S02.E02: Goodbye Mrs. Selvig

[aghst]

It's an annoying set up because once the credits start, the app wants to auto-play something else on your queue.

So you have to navigate back to the credits playing and fast forward or skip through.

It would make sense to do the "inside the episode" as a separate thing you can play under "extras" but I don't know if they do that.

 

[maddie965]

On 1/28/2025 at 8:53 PM, KarenX said:

I don’t think so. Mark Scout(ie) said to Devon in the diner that he’d had to tell Gemma’s students that Gemma had died. 

I see what you did there!!! 

[arc]

I love how insightful this blog was:

Quote

obsessed with the Helena and Irving parallel and what it says about the aspects of our identity we think are fundamental (but aren't)...

Like Outie Irving assumes his Innie is just as radically anti-Lumon as he is. He assumes his hatred of Lumon is something ingrained in his personality! That's why he stays up at night drinking coffee and making paintings, because he hopes that when his innie dreams about the testing floor, he'll say "okay bet" and start exploring. That's what Outie Irving would do, after all. But he miscalculated! His hatred of Lumon isn't inherent--- his desire for meaning and art and spirituality is inherent. That's what his hatred for Lumon is built on. But in a world where there's no meaning outside of Lumon propaganda, of COURSE his innie would become ridiculously devoted to the company.

[…]

Their innies have become the exact opposite of their outie selves, while still being exactly the same!! Because even though your personality is inherent, the values you hold are determined circumstantially. OUGH IT'S SO GOOD.

 

[JenE4]

I felt like Operation Cold Harbor was a thing I had heard before, so I googled it. The Battle of Cold Harbor was the most lopsided and bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Over 12 days, 17,000 men were killed, most of them Union soldiers. Thousands were killed within 1 particular hour. While it was the Confederate’s greatest victory, it was also one of their last victories.

Lumon really leans into the emphasis on battles in paintings, like the macro data refinement vs O&D uprisings. It seems like they consider themselves like the Confederacy fighting for what they think is right, basically “enslaving” their workers to the inside world. Please, no offense meant! Obviously the atrocities that enslaved people endured cannot in any way be compared to clicking some buttons to earn egg parties and pineapple bobbing!! Just going with the metaphor of Lumon choosing “Cold Harbor” as the name of their most crucial operation and the concept of stripping people of their humanity to serve the master in forced labor.

At first I took Cold Harbor a bit literally that maybe Mark’s wife was cryogenically frozen or some type of “cold harbor” of suspension. Mark is critical as a severed employee to continue these experiments on his wife so they can ultimately bring Kier back to life. But maybe this is too obvious. Or, maybe it’s just the first step. Like the Confederacy tried to overthrow America, I think we’re getting a hint that Lumon’s ultimate goal is world domination. They already control this small town, and with the introduction of the replacement data refiners and the video last episode, we now know they have similar outposts all around the world.

With these paintings of gruesome zombie-like battles and the false stories of valor (the fake black and white newspaper photo of a parade was very reminiscent of WWII propaganda) maybe they’re ultimately trying to train/brainwash the innies and other loyal employees to literally fight for Keir. And with the overtime contingency, we see that they can turn the innies on at will. At some point will  they “activate” the innies all around the world to incite bloody battles in the name of Keir?

I don’t know, not necessarily leaning into this theory, but thought I’d throw it out there.

Edited February 2 by JenE4

[peachmangosteen]

On 1/29/2025 at 7:18 PM, AstridM said:

I tried that and those “episodes” just aren’t there for me. But thanks! 

Are you watching on Prime Video? I watched this episode on Apple TV through Prime Video and I didn't get the 'inside the episode' at the end but I watched ep 1 on the Apple TV app and I did get the 'inside the episode' thing.

[aghst]

I think they post the Inside the Episode to Youtube.  Maybe not right away but they seem to eventually.

In the media thread, there are other videos of cast members discussing what their characters did each episode.

I listen to a couple of podcasts which are covering this season but I didn't seek them out.  One just popped up on my feed and they cover other shows.

I'm not listening to any other podcasts though, not even the official one with Adam Scott and Ben Stiller.

[Milburn Stone]

On 1/24/2025 at 4:36 AM, arc said:

Helena's apology video gets back to my objection to the twist back in season 1: it still makes no sense to have put Helly in MDR. They couild have put her in a less important role. They could have just put her in a fake job altogether on the severed floor. They could have let her go down there unsevered.

The story I have made up for myself is that Helena insisted on being severed. If she's going to be running this company, she feels she needs to know what being severed is really like. 

But the part that gets in the way of that explanation is there is apparently no way to safely unsever people yet, based on Petey. I don't see her wanting to experience severance when there is no way back.

[ombre]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

The story I have made up for myself is that Helena insisted on being severed. If she's going to be running this company, she feels she needs to know what being severed is really like. 

But the part that gets in the way of that explanation is there is apparently no way to safely unsever people yet, based on Petey. I don't see her wanting to experience severance when there is no way back.

The "way back" is to just never get in the elevator again. Just put helly on ice. Like that poor congressman's wife's innie who only exists to be pregnant and whatever else the wife doesn't want to do. 

[Milburn Stone]

17 hours ago, ombre said:

The "way back" is to just never get in the elevator again.

But to even know they don't want to get on the elevator again, they'd have to know how much they hate being an innie, and they have no way of knowing that as long as they remain severed.

[Kirbyrun]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

But to even know they don't want to get on the elevator again, they'd have to know how much they hate being an innie, and they have no way of knowing that as long as they remain severed.

I think the suicide attempt and subsequent hospital stay clued Helena in!

[Milburn Stone]

2 hours ago, Kirbyrun said:

I think the suicide attempt and subsequent hospital stay clued Helena in!

If Helena was in "outie" mode when she was in the hospital, how would she know about the suicide attempt? (They probably told her she had a bad fall and landed on a rope or something.)

[Kirbyrun]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

If Helena was in "outie" mode when she was in the hospital, how would she know about the suicide attempt? (They probably told her she had a bad fall and landed on a rope or something.)

As I recall, Helly timed it so that her body fell as the elevator rose, so Helena woke up to her own hanging. 
 

And in the season one finale, Jame asks Helly “Are you still in pain?” And then says, “I cried in my bed when they told me what she tried to do to you.”

So I feel pretty confident that Helena is quite aware of Helly’s attempted murder/suicide.