Severance on Apple TV. I really need to talk about it.

[EileenBrysonsTeabags]

Late to the party. I Loved loved LOVED this series so much. So weird and unsettling and mind bendy.

So many unanswered questions.

I think I will personally go and stalk Ben Stiller for an answer about what the numbers are about if we don’t get a season 2.

Did anyone else watch it?

I assume the paper clips was because it was something that Milchick was pulled up on in his performance review - that some of his reports had the paper clips on the wrong way around, which caused confusion(!)

So I think he was just checking through everything to make sure the paper clips were correct. He is generally pretty terrifying but I did feel a bit sorry for him just then!

@RockaLock thank you. I'd forgotten he had paperclips raised as an issue in his performance review!

Burt and his husband’s story of how he chose to be severed was pretty fishy. And the husband saying Burt had been at Lumon for 20 years; much longer than the severance process has existed is 🤔

Helena is diabolical, isn’t she? Messing with Mark in the restaurant… was she testing him to check he really can’t remember anything his innie does? And bringing up his dead wife and deliberately getting name wrong seemed
like a test too.

I think probably Helena genuinely likes/is attracted to Mark - remember how she kept watching back the CCTV of them kissing? It seemed like she was quite lonely in real life, maybe because she's so career-focussed.

So maybe she just wanted to see him again, I don't know. But yes, I agree she was definitely stirring by "misremembering" Gemma's name.

The dynamics of that whole scene was so interesting, because Helena knew she'd slept with Mark, but Mark didn't - but neither of them knew that Helly and Mark had as well!

I’m just finding the series so interesting. It raises more questions than answers. There’s a season 3 in The pipeline do not expected a dramatic tying up all the knots finale.

Helena is awful in some ways, but I do feel quite sorry for her. Think how she was probably brought up, in the Lumon cult. And she has a strained relationship with her very weird old father - not close or affectionate, he called her a 'fetid moppet' (what!?) after Helly took over at the corporate event where she was supposed to be giving a speech extolling the virtues of severance, but Helly came out and told the audience that the innies were being tortured. That Helly took over and obviously what Helly said wasn't even Helena's fault. And she obviously had family and company pressure to go through the severance procedure herself.

She said to innie Mark when they slept together in the tent that she didn't like who she was on the outside and she felt ashamed. I think that's true, and because of her upbringing and position as an Eagen she's never been able to have a normal sexual or romantic relationship, innie Mark could even have been her first.

And to answer a pp yes I do think she fancies Mark, she made the choice to sleep with him on the outdoor teaming building exercise. Even though she thinks innies are not real people (she's very conflicted). So I think she had more than one motive for approaching Mark in the restaurant. 1.She (and the company) need to find out what outie Mark knows, and 2.She feels attracted to him and was trying to make a connection with 'outie' Mark.
Helly, who is a very appealing character, is what Helena would have been with a different upbringing.

It is a very strange alternative world they live in! I still can't fathom why people would willingly allow themselves to be 'severed'. Pretty sure it wouldn't actually work in reality, (thankfully!) but it's a very interesting concept. Probably a metaphor for something.

And the cult of Keir Eagen, a man born in the late 19th century, and all the sanctimonious language around it, so strange, in a world that is in many ways similar to our own . But then I suppose America is home to many strange cults. Scientology and you could also say Mormonism, etc. I am starting to think that every religion began as a cult, just some began thousands of years ago, and some in the 20th century....

This is my favourite show by far! I've just binge rewatched Season 1, so many things I didn't pick up on the first time around. It's worth the subscription to Apple TV on its own, imo.

I know, that was so weird, that Helena knew she had slept with Mark's innie, but Mark's outie didn't know he'd slept with Helena or Helly! And obviously Helena didn't know Helly had also slept with his innie. That's a mind fuck all of its own!

Imagine if Helena / Helly got pregnant. Whose baby would it be?

It is a very strange alternative world they live in! I still can't fathom why people would willingly allow themselves to be 'severed'. Pretty sure it wouldn't actually work in reality, (thankfully!) but it's a very interesting concept. Probably a metaphor for something.

When DH and I started watching season 1, we were both working for the same company who had just announced they would be making redundancies. We were both in the firing line so could have potentially lost our jobs at the same time, and we decided that in our situation, being severed with no idea of the stressful situation and a separate, worry-free “outie” life would be great!

It would probably work okay if your job was either incredibly boring or incredibly stressful, or you had one of those jobs that is so top secret that you can’t ever talk about it. The problem is that everyone and everything at Lumon is weird and screwed up!

