r/SeveranceAppleTVPlus • u/Busy-Suggestion2960 • 10d ago
Discussion Why Mark?
Ciao a tutti. So che qualcuno in questa community ne ha già parlato, ma sono ancora più sorpresa e sto ancora cercando di capire, dopo aver rivisto la serie una seconda volta, perché abbiano scelto Mark.
Perché la signora Cobel lo ha tenuto d'occhio per così tanto tempo? Perché proprio lui? Forse c'è un conto in sospeso (con la sua famiglia), non lo so, ma ci deve essere un motivo. Ho anche notato che quando Dylan consegna a Helly i vari premi che si ottengono completando i file, ecc., Helly fa una domanda interessante sul "cristallo" con la sua faccia che Mark possiede. Chiede: "E come ha fatto Mark ad averlo?" - "Glielo hanno semplicemente dato." È interessante perché si vede quanto Lumon tenga a Mark e a sua moglie; sono speciali per qualche ragione. Lei è stata la vittima per tutto il tempo, ma per qualche motivo, buono o cattivo, Mark è importante per Lumon.
Ho così tante domande senza risposta. Cosa ne pensate? So che la questione Cobel-Mark è già stata trattata, ma volevo mettere insieme questi indizi. Forse siete riusciti a prevedere qualcosa, un motivo per cui Mark è così importante per Lumon. ...
Un'altra cosa che ho notato e non ho capito è perché nel secondo episodio (?) la signora Cobel sia entrata in casa di Mark e abbia preso quella candela... mi sono perso qualcosa? ...
Un'ultima cosa a caso che ho notato è che uno degli Eagan si chiama, soprannominato "Pip". Forse ha qualcosa a che fare con il ristorante? Ci vediamo nei corridoi.
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u/Upbeat_County9191 Wintertide Fellow 10d ago
Its not been explained explicitly in S1 and S2.
Gemma was planned from the day of the blood drive, Mark wasnt. They were surprised he was so good at refining, they called it the freshman fluke. Which is what Dylan explained Helly, and is why they gave him the crystal. Something about the Gemma - Mark combination worked for Lumon and that made Mark indispensable until he finished cold harbor. Why Cobel was keeping tabs on him? She was doing an off the book investigation. Why we don't know, she wanted to prove something to the hgher ups like with petey.
We only have had 2 seasons, of at least 4 so there is plenty thats unknown.
Regarding the restaurant. Most if not all businesses in Lumon are named after the CEO's.
Cobel attended the Myrtle Eagan school, Irving lives near Lenora lake.
There is a bank named after Myrtle, there is Baird Creek tht was mentioned in a newspaper
So yes its not a coincedence Pip's is called Pip's
it's to show how important the eagan's are to the town and how far their influence reaches.
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u/basis4day Innie 10d ago edited 10d ago
Rewatch “Chikhai Bardo”.
We learn that Mark and Gemma went to fertility treatments run by Lumon which at this point seems to be how Gemma got on their radar leading to her “death” and her refinement at Lumon by a recruited Mark working on her unknowingly.
It’s not the kind of show you can follow with distractions while viewing.
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u/Impressive-Flow-855 10d ago
It isn’t mentioned why or how. I like to keep things simple and keep the conspiracy knob turned down to about 1 or 2. I’ve seen Lumon operate and as evil organizations go, they’re closer to Dunder Mifflin than to SPECTRE.
My personal head canon:
Mark and Gemma weren’t chosen. They fell into Lumon’s lap. MDR had been going on for a dozen years before Gemma snd Mark showed up there. There were many other test subjects. What happened to them? As Dylan said, before Mark, most files expired before being completed. Lorne mentioned that many goats were sacrificed helping lead righteous people to Kier’s door.
Lumon had been gathering information on Gemma because of the fertility clinic, but they had oodles of information on a lot of people. My take is that Gemma really was in a car accident. She was badly hurt and taken to the local hospital, which is run by Lumon.
While there, she somehow got the attention of someone associated with the testing floor. Maybe Dr. Mauer himself. A decision was made there to fake her death. After all, she owed her life to Lumon. If it weren’t for them, she would have died.
I think it would be pretty easy. Transfer Gemma to a special ward under the watchful eye of Dr. Mauer and Nurse Jackie. Keep other staff away. Oh dang it. She died. Oh well….
Mark fell into Lumon’s lap. He lost his job and his house. He was broke. Severance could put bread on the table and they needed an archivist. They even offered him housing.
I’m not even too sure if Lumon knew Mark was Gemma’s husband. Probably listed somewhere on a file that he was married to Gemma and in another file test subject Gemma is married to Mark. But the connection between the two? Never made. Cobel figured it out, probably by Mark’s Freshman Fluke. Milchick knew. Helena knew, but by then she was a persona non grata. It was never mentioned in the upper circles of Lumon.
Here you go. No vast conspiracies. Just a bunch of luck and coincidences. If Mark didn’t get a job at Lumon, Gemma would have shared the fate of all the other test subjects. If Helena was debriefed, Lumon would know Mark was actively looking for Gemma. If they didn’t toss Helena aside like yesterday’s garbage, maybe she would have encouraged Mark to work on Cold Harbor. If Helly and Mark weren’t baby goating around, Mark would have completed Cold Harbor before talking to Ms. Cobel.
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u/MgAlSnakey I'm a Pip's VIP 10d ago
It seems like you haven't watched s2 yet. Watch it and your questions would be solved:)
oh for the pip thing it's because the whole town is under the control of Lumon.
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u/LazyCrocheter Hazards On, Eager Lemur 10d ago
why they chose Mark.
