Severance - Season 1

[arc]

tangential architectural stuff: Bell Labs Holmdel, the real-life building that is supposedly the Lumon building, was abandoned by 2007 after over forty years as an office and lab facility for Bell Labs. It was maintained as a sort of ghost building for about seven years before being redeveloped into a mixed-use building. It is 2M square feet, which if it was purely an office building, and presumably without the miles of underground tunnels Lumon has, would be enough for 16K workers, though presumably lab workers need more floor space per worker. And the parking look looks to have maybe ~4K or so spaces. 

Also, it doesn't only serve as the building exteriors. The lobby scenes and Helly walking to get her severance surgery were also shot inside the building.

[CarpeFelis]

19 hours ago, arc said:

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.

Which leads me to wonder: there are 4 emotions but 5 bins. What the heck goes in bin 5?

Edited April 2, 2022 by CarpeFelis

[arc]

10 minutes ago, CarpeFelis said:

Which leads me to wonder: there are 4 emotions but 5 bins. What the heck goes in bin 5?

The bins aren't one per temper. Instead, they sort an equal number of woe (and frolic, dread, and malice) into each bin.

Which still doesn't fully make sense. Kier said a person's soul or character is defined by their (presumably unique) ratios of the four tempers, so how could there be an equal number to distribute? I guess this is where it seems like the files might be named for places rather than people, and they sort the "tempers" of an entire place's souls into five bins. And Helly's 100% completion still left a bunch of numbers on the screen.

[Kirbyrun]

19 hours ago, xaxat said:

I also liked the delayed reveal that his prize was a photo of MDR.

I was prepared for his prize to be something that would help him execute the Overtime Contingency — like, I dunno, a backscratcher? But this was super sweet. 

[Johnny Dollar]

It appears that Helly’s outie was enjoying herself at the Friends of Lumon cocktail party. I wonder how deeply involved in the company she is. No wonder her outie was such a meanie. It should be interesting when her innie wakes up in the middle of all the festivities.

The weird mask dance reminded me of the even weirder scene in Squid Game.

I assume Ms Cobel will join our fearless foursome to bring down Lumon in S2. 

[Sundazed]

This article explains what was really supposed to happen at Dylan's waffle party.  Glad we didn't have to see what was intended!

https://variety.com/2022/tv/features/severance-waffle-party-sex-scene-explained-dylan-kier-eagan-1235212918/#

[MagicCat]

3 hours ago, Kirbyrun said:

I was prepared for his prize to be something that would help him execute the Overtime Contingency — like, I dunno, a backscratcher? But this was super sweet. 

I was fully expecting it to be a selfie stick

[Kiddvideo]

5 hours ago, MagicCat said:

I was fully expecting it to be a selfie stick

I thought it’d be something he could use to knock Milchick over the head and kill him.

[xaxat]

On 4/1/2022 at 8:48 PM, Kiddvideo said:

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.

I like how the food at Lumon (like the building) is almost a separate character. It's all aggressively non-assertive. Melons, eggs, waffles. No Taco Tuesdays or pizza parties for MDR!

20 hours ago, arc said:

tangential architectural stuff: Bell Labs Holmdel,

I don't know the Holmdel site, but in my high school years I lived in an IBM company town. It's hard to explain, but the show has nailed the atmosphere of those towns (primarily in the northeast) forty plus years ago. Pre Silicon Valley when tech was more industrial than sexy. 

 

 

[TexasGal]

Man, I was thinking the waffle party is really boring after such a big deal having been made about it.  And then ohhhhhh…hard pass on the waffle party.

[MargeGunderson]

32 minutes ago, TexasGal said:

Man, I was thinking the waffle party is really boring after such a big deal having been made about it.  And then ohhhhhh…hard pass on the waffle party.

I was wondering why only one member of the department got the waffle party, but then it was clear. How in the world is that supposed to be a reward? Cold waffles, creepy dancers, and you know it wasn’t real maple syrup. 

[Pamela]

Season 2 is on the way.

[Kiddvideo]

15 hours ago, Pamela said:

Season 2 is on the way.

If this ends on a cliffhanger or a tease for S2, I’m canceling Apple+.

[Kirbyrun]

11 minutes ago, Kiddvideo said:

If this ends on a cliffhanger or a tease for S2, I’m canceling Apple+.

Oh, it absolutely will.

[CarpeFelis]

Just watched the finale. All I can say is WOW.

[Penman61]

OMG. I can't remember experiencing so many different kinds of suspense in a single episode. So many emotions. Bravo, TPTB.

(And smart of Apple to announce there will be a season 2 BEFORE the finale. Otherwise...)

