My thoughts on Severance (scattered and probably don't really make sense but my brain is screaming and I need to tell someone):
1. Mark is Kier (I will not be elaborating lol)
2. Devon may or may not be severed Carol D who left severance after she got pregnant
3. a) Mark and Carol have a minnie baby Eagan maybe ("our baby"/"she's your sister") — making them siblings outside Lumon means that outtie Mark won't try putting it together, like if Devon is married she has no reason to question why she suddenly has a baby
3. b) A lot of people are questioning how a woman who looks like Devon would date a man like Ricken, but that's not a flag for me because looks really don't matter, but what is a flag for me is Ricken's excitment for working for Lumon, like what if he really is an Eagan and his responsibility is to make sure that the newest Eagan addition is doing well (is safe)
4. Helena wants a minnie Kier because she's the CEO (or close enough) and feels that will make her even more important (she's a woman in male dominated field, and may feel that the only way she can be put into higher regard and treated better is if everyone knows she's carrying the future of the Eagan empire) — see how everyone is praising her for getting severed, maybe it's the first time anyone has really praised her for anything and she feels that if she carries the future of Lumon she'll be even more revered
5. Devon may be the lady that got pregnant at work (people keep saying it and I lowkey/highkey agree) and I think the reason she isn't freaking out is either a. They severed her to be Mark's sister (see point 2) or b. She's working for Lumon and doesn't care, which would explain why she's so quick to want to phone Harmony
5. b) If b above, that's definitely why she's so inisitant on calling Harmony because she knows that Severance is Harmony's brain child and she'll be better suited to helping Mark unlike Reghabi, who was part of the team but not the creator so won't know all the intricacies that go into severing
6. a) Back to point 1 (I lied, I will be elaborating), I really am starting to think Mark is Kier reincarnated (even if just mentally and not physically) and the moment he finishes Cold Harbor he'll fully release Kier's consciousness to take over his body
6. b) All the heads of the company were waiting with bated breaths because the moment Mike finishes Cold Harbor, Kier will finally return frfr. They've probably done (finding a Kier reincarnate) this before, maybe with Petey and other MDR team leaders, and each time the innies have failed, but Mike is the first person to get this close to recreating Kier's brainwaves or whatever
6. c) Again, I really do think Mike has been implanted with Kier's subconscious what-what (I can't think of the right term right now) and all Cold Harbor is about is slowly awakening Kier's subconscious.
6. d) The mysterious work they're all doing is probably subliminal messaging of some kind (see how when they're hallucinating the numbers start dancing and making pictures) and the closer one gets to Cold Habor the closer they get to becoming Kier (and this is focusing mostly on the team leaders)
6. e) Mike is the closest anyone has ever gotten to awakening Kier and that's why everyone is so obsessed with him. They're being super careful with him because he could be the future they've been waiting for.
7. Ricken is implanted to make sure that grandfather returns without a hitch, but he didn't put into account that Mike and Devon (Carol D?) genuinely cared for each other and how that may (maybe?) transcend severance???? He's there to push the Lumon agenda.
8. If Ricken is not a secret Lumon implant agent, then maybe he's a different kind of cult leader and he knows that if he works with Lumon that will elevate his positioning as a cult leader with his other cult leader buddies and give him more followers (ie the Lumon employees) — see how everyone wants favour
9. Devon might also just be another Eagan (whether aware or unaware) and Ricken was implanted as her bodyguard (I don't trust Ricken, have you noticed?)
10. a) If Eustice isn't Gemma and Mike's baby than it's a very clever casting choice just because they know that if we see two Asian women where one of them went through the pain of miscarriage and then there's suddenly a little baby Asian girl, we'll all just make assumptions that aren't true
10. b) Miss Huang may still very well be their baby that they really did have but the sereving procedure made them forget that it happened — someone pointed out that the crib is called Cold Abor so the Eagan's could've already implanted themselves into Mike and Gemma's life before they ever really decided to be part of Severance
11. Gemma could've also been working for Severance long before she met Mike, and the meet cute could've been orchestrated but then she really fell in love with him and the reason she's in basement hell is punishment for breaking protocol, and another punishment was her being made the wellness person where she's literally seeing her husband every single day but doesn't remember because the wellness thing is just another door which may well be the Cold Harbor door?????
12. The fertility clinic doctors could've been implants, even before that. If Mike was chosen in childhood to be a potentional Kier carrier, than they'll have been carefully monitoring him for years which would make sense about Gemma choosing them as she might've been one of the people to win the pool of being an Eagan carrier, or she may have also gone to the school where all the girls get prepared to be physical carriers while the men become mental carriers (circa JLaw Russian spy movie — I forgot the name)
13. It'd make sense because Fields talked about how Burt worked for severance for 20 years, it's probably been around for years and they've been trying to return Kier for just as long, maybe parents of petentional Kier carriers were approached many eons ago and they (the leaders) have been watching and waiting and then triggering reasons for carriers to want to be severed.
14. Harmony's work was revolutionary only in that it allowed for the Kier carriers to fully focus on awakening Kier instead of being distracted by the outside world and their outside problems. If you come in and your sole purpose is putting numbers into boxes without having to worry about your dead wife, even better for "the board" — meaning it'll be quicker to get Eagan back
15. a) At this point I feel like if they (the board? Leaders?) could, they'd literally have the innies living in the office: put them in the elevator, go down to change, go back up and back to work without ever leaving the building. But there'd be too much backlash
15. b) But then again, maybe they do that with people who're like homeless or have no one, like the goat farm people (I saw the interview where Adam accidently slipped(??) and played it off as Gwendolyn living in the farm full time) so they are just 100% always there and never leave because nobody is looking for them?
17. Burt might not be severed at all and Irving may be more important to Lumon than meets the eye — I feel like he's working with someone to expose Severance (maybe Petey maybe Burt, maybe a severed Fields??? Who knows at this point)
18. At this point I'm starting to think everyone is an implant/employee and that the towns are fake Lumon-built places with other severed employees play acting as normal people (Harmony's entire childhood home is Lumon manufactured so it could make sense). Because why does Mike's neighbourhood only have 2 people and why is everyone so old over there by Salt what-what where Harmony grew up???? Like they were able to make a whole waterfall and snow so why not towns???
19. Natalie's implant is the board but she puts the earpiece on to make it appear normal, that's why she always looks dead behind the eyes, she's fighting between her own thoughts and those of the board, probably, maybe
20. I have more thoughts probably, but these are the most glaring ones after I watched S02E09
