Similarly, after James hears Freddie’s story, he goes to check on the Great Northern’s furnace and seems to enter an ominous netherworld of shadow and machinery — real, and yet nightmarish. Not long after that, we see Sarah Palmer at a local bar, warning an obnoxious would-be Romeo in a “Truck You” T-shirt to back off ... right before she removes her face, reveals a portal to another dimension, and manifests a set of powerful teeth that rip the jerk’s throat out.

The point is that these stories of strange goings-on that we hear over and over in “Twin Peaks” are no match for what we actually witness. The best case in point is this week’s longest and freakiest sequence, where Twin Peaks Sheriff Frank Truman — along with Hawk, Bobby and Andy — takes a trip up to Jackrabbits Palace in the woods, per the instructions of the deceased Maj. Garland Briggs. There they all find a nude woman with stitches where her eyes should be (the woman Cooper met in space back in Episode 3); and there they encounter another vortex, which transports Andy to a meeting with “the Fireman,” where he’s given a quick summary of the events of this season’s eighth episode. When he returns to the woods, Andy is as lucid as he’s ever been on this show, giving instructions to his boss about how they have to protect this woman.

“The Fireman” looks exactly like an older version of the man we’ve previously known as “the Giant” and may actually be the same entity — or may be yet another doppelgänger, given that he’s in a black-and-white version of one of the Lodges. This is all very beguiling. What we’re seeing is so familiar, yet not quite the same. Is history repeating, but inexactly? Which Lodge are we in? Which giant is the Giant? What’s happened to Sarah? What’s happened to Twin Peaks? Lately, the show seems to be moving toward a resolution that won’t answer these questions definitively, but may at least show how they’re all related.

Extra Doughnuts:

• Plotwise, perhaps the most significant thing that happens in “Part Fourteen” is that we find out Diane’s the estranged half sister of Janey-E Jones, the wife of Agent Cooper’s half-wit doppelgänger, Dougie. Immediately, Cole calls the Las Vegas F.B.I. office, where Agent Randall Headley (played by Jay R. Ferguson of “Mad Men,” barely recognizable in the long shot Lynch uses) promises to pursue the lead. Then he exaggeratedly snaps at a colleague, “How many times have I told you? This is what we do in the F.B.I.!”

• Sometimes the principal pleasure of watching “Twin Peaks” involves the mind-warping metaphysics; and sometimes the joys are simpler, tied to a graceful gesture or a funny line delivery. My favorite few seconds out of this week’s episode may be Sheriff Truman sliding a roast beef and cheese sandwich out of a row that Andy’s neatly arranged, then idly tapping the wax paper while he stares at Hawk. Everything about this is a sensual delight: from the precision of the sandwich layout, to the thoughtful expression on Robert Forster’s face, to his pleasant-sounding pat-pat-pat on the wrapper. It’s a tactile moment that actually happens, right in front of our eyes and ears.