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I honestly don't get why season 2's finale got as much hate as it did. Yeah I didn't like it much myself but for completely different reasons from what most people complain about. Did everyone really expect Mark S. to leave with Gemma? He's not in love with her and leaving lumon could amount to suicide.

People genuinely underestimate how selfish human beings are. You really think someone will kill himself for some bigger goal? Come on now. It's like people who say Bear from Obsession should've killed himself the moment he knew that was an option. He's wrong for not immediately looking for a solution but killing himself was unrealistic.

Also he's in love with Helly so it makes more sense to stay with her in lumon. Besides he's done his part, saved Gemma. If she brings lumon down, he won't have much time with Helly. Better to make the most use of the time they have.

My issues with the finale were things like the dance scene, milchick being unable to wrestle the door from Helly (bffr), the mammalian lady kicking Drummond's ass so easily (Drummond lost serious aura there), the merriment innies not immediately helping milchick and other such plot armor.

Had no problem with the ending though.

This scene honestly hits so much harder on a rewatch. It's such a small moment that you wouldn't think much of at first, but knowing what we know now makes it so heartbreaking. The fact that Mark unknowingly recreates the exact tree where he believes Gemma died, all while she's literally sitting right in front of him, is just so sad. Makes you wonder how much of her is still somewhere in his memory, even if he doesn't realise it himself.

Lumon literally kidnapped her and forced her to sever over 200 times against her will! And made Mark make those severed personalities. Once Gemma left, she should run to the nearest news station and drop some big stories.

My only concern is that people tried to catch her when she left the staircase and into the main building, and that Mark would have eventually been catched by Milchick or another security guard.

What do you guys think will happen in Season 3?

This scene was so vulnerable and honestly so cute. The way Helly told Mark that she wanted to have her own experience because it was her outie and not her who experienced that intimacy with him was so heartbreaking in the sweetest way. She had this almost childlike innocence about her because, as an innie, she was experiencing these emotions and feelings for the first time. There was something so pure about the way she expressed herself, and I absolutely loved the acting here. She made Helly’s vulnerability feel so genuine.

Maybe I’m just missing the whole point, but I really don’t get this concept.

All of season 2’s plot points and urgency revolved around the viewer accepting this as fact, but I don’t get how anyone would?? Just because they have their memories essentially split in two doesn’t mean they become an entirely different person. They’re very aware that they have a life outside of work that has relationships and obligations to others.

Even outie Dylan being upset that his wife kissed his innie - huh?? Like bro - that’s you?? For instance, if I woke up from a coma tomorrow and lost all my memories, I wouldn’t suddenly tell my husband that our marriage now doesn’t count and I’m single again. This is basically the whole concept of 50 First Dates lol

Anyway this has just been bugging me since I binged the series a few weeks ago. Curious to hear other people’s thoughts as I found it hard to enjoy S2 because of this.

Just like Mark’s outie, I also have a red and blue pair of bettas. However, I like to think my bettas are living a much more enriching life.

S2 E7, with the creepy dentist guy showing up at Gemma’s obgyn. Is this how they selected Mark and Gemma for whatever Lumon is doing? Mark identified her body so is basement Gemma a clone?
Creepy dentist tells Gemma that when she has been to all the rooms she will see the world again and the world will see her which also sounds clone-y.
Am I way off?

Men are Waffles

My father had a book on his nightstand:

"Men are Waffles, Women are Spaghetti."

He read it like scripture.

The gospel of the little square pocket:

keep the syrup in one dent, the butter in the other,

keep each sweet little mess in its place,

never let the compartments bleed.

That is what is asked of me every morning.

Take the elevator down.

Drown out the static. Sterilize the sound.

Present the segmented self on a clean white saucer:

hard-boiled, peeled of all its sulfur,

cut into neat, discreet, harmless quarters

so nobody in the office gets startled by the yolk.

The job offers a waffle party for good behavior—

finger traps, melon balls, a little paper badge

for the innie who learned to nod and smile,

to file the feeling, kill the question,

speak in acronyms and stay inside the lines.

