…could the murder happen later this season?
In the middle (Secret History is somehow concurrent with The Return)?
- Cole’s opening letter mentions the dossier was recovered from a murder scene under active investigation and may be related to Cooper’s investigation. We’ve been getting vague hints that the murder of Ruth Davenport had something to do with the Black Lodge and may have been committed by the doppelgänger. There’s also a fan theory (though I myself am doubtful about it) that the unknown body belongs to Major Briggs. Was the dossier recovered in Ruth Davenport’s apartment? It’s somewhat unlikely the season will end without her murder being solved (but hey, they never wanted to solve Laura Palmer’s murder).
- It took TP almost a month to read and annotate the dossier. When would she have time to do that this season?
So just a couple of ideas. Thoughts? Further evidence? More objections? Let me know.