Severance (Spoilers)

[DoubleF]

I dunno... The more I thought about ep 8, the more I felt like the writing is systematically peeling back layers past what we know of Lumon from Lumon HQ MDR perspective.

It reveals the lower floor, an idea that the functional severance technology is 20 years old vs 12 (Burt) and now we learn it's potentially older than 20 years via Cobel.

But questions wise, why is no one wondering how Cobel of all people created this technology and idea while in some small town in the middle of nowhere? Why is Cobel not prized as a scientific inventor for Lumon? Why is she basically playing psychologist on the Lumon floor when we first met her, instead of engineer?

One idea that is also bugging me is that there should be three competing ideas for servered employees, but we're fixated on one. Reghabi's idea of integration. Glasgow block and overtime contingent exist. Isn't a major point of the innies not that they wonder what their outies are up to, but that they're basically mentally caged inside Lumon HQ? A lot of what I've read makes it seem like a lot of viewers have forgotten what the innies are actually trying to accomplish.

There's also weird dichotomy going on. Milchick criticized for using complex words. But Cobel's yearbook labeled annual reminisces. Lots of other conflicts between top Lumon executives revealed throughout season two, mostly just brief spats, but there's nonetheless. "Why are you still wearing that stupid sweater?" Milchick frequently criticized. Milchick vs Ms Huang. Helly Eagan's apology. So many to execs keep getting into hot water.

I feel like salt neck is setting up things for a huge reveal. I think there's going to be some type of weird old school vs new school type of full blown conflict that is revealed soon. I assume the setup in its entirely has importance. We shall see.

[troutman]

Milchik on Colbert tonight.

Suns out, guns out.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Why is Cobel not prized as a scientific inventor for Lumon?

Lots of interesting questions and food for thought posited, but I'm picking on this one. Are there a lot of corporations out there who, when they take employee inventions and innovations developed on company time, treat the employee as prized inventors? I don't mean in stories, I mean like in our world. I feel like the CEOs and executives get that glory (Jobs spearheaded the iPhone! Where would we be without Gates and Windows?), but I couldn't tell you individuals at the companies who thought up GUIs or smartphones.

Maybe that's just a personal blindspot? But it feels more like a cultural thing.

[troutman]

^ Musk did not invent Tesler cars.

[troutman]

“The After Hours” is a masterpiece of modern television on par with “Ozymandias” on Breaking Bad.

Every scene is gripping, and I’m most moved by the love a sister has for her brother.

[CaptainYooh]

The Milchick-Huang plot line seems to be going nowhere.

[getbak]

"Devour feculence."

I had to double-check that there was still one more episode because it felt like one of those cliffhanger finales where they leave every cast member in limbo to make it easier to write someone out of the show if they can't negotiate a continuation of their contract.

It's possible next week will be a Mark/Gemma/Helly heavy show, so we might not see anything with Dylan, Irving, or Miss Huang anyway.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Lots of interesting questions and food for thought posited, but I'm picking on this one. Are there a lot of corporations out there who, when they take employee inventions and innovations developed on company time, treat the employee as prized inventors? I don't mean in stories, I mean like in our world. I feel like the CEOs and executives get that glory (Jobs spearheaded the iPhone! Where would we be without Gates and Windows?), but I couldn't tell you individuals at the companies who thought up GUIs or smartphones.

Maybe that's just a personal blindspot? But it feels more like a cultural thing.

I mean in the sense that you isolate them somehow so they can't run off and become a competitor or a saboteur. The iphone/ipod are slightly different in that those were developed in house. It's closer to an external tech that jump started a company like Jobs/Wozniak. Woz for instance is running around, but there's enough protection for Apple to avoid a significant road block if he suddenly gets upset. There seems to be very little defense for Cobel getting upset is what I mean.

Maybe we don't know enough of the Severance universe for it to be less weird, but I felt like ep 7 and 8 revealed how many weak spots Lumon had by not managing personnel appropriately. Cobel and Reghabi have the ability to really screw up their severance tech and it just seems like a footnote so far. Reghabi makes sense that she's basically in hiding, but Cobel able to be running around openly as a significant vulnerability to Lumon is weird. Burt being able to openly tell people about severance technology's true history is also weird (especially since they can technically take that info).

