Around the dinner table, the conversation was lively. Thank you but for now, the forum has been archived.
I feel mindfucked: If Mike is in the "waiting area"/Black Lodge, where is his doppelgänger/possessee (if that's a better term)? If he inhabited someone outside of the Lodge, how did he retain his possessee's shape while in the Lodge? Is his possessee still out there selling shoes? It looks like his possessee may have had a stroke. BOB always had a possessee and only experienced his true form in the Lodge/waiting area, but Mike...the man from another place/tree brain was his arm...has just always been Mike? Any help?
I feel mindfucked: If Mike is in the "waiting area"/Black Lodge, where is his doppelgänger/possessee (if that's a better term)? If he inhabited someone outside of the Lodge, how did he retain his possessee's shape while in the Lodge? Is his possessee still out there selling shoes? It looks like his possessee may have had a stroke. BOB always had a possessee and only experienced his true form in the Lodge/waiting area, but Mike...the man from another place/tree brain was his arm...has just always been Mike? Any help?
This has been a question since the original 2 seasons. Not sure there's a clear explanation or if we'll ever find out
BOB has appeared in his "own skin"- I presume that is how the young Leland met him long ago at Pearl Lakes, and recognized him when he saw the wated poster...
BOB has appeared in his "own skin"- I presume that is how the young Leland met him long ago at Pearl Lakes, and recognized him when he saw the wated poster...
I assumed BOB was a demonic spirit even back then ... Leland was possessed by him for yearrrrrs
BOB has appeared in his "own skin"- I presume that is how the young Leland met him long ago at Pearl Lakes, and recognized him when he saw the wated poster...
I though that Leland recognized him from the mirror and was toying with law enforcement about Pearl Lakes. Laura only saw Leland as BOB until FWWM. Laura was to become possessed with Bob in transition from Leland, but politely declined. I assumed that BOB inhabited owls post-Leland.
MIKE has already appeared in the Lodge in Gerard's form (towards the end of FWWM). I reckon MIKE has somehow assumed Gerard's form for spirit use. This reminds me of what I thought when Leland said he remembered BOB from Pearl Lakes. I thought perhaps BOB's "true" face is just that of Leland's grandfather. Of course, this seems highly unlikely now that we've seen the BOB-globule (BOBule?) come out of the Experiment, with BOB's true face on it. Nevertheless it reminded me of that theory I had for a while.
However, in the end no-one knows, and we may never know for sure...
I think the "Mother" is holding the whole Lodge camp hostage. No one has managed to get out without punishment, or some entity chasing after them. Might well be because of BOB being on the run for so long.
I think the nature of Mike has never been explained and it can be even more confusing as it's entirely possible they changed their mind about it a few times as the story went on and took different directions than the ones they had anticipated (plus of course other circumstances like Michael Anderson's falling-out with Lynch that forced other changes).
The way Mike is introduced at first is that he's a spirit, very similar to Bob, possibly more powerful (he says Bob was his familiar, while he might be using the common meaning of the word, I read once in a book about Twin Peaks that in some mythologies that have highly influenced Frost's work that's also the name of lesser demons). Philip Gerard is said to be host to him, in the same way Leland is inhabited by Bob, which should mean that he's also a human being. And as a matter of fact we never see him in the Lodge until the very end of FWWM, he's always in our world and he's even able to get rid of Mike's possession when he uses haloperidol. Now I guess one might argue that his bond with Mike was stronger than the one between Leland (maybe because of the tattoo? Maybe because he tried to free himself of Mike by cutting the arm?) but that's just my speculation based on the fact that we've never seen anyone else possessed by Mike (while Bob has possessed Coop and Leland and he was trying to possess Laura when he was still with Leland). But again, a regular human being.
But things get more complicated. The show indicates that Mike was an evil entity, but then he saw the face of God, it changed him and he had to take off the arm with the tattoo (which probably was the cause of the evil in the first place). So he basically splits in two parts: Philip Gerard, still inhabited by the good version of Mike, and the arm, whose spiritual form is the LMFAP, who presumably is still evil. Then in the last episode the doppelgangers are introduced and there's also a LMFAP doppelganger, which should imply that the regular LMFAP is a good guy.
FWWM makes it even more confusing: while the One Armed Man and the Arm/LMFAP should be separated (and even conflicting) entities, they seem to follow the same path and at the end of the movie we even see them together in the Lodge, eating garmonbozia. Also, the ring is introduced and apparently those who wear it are wed to the LMFAP. What it means it's not clear, as they don't seem to be possessed, even though the arm corresponding to the one Philip Gerard is missing goes numb. The most likely thing is that their fate is in his hands (or, more precisely, in his hand) and Bob can't possess them, but the other implications are not clear.
