With only four episodes remaining, the Showtime revival has begun building its team to battle the evil Black Lodge — and one of those involved is quite a surprise.


[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Part 14 of Showtime's Twin Peaks: The Return.]


With only four episodes remaining, Twin Peaks: The Return shifted into high gear with Part 14, revealing the role the actual location of Twin Peaks will play in the season's climax — and it did it all without a single appearance by Dougie Jones (Kyle MacLachlan).
That doesn't mean Dougie's story wasn't moved forward, though. Sunday's episode revealed that Diane (Laura Dern) is actually his wife Janey-E's (Naomi Watts) half-sister. While the two are estranged, this knowledge brings Gordon Cole (David Lynch) and his associates one step closer to finding the man Dale Cooper is inhabiting.
The rest of the episode was set in Twin Peaks proper as Bobby (Dana Ashbrook), Sheriff Truman (Robert Forster), Hawk (Michael Horse) and Andy (Harry Goaz) finally ventured into the woods to find Jack Rabbit's Palace, the place Andy and his father would visit when he was a kid. From there, they found the woman with no eyes that was introduced to Cooper in the third episode of the season. It's at that point a vortex opens above them, sucking Andy in.
On the other side, Andy finds himself in the Black Lodge with the company of the Giant, who tells him, "I am the Fireman." Something happens to Andy in the lodge and he sees flashes of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), his wife Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) and many other things — including the Woodsman and the nuclear test seen in Part 8. It's at that point that Andy is sent back to Jack Rabbit's Palace, where he proclaims the importance of the women with no eyes and how there were people who wanted her dead.
It was a major shift for Andy, who is often portrayed as one of the simpler minds in the town of Twin Peaks. Whatever enlightened him within the Black Lodge has now made him perhaps the most important ally the people of Twin Peaks could have with whatever is coming to their town.
Meanwhile, James (James Hurley) is working as a security guard when a British co-worker named Freddie (Jake Wardle) tells him about the time he encountered a vortex to the Black Lodge and spoke with the Giant. Not only did the Giant unlock the secret to strength like a sledgehammer — it is a green rubber glove — but he also instructed Freddie to come to Twin Peaks to fulfill his destiny.
It's as if the Giant is getting people ready for some kind of war with the Black Lodge — and it's a war he wants them to win. However, the power of the Black Lodge isn't limited to Cooper's evil doppelganger or, possibly, his son Richard Horne (Eamon Farren).
After spending most of the season drinking herself to death with a seemingly deteriorating mental state, Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) wound up at a bar and, when a man got a little too close for comfort, she literally removed her face. Underneath was a range of visions from the Black Lodge, which horrified the trucker. She then ripped out his neck, before acting as if she had no idea what happened while he bled to death on the floor of the bar.
The forces of the Black Lodge are powerful within Sarah. Then again, given all that the lodge has done to her family, it makes sense. This is the same place that led to the deaths of both her daughter and husband, leaving her alone and desperate.
Sarah's actions show how depraved and vicious the Black Lodge can be. However, with the Giant enlightening both Freddie and Andy — and possibly more — about the ways of the lodge, the final battle is shaping up to come down to far more than a fight between the two Coopers. While they will no doubt still play major roles, perhaps one man alone isn't enough to destroy the Black Lodge once and for all.
That being said, it's great to see Twin Peaks casting characters like Andy and Sarah, who in the previous seasons were rarely more than second or third tier players, in major roles as the new iteration reaches its conclusion.
Twin Peaks: The Return airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Showtime.

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