#severance meta

Outie -> innie: Mark & Gemma, Dylan & Gretchen

When Mark Scout finds Gemma, and she's dressed the same as she was when last he saw her, it's really like no time has passed at all for him. Like he died the night he lost her, and came back to life the moment she recognised him. As romantic as that might be, though, it's not exactly healthy, and it doesn't come without its consequences. Because, in a way, Mark's love for Gemma does transcend severance - but that love takes the form of grief, and Mark's psyche runs from grief. So of course the version of himself that he isolated specifically to escape Gemma's memory was never going to be able to feel anything for her (despite the irony of her being the only person to whom the infamous "not dead, just not here" sentiment actually applies).

(Side note: it makes sense that Gemma was chosen for Cold Harbor, because she would have been the only test subject whose refiner a) had a subconscious emotional connection to them and b) had an aptitude for compartmentalising and repressing pain/taming tempers.)

I've seen people say that Cold Harbor actually succeeded with iMark, because he failed to find any recognition of or love for Gemma even when he was trying to so that he could will himself to go through the door. But just because he can't love her doesn't mean he can't love. He has his own feelings, relationships, and identity. That is explicitly the opposite of ego death, which we know was the goal of Cold Harbor - refining severance to create innies with a lack of identity, agency, and emotion, who are just mindless drones existing to take the pain and inconvenience from their outies' lives. This has never succeeded, and it never will. What the show is really trying to say is that humans will remain human. Attempt to strip away pain, and you simply create more of it.

The love that Gemma keeps clinging on to, the spark of humanity in that sterile prison, cannot be beaten out of any part of her, no matter how many times her psyche is fragmented. She grieves just as deeply as Mark does, but unlike him, she fights to keep her memories and her pain - and that is reflected in her innies. Miss Casey, despite being the least "real" of the severed floor innies and also the one who has presumably met the most people, has feelings for Mark. The Cold Harbor innie questions nothing and feels nothing until Mark shows up. She's never seen another person before, and here he is, bursting in from some unknown outside world, drenched in blood, and the voice she's blindly obeyed so far is telling her he's dangerous... and yet she puts aside her fear and makes the decision to take his hand. (Which, yes, leads her to her death. But... she would have died anyway. At least her final moments are filled with hope, and the warmth of human touch, and the light of love in the gaze of this man who has seen a world she cannot even imagine, yet only has eyes for her.)

Before Dylan's OTC, he's as close to a 'perfect' innie as is possible with the ordinary severance procedure - diligent and content with his perks, desiring nothing more. But he still keeps imagining the outside world and his outie's place in it, and it's notable that none of his fantasies about his outie's life ever involve marriage or having a family (and are often things that would render that less likely: such as living on a boat or sleeping around with married women). He doesn't care about missing out on all the 'cool' aspects of outie life, because he's happy to excel at something and be surrounded by a team he cares about, but he can't bear the thought that another part of him is loved by people he can never know. So of course he stops caring about perks the moment he meets his outie's son, and of course he takes one of those perks and twists it into a ring for his outie's wife. He turns a soulless, material object, something he's supposed to be satisfied by and which he's previously declared he'd end his life if he didn't have, into an expression of his deeply human need for the love he finds out he's being kept from experiencing.

Now, romantic love obviously isn't the be-all and end-all of defining humanity. Miss Casey doesn't just love Mark; she cares about Irv and Burt, cherishes the time she spends with Helly, and cries when the life she was never truly meant to live is ended. Dylan's pursuit of Gretchen, while instrumental for getting his outie to recognise his agency, is rash and comes at the cost of the relationships he's built up himself, especially with Irv, which are also forms of love that shouldn't be considered any lesser than romantic attraction - and in fact are just as significant for affirming his personhood. Obviously the same can be said for Mark.

But this heady, naive approach to romance is fitting for the adolescents the innies effectively are. It's not infantilising to acknowledge that, because it doesn't inherently diminish the validity of their feelings. The innies are young versions of their outies, that is true, but they're also more than that. They are their own people being shaped by their own lives, making mistakes, gaining experience, learning, changing, and they deserve to be taken seriously - just like, you know, real children and teenagers.

