Severance - Season 1

[overtherainbow]

Wow, the plot is really thickening. The Dylan moment and the lullaby were especially creepy. Lumen becomes more culty with every episode.

I don't get the sudden switch to confiscate the card off of Dylan though. Isn't severance about keeping their innies and outies separate? Wouldn't that completely change things/cause a distraction since he now knows his outie has a kid and might get even more curious? If they already keep tabs on them it seems like it would be easier to just sneak in his house and nab it but I guess whatever the card was is so "top secret" that they were left with no choice. The code detectors don't catch everything, apparently. 

I'm now convinced Cobel collects the DNA of the babies to use for whatever Lumen is doing. Maybe they're cloning/engineering people and experimenting on them like the hatchery and conditioning center in brave new world? Whatever they're doing must be pretty wild.

[arc]

Cobel can't be serious about being the new baby's nanny*, can she? She already has a day job, at Lumon. I briefly wondered if she has a clone somehow, but then again Graner came to Selvig's house and continued the same conversation they had earlier, about who helped Petey reintegrate.
 

* I know Alexa said lactation consultant, but the way Selvig and Ricken talked about it, it seemed more like an ongoing position. Ricken did say they were considering multiple candidates.

[Accidental Martyr]

4 hours ago, overtherainbow said:

 

I don't get the sudden switch to confiscate the card off of Dylan though. Isn't severance about keeping their innies and outies separate? Wouldn't that completely change things/cause a distraction since he now knows his outie has a kid and might get even more curious? If they already keep tabs on them it seems like it would be easier to just sneak in his house and nab it but I guess whatever the card was is so "top secret" that they were left with no choice. The code detectors don't catch everything, apparently. 

Dylan said he left the card hidden in a bathroom at work.

[arc]

Which suggests that despite how incredibly evil Lumon is, they don’t have security cameras in the bathrooms.

… and that suggests that the code detectors really do “detect code”, or else anything written in the bathroom could be smuggled out relatively easily. The card has pictures but no text so it’s entirely possible that if the code detectors work as described, they wouldn’t have caught the card, hence why Milchick thought it was possible innie Dylan had smuggled it out of the severed floor.

That free ebook has some probably deliberately incorrect speculation about what MDR actually does, but it does go into how the innies are kinda like children, and by that lens, all the innies on this show make more sense. Helly’s a rebellious child. Dylan is motivated by the extrinsic rewards, and Irv by the intangible intrinsic rewards. And Mark is like a kid gradually learning there is no Tooth Fairy. Or that gold stars in class don’t mean a whole lot.

Also, Dylan’s theories about his outie are extremely what a twelve year old might think about his future adult self, and Irv’s flirtation with Burt is very childlike. This reading also makes Milchick and Cobel and Graner even more evil though.

[anniebird]

Everyone seems to know that Mrs. Selvig is Mark's neighbor which implies that she lives in Lumon housing and works for Lumon. So how does it makes sense that she would be looking for a job as a lactation consultant/baby nurse? I must have missed something.

[Kirbyrun]

16 hours ago, overtherainbow said:

I don't get the sudden switch to confiscate the card off of Dylan though. Isn't severance about keeping their innies and outies separate? Wouldn't that completely change things/cause a distraction since he now knows his outie has a kid and might get even more curious? If they already keep tabs on them it seems like it would be easier to just sneak in his house and nab it but I guess whatever the card was is so "top secret" that they were left with no choice. The code detectors don't catch everything, apparently. 

 

I think this whole sequence served to show how desperate Lumon (specifically Cobel) has become. She is TERRIFIED that the Board is going to learn about what's going on, especially Petey's reintegration. The fact that Milchik asked Dylan "Did someone pay you to take it?" indicates that they're worried there's an Innie/Outie communication going on. Because how could anyone pay Innie Dylan to do anything without going through his Outie?

Cobel projects icy calm, but she's scared shitless and the fact that she sic'd Milchik on Outie Dylan shows it.

Goddamn, I love this show!

[overtherainbow]

I have a feeling whoever (or whatever) "the board" is will be a big reveal

[LilaFowler]

Is Helly R. the mysterious Reghabi?

I'm also suspicious of the aptly-named Alexa. She's probably a spy for Lumon.

Edited March 19, 2022 by LilaFowler

[Enigma X]

I did not understand the scene with Dylan at his home. Does his outie know Milchick?

