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Nope. Too many layers.
"Severance" Thread ; "You ready to man the vat for ten hours?"
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I think so. The scene with Burt and Irving at the phone booth - was that asynchronous with the rest of the episode? I was falling asleep while watching, so maybe I missed something, but I thought it was possibly a much earlier scene and leads to an explanation for Irving’s shift, via his connection with Burt.
Milk and Cookies
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Allow me to propose a more extended and bizarre hypothesis:
The code they're working on is somehow connected to reconstructing Kier's brain/mind which will be inserted into Mark and Helena's baby allowing Kier to be born again.
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Yeah, that strikes as plausible given there’s a baby Kier crawling at the foot of Mark’s bed, in the opening.
aGDevil2k
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No because Irving said he was let go right? That they knew what his innie was up to
aGDevil2k
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aGDevil2k
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It's comparable to Lost, if you watched that, for complexity and wtf did I just see moments
fourheels
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Correct. Not a flashback.
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Yes maybe —
fourheels
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Seemed to be fighting back tears from her facial expression.
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FWIW, I said "nope" from a very bias POV. This show is full of easter eggs, and I very much enjoy tracking those, making predictions, as well as rewatching earlier references and visuals that portended later developments. This show has a dozen easter eggs in every episode, and I would feel like I was missing something if I was in a bleary state.
If you haven't ventured in yet, you might appreciate Slow Horses. It starts a bit rocky, but coalesces within 3 episodes. It has a formulaic rhythm but with above average acting and dialogue.
Milk and Cookies
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And who doesn't love a surly Gary Oldman
aGDevil2k
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From Screen Rant:
"Mark's final interaction with Reghabi in Severance season 2's episode 5 suggests that Lumon stole Gemma's dead body from the Morgue and found a way to revive her. The company might have done something similar to Ms. Huang after she died. If this is true, both Huang and Casey could be test subjects for Lumon's revival technology experiments."
If that's true, they could be all trying to revive Kier
"Mark's final interaction with Reghabi in Severance season 2's episode 5 suggests that Lumon stole Gemma's dead body from the Morgue and found a way to revive her. The company might have done something similar to Ms. Huang after she died. If this is true, both Huang and Casey could be test subjects for Lumon's revival technology experiments."
If that's true, they could be all trying to revive Kier
fourheels
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Full of Easter eggs is a understatement. There are intentionally placed, subtle details and clues everywhere.
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I’ve thought this a possibility, though it’s always seemed a bit too on the nose, vs some kind of larger commentary on AI, consciousness, corporate subjugation, code switching, dissociation as a survival mechanism, amongst others. If the end result is a revived Kier, in a standard biological manner, I imagine a high probability I’ll feel disappointed, as this show has delved into themes and symbolism that feel too meta and critical than mere revival. That said, there’s certainly a home run version of that outcome, too, particularly in the age of Thiel, Musk, Andressen, Brian Johnson, Zuckerberg, Sacks, etc.
an0maly
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I'm going to go back to the last episode to gain a footing on this new one.
The genius neurologist and psychotherapist, Oliver Sacks wrote one of the most astonishing books ever, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. In it was one case study of a man with brain damage such that, with utter tragedy, he only lived his life in about five minute segments. He only could retain memory of how to speak, and various other mundane things from the kind of deeper past we all share, but nothing else except within a few minutes window of time. In a real sense the man died every few minutes, as terrifying and brain boggling as that sounds. Now consider that the severed people in this show, when they are inies, have this kind of extremely limited life. It looked a lot to me like the rather scruffy and low-life people tending the goats may be just retained in Lumon as permanent inies, with only inside life and no outie life ever given back to them. While Lumon is evil enough to not tell them,were they homeless or drug addicted they might have even chosen the permanent changeover, forgetting all of their past.
Now if that is true all of us who watch the show would say the sad life outies died, or more aptly, were murdered by Lumen. That realization makes us realize that what happened to Irv, if we take it as shown and as poetically, grimly described by Milchick, innie Irv is executed. Milchick's words now establish this as a threat to curb bad behavior. Irv, facing his execution, shouts to Dylan to hang in there, which is courage to rebel against Lumon even though they hold the carrot of seeing his outside wife to keep him in line. Hang in there is a pointer to a hidden message, as Petey left for Mark S.
