S02.E01: Ovaltine

[peachmangosteen]

The first 8 minutes are available on Apple TV+.

[Red Fields]

I just finished a season one re-watch five minutes ago and S2E1 came up. Has the entire episode dropped? I am going to wait until tomorrow to watch it.

[dwmarch]

The episode seems to have fallen off the back of a truck or so I have heard.

To keep it spoiler-free I will simply say this first episode raises a lot more questions than answers and I really hope we get some answers in the next one!

[Ms Lark]

It's baaack! And I'm so glad.  I'll keep it spoiler-free, too, but it's good.

I thought I had read they were going to drop 2 eps today, then 1 per week. We only get e1 and e2 is next week.  Also, they said stay tuned for a follow-up after the episode and there wasn't one. Humph!

[arc]

OK, from the first shot I'm wondering how many basement corridors the show actually built. Presumably any time Mark goes off-camera there's an invisible cut. I'm also dead curious about how they shot Mark sprinting down the corridors, esp with all the camera moves. Was it a drone?

I am reminded about one of the minor little mysteries that was never explained: Cobel's office -- now Milchick's -- is on the same level as Macrodata Refinement, but has a huge window with what looks like natural light. Is there a sunken courtyard? Or is it just artificial sunlight? And this is only highlighted more when the new MDR drones asked Mark about seeing the outside world's sky.

Also, why do the severed employees accept that Cobel and Milchick (and presumably Miss Huang) are unsevered but allowed to work on the severed floor? (That said, my pet theory is still that Cobel and Milchick are severed and are permanent innies.)

That newspaper has got to be fake.

Holy shit at this puppet/stop motion animation.

WOOOOOOW at Helly just lying to the group about her experience on the outside. Is that even Helly? Is it actually Helena?

"If you take the name of the room ["outie family visitation suite"] at face value, I'd say yes." That is an extremely lawyerly way to not say yes while sounding like you're saying yes.

Milchick is the devil.

[Affogato]

If that is Helena the family visitation room will let her see her family. 
 

irv has been in that hallway many times. 
 

it seems unlikely they aren’t being spied on, whatever the friendly building says. 
 

it occurs to me tht the innies ultimtely may be stronger people than the outies, informed by trauma. 

Edited Friday at 02:18 PM by Affogato

[dwmarch]

2 hours ago, arc said:

OK, from the first shot I'm wondering how many basement corridors the show actually built. Presumably any time Mark goes off-camera there's an invisible cut.

This has been on my mind since season 1 and the opening sequence here pretty much confirmed it for me: these corridors are impossible. If we tried drawing them out as we saw them, they would loop back onto themselves.

2 hours ago, arc said:

Cobel's office -- now Milchick's -- is on the same level as Macrodata Refinement, but has a huge window with what looks like natural light. Is there a sunken courtyard?

I never noticed that until you pointed it out. It makes me wonder if they aren't actually in a basement at all.

2 hours ago, arc said:

WOOOOOOW at Helly just lying to the group about her experience on the outside. Is that even Helly? Is it actually Helena?

That was the big surprise of the episode. I hope we get to see more of Helly's outside life and what happened after the party. I also liked that Irv knew she was lying immediately. "A night gardener?"

5 hours ago, arc said:

Milchick is the devil.

They are really playing up the OJ Simpson vibe this episode. He looks friendly but he will stab you. Mark was extra creepy in a few scenes too.

I am mildly curious as to what Mark did to the kitchenette but I think leaving it to our imaginations works just as well. I also think it's hilarious how Mark quickly figured out the logistics of having a wife and a girlfriend simultaneously.

It's interesting to see the progression of the Innies from basically being clueless infants in the first season to being temperamental toddlers in the second season.

[Affogato]

43 minutes ago, dwmarch said:

 

I am mildly curious as to what Mark did to the kitchenette but I think leaving it to our imaginations works just as well. I also think it's hilarious how Mark quickly figured out the logistics of having a wife and a girlfriend simultaneously.

