Severance

I still think that first episode in season one is rough as hell to get through.

caught up on season 2, we rewatched season 1 slowly over a few weeks and pretty glad we did since I didn't remember almost anything past the first 3-4 episodes. The way the tension gets ratcheted up constantly in the show is truly best in class, I can only think of a handful of other shows that have you at the edge of your seat like this.

I COMPLETELY missed that Helena (Eagen) is back as herself on the severed floor for season 2, I thought it was still Helly R but something felt off and only after I listened to the cast podcast did I realize Helena is running a game on all the innies.

its kinda clear at this point the show is a Westworld type situation, I am pretty sure Mark is "rebuilding" the consciousness of Gemma (Cold Harbor) and Lumon is entirely dependent on him to pull it off. Very strong Westworld "Fidelity" vibes and I love it.

Reading about the writer/creator of the show is really fascinating, he went to Hollywood with no connections and wrote a script for the pilot over a few years while he was working at a door factory in LA which gave him the concept for the show, "I wish I could be someone else while I am at work" lol. Nice easter egg in episode 2 when Dylan goes to interview at a door store.

spronk said:

I COMPLETELY missed that Helena (Eagen) is back as herself on the severed floor for season 2, I thought it was still Helly R but something felt off and only after I listened to the cast podcast did I realize Helena is running a game on all the innies.

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I think other than the whole night gardener thing, the big clue was her feeling around to turn her computer on vs everyone else's muscle memory.

Stuff happened but I'm disappointed this didn't continue the story set up at the end of episode 3.

Arbitrary said:

Stuff happened but I'm disappointed this didn't continue the story set up at the end of episode 3.

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Yeah, that was a big disconnect. Why did Mark seemingly act totally normal if he had been reintegrated? Did this episode not happen in chronological order? Even if we get answers that make sense I don't like the way it just left that hanging still.

DickTrickle said:

Yeah, that was a big disconnect. Why did Mark seemingly act totally normal if he had been reintegrated? Did this episode not happen in chronological order? Even if we get answers that make sense I don't like the way it just left that hanging still.

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I certainly felt disoriented from the word go so it's a success in that regard but it also wasn't enjoyable. At one spot I got up to get something to drink, paused playback and saw I was over halfway done. Oh, this is all we're doing this week. But what about Mark's reintegration? They set up that we were going to see his first day at work done in a kind of parallel Mark + Mark story in a manner hinted at during this season's opening credits. I was looking forward to that.

And then we just...didn't continue the story from where we left off? This is another reason for the reason jar why I'm waiting next season until all ten episodes are out. Right now I feel jerked around. If I could just push play on episode 5 I would feel completely different but I can't.

After about 5 minutes I paused it so I could go look up last week's plot synopsis on Wiki because I thought I somehow missed an episode.

That disconnect ruined a very unique and important episode. I just kept thinking about the end of last episode and waiting for it to explain or reference it.

It was also a stupid, poorly written episode.

Apparently Irving is some kind of super detective, because based on the fact that Helly said she saw a gardener (something Irving has no point of reference for whatsoever), he somehow deduced that she was not only an outie, but also an Egan.

Like...what?

Making it even more retarded was 3/4 of the way through the episode, I was thinking about how I was going to make a reply to the post spronk made about how she wasn't severed anymore, and ask if that was for real, because I watched one of those recap videos and it didn't mention it, and so far nothing in this season has really raised any flags that that would be the case.

I guess I missed the massive clues in the night gardener story, however, and that she was "mean" and that revealed her true identity all along.

Gravel said:

It was also a stupid, poorly written episode.

Apparently Irving is some kind of super detective, because based on the fact that Helly said she saw a gardener (something Irving has no point of reference for whatsoever), he somehow deduced that she was not only an outie, but also an Egan.

Like...what?

Making it even more retarded was 3/4 of the way through the episode, I was thinking about how I was going to make a reply to the post spronk made about how she wasn't severed anymore, and ask if that was for real, because I watched one of those recap videos and it didn't mention it, and so far nothing in this season has really raised any flags that that would be the case.

I guess I missed the massive clues in the night gardener story, however, and that she was "mean" and that revealed her true identity all along.

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If you look at the computer screen in his dream it's becomes Helly face with an over representation of characters that make up the name Egan. His revelation came to him in a dream.

Yeah.

We've had it hinted at a few times that there's some bleed from innie to outie but nothing to indicate that the hard info that Outie Irving had would make it to Innie Irving about Helly. I personally thought we still had severed Helly and she was fibbing about what she saw because she was ashamed. As a swerve people were on to it just fucking immediately so the actual swerve being no swerve made way more sense to me.

She also fumbled turning on her computer; it was a shot of just her hand and the back of the computer. Then it shows the others doing it without a second thought. That was small but felt very purposeful. Still, that was for the viewer, I don't think Irving saw it.

I definitely wasn't sure one way or another but I had my doubts. I've certainly seen worse supported twists before.

I think he saw Helly in his dream because that was his Outtie communicating to him. These Innies have never been asleep before in their existence. I'm guessing dreaming is one of the ways they can communicate, perhaps Outtie to Innie only, and Irving's outtie was shown incahoots getting messages through to his innie with the paybooth thing earlier. So Irving's "sixth sense" was more than that but something implanted by his Outtie about Helly Egan's real identity.

DickTrickle said:

She also fumbled turning on her computer; it was a shot of just her hand and the back of the computer. Then it shows the others doing it without a second thought. That was small but felt very purposeful. Still, that was for the viewer, I don't think Irving saw it.

I definitely wasn't sure one way or another but I had my doubts. I've certainly seen worse supported twists before.

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I'm baffled by these posts. I was mostly positive it was her outie after the lie about waking up. Waffled a slight amount due to the story line taking a bit, but it seemed like she was acting subtly off the whole time. I'll agree it's a bit weird that Irv locked onto it so fast, but Mark was thinking with his dick clearly so...

bolok said:

I'm baffled by these posts. I was mostly positive it was her outie after the lie about waking up. Waffled a slight amount due to the story line taking a bit, but it seemed like she was acting subtly off the whole time. I'll agree it's a bit weird that Irv locked onto it so fast, but Mark was thinking with his dick clearly so...

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Yeah, I actually thought it was a good bit of acting, too. She had this kind of vague sense of curiosity that was fairly subtle but just enough to feel off. I think the real one would have more trouble processing what she had seen.

I didn't think it was going to be a thing because I didn't think it was interesting as a twist. I still don't. It played a key role in Irving's arc which is fine but as it's own thing