Severance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That shot of Mark's face when he sees the police at the door and you can very subtly watch him realize what's happening. Just give Adam Scott the Emmy already.

I had thought that they were going to do a closeup on those policemen where we would see that they were Lumon goons.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, it made me really uncomfortable because she’s trapped and they are torturing her. She still chooses drowning and there’s a pointed exchange with the nurse. She uses the book and breaks protocol to attempt to escape. Her innie versions attempt to resist.

The “I don’t believe you line” is Gemma at least saying I’m not going down without a fight. Pie isn’t fun to eat if you live in a bunker alone and can’t trust anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The drowning question reminds me of Helena and Irving and the pineapple bobbing. The levels of entrapment highlighted in this episode with the different floors and maze like hallways seems so ominous to me and less humorous. The satire is sharpening.

The scene with Cobel looking at the sign listing mileage to another town earlier this season makes me think she cannot physically leave. The never-ending hallway is a highway. The tension comes from being physically and emotionally trapped and tethered by, to, and for Lumon. I wonder if the writers might be playing with the concept of revolving and revolutions. Driving, running, thinking in circles. The tiny disruptions create a ripple effect and the more Lumon seeks to control these effects, the greater in frequency (both in number and in type) the disruptions will occur. Interesting choice to have a Russian literature professor and a professor of history at the center of the series.

Is the goal compliance and ego breaking? Is it suppression and oppression? Is it an artificial sense of purpose for those who’ve experienced so much excess at the top that in order to experience human emotion they resort to extreme abuse not realizing they will fail to achieve desired results?

The Eagons fail because they fail to understand Mark and Gemma. They study and test a couple of humanities professors rather than learning from them. The Eagons cannot see the forest for the trees. The failure is to interpret finding the x Mark and buried Gemma as a transaction rather than a story.

Meant to add but they think they do.

Gemma/Mark’s connection begins while donating blood and sharing the titles of student papers they are reading. Two people donating blood to save humans spending that time reading and supporting their students while connecting with one another is in sharp contrast to the Lumon world. A little bit of suffering for the benefit of all is far more enjoyable than Lumon’s grotesque approach of suffering to scale. One doesn’t need to create cold harbor to understand why she answers the question with drowning.

I'm glad people are getting this level of enjoyment/thought out of Severance (sincerely!). I find I am not. I don't need things spoon fed to me, but it's beginning to feel like real work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The drowning question reminds me of Helena and Irving and the pineapple bobbing. The levels of entrapment highlighted in this episode with the different floors and maze like hallways seems so ominous to me and less humorous. The satire is sharpening.

The scene with Cobel looking at the sign listing mileage to another town earlier this season makes me think she cannot physically leave. The never-ending hallway is a highway. The tension comes from being physically and emotionally trapped and tethered by, to, and for Lumon. I wonder if the writers might be playing with the concept of revolving and revolutions. Driving, running, thinking in circles. The tiny disruptions create a ripple effect and the more Lumon seeks to control these effects, the greater in frequency (both in number and in type) the disruptions will occur. Interesting choice to have a Russian literature professor and a professor of history at the center of the series.

Is the goal compliance and ego breaking? Is it suppression and oppression? Is it an artificial sense of purpose for those who’ve experienced so much excess at the top that in order to experience human emotion they resort to extreme abuse not realizing they will fail to achieve desired results?

The Eagons fail because they fail to understand Mark and Gemma. They study and test a couple of humanities professors rather than learning from them. The Eagons cannot see the forest for the trees. The failure is to interpret finding the x Mark and buried Gemma as a transaction rather than a story.

Meant to add but they think they do.

Gemma/Mark’s connection begins while donating blood and sharing the titles of student papers they are reading. Two people donating blood to save humans spending that time reading and supporting their students while connecting with one another is in sharp contrast to the Lumon world. A little bit of suffering for the benefit of all is far more enjoyable than Lumon’s grotesque approach of suffering to scale. One doesn’t need to create cold harbor to understand why she answers the question with drowning.

