Twin Peaks, third season, third episode: Call for help

Third episode: Call for help / The Return, Part III

Content: Cooper lands in a metal spaceship where two strange women appear to protect him from an unseen entity. Cooper's evil doppelgänger becomes sick while driving and crashes when the Cooper from the Black Lodge finds a portal and swaps places with another Cooper doppelgänger, Dougie Jones. In the Black Lodge, MIKE tells Dougie that he was manufactured for a purpose that has now been fulfilled. Dougie vanishes and MIKE takes his ring. Cooper is found in a disoriented state by a prostitute, Jade, who drives him to a casino. He wanders there, confused, and plays slot machines indicated with an image of the Black Lodge, winning jackpots every time. At the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department, Hawk, Andy and Lucy are unable to discern what is "missing". At the FBI headquarters in Philadelphia, Agent Tamara Preston is debriefing Gordon Cole and Albert Rosenfield about the gruesome murders in New York City when Cole receives a phone call stating that Cooper has been found in South Dakota.

Analysis: The space ship seems to be a transitory station between our real world and the Black Lodge. The mysterious entity that seems to menace Cooper could be the same that appeared in New York in the first episode and might become the main antagonist of the third season. It might be the mother of all evil and creator of the Black Lodge. It makes me think of a very powerful demon or even the devil itself. Since Cooper's evil doppelgänger doesn't want to return to the Black Lodge and swap places with Special Agent Dale Cooper, he used Dougie Jones to host Special Agent Dale Cooper's spirit from the Black Lodge. He was able to manipulate the man that looks slightly similar to Dale Cooper with the green ring from the Black Lodge. Special Agent Dale Cooper's and Dougie Jones' spirit are caught in the same body and don't harmonize initially which explains the character's erratic behavior. On the other side, Special Agent Dale Cooper's appearance nevertheless had an impact on his evil doppelgänger who lost some garmonbozia, which means that he is getting weaker. This explains his car crash as well as the fact that he got caught by the police. As the series goes on, my guess is that Special Agent Dale Cooper's mind will try to suppress Dougie Jones' mind while trying to find his evil doppelgänger, reclaim his earthly shell and send his antagonist back to the Black Lodge. The mysterious entity from the Black Lodge might though interfer with Special Agent Dale Cooper's plans in order to continue to use his evil doppelgänger for its own malicious purposes.

Description: The third episode is not only the best of the new season so far but one of the very best Twin Peaks episodes ever. This episode has a very dark, mysterious and surreal vibe that sucks you in right from the start and never lets you go.

Favorite scene: The entire opening sequence is absolutely brilliant. Special Agent Dale Cooper travels through space and ultimately lands inside a mysterious spaceship where he meets two mysterious women, receives a message from the deceased Garland Briggs about the mysterious criminal cases related to Twin Peaks, gets menaced by a strange entity that seems to be the creator of the Black Lodge and finally wakes up in Dougie Jones' shell. The first fifteen minutes of the episode are among the most gloomy, mysterious and surreal moments in all three seasons. Those who still doubted the new season might not be as good as the first two, should have realized by now that this isn't the case and that Twin Peaks is back for good and maybe stronger than ever.

Rating: 10/10