[Kirbyrun]

8 minutes ago, Enigma X said:

I did not understand the scene with Dylan at his home. Does his outie know Milchick?

In the second (I think?) episode, Mark calls in sick to track down Petey. The person he calls is Milchik. So I assume Milchick is the liaison to the outies. 

[MerBearStare]

1 hour ago, LilaFowler said:

Is Helly R. the mysterious Reghabi?

Someone in the comments of the Vulture recap also wondered this and I really like this theory. I think it makes sense given 1.) there are no coincidences on this show and 2.) it would explain why Helly R.'s outie is so adamant against her leaving, even after threatening to cut off her hand and trying to kill herself.

I haven't minded the slow burn quality of the show so far, but I'm glad the pace started to pick up this episode. I can't wait to see the last three episodes of the season. 

[arc]

1 hour ago, LilaFowler said:

Is Helly R. the mysterious Reghabi?

The dialogue suggests Graner and Cobel know who Reghabi is and that she's trying to avoid Lumon surveillance (has holed up in a university lab where the dean told campus security to look the other way). To me, that doesn't sound like she would walk back into the lion's den, nor that Cobel and Milchick would just let her.

 

[questionfear]

On 3/19/2022 at 11:18 AM, anniebird said:

Everyone seems to know that Mrs. Selvig is Mark's neighbor which implies that she lives in Lumon housing and works for Lumon. So how does it makes sense that she would be looking for a job as a lactation consultant/baby nurse? I must have missed something.

Mark says he lives in Lumen-owned housing, not that only Lumen employees live there. So it sounds like Lumen has multiple avenues of revenue, like real estate, and if you're an employee they'll subsidize your housing, but if you want to pay full price to live there because you're not an employee they'll happily rent/sell you a house.

[arc]

On production design for the show: https://www.vulture.com/article/severance-office-design-explained.html

[anniebird]

On 3/21/2022 at 10:24 AM, questionfear said:

Mark says he lives in Lumen-owned housing, not that only Lumen employees live there. So it sounds like Lumen has multiple avenues of revenue, like real estate, and if you're an employee they'll subsidize your housing, but if you want to pay full price to live there because you're not an employee they'll happily rent/sell you a house.

It looked to me like a community of look-alike houses so I assumed they were all owned by Lumon - that was just my assumption though - no one actually said that, so thanks for your take on it.

[juno]

This show has been great so far. Very much like Black Mirror. Adam Scott lured me in as I enjoy him in all his roles.

 

[TheWereCow]

Damn, Ms. Casey! And Dylan! And mystery university lady! I haven't enjoyed a show this much in a long while. 

[arc]

Damn, luckily for her Reghabi does not believe in that (very false but convenient for Hollywood) myth that knocking someone out is good enough. My vague understanding -- no lived experience -- is that a blow like her first might well knock someone out but they'll probably come to pretty quickly. You see it in boxing and MMA, where a KO doesn't last for hours. And given what she knows about Lumon and how ruthless we've seen Cobel be, this probably was life and death for her. And I'm glad that she didn't go out like Petey, someone who dies right after giving Mark another piece of the puzzle.

So earlier I said Cobel's new fake job wouldn't work because she has to be on the severed floor in the daytime, but I guess it turns out she can decide to manage an off-site project personally whenever she wants. Her tossing that creepy baby doll aside as soon as she finished her demonstration was funny though.

The dance party! Holy hell I am shocked at the previously hidden expressive power of the lighting system in the MDR room. I assumed it was all hellacious fluorescent lighting.

Wow, Dylan snapped hard. And Dylan really broke Milchick's image of implacable menace when he couldn't fight Dylan off by himself, both by biting him and when Dylan threatened him with exposing him to Cobel.

Stiller's really showing off some moves here in all the different ways he's used to shoot traversing the identical corridors of the severed floor.

I never would have thought the super-devout cultist Irv would snap at Milchick like that.

WOW WOW WOW. It was obvious from the moment that they delayed showing the photo of Gemma that it was gonna be a reveal of some kind, but I still didn't think it would be anyone. The obvious potential choices were Alexa (impossible, someone would have remarked on the resemblance), Helly R (impossible, Mark saw her on the outside in the parking lot in the first episode), Devon (super impossible, c'mon), Selvig (nearly as impossible as Devon), Ms Casey (cause she's not dead, unlike Gemma), and that's about it for female characters. But I just fully believed they weren't gonna do whatever it is that they did that un-dead'ed Gemma.

