a diabolical throwaway that the building says to the innies is that "You probably don't recognize me..." Because they've NEVER been outside and will never go outside again.
I'm surprised to not see anyone in the comments talking about how Helly was more than likely replaced by Helena. - Her emergence from the elevator differed from the OTC cut-off point, unlike Irving or Mark. - Her first act when down there was to point out a lack of cameras to get them to drop their guards. - She didn't reveal what she actually did and the lie she came up with about a gardener for an "apartment" building sounds like a rich girl's poor understanding of what an average life is like. - She reacted weirdly to Mark's embrace. - Her speech about the difference between innies and outies is identical to that of Helena's previous rant about her being a person and Helly not. - She struggled to find the switch for her PC and even after flipping it, had to double check it worked. There's a wolf in their midst and all we can do is hope they figure her out.
Then again you can tell she got pretty upset with ms Casie being marks outties wife. Not just that but the speech can also be translated to what she said last season as an innie. Also innies don’t really know how the world is like outside of that building. They barely got a glimpse of the outside world.
Pretty easy for the sake of keeping up appearances for Mark. Also, take note of how frustrated he is about the screen saver-maybe because it *has* been 5 months
I did notice something strange with the vitals. etCO2 is not a normal vital that is used for patients. etCO2 is used for CPR or people on a ventilator.
That is an interesting concept, I don't know where you could run with it, but we don't really know anything much about Irving and really nothing about Dylan.
I’m really surprised that you said nothing about Helly lying about what she saw, and Irving noticing the inconsistency (his comment about a night gardener). I felt it was a big moment.
@nautilusfiles is clearly on Lumen's payroll. His episode breakdowns should clearly be seen as an attempt to throw us off the true nature of this company and the Eagan family. /s
also not mentioned, but it links to the is Helena a spy idea- i think there's a chance that Irv banging on burt's door is somehow going to have the real world consequence of the two realising they work together at lumon, it's possible they already knew each other in the past, hence their strong connection at work, they realise something is up and continue investigating, from this connection they will then work together to find mark who may already be in contact with Reghabi. This is where the "is Mark already reintegrated and it's him who is spying not Helena" theory possibly comes in.
The lady from the Lexington Letter wrote about leaving work with wet hair and a note on her car about an "accident", like when Mark had the cut on his head in season 1
It seems everything from the animation is a cute reselling of torture. I think that the mirror room is maybe a new punishment in place of the break room which they drastically changed. Seeing irv sweat and look upset showed us that this is all something to worry about
That stop-motion sequence is such a brilliant piece of storytelling-it’s unnerving yet eerily playful, perfectly capturing “Severance”’s tone. Lumon presenting future tortures as something whimsical and “fun” is such a clever metaphor for how real-world systems often disguise exploitation or control under the guise of innovation, entertainment, or even necessity. It’s unsettling because it mirrors how we’re often distracted or desensitized to systemic issues in real life. Corporations or governments can wrap deeply oppressive or invasive policies in a shiny, palatable package-making them seem harmless, or even beneficial, while quietly stripping away autonomy or dignity. The cheery tone of that video is like a microcosm of how manipulation works: disarm with charm, then control. And isn’t it so clever how the employees in are so detached from reality that they can’t fully grasp the horror being hinted at? It’s a sharp commentary on how, in real life, people sometimes accept or overlook blatant injustices because they’ve been normalized or presented in a sanitized way. The layers of this show just keep peeling back-it’s brilliant and terrifying all at once.
Between Helly giving a fake outie experience, and Dylan being made aware of visitation, I feel like Lumon is planting seeds for MDR to turn against each other.
Couple of points: 1) doubtful that it’s been 5 months. New MDR crew is still very “new”- not sure where things are, still going through introductions. Milchik is only just moving into Cobel’s office with boxes and his computer still showing Cobel’s name. Also, Dylan complicates this 5 month timeline. See point #3 2) I was waiting for you to address the most concerning and divisive theory about Helena Eagan infiltrating the severed floor! That’s 100% her outie… hiding her outie identity, her subtle body language, and fumbling for the switch on her console all indicate that’s not Helly R. Makes perfect sense for Lumon to bypass her chip and allow Helena to do some damage control on the severed floor with the rest of the innies. 3- we never got the fallout from Dylan being tackled in the security room. His first appearance in this episode was after whatever happened in the security room. He must have done a normal ascent in the elevator, and had a normal , clueless evening as his outie, before returning to work the next morning. If it had been 5 months for everyone else, was he just going to work alone for 5 months? Nah- he would have mentioned that for sure.
I do wonder about the timeline. It is possible that the department or perhaps even the whole severed floor was shut down for some amount of time due to the scandal, so it could have been months before they brought in a new MDR team or formally promoted Milchik. But agreed that the stated timeline is suspect and the innies would have no way to know one way or another.
It might have been 5 months in the outside world, that means nothing to Innies. The gangs' Outies were obviously turned away when they came into work (with the exception of maybe Mark who probably didn't return initially) to give Lumon time to regroup and work out what to do next. Remodelling, new strategy, learn Photoshop, make models ;), promotions, replacements, etc.. All that took time. Maybe not 5 months tbf, but a while.
We haven't seen much of Helena in the series yet, but from the video she made for Helly, as well as the videos she made for the gala, everything in this episode screams Helena. Her mannerisms are all off, she's too trusting of Milchick, she recoils from Mark's hug like "wtaf?", her tone of voice and way of talking and walking, absolutely none of it looks like Helly and matches more of what we've seen of Helena. (What a badass actress, really...) I'm mostly surprised Mark doesn't see it.
I think Dario is straight up from the 1860's, maybe even worked with Kier Egan in the ether factories:P His recollections of brooms and ropes, his low employee number and new immigrant language skills, even the wood carved caricature, are relics of a bygone time. I'll bet he's been "revolved" into a new body the way we imagine the board has been:P
Love this theory, I think he could be even older Given the name on his wooden face cube is Grimadli. They date all the way back to 1160. Plus they have a shipping company in Italy so maybe they work with lumon to ship their stuff all around the world, and their employees.
I can’t imagine this being real. How is the severance chip being triggered by climbing down a rope? 😂 The smuggling note detector? On a rope? If he is that old - then he can’t be severed.
I have a suspicious feeling that the pineapple bobbing is actually water boarding. Bet. Even in the animation, all their wrists are tied. Just like with the break room, it wasn't really a room for taking breaks but to BREAK you. So, nothing Lumon says can be taken at face value.
Yeah, because how could someone be able to bite into the tough outer skin of a pineapple underwater, let alone lift an entire pineapple with just their mouth? 🍍😮
Also if you look at 2:08 in the S2 Trailer someone's head is clearly being forced underwater against their will. We'll have to see what they do with that.
No one is talking about how scared the stop motion Irving looked in the house of mirrors and how those reflections weren’t at all playful. That is also going to be used for misery.
Do you know that thing we used to do back in school when we got a bad report card? We'd tweak something on it, just a little forgery here and there, and then show it to our parents, all the while itching to snatch it back before they noticed anything suspicious and caught us red-handed. That’s exactly what I thought of when I saw Mr. Milkshake handing the newspaper to Mark. The moment Mark barely starts to read it, he grabs it back, like he’s afraid Mark will spot something incriminating.
Yeah looking closer it’s easy to spot that their faces are just badly photoshopped on it is hilarious. But of course he barely gets the chance to even read any of the text 😂 EDIT: It not just their faces it is deadass just their group photo shoped in lmao!!
