10 Things We Learned From Twin Peaks: The Return Part 3
3. The Black Lodge Is Helping Dale Cooper
The moral construction of the Black Lodge is fascinating.
It seems both benevolent and malevolent. In the original series finale, BOB turns Windom Earle into a fireplace for daring to use it as a means of procuring a human soul. In The Return's premiere, the spirit of Laura Palmer is punished for revealing information to Cooper.
For reasons not yet determined, the Lodge is drawing Mr. C back into its curtains and assisting the man it trapped twenty five years ago - or at least, one denizen of it seems to be. Philip Gerard informs Cooper, borderline catatonic, that he was tricked into leaving the Lodge by either Naido, the eyeless spirit, or American Girl - perhaps under duress from the unseen 'Mother'.
His journey from from Jade's house to the casino sees him narrowly avoid a hit by fumbling with his Great Northern Hotel keys over a speed bump. That was happenstance; in the casino, Cooper is drawn to various slot machines above which a video game avatar of the Black Lodge appears. Every last one hits the jackpot. BOB controlled the Black Lodge as we used to know it, but the events of the premiere and Part 3 indicate a rift between him and Mr. C.
It's a testament to how inspired The Return is that the wait between episodes is almost as agonising as the wait between the announcement and the premiere.