emmas

[emmas]

SEVERANCE 1.01 — Good News About Hell

[emmas]

SEVERANCE 2.02 — Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig commentary by Dan Erickson

[emmas]

it really is beautiful how much mark s has changed. during s1 he was on a parallel journey to omark where he was trying to forget about petey in the same way omark tried to forget gemma. removing every trace of him from the office because he’s unable to look at him, repressing how much he misses him, and shredding the photo. all actions that have direct comparisons to how omark treats gemma’s memory. but then helly changes imark’s heart. through s2 we now see a new imark who would never try to forget helly if he lost her. who would never tuck her things away and never rip her photo. who would never turn his back on her!!!!

this is what makes their connection so strong and helps it transcend. this is why omark felt something stir within him when he met helena at zufu. he is loyal to helly in a way he wasn’t to gemma and petey. and i don’t believe that has anything to do with him loving helly more than anyone else, i think that shift can be attributed to an personal change within imark that omark hasn’t gone through yet. of which helly was the catalyst of. the marks started the same, but now they’ve diverged down these separate paths. hopefully omark catches up…

[emmas]

the sincerest possible iteration of "all I can be is sorry and that is all that I am" was helly's moment of literal self-reflection in the bathroom mirror. helena eagan is her family’s sacrifice, but helly r is helena's absolution

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I just love the thought of Helly making Mark S so nervous that he starts sweating…also first time sharing my art, still learning AHHH

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my blog is a safe space for me. the rest of you are in danger i think

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#I don't know how many more "He gets it" I have left in me

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The best tragedies will have you thinking "I wish it could've gone any other way" and "this is the only way it could've ended" at the same time

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"I do talk to a lot of people who are, like, 'I love the show, I don't know what's happening in it'. And I respect everybody's experience with it but I actually do think that the show is giving you a lot of information about whats going on. And yes, there are things that are withheld and then revealed at various times but at it's core, the story is following the story of the innies Mark and Helly and their transition from birth to adolesence. In many ways I find that it's very elemental, what the story is doing. And to me that's the power of the show..."

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[emmas]

you CANNOT read too much old timey fiction because I was playing Raft with the lads this morning and without a THOUGHT said we could sail over to another island "if the wind would consent to blow" & let me tell you. This did not pass by unremarked.

[emmas]

omg helly you’re so crazy

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I drew Severance from memory

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it's such a sadness to me that kids eventually lose that 'no filter' thing when they grow up. my niece asked what 9/11 is and someone explained it to her and her unfiltered conclusion was "bro. is that it"

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unhealthy codependency is really a top tier dynamic. like they need each other to survive but god. should they.

[emmas]

I realise a lot of the discourse around Markhelly vs Markgemma treats this as a classic ship war, but I realise that is sort of missing the point.

I don't think Markgemma is supposed to represent simply a past/old/alternative relationship, it's supposed to represent a past/old/alternative identity for Mark first and foremost.

We often focus a lot on how the dynamics between Mark and Helly and Mark and Gemma are different (as I have done myself here), but the point is: they are not just different because Helly and Gemma are different women and complement (or not) Mark in different ways, but because it is a different Mark. Many of the juxtapositions are not about how differently Helly and Gemma approach Mark, but how differently the two versions of Mark approach his partner.

The most glaring example is o!Mark's lack of interest in what his partner has to say: and note that this does not happen just with Gemma but with Alexa too! When he tells her she's from Minnesota instead of Montana, it's the ants vs plants all over again. This lack of attention to what his partner says is a feature of his personality, which might relatively harmless in the beginning but as the relationship progresses and the stakes and difficulties increase, it becomes a big deal. "I'm nervous"/"I said I love you", and so on.

Contrast this with i!Mark's laser focus on Helly's needs, his making it his mission to make sure she's happy, his not giving up even when she was at her most confrontational and pushing him away and not giving him an inch. It's obviously hard to say if i!Mark's attention to his partner's needs and ability to listen and respond appropriately is because of Helly or because it's a personality trait, because he's never been with another woman. But I would guess it's likely the latter.

And it makes me wonder: if the premise is clearly that the innies are the outies minus their life experience and conditioning, what in o!Mark's life caused him to become such a polar opposite of his innie when it comes to relationships? That is the biggest mystery at the moment to me, because with Helena it's pretty easy to understand how and why she turned out the way she did. But Mark? Is it all down to his relationship with his "misdiagnosed alcoholic" father that we don't know much about? Was it something about his parents' dynamic that imprinted on him? Is there more?

[emmas]

Media Circus (Rated T)

Summary:

The innies refuse to leave the severed floor after the events of Cold Harbor. The world notices. Social media users have a few opinions to share on Lumon, its renegade heiress, and the former history professor whose dead wife keeps being spotted throughout town.

Or:

A journey through social media in the Severance universe in the aftermath of Cold Harbor, complete with HTML/CSS coding for the full experience

Read on Ao3

Happy Markhelly Week!