seank941

I would be ok with 12-18 months. These long waits aren't just annoying for the viewer, it actually hurts the show. Cast members age, especially younger ones. It's usually most obvious with adults playing high schoolers, but still. Trying to explain why Ms. Huang looks so much older just brings up another question to resolve.

This is a much better way of explaining what I meant by filler. That's often a problem with TV shows, but I'm pretty sure these writers have a finite plan here. So far I don't have a feeling that they are piling on mysteries. On the contrary, this episode they answered quite a few questions and I don't think they added any new ones. I don't think the writers are intentionally dragging the story along or that they don't have a plan, I think the problem is that with the format of streaming shows it's hard to keep the viewer's attention. It's hard to remember all the little details when you have to wait 3 years between seasons. Lost had 22 episodes in one year, the way things have gone it be 6 years before Severance reaches that mark. I think that all of this would be interesting to explore in season 3. Right now I want to learn about Cold Harbor, Gemma's situation, and Mark's reintegration. Other than last week's episode, we haven't been told or shown anything about the season's three main storylines. I guess we know that Cold Harbor is mysterious and important.

Unless we missed something really important, it seems like she's only known Mark since he Gemma died, and he isn't the most warm person in the world. If she does feel that way, it will be interesting to see what happens as Helena becomes a bigger part of Mark's life. I can't imagine we would have had the restaurant meeting if she wasn't going to become more involved. Given Cobel's hatred of Helena, it would be fun to see that dynamic play out.

Lumon has known this for years and hasn't cared. Even if Cobel is completely done with Kier and the Eagans, what's she going to do, file a lawsuit? It just seems too convenient that right when she goes to get her designs Mark finishes his reintegration and decides to call for help. Apart from that, I'm really confused by the timeline. If Cobel invented severance so long ago, why has it only been around for 12 years, were there earlier tests that failed? I don't want an entire episode answering these questions, but 5 min would be nice.

I'm expecting Helena to be more than just the next Lumon villain. She has to stay in Mark's orbit somehow, and Helly=good Helena=bad, seems too simplistic for this show. Mark having some kind of positive relationship with Helena (friendship or more) actually makes the story more interesting to me, how will Cobel handle working with Mark if he is close to someone she hates. I do think it's important to remember that severance is worse than Lumon. Cobel might hate Lumon, but how will she feel about destroying her life's work? On an unrelated note: Who will move into Mark's basement next season?

This show is starting to remind me of Westworld, and not in a good way. It's not that messy, but I could see that happening if the writers aren't careful. I really enjoy sci-fi shows with lots of world building, but the pacing feels all over the place. The problem with streaming shows as a whole, is that when we have to wait 3 years for 8-10 episodes I'm expecting them to be perfect. This felt like a filler episode. That is fine when there are 16 episodes, but not 10. I found the episode interesting, but it felt like 20 min of content stretched into a 40 min episode. It might have helped if we had seen Cobel, but she vanished for most of the season and I have no idea why she suddenly decided to turn on Lumon. Maybe if this story was around episode 2 when she was still so angry at Lumon that would have been better.

I have to agree with this. If Lumon was kidnapping people then why go to so much trouble with Gemma? It would be much easier to kidnap single, unattached people. I'm guessing she was promised a child of some sort when she was finished, and now she's regretting her decision. Mark said they decided not to adopt, and in hindsight, maybe that's what she would rather have done.

I hope the show doesn't decide to have multiple innies for every character. I want to like that idea, but I worry it would take away from the characters as we know them. I understand the idea of separating humans into the four tempers of Kier, but if that's something the show wanted to sell me on, I would've needed to see it already. Something I really like about this show is that Lumon isn't omnipotent. I like that the one variable they never account for is humanity in the innies. I can't even get on board with the idea that love is stronger than severance, because they made such a point of Mark S. and Ms. Casey not recognizing each other. I am a little curious why none of Gemma's innies ever tried to fight back. Helly might be extreme, but every member of MDR showed at least a small rebellious side.

I know this episode was about Gemma, but there have to other people down there too, right? The experiments are almost useless if you only have one test subject. I guess they could test people one at a time, but they seem to be in a hurry. This sort of brings up another question I was thinking of: are there any other companies with severance type of projects? I can't imagine other companies not trying to capitalize on such a profitable technology.

