red and blu

[rickenhalesbookclub4innies]

SO I was poking around into the 2.08 episode title (Sweet Vitriol) for fun and think I’ve found…something? Idk. But. The extremely limited color palette inside Lumon is the same one that vitriols can be found/made in. There are a few more, but they are all black/white/clear, so I’ve left them off. These are the ONLY color options, including “Sweet oil of vitriol” aka diethyl ether, aka ether, which is what Lumon made(makes??).

Sweet oil of vitriol was an anesthetic for a while, described as having a nauseating sweet odor, extremely volatile and dangerously flammable. Vitriolic meaning bitter or harsh tempered came second and stems from the nature of the ether.

I had more of a point when I started writing this but I lost it when I found the color thing. I hope it was intentional because I just think that’s super neat. Wonder if it’s going anywhere if so.

[beforeviolets]

so can we talk about the water stuff going on in severance? my current running list:

the lumon logo being a water droplet

the higher ups wearing water droplet pins

the massive water tower as a symbol of lumon

dylan’s theories about their work relating to scouring the ocean floor

petey’s sense of time collapsing between the sink and the shower

irving b being told during wellness that his outie “values water” (what the hell does that mean?)

helly’s rebirth in the waterfall

miss huang’s little water ring game

lots of bodies of water referenced in file names

the export hall guy singing “the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald” (about water and also a vehicle wreck???)

and newly: mark passing out after drinking water (plus all the intense focus on the glass of water!)

definitely worth thinking about, especially when thinking about the use of water in the new intro (the reflection of helly and gemma beneath mark in his water flooded brain, the car sinking into the icy water, etc.) !!!

[severed-radar]

also: the old sea town where Cobel lived, the coast where she and mark and devon meet, all the sea shots, cold harbor, the waterfall, the iced lake, the SNOW, the red and blue fishes that mark has in his house, Helena's swimming pool, the overall cold/blue coloring of the series

[operafish]

you arrive at work (hungry, as usual) excited for more under-tarp sex with your work husband only to find that he's not there. when you ask your boss about it he berates you. you talk to your only remaining work friend about it, but he blames you for not being able to be with his not-work wife and then kills himself. you decide to seek out the treasure map hidden by your other dead work friend. the treasure is your work husband's not-work wife, who is currently trapped in work hell. you're trying to memorize the directions in your darkened office (no work is being done). and then elon musk walks in

[boasamishipper]

sooooooooooooo many things to scream about tonight but number one on the list is the difference in the ways dylan and mark's outies talked to their innies. from the get-go mark scout is nothing but patronizing to mark s. he created mark s as an escape from his grief, and now he wants to use mark s as a means to an end to save his wife and pick up his life where he abandoned it. he gets helly's name wrong and calls her 'the person you're seeing' because he doesn't recognize mark s's humanity. he sees mark s as an extension of himself, and he only loves gemma, so of course whatever mark s feels for helly can't be real or worth fighting for. and when mark s understandably doesn't see it his way, mark scout lashes out, calling mark s a child.

but then you have the letter dylan george wrote to dylan g. in three paragraphs dylan george talks to his innie like an adult, like they are peers. he's angry at dylan g, but at the same time, he understands why dylan g did what he did. he would have done the same if he were in dylan g's place. after years of being jealous of his outie, dylan g learns that his outie thinks he (dylan g) is the one to emulate, the self-assured badass. and where helena and mark scout made their innie's decisions for them ("i am a person. you are not.") dylan george breaks the cycle: he offers his opinion, but ultimately puts the decision back in dylan g's hands.

at the end of this season, dylan g is gifted agency. and after fulfilling his purpose, mark s steals his agency back.

[thebaconsandwichofregret]

The Dylans' conversation: a beautiful affirmation of both of their identities as whole people as well as an acknowledgement of them being intrinsically the same person.

The Marks' conversation: No YOU kill yourself!

[office-anomaly]

i don't want her memory. i want my own.

[covetedasfuck]

The “mad scientist” trope is becoming a lost art, kudos to severance for embracing it so gloriously. She shows up, she kills people, she (probably) stalks you, she steals your snacks and moves into your basement, she’ll do experimental brain surgery any time any place. And she’s kind of adorable. God bless.

[cheungmaggie]

he is so dead wife in these shots

[ringsblingandangelwings]

The concept of Helly R. asking if she was livestock and then later finding out Jame Eagan has been fathering many different children and using the cabins as human farms.

[covetedasfuck]

Kier and Dieter represent:

Kier represents the innie self, Dieter represents the outie self

Kier represents the outie self, Dieter represents the innie self

Neither/Something else

Unsure/See results

Voting ended onFeb 20, 2025

[theterpiel]

I can't believe Kendall Roy's birthday party predicted Dieter Eagan😍

[eagans]

ether as severance + “the courtship of kier and imogene” (relationship parallels)

(just so we’re clear, while the kier-imogene dynamic is clearly paralleled with helena and mark, it is also reiterated in cobel and mark, dr mauer and gemma, and even burt and irving to some extent; season 2 has also made it a point to show us that helena and cobel are both victims in their own ways while being perpetrators. it is not a black and white situation and misogyny will get you blocked.)

original threads: (x), (x)

[manny-jacinto]

SEVERANCE (2022–) #02.08 ‘Sweet Vitriol’

[eggsistential-breakdown]

Milchick is losing it, everyone is having a multidimensional love polyhedron affair, mark is dead. macrodata is NOT getting refined. live laugh love severance season two

[l3v5ha]

seth milchick (thinking about the 65 orchestra members he’s been rehearsing with every tuesday and thursday for the past 8 weeks): so… i have your word you’ll report to work tomorrow?

[markhellyna]

milchick telling the refiners that the waterfall at woe’s hollow is the tallest in the world

[deadpoets]

SEVERANCE 2.10 | Cold Harbor