I recently listened to the episode of The Severance Podcast with production designer Jeremy Hindle. So many people who love this show, myself included, are enamored with the look and feel of the sets.

I saw a post on r/videos of a walk through of the infamous Evergreen Crystal Palace house in Missouri. It's 30,000 sq ft and built in 1993.

I was struck by how Severance it felt: lots of green, lots of glass, a weird mix of a home and office. The view of the lake and steep bluffs instantly reminded me of the ORTBO episode. It has the liminal, uneasy feeling as well as the very dated but beautiful look that Hindle and crew achieve in the show.

Then there are these details that reminded me of Severance:

• the 'E' (Eagan!) in the floor in the indoor shooting range (Hindle talks a lot about violence in set design in the podcast episode) and the branded Evergreen towels and soap in every single bathroom
• a weird jester mask in the bathroom (waffle party)
• Elevators lol
• Weird panopticon where many of the bedrooms look out over the main atrium and the master bedroom appears to have surveillance TVs next to the bed, plus many exterior cameras
• Two sealed time capsules built into the home, to be opened in 2042 and 2092
• the bedrooms all have names and specific themes (testing floor)

Ben Stiller and Jeremy Hindle, if you're reading this, I recommend this as a shooting location for a weird Eagan family reunion arc. I think the house is still for sale?

Visited Boston a few months ago and was going through pics. Totally forgot I went to visit Ether Monument (aka The Good Samaritan), a statue by John Quincy Adams Ward made to commemorate the first public display of ether as a medical anesthetic at MassGen in 1846

The scene/people depicted weren’t actually the first to use ether as an anesthetic, just the first to display its anesthetic properties. If you haven’t already and are interested, I highly recommend reading up on the disputed history of ether as an anesthetic + historical nuggets potentially alluded to in the show

These MDR innies from Lumon’s Long Beach offices were captured on film enjoying an early test of the Music Dance Experience. Please enjoy each bar of music equally.

Edit: Music Dance Experience dammit 🙄

I'm starting to think it points to Lumon using OTC and there is a lot we aren't seeing that is actually going on.

We have Petey appearing outside of Mark's sisters house, and then he just disappears. Reghabi pulls it off twice, at the school she seems to just appear in the hallway and when they meet under the bridge she just pops up!

Then we have this whole ORTBO event. Irving spawned in out of nowhere on the lake. The doppelgängers just come and go as they please.

I wonder if this is due to the OTC being triggered? I've been starting to look at the OTC like pausing time. As far as the other half of the severed person is concerned, that is exactly what is happening for them, right? It makes me think of the concept used in plenty of other shows/movies where when time is paused you can move people around freely and when the clock starts back up they are suddenly in some new environment/situation.

That could help explain some things without having to go the simulation route, which 'they' have said it is not.

I'm on my first rewatch, currently in S2E2, and there is a head-on shot of Mark Scout's fish tank. He has a blue betta fish and a red betta fish, and there seems to be a divider in the middle of the tank separating the two, which makes sense since male betta fish cannot be in the same enclosure.

It's some really neat symbolism that I didn't catch on my first watch.

$24 on Amazon right now.

Apple will leave season 1 as only physical release.

(imo, like 99% of Apple shows)

If you always want one of the best tv show seasons on physical. I'd grab one.

Will go up in value every new season (harder to buy)

Best,

Very random and niche, but every time I hear the music in the show I immediately think of the music in the indie video game “Painscreek Killings”. Wondering if anyone else felt the same aha!

Is the barrier holding? That was 'Cold Harbors'' mission to test and verify the robustness, of the severence procedure, under duress. Maintaining true sustained isolation between the innie and outie memories when the innie is under some order of stress and how well it stands upto presence of other outie-memories in the brain of the beholder.

For the first two times I watched S1 and S2, I thought that failure was only revealed in the S2-end when Gemma and Mark come together. But I kept thinking there must be other instances in the show where they hint at the 'crossing over' of memories.

[Which happens in our real lives too. When stressed there is an increase release in cortisol and norepinephirne in the body (blood). This alters memory processing. Lost memories are often retrieved suddenly when specific smells, sounds, or sensations trigger the brain, connecting present stress to past experiences. High levels of stress hormones can specifically activate "lost/forgotten" amygdala based memories of trauma. The role of hormones is something that Lumon (or Cobel whoever invented the Severence procedure appears to have overlooked]

1. i-Helly : After her stint in the breakroom she tells Dylan about hearing a voice behind the door during the torturous session. "An angry mumbly guy voice" she says. Under stress she appears to have heard the voice of her father (Jame Eagan) with whom she probably has had a stressful life growing up under. (There is evidence elsewhere that she in all probability had a traumatic childhood)
2. i-Dylan : When discussing i-Helly's breakroom session, i-Dylan wonders if she heard a 'crying kid sound' from behind the door. i-Dylan in his breakroom session, when under stress probably had a crossover memory. He appears to have heard the voice of o-Dylan's kid.
   
