#I don’t care that she and helly are the same person

[fennshui]

Me when I see Helena

[galactic-magick]

Some Severance Characters x Reader Headcanons

(Mostly platonic, a few romantic in italics)

I noticed there is literally zero Severance fandom self-insert content so I decided to do my duty and fix that. Call me cringe idc, I just want to imagine myself hanging out with these characters I’ve fallen in love with!

Helly R

You and Helly together would certainly be a force to be reckoned with

You help each other come up with escape plans, all of which unfortunately fail or Mark shuts down before you even try them

Despite the failures and hopelessness, though, she’d find a lot of joy hanging out with you

She would try to sneak into the elevator at the same time as you after work so your outies could meet

If your relationship becomes romantic, she would love kissing you at the most inappropriate times. Mostly because she just likes kissing you, but also because she knows someone is always watching and wants to piss off management lol

Mark S

Mark didn’t think he could ever have another best friend after Petey, but you prove him wrong

You make him laugh and smile, even on the days he comes in looking sad and hungover

He can never remember why, of course, but you’re there for him either way. You both just have to make peace with the fact his outie is going through some shit you’ll never know about

He’d be very sweet with you as he’s training you, he knows how weird being a new hire can be so he’s very gentle with you and Helly when you start

I think he’d be a slow burn office romance kinda guy, so if you do end up advancing your relationship, he will definitely not be the one making the first move. If you like him you’re just going to straight up tell him lol he will not get it otherwise

Dylan

Your relationship with Dylan is mainly competition and messing with each other

You’ll steal his finger traps when he’s not looking and sabotage/distract him from work so you win more prizes than him

Your teasing of each other is both extremely annoying and endearing for your other coworkers

You like to hang out and chat with him by the vending machines, getting excited whenever a new snack is added

Irving

Irving would be surprised that a fifth person is joining MDR, but he soon finds the more the merrier

He likes that with an additional person the work gets done faster and the quarterly quotas are less stressful

If you’ll indulge him, he likes taking you on walks and field trips and yapping about Eagan history

Sometimes you help him out by standing watch while he takes a nap in the supply closet lol. Let this man take a snooze fr

Harmony

A friendship or relationship with Harmony would probably go similarly to how she treated Mark, let’s be real

She’d be a little obsessed with you in her own weird way, and she’d pursue your outie as well if possible

If you manage to get past her cold exterior, I honestly think she could be very caring to someone she actually cares about. As long as you don’t get in the way of her and Kier lol

Mr. Milchick AKA Milkshake

This guys can be very scary and unsettling, but if you don’t mind that? He would be so fucking fun to hang out with

I think he can sing as well as he dances. You catch him humming and singing little tunes sometimes

Since he’s not severed, he’d sometimes accidentally slip things about your outie, since he knows both versions of you

He would resist any affection towards you, but inevitably a flirty comment would come out and you’d just stare at him in shock

Natalie

As the spokesperson for the Lumon Board, Natalie really isn’t supposed to have relationships with coworkers, especially not severed ones

But whenever she’s 99% sure they’re not listening, she likes to spend time chatting with you

You’re fascinating to her, and if you get close enough she might even start seeing you as a real person

Ms Casey

You’re her favorite client by far, and seeing you on her schedule always brings a smile to her face

You’d fake not feeling well a LOT just so you can have more wellness sessions with her

On the rare occasion she gets to leave the wellness office, she loves hanging out with you in MDR

If anything she reads about your outie involves love, she gets a bit jealous, knowing she’ll probably never get to experience it with either version of you

[tentakrool]

re: “helly was never cruel”

saw a post this morning talking about how that line ruined helly’s characterization in the fandom because in s1, she “definitely was cruel” — and I don’t necessarily disagree, but i wanted to explore that a bit without clogging up that person’s post

so first of all, what makes something “cruel”, as opposed to “careless, rude, insensitive”? to me, i think cruelty requires two things:

1. the intent to harm

2. the exertion of power and control over someone less powerful

for example, when a child at school is bullied by classmates for their appearance, i would call that cruelty. however, if a child loses their temper and calls their friend a “poopyhead”, i would not consider that cruelty. the difference there is that the bullies want to exert power over their peer by making them feel weird or “wrong”, whereas the poopyhead child was just expressing frustration and anger in a hurtful way.

so let’s take a look at helly vs helena and see where we land with those two things.

example 1: helly tells mark that “with a knife to her throat”, she would not want to be part of his family

that’s a pretty hurtful statement, right? at this point, mark cares a lot about MDR being a unit. he perceives them as family and cares about them. he has also just lost a member of his team that he really cares about.

however, i would not call this cruelty on helly’s part, because it lacks the element of power and control. helly isn’t trying to exert control over mark, or make him feel small and vulnerable. on the contrary, i would argue that helly is the one feeling threatened by her situation. she is lashing out against her surroundings because she knows something is wrong, that this is not right.

now, one could argue that it’s because she is helena that she responds with aggression at all, and i would agree with that. she has a lot of pent up rage and hurt from living her life as an eagan. but again, what is missing is the intention to subjugate mark, to attack specific things that make him feel vulnerable. from a narrative perspective, it makes sense that she said what she did, because it builds tension between mark and helly, and because the audience knows this is a sensitive spot for him. helly doesn’t.

example 2: helena jabs at irving about his relationship with burt at the campsite

this, i would argue, is absolutely cruelty. helena shouldn’t even know about irving’s relationship with burt — as an outie, she doesn’t retain that knowledge. however, she has deliberately kept herself apprised of the innies’ lives in order to play the role of helly. she makes this jab because she knows it will hurt him, and she makes it from a place of power over him. her knowledge and position in LUMON makes this action one of cruelty.

now, let’s dig into this a bit more, because while i do think helena’s actions were cruel and helly’s were not in these examples, there’s more to consider.

