(Sept 11, 2022 ● Oslin Pierrette)
(I meant to take all my episode reviews, and use it to help summarize the whole show, but then I just wanted to leave it as is. I liked the episode by episode journal entries.)
[Also huge spoiler alert. If you haven’t watched this show yet. You definitely want to binge the first season first. Then read the review.]
Season 1 episode 1:
I want to talk about my first impression about the first episode of Severance. I love a good watch based on a cool and unique premise. You see this woman in this padded conference room. She looks very incoherent. You find out she doesn’t have any memory. Including her own name. Then you see the guy who’s interviewing her. Learn he was a trainee just like her, and he seems ok with it. Then the video she watches breaks it down.
They willingly signed up for this, the severance. Their memory is bifurcated, basically split into two. One for work, one for your home. Literal work-life balance. When you go home, you don’t remember anything from work. And when you’re at work, you don’t remember anything at home. Such a strong story premise. So much you can do with that. But I want to go on a tangent. Just think about this system. So many people hate their job. Find it dreadful. What if they implemented this for people like that. Avoid all the dreadfulness of work. And just live your home life. I feel like a lot of people would love this concept. Yeah, you’re cutting half your day off. But it’s dreadful to them anyways. Some probably rather go idle. They can just live off their wages. I feel some people wouldn’t mind living somewhat poor. But at least got basic shelter, food, clothes, and electronic necessities. If they didn’t have the perception of work. I feel many would be fine with their poor life.
The main problem is, you’re enslaving someone. Yourself half the day. They have to be trapped in this memoryless luminal life. Reason why I feel the building is called Lumon. Someone is in a prison they can’t escape really. There is this feeling when watching, where you want the character to go to the place and break his other self out. But he is already out. It’s one body, two minds. One gets to live a limited version of their outside life. The other trapped within those luminal walls. Every second of their perception. If they wanted to panic, it doesn’t matter. Their other mental half is gonna typically choose to go right back into that hell. It’s cerebrally insane torture. The high of their life is their non-stimulating work. When you’re at work, you work. Corporate surfaceble relationships and interactions, that’s it. Barred from the chance of actual intimacy. No chance really of wanting more. Every day, trapped in a cubicle. That is such a cerebrally constructed hell.
I also wonder can the home half just mindfully untether. What if one day they just want to just go somewhere else far. And want to live their life away. Do they have the mental stability and capacity to. The end of the season is gonna be interesting where they go. I just loved this premise. And wanted to go off in my own mind. Contemplating what goes on.
Episode 2:
With this episode, they really set it in with the visceral corporate meaningless hell, that you can never leave. There’s no nights, there are no weekends. It is an interesting concept. The weekend, nights, and sleep mean nothing to you. Besides the effects of how it makes you feel. Understanding how night feels, or how the weekend feels. Actually understanding the effects of all of them. More viscerally understanding the effects, the rejuvenation in your body. But what’s crazy is the lack of sleep. Hopefully your outie is resting and taking care of themselves. So you can have a decent performance at work.
You have to keep coming back, work day, after work day, after work day, and so on. No mental or image break from whatever that life is, just a bit of time staggering. The work experience you realize is low purpose, it’s nothing. No real life in it. No real incentive to work. You hear the highlights of the other workers. It’s erasers, very limited music listening, one of the highest valued earning is a cartoon portrait. And if you get lucky, a waffle party. So the feeling sets in, there is no use to this life. It’s so surreal, a surreal endless hell. Helly tries to escape, and realizes the authority. There’s this authoritative figure to enforce you live out this hell properly.
Once I saw that the guy had black looking char in his fingernails. Made me think. What if your outie is an addict? Isn’t it like a physical thing where it would affect the innie. Make them physically crave something. Also what if they get locked up in jail. Curious about that too. But honestly, what if your outie is a junkie. Do they come to work the next day, just ok? Is addiction just mental. Can you forget to become an addict at work?
