New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

If there’s one thing Dale Cooper learned from this week’s episode of Twin Peaks, it’s not to be so vain. Windham Earl isn’t in town to merely mess with his mind; he’s in town to find the Black Lodge!

No, Dale’s been anything but vain. Hell, women like Audrey came out of the woodwork for him in the early going, but he turned her down to focus on his investigations. Heather Graham’s Annie is the latest IT girl though, and Dale’s, naturally, a smitten kitten. I mean Heather Graham, come on. (At least, straight guys are into her, right?)

Much of what we may or may not have known about Twin Peaks’ connection to the Black Lodge came to a head in “Episode 27.” The Black Lodge, in fact, might be embedded somewhere in the deep woods, perhaps underground, and thus, we’re afforded a nugget of understanding as to why Briggs went missing in those same woods not long ago.

But the thing about that capture - Briggs saw white light, and then vanished for days - is exactly that: It’s light. How to explain a sudden onslaught of brightness - typically a symbol of positivism, purity - in a space the show’s reserving for evil and dark arts? Well the Black and White lodges are at odds with one another already, and they seem to share a kind of closeness that mirrors, maybe, that of Harry Potter and Voldemort. Like one is dependent on the other. Perhaps they’re both located in deep woods Twin Peaks?

But I’m way ahead of myself here.

Perhaps the “best” thing about the episode - the thing that brought a sense of clarity to season two and, probably, shed needed light on Windham’s motivations - is that the madman’s totally after that elusive Black Lodge. He wants its ugly powers, and is willing to kill just about anyone to attain it.

According to Briggs, Windham was Project Blue Book’s secret weapon once. That is, at least, until he went twisted in the head and shifted his concentration from surveys of outer space to surveys of the back woods of Twin Peaks. I mean, a ton of people thought he went sick in the brain because of all his talk about sorcerers and darkness, and how exhaustive impurities gains access to a secret place.

I don’t blame his colleagues at the time. Certainly all of that spewing out of one mouth would sound a lot like verbal diarrhea. But given all that’s happened in Twin Peaks since the death of Laura Palmer - remember her? - it’d be more insane, somehow, for Cooper and the guys to not buy what Windham is selling. He’s a smart dude - forget the psycho thing a sec - and probably on to something big.

Anyway, after downloading to Cooper all he knows about Windham, Project Blue Book and the rest of it, Briggs thinks it best to make a return trip to the woods to, you know, go on a walk and clear his mind. He goes down there and -- ta da! -- he has a run-in with Windham who, dressed as a maniacal cow(?), fires tranquilizer juice into Briggs’ jugular and then drags him into his cabin. Prospects don’t look so good for Briggs there -- he very well may be put to death to inch Windham closer to his Black Lodge.

Things don’t look so dandy for the Twin Peaks woods either. The final frames of “Episode 27” give us the return of Bob(!), who’s been as good as dead for some time now, and then a close-up of what might pass for a pool of featureless water before transforming into those familiar red curtains draping the walls of Cooper’s infamous season one dream.

What’s neat about Twin Peaks, and we see it happening in “Episode 27,” is it doesn’t take a moment to pause and re-familiarize its audience to obscure, or even obvious, references. Either you’ll know where those curtains are from, or you won’t know where those curtains are from. And that’s it!

Confused? Ask a buddy, silly.

I mean, Twin Peaks doesn’t even take a minute in the beginning to recap you on what’s already happened, and what may ring important over the next 45 minutes. No “Previously on Lost…” moments here. Just the standard opening title sequence, and then it’s on to the new material.

Up next might be the Miss Twin Peaks contest, which very well may end bloody. We get a return of our favorite giant, who seems to warn Cooper through hysterical body language that Annie cannot enter the race. Until his run-in with the giant, Cooper seems to be Annie’s biggest cheerleader. Then Cooper is rather mum.

That the giant would intervene at all - to warn Cooper to keep Annie away, of course - leads me to believe that the beauty contest champion may very well die at the hands of Windham.

Or, that Annie is too special to be sacrificed at a pageant. That she’s worth more than that.