1. cruelty often begets cruelty. helena lives in a torture nexus where she is constantly berated, examined and criticized. it makes a lot of sense that she behaves the way she does, even though it’s wrong. a child who bullies is often exerting power as a way to feel powerful in an otherwise oppressive life. not always true, but commonly so. most people aren’t inherently cruel; they’re made that way.

2. helly and helena are sharing the same mind, body and soul (scientifically speaking). this means that while helly does not have the social capital of helena eagan, she does have the vulnerability, the trauma, the mentality of a dog backed into a corner. she doesn’t respond with kindness and respect until she feels safe. the biting back at others goes away when she learns to trust her team. again — the intent to harm as a way to feel powerful over others isn’t there unless she feels threatened

when both of these things are taken into consideration, it reveals that certain behaviors that appear cruel might not actually come from a place of cruelty, but from a trauma response that belongs to another part of helly’s psyche. it also means that helena likely lives in a constant state of anxiety, on high alert, and that her behaviors are carefully designed to protect herself as well as harm others. cruelty is learned.

now, let’s talk about a third example — the way helly talks to milchick after learning who her outie is. milchick has treated the innies unfairly, exerted power over them, has been cruel. now, she knows that she is effectively his boss, and while she cannot fully inhabit the power that might give her, she definitely uses it to intimidate and threaten him.

is that cruelty? well, it’s complicated. personally, i would say no, simply because at the end of the day, she still feels as if she is punching up at an oppressive force. to the audience, it’s more complex, because they know that milchick is also a victim. they have seen the ways milchick is berated, made to torture himself, racially profiled. from his perspective, it probably does feel kinda fucking cruel that a woman he had control over is now using her outie identity to do the same shit his company does every day of his life.

cruelty is a complicated creature, but i would argue that the intent of the action and the context in which it exists really matters. is helly truly “never cruel”? probably not. does helena’s tormented life give her an excuse to be cruel? definitely not. the complication is the point — helly is no angel, but helena has been raised in hell so long, she doesn’t really know how to live.

[kendrysaneela]

“She’s like you. Or you’re like her? I don’t know”

That’s such an interesting line cause it’s true! While the outies and innies have different personalities and different wants and needs they each exist within each other. When Helly is Helly Helena is within her subconscious,when Dylan is Dylan outie Dylan is in his subconscious,when Mark S is Mark Scout Mark S is there in his subconscious. They’re all there. And they’re all influencing each other Irving being the most straightforward version of this what with him seeing the globs of paint sometimes because his outie always paints the same painting over and over.

They each exist within each other’s subconscious. And you can see some of the outies bleeding into the innies as they start to experience similar stuff the outies have experienced! Or vice versa! I think it goes to show what do memories do how do memories shape a person how much of you is your is subconscious and how much is your conscious memory. Like Mark starts out super peppy and happy and helpful and then as he starts to experience more and grief and slowly starts becoming more similar to outie Mark in the way he handles his grief. But that also makes me wonder. Before Mark Scout experienced all that grief was he similar to Mark S? I bet he was. Or he at least had the potential to be.

And then Irving, his outie is clearly a character that needs meaning and is devoted to a cause. And at first innie Irving finds meaning and finds a cause in like helping to spread the message of Kier and doing his work and following the rules and it’s not until he finds meaning outside of work and finds something new to fight for that he starts to become more similar to who outie Irving seems to be. Someone who is more paranoid and more rebellious. Not to mention both of them enjoying art and both of them painting/drawing the same piece of art over and over again. (Albeit for different reasons)

Then there’s Dylan G who’s outie is kinda insecure because he’s been batted down by life a lot seemingly but he does still clearly love his family he’s just depressed unfortunately and has low self esteem from having a lot of unsuccessful adventures in life clearly. But he does seem to be trying outside and his wife still loves him a lot. Dylan inside starts out confident and convinced his outie is super successful and a body builder and has a bunch of girls on the outside. Then he finds out who he really is outside and then unfortunately. Starts to have some losses inside….and his self confidence starts to fall, and then he learns he has a family and able to be convinced to separate himself from his friends because he cares so much about his family. (I think this will transfer back to him caring a lot about his innie family again) .

Helena starts to turn into Helly. And Helly shows some evidence of taking on some of Helena’s behavior and Helena’s mannerisms. With Helly the longer Helly exists the further she digs her feet into her rebellion. And the more Helena learns about Helly the more she turns into her. Helena is a woman who has no autonomy who makes none of her own decisions and clearly her whole life has just gone along with what she’s been forced to do without making much of a fuss because that’s what she was raised to do and I assume because the punishments for stepping out of line in the Eagan cult are severe. She has also never experienced love. And I think she’s probably resigned herself to this life. But then she sees Helly. And Helly doesn’t know she’s an Eagan. Helly doesn’t have all the cult programming Helena has, they can’t control Helly with threat of what her father will think or do. So Helly rebels and Helly rebels HARD. And Helly’s first instinct being to rebel is probably because Helena has been trapped her whole life so when Helly woke up on that table locked in that room her subconscious went “WE’RE TRAPPED WE’RE TRAPPED ESCAPE” and Helly didn’t have any of Helena’s fears or knowledge of who she is or what’s happening so she doesn’t repress that rebellion or fear like Helena does so she continues to outwardly rebel.

More than Helena probably ever has or at least has in a while. And she receives love for it from her coworkers. She receives love and she receives friendship and Helena sees all this. She sees this woman this other version of her who’s not weighed down by her name or the expectations put upon it and she sees her become who she’s always wanted to be so she starts to try to become that person. And when she’s pretending to be Helly, she flirts with Mark and she makes Irving little snow seals and she makes fun of her family’s lore and she’s free and she’s taking in love.

