Well, what can we say about him, he's a guy who wears a red suit and a mask and who......jumps. That's it... End of thread. Too weird to consider...
Really? I don't think so, he's connected to many other things from the series and film and a long time ago a really interesting theory about him was posted here and like I said about Carl going places and its meaning I think it's time to resurrect it... Let's see if I remember all the details, the Gazette veterans may help me here...
The Jumping Man is some kind of representation of the BOB-possessed (or dopp-possessed, the dopp controlled by BOB like Lynch said, this really doesn't matter here) Cooper from ep.29. Let's see the characteristics of the character and his M.O. and see if this theory has a basis, which I believe it has.
The Jumping Man has many similarities with the Grandson, as we see him in FWWM. Both jump, both wear masks and both have some kind of weird stick. The mask, I believe, is the face of a possessed person... "The man behind the mask" is BOB, who was who was looking for the diary and the mask is Leland... In the Jumping Man's case the mask is Coop. The Grandson's mask has no mouth or eyebrows which indicate unaware possession, that's why he's sometimes (and yes, correctly IMO) associated to Leland... The Jumping Man has mouth and eyes, Coop is trapped and *knows* the dopp/BOB controls his body... Aware possession... Besides, the JM stops his jumps when BOB claps his hands, he controls his movements and appears inmediately after Jeffries says pointing to Coop "Who do you think this is there?". The red suit may indicate 'fire', that kind of fire the Log Lady talked about, BOB's fire...
The weird stick? I don't know... A representation of a trapped soul, the wood holds many spirits? No idea... I think I haven't forgotten anything about the JM's theory, which has always seemed to me very logical considering what we see of this character, the info we have about him, etc. It has a strong basis, as does the Grandson = Leland theory, which is a little off-topic here, but could be interesting to at least have in consideration...
Besides all this stuff I must say that the JM creeps me, the way we first see him, with that music, the scream, etc. It's a very interesting character visually, very iconic....




