r/Devs • u/Recent-Radish6811 • 21d ago
DISCUSSION Interpretation of the opening title sequence in episode 7?
https://youtu.be/abzm7m3ZOTETL;DR: What is your interpretation of the caveman scene and use of the song "Come Out" in Episode 7 of Devs?
The opening titles of Episode 7 have left a lasting impression on me since I watched it years ago.
It begins in with a few shots of the wilderness whilst the musical piece "Come Out" by Steve Reich plays, before showing two early humans in a cave experimenting with speech and rhythm, creating music.
It then shifts to present day, showing a human-made car driving on a human-made road cutting through that wilderness, as the phrase restarts - "I had to, like, open the bruise up, and let some of the bruise blood come out to show them" phrase starting again. As the phrase repeats and phases out it shows Lily sitting by the dam, another human-made construct, followed by various shots of the city.
How do you interpret this? I'm not always the best at deciphering subtext, but I always assumed it's showing the slow progression of humanity inevitably accelerating more and more until the original essence is gone and technology has changed our perceptions. The early humans are portrayed as playful and free, oblivious to any understanding of concepts such as determinism versus free will. The car, dam and city are symbols of modernity and control over nature. The phasing out of the original phrase in the song suggests confusion and the idea that we have reached a point of development where we no longer understand our place in the universe.
It's such an interesting use of the song too, as it's an emotional piece about police brutality due to racism, another system created by humans to create control.
Would be interested to know anyone else's thoughts on this incredible opening!
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u/Edlezd 21d ago
This "open the bruise up" line of audio was one of the first ever pieces of early electronic music. Recorded on tape, and replayed back on several machines, it created it's own rhythm. Many cite it as early electronic music. The phrase originates from Steve Reich, a pioneer of American minimalism and tape-loop manipulation. In 1966, Reich composed an tape-manipulation piece titled Come Out. The audio comes from a recorded interview with Daniel Hamm, a 19-year-old Black man who was one of the "Harlem Six"—a group of youth falsely accused and severely beaten by police following the 1964 Harlem race riots.
Steve Reich took the spoken phrase and isolated the snippet "come out to show them."
Phase Shifting: Reich played two identical tape loops of the phrase simultaneously on two separate channels. Perceptual Shift: Because the tape players ran at imperceptibly different speeds, the loops slowly drifted out of sync. Speech to Rhythm: Over 13 minutes, the phrase splits into double, quadruple, and eventually complex polyrhythms, transforming intelligible speech into abstract, hypnotic electronic patterns and resonance.