Innie -> outie: Mark & Helena, Irv & Burt

I don't believe that Helena ever feels Helly's love for Mark, or that outie Irv and Burt actually fall for each other the way their innies do. Helena has obviously known of Mark for a while thanks to Cold Harbor, but she doesn't care about him until she sees the way he cares about Helly - about some part of her, in a way no one ever has. There's a desire to take control, to have what Helly has, because her innie was never supposed to have more of a life than she ever got. I would say she's in love with the idea of being loved just as much as she's in love with Mark. You could argue that her flirtation at Zufu is Helly coming through, and I'd agree - but only in the sense that Helena, who probably doesn't even realise how deeply she's repressed, is letting her guard down and slipping into the version of herself that has long been buried, and that she has spent days on the severed floor attempting to unearth. She may have failed at pretending to be Helly, but, in that brief moment, before she decides to put her walls back up and regain control, she fails at pretending to be Helena. So it's not Helly-the-separate-consciousness transcending severance; it's all her. There's nothing there with her and Mark, I don't think, that would have come organically if she didn't know what was going on with their innies, and I would say the same for Irv and Burt.

Burt G, created as a clean slate meant to wait passively for the man who has claimed him, actively finds love of his own. Irving B, existing as a means for his outie to access Lumon, overcomes the propaganda that used to be his whole world and finds meaning for himself completely independently of his outie's influence. oBurt ultimately chooses to tap into his innocent side and honour his innie's life by saving Irv, but it's very much a conscious choice, and one made after working against Irv for the majority of their acquaintance. And oIrv isn't smitten with Burt right off the bat either. He's playing his own game. He's well aware of who Burt is, and he hides his paintings and makes sure Radar isn't home before going to the dinner because he knows it's a ploy to get him out of his apartment. It's only when he realises that Burt has betrayed Lumon that he tries to claim his innie's love as his own. He would never intrude on his innie's life and attempt to steal it for himself (like, uh, some people might, hypothetically), but he still feels entitled to it. He wants the love he's never had - but he can't take what isn't his.

Then there's Mark Scout. He goes out to eat by himself, and he's approached by the CEO-in-waiting of the company that has ruined his life. He's in the process of getting experimental brain surgery in his basement because he knows Lumon has been holding his wife hostage for the past two years, and now the Eagan sitting across from him has made it clear she's aware and complicit because she's, like, the head of the company, Mark. The implications of her presence are startling, to say the least. Yet he can't help but succumb to her dubious charm, at least until the "Hannah" mention snaps him back to his senses. He leaves terrified, a little of her/her presence, but mostly of the response she elicited in him... and who is the subject of the memories that rush to the surface when his chip is flooded? Obviously certain outies do experience traces of their innies' love.

Vending machine items:

couldnt make out how the edamame is processed (c1)

interesting that the raisins is shriveled and not dried, also interesting that Dylan chose it.

Dried and sliced beets? sounds not tastely but maybe that's the point (c4)

cubed ginseng sounds horrendous (d2)

Or look at how Helena looks down seemingly in shame at saying “I know you’re unhappy with the life that you’ve been given but sometimes we have to accept reality” or if you put together that Helena isn’t laughing at the Kier story to be a show off or to try to be like Helly but that she’s struggling to hold in her laughter during that whole scene before bursting out laughing. (Which she immediately apologizes for doing) or how even before she laughs she’s looking at everyone like the story is ridiculous while everyone is ridiculous. She seems to genuinely think that is ridiculous she’s not faking that at all. And you have to pay attention to word choice and people’s actions around Helena. During the OTC when Helly is Helena, she is being guided around that party told not to drink being placed in front of people with talking points subtly pushed at her and clearly being watched even when she’s alone because they knew she was in the bathroom, or how Natalie is tracking how much Helena is drinking and making sure she doesn’t drink too much. Or how Natalie does not leave the stage while Helena is giving her speech. Making sure everything stays proper. She could’ve only tackled her from onstage.

Or even the scene with Jame in the bathroom. Jame seems like he is complimenting her sure. And of course we don’t get their full dynamic without Helena there to react to him but watch how Jame interacts with her. He says he cried in his bed when he found out what happened to Helena but yet? He didn’t know for a full week? He made Helena keep going back? He didn’t even fire Cobel himself for it? No. He just tells her Kier would approve of her. He seems to be more angry at Helly for expressing bodily autonomy than at Helena’s safety. And then the story he tells about her? It’s about her approving of a Lumon invention as a child.

