I - The Beginning and the Lodges

A surface analysis of Twin Peaks apparently reveals the existence of three distinct planes on which the action takes place: the Earth, usually taken to include the physical location of Twin Peaks, the Black Lodge (the dwelling place of all that is evil) and the White Lodge (home to the spirits of good). Yet to accept all three places as distinct, with their own concrete existence, appears to be in contradiction with the chant:

It is thus necessary to associate two of the three planes as two different aspects of the same place. Two different suggestions appear to have been made in other analyses which I have found on the 'net:

1. The Black Lodge and the White Lodge are part of the same structure

2. The White Lodge and Twin Peaks are the same place

Many arguments have been made for and against these arguments on the basis of 'symmetry', and using the chant as the main link to the text. I wish to extend the symmetry argument further by suggesting that none of the three planes of existence sketched above are fundamental. At first glance, this appears to be in direct contradiction with the fundamental dichotomy which runs throughout the series between good and evil, light and dark. This is a concern which I hope to address later in this essay.

Much of what follows is strongly grounded in modern physics and cosmology (a field in which I have a particular interest) and so it is first necessary to give a brief summary of the theory of symmetry breaking. In Ian Stewart's recent book Life's Other Secret symmetry breaking is defined by:

[…] instabilities in symmetric systems cause the overall symmetry of the system to break, meaning that what follows the instabilities is less symmetric than the overall system. An example of symmetry breaking would be lobbing a stone into a still expanse of water. Before the impact of the stone, the water has perfect symmetry - translational (you could slide the water across and it would look identical), reflectional (you could reflect the water in any mirror-line and it would look identical) and rotational (you could rotate the water about any point and it would look identical).

By lobbing the stone you introduce an instability into the system, which forces it into a state of lower symmetry. Rings form from the point where the stone hit - they seem symmetrical, but now the water does not possess any translational symmetry (moving the water would move the position of the ring centre) and only one point of rotational symmetry (the point where the stone hit). The new system thus has less symmetry than the original. Symmetry breaking appears related to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the amount of disorder in a system must always increase.

Related to symmetry breaking is bifurcation. Continuing with Stewart:

Bifurcations occur when the state of the system changes from being stable to being unstable; the system then seeks a new stable state, which may mean a big change. The gradual behaviour occurs when stable states remain stable. Symmetry breaking is a particular type of bifurcation behavior, found in symmetric systems. Even asymmetric systems can, and often do, bifurcate, however.

What I propose is that at the time of the creation of the universe only one plane was in existence, which for want of a better name I refer to simply as 'the Lodge'. As a result of the introduction of an instability, a bifurcation occurred and resulted in a schism into two separate Lodges - the White Lodge and the Black Lodge.

A link between the two Lodges still exists, however, in the form of the Red Room. The fact that the Red Room is a point of intersection between these two worlds is symbolised by the flooring, which consists of alternating black and white sections. It is also shown in the fact that both good and evil spirits appear able to enter the Room. There appears to be a similar place where the spirits of good and evil may meet together in the earthly place, namely the room above a convenience store which we see during Philip Jeffries' brief appearance in Fire Walk With Me.

I am tempted to agree with Scott Gazzard's theory which identifies the White Lodge with the town of Twin Peaks. The descriptions of the two places tie in too closely for their resemblance to be purely coincidental. In his words:

Twin Peaks happens to be the site of the White Lodge, which happens to be in our world and in our time-plane. The Black Lodge also has a physical 'site', though it is in a different temporal and spatial plane.

Scott claims that both Lodges have existed since the beginning of time, but here I am forced to disagree. One of the significant points about the Mike / BOB myth is that initially the two used to work together, and then Mike saw the face of God and they moved apart. This appears to be a metaphor for the symmetry breaking theory which I outlined above.

II - The Game and the Man >From Another Place

The Black Lodge has been attempting to subsume the White Lodge ever since the schism occurred, and by the time of the Laura Palmer murder seems to have almost succeeded. It is likely that the owls were at one point servants of the White Lodge, but many have been subsumed by the 'dark side'. Thus, The Owls are not what they seem. Such gradual encroachment, however, is performed 'on the sly'; without the knowledge of the powers-that-be (more on which later).

