diebartdie

So, we've seen the actual dark corridor leading to an elevator many times over the course of the 2 seasons. It seems to go to the testing floor but I am not sure about that. What do we really know about the testing floor? Well one thing we know is that severance seemingly creates a sort of dissociative identity disorder where most severed have a second identity (the "innie") that is basically identical to the first identity except simplified and more docile. However, it's still just one person. Some severed, like Gemma, have multiple different "innies". Gemma is grilled CONSTANTLY about any residual feeling, sensation, impressions or memories she may harbor after each severance. When we catch up with Gemma, we see al this and we also see her say "my mouth hurts" after the dental torment and she's holding her left hand in pain after the Xmas cards torment. She may not know exactly why she's feeling such physical pain, she is still FEELING it regardless. This repeated trauma will eventually cause a breach amongst a severed being tormented like that so this brings me to... Irving and his obsession with the black corridor and the black elevator door. Let me put this out there: I believe Irving was "reset" multiple times, I believe that is what happens behind that black elevator door. I think Dylan is going to be reset and I think this resetting, if done multiple times, causes trauma. The "outie" may not know exactly what the trauma is but trauma will wreak havoc if not addressed. So "outie" Irving, being an artist (sensitive), being a veteran (ptsd), this trauma pours out of him and onto black canvas after black canvas. Helena, for some weird reason, has an obsession with Mark Scout. I think she's like she is because of how she was raised. The Chinese restaurant scene didn't bother me as much as during ORTBO when she laughed HARD over that weird story Milcheck read to everyone about Dieter. Of course she was trying to act like what she reckoned Helly acts like but in that moment, that was full on Helena and she thought that story was absurd. If she is an Egan, daughter of the top dog Egan, how would that story be so silly to her? Because it was made up by Milcheck (or Frolic tattoo) as a way to strongly discourage the innnies from experimenting sexual in this novel environment or really ANY environment. I don't know, it was weird as hell to me.

I can only speak for myself but my dad died 3 days before my 30th birthday (that's the only way I know exactly when he died), my mom died 25 years later, a week before her birthday. Sometimes, out of the blue my heart will break because I miss them so much...because I miss my mom desperately, the pain can still sear me and she's been gone now for almost 5 years?!?!? FIVE?!?!? How can that be. See, that's how my grief over losing my mom gets me, Cobel's keening on her mom's deathbed made perfect sense to me, as well as her accepting some ether after waking up.

Your entire reply is beautiful, I apologize for snipping it so much...but I highlight this part because I just wanted to say, not all drug dealers / users relish squalor, violence and being mean. I've known more kind, caring, compassionate drug dealers than mean ones (although to be fair, the mean ones will just outright kill you so there's that). I think this is a very sad commentary on our society but in MANY instances, drug dealers are a communities one and only source for any sort of health care! That's sick, let's be real honest but for fuck's sake, our entire civilization seems to be deathly ill. If I had my way, it would not be like this but also, if I had my way, all drugs would be legal but clean, safe, well regulated with clean, comfortable drug houses where social workers and nurses would be there 24/7 to help people! Care for them! Sorry, this is a weird rant and I know people will be so mad. "My brother/mom/best friend/child died of a drug overdose! Your idea will KILL PEOPLE!!!" when the opposite is true. Hampton most likely looked around his community, saw all these people hopelessly addicted to ether and decided to CARE FOR THEM and yes, that includes some level of ether maintenance provisions. That one elderly lady, if she's been on ether for decades, the best thing for her is a regular low dose. William Burroughs was a heroin addict for his ENTIRE adult life, using it regularly and he lived to his 90's. It's about compassion and radical acceptance, not judgement and punishment.

So I was thinking about this from "Fear and loathing in Las Vegas" “The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station...This is the main advantage of ether: it makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel… total loss of all basic motor skills: Blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue – severance of all connection between the body and the brain. Which is interesting, because the brain continues to function more or less normally… you can actually watch yourself behaving in the terrible way, but you can’t control it...There is nothing worse than a man in the throws of an ether bender.” I don't understand how people are seeing this episode as "filler", it really explained the whole thing. I know people love to compare this show to "Lost" and I understand where they're coming from but Lost was a big box of nothing while this show is earnestly trying it's damndest to be an anti-caapitalist parable and I love it so much. EDIT BECAUSE I FORGOT MY ACTUAL REASON FOR POSTING (I am not on ether, I swear), check this headline out y'all: How Ether Went From a Recreational ‘Frolic’ Drug to the First Surgery Anesthetic

Mark was raped? Mark was manipulated for sure but I didn't see it like that at all, I saw it as Helly being sexually assaulted by a very clueless Mark AND raped by Helena by her manipulation of Mark. Helena is a pathetic ***. Burt is just over the top sinister, I do not understand why Irving would still be hot for him, outtie Burt is a devil, Innie Burt was a charming, soulful, sexy beast. According to the New Testament, there is only one unforgivable sin and that is to deny the Holy Spirit, perhaps that was Burt's Great Sin but I seriously doubt the show would go THAT esoteric.

helium-3 I think

And if Im remembering correctly, what Laszlo said was very wrong! It goes small intestine to large intestine, I think Laszlo said it the other way around.

Check the scene again, you'll see there were many bodies crammed in the big out-door doors. Watch the flash-back. The revolutionaries were jubilant, full of the knowledge that thy were right and righteous, they flew open those big doors and took off outside, more and more comrades right behind...and then, people started dropping fast, literally just dropping dead where they stood. Others saw this, panicked, turned to go back inside causing a jam up, they dropped and then there was a crowd stopping the doors from shutting. The visuals of all those skeletal bodies was probably an exaggeration but tv is a visual medium so it makes sense.

In today's world, religions of all stripes have gained terrifying power over people's lives. I can see how show runners will probably now be cutting storylines that show how awful religion is, how murderous, how ignorant, how craven, how cruel, how it props up authoritarians world wide including USA now and they will cower in fear. We should be so lucky to end up in silo's.

I honestly thought I ws the only person who did that kind of thing. "Oh everyone just LOVES Solas? Well I just HATE the big egg", that's me all day long and twice on Sunday.

So it was actually a contestant named Jessie. He was starving AND had not had any bowel movements when he decided to eat "cambium", the thin layer between the bark and the tree (if it was an animal, this would be the layer of fat between the skin and the muscle). After 2 or 3 days of eating this stuff, he was in even WORSE shape and had to tap.

Now THAT's how you end a fuckin show. I was just SOBBING. Beautiful, weird, amazing, pure art.

Wrong wrong wrong, it's coming back In October!!!

I don't think we're going to get a conclusion...

So, in addition to the Alone Australia (premiering tonight I believe), there is an Alone UK, set not in the UK, rather it's contestants from UK dropped in Canada on the Mackenzie River. Y'all.... Anyway, I watched the first 2 episodes on Daily motion.