Discussion (warning: WITH spoilers) of the Severance tv show

[Kyriakos]

I'm confused by your question. Cobell took the candle from storage in Mark's basement. Casey used it at Lumon in Mark's therapy session. We now know why Cobell took that candle...well, at least partly....but not so much the motivation behind it. But the connection is there at least.

I'd say Casey is most def severed...whether she has an outtie is the question.

Hm, but was it the exact same candle, or just one made by the same company?
Also, what would the point of using it be? To establish if it would subconsciously trigger memory (thus the tree sculpture?). Ok, but it does seem a bit... convenient?

Cassey seemed to be afraid that Mark and Helley would die in the corridors, which might not be an inie thing to be (inconclusive there, imo).

 

[lymond]

Hm, but was it the exact same candle, or just one made by the same company?
Also, what would the point of using it be? To establish if it would subconsciously trigger memory (thus the tree sculpture?). Ok, but it does seem a bit... convenient?

Cassey seemed to be afraid that Mark and Helley would die in the corridors, which might not be an inie thing to be (inconclusive there, imo).

I assume those candles were made by Mark's wife. And IMO, I think one of two things about it:

1) Cobell is constantly testing the Severance program. That's why she plants her life in its subjects. The candle/therapy session dealio - sessions she monitors by the way - could be a test of the efficacy of the procedure

2) Or Cobell has deeper connections or motives behind all this stuff. Is there a personal connection of some sort here we're not aware of yet?

Regardless, IMO all this stuff is super cool from a viewer's perspective.

Ha...I think Casey innie is a bit of a space cadet...ha...but she seems naturally nurturing in her personality...and I assume that would be her innie/outer self. But I'm 100% certain that she is an "unaware" severed innie.

Oh..and an even bigger question that we've seemed to kinda skipped over from earlier, is why Cobell was so neglectful about Ricken's book? Was the purposeful or an oversight? Another test? I think she knows Mark's been reading it.

 

[Kyriakos]

She wasn't that nurturing to Torturo ^_^

Oh..and an even bigger question that we've seemed to kinda skipped over from earlier, is why Cobell was so neglectful about Ricken's book? Was the purposeful or an oversight? Another test? I think she knows Mark's been reading it.

Why would she even bring it to Lumon? If she wanted some drone (like Milchick) to just check for "messages" to Mark, he could do it outside Lumon. Milchick didn't seem to mind that the book went missing, nor did anyone bother noticing the theft through the corridor cameras.
Like I said, I do hope there are actual explanations for all those lapses, and not just "it happened by mistake".

 

[lymond]

Poor Irv...he lost Burt

 

[lymond]

Oh...imo the book was planted...by Cobell

 

[Kyriakos]

Oh...imo the book was planted...by Cobell

It was in some central conference room. Is Milchick and that security guy (Graner? rip) blind?
Previous time it was seen was at Cobell's waiting room, outside her office.

 

[lymond]

Like I said...I think it was a plant

 

[Kyriakos]

Like I said...I think it was a plant

Sure. I was just commenting how convenient it was that no one else saw it - apart from randomly observant Irv, who even decided not to return it himself.

 

[Kyriakos]

I was rewatching episode 7, and I noticed that the end (which would be the end for reasons of plot/climax) seems to take place later than the final sequence we see in Lumon with the inies.
Would that mean that the inies failed to wake themselves up? (wouldn't they try that day? Dylan wanted to do it alone, which would prevent him from waking himself anyway - his outie wouldn't like that at all, while Mark, Helley and Irv would switch from outies to inies).

@lymond @Ferocitus

 

[Ferocitus]

Anyway, now watched the end of the episode.

Spoiler :

Not entirely surprising, but convoluted (you know what scene I am talking about- Cassey).

Lumon security is really terribly stupid, though. And it couldn't even be some masterplan by Cobel, since Milchick apparently didn't get the idea to wake the outie up from her.

