In TP, MIKE says he searches for BOB to stop him. In FWWM, we learn that they had this conflict over garmonbozia, so BOB had to kill Laura whom he planned to inhabit, return the "corn", and - and this is it? Both MIKE and his arm are in the Red Room, which means he didn't have to seek BOB out. He always knew where he was. 

So did MIKE simply lie to Coop? Or he had understood he's not much of a redeemed and reverted to his old habits?

i agree with what you two are saying, but youre forgetting it was teresa's garmonbozia that BOB/leland stole, when he killed her knowing she wore the "owl" ring, clearly seen in the picture chester and sam see in her trailer. that was LMFAP/MIKE's garmonbozia. that is why they take laura's away from BOB, in fact giving her mercy as BOB can not inhabit her with the ring. but BOB didnt hand over teresa's corn as he does with laura in FWWM. according to MIKE in the intersection scene in FWWM, he knows BOB/leland took teresa's garmonbozia. curiously, we actually only see the LMFAP eating it at the very end, not MIKE. i find him probably the most ambiguous character in TP. we know BOB, he's pretty hard to miss. LMFAP and the giant interact with cooper in a manner that makes them seem as if they are the welcoming party. we never see MIKE in the black lodge in ep.29. i also question the philip gerard persona. we are to think at that point in the first season that apparently he used those injections to stop MIKE from taking over, but then MIKE, while in questioning by TP's finest, says he inhabits the form of gerard from time to time, effectively he can come and go as he pleases. the thing that gets me about MIKE is not the stoping BOB, which in fact he was trying to, BOB was out of control and taking his garmonbozia, which for all i gather, as we are told in subtitlesme means pain and sorrow, and they ingest it, that means human suffering is what they live on(a very interesting conception of humanity and our conception of its higher beings), but it is the speach "i saw the face of god and took the arm clean off". anybody have any thoughts on that? also, in coops dream in ep.2, MIKE really gives him his first clues before the red room scene. and they lead directly to jaques renault and leo. he helps cooper in this respect. tho one could argue it was a way of preventing what happened with teresa happening again(except that it did with maddy, who does appear in the black lodge too, BOB certainly took her garmonbozia, he didnt possess her). maybe mike's fed up with BOB being his familar. maybe BOB's fed up with being the familiar. but in the end, i mean, i know we can make theories to make it fit into our TP mythologies, but im going to chalk these things up to story discontinuity. it was interesting in the series, and then lynch twisted it around in FWWM, hence the variations. i just prefer to consider them both fit instead of trying make one interpetation fit. MIKE works both sides of the fence.

the one really big thing i wonder about mike is that he is the same form in the black lodge that he is in TP. i.e. philip gerard. BOB hid in leland. the giant and senor droolcup are shown to inhabit the same space, and LMFAP is never shown outside the lodges(save for when josie dies, but i think its probable that coop was having a vision of some sort)why is mike only shown in one form? other than that he is an extraordinary actor, and i dont blame lynch for using him as much as he could. i believe we never saw MIKE's true form but, again this is probably something with many answers, most of them vague and/or abstract and depending on how each one of us makes sense of the film and series. but its fun.

JFK said

"but youre forgetting it was teresa's garmonbozia that BOB/leland stole, when he killed her knowing she wore the "owl" ring, clearly seen in the picture chester and sam see in her trailer. that was LMFAP/MIKE's garmonbozia."

This is where my take differs (which is to be expected)...She was wearing the ring in the picture, but she was not wearing it when she was killed by Bob/Leland, at least imo...this can be seen if you watch the murder of Teresa in FWWM...very carefully.  (I left picture evidence on the FWWM top 5 scenes thread, a while ago).  How or why the ring got removed is unknown...but we do know that a ring was placed under the Chalfont's/Tremond's trailer (on a little mound of earth very similar to the one that Bob left his 'fire walk with me' mantra on, pilot episode)...Chet Desmond seems to find it?

So it seems the ring denotes 'ownership' of sorts...Teresa's 'bozia' was available to 'Bob' becasue she was slaughtered without the ring (I don't think Bob was bothered about possessing her fully) and this prevented Mike from having it (the stolen corn).  Mike/MFAP was able to obtain the 'bozia' from Laura's killing because Mike tossed the ring into the train carriage just at the point of slaughter...ensuring ownership of the 'bozia' and foiling Bob's ultimate plan to possess Laura.

Thats my brief take on it.

Update 17/04/10

Sorry...I didn't leave the picture evidence on the Top 5 Scenes FWWM...but on a different thread realting to the 'convenience store' crowd etc...link below:

http://www.2000revue.com/community/topic.cfm?topicid=5063

"Why is Bob afraid of Mike?"

I'd say that obviously Mike has authority over Bob...the last scene from FWWM tells us that much...when he is impelled to turn over the 'bozia' from Laura's death...the 'Don't make me do this' quote from Bob/Leland also solidifies this aspect, of Bob's subservience. It is immediately after the slaughter of Laura (with ring) that Bob is then whisked away thru the 'sycamore portal' to pay his dues to Mike/MFAP.  However, it seems that Bob has developed his own ideas about what he wants and this turns out to be a 'want' to possess Laura and not just to collect her 'bozia' for his superiors ingestion....hence the friction.

I don't know if when Mike referred to BOB as his familiar he meant servant or close friend. I'd go with close friend personally.

Another option that is rarely considered is that the garmonbozia is Mike's own pain and sorrow for BOB's victims and actions. The stolen corn references Laura's death. The ring prevented BOB from possessing her. If Laura couldn't be possessed BOB would kill her. Of those 2 choices death was better for Laura and what she wanted instead of becoming BOB's next host. Though Mike would feel pain and sorrow for Laura's death he wanted to help her not become BOB so he tried to give her the ring. When Dale convinced Laura not to take the ring the corn was stolen. However, when Laura took the ring, and was killed once more, the corn was returned.

Mike does know where BOB and his host are but it seems kind of tricky sometimes for him. He tried to lead Dale and company to where BOB was on the series but collapsed due to great pain in his arm, which coincidently happens on the episode where Maddy dies. The second time he was heading for the waterfall where BOB/Leland planned on dumping Maddy's body. In the movie Mike seems to be a step behind BOB/Leland for the most part. He gets to the cabin a moment too late and also the train. Luckily the Angel had freed Ronette's bonds at that time so she can open the door and Mike can throw the ring in. It would have been difficult for Mike to open the train car door by himself.