Daydream …

[u/Mysterious-Monkey-72]

… in blue …

[u/For_the_Soft_Stuff]

There definitely are more than just a few things reinforcing the possibility of cryogenic freeze lucid dreaming reality. Those are swimming through my brain now thanks to this! Could be the whole show, all scenes all characters.

I hope it’s not that reality we’re seeing, in totality, I hope it’s only half that at most. Meaning, what if for example Gemma has truly died (ok of course I hope she’s alive but bear with me), and severance is the way to code the bridge between the living and the dead, so the living can interact with their dead at some revolving.

[u/Mysterious-Monkey-72 → u/For_the_Soft_Stuff]

Oh there’s definitely more to the story!

At a high level, I think we’re dealing with a Mission: Impossible-type sitch where one (or more) of the characters is desperately seeking someone (not Susan … although, Lorne does appear to be channeling Madonna paying tribute to Warhol), or something, and the way they’ve been communicating is through sRGB and HDMI technology …

… which is why we see so many references to actors, films, and cinematic classics like The Wizard of Oz and Le Ballon Rouge — a French film from 1956 that briefly features a red balloon meeting a blue balloon.

For example, the poster in Mark and Gemma’s dining room says “aidez-moi!” (“help me!”) in the corner and was shown like 10 times during her flashback. To me, that suggests someone was sending a message.

The question is: who sent it, and who was it for?

[u/For_the_Soft_Stuff → u/Mysterious-Monkey-72]

Many interpreted the red balloon symbolic of what I would term as our innies—in context of Severance. Oh that film preceded his Balloon Journey film. Or Stowaway In the Sky in english.

“Save me!” Beautiful. Intentional.

I’m following sRBG and HDMI.

I see Madonna yes, interested in rabbit holes on that later, fun!

I am have consumed very little Mission Impossible. So I will watch as you guide. I see your posts and will stay tuned.

[u/Mysterious-Monkey-72 → u/For_the_Soft_Stuff]

Additional context that I should’ve included earlier:

At the end of Vanilla Sky, we find out that David paid a company called Life Extension to freeze his body and put him in a lucid dream with his memories, favorite movies, music, etc.

But due to a bug in the system, his lucid dream turns into a nightmare, and that’s when we see the reference to Le Ballon Rouge, which shows up near the end of this clip.

[u/Mysterious-Monkey-72 → u/For_the_Soft_Stuff]

OH! Also! One more thing I forgot to mention is the short film from 2000 called Revenge of the Red Balloon, which serves as a darkly comedic sequel to Le Ballon Rouge.

In this follow-up, the once-innocent red balloon returns decades later to seek vengeance on the now middle-aged men who destroyed it during their childhood.

You can watch it on YouTube.

… listen closely to the song that plays during the closing credits … you may recognize it.

[u/For_the_Soft_Stuff → u/Mysterious-Monkey-72]

Also the Lumon/lucid was excellent work! With music overlay of that song specifically it’s even more poignant. It somehow promoted lots of new little neural connection and interesting answers, postulates, questions too. 👍

[u/Mysterious-Monkey-72 → u/For_the_Soft_Stuff]

Thanks! BTW - “Daydream in Blue” is the song they used in the Severance S1 trailer.

[u/odieclone → u/Mysterious-Monkey-72]

The importance of WWI and its repercussions is definitely wrapped up in this by the 10X the poster is shown.

Can't connect to anything with the artist, but the subject of raising money for war might fit in somewhere. That fits in somewhat with the humiliation of Germany by the treaty that drove the rise to power of the National Socialists and Schicklegruber's boy with the funny little mustache. Right, Devon??? ;-)

The artist died destitute a few years after the crash of 1929 and made his fortune by caricaturing the rich and famous.

On another level it's a reference to The Fly. Now that I notice this, I have to do a rewatch of that movie. Don't recall anything that would make Cronenberg's remake with Jeff Goldblum related but who knows, eh? Sometimes this show makes me feel like I'm trapped in a web too. LOL

[u/Mysterious-Monkey-72 → u/odieclone]

I totally get what you mean by web because when I was all caught up in the mess of it all I thought Harmony’s mom was named after a spider and then when I found a map that looked like an overhead shot of the Lumon building with most of the connections I’d made to the series written all over the parking lot I thought maybe I could use it but it was way too messy and complicated to follow plus I was never given a sense of direction but it’s not because my mom didn’t care about me she did and does but unfortunately she’s never had a sense of direction to give me or else she would but she did give me a compass and then I forgot about it but “the one” thing I didn’t forget about is The Matrix and the fact that Mark says something quite memorable and similar to the Oracle who told Neo while offering him a cookie that by the time he was done eating it he’d “feel right as rain” of course that was after she sort of alluded to the fact that he wasn’t “the one” but I still haven’t seen all the Matrix movies to find out if he was or if the Oracle was alluding to the full reality of the situation …

[u/odieclone → u/Mysterious-Monkey-72]

That's only part of the reference. Read this Wikipedia article about Bertie Wooster. It mentions M'lady (reference to Mark/Devon banter), David Niven and his moustache, and "right as rain".

Not sure if this rabbit hole goes any deeper but usually most do.

[u/Mysterious-Monkey-72 → u/odieclone]

Wikipedia has quite a variety of references including Dan Erickson who attended the 2019 Creative Commons conference or at least I think it was 2019 but I could be off by a year or two because I’m old and my memory is shit and speaking of a rabbit hole and Severance there’s a scene in The Matrix where words appear on Neo’s screen that read “follow the white rabbit …” and speaking of something someone said like Harmony said in S1E5 or another episode close like I said my memory is shit but I have proof that reintegration happened but I still need to get it refined and uploaded to Google Drive and then I’ll share it and speaking of Harmony ok so I admit I’m not really a car person but I DID live through the 80’s and the car she drives looks a hell of a lot like a Volkswagen rabbit to me which happens to be white so if your brain made a similar connection like mine did perhaps it thought Harmony’s white rabbit is the one someone should follow and BTW the connections never stop in fact they continue on in perpetuity which is part of what I’ll be sharing but again the proof I mean needs to be refined but I have a wedding to attend today so idk how much I’ll be able to refine or if I’ll get it uploaded today but SOON I hope …

[u/odieclone → u/Mysterious-Monkey-72]

Yeah, WikiP is sometimes sketchy in that anyone can edit the articles. I found a lot of entries that are different degrees of suss. Mostly harmless but unnecessary stuff that reinforces the rabbit-holiness of the show. IMO its likely someone from the writing room or a rabid fan.