Twin Peaks, third season, first episode: My log has a message for you

Ladies and gentlemen,

My favorite television series of all times is back and I have just watched the first four episodes. I will briefly describe and analyze each of these episodes and hope to get you interested in the most innovative television series ever created. Enjoy!

First episode: My log has a message for you / The Return, Part I

Content: Twenty-five years after the events of "Beyond Life and Death", Agent Cooper remains trapped in the Black Lodge. In Twin Peaks, Dr. Jacoby receives a shipment of shovels. At the Great Northern, Ben Horne introduces his brother Jerry to his new secretary, Beverly, and chastises him for consuming too much of the marijuana the brothers now traffic legally. Deputy Chief Hawk gets a call from the Log Lady, Margaret, who cryptically tells him something is missing, which relates to Dale Cooper, and the key to finding it has something to do with Hawk's heritage. In New York City, Sam Colby, a young man, has a peculiar job to pay for college, sitting in a large warehouse watching a glass box at the center, periodically changing SD cards in the cameras monitoring the box as well. His girlfriend Tracey visits him with coffee. Though he is not allowed to let visitors into the room, the security guard is absent during Tracey's second visit. The young couple have sex in front of the glass box, when a faceless, translucent entity finally materializes inside of it, breaking out and mauling them to death. In South Dakota, the physical form of Dale Cooper—now a sinister, long-haired man with black irises—retrieves two associates named Ray and Darya for an unspecified task. Police find a local librarian in the South Dakota town of Buckhorn, Ruth Davenport, murdered with her decapitated head placed on the headless body of an unknown man. The fingerprints of the local school principal, Bill Hastings, are found all over the scene and he is promptly arrested. Bill denies any guilt but fumbles his alibi, casting further suspicion on him.

Analysis: I believe that the good Dale Cooper from the Black Lodge will try to face his evil doppelganger and that the Log Lady's message is a way to try to help the good Special Agent Dale Cooper to prepare his return safely. I think Bill Hastings is possessed by a smiliar entity as BOB and committed the two crimes without actually remembering them. Sam and Tracy must have been killed by an entity from the Black Lodge that has been provoked by their sexual intercourse. The evil Dale Cooper seems to plan a way to avoid going back to the Black Lodge and might try to use Darya and Ray for his plans. Only one of the two Dale Coopers might survive and they will probably try to exterminate each other or to fusion in a most schizophrenic way. This means that one might have to deal with at least three antagonists: the evil Dale Cooper, the possessed Bill Hastings and a violent entity from the Black Lodge. The main protagonists seem to be Dale Cooper, The Log Lady and Tommy "Hawk" Hill so far.

Description: Even though twenty-six years have passed since the last episode of the second season, the first episode of the groundbreaking television series picks the audience up where it was left such a long time ago. The episode even starts with a flashback of a conversation between Dale Cooper and Laura Palmer in the Black Lodge that took place in the previous episode twenty-six years earlier. Several mysteries from the past are resolved while the series obviously introduces plenty of new questions. The most important element is that Dale Cooper is still caught in the Black Lodge while his evil doppelganger has been on a killing spree. The first episode introduces new and mysterious characters like Darya and Ray who help Dale Cooper's evil twin. It also shows what has happened to several characters from the first two seasons such as the Giant and the One-Armed Man in the Black Lodge but also the Log Lady and Deputy Hawk in the real world who are still investigating the mysteries in and around Twin Peaks. The first episode also introduces us to strange events happening in the states of New York and South Dakota. A total of four characters are getting or are found murdered in the first episode. The tone is as sinister as it has always been. The images are gloomy, the camera work is hypnotizing and the soundtrack is numbing. The acting performances are memorable. Among the new characters, I liked Melissa Bailey's quirky character and among the older characters, a thoughtful Deputy Hawk has much more screen time than in the first two seasons. This opening episode isn't as memorable as the opening episodes of the previous two seasons but it comes quite close.

Favorite scene: There were many great scenes but seeing a terribly worried and very sick Log Lady calling Deputy Hawk sent shivers right down my spine. 

Rating: 8/10