Severance S2 Trailer

[DJ Davis]

Check this out :

Theory about data refining :
https://www.reddit.com/r/severence/comm ... _actually/

The problem with that is Mark didn’t get Severed until Gemma had died … and because she died. Perhaps it was all part of their plan, but nothing they’ve revealed so far indicates that.

[George Zipp]

The Ringer, one of my favorite silly pop culture/sports/movie/TV sites out there always does a nice post episode write up/summary. Beware, tons of spoilers so my Capt. Obvious advice of the day if you are interested in checking out don't read until after you have watched the most current episode. Helps me a ton because while I'm mostly following, I'm also mostly lost more often than not. Gives me enough clarity to go "hmmm, didn't think of that."

https://theringer.com/2025/02/20/tv/sev ... cap-attila

[MikoTython]

Spoiler

An aspect of the show which seems among the more implausible elements, is the complicity of the outie world to the treatment of people inside the evil company. But then I think of the many thousands of people who have been indoctrinated into the various religious cults, we all know the major offenders, who are in-effect self-incarcerated. In that sense, the show isn't as 'off' as we might prefer it to be.

The single most interesting dynamic of this show is, for me, the culture of cooption/enslavement that operates 'behind the scenes', which we have yet to get a detailed insight regarding. It is clear that, even for the 'innie' of a founding family member, no great regard is due. Nor is her 'outie' an actual decision maker (i.e. its a corporate thing, the Kier mythos just boiler-plate, her included). 'Innies' are regarded, and so treated, as sub-human raw material to be harnessed, perhaps harvested - a corporatist fascist dystopia, in the making, built upon the uninformed consent (?) of the enslaved. At least, from what we've seen so far - which might simply be phase I.

There is a training/acculturation/indoctrination process which the 'managers' have been clearly fitted into, somewhat like the hothouse unreality of the innies - the manipulators are also manipulated by the same (bleep) they're feeding their charges. Miss Huang seems like one more born to rule - maybe her training shows the game has been upped by a generation.

I hope the big reveal is worthy of the vibes we've been given so far, to make the pieces move the way we see them moving. But probably not. Like most monster movies, finally seeing them is a let-down.

The thing about dystopias - not always fantasies - they sometimes happen in real life, right before our eyes.

[FrankTheTank]

Spoiler

Christopher Walken being a bad guy was not on my radar, so that was an interesting twist. I think they know Irv is digging into things, and want to stop him.

Where is Harmony Cobel???

[3dender]

Top 3 episode of the series! Gemmaaaaaa!

A great one for those frustrated we haven't learned anything too. The director was the cinematographer of the series so of course it looks exceptional. And this was her directorial debut so what a bar she has set for herself.

Spoiler

So we have confirmation that Gemma appears to have gone there willingly, probably for fertility treatment and is how being tragically held against her will. But what reason could justify her lying to Mark about her death? Just for the possibility of a baby? Doesn't seem enough to me.

And I didn't catch it but a Twitter nerd noticed the Lumon logo on the blood donation paperwork at their meet-cute. Has their entire relationship been orchestrated?

And all the rooms that are tormenting her innie (or it seems now her *various* innies!?), what's that about? I see people saying it's so they can mass market severance for various unpleasant situations, but increasing sales seems like quite a small goal for what Drummond has said about changing the world and whatnot.

I think it has to have more to do with testing like the essence of Gemma to find where she ends and her body begins, maybe for an entire soul replacement a la that previous fan theory.

On a critical note, the worst and most contrived plotting of the series is Reghabi storming out bc Devon suggested (didn't even follow through) calling Cobel. 1st of all the idea makes no sense from Devon perspective, she should hate and fear Cobel. 2nd Reghabi leaves so suddenly that they might as well have just had her so it with no explanation and flash a card that says "for the rest of the plot we need Mark to have only partially reintegrated with no hope for fixing it, so Reghabi is going on vacation for awhile."

[MikoTython]

Spoiler

It seems to me like the show is moving into 'smelling its own farts' territory. All those televisually artsy but absurd (e.g. Robbie Benson as endless Christmas Mitch Miller lothario from hell or dentist from hell) basically torture scenarios, which couldn't have any coherent functional narrative use... Starting to find the endless 'complexity'/bizarreness off-putting.

[DJ Davis]

Not doing spoiler function, I feel like the only people in the thread watch the show, and those who don’t want spoilers know better than to click here.

Mind f episode. The production on the sequence in Mark’s & Gemma’s house, with time passing, was so well done. Also the scene going down into the real? macrodat room. The speed ramping/frame tricks were like nothing I’ve seen before.

Lumon logo on the blood draw when Mark and Gemma met. Does their blood type matter? Did that lead Lumon to them? Also, blood draw opens the doors on the testing floor.

