"Severance" Thread ; "You ready to man the vat for ten hours?"

[an0maly]

I went back to pick up some stray observations from season one.

Burt had told Irv about tales of belly pouches, in MDR people, which seems another way to make them squeamish, from group to group, as with the mutual paintings of interoffice murder. When Cobel removed the chip from Petey's corpse, it was later discovered through that chip that he was fully reintegrated at death. His experiences to get there were a mix of present day surroundings and a big memory from being inside. Mark re-lives a face-to-face meeting with Ms Casey. Gemma has been sent to what Petey described as a place you don't ever get to leave. Outie Irv seems to know Lumon hallways. He may well have worked there something like Milchick (???).

In wellness session Irv is told his outie likes water (?), so here is the ultimate elevator music at the end credits signaling innie Irv's death:

 

[an0maly]

Good video on 2.05

 

[aGDevil2k]

Yeah I've been watching season 1 again too

Several little nuggets....


Now on tonight's episode I just think Milchick is going to go OFF and be a big part of destroying the company

 

[an0maly]

Yeah I've been watching season 1 again too

Several little nuggets....


Now on tonight's episode I just think Milchick is going to go OFF and be a big part of destroying the company

They really seem to be signaling that. He was really mad at his monthly review, and externalized that by getting in the face of Mark S and threatening to ruin his relationship with Helly. Helena is mad too--her wishes thwarted and dismissed. Cobel is way mad, but also a fanatic to Kier, and seems to care about Mark Scout, so she is just a huge wildcard.

 

[aGDevil2k]

Helena is freaking evil. And I guess they call her Hanna Casey?

Is there any way for the innie to survive and the outie to be shut off?

Burt is not who he says. Was he ever severed? He's been there 20 years.... And that's how he the about Irving at the house. Is he partners with Drummond? Is that how the guy was going thru Irvings things?

And also. GROW UP

 

[aGDevil2k]

I had a dream I was severed last night after watching it - I think the brain hole/scene made it stick. So I didn't sleep well at all

 

[an0maly]

To touch on nyc's concern above, I am letting everybody know that when I put in a new strange quote from the show in the thread title, that means we are discussing the new episode and people should enjoy each new SPOILER equally.
~~~

Oh my, as the late Dick Enberg would say. I did think this was a weaker episode in terms of moving the story, but maybe we really did need a breather of sorts.

So Mark S has made love to both Helena and Helly, and both of the latter we can say are truly smitten with Mark S. Mart Scott may have recognized Helly in some way at the restaurant, and maybe that is what sent him scooting back for more reintegration work (and now we see the new opening animation was quite literal in one scene). Helena seems of two minds now, and I don't mean Helly. Great, let's just keep the spliting going. She absolutely does not see Mark S as an animal, but if she lands Mark Scott that problem kind of... dies?

Now we also see that Ms Huang is definitely below Milchick in rank, and then wow, was she all uppity in the last episode, telling him he should not make innies feel like people or have a funeral. So that happened, and flipped roles. She depends on him to graduate (?) "Wintertide." I have questions. Milchick has a sculpture of the optical illusion duck-or-rabbit thing.

Mr. Frolic has a damaged thumb, when digging up Irv's paperwork espionage on Burt and Dylan. Ow.

Painting of a sad clown half in face make up in Burt's place.

 

[aGDevil2k]

On the last page Drummond viewed, there are underlined letters...looks like AEOAS? Or some could be double letters: LAENJOLAST?


Going back to season 1 and there are interesting things. Petey said some people never leave...and then on his map, he shows that there are houses where people live...on the severed floor

Irving and his black paint visions make me think he had some reintegration happening

 

[aGDevil2k]

Also - if they are severed how do they know anything? How do they know what coffee is, the sea is, numbers, work, etc etc?

 

[fourheels]

To touch on nyc's concern above, I am letting everybody know that when I put in a new strange quote from the show in the thread title, that means we are discussing the new episode and people should enjoy each new SPOILER equally.
~~~

Oh my, as the late Dick Enberg would say. I did think this was a weaker episode in terms of moving the story, but maybe we really did need a breather of sorts.

So Mark S has made love to both Helena and Helly, and both of the latter we can say are truly smitten with Mark S. Mart Scott may have recognized Helly in some way at the restaurant, and maybe that is what sent him scooting back for more reintegration work (and now we see the new opening animation was quite literal in one scene). Helena seems of two minds now, and I don't mean Helly. Great, let's just keep the spliting going. She absolutely does not see Mark S as an animal, but if she lands Mark Scott that problem kind of... dies?

Now we also see that Ms Huang is definitely below Milchick in rank, and then wow, was she all uppity in the last episode, telling him he should not make innies feel like people or have a funeral. So that happened, and flipped roles. She depends on him to graduate (?) "Wintertide." I have questions. Milchick has a sculpture of the optical illusion duck-or-rabbit thing.