I feel as if Cobel is connected to Gemma in a bigger way, like perhaps the collision with the tree included her mother in another car, a Lumon employee, and so she feels connected to Mark as they both lost someone. Or, with the “fertile soil” reference maybe Cobel is a Lumon lovechild and she was kept on as an employee begrudgingly while her mother died, which may suggest her frustrations with Helly (“YOUR company!” - as in, Helly doesn’t realise the power she has while Cobel has been on the outside looking in, figuratively and actually). This may suggest why they were quite happy to make her the scapegoat given the opportunity as she was an inconvenience they were struggling to find a reason to get rid of, and ultimately she gave them a reason. Aside from that, Selvig is an anagram of G Lives - and Gemma is indeed, alive 😅
Dario is definitely a lot older than he appears.. the reason his branch is lo tech is cause it’s probably 100 yrs old like him, that wooden carving is a big hint
@@pkrmkn31it would have to be chemical, not technological, which does seem to be Lumon's origin, but why then change it if one of the originals is still working? Chemical severance would be so much easier to push out.
The biggest thing that stuck out to me in this episode was Milchik actively unpacking in his office due to his promotion while insisting 5 months had passed. Cobel was fired in the last episode, and MDR aren't the only severed department Cobel was overseeing- what are the odds Lumon would have left Cobel's position open for 5 months with all the other departments operating as usual??? Yet when Mark arrives, the promotion is clearly brand new because he's barely moved in-to me that was the most obvious giveaway that it absolutely hasn't been 5 months!
When Helena/Helly doesn't reveal who her outie is, there are two options. Either Helly was embarrassed to say who she really is, and made up her story with the mistake about the "night" gardener, or it was really Helena, who must now be unsevered, who might be so wealthy and isolated from normal life she wouldn't know that gardeners dont work at night either. However, what seems odd is that Irving as an innie would also have no idea either that gardeners don't work at night, but somehow he knew to question her.
My take on this inconsistency is that all Innies seem to have some sort of base knowledge about the outside world despite their whole lives inside Lumon. Remember the conversations they'd have on what they were like outside and naming jobs or hobbies they can't have known? This would lead more credence to Helly being Helena because Helena being wealthy would not know about gardeners working only in the day but Irving, with his regular built-in Innie knowledge, knows that is unusual.
I don’t think Helena would necessarily need to be unsevered. If there’s a mechanism like the overtime contingency, it’s possible the reverse is also true, and that Lumon can “turn on” the outies while they’re on the severed floor. Especially for someone like Helena, who’s an Eagan
If it was Helena, she WOULD know that gardeners don't work at night because her wealthy family likely employs gardeners. I think she just didn't know that the team got switched at night time (because obviously as the outtie she wasn't there) & that's why she made the error
If Helly is still severed then it could have been her trying to hide who her Outie is by thinking on the spot and coming up with a terrible story last minute. I definitely think severed Irving would know gardeners dont work at night. But I also love the idea that Helly is actually Helena in this season. It would make sense if the working conditions were better bc then Helena would not have to work in the previous conditions as an unsevered employee/spy. Either way, great first episode because it already has us all guessing!
With Irving, I feel like all of the painting and sleep deprivation are working to organically reintegrate him. There is a third option for Helly, and that's that there's another innie. Though my theory it that it's just Helena acting as Helly.
While I don't know that this is the only explanation, or even correct, my first thought with Ms. Huang was that psychologically, these people are way less likely to attack a child. They may even let her off the hook more than Milchick because of her age and the presumption that she's just an innocent puppet/victim. I mean... it'd just feel bad to mistreat a child, for these folks.
I think she’s on a fast track programme from the Myrtle Eagen School 😂 same programme which Cobel probably went through, Ms Huang just happens to be a real protege. Also it’s bugging me that she said she used to be a crossing guard. We know the writers love these double-speak references like “break room”. Maybe a crossing guard has something to do with transitions. Maybe it’s a bit like being a hall monitor but in a more sinister lumony way. However, like seeing the baby goats being fed by a man in a suit it definitely seems to feed into the “uncanny” vibe which makes you question whether what the innies see at the office is real at all.
@@MsClaudz Odd thought - maybe Ms. Huang’s outie was doing her crossing guard duties, and was hit by a car or school bus, died…and now she’s at Lumon? Maybe this is the beginning of Lumon trying out the severance procedure on children? It might be easier to temper/train a severed child than it would be to temper/sever an adult, as children are (for the most part) more impressionable than adults.
I used Google Translate to read the Kanji printing on the contents of Milchick's office drawer. The printing says the tube is for healing the pruning cuts made to bonsai trees. So I think those items are for maintaining the bonsai tree that Milchick has in his office. Likely the bonsai tree is symbolic of what they are doing on the floor at Lumen (carefully molding them into the "shape" that they want).
Oh, that's so cool!!! It could also be a metaphor for how long of a timescale lumon's plans are. Bonsai trees are works of art that take DECADES, with some being passed down from one bonsai gardener to another, so you're so right as it pertains to it being another allusion to Lumon as a company, or perhaps even their plans!!
I use this brand of cut paste in my bonsai practice. The other items are a traditional small hand broom for cleaning up your work after pruning one's bonsai called a "hake" or はけ and a very nice pair of small vintage pruning snips.
Just a thought... I feel the team is going to face a lot of trust issues IMO. Irv not saying he has a list of employees, Dylan with the secret and what if this Helly is not the innie but the outie.( is understandable she wouldn't say who she was, but still). Btw Milchick said "at face value" when Dylan asked if he'd see his family... so another lie.
Spot on, they'll be a lot less likely to organize if they're skeptical and distrustful of each other. Turning them against each other is what I'd do if I were in charge of some über-capitalist water cult.
Can I please extend my sincere thanks to Irving for pushing up Dylan's glasses! As a slightly OCD glasses wearer for over 50 years this has been low level torture for me through the whole show. The additional level of anxiety I felt during the season finale as his glasses were slowly sliding off his nose, you have no idea! Haha
I could listen to you talk about conspiracies all day. This is so good! I’d be down for some longer videos to really describe the details of the conspiracy. Thanks man!
I did a rewatch and there’s a thing I have heard zero people talk about so far. The MDR replacement crew don’t have outties, and are like Ms Casey those that never leave. It could mesh up all the little incongruences they had. A big tell imo: they all had the sky as their #1 thing. The MDR we know might not ever think of that because on a subconscious level they get to see the sky each day. & what’s more fitting than the desire to see the sky from those that might return down below to the testing floor each day
That painting, Kier Pardons His Betrayers, reminds me of the art of early surrealist Giorgio di Chirico who’s paintings were these bleak luminal spaces which Severance’s production design, especially on the severed floor, specializes in.
A few things i didnt either catch or fully understood that you mentioned. Really loving your theories and analysis on serverance! Definitely my favorite channel for it
About Dario - something you haven't considered is that: 1. Lumon has been operating for probably around 200 years 2. If Lumon can put severed people/personalities on ice (by deactivating and reactivating them) then there's a chance that it's not that his office was poor, but that his office existed a very long time ago. Might be worth a check to see if his Italian is old.
dude i have been repeatedly checking for your video!!! youre awesome and i have watched a big part of your severance vids! its what kept me sane during the wait for season 2. cant wait for the next episode.
