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I don’t know what changed, exactly, but Twin Peaks has gotten a whole lot less fun this season.

“Episode 12” picked up right about where “Episode 11” left off then. That is, it was sluggish and draggy. And all of this still piggybacking off that game changer of a season two premiere, which all but promised me a wild ride.

I mean, I realize - relatively - the roads Twin Peaks paved for television while it was on air. Here’s a show that challenged its audience to get committed. Without the benefit of DVR and Netflix and Hulu and other time shifting devices many of us depend on today, people had to pay attention or they’d seriously risk getting lost in the shuffle.

Twin Peaks episodes didn’t begin with bonus recaps, and unlike Lost, audiences didn’t get help every eight chapters or so via review episode. Instead, new episodes just dropped you amidst the problem of the week and it was your call whether you’d be sinkin’ or swimmin’. Either you were there the night a new episode aired or you weren’t. And that’s that.

So for this, it feels wrong to sit here 20 years later and shit on a show that might merely be working through some growing pains. Especially a show that was apparently so revolutionary. But Twin Peaks is indeed in rough patch mode, and I so want it to get interesting again! What the hang is going on?

In some ways, Twin Peaks feels like it’s in spin mode. At this point in the game, did Lynch and Frost have an endgame in mind, or were they messing around in the sandbox until they received some instruction from the network?

I mean, I don’t even know if they knew at the time that they’d be working with a traditional broadcast season, or whether it was a 13-episode order with an optional back nine. These things, of course, are incredibly important for a show as serialized as Twin Peaks.

Without an outline, Twin Peaks risks being a show without a backbone, yeah? Lynch could have a great ending in mind, but if it’s a mucky road getting there, will the payoff be as good?

“Episode 12” had a few moments of strangeness, but without context, it was difficult to draw much of anything from what we’d just seen. I mean, Nadine detaching a kitchen cabinet from its moorings like it’s nothing? Quite strange indeed. But I don’t know what to make of it because we’ve never seen her - nor anyone - do anything like it before. It just kinda happened, as Nadine stares blankly ahead.

The same is true of Jean, who crouches down to kiss Blackey at one point, but when he pulls away, he chomps down on her mouth like a vampire would. Blackey’s mouth drips blood as the woman descends to the floor, and again we shift immediately to another part of town.

Not only are these things happening out of the air, but Twin Peaks isn’t even giving us the benefit of more visual clues. We move on ahead like what we’d just seen wasn’t important. And we know that can’t be true.

Perhaps “Episode 12”s most interesting stuff happened within the home of Harold Smith, a strange recluse who shared a connection with Laura Palmer we still don’t fully understand. He even has a diary of hers, which Donna has so desperately wanted access to ever since laying eyes on it an episode or so ago.

In return for her life story, Donna manages to get Harold to agree to share its contents. Suddenly, Donna runs with the idea of taking the diary outside and Harold chases after her. As soon as he crosses the threshold, though, he uncontrollably falls to the ground - similar to the kind of fall Leland had awhile back following his medley of jolly hymns. This would explain why Harold has totally sequestered himself in his home since the day we met him.

More unnerving is the thing he says to Donna and Maddy as he cuts up his face with a mini trident: “Are you looking for secrets? Is that it? I can give you one. Do you want to know what the ultimate secret is? Laura did. The secret of knowing who killed you.”

Donna and Maddy, of course, are very much alive - as far as we know - so his bit of dialogue is mystifying. I do think it sheds light on why Laura died, and my big hunch is to take what he says almost literally, in that it might have something to do with her unlocking the way we, individually, die.

Or, by whom, so we can avoid them - if we so choose - in our way of remaining alive.