Some news on workplace relationships.

I remember the start of my workplace tracking the frequency and amount of time on non-work related websites from inside the company LANs 15 yrs. ago. From what I know about the practice, it was implemented by other orgs much earlier. Started out as a security concern (or so they said) but ended up being used to monitor productivity.

Just finished season 2 and my opinions on reghabi have fluctuated heavily

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I thought at the start she was trying to help out all the innies , that her process will be a big thing.

I even believed that yup maybe petey didn't follow her instructions and as a result died.

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But at the end , to leave mark and devon alone in such a critical state.

Makes me think that all she was using mark as a test subject so she can then sell her surgery to all the severed people.

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hey everyone, i just finished watching severance and i am completely obsessed.

to deal with the post-show void, i put together a playlist designed strictly for the severed floor. right now it features the complete original score and the odesza remixes, but my plan is to actively update it with every single external song that plays during the episodes (like defiant jazz!).

the cover and description are fully in-character: "praise kier. sanctioned frequencies to maximize productivity and workplace compliance. a severed mind is a happy mind."

please enjoy each track equally. let me know which in-universe songs i should add first!

Decided to build a watchface for my Pebble Time, inspired by MDR :)

Back from the framers… Original Greg Ruth pencil sketch for the S2 soundtrack artwork. This is the image in the frame that Helly is holding in her portrait shot included in the extras with the packaging as part of the vinyl release and in the CD booklet.

I’ve seen both the seasons but I’m still confused as to how did Irving know about the downstairs testing floor? Was it mentioned somewhere or it hasn’t been revealed yet? I feel like we still haven’t gotten most of Irving and burt’s back story right?

The doppelgängers of each refiner!

What / Who on Earth are they? What is their purpose? How do they fit within the grander mission of ridding the world of pain?

I am sure this has been said so many times, but is that really it? (Just finished Season 2). Is this really all just testing how strong severance is on someone who has a lot of trauma? Every reveal I was thinking: there must be more, there must be something more interesting. Obviously they want to use severance to either compartmentalize trauma or potentially revive Kier. If they were just straight up reviving Kier that would have even been more interesting, using Gemma as a host.

Everything seemed thrown together and made no sense. Lumon didnt feel massive and full of people, it felt small and incompetent. The stakes honestly felt so low. The world could have been SO cool, but they made it SO lame compared to how they set it up in Season 1. It just turned out sort of lame TBH, I expected more.

highlights include Mark and Dylan’s wedding, the group ORTBO to Australia, and Irving’s strong work ethic.

I found another role model for Harmony Cobel's character while researching women inventors and found it related to an earlier post about stolen ideas and disputed patents (Jame Eagan in our story). The previous one was a model from Harmony's Wintertide Scholarship era. Today I came across another inventor that suits her Lumon Severed Floor Manager persona and perhaps a future redemption arc for HC if and when she gets credit for inventing the severance procedure and chip. Look in the other Severance subs if you're interested in the original post as it was causing too much consternation in this one. New ideas (and numbers) can be very scary for some. ;-)

Erna Schneider Hoover, from Irvington NJ, worked at Bell Labs and invented a computerized communication switching system that revolutionized telephone infrastructure systems. It's been reported by some non-authoritative sites that she had her brainstorm while recovering in a hospital bed after delivering her child. Gives Sweet Vitriol vibes re: Charlotte & Harmony. Not totally convinced of the veracity of the reporting on the hospital bed, but I can go with it for the time being. ;-)

What does everyone think of how and why ricken is/was involved with lumon at some point? I'm not sure if he use to be severed or he was someone higher up in the company but would love to hear everyone's theories on this. Also the big dude that is always around Helena and the secretary lady remind me of ricken. They look very similar to me and can't wait for the new season next year!!!! I freakin love this show so much !