In all the reviews of season 2 episode 01 in the propaganda video I haven’t seen anyone mention the voice of the building is Keanu Reeves. As soon as the building started talking, I knew I recognized the voice and it was done exquisitely. 👏
I absolutely love the absurd humor that is injected into this crazy interesting show, but I totally missed the Italian man saying that the elevator in his former Lumen building “was a rope.” 🤣❤️
I haven't heard anyone point out the dylan themed "hang in there" poster in the break room. I loved seeing that and I'm interested to know if it will be an actual piece of merch.
Yes I think it’s obvious. And if it’s her innie, I would be seriously disappointed in the show. Everything from her mannerisms, reactions, tone, and body language point to Helena. And all of Lumon’s motives would point to Helena (spy in lieu of cameras. Plus Helly was just a PR stunt that no longer serves a purpose for Lumon, so it would seem).
Episode one was a great start to the season! There were several things that caught my attention. When Mark gets off the elevator to discover the new painting, the space seems like a completely different space. Those posters in the new break room are crazy. The claymation video was kind of funny and very weird/unnerving. The addition of purple to the color scheme of the show is very interesting. Your Severance reviews are dope.
He is the party man. I just smile when he rolls in with a tray of food or music. He really is the best actor in this series. Fun or ferocious at the drop of a pin.
The theory I saw ages ago about the chips altering the visual perception of the innies seems even more believable now! it explains not only the numbers on the terminals but the marital arts flash card, the O&D props, and the baby goats. seemingly innocuous things that they aren't able to process visually
I can see Helly deciding NOT to share what she saw so the rest of the crew would trust her. At first I thought she was her outie self (and she may very well be) but I'm hopeful she's just keeping the secret so she remains close with the rest of the MDR team. I can't figure out how Irv and Dillon's outies were convinced to come back. So glad the show is back!
She may have been threatened in “innie mode” in a much worse than the break room way in between the OTC and coming back the office. It wouldn’t make sense for lumon for her innie to reveal that she is an Eagen as they seem to want the innies to be compliant, not for another revolt to happen. I do like to think she is not outie Helly because it feels too obvious but as the real Helena obviously has a lot of power it’s hard to know.
05:18 the original photo it's from a parade of president Eisenhower in Brazil. He came to a presidential meeting and gave speeches about workers liberty!!!! I'm Brazilian and a Brazilian pop culture journalist did the research and showed the original picture of the event I mentioned. It it's such a cool detail! The original photo of the office members it's probably the photo Milchick took when Helly joined them in season one.
Thank you! i knew i remembered this being a famous presidential photo i just couldn't remember exactly who, and yes its very clearly just the photo on their desks photoshopped in haha
i wouldnt be surprised if something about the severing process makes you see the monitors differently, it may be why they use strange crts instead of led screens.
What a great summary and theories. Well done. I'll keep watching your channel for more. Also wasn't that wooden head also behind Ms. Cobel's desk in season 1?
the amount of work Lumon is doing to keep Mark specifically means they need something from him. The fact that they replaced the other three means they didnt need something from them. Mark is the key to all this. if they can get him working it will be great. My theory: Lumon are using Mark as the stress test for severance. As they find "bugs" or moments where Mark developed too much connection to his outie they adjust the psychological gas lighting. Sometimes its recognition of his wife breaking through the severance, other times its an innate curiosity driving him to find out things outside of the basement. Either way makes Lumon adjust how they try to control Mark then apply that to other severed workers [the line about "209 countries" could just be a lie to the innies. remeber, we cant trust anything Lomon says to the innies]
I don’t know how to put it in words but also the ending where you see Mark and Ms Casey while hes doing mdr work. Maybe getting information from him in the “scary numbers” about his wife, so they can input the information into her. Since clearly she was reincarnated by Lumon but is missing pieces of what makes her her. Idk
@@vog- that makes sense. the data they are refining might be scans from the severance chip. When they "feel" something about the numbers its actually a memory or connection to someone outside of the severance memory. So they are tasked with removing it. they might be refining their own minds
The fact that Lumon had recordings interests me. If they had the recordings, that means they had the intelligence to stop it. They didn’t - one possibility could be that they wanted it to happen? Not sure why tho.
@ That's also possible. I'm just interested possibility that Lumon engineered the MDR uprising. For what purpose? I don't know. I think it would be a fascinating direction for the story.
Mr milkshake is shown a bunch of times right in front of his tiny painting/picture which is… the tip of an iceberg. He’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’m writing this as I watch the video so you might mention this later in the video
So now given your info about the Gemma slide, my theory is that the numbers are thoughts or emotions that are being edited by the implants. For example when MDR are trained they are asked to sort for things that make you uneasy, sad or angry, and then delete them. This would prevent the target from speaking against Lumon and explain why Ms Casey is so emotionally neutered and placid.
You forgot to mention Helly lying about what she saw during the OTC. Fans are divided on whether she is actually Helena or Helly. Some think she lied because she is worried about how the others will react to her being an Eagan.
Helly did mention the band on the t shirt in her story. Would Helly know band names? Was it one of the bands for the dance party? It’s probably Helena cause helly doesn’t know bands. Maybe
Hey, did anyone else notice that while Mark was running at the beginning, the sound and camera zoom associated with switching from innie to outie happened quickly twice? As if Mark S. had been turned off and then back on in an instant, maybe because there's a special "outie" door he passed or because there's an undetected breach in the system
@@lordwaluigi8535okay, I didn't see that. There were zooms, but they weren't dolly zooms and no elevator ping sound that they've always used with transition before. The whole zooming, spinning camera was just to portray a sense of anxiety I think.
I don’t believe that’s Helena. No way. I’m not buying the theory. She struggled to make up a story, because she didn’t have much time. Also she feels horrible hugging Mark because she knows how bad it would be if they found out who her outtie is. They would probably dislike or distrust her, too. She says they aren’t the same and they don’t owe their outties anything. So no, not buying that one. Just had to say that. There are sooooo many questions. I love it! I’m a lucky one who just started the first season right before the second season premiere came out. I just finished it last night. Cannot get enough! Excited for Fridays in a new way now. lol Love your videos Nautilus 😊
At the bottom of the screen with Miss Casey's metrics there's five refiners listed instead of just four... It seems we have a mystery refiner on the job:P
Well, I think: A few days have passed and what Milchick is saying is BS. They didn’t have time to fully repaint the wellness room, they didn’t change the screensaver, and Milchick was still migrating to his new office. I guess in 5 months, they would have had time for all of that. Gemma at the end, I think, is what is really displayed on the MDR terminal screen. Parts of the UI are the same, plus it kinda makes sense if they experience emotions when they group numbers. It may mean that they are actually watching something that is making them feel that emotion. Or maybe it was just a monitoring screen for someone higher up. I also think the outies of the original members of MDR didn’t refuse to get back in but probably they were planning to move them to another department or something. The new team we see at the beginning, I don’t think, is gone too. They are somewhere there. It doesn’t make sense that they moved all the way there to have a few days in the job. Or maybe what they said is untrue about coming from other branches, but they are people from the floor below, maybe preprogrammed or something, like the kiddo. And the newspaper is fake. It has to be.
I liked that they reused The Kier Chronicle for the newspaper. Saw it on a rewatch in S01E06 (about 27 min) when Devon is researching the Arteta family online.
I loved how the episode begins with mark leaving the elevator, with a hallway to his left and right. He makes a left, followed by 3 rights, essentially bringing him to where he would have started had he just gone right to begin with. Reminiscent of the impossible window of Stuart Ullman’s office in The Shining. Also reminds me of the back rooms lore.
