A tree with a brain? A murderous glass box? Giants playing Backwards Numberwang? If none of this makes any sense to you, don’t worry, it doesn’t to the most attentive Twin Peaks fan either. Four new episodes in, Twin Peaks: The Return is certainly living up to its reputation as a baffling torrent of surreal clues, twists and fanbait designed to light up Reddit with wild, speculative theories as to what the hell is going on. With spoilers going off like fireworks on the 4^th of July, here’s some of the more credible ideas the online Peakers have to offer so far.

There’s a psychic battle for dominance going on between the two Agent Coopers

Digital Spy posit a fairly creditable theory about what’s happening in Twin Peaks: The Return so far, suggesting that David Lynch is setting up an epic battle between the real Dale Cooper and his evil doppleganger. “Dale Cooper's genuine soul has been trapped in the Black Lodge for 25 long years,” they say. “Something has precipitated its release. Given its prediction by Laura Palmer way back when, perhaps it really is nothing more than the end of a sentence that has been spent. A purification process, perhaps. ‘The legend says that every spirit must pass through there on the way to perfection,’ Hawk told Cooper of the Black Lodge. ‘There, you will meet your own shadow self. My people call it The Dweller on the Threshold.’

“Cooper is stumbling his way back. But he needs psychic assistance to overthrow Evil Coop and truly return. Evil Coop will not give up his place without a fight. He has killed Major Briggs, double-crossed Phillip Jeffries and will attempt anything to keep the Good Dale at bay.”

DS also suggests that Hawk’s mission might be connected to Cooper’s redemption. “There's a line of Cooper's from season two that's been surfacing in recent days,” they say. “’Hawk. If I'm ever lost, I hope you're the man they send to find me’. Eventually, that's what will happen.” Here's a further deep look into what might be going on in the first new episodes.

The glass box billionaire is Cooper’s doppleganger

Heavy.com have several theories about the new season, one of which involves this mysterious glass box being filmed by cameras, which kills Sam and Tracey mid-coitus. We know it’s part of an experiment set up by an unnamed billionaire and somehow acts as a portal to the Black Lodge, but speculation is rife about who said billionaire might be. “Normally, a person can’t leave the Black Lodge until their doppelganger comes back,” Heavy suggests, “but when [doppleganger] Cooper refused to go back when he was supposed to, The Man From Another Place (aka Tree) decided to find another way to send Cooper back to the real world. He was supposed to just jump through a special opening, but the Tree’s doppelganger showed up and tried to ‘non-existence’ him. When he fell through the non-existence portal, he ended up in the glass box (but he couldn’t get out.) Later, he’s gone when the student and Tracey come back to the room. But another entity comes to the box instead and breaks out, killing them both.

The running theory is that [doppleganger] Cooper was the billionaire who funded the box, and he built it to capture Cooper when he inevitably appeared after [doppleganger] Cooper decided not to go back to the Black Lodge.” Which makes as much sense as anything about the series so far.

Other fans have different ideas, citing Philip Jeffries (David Bowie’s character from Fire Walk With Me) as the rich box-funder, and there are other suspects too. “My guess is that the billionaire is Audrey,” writes goatofthenight. “First of all, she is a Thorne so she came from a rich background. Second, she had already proven herself in season 2 to be quite adept at business. Third, it's possible that she ended up with some sort of financial settlement from what happened to her at the end of season 2 which would only add to her bank account. Finally, she already had a friendship/romantic interest in Cooper so she would be devastated by his disappearance and would have the connections and resources needed to figure out where Cooper could possibly return.” Curious. Here's some further suggestions:

Laura Palmer is an angel (or a demon)

Back over at Heavy.com, they’re all prostrating themselves in quasi-religious fervours before the scene where ‘Laura Palmer’ tells Cooper that she isn’t exactly Laura Palmer and then takes her face off to reveal that she’s actually made of white light. “It’s possible that the bright light in her face indicates she’s now some kind of angelic being,” they write, reminding readers that an angel accosted her in Fire Walk With Me. “The bright light within her may also show how she stood strong against BOB and was never possessed by him. She may be one of the only ‘pure’ things in the Red Room. Or at least, she was until she was snatched away. It’s likely that Laura Palmer actually belonged in the White Lodge, but only visited 25 years later to send a message to Cooper.” Nice idea, but another fan online believes that the demon in the jail cell is actually Laura's "unrested soul".

The truth is out the… sorry, wrong series.