I think even with Helena no longer being able to pretend to be Helly, Helena will start to either consciously or unconsciously become Helly outside. I think it’s also why she’s watching Mark at the end of the episode. She’s basically in the middle of an identity crisis right now and she’s probably wondering if outie Mark is the key. What outie Mark is like if he’s anything like innie Mark.

I also think Helly and Helena hating each other is a good illustration of Helena’s hatred toward herself. I think she hates herself because she doesn’t have the courage to be like Helly and to rebel like Helly and to fight for her autonomy like Helly.

And they all do this because they are their innies. Their innies are their outies and their outies are their innies they are each other just if they had different life experiences.

[ed3lsgard]

I keep noticing a lot of people are biased(somewhat unfairly)against Mark and Helly being in a romantic relationship because of the way the couples are contrasted.We see Mark grieving and mourning to the point he can’t function and chose to get severed.He recounts things he loved about his wife and gives monologues about how his grief is so personal to him.Then we see the flashback and it feels like we have been in this relationship.A married couple going through a lot and still choosing to stay together before their life fell apart because of a greedy big corporation.People see their own relationship and grief in Mark and Gemma’s relationship and seeing them reconcile feels like a personal win for most people.I refuse to believe this isn’t intentionally done.Mark and Helly evoke a sense of dread in most people for the exact same reason.Your husband who you thought was a wife guy and would find you in every single universe found someone else as soon as his memory is wiped.He has found another woman who’s a work bestie,has the same sense of humour and even when that part of him knew about your existence didn’t really care about you enough to leave her.Worst part she’s also the half of the evil heiress of the company that separated you from your husband.This is why the finale was so controversial.People were expecting Mark to do the right thing and leave Helly.I have seen people describe this as their worst nightmare as a woman.I wonder if that’s intentionally done to stir a sense of intense dread.I don’t think the backlash against Mark and Helly will ever go away because people will always project their own relationship into Markgemma and expect Mark to come back to Gemma to ask for forgiveness.Because that’s what happened in their own marriage/relationship.

yeaahhhh a lot of people project their own relationship and beliefs onto mark and gemma, that’s why so many people were so shocked at the ending. i genuinely roll my eyes at this bc like when it comes to things like this i tend to separate fiction from reality. like sorry but idgaf about your relationship and projections, narratively it doesn’t make sense for mark s open the door and be with gemma. doesn’t make sense for his character and for the two seasons of build up for mark and helly’s relationship either. it’s also bizarre to me how alot of people switched up on and mark and helly after one fucking episode, decided to throw two whole seasons into the trash. i do agree it was all done intentionally to raise conflict amongst people but like…. they probably assumed people would feel conflicted for both sides, not devalue and lose interest completely for the innies.

also, mark s opening the door and being with gemma wouldn’t be “the right thing to do”, it’s beyond me how people think this. that is NOT mark scout, that’s another person. mark s doesn’t know gemma, doesn’t owe mark scout anything. like they don’t even see mark s as a full person with autonomy and a life worth living. mark s has his own life and people he cares about, a woman he is in love with. he is just as deserving to live and fight for that life. he got gemma out, even though he didn’t actually have to. because in the end it wouldn’t have made a difference for him anyway, he was expected to die either way. but he helped, did his duty and then chose to live. it’s insane to me how this is something that caused so much controversy. i need people to get a grip

idgaf #innierights forever

[maxdibert]

I fucking love Helly. I fucking love how the outie Helly seems ruthless to the point that she doesn't care if her innie tries to commit suicide, she couldn't care less, her innie will stay there because it's part of her plan, and because she will be next in line for the company. She doesn't see her innie as a person but as an experiment. Her innie means nothing to her; her innie is part of the project, her innie is the "other," and what matters is the life outside—that's the relevant one, the only one that counts, and the one she belongs to. But the outie Helly seems to have missed a crucial point, which is that she and her innie might not be the same person because they haven't had the same experiences, but they are the same blank canvas. They have the same character, the same essence. Helly R, the innie, is exactly like her outie but in reverse: she is stubborn, headstrong, determined, but above all, ruthless when someone gets in her way. When the innie Helly tells Mark that outies don’t matter a damn, that they owe them nothing, but that Mrs. Casey is "one of us" and therefore she is willing to help him find out what happened to her—not because of what it might mean for Mark’s outie, but for Casey, the innie Casey herself—she is making a whole statement of intent. The innie Helly is declaring that this is war. That it’s those inside against those outside. That they are not the same, and she intends to crush anyone who stands in her way. Just like the outie Helly does, only in reverse. Just as the outie Helly needs to assert herself as the one drawing the line between the insiders and outsiders, the one who is part of the system and belongs to those who have established this oppressive dynamic, the innie Helly needs to do the same in reverse—"oh yeah? Well, I’m not you, I don’t want to be that shit, I refuse to accept that I’m part of those who created this shitty place that I hate"—so her stance is to completely dissociate from her outie and see herself as someone independent, just as her outie does with her to avoid feeling part of the "other." In the end, they can be two different people because a person is shaped by the specific experiences they've undergone, but they have the same core. I adore her, my queen.

[caffinatedcastiel]

Okay- I’ve seen a lot of conversation about whether love transcends severance and pointing to Dylan and Mark’s innie and outie communications as evidence toward one way or another.

But I really think what this all comes down to is the severance separates you from your experiences, not your emotions. And love is both an emotion AND an experience.

Dylan as an innie and as an outie had similar experiences with their wife. Innie Dylan was put into various first date scenarios with her- the experience of love strengthened the emotion of love already there. And Outie Dylan actually understood that. He validated the fact that Innie Dylan’s love was real. Because he also experienced a similar path and understands that his emotions work the same way, regardless of severance. And he wants his innie to continue to have chances to have new experiences, if he chooses to. But there is still a presentation of choice because Outie Dylan now understands Innie Dylan is a full other part of himself, not just a piece.