I don't know how the Severance legal system works, I'm just assuming they have slightly different laws based on things like the OTC. Either way, there are legal ways to harm outie Gemma as well. Mark definitely should've been fired by now, and I'm assuming they get some housing benefits as Lumon employees. To be clear, I absolutely believe that innies are separate people. However if you are the type of person that doesn't, who cares about them? Seeing Gemma's experiences, it actually brings up some new questions about the innie personality. If you only use your innie to go to the dentist or a few unpleasant tasks, what are they actually like? The MDR team works 8 hours a day for almost the entire year, and they are still basically teenagers. How long would it take for a normal person's innie to even become a child? I'm also curious how the chip would work in a normal person. I actually like going to the dentist, and sometimes you need to answer questions while you are in the chair. I also know people who enjoy filling out Christmas cards, and corresponding with relatives, even if they are thank you cards. Are there settings for the severance chips?

As the audience it seems obvious to us because we follow the innies everyday, however in the world of the show it seems most people are like Helena. They either don't consider innies to be people, or they don't really think about it. So far severance has been completely voluntary, and Lumon is just product testing. Most companies have classified projects and perform confidential testing. If you don't think innies are real, all an outie does is step in a room and step back out. We don't know what Gemma's contract looks like, but maybe it says she has to fulfill the maximum duration before she can quit. It's a bad deal, but since nobody seems to read their contracts it might be what she bargained for. All that said, I still think Lumon has a more nefarious agenda than just making money. Something has to keep the MDR characters together in the outie world and the severed floor.

I wonder how much Helena actually told the Lumon higher-ups about what she was doing with Mark at MDR. If she told them everything, it makes zero sense that they would want Helly down there instead of her. The "rescue Gemma" plan that she started with Mark is going to be chaos when they finally reach the hallway. Right now none of them know that the elevator will bring back their outie personalities. When they reach the bottom floor we'll have Mark (still Mark), Helena, and Dylan (confused, useless outie, with a wife and kids). How will Lumon explain that to everybody? At least undercover Helena could do something to sabotage the plan, even if it was just stay out of the elevator to avoid being a hostage. If they can rescue Gemma, how will she feel about Mark? Ever since she "died", he's basically become a different person, and that was before reintegration. Their relationship was stressed before her "death", and now he has sort of moved on. We don't really know how much of his relationship with Helly is still left, but judging by his reaction to Helena last week, and other innie/outie relationships on the show, those feelings won't just disappear.

I was getting some major Vault-Tec vibes in this episode. I like that we finally got some answers about Ms. Casey and what's in the black hallway, but for some reason I'm still not warming up to the character. I don't know if it's the writing, the acting, or something else, but I'm worried this will become the Mark and Gemma vs Lumon story, and I can't really get there. Speaking of which, I missed the MDR team. I know they were not necessary for the episode, but I was hoping we could get a glimpse of Dylan in a wellness session or something. This was the first time I found myself actually disliking Devon. She's smart enough to know that calling Cobel is the worst thing she could do in the situation. She might as well call Drummond and have Mark locked up for the rest of his life. It felt like she was pissed about not being included in the plan, and wanted to take control of something. I was a little surprised that nobody came looking for Mark. The last time he called in sick it was a big deal, and that was before he was almost finished with a major project.

I don't think Gemma is completely innocent in everything. I'm not sure if she wanted a life like Ms. Casey, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that she chose to be severed. Maybe things weren't as great with Mark as he believes, or maybe she just wanted a new life. Turning her into another Lumon victim is kind of boring from a storytelling point of view, because Mark needs a reason to return to Lumon after she is "rescued". Lumon reminds me of Vault-Tec from Fallout. Even though they have a greater mission to accomplish, they enjoy running small scale human behavior experiments. I wouldn't be surprised if they just chose to take advantage of the opportunity.

I think Helena is meant to be the face of the company while the board actually runs things. Even in her conversation with Mark, she was constantly using the company message as a fallback when she started getting too comfortable with him. As soon as she gets severance passed nationwide, she will lose her importance to the board. We don't really know anything about the board, but I think it's safe to assume they are all Eagans (Helena can't be the only descendent of Kier). If the pregnancy theory is true (not sure how I feel about that), the restaurant scene makes more sense to me. Not only would Helena need to meet Mark secretly, she would probably want to get to know him in a "neutral" setting. Any official meeting might make him guarded, and she'd want to see him acting naturally. Any relationship with outie Mark would have to move fast because the alternatives would be a P.R. nightmare. Sleeping with a lower level employee looks bad, but sleeping with an innie would probably kill the severance bill.