@Mrs @MrsFrumble maybe you and your DH should put your names down for when/if it becomes a reality? 😀

But seriously, splitting yourself in two would be like willingly creating in yourself that serious psychological condition that they used to label schizophrenia, but I think nowadays the correct terminology is Disassociative Identity Disorder or something like that? You know, like in 'Sybil' - anyone remember that? It usually develops as a result of unbearable childhood trauma but it's really rare I think. Each personality within the person is separate and they are unaware of what the other self is doing. With a lot of therapy I think sufferers can be 'reintegrated'. Not with home surgery in a basement! That was really risky, what about infection, risk of strokes etc, haemorrhages.. Well we saw what happened to poor Petey last season. Obviously we know Mark will be OK though, as he's the main character.

Why would you do that to yourself just for a job? And it's not like they seem to be paid significantly more either. Dylan and his wife seemed to be struggling a bit.

It's the best TV I've watched in ages, I think. So beautifully shot, and so thought provoking and cleverly written and acted.

The innie/outie thing is really interesting. At first I thought oh, yes, it might be nice to be able to forget about work. But then you start to realise there is a person stuck at Lumon 100% of the time (poor thing!) and that person has their own personality and relationships, and if you leave Lumon for whatever reason, that person effectively dies.

Imagine being the "innie" of the senator's wife who was scared of giving birth - literally all you would know was childbirth

My biggest questions at the moment are (1) what on earth is Devon doing with Ricken, because she seems pretty normal! And (2) why does no one have any decent lights in their houses?!

It was filmed in New Jersey, the Lumon building is Bell Labs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs_Holmdel_Complex
in the podcast, Ben stiller talked about the stress of making sure all the outdoor scenes were filmed before the trees started growing leaves again and mentioned fake snow. They said in passing that it's always winter in Lumon but didn't elaborate on why.

@RockaLock yes they treat the innies like children thinking they can be bribed with small gifts to go on their desks, snacks and short events like 'music dance experiences', and the sinister 'waffle parties'. But the poor innies are basically slaves, no agency whatsoever. We saw how Helena and her father the CEO spoke about them, with contempt. Helena is vile to Helly in the recorded message she sent her 'I am a person, you're not', yet she seems to be jealous of her, obsessively watching the security Camera footage of her kissing Mark. And Helly hates her back, would be happy to maim or kill herself because it would hurt Helena too. But they're the same person! It's very twisted.

Why would you agree to do that to a part of yourself?

I agree that Ricken seems a bit of a dick really, it's hard to see the attraction for Devon, who seems so intelligent. And why are his self help books so revered? The excerpts we've heard sound really trite. Again it's probably because their world is all just a bit 'off'.

Holy moly this week's episode 😯😢😭

Oh my heart breaks for Gemma. It feels like the doctor was obsessed with her so pretended she'd had a crash. It was awful when she tried to escape and then went back in the lift as her severed self couldn't remember what she was running from

And what is Cold Harbour

So sinister, but not remotely in a cliched way.

I bet all the room names like Cairns and the software like Cold Harbour are there cos Ben Stiller knows we’ll Google them

Gemma’s story today made the whole thing even more horror filled. To never escape the testing but also to be conscious of your captivity. And the Christmas thank you card ‘test’…so chilling.

I wonder if what they are doing in MDR with the 'scary numbers' is accessing their memories or in some way creating the rooms that Gemma was going in? Thinking of the I love you bit in the Christmas room and between Mark and Gemma.

Definitely need to rewatch to look for more clues.

What a devastating and brilliant episode. Such amazing acting.

I audibly gasped when we first saw Mark and Gemma together. And realised how over-invested I am in this show 😄

The poor severed Gemma who is always at the dentist or always writing those cards.

The cards with the figures on that she had at home, we have seen those before in the room where Christopher Walken’s character was.

This one really hit home. We went through IVF and DH had to do injections in my bum cheek. The scene where Mark smashed up the cot was heartbreaking. When you go through this it’s often the woman then gets all the sympathy but also you are the one undergoing so many examinations and procedures. The man is often left on the sidelines.

The Chikhai Bardo cards were also stolen (one of them) by Dylan and it's what set up the first overtime contingency.

Very different episode this week. Felt like it revealed a lot very quickly so I probably need to rewatch to make sense of it all.
The card that Dylan stole now seems like it's got an important backstory so the first OTC makes more sense. It seemed like overkill to wake him up on the outside just to get back a card from O&D.

poor severed Gemma though. I got the impression she was a different severed person in each room, as in, each severed Gemma ONLY experienced that particular room. The doctor was vile and creepy.
So we've seen something about what the numbers represent, obviously the rooms, but how are they linked and what does refining the file actually DO?

Maybe they’re trying to eradicate the emotions of fear/anger etc to make everyone compliant

Thank you! I knew those cards looked familiar 🙄