You have to listen to Helena speak at the gala on that video too. Listen to the words she says.

“My Dad would like to me to say” she doesn’t call her father Dad. She calls him father. First hint this is all fake. They’re trying to make her seem more personable.

Helena saying her father made her say the nine principles every night before bed (remind anyone of prayers before bed every night? I did them as a child) Lumon is a religion Helena was raised in.

(Helena about saying the nine principles every night) “Which I can’t say I always did so happily.” Child Helena didn’t like saying the nine principles. Does that mean she’s never been a believer even as a child? Is that why she’s so heavily watched and controlled?

The apology video. First of all. Her facial expressions when she’s first about to do it. She looks anxious. Unsure of herself. She’s fixing her outfit. Looking to Natalie for guidance. Pasting a fake smile on her face.

Not to mention. The framing. Helena is taking up less than half the screen. Then in comes Natalie. The hand of Lumon. Filling the whole screen. To press record.

Then let’s dissect the apology speech. An arm rash? We can see Helena’s full arms. In the video and throughout the party. Is this subtle rebellion done by Helena? Saying a lie that’s provably false?

After the video. Helena collapses. And looks down for a while and her face while she looks almost completely dissociated fills the screen now. This is the real Helena. This face right now. Does she not want to be doing this? Doesn’t seem like she does.

Jame. The fetid moppet scene. He was so pleased with her before. Creepy as he is. He was pleased. He’s not pleased anymore. He knows that wasn’t her. He knows that was Helly. But he still gets in her face. (Helena tears back) and calls her a fetid moppet. Which means “Dirty child” The innies are thought of as children. Is he saying Helena is now dirty because Helly is in her? Interesting how he was willing to sever his own daughter if he thinks it makes her dirty. Does he not really care about her? Unless she’s useful to him?

Let’s also talk about Helena during before and after that scene.

Helena is standing there. Looking out the window. Holding her neck. Is it a control thing? A fear thing? I don’t know. But I find it interesting how she’s grasping right where the bruise inflicted upon her in the elevator is.

Next, when Jame comes in the room she stands at attention. And waits until he comes towards her and says what he needs to say. She lets him put himself in her face. And rears back in fear.

Then after that something interesting happens. Not sure exactly what to make of it. Helena looks him dead in the eyes. And says. “Father” and Jame looks horrified and leaves. I’m not sure what to make of that there. But it’s interesting for Jame to go “Fetid moppet” which means dirty child. And Helena responds by looking him in the eyes and (seemingly) reminding him she’s HIS child. Is this implying she’s saying “Yes but I am your child” is this an attempt from her to throw his insult back at him in a way that won’t get her punished?

Then yes Irving. Let’s do Irving. Irving finds her out. Partly because of his dream and partly because imo Helena had the hardest time pretending around him. Understandably to be honest. He is an older man with gray hair. Just like her father whose she’s been taught to see as a threat. There’s a few instances where it’s clear she may think of her father when thinking of him

With the hand thing here. Jame does the same to Helly.

Then here. At the waterfall when he confronts her, she reacts in the same exact way that she does to Jame during the fetid moppet scene. She rears back.

Alright. The scene where Helena gets sent back down. Drummond says he and Natalie will not tell Jame about Helena’s “contretemps” since we learn later in the scene that Jame does know Helena was found out to be Helly we can assume the contretemps is how she behaved during the ORTBO. The laughing at Kier and sex with Mark as that is the only other significant event recently. This shows us that while Drummond and Natalie are true believers of Kier seemingly they are willing to keep secrets for Helena. Why we do not know but it’s an interesting development. This is also seemingly given as the reason why Helena may not speak to her father about the ORTBO. (Which side note the fact that she seemingly has to ask permission to speak to her own father that she lives in the same house with? Interesting)

I also find it interesting how Natalie seemingly tries to comfort Helena by saying she’s almost done and she can do this. Seemingly already aware Helena is not happy to be being severed. This comes before Helena even says she doesn’t want to come back down. So Natalie is already aware of this information.

