Spoilers Severance on Apple+

[tomalak301]

I feel like this episode should have been interspersed with other episodes. It was only 37 minutes and she left in episode 2, not to be seen until episode 8. I feel like the Kier stuff is probably the weakest part of the show for me, but the episode did provide necessary world building. Also, we could have kept Harmony as part of the story for the entire season rather than forgetting about her for 6 episodes. This was the weakest episode of the season, but I get why it was necessary to the story.

 

[Gepard]

I feel like this episode should have been interspersed with other episodes. It was only 37 minutes and she left in episode 2, not to be seen until episode 8.

I'm only halfway through but keep thinking this feels like it was cut together from scraps of a running subplot. (Kind of like how the BSG episode "The Woman King" was built out of scrapped S3 material). It's, uh, not good.

This season is...uneven, at best. It can have fantastic episodes like last week and then whatever the hell this is. Ugh.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I feel like this episode should have been interspersed with other episodes. It was only 37 minutes and she left in episode 2, not to be seen until episode 8. I feel like the Kier stuff is probably the weakest part of the show for me, but the episode did provide necessary world building. Also, we could have kept Harmony as part of the story for the entire season rather than forgetting about her for 6 episodes. This was the weakest episode of the season, but I get why it was necessary to the story.

I knew someone was going to say this and I completely disagree. This episode works much better on its own, telling its story separate, desolate from the rest of the season. These scenes played out on the background with the rest of the episodes would've been to jarring and spread out to make a coherent story and then people would complain in regards to that manner. No, I think this story works much better and makes a clear point on its own.

Just because it was "only" 37 minutes long doesn't mean it should be discarded across other episodes or treated as less. View the episode for what it actually is and for the story it's telling, now how you wanted it disbursed in other to have more Cobel.

 

[tomalak301]

Just because it was "only" 37 minutes long doesn't mean it should be discarded across other episodes or treated as less. View the episode for what it actually is and for the story it's telling, now how you wanted it disbursed in other to have more Cobel.

It's not really having more Cobel though. It's keeping Cobel in the spotlight rather than just forgetting about her 6 episodes (weeks) later.

 

[Gepard]

I'm actually sad. This episode made me sad. It's like if Breaking Bad had a season 4 reveal that Walter White had actually invented meth (like, the concept of meth, no one had ever synthesized it before he did) while working at Grey Matter; it doesn't take the world or the characters within it seriously. It's lowered my opinion of the show as a whole.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Totally enjoyed the episode. Chopping it up would not have been as effective and impactful. An interesting insight into the dark depths of Lumen and the Egans.

 

[Kraig]

But seriously, I hope those who've been clamoring to learn what Mrs. Cobel has been up to this whole time are happy. We finally learn more about her past, why she had been such an acolyte of the Cult of Kier, and why she's ready to burn them all to the ground now.

The hint at the end of the show that she is ready to burn them would be the selection of the closing credits song.
The Cult - Fire Woman HD

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I'm not surprised Lumon completely ruined a coastal town with child labor and gods knows what else. But I'm still curious to know what exactly they actually produced, which required child labor. Everything remains so damn vague, for better or for worse.

My guess for that would be what most of the remaining people in town are hooked on. The café owner asked Cobel if she was "ready to man the vat for ten hours?" while they were getting high, huffing the fumes. It is probably the anesthetic ether. The guy has been making it since he was a kid working for Lumon.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Today's New York Times Connections puzzle. The grouping of the four leads is  not one of the sets.

 

[1001001]

I'm only halfway through but keep thinking this feels like it was cut together from scraps of a running subplot. (Kind of like how the BSG episode "The Woman King" was built out of scrapped S3 material). It's, uh, not good.

This season is...uneven, at best. It can have fantastic episodes like last week and then whatever the hell this is. Ugh.

On one hand, it was interesting to see Harmony's background. And to see Lumon's effect on the "real world."

On the other...this is like the 3rd episode this season that didn't move the main plot forward at all. The Gemma one at least made more sense (and certainly, for me, had more resonance). And all of that to reveal Harmony invented the chip? Meh...

My least favorite episode of the show. There are only 2 more this season...let's go.
Meanwhile, enjoy....

Lumon Industries

 

[Campe]

Don’t know what is taking Mark so long on Cold Harbor. Took me like five minutes to finish the Minsk file.

Yeah, this episode was not my favorite. It’s an interesting idea in theory, but lacked something in execution. I think the Harmony inventing severance reveal is interesting, but we’ll see where it goes.

 

[Kraig]

Don’t know what is taking Mark so long on Cold Harbor. Took me like five minutes to finish the Minsk file.