[QQQQ]

I should not have watched the finale before bedtime. I'm a ball of tension!!

Great Fresh Air interview on 4/6 with Adam Scott.

[suzeecutie]

Nooooooooooo!

[whiporee]

Well, I'm glad there's a second season. 

[Kiddvideo]

Not one of them followed the plan: When you switched to your innie, find someone you think you can trust as soon as you can and tell them. Irv never even told anyone. No one! I can see why it took Helly so long to figure out who she was and what she was doing, but she just waited waited waited while the receptionist prattled on, knowing Cobel knew and then she got out 3 sentences. Mark at least got his story out, but even he didn’t give it urgency.

Meanwhile they know Dylan is working a system meant for two and that he could be discovered any moment and then it’d be all for naught.

Best part of the episode was Burt’s boyfriend.

And we still don’t know what data refiners do.

[chocolatine]

21 minutes ago, Kiddvideo said:

Not one of them followed the plan: When you switched to your innie, find someone you think you can trust as soon as you can and tell them. Irv never even told anyone. No one! I can see why it took Helly so long to figure out who she was and what she was doing, but she just waited waited waited while the receptionist prattled on, knowing Cobel knew and then she got out 3 sentences. Mark at least got his story out, but even he didn’t give it urgency.

I think they followed the plan as well as they could. Mark, once he figured out that Devin is his sister and that they are close, immediately tried to talk to her in private, but couldn't because of Ricken's reading. Irv was alone in his apartment so the first thing he did was search his belonging to figure out who he's close to. Once he found Burt's address, he headed over there straight away. Helly realized that she was surrounded by Lumon executives so it wasn't safe to tell any of them. She chose to tell the audience instead so that there would be a public record.

What I don't understand is how outie-Irv has the employee list, with some people's addresses added in handwriting, and a map annotated with those addresses? We know that the innies aren't able to smuggle any written material with them to the outside, and I doubt innie-Irv would have had access to these documents in the first place since he doesn't that information for his job. Also, outie-Irv knows what the dark testing floor corridor looks like because he keeps painting it over and over. Is it possible that he has at some point worked at Lumon in a non-severed capacity? Or maybe someone he loved was killed by Lumon, and he had been doing research on it before deciding to go "deep undercover" and get severed?

I admit that most of the season moved too slowly for me, but I did really enjoy the finale and am now looking forward to the second season.

[arc]

Wow. I normally take point-form notes as the episode goes, but I was too enthralled to do it this time, but here's some post-episode thoughts.

I knew that cliffhanger was coming from the moment Dylan's fingers started slipping on the switches, even before Milchick's arrival imposed a more imminent deadline on the OTC gambit. But I'm glad Mark got to see a picture of Gemma and that he partially communicated that to Devon.

Shouts to Milchick for booking it down the hallways. He looked extremely scary.

Cobel is seriously loyal even after the board fired her.

1 hour ago, Kiddvideo said:

Not one of them followed the plan: When you switched to your innie, find someone you think you can trust as soon as you can and tell them. Irv never even told anyone. No one! I can see why it took Helly so long to figure out who she was and what she was doing, but she just waited waited waited while the receptionist prattled on, knowing Cobel knew and then she got out 3 sentences. Mark at least got his story out, but even he didn’t give it urgency.

Just like last time down on the severed floor, Irv was too busy with love for anything else. I can certainly see given all the innies' experiences with resignation requests that they might not trust their outies, but Irv was in a safe place and should have written some notes for his outie.

Like @chocolatine said, a cavalcade of circumstances kept interrupting Mark. And Helly probably thought she'd have a little more time.

41 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

What I don't understand is how outie-Irv has the employee list, with some people's addresses added in handwriting, and a map annotated with those addresses? 

Combined with the newspaper clipping about a severed employee who got injured on the job, it seems like outie Irv had some grudge against Lumon, so that would also explain the list of severed employees. Which only emphasizes that Irv should have written some notes, since it seemed like his outie would not have been as opposed to freeing innies as, say, Helly's was. But again, he only had Burt in his mind.

[MerBearStare]

I definitely thought Irving's storyline this episode was the least compelling. Towards the end - after Cobel found out - I was fast forwarding through his scenes to see if Helly was going to be able to tell the truth about severance while she still had time and if Mark was going to see a picture of Gemma. Irving trying to find Burt just seemed inconsequential compared to the other two storylines. But on the other hand, Mark and Helly at least have someone to tell them, "Don't go back to work! You're in danger!" Burt and Dylan, if they even let him leave, don't have that, so I worry what's going to happen to them.