Also, how do personalities develop? If they have a clean mental slate. What helps build their personality, humor, taste in things. Or is it just a subliminal carryover from their prior outside life.
Was the hallucination, sleep deprivation induced? Like I said earlier, hopefully your outie is taking care of rest and recovery, because the innie is just gonna feel the effects of it.
This is such a cerebral psychological thriller for me. It’s amazing.
Episode 3:
Pete is starting to get more disoriented. The integration seems like it malfunctioned. Instead of conjoining, it seemed to put two different realities in the same body at the same time. Going back and forth from reality into lumon.
Later on- Mark finds the map of lumon that Pete leaves behind, then Pete dies from the integration process
Helly just can’t seem to adjust to lumon. She won’t accept and conform. She is just absolutely certain there is no greater meaning to lumon. Assured that it is hell. She destroyed any ignorant bliss she could have and just can’t accept lumon as home. That’s when Irving suggested the perpetuity wing. In an attempt to show her the greater meaning of lumon. Ingrain her with the hope that there is something that is greater than herself in lumon. Then when you see it. It seemingly confirms to her that lumon are just these walls she’s confined by. Then you google perpetuity. A bond with no fixed maturity date. So basically a bond that lasts forever. Whatever that can mean.
Helly has another escape attempt. One that is too big to let go, so she was sent to this punishment room. Where she has to repeatedly repeat a phrase until she means it.
Episode 4:
Helly’s being punished for her escape attempt. Where she has to constantly repeat a phrase in this intense room. You just understand that it’s excruciating. Then she is going home to start again in the morning. But boom, her perception is right back in the office. The insanity of the moment really sets in, you feel trapped. Frustration from being trapped in this hell. You get the idea that it’s a nonsensical absurd reason for why they’re being institutionalized. I wonder if their outie feels the mental abuse, that might be somewhat physical. Does it carry home? Do they feel mentally exhausted or anxious?
They introduced this intimate relationship. Between the two old guys. Bonding isn’t something you can really do in this office. What’s to bond about? Especially if you don’t know what you’re connected to. But they both seem to connect to a painting they shared interest in. So it brings up the question. Does their prior outie orientation affect the innie? Or is this intimate bond due to repressed intimacy? So connecting on a painting feels like everything to them.
Helly, which is a funny ironic name. Is in complete understanding that she is in hell. So she pulls the biggest stunt to get out. Threatens to chop off her finger, because how would you simply explain that to the outie. She gets to record a video to convince the outie to resign. But it is declined by her outie. It was such a deeply surreal experience. She feels more than trapped in this hell, but completely doomed, can’t escape. But it’s from her original outie. What kind of mental hell is the outie in that she has to enforce this. Also how does this help the outie’s host sending your innie to hell. This just put Helly in a deeper decapitating hell. It’s wild that she doesn’t see her innie as a human. So she can’t really empathize with herself. Or her outie can have a deep self hatred. Where she doesn’t give herself much care, self sabotage.
After Pete’s funeral. You see that all these employees are escapist. They seem to all have deep demons that they can’t live with. So what does disappearing for half of their perception help. Also you see the damage it does to their surroundings. Not dealing with their issues.
I like the contraband book. It’s basically the key for mental freedom, real freedom. A revolution. They have no knowledge of anything outside those walls. All they can know is what authority wants them to know. Now they have access to outside beliefs and knowledge that teaches about self and value. Which can be a gift and curse. Curse of knowing life is bigger than that luminal hell. That you have to escape it. But understand that they’re in a luminal hell, and might not be able to escape.
Hopefully Helly gets to escape hell (after that suicide attempt)
That office room looks so liminal
Also what happens to pregnant employees
Episode 5:
Welp, Helly is back in hell(attempt failed). Let’s see how she deals with it. To wake up back in hell. Is an insane amount of insanity. The visceral process of killing yourself, escaping hell. Then right back to work, right back into hell.