Outie Mark doesn’t necessarily see Innie Mark as much else beyond a piece of himself. To him, severance is just a wall in his mind that he can knock down to unlock the memories he doesn’t have access to. And once that’s done- he’s complete again. Cool- new memories! He doesn’t really consider this as the downgrade it would be for innie Mark. Devon reflects this in a way- seeing Innie Mark as a piece of her brother. And in a technical sense he is! But he isn’t just a piece. He’s a piece that is an entire self. Innie Mark is given the full human experience, in a smaller package. And with their conversation, that difference is highlighted very well. To Outie Mark, Innie Mark’s love for Helly couldn’t POSSIBLY outweigh his love for Gemma. Because he’s someone that has only experienced his love for Gemma and has no window into the experience of love Innie Mark has for Helly. So he forgets that their emotional love is still the same and loses the conversation. It’s only when Ms Cobel brings in the suffering of the many Gemma innies and the severed floor being shut down regardless of his choice that Innie Mark is on board. Because she HAS seen the experiences Innie Mark has had and treats them seriously.

Innie Mark has had the experience of care toward Miss Casey. Because he has had experiences with her. But when Gemma returns to being her outie self- those experiences aren’t there. There weren’t those first date experiences that Innie Dylan had with his wife. He only had his emotional love. And turning around to see Helly- the person he’s also had experiences of love with, that’s what his emotions locked onto. This isn’t a matter of whether Outie Mark’s love for Gemma didn’t matter. It’s a matter that Innie Mark’s love for Helly matters JUST AS MUCH. To the outies, two years isn’t anything. But to innies, two years is everything. It’s their entire scope of life’s experiences.

That is what the testing floor and Lumen get wrong. To test severance, instead of isolating your independent variable from everything but stressors- you aren’t testing the entire scope of what it means to live. And when Outie Mark disrupts that and manages to get one of the Innie Gemmas to trust him… that displays the weak point in the armor. The emotion of trust transcended severance, because the testing experience was so artificial and impersonal. Seeing a glimmer of love without ever having experienced it before? Even without understanding what that meant?

A company can’t love. Jame Eagan can’t love. They aren’t looking to cure emotional pain because it hurts. They are looking to cure pain because they don’t feel emotion at all.

[strangesmallbard]

hmm i’ve seen some use mark’s decision to rejoin helly to claim that love doesn’t actually transcend severance, but like many things in this television program, i think the truth is fairly layered. while the innies and outties are the same people, they’re also alternate versions of those same people. new contexts and memories will alter some fundamental facts about a person, but we can see how much days the same: mark’s grief avoidance, irv’s single-minded focus, dylan’s care and concern for children (knowing he was a dad zapped his allegiance to lumon in two seconds flat), and helly’s loathing towards lumon that helena locked up tight inside her choice.

these things transcend severance. but love is, as mark scout condescendingly described to mark s, also something you build. it starts as attraction and then it’s a choice you make every day. mark s does feel a connection towards ms. casey that he can’t explain, but he doesn’t choose to explore the romantic parts of that connection. but it’s there: tenuous and true, leading mark to the same basement that mark scout is desperate to find. meanwhile, helena develops feelings for mark s separate from her innie that she starts exploring (in the most fucked up ways a cult heiress can), and mark feels an inexplicable connection to helena that he promptly runs from.

burt and irv also feel the stirrings of this connection; they have that connection and curiosity, but circumstances prevent burt from matching irv’s “i’m ready” energy. helly is the only character to vehemently deny her connection to the outties and so we don’t really know what she feels about outtie mark; i’m curious if we’ll finally see that meeting sometime in s3. cold harbor!gemma, meanwhile, immediately trusts this blood-covered, sweat-soaked guy who pleads with her to leave the only room she’s ever known.

but dylan! is the character that proves my little hypothesis i think. he meets gretchen, feels that attraction and curiosity, then chooses to pursue that path, falling just as in love with her as outie dylan. like dylan george said: same physiology. different roads run parallel until they become one. i think dylan is the severed character who’s most likely to have a successful reintegration for many reasons, and one of them is that they’re now on the same page about their own emotions and motivations. namely, prioritize the people you love and make them proud.

love can transcend severance!! many things can transcend severance. but you have to choose for yourself if that becomes true.

[screeching-bunny]

I have some really important information that may concern you and a blogger on Tumblr that I think you might know of, or could be mutuals with…

This was an anon send in that can be found on @running-with-kn1ves blog…

“Ew, you're collaborating with a white supremacist's best friend?

Just a heads up, but @fangdokja-anon has been called out by multiple authors here for being homophobic, fatphobic, and racist, as well as making multiple problematic posts (like wanting to write about genocide and infant SA). The only person who publicly supported her was @yanderedrabbles who praised her in the comments and even made a post to defend her friendship.

It's your choice to have her as a writer for the zine, but please make it public knowledge so people can at least opt out. I myself won't sign up to share space with a bigot.”

Then there was this follow up post by the same anon, who goes into detail of the issues above…

“Sorry for the sudden accusatory ask, I'm one of the people who unfollowed @yanderedrabbles after she openly expressed her support for the homophobe and I was annoyed to see her acting so careless on another blog I follow. I guess she's hoping we'll just forget about it at some point and keeps quiet on her main.

Here's the first post where she explained in many empty words she doesn't care about the issue because the blog has been nice to her and they're friends: https://www.tumblr.com/yanderedrabbles/780435897593315328/hi-idk-if-your-mutuals-with-fangdokja-but-shes?source=share

The problematic post on @fangdokja-anon blog has since been deleted or removed, but I have a screenshot of @yanderedrabbles commenting on it with ‘THATS why your pro pic went all blurry when I logged in. Literally freaked me out so bad. I'm glad to see you reorganising fang! Gonna learn to use AO3 just for you 😘’ while the rest of us were freaking out at the atrocities mentioned.