Seems like Gemma has different severed selves? The same weird whistling doctor, apparently in love with her, playing all of the roles on the testing floor. But why change costumes? I guess a test if the multiple layers work? Different layers of severance, for different traumatic experiences. Imagine how insane that could be.

Regarding Reghabi, even thought Devon didn’t call Cobel, I think Devon’s reaction and freak out scared her off. She knew it wouldn’t be possible to continue the reintegration effectively now that Devon knows. But, she will probably have a change of heart and come back.

[DJ Davis]

Also, in the lower macrodat room, those seemed to be the clones from ORTBO? All looked like the macrodat team, and they were working at an insane speed, inhuman like. (Or maybe just a speed trick to show time passing)

[3dender]

Also, in the lower macrodat room, those seemed to be the clones from ORTBO? All looked like the macrodat team, and they were working at an insane speed, inhuman like. (Or maybe just a speed trick to show time passing)

Yes forgot that detail. Definitely the clones and 99% sure a speed trick.

[FrankTheTank]

Such a beautifully shot & edited episode. We learned a lot, and the scenes were fantastic. Apparently it was supposed to show 5-years of their relationship and they had 15-16 minutes of screen time to do it. I really enjoyed it and think it is one of the standout episodes of the series so far, and that is saying something.

[3dender]

E8 kind of a dud in my family's opinion. I see why it was necessary to learn Cobel's backstory, and that she's definitely anti Lumon now and likely to be instrumental in whatever rebellion takes place. I just wish it hadn't come in a way that totally slammed the brakes on all the momentum building from E7.

E.g. I would have preferred they intersperse the first 2/3 of this episode over a couple of the previous episodes, say E5 and E6, then leave all the Sissy's house stuff for part of this episode while the majority would be occupied by more interesting goings on back at Lumon. Oh well.

And the episode synopsis "discoveries are made" is puzzling.

[MikoTython]

E8 kind of a dud in my family's opinion. I see why it was necessary to learn Cobel's backstory, and that she's definitely anti Lumon now and likely to be instrumental in whatever rebellion takes place. I just wish it hadn't come in a way that totally slammed the brakes on all the momentum building from E7.

E.g. I would have preferred they intersperse the first 2/3 of this episode over a couple of the previous episodes, say E5 and E6, then leave all the Sissy's house stuff for part of this episode while the majority would be occupied by more interesting goings on back at Lumon. Oh well.

And the episode synopsis "discoveries are made" is puzzling.

Her 'heel turn' isn't very convincing. If she put her heart & soul into enslaving people, just because she got kicked to the curb, she's now an emancipator ? There isn't even an attempt to show any actual change of heart, just an accumulation of resentment. The narrative does, however, show the origins of her emotional isolation, the manipulations of her environs. I guess, all that aside, her 'experitise' sets her up to be the uber de-severer. Her character is written sloppily, imo.

[3dender]

E8 kind of a dud in my family's opinion. I see why it was necessary to learn Cobel's backstory, and that she's definitely anti Lumon now and likely to be instrumental in whatever rebellion takes place. I just wish it hadn't come in a way that totally slammed the brakes on all the momentum building from E7.

E.g. I would have preferred they intersperse the first 2/3 of this episode over a couple of the previous episodes, say E5 and E6, then leave all the Sissy's house stuff for part of this episode while the majority would be occupied by more interesting goings on back at Lumon. Oh well.

And the episode synopsis "discoveries are made" is puzzling.

Her 'heel turn' isn't very convincing. If she put her heart & soul into enslaving people, just because she got kicked to the curb, she's now an emancipator ? There isn't even an attempt to show any actual change of heart, just an accumulation of resentment. The narrative does, however, show the origins of her emotional isolation, the manipulations of her environs. I guess, all that aside, her 'experitise' sets her up to be the uber de-severer. Her character is written sloppily, imo.

idk, I don't think they coulda done much better without taking away a lot of screentime from more interesting characters. She has always been the least interesting character for me but I don't think that's the writer's fault, it's just that everyone else has much more obvious conflict going on. Most of her heel turn has clearly occurred off screen, and this episode just lets us know that's what's happening so that it's much less jarring when she swoops in to help Mark and Devon. At least that's how I take it.

I do think this ep does well with the subtle storytelling that this series is so good at, like her looking at the ether addict as she brushes her teeth, and commenting about how run down the town looks. Clearly it's solidifying for her that her decision to rebel is the correct one. And honestly this episode even subverts the audience belief that the altar in her home was about her reverence for Lumon... now we understand that it was for her anti-Lumon mother and may have even been a sign of rebellion against Lumon. We now have no idea how long she's actually been against Lumon.

This ep is also interesting in that we learn that Reghabi was wrong about Cobel. We just don't know if it's because she was ignorant (i.e. puncturing her sort of all-knowing aura of doctor genius) or if it's because she was actively trying to keep Devon/Mark from connecting with an ally. I'm guessing it's the former but the latter would open up all sorts of interesting tangents with Reghabi secretly working for Lumon the whole time.