I did some digging about the other name on Dario’s wooden head cube, Grimaldi. And found 3 different answers that all can lead to some wild theories of their own. 1. The House of Grimaldi was founded all the way back in 1160 in Genoa, when it’s founder Grimaldo Canella captured Monaco in 1297 and have been the reigning house of the Principality of Monaco ever since. 2. The Grimaldi Group is a private shipping company based in Naples, Italy. The company was founded in 1947 by the Grimaldi family. The company's subsidiaries include Finnlines and Atlantic Container Line. 3. Grimaldi's Pizzeria is a chain of restaurants that serves coal-fired, brick-oven pizza Do with that info what you will
Great research! Grimaldi isn't Dario's last name. It's the name of the file Dario is working on. So we have some insight into that instead. Dario's last name starts with an "R."
I just watched season one last weekend. I watched the first episode for season two yesterday. I haven't been this excited for a tv show since, The Walking Dead. My excitement for that show lasted three season. Hopefully this show will have me excited longer since the subject is so intriguing and there are SO many places this can take us. I would love to see the Italian office and the ropes and paper plates on sticks.
If Helly is actually Helly in this episode, how could she possibly tell them she is an Eagan without them all instantly distrusting her? What a strange predicament! Also, assuming she just went from the gala to the severance floor, she has had zero time to process the experience. Her head would be totally scrambled. This may explain her weird behavior
If Cobel was fired 5 months ago, wouldn't it make sense for them to change the welcome screen on Milchicks computer by then? I feel like this may be a hint that it was a much shorter timeline than 5 months since the overtime contingency. Just seems like an easy fix that likely would have taken a day at most to resolve.
Totally. But there’s also a possibility Cobel’s firing was second guessed. The OTC technically happened on Milchik’s watch, and it would have gone on longer if not for Cobel. It’s possible she used this as an argument for keeping (or re-accepting) her position, and the board may have taken months to deliberate before choosing Milchik over her. Who knows. (Hopefully us next Friday!!)
It’s also possible that the whole floor was shut down for awhile and is just now back up and running. Also they have a new breakroom and took apart Wellness…and the purple office area. I think it has been 5 months actually.
![Severance Theories #8 [Petey's Map + Theories]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fUglz4MjvFg/mqdefault.jpg)
a diabolical throwaway that the building says to the innies is that "You probably don't recognize me..." Because they've NEVER been outside and will never go outside again.
Nice catch 👏
Leave it to lumon to always throw a jab in there
Oh my gosh! Yes! They have no idea what the building looks like! So cruel and classic Lumen
Oh! Well observed. I didn't pick up on that at all. What a mean, stupid animated building.
No i think the building says that because milkshake says it's meant to be played to all new severed employees upon their arrival
I'm surprised to not see anyone in the comments talking about how Helly was more than likely replaced by Helena.
- Her emergence from the elevator differed from the OTC cut-off point, unlike Irving or Mark.
- Her first act when down there was to point out a lack of cameras to get them to drop their guards.
- She didn't reveal what she actually did and the lie she came up with about a gardener for an "apartment" building sounds like a rich girl's poor understanding of what an average life is like.
- She reacted weirdly to Mark's embrace.
- Her speech about the difference between innies and outies is identical to that of Helena's previous rant about her being a person and Helly not.
- She struggled to find the switch for her PC and even after flipping it, had to double check it worked.
There's a wolf in their midst and all we can do is hope they figure her out.
Agreed.
Totally agree 🙌🏻👍🏻
100% agree!
apt analysis
Then again you can tell she got pretty upset with ms Casie being marks outties wife. Not just that but the speech can also be translated to what she said last season as an innie. Also innies don’t really know how the world is like outside of that building. They barely got a glimpse of the outside world.
4:36 I just noticed that Milchik is still unpacking his stuff. That’s strange if it has really been five months.
Yes! Knowing how Milchik’s temperament… I doubt he would be ok with the computer screen saying “Hello Ms Cobel” for 5 months…
Pretty easy for the sake of keeping up appearances for Mark. Also, take note of how frustrated he is about the screen saver-maybe because it *has* been 5 months
@ good point
@@M4RI4TIGER right!
Such a great point!
I did notice something strange with the vitals.
etCO2 is not a normal vital that is used for patients. etCO2 is used for CPR or people on a ventilator.
This is such valuable informtion! Thank you.
Random thought: what if Irving was the artist who painted some of the olde Lumon works, and was admiring his own artwork, from decades before?! 😮
That is a wild twist, and I can't believe I haven't considered it!
Fantastic theory! I love it!
Too good not to be true.
That is an interesting concept, I don't know where you could run with it, but we don't really know anything much about Irving and really nothing about Dylan.
That’s a great idea!
Can we talk about the casts’ performances? There isn’t a single character who isn’t 100% believable. So much talent on this show
they actually sever the actors, theyre not acting they think theyre different people
Even the MDR replacements were great.
@@regularartist699it's always been that way, the whole show is Ben Stiller trying to speak out!! 😆
@ Genius comment! :D Love it
@@regularartist699 Lol I should have known!
I’m really surprised that you said nothing about Helly lying about what she saw, and Irving noticing the inconsistency (his comment about a night gardener). I felt it was a big moment.
@@ChesterQueens That omission surprised me too.
Same here. I think that’s Helly’s outie on the severed floor. Noticed how she reluctantly hugged Mark when she got off the elevator?
@nautilusfiles is clearly on Lumen's payroll. His episode breakdowns should clearly be seen as an attempt to throw us off the true nature of this company and the Eagan family.
/s
also not mentioned, but it links to the is Helena a spy idea- i think there's a chance that Irv banging on burt's door is somehow going to have the real world consequence of the two realising they work together at lumon, it's possible they already knew each other in the past, hence their strong connection at work, they realise something is up and continue investigating, from this connection they will then work together to find mark who may already be in contact with Reghabi. This is where the "is Mark already reintegrated and it's him who is spying not Helena" theory possibly comes in.
In your newest patrons, you have two Marks. Would it be possible for one of them to change their name?🤣
“oh my God… That’s very serious.”… “clever way to secure the name for yourself, I suppose.” 😂😂
To avoid confusion of course😂
@@stevenjlovelace 🤣🥳
Why are their wrists tied together for ‘bobbing for pineapples?” I think it’s a cover story for restraint marks on wrists.
There’s a shot of Helly in the trailer from underwater looking up towards her face in the water
Hmmm
The lady from the Lexington Letter wrote about leaving work with wet hair and a note on her car about an "accident", like when Mark had the cut on his head in season 1
It also reminds me of the handheld game Ms. Huang plays. When she gets a ring on the diver, it looks like wrists tied together
It seems everything from the animation is a cute reselling of torture. I think that the mirror room is maybe a new punishment in place of the break room which they drastically changed. Seeing irv sweat and look upset showed us that this is all something to worry about
That stop-motion sequence is such a brilliant piece of storytelling-it’s unnerving yet eerily playful, perfectly capturing “Severance”’s tone. Lumon presenting future tortures as something whimsical and “fun” is such a clever metaphor for how real-world systems often disguise exploitation or control under the guise of innovation, entertainment, or even necessity.
