Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show I'm your host Paul aka the guy with no work life balance
and this video we're breaking down Severance on Apple TV.
It's by far one of the best shows this side of the twenties and the Ben Stiller led series
maintains it's mind bending motif all the way until the end.
Now the series itself follows the employees of Lumon, a company who's work is so secretive
that it's staff have to go through a procedure known as Severance in order to work there.
The entire company is built around it's founder Kier who's very much seen as a diety amongst
his employees.
Many worship him and prop him up but like a lot of churches and religions, the secrets
that they share have to be kept from the outside world.
Boiled down to it's simplest terms Severance basically involves splitting one's brain so
that it percieves life inside work as being completely isolated and this is the same for
outside as well.
The person who has undergone this cannot share memories with themselves and thus they very
much live two lives.
Now the one side of this sees someone basically living like they're never at work and they
have no relationship with their colleagues or people from the company.
They even stagger the entrances and exits of the employees so that there's less chance
of them meeting on the outside.
They just spend their days either at their desk or Christopher Walken through the corridors
until they find a connection.
The other side of this consciouness never leaves work and to them they end the day and
immediately start the new one.
As someone who worked lots of soul destroying, 12 hour shifts back to back in my past jobs
I really related to this and I remember being on shifts and feeling like I'd never left
the place.
You're just stuck in this constant cycle of working and the characters in the series are
further left in the dark by the fact that they have no idea what they're actually doing
there.
They're sat there day in and day out literally crunching numbers which is of course a metaphor
for dead end jobs like this.
Sure once in a while they get 5 minutes of dancing but it feels like what Boris tells
us a Downing Street party was like and it’s not much of a break.
As far as they're concerned they're gonna be stuck here until the day they die or manage
to get resignation which is also somewhat death for this version of them.
Now in order to leave, you have to get your outie version to agree that you can quit.
However, to them they're just basically kicking back, putting their feet up, not experiencing
work and still getting paid for it.
There's no real reason why they would ever want to leave this and we watch as one of
our protagonists Helly R feels like she's trapped in Hell because her opposite won't
allow her to quit.
There is of course a duality here in the show name as in work terms, Severance is often
used when you're getting rid of someone.
I dunno if Helly R is a Hell pun but throughout the series she constantly tries to escape.
This idea of wanting to be free is laced throughout her personality and even when we're first
introduced to her she's trying to get out of the induction room as quickly as possible.
Now she's been brought in to replace an ex-employee known as Petey who we had lots of issues with
Lumon and Severance itself.
On the outside Petey goes to our second main character Mark played by Adam Scott.
Mark is a apparently a widower and the majority of the characters feel like they all took
on severance because they’re trying to get away from the pain of their memories on the
outside.
It adds a lot of complexity to the characters as we watch them in the outside world and
it actually feels at points like it’s more depressing than being stuck at work all day.
However we learn later on in the series that Marks wife is Ms. Casey, the wellness coach
who too is trapped down there like them.
Petey gives Mark a map and after he mysteriously dies, Mark makes it his mission to try and
find out exactly what's going on with Lumon.
To make matters worse we learn his neighbour Mrs Selvig is actually his boss and the real
driving force of the show is about finding the mysterious conspiracy that lies at the
centre of it.
It all came to a head in Episode 8 when Selvig was fired, Ms. Casey was sent down to be reformatted
and our four characters from MDR launch a plan to awaken on the outside.
Dylan remains behind to set it off and we closed out this entry with them all suddenly
being snapped into consciousness on the outside.
Now if you're enjoying the video so far then make sure you hit the thumbs up and also subscribe
for breakdowns every day you don't want toforget about...or something, some crap pun.
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Anyway that takes us into Episode 9 where we watch the characters all waking up.
Mark is shocked by the fact that he has a sister, Irving finds himself in his basement
painting the elevator that leads to the lower floor and Helly R finds herself at the Gala.
Ever since the reveal in episode 8 of her wearing flashy earings many theorised that
she's actually an Eagan and we get it confirmed in this first conversation.
Throughout the series we have had several hints at her being someone special and in
episode 2 Milchick said that it was amazing what she was doing there and that it was like
a miracle.