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

That actress is low key hot

Low key hot? She's gorgeous.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

Low key hot? She's gorgeous.

Lucky Adam. Both Gemma and Helly are incredible.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I mean in the sense that you isolate them somehow so they can't run off and become a competitor or a saboteur. The iphone/ipod are slightly different in that those were developed in house. It's closer to an external tech that jump started a company like Jobs/Wozniak. Woz for instance is running around, but there's enough protection for Apple to avoid a significant road block if he suddenly gets upset. There seems to be very little defense for Cobel getting upset is what I mean.

Maybe we don't know enough of the Severance universe for it to be less weird, but I felt like ep 7 and 8 revealed how many weak spots Lumon had by not managing personnel appropriately. Cobel and Reghabi have the ability to really screw up their severance tech and it just seems like a footnote so far. Reghabi makes sense that she's basically in hiding, but Cobel able to be running around openly as a significant vulnerability to Lumon is weird. Burt being able to openly tell people about severance technology's true history is also weird (especially since they can technically take that info).

The fact that Cobel was able to bring Devon into that cabin area (hiding Mark) and there was no caution from the guard with Cobel being fired, etc., might be a bit of a red flag that makes me wonder if she's still working with Lumon.

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

The fact that Cobel was able to bring Devon into that cabin area (hiding Mark) and there was no caution from the guard with Cobel being fired, etc., might be a bit of a red flag that makes me wonder if she's still working with Lumon.

Maybe, but it's also likely that the guard wouldn't know who Cobel was. Lumon is a huge company with tens of thousands of employees I assume. The former head of the severed floor might not be publicly recognized, as Lumon doesn't appear to want the workers of that floor to be well known. Cobel knew the complicated passcode, so that's probably all the guard needed to allow her in.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

But questions wise, why is no one wondering how Cobel of all people created this technology and idea while in some small town in the middle of nowhere? Why is Cobel not prized as a scientific inventor for Lumon? Why is she basically playing psychologist on the Lumon floor when we first met her, instead of engineer?

Just wanted to address this.

The first thing is that it's clear from Cobel's episode that she was indoctrinated in the cult from a young age as a child worker in their cultpany (cult + company) factory in the local town. She would have seen it as an opportunity to create glory for Keir and the Lumon brand, and her "compensation" for giving the company the invention would be as director of the severed floor. It whisked her away from a life of severe economic depression so it's clear why she traded her individual praise and recognition for a better life. Additionally, it's why she had such wide leeway to do her job until the overtime incident.

Devour Feculence is now my go to insult. If they can't get it the first time, I'll break it down for them mo-no-syl-lab-ic-al-ly.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

The fact that Cobel was able to bring Devon into that cabin area (hiding Mark) and there was no caution from the guard with Cobel being fired, etc., might be a bit of a red flag that makes me wonder if she's still working with Lumon.

Perhaps. But if she is, the parking lot scene where she takes off leads me to believe it certainly isn't with a certain specific faction of Lumon (if one believes in a fractured Lumon group with factions due to the recent outward disdain certain high level Lumon employees are showing to each other).

Originally Posted by mikephoen

Maybe, but it's also likely that the guard wouldn't know who Cobel was. Lumon is a huge company with tens of thousands of employees I assume. The former head of the severed floor might not be publicly recognized, as Lumon doesn't appear to want the workers of that floor to be well known. Cobel knew the complicated passcode, so that's probably all the guard needed to allow her in.

I dunno completely about that. The guard certainly didn't seem to recognize Cobel, but other than the code, the reasoning used for her entrance related to something Jame. Doesn't that hint at an underlying darker theme that the birthing cabin resort is potentially for reasons other than voluntary entrance to deal with births?

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Just wanted to address this.