Instead of coming out and telling us why she chose to publicly support someone who fetishizes stuff like concentration camps and pedophilia she's all giddy about writing for a yandere magazine, like we're dumbasses who'll just swallow up any content. The audacity is amazing.”

Since this all seems to be true, please reconsider any relationship you have with @yanderedrabbles and @fangdokja-anon

What the helly 😭. Nah don’t worry I don’t support any of that and I def don’t have any relationship with her.

[catboymettaton]

s1e8 liveblog

outie Irving moment??? he has a dog! oh his voice sounds so different so much more relaxed. I hope innie Irving gets to meet his dog

that is a lot of identical paintings.

his house is so dark it really contrasts the severed floor

something sensual about that paint

not at all the kind of music I thought he’d like and I think that’s the point!

if they can bring the innies outside can they also bring the outies inside

oh he’s hot when he’s focused like that

I love you elevator scenes

huh. her numbers look really high. I thought she was doing really well? but she isn’t? also the others finished? I thought they never finished?

one last time????? what are they planning.

what did she mean by that.

I thought actually finishing a sheet was super rare?????

this is such fun funky music it feels very undertale

how long has passed in universe? we can’t tell and maybe that’s the point

waffle party only goes for one person??? thought waffle party would be for the whole department

“Mr Graner… retiring”

are the outie facts even true. I don’t remember what the Irving outie facts were.

107 hours long? that is not very many? where does she go when she isn’t awake does her outie just come and go?

there’s no way mark is going to mention the overtime in front of the cameras

wait are these the same facts as Irving I really don’t remember

the testing floor. that doesn’t sound good. what are they gonna do to her. I don’t like that.

she’s really pretty in red

milchick that is such a liar voice. milchick that is such a customer service voice

here’s where I confess that I do actually know the truth about Gemma from seeing spoilers. and man this is fucked up

the black elevator from the paintings???????????????? huh??????????????

why does only one person get waffles

what is the gift?????? is it related to his son???????

three weeks since the suicide attempt. and she never told anyone. I see

oh damn everyone’s getting removed today. okay!

the board can talk??????

Natalie fascinates me. I want to know more about her. Desperately

WAIT outie Irving is a painter is that why his innie is into a guy from O&D….

egging kier! okay!

wait don’t mark and helly fuck in season 2. this makes sense

I’m excited to find out milchick’s backstory…

did no one in management notice that the book went missing

imagine if they went up in the elevator together what would happen

YAYYYYYY KISSES YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY glad someone gets their office romance

this would be a really cool place to do an innie cut

do we get to see in the box………

I don’t know how he’s going to get to the room without getting caught ahhhh

that’s a really depressing stack of waffles tbh

wonder who takes care of the kid all day. is he married?

yassss female rage I hope she crashes her car and dies ❤️

these waffles feel nefarious.

so like was the message specifically for him or is it just a generic motivational statement

what in the fuck is this. why are there three of them now huhhhhhhhh

does this mean cobel will stop watching mark at least

oh her shrine!!! she’s destroying her shrine

THERES A GOAT

this is a lot like the magic flute actually

god I’m so nervous I feel like the big wake up is going to happen next episode for the season finale but also there’s still 10 minutes left

what if mark wakes up while talking to Mrs selvig???? Wouldn’t that be fucked up

is he actually considering reintegration?

augh I’m so fucking nervous I wish my brain let me watch more than two eps at a time

SHOW ME THE BOXXXXXXXXXXXXX FUCK IM SCAREDDDDDDDDDDDD WHAT IF HE GETS CAUGHR AHHHHHHHHHHH

I think mark is for sure going to meet Mrs Selvig. But she just got fired so maybe she won’t tattle

oh we don’t get to see the reveals this episode do we. I see that time stamp. fuck. Maybe if I shower I can fit the finale but I’m scared it’ll make me sick

[zalrb]

I don’t really dislike her I just feel kinda bad for outie Dylan. I get she’s unhappy and it’s not really an affair it’s just kinda weird situation lol. I see people saying outie Dylan is a deadbeat idk if I agree with that he’s also unhappy I guess? I also kinda feel bad for fields but idk if he’s good or not.

Oh, interesting. I personally think that Outie!Dylan is a deadbeat. She has to tell him how to make like pilsbury cookies, he snaps at her and takes out his frustration on her when she asks how the interview with the door company went, it's implied that he spends money they don't have on his fixations, he doesn't seem very present and she seems like she tries really hard to do what she can for him, it kind of reminds me of that scene in Mad Men when Joan's husband goes against her wishes and volunteers to go to Vietnam despite them having a child at home because he feels needed there and she says, I'm glad the army makes you feel like a man because I sure as hell am tired of trying. Like, I don't get the impression that Outie!Dylan is a bad person but I don't find him particularly affectionate or considerate and a little selfish. I did feel bad for Fields, which at the end of the episode, they said they wanted us to root for Fields and Burt as well as Irv and Burt and I think they succeeded.

It seems like Irv is a part of some sort of anti-Lumon effort if not an actual spy (to answer your other questions) and I agree, Helly and Mark work best as friends.

Mark S does frustrate me because he doesn't care about Gemma but at the same time I do understand that a) he's effectively a different person b) he's basically 2 years old and he's going through is adolescence c) he was created simply to work by Outie!Mark and he's now experiencing free will and self-discovery, which will necessarily put Outie!Mark's needs/desires in the backseat

[kendrysaneela]

Outie Helena is so different from Innie Helena and I don’t mean Helly I mean Helena being an Innie. Like I know we already saw Outie Helena and how she behaved in front of everyone and all that it just feels so different now that we’ve seen Helena being more open and free like she was with the Innies. Outie Helena moves differently, she talks so much slower and quieter, her body is more still. Her eyes look like they’re steeled up. Like she’s blocking people from reading any emotions in them. And wow just the confirmation that yeah Helena doesn’t want to be doing this. She didn’t want to go back down there. She in fact seemed actually SCARED to go back down there. But they don’t care. No one cares. Even her father doesn’t care. It’s not even a big deal that she’s literally almost died twice. They don’t even think it’s a big enough deal for her to even have the privilege of talking to her father about it. She is nothing but a name and a body to her father and to Lumon. They do not care about her. Not even a little bit. They even seemed to think it was preposterous that Helena wouldn’t want to go back down there. They are fully aware of the danger she is in and they do not care. She is not Helena. She is an Eagan and that is it. SHE is the one who is not considered a person. She is a means to an end. She is a way to complete Cold Harbor. She is a tool to them and that is all. That is it. They do not care if she lives or dies. I think to them? She is on the same level as an Innie. She is their prisoner and they will treat her as such. I don’t think she has any real power at all.