Milchick is of course aware of the outside world and therefore he would know how important
she was.
At one point she looked over the first female CEO of the company and talked about wishing
she remembered her own childhood.
She probably knows this person from her childhood and seeing her sparked something off in her
subconsciouness.
There was also the fact that her outie version said that she had to remain in Severance because
of how important that it was.
However she did it in a really threatening way and promised to make her life hell, showing
just how much she needed her to stay inside.
She told herself that she wasn't a real person and though this was initially viewed as being
extremely cruel, it also hinted at the fact that Helly R is just a task she is carrying
out.
We also saw the Gala being prepped in episode 8 and knew that the board would be assembling
there for the speeches so the flash of her all dressed up kinda gave away the twist a
week early.
Still though really impactful and I almost feel like going back through the series to
see what other clues there were that she was involved.
Here she meets the senator and his wife who were somewhat of a mystery throughout the
show.
It turns out that she ended up participating in severance because she wanted to endorse
the controversial technique.
It's very much an undercover boss situation where she went in to see things first hand
and through this she could talk about how good it was.
Going through the procedure herself would be it's biggest endorsement and mean that
for everyone person who talked about how cruel it was for Lumon to do it, you'd have someone
at the top who could shut it down.
Helena clearly is very business driven though and she has a completely corporate mentality
because we know Helly hasn't had a good time.
She attempted to sever her fingers and she almost hanged herself in the elevator trying
to escape.
Helena completely ignores all of this because she wants Severance to be seen as successful
so that she can continue making profits for the company.
Everyone is enamoured by Kier and in many ways I think that she'd view herself as a
failure if she didn't live up to his legend.
She's had the idea thrust into her that workers are their family but this really isn't the
case and it's all a PR statement which this entire exercise very much feels like.
Corporate propaganda is rife in the series which she wants to help enforce.
This propaganda is also seen in the wellness session in which people are fed lies about
how nice and kind their outie is.
As she goes through the Gala we hear the book reading over the top which really adds to
her discovering you...not you..her...but you.
There's also mention of schroedingers cat, a thought experiment that hyphothesised if
a cat is put in a box along with a toxic substance that it is potentially in two states until
it's observed.
The substance could be knocked over killing it which would mean that the cat is dead.
However this may not have happened and thus the cat may still be alive.
It's very much in two states until it's looked upon and the cat is both alive and dead much
like those in Severance who exist in two states, the neither of which are whole.
About the Gala we see photos of her which were taken by Milchick earlier in the season.
These are all of her smiling, even though we know she was the complete opposite to this.
Again it's propaganda used to hammer home a point.
From her father we learn that she's been in a lot of pain over everything, which again
ties into Severance being a form of escape.
He thanks her for going through with it which explains why her inny was so resistant to
everything.
She never really wanted to do it herself so there was a side of her that was constantly
trying to escape.
Kier clearly has a structure to it where they want everyone seperated so that they're unable
to come together.
This is why the paintings of the two departments attacking each other exist and why each section
is kept seperate.
Unions are very much something that corporations try to dissuade because it tips the power
balance.
Severance stops workers from coming together under one unionised banner because it stops
people from forming meaningful relationships both inside and outside of work.
Helena was sent in as a trojan horse to show that it's the best way to do things but this
completley backfires when her privilege and mission is wiped from her memory and she sees
things from a workers perspective.
Her arc culminates with her taking to the stage to deliver a talk about how well Severance
works so that it can be rolled out across the entire world.
However, instead of Helena, Helly is there to tell the truth about it.
She delivers bombshell after bombshell and is escorted off.
However it looks like the damage is done and though Helena regains control, there's a lot
of things that could end up happening in Season 2 which we'll talk about later on.
After the titles we cut to Dylan to see that the gift he requested was a photo of the team
together.
Dylan learning that he had a son was a massive part of his arc that pretty much pushed him
into deciding that he needed to shut down severance and I love how this is very much
reflected in Mark.
Upon coming across his sister he assumes that the baby is theirs, wanders around the book
reading party and clearly has no idea what's really going on.
