#severance theory

[percyvalli]

I literally cannot get over the religious allegory in Severance. More specifically how the Eagan handbook and The YOU you are by Ricken are presented as opposing religious texts in the innie world. Like The YOU you are is so incredibly important to Mark's innie while being something that outie Mark wouldn't even open is just so poignant. I love the idea that while Ricken is for sure a weirdo he also has ideas that are transformative for the right crowd.

His book is redundant in the outie world because it contains things an outie is already aware of (and some things that an outie would know are false depictions of history). Mostly sense of self and relationships. But an Innie has no prior info on how any of these social/personal conventions are supposed to work except what they are fed by Lumon so a book full of drawn-out explanations of what it means to be a person and what it means to have relationships with other people would in fact change an innie's life enough to warrant a religion-like following of the book. Much like how the Handbook functions for Innie's like Irving.

[no-longer-in-the-laboratory]

As tiny and inconsequential of a moment that it is, there's one singular line in Severance s2 EP 5 that absolutely shattered my heart,

It's in that scene after Irving's funeral, after Milchick pulled Ms. Huang out before she can perform the Theremin, she protests with a simple "But I practiced!"

It's such a harsh reminder that she, above all else, is still a child. It means that she was proud of her theremin playing, and that she actually looks forward to actually getting to play it for people. She complains to Milchick in that scene like a little girl complaining to her father because she missed a chance to prove herself. It's the most human thing we ever hear Ms. Huang say.

And looking at her, what do we even really know about Ms. Huang? Other than the fact that she's young, and claims that she was a crossing guard before working the severed floor? We know she takes the place of Milchick's previous position, and he's not severed. But we got to see Milchick outside of the building. We never see Ms. Huang up to any activities outside of what goes on in the severed floor. Does she live there? After all, how would Lumon be able to cover up the optics of a child working for them? If a kid was publicly working for them, wouldn't the anti-lumon crowd be vocally condemning them? Wouldn't we see someone on the news with a 'Lumon practices child labor' sign?

And if she does live there, and her life working as assistant manager of the severed floor is all she knows, then does that mean that Milchick really is the closest thing she has to a father? And the Innies she oversees, as detached from them as she is- (hence the "I'm your supervisor, not your friend" line) Close enough to a family that some part of her craves the idea of impressing them?

When did she practice? Does she have any free time to do so? Did she cram extra time on the instrument during meal breaks? Did she learn the theremin completely from scratch down there? If so, did she start practicing by playing kier hymns? Has she tried to compose her own songs?

'But I practiced!' is the most emotion we see Ms Huang express and I think it's absolutely gutwrenching considering the implications.

[severancedeciphered]

♦️ Gemma and Petey parallels ♥️

[artisanhuman]

So you know how in 1x05 Helena is the person Mark rescues from the elevator, not Helly?

Imagine you go work as normal one morning and your next moment in time you’re helplessly hanging from the same elevator by your neck. You struggle, terrified, and painfully fading until you go unconscious. Your next memory is blurry, possibly not even real. It’s of two strangers, one of whom is so incredibly torn and concerned over you, he has to be physical ripped from you and dragged away. You’ve never felt anything like that before. Love perhaps, but in it’s pure form.

Helena might as well have thought Mark S was an Angel or whatever Kier equivalent existed in Kier Heaven, because everything was so white of course she must be dead.

Then the next time you see this guy it’s weeks later, he’s on a tiny screen. He’s real and talking to a version of you. The scene on the screen happened hours before this moment, but you have no memory of it. You’ve watched these familiar yet strange people develop something between them that looks exciting, but unavailable to you.

Then you see this version of you, the version whose life you can never remember, run to kiss this man who saved you and clearly cared for you.

And you have no memory of the weight of his lips kissing you back, or the taste of his mouth at all.

Yes, stalking him and deceiving his innie are very bad responses to this, but I 1000% understand how she’s so obsessed with Mark Scout.

[angelofdumpsterfires]

severance as a concept fascinates me bc where and how do you draw the line between an individual’s memory and generalised knowledge of a populace, when does someone know too much trivia about something for it to just be pop culture, the innies know the names of US states and their general geography (did you see any buttes?) but when does that become personal experience? is there a standard for general knowledge they set? if so are certain “general knowledge” areas deemed “inconvenient” and made blank like memory ? does an innie have any knowledge of the baseline laws/political state of their country? (i’d argue they don’t given their reception to ricken’s book)

alternatively is it just hoped that cutting off personal memory is enough to remove the individual’s knowledge? is irv’s knowledge of art theory a standard amount or is it an artifact of his outie being a painter?? WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE? IS THE LINE DRAWN DIFFERENTLY FOR DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS?

[brittlesoldier]

I just realized the fact that Cobel pretended to be a lactation consultant could be related to Lumon's fertility clinics and most importantly Jame's plan to have more kids in the shadows. We already know she's a scientist and we know for sure she understands very well how brains work since she's the one who came up with the brain chip™. So for all we know she could be a doctor

This made me question, what if Cobel wasn't one of the women Jame had a kid with but actually was the one helping other women to give birth? Maybe that's why she knows how to get in and out of the birthing retreat and get the OTC activated in there

And imagine if Cobel was one of the doctors who helped Helena's mother to give birth to her

[but-i-want-to-live-with-you]

Interesting exchange I found on reddit about the "meet you at the equator" moment:

(link in the last comment: https://people.com/crime/donald-cline-netflix-documentary-fertility-doctor-impregnated-patients-own-sperm/)

Also (if you haven't noticed already) Lumon in its logo is at the equator- a building so big it's a continent

[happybirthdaydarling]

S2e8 really said no actually Cobel was obsessed with Mark because he’s the perfect test specimen of her invention. It’s not deeper.

She’s loyal to Kier because they indoctrinated her. She created severance and that’s why she wanted the severed floor so badly. She’s a mad scientist who got had her invention stolen by the company that created her.

Cobel’s backstory being simple and to the point was so shocking and refreshing. Her mother died from breathing problems caused by the Lumon factory. She was huffing ether at 8. She never got to grieve or say goodbye.

Did the idea of severance get birthed from her grief too?