Severance - Season 1

[arc]

4 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Irv painting over and over the view in the elevator when they turned between Innie and Outie, was heartbreaking.

I think it’s the other elevator. The one down to the floor where they stash Ms Casey. Irv has likely been severed for much longer than just his current tenure at MDR. He might well have ridden that elevator himself.

[Roxie]

13 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Dylan clearly had the shortest arms of anyone in the group.  Why did he insist on being in the control room?

I also wonder how the levers were kept open when Mr. Milchick went to see Outie Dylan. Or who kept them open.

Also, I cannot wait for Season 2!

[arc]

L'il off topic, but the newest episode of Rick and Morty (6x04, "Night Family") has a heavy Severance kinda vibe when Rick acquires a sonambulator device that basically creates a "night person" to do stuff for the user, using the user's body, while the user's mind sleeps.

[BetterButter]

Gwendoline Christie, Alia Shawkat, Merritt Wever join Severance's second season

[aussieinsydney]

I just finished this after only finding out about it recently. What a great show and I can't wait for season 2!

 

[Ottis]

I liked this show, but was disappointed by what the end of the season seemed to indicate was at the core of the plot. The moral implications of forcing a “work me” to only work while I have a life was obvious in the first one or two eps. Outie Helly said innie Hellie allowed the outer people to live. That’s not interesting to me (and the outer lives seem pretty uninteresting, for the most part). I hope season 2 focuses more on what exactly innie’s are doing, and the departments and wider situation on Earth.

[Affogato]

On 4/8/2023 at 8:28 PM, Ottis said:

I liked this show, but was disappointed by what the end of the season seemed to indicate was at the core of the plot. The moral implications of forcing a “work me” to only work while I have a life was obvious in the first one or two eps. Outie Helly said innie Hellie allowed the outer people to live. That’s not interesting to me (and the outer lives seem pretty uninteresting, for the most part). I hope season 2 focuses more on what exactly innie’s are doing, and the departments and wider situation on Earth.

Well, I think a strong part of it is the work/life balance. I mean, we go to work and it is part of our lives, but a remarkably large number of people endure going to work in order to live outside of work. Then their lives outside of work are rarely worth it, because they have no passion, or have the passion leached out of them. It is a problem, and the solution that is presented here is often the kind of solution that people look for when they are presented with a problem, while being something that can be ultimately of benefit to people who are better off, because they can find other people to do it for them.

Yes, I hope that we start to see what is happening in the larger world, though.

[Ms Lark]

Oh, dear. Bad news via TV Line :  Severance Season 2 Faces Delay Amid Backstage Drama

This is not a good sign. 😢

[Cranberry]

 

[Ms Lark]

Yep. Ben Stiller says nothing to worry about:

https://www.tvinsider.com/1091020/severance-season-2-issues-ben-stiller-tweet/

No one is going to the break room!

[Affogato]

On 4/30/2023 at 12:54 PM, Ms Lark said:

Yep. Ben Stiller says nothing to worry about:

https://www.tvinsider.com/1091020/severance-season-2-issues-ben-stiller-tweet/

No one is going to the break room!

Isn’t that what they WOULD say?

[Cranberry]

https://deadline.com/2023/05/writers-strike-severance-production-apple-series-shuts-down-1235359160/

Quote

Severance is the latest series to be shut down as a result of strike picketing.

The Apple TV+ drama series has had production on its second season paused in New York as a result of the writers strike.

 

[jacehan]

Just watched the whole season yesterday. So good!

When y'all talk about the premise, you mention the work/life balance, which is definitely part of it. But it's also clearly an analogy for having children/child abuse. As Reghabi told Mark, the innies didn't ask to be brought into this world, and were created to satisfy an emotional need of the outies. There's nothing inherently wrong with that (IMO, as a person that wants children...), but then the problem is that they don't treat the innies (children) as their own independent people, but just as extensions of themselves, and that leads to horrible experiences for the innies. And this is a thing a lot of parents do!

[Black Knight]

I just finished binging this over a few days. It started slow for me, but the twists in the last few episodes - awesome!

On 8/27/2022 at 5:22 PM, arc said:

No. She's an Eagan heir who voluntarily got severed as a PR move for the sake of the company and the procedure. (I personally feel this is an ass-pull they made midway through and didn't fully correct episode 2 to fit; see my earlier comments about both that and why it was ludicrous to do this when outie Helena could've just straight up lied and said she was severed, etc etc.)

There's an interview with the showrunner prior to this where he confirmed that Helena Eagan is an idea they came up with mid-season. However, in a later interview with Britt Lower, she mentioned that because of the pandemic shutting down production, the cast had the complete finished scripts before filming began. And also, that filming was done out of order - they didn't film one episode at a time in chronological order. So the show certainly had a lot of room to fix episode 2, and didn't.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Dichen Lachman's stint on the Joss Whedon show Dollhouse a little over a decade prior to this show. When Ms. Casey was revealed to be Mark's wife Gemma, I laughed and said to myself that I should have seen that twist coming since it was Lachman in the role.

