Lodge 49: The Door

October 15, 2019 8:34 AM - Season 2, Episode 10

After the events of Mexico, the Lynx regroup at a revived Lodge and prepare for an important coronation. Liz goes for a swim. Connie has a secret. [Season finale.]

Lodge 49 becomes the best of big-hearted TV in season 2 finale (Danette Chavez for TV/AV Club)

I apologize if I’m getting carried away, but “The Door,” Lodge 49's season-two finale, is such an incredibly beautiful and uplifting hour of television. It’s big-hearted TV in the vein of reality series like Great British Baking Show—which was always more invested in craftsmanship than competition—and scripted shows like Forever and The Good Place. Even as it underscores its characters flaws, Lodge 49 has never doubted their ability to do good when given the chance.

posted by filthy light thief (10 comments total)

Such a good episode, and if it ended here, it would be a pretty solid ending. But this is the show I'd support a letter-writing campaign or whatever it took to continue, because I really love this show. It makes my heart happy, and it's weird, and that's a pretty magical combination.

And so many good lines!
"I'm sorry, I-I know this all sounds like brilliant ramblings, but the point is my next chapter is going to be a doozy. I need your violent self-destructive power by my side you crave death and that's power."

"The abyss isn't death. That's just a fable God made up to keep us away from the truth. Maybe you're just drawn to what other people fear. That probably makes you more alive."

"Commerce is an acid that dissolves human bonds. Send in the pods."

They even introduced new threads in this episode! Beyond Dud sinking into the mud, and apparently falling out of the 2nd story floor without stairs, then sinking again into the ground, there's Bob's new-found love of poetry and learning, Dud getting to go out on the road while Ernie leads both the Lodge and at work, where they'll need new people to manage the order desks. Janet made bail and Dr. Kimbrough is a free man (I think?), while Connie is in a good place and is starting to write, while Melinda/Clara is getting deeper into ... something. Oh, and Scott met Michelle after climbing out of her bomb shelter (sorry, husband of Michelle).
posted by filthy light thief at 8:48 AM on October 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

And Liz entering the Lodge and apparently seeing something familiar on the photo wall, then having a big sense that she'd been there before. That's potentially huge.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:52 AM on October 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was guessing something like that would happen when Ernie told Connie that she needed a squire.

Also, it feeds into the pretend psychic's talk of Liz being in the wrong place up to now.

So where's the renewal notice for Season 3? O_O
posted by filthy light thief at 12:06 PM on October 15, 2019

I totally called the space-mime painting.

And these scrolls, these are not the scrolls of the true lodge. I know you all think I'm crazy but I'm not. Total red herring. Yes, the true scrolls are in Long Beach, but they never left. They never went to Mexico in a bowling bag. That's Larry's decoy. It's a false flag. They're in the recently and conspicuously absent Thermosaurus that we last saw in the dishrack.

God, is poor Dud going to have to almost die at the end of every season. And that monologue he had, ouch. True Cervantesian pathos.

But then there's Ernie's ceremony speech, about Dud's faith, and how infectious it is. How much they all owed him. Fuck, yeah. That might inspire me to go dig a pool too.
posted by Stanczyk at 3:35 PM on October 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

AMC has opted not to renew Lodge 49.
posted by Etrigan at 5:39 PM on October 29, 2019

I need to watch this episode again before making any remarks other than:

BOO, AMC. BOO HISS
posted by heteronym at 6:26 PM on October 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

Paul Giamatti has a plan to save ‘Lodge 49'
posted by Etrigan at 9:58 AM on November 13, 2019 [4 favorites]

DEAR LYNX, it breaks my heart to announce that LODGE 49 won't be going forward. We tried very hard to find a new home, but there were no takers. Ratings, metrics, algorithms...que sera, brah. I will write a proper postscript soon, but for now a few thoughts. (thread)
posted by Etrigan at 12:33 PM on December 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

I am extraordinarily sorry that I slept on this show. I just finished the last episode and I'm deeply saddened that 2 seasons is all we're gonna get. This was really something special.

I'm definitely going to be looking out for whatever's next from this cast and crew.
posted by ssmith at 10:25 AM on February 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

Just finished watching it last night - the first season is on Prime in the UK, but not (I discovered) the second, so I had to scour the fringes to torrent it. What a lovely thing! It is enormously Pynchonesque - not just in the title and themes, but also in the way that the extended family (and with Liz in the lodge, can Jeremy and Champ be too far behind?) make me think of the Whole Sick Crew, though I read V in 1985, so I might be a bit shaky on details.

I suspect Liz walking through the door of the Lodge is a call back to something that I think was at the end of Jackie's story - something like "Someone will arrive who will lead the Lodge into a new world, but she's not arrived yet".

If it has to end here, it's a lovely way to end it - knowing there were only two seasons I was afraid it would be a downer of a cliffhanger, but there's more to find out about Orbis, some major Janet shenanigans and, look, their father has to reappear at some point.

If they had recommissioned, they'd probably be shooting about now, which... um... so in some ways Lodge 49 isn't in a much different place from any other series. But one more season would be perfect. One more season and wrap it up.

The Mexico episode was the kind of joyous madness I always hoped a movie would be when I was a child but they very rarely were.

Now I have to go and spread the word...
posted by Grangousier at 2:11 AM on May 25, 2020 [2 favorites]