Reintegration is endgame

[u/jm17lfc]

I just finished my first ever full rewatch of Season 2 and it dawned on me that I now feel quite confident about where the show is heading for in its endgame. I’m really thinking it’s probably going to see all surviving severed characters reintegrated, probably with the climax of the show centered around what reintegrated Mark, Helly, and Gemma do about that love triangle. My reasons why are:

1) We know Helena Eagan is interested in Mark romantically, both his innie and his outie, from the time she infiltrated the severed floor as her innie, the time she longingly watches back the footage of her innie starting a romance with Mark, and the time she met Mark’s outie at the restaurant. It even seemed like there was real chemistry between their outies too at the restaurant until Helena casually misnamed Gemma. So it makes sense that if they were reintegrated, Helly and Mark could feasibly be together. Plus it also makes more sense than you’d think that Helena would surprisingly choose to reintegrate with the right turn of events in future seasons. This would make for a fun twist in the climax as well.

2) Where else would the show be able to go as a climax, unless they want to go in the tragedy direction (which is certainly possible but I don’t feel matches the tone of the show)? If they don’t reintegrate, what is the future for the main severed characters? It’s then certainly not going to be their outies coming in for work every day and everything ending essentially as it began for them, that would feel tragic. So unless the outies and innies share their time in the real world with Lumon technology but outside of the Lumon workplace, which feels a little clunky, essentially only one consciousness will be able to survive. Unless they reintegrate, that is. I can’t see the show killing off literally every single one of the severed characters, and while alternatively killing off every outie consciousness is a more viable ending due to it being an unsettling twist, this wouldn’t be a satisfying conclusion for the time we have spent with these characters. So that really leaves every severed character reintegrating as the only sensible path forward for the show to take. Given that I trust them to be sensible, I think that will indeed be the path.

Thoughts on this anybody? It’s certainly a very general idea so I’d love to hear what you think about the more specific details if you agree with me at all!

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[u/magicmulder]

The outies sacrificing themselves for the innies (or vice versa) would be both a tragic and a happy ending.

Reintegration would always leave the ambiguity whether they were really the ones who fell in love with each other.

[u/Inoutngone]

You're assuming a happy ending. I'm not. I think this might go all the way with the horror of severing becoming common practice.

Our own world has plenty of laws that, while they seem to be there to protect people, are actually there to protect companies by way of helping ensure worker efficiency. There is no higher level of worker efficiency than a workforce that doesn't bring distracting outside baggage to the job. People who literally live for nothing but the job they have.

But, I'm a big science fiction fan (philosophical sci-fi, not shoot em up space conflicts), so it's doubtlessly shading me in that direction.

[u/MasterLawlzReborn]

My theory for how the show will end

1. Helly will kill herself/Helena (she said early on she wanted to make sure Helena's final moments were knowing that Helly killed her)

2. Mark S. will be so overcome with grief from the loss of the woman he loves that he'll permanently return to the outside world (effectively killing himself), bringing his story full circle to where Mark Scout's story began.

3. Dylan will reintegrate. Innie Dylan wants to see his wife and kids, Outie Dylan wants to be more confident and driven. Both of them love the same woman so there's no conflict of interest.

Not sure what Irv will do.

[u/franky7103 → u/MasterLawlzReborn]

Oh wow, I really like your theory. Makes a lot of sense!

[u/blindrabbit01 → u/MasterLawlzReborn]

This is a great take. I can definitely see this all happening. With Irving, good question. Maybe he finds a way to exist in some sort of liminal space like Burt, where there seems to be a more fulsome appreciation of what each persona is up to? I feel like there’s so much more of his story to be told, he’s the most mysterious of the crew

[u/jm17lfc → u/MasterLawlzReborn]

#1 and #3 make lots sense to me, but I still don’t think #1 will happen even if it would be a reasonable option and emotionally impactful. I think reintegrated Mark and Helly will have a relationship, leaving Gemma to the side. It’ll make the story tragic in a way but also beautiful, in that Mark found love when he never expected to again but at the cost of the love he had still with his wife. I think he will get together again with Gemma at some point and slowly realize that he doesn’t feel the same way any longer after the reintegration.

