Yeah, that would be my guess.
Spoilers Severance on Apple+
- Thread starter Commander Troi
- Start date
I keep going back and forth about whether it's Helly R. or Helena Eagan in the last episode, but I certainly hope it's actually Helly. I rewatched the episode just now before the new one comes out, hoping to pick up anything I might have missed, but nothing stood out...
...except this:
Also, I found this wonderful little oddity on YouTube yesterday:
I'm loving how much this show is leaning hard in emulating Dharma from LOST with these weird videos.
...except this:
I was wrong before. The person in the background isn't Milchick because he was wearing that dark blue turtleneck right after that moment when Mark arrived at Macrodata Refinement. The person in the background was wearing a regular white collar shirt.
Also, I found this wonderful little oddity on YouTube yesterday:
I'm loving how much this show is leaning hard in emulating Dharma from LOST with these weird videos.
Maybe the guy in the background isn't literally there, but it's unsevered Mark looking in to see what severed Mark is doing? He's dressed rather similarly.
There is a part of me that feels like this show is expanding on what Tatiana Maslany did in Orphan Black. In that show, she was playing multiple characters but it was the same actress and they were clones. Still, she had to give each character a different personality and different characteristics. Here, it feels like that is happening on a much broader scale with all basically this entire cast. It's amazing watching the differences in the innie and outie world, especially with Helena and Dylan. Even Mr Milchik has to act differently between the two worlds, and they talked a lot about that on the behind the scenes clip. I'm really excited to see this season expand on that, and I wonder if this episode confirmed that Helly R really is Helly R. Maybe there will be something else to it, but we saw each of them go into the elevator, unless the elevator screened Helena didn't effect her.
I was really happy to see more Dylan as his outie. We really haven't other than that short scene with him and Milchik last season. I feel so bad for him, and his lack of confidence. He shouldn't have mentioned the fact that he was Severed.
I was really happy to see more Dylan as his outie. We really haven't other than that short scene with him and Milchik last season. I feel so bad for him, and his lack of confidence. He shouldn't have mentioned the fact that he was Severed.
What's that, Milchick is a lying sack of shit? I'm so shocked. I think nearly every damn thing he told Mark S. was the exact opposite of the truth, it's kind of bonkers.
I loved that we got to see the other three outies and their places in the world...and yet, still managed to reveal so little. Now that we're caught up with the conclusion of last week's episode, I hope we return to the regular balance of inside and outside, but for all four characters this time.
I was sad how Dylan's interview with Great Doors went, going from pathetically low to satisfying just good enough to oops, bad joke to oh, you're severed, get the fuck out. What a roller coaster of a scene and I loved how they paired Zach Cherry with the wonderful Adrian Martinez (loved him in the short-lived Stumpton).
The one thing I didn't expect but I'm very curious about is seeing Burt spying on Irving. We didn't get to see how that Irving's intrusion on Burt's home played out (...yet!) but I was shaken how much...malice...appeared in his eyes. Also curious we didn't get to hear Irving's phone call. Hopefully we'll get payoffs for both those deliberate obfuscations sooner than later.
I was fascinated by Helena's reaction to Helly's smooching of Mark. I can't decided if she was revolted by the moment or intrigued. Or something else entirely? I also want to learn more about Helena's role at Lumon after seeing her strange interaction with her father, as well as her relationship with Mr. Drummond...and how both of them are outside of the Board. I wonder if the existence of the Board is similar the strangeness we saw in Counterpoint (another great and weird show about duality, but tragically underwatched and underappreciated...I guess it was ahead of its time!)...or if they even exist at all.
However, that scene (along with last week's Ms. Huang showing up exactly where she needed to be exactly when she needed to in order to get Dylan to Milchick) demonstrates that Lumon has cameras and microphones everywhere. They see all and they hear all. Hell, the Break Room even tells them that. And yet, the innies keep on acting like they're able to hide. Are they lying to themselves or are they truly self-unaware due to lack of experience and context? Mark and Devon are doing the exact same thing on the outside when they think they aren't being spied on by Lumon to the point that their texts are being intercepted.
