Twin Peaks, third season, eleventh episode: There is fire where you're going

Eleventh episode: There's fire where you're going / The Return, Part XI

Content: A group of children discover a severely injured Miriam crawling from the underbrush. Becky learns Steven has been cheating on her with Gersten Hayward. She drives to Gersten's apartment and shoots through the door, but the couple are elsewhere. At the diner, Becky's parents, Shelly and Bobby, chastise her over the incident. Red arrives and Shelly leaves to kiss him. After a child accidentally fires a gun through the diner window, Bobby discovers an anxious woman with a sick girl in her car. At the location where Hastings met Briggs, the FBI finds Ruth's body with coordinates written on one arm. Gordon sees woodsmen in a portal and is drawn back by Albert. A woodsman kills Hastings. While Hawk and Truman study an ancient map, the Log Lady calls Hawk and tells him "There's fire where you are going." Dougie's boss sends Cooper to give the Mitchums a $30 million check. The Mitchums plan to kill Cooper, but after Bradley has a prophetic dream, they decide he is not their enemy and take him for drinks and cherry pie.

Analysis: The killing of Hastings seems to prove that the otherworldly dimension related to the Black Lodge seems to open up more regularly which will probably lead to an important clash between both worlds towards the end of this third season. Since Hastings knows too much about this dimension, he gets killed just like the librarian and Garland Briggs before. Gordon Cole might also be in a dangerous position. He seems to be aware of both dimensions and even had a vision of Laura Palmer in the last episode and of the three murdering woodsmen in this episode. Gordon Cole was rather a side character in the first two seasons but his determination and knowledge could become a key factor in this season's finale. I also think that Gordon Cole and Albert Rosenfield are trying to trick Diane Evans and Evil Cooper. They show Diane Evans some coordinates that she could transmit to Evil Cooper. This place could be a trap since Cole and Rosenfield know that something is wrong with Diane. Another important element is one of the dreams one of the Mitchum brothers had that actually saved Douglas Jones' life. This dream isn't a coincidence and I believe that Douglas Jones got some help from Mike and possibly other helpful characters from the Black Lodge in this case. One last thing I was thinking about are the strange behaviors of several citizens in Twin Peaks. Think about the vomiting young lady, the aggressive woman in her car, the boy that accidentally fires a gun, an unusually aggressive Becky and so on. I'm convinced that these aren't just random stories but parts of something bigger. Since a portal to the Black Lodge will open up right there in Twin Peaks, these strange behaviors can be seen as elements of foreshadowing and prove that the entire town is in danger when Douglas Jones and Evil Cooper are bound to meet there. 

Description: This eleventh episode is quite entertaining and fast-paced. The first half is rather gloomy as we witness a severely injured Miriam, an overtly aggressive Becky and the mysterious murder of Hastings. Things get a little bit more light-hearted towards the end when Douglas Jones becomes friends with the Mitchum Brothers that initially wanted to kill him. The closing scenes at the restaurant where a confused Douglas Jones meets a former slot-addict are beautiful in an almost optimistic way.

Favorite scene: This episode is filled with memorable scenes. The weirdest one involves a very convincing Bobby Briggs who meets an exaggeratedly upset elderly woman and a strange younger woman who pukes. This scene manages to be both strangely amusing and uneasily disgusting at the same time. This contradictory mixture seems to be one of David Lynch's specialities and goes back to his earliest films such as Eraserhead.

Rating: 8,5/10