I didn't think about this before this episode, but it seems like who you are the first couple of days you're severed is who you are naturally, as in nature versus nurture. You're kind of a blank slate; you exist in a vacuum (though obviously your experiences at work would eventually shape your personality at work). Without the years of Eagan brainwashing - having to recite the nine principles every night - Helly is, it has to be said, defiant. It's ironic that the person on the team who hates severance the most is being used as propaganda for it.

I just realized I'm never going to be able to watch Clueless and hear "I'm outie" the same way again 😆

[arc]

2 minutes ago, MerBearStare said:

I just realized I'm never going to be able to watch Clueless and hear "I'm outie" the same way again 

They did mean “I’m outta here”, but it really is “I’m Audi”. Slang is fun!

[Ms Lark]

To be honest, it pretty much unfolded as I surmised, but still with plenty of surprises! Not disappointing at all.

Happily and sadly, we have to wait another year for more.

 

[bobbyjoe]

Quote

I definitely thought Irving's storyline this episode was the least compelling. Towards the end - after Cobel found out - I was fast forwarding through his scenes to see if Helly was going to be able to tell the truth about severance while she still had time and if Mark was going to see a picture of Gemma. Irving trying to find Burt just seemed inconsequential compared to the other two storylines.

But it turns out Irv, of all people, is the one on the outside who’s been doing the most investigation and research and obviously has an axe to grind against Lumon. He has several of our people mapped; he has those lists… And the revelation that Irv is apparently a decorated vet— I was fascinated with his story.  Not what I expected from him.  Maybe the reason he’s been the main one seeing the black goo visions inside is because his outie knows a lot more about the real danger Lumon poses.

On the same note, I hope Christopher Walken will be in season 2– when Irv shows up at his door and snaps back into his outie personality, maybe he'll draw outie Burt into helping investigate the conspiracy.  

[meira.hand]

When Mark called Mrs. Selvig "Ms. Cobel" it gave me such a fright, realizing he did not even realize he was giving himself up.
 

[Enigma X]

If outie Mark goes back to Lumon after his sister tells him what innie Mark said I will not care for it. I guess they have set up Mark's search for his wife. That may be his reason for returning to work. 

[sandwoman]

My Irving theory: 

His hidden stash of info makes it look like he's part of an outside organization working to take Lumon down. (Maybe working with the doctor who un-severed Petey.) I'll have to go back and see if Petey's name was on that list. The list he had of severed employees would not be something easily available. And it looked it wasn't only Burt's house identified on the map, but other severed workers as well.

This all makes me think that Irving's coffee fueled all night painting sessions are his attempts to communicate with his Innie. He's trying to stay up all right and get into his Innie's subconscious and tell him to go to the Testing Room. Or warn him about it? And he's somewhat successful due to Innie Irving's dozing and disturbing paint dreams. 

[Zmanda]

I don’t understand why Mark wasn’t more freaked out about what his evil, torturous boss was doing with his outie!  I guess he was just trying to figure out where he was and what he was doing. 
The whole episode was definitely a nail biter.  Wild to see how crazy and brainwashed outie Helly seemed to be, and her dad just creeped me right out!

My husband called it, he said the senators wife was definitely severed for her child’s birth.  Honestly, having gone through child birth myself, that’s the only way you could get me to do it again!  Only longer, through the recovery process too. 

[bobbyjoe]

Did anyone else hope that when Ms. Cobel started saying to Helly “I’m going to torture you all” she’d also add “and no more deviled egg parties for you!”

[CarpeFelis]

I was a little surprised that Helly didn’t look more horrified at the first glance at all those carefully curated shots of herself smiling and laughing down on the severed floor.

Knowing now who she really is (and I had suspected she would be someone high up in Lumon), it’s no surprise that her outie refused to let her resign or that such drastic measures were taken to keep her there on the severed floor. Gotta have that Eagan poster child! Obviously Helena knows Helly tried to kill herself, since her dad asked if she was still in any pain and commented on how awful it was that Helly had tried to do this terrible thing to her. And still she wouldn’t allow Helly to resign. So Helena is one stone cold bitch. But that wasn’t even the worst part.

The part that really freaked me out was a comment to her that soon everyone in the world would be severed (if her speech swayed enough people to change some law, I think?). World domination by the Eagans would be hell on earth. No wonder the writers gave her that name.

ETA: Was I imagining things, or was Burt’s outie’s partner played by John Noble?

Edited April 8, 2022 by CarpeFelis

[Ceindreadh]

On 3/25/2022 at 9:58 PM, Ceindreadh said:

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.

 

Giving myself a high five for (for once!) guessing something right!

