Severance is undoubtedly essentially the most thrilling, related present on tv proper now. The second season is at the moment airing on Apple TV+, and within the three years for the reason that first season was launched, the present has gained a large variety of followers and elevated viewership. The present’s complicated themes of grief and the way we select to manage or not address our painful recollections have been explored in distinctive element. Every thing about Severance, from the set design of the workplace to the Lumon lore, is extremely detailed and intentional. Nothing on this present is completed accidentally and every thing has that means.
The premise of the present revolves round a bunch of mundane workplace employees within the Macro Knowledge Refinement (MDR) division of Lumon Industries. These employees have all undergone the Severance process, which is a chip that’s embedded within the mind to create two separate consciousnesses; one for work and one for every thing else. The work consciousness is known as an “innie,” whereas the common consciousness with all of that particular person’s non-work recollections is known as an “outie.”
As season 1 confirmed us, stopping the 2 consciousnesses from bleeding into one another isn’t so simple as Lumon desires them to imagine. Season 2 has had Mark S. (Adam Scott) try to reintegrate so he can entry his innie’s recollections and uncover what Lumon is doing to his spouse Gemma (Dichen Lachman), who he beforehand thought was useless.
Severance
- Launch Date
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February 18, 2022
- Showrunner
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Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman
All through all of this, Mark has been engaged on refining the information for a very essential file, Chilly Harbor. The Chilly Harbor file has been looming over the story in each seasons, as it’s a file extraordinarily essential to Lumon. It has been mentioned that solely Mark can full the file, and based on Mr. Drummond (Olafur Darri Olafsson), it’ll change the world when Mark completes it. Lumon’s aim with the severance process has by no means been revealed, however there have been loads of hints at potential finish objectives.
One of many greatest questions the present has but to reply is “What’s Chilly Harbor?” We all know it is important to Lumon’s mission, no matter that could be. We all know solely Mark can full the file. We do not know why solely Mark can, why it is so essential, or what the venture really is. Followers have been spreading theories round all corners of the web this season, and we now have some theories of our personal about simply what Chilly Harbor may entail.
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Chilly Harbor Is About Experiencing Dying
All through season 1, Mark believed his spouse was useless. She supposedly crashed her automobile right into a tree, which finally killed her. After all, we uncover this isn’t true within the season 1 finale. When Mark’s innie appears at {a photograph} of his outie’s spouse Gemma, it reveals Miss Casey, the part-time wellness counselor at Lumon. We had already discovered that Miss Casey is shipped beneath the severed flooring to the testing flooring when Lumon does not want her, main us to appreciate that Gemma has been trapped down there your complete time.
Lumon focused Gemma as a result of she had suffered a miscarriage and turned to IVF, making her an ideal topic for experiments all about dealing with ache and struggling. Within the seventh episode of season 2, we see that Lumon has been conducting experiments on Gemma, forcing her to turn out to be completely different innies every time she enters a room, all of that are labeled after an MDR file.
Every time certainly one of Gemma’s innies is introduced right into a room, she is subjected to a distinct adverse expertise. Going to the dentist, a very turbulent aircraft journey, and writing out dozens of thanks notes together with her non-dominant hand. When she arrives again in her room as Gemma, she is requested by her nurse (Sandra Bernhard) if she feels something bodily or emotionally. Gemma all the time responds with one thing bodily, like her wrist hurting or her mouth being sore. It is obvious that Lumon is attempting to discern if something from the innie’s disagreeable experiences can seep into the outie’s recollections to trigger an emotional response. The one room they have not let Gemma in but is the Chilly Harbor room, the room related to the essential file Mark S. is engaged on in MDR.
Since every room has concerned an disagreeable expertise that most individuals would need to keep away from, it might make sense that Chilly Harbor would contain an expertise so adverse that everybody would need to keep away from experiencing it. Many followers suppose Chilly Harbor is demise primarily based on the experiments and the significance of the file Mark is engaged on. It has been mentioned that after Mark finishes the file, it’ll change the world. It is believable that Lumon is attempting to good the severance chip in order that when an individual is about to die, they’ll activate their innie’s consciousness and forego life’s most dreaded expertise.
All of the torturous experiments they’re placing Gemma’s innies via on the testing flooring may very well be about figuring out how a lot bodily and emotional struggling an innie can stand up to earlier than it bleeds over to their outie. If Lumon can refine the chip sufficient to stop any a part of the expertise from affecting the outie, it may revolutionize the best way the world views demise.
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MDR Is Deleting Gemma’s Innies’ Recollections
“The work is mysterious and essential.” is what Mr. Milchick (Tramell Tillman) mentioned to the MDR staff in season 1, and mysterious and essential it’s certainly. The only real goal of MDR is to refine the numbers on their laptop screens and type them into the proper packing containers on the backside of the screens. Mark tells Helly (Britt Decrease) within the first season that the numbers will make you’re feeling one thing, and may typically even be scary.
Helly, after all, does not imagine Mark till she lastly refines a set of numbers, and so they do actually scare her. It has turn out to be extra obvious within the episodes since that the numbers are tied to ideas or feelings. The feelings the numbers evoke are associated to Lumon founder Kier Eagan’s 4 Tempers (woe, frolic, malice, and dread). Primarily, the MDR staff is refining information by grouping clusters of numbers that set off an emotional response after which assigning them to a particular emotion. We’ve even seen the abbreviations for the tempers on the packing containers they type the numbers into.