Also for it to get blamed on Mark. You just hate those types of characters. That pure evil filth. Yeah, it’s just a character. But you know it’s real in the world somewhere. More specifically that white women devil type(Not saying women are evil, I’m talking about a specific group of white women and people. Like the ones from Get Out). So it’s such a haunting character because of how much power through manipulation she has. Also Mark is sensing a bit of fraudulence. He saw her ultimate plea to leave the office, and he doesn’t understand why she has to return. In their answer, you can tell he’s sensing a bit of their sinister character.
I like that Mark is reading the book more. It’s the first time in his innie’s life. That he is having a genuine understanding of a catharsis.
With the goats in that room. It seems there is a lot more to this place. What is the point of this whole place? What’s the purpose, goal ,agenda, the motive?
Nice to see Mark and Helly’s bond. And to see them establish their deeper than plutonic bond.
You see there’s a propaganda agenda to separate the departments. Spread fear to create distance. Why is it important for them to stay so distant, especially emphasized by the maze they have to go through to get to the next department? But it was nice to see them debunk the propaganda and come together.
Also, ironically the book went to the right Mark.
Episode 6:
One thing I can’t stand. Is the greater good complex. Enacting their own filthy values on others who didn’t ask for it. That sense of ego and entitlement is some of the most filthiest essence this world has bred. Cultish behavior
I like the camaraderie. Departments coming together. To try to put the mystery of the puzzle pieces together. But what if it’s all random meaningless work, so ambiguous. There is no puzzle to solve. But it might make everyone see that there is no puzzle. It’s just fraud.
Episode 7:
Dylan got to see his son for a second. His home life. That implanted idea can’t just go away, it’s just gonna spread. That hug from his son, maybe could’ve given him a moment he could never forget. Then back trapped away in hell. From the family you just discovered you had. Everything in that room, so much to consume at once. Those few seconds of outsideness showed him, there is so much more to life.
That dance experience was a great scene. You understand the use of song in this lifeless place. Say you’re spending eternity in jail. Then one day you get to listen to music and dance. You somewhat forget about hell at the moment. Because there’s life, life and color, festive life. Especially jazz. You saw hope and life in the employees. They felt happy.
Still, that couldn’t shake Dylan out of his funk. He’s not gonna be able to forget the idea of his son. He was one of the ones that accumulated nicely at Lumon, institutionalized. But now with that idea. That second of life outside of hell, knowledge of that. He probably wouldn’t be able to stop craving it. Which ruined his institutionalization. He can’t live a lie now. Blissful ignorance bubble has been popped
I liked that Irving had to make sure Burt’s ok. He’s risking freedom to love. But some may say, what’s the point of freedom without love?
But you see. You can’t just confine humans up their entire life. They have a need for love. A need for intimacy. That they are barred from. Barred from their human essence.
Cobel’s breath probably stinks
There’s always this hidden authority presence. People who run things are typically in the dark.
So retirement means death. Born without asking. Then death without asking. It’s a morbid existence. I know that’s like the human experience, but they didn’t have the blessing of a human existence. Just born into hell, and never got the satisfaction of life.
To be an authority. To go home with your memory. Go to sleep knowing what you’re doing with this facility. You have to be a deeply demented person. So I wonder what has Milacic working at Lumon.
Irving outbreak. Due to his loss of love. His grieving. Something matters and has meaning, and now nothing matters and lost his meaning for movin on. His institutionalization is broken. You can’t create a meaning for this place. It’s now a hell for him. A reminder of his loss of love. Way worse than before. A heartbroken existence, with nothing to remedy it.
So now that everyone has this understanding of a greater life. Smell the fraudulence of that luminal life. You can’t tell them anything. It’s revolution time.
Great use of music in this room.
Also what if people get reintegrated later on. What if they had two separate love lives. Do all their emotions just combine.
Episode 8:
Now we know. The origins of Irving’s hallucinations. Also that his outie life bleeds in his innie life. But why?
This reminds me of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. Maybe this is testing grounds for technology that they feel can impact society. If two lovers with erased memories met again. They should have some subconscious connection. I think they were testing against that.