I'm glad people are getting this level of enjoyment/thought out of Severance (sincerely!). I find I am not. I don't need things spoon fed to me, but it's beginning to feel like real work.

I am the poster which inspired the above response. I get that response. I miss the office banter and relationships and the we know something the characters don’t know tension from season one. I still enjoy this season, but I do miss the ensemble and the darkly funny office banter that was mostly missing in the most recent episode. Sinister devoid of humor is not enjoyable entertainment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That shot of Mark's face when he sees the police at the door and you can very subtly watch him realize what's happening. Just give Adam Scott the Emmy already.

I had thought that they were going to do a closeup on those policemen where we would see that they were Lumon goons.

Exactly. I thought the next layer we were going to get was more detail on the police or a before or after scene.

[Anonymous]

So when they were both giving blood, that blood was collected by Lumon, and something in that blood led them to want Gemma (and Mark?) for further experimentation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So when they were both giving blood, that blood was collected by Lumon, and something in that blood led them to want Gemma (and Mark?) for further experimentation?

Hmm...That does make sense because I guess they were walking through the LUMON courtyard to get to the blood donation spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So when they were both giving blood, that blood was collected by Lumon, and something in that blood led them to want Gemma (and Mark?) for further experimentation?

Hmm...That does make sense because I guess they were walking through the LUMON courtyard to get to the blood donation spot.

And the blood drive equipment had the Lumon logo.

[Anonymous]

I hated this episode. Physical and psychological torture for an hour +, no relief or explanation. It felt claustrophobic which I guess was the point.

[Anonymous]

I almost quit but decided to watch just now and I feel like we’re finally getting some payoff. I’m still processing but I finally feel like I’m starting to connect some dots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hated this episode. Physical and psychological torture for an hour +, no relief or explanation. It felt claustrophobic which I guess was the point.

I felt like this had a lot of explanation, compared to where we've been until now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hated this episode. Physical and psychological torture for an hour +, no relief or explanation. It felt claustrophobic which I guess was the point.

I felt like this had a lot of explanation, compared to where we've been until now.

I didn’t think so. It was pretty clear Gemma was held on a different floor. Now we know she somehow signed up for it but not why and we know the files are rooms/specific fears but still not how it helps Lumon. The idea of her stuck there is way worse than the severed floor.

[Anonymous]

Plotwise I can't really discuss it (having been through Twin Peaks and Lost, I'm just not trying very hard to figure it out, and letting it come to me).

But visually that episode was stunning. I looked up the director and it's the very first thing she's directed - she was a photographer and then cinematographer. I want to watch it again just for some of the shots.
https://www.avclub.com/interview-severance-jessica-lee-gagne-leaping-from-cinematographer-to-director

And Mark and Gemma's cozy house was the house the director was living in at the time.

This interview explained the point of the rooms (spoiler):

The idea of the rooms that Gemma goes to comes from Dan Erickson, of course. He wanted it to be places that make you do things you might despise. For example, Gemma only writes Christmas cards in one room. Dan hates doing that, so that’s where the idea came from. Lumon is doing different things to people based on fear or hate. The plane is an obvious one. A lot of people have a fear of flying or going to the dentist. The rooms are about putting people through these processes and [whether] the chip can resist this leaking of feelings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hated this episode. Physical and psychological torture for an hour +, no relief or explanation. It felt claustrophobic which I guess was the point.

I felt like this had a lot of explanation, compared to where we've been until now.

I didn’t think so. It was pretty clear Gemma was held on a different floor. Now we know she somehow signed up for it but not why and we know the files are rooms/specific fears but still not how it helps Lumon. The idea of her stuck there is way worse than the severed floor.

No, we don't know that she signed up for it. We don't know how she got there.

[Anonymous]

I think I’m going to be irritated by whatever the explanation of the stats processing is. The only think that makes sense to me is that they are testing how long humans will do stupid meaningless tasks without understanding the purpose if they are severed from all social contexts. They color her people to engaged in mass murder this way. If you have no life or memory outside work, how do you know what’s important or moral?