 

He may not have done anything to the kitchenette. it may have been a simple distraction.  If we are thinking of them as children, it is a kindergarten level prank. 
 

i think they really made an effort not to tell us anything definite or provide answers. It will be interesting to find out of Irving remembers Burt now. Are they playing this out over and over again? Is Milkshake also being wiped and restarted? Are the lives of the outie’s their real lives? Does Helena, in fact, does her outie have a false memory? Time will tell, I suppose. 
 

i keep on returning to the fact that the chip working is shown by Mark and Casey/Gemma nor recognizing each other. 
 

 

Edited Friday at 05:58 PM by Affogato

[SoMuchTV]

15 hours ago, Red Fields said:

I just finished a season one re-watch five minutes ago and S2E1 came up. Has the entire episode dropped? I am going to wait until tomorrow to watch it.

 

12 hours ago, dwmarch said:

The episode seems to have fallen off the back of a truck or so I have heard.

In my experience, Apple shows tend to be available at 9pm ET the evening before the "official" date.  (That was the case for this one, for me.)

 Unless it's that one thing I was really looking forward to...

[arc]

56 minutes ago, Affogato said:

Are the lives of the outie’s their real lives?

I think we have to take some things as a ground truth. Lumon said last season that they have “code detectors” and they probably do, per Mark S setting up Mark W. (and esp how Lumon didn’t think they could detect a pictograph card Dylan stole from Optics and Design.)

Also, see what I said upthread about Milchick’s very lawyer-ly phrasing re the planned renovation. He could have just lied to Dylan. I think there’s some twisted code the Kier Eagan cultists truly live by, where they’ll deceive but not actually lie, or at least not if they can avoid it.

So Mark having a sister (a non-Lumon person) on the outside surely means outie Mark is real.

Edited Friday at 06:53 PM by arc

[jacehan]

7 hours ago, arc said:

WOOOOOOW at Helly just lying to the group about her experience on the outside. Is that even Helly? Is it actually Helena?

That was the exact theory my husband proposed as we watched.

[SoMuchTV]

On 1/9/2025 at 5:59 PM, peachmangosteen said:

The first 8 minutes are available on Apple TV+.

The episode title on Apple TV+ and on IMDB is Hello, Ms. Cobel.  I wonder if Ovaltine was some kind of placeholder or anti-leak strategy.  Anyway, I'm not sure if it will still let you edit the thread title but thought I'd mention it.

[peachmangosteen]

13 hours ago, Ms Lark said:

Also, they said stay tuned for a follow-up after the episode and there wasn't one. Humph!

There actually was a little follow-up thing at the very end. It's short and ultimately pretty pointless though.

10 hours ago, arc said:

"If you take the name of the room ["outie family visitation suite"] at face value, I'd say yes." That is an extremely lawyerly way to not say yes while sounding like you're saying yes.

I laughed pretty hard at that one.

[dwmarch]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

I wonder if Ovaltine was some kind of placeholder or anti-leak strategy.

There was an early episode of Better Call Saul that was going to be titled Jell-O (to match all the other episode titles ending in O) but Jell-O said no. I'd assume something similar happened here.

[iMonrey]

I'm most interested to know whether that's really Helly or if it's her Outie. I immediately assumed it was the latter, but I suppose it's possible she simply didn't want to tell them who she really is. But I still think the latter is more likely. Because from the Innie perspective, they went right from being "awake" in their outside lives to being back in the elevator when this episode started. And I don't think Helly would be that nonchalant about being back after everything that just happened to her. She seemed a little too cool.

We know Helena doesn't give a shit about her Innie, and once she found out what she'd done I could totally see her making the decision to play the part of the Innie to "fix" things with the others. I'm also suspicious whether they have really been gone five months. We know from trailers that 

Spoiler

we'll eventually see Outie Mark talking to his sister

so I guess we'll find out.