It’s unsettling because it mirrors how we’re often distracted or desensitized to systemic issues in real life. Corporations or governments can wrap deeply oppressive or invasive policies in a shiny, palatable package-making them seem harmless, or even beneficial, while quietly stripping away autonomy or dignity. The cheery tone of that video is like a microcosm of how manipulation works: disarm with charm, then control.
And isn’t it so clever how the employees in are so detached from reality that they can’t fully grasp the horror being hinted at? It’s a sharp commentary on how, in real life, people sometimes accept or overlook blatant injustices because they’ve been normalized or presented in a sanitized way.
The layers of this show just keep peeling back-it’s brilliant and terrifying all at once.
Keanu Reeves voice cameo has to be another matrix nod. Like the recurring red/blue color contrasts, etc.
🤯🤯🤯
Would have been so cool to have Hugo Weaving! Haha
@darcipeeps he's the Lumon building in the animation.
Like when they got Scott Baio to replace Henry Winkler as the family attorney on Arrested Development.
@@DefinitelyNotALobsterWHAT
Between Helly giving a fake outie experience, and Dylan being made aware of visitation, I feel like Lumon is planting seeds for MDR to turn against each other.
Couple of points:
1) doubtful that it’s been 5 months. New MDR crew is still very “new”- not sure where things are, still going through introductions. Milchik is only just moving into Cobel’s office with boxes and his computer still showing Cobel’s name. Also, Dylan complicates this 5 month timeline. See point #3
2) I was waiting for you to address the most concerning and divisive theory about Helena Eagan infiltrating the severed floor! That’s 100% her outie… hiding her outie identity, her subtle body language, and fumbling for the switch on her console all indicate that’s not Helly R. Makes perfect sense for Lumon to bypass her chip and allow Helena to do some damage control on the severed floor with the rest of the innies.
3- we never got the fallout from Dylan being tackled in the security room. His first appearance in this episode was after whatever happened in the security room. He must have done a normal ascent in the elevator, and had a normal , clueless evening as his outie, before returning to work the next morning. If it had been 5 months for everyone else, was he just going to work alone for 5 months? Nah- he would have mentioned that for sure.
I do wonder about the timeline. It is possible that the department or perhaps even the whole severed floor was shut down for some amount of time due to the scandal, so it could have been months before they brought in a new MDR team or formally promoted Milchik. But agreed that the stated timeline is suspect and the innies would have no way to know one way or another.
#2 is an awesome theory! Didn’t even cross my mind!!
a) that’s definitely Helena not Helly
b) no way do I buy that it’s been 5 months! Milchick is not even close to being unpacked or using his computer
It might have been 5 months in the outside world, that means nothing to Innies.
The gangs' Outies were obviously turned away when they came into work (with the exception of maybe Mark who probably didn't return initially) to give Lumon time to regroup and work out what to do next. Remodelling, new strategy, learn Photoshop, make models ;), promotions, replacements, etc..
All that took time. Maybe not 5 months tbf, but a while.
We haven't seen much of Helena in the series yet, but from the video she made for Helly, as well as the videos she made for the gala, everything in this episode screams Helena. Her mannerisms are all off, she's too trusting of Milchick, she recoils from Mark's hug like "wtaf?", her tone of voice and way of talking and walking, absolutely none of it looks like Helly and matches more of what we've seen of Helena. (What a badass actress, really...) I'm mostly surprised Mark doesn't see it.
2 minutes ago is wild. Been anticipating your analysis like crazy 🔥
This is THE recap and theories video I’ve been waiting for as well!
Same 👏
I think Dario is straight up from the 1860's, maybe even worked with Kier Egan in the ether factories:P His recollections of brooms and ropes, his low employee number and new immigrant language skills, even the wood carved caricature, are relics of a bygone time. I'll bet he's been "revolved" into a new body the way we imagine the board has been:P
Love this theory, I think he could be even older Given the name on his wooden face cube is Grimadli. They date all the way back to 1160. Plus they have a shipping company in Italy so maybe they work with lumon to ship their stuff all around the world, and their employees.
Good one!!
@@chlorinesodawow
I can’t imagine this being real. How is the severance chip being triggered by climbing down a rope? 😂 The smuggling note detector? On a rope? If he is that old - then he can’t be severed.
I thought that this character was brought for comic relief 😂
I have a suspicious feeling that the pineapple bobbing is actually water boarding. Bet. Even in the animation, all their wrists are tied. Just like with the break room, it wasn't really a room for taking breaks but to BREAK you. So, nothing Lumon says can be taken at face value.
Yeah, because how could someone be able to bite into the tough outer skin of a pineapple underwater, let alone lift an entire pineapple with just their mouth? 🍍😮
Also if you look at 2:08 in the S2 Trailer someone's head is clearly being forced underwater against their will. We'll have to see what they do with that.
@@dontlettheworldrot3058 That makes me worry about Dylan’s reunification suite. Nothing is as it seems.
@@amuljanovthey pull it out by the green stem
the kids had a toy where the ring ties the hands... a theme?
Im getting big Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” vibes from the painting facing the elevator upon Mark’s return.
Wasn't there something in Kier's writings about "going into the cave" as well? I was wondering if he'd read Plato.
The last scene leads me to believe that Miss Huang is the product of the work of a completed, successful quarter
👀👀
Now THAT is a very interesting theory.
No one is talking about how scared the stop motion Irving looked in the house of mirrors and how those reflections weren’t at all playful. That is also going to be used for misery.
ironically I was almost as excited for ur analysis as I was the show
Amen!😅
Same bro
Totally, this and the Severed podcast with Allen S.
Same Nautilus + Pete Peppers
I hope you enjoy them equally
Do you know that thing we used to do back in school when we got a bad report card? We'd tweak something on it, just a little forgery here and there, and then show it to our parents, all the while itching to snatch it back before they noticed anything suspicious and caught us red-handed. That’s exactly what I thought of when I saw Mr. Milkshake handing the newspaper to Mark. The moment Mark barely starts to read it, he grabs it back, like he’s afraid Mark will spot something incriminating.
Yeah looking closer it’s easy to spot that their faces are just badly photoshopped on it is hilarious. But of course he barely gets the chance to even read any of the text 😂
EDIT: It not just their faces it is deadass just their group photo shoped in lmao!!
like... there is no rest to this paper! too long to print a whole fake paper. Even if not, innies are not suppose to know what's up outside
I feel as if Cobel is connected to Gemma in a bigger way, like perhaps the collision with the tree included her mother in another car, a Lumon employee, and so she feels connected to Mark as they both lost someone. Or, with the “fertile soil” reference maybe Cobel is a Lumon lovechild and she was kept on as an employee begrudgingly while her mother died, which may suggest her frustrations with Helly (“YOUR company!” - as in, Helly doesn’t realise the power she has while Cobel has been on the outside looking in, figuratively and actually).
This may suggest why they were quite happy to make her the scapegoat given the opportunity as she was an inconvenience they were struggling to find a reason to get rid of, and ultimately she gave them a reason.
Aside from that, Selvig is an anagram of G Lives - and Gemma is indeed, alive 😅
"Selvig is an anagram of G Lives"
O M G !!!!!
Dario is definitely a lot older than he appears.. the reason his branch is lo tech is cause it’s probably 100 yrs old like him, that wooden carving is a big hint
Underrated! ❤️
It's wooden because they had to carve it out of brooms.
But they had Severance technology?