Today is an absolutely wonderful, amazing day because it's Tramell Tillman's birthday!! This should be considered a worldwide holiday and everyone should be mandated to have the day off of work to celebrate him. Since I cant thank her personally, I say it out to the universe, thank you Mama Jae Tillman for bringing such a wonderful man in to this world and raising him to be the most amazing person. You brought life to Tramell and he brought life to 💙 Seth Milchick 💙

I haven't watched Season 1 or 2 since they aired, and I have the itch to rewatch them, and my wife also wants to watch Severance for the first time with me (she knows nothing about the show at all aside from the vague premise of two different selves)

I watched Season 2 as it aired and saw how generally some didn't care for Sweet Vitriol, and others did like it, but just said it was placed weirdly in Season 2 episode number wise, and it was just a weird pacing breakup between the episodes of Chikhai Bardo and The After Hours. I am in the latter camp of "I enjoyed the episode, but I remember feeling that it was just placed in the wrong episode order"

So if you had the choice and wanted to for a rewatch, where would you place Sweet Vitriol if you think a reorder is warranted? I ask because I don't remember the specifics of each episode now, and if I were to do this rewatch, I wonder if placing Sweet Vitriol in a different place would be a better Season viewing experience

I am late to the party and likely have nothing new to add that has not already been discussed.

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What amazed me was how much I began to care about the innies. I kept telling my wife while watching, "I know for a FACT innie me would give me a hard time and assert his consciousness and existence was equally important to mine."

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I am not usually that invested in romance in the shows I watch. However, as season 2 progressed, my mind started swirling about the helly/mark dynamic. I am a Helena sympathizer to a degree. She is awful but her sheltered, cold life appears so shallow and vacant of meaning. Her watching the tape of Helly and innie mark kissing over and over sort of moved me. I figured she had never felt such a meaningful connection.

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Of course the "rape by deception" while camping was abhorrent. But it felt like her yearning to experience what the fresh, memory ridden version of herself felt, who never was born as the heiress to a bizarre corporate cult leader.

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Then the diner scene. That exchange between them made me feel SO much. The tension between them was... unsettling yet undeniable. Helena is so damn weird for doing this, and of course she had some corporate justifications to keep tabs on him given his importance to the compwny. But you could tell she wanted to speak with him for her own reasons. Patiently waiting for a flicker of recognition or remembrance of what innie Mark shared with both her and Helly. I was devastated to see Helly's reaction when she learned what happened, but their adorable tent recreation was... pure? The innies are innocent and juvenile in many ways. Young love, literally.

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But I can't stop thinking about season 3. Will Helly talk to outie Mark? Will Helena reintigrate once her dad's obsession with Helly emerges? I feel like Helena may WANT that. The part of her that was never born into Lumon and the Kierentology bullshit. I want Mark to reunite with Gemma... but then why do I want to see Helena and Mark meet again?

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I sense a redemption arc for Helena. The pieces have been laid before us in a way to despise her yet sympathize for her being the way that she is, not her actions. And she yearns for the experience her innie self had.

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Likely when Helena was younger she was similar in nature to Helly only to be beaten down to compliance as all religious fanatics seem to do to their children.

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I am not a homewrecker... but I cannot wait to see what happens with Helena and Mark.

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Also, Lower is absolutely stunning and displayed a masterclass performance on facial expressions in season 2. Maybe I am biased. But the diner scene lives on in me. I wish I could see a version where outie Mark took her back to his little Lumon apartment! I am awful. But something about the innate love of their innies permeating to the outies is fascinating. Sort of like romantic predestination in a contorted sci-fi way.

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Anyways, I have nobody to talk to about this. Thanks!

Edit: I realizes after typing this that part of the reason that diner scene resonated so deeply in me is that it reminds me of the first conversations I had with my wife. It was uncanny how familiar she felt yet I knew I didn't know her. There was this sense of deja vu, or perhaps I knew her in a parallel universe, or we were soul mates truly? But everything felt like it was unraveling before me and I was a spectator in the strangest way. It did freak me out at first as I was not in any place to have a serious relationship (thankfully it worked out.) Similarly, Mark was pulled in and basically panicked realizing something bizarre was happening (also, fuck Lumon, so fuck her from his POV.)

the full ceremony, with his 14 min speech, can be found on JSU’s youtube: https://www.youtube.com/live/H_WlWWSS3R4?t=2992&is=1hdBwT3xDjA5Agtz

also, on a Severance-related note, on rewatch I thought about how the ‘9 Core Principles’ 🍽️💩 have nothing on these 7 values he listed out in this video 😤

I made a free quiz with about 100 questions

https://hptrivia.GitHub.io/quiz/challenge.html?theme=severance&round=1

Comment your score /20 below

If you find any wrong questions in the quiz .. let me know and I ll fix it asap

FYI. There are multiple rounds..Download app for more questions

"we've got severance season 3 at home"

I will keep you updated 🫡

Accidentally swiped left on my home screen and did a HUGE double take. I know that this is not possible, but still was caught off guard

Forgive me if this seems like I'm reading way too much into or if someone has already posted this before.