I'm a lot more interested in what's going on with Helly than with Ms. Casey/Gemma, to be honest. But I think a lot of that is because I can't stand Dichen Lachman. She turns up like a bad penny in so many shows I have watched, it's like I can't escape from her. Someone keeps hiring her because, I assume, they think she's hot, but I don't think she can act for crap.

Anyway, I'm glad to have re-watched all of Season 1 because there were so many things I forgot about.

[Red Fields]

15 hours ago, arc said:

WOOOOOOW at Helly just lying to the group about her experience on the outside. Is that even Helly? Is it actually Helena?

I think it really is Helly and she is ashamed of her outie. She is too afraid to tell them who her outie is.

[Kirbyrun]

4 minutes ago, Red Fields said:

 

15 hours ago, arc said:

WOOOOOOW at Helly just lying to the group about her experience on the outside. Is that even Helly? Is it actually Helena?

I think it really is Helly and she is ashamed of her outie. She is too afraid to tell them who her outie is.

 

This. The look on her face when she realized what Mark learned/lost…

[Red Fields]

I loved, loved, loved that Milchick was having trouble getting his monitor changed from the Ms. Cobel message! That has to mean something.

And I think he was lying about the Outie family visitation. It seems a bridge too far in the 'improving innie working conditions' crusade - it goes so against the idea of severance. I think he just wants to put a wedge into the group's tight allegiances by promising Dylan a big perk and making him keep it a secret from the rest of them.

The only one who was totally forthcoming this episode was Mark. Helly is keeping a secret about her outie, Irv barely told anything about his innie/outie time, and now Dylan has a secret too.

[desertflower]

So that was Keanu Reeves as the voice of the Lumen building in the video they watched, right? I thought that was a fun choice. 

Edited Saturday at 07:17 PM by desertflower

[jacehan]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

I'm most interested to know whether that's really Helly or if it's her Outie. I immediately assumed it was the latter, but I suppose it's possible she simply didn't want to tell them who she really is. But I still think the latter is more likely. Because from the Innie perspective, they went right from being "awake" in their outside lives to being back in the elevator when this episode started. And I don't think Helly would be that nonchalant about being back after everything that just happened to her. She seemed a little too cool. 

Oh, this made me think of a third possibility. Because you’re right that it’s clear that we saw Mark, Dylan, and Irv “immediately” after the events of the finale. But what if what we saw wasn’t Helly’s first time waking up since the incident? Certainly Helena would be less resistant to going in and subjecting Helly to whatever than the others.

[arc]

I didn't do a full rewatch so I'm just skipping through moments of s1 after the s2 premiere. I had forgotten that the supply closet used to be big enough to hold four people having secret conspiracy meetings, not a closet maybe 12 inches deep.

Also, other discussions on the internet have pointed out that Helly had to fumble around for the power switch on her computer. It's even shown in a closeup of her hands. Dylan, Irv, and Mark all turn on their computers by reflex, like a well-practiced motion. It certainly adds to the idea that this isn't really Helly.

13 hours ago, dwmarch said:

It makes me wonder if they aren't actually in a basement at all.

The exit stairway, seen from the pilot episode onwards, clearly shows they're at the bottom level of the Lumon building and the only way out is upwards.

I said upthread that maybe there's some Eaganite code against lying, but then again in the pilot Lumon straight up lied to Outie Mark about his lil head wound. Still feels very hinky about how Milchick explained the new room to Dylan though.

Also, in s1 Milchick asked Dylan not to talk about the Overtime Contingency protocol and then he immediately spilled the beans to his coworkers, so I dunno why Milchick thinks he can give Dylan another secret.

[Affogato]

6 hours ago, arc said:

Also, in s1 Milchick asked Dylan not to talk about the Overtime Contingency protocol and then he immediately spilled the beans to his coworkers, so I dunno why Milchick thinks he can give Dylan another secret.

He likely does not think Dylan will keep the secret. 
 

 

[ofmd]

So glad the show is finally back!