@@SteveLaw-UK company has been around since the 1800s, very possible severance prototypes started in the early 1900s
@@pkrmkn31it would have to be chemical, not technological, which does seem to be Lumon's origin, but why then change it if one of the originals is still working? Chemical severance would be so much easier to push out.
S1E9 Cobel told Helly that ‘she’d be long gone but her friends would suffer.’
She wasn’t lying.
she might have said this out of concern -I really don't hetr what side she's on besides her own... she might feel pity
The biggest thing that stuck out to me in this episode was Milchik actively unpacking in his office due to his promotion while insisting 5 months had passed. Cobel was fired in the last episode, and MDR aren't the only severed department Cobel was overseeing- what are the odds Lumon would have left Cobel's position open for 5 months with all the other departments operating as usual??? Yet when Mark arrives, the promotion is clearly brand new because he's barely moved in-to me that was the most obvious giveaway that it absolutely hasn't been 5 months!
The Severed floor has been remodeeled so its likely the whole floor was shut down to Innies during that time.
@@SteveLaw-UKwell just watched episode 2…questions are answered
I’m so happy for severance back but now I’m extra happy we got you covering severance again big time. I major always look forward to your sev stuff
It's Mr Milkshake from now on
That's how the auto generated captions on UA-cam do his name a lot of the time.😂🤣
@@evanward4303 impossible not to.
@@SciFiEve really? Haha I would not be surprised if that's where they took it from.
When Helena/Helly doesn't reveal who her outie is, there are two options. Either Helly was embarrassed to say who she really is, and made up her story with the mistake about the "night" gardener, or it was really Helena, who must now be unsevered, who might be so wealthy and isolated from normal life she wouldn't know that gardeners dont work at night either. However, what seems odd is that Irving as an innie would also have no idea either that gardeners don't work at night, but somehow he knew to question her.
My take on this inconsistency is that all Innies seem to have some sort of base knowledge about the outside world despite their whole lives inside Lumon. Remember the conversations they'd have on what they were like outside and naming jobs or hobbies they can't have known? This would lead more credence to Helly being Helena because Helena being wealthy would not know about gardeners working only in the day but Irving, with his regular built-in Innie knowledge, knows that is unusual.
I don’t think Helena would necessarily need to be unsevered. If there’s a mechanism like the overtime contingency, it’s possible the reverse is also true, and that Lumon can “turn on” the outies while they’re on the severed floor. Especially for someone like Helena, who’s an Eagan
If it was Helena, she WOULD know that gardeners don't work at night because her wealthy family likely employs gardeners. I think she just didn't know that the team got switched at night time (because obviously as the outtie she wasn't there) & that's why she made the error
If Helly is still severed then it could have been her trying to hide who her Outie is by thinking on the spot and coming up with a terrible story last minute. I definitely think severed Irving would know gardeners dont work at night. But I also love the idea that Helly is actually Helena in this season. It would make sense if the working conditions were better bc then Helena would not have to work in the previous conditions as an unsevered employee/spy. Either way, great first episode because it already has us all guessing!
With Irving, I feel like all of the painting and sleep deprivation are working to organically reintegrate him.
There is a third option for Helly, and that's that there's another innie. Though my theory it that it's just Helena acting as Helly.
TURTLENECKS! Ms Cobel always wears a turtleneck. Milchick is now exclusively wearing turtlenecks. Shock collars for management?
😅one of the STRONGEST season openers of any 2nd season I’ve ever seen. Absolutely CRACKA-LACKING!
apparently the opening dolly shot took 5 months lmao
While I don't know that this is the only explanation, or even correct, my first thought with Ms. Huang was that psychologically, these people are way less likely to attack a child. They may even let her off the hook more than Milchick because of her age and the presumption that she's just an innocent puppet/victim. I mean... it'd just feel bad to mistreat a child, for these folks.
@@halocat4077 excellent thought! Or conversely, to see if they can push them to the point where they would!
I think she’s on a fast track programme from the Myrtle Eagen School 😂 same programme which Cobel probably went through, Ms Huang just happens to be a real protege. Also it’s bugging me that she said she used to be a crossing guard. We know the writers love these double-speak references like “break room”. Maybe a crossing guard has something to do with transitions. Maybe it’s a bit like being a hall monitor but in a more sinister lumony way. However, like seeing the baby goats being fed by a man in a suit it definitely seems to feed into the “uncanny” vibe which makes you question whether what the innies see at the office is real at all.
@@halocat4077 Dylan definitely wouldn’t bite her….
@@MsClaudz Odd thought - maybe Ms. Huang’s outie was doing her crossing guard duties, and was hit by a car or school bus, died…and now she’s at Lumon? Maybe this is the beginning of Lumon trying out the severance procedure on children? It might be easier to temper/train a severed child than it would be to temper/sever an adult, as children are (for the most part) more impressionable than adults.
I used Google Translate to read the Kanji printing on the contents of Milchick's office drawer.
The printing says the tube is for healing the pruning cuts made to bonsai trees. So I think those items are for maintaining the bonsai tree that Milchick has in his office.
Likely the bonsai tree is symbolic of what they are doing on the floor at Lumen (carefully molding them into the "shape" that they want).
Oh, that's so cool!!! It could also be a metaphor for how long of a timescale lumon's plans are. Bonsai trees are works of art that take DECADES, with some being passed down from one bonsai gardener to another, so you're so right as it pertains to it being another allusion to Lumon as a company, or perhaps even their plans!!
At first glance I thought it was a moustache grooming kit. Haha
I use this brand of cut paste in my bonsai practice. The other items are a traditional small hand broom for cleaning up your work after pruning one's bonsai called a "hake" or はけ and a very nice pair of small vintage pruning snips.
Maybe it's a symbol pointing to what MDR is doing trimming emotions like a bonsai tree...
"We must be cut to heal"
"Lumon is listening"
Immediately reminded me of Succession. "ATN: We're listening." And also "We hear you." And finally "We hear for you."
I thought the same thing
Then I thought "Maybe I watch too much tv"
But ultimately, "hear" was misspelled. So the graphic was actually : "We here for you!" 😂😂😂😂
Just a thought... I feel the team is going to face a lot of trust issues IMO. Irv not saying he has a list of employees, Dylan with the secret and what if this Helly is not the innie but the outie.( is understandable she wouldn't say who she was, but still).
Btw Milchick said "at face value" when Dylan asked if he'd see his family... so another lie.
They are trying to pit the employees against each other and try to give them the illusion of free will - you know, just like real life
A lot of lies to sort through! Its gonna be a wild ride
@@JaneDoe-b5v You better buckle up!
Spot on, they'll be a lot less likely to organize if they're skeptical and distrustful of each other.
Turning them against each other is what I'd do if I were in charge of some über-capitalist water cult.
I didn't even see nautilus mention this but Helly DEFINITELY is outie Helly right now!!! That's why they don't need cameras or to record!
This is the video we’ve been waiting for
I noticed that the newspaper picture is a cut & paste from season one. It's from when Mark replaced the original with Petey in it.
Can I please extend my sincere thanks to Irving for pushing up Dylan's glasses! As a slightly OCD glasses wearer for over 50 years this has been low level torture for me through the whole show. The additional level of anxiety I felt during the season finale as his glasses were slowly sliding off his nose, you have no idea! Haha
Me too! When he did that I said "I wanted to do that all last season!" 😅🤓
@@vitaminj7 the struggle is real. 😂🤓✊
I could listen to you talk about conspiracies all day. This is so good!
I’d be down for some longer videos to really describe the details of the conspiracy.