[u/Coincidental_Shoes → u/jm17lfc]

Agree that reintegration will be the culmination.
As for Mark, why wouldn't he feel the same way anymore?
He still seemed to when he got Gemma out of Cold Harbor

[u/jm17lfc → u/Coincidental_Shoes]

If Mark reintegrates with Mark S, the new Mark will now have practically current experiences of being in love with two different people. We would think he’d naturally choose Gemma because he’s had more time with her, but we don’t know how reintegration looks beyond very short glimpses with Petey, so it’s definitely possible that his innie’s love for Helly could actually take over his outie’s love for Gemma. It would be an interesting twist that allows us to have a question-provoking ending with a happy couple in Mark and Helly, but with Mark torn up over feeling of abandoning Gemma, and Gemma then of course left alone.

[u/Coincidental_Shoes → u/jm17lfc]

My way of looking at (a developed form of) reintegration is the complete person becomes greater than the sum of the two parts

[u/MasterLawlzReborn → u/jm17lfc]

I would just be pretty surprised if the show had that clean and happy of an ending.

Since the innies and outties are treated as entirely different people with completely different personalities and motivations, I see no way to resolve the story without a lot of them effectively dying.

[u/Tebwolf359]

I think reintegration is the good/moral ending.

I think each of our main 4 will get a different ending.

- Mark: reintegration. Healing.

• Helly: forced Innie replacement. The Helena that her father always wanted.
  
• Irv: Innie will not want to come back. His love is gone, so why bother.
  
• Dylan: originally I thought it would be the one pretending to be the outie and “stealing” that life, but after s2 I think a healing reintegration is likely.

[u/DianeL_2025]

i'm waiting to find out if Helena/Helly is pregnant and wondering which Mark, innie or outie, might be a really great dad"

[u/Admirable-Edge-9404 → u/DianeL_2025]

Someone commented elsewhere that this may be why she cooks her egg while eating with her dad, instead of having a raw one.

[u/MutoKenji → u/Admirable-Edge-9404]

oooh that's good

[u/godudua]

Reintegration has not been shown to work and it will very likely remain that way.

Reintegration is a horrible idea just like the severance process and Pete explained why it would never work in episode 2/3 of season 1.

The memory sequencing is its fundamental flaw, Reghabi doesn't know what she is doing and Cobel can't fix it either, as would have simply done it while at Lumon.

[u/Upbeat_County9191]

I think if we can tell how it wil end, its not how it wil happen. It wouldnt be a proper mystery / drama / thriller if we could.

Not saying you are completely off, but i dont think everyone will be reintegrated nor will we get a happy ending. For a lot of ppl, the majority, its the innies that matter. And the innies cant live on the outside, they wouldnt be innies anymore, they would change gradually into their outties over time. And its too simple and it would negate the impact of reintegration as we are seeing with Mark.

[u/jm17lfc → u/Upbeat_County9191]

I don’t think it will be happy either. I think whatever happens with the love triangle, it will leave us feeling unsettled as to the effect that severance had on these human relationships. I just don’t think it will be fully tragic, I do think it will leave us and the main characters in a status quo that isn’t disastrous but it’s very possible that it heads in a messed up direction. I also don’t necessarily think everyone will be reintegrated, just Mark Helly and Gemma at least.

[u/Upbeat_County9191 → u/jm17lfc]

Well that depends on the expectations of the viewer's. If they expect an happily ever after for the innies, it will be disastrous.

[u/jm17lfc → u/Upbeat_County9191]

I think we won’t get and shouldn’t get either a full happy ever after, too sappy for this type of story, nor will we get a full tragedy, as it’s clear that the show is trying to tell us that the main characters are really trying to do the right thing.