I am surprised they didn't enact the plan to wake the MDR people up this night. Surely the Graner keycard will be deactivated soon, right?

ETA: there’s a lot of media about the show — interviews with the creator, with the actors, etc. But right now I’m watching a 50 minute podcast interview with the cinematographer and it’s fascinating. Lots of technical cinematography talk, but still very interesting.

Edited March 25, 2022 by arc

[Enigma X]

I will not be surprised if one of the MDR personnel is on the board. My vote is for Helly R.

[oldCJ]

Anyone else surprise themselves with how loud they yelled at the screen at the big reveal with the photo? To quote me earlier: “WHAT?!!?!?!!” Cannot wait for next week. 

[gibasi]

17 minutes ago, oldCJ said:

Anyone else surprise themselves with how loud they yelled at the screen at the big reveal with the photo? To quote me earlier: “WHAT?!!?!?!!” Cannot wait for next week. 

Yes! The whole episode blew me away. It will be a long week 

[Ms Lark]

18 hours ago, Enigma X said:

I will not be surprised if one of the MDR personnel is on the board. My vote is for Helly R.

Interesting. I think she's an Eagan or a Kier (if he actually had progeny) descendant.

This series is one mindfuck after another! I love it.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Ms Lark
Kier is Eagan's first name. D'oh.

[arc]

2 hours ago, Ms Lark said:

I think she's an Eagan or a Kier (if he actually had progeny) descendant.

The company founder was Kier Eagan. That is, “Kier” was his first name.

[xaxat]

"Let's burn this place to the ground." 

I have no idea where we are headed, but this felt like a fantastic setup for the conclusion. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate it. We learned so much about the dual nature of Innies and Outies. I loved watching Milchik an and Cobel struggle to maintain power (Dylan threatening to expose Milchick and Cobel speaking "directly" to the Board.)

I normally don't read recap articles, but this week I did because I had to confirm I saw what I thought I saw at the end. 

 

[overtherainbow]

So the 'refiners' are about to stage a full on mutiny? Even Irving isn't buying it any longer.

This is really heating up now. Ms. Casey I really wasn't expecting at all. How were they able to convince Mark his wife died though? Fake body? I wouldn't put it past Lumen. 

2 episodes left and we still know nothing about what they actually do.

[Ceindreadh]

8 hours ago, Enigma X said:

I will not be surprised if one of the MDR personnel is on the board. My vote is for Helly R.

I seem to remember a scene with Helly's outie and Milchik where he made some comment to her about how great the work she was doing was.  And I got the impression that he was talking about her work on the outside and that her job at Lumen was more than just a job.  So maybe she is a board member or something like that.

Loved their choice of music for the retirement party with all the lyrics about 'remembering'. 

[arc]

1 minute ago, Ceindreadh said:

And I got the impression that he was talking about her work on the outside

I could be wrong, but my interpretation of it was just that he was supportive and encouraging of her decision to undergo severance.

It’s been clear from the start that Milchick and Cobel aren’t severed (or my pet theory, that they are, but are full-time innies), but it was still surprising to see Irv fully confirm it. The severance procedure barely made sense as a security measure, but it makes so much less sense that management doesn’t have to undergo severance and that the MDR drones know this and accept it.

[steff13]

Okay I just finished today's episode and I don't know anybody else who watches the show except a friend who's two episodes behind me.  Did I see what I thought I saw at the very end of the episode?  

[Lokiberry]

16 minutes ago, steff13 said:

Okay I just finished today's episode and I don't know anybody else who watches the show except a friend who's two episodes behind me.  Did I see what I thought I saw at the very end of the episode?  

Yes, you did. I kinda figured something like this was going to happen when  Sobell started asking all the questions about if Mark had ever seen his "dead" wife. How does it work though? Was she in on faking her own death, or has another severed personality been created and living as an outie? 

Do you remember when Sobell stole Mark's wife candle out of his basement and it turned up in his therapy session with Miss Casey? Sobell is a complete psycho creeper. 

[MargeGunderson]

First, Milchick has some moves. Second, damn, Dylan! And, damn, Irv! And now I’m completely confused about Gemma/Ms. Casey ( @steff13, yes, if that’s what you saw)

Edited March 26, 2022 by MargeGunderson

[steff13]

So are we to assume then that she is also not severed?  Clearly her death was faked so I have to assume that she was complicit in that.  And it has a whole another layer to Gemma's candle ending up being in her office. 