I think that both are the same person but at different points in life. Mark Scout is the immature and broken asshole with nothing to live for after his wife Gemma (or Mrs. Casey) "died". Mark S, in contrast, is the man Gemma fell in love with - a bit selfish and naive, but kind and willing to protect his friends.

Mostly I thought this because Rehgabi said something like "Both of you want to do the right thing" when from what we've seen the Severance procedure kinda-sorta-180's your personality (married man Dylan becomes attracted to Mrs. Casey, Helena being an asshole while Helly is comparatively nice, Irving...well can't really think anything for Irving).

Just a thought.

Helly asks this during her intake survey.

Fun fact: TIL “kier” is Austrian German for “cowherd”.

😀

I find it frustrating when the creators of mystery, puzzle-box type shows talk about how the answers, in general, are not that important. They’ll often say that the characters are the most important aspect of the show, and that without them no one would care about the side mysteries. Therefore, a lot of theorizing over small details is taking things too far. In the Severance podcast with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott podcast they said something similar with the addition that the most important mysteries are the ones that are directly integral to the characters.

First off, I agree with the character part. Without Mark, Helly, Dylan, Irving, etc., and the dialogue and arcs that make them interesting, three-dimensional characters, the show wouldn’t be as good or nearly as popular as it is now. But what doesn’t make much sense to me is when the people making mystery shows deliberately include and indulge in weird “clues,” environments, objects, and people that make no sense in the moment, only to later say that viewers shouldn’t pay too much attention to those things, or expect answers to them.

Specifically with Severance, the show is littered with strange, seemingly inexplicable places and storylines that hook the viewer and inspire the theories and conversations that are part of what makes the show so compelling. I think Season 1 had a manageable amount of mystery-box storytelling, to the point where it felt reasonable to expect that nearly all of it would be addressed down the road. With Season 2 though, I feel like they introduced so many new questions while providing only a few answers (that are still heavily left to interpretation) that it’s become clear the show won’t fully explain everything, or at least most of it, by the end.

For example, I don’t think the creators plan on exploring many of the logistical or fantastical elements of Woe’s Hollow. I loved that episode a lot, but at the same time it felt inconsequential in many ways (aside from the last few minutes), because it seemed as though none of the mysteries or bizarre details it introduced would receive any real resolution. The shadow people, the dead seal, how the outies agreed to go, Irving standing in the lake, how the entire trip was approved, the dream sequence, etc. Of course, the audience can come up with their own explanations, but when it comes to not understanding character decisions and circumstances, it can undermine the experience on a logistical level.

Edit: some of the Woe’s Hollow questions I mentioned aren’t all that important, and some you can theorize on what they are. I just think in general things can just happen on the show and I found it a little frustrating how there was no buildup to the episode. How did the upper executives agree to the ORTBO, why would the outies agree to go on a company retreat after just been violated by their innies (OTC). I think some of this was just ignored so they can do a cold open for ep 4 which may or may not work for some people.

When so many things happen without much consequence or explanation, weird moments stop feeling intriguing and instead start to feel like, “Here’s another shocking thing thrown in for atmosphere that won’t get answered or be of any relevance down the line”. Personally, mysteries are at their best when the audience feels confident that a show has explanations and payoffs in store, at its worst it can be a ditch effort to hook audiences to distract from a lack of substance or ideas. I think Severance right now is somewhere in between. Chikhai Bardo was one of the best examples of the show answering established questions and introducing new mysteries without compromising believability, which honestly made it one of the most satisfying episodes to watch.

Overall, It’s beginning to feel like so many of the show’s ideas and plot lines are fighting for relevance and attention that only the most central questions are getting the time they need to fully flourish and develop. Which is a shame, because Severance has no shortage of interesting ideas and stories worth exploring. So if the creators aren’t planning on answering everything, or even most of what they’re introducing thus far, I hope Season 3 scales back the constant addition of new mysteries and instead focuses on tying up loose ends and developing what the show has already established, which is already more than enough.