[MikoTython]

E8 kind of a dud in my family's opinion. I see why it was necessary to learn Cobel's backstory, and that she's definitely anti Lumon now and likely to be instrumental in whatever rebellion takes place. I just wish it hadn't come in a way that totally slammed the brakes on all the momentum building from E7.

E.g. I would have preferred they intersperse the first 2/3 of this episode over a couple of the previous episodes, say E5 and E6, then leave all the Sissy's house stuff for part of this episode while the majority would be occupied by more interesting goings on back at Lumon. Oh well.

And the episode synopsis "discoveries are made" is puzzling.

Her 'heel turn' isn't very convincing. If she put her heart & soul into enslaving people, just because she got kicked to the curb, she's now an emancipator ? There isn't even an attempt to show any actual change of heart, just an accumulation of resentment. The narrative does, however, show the origins of her emotional isolation, the manipulations of her environs. I guess, all that aside, her 'experitise' sets her up to be the uber de-severer. Her character is written sloppily, imo.

idk, I don't think they coulda done much better without taking away a lot of screentime from more interesting characters. She has always been the least interesting character for me but I don't think that's the writer's fault, it's just that everyone else has much more obvious conflict going on. Most of her heel turn has clearly occurred off screen, and this episode just lets us know that's what's happening so that it's much less jarring when she swoops in to help Mark and Devon. At least that's how I take it.

I do think this ep does well with the subtle storytelling that this series is so good at, like her looking at the ether addict as she brushes her teeth, and commenting about how run down the town looks. Clearly it's solidifying for her that her decision to rebel is the correct one. And honestly this episode even subverts the audience belief that the altar in her home was about her reverence for Lumon... now we understand that it was for her anti-Lumon mother and may have even been a sign of rebellion against Lumon. We now have no idea how long she's actually been against Lumon.

This ep is also interesting in that we learn that Reghabi was wrong about Cobel. We just don't know if it's because she was ignorant (i.e. puncturing her sort of all-knowing aura of doctor genius) or if it's because she was actively trying to keep Devon/Mark from connecting with an ally. I'm guessing it's the former but the latter would open up all sorts of interesting tangents with Reghabi secretly working for Lumon the whole time.

Interesting stuff. I suppose we do know there is disaffection going on w/ Cobel re Luman, as you describe rather well, but its reasonable to be still somewhat in the dark about her motives. We can now imagine she would be in a position to de-sever, if that becomes her inclination. I love this continuing metaphor of sniffing ether, the first anaesthetic. The opposite of lumen, actually - darkness.

[George Zipp]

Maybe it has been discussed upthread, not sure but my more oversimplified questions, given that I'm really having a difficult time figuring out what the hell is going on, center on location, cars and technology.

Where are they? From this last episode it kind of had a NE wintertime vibe to it. Maine, NH, Mass, RI, some rando spot on Long Island. Or maybe coastal Oregon or WA? The chill and the snow and the water rule out the South, FL, most of CA etc. Have these things ever been answered?

And I have never understood why they all seem to be driving 1985 Honda's and 1991 Jeep Wagoneers but all seem to have IPhone 17s.

I watch you all discuss the fine details of the show and it helps. I wish I could contribute more. But I got nothing beyond what I read in this thread and what I read online and from my 23 yr old trying to explain.

[3dender]

Maybe it has been discussed upthread, not sure but my more oversimplified questions, given that I'm really having a difficult time figuring out what the hell is going on, center on location, cars and technology.

Where are they? From this last episode it kind of had a NE wintertime vibe to it. Maine, NH, Mass, RI, some rando spot on Long Island. Or maybe coastal Oregon or WA? The chill and the snow and the water rule out the South, FL, most of CA etc. Have these things ever been answered?

And I have never understood why they all seem to be driving 1985 Honda's and 1991 Jeep Wagoneers but all seem to have IPhone 17s.

I watch you all discuss the fine details of the show and it helps. I wish I could contribute more. But I got nothing beyond what I read in this thread and what I read online and from my 23 yr old trying to explain.

They are intentionally keeping the time and location vague... I think it's an aesthetic choice with the juxtaposition of older vehicles (and computer tech), to make it clear that this is definitely not our world. Any attempt to pinpoint time/location will be futile.

E8 was shot in Newfoundland, whereas the "Kier PE" town seems to be more in the middle of the country. There have been possible Great Lakes allusions so some people are positing Michigan upper peninsula, although imo we're just supposed to understand it to be anywhere in the middle-north of the country... like draw a four-sided shape with corners at Boise, Edmonton, Detroit and Ontario's Polar Bear Provincial Park, and it could be anywhere in that expanse. Doesn't really matter imo, this is allegorical sci-fi/fantasy.