Now season 3 brings some changes. Philip Gerard this far has been seen only in the Lodge, and not as a regular human being living in our world. I guess he's too old to keep travelling around the Northwest to sell shoes for a living and not everyone wants to spend retirement years in Florida, but he seems to be a full time Lodge resident and to have left the haloperidol years behind him. But also, we see he's definitely working together with the arm (now tree) and they're seemingly in with the good guys, while there's again a doppelganger who has other plans. All of which makes it nearly impossible to understand if: Mike can possess anyone else outside of Philip Gerard? Is there really any difference between the arm/tree and the One Armed Man? Is the One Armed Man really a man or he was just a spirit since the beginning? What does the ring exactly do and how those who wear it are wed to the Arm? What does it even mean to be wed to the Arm? If we can assume the arm/tree and Philip Gerard are both good, as opposed to the arm doppelganger, and they are pursuing the same goals, why did he cut the arm off and they split in the first place?
All of this to say, it's definitely difficult to give answers about Mike (and to some extent, about some other lodge related things): I guess you can say that they can possess even real people, not necessarily their doppelgangers (that was the case for Bob with Leland); and Mike's host should be Philip Gerard. But beyond those I guess everything it's up in the air. And even if we put together all the pieces that we have we might not draw a satisfying and perfectly coherent conclusion, because probably the role and nature of Mike has changed in the author's mind as they went on with the story, so we just have to wait and see if we get some more answers in the following episodes, or if we'll be left without a perfect explanation and we'll have to accept it as it is, pretty much how we do with the cowboy, the hobo and the old man in Mulholland Drive and the Mystery Man in Lost Highways.
Ive always assumed that, when he cut off his arm, it merged MIKE with PG and they became a permanent singular entity.
I think the nature of Mike has never been explained and it can be even more confusing as it's entirely possible they changed their mind about it a few times as the story went on and took different directions than the ones they had anticipated (plus of course other circumstances like Michael Anderson's falling-out with Lynch that forced other changes).
The way Mike is introduced at first is that he's a spirit, very similar to Bob, possibly more powerful (he says Bob was his familiar, while he might be using the common meaning of the word, I read once in a book about Twin Peaks that in some mythologies that have highly influenced Frost's work that's also the name of lesser demons). Philip Gerard is said to be host to him, in the same way Leland is inhabited by Bob, which should mean that he's also a human being. And as a matter of fact we never see him in the Lodge until the very end of FWWM, he's always in our world and he's even able to get rid of Mike's possession when he uses haloperidol. Now I guess one might argue that his bond with Mike was stronger than the one between Leland (maybe because of the tattoo? Maybe because he tried to free himself of Mike by cutting the arm?) but that's just my speculation based on the fact that we've never seen anyone else possessed by Mike (while Bob has possessed Coop and Leland and he was trying to possess Laura when he was still with Leland). But again, a regular human being.
But things get more complicated. The show indicates that Mike was an evil entity, but then he saw the face of God, it changed him and he had to take off the arm with the tattoo (which probably was the cause of the evil in the first place). So he basically splits in two parts: Philip Gerard, still inhabited by the good version of Mike, and the arm, whose spiritual form is the LMFAP, who presumably is still evil. Then in the last episode the doppelgangers are introduced and there's also a LMFAP doppelganger, which should imply that the regular LMFAP is a good guy.
FWWM makes it even more confusing: while the One Armed Man and the Arm/LMFAP should be separated (and even conflicting) entities, they seem to follow the same path and at the end of the movie we even see them together in the Lodge, eating garmonbozia. Also, the ring is introduced and apparently those who wear it are wed to the LMFAP. What it means it's not clear, as they don't seem to be possessed, even though the arm corresponding to the one Philip Gerard is missing goes numb. The most likely thing is that their fate is in his hands (or, more precisely, in his hand) and Bob can't possess them, but the other implications are not clear.
Now season 3 brings some changes. Philip Gerard this far has been seen only in the Lodge, and not as a regular human being living in our world. I guess he's too old to keep travelling around the Northwest to sell shoes for a living and not everyone wants to spend retirement years in Florida, but he seems to be a full time Lodge resident and to have left the haloperidol years behind him. But also, we see he's definitely working together with the arm (now tree) and they're seemingly in with the good guys, while there's again a doppelganger who has other plans. All of which makes it nearly impossible to understand if: Mike can possess anyone else outside of Philip Gerard? Is there really any difference between the arm/tree and the One Armed Man? Is the One Armed Man really a man or he was just a spirit since the beginning? What does the ring exactly do and how those who wear it are wed to the Arm? What does it even mean to be wed to the Arm? If we can assume the arm/tree and Philip Gerard are both good, as opposed to the arm doppelganger, and they are pursuing the same goals, why did he cut the arm off and they split in the first place?
All of this to say, it's definitely difficult to give answers about Mike (and to some extent, about some other lodge related things): I guess you can say that they can possess even real people, not necessarily their doppelgangers (that was the case for Bob with Leland); and Mike's host should be Philip Gerard. But beyond those I guess everything it's up in the air. And even if we put together all the pieces that we have we might not draw a satisfying and perfectly coherent conclusion, because probably the role and nature of Mike has changed in the author's mind as they went on with the story, so we just have to wait and see if we get some more answers in the following episodes, or if we'll be left without a perfect explanation and we'll have to accept it as it is, pretty much how we do with the cowboy, the hobo and the old man in Mulholland Drive and the Mystery Man in Lost Highways.