Episode seven made it clear that Miss Casey is not Gemma’s solely innie. Every time she is introduced into one of many rooms named after an MDR file, a distinct innie who has solely skilled no matter’s in that room is activated. Which means the MDR staff is actively refining the numbers and information related to what’s taking place in every room that Gemma’s innies enter. By refining or sorting that information, they’re possible altering her innies’ recollections. MDR could have been unknowingly tasked with deleting Gemma’s innies’ recollections to create a model of an innie that feels nothing and remembers nothing. If that is the case, Chilly Harbor could also be about deleting Gemma’s recollections of her outie life, in order that she feels and remembers not one of the ache of her life beforehand.
Think about if Gemma and Mark are lastly reunited, and Gemma both does not keep in mind him or not feels sufficient emotion to even care about him. It could be essentially the most devastating factor on this planet for Mark, maybe extra devastating than when he thought she was useless. Lumon desires to vary the world, and making a chip that permits you to sever emotions and recollections with out having to have a separate consciousness can be revolutionary to them. Mark and Gemma are additionally essential to Lumon, not essentially as a result of they care about them, however as a result of they’re helpful to them. Lumon has ruined his life earlier than, and so they would not hesitate to do it once more if it meant they might obtain their objectives.
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Lumon Is Making an attempt to Forestall Folks From Having Unfavorable Experiences
The a number of rooms Gemma’s innies have repeatedly been pressured to enter contain adverse or painful experiences that most individuals would like to keep away from altogether. We see completely different innies go to the dentist, expertise an especially turbulent aircraft journey, and write out a whole bunch of thanks notes utilizing her non-dominant hand. Whereas we did not see inside the opposite rooms her different innies went into, we noticed Gemma dressed in several outfits on the brink of enter these rooms. She was proven in a businesswoman’s outfit and a exercise outfit, for instance. It is heartbreakingly apparent that Gemma has been forcefully severed into quite a few innies that solely know the world of whichever room they’re assigned to. The one fixed in every innie’s life is Dr. Mauer (Robby Benson), who sinisterly oversees every room Gemma’s outies are in, after which Gemma herself when she’s again in her room.
Placing Gemma and her innies via unending emotional and bodily torture has to have a goal apart from tormenting her. Lumon is testing the boundaries of every of her innies and the way far they’ll go earlier than the bodily ache turns into an excessive amount of for the outie to deal with. They’re additionally attempting to find out how far they’ll push innies earlier than their emotional turmoil impacts the outie’s psychological well-being. To this point, Gemma is barely experiencing bodily residual results from the experiments on her innies. Nonetheless, Gemma’s psychological state is clearly being affected by dwelling on the testing flooring and by no means seeing the sunshine of day. Since every room has handled an disagreeable expertise, Lumon could also be attempting to develop a model of the severance chip that forestalls individuals from having to face up to adverse experiences.
The room for Chilly Harbor is perhaps the ultimate stage of perfecting one of these severance chip that blocks individuals from having adverse experiences. In season 1, Devon stumbled upon a rich lady on the birthing retreat that was on her second or third youngster. When Devon noticed the girl once more days later at a park, the girl did not acknowledge Devon, clearly indicating she had one way or the other been capable of sever herself to not expertise the ache or trauma of giving delivery.
If the wealthy have already got entry to this sort of severance expertise, it makes it extra plausible that Lumon is attempting to promote to the world the concept of foregoing adverse experiences. Michick even sells the concept of severance to Mark within the first season as a recent begin and a technique to neglect his grief. Burying grief and painful recollections is on the crux of the themes of Severance. Lumon represents the false notion that you may ignore your trauma and grief, and the innies signify the fact that you just can’t merely ignore your recollections; you must face them. Chilly Harbor may very well be the ultimate stage of refining the chip to be activated when an individual begins exhibiting indicators of misery.
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Lumon Is Refining the 4 Tempers
As we now have discovered for the reason that third episode of season 1, Kier Eagan’s 4 Tempers are the pillars of Lumon’s ideology. Woe (disappointment), Frolic (pleasure), Dread (concern), and Malice (rage) are the 4 predominant feelings that make up Eagan’s tempers. The 4 characters who work in MDR even signify these tempers, with Mark S. as woe, Dylan G. as frolic, Irving B. as dread, and Helly R. as malice.
The 4 Tempers are integral not solely to Lumon and its mission, however to the general story and themes of Severance. They’re a focus of the perpetuity wing of the Lumon constructing and are talked about regularly by Lumon workers. MDR is refining numbers into classes that match the 4 Tempers, which possible means MDR is altering the tempers of every of Gemma’s innies.
By sorting via the information related to Gemma’s innies and their feelings associated to the tempers, Lumon is purposefully altering the best way innies suppose and really feel. Lumon may very well be having MDR refine the 4 Tempers to create a mass of severed individuals who not really feel the 4 predominant feelings human beings expertise. Lumon is all about employees being devoted to their jobs and never having any distractions from exterior the workplace. The notion of getting an ideal work-life stability is how they appeal to candidates for the severance process.
When all of the numbers within the Chilly Harbor file have been appropriately sorted by Mark, he may successfully get rid of the 4 Tempers from Gemma. Which means, Lumon would efficiently tame the 4 Tempers by growing a model of the severance chip that removes these feelings altogether. This could enable newly severed individuals to be freed from the 4 predominant feelings and completely suited to being company lackeys. Eradicating pleasure, concern, disappointment, and anger from an individual would go away individuals with out sufficient emotional functionality to have sturdy ideas of their very own. It could depart them impassive zombies with nothing to reside for however going to work and doing their jobs. It could coincide with Severance’s themes of capitalism and company superiority.