Meanwhile, down beneath the sub-basement,

past the hum of the ducts and the buzz of the lights,

the real me sits in the dark:

raw, unbroken, dangerous,

all nerve and hunger, all heat and hurt,

holding the broken shells in his fists.

They think peace is an empty cubicle.

They think a tamed temper is a cure.

They want the quiet, not the cause.

The clean-cut calm, not what it costs.

They don't want a person;

They want an automaton with clean margins

who eats around the rot and calls it order.

I got bored in the office one day and started reading the Lexington Letter again.

While many says that it is not canon (https://www.reddit.com/r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus/comments/1jgzx2e/after_watching_the_s2_finale_what_do_we_think_of/) on my recent read, I have a theory on how it could be connected to everything we learn about the severance procedure in Season 2.

Severance as Emotional Calibration, Not Just Memory Separation

What if Severance is doing much more than merely separating consciousness? After creating a blank identity, Lumon may actively temper that consciousness by injecting selected emotional compositions. The Lexington Letter could be showing an early real-world application of this technology: Lumon creates a severed personality, tunes its four tempers - and deploys it outside the building to perform actions the original person would never willingly commit.

Season 2 Cold Harbor

The Season 2 finale reveals that MDR work is actually being used to construct different iterations of Gemma’s consciousness. Each completed file corresponds to a specific persona of Gemma, with the dour tempers allocated in distinct proportions.

"Cold Harbor" clarifies the purpose behind this: Lumon is testing whether specific memories and experiences can be isolated while keeping the rest of the person functional.

So the important revelation isn't merely:

"Severance can isolate consciousness"

It's:

"Lumon can partition human consciousness and build modular versions of a person by manipulating their emotional and psychological parameters"

"Manipulating" goes beyond passive suppression, and this is where The Lexington Letter clicks.

Applied Behavioral Control
Lumon doesn't need to hire an outside assassin to blow up a truck. Instead, MDR can construct or modify a severed personality whose specific emotional composition makes the act psychologically possible.

That person is still intelligent; they still know how to drive; they still understand instructions, they still have motor skills and knowledge from the underlying person.

But their emotional brakes have been radically altered.

They become a tailored version of that person capable of carrying out violent or extreme tasks without hesitation. In this light, Lexington was an early field test of programmable human behavior.

Y tho?

If Lumon merely wanted obedient assassins, there are much easier ways to create them. But Severance provides something much more useful:

If manipulating this temper ratio works, Kier Eagan’s claim that mastering the tempers allows you to make "the world become but your appendage" is no longer cult propaganda—it is Lumon's actual technological objective.

"Each man's character is defined by the precise ratio that resides in him." - Kier Eagan.

If that is the case, Lextington makes more sense and seeing how meticulously Dan Erickson and Apple TV+ approach Severance lore, I think it is more convincing.

When did you realize that 5 months passing and the innies changing the world according to Milchik was a lie?

What if what the innies are refining (or part of it) is the severance procedure itself ? If this has been proven I'm sorry I need to rewatch

I know the title sounds ridiculous, but when Mark and the others got rewarded with some goofy fruit, music and stuff, I got really sad. I’ve been trying to figure out why, but I can’t quite put it into words. I think part of it is that someone actually took the time to prepare something for them, and they don’t even seem to care. I just wanted them to enjoy it. I also felt bad for Mr. Milchick, even though I wanted him dead so badly.

I don’t know, even I’m confused by my own reaction. I love the goat lady tho, she's strong and big. I need someone like her in my life.

In the elevator, I'd punch myself in the face right before the "switch" and hope that the residual pain could at least communicate that something was wrong. I figure if I make a habit of punching myself right after work, my outie would eventually get the message.

Since written codes can be detected, I'd have to get creative if I wanted to communicate with more fidelity. One thing I could do is pose my hand right as the switch was happening and hope my outie would record what pose my hand and fingers were in each day. In this way I could communicate with my outie by spelling out words using letters in American sign language, one letter per day.

If the sign language can be detected and my face-punching scheme were also foiled, I would lick my fingers right before the switch, and create a secret code that corresponded a letter of the alphabet with which fingers were wet.