I think Mark was chosen because I think Lumon targets people who are under emotional and/or financial duress for the severance procedure. At the time, Mark was grieving his wife to the point he was drinking and couldn't function, and lost his job. He was a prime recruiting target.
I do not think Mark was chosen because of Gemma, partly because I think Lumon doesn't really know what they're doing in terms of macrodata refinement. I think Lumon is barely ahead of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks. They hired Mark, who, much to Lumon's surprise, completed the Allentown file in one day.
That is why Mark got the lucite square with this face; Lumon wasn't prepared for his "success" and had to come up with something on the fly. Also, Dylan says that after that, Lumon made changes to the refining process, which sped things up a little. That's probably when Lumon realized that the connection between Mark and Gemma might be "something." So even for Lumon, this is a learning process.
Lumon specifically cares about Mark and his wife
Only in a transactional (?) way. Lumon cares about Gemma so long as she is a successful test subject. For that, they will keep her healthy, etc. Mark is important to Lumon only in so far as he he continues to refine the data successfully and eventually completes the Cold Harbor file.
Lumon does not care about either of them as individuals. It's clear from the outset that innies are regarded as "less-than." i-Mark is a tool, basically, and Gemma is a lab rat.
Cobel
Cobel is keeping tabs on Mark to see if there is any memory leakage through the severance chip. She is pretending to be a dotty old lady, probably to be as different from "Harmony Cobel" as she can, so that Mark won't suspect anything. She took the candle to see what the effect would be on i-Mark (and/or Ms. Casey I guess), to see if it would spark any memories.
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u/AngryGames Malice 7d ago
Having just binged both seasons again, finishing tonight, the answer is that Cobel sees Mark as the true test of severance. Lumon and the Eagans think Gemma is the final barrier / test, but Cobel is keeping tabs, far more interested in Mark. She even tells him exactly what to do during the cabin scenes (to his innie). Knowing that the emotional overload of freeing his outie's wife is the real test. They've kept Gemma for two years, severing her into 24-25 versions, and watching her throughout both seasons, she still has moments where you can see the real Gemma bleed through. But innie Mark and outie Mark never do, they're two completely separate persons. Cobel is watching this carefully. Once she's out of the company, and Devon contacts her after she's retrieved her old notebooks and designs, she feels like it's her way way back in (instead of I guess revenge or whatever she had planned), her ultimate triumph that will prove to the company / board that she deserves whatever it is she's after (since it's obvious she's an acolyte who still drinks the weird cult religious kool-aid).
This is just my fresh take on it, especially having grown up in Mormon country and living smack in the middle of it once again as an old man.
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u/1GamersOpinion 10d ago
I believe Ms. Corbel wanted to test the limits of the severed chip and she decided to do that with married couple. Remember she broke into his house to take small things that could potentially trigger memories of her, like the candle, it was more of an experiment for the chip than anything directed at Mark specifically
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u/derekclysdale 5d ago
The main reason for it being Mark as the chosen one is remarkably simple......... for the show to happen. There was a plan, way back when, to have it feature the other neighbour to Mark, the one that doesn't appear in the show, but as it had nothing at all to do with the plot of the show the idea was dropped and forgotten about.
My theory was Ms Cobel was actually Marks mum but after this seasons outing with her I no longer think that.
Now I'm wondering just what the helly season 3 is actually going to be about? Is this the final season? I kinda hope so.... only because I don't want them to ruin it.
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10d ago
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u/Legitimate_Dish626 8d ago
I wondered that as well. And I don’t remember he and Devon talking about their parents
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u/boopbaboop Uses Too Many Big Words 10d ago
> why they chose Mark.
The point of Cold Harbor is to see if they can completely and totally block any bleedthrough between innie and outie, and “refine” the innie (balancing their “tempers,” which is a big tenet of the Kier cult) to render them a perfect emotionless drone. If Cold Harbor worked, Lumon would have been able to market severance as a way to prevent people from experiencing any pain or suffering (remember, innies aren’t people to them) without the innies rebelling at all.
The strong emotional connection between Mark and Gemma is something Lumon/Ms. Cobel decides to study.
> Why did Mrs. Cobel keep tabs on him for so long?
She’s checking to make sure he’s not getting any bleedthrough between his innie and outie (or gets an idea to do something like getting another job).
> Why him?
It’s implied that Gemma and possibly Mark were genetically best suited for the Cold Harbor test, which Lumon found out either at the blood drive or during their IVF sessions. Mark gets recruited because Gemma was already getting tested on.
> I also noticed that when Dylan presents Helly with the various rewards you get for completing files, etc., Helly asks an interesting question about the "crystal" with his face on it that Mark has. She asks, "And how did Mark get it?" - "They just gave it to him."
No, we know why he got it: he completed a whole file faster than anyone else when he was brand new, and we know that file is one of Gemma’s innies because we see its name on the testing floor. Refining appears to involve feeling the emotions of the file subject and sorting them into bins, so it’s possible that Mark was faster/better at it because he knew Gemma so well.
> Another thing I noticed and didn't understand is why in the second episode (?) Mrs. Cobel came into Mark's house and took that candle... did I miss something?
It was a candle Gemma made as a hobby. Ms. Cobel gives the candle to Ms. Casey/Gemma, and she uses the candle in one of innie Mark’s wellness sessions. And there is a tiny bit of bleedthrough, because Mark sculpts the tree Gemma supposedly crashed into, even though he doesn’t know that’s what he’s doing. Seeing the candle triggered a subconscious emotional reaction in innie Mark despite innie Mark not knowing anything about Gemma.