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Through the season one finale, Twin Peaks had had its share of strangeness, but hardly on the level of “Episode 8.”

The season’s peculiarities, really, were relegated to the following: 1) some visions and dreams – which kept the supernatural at bay because dreams, at least, make it hard as an audience to distinguish the “real” from the “fake” – and 2) oddball personalities.

I mean, most of the fun was measured by Jacoby’s two-toned eyewear and which Hawaiian shirt he’d plastered his body with. Or, a crotchety townie – Log Lady – who developed a peculiar reputation for clutching (and talking to) a hunk of thick pine like it’s a small child.

So Twin Peaks was weird because of its characters, mostly. Not because of, you know, giants prophesying the future to a sleepy Cooper or Leland coming to with a confusing shock of white hair. (Both, and a few other mysteries, reared their heads in “Episode 8.”)

The season two premiere, then, changed Twin Peak’s game completely. So much so that season one’s playbook got thrown out the window. The show’s been revamped, folks, and I think for the better.

The weirdness started right away when an oversized visitor greets Cooper, who’s recovering in bed from gunshots to the belly. Materializing from nothing, the giant tells Cooper he’s got important things to share with him. And, that if what he tells him becomes truth, would Cooper believe him?

The items, spat as abbreviated morsels – like the giant doesn’t want to (or can’t) reveal his hand yet – are: a) there’s a man in a smiling bag, b) the owls are not what they seem and c) without chemicals, he points. He throws a bonus in the ring, too: “Leo’s locked inside a hungry horse.”

Before disappearing to the place he came from, the giant removes a ring from Cooper’s finger and says he’ll return it when Cooper “finds these things to be true.” And then he’s gone.

The ring bit was huge, because lo and behold the next morning, Cooper finds he no longer has it! The giant happened in the Twin Peaks universe because he took a tangible with him.

I’m really interested in who this dude is and why, at this time, he reached out to Cooper. Is it because Cooper was so near death - his wounds devastating - that the giant let slip bits of the show’s central mystery to ensure Cooper pushed on?

We know the giant isn’t acting alone because he told Cooper that we -- not I -- wanted to help him. That makes me wonder then, too, what group, or even what kind of group, the giant is working for.

Odder still is the fact that Cooper must “believe” in the giant and his messages before being granted access to a next level. Was the prophesying a one off, or will Cooper get successive visits for being an obedient investigator? I’d like to think we’ll be seeing more of the giant, especially if he’s gonna strut around Cooper’s bedroom like the omniscient man that he is.

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