[ed3lsgard]

This is strictly a scientific curiosity lol.But I have seen a lot of speculations that if Ms Casey had more of Gemma’s personality Mark S would have fallen for her.As it seems Ms Casey is kind of rudimentary as an Innie and kind of isolated.Also as Dylan pointed out there’s the matter of shared physiology.And shared subconscious too?What do you think about it?Then again I have seen a lot of theories regarding whether Helly was sent to severed floor to test if Mark will fall for her or Gemma Innie(which I think I think is bogus because what Jame said).A lot of comparisons have been made how Mark Scout can remember minor details about his wife,Gemma like how she sneezed twice,how she’s extraordinary but Mark S seemingly doesn’t remember much about Helly or we don’t see the same level of yearning or admiration in that relationship.I was wondering what are your thoughts about this?

tbh i think ms casey not having gemma’s personality probably has some effect on mark s not remembering/caring for ms casey (romantically), but i’d say the main reason for that is simply the fact that mark s was created to forget gemma. to not have any of the grief, and by extension the love mark scout had for gemma. and mark my words when i say this will have dire consequences for mark and gemma’s relationship in s3.

it’s also definitely important to note the lack of connection between mark s and ms casey, compared to the very apparent connection between mark scout and helena eagan. mark scout felt the remnants of mark s’ love for helly when he’s with helena, in the form of the sudden chemistry between them in zufu, but mark s didn’t feel the love mark scout had for gemma towards ms casey. he even explicitly states he never felt anything for her.

[roots-symphony]

Putting another readmore because I apparently am incapable of not talking too much

@infestedguest yeah that is true. I originally when I thought this post out had a whole section about that that I was going to put at the end but by the time I got there it was late and my medicine had worn off and I just kinda forgot about it. So, I’m glad you pointed that out. Because like Devon isn’t perfect, she is complaisant, like when her and Ricken were talking after she read his revised book, she did say it wasn’t right but then she was going to walk away, she had to be pushed to say the part about how Lumon is hurting people and he will be too if he goes through it. And she’s a lot like Mark when it comes to keeping things to herself and bottling it up, like how she had been looking into the Gabby for a while but it was only when they needed to use the birthing cabin that she brought up her suspicions to Mark. She did try with Mrs. Selvig, but when Mrs. Selvig rebuffed her (because obviously Cobel would lol) she easily dropped it.

I feel like there are a lot of good conversations to be had about her as a character and her complexities but I feel like instead of going into that, people just get hung up on all the stuff I wrote about in this post so it’s never actually addressed with any nuance. I alluded to it in the post, but I’ve seen way too many posts and comments talking about how she actually doesn’t care about iMark at all and how he should tell her off and all this other stuff so I kinda went probably too hard in the other direction because that’s not true at all.

But it is true that Gemma is more of the priority right now, which I think makes sense. It’s an impossible situation, an impossible and horrific chose to make, but Mark (both outie and innie) is not in the same kind of danger as Gemma right now. Like he definitely is still in danger, but to the outside world, he is alive, he is a person, they can’t as easily disappear him, especially with his sister already being suspicious. At the moment, he’s as safe as he can be from death by Lumon’s hands right now (which is never a zero considering everything but leagues above where Gemma is). At the end of the day, not only is Mark still able to physically leave, but also as long as he’s got that chip in his head, they’ll still be able to find a way to reach and help iMark.

Meanwhile Gemma’s already dead to the outside world and has been for 2 years. Not only is she unable to leave, Lumon also has full control over her at all times in all aspects. They could kill her at any moment and no one would even know, and no one in the outside world would believe that she had been anything but dead for years already. And now they’ve found out from Cobel that the end goal is her death. It’s an unfortunate and tragic reality that Gemma has to be the priority right now.

But that doesn’t mean that Devon doesn’t care about iMark or thinks of him like a lot of the other outies do or anything like that. She does care, and she does want to do what’s best for him and she will listen to w.e he has to tell her, but she can’t do anything to save him before Gemma is saved unless they magically find a way to save them both at the same time but I doubt it. Which honestly has to be a special kind of hell for Devon.

And the thing is, I don’t think iMark would even disagree with this assessment. I don’t think he’d be wrong to feel resentful over it but I do think he would understand and would be faster to accept it than his outie would because he wants to save Gemma too. He was concerned and wanted to help when he thought she was “just a wellness counselor” before he ever even found out that she’s being forced to stay there at all times. iMark cares about people and he would not be okay with letting someone die when he could stop it, especially when he would be the cause of it. (And neither would Helly if she knew about any of this.)

I mean, the only reason iMark gives up on the search and trying to save her is after the ortbo when his faith in himself and the few people he has in this world were shattered. He gave up because he genuinely couldn’t see a way forward since Helena had been there the whole time and knows everything he was doing. But now he’ll have a new way to go about things and he’ll have more information.

And yeah, this is just a lot to say basically that I agree with you. She does care about innie Mark and want to help him, but she is prioritizing Gemma right now because her life is more precarious. It’s her own Sophie’s choice, and I think there are really interesting conversations to be had about it.