Edited March 26, 2022 by steff13

[steff13]

It almost feels like Sobell wants them to figure it out.  Like on some level she's not fully on board with the severance process.  Or she's just enjoying toying with him because she's a psychopath.  

[arc]

10 minutes ago, steff13 said:

So are we to assume then that she is also not severed?

Cobel said Ms Casey is a "part time innie", suggesting that she is severed but works less than 40 hours a week. Also, Ms Casey is unemotional to the point of being a robot. And she conducted that wellness session with her not-actually-a-widower husband, plus there was that weird little moment in the tiny hallway to the break room. I think her Gemma memories aren't available to Ms Casey.

[Bluesky]

55 minutes ago, steff13 said:

Okay I just finished today's episode and I don't know anybody else who watches the show except a friend who's two episodes behind me.  Did I see what I thought I saw at the very end of the episode?  

There is a lot of work and employees involved in closely watching four employees who are looking for scary numbers on a computer.   

Also Mark’s wife is way out of his league   Wondering if they did that on purpose   

 

[overtherainbow]

1 hour ago, arc said:

Cobel said Ms Casey is a "part time innie", suggesting that she is severed but works less than 40 hours a week. Also, Ms Casey is unemotional to the point of being a robot. And she conducted that wellness session with her not-actually-a-widower husband, plus there was that weird little moment in the tiny hallway to the break room. I think her Gemma memories aren't available to Ms Casey.

Petey said there are workers who aren't allowed to leave. Maybe she's one of those, despite being a "part time innie" and that's why she's so robotic. They basically put her to sleep or something until they need her. I don't think they want to risk the chance of his outie seeing her and realizing what happened. That or Gemma is in on it too...which, really anything at this point is a possibility. 

[arc]

link dump!

Vulture: Behind the scenes of the dance party

Vulture: on the office design (posted this one earlier)

Metropolis Mag: on the set and production design

Vulture: interview with Adam Scott

TV Fanatic: interview with Jen Tullock (Devon)

EW: interview with Patricia Arquette

Looper: interview with Patricia Arquette

the official social media account posted this musical analysis of the Kier song

Seattle Times: interview with creator Dan Erickson

IGN: interview with Dan Erickson

Lumon has a LinkedIn page, with several videos hosted by Dylan.

[rlc]

This show is so good! It's a shame so many people probably gave up on it after one episode because they assumed it would be a Ben Stiller comedy. Cannot wait for next Friday. Just checked IMDB, and it looks like there will be a second season. I hope they tie up enough loose ends in the first season to not be completely frustrating.

[Kirbyrun]

Interview with creator Dan Erickson (podcast)

[oldCJ]

On 3/26/2022 at 4:12 AM, arc said:

Cobel said Ms Casey is a "part time innie", suggesting that she is severed but works less than 40 hours a week

I took that to mean that full-time innies are people who are permanently severed from their outie personality. Like Cobel maybe. She certainly has drunk the Lumon kool-aid. It would he interesting if that’s because she is always her innie.  

[TheWereCow]

Poor Ms. Casey! "In my 107 hours of life" was heartbreaking. And Irving .... oh, Irv, why have you been to the Testing Floor??? And how many times does someone have to go to the Testing Floor for it to stick in your subconscious?

That cut scene with Kier flapping off into the sunset was wild. Creepy AF, but hilarious in a vintage Oregon Trail Apple IIGS way. Took me right back to second grade.

Count me right out on the waffle party and the "Founder's Bed." Hardest of hard passes on that bizarre AF "Eyes Wide Shut"/"Punch and Judy" orgy-tableau.

AHHHHH! My heart rate went up during that last scene.

Spoiler

Helly R. is at that gala, isn't she? Maybe she is a Descendant of Kier! My guess is that Helly's a member of the board (that's why Cobel was fired, for almost losing a board member and then covering it up -- I think she and Milchick know exactly who Helly is) and she volunteered to be part of an elaborate test of the severance process. She's going to wake up at the gala, surrounded by people praising her for whatever she's up to.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by TheWereCow

[MerBearStare]

@TheWereCow there's a pretty active subreddit about this show and a popular theory for the last few weeks is that

Spoiler

Helly is an Eagan. Judging by how she's dressed and that she's sipping champagne, I think that's definitely true. They also pointed out that when Helly started, Ms. Cobel said it was an honor getting to work with her. I wonder how it's going to be for her at work the next day. Like "Hey guys, I'm part of the creepy family running this evil company. My bad."