I like that their about to all be zapped in to their outie existence
So subconscious intermixing between outie and innie is confirmed. Feelings and some memory. Subconscious existence is also spewed from innie to outie. The fact that Irving can paint the path to the break room. Such a traumatic experience. Of course that could bleed through into his outie.
Most of their existence are hallways**
Episode 9:
A lot is going on. You’re seeing that a lot of their work life is mixed in their home life.
The break room must’ve been so heavily traumatic for Irving. He has such a fixation on that in his outie, but he probably doesn’t understand why. Something that affected him deeply.
The deeply hurting innies. In their hell. Helly finds out their outies are being represented as brave happy martyrs.
Will anybody just get it out… Like someone say it
It is surreal that the person that hates lumon the most. Is a part of the bloodline.
That was some of the most tense 20 minutes. So packed and dense. But we got the satisfying discoveries and release of information.
…wait that was the season finale
Aww man. This is one of the greatest cliffhangers. Because I need the next moment to happen.
We don’t know if we’ll see some of those innie characters again. They might not go back to the facility after all that went down. I need this show to come back. Those lingering questions have to be answered. Absolutely amazing show.
Severance extra:
This show is absolutely amazing, my favorite of the year. I would also say the best show of the year. It just solidifies that Apple TV+ is the best streaming provider platform for Televisions for 2022.
I just love the premise of the show. Also how they utilize the innie life. Innie life was like a microcosm of the world. When you look at Lumon. It’s like why do these people just accept this life and not question why they’re just adhering to this lifestyle when there’s something sinister behind all this. And you can also say for the masses living in this society. Why do we comply with society and do the things we do? When there’s something definitely sinister behind all this. Even when it crumbles. We still comply. We have the absolute understanding that things are sinister. They’re not the way they’re supposed to be. And we just accept. Those four characters were great to describe certain archetypes. You have Dylan, who understands this world is messed up, but what are you going to do about it. Might as well comply and get the best out of it, no point in being bleak. You have irvington who is convinced by the system. Complies and goes out his way to keep order. A fool who finds meaning in propaganda. Then you have Mark who is like a beta and doesn’t confront anything, so he just accepts whatever is there. Also he gets rewarded so he’s incentivized by the system. Then you have your Helly’s, who are anti-system. She is convinced that the world is corrupt and won’t stand for it. She’s willing to die for change or escape. And those are the people that get treated like they’re crazy. They try to torture her until she is complient. Everybody in the system has to be controlled. And authoritative figures will keep you in line. Like reality, in Lumon you don’t understand the motive for the people in the front lines of authority. Why do they care so much to protect the system, also how can someone protect something so sinister. Then you never see the higher ups.
Also a microcosm is their jobs. What is their grand purpose with these jobs? Higher-ups try to make workers feel like their pseudo jobs have purpose, and it’s good to be a working part of society. While Higher-ups gain the bulk of the rewards off workers, also knowing that workers are just a cog on the wheel.
Then another microcosm is the divide and conquer. You have different departments or sections of people, extremely divided. Most just stay in their region/bubble. Mainly because there’s fables and stories about different regions being evil. Painting different regions like monsters. To contrive fear, and keep regions and departments away from each other. Love and curiosity brought them together. Seeing that people aren’t much different from each other. That all the notions separating the departments were absurd. Life in this system is absurd.
I wonder what happens when one person has two love lives. What if reintegration happens, do they have to choose? Also what happens when a severed person gets pregnant. One side is just going to be really confused that they’re pregnant. One side won’t know the other parent of the baby. And the innie will never see the baby they gave birth to. Then what if the severed person has two partners. The outside partner is obviously the main partner, but say the inside person gets them pregnant. How does that work? The outie didn’t know they were cheating, they technically weren’t.
I really hope they dive into the hypotheticals of what can happen to severed people. I want to see this premise done to the fullest, and answer some of my questions.