Kirbyrun

This...bugs me, and I'll try to explain why... As someone who works in entertainment (not Hollywood, but Hollywood adjacent), one problem I see all the time is that new people are made to run through a ridiculous gauntlet to prove themselves. While people with a string of failures behind them still get gigs because, well, they're known. Check out the writing credits of movies some time. You'll see a LOT of the same names popping up. Art, culture, entertainment...these things all need regular infusions of new blood, and Hollywood, video games, publishing -- these are all really, really bad at finding and -- more importantly -- NURTURING new talent. Maybe, just maybe, Dan Erickson is an immensely talented person who never got a break and then Ben Stiller decided to take a risk and is reaping the rewards. But to say, "He's never done anything before, so I don't believe he can do anything now" is, in my view, blinkered and, well, sort of insulting.

IMHO, Milchick is there to show us that corporate dickery hurts middle management, too. At some point, Seth is going to have to decide if he sides with his rich, powerful bosses...or the proles he's been assigned to lord his (borrowed) power over. I'm actually pleased that this season didn't end with him throwing off the yoke of his overlords and joining Our Heroes. He did some terrible things to Mark and the others, and I'm not ready for a redemption arc for him.

That is true, but it has no bearing on the original issue/question, which is whether or not Mark Scout did or could know that his innie was romantically entangled. Mark Scout only knows what Milchick told him, which is that his innie had found love.

I can't go back and check right now, but I'm 99% sure that early in the season, Milchick told outie Mark that his innie had found love, or words to that effect.

Never mind.

I noticed he was wearing his leather bike jacket. I bet he was just about to go home when he got the call and was like, “Goddamnit, I just want to go home and get in the bath!”

As I recall, Helly timed it so that her body fell as the elevator rose, so Helena woke up to her own hanging. And in the season one finale, Jame asks Helly “Are you still in pain?” And then says, “I cried in my bed when they told me what she tried to do to you.” So I feel pretty confident that Helena is quite aware of Helly’s attempted murder/suicide.

I think the suicide attempt and subsequent hospital stay clued Helena in!

I watched Lost from the very beginning! Binged the first season in two days so that I could start Season 2 the day it dropped! LOL I do think, though, that Lost Syndrome is a thing. It seems like any time a show has a deep mystery, people start worrying that it's going to be just like Lost. In the case of Severance, we've had a total of 15 episodes so far. Not even the first season of Lost! I'm willing to give them a little more time! I understand your worries and your fears. But I think the difference (and I have no proof for this, just my gut as a storyteller) is that Severance has an ending they want to reach. Lost didn't. Lost had a DIRECTION to go in, but they kept pushing it out further and further because, well, they had to do so many episodes and ABC liked money, etc. Apple let Ted Lasso end at the third season. (Yes, it's coming back, but that's not the same thing.) I think they'll let Severance end when it should, without stretching it out for the money. After all, if they give Erickson and Stiller some grace on this show, who knows what else they'll make for them? In short: I trust the driver on this ride, and I'm willing to settle back and watch the scenery he wants to show me.

All due respect, it's your opinion that those are the questions that matter. Some of them I agree with you -- they matter very much and I am eager for the answers, but I will take them in time. Others, I think fall into the category of "nice to know," but I won't be upset if I never find out. I think the show is doing an astonishingly good job of doling out information and balancing that with showing us new facets of the world. YMM(and clearly does)V.

I had the same thought!

Thank you kindly. I deleted because I realized there was really no point. I agree with what you said, and I particularly like your "listening to a picture book as an audiobook" metaphor.

Never mind.

Love this idea! Weird and surreal and bizarre and perfect! (And it might be more utilitarian than Mark's "burn something into your retinas" scheme, though not more precise!)

Yes! Thank you for putting into words what I was thinking, but couldn't frame at the moment. Art is about choices. Some of those choices may be or seem frivolous, but depending on where they lead, they can be just as compelling as the ones that are plotted out meticulously. I can't begin to count the times I've thought, "Let's see where this takes me..." only to have that moment of whim turn out to be an important fulcrum in the story! ETA: Also, it's perilous at best to hold the showrunners to the specifics of their comments. Depending on the context, it could be something like, "I thought this would be fun," and then he didn't explain WHY it would be fun, or what that fun would mean for the story. This is one reason why I dislike behind-the-scenes commentary while a show is running -- it's too easy to get caught up in parsing the words and miss the meaning/potential.