After speaking to Ricken we get some more of the backstory filled in such as him suggesting
that Mark get the procedure.
Clearly everyone has been lied to about Gemma and it's a cover up on an industrial level
that completely masks her death.
Now it's during this time that he accidentally calls Mrs Selvig, Mrs Cobel (cobell) and this
sets off alarm bells for her that the overtime contingency is now in effect.
She was suspicious but it's the final nail in the coffin that confirms her suspicions
are correct.
Knowing that Helly is at the Gala about to deliver a speech she heads there, desperate
to stop her before she takes to the podium.
Cobell or Selvig or whatever you wanna call her was completely loyal to the company and
I actually think that come the second season that she will be rehired by them.
Her removal from the organisation allowed for Overtime to be enacted whereas if she'd
been there she likely would've stopped the entire thing.
Knowing what we know about Helly R it also makes sense that she was fired instantly for
covering up her attempted hanging.
Lumon clearly doesn't mind losing employees and it's likely that Selvig has precided over
several deaths before.
However Helly R may have been the thing that got her cut because she's so important to
the company but going forward I think that Milchick might end up being the one who is
let go whilst she's brought back in.
Under his watch Overtime happened and he's instructed to stop Dylan.
I think Milchick might even end up becoming an ally on the outside as he's someone who
is aware of what's happened in and out of Lumon and did build a comraderie with the
crew.
Look at those dance moves.
Now he of course awakened Dylan and was the reason why he came into contact with his kid
so some fault definitely lies at his feet.
Just can't see the guy being kept around no matter how much paintball or coffee cozies
he tries to bribe people with.
Tries to get him to do a flip on what side he's on ey.
Irving comes across his dog named Radar, a pallindrome which is spelt the same way forwards
as it is backwards.
His father was also in the Navy a fact that he proudly displays about his home with several
of his medals and belongings on display.
Now these might also have belonged to him and shoutouts Ryan Arey for pointing out that
he may have served himself and have suffered from PTSD.
This would make him perfect for severance as he's trying to get away from it.
He's also somewhat of an insomniac which explains why he was always tired at work even though
we suspected he loved a bit of a party.
Also can't believe I shouted out Ryan Arey
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His outie and Inny are very much starting to bleed together which is why the black paint
shows up at his job and why he also loves art.
He ends up coming across a list of Lumon employees that he's compiled which outlines their names
and addresses on a map almost like a radar ey.
Now something is clealry going on with the character that we aren't yet privvy too.
He of course has all of the paintings and the names even though as for as we know, he
hasn't been down to the testing floor yet.
However I believe that he probably has and just in the same way that Ms. Casey, or rather
Gemma was sent down there to be wiped, that he may have been in the past too.
Perhaps in his quoute unquoute past life, he managed to gain consciousness and then
he slowly started to collect all the names of the employees at Lumon.
This was discovered and they sent him to be reset but something remained behind.
The list stayed at his house and he ended up having flashes of the elevator to the zone
which he painted.
This was almost completely black which juxtaposed the brightly lit corridors of Lumon.
Lumon means to live together which they all do but it also comes from the word luminous
which means light.
The corridors themselves are filled with bright light inside the company whereas the outside
is pretty dark.
This corridor completely changes that and feels like the darkest parts of the company.
He couldn't really understand why he did this and his outie has been heavily effected because
of it.
This could also explain what happened with Gemma and she may have been reset several
times and kept down there so that she isn't discovered on the outside by Mark.
Mark has been told that she died in a car accident so potentially his outie memories
were fiddled with too on the testing floor and it makes sense that to make employees
that are loyal to the company, they need to remove things on the outside to stop them
leaving.
Now the car accident did indeed happen and Helena even hints towards this by telling
him in episode 1 to keep his eyes on the icy road.
This is how Gemma apparently died but I think that Lumon likely took her body and experimented
on her.
This could speak to their overall goal to bring all of the Eagan family back to life
through chips in their minds which Gemma may be the prototype for.
Potentially we could be in a Get Out situation where they're attempting to put their own
minds into the bodies of the dead so that they can come back to life.
