Cinematically, this is one of the best episodes, imho.
The scene towards the end where Mark just recoils from the police at his door because he knows what it means and he just can't bring himself to answer is one of the most emotional scenes I've seen. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Severance is some of the best television I've ever had the privilege of seeing, hands down. It's just brilliant.
Seriously, I was expecting "Directed by David Fincher" when that ended, a lot of the shots were similar to Fincher films and very calculated.
When Mark finds out about the multiple types of abuse they have been putting Gemma through down there he better go scorched earth. I swear if that doctor raped her like he was implying before the chair came down on him
Fr, I thought I hated Lumon before, but now there's no happy ending other than it all burning down.
Every new episode this season has made me feel like i've missed all of the others.
This felt like a fever dream and I loved it.
absolutely out of left field and incredible
Amazing episode in all regards. It revealed a lot of clues about the past and the present:
Respect to Mark and Gemma for donating blood.
Cinematography and everything was terrific in this episode.
I hope we will get some answers soon.
Did you notice which company's equipment the blood donation was using? 👀
They were also involved with fertility clinic, Lumon seems to be omnipresent in this USA.
And the creep "dentist" guy torturing Gemma was also at the fertility clinic
There was a blood drawing scene and they used BD consumables. I would have fucking loved to see it being Lumon branded.
I started a job at BD the week after Severance first dropped. The parallels are uncanny and I think Lumon is a hybrid history between BD and Purdue Pharma.
BD was a family affair for the first two generations, with the sons of Becton and Dickinson serving as co-CEO at one point.
Still processing this one... there's a lot to unpack. What's up with the different rooms?
Seems like she has a different severed personality for each one. And they all seemed to be either like chores or fears, I wonder if Lumon is planning severance for everyone to allow them to not have to experience fears.
Oh god... what if they are "growing" personalities that can perfectly handle these chores, so they can copy them onto Severance chips? So these versions of Gemma would be waking up in every person that buys one of these chips for convenience.
What if, unknowingly, Mark is condemning all these versions of Gemma to an infinitely copied, never-ending hell?
Their methodology is odd but maybe the logic in the show is that they believe they are "humanly" torturing her as innies to make her outie into the ideal Kier wife for Mark?
I could see this, conquering the four tempers and all.
Is it bad that I found it kind of boring? Seems like all the comments I’m seeing is how amazing the episode was.
I thought it was a nice change of pace and a way to learn more about gemma-- the ending interaction between mark's sister and him was #feelsbad whered mark go? TO HIS LOVE 😭
I listened to a podcast talk about the episode, and I think I appreciate it more now. I just didn’t enjoy the relationship parts of the episode I don’t think. And the Gemma parts just seemed to ask more questions when we already have too many unanswered questions.
I will probably like it more when I do a rewatch.
I'm surprised, it felt like they revealed much more than I would have expected to ever get this season, without opening too many new questions. Any in particular?
Everything to do with the testing floor is a question. Who are the people watching the computers? What do the rooms mean? Why do they have the same name as the files? We know Cold Harbor is important, but now it’s a room also, what’s in it? Somebody said the doctor is going to have to let Gemma go, why? And go where?
Also, we know now she’s still alive, but Mark said he saw her dead body. What did he look at?
I feel like there’s more questions, but that’s just off the top of my head.
Who are the people watching the computers?
While we don't know their identities, it clears up who the "twins" were in Woe's Hollow. They seem to be individuals that are deliberately similar to our refiners, basically "shadows".
And this tells us a lot about the severed floor! Now we definitely know that there's more staff on the Lumon back-end, and all their actions are being analyzed.
What do the rooms mean?
The episode implied that the rooms are scenarios that Gemma strongly dislikes, with each room having a separate severed version.
Why do they have the same name as the files?
The implication is that MDR is responsible for something in relation to the room - they probably either "uncover" the scenarios the test person hates, or they prepare/change the innie versions in some ways. I'm thinking it's the earlier since Cold Harbor isn't done yet, and Mark is still working on the file.
We know Cold Harbor is important, but now it’s a room also, what’s in it?
It's going to be a scenario like the other rooms, and the episode foreshadowed that it will involve drowning (or suffocating).
Somebody said the doctor is going to have to let Gemma go, why? And go where?
Presumably this will be the topic of the next few episodes.
Also, we know now she’s still alive, but Mark said he saw her dead body. What did he look at?
Rhegabi explained that Lumon has people at the morgue. They found a corpse that looks similar to Gemma, and burned it (Mark mentioned something about identifying her charred remains).
