The Plum Tree

First of all, the fact that, just like with Helena, you can't tell how much of Mark Scout's opening message to Mark S is genuine, and how much of it is 'optics' to get Mark S to like him and do what he asks.

And at the beginning it works. Mark S is smiling so sweetly, so happy to hear his outie talk to him for the first time and APOLOGISING.

But, immediately, it starts taking a weird turn. Because Mark Scout tells him his life is a nightmare, that what he experiences down there is horrific. But we know that's not at all what Mark S thinks. Even before Helly, "there was a life to be had" down there. He had Petey. When we meet Mark S in the pilot, he is fairly content. What Milchick tells Mark Scout when he tries to convince him to come back in 2x01 isn't a complete lie. The Mark S he has come to know IS happy.

So Mark Scout is projecting his own perspective onto Mark S's life. He is taking for granted that what he feels and believes must be true. Just like he will later do in dismissing Mark S's relationship with Helly. He calls his life a nightmare, implying the only truly happy life can be had out there where he is. And you can see this immediately starts deflating Mark S's initial excitement. His cute sweet smile diappears and he starts looking confused.

And then we conclude it with that, "what THEY have done to you". Mark Scout putting the responsibility primarily in evil Lumon's hands. He made the choice to sever, but that was just because he was tricked into it. Because he is not a bad person, right?

He never gave any thought to his innie's life at all before Petey found him and told him it was all insane and confusing and they were tortured for breaking rules. And told him he and Mark S used to wonder about the kind of monsters their outies were that they'd put them down there. Or Reghabi all but calling him a slaver for creating an innie who is trapped down there and probably dreams of clawing his way out. Or the OTC, and Innie Mark himself devising a means to break free to whistleblow about Lumon abuses, and specifically asking Devon for help getting human and/or labor rights organizations to intervene on their behalf. Or discovering that Lumon is the kind of sociopathic enterprise that will fake a person's death, imprison them, and conduct medical experimentation on them while having them interact with the oblivious, amnesiac version of the spouse who is debilitated by grief over their death on the outside.

All this is to say, Mark Scout isn't totally off base in assuming if he calls the two years of living at Lumon a nightmare for Innie Mark, he'd be hitting close to reality. It's a viewpoint informed by a lot of genuine knowledge, and not just outie bias presumption and a lack of curiosity.

but yeah, totally agree about the abdication of all personal responsibility. The apology itself was purely a tactic and manipulation because we know Mark Scout has never cared about making anything right. We've seen him refuse the call due to either being too selfish, too scared or too easily swayed, time and again by this point. All he cares about in the moment is rescuing Gemma.

I'm kidding, you're clearly not dumb. – I don't know. You're the one who invented a revolutionary medical procedure. – That was not me. That was my father.

But Mark here, omg. He's the one who initiates the flirting! She's doing her awkward best to walk a line here so she doesn't come across as overly familiar, and he's the one who bulldozes over it by starting the banter!

With their innies, it was Helly who really started it. "If they come back and attack us I think we should kill Mark". With their outies, it's Mark. "you want to take me home to Dad already?"

Next we hear of her, we find out she's in the break room, because Mark took Helly to take care of her privately the best he can on the Severed floor, which is listening.

Also to flirt a little.

First of all, what is interesting about what you're pointing out is that Mark took care of Helly by "listening", which is the thing Mark Scout failed to do with Gemma throughout their relationship. It's interesting that many interpret her "I forgive you" and glance at Helly as foreshadowing that Gemma will forgive Mark for falling for Helly, but another read is that she forgives him for his shortcomings in their relationship because now she can see he is doing better and becoming a better partner. I think the former is still more likely, but your comment did make me think of the latter.

As to whether this might be foreshadowing of Gemma's fate more broadly (Mark taking/staying with Helly on the Severed floor, letting Gemma roam by herself in worry); that she ends up in some sort of metaphorical break room as a consequence? I would be interested to hear your thoughts if that's what you're suggesting!

