harmonicpearl

[harmonicpearl]

on watching a parent age

i saw somebody say “what if you’re gone and i haven’t become anything yet” and basically that broke me on a random thursday evening

[harmonicpearl]

[harmonicpearl]

ok i'm in my petey hellhole again but wouldnt it be AMAZING if petey was one of the nexus for reintegration?? like helly and gemma divide mark, the feelings they (s and scout) have for each one are at odds, this love is one of the reasons, one of the pillars for each mark's identities, something that can be claim as theirs and only theirs but petey on the other hand... Well mark s and scout both share a trauma around him, different trauma, sure, but petey is the only person you could say that had a bond with both of them, they both spent time with him, got to know him and, in a way, both experienced his death: mark scout literally but mark s too, as he felt his dissaparence (and for innies that's death). So as reintegration gets more settled and memories start to flow from one mark to the other i think petey's will be the first ones, the easiest to trascend, because this memories are not contradicting, they are pieces of a story, a friendship story, from start to finish. Mark s was born listening to petey's voice and Mark scout watched him die, looking him in the eyes. Which could mean nothing of course.

[harmonicpearl]

we need petey again like haunting the narrative this is gonna make or break the show for me next season

[harmonicpearl]

i really hope that the Big Reveal of WHY Mark and Gemma amongst all people is just... a statistic. Like Lumon was looking for two test subjects female and male between 30 and 40 with specific psychological characteristics like: inability to process pain, prone to substance abuse, etc. And they targeted a bunch of couples made a pre-selection and put the plan in motion, maybe even made the whole dead-wife-charade with all of them and Mark was just... the fastest to accept severance so they went with them. Just like how real scientific experiments work like oops nothing personal, your not special, you're just the easiest and most practical subject to try this thing on. Like i think the whole "chosen one" thing that is suggested in s2 doesn't really fit with the "workers are expandible livestock" angle of the show I should shut up now

[harmonicpearl]

"I'm gay" "I'm straight" ok????? I am reaching, but I fall??? And the stars are black and cold???As I stare into the void??? Of a world that cannot hold??? I'll escape now from that world??? From the world of Jean Valjean??? There is nowhere I can turn??? There is no way to go on????😒😒😒

[harmonicpearl]

too many people on twitter are talking shit about mark and gemma or mark and helly. have some love in your heart. this isnt 2016 we don't have to fight each other. helly and gemma should kiss on the mouth btw.

[harmonicpearl]

I want to say that this is NOT a markhelly hate post i love them both and they should end up toghether but i'm sorry, as much as i love markhelly (r) i don't understand how people keep insisting that mark scout will end up with helena like GUYS she is the bad guy!! Especially for mark scout! But she's not a bad guy in a simplistic way, she can (and maybe WILL) turn good at the end but she needs to make that change and atone. I thinks this show could or will take the creative liberty to make corporate sharks become good and novel but still! Helena egan reminds me of shiv roy from succession, she's trapped, she has shaped her life and identity off the corporation of her father, needs daddys love, etc but if you watch that show you will see that shiv's still a piece of shit. If every character that makes horrible things is excent of guilt just because their life is so sad then there wouldnt be bad guys ever. You can be a product of your upbringing and still be a villain. Is the same thing for milchick, they're fucking sociopaths! If you are expecting the villains to be this soulless, layeredless monsters then you won't find any. Helena is part of and ON BOARD with super dark people and systems. This is a show AGAINST these corporate moguls that think everything and everyone belongs to them. Even if helena becomes an ally i think is important that mark (scout) doesn't forget what she did. At least for me it would be super fucked up if the worker ends up with the heir to the company that kidnapped his wife, made him think she was dead, then tortured her for two years and was planning to actually kill her like her life and his were a piece of garbage. Wouldnt that be an awful message for this time and place? like wtf!!

[harmonicpearl]

i can't believe the actors had to confirm some things for people to start believing them like dichen lachman saying that gemma understood that mark was severed or britt lower clarifying it was helly at the end like wtf is going on, did we as humans stop having critical thinking and complex understanding of things? Like is this where we're going, movies and shows that need to be explained at the end by the authors? This 'ending explained' videos in youtube and tiktok are DESTROYING your minds, you need to make an effort for gods sake, people used to watch citizen kane, blade runner, memento or whatever shit, MAINSTREAM, popular shit at the time and didn't need a fucking manual to get the basics. Severance is clever but it's not a david lynch film, i wonder what these people would do if presented with mad men or twin peaks (not even gonna talk about godard or fincher or nolan) like if you can't understand a mainstream show then we're utterly doomed.

[harmonicpearl]

fuck it i NEEDED to do them or i wouldn't know peace

[harmonicpearl]

Something i don't know how ppl still dont understad is how OBVIOUS it is that no Mark is gonna outtake the other, no love (neither for Gemma nor Helly) is gonna outgrow the other. And it's not only a matter of if that is possible (it is, its a tv show) it's a matter of narrative and thematic ideas.