Devon slander is going to be my villain origin story I stg

Why did she call Cobel?

Okay, well let’s take a moment to actually think of things from her point of view with the extremely limited amount of information she has managed to claw away at instead of assuming she knows the same as us and reading everything she does with bad intentions:

Starting with the otc, she and innie Mark are able to talk for a limited time, during which Mark tells her that lumon is treating them poorly and doing shady shit (or something along those lines because unfortunately it was not a conversation we were privy to). The only part of the conversation we do get to see is at the end. Devon tells iMark why it would be a bad idea to go to the police and instead says they can talk to journalists Ricken knows* who can break the story. And it’s only then, as an afterthought, that Mark brings up Cobel.

And the way he asks makes it sound like confused and vaguely concerned but not in ‘hey this lady abuses me on the daily’ way but more like ‘that’s weird wtf??’ And when Devon doesn’t know what he’s talking about, her voice gets more freaked out while she comprehends that information while his voice is much more neutral. So, the take away from that (from Devon’s point of view) is that in all the time talking (limited as it was) Cobel while a contributor is not what is torturing her brother.

Unfortunately she can’t find out more information because she’s (rightfully) concerned for the life of her child. Only to find out that not only did Cobel calm Eleanor down, she placed her safely in her car seat so she couldn’t get into trouble and out of the way of Ricken’s friends (i would not trust them with a baby either) before leaving.

After the otc, when they are trying to piece together the night, I don’t see oMark not mentioning that right before it happened he told Cobel he was quitting and she was not only glad, but told him to ‘get away from them.’ I mean, maybe he didn’t say it that night because Ricken was there and then Milchick came, but I have no doubt this information was relayed to Devon at some point, maybe while they were trying to get a message to his innie even. The second conversation Mark had with Cobel before she took off, I think could go either way in whether he told Devon or not. I mean, I think no matter what he kept the end part to himself even if he told her about how Cobel was disappointed in him for going back. But even if he didn’t tell her about, I absolutely believe he told her about the one right before the otc.

Now on to when Milchick showed up to talk to all of them. His reassurances are that it won’t happen again, to blame Cobel, and to say she was fired. Except Devon talked to iMark and it wasn’t Cobel he was telling her about, it was lumon as a whole. So it’s very clear to Devon that not only is he lying but that Cobel is being made to be the scapegoat.

All that plus Cobel has spent two years ingratiating herself with the Scout siblings. Mainly oMark, but Devon would have been a part of that as well because not just because they’re already close but also oMark just lost his wife so she would have been there even more often. It was shown to us in season 1 that she was really the driving force that would get him to go out and socialize (that terrible dinner, setting him up with Alexa) so Cobel would have definitely been friendly already with her and, considering oMark does not have memories of about 40 hours each week, she would’ve probably heard a lot about her from oMark. And yes, it’s was all a lie, but it’s also clear, especially with all the other evidence, that there is some kind of actual care there.

So Devon continued to find a way to communicate with iMark, not just accepting that the light thing would work, which is where she got the idea of using the birthing cabin. The only thing is to do that she would need the help of someone from Lumon. Unfortunately her only two connections to Lumon are her brother (who is only slightly less in the dark than her) and Cobel who had been ousted and scapegoated. She was already thinking of calling Cobel before oMark collapsed, before she even stepped foot in his house honestly because with the limited and terrible options available to her, it was literally the best one, the only one that made sense. She came that night with the intention to argue her case to oMark because obviously she wouldn’t just do it without his consent (unless something wild happened like a seizure that he then wouldn’t wake up from after).

Now why did she actually call Cobel when Reghabi was already there?

I feel like this should be obvious but she does not know Reghabi, all she knows is that she won’t answer her questions, she’s clearly used oMark’s grief and desire for Gemma to agree to experimental basement brain surgery (kinda like Lumon did), she has or had some connection to Lumon, but most importantly: she leaves. Like Reghabi doesn’t even give her an ultimatum, the minute Devon said she would call Cobel, she started gathering her stuff to leave. I mean I don’t blame her, Reghabi told oMark she was the only one who could do reintegration and if that’s the case, then unfortunately for oMark, she cannot take risks with her life. Reghabi already had to kill in cold blood and she may not want to leave Mark (her face was genuinely so worried when she looked back at Mark) but it’s bigger than just him or her or Petey, so she leaves. Which just leaves Devon with an unconscious brother with a hole in his head and she can’t take him to the hospital and she has no one to lean on or who can help. Literally there was no other option. She may not trust Cobel, but she had to trust in her instincts that Cobel would at least not wish Mark’s death.

Last thing I want to talk about is the birthing cabin scene with iMark because I’ve seen multiple times now people talking about how she’s using him or she’s being condescending or she’s why he shouldn’t trust outies, and like all other kinds of nonsense and I’m over it so here goes:

*First let me bring this back because she had said to iMark they would go to Ricken’s journalist friends before the whole ‘she’s alive’ moment. However I do not think that is an avenue that’s actually open to her any longer because Ricken is buying into the Lumon bullshit. Which means while worrying for Gemma and oMark and her newborn baby (which I swear we don’t talk enough about how she’s doing all this as a brand new mom which is already a very stressful thing), she’s now also worrying for iMark and what’s happening to him and if he’s being punished. She told him she would help him and she hasn’t been able to do anything except try to find a new way to communicate with, which she finally did.

She’s probably feeling so guilty and afraid for him and she doesn’t know what he’s been through, so she talks soft and reassuring and is gentle because he’s her brother and she wants him to know he’s safe and he’s okay.

