#macrodata refinement

~spoilers for severance up to s2e3!~

Did anyone catch Asal's comment near the end of the episode as she was about to reintegrate Mark? I feel like it solves a big question the fandom has. listen:

"The five brainwave frequencies of the innie and outie".

This is actual science as well - apparently these five frequencies correspond to different mental states (relaxed, alert, etc).

Think about the sorting in MDR. We know each box has percentages of woe, dread, malice, and frolick. But why five boxes?

Hear me out. What if each box corresponds to a certain brain wave, and the reason each set of data evokes a certain emotion is because that emotion is what is associated with that brain wave?

(or something similar - there isn't really a 'scary brain wave' but it could be something where Lumon is manipulating the innies' reactions to the brain waves - for example they might make the delta waves feel scary, as they're associated with deep sleep)

So the percentages correlate to Lumon wanting every single brain wave 'refined'.

I immediately got so excited when the word 'five' was said, I had to get this out there.

edit: on my rewatch I also noticed that there are four coloured wires - a connection to the four tempers, maybe? Especially because they're blue, yellow, green, and red, the four colours associated with the tempers in the refinement process and thematically.