The Black Lodge is an elusive, alternate dimension whose entrance lies in the woods outside Twin Peaks in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s beloved ABC series of the same name. A place of pure evil, the Black Lodge houses demonic entities and energies that all souls are forced to interact with on their way to the next realm.
The Black Lodge is composed of an endless series of rooms draped in plush, red curtains and decked out with patterned marble flooring. Its iconic waiting area, known as the Red Room, is where most of Twin Peaks‘s dream-like sequences originate. Nothing is what it seems in the nightmarish Black Lodge — making it the source of endless pop culture references and memes.
It’s Always Sunny In The Red Room
If anyone deserves to hold court in the Black Lodge, it’s the characters from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Charlie and Frank, in fact, carry on a relationship that is very similar to the relationship between BOB and Mike in Twin Peaks.
It doesn’t get much more absurd and hair-raising than Frank and Charlie’s antics — especially when Dennis eggs them on from the sidelines. Case in point: when Frank hides in a leather couch to spy on his former co-workers.
When The Real World Is Less Appealing
People dealing with the endless onslaught of anxiety and confusion brought on by 2020’s events likely feel this meme extra hard. Even if the Black Lodge is an ethereal, ghastly place, at least it’s not Earth.
Who knows who passersby will meet while hanging out in the Red Room, be it Dale Cooper, Laura Palmer, or their evil doppelgangers. At least The Black Lodge is aesthetically pleasing.
When They Get It, They Get It
Is it a place? Is it a state of mind? No one knows exactly how the Black Lodge fits into the space-time continuum, but its symbolic significance for Twin Peaks devotees is manifold.
Only those who have entered the Black Lodge and returned to tell the tale understand. It’s just like engaging in a deep, philosophical discussion with someone who speaks the same theoretical language.
BRB LOL
Maybe instead of telling Agent Cooper, “I’ll see you again in 25 years” in that strange Black Lodge backward drawl in the second season’s penultimate episode, Laura Palmer should have just said, ” BRB. LOL.” before disappearing. She would have, after all, been predicting the texting lingo of the future.
Laura and Cooper did return 25 years later, for 2014’s The Return. In the continuation, the Black Lodge becomes an even larger source of cosmic ambiguity.
25 Years Versus A Few Weeks
Agent Dale Cooper’s 25-year saga in the Black Lodge is the perfect public service announcement for life during covid-19. If he can spend that many years biding his time while his evil doppelganger traipses around the planet, Americans can spend a few weeks quarantined at home to stop the spread.
The Black Lodge is definitely a luxurious extradimensional destination, but 25 years is practically a lifetime. The bottom line: if Cooper can manage, anyone else can handle a little extra homesteading.
Your Car’s Extended Warranty
Twin Peaks is full of whispers and indecipherable dialogue, which contributes to its reputation as a dreamy series — something that could only come from the mind of David Lynch. These cryptic messages are exposed to audiences in fits and bursts.
Imagine, though, if the secrets shared between characters and spirits in Twin Peaks were just spam messages from the great beyond. It couldn’t get more annoying than that.
Marge And Homer In The Black Lodge
The Arm tells Cooper, “Where we’re from, the birds sing a pretty song and there’s always music in the air,” when the detective first enters the Black Lodge. This is one of the most quoted lines of dialogue from all of Twin Peaks. Few sequences make as little sense while conversely having such a large impact on viewers.
If this scene transpired in The Simpsons universe, it would definitely be Kang guiding Homer and Marge through the Black Lodge. A line from The Carpenters’ song “Close to You” would definitely be thrown into the mix.
Thumbs Up
Agent Dale Cooper definitely loves giving the thumbs up, even when the world is collapsing all around him. Even when he’s stranded in the Black Lodge for decades, he still flexes that thumb.
It never hurts to look at the brighter side of life — no matter what. That being said, being honest about one’s feelings or experiences isn’t a bad idea, either.
The Log Lady Knows
Nevermind the “babes” of Twin Peaks: the Log Lady, Magaret Lanterman, is the real darling of the show. Without her prescient piece of wood, Coop and the rest of his investigative team wouldn’t have an access point into what’s going on in the Black Lodge.
Margaret gets her messages from her husband, who is believed to reside in the Red Room. He communicates with his love through the log.
Live. Laugh. Love.
Cooper asks some important questions when he first enters the Black Lodge. These are the kinds of questions most people ask when they enter a home full of decorative slogans and twee text-based wall art.
What does it even mean to live, laugh, and love? It makes as much sense as garmonbozia.