She took whatever opportunity she could to throw their innies together and observe them because she wanted to see if the connection would manifest consciously in either of them. I don't think putting Ms Casey in MDR all day had anything actually to do with Helly; it was just a convenient excuse she used to put her in the same room as Mark for 8 hours (and I love the hint that every time she does something like this, Milchick finds it increasingly ghoulish of her, but that's neither here nor there). It's why when Mark and Ms Casey go off script in that final wellness session and start having a genuine conversation and expressing some tenderness, Cobel is on the edge of her seat with near breathless anticipation and betraying an extreme emotional investment in either of them showing conscious memory bleed, or at least emotional memory bleed. The fact that Ms Casey starts talking like a normal person and expressing normal human feeling is on the cusp of that breakthrough to her, but while Mark is kind and shows care for her here, ultimately he only cares in a generally empathetic way, because she's a fellow innie he respects, and she doesn't deserve to die- it's not about her personally. And Cobel is so deflated and so disappointed because she couldn't have asked for a more perfect scenario in this experiment than Ms Casey looking at Mark point blank and asking him why he cares about her, and that it ultimately it doesn't work is gutting for her. She knew something about their connection was bleeding through because of the refining, but she could never get it to trigger consciously, and this was her last chance to get there before they ended the Ms Casey persona and began the endgame to Cold Harbor.

I feel like besides the zufu vibing between Mark and Helena, there's evidence of this in season 1 with Petey. Outie Mark knew Petey for like 2 days and, against all logic, trusted and cared about him immediately. He was so shaken by the depth of his grief at a near stranger's death that he had to flee the funeral he felt compelled to attend and displace all that grief over into grieving his wife in order to process it. And he remains so attached that he feels compelled to seek out June later on. It got to the point that he eventually answered the phone and was interested in learning more about Petey's mission despite himself, and imo, would have gotten more involved if Graner's death hadn't happened. This is a man who spent all his waking hours outside of work drunk on his couch, completely disinterested and dead to the world before he met Petey.

Next we hear of her, we find out she's in the break room, because Mark took Helly to take care of her privately the best he can on the Severed floor, which is listening.

Also to flirt a little.

First of all, what is interesting about what you're pointing out is that Mark took care of Helly by "listening", which is the thing Mark Scout failed to do with Gemma throughout their relationship. It's interesting that many interpret her "I forgive you" and glance at Helly as foreshadowing that Gemma will forgive Mark for falling for Helly, but another read is that she forgives him for his shortcomings in their relationship because now she can see he is doing better and becoming a better partner. I think the former is still more likely, but your comment did make me think of the latter.

As to whether this might be foreshadowing of Gemma's fate more broadly (Mark taking/staying with Helly on the Severed floor, letting Gemma roam by herself in worry); that she ends up in some sort of metaphorical break room as a consequence? I would be interested to hear your thoughts if that's what you're suggesting!

She took whatever opportunity she could to throw their innies together and observe them because she wanted to see if the connection would manifest consciously in either of them. I don't think putting Ms Casey in MDR all day had anything actually to do with Helly; it was just a convenient excuse she used to put her in the same room as Mark for 8 hours (and I love the hint that every time she does something like this, Milchick finds it increasingly ghoulish of her, but that's neither here nor there). It's why when Mark and Ms Casey go off script in that final wellness session and start having a genuine conversation and expressing some tenderness, Cobel is on the edge of her seat with near breathless anticipation and betraying an extreme emotional investment in either of them showing conscious memory bleed, or at least emotional memory bleed. The fact that Ms Casey starts talking like a normal person and expressing normal human feeling is on the cusp of that breakthrough to her, but while Mark is kind and shows care for her here, ultimately he only cares in a generally empathetic way, because she's a fellow innie he respects, and she doesn't deserve to die- it's not about her personally. And Cobel is so deflated and so disappointed because she couldn't have asked for a more perfect scenario in this experiment than Ms Casey looking at Mark point blank and asking him why he cares about her, and that it ultimately it doesn't work is gutting for her. She knew something about their connection was bleeding through because of the refining, but she could never get it to trigger consciously, and this was her last chance to get there before they ended the Ms Casey persona and began the endgame to Cold Harbor.

yeah like it doesn't escape my notice at all that Mark and Helly had one of the classic Sci Fi Couple Drama Tropes thrown at them in s2- the doppelgänger/possessed-by-a-stranger bed trick. In every other instance of this trope happening I can think of in media I've seen, it leads to this huge fight, like screaming crying yelling, oftentimes breaking up. "HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL IT WASN'T ME???" It's always a major crisis that damages the relationship. Mark and Helly, by contrast, in the space of like a single episode, have the healthiest, most mature response I've ever seen in a couple who experience it.

