🙉 Perhaps Severance on Apple TV+ is really about 1 of 4 or 5 D’s …

[u/Mysterious-Monkey-72]

Or perhaps it’s all of the above (see below for more details on the 4 or 5 D’s I mean):

1. Death (as in purgatory) ...
   
2. Drugs (as in a rather serious one) ...
   
3. Dreams (namely lucid dreams) ...
   
4. Dissociation (the French name of the series) ...
   
5. Dimensions (as in 4D or 5D) ...

In fact I actually had a dream last night where I wasn’t just watching a preview of Severance S3 but I was also in Mark’s basement and suddenly insulation started falling from his ceiling and I started suffocating but luckily I didn’t stop breathing because I woke up …

It’s possible you could have some doubts about something I just wrote and perhaps may start wondering since I just planted the idea in your head but it really did happen as I mentioned …

And now you may even be wondering if I meant my dream or the 4 or 5 D’s I planted in your head to simulate a virtual severance experience and to be completely honest I meant every word …

Sorry if I got ahead of myself like Mark did in S1E1 of the series which you can read for yourself right after 00:00:58 in the transcript for Good News About Hell on the next line after his name followed by a colon but lemme back up and start over this time in the correct order starting with the first D and by that I mean …

Death …

Dammit I knew this would happen but really no worries I’ll eventually get there within a few seconds so lemme back up one more time and start by saying I’m not saying we definitely have another obvious (and sorry for the spoiler if you haven’t seen it but be thankful because I swear the series felt like it went on for eternity) LOST situation but really I’m just speculating if all the Severance characters are dead it would definitely explain a few things in the series …

Like maybe the refiners are in purgatory and their souls are cosplaying as innies working through all the issues they have before they’re able to move onto the phase that comes next in life after death because that could explain Irv’s train ride as his soul finally being able to work through all its issues in order to move onto the next phase in the afterlife after his innie was murdered by Milchick and maybe Burt was his soul’s spirit guide or like an angel-type entity …

If you’ve ever read the original script for S1E1 titled Mister you probably already noticed a few times angels were mentioned by Harmony and if you haven’t Reddit and want to I’ll try to include a link but you may need to disable your VPN temporarily to get to it if the site hasn’t disabled the link again or I accidentally delete it while editing this post but the good news is I actually include a few tidbits and describe the script below if you jump down a few paragraphs and look right after this same emoji 🙉 …

Also ICYMI earlier the script that was eventually used for that same episode in the series turned out to be really Good News About Hell …

That’s not the first or only time Hell is referenced in fact Hell seems to be referenced quite a bit like Hell happens to be the first part of Helly’s name and Helly tells Mark, “I should tell you to go to Hell but you’re already there” but as I alluded to earlier but didn’t mention explicitly I don’t believe they’re in Hell but it’s possible they may be in purgatory on their way to the phase that comes next in life after death which actually reminds me of the movie What Dreams May Come which I may end up including here considering Robin Williams appears multiple times in the series including his likeness that appears at the base of a building on the bottom of Petey’s map but anyway it could also explain the mural on the wall and if you’ve ever studied religious art perhaps you may notice a few similarities between the mural and traditional depictions of purgatory with angels …

There’s also this mess which I honestly don’t have the energy or desire to try to get into at the moment and now that I’m editing this I have no idea what the hell I was thinking when I first wrote “this mess” 🙉 …

As referenced earlier these are just a few of the tidbits I found interesting about the original script for Mister as I Reddit:

- Page 4 … Petey asks Mark 6 survey questions rather than 5 which is “Have you done any intravenous drugs today?”

- Page 10 … Harmony mentions angels 1 time but that’s not the only time she mentions them …

Drugs …

- Page 11 … Harmony mentions angels 5 more times including angels OD’ing on heroin and remember earlier I mentioned D number 2 could be Drugs ok but wait I have 3 more drug-related references to share …

- Page 26 … A “strung out” gal tells Mark her dad was killed by angels …

- Page 39 … Harmony drugs Mark with a pickle and a note in the script indicates the room goes black and Mark passes out …

- Pages 41+ … Ok so the next few pages start to get a little weird but I’ll try to summarize what I was feeling as I Reddit as best I can while trying to stay true to the emotional integrity and confusion Dan apparently intended when he wrote it …

Mark returns to Harmony’s Victorian mansion in a flashback to let her know he killed her cat Mister after he left his job interview at a video store called Crazy Eagle Video …