The first thing is that it's clear from Cobel's episode that she was indoctrinated in the cult from a young age as a child worker in their cultpany (cult + company) factory in the local town. She would have seen it as an opportunity to create glory for Keir and the Lumon brand, and her "compensation" for giving the company the invention would be as director of the severed floor. It whisked her away from a life of severe economic depression so it's clear why she traded her individual praise and recognition for a better life. Additionally, it's why she had such wide leeway to do her job until the overtime incident.

Devour Feculence is now my go to insult. If they can't get it the first time, I'll break it down for them mo-no-syl-lab-ic-al-ly.

I don't disagree with what you're saying at all. I'm saying that she got out of poverty and had deep knowledge of a key technology. But Lumon no protection for such key technology against her going rogue. TBH, it's also weird that you can sever someone and someone like Mark can also technically go rogue, especially in a world with smart phones... but then I guess it's harder to write a story.

Devour feculence made me laugh in the sense that I swear we did do insults like this to each other in Jr High for a short period of time. This along with things like defenestrate yourself, do you masticate?, are you a pyro? etc. When Milchick said it, I was like, "Wait, I think I know what that means...".

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I dunno completely about that. The guard certainly didn't seem to recognize Cobel, but other than the code, the reasoning used for her entrance related to something Jame. Doesn't that hint at an underlying darker theme that the birthing cabin resort is potentially for reasons other than voluntary entrance to deal with births?

I took it to mean that Jame has had a number of illegitimate kids and/or pregnancies that have either been birthed in secret and then paid off and sent away or that the 'birthing cabins' can also be used to preform abortions to deal with these unwanted pregnancies.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

I took it to mean that Jame has had a number of illegitimate kids and/or pregnancies that have either been birthed in secret and then paid off and sent away or that the 'birthing cabins' can also be used to preform abortions to deal with these unwanted pregnancies.

This, yes. But also if you can sever someone, some of these women might never remember they had a kid at all. Imagine not knowing if someone is a mistress or surrogate or not even knowing at all.

[troutman]

Great finale.

“Earned violence.”

Divided souls - Mark talking to Mark S. via videocam is Sméagol talking to Gollum in the reflection in the water.

Marching band weirdness - Tusk!

https://bgr.com/entertainment/jaw-dr...-war-criminal/

On Threads, meanwhile, someone called it Breaking Bad’s Ozymandias and Game of Thrones’ The Rains of Castamere-level TV. And honestly, as crushed as we all feel, it’s hard to disagree there. “This is one of those finales we’ll be talking about for years.”

What's behind Severance's explosive success?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainmen...on-2-1.7487902

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by troutman

Great finale.

“Earned violence.”

Divided souls - Mark talking to Mark S. via videocam is Sméagol talking to Gollum in the reflection in the water.

Marching band weirdness - Tusk!

https://bgr.com/entertainment/jaw-dr...-war-criminal/



What's behind Severance's explosive success?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainmen...on-2-1.7487902

I feel like the video camera is a portion of it. But I like to think of the whole episode as a the whole.

The whole episode felt like the chaos of an internal struggle. The sensory overload that goes with it as change occurs, the quiet moments of logical and philosophical debate, random integration of pure illogical/seemingly fantasy like moments in time, deafening silence and darkness, accomplishing everything you were aiming for and more, only to lose the small piece you at one point thought was impossible to lose, list goes on.

I'm thinking I need to do a rewatch once I process it for a little bit.

[surferguy]

For a show I rarely have a clue of what is going on in it, I liked it from a pure visual experience.

The way the whole thing was shot, the cinematography was excellent, it’s an instant classic. No doubt they will win awards for that episode. You will see nods and references to that blue and red hallway for years to come in pop culture.

Also I’d love to see how much screen time has been dedicated to people walking down hallways in this series. I’m willing to bet it’s 70%

[Cappy]

I really liked the finale.

It answered enough questions, without introducing a whole whack of new mysteries which shows like this tend to do.

The end scene was great and there are enough cliff hangers to be pumped for another season while there was enough "finality" to not be frustrated with having to wait for a new episode. It was a good send off in a way.

Loved the two kids just running away together trying to enjoy their supposed last moments together.