Thanks man!
Aww yeah, been waitin' for this video. You should cover Evil, you'd probably love that one too.
You catch a lot more of the finer details that I miss....like that the guy in a suit way in the background....thanks again for the observations.
I did a rewatch and there’s a thing I have heard zero people talk about so far. The MDR replacement crew don’t have outties, and are like Ms Casey those that never leave. It could mesh up all the little incongruences they had.
A big tell imo: they all had the sky as their #1 thing. The MDR we know might not ever think of that because on a subconscious level they get to see the sky each day. & what’s more fitting than the desire to see the sky from those that might return down below to the testing floor each day
Dude I love your analysis ❤ I feel like you do such a good job of predicting the show and your videos change the way I understand it
Not the first to the party, but as usual, you are the best! Looking forward to taking this season 2 journey with Mr. Nautilus!
The newspaper has SO much information you need to tap into!
That painting, Kier Pardons His Betrayers, reminds me of the art of early surrealist Giorgio di Chirico who’s paintings were these bleak luminal spaces which Severance’s production design, especially on the severed floor, specializes in.
A few things i didnt either catch or fully understood that you mentioned. Really loving your theories and analysis on serverance! Definitely my favorite channel for it
About Dario - something you haven't considered is that:
1. Lumon has been operating for probably around 200 years
2. If Lumon can put severed people/personalities on ice (by deactivating and reactivating them) then there's a chance that it's not that his office was poor, but that his office existed a very long time ago. Might be worth a check to see if his Italian is old.
They didn't have severance chips 200 years ago.
As an Italian i can confirm that his Italian is not old, he does call a pen an “ink pencil” tho
Let’s gooooo, Severance is back baby!!! So hyped to tune in for every single video from now on! And to watch every solo video too lol.
Only channel i was waiting to see your review! You're the best 👌
dude i have been repeatedly checking for your video!!! youre awesome and i have watched a big part of your severance vids! its what kept me sane during the wait for season 2. cant wait for the next episode.
I’ve been waiting on this one 😏🙏🏻
In all the reviews of season 2 episode 01 in the propaganda video I haven’t seen anyone mention the voice of the building is Keanu Reeves. As soon as the building started talking, I knew I recognized the voice and it was done exquisitely. 👏
I absolutely love the absurd humor that is injected into this crazy interesting show, but I totally missed the Italian man saying that the elevator in his former Lumen building “was a rope.” 🤣❤️
My favorite Severance channel, been waiting way too long for this 🙏🏼
I haven't heard anyone point out the dylan themed "hang in there" poster in the break room. I loved seeing that and I'm interested to know if it will be an actual piece of merch.
Yes! And "I'm a frolic-holic", "bee ever merry ", and "grin and Baird it" - love all the kooky Easter eggs and details! 🧐🤔🙃
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS VIDEO ALL DAY!!!
I binged your Severance playlist this week preparing for second season to come out. I'm so excited!
I had to watch your breakdown before anyone else’s. Your theory videos made the long 2 years feel a little shorter. Now it’s season two time!
My favourite channel last 2 weeks. Thanks!
Helly is her outie posing as her innie 100%.
Yes I think it’s obvious. And if it’s her innie, I would be seriously disappointed in the show. Everything from her mannerisms, reactions, tone, and body language point to Helena. And all of Lumon’s motives would point to Helena (spy in lieu of cameras. Plus Helly was just a PR stunt that no longer serves a purpose for Lumon, so it would seem).
Episode one was a great start to the season! There were several things that caught my attention. When Mark gets off the elevator to discover the new painting, the space seems like a completely different space. Those posters in the new break room are crazy. The claymation video was kind of funny and very weird/unnerving. The addition of purple to the color scheme of the show is very interesting.
Your Severance reviews are dope.
My. Oh My. This does put a smile on my face. Hello, friend.
I kept checking all day waiting for your video 🥰🥰🥰😍😍😍😍😍😍 your voice and your rhetoric are my favorite!!!!
Cobel was impulsive & a bully. Milcheck is cold, calculating & ruthless.
Milchek is scary. The gentleman who plays him was born for this role.
He is the party man. I just smile when he rolls in with a tray of food or music. He really is the best actor in this series. Fun or ferocious at the drop of a pin.
@@jkdbuck7670 Tramell Tillman has made himself the 2020s version of Giancarlo Esposito.
The theory I saw ages ago about the chips altering the visual perception of the innies seems even more believable now! it explains not only the numbers on the terminals but the marital arts flash card, the O&D props, and the baby goats. seemingly innocuous things that they aren't able to process visually
I can see Helly deciding NOT to share what she saw so the rest of the crew would trust her. At first I thought she was her outie self (and she may very well be) but I'm hopeful she's just keeping the secret so she remains close with the rest of the MDR team. I can't figure out how Irv and Dillon's outies were convinced to come back. So glad the show is back!
She may have been threatened in “innie mode” in a much worse than the break room way in between the OTC and coming back the office. It wouldn’t make sense for lumon for her innie to reveal that she is an Eagen as they seem to want the innies to be compliant, not for another revolt to happen. I do like to think she is not outie Helly because it feels too obvious but as the real Helena obviously has a lot of power it’s hard to know.
05:18 the original photo it's from a parade of president Eisenhower in Brazil. He came to a presidential meeting and gave speeches about workers liberty!!!! I'm Brazilian and a Brazilian pop culture journalist did the research and showed the original picture of the event I mentioned. It it's such a cool detail! The original photo of the office members it's probably the photo Milchick took when Helly joined them in season one.
Thank you! i knew i remembered this being a famous presidential photo i just couldn't remember exactly who, and yes its very clearly just the photo on their desks photoshopped in haha
I saw a side by side comparison of it with President Kennedy's motorcade...interesting
@@JaneDoe-b5v this is what I thought of when I saw it. The ticker tape pic.
I thought it was an old jfk photo.
Seen this confirmed by other sources too 👏 plus the team posed in the car is obviously the same as their office photo
i wouldnt be surprised if something about the severing process makes you see the monitors differently, it may be why they use strange crts instead of led screens.
What a great summary and theories. Well done. I'll keep watching your channel for more.
Also wasn't that wooden head also behind Ms. Cobel's desk in season 1?
the amount of work Lumon is doing to keep Mark specifically means they need something from him. The fact that they replaced the other three means they didnt need something from them. Mark is the key to all this. if they can get him working it will be great.
My theory: Lumon are using Mark as the stress test for severance. As they find "bugs" or moments where Mark developed too much connection to his outie they adjust the psychological gas lighting. Sometimes its recognition of his wife breaking through the severance, other times its an innate curiosity driving him to find out things outside of the basement. Either way makes Lumon adjust how they try to control Mark then apply that to other severed workers
[the line about "209 countries" could just be a lie to the innies. remeber, we cant trust anything Lomon says to the innies]
I don’t know how to put it in words but also the ending where you see Mark and Ms Casey while hes doing mdr work. Maybe getting information from him in the “scary numbers” about his wife, so they can input the information into her. Since clearly she was reincarnated by Lumon but is missing pieces of what makes her her. Idk
@@vog- that makes sense. the data they are refining might be scans from the severance chip. When they "feel" something about the numbers its actually a memory or connection to someone outside of the severance memory. So they are tasked with removing it. they might be refining their own minds
Yours was the review I was most looking forward to watching:>
Been waiting for you!
been waiting for this episode recap from you
The fact that Lumon had recordings interests me. If they had the recordings, that means they had the intelligence to stop it. They didn’t - one possibility could be that they wanted it to happen? Not sure why tho.