Helly is deeply hurt when she finds out Helena posed as her for days and Mark couldn't tell, but she is never actually mad at Mark about it. Instead it's all personal angst. She hates Helena and is adamant that they're not the same, but knowing Mark (and Dylan) couldn't tell it wasn't her forces her to really reckon for the first time with the idea that she and Helena are the same. It's all internal conflict. She also places all the blame on Helena for stealing her identity and feels violated by having her identity stolen, and she feels indignant on behalf of her friends for being tricked but is never once angry at them for being tricked.

And Mark spends all of 2x05 being avoidant and cold while refusing to grieve for Irving and processing feeling violated by Helena and having his understanding of and trust in Helly shaken as a result, but Helly won't let him avoid her and confronts him for treating her badly when she hasn't done anything to deserve it. And he listens to her. He knows he's being unfair. And I honestly think Milchick threatening him in the elevator and trying to divide and conquer him and Helly with the fact that he knows Mark slept with Helena is what snaps Mark out of it and also makes him understand that Helly was violated too. Because he immediately comes clean to her about it the next day and apologizes. He refuses to let this be a secret that festers or can be used to separate them.

I love everything about how they deal with this in 2x06. Mark tells Helly first chance they get for privacy, she's blindsided and devastated and needs to process this information alone, and the conclusion that she comes to is that Mark wanted her, and that's all that matters in the end. She's just pissed off she didn't get to experience what Helena stole from her when she was posing as her. And they decide to reclaim the experience of a first time for themselves.

It's just. Ugh. The communication. The devotion. These guys went through a doppelgänger bed trick and the fallout made them closer and even more solid and in love with each other. Like, that's an insanely romantic narrative choice.

And I think it all really comes down to the nature of the severed floor. When literally all you have of your own are the relationships you form with the people around you- when you're a prisoner and have absolutely no control over anything in your life, no control even over your own existence, those relationships become absolutely everything. They are 24/7 your life. You don't get a break from these people. So if you get mad at someone, you find a way to get over it and stick together. because your relationships are your life, and it's all too precarious and out of your control to be taking anyone for granted.

(tries to escape) (tries to escape) (tries to escape) (series of failed suicide attempts) (nearly successful suicide attempt) (participates in department-wide whistleblowing scheme) (has sex with mark) (has sex with mark) (gives revolutionary speech) (locks you in a bathroom and hits you on the head with a trombone)

STANDING OVATION YES

it's nothing but self-inserting into the blank slate character because they thought the mark from the flashbacks was hot, and they completely misunderstood who the focal point of the show is.

and it all ties in with the misogyny directed at hellyna for (1) being a flawed character who has actual depth and negative traits, like, you know, any human person, and (2) "homewrecking" a marriage that was only included to provide mark's character with an unexpected twist that would also explain why he severed and give him issues of his own to work through, meanness and disassociation from grief, before he can reach the end of his arc in the story.

the story was always intended to get him to a point of healing, and healing isn't being granted a magic wand that disappears the thing you were hurt over in the first place, but a long process of growing and processing your pain and moving on. gemma is at best a mystery character who is going to turn out to have a sinister connection to lumon and the severance programme to tie her story in with the main plot arc, but she's never going to outshine hellyna in terms of screen time and narrative importance because the writers have spent two seasons building hellyna and her inner conflict and severance-defying connection to mark. from a writer perspective, you're always wary of side characters stealing your main character's thunder, because you need the audience to know who to focus on and who's telling the story, so season three will continue giving helly and helena bigger agency to influence events and fight against lumon.