Spoilers are out on a company retreat for Severance Season 2, Episode 4, so be warned if you happen to haven’t but watched with an Apple TV+ subscription.
Three episodes into its second season, Severance has revealed to followers that Gwendoline Christie is in command of the goats, that Lumon supplies its promoted supervisors with racially questionable Kier Eagan portraits, and that Reghabi is barely higher on the reintegration process post-Petey. Amongst many different bizarre, suspicious and unnerving particulars, after all. However nothing proven up to now may correctly put together viewers for the snow-blanketed resplendence of MDR’s ORTBO journey in “Woe’s Hole,” maybe my favourite installment thus far, in addition to an early standout amidst the 2025 TV schedule.
A subject journey meant to problem and intimidate the Severed Flooring’s allegedly famed quartet, the ORTBO (Outside Retreat & Crew-Constructing Incidence) took Mark, Dylan, Irving and “Helly” out of their shared consolation zone and made them face beforehand unseen components, extra complicated Kier Eagan lore, and the all-out trauma of dropping a fellow Innie. And the game-changing episode sparked a seemingly infinite variety of questions in viewers like me. So let’s gear up and ship out.
How Did Lumon Stagger The Outies’ Arrivals At The ORTBO Location?
Contemplating Lumon has its varied severed workers exhibiting as much as work at completely different occasions in order that not one of the Outies can see one another, I’ve to marvel what the method was that led to Mark, Dylan and Irving’s Innies waking up, because it have been, out in the course of the snow.
Did Mr. Milchick and Miss Huang should deliver them out separately, or have been blindfolds and tons of endurance concerned? I might even assume helicopters have been concerned if the snow round Irving would have been extra disturbed.
Is not A Frozen Lake A Wildly Harmful Place For Irving And Mark To Start The ORTBO?
Positive, Lumon execs are little doubt extraordinarily aware of the realm, and might attest to the final thickness of the lake’s ice because it pertains to its workers’ security whereas standing on it. But it surely nonetheless looks as if a really unusual and probably threatening transfer to for Innies to reach outdoors for the primary time (with work permission) in a approach that may very well be seen in any approach as an insurance coverage hazard.
I additionally don’t know the way Irving robotically knew he was standing on ice if it was all coated in snow, however I’ll let that one go.
The place Does This Episode Even Take Place?
The go-to assumption is that “Woe’s Hole” is ready someplace within the non-residential areas proven behind the Lumon constructing, and that could be the case. However I’ve to assume that ep director Ben Stiller deliberately framed the realm’s extensive pictures in order that we could not see Lumon looming (Luming?) within the background, nor the mountainous
Why Wasn’t Helena-As-Helly Higher At Mendacity?
The Helena-as-Helly twist is one which followers noticed coming, however that is primarily as a result of Britt Decrease’s Outie hasn’t been excellent at enjoying the position of her Innie. And whereas I get that it was initially an impulse determination that she could not plan for, I do not assume her “evening gardener” story was one of the best lie she may have crafted, particularly after Irving questioned her about it repeatedly. If her true motivation was to utterly idiot Helly’s MDR colleagues, Helena’s gameplan ought to have been extra foolproof. Except…
Was This All A Ploy To Get Irving Fired Once more?
Except the precise objective there was particularly to attract out Irv’s paranoia to the purpose the place he’d do one thing so excessive that Mark would not be capable of argue towards Milchick firing him. His previous with Burt has induced sufficient friction behind the scenes that Christopher Walken’s character was compelled into retirement. And I do not assume Irv’s spot-on Innie-tuition could be a proactive promoting level for the severance chip.
Does Calling ORTBO An “Incidence” Slightly Than An Train Indicate The Occasions Had been Fated?
Whereas the objective of most work retreats is increase dependable teamwork and morale by having coworkers group up for duties, Lumon’s ORTBO would not characteristic any such actions. It is mainly a protracted stroll earlier than storytime and a nap seemingly with none overarching goal past laying out Keir Eagan’s hidden backstory. Which speaks to the above notion that it was all a ruse.
What Was Powering That TV And Different Electronics?
Lumon is a large enough firm that they’ll possible energy that top college A.V. membership set-up with a conveyable energy provide, however I believe I want to consider that there are roughly 700 extension cords going from that cliff high to the closest outlet.
Is Dieter Eagan Actual?
Milchick refers back to the ORTBO’s setting because the Dieter Eagan Nationwide Forest, sparking a little bit of exposition about Keir’s twin brother and the Fourth Appendix. All of it seems like manufactured and back-pocketed lore particularly meant to placate wayward Innies. Positive, I can perceive why the story would not have a outstanding show within the Corridor of Perpetuity, however is it primarily based on something resembling actual occasions? Is Scissor Cave an actual factor?
Was Milchick’s Rhyming Warning Simply Meant To Maintain The Innies From Working Away?
The video recorded for MDR clearly resembles awkwardly produced coaching movies for workers, nevertheless it takes a weirdly ominous and fantastical tone when the televisual montebank Mr. Milchick utters this rhyming warning:
Worry not from Keir’s path, lest you roil nature’s wrath.