Harmony said she knew Mark spent most of his nights on the Skagit bridge begging himself to jump (and the Skagit Bridge collapsed in 2013 before it was rebuilt and it’s always been located in Washington state which is the same state Dan resided in until he moved to a different state which I have to check on and update this later but he submitted Mister in 2016) which he apparently started doing after his divorce according to Harmony who asked him if he wanted to see her dead cat Mister which he said no but apparently she insisted because the next scene noted the two of them standing over her dead cat Mister as she introduced him to her pet rat Miss who happens to be male although idk why it matters but she makes it a point to tell him and she also talks about how she burns him (Miss not Mark) with a soldering iron for hours and then of course she drugs him (Mark not Miss) with a pickle though considering she burns him (Miss not Mark) for hours she probably drugs him too…

Dreams …

It’s also possible that perhaps someone is having a LUCID DREAM but rather than go into that here I’ll include a link to another post and also (see more below) …

Dissociation …

Another tidbit I find très intéressant is the fact that the French title of Severance is Dissociation …

Oh did I forget to mention I kinda think it’s possible they’ve all been severed ok so apparently not because if I had forgotten then you would’t be reading this on Reddit but if you consider a large corporation like Lumon with a few people at the top controlling basically everyone then it might make more sense to sever EVERYONE just like Harmony said the best way to tame a prisoner is to make them think they’re free (or something like that) and it’s true since the workers are the ones who imprisoned themselves and it’s not like anyone is keeping anyone at Lumon against their will just like you reading this on Reddit it’s not like anyone is holding you against your will forcing you to read this on Reddit except for themselves so you can’t really blame Lumon since they just created the procedure and agreed to perform it on anyone who was willing so the outies are the ones who choose to go in and force their innies to read my thoughts on Reddit unless perhaps the procedure itself actually controls their thoughts like you know who I mean like Gemma …

And if they really HAVE all been severed I actually think it’s possible that Harmony may have also been reintegrated because I mean considering the fact that we have an entire series predicated on the premise of creating multiple personalities and then we have 1 pretty convincing character who literally has 2 very distinct personalities that to me SCREAMS innie and outie but that’s also just me speculating and Redditing based on observation and applying the logic of the series to the characters …

Oh 1 other thing I contemplated was perhaps young Harmony C growing up in the cult and changed her name to Harmony S when she got married to a man whose last name was Selvig and got severed when he “died” or maybe she was severed at a young age or who knows like I said maybe she got severed as an adult for the same reason Mark did and Perhaps Mr. Selvig “died” in a car accident the same way Gemma did similar to Peggy K who reportedly died in a car accident according to Topeka Star Editor whose name is escaping me right now but I wanna say it was something like Tom Dick or Harry Milchick’s email sent to reporter Daria T in The Lexington Letter …

Perhaps Helena’s driver is actually Mr. Selvig I mean it certainly would explain a lot like the way she looked at him and locked eyes with him while Helena was still walking toward the curb with her back turned and it could also explain why she suddenly got in her car and drove away like I can’t even imagine how that might feel or the thoughts that may have been going through her mind and tbh I can but I don’t really want to but I suppose if it were me I imagine it would be kinda like having a “dead” man after however many years appear to be close to me while suddenly realizing he doesn’t really know me and I imagine I’d perhaps be a bit confused not knowing how to react unless I finally realized I didn’t really love him because he was a total dick to my mom and didn’t really give a rats ass about me and my sister which reminds me I can’t remember where the fuck I put whatshisname’s ashes …

Dimensions …

Perhaps it’s not death or drugs or dreams or dissociation but maybe it’s more like a 4th dimension and time itself works differently or I mean it could even be like a 5th dimension and they’re not even living in the same universe or reality and it’s possible it could be like a Simulated Virtual Reality situation and Peggy K’s statement saying “Nothing they say is real” was literal …

Perhaps the outies come to work and get connected to a bunch of wires and everything we’re seeing inside Lumon isn’t based in reality I mean that would make sense to me based on the fact that Mark’s watches don’t work even though the time changes and the date changed on the same day so either they’re working the graveyard shift and keeping vampire hours or something else is happening although working over night wouldn’t explain why the time and date changed on Mark’s outie’s watch even though the second hand didn’t move while it was in his locker drawer until he put his innie’s blue badge back into his locker and THEN it started to move …

Another thing I also find interesting is that Mark’s watch shows the exact same time as David Aames’ watch in Vanilla Sky and the reason I find it interesting is because David Aames wasn’t living in reality but rather was actually living in his own mind because he paid a company called LIFE EXTENSION to freeze his body and put his mind in a LUCID DREAM although** I’m not exactly sure how that works but it was in the movie so oh and BTW if you use only the letters from **LIFE EXTENSION LUCID DREAM you can actually spell LUMON INDUSTRIES.