This is one reason why the denizens of the White Lodge (for example the Chalfonts) are characterised by their physical weakness and inability to do anything except warn.

If the two Lodges were to meet directly in conflict, the universe would be annihilated through the might of their clash. Thus it is necessary for the conflict to be resolved by other means. The Man From Another Place is a crucial character in this conflict, and I believe he acts as an arbitrator between the two sides. Many attempts have been made to link him to the Black Lodge, but I believe that he transcends the black/white dichotomy: he is the one remainder from the Time Before, when black and white were united. The giant also appears to predate the schism. We must remember, however, that the dwarf and the giant are, in their own words:

One and the same

The conflict takes the form of a game, and the physical world was created as a board on which to play out this game, arbitrated by the Man From Another Place. The central game room is the Red Room, for the simple reason that it is one of the few places where black and white can meet (see earlier). Perhaps the best analogy for the Game is the earthly parallel which is enacted by Windom Earle: the chess match. The two players face each other in a tactical battle in which they control the movement of pieces.

Having stated this game theory, I now wish to disagree with another point which I have found in other interpretations: that the Man From Another Place is the 'evil side' of Mike. The main piece of evidence given for this is a literal interpretation of the lines:

Do you know who I am? I am The Arm
And I sound like this …

which implies that the Man >From Another Place is connected to the arm which Mike removed when he 'saw the Face of God'. I wish to suggest the following alternative hypothesis - in a chess game, the arm is responsible for the actual movements of the pieces. This is the role to which the Man >From Another Place is alluding - it is he who makes the final decisions and mediates the contest. One of the definitions of arm in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary is:

a control; a means of reaching (arm of the law).

I believe this is more in line with the part the Man From Another Place appears to play.

The Man From Another Place is often seen to laugh during the progression of the Game, and this has been used to argue his affiliation to the Black Lodge. But at the end of Fire Walk With Me, we see a look of terror and disgust on his face as BOB performs the kill, which can not be explained if we place him as a denizen of the Black Lodge. Having established this, the next step is to deduce the structure of the Game. As far as I can tell, two main pieces are chosen from the board - the possessed and the victim. In the case of the Laura Palmer murder, Leland Palmer is the possessed and Laura herself the victim (however, in this case, the Game does not appear to proceed in the usual fashion due to the strength Laura possesses).

There are at least two definite differences in the way the two parts are chosen. The possessed is selected by the Black Lodge almost at random, and must be conquered in order to be overrun. Leland Palmer has as weak spirit, and so was easily subsumed by BOB. This is the role I believe BOB plays - he is the proxy of the Black Lodge, the spirit who controls the movement of their primary piece, the possessed.

The victim, however, must accept their part of their own free will, by taking the ring. This combination of a game played according to fixed rules and a role for human free will explains a lot of the ritualistic nature of the events we see unfold while still allowing for uncertainty and indeterminism.

The task of recruiting the victim falls to the Man From Another Place, because of his neutral standing. The significance of the ring is as an identifier - it marks the victim. Many have suggested that accepting the ring constitutes victory for the Black Lodge, and this ties in with the interpretation that the Man From Another Place is an agent of the Black Lodge. This is a theory I have argued against above, and if we accept the Man From Another Place as neutral I believe we must also accept the ring's role as an acceptance of their own death by the victim, and a willingness to proceed to the next stage of the Game. Teresa Banks accepts the ring soon after BOB's visitations commence, but Laura does not place the ring on her finger until moments before her death: an indication of the strength of her character.

The Game concludes with the summoning of all those involved to the Red Room, at which point the possessed is annihilated as punishment for their weakness, whilst the victim is allowed to move on to the White Lodge as a reward for their sufferings. This is why Laura is smiling at the end of the film, despite her horrific murder.

There is one flaw in this hypothesis as outlined so far: why were the protagonists not summoned to the Red Room following the Teresa Banks murder, at which point Leland Palmer would have been destroyed and the entire Laura Palmer crisis would have been averted? I believe this is our answer: the Laura Palmer Game was fundamentally different to earlier exchanges, and much more pivotal in the battle between the two sides. Leland Palmer was still needed as a vehicle for BOB in this more crucial Game, and so was left alive.