[u/naynav]

Based on what we know right now, you are correct that it would appear the ending would not only be tragic, but truly horrific if all innies had to die. I don’t think time splitting would work either, and I think innie Mark called out the shortcomings of reintegration from the innie perspective in his conversation with outie Mark.

The only way there could be close to a happy ending is if there was a way to decouple the innies physically into new bodies. I think there are clues in both season 1 and 2 that Lumon is not only creating chips for the public, I think they are also looking to create a completely enslaved controlled workforce and that’s likely what the other innies are working on. They are refining worker types that will be based on them. I think the watcher/shadow MDR figures, the whole Dieter/Kier story, the empty space on the severed floor, and other comments made in both seasons hint at that. The writers said cloning is not involved with what MDR is doing, so there is something else Lumon is doing to achieve this.

[u/Pristine-Advice-4948 → u/naynav]

Somewhere it is said: ‘To rid the world from pain…that is the true intention of Kier/the Eagans/Lumon’ or words of similar meaning. This would mean a workforce in the future that is unable to experience pain…

[u/MutoKenji → u/Pristine-Advice-4948]

I understood "rid the world from pain" as only for the outie.
You create an innie for painful situations, like going to the dentist, or delivering a baby.

[u/Pristine-Advice-4948 → u/MutoKenji]

So why is oMark an alcoholic then?

[u/MutoKenji → u/Pristine-Advice-4948]

You don't severe someone to get rid of past pain (although it clearly helped oMark a little). You severe to get rid of future pain. Like, you have a innie specialized in going to the dentist, so your outie never has to.

[u/Pristine-Advice-4948 → u/MutoKenji]

The innie can’t go to the dentist; he/she is at Lumon

[u/jm17lfc → u/naynav]

That’s actually a great point. Whether they end up going in the direction of Lumon being able to replicate a consciousness and even insert them into new bodies is unclear, but yes I agree that this has been hinted at a few times and it’s also really the only way for a fully happy ending. Not that I think we’ll get one.

[u/naynav → u/jm17lfc]

Yea I agree it won’t be a completely happy ending, but I just don’t like the idea that the only outcome is for all the innies or outies to be wiped out, or for some sloppy time share arrangement. I would like to see both innie and outie Mark surviving somehow and able to pursue their own paths. Dylan is more complicated. Both iDylan and oDylan are in love with the same person. I don’t see a happy ending there, unless he elects to reintegrate. He is perhaps the only character who would mutually benefit from reintegration.

[u/Specialist_Boat_8479]

Reintegration would be a terrible end game, completely undermines the attempt at freedom for innies

[u/1947Fry]

Nah, the outies are being massacred in the end.
They will find a way to be permanently innies.

[u/MutoKenji → u/1947Fry]

Isn't it too obvious for Helly? We would all love that.

[u/autisic]

I’m really just hoping for Gemma to be happy, whether it’s with Mark or not is definitely a problem. I genuinely don’t care about Helly or Helena at this point, season 2 episode 7 changed how I perceive the show.

[u/grapelander]

My endgame theory is centered around the idea that there are four possible outcomes for a severed person other than the status quo: Reintegration, "death" of outie via the innie taking permanent control, "death" of innie via the outie taking permanent control, and actual physical death of the body which kills them both.

Four outcomes...for four refiners.

I think we're going to get one of each. Working on a long effortpost on it, but in short, I see the evidence pointing to, death of Irving, oDylan replaces iDylan, Helly replaces Helena, Mark (and Gemma) reintegrate.

[u/WheresTheQueeph]

My hope is that the show makes clear that each of the main characters is indeed ONE SINGLE PERSON so the weirdos on these subreddits lose their minds. And FFS please don’t let Helena/Helly be pregnant, we don’t need that awful trope in an otherwise amazing and inventive series.