My last post talked of rebellion in all directions, and this new episode advances that too. Milchick's dislike of the goofy race mix paintings emerges even before disembarrassing, contrived dress down evaluation (“Contentions” -what?), which will double motivate him against both Lumon and the inies, as he gets right in the face of Mark S, with a nasty threat of turning innie Helly against him. That is not going to help Mark S love “the work” for Lumon even as he closes in on completion of the mysterious task. Helena likewise dislikes her criticism from what now seem to be superiors. Dad was already mad with her and now the giant bearded “security” guy now seems far higher up than mere tough guy security. He sat in the back while Helena, earlier at thesame table, had angered and critiqued Ms. Cobel.
A list; people angry and rebelling in some way: Petey/Pete (RIP); Helly: Mark S.; Irv (innie, RIP);Milchick (slightly but gathering some real momentum); Now maybe Natalie, who suddenly can't produce the massive fake corporate smile when Milchick asks if she got insulting paintings too?; Dylan, now motivated by Irv's execution; Helena—to what extent rebelling and where that goes, I have zero idea, but she hated criticism so much she externalized anger by calling the inies “animals,” and she does not think that with her intimate talk with Mark S.
Are the goats next to rebel against something?
Oh, and where oh where has Ms. Cobel, devout worshiper of Kier but now scared of Lumon, gone, and what is her plan?
The genius neurologist and psychotherapist, Oliver Sacks wrote one of the most astonishing books ever, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. In it was one case study of a man with brain damage such that, with utter tragedy, he only lived his life in about five minute segments. He only could retain memory of how to speak, and various other mundane things from the kind of deeper past we all share, but nothing else except within a few minutes window of time. In a real sense the man died every few minutes, as terrifying and brain boggling as that sounds. Now consider that the severed people in this show, when they are inies, have this kind of extremely limited life. It looked a lot to me like the rather scruffy and low-life people tending the goats may be just retained in Lumon as permanent inies, with only inside life and no outie life ever given back to them. While Lumon is evil enough to not tell them,were they homeless or drug addicted they might have even chosen the permanent changeover, forgetting all of their past.
Now if that is true all of us who watch the show would say the sad life outies died, or more aptly, were murdered by Lumen. That realization makes us realize that what happened to Irv, if we take it as shown and as poetically, grimly described by Milchick, innie Irv is executed. Milchick's words now establish this as a threat to curb bad behavior. Irv, facing his execution, shouts to Dylan to hang in there, which is courage to rebel against Lumon even though they hold the carrot of seeing his outside wife to keep him in line. Hang in there is a pointer to a hidden message, as Petey left for Mark S.
My last post talked of rebellion in all directions, and this new episode advances that too. Milchick's dislike of the goofy race mix paintings emerges even before disembarrassing, contrived dress down evaluation (“Contentions” -what?), which will double motivate him against both Lumon and the inies, as he gets right in the face of Mark S, with a nasty threat of turning innie Helly against him. That is not going to help Mark S love “the work” for Lumon even as he closes in on completion of the mysterious task. Helena likewise dislikes her criticism from what now seem to be superiors. Dad was already mad with her and now the giant bearded “security” guy now seems far higher up than mere tough guy security. He sat in the back while Helena, earlier at thesame table, had angered and critiqued Ms. Cobel.
A list; people angry and rebelling in some way: Petey/Pete (RIP); Helly: Mark S.; Irv (innie, RIP);Milchick (slightly but gathering some real momentum); Now maybe Natalie, who suddenly can't produce the massive fake corporate smile when Milchick asks if she got insulting paintings too?; Dylan, now motivated by Irv's execution; Helena—to what extent rebelling and where that goes, I have zero idea, but she hated criticism so much she externalized anger by calling the inies “animals,” and she does not think that with her intimate talk with Mark S.
Are the goats next to rebel against something?
Oh, and where oh where has Ms. Cobel, devout worshiper of Kier but now scared of Lumon, gone, and what is her plan?
Rock, If you are going for mindless entertainment in the hard to focus haze, I’m a big fan of the Voice or basically any kind of light hearted song or dance show. When I’m getting smush at work, I’ll watch those as a nice way to switch the mind off and just kind of watch something generally positive.