Also a bit weary as the second season of my other mystery box show was a total dud for me. But this was a strong start.

The only thing that makes me think it might not be Helena in Helly's place is that surely she would have thought out a better lie than just stammering about a night gardener. But all other signs, like fumbling for the switch on the computer, point to her being Helena. Even though the idea of her coming back multile times is very interesting.

Sooo... about that new painting we saw, "Egan pardons his betrayers"... The four betrayers are buried in the sand to die a long and painful death. He is holding a sword in a way that makes me think the pardon means he will mercifully behead them... I wonder what that means for our four betrayers.

The photo in the newspaper was obviously fake, so I wonder if they really made any splash in the outer world at all, or Lumen managed to smooth things over before the news even got out.

My favorite funny line was Milchick explaining about Ms Cobel pursuing what might be called a thruple. The delivery was priceless.

Edited Sunday at 09:40 AM by ofmd

[peachmangosteen]

On 1/17/2025 at 10:19 PM, Red Fields said:

I think it really is Helly and she is ashamed of her outie. She is too afraid to tell them who her outie is.

That's what I think, too.

On 1/18/2025 at 2:38 AM, arc said:

Also, other discussions on the internet have pointed out that Helly had to fumble around for the power switch on her computer. It's even shown in a closeup of her hands. Dylan, Irv, and Mark all turn on their computers by reflex, like a well-practiced motion. It certainly adds to the idea that this isn't really Helly.

But I didn't notice this and it highly suggests she's actually Helena.

[iMonrey]

7 hours ago, ofmd said:

Also a bit weary as the second season of my other mystery box show was a total dud for me.

Silo?

7 hours ago, ofmd said:

Sooo... about that new painting we saw, "Egan pardons his betrayers"... The four betrayers are buried in the sand to die a long and painful death. He is holding a sword in a way that makes me think the pardon means he will mercifully behead them... I wonder what that means for our four betrayers.

Remember Cobel threatening to make Helena's innie friends' lives a living hell? Maybe that's exactly what she's doing, and she's actually still in charge, unbeknownst to Milchick. Which is why the welcome screen on his computer hasn't been changed.

7 hours ago, ofmd said:

The photo in the newspaper was obviously fake, so I wonder if they really made any splash in the outer world at all, or Lumen managed to smooth things over before the news even got out.

When they were left alone in the screening room after watching the video, one of them did suggest Lumon might not actually know what they learned on the outside and were listening in to find out. And once "Helly" lied about her Outie, that's exactly what I assumed she was there for and she was actually Helena on a fact-finding mission.

Edited Sunday at 05:25 PM by iMonrey

[anniebird]

How does Helena stop herself from becoming Helly once she enters the elevator?

I've been having such a hard time wrapping my brain around the innie/outie stuff - so all 4 of them were outies in their outie world and when Dylan held the button they became innies in their outie world, right? Then, when he let go of that button they once again became outies in in their outie world with no memory of what just happened and didn't remember it until they became innies again because it was an innie memory. I look forward to learning more about that (maybe) 5 months between that night and their return to Lumon. 

Also, I didn't understand that elevator spitting the other 3 out one by one - didn't Milchick tell him they didn't want to return? I know he lies about everything but it really seemed that Irv definitely didn't want to be there so why did he come back?

[gail56]

As to the speculation that Helly is Helena, I did notice that when Mark hugged her after she came out of the elevator, she seemed reluctant at first.

[Affogato]

We shall see. I think they made a real effort to muddy the waters, our questions were not answered. 

[peachmangosteen]

12 hours ago, ofmd said:

Also a bit weary as the second season of my other mystery box show was a total dud for me.

 

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Silo?

My first thought was Yellowjackets but I don't watch Silo.

Edited Sunday at 10:14 PM by peachmangosteen

[aghst]

So they all opt to stay.  Of course they do, there wouldn't be much reason to continue with the show if they left and resumed normal lives, get away from Lumon.

That's an interesting take on human nature.  If people left Plato's cave and saw that they had been in a cave, would they choose to go back?