Their own bodies would be completely rotted away at this point so they'd need fresh ones
to implant the chips into.
In Irvings home he finds a newspaper article talking abiut a severed worker who sues for
information following an inquiry at Lumon.
If we pause the footage we can see in the caption of the paper that this is the Counsel
for a man named Mr. Emory.
In the article we learn his name is Dlaton Emory and potentially this was Irvings past
life.
We learn his surname is Bailiff and this has several meanings.
In the UK it means someone who seizes and takes things away whereas in the US it's an
official in a court of law that looks after prisoners.
Irving very much feels like he's the one keeping all the employees in MDR in line because he's
the most senior member.
He's tried to make contact with several of the severed and I think his arc in season
2 might be about going to the other employees to find out what they can tell him.
There's also the theory that he was one of the first people to receive Severance and
potenitally it was initially used on soldiers.
The military tends to be where a lot of things are initially tested before they're rolled
out and his past life may have been a soldier put into the programme.
Idunno if you've seen bloodshot yeah but minor spoilers for it, shouldve watched it in lockdown
but that contains a soldier who has his mind constantly reset to hide him from the horrors
of the jobs hes constantly committing.
Could very much be used on soldiers too and it would explain why Irving has all these
medals.
Now amongst the addresses he discovers Burts name and he drives out there.
Sadly he finds that Burt is married to another Man and Irving has a breakdown whilst banging
on his door.
Back with Mark he finally speaks to his sister and they decide to go to journalists in New
York to reveal the truth.
He also brings out the fact that Cobell has been masquerading as a kind neighbour to the
family.
Hide your wife, hide your kid and though she doesn't take them she speeds back to Lumon
whilst Milchick tries to get to Dylan.
Selvig makes it to Helly but she fails to stop her and she delivers the speech.
Mark finds a photo of him and Gemma and he rushes to his sister Devon and screams 'she's
alive' which is when we cut to black.
Now going forward Mark will be put back into Severance with his memories of Gemma on the
outside world.
I think that Petey's map will come in handy even more in the future and that they'll slowly
start to map out the lower floors.
They will potentially discover her down there and Irving could also end up learning the
truth about his past as well as why he sees the elevator.
I think this will be when Lumons true goal to bring Kier back will be revealed.
It could also explain the goats and typically you carry out animal experimentation before
moving over to humans.
Still have no idea what they are and it's very much a situation like the polar bears
in lost.
Now there's also the rogue group that are helping with Severance.
We know very little about these and I love the theory that they might actually be working
for Helena who wants to destroy the programme.
Potentially she kept herself in because she knew that she'd expose it and she might actually
want to escape her over bearing father and bring the whole thing crashing down.
I think there's a lot going on with the company that we haven't scratched the surface of yet
and as I go into my review I'd love it if you typed out your best theories below.
Now as for my thoughts on the season, I have to say I think this is easily the best show
of 2022 so far.
Much in the same way that Devs took a high level concept and ran with it in a really
creative way Ben Stiller has managed to build something head scratching that feels like
a must watch.
I actually had two attempts at the show and the first time I watched it I accidentally
put on episode 3 first.
I was sat there with the wife like ‘well I heard it was confusing but I didn’t think
it would be this bad’ and kinda gave up on it.
I’m so glad I went back to it and watched it in the right order as there’s a lot of
commentary here on office life, working 9-5 and what can happen if you don’t get the
balance right.
On Wednesday Apple announced that a season 2 request had been granted and I can’t wait
to see what happens next time.
It definitely feels like this show has been a sleeper hit and it’s kept asking some
big questions each and every week.
There’s also the performances and subplots which really add to it all and the creative
team manage to do a lot with very little.
When you think about it the sets are pretty simplistic, the acting is extremely understated
and yet there’s a power to the whole thing due to how well it explores it’s core concept.
For that reason I loved it and it gets a 9.5/10
I'd of course love to hear your thoughts so make sure you comment below and let me know
you punk.
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If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect
scene in Spider-Man Homecoming.
We break down the entire thing so it's definitely worth checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll
see you next time.
Take care, Peace