The writers have briliantly gave Mark and Gemma a 5-year marriage and Mark s and Helly a half life relationship (because even if they are very young they have known each other for a huge portion of their concious life). This balances the stakes and validation for each Mark, and makes their battle so interesting, because they are literally equally deserving. And since they are equally deserving, having one of them "win" would be contradicting that claim. It doesn't matter if you as an individual have a preference, as liking one of the Marks more (hell, i myself like one of them more, that's human) but ethics dont work like that, ego death doesn't work like that either and obviously the show is trying to say that. This opens two crucial themes to discuss:

First things first, this impossible-winner situation is the fucking dramatic drive of the show. I wouldnt phrase it as Helly and Gemma because they're characters in their own right, but Mark's relationship with Helly and Gemma is there to represent a battle of the ego and conflicted desire. I really think the show chose to make this a romantic conflict because, yeah who doesn't love romance, but most importantly because we are so monogamous as a society that it was the clearest way to show how these two Marks are different people. We can't fathom the idea that you can love more than one person romantically at the same time (it doesn't matter if it's true, it's the predominant thought of our society). And i think they use this aknoledgement of how society works and they were so right to do so because look what everyone is talking about. That's why im so really shocked that some people are trying to bend the laws and philosophy of this show to theorize which Mark will win or which love will he choose at the end. Neither will, and both will. And simply because narratively, thematically, thats the only coherent choice. One of the Marks "winning" or Mark choosing completely either Helly or Gemma, would destroy the very points this show is trying to make. The love for Helly needs to be a rightful pushing force just as equal as the love for Gemma, just as Mark S needs to keep existing as a foil to Mark Scout. The show is trying to say that (to put this coloquially) doesn't matter how shitty or brief or undeserving your life is to a system or to others you are deserving of human rights, freedom and autonomy.

Which gets me to the second point: This goes both ways. Because even if Mark Scout belittles Mark S's experience, lumon did the same to him when they kidnapped Gemma and lured him into severance. They are both being used. After all, i very much think this is a postmodern show dealing with the residue of modern capitalism. This is a show about the problematic and complex relationship between revolution vs establishment. A modern show made in the past century would have framed this as a straight up victim vs victimizer problem but this is different. Capitalism creates this micro-power relationships. Corporations expoit the white collar worker and the white collar worker exploits the cleaning lady. And even if they are both clogs in a machine, the white collar worker and the cleaning lady may have different ideas on how a revolution should play out, or even if a revolution should occur in the first place. And sometimes revolutionaries can have disregard of the lower classes in the name of grater good. With all the shipping stuff (that i also fully enjoy) we forget that THIS is also the conflic that's taking place between Mark Scout and Mark S. Even if they clearly arent aware of all this shit at the moment.

Even so, they, again, are equally deserving of happiness and compensation. And to put Mark Scout in the position of opressor and opressed at the same time is amazing. They both need to win. But how can they both win? Will they both win? And how would a win-win situation look like? This is why i think severance really is something else. I'm at the edge of my seat because i don't have a fucking clue how they will resolve this. But i trust this show to be better than simply make him choose one of his loves or make one Mark overrule the other. They won't do that, mark (jk) my words. Both Marks need to truly work as one, to understad the other's struggle and see it as equally valid and well, negotiate. Just as the white collar worker will have to negotiate with the cleaning lady if they truly want to make an impact should a revolution actually happen. Both Marks need to understad they are not the real enemy and even more, that the real enemy is the cause of this friction in the first place, a friction that only diverges them from the real goal. Helly's and Gemma's love is only the cathalyst to put in motion this conflict. A GREAT choice because just as the Marks, they too will have ideas of their own on how to navigate this situation, yes, but they will also have a say in the innies vs outies vs lumon conflict and well i think these four are gonna surprise us.

[harmonicpearl]

The thing that is so wild to me about how people are reacting to Severance is the absolute dichotomy through which they view the show as if both sides of almost every equation aren’t completely right (with the exclusion of Lumon as an entity).

People are so quick to jump on their moral high horse and call Mark Scout an asshole for the way he treats Mark S as if they, in his exact shoes, would not be making the same choices. I don’t mean the choice to get severed in the first place, which many rightfully contest, but the fact that he and the other outies don’t truly view innies as their own independent people. You wouldn’t if it were you. Of course you think you would but that’s only because we have been shown the entirety of both sides of the experience. If you were in Mark Scout’s shoes having only the experiences and the information he has, of course you would be fighting to save the person you love more than anything (Gemma), whose supposed death drove you to divide your consciousness in half to shield yourself from the depth of your grief. Of course you would want that person back at the expense of all else and of course you wouldn’t understand that the person you are asking that of (Mark S) has their own full rich and expansive life because you have not seen it!! You have no idea! We know as the audience because we have seen it and loved it and cherished it with our own eyes. Mark Scout has not. So many of you are quick to equate him with Helena Eagan, and while there are many similarities between them, he is not perpetuating the subjugation of a class of people at the same level of power that she is. It’s like placing the blame of capitalism on the shoulders of people who go to work everyday to make ends meet instead of those who are at the very top. Mark Scout belittling and being condescending toward Mark S is not due to an intentional disregard for his personhood but due to an inability to see the fullness of it because of a lack of direct experience that would inform it. And regardless, this is a decision for Mark Scout between his kidnapped tortured and presumed dead wife and another part of himself that he assumes he has full agency over because he created him. That’s not to say that he is correct in his belief but you should be able understand where it comes from because you would probably hold the same perspective if it was you. You may think you wouldn’t and are some morally better person but that’s because you have access to a level of information that he does not.