What exactly is the appeal of the place?  Is the renumeration great?  Is there job satisfaction?  Don't tell me it's those treats that Milchick carts out.  What are they, 5 years old?

We're suppose to get that these 4 have established a bond, even in their altered state.

So they want to return to the office.  Meanwhile in the real world, people are resisting RTO while management forces them to return or quit or be terminated, in the name of productivity but the real reason is to impose authority, show them who's the boss.

The place is unpleasant, endless corridors of fluorescent lighting, while they're staring at ugly CRT terminals, in a strange cubicle configuration.  They even seemed to enjoy the visual display of the numbers being deposited.

People like amenities at work, like Aeron chairs and a couple of 30-inch color flat screens for their work station, fancy coffee and snacks provided gratis, not doled out by a boss with the fake smile, only as rewards for Pavlovian performance.

Lumon isn't suppose to bear any resemblance to real life workplaces except maybe in allegorical terms.  But for them to return strains credulity.  They ended season 1 with a lot of momentum towards burning down the place, figuratively.

Now they acquiesce. OK maybe Mark still needs to be on the inside to deal with his loss, because his outie doesn't know that his wife is still alive and is more miserable as a result.

Helly tried to kill herself rather than be imprisoned inside.  Now she wants to stay?  OK maybe it's her outie impersonating her but why, the outie has a privileged life so why would she subject herself to drudgery?

 

One logical explanation for this plot direction that they (show runners, Apple TV +) want to do multiple seasons so they have to stall or reverse some of the momentum towards exposing and taking down Lumon, as well as escaping the place, which some of them tried to do last season.

 

 

 

[Dev F]

4 hours ago, anniebird said:

Also, I didn't understand that elevator spitting the other 3 out one by one - didn't Milchick tell him they didn't want to return? I know he lies about everything but it really seemed that Irv definitely didn't want to be there so why did he come back?

I assume Milchick was lying and Irv's outtie still did want to return. Of all of them, Irv's outtie has the least reason to change his mind because of what their innies did. It might actually be a promising development, if he thinks his innie rebelled against Lumen to track down another employee in the outside world, since that's part of what he himself is apparently trying to do, and he wouldn't know that it's because his innie is in love.

Edited Sunday at 11:29 PM by Dev F

[arc]

45 minutes ago, aghst said:

What exactly is the appeal of the place?

For the outies? It's like getting paid to sleep. The innie does the work; the outies gets the money.

For the innies? Good question, honestly. I guess Mark wants to figure out what's Ms Casey's deal. Dylan wants to be a part of his outie's life, which is not possible for innie Dylan if he doesn't come back. He'd just effectively be dead. Or there's reintegration, but he doesn't know that's a possibility. (Or maybe he does? I forgot if any news about Petey got down to the severed floor.)

[jacehan]

Right, the thing to remember is that if the Innies don’t work, they cease to exist. They essentially die. That’s what Irving wanted when he was talking to Dylan snd saying he wanted to leave. Dylans said to not call it that, because you know it’s not just leaving.

[maddie965]

14 hours ago, gail56 said:

As to the speculation that Helly is Helena, I did notice that when Mark hugged her after she came out of the elevator, she seemed reluctant at first.

My thoughts exactly. She seemed surprised and it took her a few seconds to hug back.

I don't want the theory to be true (poor Mark!), but it seems very likely.

[iMonrey]

18 hours ago, aghst said:

But for them to return strains credulity.  They ended season 1 with a lot of momentum towards burning down the place, figuratively.

Mark has a perfectly good reason to return: his wife. He has just learned she's still alive and in there. Innie Mark blurted that out, everyone heard him. They would have told Outie Mark. 

Spoiler

This is reinforced by one of the trailers: Mark talking to his sister about it.

I'm not sure what would motivate the others to return, except in Helly's case because I strongly suspect it's really her Outie going undercover. Theoretically they could have dumped Dylan, Helly and Irving this season and gone with the new refiners Mark met, but as a general rule TV shows don't tinker that hard with the formula for fear of losing viewers.

