I'm up to date on Severance, but I still couldn't explain much. The whole innie vs. outie concept is fascinating, and uncovering Mark's connections to everyone keeps things intriguing.
Trying to explain a theory or guess what's really happening? Impossible. I’m not even sure if Kier is real or what’s what anymore. People are talking about water and spotting differences but I'm terrible at picking that all up.
Since I've seen the episode, I've been thinking about the story he told, and I don't think it's "canonical" like the handbook. I'm almost certain that it's either:
a Lumon "fairy tale", either only for use in team building exercises like the ORTBO, or possibly also told outside (did Helena know it?)
or a story made by Milchick specifically for our group, possibly AI generated (since "Dieter Eagan" is an anagram for "AI generated")
It felt very much like a scavenger hunt for a child's birthday or something similar, only in corporate form. Milchick thought that he could fulfill the groups desire for "adventure", and thus make them focus on work once more.
I haven’t seen anyone else talking about this, but Helena straight up raped Mark S in that tent and he’s traumatized as fuck in E05. And all anyone has to say is that they “slept together.” Milkshake even puts it on Mark S, asking if he told Helly R that he “…fucked her outie.”
It’s like if a guy pretended to be his twin brother so that he could sleep with the brother’s crush. I think we would all recognize that as rape right away. I hope it gets recognized for what it is later on in the season, because so far that hasn’t happened.
The whole show is about lack of consent, and how it doesn’t matter if you don’t remember what happens to you, so I guess it’s on point, but I’m just feeling so bad for Mark S and I’m worried nobody is going to recognize what happened to him.
The claymation video was probably the best part of the first episode. The Rankin Bass nod was fantastic.
For those of you that aren’t old enough to catch it…
“Hilariously, the video (which is narrated by Lumon's literal office building) doubles as a claymation recap of season 1—right down to a not-on-my-Severance-bingo-card reference to the Heat Miser in The Year Without a Santa Claus.”
Themes of finding your identity are strong. Maybe two Mark's will cooperate, like in the scene where Innie? carries Red Mark. There will be conflict about feelings for Helly and Gemma. This and last scene may suggest, that reintegration isn't solution for everything.
I think this show is making the same mistake as “Stranger Things” by just stretching the same characters and story across five seasons. The first season was perfect. I’d rather see a new storyline in season two with new characters and a time jump. The season one characters have had their story already told.
Also casting directors please stop casting the same people over and over. Here comes Alia Shawkat fresh off her 20 episode stint on “The Old Man”. Next thing you know, Pedro Pascal is going to pop up on Severance too. One of the nice things about Severance is all the actors I hadn’t seen before or seen in a long time (Bob Balaban!).