They probably don't monitor them constantly but after the rebellion they must've had time to review everything
@ That's also possible. I'm just interested possibility that Lumon engineered the MDR uprising. For what purpose? I don't know. I think it would be a fascinating direction for the story.
Helena is posing as Helly!!! Shes an undercover mole!!!
Mr milkshake is shown a bunch of times right in front of his tiny painting/picture which is… the tip of an iceberg. He’s just the tip of the iceberg.
I’m writing this as I watch the video so you might mention this later in the video
I love these videos, they make it easier to wait til next Friday 🥰
So now given your info about the Gemma slide, my theory is that the numbers are thoughts or emotions that are being edited by the implants. For example when MDR are trained they are asked to sort for things that make you uneasy, sad or angry, and then delete them. This would prevent the target from speaking against Lumon and explain why Ms Casey is so emotionally neutered and placid.
This is a good take. Subbed!
You forgot to mention Helly lying about what she saw during the OTC. Fans are divided on whether she is actually Helena or Helly. Some think she lied because she is worried about how the others will react to her being an Eagan.
Helly did mention the band on the t shirt in her story. Would Helly know band names? Was it one of the bands for the dance party? It’s probably Helena cause helly doesn’t know bands. Maybe
@@runningisfastI think it was Save The Gorillas. I took that as a conservationist slogan, not a band name
It’s definitely Helena
Helly lying about the night out was 🚩
@@runningisfastHelly might know bands. She named a US state in her orientation. Some knowledge transfers to innies so maybe she would.
On another channel they said the empty crate in Milchuk’s office is where Miss Huang came from
Hey, did anyone else notice that while Mark was running at the beginning, the sound and camera zoom associated with switching from innie to outie happened quickly twice? As if Mark S. had been turned off and then back on in an instant, maybe because there's a special "outie" door he passed or because there's an undetected breach in the system
Also love the vids, we're so back
I'm going to watch this again now. This is an incredible sequence, just as the first seasons walk was.
@@lordwaluigi8535okay, I didn't see that. There were zooms, but they weren't dolly zooms and no elevator ping sound that they've always used with transition before. The whole zooming, spinning camera was just to portray a sense of anxiety I think.
I don’t believe that’s Helena. No way. I’m not buying the theory. She struggled to make up a story, because she didn’t have much time. Also she feels horrible hugging Mark because she knows how bad it would be if they found out who her outtie is. They would probably dislike or distrust her, too. She says they aren’t the same and they don’t owe their outties anything. So no, not buying that one. Just had to say that.
There are sooooo many questions. I love it! I’m a lucky one who just started the first season right before the second season premiere came out. I just finished it last night. Cannot get enough! Excited for Fridays in a new way now. lol
Love your videos Nautilus 😊
At the bottom of the screen with Miss Casey's metrics there's five refiners listed instead of just four... It seems we have a mystery refiner on the job:P
I’ve been sitting around just waiting for this videos! I don’t have enough people to talk to about all this
Well, I think:
A few days have passed and what Milchick is saying is BS. They didn’t have time to fully repaint the wellness room, they didn’t change the screensaver, and Milchick was still migrating to his new office. I guess in 5 months, they would have had time for all of that.
Gemma at the end, I think, is what is really displayed on the MDR terminal screen. Parts of the UI are the same, plus it kinda makes sense if they experience emotions when they group numbers. It may mean that they are actually watching something that is making them feel that emotion. Or maybe it was just a monitoring screen for someone higher up.
I also think the outies of the original members of MDR didn’t refuse to get back in but probably they were planning to move them to another department or something. The new team we see at the beginning, I don’t think, is gone too. They are somewhere there. It doesn’t make sense that they moved all the way there to have a few days in the job. Or maybe what they said is untrue about coming from other branches, but they are people from the floor below, maybe preprogrammed or something, like the kiddo.
And the newspaper is fake. It has to be.
My fiance and I have been waiting for your analysis. I kept refreshing your page every few hours and he would ask if its up yet 😂
Amazing as usual!
I liked that they reused The Kier Chronicle for the newspaper. Saw it on a rewatch in S01E06 (about 27 min) when Devon is researching the Arteta family online.
I loved how the episode begins with mark leaving the elevator, with a hallway to his left and right. He makes a left, followed by 3 rights, essentially bringing him to where he would have started had he just gone right to begin with. Reminiscent of the impossible window of Stuart Ullman’s office in The Shining. Also reminds me of the back rooms lore.
I think the “shambolic rube” insult got to him because he also read the brother in law’s book.
Nice detail! Thanks for the deep dive!
I did some digging about the other name on Dario’s wooden head cube, Grimaldi. And found 3 different answers that all can lead to some wild theories of their own.
1. The House of Grimaldi was founded all the way back in 1160 in Genoa, when it’s founder Grimaldo Canella captured Monaco in 1297 and have been the reigning house of the Principality of Monaco ever since.
2. The Grimaldi Group is a private shipping company based in Naples, Italy. The company was founded in 1947 by the Grimaldi family. The company's subsidiaries include Finnlines and Atlantic Container Line.
3. Grimaldi's Pizzeria is a chain of restaurants that serves coal-fired, brick-oven pizza
Do with that info what you will
thanks, imma order a pizza
Did they ship him over in the padded (?) crate in Milchick's office? 🤔
Great research! Grimaldi isn't Dario's last name. It's the name of the file Dario is working on. So we have some insight into that instead. Dario's last name starts with an "R."
@@nancyjonesfrancislol I knew that, I forget to correct my sentence after I wrote. Thanks!
Joseph Grimaldi was a famous clown in London. He invented the 'creepy clown' grotesque look.
I love the commitment to small details - like Dario drinking espresso.
“Off you go” - brutal!
I just watched season one last weekend. I watched the first episode for season two yesterday. I haven't been this excited for a tv show since, The Walking Dead. My excitement for that show lasted three season. Hopefully this show will have me excited longer since the subject is so intriguing and there are SO many places this can take us. I would love to see the Italian office and the ropes and paper plates on sticks.
If Helly is actually Helly in this episode, how could she possibly tell them she is an Eagan without them all instantly distrusting her? What a strange predicament! Also, assuming she just went from the gala to the severance floor, she has had zero time to process the experience. Her head would be totally scrambled. This may explain her weird behavior
Going off of an S1 theory of the sheep, my first thought is that Ms Wong is a clone... Of Ms Casey
WE'RE SO BACKKKK
Nice name and pic
Thanks!
If Cobel was fired 5 months ago, wouldn't it make sense for them to change the welcome screen on Milchicks computer by then? I feel like this may be a hint that it was a much shorter timeline than 5 months since the overtime contingency. Just seems like an easy fix that likely would have taken a day at most to resolve.
Totally. But there’s also a possibility Cobel’s firing was second guessed. The OTC technically happened on Milchik’s watch, and it would have gone on longer if not for Cobel. It’s possible she used this as an argument for keeping (or re-accepting) her position, and the board may have taken months to deliberate before choosing Milchik over her.
Who knows. (Hopefully us next Friday!!)
It’s also possible that the whole floor was shut down for awhile and is just now back up and running. Also they have a new breakroom and took apart Wellness…and the purple office area. I think it has been 5 months actually.
We are soooooooooooo back Nautius!