Taking place over a decade after the Twin Peaks, Showtime’s Dexter cleverly pays homage to the former’s iconic FBI Agent Dale Cooper through the recurring FBI Agent Frank Lundy. Frank (Keith Carradine) was introduced in Dexter season 2 as the FBI Agent who will be leading Miami Metro’s investigation on the Bay Harbor Butcher serial killer, who just happened to be Dexter Morgan himself. After establishing his time in Miami on the case and forming a romantic relationship with Dexter’s sister Deb, Lundy departed for his next case. In a surprise return, Lundy came back to Miami in Dexter season 4, tracking the 30-year undetected murderer, The Trinity Killer, which ultimately led to Lundy’s own demise.

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In David Lynch’s oddball turn to television in 1990, he crafted the story of a murder mystery in a small Washington State town where FBI Agent Dale Cooper was sent to investigate. The cult classic series Twin Peaks followed Agent Cooper as he got to know the town’s residents, a place where his own eccentricity fit in well. After figuring out the culprit behind Laura Palmer’s murder, Cooper was still unable to leave the supernatural confines of Twin Peaks. Instead of going on a new case, Cooper became stuck in Twin Peaks’ alternate reality, the Black Lodge, while his evil doppelganger roamed the world and passed itself off as Cooper.

Once Frank Lundy arrived in Miami, the connections to Dale Cooper were almost immediate. For instance, the two men shared a unique eccentric disposition that is undisturbed yet cheerful and upbeat. Dexter and Twin Peaks‘ special agents had identical personalities as they abnormally take on killers. Cooper and Lundy seemed to be unphased by those who question their similar unconventional approaches to finding the killer while also sharing unique relationships with food, specifically Cooper’s to pie and Lundy’s to cucumber sandwiches.

The most obvious connection was that Agent Lundy spoke into a small black tape recorder identically to Agent Cooper. While Lundy wasn’t speaking to Twin Peaks‘ Diane Evans through the tapes, the tapes he made on the case where he was essentially speaking to himself were a parallel that didn’t go unnoticed. Like Agent Cooper with Audrey and Annie, Lundy also got into a romantic relationship with a girl much younger than him who was involved in the case. All Dexter needed to do to make the parody even more overt would be for Lundy to call his joe a “damn fine cup of coffee.”

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At the same time, many have proposed theories over the years that Frank Lundy was an older version of Agent Cooper under an alias. This theory was debunked by the Twin Peaks reboot series, where Agent Cooper obviously didn’t escape the Black Lodge to become an FBI agent that was hunting serial killers in Miami. Aside from the similarities between the demeanors of the two men and their professions, Dexter and Twin Peaks fans were quick to point out that Frank Lundy exits Dexter season 2 by saying he’s going on a case in the Pacific Northwest, which was where Twin Peaks’ eerie drama took place.

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Jordan Williams
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Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies.

Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

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