Severance
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What transcends the severance barrier?
Basic knowledge, like the names of the states and concepts related to general culture, is also retained.
But what do the Innies retain that Lumon might not want them to retain?
And this might make Lumon nervous.
The overarching theme of this episode lies in the (literally) cold open.
There are seriousFargovibes here.
A big truck passes, honking and waking her up.
And it certainly defies severance.
But here it is.
AndMerritt Weveris there as Gretchen, his wife.
(It looks like she might be a cop?)
Inside Lumon, Gretchen is beguiled by the Innie version of her husband.
As she leaves, she gives him a warm hug good-bye and says, I love you.
At one point, Irv shows Felicia his sketches of Burt in his notebook.
She flips through, spying his drawing of the black hallway.
She furrows her brow, asking, How do you know about the exports hall?
A long time ago, O&D used to do deliveries there but no longer.
Elsewhere in the Lumon maze, Mark and Helly search for the goats.
The visual clash of serene pastoral meeting sterile corporate is remarkable.
Does that space actually expand somehow as the goats get older?
Where were these 11 or so other people when Helly and Markfound the OG goat manlast quarter?
That wasnt that long ago!
We know that Milchick seems to be fully devoted to the teachings of Kier Eagan.
Oh my, he whispers in bewilderment as he flips through the artwork.
Me, too, because basically, its Kier in blackface.
Milchick starts to agree when Natalie tells him that the board has ended the call.
Her face does a disconcerting twitch, eventually curving up into an unconvincing smile.
This facial tic recallsan iconic scenefrom Jordan PeelesGet Out.
Does she even need that earpiece to talk to the board?!
Its the ultimate showdown between a nepo baby and a woman who pulled herself up by her bootstraps.
The information that Cobel has on reintegration feels important here.
Having reconciled with Devon, Mark works on creating a light box with the message Who is alive?
so he can stare at it and retain the afterimage as he travels down the elevator in the mornings.
Hes testing out the box when Dr. Reghabi (Karen Aldridge) knocks on his car door.
but instead he immediately agrees to the severance procedure.
Has Mark seen theSeveranceintro?
Its so nice of him to dress the part!
Reghabi starts asking Mark questions, and the process begins.
As for Mark, his waves begin to join when Reghabi asks about his love for his mother.
Love spreads, right?
Then she asks a question about time: What year is it?
Innie Mark pops out for a second, stammering, You mean what quarter?
Reghabi brings it home by asking, What is your first memory?
Marks consciousness begins to shift violently.
Punctuated by a fabulous needle drop, the scene is a total rush.
Its time for my staggered exit, so Im going to go grab the elevator.
Each box must have a certain ratio of the four tempers inside it.
Theyre totally programming Franken-severance chips, right?
Looking for a refresher on all the reintegration stuff that happened in season one?
Reghabi shows up toward the end of episode seven.
Natalie gets a bunch of screen time this week.
And now I desperately want to see Ricken giving an inspirational speech to the Innies somehow.