Rhegabi explained that Lumon has people at the morgue. They found a corpse that looks similar to Gemma, and burned it (Mark mentioned something about identifying her charred remains).
I definitely missed this. When mark mentioned earlier that he saw the body, he didn’t mention it was burned and couldn’t tell it was her. It seemed like he knew it was her. So that’s not a very satisfying answer, at the same time, I get that grief fucks with your perception.
As for the others, you are just guessing the answers to the questions. Fact is, the show created more questions than it answered. For instance, telling us there is more staff on the Lumon back end is not answering a question we previously had, it is creating new questions. Who, what and why are these people? That’s 3 questions.
When mark mentioned earlier that he saw the body, he didn’t mention it was burned and couldn’t tell it was her. It seemed like he knew it was her.
Sorry, I went through the transcripts again, and I made that "charred remains" thing up. Mark indeed identified her body. My assumption is that they pronounced Gemma dead, even though she was only knocked out/in a coma. Mark identified her, and at the morgue they replaced her with an actual corpse, and she went to a Lumon hospital or something. We saw in this episode that the cops came to Marks house - more than enough time to pull a Romeo and Juliet maneuver if necessary.
As for the others, you are just guessing the answers to the questions. Fact is, the show created more questions than it answered.
Most of it isn't guessing, it's just reading the subtext. There are still questions left open (season's not done yet), but so many questions are either fully answered or have only a couple of remaining possible answers. Not everything has to be explicit!
For instance, telling us there is more staff on the Lumon back end is not answering a question we previously had, it is creating new questions.
"Are there more employees watching over/controlling the severed floor" was one of the biggest questions in the community, and we now have an answer (which also answered questions like "who were the twins in Woe's Hollow?", or "who pressed the OTC buttons while Milchick talked to Dylan"). Soooooo many small questions have been answered like this throughout the season.
Who, what and why are these people? That’s 3 questions.
Why do you expect to know all the details of the mystery at this point? We're now asking questions that result from the answers to our previous questions. This is how good shows are supposed to work.
Sorry, I went through the transcripts again, and I made that "charred remains" thing up. Mark indeed identified her body. My assumption is that they pronounced Gemma dead, even though she was only knocked out/in a coma.
This makes sense either way. I just missed that line in the episode.
Most of it isn't guessing, it's just reading the subtext.
100% I disagree with this comment. You are guessing what you think the answers are. You don’t know the purpose of sending her into a room where she exists only to write Christmas thank you cards. It’s a cool concept, but we have no idea the purpose.
No, I don’t expect all the answers. My only point was that the episode brought up more questions than answers. I honestly don’t think that is even a controversial statement.
100% I disagree with this comment. You are guessing what you think the answers are. You don’t know the purpose of sending her into a room where she exists only to write Christmas thank you cards.
But the subtext explains this! First Gemma says that she hates writing "thank you" cards, then we see a severed version of her being forced to write the cards. The purpose is to force her into a situation she hates.
From this arises the question: why are they doing this to her? The doctor keeps asking her how she felt after each room. The episode also happens to bring up the severed birthing center. This implies that they are testing how strongly her outie version is affected by her innie versions being forced into situations she hates.
Now my second answer is only speculation, but they've set up the other "twists"/reveals in similar ways. But that's also why I'm sure we'll learn more about this in the next episodes.
From this arises the question
This was me the whole episode.
This episode explained some backstories. Maybe useful for the future, but kind of meh.
I enjoyed the episode and wouldn't describe it as meh, but it did put all the other plot points from the season on hold so I get being lukewarm on it
I didn’t really enjoy the back story. I think that was my biggest issue with the episode. I will watch it again before next week and see how I feel about it.
I'm in the "I liked it" group, but I don't blame you. Not a huge fan of episodes (in any show) that bring the plot to a halt for backstory.
I was bored too. It's the type of episode that should be binged with a couple of other episodes.
I thought it was a nice change of pace and a way to learn more about gemma-- the ending interaction between mark's sister and him was #feelsbad whered mark go? TO HIS LOVE 😭
Did Mark put her in the program after an accident then regret it or used it himself to forget the pain. I'm so confused and the episode was so interesting for explanation Gemma & Mark's relationship. Ughh, Innie Mark & Helly have been a great relation but woah now how does that even survive after this.
I think there wasn't any accident, and Gemma was abducted by Lumon.
The best episode in season 2, so far.