Ms. Casey is such a tragic character. I hope Mark is able to rescue her from the testing floor somehow. 

I want my next office party to have a deviled egg bar.

[TheWereCow]

@MerBearStare, off to trip down the Reddit hole. Thanks for the tip! 😀

[arc]

Were Irv's black goo visions just black paint? Oh snap, he was painting the bad elevator!!!!

3 hours ago, TheWereCow said:

oh, Irv, why have you been to the Testing Floor???

I dunno if he has been to the testing floor himself. He routinely paints the red down arrow. But Ms Casey thinks the elevator will take her up to the real world, so that suggests that people who ride the down elevator don't even know it goes down: they've never felt the downward movement nor seen the red down arrow.

I've often thought the waffle party thing was silly since presumably everyone in the department would get waffles, but now it sounds like it's a party for one. So this must have been why the MDR team didn't just enact their "let the innies outside" plan right away. I still think it's a massive narrative cheat that Graner's card wasn't deactivated as soon as the company learned he was dead.

I can't believe those monitors have been able to do color the whole time and MDR gets stuck with a monochrome display except for when they 100% complete a file. I guess it's kind of like the ridiculous expense to have party lighting in the MDR room.

Milchick's first name is "Seth", which means he isn't the (ebook spoilers)

 

Jim Milchick from the ebook who took the outie's email account of how she managed to secretly communicate with her innie.

Wow, they're retiring Ms Casey? Wow, she's only been an innie for a cumulative 107 hours??? 

How does Ms Cobel's office have so much natural light when the severed floor is underground? Light well? Artificial daylight?

Dammit, I was kinda anti-rooting for a Helly-Mark 'ship and then just as the door was closing and I thought we were going to safely pass it by, she ducked out to kiss him. I'm not even sure why I don't like it, aside from Gemma being alive, but I guess that's a good enough reason by itself.

… I don't think I've ever seen a more sinister plate of waffles. … wait, now that the weird masked sexy dancing is happening I guess the scary waffles were by far the least weird part of the event.

Edited April 1, 2022 by arc

[arc]

I went back to episode 3's field trip to the Perpetuity Wing. Kier Eagan talks about the four tempers: "woe, frolic, dread, malice", which are exactly the four types of numbers MDR is tasked to discern, according to the free ebook: "Wo (melancholy or despair), FC (joy, gaiety, or ecstasy), DR (fear, anxiety, apprehension), MA (rage, desire to do harm)". Kier says the four tempers comprise human souls. "Each man's character is defined by the precise ratio that resides in him."

The day to day work of macrodata refinement is to find the numbers that elicit those four emotions, then evenly distribute them into the five bins at the bottom.

[oldCJ]

Why do I have to wait another week?! That was one heck of a cliffhanger. 

Poor Ms Casey. I wonder how many times she’s been reprogrammed in the years since her “death.” What if the bride dancer at the waffle party was Ms Casey?

Did anyone recognize the voice on the phone call with the board?

[xaxat]

Suspenseful, sad, tense all at the same time. 

The acting on this show is uniformly great. Especially since the innie characters are so emotionally stunted. The Ms. Casey scenes were heartbreaking. I'm so conflicted. I want Mark and Ms. Casey to reunited, but Mark/Helly is pretty compelling as well.

The egg bar I could see as being a coveted prize, but the waffle party? Nope! That was creepy AF.

I never should have doubted Dylan's ability to get the job done. I also liked the delayed reveal that his prize was a photo of MDR.

[overtherainbow]

Okay, so what was with the goat head and the creepy dancing during Dylan's "waffle party" in that dark perpetuity wing? That was some seriously satanic Eyes Wide Shut shite. This show is...something. 

[arc]

8 minutes ago, overtherainbow said:

Okay, so what was with the goat head and the creepy dancing during Dylan's "waffle party" in that dark perpetuity wing? That was some seriously satanic Eyes Wide Shut shite. This show is...something. 

A Redditor pointed out that they finished their dance in the same pose of the four tempers being whipped by Kier in that painting Irv admired in wellness center. 

[Kiddvideo]

The worst thing about the waffle party wasn’t the masked dancers, but the cold waffles. There was a perfectly square pat of butter on top that hadn’t melted at all. Might as well gum a frozen Eggo.

[LeeDenny]

I hurled many expletives at the tv at the end. This will be a long week ahead.

This show is so good. I'm sure people are sick of me telling them to watch it.