10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Premiere

10. DoppelCoop Is Not Messing Around

The first appearance of the twisted doppelganger of Special Agent Dale Cooper is - initially - problematic.

The portrayal and performance has the sickening air of a mission statement, especially in contrast to the glacial pace and gradual layering of mystery elsewhere. We first encounter him very early. His long hair is the hallmark of BOB; his leather jacket and snakeskin shirt reminiscent of Frank Booth's Blue Velvet heavies.

The immediate presentation of the character is so removed from the double trapped in the Black Lodge that it is almost comically jarring - but initial misgivings of cliche and incongruity soon subside. Like much of the premiere, it is a brutal assault on the subconscious. Our recollections of Cooper, such a mythical character, are obliterated instantly.

DoppelCoop is incredibly difficult to reconcile, and that is likely the point for Lynch, a disturbingly intuitive filmmaker.

He commits brutal murder early and often, onscreen and off. He is the total inverse to the chipper Special Agent who solved the mystery of Laura Palmer's death, seemingly hatching a sequence of terrorist acts across all of North America.

The nadir of season 2 seems to have been retconned entirely, but a faint echo is heard. In that dire stretch, Windom Earle spoke of the ability to reorder the earth to one's liking by harnessing the power of the Black Lodge. This is what DoppelCoop seems to be doing.