Still, I can think of a number of reasons Dylan or Irv would return that don't "strain credulity." Dylan in particular has no reason not to return. His Outie has no idea anything is wrong. And Irv is clearly trying to work out some kind of subconscious image of the testing floor hallway, so he must feel some kind of compulsion to keep going back.

[aghst]

They found out a big part of their lives was a fraud, a fiction.

People often get upset when they find out that they were adopted.  They don't necessarily cut off ties to their adopted parents but they're not happy that the truth was kept from them.

Yeah Mark could try to reunite with his wife, if she wants to reunite.

He doesn't necessarily have to do that from within Lumon.  He could try to send word to his outie that she's alive, that she's got this other identity as an employee of Lumon.

Dylan found that he has a son on the outside.  But he's going to stay for the waffle parties or some of the to her quirky retro rewards that Milchick offers them for doing good?

That's just not a convincing depiction of human nature or what motivates them.

[partofme]

Based on what we were told previously about severance, I don’t think it’s possible that it’s Helena and not Hilly.  Wouldn’t the chip automatically turn her into Hilly, unless she reintegrated the way that Petey did.   I think the innies all want to be there now because they realized that they don’t exist on the outside, short of reintegration, not sure what would motivate their outies to go back in. 

[aghst]

27 minutes ago, partofme said:

Based on what we were told previously about severance, I don’t think it’s possible that it’s Helena and not Hilly.  Wouldn’t the chip automatically turn her into Hilly, unless she reintegrated the way that Petey did.   I think the innies all want to be there now because they realized that they don’t exist on the outside, short of reintegration, not sure what would motivate their outies to go back in. 

Their consciousness of the inside and ignorance of the outside would disappear.

IOW, they would no longer be subjected to an artificially-restricted mental state.

Their beings wouldn’t die, they just would no longer know what goes on inside, unless they smuggled out photos and videos.

So again, what is the loss?  Well they may never see each other again but what bonded them in the first place?  Desire to get out in the case of Helly and to learn about the nature of the place for Mark.  
 

Mark said the severance helped him cope with the loss of his wife.  But now that he knows his wife is alive, does he still need the crutch?  If Gemma tells him that she doesn’t want to reconcile, that she doesn’t want to see him again, then what?

Try to reverse her severance?  Or find her outie?

If they’re trying to say that these coworkers have a more intense bond because of severance and they can only continue to have a relationship when they come to Lumon, or that this work relationship is the most importan one in their lives, that’s a pretty depressing situation.

Edited 17 hours ago by aghst

[Kirbyrun]

21 hours ago, aghst said:

But for them to return strains credulity.

The outies could have made them return because they're up to something. And the innies know that deciding not to return means they, in effect, die. So it might be worth it to stick around and hope that between their own skulduggery (trying to rescue Ms. Casey) and whatever the outies are up to that maybe they can somehow get out of Lumon AND survive.

Or at least make their half-lives worth something, in the end.

[Dev F]

On 1/17/2025 at 4:35 PM, dwmarch said:

There was an early episode of Better Call Saul that was going to be titled Jell-O (to match all the other episode titles ending in O) but Jell-O said no. I'd assume something similar happened here.

That seems distinctly possible, but it makes me wonder where Ovaltine was originally supposed to be mentioned in the episode, because presumably they didn't name the episode that apropos of nothing.

Maybe Ovaltine was originally supposed to be one of the new snacks the Lumon Building promised in the Claymation film? It would make sense to name the episode after one of the meaningless perks Lumon added to pacify its rebelling workers.

1 hour ago, partofme said:

Based on what we were told previously about severance, I don’t think it’s possible that it’s Helena and not Hilly.  Wouldn’t the chip automatically turn her into Hilly, unless she reintegrated the way that Petey did.

