this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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Severance
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The very ending of Mark S going away with Helly R was beyond stupid of him.
I get that he doesn't want to "die". I get that he loves Helly R. What Mark S just did set himself up to be in Mark Scout's state of tragedy before Mark Scout the took the job at Lumon before that Mark S gets destroyed forever.
There was nowhere for Mark S and Helly R to escape on the Severed Floor. They will be found, and quickly. With Cold Harbor done, there is no need for Helly R to be on the Severed Floor so she will never return as soon as Mark S and Helly R are found and Helly R is dragged back to the elevator to become Helena Egan again. So Mark S loses her making Mark S lose the love of his life, just like Mark Scout did when he lost Gemma.
Here's where the real hell begins. The Mark Scout/Gemma + Mark S/Gemma's brain process was interrupted (destroyed?) by Mark Scout on the black elevator floor. Except...... there's nothing preventing Lumon from simply wiping Mark S's memory by creating a NEW Mark S Innie! They even said in the episode that 24 Gemma Innies had been created, one for each "file"/room. So they can easily create new Mark S innie, put him in MDR, and drag Gemma back down to the basement again and force her through another 25 rooms. A new Gemma Innie is created in each one, so if they can create 25 before, 50 doesn't seem to be an issue. As for Mark Scout, they'll keep him in a prison somewhere just like they did with Gemma. Mark Scout will have no memory as NEW Mark S Innie and Lumon still gets the exact outcome they want from the first time around. Mark S is an idiot.
Original Mark S lost the love of his life, erased his own existence, and doomed Gemma and Mark Scout to hell on Earth trapped for the rest of their lives in prisons.
I'm cautiously optimistic there's something else Helly R and Mark S can do (or think they can do) and we just don't know where they're running to yet. Mark S knows his work is done, especially after what he did to Drummond, regardless of what he thinks about his outie's motivations. If you were at that exit stairwell (can he even use it? Helly couldn't 🤷) and you knew that life inside was 100% hopeless then surely you'd take your chances with your outie's reintegration.
OTC was a convenient plot development for making the situation more flexible and it wouldn't surprise me if we see another.
Wasn't it quite obvious that they were about to begin a revolution from within Lumon? Dylan just recruited like 50 people (and Helly was with him prior to that) and Mark just revolted against Drummond with the help of the batshit goat lady (who was already close to snapping prior to Mark's intervention).
If all the revolutionaries were Severed, it would be the easiest rebellion to but down in history.
Lumon would just need a handful of non-Severed labors, then turn the Severing Technology on an off every couple of seconds (where people go through the jarring transition from Outie to Innie) rendering them not able to function for a bit, then drag the revolutionaries to the stairwell or the elevator. The Outies would wake up without any revolutionary thoughts. They'd be marched upstairs to HR and fired, the secrets of Lumon safe.
I mean, maybe? But what does the revolution even want? Stable non-creepy jobs and 40 hours a week subtracted from their outies' lives so they can progress their office romance during breaks?
I'm leaning towards some goal that's more specific to Helena's situation. Since her father has taken an interest in her innie behaviour it's likely that she'll get to continue as Helly R in some capacity but who even knows what his goals are at this point.
I have no idea, but it's important to always remember that many of the Innies, particularly our leads, are extremely mentally underdeveloped relative to the age of their physical body. Mark has less life experience than a 2 year old, Helly even less. Basically the only existence they know is Lumon, so they probably don't even understand the concept of a revolution nor do they fully understand the risks involved. I think that's the direction the show is heading, but I'm not suggesting they actually have some clearly thought out master plan that will lead to their happily-ever-after Innie world. Batshit goat lady had no fucking idea what she was doing either, she just went mental like a very big toddler having a violent tantrum.
If there is, the writers of the show are being completely disingenuous to the audience. How many episodes in Season 1 and Season 2 were spent showing us all the ways they couldn't escape the severed floor. Yes he could have used the stairway. They explored this in Season 1 where they are standing at the door and the innie walks out, then the innie "wakes up" inside the door again because the outie walked them back in.
Helly R tried to actually commit suicide in the elevator as a way to exit. If the writers suddenly come up with "oh yeah the secret door we've never tried that lets us have a happy ending together" then they've treated us all like idiots.
OTC was used more the Season 1 finale. Remember Dylan Innie "waking up" in his clothes closet at home? It was also used on the ORTBO.