In my view, unless there is some good level of double-crossing and a masterplan from within (which sadly I really doubt is the case), the plot has moved through artificial means and irrational behavior (mostly to do with how Dylan was handled in ep6).

I mean, if I had been the writer of the show, at this point it would (for me) only work if the outie-inie is a facade itself, meaning that the "outie" world is just another Lumon-controlled environment entirely, and maybe (?) there are more such worlds too. But, once again, I really doubt this is what is happening here.

@Ferocitus @lymond

A lot of the problems for Lumon, and security in particular, stem from the fact they are very short-staffed.
I don't think that it's a plot hole. There's a reason that they are trying to get politicians on board so
they can increase the numbers working there. It's not the only state where Lumon is operating. We
don't know how many are employed in other states. In the first episode (IIRC) there was mention that
some states had far friendlier laws towards severed workers.

When Milchik is in the break-room, there's only Doug and Harmony watching the others.

When Milchik is giving the group their 5 minute dance reward, and Doug is "out", and Harmony
is teaching breast-feeding, there's nobody else watching the group.
There are several rooms with no staff at all; the chairs are covered in plastic etc.

Spoiler :

There were a few hints about the data group being "children".

The way Harmony spoke to Mark a few times.
The woman who batted Doug saying that Mark was just a child (baby?).

The childish rewards, like finger traps, waffle days, and the dance break (the best scene in the show so far!)
To me it sounds like a child-care centre. I remember there being a few "biters" in some centres our son went to.
Also, Milchik acts like a child-centre worker. He didn't fight back at all when Dylan took him down and bit him.
A big guy like Milchik could have made more of a contest of it.

Or maybe the group are in a kind of school for troubled children, and people "on the spectrum"?
Was Helly's suicide attempt like the "attention-seeking" self-harm by some teenagers?

If they have only been at Lumon for a few years, then they are in a sense child-like. They would be
unable to discuss politics, or societal issues, or a kaleidoscope of other things that people talk
about "around the water-cooler" every day at work.

The old equipment they use could be because:
(a) There's no reason to give "kids" the newest types.
(b) Maybe it was computer equipment similar to what was around when they were actually young?
Helly didn't need much instruction on how to use it. And nobody in the group has mentioned that
the computers are of a different era to the photocopiers, and other equipment around the place.

Just my thoughts so far, noting that I believe everyone has at least one idea that is completely wrong.
(Except that one.)

 

[EgonSpengler]

The song Helly selected for the Music Dance Experience was "Shakey Jake" (1971) by Joe McPhee. I think she made a solid choice. I note, however, that the allotted time isn't long enough to listen to the whole song.

Here's the full selection of tunes available to those who hit 75%, courtesy of Vulture. I want to find out what "Reckless Disco" is.

Spoiler :

I'm mad at Mark for chasing Alexa away. I was starting to like her. The way Adam Scott was playing it, I couldn't tell if he wanted her to leave or he genuinely didn't think he was being all f'd up and weird. Either way, dude, get some therapy.

When Cobel asked Devon whether Mark had ever thought he'd seen his wife, it was *ahem* a dead giveaway. I wished they hadn't telegraphed it like that, but at least they didn't stretch it out any longer. Anyway, I was thinking it was going to be Helly. I'm glad it's not, though. I don't want her to just be part of Mark's story like that.

 

[Kyriakos]

I see no interest in my suspicion about Dylan (despite being so strong and a genius etc) messing up the outie-back-to-inie for the others. One has to assume Mark was talking to Alexa later that afternoon, and he likely was (also) reacting to the murder he saw the previous day.
Outside of the Lumon building, the only scene with Helly showed her carrying (iirc) white flowers, maybe to a tomb.

 

[lymond]

I'm glad Alexa is gone cause she kept activating my Alexa

For some reason, I'm kinda blanking now on some of the final minutes of the last epi due to the significance of the reveal, but I think the whole innie/outtie switcherooni has just not happened yet. That'll come in the next episode. I think it just something they discussed but not yet prepared to execute a plan.