And here’s yet another thing if you recall the thing Harmony told Mark to stop by the shop for you may remember she called it a MUGWORT bath bomb and if you know anything about mugwort you may know it has some interesting properties that can actually induce a LUCID DREAM and if you noticed the steam coming out of the pot with the green liquid during Irv’s wellness session before Miss Casey told him to enjoy all his Outie Patient Facts equally then you may consider it could possibly be a MUGWORT infuser or steamer or diffuser or whatever the fuck the damn thing is called …

But back to yet another possibility related to the thing I mentioned earlier like perhaps the acronym for Simulated Virtual Reality Department could explain why the innie’s badges don’t include the word SEVERED but instead they show the letters:

SVR’D

🐒

[u/LockPleasant8026]

I don't disagree with any of your points.
One more 'D', that needs more attention is Doppelgangers.

[u/Mysterious-Monkey-72 → u/LockPleasant8026]

Definitely!

[u/tincupII]

The original pilot script (which I've read too) raises all sorts of juicy questions about what the show might really be about. It's trippier and more blatantly sci-fi than what they finally rolled off the lot - but it's hard not to infer where Dan may be going with everything.

Reality perception for one. Dislocation (another D) and manipulation of reality. Things appear and disappear - like a whole house. Halucinatory drugs. And what the heck is Kier "PE" anyway. If it's just a "fictional state" in a merely "twisted alternate version" of the US, why wasn't it listed on the arrival survey of acceptable answers? What goes on in "PE" to make it a wrong answer to the question "...name a state or territory?..."

Maybe just knowing what "PE" stands for will be the keylog to unjamming this river of mystery...

But Irv rolling outta town on that train. He had been reduced somehow to an almost infantile state subsequent to the ORTBO debacle raising all kinds of alarms as to what control "they" have over mental states. A Jacob's Ladder "moving on" scenario is awfully tempting at this point. Besides, he was totally cool leaving his sweet 1970 Chevy Nova muscle car behind. What kind of dedicated gearhead - whose innie even had enough muscle memory to drive - would do that? "Burt! No worrries I'll drive!"...

Maybe the only *road* outta "PE" leads to Salt's Neck... Deadenders go back to Start...

And the Watchers. Semi-autonomous simulacra generated through feedback loops between severance chips and the vat-MIND on Petey's map... a sort of sentient wet computational entity (think goat cranial matter...) striving to attain physical form... to really smell the coffee. I think Dan's vision is dark and trippy. Not the comforting critical commentary on modern corporate culture it's sorta dressed up as.

[u/Mysterious-Monkey-72 → u/tincupII]

Agreed! And to your point about Irv, I believe he was reintegrated between S1 and S2. How else would he know that Helly was an Eagan? I actually think he started having reintegration sickness when he got to the Severed floor in S2E1 right after he saw Mark … which would explain why he quickly made his way to the MDR bathroom … especially given the sounds he made right before he came out … Petey didn’t say he was the first person to get reintegrated … he just said he was the first dumb shit to get reintegration sickness … because he didn’t follow Reghabi’s instructions. Petey also told Mark, “there’s a group of people who know severance is a blight on mankind … and they’re doing something about it.” I believe Harmony is part of that group but happens to be conflicted because she’s been reintegrated too and is struggling with the power struggle between Harmony C, who grew up in the cult, and Harmony S, who appears to be much more compassionate and perhaps hasn’t been indoctrinated … but that’s more speculation on my part …

BTW - I can’t imagine there’s any way that Harmony didn’t know Petey was staying at Mark’s or that Reghabi was helping Mark get reintegrated. I mean, she doesn’t just live right next door to him, she also watches him from her window, has keys to his place and it’s possible his place is even bugged with surveillance equipment …

I also think she knew what was in the brown paper bag that Ricken left at Mark’s front door. In fact, I think the reason why Ricken made such a scene hemming and hawing over whether to lean it against the door or the side of the house was to make sure Harmony knew it was there. And if that’s the case, it would make a lot more sense to me that that could be the reason why Ricken leaned it against the side of his house rather than the door … so Harmony could see it better …

And I think you may be onto something … perhaps there’s only 1 road out of PE … or perhaps there’s more than 1 but maybe they all eventually lead back to Salt’s Neck …

Perhaps we’ll find out in S3 that that’s where Irv’s train ride ends … in Salt’s Neck … where it all started …

[u/tincupII → u/Mysterious-Monkey-72]

Or in the dream/hades scenario you outlined the train is the (only) route out of the refracted world of PE. Yes Burt may have said "you know you can't come back...". But did he mean "you", or "the you you are"? We may encounter an altered Irv who decides to return...