[juliet73]

I just watched the first season over the last week.  I think I need to rewatch it because I am completely confused and feel like a missed so many details. I need some Cliff Notes for this show! 😄  What's the deal with Petey?  I get that they made a plan to do the Overtime Contingency.  Keir Egan is Helly's dad?  I don't know why I thought he was dead? Is he the board?  Harmony got fired so why does she care if the people know they are severed?  If anything, I would think she would be on their side now. Why does Irving have all those newspaper clippings, employee lists, etc? It looks like he was trying to expose Lumon before he was severed. All this stuff is at his house, but he doesn't know to look at until he's not severed?  I get that Ms. Casey is Mark's wife who he thought was dead and doesn't know she is his wife.  That part is really the only thing I understand about this entire series.  🙃

Edited November 3, 2023 by juliet73

[Affogato]

On 11/2/2023 at 10:10 PM, juliet73 said:

I just watched the first season over the last week.  I think I need to rewatch it because I am completely confused and feel like a missed so many details. I need some Cliff Notes for this show! 😄  What's the deal with Petey?  I get that they made a plan to do the Overtime Contingency.  Keir Egan is Helly's dad?  I don't know why I thought he was dead? Is he the board?  Harmony got fired so why does she care if the people know they are severed?  If anything, I would think she would be on their side now. Why does Irving have all those newspaper clippings, employee lists, etc? It looks like he was trying to expose Lumon before he was severed. All this stuff is at his house, but he doesn't know to look at until he's not severed?  I get that Ms. Casey is Mark's wife who he thought was dead and doesn't know she is his wife.  That part is really the only thing I understand about this entire series.  🙃

I think we don’t have all the information yet. Petey’s group is working against Lumen from the outside. They hacked his severence, I think, and he had been recording information about the inny world. That is why lumen needed his altered implant. I guess Irving is part of the same group, hence the information he has in the innies. Some of the Egans are dead, the family is a dynasty. 

[Affogato]

On 9/4/2022 at 9:23 PM, meep.meep said:

Very late to the party.  I agree with the speculation about Devon.  Is she a Lumon spy as well as Cobell?

How did Irv get all the intel that he dragged out of the case?  There were names of many severed people as well as the map with their homes.

Irv painting over and over the view in the elevator when they turned between Innie and Outie, was heartbreaking.

Dylan clearly had the shortest arms of anyone in the group.  Why did he insist on being in the control room?

I think it means Irving is part of the anti severance group Petey was involved with. 
 

Dylan earned the waffle reward, so he was the one in the building after hours. 

Edited July 15 by Affogato

[Paloma]

On 7/8/2024 at 11:41 AM, Affogato said:

On 11/2/2023 at 10:10 PM, juliet73 said:

I just watched the first season over the last week.  I think I need to rewatch it because I am completely confused and feel like a missed so many details. I need some Cliff Notes for this show! 😄  What's the deal with Petey?  I get that they made a plan to do the Overtime Contingency.  Keir Egan is Helly's dad?  I don't know why I thought he was dead? Is he the board?  Harmony got fired so why does she care if the people know they are severed?  If anything, I would think she would be on their side now. Why does Irving have all those newspaper clippings, employee lists, etc? It looks like he was trying to expose Lumon before he was severed. All this stuff is at his house, but he doesn't know to look at until he's not severed?  I get that Ms. Casey is Mark's wife who he thought was dead and doesn't know she is his wife.  That part is really the only thing I understand about this entire series.  🙃

I think we don’t have all the information yet. Petey’s group is working against Lumen from the outside. They hacked his severence, I think, and he had been recording information about the inny world. That is why lumen needed his altered implant. I guess Irving is part of the same group, hence the information he has in the innies. Some of the Egans are dead, the family is a dynasty. 

I agree that we need more information to answer some of these questions, but one thing that was clear from the final episode is that Helly's dad is the current CEO of Lumon--I think his name is Jamie Eagan, but it was hard keeping the Eagan names straight. However, her father was definitely not Kier Egan--Kier was the founder of Lumon in the 1800s. 

@juliet73 You may have thought Helly's dad was dead because there was a lifelike figure (wax figure?) of him and the previous CEOs on display in the Perpetuity Wing. Kier Eagan, the founder, is dead.

I think there are more people on the board than just Helly's father, but he would be the head of the board, I assume. The senator (the one whose wife just had a third child, apparently while severed) may also be on the board, since he was talking to Helena (Helly) about her speech helping to make the vote go their way (the pro-severance way). But maybe he was just referring to a vote in the state or federal legislature.

35 minutes ago, Affogato said:

On 9/4/2022 at 9:23 PM, meep.meep said:

Very late to the party.  I agree with the speculation about Devon.  Is she a Lumon spy as well as Cobell?

How did Irv get all the intel that he dragged out of the case?  There were names of many severed people as well as the map with their homes.

Irv painting over and over the view in the elevator when they turned between Innie and Outie, was heartbreaking.

Dylan clearly had the shortest arms of anyone in the group.  Why did he insist on being in the control room?

I think it means Irving is part of the anti severance group Petey was involved with. 
 

Dylan earned the waffle reward, so he was the one in the building after hours. 

Devon seemed genuine in her personality and interactions with Mark and others, so I don't think she could be a Lumon spy. Hopefully she will help Mark and the others, since she already suspected something was off with the senator's wife and then had a terrible fright when she thought Selvig/Cobell had kidnapped her baby. 

I agree about pre-severed Irving being part of the anti-severance group. Though if Lumon knew about that and severed him so he couldn't continue his investigation, why wouldn't the company have searched his home and destroyed the evidence? 

Wasn't it Helly who earned the waffle reward for getting her numbers done in time? Or maybe they earned it as a group but had to pick one person to accept it? I'd have to watch again to be sure, but I thought Helly wanted to stay to do the Overtime Contingency. The group discussed it and Dylan insisted that he should be the one, and then they informed Milchik that Dylan would accept the waffle party reward.