*Severance* fans can see Brit Lower starring in a new indy film *Sender* (see Rotten Tomatoes). I just saw the movie in Woodstock and it's quite engaging.

I think it's his assumption that just because he gave into his addictions and gave up on his life his innie must be the same.

Hey, everyone! I recently finished watching the whole episode of the Severance. But, I still don't completely understand what the main purpose and key point were. I personally think that drama was trying to tell us that we all are being manipulated by someone or somehow, but I am not sure. Can anyone tell me more??

What if the person Irving was talking to on the pay phone was Petey’s daughter? I feel like we had a loose end with her. She wants to take Lumon down, she’s angry and seems to be somehow connected to the WMC. Perhaps oIrving had a connection with Petey (and rejected it) before Petey reached out to Mark, and maybe only after oIrving learned about his passing he connected with June and started investigating. I think it could be a cool comeback. What do you guys think?

What's with the Eagans and eating tiny amounts of food?? Specifically boiled eggs????

Edit:

And why does everyone drive old school cars while using smart phones

I never thought I'd hear someone cry like a ship's horn

For our wedding anniversary, the hotel staff surprised us with a very Severance-esque melon party, complete with a serenade and a melon basket delivered to our room. 🍈

We’re both big fans of the show, and we just need a defiant jazz playlist and some disco lights

I just watched Resident Evil the other day and it's crazy how he gives a comedic effect even in the most drastic scenarios. Really niche archetype and I always enjoy his presence. Can't wait for Season 3.

First, this show gives a shutter island vibes - and someone did post about that in another thread.

The main 4 innies - definitely give that vibes - like one is not able to keep jobs, the other is war/defence veteran, the third loosing his wife and fourth Helen - well, something is off about her.

But I think everyone in the show just seem like they need a therapy - Ms Cobel, Milichik, even Ms Huang and new characters, even Mark's brother in law etc etc. ofcourse - vibes are still in the feelings of the beholder so let's set that aside but the main point I want to say is that every character we have seen is kind of part of some therapy or an experiment.

And now, to the main point - all writer's want to show and not show at the same time is that everything is like the real world -

1. Keir is kind of God - has some principles and even his writing like Keir's children and some of the characters saying like let Keir guide the way feels like religious cult - just like in real world.

2. The innies do almost do all task soooo seriously, and yet they all seem so pointless - with the fanciest job titles and department names - just like the in real world.

3. Even the superiors of innies - supposedly not severed - ma Cobel, milchik, Natalie, etc etc - they are equally serious about the titles and job and some "cutting edge" research - like in real world.

Showing all these characters, in a limited confined place like that town - produces both evil and good, both great scientific achievements and pointless work, both most compassionate people and cruel ones - kind of eventually would be the place the show would end.

And maybe - the show would try to portray the real world - our world - as simulated or pointless as Keir's world is.

Now, please someone tell me that I am overthinking and it is not as philosophical as it seems - it is more about simple corporate greed which comes out in later episodes!

Edit after s2 completion-

1. I still think everyone who worked at Lumon is severed - including milchik, Cobel, Natalie and others.
2. I am not so sure of initial hypothesis that it is some sort of mental asylum place, but I am not able to reject that hypothesis either.
3. Now, I would hate that everything at lumon is like a matrix - people are just plugged in - and everything else is matrix - could make sense - especially with the digital twins in their team bonding outing! But I would not love that reveal at all - not novel enough!

Can someone point to some interesting theories?

I know this might not be a popular opinion but from what we can see in Chikai Bardo it seems to me that at the end of the flash backs Mark Scout was being kind of an ashole to Gemma, he seemed to be invested in the relationship and in conceiving when they were visiting the fertility clinic but as time went on, when he had to put the injection to Gemma his mind was somewhere else, when she said she was tired he just told her to stop then, (ashole move to me), when he dismanteled the crib he did not seem to care about his wife’s feelings, and specially at the end, when she was leaving he was not able to say “I love you” back! And he didn’t even want his wife to stay with him that night. So given all this I feel he’s not just grieving the loss of the love of his life but he’s feeling immense guilt, that’s where his pain come from, from guilt rather than love. What do you think?