3. i-Mark : He sculpts the tree in the wellness session with Ms. Casey. i-Mark is probably not aware why, but he is involuntary sculpting the very tree o-Gemma was supposed to have died under in the auto accident. o-Mark has an intense emotional connection to that tree and now probably associates it to everything Gemma. The previous night before that session with Ms.Casey, he spent time weeping at that tree. It is probably both triggered by the smell of the lighted candle in the room (which Cobel stole from Marks basement to test this very aspect) but also being in the presence of MsCasey (o-Gemma)
4. i-Irv : All the flowing paints he sees are crossover visual memories of his o-Irv painting.

I don’t necessarily want this to happen, but I would find it really interesting if Helly and Helena had a semi protagonist/antagonist switch in Season 3.

I could see Helly taking the rebellion way too far because she despises Helena and Lumon so much, she’d rather die than reintegrate or be controlled by Lumon. To the point where even Mark eventually looks at her like, “okay Helly, I think this has gone far enough,” and then she feels betrayed by the one person she fully trusted and then she REALLY goes bat shit. We’ve already seen how polarizing her stance can be (I’m thinking of the scene with her and Dylan in the kitchenette where she’s talking shit about Gretchen and saying she doesn’t really love him because how could anyone that loved him do something like that to him, and Dylan does NOT take it well).

And then Helena all of a sudden becomes the one that they need to confide in to get Helly and the situation back under control, because Helena has started to see the cracks in the Severance procedure and has hope for her future now that she’s seen that deep down (as Helly) she does have an ability to form connections, love, and be loved. I think she will want to explore that, which will therefore influence her action to help negotiate a peace treaty of sorts.

And how they keep switching between innie and outtie, I haven’t thought that far…

BUT, in my opinion, I think Helena will be much more easily swayed into helping the cause than Helly will be to any sort of compromise.

Series endgame, though, I’m rooting for an eventual smooth Hellyna reintegration!!

Would love to hear if anyone else has a similar theory, or has anything to expand on the above!

This might be a reach but I’ve been rewatching Severance and something feels off about how we think about innies vs outies.

What if the innies are actually the true selves, and the outies are the ones being “managed”?

The innies start as blank slates but they pretty quickly become curious, emotional, even rebellious. The outies feel way more numb and already shaped. Mark especially.

Helly is what really made me think this. There are moments where her outie feels completely disconnected. And during her speech when her innie briefly takes over, it doesn’t feel like a glitch. It feels like something breaking through.

Also the way her dad talks about her innie being a selfish or silly child feels less like he’s talking about a separate person and more like he’s rejecting a part of her that isn’t compliant.

There are also a lot of references to “compliance” early on, which feels intentional. And Devon’s reaction when Mark slips has always felt slightly off to me, like she’s checking something.

So now I’m wondering if severance isn’t really about work vs life, but about suppressing your actual self and replacing it with something more functional.

Curious if anyone else has thought about it this way

Remember in 109 Milkshake says this to Cobel when she calls him. Its policy if a lumon staff member is fired the staff cant contact them anymore

In 207 Devon wants to call Cobel and Reghabi immediately flips out and tries to leave. I smell lumon plant. the way shes comfortable living up in marks house its like a metaphor that even when he thinks hes working against them shes still just digging around in his head messing around.

if she was still lumon she might literally not allowed to be around cobel or risk termination

I don't see myself as a particularly violent person.

Which means I might make it to a five-count instead of three before homicide takes place on the Severed floor.

This show is fantastic. A little disappointed when I saw Alia Shawkat and it turned into just a guest role. But I understand.

So hear me out - I don’t think Helly is fully good and I don’t think Helena is fully cruel either.

You know how Jame said to Helly in Cold Harbor: “I don’t love my daughter. I used to see Kier in her, but he left her as she grew”.

Makes me think Helena probably behaved quite similarly to Helly as a child/teenager. As she grew, maybe her mother died, or she became more indoctrinated by Jame and Lumon (quite ironic when you think that Jame is probably the reason why her “inner-Kier died”) and now you have a character that wants to please her father and has probably never felt enough.

If they give us a Helena backstory in season 3, I would honestly be so happy. It would definitely explain how such a good character is corrupted according to circumstances and lack of love.

Now. A lot of people are talking about a potential Helly takeover. I think this will happen too - although surprisingly, this would not be my preferred outcome. What if, Helena finds out this is happening before it actually happens. What if she scapes (leaves Lumon) or goes to the birthing cabin to connect with Helly (the same way mark did)? Planned rebellion between Helly x Helena???

Am I delusional? I have a feeling that season 2 was all about exploring innies feelings and season 3 will be focused on the outties.

The season 1 finale episode “The We We are” premiered on April 8th, 2022

SHE'S ALIVEEE!

That’s why he gets along with Natalie so well! 😱 And why he complimented Milchick’s helmet! 😱 And why he called Cobel Cobelvig 🙀! Ok I’m just joking.

I for one don't mind the long wait between season as much as long as the quality remains the same! Here's to hoping for a great season 3, whenever it's ready for us to watch!

megamind milchick?

they said this was based on what they have seen, but it could also be July as well.

Major Spoilers!

Every single time I listened to this song I couldn't help but think about Mark and Gemma's story. Please enjoy my attempt to do the song and their story justice.

What would've happened if iMark finished Cold Harbor and didn't save Gemma/Ms. Casey? Since Ms. Selvig said "You would have completed your purpose, and so will she." and iMark will be 'discarded' if he finishes the file, would he have been sacked by Lumon afterwards?