The tragedy is that even though the love is there, she doesn’t know what he’s been through actually so she has no way of knowing how triggering her words are when she tells him if he leaves oMark will come right back in. But she knows her brother and when confronted with negative/overwhelming feelings, his m.o. is to distance himself either physically (getting out of the car after reghabi confirmed gemma was alive; leaving Irving’s funeral as soon as he can) or emotionally (both having said ‘[theyre] not dead, just not here,’ shredding Petey’s map, tearing Gemma’s photo, his confrontation with Helly in the bathroom after the ortbo) or both (attacking Devon at pip’s after she claimed Gemma as her family too and then immediately leaving). So she knows in this situation that he’s going to want to move, to go out the door and just have a moment, which is something he was able to do at the otc, so she’s telling him that it’s not something he can do here because if he goes out the door instead of getting the moment to breathe, he’ll just turn off and then turn on right back in the same spot.

Like Devon so clearly does care for iMark and she did her best to take her cues from him (reaching for him but immediately pulling back and apologizing when he moved away), and while their time may not be as limited as it was during the otc, they still don’t have a lot of it. So, she makes sure he seems good then leads him upstairs to where Cobel is.

Why didn’t she warn him about Cobel?

Because with the limited information she has, she did not know nearly enough to know that it could be potentially upsetting for him as it probably was. Because she knows Cobel cares about oMark so why wouldn’t that extend to iMark because it’s the same for her, Devon. Plus the fact iMark did not seem traumatized by her when they lasted talked and was just neutral (as I already explained), and because she was scapegoated so who knows how much power or control she actually had since she was so expendable. Like if Devon had any idea of how Cobel truly treated iMark, she would’ve gone about the whole thing differently but she doesn’t know.

Also, she had no idea Cobel was going to be auditioning for a role in a new shining movie when they got up there. But also after 2 years of hearing about Mrs. Selvig’s nonsense, I do think she chose to just roll with it.

————

Tldr: put some respect on Devon’s name, she knows the least out of everyone and is doing the absolute best she can for everyone with what she does know. And by everyone, I mean both oMark and iMark and Gemma. She loves them all and just wants them to be safe and happy.

[69thatstheweednumber]

Incomplete thought I came up with going through the Severance tag: it feels hugely important that Helena says “I don’t want to be in there do I?” rather than “she doesn’t want to be in there does she?”

Like the polished heartless corporate Helena Eagan tells Helly R she doesn’t matter, goes back to work immediately after a suicide attempt, says that Helly isn’t real etc. whereas Helly’s immediate reaction is “this is fucked up bullshit.” Safe to assume that Helena also thinks this and perhaps that is why she is so cruel to herself.

Helena knows that it’s fucked up and claims not to care, but she is a victim of the cult too. And she sees herself as the same person as Helly at the beginning, but the shittier it gets for her the more determined she is to see it through. Which is classic cult/conspiratorial thinking; when you get contrary evidence you only grow more convinced that said evidence is a trick.

And the recitation of the break room mantra in the final ep works for Helly as she has her realization and works as a thing Helena has probably said and believed (in the same way that Helly was forced to believe it) bc she was raised as the golden child of a cult.

Maggie Mae Fish has a great video essay about Twin Peaks and one of her points is that Lynch and Frost make excellent use of doubles. She also clarifies that this is distinct from binary oppositions. And I think the notion of doubling is one of the core themes of Severance, too, and the choice between “she” and “i” in that early scene helps make it clear.

Helena claims to not care about Helly, but that’s not true imo bc not caring is apathy and Helena is showing cruelty, and she’s showing it to a self that is not nearly as distinct from her as she would like to believe.

[devintrinidad]

Severance episode 7 was completely something else!

Spoilers:

The Music Dance Experience was completely something else. Helly looked really into it and I dig Mr. Milchick’s dance moves. The whole incentive thing is so infantilizing and childish, but my gosh, it was hilarious watching in episode. 

What really got me was the colors of the flashing lights. There were hints of red among the main white fluorescents, but as the dance continued, it became redder and redder, which was probably a metaphor for Dylan seeing red. (Very clever).

I also love that little scene where Ms. Cobel/Selvig, acts like a caring nurse, but the instant she’s done teaching how to latch a baby, she immediately throws the doll away. Like, it’s so jarring to know that she can be quite cold, but Devon doesn’t know and she completely trusts her.

Burt’s outie seems like a good person. He was very adorable and so very different in appearance to how Burt G. usually looks. The fact that he’s retiring and Irving has to say goodbye... it was heartwrenching.

And the way that Irving just broke out some really explicit language, going against orders, and saying: “Let’s burn this place to the ground”???

Dude, major character development for all characters!!!

AND NOW FOR THE BIG REVEAL:

MS. CASEY IS GEMMA. 

What the helllllll????????

You know that scene where Mark is apologizing to Ms. Casey for bringing her to the break room? That brings in a whole level to that scene. Like... Mark! That’s your wife!

Which begs the question, what’s the deal with Gemma/Ms. Casey? Did Lumon on purpose engineer an accident for Gemma to lose her life and bring Mark into the fold? Gemma and Mark were both professors at Ganz College, the same college that is housing Reghabi.... Maybe Ganz College is connected to Lumon in some way? 

Like, the only reason someone would want to work as a severed worker is if they wanted to be separated from their everyday self. That means that the person is going to have to go through with some major emotional upheaval at some point... In this case, Mark has to deal with Gemma’s death.

But what about Gemma? Did she decide to leave Mark? Or, are all her memories wiped? I wouldn’t put it past Lumon to use people who don’t have prospects to rework people’s memories: if they can sever people, then I think they have the technology to erase people’s memories/existence. 

By the way... does Gemma still exist? Or is Ms. Casey full time? Because... I’ve noticed that characters who are addressed as Ms./Mr. are usually those who don’t have severed personalities. They live full time. So... either Gemma definitely wanted out of Mark’s life or Lumon did something to her. 

Either way... if Mark S. were to go through the overtime contingency thing and sees Ms. Casey’s picture in his house... I wonder how’d he react?

So many questions. I can’t wait to see how this all ends.