Then. When Helena says she will not go back down there. Natalie laughs at her. Seemingly not in a mocking way as that is subjective but to me it feels more incredulous rather than mocking as if Helena saying no to something is just not possible so Natalie finds it kinda funny and weird that Helena says no. So Helena reminds them she almost died. And Drummond and Natalie do seem to get slightly uncomfortable at that fact but they do not waver. They basically tell her that’s not an option. To say no. Helena sits with that. Grimaces. And asks if her father agrees with this. And Drummond. Seemingly with sympathy in his eyes. Says her father encouraged it. And then she goes downstairs. As they discuss how Lumon thanks her for her sacrifice. What is she sacrificing you should ask yourself. Her safety. Maybe even her life. For what? Cold Harbor. We still don’t know for sure what Cold Harbor truly is. But they are willing to sacrifice the Eagan Heir for it.

Then the swim clock. They show us a the clock ticking by as she swims. Now swim clocks aren’t super weird it’s how laps are timed. But it does make me wonder if the swimming recreational? Or forced. Not to mention how she floats and her similarity to the toy Ms Huang has which is later broken.

The transition as Helena walks down the halls. The water stays on her for a full six seconds. That’s a while. Is she drowning? The symbolism makes me wonder.

The house. White walls. Don’t these look like the halls of the severed floor? Feels very similar to me.

The egg scene. Jame sits there. And watches Helena cut up this egg in an ornate fashion. He’s either meaning or making a disapproving sound. I think it’s a disapproving sound but this is subjective. He Sticks his lip out at her and fixes his coffee cup. So Helena then says “We’re seeing to Mr Bailiff” to break the silence. (was Helena involved in sending Burt after Irving in a hope he’d save Irving? We’ll find out I assume) Jame’s response? “I wish you’d take them raw” Creepy double entendre. Did he means raw eggs like Kier? Or. Did he mean something more sinister. Are we supposed to get creepy horrifying sexual undertones here? I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the intention. Feels like that.

And Helena responds by putting her fork down. And not eating anymore. Smiling as Jame leaves. She’s rebelling. She’s doing yet another little rebellion.

Helena seems to be a master of small little rebellions that don’t get her punished. Understandable given her upbringing.

And then. The final scene where we learn about Helena. The Jame and Helly scene. Where he outright tells Helly he doesn’t love Helena and he implies he prefers Helly to her. Says Helly reminds him of Kier. And tells her he’s created other heirs. Backup heirs. And most importantly, he says his entire reason for having children is to see Kier in them. And he saw Kier in Helena as a child. But he stopped seeing him as Helena became an adult. But he sees Kier in Helly. And we’ll find out what that means.

Basically. Tl;dr we learn ALOT about Hellyna. Helena’s backstory is sure a mystery still. But her present? Why Helly is the way she is? We learn a lot. And her storyline certainly is not just about Mark. It’s much more complicated than that. Mark is a part of her story of course. But she also has one all her own. And they gave us a lot to think about in season 1&2 regarding them.

All this to say, I do somewhat wish we had like a hint of the “car accident” with Gemma this season. Not even a full flashback sequence but maybe what happened in her final drive before she was imprisoned for 3(?) years. Yes we have the scene where they part before mark gets informed of her “death” but maybe just one scene of her taking a deep, unsteady breath and entering the testing floor for the first time. Idk if that makes sense, but truly I hope for another gemma focused episode in season 3 surround it .

i think we all kind of thought this at some point! which has less to do with anything the show actually told us and all of our assumptions based on previous, worse projects that totally would have gone this route.

i remember thinking well the moral of the show is not going to be that you can resurrect the dead or defeat an evil entity to get your dead wife back, but that was honestly a disrespectfully simplistic view of the show. its not going to have a kindergarten moral at the end, it is a treatise on identity and trauma!

anyway, i dont fault anyone who bought into the gemma was already/mostly dead theory pre-CB, almost everyone did!

I am actually fully fine where we left off with gemma s2, i think we will 100% be getting that peak into what the car crash was like in future season and im pretty willing to wait. i like not knowing sometimes, i like wondering (provided the answer is eventually shared) and severance almost always delightfully surprises with its creativity and horror.