Happy Birthday Laura! :)

That's a really good question! After I saw FWWM I totally thought the same thing. At the end of FWWM Laura is seen descending into the White Lodge after she sees her angel, but Cooper appears to still be  young.  And in Coopers' dream in Episode 1 he is an older version of himself and he is in the Black Lodge with Laura. One explanation could be that time is not an issue in the Lodge and Cooper is still the same age as he was when he entered, so when Laura is seen descending into the White Lodge he still appears to be young. Or instead of Cooper seeing Laura in his dream he is actually seeing her Doppelganger instead. But none of the explanations I could think of really fit. I still find myself asking this question and not really being able to find a logical answer. Maybe Lynch didn't really care of Coopers age and appearance in that scene, and just wanted to communicate that Laura was safe and happy in the White Lodge. Hope I helped a little and have a wonderful birthday!

Thanks a lot, you two, my yesterday was great! My life expectancy has lengthened a great deal because of all the laughter. Also, I am officially of the teen-age (13) now, and my life has already been made because I got the TP Gold Box Set, which is so cool. I can't wait to hear the Log Lady's introductions. 

 Anyways, enough about me. EccentricHappiness, I really like all of your ideas, and I was thinking a lot of the same things. I was actually just watching the ending scene of FWWM on Youtube, and came across a few comments with theories that I REALLY, REALLY like. So here they are: 

"Dale is not Laura's Angel. Though she dreamed of him he always did little to help her. The advice he gave her about the ring was particularly damaging. Fortunately she didn't listen to it. The Angel disappeared when she did not have the ring and it reappears when she took it. Lynch has said that the Red Room changes depending on who enters it. Thus, the Angel comes for Laura? and Laura alone because of who she is: a brave and good person."  and, "Only her shadow self remained in? the Black Lodge. The part she chose to hide from others which was her fear of BOB."

I have a crazy idea.

What if when Laura tells Cooper "See you in 25 years" she means not 25 years "in the future", but 25 years "in the past"? So the events of Cooper's dream happen in fact 25 years after he arrives to Twin Peaks. The same is true for Laura's dream.

So the events in chronological order are:

1. Laura dreams of Cooper ("Don't take the ring!") and Annie. She sees the future events: somewhere between series finale events and FWWM ending.

2. Laura is killed

3. Cooper arrives in Twin Peaks.

4.Cooper dreams of LMFAP and Laura. The dream events take place 25 years later after Cooper got in the Lodge and Laura's soul was freed.

5. Cooper follows Window Earle and Annie to the Red Room and events of the series finale take place.

6. Cooper sacrifices his soul and is stuck in the Lodge(Red Room).

7. Laura's soul is freed and leaves the Red Room.

8. 25 years later the events of Cooper's dream actually take place. Hence he doesn't see real Laura but some kind of her projection which "looks exactly like Laura Palmer".

looks good to me. I'm pretty positive that the dream is indeed 25 years later than Twin Peaks action - that;s also why Cooper is older.

But as for the original questions, I can't help to think: inconsistency. Perhaps Lynch didn't really care about details there or didn't think it over well enough. Black Lodge, White Lodge, Waiting Room - it seems all rather clear when you think of the series and what is said there. Fire Walk With Me explains a lot of things, but NOT this. Suddenly putting Cooper together with Laura, Annie's appearance and her "Dale-in-the-Lodge" words... all of that rather clouds the picture.

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB 

 Don't you think it's a nice symmetry there? Cooper "sees" future events concerning Laura (also hints of Maddy's death) and in the movie predicts (sorta) Laura's murder. Laura gets a glimpse of Cooper's future and Annie's fate.

The conclusion I've come to and the only one that makes sense to me is it didn't really matter how old Cooper looked, or if they were in the White or Black Lodge or the waiting room. It was just of way of portraying that Laura is finally at peace.

I truly don't believe that it matters. It's interesting that so many get confused about the Lodge(s), but if you stick to what the "unofficial White/Black Lodge theory" says, this place is in the nature of the metaphysical. Results of time (hours, minutes, years, age etc.) are not relevant then, and therefor nobody should be aging in the Lodge. If that was the case, Laura Palmer should have looked 25 years older herself? Or am I mistaking?

We have to remember that the first scene from the red room in season 1, was a riddle, even for Lynch and Frost. Why Cooper was older in that scene? I don't think it states anything about what's going on in the Lodge, perhaps it's metaphorical - like, getting older, getting wiser kinda thing - I don't think it's physical, it can't be if The Lodge(s) are metaphysical.

To develop this a bit further, I think somehow if your soul has ever been in the Black Lodge, your soul has always been in the Black Lodge. Therefor, when people say "Laura Palmer goes to the White Lodge at the end of FWWM" it's a little bit too simple. Moving from one place to another, and be at one place at the time is a rule of the physical concept. My theory is, if it's her fate to go to the Black Lodge and then the White Lodge, she's everywhere at once in the rules of metaphysics, not physics.

Twin Peaks is quite comparable with Kubrick's The Shining. If you remember that scene when Jack meets Grady in the bathroom and he says "You are the caretaker here, you've always been the caretaker here. I should know, because I've always been here." This makes Cooper's dream more sensible - he's actually communicating with his soul beyond the rules of the physical life. It's no coincidence, dreams are the only aspect metaphysics in the physical world that you can experience on a regular basis.

But I also believe that experiencing the Lodge(s) are subjective to whom that is experiencing it. When Cooper enters the red room, all the characters within it might only be products of his subconscious (including the döppelganger) and not necessarily the souls of others. Maybe I went a little bit off track. But the point is, Cooper's age is probably nothing of relevance in The Black Lodge, once we actually start to understand it a bit. I don't know what "25 years" even means in a place without time, but it's probably not about 25 actual years.

 (delete, please, double post)

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB 

FleshWorld,

you've got a lot of good points and I agree about the physics and metaphysics and other things. One thing troubles me, though:

Bobi 1 Kenobi

B. Beware
O. Of
B. BOB 

 Hm, you know, another possibility is that the "Cooper's dream" Laura is real Laura. The Giant seems to be a spirit/creature from the White Lodge, however he is able to "visit" the Red Room (which is supposedly a "middle place" between Lodges). Perhaps, Laura is also able to visit Red Room after her ascending to the White Lodge.

We'll never know for sure, of course.

Hi!
We know that Coop was 25 years older in the original dream.  Of course we'll never know, and he's the main character, so while having him as a bad guy for a season or so would be OK, but they had to eventually liberate him for the series to go on.

If we imagine a Season 3+, then I think "I'll see you again in 25 years" means that Cooper will die in 25 years, at which time he will have his true judgement in the Red Room, and experience the events from his and Laura's shared dream. 

However, "I'll see you again in 25 years" could also refer to Cooper's possession lasting that long in the physical world.  In either case, I think that "I'll see you again in 25 years" refers to how long it will be before Cooper ascends to the White Lodge.