Lastly, but most importantly. The first season made it clear that there was something vital about Mark's role at Lumon but this episode suggests that he might the central piece of it all, or at least this particular project (Cold Harbor). This is apparent considering the great lengths they went to keep Mark around and directly engaged in that work, while the other three on the team (and their temporary replacements) are entirely expendable. Is it directly because of whatever is going on with Gemma or is she just a component of the larger project?
P.S. I really hope this isn't the last of Bob Balaban and Alia Shawkat.
I loved that we got to see the other three outies and their places in the world...and yet, still managed to reveal so little. Now that we're caught up with the conclusion of last week's episode, I hope we return to the regular balance of inside and outside, but for all four characters this time.
I was sad how Dylan's interview with Great Doors went, going from pathetically low to satisfying just good enough to oops, bad joke to oh, you're severed, get the fuck out. What a roller coaster of a scene and I loved how they paired Zach Cherry with the wonderful Adrian Martinez (loved him in the short-lived Stumpton).
The one thing I didn't expect but I'm very curious about is seeing Burt spying on Irving. We didn't get to see how that Irving's intrusion on Burt's home played out (...yet!) but I was shaken how much...malice...appeared in his eyes. Also curious we didn't get to hear Irving's phone call. Hopefully we'll get payoffs for both those deliberate obfuscations sooner than later.
I was fascinated by Helena's reaction to Helly's smooching of Mark. I can't decided if she was revolted by the moment or intrigued. Or something else entirely? I also want to learn more about Helena's role at Lumon after seeing her strange interaction with her father, as well as her relationship with Mr. Drummond...and how both of them are outside of the Board. I wonder if the existence of the Board is similar the strangeness we saw in Counterpoint (another great and weird show about duality, but tragically underwatched and underappreciated...I guess it was ahead of its time!)...or if they even exist at all.
However, that scene (along with last week's Ms. Huang showing up exactly where she needed to be exactly when she needed to in order to get Dylan to Milchick) demonstrates that Lumon has cameras and microphones everywhere. They see all and they hear all. Hell, the Break Room even tells them that. And yet, the innies keep on acting like they're able to hide. Are they lying to themselves or are they truly self-unaware due to lack of experience and context? Mark and Devon are doing the exact same thing on the outside when they think they aren't being spied on by Lumon to the point that their texts are being intercepted.
Lastly, but most importantly. The first season made it clear that there was something vital about Mark's role at Lumon but this episode suggests that he might the central piece of it all, or at least this particular project (Cold Harbor). This is apparent considering the great lengths they went to keep Mark around and directly engaged in that work, while the other three on the team (and their temporary replacements) are entirely expendable. Is it directly because of whatever is going on with Gemma or is she just a component of the larger project?
P.S. I really hope this isn't the last of Bob Balaban and Alia Shawkat.
Honestly, like I said in my review, I'm much, much more reminded of Counterpart and how its world had two sides of everything.
I never saw Counterpoint. I was also going to bring up Fringe, but that's more diving into a "multi-verse" theme and parallel worlds.
I'm curious as to that piece of casting and its significance, if any.
They need to team those two with Stephen McKinley Henderson
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"Great Doors" looked decidedly not great. And was that guy Dylan's dad or what?
It seems certain now that Helly is unsevered. But did you notice her look when she saw her innie kissing Mark? She's never felt love before, I'm betting.
"You fetid moppet!"...how old is that guy?
One thing I noticed, I actually paused it and showed my son, the Lumon parking lot. All those cars are from the 70's. But again, we see a smartphone. What year is this????
Lastly, Milchick's license plate on his motorcycle...
"Remedium Hominibus" = "A cure for mankind."
And further down the rabbit hole we go.
It seems certain now that Helly is unsevered. But did you notice her look when she saw her innie kissing Mark? She's never felt love before, I'm betting.
"You fetid moppet!"...how old is that guy?