Mr. Frolic has a damaged thumb, when digging up Irv's paperwork espionage on Burt and Dylan. Ow.

Painting of a sad clown half in face make up in Burt's place.

Was Burt in on the espionage? Luring Irv out of the house so Mr. Frolic could go snooping?

 

[nycfan]

Was Burt in on the espionage? Luring Irv out of the house so Mr. Frolic could go snooping?

It certainly appeared so. And Walter, I mean Fields, let slip.

But was Irv ever truly severed?

And why was Helena push Marc Outitie’s buttons? Doesn’t it seem like the entire “outside” is entirely about manipulating something to do with the MDR innies?

 

[aGDevil2k]

Was Burt in on the espionage? Luring Irv out of the house so Mr. Frolic could go snooping?

100%

Burt is a bad guy

 

[nycfan]

BTW, what was up with Milchick? He seems about to snap … but who is his grow up message really for (I get it was ostensibly a response to the “anonymous” complaint about using too many big words, but it seemed like there was some subtext intended)?

And the meeting between Mark and Helena seemed designed to push him to complete the reintegration process, which makes me suspect that the reintegration lady is also part of the Lumon plot rather than an insider gone rogue. But it was interesting to get confirmation that outtie Mark knows who Helena is (due to her relative fame as an Egan and head of his company).

 

[aGDevil2k]

BTW, what was up with Milchick? He seems about to snap … but who is his grow up message really for (I get it was ostensibly a response to the “anonymous” complaint about using too many big words, but it seemed like there was some subtext intended)?

And the meeting between Mark and Helena seemed designed to push him to complete the reintegration process, which makes me suspect that the reintegration lady is also part of the Lumon plot rather than an insider gone rogue. But it was interesting to get confirmation that outtie Mark knows who Helena is (due to her relative fame as an Egan and head of his company).

I think milkshake is seething at Huang, who clearly was behind the stupid complaints he got in the review

I think reghabi is legit trying to bring Lumon

 

[nycfan]

I think milkshake is seething at Huang, who clearly was behind the stupid complaints he got in the review

I think reghabi is legit trying to bring Lumon

I think his anger at Ms. Huang is the surface bit, but the real resentment is aimed at Lumon itself. And I couldn’t help but think that the grow up message was ultimately to himself, though hard to know what that means to him right now.

 

[Healing]

I think milkshake is seething at Huang, who clearly was behind the stupid complaints he got in the review

I think reghabi is legit trying to bring Lumon

He is seething but the “grow!” scene, IMO, was Milchick imploring himself to lean into his doubts about Lumon. It was a “Will, it’s not your fault” moment, except a character talking to himself.

 

[aGDevil2k]

He is seething but the “grow!” scene, IMO, was Milchick imploring himself to lean into his doubts about Lumon. It was a “Will, it’s not your fault” moment, except a character talking to himself.

Oh no I think that's clear... From last week to getting mad at Huang, he's growing in anti luminosity

 

[aGDevil2k]

Didn't know they did this

Lumon Industries | LinkedIn

Lumon Industries | 66,776 followers on LinkedIn. Giving employees the best work environment they’ll never know, with our patented and extremely safe Severance procedure. | Lumon is a fictitious company from the Apple Original Series, Severance, streaming on Apple TV+ Lumon Industries is a...

www.linkedin.com

 

[an0maly]

Oh no I think that's clear... From last week to getting mad at Huang, he's growing in anti luminosity

I can see this both ways. He could be drilling himself, like becoming his own drill Sergeant, focusing all the way down to just ritually chanting "grow," to cleanse his mind of the bad thoughts about not liking the paintings, or shaking off the desire of being humanistic with the MDR group and having that backfire. Fixing the paperclips on all those stacks seems to manifest pure OCD behavior in line with serving the cult of Lumon.

Or, the signals we saw before are a "growing" trend, and inside he is indeed rebelling. He had been given some freedom to get MDR to produce, and with his evaluation it's clear that has been removed. His building anger is carving "grow up" (which seems to be anger at Ms. Huang) down to "grow" repeated at himself in the mirror. Is the anger the seed of future sabatoge?

 

[an0maly]

Was Burt in on the espionage? Luring Irv out of the house so Mr. Frolic could go snooping?

It looks that way, and Mr. Frolic has keys to all severed employees. How much they monitor all of them is a huge issue and may be very inconsistent, as they never found Petey at Mark Scott's house. Nor have they found any of Reghabi's work with Mark Scout, while Ms. Cabel and Mr Frolic were on that trail after events with Petey and his demise. This could be a recent extra level concern with Irving as outie. He used his paintings (obvious knowledge inside the workings of Lumon) to try to blast through memory to his innie via subconscious and dreams, a variation on what Mark Scout tried with burning "who is alive?" into his vision.