It would be one factor if we would ever heard him inform Dylan, “Make your numbers good and hearty. Then you definitely’ll earn the Waffle Occasion.” However no, Tramell Tillman brings the spooky chills with this out-of-character phrasing, particularly in close-up.
What The Precise Fuck With These MDR Lookalikes?
I do not know that something in Severance has put me on edge fairly as a lot as seeing the marginally askew MDR doppelgängers guiding the staff alongside their approach. They appear to be they have been molded out of clay after which left unfinished, with an A.I. program including the remainder of the main points. I do not purchase into the concept that they symbolize Keir’s twin, and I simply assume they’re nightmare monsters.
Why Certainly Did That Deal Seal Look So Messed Up, Helena?
The group discovering that mangled animal corpse was no coincidence, and I’ve to assume “Helly” remarking on its mangled nature was simply as intentional. Was it, as Mark hinted at, an indication of dying meant to stoke worry and fear among the many staff members? Or is there some deeper metaphorical that means that I am unfamiliar with?
Is Helena Sincerely Invested In The Waterfall?
I can solely assume that Mr. Milchick lied in regards to the waterfall being the tallest on the earth to impress the Innies. However Helena-as-Helly really does appear to be drawn to the spot in a approach that suggests the lore is not simply hogwash to her. Or possibly she simply thinks falling water is fairly.
Is It Even Authorized For Miss Huang To Be Half Of This ORTBO?
From enjoying the theramin to chunking the Keir-emblazoned marshmallows into the fireplace, Sarah Bock’s Miss Huang is a quiet however stoic drive all through the latter half of the ORTBO. And there are a number of moments the place the digital camera hangs on her expression as she appears to glare at Irving. However past all that, how is she allowed to take in a single day work journeys if she is not a robotic or clone or one thing non-human?
Does Helena Need Mark To Get Her Pregnant?
Helena and Mark are not utilizing safety after they get it on, and viewers have been roughly left with the notion that he did not pull out. Given how vital Mark appears to be to Lumon, and the Fourth Appendix’s allusions to seed-spilling and red-haired brides, are we meant to consider that Helena is organising a brand new era of Lumon CEO by mating with Mark? And the way does Gemma/Ms. Casey match into that?
Did Irving’s Dream Reveal That Burt Used To Be His MDR Cubicle Mate?
It is lengthy been assumed that Irving and Burt used to work in the identical Lumon division earlier than they have been each despatched to the Testing Flooring to presumably get their chips reset in a roundabout way. So was Irving’s dread-frought dream tapping into the reality when it confirmed Burt decreasing the cubicle separator?
Did Irving’s Laptop Clue Him In On Helena’s Identification?
Simply earlier than Irving’s dream ended, he was gazing his MDR laptop because the numbers and letters began transferring round and forming the form of a watch, with solely sure numbers and letters showing, the place the letters can be utilized to spell out:
E-A-G-A-N
The numbers that come up are 1, 3, 5, and seven, all prime numbers. Maybe meant to point that the lady he’d been working with was really the prime model of Helly and never the Innie herself.
If Lumon Warns Towards Innies Falling Asleep, Why Ship MDR On An In a single day Journey?
Contemplating it was Irving’s dream that absolutely tipped him off about Helena, and since Lumon makes positive its workers do not go to sleep at work, why was a multi-day ORTBO accredited? Except the purpose was particularly to impress these particular sorts of psychological untanglings inside Irving.
Was Helena’s Close to-Drowning Foreshadowed In The Microdat Rebellion Video?
In a really weird piece of foreshadowing, the stop-motion Microdat Rebellion video from Season 2’s premiere appeared to provide viewers an early have a look at Helly/Helena’s underwater misery when exhibiting off the brand new “Bobbing For Pineapples” perk. However how would the individuals making that video know something like that may occur?
Except that picture was meant to stay round contained in the Innies’ brains as a subliminal suggestion, with the top objective being for Irving to incite that second in actuality. Which is probably why Helena left her tent early to go and stand close to the waterfall, realizing that Irving would discover her there.
How Usually Is The Glasgow Block Used?
When Mr. Milchick requires Helena to be switched again to Helly R., he tells the individual on the opposite finish of the radio to “take away the Glasgow Block now.” So there’s clearly a named and established system in place for this type of factor to occur, probably permitting Lumon to show Outies again into their Innie kind at any time when they need.
Or maybe it is simply restricted to particular circumstances like Helena’s. However I am assuming the worst right here.
Why Wasn’t Irving Taken Farther Away From Different Innies Earlier than Being Switched Off?
This query is much like the one which kicked off this record: if certainly one of Lumon’s priorities is ensuring its severed workers do not see one another, then would not it’s harmful to have a just-terminated Outie nonetheless within the neighborhood?
I nonetheless have extra questions that want solutions from this episode, similar to why Milchick’s first motion wasn’t to ensure Helly/Helena was okay, however to reprimand Irving and ship his medieval termination speech. And the way Mark goes to specific to Helly that they bumped uglies. However that’ll have to attend till Episode 205 drops on Friday, February 14.