 

[Kyriakos]

I'm glad Alexa is gone cause she kept activating my Alexa

For some reason, I'm kinda blanking now on some of the final minutes of the last epi due to the significance of the reveal, but I think the whole innie/outtie switcherooni has just not happened yet. That'll come in the next episode. I think it just something they discussed but not yet prepared to execute a plan.

Iirc Dylan would stay (leave last) that very day, prior to Mark meeting Alexa in the final scene, so as to activate the inies of the others. Maybe he got greedy and activated his own inie (although that would be the dumbest thing ever and -on another note- very selfish )

 

[Samson]

It is all good fun. The whole Milchik in the cupboard thing makes no sense, you base a plan on a five year old kid counting to a thousand not 758?

Also they do not know what it looks like it you use power tools on a skull, which is surprising as the easiest way would be to use a pig or cows skull in an abattoir.

I think at the start of the next episode Mark will wake up looking at that picture.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The whole Milchik in the cupboard thing makes no sense, you base a plan on a five year old kid counting to a thousand not 758?

Right, that whole thing seemed incredibly sloppy. I want to know what's on that picture card that made Milchik panic like that (and I suppose we don't know that it was just Milchik who panicked). If it turns out it was just a way for the writers to reveal that there's a literal switch to flip between the innies and outies, even when they're off the Severed Floor, then I think that was maybe a clumsy way to shoe-horn that in. For now, I'm giving the writers the benefit of the doubt and assuming that whole scene was deliberate.

 

[Kyriakos]

Didn't Dylan steal a picturecard with defense techniques? (or how to choke, aka self-defense - ala Epstein- against strangulation/suicide) (edit: it would be cool if the card is seen differently in outie-world, linked to how in inie-world numbers cause wild emotion)

@Samson , at least inie Mark will see a familiar face in outie-world, but I don't like that angle (I was expecting a more cerebral show :/ )
Even if Dylan messed up the procedure, outie Mark may just take the picture with him at work, since the elevators have apparently zero security.

 

[Kyriakos]

Guys, I didn't like episode 8.
As usual, when I get invested in a show, disappointment inevitably occurs, because many things now come across as ploys (the x happens only due to y somehow having to happen next).
Anyway, I wonder if there will be a season 2 (episode 9, next week, is the finale of this one).
But I didn't like one bit how Cobel had to change her mind randomly after listening to the stupid funeral joke, felt way too forced, and other things in the episode also were too trivial and cliche imo (kiss, metal music Torturo).
The waffle party was nice; I wonder if they actually would have sex under usual conditions. And the masks were a good touch as well

 

[lymond]

The only thing I didn't like is they left us hanging

There's always been something off about Cobel the whole time, and things like her reaction to the joke may be a further indicator. It may come to something that may change your perspective, or it may come to nothing.

Yall may or may not have noticed that the whip had the virtues written on the crackers. Ha...so now we know what waffle parties are at Lumon...yikes!

But the real question from this epi is what the heck is up with Irv and that painting...and Motorhead

Happy for Innie Helly and Mark!

One theory though has come to mind here:

Spoiler :

Mark was in the crash too, and is in a coma. This world is basically a dream experience. OR Ms. Casey is in the coma and its hers.

 

[Kyriakos]

@lymond Hm, I don't like the

Spoiler :

Jacob's Ladder type of plot you mentioned Struggle before death or in a coma

Irv was trying to paint the corridor leading to the "testing floor". I suppose he wasn't aware (as outie) what it was inspired by.
Another question is what the testing floor is for. Probably what Petey said - that some severed people are always at Lumon; Casey might be one of them, but this doesn't explain what Irv had to do himself with the testing floor. Perhaps they all go.
Unfortunately they are leaving way too many issues unresolved, and this brings me back to the nasty collapse of Westworld - which too had started with great promise, despite also a fantastical premise.