Definitely one of the most thrilling season finales I've watched in a long time. 

[BaskingsharkGTX]

I took a screenshot of Irv's license plate. Along the bottom it looks like it says "Benedium Hominique".

[yourdreamer]

I feel like, based on what happened in the season finale, that each person in MDR is specifically chosen. Helly obviously because of her name. Irving I feel was Milchick or even Cobel or the security guy and then was severed and “demoted,” which is why his outie knows so much about the inside workings and the elevator. He ran it or had seen it as a nonsevered party. And Mark- who knows but they are really interested in him. From fake killing his wife to his boss living next door to being promoted over Irving, etc, he seems to be watched more closely. And Dylan - maybe we will find out more about him next season. I feel he’s the biggest question really. 

[LilaFowler]

Helly R. is Helena Eagan -- I love it! Poor woman quickly realized that she wasn't around anyone she could trust. Her father (Jame Eagan?) sounded like he was either on drugs or an android. He says he has a "revolving" coming up? WTF do we think that is? All those (fake) photos of Helly and Mark smiling at work, Lumon's propaganda machine is clearly up and running.

Come to think of it, Miss Casey's behavior is a lot like Jame Eagan's -- robotic. There's something off about both of them. I think they have been dead a while and both of them come from the testing floor. Poor Mark, I think he will lose Gemma twice.

Next season, I hope they reveal why Dylan decided to get severed in the first place. I see why the others did but he remains a mystery. I am also curious to see if Helly even returns to the severed floor. It seems like her purpose there (for Lumon's campaign) is over anyway.

I am loving Patty Arquette in this. She's so delightfully evil and there's an element of humor in it as well. I love the affect that Kobel puts on when she's pretending to be Selvig. Seeing her jump out of a moving car to hustle into the gala was so amusing.

Edited April 8, 2022 by LilaFowler

[BaskingsharkGTX]

2 minutes ago, LilaFowler said:

I am loving Patty Arquette in this. She's so delightfully evil and there's an element of humor in it as well. I love the affect that Kobel puts on when she's pretending to be Selvig. Seeing her jump out of a moving car to hustle into the gala was so amusing.

I was hoping we'd get a little more insight into why she decided to inveigle herself into Mark's sister's life and if there is a reason why she lives next door to him. 

[CarpeFelis]

36 minutes ago, yourdreamer said:

And Mark- who knows but they are really interested in him. From fake killing his wife to his boss living next door to being promoted over Irving, etc, he seems to be watched more closely.

Mark/Gemma/Ms. Casey seems to be a chicken/egg situation. Did Lumon go after Gemma to get to Mark, or is his becoming a Lumon employee merely an unanticipated consequence of what happened to her? It would be really satisfying poetic justice if it’s the latter and Lumon originally considered him to be a harmless nobody (outie Mark does come across sort of meek), yet he becomes instrumental in bringing down the company.

I wonder if Gemma is also the reason he’s so closely watched. The severance procedure means he has no conscious memory of her, but Lumon could be monitoring him to see if there’s some emotional component that leads him to recognize that there’s something familiar about her. I get the impression that the severed employees are really just lab rats Lumon is watching for side effects or to figure out the best ways of controlling them. The “work” they’re doing makes no sense, so maybe it’s just a way of obtaining them as test subjects and keeping them around. One thing Lumon might be concerned about is the possibility of the brain eventually rewiring itself to short-circuit the influence of the chip.

Edited April 8, 2022 by CarpeFelis
typo

[Silly Angel]

Well, I think I've yelled, "Oh, FUCK!" at the screen enough for one night. Time to watch something soothing, like Top Chef.

 

[arc]

I think the Helly twist was a bit of a cheat. I’ll concede that her last name (Riggs) was a deliberate lie meant as much for her new MDR colleagues as for the TV audience. But Milchick asking her on the outside if she knew Kier Eagan’s favorite breakfast? That’s something you ask of new employees/new cultists. His actual great-granddaughter already knows. (Esp given the video testimonial in ep 9 about how she had to learn the nine virtues and other cult teachings.) And the stairwell scene in ep 2 also feels a bit like a cheat: Milchick talks to outie Helly (Helena) as if she was a regular paycheck-cashing prole who needed the job, not a company scion doing this as a publicity stunt.

Also, I’d like to see how S2 explains Helena doing all this. She could have skipped severance altogether and just do a photoshoot pretending to work in MDR. Or even if actually going to the severed floor was necessary, I don’t get why she’d be actually severed instead of just faking it. Oooor even if actual severance was necessary somehow, why Helly was assigned real work and punished with real break room sessions, instead of being given the cushiest fake job possible. In that last scenario she’d be actually severed and would have no frame of reference for what’s a real job.