You're awesome. Just had to say that.
That was a damn good summation of Mike, Fishinthepercolater! And HOT!
*aggressively whispers* I don't trust Mike.
When he says "with this ring I thee wed", I don't think he's referring to something unique to him. I think he's talking broadly about what the ring does to the wearer. I suspect the ring links the wearer with the lodge somehow. Perhaps it's a quick and easy portal from the lodge to enter the host?
Mike's Philip Gerard appearance is likely the same as his original host because he found the face of god while in Gerard's body. It was a spiritual transition for him. And I expect these beings can create their appearance in some way (a bit like a mental projection of who they think they are / what they think they should look like). A bit like The Matrix 🙂
The same thought occured to me thinking back to the phone call between BadCoop and the mysterious man who missed him in New York on the other side. What if Mike's doppleganger is the man he's talking to? Then I thought that we never saw an explicit doppleganger of BOB, which kinda makes sense, therefore Mike doesn't have a doppleganger as well.
As for TheArm, the reason why he could have a doppleganger it's because he isn't an inhabitant spirit.
I think the nature of Mike has never been explained and it can be even more confusing as it's entirely possible they changed their mind about it a few times as the story went on and took different directions than the ones they had anticipated (plus of course other circumstances like Michael Anderson's falling-out with Lynch that forced other changes).
The way Mike is introduced at first is that he's a spirit, very similar to Bob, possibly more powerful (he says Bob was his familiar, while he might be using the common meaning of the word, I read once in a book about Twin Peaks that in some mythologies that have highly influenced Frost's work that's also the name of lesser demons). Philip Gerard is said to be host to him, in the same way Leland is inhabited by Bob, which should mean that he's also a human being. And as a matter of fact we never see him in the Lodge until the very end of FWWM, he's always in our world and he's even able to get rid of Mike's possession when he uses haloperidol. Now I guess one might argue that his bond with Mike was stronger than the one between Leland (maybe because of the tattoo? Maybe because he tried to free himself of Mike by cutting the arm?) but that's just my speculation based on the fact that we've never seen anyone else possessed by Mike (while Bob has possessed Coop and Leland and he was trying to possess Laura when he was still with Leland). But again, a regular human being.
But things get more complicated. The show indicates that Mike was an evil entity, but then he saw the face of God, it changed him and he had to take off the arm with the tattoo (which probably was the cause of the evil in the first place). So he basically splits in two parts: Philip Gerard, still inhabited by the good version of Mike, and the arm, whose spiritual form is the LMFAP, who presumably is still evil. Then in the last episode the doppelgangers are introduced and there's also a LMFAP doppelganger, which should imply that the regular LMFAP is a good guy.
FWWM makes it even more confusing: while the One Armed Man and the Arm/LMFAP should be separated (and even conflicting) entities, they seem to follow the same path and at the end of the movie we even see them together in the Lodge, eating garmonbozia. Also, the ring is introduced and apparently those who wear it are wed to the LMFAP. What it means it's not clear, as they don't seem to be possessed, even though the arm corresponding to the one Philip Gerard is missing goes numb. The most likely thing is that their fate is in his hands (or, more precisely, in his hand) and Bob can't possess them, but the other implications are not clear.
Now season 3 brings some changes. Philip Gerard this far has been seen only in the Lodge, and not as a regular human being living in our world. I guess he's too old to keep travelling around the Northwest to sell shoes for a living and not everyone wants to spend retirement years in Florida, but he seems to be a full time Lodge resident and to have left the haloperidol years behind him. But also, we see he's definitely working together with the arm (now tree) and they're seemingly in with the good guys, while there's again a doppelganger who has other plans. All of which makes it nearly impossible to understand if: Mike can possess anyone else outside of Philip Gerard? Is there really any difference between the arm/tree and the One Armed Man? Is the One Armed Man really a man or he was just a spirit since the beginning? What does the ring exactly do and how those who wear it are wed to the Arm? What does it even mean to be wed to the Arm? If we can assume the arm/tree and Philip Gerard are both good, as opposed to the arm doppelganger, and they are pursuing the same goals, why did he cut the arm off and they split in the first place?
So many good questions and only one with an easy answer. It wasn't Gerard who tried to free himself from Mike cutting the arm. It's already Mike who's speaking to Cooper about his story and seeing the face of God, not Gerard.
Now as for the question about TheArm, i don't think the fact TheArm is willing to release Cooper after 25 years means necessarily he's good, or at least not in a Mike kind of way. I always saw this character (when he was TMFAP as well) as a pursuer of balance first of all. If we think about the map for the Owl's Cave and the opposition between The giant Fireman (what a beautiful way to name him by the way) and the Little Man... that's suggesting for me that they have the mutual task of mantaining an order , only on opposite sides. Like they could both be firemen in a way.
Maybe it's not actually meant to make sense.
Fire walk with 