One thing I noticed, I actually paused it and showed my son, the Lumon parking lot. All those cars are from the 70's. But again, we see a smartphone. What year is this????
Lastly, Milchick's license plate on his motorcycle...
"Remedium Hominibus" = "A cure for mankind."
And further down the rabbit hole we go.
One thing I noticed, I actually paused it and showed my son, the Lumon parking lot. All those cars are from the 70's. But again, we see a smartphone. What year is this????
I don't think the show is supposed to take place in our future (or past for that matter) but in a universe slightly different from ours in a lot of ways. The clash between modern technology and 70's aesthetics + the differences we've seen in world geography seem to serve that atmosphere. Going from the MDR room with its extremely retro modems and chunky keyboards to seeing Mark text his sister on an iPhone is super jarring, though.
Yup. We've seen a lot of this kind of cosmetic set-up in recent shows that deliberately don't want to root themselves in a specific time period or even "same reality as our own." I know there are more examples of it but the one that stands out the most to me is The Umbrella Academy (although even it throws a wrench into the works when it goes back in time to the very time-specific of 1963 Dallas).
That makes sense. The license plate above shows no state or date of registration, like most in the US do.
BTW: whatever happened to the woman who killed Graner? She seems to have vanished.
Is the lighted sign a nod to SNL when Ben Stiller was working with Michael Myers, as Dieter (Sprockets) in the late 80's?
Something is going on with doubles or doppelgangers this season. There's the Great Doors guy, that second-in-command at Lumon looks an awful lot like Ricken, and in a Vanity Fair BTS video Ben Stiller called out a figure in the background of the opening shot of the season who "looks kinda like" Adam Scott "but not really."
Thanks for this, and confirming my thinking, expressed upthread, there is definitely a resemblance to Scott.
I'm wondering whether the severance system even really works as described. Could it be virtual reality of the kind in The Matrix?
I don’t know why I read that last word as “Mannix” at first glance.
TV is melting our brains?I don’t know why I read that last word as “Mannix” at first glance.
Something like that has been a pretty popular theory amongst the fanbase for a while. I've always taken it at face value -- I mean, the advantages of severance as-described for Lumon are obvious -- but that doesn't stop there from being additional layers. I think often about Mrs. Cobel's line to Mark: “Still waiting for that third bulb to revive itself?”
Another thing Stiller pointed out in a promotional video was that nobody has paid attention to the items that Outie!Mark put in his locker during the pilot. I can't find it now that I'm looking for it, but that triggered a discussion on the subreddit where people noticed the date on Outie!Mark's watch jumped forward by a full day after what was supposedly an 8 hour shift. Plus, the confusion w/ Selvig/Cobel afterwards over what day trash pickup was. Perhaps Lumon is manipulating the innies sense of time, or they did something to Mark (on the testing floor?) that they blocked out of his memory.
The outside seems to be almost as weird as the inside, with the entire town seemingly being owned by Lumon and all the weird interactions with Ricken's entourage and with Cobel/Selvig etc.
In my view, they have succesfully left the question open whether Helly or Helena is down on the severance floor. Everthing she did and said there in episode 1 can be explained either way, particularly her discussion with Marc about outies works beautifully both ways (but with a different meaning).
Lots of people on Reddit seem convinced that the elevator scene at the end of episode 2 confirm it's Helena, but I think they deliberately did not give confirmation (they did not show what happened or didn't happen in the elevator on the way down). They also did not clarify exactly what Lumon wanted Helena to do.
So, three possibilities:
-Lumon planted Helena there as a spy (last minute decision so she couldn't really prepare properly)
-Helena went down but, on her own initiative, ordered an override so she could remain her outtie self on the severed floor. In that case, she would either not want to give controle to Hellie and/or she wants to experience Hellie's relationship with her workmates in general and Marc in particular
-It's Hellie and the hints are a red herring. Though in that case, Hellie lying about what happened with the "overtime" will have consequences later on.
Devon and Ricken thinking "She's alive!" referred to the baby had me wanting to bang my head into a wall.