Edited April 9, 2022 by arc

[braziliangirl]

Thinking about possibilities for season 2 and:

Why would Lumon let them get back to work? (Even if they erased the innies memories) would it be worth the risk?

Why retire Burt but not Irv? (since he's clearly dozing off and needing constantly repair and breaking the rules)

I though it was interesting that Helena hid the suicide attempt from the board. Because I don't think Cobel could've hidden this without her. 

 

[overtherainbow]

I'm so annoyed it ended on such a cliffhanger and we'll probably have to wait a year for S2 but I'm glad they're continuing it.

[arc]

EW: Dan Erickson explains some stuff, and talks about s2 a little bit.

[Mr. R0b0t]

On 4/8/2022 at 9:49 AM, chocolatine said:

so the first thing he did was search his belonging to figure out who he's close to

Is that what he was doing though?  He was frustratingly not in a hurry and I cannot discern why he would assume he was close to Burt on the outside.  Look for a phone, try to find family, or something like that would seem the smart way to do it.  It seemed to me that he was on a different mission than the others and always has been; both inside and out apparently.

Loved the show and hope they can keep it up.  

Edited April 10, 2022 by Mr. R0b0t

[arc]

Rolling Stone: Ben Stiller talks about making season one: casting, acting choices, production design, and more.

NY Mag/Vulture: interview with Britt Lower

also, the Vulture interview links to a much older version of the pilot episode script. In this one, Mark is the newbie, not Helly. Lumon is still bonkers evil.

Edited April 10, 2022 by arc

[Accidental Martyr]

Cobel sure made a quick turnaround from destroying her shrine to trying to save the company/cult.

[Avabelle]

3 hours ago, Accidental Martyr said:

Cobel sure made a quick turnaround from destroying her shrine to trying to save the company/cult.

I found this so frustrating. The company had fired her without so much of a second thought. It was so annoying that she went running right to them with the information when she could have easily bought the others time. Annoying but not surprising.

What’s Cobels obsession with Mark? She’s not living beside and tracking the others. What is it about Mark?

Re Irv - I think had I been more invested in Burt and Irv I’d have cared more about his segment. I’m not interested in them in the slightest and so I found his time wasting really annoying. It was interesting to know that he seems to be investigating Lumon on the outside given how by the book Irv was in the first few episodes.

[Johnny Dollar]

After her reaction to getting fired, I was sure Cobel was going to help our Innies take down Lumon. But she must’ve drank (drunk?) all of the Kool-Aid because she’s in way deep.

Even though Irv’s storyline seems boring, I’m thinking there’s more heft to his background than the others. Maybe he volunteered to get severed to sabotage them from the inside?

Now we know why everyone at Lumon was so grateful and protective of Helly when she first showed up. Nothing will get you fired faster than allowing the boss’s daughter to kill herself.

I hope the producers were very confident that they were going to get a second season, because to end a “limited series” with so many cliffhangers would be unfair to the viewers. Could they have filmed an alternative ending in case the show wasn’t renewed?

I fear for poor, waffle-loving Dylan. He’s not getting out alive, or at least without some kind of mind wipe procedure. 

[overtherainbow]

2 hours ago, Johnny Dollar said:

After her reaction to getting fired, I was sure Cobel was going to help our Innies take down Lumon. But she must’ve drank (drunk?) all of the Kool-Aid because she’s in way deep.

Even though Irv’s storyline seems boring, I’m thinking there’s more heft to his background than the others. Maybe he volunteered to get severed to sabotage them from the inside?

Now we know why everyone at Lumon was so grateful and protective of Helly when she first showed up. Nothing will get you fired faster than allowing the boss’s daughter to kill herself.

I hope the producers were very confident that they were going to get a second season, because to end a “limited series” with so many cliffhangers would be unfair to the viewers. Could they have filmed an alternative ending in case the show wasn’t renewed?

I fear for poor, waffle-loving Dylan. He’s not getting out alive, or at least without some kind of mind wipe procedure. 

I'm not surprised she ran running back to Lumon the second they needed her. She's way to brainwashed and Lumon seems to be all she's ever really known. 

I found it chilling the way Eagan talked about Helly, "what she did to you" when addressing who he thought was Helena. Clearly Helena is just as indoctrinated as Cobel and all the others, if not more so, literally being Kier's daughter. 

I predict, it's going to get very ugly for Dylan, and Irving once they find him. 

[Enigma X]

I really hope there is a sufficiently good reason for Cobel to be so invested in Mark other than Mark being the lead character.