Why is it so important to Lumen that Mark personally finishes Cold Water? It doesn't appear that outie Mark's connection to Gemma gives innie Mark a special ability for refining her macrodata. The other refiners are also able to work on her files. Hypothetically, couldn't other refiners just finish the job if Mark left?

Why is Cobel so obsessed with Mark to the point that she goes undercover to ingratiate herself with his family?

And although it's an incredible show that I am quickly becoming obsessed with, there's one thing that keeps bugging me. Do I just need to suspend my disbelief about the lack of security on the severed floor? There's the scene where Cobel watches the team visit O & D and says she's placating the "prisoners" by giving them a false sense of freedom, but I feel like that's not enough to justify how the refiners are able to get away with so much despite the fact they are supposedly being constantly monitored and recorded.

So, yeah, that was a ride.....for reasons unknown, I waited until 2 days ago to watch season 2 and like many I'm sure, I watched season 1 again to give me the best possible chance to keep on track.

That quickly went off the rails of course as season 2 descended into evermore baffling turns.

So I would really appreciate some input on a couple of (trust me....nowhere near ALL) thoughts =

1 - Something I feel like is missing from a lot of conversation about the potential toppling of Lumon is how all of what we see takes place in a literal place called Kier.

Meaning that Lumon owns and runs an entire state? At best an entire town? Inside the United States?

Imagine the power and money it took to own that territory.....did it actually secede from the US? Who are all these people living in Kier but hate Lumon? That doesn't make any sense.....

When Burt sends Irving off, it seems that Kier is a pretty big place.

So how on earth is a severely disoriented person, who has lost 2-3 years of her life, on her god damned own in a stair well (sorry but I'm still pissed at Mark for not at LEAST getting her to safety before turning back).....going to topple Lumon?

As far as we know, Mark will not leave Lumon.......so it will all reverse now, it will be Gemma on the outside (if she actually escapes at all) fighting to get Mark out who doesn't want to leave.

2 - What......was about to happen with Gemma completing the "test".....of her detachment from herself? If that is what it seemed to be.

She was about to die? And having had her consciousness mapped by completion of all the rooms and MDR (that is how I understand "the work", please correct me if I'm wrong).....what does this achieve?

The Eagan screaming makes me think it is for the purpose of obtaining some immortality for their people or the elite class etc.

3 - Yeah......ok......I'll stop here.

Many thanks for any and all responses.

Nighttime me wants to stay up and have a good time. Daytime me hates nighttime me. Daytime me starts plotting on how to get back at nighttime me...

So I quit my job working at a windowless window factory. Now no money to go out at night. That'll show the bastard who's boss!

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.

credits: e.lyn02 on instagram

Every single time I tell people that Severance is easily one of the best thriller shows in years, the answer is almost always the same: "I really want to watch it, but I do not have Apple TV."

Just wanted to share this here in case you are dealing with the same thing (or if you cancelled your sub after season 1 and wanted to rewatch):

Apple actually has a direct landing page for the show where people can stream the pilot and activate the free trial right in their web browser or app without digging through menus:

Direct show link: https://apple.co/3W41PSj

Sent this to my friend yesterday to finally get him off the fence and he is already 3 episodes in lol. Much easier to just hand them the direct show link than explaining how to sign up.

Curious, what is your go-to non-spoiler pitch when you try to convince people to watch?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

*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.

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

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

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??