Or he's simply a prisoner, and philosophical about it. Or he's unstuck in time, and he doesn't really care because he's in the lodge but he's also in the FBI headquarters at the same time, and in Buenos Aires, and everywhere he's ever been. (Even Honolulu if he wants.)
I'm not sure he's IN the bell, or if he IS the bell itself, or if the bell is just a way for him to communicate.
Still, I'm going to call it, hopefully I'll be the first: maybe those bells are stupas. (Not tulpas-- stupas.) I'll have a look if it's mentioned elsewhere.
Anecdote: when I first watched the original series, I started with the European pilot (yeah, yeah, I know). When Mike mentioned "above, what do you call that... a convenience store?", I thought that because of the hesitation, he was talking metaphorically, i.e. "above the human world/realm/reality". In fact, I keep thinking it may have been a metaphor in Lynch's head, and then he later thought it'd be funny to make it an actual convenience store.
Ah yes, a stupa. Very interesting.
If it were the Black Lodge or portal to it, I don't think Mr C would have gone there to find anyone. He went to great lengths to avoid returning to "what they call the Black Lodge" (Mr C to Darya). Maybe It's Dutchman Convenience Store, in another dimension where they hold the meetings Jeffries talked about in FWWM. Mr C shot Ray and told him he knew where or what Dutchmans was. How it is accessed, we don't know. Mr C does.
If we take Frosts vision as part of this it is possible that Jefferies worked for the part of the government that has a deal with grey for technology. He is working directly against the interest of the Blue Rose cases. So we see four elements at play, the grey (woodsmen, Bob and such), the Nordic types, the M12 groups and the Blue Rose Group.
Considering that the convenient store played in ep.8 (extensively) its significance must be enormous. I believe that it is the entrance to the Black Lodge or the Black Lodge itself. If after the bomb evil errupted and, as the fireman said, "it is now in our home" we can assume that IT is the white lodge and HOME is the sea of consciousness that the fireman lives within annd guerds. The convenient store must be connected to the beginning of bob after the bomb.
To your point if the convenience store is the black lodge I would say no and here is my idea:
If you are dead set on getting Mr. C to the lodge and he obviously doesn't want to go there, why would he then voluntarily go. He would not take the chance of getting trapped or stuck. I take the store as a electrical traveling hub. One that the bad guys of the world use to travel around (like to the black lodge in FWWM or the motel in episode 15). This hub was created after the trinity test thus why it is included in the following screen series in episode 8.
I agree, the Convenience Store is not the Black Lodge. It just may be the Local Office, lol.
Any bad entities existing in the Convenient Store may have their own motives and agenda separate from the Black Lodge, though they're all on the side of darkness.
Good and evil are sort of human constructs. I don't believe either of the lodges and lodge entities would view themselves in those terms. I believe they are were disturbed out of balance by the nuclear bomb, not that evil was created at that point, and that the fireman is working to restore the necessary balance.
I'm not convinced that Jeffries is bad or working against our friends in the FBI, either. Perhaps he wants Bob with him because he's permanently in the Lodges and that's where he wants Bob to be, as well, away from people he would hurt.
It seemed to me from that scene that Jeffries thought Mr. C was Dale Cooper. He let on that he believed that, I thought.
I'm still not sure what to make of the conversation where C asked him if he told Ray to kill him, though.
I also have previously said I don't think Jefferies is necessarily bad or good, I think he is self serving. I wonder if he didn't achieve some type of evolution, thus leading to a smoke/spirit state that we see in this episode. Say a lower spirit state. He interferes with Mr. C for a purpose that we lack the background to understand. He didn't sound afraid at Mr. C's presence nor did he seem vengeful enough to set a trap for him when he came.
anyone been able to see/read the words on the road sign yet?
and yes it clearly cant be the black lodge,, that would be stupid. it is some meeting place.
I take the store as a electrical traveling hub.
i think u r right. the pun being the convenience of electricity.
Jeffries is been held, a prisioner I think.
Bad guys are been held in a "good" place such as the TP police station. Good guys can be prisioners in bad places such as the hotel room he's in.
Besides, the woman (Judy?) opens the door to mr. C because she recognizes him as one of them.
Also, I don't know if it's only me but that scene reminds me a lot of the time mr. C was in prison. Gordon (and later Diane) arrives, someone open the door so they can interrogate the prisioner.
Aren't we forgetting that back in the early episodes Mr. C (when he is still with Ray/Darya) doesn't want to go back to Lodges/RedRoom since he fears being switched with GoodDale? Now that he knows the switch was prevented due to the Dougie Jones-scheme, he is no longer afraid to enter the Black Lodge. The fact that the woodsmen are not hostile to him proves this point.
For me some of you are making it just more complicated than it actually is. DoppelCoop is born in the Red Room, that's where he was supposed to come back, and that's the place "they call black lodge". It is an archaic and necessary place. To quote Virginia Woolf <A light here, required a shadow there>
The convenience store instead is a creation and organization of evil spirits born with nuclear tests as we have seen.
anyone been able to see/read the words on the road sign yet?
and yes it clearly cant be the black lodge,, that would be stupid. it is some meeting place.
Entering City of Snoqualmie. For people that don't know, it's a real place just outside of the where Twin Peaks would be (location of the waterfall in the open). This means Mr. C is about to arrive in Twin Peaks.
To your point if the convenience store is the black lodge I would say no and here is my idea:
If you are dead set on getting Mr. C to the lodge and he obviously doesn't want to go there, why would he then voluntarily go. He would not take the chance of getting trapped or stuck. I take the store as a electrical traveling hub. One that the bad guys of the world use to travel around (like to the black lodge in FWWM or the motel in episode 15). This hub was created after the trinity test thus why it is included in the following screen series in episode 8.
Convenience Store (Hub) entities speak in reverse. The conundrums that cloud this for me include: some entities have also been witnessed in the Black Lodge (like MFAP), so does this mean they are free to roam, or just allowed out for meetings?; do some entities actually live there, i.e. permanent residents (Mike: "we lived above...a convenience store"); can an entity take different forms while roaming between Lodge and Hub (sic) (Leland as adult in the Lodge, Leland as little boy in the Hub)?; finally--this one really bugs me--why was Fireman in the Black Lodge (as seen in FWWM)?
I'm sorry if any or all of these have been addressed prior; I don't get a lot of free time.
Fire walk with