There is one more complication: these are the rules of the conflict, but the Black Lodge doesn't play by these rules, and it is this which gives it the strong power which Windom Earle alludes to:

For there's another place, its opposite: a place of almost unimaginable power, chock full of dark forces and victorious secrets.

BOB's continual abuse of Laura Palmer (which has been ongoing since she was twelve) lies outside the rules, giving him a degree of power over the victim which destroys the balance between the two sides. The encroachment of the owls also changes the power balance in a way which is not allowed by the rules.

III - Beyond Life and Death

The final episode of the Twin Peaks series shows Agent Cooper entering the Black Lodge, and casts much light (and a good deal of darkness) on the structure of the Lodges and their methods of operation. The Game is played out through spirit media - Mike and BOB take possession of two souls and control their actions. What is pictured in Beyond Life and Death is another form of interaction between the two worlds.

In Beyond Life and Death it is made clear that it is possible for those inhabiting the earthly plane to physically cross over into the Black Lodge. This crossing over is entirely different to the manner in which Mike and BOB move into the earthly plane, as the entire being is involved in the crossing and not just the spirit.

Those attempting the crossing are first taken to the Red Room, and thus we realise it has a second role. As well as providing the central location for the players of the Game, it also acts a waiting room for travellers from the earthly plane. We are given this piece of information by the Man >From Another Place. When he is ready, he utters the chant.

When spoken on the earthly plane, the Fire Walk With Me chant creates a bridge between the two worlds along which souls may travel. When spoken in the Red Room, however, its purpose is subtly different: here it is opening the door between the Red Room and the Black Lodge, uniting the two. This explains why the Black Lodge and the Red Room appear as part of the same structure, and has lead many to postulate that the Red Room is in actuality part of the Black Lodge. But this does not explain the significance it has in the Game, which this theory does.

Upon entering the Black Lodge, those who have crossed over are forced to confront their doppelg�nger. Those who are strong willed enough to defeat their doppelg�nger are then allowed to progress to the White Lodge, i.e. to return to Twin Peaks. In the words of Hawk:

My people believe that the White Lodge is a place where the spirits that rule man and nature reside. There is also a legend of a place called the Black Lodge … the shadow self of the White Lodge. The legend says that every spirit must pass through there on the way to perfection. There, you will meet your own shadow self … But it is said, if you confront the Black Lodge with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul.

Here we run into an apparent contradiction. Agent Cooper clearly fails in the confrontation with his doppelg�nger, and is not allowed to progress to the White Lodge. Instead, his evil side is introduced into the world and an extra piece is made available for the Black Lodge. But Cooper's soul is not destroyed: in Fire Walk With Me Annie tells Laura:

The good Dale is in the lodge.

Cooper has clearly not been annihilated in the way in which we see Leland perish. We see him bleeding, so clearly he was attacked but not completely defeated. As a compromise, I believe the Man From Another Place imprisoned him in the Red Room, never allowed to return to the physical world but not utterly destroyed either. Annie uses the phrase, the Lodge and not the White Lodge or the Black Lodge because, as I have said earlier, the Red Room is the sole point of interaction between the White and Black Lodges, and is thus all that remains of the Lodge, the single plane which existed before the schism.

IV - The Blue Rose

An interpretation of the blue rose in Fire Walk With Me has bceome a rite of passage for any theory purporting to offer an insight into Twin Peaks.  The association with Project Bluebook has been drawn in many places; among the justifications given for this are the ominous tone of voice Agent Cooper uses when making his first recording to Diane regarding the case.

Perhaps the most compelling reason for this argument, however, can be reached by looking beyond the symbol and asking what it represents.   In the 31 Oct 1998 edition of New Scientist, David Concar writes, in an article entitled Brave New Rose:

Turning a rose blue.  In an era when researchers can clone mammals and insert genes into plants to ward off crop-devouring insects, you would think this would be easy.  But it isn't.

Ask Edwina Cornish.  Years ago, this Australian biotechnologist and her colleagues began a quest to create in the lab what cannot be created by breeding.  They founded a company, Florigene in Collingwood, Victoria.  They raised money for the research.   They cloned the gene that enables petunias to produce the blue pigment that roses lack.  But when they inserted the gene into rose cells, the resulting flower was no bluer than, well, a rose.

This reinforces the impression that the blue rose represents the unnatural or 'paranormal'.