Forget all preconceptions you might have about what Twin Peaks is, as David Lynch and Mark Frost have just delivered the biggest rug pull to date, and this is likely to be the most divisive episode yet.

It all begins in standard fashion with Evil Cooper and Ray driving away from the prison they’ve just been released from in the middle of the Night. Ray has got something that Cooper wants, but he’s not going to give it up easily. Two gunshots later and there’s semi-transparent, bearded woodsmen pummelling a body back to life, with the grinning face of Bob emerging. So far, so nightmarish.

Nine Inch Nails then perform a number at the roadhouse before things go completely off the scale. A nuclear bomb goes off in 1945 New Mexico, triggering a lengthy sequence of a mushroom cloud devastating all around it, then we visit a monochrome theatre with a woman looking out to the heavens before being joined by Carel Struycken (the giant who visits Cooper) who is credited simply as ???????

Things get weirder, there’s an attack on a radio station, and a strange hybrid, mutated beast is born. Remember the sequences in Eraserhead with the puff-cheeked girl from inside the radiator, stamping on the falling organic material? That’s where we are now, and I really hope that at some point the relevance becomes clear instead of this just being an elaborate joke. I don’t think it’s necessarily self-indulgent, but it defies any great explanation and many will be wishing that bumbling Dougie Coop was back annoying us instead.

Verdict: This might be final straw for those on the cusp of giving up on the series. It will certainly test the faith of the faithful, and yet for all it’s blatant weirdness there’s a hypnotic draw that pulls you in. This might all be complete nonsense tinged with genius – I really don’t know. What I do know is that it’s the most challenging thing I’ve seen on TV this year. 6/10

Nick Joy