I'm guessing they could just change a setting on the chip so it doesn't activate when she goes down the elevator. Though I'm not sure I think Helly is actually Helena, just because it seems like they're making that possibility so obvious that it feels like a potential red herring. And I can see why Helly herself wouldn't want to admit to her coworkers that she's a member of the family that's keeping them enslaved.

On 1/17/2025 at 9:29 PM, Red Fields said:

I loved, loved, loved that Milchick was having trouble getting his monitor changed from the Ms. Cobel message! That has to mean something.

One thing it suggests is that Milchick is lying when he says five months have passed, because even the most incompetent or contemptuous IT department would've fixed a message like that if a manager were complaining about it constantly for nearly half a year.

It also shows how Ms. Cobel's presence continues to haunt the office even without her presence. Though with the one cut toward the end of the episode from Miss Huang to the "Hello, Ms. Cobel" message, I wondered if Miss Huang in particular is going to serve as the connection to Cobel—either because she seems to be a true Kier believer like Cobel was, because she's in cahoots with Cobel somehow, or because she actually is Cobel.

With that latter possibility, I've seen some people speculate that maybe Lumon transferred Cobel's consciousness into the body of a young Asian girl, but that seems beyond their abilities as they've been presented up to this point. But an alternate possibility that seems more plausible to me is that there's some sort of function on the severance chip that Lumon can activate to cause the innies to perceive of potentially alarming individuals as someone nonthreatening. So maybe Cobel has been rehired but demoted and is now working under Milchick on the Severed Floor, but because the chips are now masking her presence, Mark and company look right at her and their brains tell them they're seeing a young Asian girl.

[Kirbyrun]

47 minutes ago, Dev F said:

That seems distinctly possible, but it makes me wonder where Ovaltine was originally supposed to be mentioned in the episode, because presumably they didn't name the episode that apropos of nothing.

Its metrical similarity to “overtime” ( as in “contingency”) makes me wonder if it was a joke/codename for the episode that leaked or was accidentally slotted into place. 

Edited 15 hours ago by Kirbyrun

[arc]

4 hours ago, partofme said:

Based on what we were told previously about severance, I don’t think it’s possible that it’s Helena and not Hilly.  Wouldn’t the chip automatically turn her into Hilly,

If the Overtime Contingency can remotely swap innie for outie outside the severed floor, then Lumon can probably also override the severed floor automatically activating the innie.

[aghst]

The scene of Adam Scott running through the corridors reportedly took 5 months to produce.

Quote

The lengthy opening shot of the first episode appears to be a single take of Scott running, but director Ben Stiller revealed on the official Severance podcast that the scene is actually made up of about “10 different pieces.”

Scott then added: “We shot those 10 different pieces over a period of five months.”

Stiller explained that the scene was difficult to pull off technically, saying: “Each one had a different need in terms of what had to be done with the set.

“So there was one where we had to do it completely with green screen and have you on a treadmill and have a motion control camera. There was one where we had to pull one of the walls out, and we were using this machine called a Bolt arm, that’s a motion-controlled robot arm with the cameras on.”

Scott said he hadn’t done any specific training before shooting the sequence, joking: “Of course, I should have trained. You know what? The training was doing it. I got into good shape from doing all of this running.”

When Stiller suggested he should have studied Cruise, who is famous for the many running sequences scattered throughout his filmography, Scott responded: “Which is actually what I did. Anyone that wants to train for running of any kind, just watch Tom Cruise.”

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/adam-scott-reveals-tom-cruise-173812291.html

So the scene was towards the beginning when Mark was running around frantically looking for his old coworkers, who return later in the episode.

They also have MIlchick running through the corridors as well.

The scene, while kind of cool to look at, really didn't advance the plot in any meaningful way.

But apparently took some resources (money) and time to execute.  Well the show seems to be getting a lot of attention so many views and maybe even people subscribing just to watch week to week or later to binge.

Worth it or could they have used that time for other things? Or maybe finish this season and have it become available a couple of months sooner?