Further, Mark S is completely within his right to make the choice to not walk out the door and give Mark Scout his life with Gemma back. We see Mark S grow to understand that he is his own person and deserves the same rights and liberties as outies throughout both seasons, largely because of the questions that Helly raises and the love he develops for her, as well as the emotions that Petey’s disappearance and Irving’s death causes. To say that he should completely disregard that growth and make a decision in support of his outie’s wishes alone is an extreme disservice to his character. If he decided to leave with Gemma instead of staying that would be completely within his right. His decision to stay is also his own and that is what is important. The fact that he is able to view himself as a full person of equivalent value to his outie by the end of the season demonstrates his growth and shouldn’t be discounted just because Mark Scout deserves to be with Gemma (which of course he does, just as much as Mark S deserves to be with Helly).

Both Marks have a right to be happy and fulfilled. Both deserve to make decisions aligned with their wants and desires, especially given their decisions are driven by their own very separate lived experiences and the information that they have. We as an audience have been shown all sides of the story which puts us in the beautiful and complicated position of contending with the consequences of each Mark’s potential and actual actions. In the very same sense, each version of the other characters have the same overall battle that we get to experience, deliberate on, and examine the complexities of. To boil it down to this character is more moral or likable or just and should get what they want is laughable and such a narrow-minded view of a deliciously layered show. You’re supposed to look at multiple sides, you’re supposed to find empathy with each part of these characters (even Helena who makes horrible decisions but has also been under the control and in the shadow of her tyrannical family’s cultish empire her entire life). If all you can do in watching a show like is is pick a side in a ship war and/or cast aspersions on one side of a character over another, without considering why each person (and they are all full people) has made the choices they have with the values and information they hold, then I don’t know what to tell you besides grow the fuck up.

[harmonicpearl]

fuck i can’t believe i wasted my entire life being moved by art and beauty and the indomitable human spirit ugh i should’ve been making money through internet scams

[harmonicpearl]

is it bad writting? I don't know! but how cool would it be if next season, before reintegration, the chip just keeps switching at random but that doesn't mean that the thresholds don't work. So mark scout awakens in the severed floor, with he's newly regained autonomy he runs to the staircase door to escape... only to find himself going back again. He tries this several times, just as helly did but little does he know that mark s, outside the floor and bitcher than ever keeps coming back, to teach him a little about respect yk?

[harmonicpearl]

guys i'm on a completely different train here but i really need for devon to aknoledge mark s as a person but also as his weird new brother truly i need that shit all over me i need her to hug him and tell him we are brothers now and this is weird but you are my brother and i'm sorry i treat you like you weren't and you're so young to this world but you're not alone in this because we're family in a way, lumon wants to create the idea that innies not only don't have lives of their own but are also this kind of familyless, sons of no one, brothers, mothers, sisters of no one, that they don't have a safe house, a home, an origin, a lineage, that they are not safe anywhere, that they don't have anyone to turn to when life's too hard and i need devon to wreck that idea off mark s i need her to tell him, you are protected, you come from some place you have a sister that cares for you

[harmonicpearl]

Eradicate black-and-white binary thinking from your essence!!

It’s not “the innies and outies are completely separate people OR they’re exactly the same people.” It’s not “Mark loves Gemma OR Mark loves Helly/na.” It’s not “Ricken is a misguided but sweet and well-meaning doofus OR Ricken is a selfish prick with no self-awareness who’s sold out to Lumon.” It’s not “Milchick fully embraces the rebellion right now, OR he’s fully sold his soul to the company store and there’s no coming back.” It’s not “Cobel’s programming means will always jump at a chance to gain favor in the eyes of Lumon regardless of the cost, OR she fucking despises Lumon for what they’ve done to her and she’s going to take them down at any cost.”

It’s always going to be AND!! It’s always going to be something in between, and complex, and nuanced, and layered. That in-between uncertainty, to me, is the real meat of the show. Why not dig into it?

[harmonicpearl]

Totally that's it

i also think it's so interesting the idea of what if you were exploited, and your wife was exploited and you were, in fact, part of the exploited class and you had every right to want to take your exploiter down BUT theres a new, more exploited class than yours and turns out you can be both opressed and opressor, that you can be at both sides of a class struggle, just different class struggles, and most of all, by taking down your opressor you might just be opressing more this other class at the bottom of the class piramyd, what then?