Yeah, this episode was not my favorite. It’s an interesting idea in theory, but lacked something in execution. I think the Harmony inventing severance reveal is interesting, but we’ll see where it goes.

You have brought glory to the company.
Praise Kier.

 

[Campe]

You have brought glory to the company.
Praise Kier.

Kier
Chosen one
Kier

 

[Kraig]

Kier
Chosen one
Kier

Did you enjoy Mr. Milchik's dancing?
IMO, Macro data refining is worse than playing Pong.

 

[Campe]

The Milchick dancing thing in the game literally made me “What the fuck?!?” and then uproariously laugh. My wife gave me a look after that.

 

[tomalak301]

Kier
Chosen one
Kier

Harmony is so creepy when she says that. They are really getting the Cult creepiness thing down in this show.

 

[Commander Troi]

So, Harmony was a prodigy and invented severance... and Jame Egan took credit. Cissy and the desolate town were creepy af. It'll be interesting to see what Harmony does now.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Trammell Tillman was on Colbert last night where, among other things, he talked about his apparently ridiculous mispronunciation of Gråkappan...and the very unlikely source of why he pronounced that word the way he did:

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[The Nth Doctor]

Lots of big moves in this episode, all to set-up the season finale. Dylan resigns, effectively killing himself because he feels like he has nothing to live for anymore. Irving is riding off into the sunset at Burt's urging. Helly is ready to find the dark hallway but, oopsy daisy, she gets interrupted by Helena's father, who Helly of course doesn't recognize and is understandably creeped out. Huang has (prematurely?) completed her fellowship and is being shipped off somewhere else (RIP water toy). And Mark is ready to face it all by breaking into Lumon to rescue Gemma...even if it means teaming up with Ms. Cobel, who nobody trusts.

Oh, and Mr. Milchick told Mr. Drummond to eat shit. Excuse me, he said "Devour feculence." Chef's kiss.

I don't know what grand revelations we'll get in the finale but I'm ready to lose my mind and cry at the long wait ahead of us for season three.

(On a side note, I love how Helena eloquently and sparingly eats the hard-boiled egg, as if it's some grand, rich, privileged dish...almost like the cost of eggs are extravagantly expensive...)

 

[Kraig]

Lots of big moves in this episode, all to set-up the season finale. Dylan resigns, effectively killing himself because he feels like he has nothing to live for anymore.

I'm sure you know, this is very disappointing and reeks of ingratitude.

Irving is riding off into the sunset at Burt's urging.

On the Adirondack Railroad.

Helly is ready to find the dark hallway but, oopsy daisy, she gets interrupted by Helena's father, who Helly of course doesn't recognize and is understandably creeped out.

You tricked me. My Helly (does he mean Helly E tricked him, and he is actually talking to Helly R, who hasn't a clue what he means)

My guess is Helly R the innie, recognizes the owner of the company, because it is probably in the company literature that all Lumon employees read. Her Innie hasn't met him in person yet, and doesn't understand what he is talking about, hence the "WTF?" moment.

Huang has (prematurely?) completed her fellowship and is being shipped off somewhere else (RIP water toy).

Svalbard, Norway, on the coast where the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans meet. (I've actually been there, off the coast, in October 1980, never had a port call there though. It was when I got what the USN calls the Order of the Blue Nose, and the ship you're on crosses north of the Arctic Circle.)

And Mark is ready to face it all by breaking into Lumon to rescue Gemma

We're going to cottage five.

...even if it means teaming up with Ms. Cobel, who nobody trusts.

For tonight, she is: Miss Marsha White, ninth floor. Specialties Department.

Oh, and Mr. Milchick told Mr. Drummond to eat shit. Excuse me, he said "Devour feculence." Chef's kiss.

A needlessly complex word for a simple idea.

I don't know what grand revelations we'll get in the finale but I'm ready to lose my mind and cry at the long wait ahead of us for season three.

Are you looking for a gold thimble?

 

[Michael]

This finally felt like they were back to form. Story still feels a little slow and I want to scream at the screen that they shouldn‘t trust Cobel, but I guess that‘s more or less how the show has always been.

I thought it very odd that they would let Burt of all people “take care” of Irving. And I wonder where the latter’s story is going from here.

I also wondered, after all the work that Reghabi already did on Mark‘s head (and all the time the season spent on that storyline that didn‘t really seem to go anywhere), it still doesn‘t seem like he started to reintegrate even one bit.

… she gets interrupted by Helena's father, who Helly of course doesn't recognize and is understandably creeped out.

Her Innie hasn't met him in person yet, and doesn't understand what he is talking about, hence the "WTF?" moment.

Wait, they did meet before at the end of the first season, didn‘t they? So she should remember who he is. Or at least remember their previous meeting.